Thunder Ridge

Well, sadly there is exactly one month until my reign as Miss. Saratoga Springs is over. I know. I feel like crying too. Ok but really, I sort of do, it's been so much fun and I don' want to give it up! I have been able to participate and help with so many things! Today was one of my favorite things to do though... ;)


I was invited to go to Thunder Ridge Elementary and help them out with their reading super bowl :) I'd first like to say, this was such a good idea and the person that thought of it is a complete genius! So all the teachers and the principal read this book and they had kind of a jeopardy type thing where the faculty was against the principal with questions from the book. Then earlier they had competitions with the different grade with who could read the most so they announced those as well. 
But on the beginning, I walking the school and the kids were walking folding their arms in a line to the lunch room. Ha you know how long the lines are, I didn't want to mess them up so I just waiting there. Ha then the little girls were staring at me and whispering to their friends and stuff ;) it was so cute! Then I waited in the faculty room for it to start. 
They made me a "float" (aka, the zamboni thing they use to clean the floors with). IT WAS AMAZING!!! I loved it more than anything! The best float anyone could ever ask for! ;) TRULY! 
So I went in and they were all cheering for me like I was a real celebrity!! Ha I couldn't stop laughing! It was all just so silly! But then I went up and I threw the football to the principal kind of like what they do in the super bowl I think... ;)
Then I helped keep score for the whole thing :) It was AMAZING! I know I keep saying that! But seriously, SO MUCH FUN! Totally made my week! 

Oh ya, and I wore my converse with my dress  :) everyone loved it ;) 

Oh PLUS my 5th grade teacher was there! I kept looking at her trying to remember where I had seen her! It was freaking me out! Then afterwords, she came up and said, "Nicole! Do you remember me?" I was like yes but I can't remember where from and it's driving me crazy!" 
She then said, "I was your 5th grade teacher!" 
I FREAKED out! 
Isn't that crazy!? AH! She remembered me and my full name! NOW THAT's A GOOD TEACHER! ;) 


Obviously, it was amazing! More to come! :D

I don't have the brains right now to think of a title! :P

Right now I feel like my brain/head is literally going to EXPLODE! I have had the craziest week and it still isn’t over! I’m actually sitting in my psychology class right now (as usual) waiting for it to start. I can’t even think right now…. So forgive me because this might be confusing. First, someone like me does NOT get better on their stats exam than their music exam… weird. I think something in my brain has been switched. Maybe I’ll learn about it in this class right now… ;) To make it worse this is not my favorite class and I have to pee way bad and I’m STARVING! But, I didn’t have time to get something to eat or go to the bathroom because I got out of my stats test too late. I was in there for 2 ½ hours! It usually only takes me 1 hour for a normal test (but I guess math is different)! I was going insane! But I thought that I did really good on it, but I didn’t. Like literally, I thought I got at least an 80% (which is good in my eyes). Nope. I’m not going to say what I got. Plus, because I only thought my test would take at the most about and hour and a half I only planned on that much time, and I missed my favorite class that I wait so long to go to, my Book of Mormon class. To make this day even worse I woke up late so I didn’t get to my Stats lab. The alarm was set, I don’t remember me waking up to it. Even worse, I need more sleep, I have weird aches all over my body, I have a big paper that is hardly done due tomorrow, I have no time today to do it (literally), my hair isn’t done (that sounds stupid, but sometimes it makes me mad hahaha ok I’m never saying that out loud again, it sounded stupid) and AHHHHHH I just really need to pee!!!! I’m going INSANE! I probably would be crying now, but the truth is, I have a photo shoot today so I  don’t want to have puffy eyes (believe it or not, I actually do have SOME control over my emotions). I can’t wait till Saturday! It will be a break, but then it just means it’s closer to next week… which will just bring on a whole new set of challenges, mainly because I have a psychology test. SCHOOL IS HARD!!! 

Ok! I’m done with the negative! WOW! Sorry about that. At least you can all tell from this blog that my life is far from perfect ;) But I had a wonderful day yesterday! There are lots of reasons for that, but I’m not going to say because I have no idea who reads this ;) mainly because it’s read though facebook ;)

BUUUUT on Thursday Laura (my roommate friend) invited me to join their intermural soccer team! Whooohoooo! It was way fun (even though I suck at soccer and don’t remember hardly anything, it’s been since 11^th grade since I played) and I got some good exercise! Those are the best combinations ;)

So there you go. There is just 1% of my crazy week. I don’t really want to re-live it or think about what tomorrow will bring, so that’s all you are going to get ;) ;)

Ideas for Procratination to the MAX!

