Mission Prep.

Monday's are slowly becoming my favorite day of the week. Weird i know, seeing as most people hate Monday's. It's also weird because I have 5 of my 6 classes on this day and i'm on campus from noon to 7 at night. But despite all of this, I absolutely LOVED today, and i LOVE everything about Monday this semester.

The biggest reason that I love Mondays is because of my Mission Prep Class. This class is usually given twice a week, but i am in a class that is one day a week for 2 hours instead. Brother Bott is the professor and he is absolutely amazing. I have never learned so much in one class period. He teaches so much doctrine, and also is SO good at getting everyone, or at least me, excited for missions.

Today we talked about talking...which (if you know me) you know i hate. I am not one to ever make small talk with people or go out of my way to talk to strangers. I don't enjoy talking with people i don't know and it always makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. This is the biggest reason why going on a mission scares me. In class though he talked about this exact thing and instead of just telling us we have to get over it, he gave us ways to make sure we are always prepared. It made me a little less scared about talking to people, and a little more excited about preparing for a mission.

Brother Bott has so much experience, so much knowledge, and so many stories. I could sit and listen to his lectures all day.

anyway just thought I would just let you all know how much i love that class...because i really do :)

It took long enough...

So, I've been biting my nails for as long as i can remember. It's just a nervous habit that i have picked up and I could never seem to stop. I've tried multiple times to stop biting them but for some reason I was just never able to. Anyway, i didn't really have a good reason to stop this time but one day i was just like...eh i'm going to stop biting my nails, and now I have some nice girlie nails :)

Just thought you might like to know. I'm pretty excited about it.

Sara Haze...

I discovered her music today. You should listen to it :)

That is all.

THE BORDER

(Sara Haze / Eric Fraley)

Gotta get away from THE BORDER
There’s too many memories here
And all the things that I used to love
Became everything I fear

And I wanna recognize
But I just don’t think it’s you
Cuz every time I look into your eyes
I swear I can see right through

So I run and I run
Just to find I’m standing still
Cuz I’m trying to move
Without breaking any shells
And I’m frozen in this state
Trying not to cross the line
But I guess it’s just a matter of time
Till I cross THE BORDER line

The water tastes like poison
The air’s so hard to breathe
And the skin I’m in is starting to drive me crazy
I gotta get away from me

So I run and I run
Just to find I’m standing still
Cuz I’m trying to move
Without breaking any shells
And I’m frozen in this state
Trying not to cross the line
But I guess it’s just a matter of time

Time till I can finally breathe
Go whereever my heart leads
Get to know myself again
Learn to be my own best friend
Left this weight up off my shoulders
And finally be free

But I run and I run
Just to find I’m standing still
Cuz I’m trying to move
Without breaking any shells
And I’m frozen in this state
Trying not to cross the line

I run and I run
Just to find I’m standing still
Cuz I’m trying to move
Without breaking any shells
And I’m frozen in this state
Trying not to cross the line
But I guess it’s just a matter of time
It’s a matter of time
Until I cross THE BORDER line
It’s a matter of time

Today is...

Today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow will be better than today.

D&C 78: 18-19

"And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for i will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.

And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious..."

First day of Junior year

So it was the first day of classes today. Usually i dread this day and am not very excited about it but this semester I was pretty excited to start. My schedule was completely changed in the past few days but I felt really good about all of the changes. And let me tell you my classes did no disappoint!! :)First off, my classes don't start till noon which is always good news. (i've discovered in past years that i won't go to any class before 10 so i've tried to just make my days later this year. one of my goals is to go to class everyday that i possibly can this year)

So last night, i basically didn't sleep at all. I wan't THAT excited for classes that i couldn't sleep but my body just didn't want to sleep. Plus my roommates all have classes early in the morning so i woke up every time they did anything (our walls are like paper). But anyway, i got to campus and did last minute purchases for my classes and then at noon went off to Family

Finance....

