Done!

Finals are officially OVER! What a relief, I finally made it. Now I am so excited to go to my friends' wedding receptions, venture home to spend some long-awaited time with my family, and then experience my first summer in Provo. A new chapter in my life has officially begun. :)

Life

So I am awake here just after midnight in my humble Provo student apartment pondering the direction my life is taking lately. Or lack thereof would probably make a better description. I just realized that my priority registration date for fall semester was tonight at midnight, so I am frantically trying to decide which classes to take and what I want my schedule to be. But of course the BYU network is so backed up with crazy students all signing up at the same time that I am free to blog up my dilemma. Here I am about to finish my fourth semester at BYU and I STILL don't feel any closer to accomplishing anything. I have yet to apply to and hopefully get into the nursing program, or decide if that is even still in the cards for me. My chances are looking slim now that my college GPA is slowly declining and I just feel more and more burnt out as the days go by. Should I apply to other nursing programs? UVU? BYU-I? Get my bachelors at BYU in exercise science or something and then continue on in a two-year program elsewhere?
Growing up I always knew what I wanted. I got through school with the mentality "Do my best, and be the best." High school was a challenge I was more than ready to undertake. I knew I wanted a high ranking and to be placed in the satisfactory top 1%, but back then the way in which I went about it didn't really matter. Not many choices, and whatever classes I took would get me to my eventual goal as long as I did well. Now I have too many choices to comprehend, and I don't even know where to begin! Plus the ever-impounding pressures of finances, finally obtaining a car, a couple steady jobs, and maybe EVENTUALLY finding my prince charming so we can start that wonderful family life I've always dreamed of. But my life's journey is no where near over yet, and right now I'm not even sure where this part of it fits. I'm sure everything will turn out in the end as the Lord intended it, but until then, I just wish life would slow down for a minute so I could maybe catch my breath!

Welcome Spring!

So it's finally here. The time of new flowers, warm weather, and overall bliss... I'm so excited! An Arizona girl should not have to be surrounded by so much snow all the time.. it's just not natural! As wonderful as it is to welcome spring, Provo weather has yet to settle into a steady pattern. During "spring break" the week of March 16 (which was not a break for poor BYU students) I was able to wear shorts outdoors for the first time in months! So of course I was excited to put away ALL my bulky winter clothing except a couple sweatshirts, but alas the climate deceived me yet again and it began snowing soon thereafter. So for the past month I've been rotating my two lonely sweatshirts, but I refuse to get the other half of my wardrobe out of storage! Anyways, things are finally looking brighter, and I have been able to participate in some exciting events to welcome spring more fully.
Group that went to the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork. This is a Hindu ritual that involves the welcoming of spring! And includes hundreds of people throwing packets of colored chalk powder at each other.. Gotta love it!
The Hindu temple where the festival was located. Isn't it gorgeous?
Crowd surfing! For a while there we were all looking around desperately so someone would not be thrown on our heads... Scary!
Michelle. She was the only one of us brave enough to crowd surf!
Caleb. I have him to thank for the lovely green smeared all over my face.
Brandon. Someone attacked only the left side of his body. Nice effect.
Final color accumulation. What a day!

Random Pictures

All right well here are some recent and some not so recent pictures that I thought someone might enjoy. Anything that gives a little insight into my life is good right?


[My makeshift portable mistletoe... I didn't get any kisses out of it though.. I'm not THAT desperate]


[Clayton and I when we were in Twin Falls for Cooper's baptism. He really enjoys my company.]


[Monthly dinner with my roommates from last year. This was for February, at Olive Garden.
Melissa, Paige, Jilian, Ariel, me
Paige had recently gotten engaged]


[Me and my current roommate Liz before going out to Happy Sumo for dinner.
I curled my hair so might as well get a picture to remember it...]


[Ariel & Brian on the night of their engagement, each calling family members and close friends to share the good news. I thought it was funny.]


[This is the spot! On a mountain overlooking Provo.]


