Divorce

Weird topic to blog about, I know...But it's been on my mind the last few days so I'm putting it out there! 

It all started with me leaving work...or trying to leave work.  I was on my way out the door when a coworker asked me if I ever thought about divorce.  I told him that I didn't.  I figure you can't go worrying about divorce because if you do then you're just waiting for it to happen or waiting for something to go wrong...even if it probably won't.  You have to expect the best out of situations, not the worst.  If I expect the worst, I will eventually get the worst.  Does that even make sense?  I'm not oblivious to the fact that people get divorced but I'm not going to go into a marriage worried that mine will end that way.

How did this subject even get brought up?  A single mother of two came into the office wanting to get back into school because she was going through a divorce and needed a way to support her two daughters.  When she got married I doubt she ever thought she would end up a single mother.  She probably thought she was going to live happily ever after.  Now her life has turned upside down.  How does a marriage get to that point in such a short amount of time?  I obviously have no idea.

Then we started thinking about all the divorces that happen on the BYUI campus.  I doubt ANY of those couples think they'll end up divorced in a few years.  They think they're completely in love and will be together forever.  And yet, something goes wrong.  I want to conduct a study.  I want to see what the predictors are, if any, for a BYUI divorce.  Is it the length of time a couple knows each other before marriage?  The length of engagement?  The age of the people involved?  The number of past relationships?  I have no idea.  I just think it would be interesting.  I also wonder what ends the marriages up here.  Money?  Misscommunication?  Ignorance? 

It was an interesting conversation.  Then my roommate and I talked about it for another hour at home that night (procrastinating homework).  It was fabulous! 

Home, Sweet Home

Remember this post about me wishing I could see Eli play football his senior year of high school?  Well my wish came true!!!  My mom called me last Monday wondering if I would like to come home for a weekend and I was sooooo excited.  I packed my bags Thursday night and went to SLC where I stayed the night with a friend.  Friday morning I flew to Detroit where my mom picked me up at the airport and headed to Lima.  I got to see Eli play football and Meredith and Seth play in their soccer games.  I also talked to old friends, got a massive hug from my band director, saw the band, went shopping with Eli, ate way too much Panera, and almost played Monopoly with Seth.  Here are some pictures from the weekend.

#42...I didn't get any good pictures of him actually playing...

Couldn't go to a football game and not get a Shawnee Dog!!!

A Homemade Pile of Leaves

I've already blogged about fall being my favorite season.  I actually really like to rake leaves and it's one thing I miss a lot being in Idaho.  The other night we had some visitors come to the apartment and bring a bag full of shredded newspaper to play with.  It was surprisingly fun!  I had never met these boys before and them coming over was completely unplanned.  I was beyond confused when they said they had a present in the bag for us and this is not at all what I expected.  If I'm ever forced to live somewhere where leaves don't fall in the fall, I am going to remember this.

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission....

To PERU!!!!

I've already got my Spanish Book of Mormon and am honing that Spanish vocabulary I thought I left behind in my early high school years.  

Okay, okay so I'm not technically serving a mission...there's that age thing that's just not in my favor at the moment.  But I am going to Peru!!  I'm going with two lovely ladies from BYUI and we're going to have an adventure.  We will be there from the beginning of January until the end of March.  We will be working in an after school program in a small town in Cajamarca (see map above).  We'll be in the jungle roughing it without hot water BUT we will have wifi...so blogging will continue.  I knew you were worried about that.

Details will be forthcoming as to what exactly I'll be doing but basically the kids that come to the program are with us for a few hours each day.  They get a meal when they arrive so we will help with the meal preparation in the morning and then we help them with homework for a bit and then do some sort of activity with them.  There aren't any interns there at the moment so we're really hoping to get some things established and get this program running again!  The other girls are studying Communications and Recreation Management and combining that with my Health Science should make us a killer team!!...minus the fact that none of us speak much Spanish.  It would be a huge blessing if you would start including us in your prayers as we work to learn as much of the language as we can between our schoolwork.

I am so excited for this opportunity I have to go experience a completely different culture and help people out who don't have as much as I do.  I am also excited to attend the ward there and have church in a different language!  I know I'm completely minimizing the fact that I really can't speak Spanish and I do not expect to be fluent by the time I return, but I know it will be an extremely humbling experience and something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

I will...

-get lost

-eat--interesting--food

-be frustrated

-cry, a lot

-be cheated out of money since I'm a dumb American

-shiver in the shower

-struggle to talk to anyone

-have problems buying groceries

-not get my point across

-see some amazing scenery

-learn to love more

-become more accepting

-try new things

-step out of my comfort zone

-sing in Spanish

-make a new friend...or two or three

-work hard

-discover new talents

Whatever I end up doing, I will do it with a smile!! (unless I'm having a breakdown because I don't know what anyone is saying to me...and I expect to have at least 2093475293845 of those...)