The truth is right now I'm supposed to be studying for numerous test. In particular, Music. It's a great class and stuff. Cute boys. BUT, it's really not my favorite subject. I don't mind sitting and listening to the lecture, my teacher is quite hilarious and is really smart. The book is not so good. But not as bad as my Human Development book last semester, now that was a horrifyingly boring book (and I actually LIKE that subject)! But like I said the lectures aren't too bad especially if there is a cute boy that sits next to you ;)
Half of the exam is listening to THIS (don't listen to it!!! I warned you!) great music. Sometimes I go nuts listening to it!!! That's what makes studying and the class so hard. We have to know a lot of things about the music and things to analyze who the composer is, what era he's from, the transitions, and even if it's men or women singing (ya, you'd think it would be obvious, not so much).
All in all, I'm about to die right now. I've been putting this off forever and I NEED to take the test tomorrow. One because I know if I wait one more day I'll have to pay 5$ to take the test. 5$ is very valuable in a poor college students eyes. And two I know I really won't study much more.

Since we are waisting time anyways, here are some things I put above studying (I DO NOT recommend doing this, I'm trying to get out of this nasty habit):
1. Blog Writing (obviously) "I just need to make sure that everything is updated and that I'm not forgetting anything including pictures and stuff... (no, bad idea)
2. Cleaning. Ya I'll deep clean my whole apartment before starting my papers or studying.
3. Laundry. My least favorite thing. (fact- this doesn't happen very often, it just depends on the subject needing to be studied aka- American Heritage, Music, Psychology, Stats. All my classes but BOM and Health Pro.)
4. Scripture Reading (VERY important but sometimes there are other things that need to be done...)
5. SLEEP. Yep. That is also what happened today. I *really needed a nap.
6. Food making. I'll make something really complicated...
7. Organizing.
8. Looking at swimming suits. There is only so many cute swimming suits online...
9. Watching the Office (let's just say I've seen every episode at least twice... there are about 90 of them... don't add up the time...)
11. Texting. Don't we all.
12. Reading blogs. I LOVE doing this though...
13. Staring at the wall.
14. Exercising.
15. Trying on clothes... not really but I'm thinking about it right now.
16. Talking on the phone.
17. Listening to music. Apparently I can't double task.
18. Looking at cars...
19. Facebook. Ya. I get on it when I'm desperate.
20. Making stupid lists of things that help me procrastinate. Wow.

Car Ride Home

So many things happen for a reason. And listening to the spirit can help us in way that sometimes might be unexpected…

I was driving home from my house on Saturday night (Sunday morning really) and I just felt over whelmed with the spirit. I just prayed out-loud to my Heavenly Father the whole way home balling my eyes out. This was one of the few times that I have felt the spirit so strongly that I really can’t stop crying (that’s not good when you are driving). It was amazing and so spiritual to just be able to talk to someone like they were there in person right next to me listening to every single word I had to say. I knew he cared, and was listening to me at that very moment. I actually do this quite frequently when I’m in the car alone, it’s easier than praying in your head because you don’t get distracted because you are saying everything out-loud. Try it sometime; I know your testimony of prayer will be strengthened. ;) 

Anyways, so as I was doing this I was driving home (obviously) in my grandpa’s truck that I have been borrowing. Now we all already know about me getting in an accident with Emily’s car, so I *really hate driving other people’s cars now and I swore I would never do it. But it was just needed, I don’t have time or money to look for a car of my own right now… someday… so I was being very very very careful. I don’t speed or go to fast or take any chances. There were hardly any cars on I-15 because it was 1:00am. As I am balling my eyes out (I’m pretty sure I looked and sounded like a complete mess) a mustang passes me going pretty fast. I looked down, I was only going 55 (I usually go at least 5 over). So, that made sense. Then, I see flashing lights. He was getting pulled over. That TOTALLY could have been ME! I was so relived! I sort of started laughing while I was crying. But then I felt bad for the person. THEN, I started crying even more because I knew that Heavenly Father protected me from that. I was too concentrated on talking to him that I wasn’t worried about going fast, so hence, I didn’t get pulled over.

