Post-Christmas Happiness

Merry Christmas, everyone! Yes, that was a few days ago, I know. I can't believe that Austin and I have been married five months! It seems both like we just got married and that we've been together for a long time. We have so much fun together-I love it.

Right now we are in the land of Katy, Texas, where Austin's family lives. They actually lived here for several years, then moved to Oklahoma (at the same time as my family, actually) and moved back to Katy just this summer. We were here for a week right before school starts, and let me say, the temperatures are much better in December. While everyone else is having blizzards, we barely need jackets.

I am having a lot of fun with the Miller family during this holiday break. We have watched a lot of movies together in the media room, played video games and board games, gone shopping, and had lots of fun. Right when we got into town, we went to Cici's Pizza. Austin's family has been eating there for every Saturday for more than ten years; it has a lot of meaning for them. My favorite pizza there is the one the family special orders-alfredo with pepperoni and pineapple. It sounds gross, but it is really really good. It is fun to be included in this family tradition of eating too much pizza and then looking at all the video games there.

After that was my new brother Darrik's birthday. We got him a book on Zombies (brothers are so fun). Can you guess what his other presents were?

Christmas week a lot of the other family members went shopping, though Austin and I had already gotten our presents for everyone so we spent a lot of time at home. With original mario and DDR, anime, no school and lots of yummy food here, I can't say that I minded at all.

One of the Miller family traditions (aside from watching tons of Christmas movies) is filming the opening of Christmas presents that morning, and also watching the highlights of all the previous' years' videos on Christmas eve. It is really funny watching the four miller boys opening presents each year, and watching them grow up. Austin asked what is was like for Christmas morning with girls, and I said it was basically the same but with less bodily function humor and more Barbies.

On Christmas, Santa gave me a sweet new laptop, which I am writing this blog post on. This was way nice as my old computer died at the beginning of last semester, and while I was using an old computer of the Millers, it is nice to actually be able to open documents from my professors (and have a bigger screen for watching Rurouni Kenshin). It was a very fun and enjoyable. Growing up, my family drove around a lot on Christmas (visiting three different families) and even though I loved it and miss my extended family, having a slower pace is rather fun.

For the last few weeks I have been working like crazy to finish Austin's surprise Christmas gift-BYU recently acquired a machine that prints and binds your own books, so I compiled all of mine and Austin's emails, all the way from freshman year until right before we got married. We emailed a lot, so it took a lot of time, but it was worth it. I hope we will enjoy reading it for many years to come.

My birthday is tomorrow, and Austin has some kind of surprise for me. I can't wait to find out what it is!!!

This is me wearing my new flannel shirt from Austin (yes, I really wanted a flannel shirt for Christmas) and my new headband from accessories shopping with my mother-in-law and Rachel. I know they don't exactly go together, but I love them both. Austin is just there to look cute :)

Everyone has trials, but my life is better for this wonderful person that I am married to. I am excited for this new year to share with him!

-Katie

For those of you who have been to BYU, this is Austin's interpretation of the Karl G. Maeser statue :)

Feliz Dia de Halloween

As you can tell, Katie and I carved a pumpkin. It was our activity for Family Home Evening on Monday night. We had forgotten to buy any carving knives but we made it through anyway with kitchen knives. Katie delighted herself in the de-boweling of the pumpkin and scraping its inards. In case you have a hard time reading the pumpkin, it has the letter 'A', the letter 'K', and a little heart. Pumpkin: 9 cents a pound. Carving love messages into a pumpkin: I charge $10 (that's a joke).

On Wednesday night, the 28th, Katie and I went to the Social Dance lab because I am in Social Dance 180 and thus was required to go. And since Katie loves dancing and I would much rather dance with her than any other woman, she came, too. We had such a fun time dancing the waltz, foxtrot, and cha-cha.

Tonight, Friday the 30th, our ward had a Halloween Party. Originally it was going to be a trunk-or-treat: classic LDS family ward tradition so that parents can take their kids trick-or-treating in a safe environment without having to walk very far. So that is like a win-win-win situation, right? Well, unfortunately, Utah weather disagreed with out idea so the ward moved the activity inside since it was too cold (particularly for the children). Katie was a Newsie although she looks like she could be the Newsies' attorney. I am wearing a homemade costume that was made 7 years or so ago by my mother; isn't she amazing? I was Legolas from Lord of the Rings. I have been wearing my cloak to school everyday since Wednesday. I get the ugliest looks, like I were a child rapist or something. Someone actually yelled to me, "Go back to Azkaban, freak." Don't worry, it isn't as bad as it sounds; I know who yelled it, he was just kidding....I hope. Anyway, back to the Halloween party: so as we walked in, I was asked to help with the children games. Little did they (or I) know, I was soon to be labeled as villain and I would also soon have 7 knee-height midget superheroes attacking me, ranging from Wolverine to Spiderman to Indian Jones. Even Ariel the Mermaid had her fair shot at me. I love playing with children. There were several really cute kids in costumes.

