"There's No Place Like Home"

Man, I had a great weekend! I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a really long time and when the week finally came, I was so relived and ready to go home! I just went through an awful time—midterms. I had all 6 in like one week. Gross. But anyway, a little about school.  My grades are WAY better than last semester.  I think I’m finally getting a hang of this college thing! I mean…I studied in the LIBRARY this week!? Whaaaat?! I know. I shocked myself too! I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday all in the library and found that I’m able to get a lot more done—they aren’t any distractions and I feel like pressured to do homework and not go on Facebook or even listen to music! Haha!
Well, after a history quiz, relief society activity, driving to American Fork with Shelby, I was packed and ready to go.  The shuttle came Friday morning at 7:30 AM to pick me up and I drove in silence with a girl my age, a guy in his thirties and a shuttle driver that looked like Santa. Not my ideal perfect morning, but that’s all good.  I was alone in the airport for awhile, my favorite again, and then I headed for the plan.  It was cool—I actually sat by someone who wanted to make conversation! I never caught her name, but it was a women in her late forties or early fifties and we talked awhile before the flight took off and a little during it.  It was embarrassing…okay, I was really tired! But the lady and I were talked about BYU and she asked me if I liked living off campus or on campus better.  I said I liked on campus because everything was super close and I have to walk everywhere but I like living off campus because we can actually hang out with boys more than 2 hours a night.  She said she was surprised that boys were allowed over at all and I said, well they can only stay over till midnight and they aren’t suppose to go into our rooms.  She asked if people checked up on that and I said no not really and she was like Oooh par-tay! I was like, well you know us Mormons, we know how to party hard when we’re sober!  Embarrassing! I forget there are people in the real world, seeing as I live in the Provo Bubble. Well, I was productive and got some homework done on the 1 hour and 30 minute flight...SO short! My mom, Amanda and Lauryn were there to pick me up and I was close to crying when they got there. I was just so happy to be home! We made a stop at Sit-n-Sleep (Yeah, I got a new bed…but I didn’t get to sleep in it because my grandparents stayed at our house…can’t wait till Thanksgiving!!!!) and then went home to relaxed until the fun began at three…

Grandma and Grandpa Jones REALLY liked taking professional pictures at Picture People in the mall with all 18 grandchildren.  It must be their idea of fun or something because the girl who worked there remembered us from a few years ago..awkward.  Well, it was loads of fun and took 2 hours.  I really liked this random creative pose, and as I was placed first, I had NO IDEA what was going on!! There were lots of poses and lots of children and lots of stress! Haha, but Grandma and Grandpa were happy so I can’t really complain J.  After that, we crashed Castasic Ward’s Halloween party and Kevin, Julia and I decided to sneak in and watch Hayley perform at her fall concert. She’s such a good little performer, it’s AWESOME! I crashed that night by ten. I love sleep…

Well Saturday was crazier, if that’s even possible!? We went to two soccer games, Lauryn’s first.  She’s a good little soccer player, she grew up so fast! We went home and I watched the BYU football game. Can’t believe we won, and Jaamal Williams, the guy who scored 4 touchdowns? In my sociology 112 class. No big deal! Anyway, we went to Amanda’s soccer game, who is taller than ever and so skinny! Give that child a hamburger, please! We all then got ready for the craziness of Lauryn’s baptism.  It was just grand.  I really needed that.  You know, you get so busy and caught up in everything that sometimes you forget the small things, like reading your scriptures daily and praying for the companionship of the Holy Ghost.  Not only was it a family weekend but it also gave me the spiritual fill I needed.  I love this gospel! Ellie was baptized too and it was a really great service.  Julia and Grandma gave great talks, Hayley, Amanda, Mauri and I sang and it was beautiful! Afterwards, we had a dinner at our house with friends and family.  It was crazy with so many little kids but when is it not? Chelsea came over and it was great to see her J

Well, Saturday night, Mom and I went on a late night shopping spree. I love spending time with my mom, even at Kohl’s at 11 PM! We came home, filled out our ballots (WOOHOO!) and then crashed.

