Pumpkins, dances, and...crayons?

Ok, so even though Halloween was a couple of weeks ago...I still had the urge to blog about it!! Halloween weekend was fun/crazy!

I am one of the activities chairs for my ward, and towards the beginning of the year, all the activities chairs in my stake had a meeting! The high councilor that was over the meeting just so happened to be the high councilor that was over my summer ward, so since I had been in a leadership position, he knew who I was. He went about the meeting and began to tell us about how they have two big events during the year, the first being the Halloween Activity (which is generally a dance). He said they would call someone to be over the activity, and continued on to say that being at BYU over the summer allows people to know who you are and gives you an edge. Then said, "Heather, will you be over this activity?" I replied with, "Uhh, ya sure." He then proceeded to gesture a piece of chalk towards me...oh ok, ready go! So...I had the fun/stressful opportunity to plan the Halloween Dance!! Thankfully all the activities chairs were pretty on top of things, so it turned out great, and I wasn't left to pick up all the pieces! It was very successful, but I was definitely glad when it was over!

Here are some cute pictures from the dance! We decided to have a group theme with my roommates, and I thought we looked pretty darn cute!

One of my roommates' has graphic designers as parents, so she definitely free-handed our cute crayon shirts/dresses and we all painted them. Talent much? People kept asking us where we got them...definitely made them! (Just your ordinary pile of crayons! haha)

I love my friends, Maddy and Becky! I got super close to them my senior year and I love that they live in the same dorms that I do...so we get to see each other at these events!! Maddy and her roommates were crayons too...what are the odds? She was even the red one!! How does that even happen? Oddly enough, this isn't the first time that we have had a problem with matching. It just so happens that we had the same prom dress and had to figure out a solution to that, and we both went to the BYU Homecoming dance and we were both wearing similar black dresses! Twins much? haha :) Becky and her roommates were trees! Aren't we cute?

I have always grown up with the family tradition of dinner in a pumpkin! It just isn't Halloween without it! So, I planned in advance (which is an odd thing to do as a college student) and went and bought all the supplies!! Sunday afternoon I called my mom a few times to make sure I was doing it right. I loved that Amy, Kara, and I had all made our own dinner in a pumpkin! What a fun tradition!

These are my cute roommates! Not the best picture, but pretty good for self-timer!

Another family tradition is making the infamous pumpkin chocolate chip muffins! I even saw a picture of my sister eating one on Facebook and got extremely jealous, because my mom insists on only making them in the Fall. I wanted to make them, but got super busy and didn't have the chance. I then heard that Great Harvest had pumpkin chocolate chip bread, and I didn't hesitate much to jump in the car and go get some! My roommate, Sydney, and I tried to be sneaky because we knew if everyone saw this bread, it would be gone so fast, and this bread is precious stuff! Yum!

Well, life is good as always! School is definitely stressful, but I'm trudging along, trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life! I'm happy, and that's all that matters! :)

The Shenanigans of a Freshman!

Although summer term was so wonderful, I have definitely had my share of fun experiences this Fall Semester! I went completely random on roommates and was blessed with roommates that are crazy and like to have fun...I mean like to study! haha :) But don't worry, we have study parties as well! Here is a run down of all the fun things we have done (I know, my posts are always a summary of all the things I have done, but this is the last one, I promise!) CAUTION: IT'S A LONG ONE!

So, the first week of school, my sister texted me saying that she heard John Mayer was in Utah! I basically freaked out, because I love John Mayer! I looked it up and found out the concert started at 7...it was 6:40...and the concert was past SLC! I hesitated and finally just yelled, "I'm going to John Mayer, who is coming with me?" Yay for spontaneous roommates! We jumped in the car and used the wonderful navigating device on iPhones to find the concert! We missed Owl City, but made it just in time for John! WIN!

BYU tends to have a lot of dances...we have been to a freshman dance, a 70s dance...and this picture in from a Decades Dance! We seized the opportunity to raid DI, which is my favorite! I love DI! I think my dress is pretty hott if I do say so myself!

One of the great things about fall semester is going to the games! I realize that BYU has not had their greatest season, but it is still fun to get into the school spirit and cheer for the Cougars! The fun part is I have Fresno friends in my sports group, so games give me an excuse to catch up with them!

I finally hiked the Y for FHE! Somehow I went the whole summer without doing it, and I have no idea how that happened. I just never had a chance! We have had some fun activities with our FHE group, like a picture scavenger hunt, a flour fight, and more! It's nice when you have an FHE group that actually gets excited about doing stuff! (This isn't the whole group, somehow we have 14 girls and 6 guys...talk about a bad ratio...that's basically the summation of how my ward is though.)

So, one week a group of my summer friends said they were going to have a paint fight...we were stoked! It was so stinkin' fun! A pain to clean off, but so incredibly worth it! (We were literally finding paint in our hair weeks later!)

Spanish Fork holds an India Fest at the India Temple, so we seized the opportunity to be culturally enlightened and went to the Festival! It was fun/interesting...I wish I had a picture of the temple, it is very pretty! We pet llamas, looked around and inside their temple, and explored the gift shop.

During Conference weekend, I was set on getting out of Provo and attending Conference...I didn't have tickets, but I was going to go! I got my roommates, Sydney and Lindsey, to come with me...and we made little signs saying that we needed tickets...before we even got to the conference center, a man offered us tickets! Score! That night we stayed at my Grandma and Grandpa's house in Riverton. We showed up to homemade soup and bread and topped off with ice cream. My Grandma is amazing, it was so nice to be in a real home with real food! The next morning we had breakfast awaiting us, so we enjoyed the morning session at their home. Then we headed to the afternoon session, which we actually had tickets to! It was such a fun weekend...I LOVE CONFERENCE!

