New beginnings (:

Fall semester has already started.  I can't believe how fast time flies by.  I wish I could just be done with school!  Still got tons more schooling to get through before any of that happens.  Anyway, here are so new pictures since my last post (:

Katelyn (my niece) and I on our last night at Bear Lake

My awesome friend Sean and I at the last Bee's game of the season.

YES this is my new room and YES I have a walk-in closet.

Human Anatomy

Wow!  I can't believe that summer is basically over.  I feel like I never even had a summer because I was SO SO busy in school.  Everyone thought I was crazy for deciding to take Human Anatomy (one of the hardest classes at BYU) during a summer term.  BUT I'm SO happy I did.  Forgetting about the thousands of hours I put towards this class, I actually really enjoyed it.    This class has actually made me change my major.  I really hope to go into nursing.  So right now I'm in that stressful part of college life trying to apply to a million different programs to see where I get in.  I just can't wait to get past all the prerequisites and push forward to the REAL stuff :)

Happy Birthday Katelyn!

Eric and Rebecca invited me go to bowling with them on Katelyn's birthday.  I could tell she had a really good day and didn't want her birthday to end!  Here are a few pictures/video's from the night...  Sorry some of them are sideways...

Her great grandma Murray sent her $10 and she had to lay it all out and count them.

Awww Whitney was SO happy :) She even got to bowl some!

Tips of the week.

Having a personal trainer has taught me a lot.  So I figured, why not share simple eating tips with the rest of you...

1.  For a midnight snack, eat a little protein, but no carbs!  Try protein powder in water, or my favorite - Celery and Peanut butter.

2.  Cut back, don't cut out.  Do you have a comfort food that messes with your diet?  Have you tried giving it up for a little while then find yourself gorging when you can't stay away a day longer?  Don't try to eliminate that food, instead, just cut it in half.  My trainer told me that 10% of my days diet can be whatever I want.

3.  Alright this one may seem kind of weird...  But if you've already had your 10% for the day and you have another craving, go brush your teeth.   It's a simple way to beat your cravings 

4.  Find yourself getting lazy every once in a while or if all your buddies want to eat fast food, it's okay!  As long as you find the right thing on the menu...  Sometimes I find myself trapped thinking what should I get that will do the least damage to my healthy goal.  Go for the grilled chicken instead of crispy (fried).  For example if you're at McDonalds get the Grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap.

That's it for now!  I'll try to come up with more later :)

Freshman Year Comes to a Close...

Wow, okay I knew coming to BYU would mean a lot of changes in my life, but I didn't really realize how many things I'd be doing for the first time.

1.  Being away from home:  At first it just felt as if I were gone at EFY for a week, but it really hit me a week or so in that I am on my own.  I've got my two brothers down in this area, but it's weird being away from my parents and little brother.  I remember saying bye to my mom and I didn't think it'd be as hard as it was.  I am pretty sure I bawled for the first couple weeks.

2.  Having roommates:  It was tough at first.  You're rarely on the same schedule... Sometimes when you want to go to sleep, they don't and vise versa.  But I have really grown to love my roomie's.  I'm sad Maura is going to be leaving us next year :(

3.  Attending a singles ward:  Okay so, my roommates and I are the ONLY freshmen in the ward.  I guess that's what we get for not wanting to live in the dorms.   This year church was at 8:30 ... worst time ever.  I'm pretty sure I ended up going to friends wards more than my own just because of the time.  Hopefully next year it'll be better and I can get more involved in my own ward.

4.  Worrying about BYU boys:  I had definitely been warned that everyone at BYU wants to get married, but I didn't realize how much they encourage it!

5.  Homework:  As much as I hated my high school, I have to admit that it's a good thing I went there.  I was used to a pretty huge homework load so that made coming to BYU a tad bit easier.  I do more work here, but ASIJ definitely prepared me.

6.  Worrying about Freshman 15:  Alright, let's admit it... it's hard adjusting to being on your own.  I was so used to coming home from school to my moms cooked dinners ... at first I was living off of top ramen and mac & cheese.  Then it started to hit me that I feel really unhealthy, so I developed this huge love for cooking.  Any good recipes you have that are high in protein, I want them!!  I now also have a personal trainer, and wow is it the best thing ever!  I used to HATE the gym with a passion.  But working out is now my way to release stress and it has be come a habit for me to go everyday.

7.  Choosing what to do with your entire day:  College is definitely not like high school where they make you go to certain classes at a certain time and tell you when you can eat lunch.  In college, it's you managing your own time and deciding when you want classes or when you want to eat.

8.  Choosing a major:  Wow, I'm pretty sure that over the span of this school year I 'switched' my major at least 5 times.  It's stressful trying to decided on something you want to do for the rest of your life!  After all that switching around, I have finally chosen something that really suits me. I've had this HUGE passion for serving others so figured I needed to get myself into the medical field.  However, I can't handle huge amounts of blood so it wasn't going to be nursing...  Thats when I came up with Dental Hygiene.  They don't offer it at BYU so I'll be here another year doing prerequisites then I'll try to get into the school here in Provo.  

Birthday Bash

Yay!  I turned 19 yesterday. Some of my best friends (Amanda & Julie) and I went out to dinner at Sakura and then ended up going to a Stop Light Dance.  If you're single you wear green, if it's complicated you wear yellow and if you're taken you wear red.  Technically I'm yellow but I didn't have any yellow shirts so I went with green :).  OH any FYI -- they bought me that crown and made me wear it all night.  It even lit up.  I felt like a princess. HA.

THEN I got the BEST birthday card ever!  Amanda found it at walmart...  It's SO me.

Help International

Most of you know I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Fiji over two years ago with my high schools Habitat for Humanity club.  Ever since then, I've had this enormous love for service.  Lately, I've been searching for random programs that go abroad to serve.  Then I came across www.help-international.org.  This program was actually started though BYU, but accepts people from across the country.  You can choose to serve in the following places: Uganda, Guatemala, El Salvador, Fiji, Rwanda, Kenya, Belize and Zambia.   They don't have a specific focus for example... building houses, rather they go there to help the community with many different things such as, teaching english, orphanage support, construction projects, public health, etc.  This is something I would LOVE to do during a summer.  Now I just need to find someone that will do it with me **ahem Stephanie!** and convince my parents to help with the financial part of it :)