Thankful Thursday

Last week i had a lesson in Relief Society and the teacher talked about gratitude. She said on her blog she does a "Thankful Thursday" post ever Thursday and i thought it was a good idea, and especially today since it is Thanksgiving.

SO, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

I have so very much to be thankful for in my life. I am truly blessed. 

This year i am so blessed to live with some pretty great girls. One that im especially grateful for today is Kenz. She has become one of my very best friends. She makes me better each and every day. I am so comfortable around her and i tell her everything. We laugh and cry over everything. We try to work out, we love food way too much, and we are absolutely crazy. We love life and just try to make the most of everything! This year would really suck without her. 

So i don't know if i have mentioned this but i get to work at a middle school with students with learning disabilities three days a week as a volunteer. Some days i absolutely love it and i love my students. Other days i hate what im doing and wonder why on earth i would ever choose to be a teacher (my wonderful mother has answered countless phone calls where i am in tears and she has to calm me down). It has definitely been a patience test for me that's for sure but i know it is making me a better person. I am thankful for the opportunity i have to learn and grow from these kids that i have grown to love. At the end of semester i think i am going to cry when i am done working there and have to move on to a new class with new students. I am one proud momma when they do well in school and i get frustrated and upset when they don't. I love to hear "Miss. Melanie" called across the room, it kinda has a nice ring to it and i love that i can help these students.

The other day i was in the class alone with my students and we needed to get our math homework done. My girls were really giggly and just wanted to talk. They kept trying to ask me about my boyfriend and who i was dating. I told them that i don't have a boyfriend and so they asked if after math they could make me something. I said sure, just trying to shut them up and get them going on their math homework. To my surprise they rushed through their math so they could get done and make me a present. I found this after class. Dating Steps by sixth grade girls. Awesome. Ha i couldn't help but to laugh and wonder how on earth they thought about all of this. I think they have a few of the steps a little out of order but it definitely made my day.

I am so very thankful for a wonderful, warm, nice car that works and transports me to all the places i need to be and especially allows me to drive home! I have a wonderful daddy who spoils me and bought me a car for college (i think my mom would have been upset if he wouldn't have) but i am one lucky girl!

I am thankful for the opportunity i have to be home with a wonderful family that i am able to spend eternity with. I am thankful for a wonderful mother and a best friend that loves me and enjoys having me home. She does my laundry when im home, buys me groceries, and spoils me rotten. She made all my favorite meals, including chicken Alfredo with an Italian soda - delicious!

I am thankful for a cute little sister that also loves having me home. She always seems to rope me into just dancing with her and playing games and i can never refuse some good fun! I love her and can't wait for her to be all grown up so we can be the best of friend!

I am thankful for this little terd. Hes pretty much the best kid in the world with the biggest heart of anyone i know. I love him so very much. He came to the late night showing of Twilight with my mom and I just to be with me and i love him more than he will ever know. 

I am so thankful for the opportunity i have to work. Not only do i have a job, but its the best job in the world. I don't have to have a job at college because i can come home and work at A.M.I. on the weekends and over my breaks to make money while still being home with my family. My dad has always said that if he can teach his kids how to work and to have a testimony he will have succeeded as a parent. I am grateful for a dad that took the time to teach me these qualities. I think it helps me to really appreciate what i have. I work all summer so i can pay for my schooling and housing and i honestly am grateful for this too. It sounds funny but i think i appreciate it way more then if my parents just gave it to me. I feel like school is more important because i had to work hard for it so i want to go and be there and make the most of it. I am thankful for the opportunity i have to go to school and to better myself to be able to have a job some day doing what i love! I have been given so much in my life an am truly blessed.

My very favorite song right now is Hymn 219, Because I Have Been Given Much. I tear up every time it is played and love the words and message it has.

Because I have been given much i too must give.

I hope this holiday season i can give back because i have been truly blessed in my life. I am the luckiest girl in the whole wide world and am so happy! Happy Thanksgiving.

I'm a Scardy Cat

I HATE Halloween. 

It's probably the worst holiday ever invented.

I think we have had like three halloween parties in my ward this last month and i am just a wee bit burnt out.

Don't get me wrong, i loved getting to see my friends and spend time with them at the haunted house and we had a ton of fun peeing our pants and laughing the night away, but the scary stuff is not for me. 

Ya i love that everywhere you go there is always tons of free candy since its Halloween, but I'm also trying to diet and loose weight and that is not helping one bit.

But what i hate the most is all the scary creepy things that go along with halloween. And this year, it got to me pretty dang bad.

