To the land of endless p-days…

Endless p-days are a LOT more confusing that I thought…

This is what I've been up to since I've been home… :)

The most recent-
I WENT TO THE SINGLES WARD TODAY! It was kind of crazy, but I just felt like I needed to go! So I just did it! I felt very peaceful there! And I met a lot of new fun people which is exactly what I wanted! So I'm excited about that so far!! ;)

I GOT A JOB AT SNOW SPRINGS ELEMENTARY.
Which is actually where I went to school! Crazy right?!
I applied for a lot of jobs, and got an interview with almost all of them! It was a really stressful week interviewing and trying to decided. A lot of prayer was involved, and a lot of figuring out how Heavenly Father was trying to communicate with me. I got a last minute phone call on the day I was going to accept another job. It was the vice principal of Snow Springs asking me if I'd come in for an interview for a para-educator in a special needs class. I almost didn't… but then decided that's one of the jobs that I really wanted! SO! I went in for an interview!
Long story short- I took the job! And I love it so far! I work in a class closely with the teacher with 11 1st-4th graders with special needs. It's hard work- but 100% worth it! :)

MOVIES….
My first one was Dolphin Tale 2.
Yes I know. Haha completely lame. I'd been home like a week and half. Darren (my moms husband) won free tickets for it on the radio and they were going with my step brother and sister…. so there ya go!! It became my first movie.
But the REAL first movie that I claim… Catching Fire.
Of course.

I've really only watched a few more movies since then…
Saturday's Warrior
Despicable Me 2
Frozen (that was STILL 3 weeks after I got home)
Annnnddddd that's pretty much it.
I've also watched some of Psych… but got bored so I'm pretty much done with that.
And the last episode of The Office. I didn't finish the rest of the episodes, so I just watched the last one!

THE THING I'VE LOVED THE MOST
HANGING OUT WITH MY FAMILY OF COURSE!!! :)
I literally just love it so much!! That's all I really want to do and will sacrifice a lot to do it. :) I just love these people.

MY PLANS
Go back to BYU in January.
Keep being a missionary :)

Life Lately :)

Here are some fun picture updates of my life lately... actually... now that I look at it, it's more like other people's lives lately ;)

Karly went to sweethearts with her sweetheart Gavin (aka, Gavie-poo as we like to call him)

They're pretty cute wouldn't you say? This is that dress's second time to sweethearts! 

We went to Austin's farewell. Found that amazing picture of him and ate a lot of food ;)

Of course there would be a baking picture in here.... haha these are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting :) 

Ashley's last basketball game. On senior night. 

Isn't this a beauty? They hate it. 

This one isn't about Ash...

This will not go center or the other pictures comes in front of it... so sorry... Katelyn and her team got third place in their region!!!

Jackie and I went to the BYU game :) I kinda like that girl...  ;)

Saw this AMAZING movie!

This.... 

Turned into this! Minty chocolate cake balls

Bought some things at this great place!

So.... beautiful. 

140$ shoes. Worth it? I'm not sure yet... ;)

Had a really fun time with these two :) we laughed so hard! 

Russ... this was him and Jackie before. Crazy huh? Almost 3 years ago! 

Did fireworks in winter ;)

Babysat these amazing kids :)

Held this cute dog :)

I started putting a scripture every day on my instagram :) my instagram name is- ncalder44 if you want to follow me ;)

NO. It really hasn't been that long.

I really do feel like I haven't blogged in FOREVER! But guys, looking back, it's really only been... a week and a half... crap. My days are going by slow again. Whhhhhyyy!? 66 days. But it still feels like an eternity. I feel really awful complaining about it, because some people do not even get to go on missions... I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity. And I never want to be ungrateful or take it for granted (wait... that word. Weird...) because I feel so privileged to be able to go serve the Lord. I keep saying the same thing over and over again. My life is in repeat mode right now. Working so much is getting to me. People are still surprised about when I am going. I know someone who got their call this past week and are leaving March 13th. It's rough. But I KNOW THERE IS A REASON (if I keep saying it maybe it will finally stick).
Here are some fun pictures to look at since this was a pretty boring post.

Coming home from the Provo temple after we went through with Riley to get his own endowments. :) 

What we do on Saturday mornings when we are bored. 

Super crooked. I was walking...

The other fun things we do on Saturday morning....

They were actually pretty chill for being old grandmas being pulled around.