FAMILY FINANCE:

First thoughts.... this room is REALLY HOT!!! I really thought i might die when i got to that class. It was probably about 100 degrees

inside and the best part is this is also where my stats

lab is!! GREAT!!! haha. But other than the heat i feel like i won't hate this class. The professor is really funny and he has a way of incorporating the gospel into everything which i ALWAYS enjoy about professors. That is why i am so lucky to be here at BYU it is okay for us to pray and sing hymns before class. I always feel like i'm so high spiritually here because there is no time when i

am not thinking about the gospel. I'll enjoy this class.

My next class (all the way across campus by the way so i have to pretty much run...)

NEW TESTAMENT:

First thoughts...Wow i'm going to have to climb over people

EVERY DAY to get a seat in here...everyone sits on the ends and leaves spaces in the middle...i love that! no way i'm going to get a left-handed desk here. OH well. Aw the professor looks super cute i'm going to love this lady :) And sure enough she starts talking and i can tell that i am going to love her as a professor. She tells us that her main focus is for us to find a love for the 4 gospels. I'm already excited to start reading because i can tell

how much love she has for what she is teaching. YES!

Next class (also all the way back across campus to the classroom i was in for finance)

STATS:

First thoughts...Oh my, they haven't fixed the air conditioning in the past hour shoot. Okay stats, i'm going to beat you this time! Whoa this professor looks

young he's pretty cute...but definitely married. Oh hey there's my roommate! sweet i know someone in this class. Okay already i can tell this class is going to be better than the last time i had stats. The professor isn't stuck on the power points which is something i hated about my last professor. He starts off class by throwing the book across the room and telling us we don't need it. I also love that; Me and text books don't get along very well. it'll be good...for a stats class anyway

Next class (...back on the other side of campus :) )

BIOLOGY:

First thoughts...i honestly don't really have any haha. no idea what to expect in biology...crawl

across another 50 people to get a seat...and THEN i see laina (from noteworthy) on the other side of the classroom but i can't get out to sit with her. oh well. This professor looks a little kooky...and sure enough he starts off class by saying..."Class before we start there is something you should know about me...i am NUTS!" haha love him already. The first class is a slideshow of his summer adventures which took place on 3 different continents. and he talked about baby flies a lot (aka Maggots) okay that part was gross but i'm excited for this class. Wait what? katie excited

about science?! no....

Last class (same room as biology...)

MISSION PREP:

First thoughts...Professor bott looks nothing like i imagined him. He's really old. Wow so many girls in this class...who knew. and a lot of married

people...alright. Okay professor Bott = the coolest person ever. Seriously if you or anyone you know has the chance to take a class from him. DO IT! i've already learned SO much today about the gospel. He's amazing. I love this class. :)

So basically this semester will be probably the best i've had at byu so far. I still haven't gone to my family meal planning class but i'm excited for that one too. YAY! :)

Back to Provo: New Semester, Same apartment, New Noteworthy year, No more money left in the bank

Well, I'm back in Provo again. So far things have been pretty great... I'm not going to lie i loved summer so much i was not in the least bit excited to be back. I actually had a day of depression when I got here because i missed california so much haha. But things are getting better as i start to settle in. I just tend to have a hard time with change so it's taken me a few days to remember that i really don't hate it here as much as i thought i did.

I got back on Tuesday and unpacked for most of the day...I'm sort of annoyed because whoever was here during the summer left all of their food and all of their pots and pans, so we are still not all unpacked because no one knows whose stuff this is and none of our stuff fits anywhere. We finally got the living room figured out so that's pretty much done except for a few odds and ends.