Katie and I are both really tired and need to get some sleep. But first, we are going to watch some Cardcaptor Sakura and Rurouni Kenshin. Yay anime ^_^.

We're so happy on our little piece of bread...

Today is our three-month marriage anniversary. Yes, we are aware that it's not very long, though time has passed quickly for us. In less than a month is the 1-year anniversary of when we offically started dating, which will be way exciting. Here are some pictures of what we've been doing lately...

These are of us using the chopsticks that we got as a wedding present from our friend Amy. There's an inside joke about chopsticks from our freshman days, but I won't tell it now...

Austin and I love to cook together,

and try out new recipes. One night we made barbeque chicken pizza- it was really really good. Just shredded cooked chicken, cheddar cheese, bbq sauce and apple slices on homemade pizza crust. One of my new favorite foods to eat!

In an attempt to be more crafty, I decided to make the ruffle headband featured on http://heart-of-light.blogspot.com/ My mom and I worked on it together during General Conference this year. I was happy to have my parents come out to visit us in Utah this year; as we'll be spending our first Christmas together with Austin's family in Katy, Texas.

My sister, who also likes the headbands on the aforementioned website, decided to make some as well. We had a marvellous time the other day going to Joann's Fabric store to pick out fabric and other crafty things together. I haven't put time into making my headband yet, but Sarah already made a belt version of the Rosebud headband for me. It looks awesome, and she is so cool she decided to give it to me! I can't wait to make my own version of the headband.

Other than that, Austin and I keep busy with school and church out here. We just were called to be primary teachers for the seven-year-old class. It's going to be an interesting experience. Some of the things we have done lately:

-go to the temple with my old roommate Aubrey and her husband Russell

-attend BYU's Lost and Found Sale (where Austin and I each spent nine dollars on new clothes...we're awesome like that.)

-make amazing desserts from scratch

-introducing Austin to classic musicals, such as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

-take lots of tests

-an afternoon of me playing Boggle with my sister in law Rachel and Austin and his brother playing Halo/Batman games

-General/Stake Conference

Yeah, we don't get out much, but hopefully we'll do more when we don't have so many finals. I had two midterms this week and big presentation, and Austin also had two tests. Hopefully things slow down soon!

Other than that, we are very happy.

-Katie

Corn is no place for a mighty warrior....but Corn Bread is!

I think laughing has serious medicinal and verifiably pharmaceutical effects. Friday night (11 Sept 2009) was the BYU Fall Fest. I have gone every year but I never remembered so many people attending! Then again, what else do you expect when free pizza is offered on a college campus? None other than full-fledged stampeding. I think some people even wore their soccer cleats just to get better traction and get to the food faster. So Katie and I decided it was not worth waiting in line after hundreds of people for a slice of pizza. However, we did go to the Laugh Out Loud (LOL) show. LOL is an improvisational comedy club; for those unfamiliar with it, imagine "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" but much cleaner and yet still spleen-splittingly hilarious. Katie and I both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Today (12/9/09) was the Opening Social in Wymount Appartments. Katie and I volunteered to run the Kids Prize section for an hour. It was fun handing out balloons and the such; little children are really cute, or even older, less-young children are still fun. After we were released from duty, we ate some hot dogs that were delicious.

Katie and I had leftover ground beef for dinner today; it was delicious. We have lots because yesterday, Friday, we made spaghetti for dinner. We had cooked 1 pound of ground beef for some reason....I think we are just both bad judges of quantity of food. So we had lots of leftover. But then Katie also made some corn bread for dinner that was absoultely amazing! By far, the best corn bread I have ever had; no ordinary, mundane corn bread is worthy of its presence. Furthermore, it is so good Katie's corn bread is INDEED a place for a might warrior. It has transcended the heed for honey-butter. You get the picture: it was good. ^_^ Cooking together has always been fun. It is quite the experience to cook together.

Besides all that, things have been relatively quiet around here. We have been doing a lot of homework and watching anime. We are introducing one another to our own favorite anime: Katie is having us watch Card Captor Sakura and I have introducing Katie to Rurouni Kenshin. For now, we are both just settling into the flow of school. Isn't life grand? We are truly blessed to be alive, as I am blessed to be with her.