Church was really great—it was nice to have some background noise for once and I helped out in primary.  Weird, but I really miss being around little kids at college. I love seeing little kids on campus and I always smile to the little girls and boys I see. Does that sound creepy? I hope not haha. We had a third hour lesson on the recent missionary age change, which helped clear my mind and give me strength for all the recent talk among us 19 year old girls.  My flight home went smoothly (the man I sat next to—we talked for a few minutes before he went to sleep and I did homework) and the shuttle ride home was one of the best I’ve ever had—3 BYU students, a democratic Catholic who lives in Orem and a Mormon shuttle driver from Orange County.  We had some lively discussions and it was a good way to end my trip. I love going home. I miss my family so much, it’s kinda crazy.  Luckily, 18 days till Thanksgiving break!!!!! 

Birthday Weekend Fun!

I'm NINETEEN. Say whaaattt!? I remember turning 18 like it was yesterday! Last year, my girl friends surprised me and I walked into the lobby and all of May Hall was in the vending machine room. We got in cars and drove over to the mall for my first haunted house. It was a very random but fun night!

First, let me say, this has been a really hard and stressful week. (Some of you reading this are probably going, it's you Megan, every week is stressful!?) Okay, well this one was worse. I had 6 tests this week (and still have two left). Six. SIX. Ugh. Well, I took my first one on Wednesday, history, and I wanted to cry when it was done. It was SO LONG, an essay and 15 short essays. My hand was dying and I still have no clue what I got on it but hey, IT'S DONE. Thursday, I took my New Testament midterm. Cortney and I studied for an hour before we took the test and two hours on Wednesday night. And we did NOT do well!? I really don't like that class....Grrr....anyway after that darned test, Cortney came over and we made a delicious chicken alfredo meal and man, that kid can cook! I need some seriously cooking lessons, obviously lol. But it was nice relief before I had to continue studying.....
Friday morning, Janel, Colleen and I went to the temple, which was super nice and strengthening as always, even though it was 6:30 in the morning. Feels like seminary all over again! And I swear, everyone in Provo goes to the temple then!?!? After that, I went in for test #1 of the day--Living Prophets. It was a breeeeze.
While turning in my test, I ran into Jen and Emily Aranda! We walked for a bit and caught up, it was really fun to see people from back home! After that, I met up with Cortney and Lydia and we headed to our normal Awful Waffle brunch. When we got to my apartment, I was fed up with living and Cortney and Lydia took advantage of that and turned me into their pillow, as pictured here. :P I took my 4th test, Sociology 111, only after studied for about an hour total. 81%!!!!! You gotta me KIDDING ME. I was kinda mad, not gonna lie that I studied 3 hours for New Testament and did so poorly!? UGH, oh well. I went home and veged for a bit before we went to our ward's Halloween Party in Salem! It was SWEET and just like a huge dance party. I had a BLAST! And we won the "nerdiest costume...." Creative, right? But it was super awesome.


Well obviously, I'm turning older because it was my first birthday when I had to go to a test review (yeah, on a Saturday, I know, right?) and grocery shopping. Reality check, that's for sure! I woke up and my wonderful roommate left me a super sweet note, California themed present! I MISS CALIFORNIA!!!!!!!! But not the weather-that's for sure!

Anyway, then I decided I wanted to straighten my hair so Whit and I got creative! JUST KIDDING, she used a straightener, lol. But it took so long and Whit burned her thumb so she's officially my hero <3 I love that girl!!!!! After that, the Spendloves dropped by with cupcakes, bless their hearts! We went grocery shopping, bleck, and then Shelby made two ice cream "pies" and I was off to a test review with Swanson. Our TA was definitely on something (called lack of sleep) and rambled on forever and a day....she told us about what happened the night before when she was sleeping with her husband....it was AWKWARD.
Swanson and I walked back to his apartment and Cortney gave me 120 songs on my iPod while waiting for those with cars to pick us all up. Best day ever! We all headed over to Cafe Rio where my best friend paid for my meal....which was totally sweet because I was going to use a giftcard I received from Whit's family but instead I can save that for SOME OTHER TIME. Woooooo!!! After we all ate, we returned to my apartment and played a few rounds of the resistance. We switched to Mafia after awhile, ate cake and that was that! The boys all left and Colleen, Whit, Emily and I watched FREAKY FRIDAY. BEST. GIFT. EVER! I love that movie, I really do. Ahh.

