Faster Than the Blink of an Eye

HOLY COW.

I am so sad that by how long its been since I have blogged.

I guess I will just start at the very beginning...

[Prepare yourselves this is bound to be a pretty long post.]

First off,
I wrote this after my first week of school and I guess
I never finished the post and so here it is! Haha
I feel like it fits right in perfectly with the rest of this post:

Holy cow!

I cannot believe that my first week of school has already come and gone.

I have a heard time realizing that it went by so fast

because seriously, it was such a long week.

The first week of college is so overwhelming.

All of your teachers are throwing tests and quiz's and syllabus's

at you and you just dont even know where to begin.

My roommate Cassie and I decided to skip out on the whole I-team, get connected

thing but we did go to the talent show and I-night which was the weekend 

before school started and way fun.

After the talent show we hooked up with Allison and Kelsey

(two good friends from high school),

and Kelsey;'s roommate and decided to go grab some

froyo from Kiwi Loco.

 [Left to right: Stacey, Cassie, Allison, Kelsey and Kelsey's roommate]

We were so excited for the semester to start!

 The day before classes started,

Carissa, Kyle, Klyer, Mom, me and Scotty went on a walk around campus

to find each one of my classrooms.

It was definitely a huge help the next day

as I was so nervous for my first class!

If you were to tell me a year ago,

if my mom and I would share the same first day of college

I would have never believed you.

My mom has always wanted to go back to school

but it was just a matter of doing it.

And she did!

We both started college on Monday September 16, 2013

Pretty crazy if you as me,

but I really am so proud of my mama for deciding to go back to school

and so far shes been kickin butt,

so go her for working so hard and being successful!

It is a cool oppportunity to be able to be chasing my dreams along side my mom.

[Left to right: Kristen, Sydnee, Cassie, Stacey]

I was asked to speak on the second Sunday of the semester,

and Carissa, Kyle, Kyler, and Scotty

all came to hear me speak.

It meant alot to me actually.

I guess I could introduce you to all of my roommates!

Left to right: Cassie, Sammee, Ashley, Kristen, Stacey, and Sydnee

I am grateful for the chance to get to know these girls.

They have all affected my life and I sure have learned quite a bit

from them and for that I am grateful.

Sammee and Ashley are sophomores and the other four of us are all

first semester freshman.

There is a gas station called Horkley's,

(well thats what it used to be called but it was recently bought out

is now called Great Scott's)

and it's way cheap for us poor college students,

so we go quite a bit.

We especially love Thirsty Thursday's

when you can get a refill for only 60 cents if you have a plastic cup!

(We have lots of plastic cups.. Haha)

We love our snuggle time!

At the beginning of the semester,

we all made predictions for when we thought

our first dates in college would be and when

we though we thought we would all be engaged and married.

Its been a fun game throughout the entire semester!

We love October and we love pumpkins!

I havent has as much time to skype as I would like,

but when I do its been so great catching up with the best friends

I could possibly ask for.

I miss Sarah Nelson SO MUCH!!!

Dont worry, we were both physically and 

spiritually fed during General Conference,

and both were so great. 

I am so grateful to have living prophets who

lead and guide this church everyday.

It is an incredible blessing to be able to

hear from them every six months

There was a bee (and I am terrified of bees) in Kyle and Carissa's apartment during conference

everyone got really crazy all of a sudden so

I huddled under a blanket right in front of the TV

and everyone found it to be funny,

as they thought I was joking about hating bee's,

but I was terrified

but Scotty took a picture and

created this meme which

every one thought was quite funny,

and i'll admit it is pretty funny.

We love decorating and being crafty in apartment 113!

We made a super cute set of signs.

The grey chevron goes in the middle and it says,

"Home Sweet Home"

The idea was super cute,

but confession,

we still havent put them up on our living

room walls yet.. Haha

This was taken before we actually finished the signs, haha

Our craft night may or may not have turned into

us painting war paint on our faces

and attacking our FHE brothers apartment and

without realizing that it was after cerfew! Oops!

Haha anyways,

it was a way fun night that created great memories!

Sydnee and I have lots of little dates together,

she is so great!

In our apartment

we love to hashtag and

on of our favorites is

#our500poundlife

and you cant get a better description than this picture

haha - I love this girl!

Guess who is movin up to Rexburg in January!

Jentrie is! I am so excited to live near her again,

I think she is going to love it up here.

Well...maybe not the freezing cold weather,

but other than that she is going to love it!

I am so blessed to be here at BYUI,

and whenever I am feeling down,

it seems like its always the smallest things that remind me

of just how blessed I am.

I have fallen in love with the leaves during Rexburgs fall,

(No pun intended, haha)

I have found that I am obsessed with hot chocolate

as it is absolutely freezing in the Iceburg,

as I like to call it.

And I have made an awesome new friend this semester

through work, his name is Todd,

and he never fails to make my day with perfect timing

by sending little random texts.