The poem we wrote in sacrament meeting... lovely. At least it gets to the point of church on the last line right?  

Oompa Loompas

I had such a fun time this Halloween. Ok. Let's be real. I do every year. But this year was a little bit different because we did not have anything planned... besides a costume. We always hung out with Austin and watched scary movies, went trick-or-treating, and ate as much as we could. We were a little stumped. 

I started off the day by waking up bright and early for class. Then I hung out with Danny for a while. We saw Perks of being a Wall Flower, went to mall, and got Cafe Rio. Cafe Rio was a mistake. I couldn't do my usual pigging out because I was so full. And I didn't even eat the whole thing. 

I then went home and got into my awesome costume. 

Ash decided that we should set up the projector and play just dance on the garage since it was such a nice night. We did that and handed out candy for a while. Then we decided to go to a few places. Just for doughnuts, scones, and churros. We rode scooters around. We must be getting old. It was weird to ride it. Then we stopped at our favorite peoples house (The Danforth's) talked to them a while, went to see the Miller's, who weren't there. Went to see the Fritcher's (they were there with the Miller's, just like we thought) and that's about it. We just visited a lot with our neighbors. It sounds really simple, because really- it was. And it was just perfect! 

Crazy fun weekend!

This last weekend I had a blast with my family! 

On Thursday night I came home. Ya know- no class on Friday. 

Friday... 

I did homework all day and then we went to Olive Garden together and then watched Friends all night. 

Saturday...

FOOTBALL GAME! 

BYU vs. Weber 

 

We left the game little early. Not only because it was super hot (my nose got fried) but also because we needed to stop at the store to get one more thing to add to my friends wedding gift. 

After the store we headed to Syracuse for my friend Mikayla's wedding. We used to be really good friends with their family, but we haven't seen them in forever. So this wedding was super important to us to go to. 

It was one of thee cutest weddings I have probably ever seen! She looked beautiful in her dress, and they had fun things like pictures, candy, and videos. 

They are super cute together too! 

Right after the wedding we rushed to a Billy Joel/Utah Symphony concert. My mom had to drag us there. We begged her not to go, but we ended up just giving in. It was actually pretty cool and I was super entertained by the whole thing. 

We got home late but we had such a fun time, even though it was a super packed day. 

I didn't go back to my apartment on Saturday because we just got back so late. 

Bonus for me because then I got to teach my Primary class with Austin! :) 

 

SOPHOMORE YEAR HERE I COME!

I seriously cannot believe that it has been a year since I first started college. That cannot be real. Seriously. It just doesn't feel like that. (I just wrote don't instead of doesn't, I need to stop listening to country.
This is my first bit of free time in a long time. I don't know what to do with myself.
I will be working a lot less though because I am mentally and physically exhausted. I haven't eaten much lately, but I also haven't been able to run because of lack of time. Ya, I could wake up at 5:00 to do it, but then that would be one more thing, lack of sleep. I can't combine all of those together. I just need my sleep.
So I'm here. With new roommates, a new place, new ward, new classes, new goals, new plans, new attitude, and a new job! Whoooo! I'm now going to be a cashier at the Provo Macey's instead of working in the Deli at the Lehi one. I can't tell you how excited I am. Seriously. The hours will work better, and I'll actually have a social life at work.
I guess having a complete mental break down (believe it or not, I haven't had one of those in a while) in front of your mom CAN actually motivate you. Thank goodness.
I had been feeling like nothing was going the way I expected it. Reality check- NOTHING really ever goes the way you plan it. But I have just learned to make the best of it. My attitude is making a huge difference.
I'm crazy busy all the time with work, and getting back on track with school, but I'm actually super excited about this year. Mainly because I know a little better how I'm actually going to do this.
The rundown-
I have a GPA of 1.99. That's right folks, .01 away from NOT being on academic warning and not having to petition to get my Financial Aid back up.
To stay in BYU you have to maintain a 2.0 overall GPA. I was so close. But- I did get put on academic warning and I have one semester to get it back to good standing before I get put on probation.
Probation is NOT an option for me.
So to fix it I went to a counselor talked for a long time about everything. I made goals to go to these free classes they have to help you succeed, talking to a peer counselor once a week, forming study groups, and going to get tested for a learning disability. He even helped me with my schedule. That helped more than I can even explain.
All Tuesday I spent doing those things. I met with a million people and walked to a million places. I changed my schedule, filled out papers, talked a lot, and made appointments. On top of that, I also had class and the Brigham temple open house to go to with my family. Full- but VERY productive day. I haven't been that proud of myself in a long time. I felt like I could conquer the world.
A lot of the people that I actually talked to complimented me on my desire and determination. I felt like I didn't have a lot of that last semester. Hopefully this helps...
So with my financial aid... it's a good thing my mom has some money saved up. Even from working all summer I didn't have enough for tuition. So, to my dismay, I used some of that precious money to pay for tuition. That is what it's meant for. But I just wanted to do it on my own. I might actually be able to do that as well... I talked to a financial advisor and I MIGHT be able to petition for my financial aid! Yes! I'm really hoping this works!
I can't even explain how much I have seen my Heavenly Father in my life right now and how blessed I feel. I was, and still am struggling, and will continue to; but I know that with him I can do anything that I set my mind to. He cares so much about us, and wants us to succeed and do well. We just have to turn to him and ask for help. The key is on our side of the veil.