Wedding Pictures..on facebook

Since I'm rather exhausted from updating wedding photos everywhere, here are the links to my facebook albums. Don't worry, you don't have to own a facebook account to view them.

Pictures from the Temple:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286173&id=17809652&l=0261ae87ff

Pictures from Forest Park:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286403&id=17809652&l=4738b521df

Pictures from the reception:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286407&id=17809652&l=09b74ac344

Give me a few days, and then I'll update everyone to what we've been doing in the nearly two months since our wedding. Ciao!

So, Austin and I are back in Oklahoma. We have been married almost four weeks (tomorrow) and we still like each other :) So I figure things are going well. We will be driving out to utah in just a few days to start school, but for now we're just relaxing with my parents. It is really exciting that in about a week, we will have our very own apartment all to ourselves! Tonight, we cooked our very first meal together as a married couple. We made a Pasta Chicken Lemon Toss that was pretty good.

For the listening pleasure of those who were not able to attend the wedding, and to get an idea of our thoughts, Austin and I thought we'd blog about our actual wedding day. It may take me a blog or two, and I don't have the professional pictures on my computer so Austin will have to post those, but hopefully it will be of interest to some of you.

July 18th, 2009

7:30ish am Though I start my day here, I should point out that my dear friends, Amy, Ali, and Jen were all staying at my mom's aunt sharon's house (who is really cool) having a last girl's night together, and we didn't go to bed until around 2am. Then I laid awake for the next several hours. I'm not sure how much I slept...it didn't seem like at all. I wasn't nervous exactly; the anticipation simply kept my mind too busy for sleep. Despite my brain buzzing, at seven thirty I was still a bit sluggish and had trouble finding clothes in my suitcase and getting ready. Soon enough, though, I was wide awake and was ready to head over to the hairdresser. My hair turned out really cute. My sister was with me, getting her hair done. After lots of racing around, going back and forth, getting my wedding dress, temple clothes, and other necessary items for the day, Dad, Jen and I drove to the temple. Austin and those few people attending the Temple ceremony would meet us there.

10:40am Despite often running late in my life, I want to point out that I was early to getting to the temple, and meeting Austin there. The people who work at the temple are so nice and so excited for you. Austin arrived, and then we were whisked away to change for the wedding. In the temple you don't do the whole not-seeing each other thing before the ceremony. Which is good because it was nice to be waiting with Austin. There we were sitting in this little waiting room for everyone else to arrive, and my stomach is doing a bit of gurgling which I'm sure was just nerves over this huge step that we were about to take. I was thinking, "okay, one minute I'm not going to be married, and then I will be married. WEIRD." There were two older ladies in the room who talked with us for a bit and then chatted to each other. Austin and I talked some, but really, what was there to talk about? Then someone came in and asked if we minded starting early, since everyone was already there. It was like wait, now? Go get married right this second? I think my heart started pounding then (and continued to for the next 15 minutes) but I knew it would be okay.

12:00 noon (or a little earlier) People probably wonder a lot about what goes on in the temple. While I can't relate certain details because the temple deals with very sacred things, I will say that not a lot actually happens. We were given marriage advice by the temple sealer, though honestly Austin and I don't remember a lot of what he said...the day was very overwhelming. We shall have to try and remember what advice he gave us. Then we very simply made covenants with God in our marriage and made promises to each other as husband and wife. Then Austin and I kissed, and Austin jokingly said, "Ew..." He was kidding (I think). Then we spent some quiet time together in the temple, simply being married. It was wonderful, but very strange. We were married? Then we ran into my old college roommate Rachel and her fiance Felipe in the temple (they were married a week later)! It was wonderful to see her there, particularly on such a special day.
Then Austin and I went to change into our clothes that we would take pictures in and wear to the reception. For the temple I needed a simple white dress, but the dress I wore to the temple was a bit fancier. It had beautiful crystal and embroidery on it. Standing in the bride's room in the temple, putting my dress on, getting ready, was rather surreal, something I had been waiting my whole life to do. I was excited to get out there and see all my friends and family who were waiting to congratulate us, but I also wanted Austin to see me. We had been joking for months about the dress I had bought back in March that he had never seen a glimpse of, and how I was afraid it would be anti-climatic after all those months. When I came down from the dressing room, however, Austin looked at me and smiled and it was perfect. He held bobby pins for my mom while she put my veil in, and we got ready for our grand exit from the Temple!