It was a good day :) Thanks for all the presents, well wishes, and acts of friendship I received yesterday. I felt special and that was something I really needed. :)

“Don’t Forget Where We Are”

For those of you who don’t know, my current church calling is temple patron.  I remember finding out about this calling last year and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.  For those of you who aren't members of my faith, our temples are a house of worship, but different from our churches.  One must be a worthy member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to attend and many sacred ordinances are done in the temple.  When I received this calling, I was going through a really rough patch and I remember a friend telling me, “This is an answer to your prayers. You’ve been praying to find peace and now it’s your calling to go to the temple.”

Janel, my roommate, was also called to be a temple patron.  So we decided we’d go once a week. We started with temple Wednesdays, where we’d go at 3 PM but that only lasted for a week.  Since then we’ve been going on Fridays and it seems like 6 AM is a good time. Yes, I willingly wake up at 6 AM on Fridays to go to the temple, and let me tell ya, I love it. I love going to the house of the Lord and spending time thinking and praying for strength and inspiration.

This past Friday it was especially busy and when we got there at 7 AM, we didn’t leave till 9 AM because there was quite a crowd. First and foremost, a bit of bragging, I was recognized by one of the temple workers. This is a pretty cool feat, because the Provo Temple is SO BUSY and so many people come through every week.

Anyway, as we were walking out, the man at the desk said this to us: “Come back soon. We’re looking for ya. Don’t forget where we are.”

I was thinking about that for awhile and I think I might have made a little analogy.  Work with me here. When we lived in the pre-mortal existence, we lived with our Father in Heaven.  He loved us dearly and wanted us to receive a body here on Earth and have the experiences necessary on Earth to return to Him.  I expect that we were nervous.  I venture to say many of us were worried about the challenges that would befall us and were scared about making it back.  In my mind, I imagine hearing advice and words from our God about our life and how to get back and how to make it through this life with as little pain as possible.  Our Heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom, probably told us to “come back soon” and that He was “looking for us” and not to “forget where [He] is.”  I think we are all too busy in this life.  How often do we get caught up in the midterms, dating, drama, TV shows, new Taylor Swift album, video games, movies, etc.?  How often do we fall to our knees in prayer?  How often do we serve our fellow men and feast upon the words of the prophets?

What did I say, you may ask, to the man behind the desk?
“Don’t worry, we’ll be back again next week!”
What did we say to our Heavenly Father before making this journey here on Earth?

I think it’s safe to assume we said, ”Don’t worry. We’ll be back soon.” And I pray that we all find our way back to Him one day.

Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice!

WOW, talk about a historical and life changing weekend! For those of you who don't know, it was General Conference. It's this big 5 session conference that's broad casted on TV and directed towards Latter-day Saints ("Mormons") but it is also for the world! It's awesome! We have a prophet on the earth today who speaks to us and gives us counsel. We learn how to be more Christ-like and better followers of our faith. I just wanted to share a few words and ideas that stood out in my mind.

First of all, I have some amazing friends. :) Janel, Whit and I showed up at the Riv at 9:30 and Devin and Janel made crepes! YUM! It was super good and a great way to start off Conference. On Sunday, Katie and I made German Pancakes for the apartment and Whit and I made a 7 layer dip to bring over to the Riv for the last session, where Cortney made burgers and Jess made fries. Do I have some great, talented, service-filled friends or what!?!

