Grateful for Thanksgiving

I am so happy to be able to be home for Thanksgiving! I have been missing my family and looking forward to it for weeks. Pie Day was a lot of fun, Aunt Kim came and joined us this year, and we also ended up with about 30 pies total. I will write the count-up later of the pies we made.
For Thanksgiving this year, we had two new people join in the feast, my two older sisters' husband and soon-to-be husband. It was wonderful to have our whole family together for a few days, and I at least enjoyed myself.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Hershey's

Happy Halloween everyone! This year I dressed up as a Hershey's chocolate bar, using brown clothing and silver duct-tape. I did not go trick-or-treating, but I did go to a party at a new friend's house! We had tons of cake, pie, and other sweets. We played games and watched Monster House, and someone brought a python and a Macaw later when some people had left, and they let us hold them. It was fun!

I unfortunately, cannot find a picture of me in my costume.

Writer's Workshop

So, I decided to join a Writer's Workshop group, which I went to yesterday for the first time. It was a small group in the corner of one of the campus buildings. I hesitant at first, but they made me feel very welcome, and as the time passed I found that these were people who knew what they were talking about regarding writing. Stories were presented and read aloud by different members of the group, and at the end the audience would give their critique to help the author improve their work. If I'm not mistaken, they even took notes on the stories in order to have better suggestions, which impressed me, because all other writing groups I have attended throughout the years has been very lax and "laissez faire" in their approach. The people were fun to be around, and I find that I respect their opinion. I will definitely keep coming. =)

Also, I found out that November is the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo ) where each day - if you accept the challenge - you write 1600 words, and by the end of the month you should have a (unedited) novel! I find this exciting, and I think I will take on the challenge this year.
Which means I need to get ahead of my homework so I can have the time for it. (1600 words is about 4-6 pages every day after all)

General Conference 2012

General Conference was so good this past weekend (though it's always good), with inspiring music and talks to draw knowledge from. I am so grateful to be a part of this church, led by such kind, loving, and inspired leaders who are blessed with revelation. I also enjoyed the company of my family, and it's too bad I missed out on the discussion, but I still liked being with my family - and the free food! =)
I feel like the first Session on Saturday was the one that touched me the most, and not just because of the missionary announcement at the beginning (I'll talk about that later). I really liked President Uchtdorf's talk about living with no regrets, and  Russell M. Nelson's talk: "ask the missionaries - they can help you!" there is also Sister Dibbs talk that asks what kind of message we would proudly proclaim on our T-shirt - for her it is “I’m a Mormon. I know it. I live it. I love it.” May we all learn to live without shame of our church! These talks influenced me the most, and are the ones I remember clearly. Of course, I also loved many of the other talks, especially the one by President Monson, but these are a cluster of some I easily think of.

Regarding the missionary announcement, where young men are able to leave on missions at age 18, and women can leave at age 19 (a jump from 21 years old), I think it is exciting, and a good step forward for the church. The work is hastening on. I have heard many different experiences and responses from this announcement, some wept, many gasped in shock, others open-mouthed in disbelief or perhaps even dismay (some will have to wait for their 19-year old girlfriends to return from their missions), but it is undeniable that a stir was caused, and everyone has something to say about it. Even the news took notice, and they should, because everything is about to change; this includes the very culture of LDS society, especially my age group. I think it is a good work to be done, and there are many who intend to leave as soon as possible. But what do I think? you ask; well, truthfully I don't know. Besides what I've stated above, that it is good and exciting, I don't have much else of an opinion, though many have asked. Even at the announcement I was not as surprised as everyone else seemed to be, and I believe my comment I made to my sister was (and she can correct me if she remembers), "Oh; that's exciting!" Then I talked to my parents for a minute or two before conference continued. I do not know whether to go on a mission or not, I find I lean neither to the right nor the left of the matter, but on the center. I fully support other people's decision to go on a mission, I simply to not know about myself. I did not even consider the prospect of going on a mission until I recieved my patriarichal blessing and my dad made a comment on one of the phrases! I have not thought to much of it since then! I thought I had more time to consider; now I find myself needing to come to a decision!
For now, I can only pray, and wait to see what happens... so we shall see what happens.

Off To College

Hello everyone! I am doing great, and I love being here at BYU-Idaho! The campus is absolutely beautiful, and I have some really nice roommates. All six of us are freshmen, and hopefully we become good friends by the end of the semester. I have actually been here for over a week, but what a crazy week it was! So many classes and so much homework to keep track of, I have been working hard to keep up on it so I do not fall behind. Sometimes there is so much information to take in and my brain feels stuffed, and sometimes I'll stare at my reading (math especially) at not understand a word of it. I am enjoying my classes though, and I like the teachers that I have.
It it so strange though to have a prayer at the beginning of class, as well as church principles taught alongside academic information. The Spirit of the Lord is here, and it is a wonderful thing. I hope that by being here I can become more spiritual and a better person.
How is it back home? I love being here, but there is a huge difference between Home and my apartment, and I wonder how my family is doing. And, I keep forgetting to call them, oops (I'll do better I promise!). I miss you all, and I hope you are all doing well!

My Bed: It's so yellow!

The shelf with my stuff on it, my roommates made a comment on how many books I had. What are they talking about? This isn't even 10% of all the books I own!

The living room: the couches are quite comfy, and that's a stack of my homework on the table.

The kitchen (while clean): on the far left there are some flowers my dad got me, if you can see the leaves poking out.