[Me and Liz at Sub Zero. They make ice cream from milk and liquid nitrogen. I'm obsessed!]

[Roommate dinner for March at Red Robin. Kaitlyn made it to this one!]

Weekend

So this weekend I got to relax and hang out with some friends. Ariel's cousin Colin came down to spend some time with us and we had a lot of fun.

The sweet indoor pool house we partied it up in. One of my roommates hooked us up with this piece of majesty. Heated pool with jets for swimming against a current, hot tub, huge flat screen tv on the wall, and three rock slides (the tallest of which require you to wear a life jacket and helmet).

Colin and I at TUCANOS, an amazing brazilian grill restaurant. Pretty much unlimited everything, salad bar, rice and beans galore, fried pineapples and bananas. And all the delicious meat you can eat! (You should be able to see a server in the background with a skewer of tastiness in his hands.. garlic sirloin.. yes please!!)

Ariel and Brian at Tucanos. Ariel had just eaten a chicken heart for the first time. I think she secretly loved it.

Catching Up

All right so for New Year's this year my roommates and I went to Salt Lake for this public party thing. It turned out to be pretty lame to be honest, but at least we got out...[Four of the roommates: Ashley, Ariel, me, Liz]


[the "almost engaged" couple: Ariel & Brian]

[the unattached individuals]

[a classic Ariel & Nicole moment: my hair was very tangled]

[Ariel Brian & I at the BYU vs. Wake Forest basketball game]

Other than those specific events, I have basically just been getting through my first two weeks of winter semester. I've kept up with my reading for all my classes so far, so I guess we'll see if I can keep up with it. I've also started getting to know and hanging out with more people in my ward this semester, as I sort of developed a "homebody" label during the last month or so of last semester as I focused solely on my studies and work. Now I'm hoping to get a more balanced schedule figured out and not let myself get as stressed as I did last semester!

Thanksgiving

It is interesting that I seem to only post about major holidays.. but alas here I go again. I spent this year's thanksgiving in Seattle with my roommate Ariel and her extended family. This was the first Thanksgiving away from home, and I was reminded of little Tyler when I played with the younger kids, and when the adults would all sit together and joke about something random. I missed my family a lot, but still managed to have a blast in Washington.

First of all, I guess I will explain who all was camping out at the Nielsen home. These were the relatives of Ariel's mom's side.
*Dad=Craig, Mom=Sheila, brother=Chase
*Uncle Kirt, Sheila's younger brother, lives in Rock Springs, Wyoming
*Aunt Sondra & Uncle Kay, Sondra is Sheila's older sister, live in Twin Falls, Idaho
*Colin, Sondra's son, finishing up at BYU-Idaho and then flight school
*Becky, Sondra's daughter, married to Lance, have 3 children: Cooper(7), Lilly(5), and Clayton(2)
*Adam & Daniel Young, Adam has known Ariel since the EFY days, and is close with Sheila and invited to Thanksgiving with the Nielsen's as well

All right well that pretty much covers the 16 people that sat at the extraordinarily long table for Thanksgiving dinner. It took me a while to memorize everyone's relationships with each other, but i finally got it.

Ariel and I started out the weekend by leaving for Ogden on Tuesday afternoon, dropping off her car at her great-aunt's house [Aunt Annette & Uncle Howard, something else I memorized] and then met her Uncle Kirt to drive the rest of the way to Twin Falls, Idaho. There I met the rest of the Idaho crew, had dinner, and spent the night at Aunt Sondra's house before waking up at 4:30, yes 4:30 in the morning to take the 9 hour drive to Issaquah, Washington with Kirt and Colin in Kirt's truck. The boys teased me about only being awake for one hour of the nine hour drive, and while that is sort of an exaggeration... it's not by much. I mean when you're not going to be doing any driving, what else is there to do right??


When we finally arrived first in Washington, we took showers and chilled while everyone else was arriving. The family took it upon themselves to put me under the spotlight for a while and make me the butt of a bunch of jokes, but I just soaked it all up and joked along back with them.