Updates/Temple

Ok- this is going to be a short, not very organized post. To add to that, I'm not going to proof read it... I'm about to fall asleep as-is, but I know that if I don't write in this today I will not have time this week and probably never will.
First- I'm going to say a few things I have done this week.
Work.
Work.
Work.
And work.
Ya, that's pretty much it. I was up to about 40 hours of work at the end of this week and I feel like I'm going to die. My body is exhausted, I feel like I could fall asleep at any moment. I don't know how people do it all the time.
I don't want to be an adult. I really don't know how I feel about it.
I'm moving out this week. So I've got a lot to do for that.
I'm not going to lie, even though it's my second year I'm way more nervous than I was last year. I'm living with 5 people I don't even know and I hardly even know how to get to my apartment. Besides that- I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't come home very often. I think that should help my case more. Also- I'm really getting the hang of both my jobs and I'm really just loving working, but I know that I need to do more. It just sucks because right when I get into the hang of things I have to jump back into the cold deep water.
Alright this is going to be a lot longer then I thought.
The Neapolitan group is back. At the end of the summer... but at least it happened right!?
I'm stressing about how much I'm going to have to do this year with school, callings, work, and volunteering.
I'm also scared all 5 of my roommates are going to be friends and I'll be the odd one out.
I feel like I'm going to miss my family more this year.
I also feel like something "big" maybe not hug the e, is going to happen. NOW- I'm not talking about marriage, if that's what you all think. I think it's something different. But I just don't know. It probably won't though, my hunches are usually wrong.
I went to the Hunger games releasing with my friends on Thursday night.

Alright boring stuff over with.

I went to the temple on Tuesday (my only day off this week) with Ashley, Karly, and Makelle. It was so much fun. We also went shopping after.
But- when we got confirmed, it was really cool. The spirit was so strong and guy that was confirming us too time to talk to us before we started and while he was saying the names and things he really took his time. I have never had anyone do it like that before. I was amazing, because he seemed like he actually cared about each and every person that he was saying. You could tell he truly did. Because they aren't just another name on a paper. They are and were real people and I like how he treated it like that.

Mommy Daughter Time!

I love my sisters, but I'm sure having a fun time with just me and my mom! The house is quiet and clean! It's great!
Monday I had a great time at the MTC. I had some of the best missionaries and I felt the spirit so strong! I then had a really great talk with Amanda on the way there and back since it was just us.
When I got home me and my mom went to see Spiderman and then went to Culver's for dinner! It was sooooo good!!! Then we came home, I played her some songs on the piano for family night, and then we watched the Olympics together. I loved every second of it! One on one time with my mom is the best!
On Tuesday I went to the temple by myself and felt the spirit so strong! Then I relaxed and watched the Olympic's and Friends all day long. Then Then Then I feel like I'm saying that like no other. But THEN I babysat for the Danforth's! They are the best people to babysit so that was great! :)
Thee end I guess :)
Wait, I guess a little later I will miss my sisters. I'm just having a lot of fun right now!

This is a really lovely picture.................. ;P 

A Crazy Crazy Week...