Okay, tune in next time for some pictures and the rest of the day! I will be much briefer in the next portion; in fact, I think parts of it I will simply tell in picture.

3 Week Anniversary!

This is Austin, reporting live from the Miller household in Katy, Texas. I can't believe that we have been married for three weeks already. It still seems as if we were married yesterday. My life is completely different and yet it still feels the same. Now that I am with Katie forever, I can't imagine my life any other way. We have so much fun together! And a wonderful part of being married is that I don't have to say goodbye at night and wait until the next day to see her. So in short, being married is amazing. You probably all think that I am just in that "honeymoon phase" that will wear out after a year or so. I think love that waxes cold is the saddest thing; perhaps mine and Katie's love with evolve or change, but I hope with all my heart that it will never grow dim. I'll do all I can so my love for her doesn't :)

Hopefully Katie hasn't been too bored here in Texas. I am pretty bored of the weather. I know you guys probably will not believe me, but I am excited to be back in Utah. Here in Texas, it is 97 degrees farenheit, but the 95% humidity, the heat index is up to 105 degrees, in the SHADE. In sunlight, the heat index is upward of 123 degrees Farenheit. Katie and I thought it would be a fun activity to try and bake muffins by leaving them in my car during the day, sort of like a slow cook oven.

I received my pell grant today. To be honest, I still feel slightly bad for taking government money. Does anybody else know what I am talking about? I feel almost...guilty for just getting $5,350 for doing nothing. If we look at it technically, I guess it is Uncle Sam's wedding gift for us. That money is not coming from nowhere; in fact, if we are extremely technical, it is like all of you paid us that money because pell grants come from tax dollars. So I thank all of you for paying your taxes so that we can afford school without goig into 7 years of servitude. I feel indebted and I want to pay back; I want to be rich so I can give lots of money to poor couples and people who need money. That would be so fulfilling.

Anywho, I am going to go get some lunch. Cheerio (and Frosted Flakes, for good measure).

Post-Wedding Life

Welcome to the new blog of Katie and Austin Miller. So that we still maintain our inviduality (For you, Muscle Mike), we will be doing indivdual postings, but this way our friends don't have to hear the same stories twice. I'd like to think we are more entertaining together than we are apart, but for now, we'll see.

We have been married about two and a half weeks, and I suppose we're not acting too sickly-sweet newlywed like, because someone asked us how long we had been married and they were surprised. On the other hand, the people at the bank thought we were really young to be married (though it wasn't so bad when they found out we were older than we looked).

It's interesting, because Austin and I have talked about it and we both feel like we've been together longer than just a couple weeks. Time has gone by fast. In the last few weeks we have been in Missouri, Oklahoma, California, and Texas. After the wedding in St.Louis, we drove to Stillwater, Oklahoma, then had our honeymoon in Newport Beach, California, then helped Austin's family move from Oklahoma to Texas. It has been a lot of fun getting to know Austin's family. We've been bowling twice and we play video games and are all anxious to get access to the neighborhood pool.

We will be in Texas for another few days, then we will be heading up to Oklahoma to spend a few days with my parents before making the long drive out to Utah to start another year at BYU.

Sometime soon we will post more details/pictures about the wedding and California, but this is good enough for now, I think.

-Katie

Kind of Like Salvador Dali...(he's a surrealist, get it?)

So...I know pretty much everyone already knows, but...I'm getting married! I'm really excited, if you can't tell. I figured I might as well tell the story in my own words here, since most people are hearing it secondhand.

Austin and I have been officially dating four months! Or as he calls it, our 1/3 anniversary :)

Despite that short amount of time, we've actually known each other for quite a bit longer. We were in the same ward our freshman year at BYU, and then at the end of the year he went off to Chile to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was kinda bummed that one of my best friends was going to be gone for two years, but I was so proud of him. This last summer, he came back to the United States and adjusted to non-missionary life. Despite the fact that I'd liked him for the past few years, and we went on lots of dates, we still took awhile to finally get together. Things have been fantastic and we couldn't be happier.

About a week ago, we decided to go to the Draper Temple Open House, where the public can tour the temple before it is dedicated, after which only worthy members can enter. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen; the rooms are white, and this temple had wooden benches and paneling, and tons of gorgeous lighting fixtures and chandeliers. Every single room I would stare at the ceiling and say, "oooh, pretty." During the tour, we stopped in one of the sealing rooms, a room in the temple where couples are married. We sat down in a row of chairs while listening to someone talk to us about the sacredness of temple marriages; it was a very spiritual moment for everyone and also a very personal moment for Austin and I; apparently we were thinking the same thing, only I didn't realize it at the time.

