late night thinking.

...I'm a camera fanatic. I love taking pictures and have my camera in my purse almost at all times. Most people either embrace the fact that I take countless pictures or they hate it. Either way, tonight I ended up spending quite some time looking at old pictures and I must say, while they definitely bring back memories, looking at all the old pictures really made me miss some pretty special, important, wonderful, amazing people in my life. People who I undoubtedly love.

Does that ever happen to you?

**image from here

Thanksgiving...or just being thankful.

It's time for the first-ever THANKFUL THURSDAY! :)

I've done posts on gratitude, but I don't think I've ever dubbed them "Thankful Thursdays" before. So, here goes (hopefully this can be a somewhat-weekly thing). Also, I know I was doing NaBloPoMo, but...it seems I've failed this year; however, I'm not terribly upset because it means I've been too busy living to sit around and blog! :)

That being said, here are a few things I'm thankful for today:

• Domino's pizza + a walk with my new roommate Lyndi to pick it up + a coupon from another roommate to pay for the pizza.
• Sitting and talking/laughing/eating pizza with Lyndi outside Domino's while being approached by some young guy who asked us to pay $25 for a suncatcher to support his supposed fundrasier. No thanks.
• Getting my Spanish test out of the way. One down, one to go.
• Studying for the Spanish test with a friend who makes up little clues to help me remember things and somewhat distracts me with no smiling contests (even if the game was my idea).
• Looking forward to "Free Dinner Thursday" even if I'm still feeling a little full from the pizza.
• Knowing Thanksgiving Break is just around the corner: family, food, friends, and home.
• Friends who believe in me and encourage me to take risks, stretch myself, and try new things! (thanks Kelly, Lyndi, and Sam!).
• The warm weather! I love snow, but I haven't minded the extended fall season this year.
• Talking to my sisters on the phone multiple times each week.
• Having a mom who will make any food I want when I come home. Looking forward to homemade cinnamon rolls.
• Being able to finally watch movies at our home here! Yay!

Ok, those are a few things. What are you thankful for?

photo from here.

first snowfall

Well, it's officially cold here in Cedar City. Last Friday we had Distinguished Scholars Day and I was wearing short sleeves while giving campus tours. Today? I have a cardigan, coat, and gloves. Plus tights, socks, and boots. Yes, from out of nowhere, snow came...and came..and came. It is beautiful and I loved watching the first snowfall. I love how the snow illuminates the night sky. And how it covers everything in a beautiful white frost. I don't necessarily love walking in it though :)

Here is a photo to leave you with today. A little graffiti I (shamefully) enjoy:

happy friday!

more wants.

I should be working, but there is NOTHING for me to do right now. And I left my Spanish book at home. Sigh. So, I've been Google chrome-window shopping tonight. Here are some things I'd love:

I've never been a big American Eagle shopper. But I LOVE all these things. So lovely.

my family.

I love my family. I really do. And whenever I have the chance for friends to meet my family, I take that chance. Case in point? Today I gave my first Relief Society lesson (which went great, I think!) and my aunt drove up to support me. Not only does she remind me so much of my mom, but she is SO spunky. Anyway, I made sure to tell people she was visiting and I wanted them to meet her. She had a chance to meet a lot of my friends and even made dinner for my roommates and I, which was delicious. Later tonight, Sam was talking to me and she said the nicest thing about my family. She was saying she has always felt so comfortable around my family and that my mom and aunts always seem "perpetually happy" and "glowing". What a great compliment. I love my family and I hope I can be as great as my mom and aunts someday! Sorry for the novel, I'll leave you with a picture taken today at dinner (and one of my mom and me, just because I'm missing her tonight!).

walking four miles.

today we had high school students come to campus for distinguished scholar's day, which resulted in:

-four miles of walking (this is probably a pretty accurate guess)

-two campus tours

-one meeting with a department head

-two free meals

-explaining the pros and cons of university life & on-campus housing

-enjoying the warm weather

-12 hours on campus

-lots of new faces

-intense coughing fits. which is embarrassing on a tour.

-major reminiscing moments

-getting a ride home (since it was dark)

-having that boy buy me an oreo blizzard from dq. hooray!

-now? it's 10 p.m. and i'm going to BED!

goodnight!

in sickness & in health.

Today I woke up feeling miserable (and like I had been hit by a train). Luckily, I was able to take a 2 hour nap. Other blessings of the day?

-Modern medicine & friends who will take you to Walmart to purchase said medicine

-Packages sent from home with goodies including sugar cookies, popcorn, candy, and dried fruit!

-Feeling well enough to go to a consignment shop's winter party. It was classy. Divine. And made me want to buy endless headbands. And going there with bestie made it even better!

-Having an abundance of cookies, which naturally means taking them over to the cute guys in the ward ;)

-Spending 2 hours at aforementioned house, getting to know all of them. And flirting. And speaking Spanish.

-Coming home and having an unidentified person leave two cans of soup on my doorstep :) Lovely.

Now, it's time for sleep!

goodnight world.

STATS.

I'm currently studying for stats (and blogging simultaneously..impressive huh?).

Do you ever have a test and instead of studying, you just want to go to bed, get up the next morning, take the test and be done with it?

After homework assignment and homework assignment and quizzes full of hypothesis testing with small means, large means, proportions, dependent samples, independent samples, z-scores, t-scores, and chi-squared values....I JUST WANT TO TAKE THE TEST!

I'm grateful for the 2-day window. This means I can take the test and be done with it with no math to worry about Friday :)

Anyway, I will do a little more reviewing. THEN I'm going to sleep! Goodnight folks!

53..

...more days until Christmas!

Yes, I'm one of those people who do NOT wait until after Thanksgiving to start listening to Christmas music or watching movies, am guilty of sometimes listening to music BEFORE Halloween/watching Elf in July, and am accused of going holiday-crazy.

It's my favorite time of the year. Right now, I'm listening to Michael Buble's Christmas album. Let me tell you. It's heaven.

This year, the week before Christmas, I will be in Guaymas, Mexico with a service group from school. I will be serving in soup kitchens, helping in orphanages, and falling in love with the people there (I'm sure). I feel so blessed to have this opportunity. I can't wait to serve. And I can't wait to see my family after the trip.

Christmas, I love you.

NaBloPoMo

...and we're off.

For the next month, you'll be getting a whole lot of life, loves and ramblings coming from me. Each day I will share something pertaining to one of those three categories. It tends to get a little crazy during November, so here's to hoping this one is just as great as the past few years. Anyone else up for the challenge? You can actually pick any month I think; I've just always done November.

Anyway, I'll share a song I've quite enjoyed lately:



goodnight!