St. George!

Things I've missed in St. George:

• Mom and Dad
• KrisAnne
• SUNSHINE
• Pizza and Pasta Factory
• Ivins 2009/2010 Royalty
• My car/Driving
• My running routes
• The Thornton's (Holly, Mark, Joshy, and Beka)
• The Sandbergs
• The Gines'
• My primary class
• ST. GEORGE TEMPLE
• My bed/own room and bathroom
• Aunt Marsha
• MY PIANO

Things I miss in Rexburg:

• Rexburg Temple
• My roommates
• Walking everywhere
• The Bowman's
• The special spirit
• School
• My own food

After a week home I think I'm ready to go back to my home in Rexburg. I am ready to finish out the semester and definitely ready for Christmas! :) Overall this week has been fun. Coming home was harder than I thought it would ever be, but it was so nice to spend time with friends and family again. Life has changed. Better? Worse? No. Just changed.

Fear? No...

This morning I walked up to the Rexburg temple to go do some baptisms. Lately I have been studying out of an amazing book called The Infinite Atonement. It has taken me a while to read because it gives you so much to think about that I have to stop, ponder, and let it all sink in. This has helped me so much to apply the Atonement more fully in my life. It has helped me dig deeper into the Atonement and what Christ really did for each of his brothers and sisters. I reccommend this book it is great.

                                                                                 
Anyway, that's not what I wanted to write about. My Sophomore year of high school we studied the Old Testament in Seminary. The theme that year was Fear Not. Over the summer and throughout this semester the Lord has brought this phrase into my mind over and over again. Sometimes in the temple I like to read the Bible dictionary. There are tons of little treasures in there. Today I was skimming through and the word Fear caught my eye. The last part of it says, "Ever since the Fall God has been teaching men not to fear, but with penitence to ask forgiveness in full confidence of receiving it." Recently this has been true in my life. The Lord has been trying to teach me how to have faith in him; how to trust the Atonement and let it work in my life. Which leads me to one of my favorite scriptures. Mark 5:36 "...Be not afraid, only believe." There is a footnote on the word believe which says GR exercise faith. Our merciful father doesn't want us to fear his Son's sacrifice. He wants us to believe or exercise faith "in full confidence." The Lord Jesus Christ did indeed suffer all things; descending beneath it all. He conquered all things and is willing to give us power to conquer all things. So.....

Be Not Afraid, Only Believe.

"We are shaped and fashioned by what we love." –Goethe.

     

So...maybe this isn't what Goethe meant when he said what we love shapes us, but it works. Midterms are officially over and out of all my classes my Nutrition class is my favorite. I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but one day I realized whenever I read about fitness or health I get really excited. Eating is one of my favorite things to do and I find myself thinking about it more than anything else. Since the beginning of the semester I have tried to pay extra attention to my body and what it tells me. Our bodies are truly the most amazing thing. Our overall health is a huge part of our happiness on this life. I can't wait to be done with my foundations classes and get started on my degree full time.

I have these great roommates that share my interest in health. We like to exercise together and find new ways to do it. Running is what we do most of the time. It's amazing how much easier it is to exercise when you have someone with you. This is Alicia and I after a great run.

We look a little disgusting, but it just means we were working hard and our bodies are healthy. :)

One of the things I was looking forward to in college was buying and cooking my own food. Due to lack of funds I have only eaten food that I make. This is great for my bank account and for my hips! One day Alicia, Eliza and I made a roommate dinner.

At Broulims they sell locally made tortillas and I thought it would be great to buy them. Well, having little preservatives they got moldy fast. So we decided to make Holy Taco/Burrito/Enchilada's. As I poured the enchilada mix, water, and the tamato sauce in with the hamburger I realized that our taco's were going to be really soupy. Yeah, Enchilada and Taco mixes aren't inter-changeable.

Just a couple of weekends ago my amazing sister Adell came to rescue me and give me some company. We had a great time talking and sharing our experiences. Without fail everytime I talk to her I am uplifted and understand life a little more. BUT while she was here I had to take advantage of her amazing cooking and teaching skills. I had her help me pick out good, easy recipies that I could make and freeze so I wasn't spending so much time cooking dinner. We went grocery shopping and before she left she instructed me what to do to make these meals. So I spent that whole Saturday night cooking. At the end of the night I had made Swiss Steak and Autumn soup, portioned them into the perfect serving tupperware, and organized them neatly in our freezer. With my limited cooking experience I was quite satisfied. The best part is that now when I come home starving from class, or soccer, or the library I can heat up an instant dinner that is nutritious. The other great part is that I am learning some great recipies that I can feed my family with. WIN-WIN!

The beginning of summer I made a goal to lose ten pounds by the time I got up to school. I just wanted to get into better shape and establish some good habits for being on my own. I've heard a lot of scary Freshman Fifteen+ stories. Starting at 130 lbs. at the end of the summer I had lost 8 pounds putting me at 122 lbs. I have been at school for two months and yesterday I weighed myself. 124 lbs. I just want to say...TAKE THAT freshman fifteen!!! (hopefully I can keep it that way!)

Well, eat your fruits and veggies. Your body will appreciate it. Take time to eat right. It is worth it! Yay Body!  



The Power of Yes

First, I want you to watch this video. :) My sister Lucy first showed me this and then my roommate Jenna showed all of us.