At the beginning of the week my crazy neighbor painted my nails for Halloween and let me just tell you, i was a real hit at school the next day. The kids i tutor were loving them and they couldn't get enough of looking at every single nail. Lets just say i felt like the cool kid for sure!

 Chrissy and i dressed up for Halloween as babies for FHE Monday night and when we walked in we found we weren't the only one with this grand idea.

Love my roommates! :]

I absolutely love my ward this year. Everyone is fantastic and i feel so at home here!

Good ole Josh showed up as Obama!

For school on Wednesday (Halloween) i got all ready for school and completely forgot what day it was. I had completely forgotten my cute Halloween sweater and so in between classes i ran home to change. This cute girl was a cupcake and i think shes the cutest dang cupcake i have ever seen! Sure love miss Karlie to pieces!!

These darling kids sent me some pictures from their fun parties at school! Id say they are some pretty good looking cave people!! 

Halloween night my roommates and i were feeling adventurous and wanted to watch a scary movie. The best we came up with was Monsters Inc. and by about 9:00 everyone was in bed. I didn't want to go to bed quite yet, i mean come on i wanted to celebrate this horrible holiday all night. I have no clue what i was thinking because this ended up being one of the worst nights of my life. I went to the neighbors and we watched a scary movie that gave me nightmares for two nights straight. I wasn't able to sleep and have been legitimately scared. I know that the spirit leaves in those situations and i felt completely lost without having that peaceful calming feeling. I was sick to my stomach and couldn't eat anything. I learned that i am no longer scary movie material and will steer clear from those from now on.

Thursday i had one of the worst days of my entire life. Nothing seemed to be going right and i can quite honestly say it started from that awful movie. I was about to burst into tears about seven times that day so i decided i needed a little therapy to help calm my nerves and settle me down. I settled on a run to the temple and that was just the trick. Running helped me to just think and calm down and being on temple grounds is always such a spiritual experience. My day started to get better and with a little talking to and some ice cream from one of the best roommates and friends a girl could have i was a little less frightened and able to calm down. 

This is totally a great insentive to run and i thought it was absolutly beautiful. I couldn't help singing to my self, "I love to see the temple, I'll go inside someday." I know that some day ill be lucky enough to find some amazing guy to take me to my castle, this castle, so i am able to spend eternity with him. 

Seeing this beautiful lady today also helped a lot. She has no idea how much i appreciate her each and every day. The little texts and conversations and how she is always there even being two hours apart. It's hard, i hate to be away from her, but i do know this is where i need to be. She is my role model and my inspiration for life. Some day i hope to be half the woman my mother is. She calmed my nerves and knew exactly what i needed to hear today. She has the best advice and i am so thankful for her!

 We tried to take a picture after Ridge's game but we got photo bombed by this goober. Sure love them both so much!

After they left, i have some pretty amazing friends who took me to the temple to just walk the grounds and feel the sweet spirit that is felt there!

Some darling old lady tried really hard to get a good picture and this is the best we got!

It was a crazy rough week, but i know for certain that the gospel is true and that i am so thankful for it in my life. I have no idea where i would be without it. I have some amazing friends and family that i am so thankful for for helping me make it through a crazy week. Now i know to stay away from scary shows. I am way to old to handle them any more, so not worth the nightmares!!

Life in Logan

It seems like im always playing catch up with my Blog! 

These last few weeks in Logan have been great! School is going great, my friends and roommates are fantastic, and im just loving life.

Chrissy came running into my room last Sunday and asked me to take her to the hospital. That about gives you a heart attack!! She was babysitting a few days before and fell down the stairs and hit her head. She thought she had a concussion and was worried so we ran to the hospital. Mean while Kenzi was sitting on the couch talking to her dad on the phone wearing her footie PJs and her banana costume for Halloween. She hangs up the phone, rips off the banana costume and runs out of the door with us. 

Ya she's a babe i know, shes my best friend!!

It has also gone from nice weather, to fall so it's a little chilly in the morning, to poring rain, to snow all in a week span! Logan weather is as crazy as Burley's!

 

I was clearly pumped to get to wear my rain jacket and use my umbrella. I LOVE the rain.

Kenzi and i try to go to as many ward functions as possible and so we went to FHE last week even though we really didn't want to be carving pumpkins. We did anyways and we actually won. Prizes were awarded to the best pumpkin and we were the lucky winners!!

