Marriage and Family

It's been awhile since I posted anything on here....  But guess what?  I'll be posting once a week for the next 3 months! I'm taking a couple of online classes this summer while I'm living at home so that my last semester this fall won't be super crazy. One of the classes I'm taking is about marriage and one of the requirements is to start a blog.  So here we are again!  For those of you who have been reading my blog for a long time, you know this isn't the first time I've used this blog for an online class haha But hopefully my writing has improved just a little in the two years since then!  I'll mostly just be sharing things that I learn from my class as well as maybe a few personal experiences, we'll see ;) I would also appreciate any feedback you are willing to give!! On that note, have a great Thursday! And because, why not, here's a picture of my cute bottle calf ;) 

Come What May and Love It!

As I'm preparing to head back to Rexburg tomorrow, the all too familiar feelings of stress and anxiety are beginning to weigh me down. I feel this way every time I embark on a new thing, and even though going to college and living in Rexburg isn't exactly new, It's still a change. I've been thinking a lot lately about attitude and how really, we choose whether or not we are happy and positive!  I really saw the impact of that in my life this last fall. I could have easily been miserable and negative, being in a completely new place and working crazy long hours. But I chose to make a conscious effort every day to be happy and willing to learn and work hard. Some days were still rough, don't get me wrong, but for the most part, I had an incredible learning experience and I am very grateful for my time in Kansas! I know that when we try to put God first in our lives, things really do work out the way that they're supposed to! So, I'm going to, again, choose each day to be happy and seek to make others happy as well. We can't control the challenges that we will face in this life but we can choose how we react to those challenges!
 

Three months?!?

And just like that, my third month in Kansas has ended! It has gone by so fast, as cliche as that sounds. I can't believe that in 2 short weeks, I will be headed back home to Idaho. I get a little teary eyed just thinking about it! These past 3 months have contained some of the best, most fulfilling days, as well as some of the hardest days of my life up to this point! I am so grateful that Heavenly Father led me to Kansas! This experience has changed me for the better and given me a better understanding of who I want to be and what I enjoy doing. I still don't know what I want to do after I graduate but I've realized that it's okay. I will figure it out when the timing is right. Kansas has really become a second home to me and a little piece of my heart will always be here! ❤ 

2 months down??

How two months have already gone by since I've been in Kansas is still a mystery to me! I can't believe that I am more than 1/2 way done with my internship! This month has been a hard one, to say the least. My grandma passed away on October 11th. While it wasn't completely unexpected, (her health has been deteriorating over the past year) it still hit me really hard! Being away from my family was really hard but I was incredibly blessed to be able to go home for her funeral! I also had the opportunity to share some memories during the funeral. My main goal was to bring a smile to the faces of my family members and all of the people who were there. My grandma was an incredible woman. While no, she didn't have a filter most of the time, she taught me so much about life, service, sacrifice, hard work, and perseverance. I will miss her phone calls while I'm at college asking me about the things I'm learning and whether or not I'm taking time to have fun. I'll also miss stopping in to see her when I'm in Weiser. Me and my siblings were so extremely fortunate to live so close to both sets of our grandparents all growing up. I wish I would have appreciated them more when they were all still alive! I'm grateful for the legacy that my grandma left behind! All of my siblings were able to make it to Idaho for the funeral and it was so great to spend time together as a family. We were just missing my brother in law.

Anyway, it was so great to be able to spend a few days at home, but I was definitely ready to come back to Kansas and get back to work!! Being in Kansas for the past two months has been SUCH a blessing in my life. It has gone by way too fast and I don't know how I'm going to leave when the time comes!! 

One month in Kansas!!

I cannot believe one month of my internship is officially over! So far, I have had an incredible experience! I have learned more about myself, my strengths, my weaknesses and my insecurities over the past 4 weeks than I thought possible! Surprisingly, I haven't been homesick at all! I have met so many incredible people who have made me feel so at home and welcome! When I first decided to move to Kansas, I thought I was going to really miss the mountains! While it has taken awhile to get used to how flat it is here, I still find it really beautiful. Also, the storms here are amazing! And I thought the stars were amazing in Idaho but they are just as beautiful here! I can't say enough how much I love it here and how grateful I am to have a semester off from school where I can do some soul searching and maybe get a little better idea of what I want to do with my life!

After a day of moving cattle!! Soooooo dusty!!

Bryce sent this to me last week after I thought I was going to get eaten by a crazy cow!!

A gorgeous sunset!! 

Reminiscing

Seeing as how I'm completely done with finals (I got A's in all my classes by the way!!), about 75% done packing, and I still have a day to kill before my roommate's wedding on Saturday, I figured I'd write another blog post.  I just have to say how hard good byes are!  Most semesters, I don't really mind leaving.  I've had just about enough of Rexburg and I'm ready to leave.  But this semester, knowing that I really won't be back to Rexburg (for more than a few days at a time) until January is making it really hard to say good bye to everyone.  On top of that, I only have two semesters left at BYU-Idaho! (Crazy right?)  I have no Idea how the past three years have gone so fast!!  It seems like just a few weeks ago that I was finishing my senior year of high school and stressing out about scholarship applications and graduation requirements.  It seems like when you are in High School, time moves really slow, but the second you walk across that stage and receive your diploma, life goes into hyper speed!  (At least that's how it felt for me!)   Sometimes I'm very thankful that time moves so quickly, but at other times, I really wish that it would just slow down a little bit.

Another End But Many New Beginnings

With only one week remaining in my JUNIOR year of college, I've gotten to be pretty sentimental.  I won't be coming back to Rexburg for 9 months due to some amazing opportunities that have come my way, so leaving this time is a little harder than it's been the last several times.  I'll be doing an internship this fall (more about that will be coming at a later time because I don't have very many details yet) So I won't be coming back to school till January which is absolutely crazy to think about!!!  This semester has been amazing, hard, emotional, stressful, and I have grown a great deal.  I have made some of the best friends of my life who have helped me to become a better person.  One of my really good friends left today so a few of us got together last night for dinner and it really started to sink in that we won't see each other for at least nine months, if not longer.  I'll most likely be in Kansas this fall, one will be in Nebraska this summer and one will possibly be in Colorado for her Master's degree this fall.  As I was driving home after dinner, I started to reminisce about all of the fun times I've had since I've been in college as well as the amazing people I've met.  I've grown closer to some of the people I've met here and known for only a few months than I ever was with any of the people in Weiser that I've known for my whole life!  I was also thinking about how fast things change and how being an adult is so weird!  Change is a natural part of life, but it's always been something that I struggled with.  There are a lot of changes coming my way in a really short period of time so I'm trying to prepare myself in advance for the added stress and responsibility.  I know that without a doubt my Heavenly Father is mindful of me.  I'm so thankful for the amazing blessing that have come into my life from being at BYU-Idaho and I am really excited for the new and amazing experiences I'll have in the next several months!  I know that when we put God first in our lives and remember to give thanks to him in all things, everything else will fall into place!!