It's about time...

I am the worst when it comes to keeping up with this... so here is yet another catch-up post.

This semester has definitely been different from previous ones. I've experienced things that have helped me grow spiritually and helped me realize what really matters in this life. A couple weeks ago my roommate Morgan's dad passed away unexpectedly. It was a very hard night for all of us girls in 206. Chloe and I were with Morgan when she got the call from her brother around 1 am. It's not a very common situation to be involved in, so we didn't exactly know how to comfort her. We laid in bed with her and all just started to cry. I didn't personally know her dad, I mean I had only even known Morgan for a couple months, but I had never felt so heartbroken in my entire life. I couldn't even begin to imagine how I would react if that happened to my dad, or any of my family members. Around 1:30 am, our friends Andy and Alex came over to say a prayer of comfort. I was amazed with how much that helped. We stayed up for hours afterwards talking about how blessed we are to have the knowledge of the gospel and the Plan of Salvation. This whole situation was a huge testimony builder for me, and my love and appreciation for my parents grew immensely. I am so grateful that I have the roommates I have, to have worthy priesthood holders that are always there to help, and to have a knowledge of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I know families are eternal and that is the best comfort anyone can have.

Morgan and her family.

The next big thing that happened was Oakley. To cope with Morgan's situation, we decided to get a puppy the next day... (I know, we are crazy.) This was a very spur of the moment thing. Morgan was searching craigslist that morning and she came across a litter of puppies that were in St. Anthony. You can bet we were on our way there ten minutes later to go "look" at them. Naturally we fell in love, so we ended up buying one for $50. (Another $50 was spent buying him food, toys, treats, a leash, potty pads, a bed, etc.) We named him Oakley, and he was a handful (as all puppies are). He came from a farm so he was covered from head to toe in... let's just say mud. Bathing him was definitely a chore and it took all four of us girls. Our manager found out two days later so we ended up having to find him a new home. We put up a craigslist post selling him for $100 and we got potential buyers within the first couple of hours. Even though our time with Oakley was short, it was still fun while it lasted. He now is living with a newly wed couple in Rigby-- the best of luck to them ;)

The newest addition to apartment 206. You can tell
that our eyes were all a little red from the waterworks
and lack of sleep from the night before.

Morgan went to Washington the next week for the funeral. While she was gone we got a group of her closest friends together to do a big group fast for her and her family. We all met Friday night to start the fast, and then me, Chloe, and Sydney prepared a BBQ dinner to end the fast on Saturday. We needed a lot of food because we just so happened to be the only girls out of the 15 people that fasted. Hooray for lots of guy friends! We had hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, veggies, pasta salad, soda, brownies and lots of hungry bellies. (I contributed the brownies and I got a lot of compliments on them surprisingly haha.)

These boys were oh so kind and did the grilling for us.

We had yet another get together at our apartment that same week for super bowl Sunday. We pretty much find any excuse to invite people over haha.

I can't forget to blog about Valentine's day! I didn't exactly have a "valentine", but I did have an awesome roommate that went out of her way to make my day special. I told Sydney earlier that morning walking to class that my parents always got me and my sisters pink Sobe drinks on Valentine's day and how much I loved that tradition. So she did just that for me :) I found this on my bed as soon as I got back from my last class. It seriously made my day! I love that girl. Later that night we all went hot tubing at our friend Polson's house. (Fun fact: The majority of our friends this semester live here in Idaho, only about 15-30 minutes away. Because of that we are able to go to their houses to hot tub, hang out, play video games, watch movies, and even have Sunday dinner with their families. I seriously love it.)

This is my friend Polson. He served his
mission in Colorado right next to where I
live! So obviously we had to represent
our Colorado.

The weekend before last, Sydney and I were asked on a double date by our friends Steve and David. They wanted the date to be a surprise, so the only thing they told us was that it was going to be a road trip and we had to leave as soon as we got done with classes. They picked us up around 4:30, we got in the car and started driving. Me and Sydney were clueless as to where we were going. Steve and David both speak Spanish, so they were able to communicate without me and Sydney knowing what they were saying. It wasn't too long until we passed the Wyoming sign. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant in Driggs--which was way delicious might I add--and then we arrived at an ice rink. We ended up going to an ice hockey game in Wyoming! I had never been to an ice hockey game before so it was way fun, and such a neat date idea ;) After the game we came back to our apartment and watched a scary movie. Seriously, such a fun date.

Another big event that happened recently--on February 28th to be exact--was Jake's 20th Birthday! His older brother Nathan messaged me asking if we could meet up so we could put together a birthday package for Jake. It was kind of late notice, so I resulted to the nearby Deseret Book to get Jake a birthday present. I headed over to Nathan's apartment with my friend Rachel Campbell (also one of Jake's besties) and the three of us signed ties, wrote birthday cards, and took pictures together for Jake. Knowing him, he'll absolutely love it. 