Then the big day arrived. We woke up early once again, this time at 7, and Ariel, Colin, Lance, Daniel, Adam, and I went to Redmond to play in a football game with some friends of Daniel's from his mission. [Daniel served in Seattle...] Or to be more specific, Ariel and I sat on the sidelines with Adam [who injured his back & neck in a car accident] and watched everyone else play. Or, to be even MORE specific, we sat outside for 10 minutes before walking back to the car and watching the rest of the game from the warm confines of the family Expedition. [It was COLD ok??] When we came back, we helped out as best we could with setting the table and making the final food preparations before the meal was finally ready at 3 o'clock. And it was a FEAST, that's for sure! Then after everyone winded down from the festivities, everyone gathered in front of the big screen tv in the bonus room for the traditional showing of National Lampoon's Chrismas Vacation. I had never seen this movie before, but pretty much every member of this family could quote the entire thing word for word! Then they started quizzing each other about random facts.. like what color Clark's sweater was in this certain scene.. or what was the similarity between the presents on the boss's desk at the office... I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be following the storyline, vigorously memorizing quotes, or noticing all the random facts!!



Then Friday Ariel, Kirt, Colin and I went to the Bellevue Square mall. It wasn't an intense shopping trip or anything, just a reason to get out of the house I guess. And boy, there are some weirdo's that live in the Seattle area, not gonna lie... Also, the Asian population is about the same ratio in Seattle as the Hispanic ratio in Phoenix.. Just a random fact.


Friday night was the night of going to the CRAB POT. This is a restaurant in Seattle where you can be served an assortment of potatoes, corn, sausage, mussells, shrimp, and crab legs that are literally dumped in the middle of your table! You are each given a fashionable bib and advised to dig in!! It was quite an experience, especially as I took the liberty of myself beheading and unshelling my shrimp before i ate them.. as well as pulverizing a crab leg before consuming the tender meat that lay within. It was a bit unnerving to be honest, but at least I can say I did it!!


Then on Saturday the men woke up early to go shooting somewhere and do other manly things.. while the girls stayed home and primped for the nutcracker ballet! We made the trip to the beautiful theatre and took pictures with statues in the lobby before taking the opportunity to enjoy the fantastic ballet itself! I wish I could dance like that.. and lift my legs above my head.. ah well I will just settle for watching other people do it I guess!

[Adam trying to prepare the straps for the four-wheeler to be tied to the trailer... Don't worry, he got it on like the 5th try.. by using his teeth!.... And me with my Dr. Pepper of course]

















[From L to R, Becky, Lilly, Ariel, Me, Sondra]

After the ballet we rushed over to Chase's playoff football game. Issaquah High School won 31-13 and next week go to the state championship! We had fun showing our boisterous support, and shortly after we got home Kirt and Colin left to make the long trek home. [Too early!]

[Uncle Kirt. He made me gut laugh multiple times throughout the week with his crazy facial expressions and hilariously sarcastic comments.]

[Colin. I saw a lot of this guy, and he's really great! He was the favorite uncle in Becky's kids' eyes and had a lot of fun playing with them. He's way easy to talk to and just fun to be around!]

Then Sunday the rest of the Idahoans left early in the morning which left the natives and the non-relatives to sight-see in Seattle. We went to Pike's Place Market with all its touristy goodness and visited the ORIGINAL Starbuck's coffeeshop.

[In front of the fish market where the workers throw fish to each other when someone buys something. They also randomly throw a fake fish into the crowd on occasion, kinda freaky not gonna lie..]

After our tourist desires were satisfied, we went back to the Nielsen home, relaxed in the hot tub, and watched a movie together before calling it a night. Then a plane in the morning and back to Utah.. kindof a bummer after the exciting weekend, but reality always inevitably catches up with you.

I can't reiterate enough how FUN this year's Thanksgiving was. Ariel's family is CRAZY and i love it! Also, I am SO grateful to Ariel's mom for all the hard work she put in to make this vacation completely amazing! She is so generous, and I owe her big time!!