I mean what girl wouldn't want a sweet mustache as a prize! We were entertained for hours!! :]

I also got to vote for the first time ever! I had no clue what to do, it wanted me to print and push all these weird buttons so i was a little stressed out, but i made it through and Voted! Yippee!

Friday night was a Basketball preseason game! I went with some pretty cute girls, my bestest friend Kim and Chrissy and Tarah, and we had fun. Aggie's ended up winning big time but it never gets old to do the Scotsman cheer!

Chrissy convinced me to go with her to dinner after the game. We went to Wingers and as we were waiting we were real hungry so we started talking about all the food we were going to order and the desert we were going to get after. Half way through our meal, i was stuffed. No way was i making it through dessert. Our waitress comes out, we thought to give us our checks, but instead to tell us a table offered to buy us dessert and if we would like it now or to go! Ya we were real shocked. That has never ever happened to me before! Another waitress came out with our dessert to go and told us at the table close to us were some of her guy friends. They bought our pie and left their numbers. She told us were were adorable and we should really give them a call. I don't think i have ever booked it out of a restaurant that fast before. We took our free pie and some guys numbers and left. I creeped them on Facebook that night and found that they sat in front of us at a football game one night so we kinda knew them. Lets just say neither Chrissy or I will be giving them a call anytime soon. They were very nice guys, but i definitely am not the kind to call a guy first.

Like my recent purchase. I was so pumped to find footie PJs at walmat that i just couldn't pass them up! I know i am a real looker in them but who cares, they are super cozy and thats all that matters to me!

Logan is beautiful in the fall. I love the bright colors, the brisk air, everything about the fall amazes me. It's my very favorite season and i am one lucky girl to be in beautiful Logan Utah to experience one of the best falls ever. Im one happy lucky girl! :]

A Pretty Epic Weekend Back Home

Oh how i love being home. I have always been such a home body, so any chance i get to be home, i take! For fall break my Thursday class go canceled so i was lucky to get both Thursday and Friday off. I pack up and headed on home on Wednesday night. I didn't do a whole lot but hang out with the fam and work at good ole A.M.I. How thankful i am for that wonderful job. I am able to be home with my family, but working and making money on my breaks so i can enjoy college life! I am one lucky girl.

Friday night i went on a super fun date. Dallin (Brin's brother) and I and then Brin and Chad went on a double date. First Dallin picked me up and we headed to Oakley to watch the big football game against Declo. After Oakley got their butts whooped, we headed home to let the competition begin. We were carving pumpkins and i soon found out pumpkin carving can be more creative then a couple eyes and a creepy mouth. I think it took us longer to decide what design to do then it did to actually carve my pumpkin. (especially since Brin says i chose a toddler design but at least i tried right?) Dallin and i chose Batman and Brin and Chad did Princess Peach and Mario. I still think team Batman was the winners, but we all had fun.

Me and my "toddler pumpkin" according to brin. 

  Thanks for the great date Dallin.

I miss her more then she will ever know. She was the best roommate and friend a girl could ask for! 

So i definitely hated the guts! Sure glad i changed what i wanted to be when i grow up! I couldn't have handled any doctor or nursing profession of any kind!!

We weren't really sure what to do with our pumpkins when we were finished with them. I just cleared my background check so i wasn't really sure i wanted to do anything naughty to ruin my perfect record! We ended up taking them to the Declo sign so everyone driving by can see! :]

Such a great night!

I spent my entire Saturday at my Grandma Chicks house working on her garage. We tried to prep and paint the floor but it seemed like everything that could go wrong did. We ended up calling it quits but we will be back to finish some day soon!! After i got showered and cleaned up i hurried to meet the girls in Albion to go to the dreaded Haunted Mansions. I HATE scary things so this stuff isn't really my cup of tea. Mostly i go to be with my friends and have a little fun. I was scared before we even got our tickets. Some creepy man walked by and i let out a scream no girl should ever let out of their mouths! I sounded manly but i was terrified so give me a break ok. Brin about peed her pants. We got chased one to many times by freaks with chain saws. Brin and I had a dance party in the strobe lights. All together it was a great time with the best of friends a girl could ask for. Bet ya anything we will all be back next year for some more exciting adventures at Albion Haunted Mansions. They never disappoint.

I must be a horrible picture taker because i look awful in most of these pictures!

Since we had no boys to keep us safe, Syd and I assumed the boys role! Oh well we had fun!! :]

Thank heavens Halloween is almost over with for another year. This girl isn't too found of that dang holiday and is sure glad to see it go. Let the Christmas festivities begin!!