So last week I didn't really have much time to write. I had a lot of fun, but I also had a lot to do. I worked about 12 hours (this is not an exaggeration) on this slide show for Miss. Saratoga. I don't even want to go into depth of why it took so long, but it was crazy. Basically, I wanted to cry and throw something at someone. But then I also got to hang with friends this weekend. I also had a work shop on Saturday for the pageant where I had to sit in interviews. It was crazy! I can't imagine judging all of these great talented girls!
This week needs to go by fast, but slow. I don't want my time as Miss. Saratoga Springs to be over, but I'm so excited for Saturday that I just can't wait! It's going to be amazing! But really emotional and sad as well. So this week I've got a bunch of stuff with school (2 tests, luckily they are already over) and pageant stuff. I'm going crazy! Plus, I'm not going do hot in school so that just makes everything worse.
But really, I'm not complaining :) I'm actually loving my life right now! I'm being kept busy and having a fun time. :) So that's all. Nothing much to tell :) But I'll write all about the pageant when I get the chance :)

Twilight, Basketball, Dating, and Abe Lincoln

This week has been a pretty fun/crazy one!
On Wednesday I got to hangout with Christina and party! We ate McDonald's, ate cold stone, and watched Breaking Dawn (I know,  I REALLY do hate those things, but I just had to know the ending...). It was super fun to spend time with her and just be able to talk :)
Later that night... ya, I watched it again. Don't judge. I just didn't understand it the first time because we were talking the whole time and then Emily watched it with me the second time so I asked a lot of questions (if you really think about it, that movie doesn't make a whole lot of sense for people who haven't read the book). I have read the first 3 books. But, honestly, I don't remember them even a little bit. Sorry for those Twilight Fans. I really don't like the books or movies at all. They bore me, and they have been made into a big deal over nothing. Harry Potter, ya I like Harry Potter and I can understand that. But I just don't really think Twilight was very well written and the story line is... ya I don't know. Sorry for the rambling moment. To be clear, I do not hate people who are obsessed with it :) ha, they just make me laugh.
On Thursday I went to my cousin Katie's last basketball game. She is a senior so it was her senior night. She played AMAZING! I haven't gotten to see her play much, so it was fun to go to the last game! Plus, I got to see my cousin Levi dance, see Nate's basketball fingers (he's the next Jimmer, I promise you), and talk to my Aunt Natalie and Uncle Dale :)
Then I just went home and talked on the phone with Zach :)
Friday I went to my dress fitting which went amazing :) it's perfect! Then I cleaned the house and went to the men's volleyball game on a double date with my cousin and her boyfriend:) That was a blast and we totally WON! Then we went to get frosty's and headed back to our place and watched Harry Potter :)
Saturday. This was the greatest day! I slept in till 12:45pm! Apparently my body really needed some serious sleep because I went to be at 2:00 the night before and now that I think of it, I really didn't get that much sleep this week. I just needed some catch up. So that was great. Then I got ready. Studied with Tanner and then we headed to a concert. It was AMAZING! It was an orchestra concert that we went to see for our Music class, but we ended up loving it! Then we ate this delicious crepe (oreo creme, SOOOOOO good!) and watched Money Ball at my house. It was super fun :)
Sunday.... well that's today. I went to my church at 8:30 and then Jackie texted me and said she wanted me to come to one of her missionaries homecoming.
Ok. This requires an explanation. So he was one of her missionaries because he had broken his thumb in the MTC so they wouldn't send him to his mission in Romania until he was healthy. So he just served with 2 other missionaries in Eagle Mountain while he was recovering. We were lucky enough to meet him. Jackie wrote him on his mission so he wanted her to come to the homecoming because he's from Salt Lake.
So we went to that. Ha, we were a little late. For some reason the address on Facebook wasn't right. Luckily the church was right around where the weird address lead us too so we just asked a nice man shoveling his driveway where the church was. IT WAS TOTALLY MEANT TO BE!
It was great! 2 of her other missionaries were there so she was just beaming the whole time. She was having the time of her life with them. I think she was wishing that she could have gone back to that great time :)
After we went to the luncheon at his house and had fun laughing with the missionaries.
Then me and Jackie went to her old young women leaders house and laughed and talked for a while. Then, we went to Austin's house and played games and watched TV shows. Oh, and worked out apparently, I'm pretty strong I can bench 80 pounds! That's pretty good for someone who hasn't lifted in a while!
Then I went to my families amazing family night. Abe Lincoln came and talked to us! Ha it was funny, informational, and spiritual all at the same time. It was fun to see my family and have a good time :)
Well, sorry for the boring update :) I had a fabulous week even if that doesn't sound like much :) 

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