People start leaving the room at this point, but we're not leaving! On the drive up to Draper, I had asked Austin, "So, where are you planning on living next year?" "Oh, I'm still figuring that out..." So while everyone else is leaving the sealing room, Austin leans over to me and says, "Actually, I lied earlier. I know where I want to live next year; with you." And I think he's just going to say that and that would be it, but then he gets down on one knee in the sealing room and asks me to marry him right then and there! It was the most romantic of my life. I was so surprised/excited/freaking out that I didn't respond automatically, but then when I realized that, I said, "oh, of course."

And...we're getting married sometime this summer. We can hardly wait :)

Aren't we cute? We are so excited to have our own (tiny) apartment in the fall and to start our new life together.

Thank you to everyone and their loving support!

love Katie

By the way, do people think Austin and I should start our own blog together, or would no one read it?

Our song is the way he laughs...

I've been told that I need to blog, and really, I haven't properly blogged in ages. I've been very busy since school started up again this semester. One major change in my own life is that I've decided to not only complete my bachelor's degree in Marriage, Family, and Human Development, but I also want to do the Family Life Education Certification. BYU's program is so cool that I don't even have to take an exam to qualify, just get a C or better in all the required courses. I've taken a lot of the classes already, but I need to take a few more, so instead of finishing classes next fall, I will finish next winter and graduate next April. It's a little unfortunate because it is different than my original plans, but I think it's for the best. After all, I love BYU and I really think it's a scary thought to not be a student anymore, so I will just put that off for a little while....

I love my life and all the wonderful opportunties it brings. I am taking a cooking class this semester and I am learning all kinds of cool things. I am gaining a new appreciation for things I didn't really like before, like vegetables and fish. Who knew they could be so good???? Today our group make macademia encrusted tilapia and also chocolate pudding cake, and I have to say, I think our group had some of the best recipes. There certainly wasn't any cake left at the end of the day!

School can be very trying and hard, but I don't want to give up; I want to do well. Sometimes all you need is the right motivation...so thank you :) I hope all of you don't give up on dreary winter-spring is on the way!
*Blog title from "Our Song" by Taylor Swift

All those other girls, well they're beautiful but would they write a song for you?

I haven't written in awhile, because I have been very busy. Finals are this week, and I am determined to do well so all my hard work this semester isn't wasted. Some of my finals have gone well, some...not so much. It's frustrating, because so much rides on that one test. My advanced writing class has gone surprisingly well this semester; even though writing is one of my talents, I am happy and sad to have my last writing class behind me. Papers take so much time and energy to write, and this particular semester has been very stressful because of it. I am glad that I was able to do well though, and give my gpa a nice grade boost.


Recently I read an article about a woman named Betty James. Her husband invented the Slinky, but she was the one who wrote the jingle for it, and she wrapped up the first slinky's on her kitchen table. Seventeen years after it was invented, her husband left her, their six children, and the company (that wasn't doing so hot) to join what she called a religious cult in bolivia. Now while I think he's a major loser for abandoning his family, I think she is so cool! She took over the company and ran it for a long time while raising her family. If that's not inspirational, I don't know what is. I think we can all learn from her example on how to deal with adversity; finals are nothing compared to that.
*Lyrics from Hey Stephen by Taylor Swift

It's that time of year...

I love Christmas! I love that we have a whole month of lights and decorations and Christmas songs and service and everything. I wish that people wouldn't complain about how people only help others at Christmas. Yes, we should help people year-round, but this should be a time of gratitude, not of griping. Someone helps at Christmas? How dare they only help once a year! It should be all the time or none at all!!! Think how silly that sounds.

I recently saw (again) The Muppet Christmas Carol. I love that movie! Think of the message there, "wherever you find love, it feels like Christmas." That's because it reminds of Jesus Christ! So Let's try and remember our Savior this season. Some of the people I've met at school have family traditions where they always have some sort of "gift" to the Savior-usually service or something they give to others. I always thought this was a cool idea; something maybe I'd use in my own family someday.

I feel I've suddenly become a huge fan of Kristinen Chenoweth overnight. I mean, I always loved her as Glinda in Wicked (the musical), but I love her in the movie version of The Music Man, and I've listened to her version of the Christmas Waltz about 50 times in the last few days. Her voice is sometimes annoying, but she can sing very well. I also love her song "Taylor the Latte Boy"; look it up on youtube if you haven't seen it, because her facial expressions are hysterical.