Jessica's "Daily Affirmation"

This has become one of our favorite things to quote. This little girl has it all figured out. My roommates Eliza and Alicia like to work out with me in the mornings. This has been such a wonderful blessing. I learn so much from these two girls. They are amazing. The other day Alicia and I were running to the temple and after running up the first big hill we turned the corner to run up the next one. This started a conversation about the power of YES. She was explaining to me the phsychological effects of saying yes. So to get ourselves pumped up to make it to the top of the hill where the temple sits we started yelling YES! Yes to the temple, Yes to our lives, Yes to school, Yes to our amazing bodies! The list went on (we also quoted little Jessica). I don't know for sure how it works, but it does. If ever you are in need of a little lift, just say yes. :)

College Life :)

Mesa Falls

My I-Team, Rachel Nail, and My I-Team leader

My Room

(Yes, my bed is on cinder blocks)

My awesome roommate Miki Weston :)

Colten Gines

Colten came to visit me last weekend before he leaves for Puerto Rico for two years!

We had a ton of fun. We went to church, made dinner, walked to the temple, sang under the stadium, and had a game competition.

My First Grocery Shopping Trip

So...I don't have a car here at Rexburg and I needed to go grocery shopping...I might have bought too many things for this one trip. After 5 blocks my back hurt a little bit. :)

Jewelissa

This is my awesome friend that lives only two doors down.

We went to the opening of Sammy's. There was live music and pie shakes. Mmmm.....

Rexburg Temple

This temple is so beautiful.

 I must say though that the St. George still remains my favorite.

The best part about the Rexburg Temple is that you can see it where ever you are.

It's on a huge hill....that I have to climb every week to do baptisms. :)

It's good for me. I actually really like running up this hill. It's great imagery and motivation to keep going.

That's just a little bit of my life here in Rexburg. I love it here! College is the best!

Woo Hoo!

Soccer History: Started playing when I was 8 on coed teams. I played recreational soccer until 7th Grade. I made my middle school team 6th-7th Grade. 8th Grade I moved to St. George where I bounced from team to team until I could finally try out for the high school soccer team. The high school team was so much fun, but also very stressful. I don't ever remember having a problem with running until I made the high school soccer team my freshman year. I'm not sure what happened, but all of the sudden I had mental blocks in my mind about running. Freshman and Sophomore year I made the team, but it was with struggle that I survived the dreaded conditioning weeks in the summer. After playing soccer for most of my life I decided my Junior year that the stress, anxiety, and exhaustion wasn't worth it after all and I tried out for the Fall musical instead. Since that time I haven't even touched a soccer ball or thought about it that much.

Present: My roommate LeeAnn took a soccer class this semester and last weekend she was talking about trying out for a competitive girls soccer team. Upon finding out that I have played most of my life she encouraged me to try out with her. Try-outs were Friday and Saturday for two hours each. It was an amazing feeling to put my shinguards and cleates back on and run around kicking a soccer ball. At frist I was a little retarded trying to get used to controlling my foot movements again, but it all came back to me very quickly. On Saturday when I was debating whether I really wanted to do this or not I found myself dealing with feelings of fear, anxiety, and exhaustion. I decided to try and overcome these feelings and continue my try-out. Saturday night I got a call from one of the coaches inviting me to join her team the Lady Hawks. This week has been our first real week of practicing and it has been so much fun! I was surprised to find out how many girls had also not touched a soccer ball for 3+ years. Our first game is tommorrow at 8:00. I am excited to get to know the girls on my team better and to finally have fun playing soccer again.  

I'm in college!

So, it's about time that I update this thing. My life is moving forward...FINALLY! I am in college! I have looked forward to this time in my life since I watched my sister Holly go and come home. I am enjoying the independent feeling that comes from moving out of your parents home. I have been in Rexburg, ID, for two weeks now going to school at BYU-Idaho. It's AMAZING up here! My first week was fun, but a little exhausting. BYU-I has a new student/Freshman orientation called Get Connected. It's a lot like a mini EFY. We did a lot of fun things and a lot of really awkward interesting things. The highlights were morning sides with President Clark, learning more about  my major, and hiking Mesa Falls. School started last Thursday. I'm still adjusting my high school trained mind to think like a college trained mind, but it's going well.

My roommates are amazing! I have been so blessed. I live in an apartment with 5 other girls and it's so fun. Sometimes it's hard to get anything done because there is always something fun going on. I am the youngest of all the 5 and I'm so grateful for their help and examples. My room roommate is named Miki Weston. She is from Iowa and served a mission in Seattle, Washington. We have a lot of fun distracting each other from our homework. In the back left room there is Alicia Warwood from Battle Mountain, Nevada. She also served a mission; to Alaska. We like to strategize silly ways to get boys to notice us amidst the thousands of other girls. Sharing her room there is Eliza Layton. What an amazing girl. Just called as our relief society president. We have had many spiritually uplifting talks the most. I love that in the morning the first thing I hear her say is a compliment to one of us. These girls are my work out buddies. No freshman fifteen for me. Now, in the back right room there is LeeAnn Riggs from Ohio. She is our drama queen. She's a sophomore studying Theater. I love it when she gets real dramatic. It makes me feel at home. Sharing her room is her cousin Jenna Cabe also from Ohio. Jenna kills me. She is so funny. Most of our nights consist of sitting in our living room talking and laughing at all the funny things Jenna says. I love my roommates!

I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester and becoming more comfortable with my new life here in Rexburg. As I get used to my new schedule hopefully there will be more updates coming.