Now, I know that sounds really confusing, but I really do believe that experience that I had, had two meanings. One, just to be closer to my Heavenly Father and let him know how much I love him and my family. Two, to save me a lot of trouble, that I know I couldn’t deal with right now, with a speeding ticket (clarification, I would NOT have been speeding in my Grandpa’s truck, but still). He knows me, and loves me so much. I’m not trying to sound selfish, but I just know with all my heart that He knows me personally and he loves me more than I could ever imagine. He wants the best for me, but He knows that I need trials to grow stronger and become the person that I want to become. I just can hardly believe all the great and wonderful things that happen in my life and I KNOW that it is all from him and has a purpose. J

Basketball, Hot Air Balloons (maybe) and a Farewell

*WARNING! THIS IS QUITE LONG!*

 I had a crazy fun weekend! Literally, it was crazy… and fun J but also crazy fun.

On Friday I hung out with Christina because she was here at BYU for this UTA thing… (not the bus company, I already had to clarify that, it’s something with Theater) so we walked around campus and ate some lunch together. It was pretty fun, but I did feel like I was in High School again cuz I was with her friends and stuff, but it was still a lot of fun. ;)

After that I went and took a Book of Mormon exam. I got a 89%! Pretty good if you ask me (you have to realized the questions are crazy hard and deep so that doesn’t sound that great, but it so was J).

Then, I went to my apartment, grabbed my stuff and headed for home (real home).

I got home and then we (my mom, Katelyn, Mark, Zac¥, and me) went to Ash’s game at Murry High School. They won, by quite a lot. Ash still didn’t get to play because of her knee because apparently they are “saving” her for Tuesday’s game which will be tough. Oh! Another thing while we were at the game, my mom… my wonderful mother really wanted Ash to play because her knee is FINE the physical therapist even said that she could play, but the coach is the one that is holding her back. So, my mom decides to write a note on the back of a program or something saying something along the lines of: “I think it would be really great if you played Ashley in this game. It would give her confidence for the next game…. Love Kristin Calder, the best mom ever…” Ya I don’t exactly remember, but it was something like that. Bad idea. And for the record, I did tell her that it was a horrible. Soooo she folds it into a paper air plane and throws it down to a few of the freshman that were sitting on the bench (luckly it was right when half time started and not in the middle of a game). She’s pretty good at making/throwing paper airplanes, it got right to them. She told them to give it to coach. So they did, but he just glanced at it, we don’t even think that he looked at it. But anyways, she didn’t play so that did NOT work. But I think she should take it as a compliment because they really need her and want to save her. It drove her completely nuts though.

After that we went home and decided we wanted to play monopoly and have a coconut party. For those of you wondering what a coconut party is, well, I just made it up. I love coconut SO much! So we just wanted to go to the store and get tons of things that had coconut in them like coconunt: m&m’s (YUM!), 3 musketeer’s (yes they have those! And they are WAY good!) and other things… plus almond joys.   So we go to wal-mart (word of advice- wal-mart sucks in the candy department, they didn’t even have coconut m&m’s) and couldn’t find anything so we ended up just getting almond joys, cupcakes, pop tarts, mini m&m’s, and snowballs (the marshmallow, coconut, chocolate cake, cream wonders). Obviously the whole coconut thing just didn’t work. That WILL happen another day I promise you, and you’ll hear about it ;) so we ate that stuff and played a little monopoly, but we got bored so just ended up talking like we normally do.

Then, Saturday morning is where it gets interesting! We have been planning this hot air balloon ride for the past month (literally) we were supposed to go on the morning of my mom’s 40^th birthday but the weather was bad. So, we re-scheduled for the next week. Cancelled again. Then for a little bit later. Cancelled again. Stupid weather ;) So *FINALLY we were able to go. We got up and left around 6:30 for Park City. We got there it was FREEZING (you know the kind where you can hardly talk and your snot freezes) but we didn’t care, we were so excited! They told us that we needed to move over to the next valley (Heber) to be able to do it because the wind was bad there. We followed them there and then waited in the car while they tested the air. It was actually pretty cool because they let up a few normal balloons to see if they could do it. We waited patiently forever in the warm car. Then, the bad news. They said it was too dangerous to go today. Aw man. We were pretty bummed, but it was actually good because then Ash could make it to her basketball practice and I could make it to my workshop for the UPCOMING pageant.