My classes have all changed since i got here. I was originally taking Mission prep, New Testament, Sewing, Intro to Interior Design, and Stats. After remembering how much time

noteworthy takes up i realized that six hours of sewing lab every week wasn't going to work so i got rid of that. Then i also realized that Interior Design was going to also take up a lot of time that i don't have with noteworthy so i got rid of that. Replaced those with Family Finance and Family Meal Planning...These are both still in my major so no big deal. Then i was looking and saw that Professor Bott had one spot open for his evening mission prep class...For those of you who don't know, he is probably the best professor ever and he's got the highest ratings on ratemyprofessor.com. He has over a thousand students this year and all of his classes are always full so i was really lucky to find this one opening!! :) Then i had to change my new testament professor as well. And i realized that i still have two sciences left i have to take in order to graduate so i also added a Biology class. Stat's is the only class that's stayed the same. So i went from 13 credits to 16 credits, but ultimately this schedule is better than the one i had. And super exciting news...I only have about 10 or 11 classes left to take in order to finish all my generals and my major!! So i will most definitely be done in the next few semesters of school. I don't know at this point if i'll try to graduate before my mission. It seems like maybe i could do that if i went to school in the summer...but we'll see. It's just exciting to see an end in sight!! Crazy, i feel like i just started college and i'm already almost done.

So after changing all of my classes around i had to go back to the bookstore and take back the books i had already bought. and buy new ones which ended up being much more expensive. There goes about $300. Then i realized how unreliable my laptop is so i went onto amazon and bought an acer net book. There goes another $300.Then i had to go shopping for cleaning supplies, groceries, and other fun things. There goes $200. And i'm also going to pay rent for the semester ahead of time. There goes $1000. Oh and noteworthy dues: $150 (yeah i have to pay to be in noteworthy). man, suddenly all the money i made during the summer is almost gone. Good thing it's all going towards things that are helpful to my future right?!

Other than that i've got noteworthy starting up again soon.

We have auditions next friday and saturday and i'm pretty excited. The returning girls all had a meeting last night and figured out the plans for auditions and also talked about this next year. We've got some pretty fun things planned. Hopefully it won't be as crazy as last year.

As much as i enjoyed being on tv...i obviously need to be focusing on school right now! ah. I'm so excited though. I really had a hard time deciding if i wanted to do noteworthy again this year because of the time commitment, but then i realized that this really is probably my last opportunity to do something like this so i just need to go for it. I'm not working this semester so i should be able to focus more on school anyway. :) Exciting things to come this year! yay.

Summer...

Well...i never come on here anymore except to read other people's blogs. I think it's a good thing though because it means i'm keeping myself busy with other things. Mostly just work. I have a full time job at the office of voter registrations and elections. And let me tell you it's a BLAST! well actually no it's the most boring thing that has ever happened to me, but i am SO thankful to have this job. I know there are so many people out there looking for jobs who can't find them and i was able to get this one really quick and it worked for me to just be here for the summer full time! I think with this job i won't have to work next year at school which is also a blessing because i am doing noteworthy again and helping out a lot with that...it's weird that i will be the most experienced member (meaning i've been in it longer than any of the other returning girls). CRAZY! but i'm excited. Anyway back to summer. It's been good i pretty much just go to work, come home, hang out with friends, sleep, and then it starts all over again. I'm also doing Strauss festival so i get my exercise in by dancing in the 100 degree weather hah. I love that i get to be outside sometimes though since my job is 8 hours indoors everyday.

Before this summer i'd ne

ver had a full time job so it's taken some getting used to, but i'm surprised that i've been able to get up every morning (i can't ever do that at school). It's also been great because we've had a lot more work than expected. I was supposed to be done working last week, but since there's so

much i will probably be

working until i go back to school. it's kind of bitter-sweet i guess because it's not my favorite thing to be doing the whole summer, but at the same time it's great money so i'll take it.

I'm also attempting to work on my guitar skills this summer. So far i haven't had TONS of time to practice, but i've done it as much as i can. I just wish i could wake up one morning and all of the sudden be able to strum and sing at the same time! it's a lot harder than it looks trust me. But hopefully i'll be able to see some progress soon.

Other than that i've just been hanging out with the family and friends. That's the extent of my summer and i can't believe it's going to be over so soon! ah...back to provo (i'm not that excited to go back to be honest)...but it'll be good i guess.

p.s. i got too lazy to move all my pictures to the bottom so they're just randomly placed all over this post haha.