A little pick me up

This week went from fairly low key to crazy intense and stressful in matter of hours. Such is life.

Today I made a list, like I always do, of all the things I absolutely HAVE to get done by certain days (ex. Process paper due Wednesday night) and then off to the side all the things I should really get started on (ex. End of Life teaching paper due April 15th, Research executive summary due April 15th).

Today, I started to feel overwhelmed, like I always do, when I saw that mountain of a list to climb by the end of the week.

Today...turned out a little bit differently though thanks to this little gem.

John 14:3-4

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

This was in my End of Life class, and we were talking about legal and ethical issues at end of life (advanced directives, power of attorney, etc.). However, it hit me a little differently in the sense that all the work and effort I am putting into this life and especially my education is valuable, and it means something not only to me here, but in the next life as well. And Christ knows how hard I have been working to achieve this goal and the struggle it's been. He has not forgotten me, and while I'm busting my butt here to make that goal a reality, He is preparing a place for me.

In my Father's house there are many mansions...

I'm hoping one of those mansions is for me.

Happy Monday.

There's nothing quite like having your phone go off during a final to get your adrenaline going

Finals are over!!! I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I am that this semester is over. It has seriously kicked my butt.

Buttttt to stick with the topic, yes my phone was going off for the last 30 minutes of my test. After it happened the first time, I think I read the next question on my test 5 different times. I could not figure out what the heck it was saying or asking for that matter. I was so frazzled. Seriously, I probably should have walked out right there. I'm sure I would have gotten the same grade on the test.

Background: Yesterday I had set an alarm on my phone for 2:30 pm so I would wake up and get ready to pick Dan up from work and make it to my dr. appointment. Well....I forgot to disable the alarm for today. Yeah...sucks.

So back to the test: it was already an awful experience because it was in the JSB, and if any of you have ever had to take a test there, it's horrendous! You're sitting in these narrow sits with the small little desk that folds over halfway across your lap. So you end up hunching over your scantron, with your test in one hand, and a pencil in the other. Your back starts cramping because you're sitting in the crappiest position ever. Yeah not cool.

To top it off, the first 30 matching questions....yeah I wanted to die because I didn't remember any of the information. I think that has proved to be my greatest frustration this semester, because the tests for this class just never make sense! Buttttt...it's over. I got a 60% on the final, but it's over. And I didn't fail. So hopefully that won't take my grade to a C. I'd be pissed....but it's my fault. I didn't study.

So I'm eating pumpkin pie for comfort food. Don't judge.

The means to an end.

I think you know what I'm talking about. The dreaded finals. Actually I haven't really been dreading finals all that much. Mostly because I'm really only worried about one final...and that one I'm taking today at 230. So I should probably be studying, but my little brain is so full right now, I'm pretty sure little black words are leaking out of my ears. If you see them around campus, please return them.

On second thought...don't. And to top that off, my little eyes are so stinking tired, and they are practically begging me to go back to sleep. I came home with every intention of taking a 30 minute nap (power nap = much more successful studying). Good plan right? Well I came home to find our bed made. I love that Dan took the time to make it before he went to work this morning, but I was thinking to myself, dang it! I can't take a nap now! I don't want to mess up the bed.

So I'm blogging.

I had a Book of Mormon final at 7 this morning. I showed up around 8 (it's one of those that he just collects the test at 10, so you can get there whenever). I finished by 840, went and sold 2 of my textbooks back. Walked out $89 dollars richer...which is just getting put to more books. That's the depressing thought. I can't even go spend it on something for Dan for Christmas, because I just have more stuff to buy for school.

Seriously, I almost had a complete panic attack when I was reading all the things I need to start nursing school next semester. But everything's all good now, and it's just cranking out these finals one at a time. So if you happen to read this either today or tomorrow, shoot a little prayer my way. I could sure use it :]

Oh and ps...it's almost Christmas!! just in case you forgot.

It's been another one of those days

One of those days that started out really rough and felt like I was scraping my face on the asphalt. Yeah one of them. Let's just say that it's like a huge bug hit the windshield and splatter it's guts in just the right spot so I couldn't see.

I read this quote:
"Faith isn't tested so much when the cupboard is full as when it is bare." --Elder Lynn G. Robbins

True story. I could say amen right there and call this post good.

But as the day went on, I was doing homework and stuff, and Dan came home from work early. I had missed him so much today. It was a little ridiculous to be honest. I just curled up on the couch next to him, we talked about what had happened earlier in the day, and I just felt the love of my Heavenly Father immediately. I felt Him wrap His arms around me and just hold me so tightly.

Then I read this quote:
"No pain that we suffer is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. All that we suffer, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called children of God and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education we came here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in Heaven." --Orson F. Whitney

We're not out of the fog by any means, but I can see just a little bit more clearly through that smog as we're walking through the valleys. Life is made of mountains and valleys. We're walking through a valley right now, but I know that as long as we keep striving to pay our tithing and read our scriptures and keeping the desires of our hearts righteous, the Lord is going to bless us. He won't take the trial away, but He'll provide a way for us to make it through this. I know that. I know that with all my heart.

....and now I'm headed back to the grindstone. To finish homework. 4 tests and I'm done with my first semester at BYU!

Days like these

Can only be more perfectly described with country music.

Maybe I'll have something more chipper to say later. As for now, it just sounds like life to me. The only thing for certain is uncertainty.

Just a few things

I'm an epic failure at blogging. That much is entirely too obvious. But seriously for one, I don't really feel like there's too much to write about. I mean, our days are pretty routine and the only things that are special and stick out are things that I don't really feel like I have to words to explain.

Anyway, we're doing great. It legitimately snowed today. Thank goodness it didn't stick. But when I came home during Sunday school today, it was hitting me in the face and sticking to my jacket. Yeah not cool. Seriously I have 6 more days of school. And I would be oh so grateful if it didn't snow till after those 6 days are over, because who seriously wants to walk around campus in the snow? Not this girl.

So that being said, school is almost over. I'm so so so excited to be able to breathe...for 2.5 weeks and then school starts all over again. Yeah not much of a Christmas  break, but I'm hoping that it will be just enough to let my brain rest, before I put my nose to the grindstone with nursing school.

I'm so so grateful for the opportunity I had to see my family over Thanksgiving. It was so great to just spend the weekend with them and enjoy family time, and no school. I love that Thanksgiving starts of the entire holiday season, because there's not gifts or presents, just good food, family, and a million and a half reasons to be thankful.

I don't usually get too excited for Christmas until Christmas Eve, literally. It's a little pathetic. But there's something about this year. I really think it's because it's mine and Dan's first Christmas together. Seriously!! How cool is that! Oh man it's a stinkin pain trying to find something for him. I went shopping to get him something, and ended up finding the one thing for him, and 10 different things for me. Okay it was really only 2 things for me, and one thing for us together, and then a gift for him, but seriously he's a hard person to shop for! I don't know what he wants, and there's definitely nothing we need!

So if anyone has good suggestions, text me!!

Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to Christmas with my love. It's gonna be probably my favorite Christmas yet.