 

But really, although it was a waste of gas, it was worth it. We were in the car FOREVER but we had so much fun laughing and talking together J that’s just what we love as a family. We’re pretty simple ;)

So I got home and headed to my workshop. It was at the fire station. Woah, back up… the workshop are things that are held before the pageant to help prepare. This one was about how to do your make-up and then the introduction number practice. I have to be there, well, kind for fun haha I’m not really sure, but it’s fun! So that was a really good time the girl seem really sweet and nice, there at 14! That’s CRAZY! There were only 8 when I did it. After that I went home and took a (much needed) nap. Then we just relaxed and had fun. I watched the BYU basketball game. It drove me quite crazy. But it was still fun. Then we went to Katelyn’s game in Spanish Fork (ya, a lot of driving for one day). They lost…. 40 something to 4 I think… :/

Then we went home and me and Katelyn played SpongeBob monopoly.

Then I went home.

As I’m in church the next morning my mom texts me and says we were going to a farewell (we weren’t planning on going, that’s why I went home, but then she decided we should go, ps, I had only been in church for literally 5min and we were 10min late so it was quite embarrassing to come in late and then leave 5 min later). So I drove down to my house and we headed to the farewell. I was an old friend of ours, well, a lot of old friends, their whole family is just amazing and we love them. So we went to that and he did an amazing talk and it was so fun to see all of them. We had a relaxing rest of the day. Played some more monopoly and played settlers with Mark and Logan.

Anyways, that’s the end J

The BEST part about BYU?

My favorite class to study for right now is my Book of Mormon class. This is no joke. Studying? It doesn’t feel like it! I love just sitting down reading the scriptures. The plus side, I am ACTUALLY studying for a test or exam! But I LIKE it! Sometimes I just can’t wait to sit down and read the manual and mark my scriptures till they look like a rainbow. It’s the greatest feeling in the world. J I just had to share that. I like that everyone is required to take religion classes (fun fact: everyone that graduates from BYU graduates with a minor in religion, you can't do anything with it, but still! Isn't that just cool!). It keeps people straight. I absolutely LOVE my teacher! I learn not only 1 thing new every class, but like 5 or more! I always leave feeling good about myself and full of gospel knowledge and spirit! If only the whole world had to take a religion class from Brother Marsh. I believe the world would be a MUCH better place. ;) 

FULL (near exploding) Heart

I can’t even explain how truly grateful I am right now. For everything in my life! I do not know what I’m doing wrong… or right, but literally, I’m getting everything I need right now. That sounds like I’m really selfish, but I just really really have no idea what I’m doing right at the moment. Not that I feel like I’m doing anything completely wrong… but I’m not doing anything extremely different than I was before. Still reading my scriptures and praying every night. I might be doing those things differently, a little better I guess… but still! Seriously! I am so blessed and I just don’t know how to thank my Heavenly Father adequately. I know that I will never be able to fully thank him, but I just don’t know what to do. I really do feel selfish. It’s not like I asked for anything big, just something small that I have been struggling with lately, but I didn’t even really ask for it, I just kind of asked about it… but I just don’t get why all of these other people have to suffer while I just get everything I need and even want! I mean come on. I’m here. At BYU! My DREAM school! I’m living in this super nice apartment and I pay way less than most people! I have a fabulous family, close and extended on both sides. I have money so I don’t have to starve. I am healthy!! The gospel! I have a car to use while I have Miss. Saratoga Springs stuff to get to for the next month. I even just received financial aid… no idea why or how, but I already had a scholarship, now I just have some for next year. Even my phone is a blessing! This computer! My bed! I’m even going on quite a few dates! UG!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I just do not get it! Why would someone like me get all of these wonderful things? I’m just waiting for the bomb to hit. But I can’t stop being so grateful for all the many many blessings that He gives me. This just makes me want to be better so that I can feel (at least a tiny tiny bit) like I am giving something in return.

Ok, I know none of this is making sense, I just really (obviously) cannot put it into words! It’s amazing to see things in your patriarchal blessing come true! It’s just as amazing to always feel the spirit because you know that everything you are receiving is not just coincidence, it’s all from Heavenly Father. And I truly 110% believe that.