According to my adolescent development class, the stage of my life that I'm in right now (emerging adulthood) is wonderful in some ways because you feel like you have so many opportunities, that you can do anything.

I've been told lately I seem very happy. I wonder why? :)
*Title from the Christmas Waltz (I prefer the Kristen Chenoweth version)

Laughing on a park bench, thinking to myself, "hey, isn't this easy?"

My friend Jen recently asked me if I had made any observations about life recently. Unfortunately at the time I drew a blank, but having come up with one later, I decided to mention it here. I've noticed recently through conversations with my friends that everyone I know has parents who have mellowed out with age, or perhaps experience. I wonder why? Could it be they no longer have the energy to act the way they used to? Have they learned better ways to be parents? Or perhaps it's something else. My dad says that his temper has mellowed out quite a bit due to my mom's influence. I heard one of my professors say once that after several years in marriage, a couple is a lot more alike than they were at the beginning. Perhaps relationships make us into better people, or perhaps we want to be better for the other person.

I think some people who accept you for who you are encourage you to not change at all, and some people who accept you for who you are encourage you to be better, and to do better. Maybe some people would like the first, but in my expereince it's the second that really brings happiness.
I am a very happy girl.
*title from the song "You belong with me" by Taylor Swift

Help me Leave Behind some Reasons to be Missed

The election is coming up; I feel terrible, of course, because I didn't realize the dates so I missed the chance to register in Oklahoma and get my absentee ballot.

But the issue I'd like to vote for the most is, unfortunately, in another state. Proposition 8 in California states that Marriage is defined between a man and a woman. It would not take away the rights of same gender couples, but they could not be called "married". My major in school is Marriage, Family, and Human Development, and though some may want you to believe that children turn out just the same if they have a mother and father happily married as divorced, homosexual parents, parents who cohabit, or only one parent, it's not true. I admire those who are in these situations and there are real heroes out there who have done a fanastic job rasing a child by themselves or in one of these other situations, but it takes tremendous work on their part. More than that, I believe that children deserve a mother and father who are committed to each other.

Are we thinking of the children? What opinions and beliefs do we want them to have when they're adults? Of course we should all make our own opinions, but if we do not teach them what we think is right, they will pick it up from their friends, their school, and the media. My parents and I do not agree on all political issues, but I'm glad that they told me what their beliefs were-and are. So please, talk to your children about important issues. And most of all, remember them. How will these laws affect them? Is it about "tolerance"? Or is it about standing up for something you believe is right?

I hope I haven't tremendously offended anyone, and if I have, I apologize. These are just my personal opinions.
*Title from the song "Leave out All the Rest" by Linkin Park

With you I'd dance in a storm in my best dress...

Those of my friends who like to write (like me) know how difficult it is to force yourself to do so. I think that's why I don't blog very often, I think; I only write when something big happens or I get in a writing mood.

Though chilly today, Provo has been absolutely beautiful lately. The leaves are falling, and though there aren't as many deciduous trees out here, BYU does a fantastic job of landscaping campus, so there are lots of bright red and yellow leaves right now. So the trees are beautiful, the sky is gorgeous, and we have the lovely mountains in the background to complete the perfect picture.

What have I been doing lately? Taking midterms, of course! This has been a good semester for me-all good scores! I even got an A on my last midterm, so things are obviously going well.

And yes, I do other things too. Friday night my roommates and I went on a shopping adventure at DI (local thrift store) and the mall. Not only did we get some great items for our Halloween costumes, but I also got some cute things to add to my fall wardrobe! Then we all stayed up late watching a girl movie. It was a lot of fun; I hope we have more adventures in the future!

I've never been that much of a Fig Newton fan before, but today, they are AWESOME! Why? Well, let's just say the testing center isn't such a bad place after all.

*Title from Fearless by Taylor Swift

We were both young when I first saw you...

Hey everyone! Happy October! I would like to make an official request to all Missourians-please send me fall photos! I can't believe this is my fourth fall in Provo-I love BYU and the mountains have grown on me-but I still miss the Missouri autumns, with the beautiful changing leaves.

Today in my Forming Marital Relationships class, we talked about how technology changes the relationships we have with people. Far fewer families have dinner together than they used to, and of those that do, how many of those times are there no phones answered, no texting, and no TV on? I think a lot of great conversations happen at the dinner table, and that's one of the things I miss about living at home, is eating dinner and talking with my family. More than once this summer I got out four plates while setting the table-even though if Sarah were there, Kevin would be too and I would need five. It's just one of those habits, I guess.