Dress for all Ages

My mom made this dress for homecoming my sophomore year of high school.

 And I wore it yesterday for devotional.

Thanks, Mom!!

Tuesday Devotional

One of the awesome opportunities available at BYU-Idaho is the chance to go to a devotional every Tuesday.  At these devotionals we get spiritual instruction from leaders of our church and faculty members at the university as well as BYU in Provo.  Today we heard from Sister Elaine Dalton, the Young Women General President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She was amazing!!!  I may have even snapped a picture of her.  You never would have guessed she'd be the one to peel a potato at the pulpit and not look crazy doing it....

She talked about dreaming big and stepping out of your comfort zone.  Both of which could be very important for me in the near future...blog post coming about that soon.

Interjections!

"show excitement, or emotion!.... 

So when you're happy (Hurray!) or sad (Aw!)
Or frightened (Eeeeeek!) or mad (Rats!)
Or excited (Wow!) or glad (Hey!)
An interjection starts a sentence right!"

Or how about INTERCEPTIONS!!!!!!!  They "show excitement or emotion, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah... YEA!"

What, you might ask, is the purpose of this post?  Well, my brother scored a touchdown in the football game Friday night and the interception is causing me, and the rest of Lima, to shout interjections!  (Yes, he did score for our team, unlike the above video...) 

Let me tell you why this is such exciting news when every Friday night all around the United States there are high school football players scoring touchdowns left and right....

Eli is not the biggest guy you'll ever meet.  Until a year (or less) ago he was probably one of the smaller guys in the high school.  But let me tell you, that kid has worked his butt off since 7th grade playing football.  He loves it!  And he continued to work hard at every practice and lift weights in the off-season even though he didn't get much playing time.  If I were him, I would have quit a long time ago.  But he loves football and didn't let his size stop him.  After countless hours standing on the sidelines watching his teammates play he's finally gotten a chance to play varsity this year and play quite a bit.  And then, what do ya know?!  He goes and intercepts the ball and runs it back for a touchdown!!!  Can I just say I am one proud older sister.  I hate that I wasn't at the game and I really wish I could see him play a game his senior year.  But maybe it's better since when my mom was telling me all about the play on the phone I started crying.  I can't be crying at football games now!!  I have a reputation to uphold....

#42

There he goes!

 If you want to see the video of him click here.  It's the second play they show.

"Darn, that's the end."

Exploding

Yesterday I had a sore throat.  This morning my nose got stuffy.  Now my head feels like it's going to explode...or implode.  I'm not really sure.  Can I just cut off my head?  The rest of my body feels fine...

Woah, Snow.

Fall is my absolute favorite season.  No doubt about it.  The perfect weather, for me, is being able to wear jeans and a sweatshirt and not be hot or cold.  I love the leaves changing colors and a slight cool breeze.  I love wearing cardigans and long sleeved shirts.  It's too bad I haven't had a real fall season in three years.  Idaho gets maybe a week of "fall" weather (and the seven days are spread over the course of two or three weeks...).  It's just summer and then snow.  Like yesterday, for example, it snowed for 24 hours.  About an inch stuck.  But it still snowed...and it will be 70* on Monday.  

Recess in College

Today is one of those days I just want to drop out of school.  Yup.  I'm sick of homework.  I'm sick of staying up late stressing about anything and everything.  I'm sick of learning new information, most of which I will forget by the end of the semester and never use again.  I'm sick of emotions.  I'm sick of procrastinating.  I think I just need a vacation...or a recess...a long weekend recess.  Usually I go home between every semester but I haven't been back since the middle of April.  The farthest I've gone is 30 minutes away.  Don't get me wrong, I love Rexburg!!  I love school!!  I love my life!!  It's just one of those days where doing nothing would be preferred.  It's a good thing getting good grades and a college degree is long-term important to me.  I don't even know if that sentence made sense.  Good thing I'm not attempting an English degree.

Can't I just go back to the good ole' days?!?!

Glittering or Littering?

It's been a great weekend!  Minus the multiple hours I spent at the library yesterday.....

Lauren is the manager for the Masquerade Ball in a few weeks and as roommates we are lucky enough to be drafted to the decorating crew!!  We worked on masks for quite a few hours today and they turned out pretty fantastic.  Only....40 more to go.  Needless to say, our apartment will be sparkly for the next few weeks.  Someone needs to reinvent glitter so it doesn't stick to everything.

Sweet, huh?!