So, now onto the talks. My all time favorite talk was President Uchtdorf's on Saturday morning. This man is so inspired and literally speaks to me every time he speaks. In March, he gave a talk that pertained to exactly what I was going to with his famous "Stop It!" talk. (If you don't know what I'm talking about...go here. Here's the short quote. The whole talk is AMAZING, I definitely recommend it!) Anyway, the main point of his talk this time was to slow down and enjoy the moment. I am finding this particularly important to my life as it's already October and my awful midterm week is upon me. But another important thing he said is that YOU AND I are in charge of our happiness, no matter what our external circumstances are. I LOVED THAT. It's so true. I find myself often becoming a victim of my circumstances and let's be honest, I live a good life! I'm here at BYU, an amazing beautiful campus, surrounded by friends who support me. My family misses me and I know they love me and I can literally talk to them anytime I want. So let's be honest again, I have no reason to complain! He also talked about certain regrets we might have in life, such as not living up to our potential. I sat there wondering what my potential is? Who does God see me to be and am I living up to that potential? Probably not. That is definitely something I'm going to work on in the upcoming weeks. He ended with the thought that life is not a race, it's a journey! I'm going to work on enjoying the little things in life, like spending time with my roommates or spending my 2 hour breaks on Mon/Wed caring and being involved with my friends!

My other favorite talk was our prophet Thomas S. Monson on Sunday afternoon. He talked a lot about listening to the promptings we receive from the Spirit. Too often, I find myself distracted by Facebook, my iPod or just the noise of the world. How often do I pray to be an inspiration to someone else? To lighten someone's burden? Not often enough. He shared some awesome stories about how he has been an inspiration to others prayers. He also mentioned that, yes, this world is becoming worse by the day and it's hard to find happiness in the negative. He challenged us to  take a step back and look our blessings so we can find greater happiness. Another thing I definitely need to work on. I am blessed with so much and I get discouraged easily. I am committed, though, to find the positive in the negatives from now on. Even though I have 2 papers due this week and 5 tests next week, I know that if I do my best the Lord will provide the rest!

In conclusion, I am SO grateful to be apart of a wonderful religion and so proud to be a Mormon! I know it! I live it! I love it!

Exhaustingly Fun

Well, I thought I'd write a fun post about this weekend, especially after my mommy reminded me that I did want to use this blog as a journal as well ;)

Exhaustingly fun. That's how I'd describe my weekend. One of the best that I've had in awhile. Oh wait, last weekend was just as great! Let's go back a week and talk about that one....

What an awesome weekend. First, Friday. I really hate Fridays. I mean not really because I don't have school but sometimes the day goes soooooooo slowly and everyone is in class so I get bored. Well, after asking and asking, I finally told Cortney I'd go to his choir concert. I went over to his place before the concert and went out to Cafe Rio with him and his mom. Fun times. I saw his concern with his mom and Jordan. It was a really great show actually! Every choir performed 3-4 numbers and it was really good. We went to the Malt Shoppe afterwards, such a classy place to get some amazing malts.

Well, on Satuday....I went to a FREE WE SHOT THE MOON CONCERT. AAAHHH! It was awesome. I dragged Colleen and Whit with me, even though neither one of them knew the band. We got there ridiculously early, like embarrassingly early, so we got some great shakes at Sammies. I recommend them, their pie shakes are to die for! We also saw two of the guys from Kid History so we asked to take a picture with them. I was in awe! LOL.





After that, the first two bands played, local bands that were interesting....and then the main event! Because we had gotten there SO early, we were like 2nd row of the "mosh pit." Ah. Jonathan Jones. Talk about some beautiful blue eyes! I was so stoked!!!!! The best part was his last song. He sang "Brightside" which is my favorite song by them. He came close to my side so Whit and I held out our hands AND HE HELD THEM WHILE SANG DIRECTLY TO US. I was freaking out. Fangirling like you wouldn't believe!!!! The other funniest part is when he called Colleen out of the audience and asked if she was having a good time. Hahaha. Well afterwards, we went up to them and Jonathan goes, "What can I do for you?" I was like star struck. It was bad. So I mumbled..."could I just get a picture with you?" He was so cool and was like OF COURSE. So we took a picture. And then got a group shot. I was literally FREAKING OUT. Haha.