I feel so fortunate to attend BYU for many reasons, but one thing I love about going to an amazing school is that there are so many opportunities for performances and plays and concerts and comedy shows and art exhibits and pretty much anything you can think of! It's hard to find time-and money-to attend them all, but I try to see as much as I can. In the last month I have done a lot! I have been to an Indian musical performance (Indian as in India), World of Dance (which exhibits many different types of dance at BYU such as ballet, modern, ballroom international folk dance, and others), a Japanese Art exhibit opening reception, and BYU's band/orchestra showcase. I just love it!

I like being happy.

*the title is from Taylor Swift's song Love Story.

There's something about ice cream...

I normally don't spend a ton of time in the on-campus computer labs as I have a great laptop at home, but today I am less-than eager to return home (I will explain why in a moment) so I decided to write another blog entry. I don't even plan how often to write in this thing, but it's always twice a month. Am I really so predictable?

This morning I was taking a shower when my roommate was knocking on the door. I couldn't hear her, but I just figured she wanted in there and thought was taking too long. Then when I turned the water off a second later, I could hear this high pitched sound in our apartment-it didn't sound quite like a fire alarm, and it wasn't a tornado alarm (you hear those a lot in oklahoma) but it freaked me out. So I dressed at top speed and went to go find out from Karin what it was. It turned out it was our Carbon Monoxide detector going off, and Karin had opened our front windows and the door and had called our friend David, who worked for matinence. So Karin and I left the apartment, me looking dreadful as I had put on a normal shirt but was still wearing pijama pants, was barefoot, and my hair was soaking wet and was starting to curl since I hadn't brushed it out (and since I ran out the door, I didn't have time to put something in my hair to make it curl properly and it just looked funny). David came to the rescue of course, to check out the apartment, and he said I looked great, which made me feel a little better that he was trying to be nice. We don't think it was a leak since we didn't have any of the symptoms and they thought it was because of the water heaters in the basement, but it still freaked both of us out. So, I'm not too eager to be in my apartment right now even though they said it's okay to go back in. Once you're paranoid about CO2 poisoning, you start getting a headache and feel nauseous just from thinking you could have it.

I'm taking an advanced writing class for the social sciences, and it's kind of intimidating since even though I've taken a lot of classes for my major and am supposed to be sort of close to graduating (3 semesters left!), I feel really unqualified to enter the real world and the work force. Today, though, we talked about interviews, and we had to practice answering interview questions (in applying for a job) in the last few minutes of class. The person who practiced interviewing me said I had really good answers, and this was a single mom who had been interviewed and had even conducted a number of interviews before, so it made me really happy. Now I just have to figure out how to write a resume so people will even call me in for an interview. Right now it's just for an assignment in class, but in about a year I'll be looking for an internship and I need a great one if I want to continue on in my field. It's scary, but it's also really exciting because this is, of course, what I really want to do with my life. I love studying families and marriages, and I want to utilize what I've learned so I can help other people.

One of my weaknesses in life is that I'm not the greatest at prioritizing. When I have too many things I should be doing, it gets really overwhelming and unfortunately, nothing gets done at that point. And I get distracted very easily-but I think I'm doing much better. I just have to stay on top of my reading assignments as well as the other things I have to do. I think as long as you don't procrastinate things too much, you go out and be social now and then, and you recognize that you need to go to bed at 11 if you're getting up at 6:30, well then do it. I think also you can't beat yourself up if you end up doing something on friday that you meant to do on tuesday, well, at least you did it! The point is, I'm trying to do my best with everything and that's what is important.

Saturday I'm going to see a lot of dance performances at BYU, and I am very excited! I love attending a university that has so many cultural events, and so many talented students!

Family, Friends, and Life is good!

After typing that title, I am reminded of a post I made about a year ago entitled, "Today, Little brother, life is good." Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Sarah and Kevin's wedding, and they are still doing wonderful and my life is still awesome!

I apologize for not writing in almost a month, but as I've been very busy I hope you'll all forgive me. Part of it is that I moved from Oklahoma City where I was staying with my family over the summer back to Provo for the start of another school year. So for the last two weeks I have been moving boxes, washing dishes, unpacking, going grocery and textbook shopping, figuring out classes, and the like. I call this my senior year (part one) and I estimate 3 semesters left before I graduate, so I don't have to rush through my internship. My Major is still Marriage, Family, and Human Development, and I still love it.