He's a pretty great friend!

One of the last pictures I have before...

DYING my hair!!!!!!

I was seriously freaking out the entire time.

I really do love my natural hair color,

and so it was extremely nervous,

It was pretty spur of the moment,

I did it within a few days of thinking I wanted to do it,

but I really wanted to do it,

so I did it!

And I am so glad I did!

I decided to a

Ashley went with me, 

and was so patient as I freaked out the entire time!

We decided that it would be kind of fun to leave

the end product to be a surprise...

And Ashley took pictures as I turned around,

they are so funny! Haha

My FHE brother Colby snapchatted me during church when

he first saw my hair.. Haha he's the best!

It looks so dark in this picture!

Kyler now knows who Jesus is and its so stinkin cute!

Scotty and Sammee! :)

Allison and I get together about once a week to catch

up with each other

This girl is hilarious.

Laura is in my English class and im pretty

sure that the teacher hates us because we are constantly

laughing in that class. Im so glad that we got to know each other so well

throughout the course of the semester.

I got a a 92% on the hardest assignment ever!

(At least it felt like it.. haha)

I was the happiest girl in the world that day haha

I hate math homework so much!

My FHE brother Isaac,

he is the best! :)

I am so happy that I captured this face!

Kyler boy is getting so big!

He always keeps us laughin!

Im thinking this will be a wedding video picture... Haha

This world lost an incredible young man on October 10,

 my lifelong friend Andrew was serving the Lord 

as a full time missionary in California.

He and his companion were on their bikes and he was hit by a car.

I am so grateful to know that families can be together forever 

and that God has a plan for each and every one of us.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Maggie and the rest of his family,

and other friends that were close to him.

Andrew, may you be "encircled about eternally in the arms of His love." (2 Nephi 1:15) 

I Love You.

Sometimes we just need a little R&R

in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the semester.

I am pretty proud of this edit,

I feel like its something you would find on Pinterest.. Haha

In case you were wondering, I live in Iceburg, Idaho.
It is so bitter cold ALL the time!

Brielle had her baby!

Brooklynn Jeanne Rucks

was born 7 pounds and 6 ounces at 4:05pm

November 2013

Isn't she so beautiful?!

Gramma and Brooklynn :)

Parker LOVES Brooklynn!

Haha I absolutely love these two pictures!

He is so stinkin cute!

Parker lovin on Brooklynn haha

She is SO cute!

So I was sitting in the kitchen one day and I got
this snapchat from Sammee and I dies laughing so hard.

Our cute little FHE family.
We love each other :)

I LOVE getting Emily's letters!

She is doing great and loving the work

in Russia.

Although I miss her more everyday I

know that she is doing incredible things in Russia

and the Lord is watching over her.

Again, I dont think she can get any cuter!
She is just so tiny and cant even get enough!
I cant wait to meet her!

 Setting up Kyle and Carissa's Christmas tree!

I still cant believe that I got see Anna Starnes!
Even though we only had a few hours to catch up,
it was so much fun!
Oh how I have missed this girl!
I am so happy that she is loving her life in California
(Even though I wish she was here with me!)

 When Carissa, Kyle, Kyler and I flew to Colorado
for Thanksgiving break
I got to board the plane from that little ramp thing!
That might seem lame but I have always wanted to do that!
It was so cool!

Once I got to Colorado,
I had planned to surprise my best friend
in the world Ashley!
Here's how it went down:
So I had an appointment at her mama's salon
the night that I got into town and she called Ashley and
was like hey can you bring me something from home?
It was completely random like a curling iron
and Denise just told her that she needed it for her client and so
Ashley came in and I turned around
in the chair and Ashley
FLIPPED!!!! 
Her reaction was even better than I had hoped it would be!
That day marked my five month mark since I moved
to Rexburg which means I hadn't seen her in five months!
That is such a long time!
It was so good to catch up with her.
I sure do miss her everyday up at school.

Within like 3 days of being home,
mine and Cassie's room exploded!
I promise that it hasnt been like this all semester
but Cassie was like
"You know finals are almost here when a bomb hits
your room and you dont even have time to care."
Hahaha
seriously though it was so bad. Haha
clean checks were the next day
so we had some serious cleaning to do that night.
And we got it all done that night which is crazy but we
managed to get it all done that night!

So this post definitely does not sum up the entire semester

but I think it gets pretty close!

I am so grateful for all of the opportunities I have had this semester.

I am grateful for everything that I have learned

not only in school but about life itself.

Heavenly Father has placed people and events in my life to learn

and grow from them.

And although it may not always be easy,

I am so comforted to know that I am not doing it alone.

I am grateful for my Heavenly Father and

all that he does for me because I know without a

doubt that I would not be able to do any of it without his

help every single day.

I cannot believe that in less than a week,

my first semester of college will be over...

It went by Faster than the blink of an eye.

What an incredible journey it has been.

So here's to finals week!

May the odds be ever in my favor... Haha