Sunday was the temple dedication. Man, talk about a great Sunday. I felt the Spirit SO strongly that I was crying uncontrollably. What a great feeling. Afterwards, I learned the Spirit of God on guitar! Love it! It's the first guitar song I learned using tabs only, no chords involved. It was hard and I have no feeling in my fingertips again haha. After that, I walked over to the Riv to enjoy a dinner made by my favorite boyz. We had spaghetti and meatballs, homemade and it was delicious, thanks to Greg. Swanny made some delicious garlic bread and I brought frozen microwavable veggies, that Cortney made. Yes, I was the only girl and I was not allowed to help ;) It was GREAT. Afterwards, we watched a Sunday appropriate movie-- Prince of Egypt! Cortney sang the words to every song and we all had a grand ole time. In the middle of the movie, I got a text from my fabulous relatives saying they made no bake cookies and they brought them down to Provo! I spent 20 minutes with Kevin, Edsen and Daniel and ate some delicious cookies all by myself haha. After that, I went back to the apartment and we played Scum and watched Joseph and the Technicolor DreamCoat, the musical. Childhood flashbacks much?! Haha, I knew the words to every song in this one, so I joined Cortney in his singing.  After that, Greg, Devin and Cortney walked back with me and Devin decided he wanted to make my apartment cookies. So I start outside his apartment reading my Ensign for Living Prophets while Devin and Cortney made awesome peanut butter cookies and brought them back to my apartment! They visited for a bit and then that was the end of my fabulous weekend. :)

So, back to this weekend...Grandma and Grandpa Jones came up for the Hawai'i Game and to see meee. :) On Friday, Grandma took me out for a birthday lunch and shopping at Kohl's! I had such a good time with her, and it was great to visit! I got some cute new shirts from Kohl's, thanks for the early gifts! After that, I was able to study for my Sociology test and get laundry done before the game....which we won 47-0. Talk about a murder!!! The next day I spent in Lehi at this festival called Cornbelly's. It. was. so. much. FUN! I had a blast with my family! The first thing Edsen, Lucy and I did was go on a slide in a potato sack. Now THAT is some fun!

We rode on cows....
I sat on a tractor....
Grandpa cheered for a goat....
and we had a grand ole time! We went out to eat afterwards at a delicious BBQ place. I ate really fast, clearly I'm a starving college student haha! Grandma and Grandpa ordered 4 huge pieces of Texas Sheet Cake, SO GOOD. I love food, it's a problem!!!

Well......that night.....was the night....THAT I FIRST HIKED THE Y. I know, I'm a year late, but it was a ROUGH HIKE. Not that I'm in the best shape or anything but my knees still hurt. You're hiking the mtn, so duh, it's not easy. But luckily we took lots of breaks ;) Haha. But it was a beautiful sight to see and honestly, the Y is kinda cool! The whole time to the top I thought it was a myth, because it's a bunch of switchbacks until you actually hit the top. We sat up there and sang Aladdin songs and campfire songs. And then we went back down. Simple as that and it took like 3 hours haha. We went over to the Riv afterwards and Devin made homemade pizza. Delicious!!!
And my Sunday? Ha. Not so great. I'm pretty sure I had a near death experience. I woke up with a super bad headache and an awful head cold. I slept from midnight till 1 PM. When I decided to take a shower and try to make it to Sacrament Mtg, I blacked out. It was super scary and I was all alone. It was a super rough day but I slept well last night and I'm doing better today, thanks for asking.

 

I vowed I'd go to sleep early for the rest of my life (lol) because I think I was just over exhausted from all my fun this weekend :) Off to bed I go! Night readers!