I am constantly reminded by how much people change around me; in particular, college appears to be the time where everyone is getting married or coming back from missions or doing study abroad programs or leaving on missions. It's all very exciting, but at this moment I'm just glad to be happy for all these people. In one week alone during the month of August I was able to attend two special occasions: a missionary homecoming and a wedding!

One of my good friends just returned from a religious mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the Chile, Vina del Mar mission. I went to his farewell also, so it was interesting to the difference. He's always been spiritual but he's grown in the two years he's been gone. It was a little strange to visit someone you haven't seen or even talked to in two years, but it was really a good experience. I think he appreciated me coming up to hear him speak in church. I think it's important to support our missionaries because they do so much for us. My family was introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ by missionaries several years ago, and we are so grateful for their wonderful service that has brought our family so much joy, and I know the people of Chile are grateful for his service.

Three days after this, I flew out to Salt Lake more than a week before I could move into my apartment so I could attend my freshman roommate Aubrey's wedding! It was nice visiting my friend Amy for a day beforehand and eating lunch with her, and then we drove to provo!
Aubrey-and her wedding-were so beautiful! Aubrey has always been one of the prettiest people I know, inside and out. Her husband, Russell, also seems like a great guy. Aubrey said that she was marrying her best friend, and I am so happy for them. We saw them at Smith's grocery store last night, and they seemed so happy! I'm glad that their new life together is going well.

As I was homeless for about a week before I could move into my apartment, I stayed with Sarah and Kevin! We had tons of fun eating Sarah's delicious cooking, such as her Nach-o chicken, crepes, and even salmon (which I actually enjoyed)! We also enjoyed watching episodes of Burn Notice, playing cranium, and spending time at the pool. Of course I spent a lot of time finishing up my independant study statistics class, but I still had a great week anyway.

Now I'm just trying to survive the semester, keep up with my reading assignments, and still have fun with my roommates! I hope everyone who is taking a class or is in school right now does well in whatever they're studying. Have a great semester!

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

The other day I was talking to my dad about how I was really stressed about some things, and he asked what, exactly, and I was in the middle of rattling off this huge list (I'm a worrier) when he asked me how many of those things I actually had any control over. I...I had trouble naming more than one. It put things in perspective. Sure, lots of things can go wrong, but you're just going to give yourself a heart attack if you worry about all the things that could go wrong or if you "what if" everything.

And I've discovered that even though working on important things is great, sometimes you've got to take some breaks or you're going to go insane. Today my dad said to me, "You must be sick of that statistics class, because I'm sick of hearing about it!" When I finished spring term at BYU this year, I made a few summer goals (look it up a few posts ago), and I wanted to report on how they're doing:

-I finished my scrapbook from freshman year! It took a long time, but I'm glad it's finished, mainly so my pictures are actually organized, but it's a lot of work, so I probably won't scrapbook again for awhile. Still, I feel so accomplished for actually finishing something sort of crafty! My skill on it has also improved, as the first few pages are not very good looking compared to the ones later on.
-I was going to try and get my license, but due to goal number three, I simply didn't have the time to do both. I'm hoping my dear brother in law is still willing to teach me how to drive, and maybe I can do it in Utah this year.
-Last year I signed up for an independant study class to have something to do over the summer. Instead, I spent my time helping Sarah with wedding planning and having fun, so now I'm spending large portions of every day trying to finish all my homework assignments and tests and things before the expiration date...which happens to be the end of the first week of fall classes. I'm getting it done or I'll know why, but it takes a lot of mental energy.

On a more positive note, I am loving the Beijing olympics this year! I especially watching Michael Phelps win gold medal after gold medal...he's awesome.

Fall classes don't start at BYU until September 2nd, but my roommate from freshman year, Aubrey, is getting married the 21st, so I'm flying out early so I can attend her reception. It's amazing how we all grow older, isn't it?

Happy as a Grizzly Bear

I promise, I don't only take pictures at the zoo, but I just love animals. Despite the fact that other than for church I rarely get up before ten during the summer, I willingly got up at 7 (my alarm actually went off at 6:30 but I took that long to get out of bed) to go to the Oklahoma City zoo! It's not nearly as good as the St.Louis zoo, but as they have two snow leopard cubs on exhibit here, it was something I couldn't pass up! It was a good idea to go early, as by the time we left at 10:30, it was incredibly hot.

We also seemed to have the perfect luck to stumble onto the grizzy bear exhibit at the right time. They do these "frozen treat feedings" that are really cool!

Happy Birthday, Dad!