BYU always has so many activities going on! During Homecoming week they especially have all sorts of things...like the Blue Foam Slide!! It was epic! Just look at the picture...joy is in our eyes! haha
I also got asked the Homecoming Dance by one of the FHE brothers! It wasn't the best dance I have ever been to, but we for sure made our own fun! I enlightened him on the art of awkward dancing and interpretive dancing! haha :) Oh the joys of dances!

Ok, so my roommates and I are just weird! I am the Activities CoChair for our Ward, and the Ward Talent Show was coming up and people were not signing up...so we figured that we must have some talents! We did the best talent EVER! We played Chubby Bunny in front of the whole ward as Eye of the Tiger played in the background! My roommate, Sydney, got a whoppin 12 marshmallows into her mouth! It was insane! The talent show ended up being pretty successful...not just because of our wonderful talent!

Surprisingly in my summer ward, we had a couple of nonmembers in our ward! So, as Fall came around, one of them announced that he was getting baptized! Woohoo! We had a nice mini reunion with some of the kids from my summer ward!

I had never been to IKEA and I heard that it was epic! So, we all asked a guy on a date and went and explored! I think it will be so fun to one day go to a store like this and pick out stuff for a future home! I love home decorations! (Btw, IKEA has super cheap food, it was wonderful!)

Ok, so that was a post overload...I applaud you if you actually endured that because I probably did it more for my own enjoyment!! Here was just a little taste of some of the things that I have been up to! Life is good!! School is stressful, but I love BYU! I am so blessed to be able to go to school here. I love being spiritually fed and getting an education at the same time! Isn't life great?

Playing Catch Up!

Ok, so I realized that I love looking at other people's blogs...so maybe I should be better about updating my own! Makes sense, right? Once again though, I get overwhelmed and feel the need to recap everything that has happened since the last time I posted...which was back in May! Man, time sure does fly! So, even though nobody will probably look at this, I'm doing it for my own sake, so I can get back on track to the present! Also, since I am a terrible journal writer, this will only benefit me...so here we go...

So, I GRADUATED!! haha :) I know many doubted that this day would come, but it happened!! This first picture is from Seminary Graduation, and I definitely had to do some make-up work to get that diploma! I didn't necessarily have an absent problem, I was pretty consistently there...I just have the hardest time getting up in the morning! I tend to wait until the last possible minute before getting out of bed! When I look back, I really wish I would have been better about being on time, but waking up in the morning has never been my strong point!

Next came actual graduation! It was a very bittersweet thing for me, because I knew how fast everything would change! I am super grateful for the friends I had in high school! I loved that I went to a school where the Mormon population was in the minority, yet I had a good group of LDS friends! My friends are awesome! We never had to worry about peer pressure, we always were just obedient and did the right thing! What a comforting thing in high school, a peer pressure to be good! I loved it!

A week after graduation, my mom and I boarded a plan to Utah! I think that was the hardest thing about graduation, was knowing that I was leaving so close after! I was sad to leave so fast, and miss out on a summer at home...but excited for the adventures BYU had to offer! One of my best friends, Becky Cox, and I had made a last minute decision to live together...and it was the best decision we could have made! We absolutely loved it! We had a semi-disfuntional group of roommates, so Becky and I being together was such a blessing! (Becky made this little collage when we were back home after summer term...I think we were experiencing separation anxiety! haha)

My summer term was such an amazing experience! I don't regret it one bit! I have decided that it is the best time to be at school! Everything is more chill and a lot more social. Everyone is in less classes, and there are a lot less people, so everyone becomes very close in such a short period of time! We had fun going to a symphony, hanging out until late hours, eating at yummy places, having dance parties in the library (we were really good studiers...ha!), and enjoying the summer and going to school at the same time!

So, a couple of days into the first week of school, I got a call from my Bishop to meet with him! Who knew that within my first week at BYU I would get called as the Relief Society President! It was weird because it was such a short period of time to even get things down, but I loved being able to get to know all the girls, and get a taste of a big leadership calling in the church. It was such a neat experience!

I developed some of the best friends during summer, we had so many great times! I realize that was all super happy and excited sounding, but I loved summer, and I miss many aspects of it! I'm grateful for the way Heavenly Father worked in my life to bring me here during summer and allow me to have such an uplifting experience!

After 8 weeks of school, I was excited to come home for a couple of weeks! I got home and my family right away went white water rafting with a couple of other families! My family had a lot of fun making fun of how white I was. While the rest of my family was out in the sun every day, I hadn't put on a swimsuit since before I had left. I was basically a ghost, especially compared to my tan family. So, into the sun I went...white water rafting and multiple days at the lake. I was going to live up every day I had, before I went back to school.

I love my sisters! Of course, we had to make a music video while Kara and I were both home! Dressing up and being crazy comes way too easily for us!

I also wanted to live up being California! So, a group of my friends and I went to the beach for a day! We had fun riding bikes, taking naps on the beach, eating yummy food, exploring, and just chillin! I have no idea how I ended up being the only girl, that is definitely not the norm...but I think all of my girl friends were getting ready for college, and I didn't have any preparing to do! My stuff was already in Utah, so I was able to stay home until the last possible day!

Summer was great! I felt like I was blessed to be able to experience the full spectrum of things to do in the summer! Even though it was fun being home for a couple of weeks, I became even more aware of how glad I was to be going away to school. I loved being home, but I was bored not having to worry about a job or school or a calling!

More posts to come...