Happy 20th Birthday Jake!

My usual birthday instagram post for the Jakesta.

This past week me, Chloe, and Sydney have all come down with a cold. The thing that hit me most though was my cough. I've gone through about six bags of cough drops in the past week-- so unhealthy, I know. I've even coughed hard enough to where its affected my ribs, which makes it 100x more painful. Even though I've been way sick, I've definitely noticed how many people are willing to go out of their way to help me and my roommates. Out of all my bags of cough drops, I only had to buy one bag... all the others were brought to me. My FHE brothers, ward members, classmates, and good friends have given me enough medicine to last me a year. I've been offered a ride to the doctor by four different people if I ever feel the need to go. And I've even been given a blessing without needing to ask for one. I can't even begin to tell you how many people have asked what they could do for me. I am seriously so blessed to be surrounded by such loving people. That is something I definitely love about BYU-Idaho.

Someone anonymously left this in our apartment-- so freaking nice.

This past weekend was a "Colorado reunion"! My friend Ashton, from back home, came down from Provo to visit for the weekend. Besides the fact I was sick the whole time, we were still able to go on a couple dates. On Friday night we went on a triple date to go rock climbing. It's at the local gymnastics gym, so I couldn't resist but to do some tumbling as well :) I had a really good time! On Saturday we made these hemp bracelets and had Italian creme sodas-- two things I'm a complete sucker for haha. Another one of our friend's from back home was in Rexburg to visit his brother. His name is Ryan Paull. Me and Sydney actually met him at a singles ward Halloween party while we were off track! He invited us to go to the hot springs on Saturday with him and a couple of his buddies. On Sunday Ashton, Sydney, Ryan, and I all went to the CES fireside together before they left town. It was way good. Needless to say, it was a fun weekend with my fellow Coloradians ;)

F l a s h b a c k

And that leads me to tonight, which can be summed up in this picture.

And that is what I like to call caught up.

Sexy Rexy

Now I'm back in good ol' Rexburg and hopefully here to stay year round :) So far I am loving it. I simply adore my new roommates, I love my apartment, and I'm really enjoying my classes for the most part. It is a bit of a bummer that all of my friends from previous semesters aren't here (with the exception of a few here and there), so I'm starting fresh with friends. It's a good thing my roommates, Morgan and Chloe, have a plethora of them since they were here fall semester ;) So here's the run down:

Here's my room. Definitely a step up from Carriage House apartments down the street haha. Syd and I got a little creative with our pictures, jewelry, and thumbtacks.

Here's our living room wall. As you can see, pictures are a reoccurring theme in our apartment ;)

Here's the kitchen. (Thank you Willow's website)

Here's my roommates (minus Holly who was most likely at Cole's). Right to left is Chloe, Sydney, Morgan, moi, and Natalie.

Here's the Willow's workout room. Sure, maybe we have only used it once, but it was the hardest workout of my life when we did. One night me and Sydney decided to run on the ellipticals for a nice, easy going work out. Once we finished (already heaving might I add) a lady showed up to do her glut & thigh class. Since me and Syd were the only ones there we thought it would be polite to stay. We had no idea how rigorous or how long this workout class was going to be, but we did it anyways. Forty-five {very rigorous} minutes later I was on the verge of collapsing. I figured that workout counted for like ten... so there's my reasoning for only visiting once haha.

Here's our outfits for the white out party. We earned the title as "the sorority girls" that night.

Here's some of our new Tinder friends. They have a band called The Doppelgang. They've won battle of the bands and they also play every Sunday at the nearby nursing home. Pretty neat. They invited us over for a pancake dinner the first time we met up-- it was delicious.

Here's my grades.. so far. I just had to document this before they {quite likely} change.

Here's a couple of Chloe and Morgan's closest friends. We threw a surprise party for Chloe at a nearby hotel. Chloe's mom rented out a room for us to surprise her in that night. After all the celebration, us girls went swimming/hot tubing  in the hotel pool for a couple hours. It was oh so fun.

Here's the black ice ice-skating crew. Me and Morgan probably tied for hardest falls. The bumps and bruises were so worth it though.

Here's our post ice-skating hot tub picture.

Here's the ice castles. Me and my roomies took a Utah trip this past weekend, and this was definitely a highlight of it. I wasn't the smartest wearing moccasins without socks-- we did have to trudge through some snow. I ended up putting my gloves on my toes because I was scared of getting frostbite. It wasn't long until I literally had no feeling in my toes or feet. Once I got to that point my sweet roommates piggy-backed me over all the snow. They're the best. The ice castles were way cool and provided many photo opportunities ;)

In my pale defense, I was the only one who
didn't get spray tanned that morning haha.

Here's me reuniting with some of my BYU friends. I made sure to spend one of the nights in Provo while I was in Utah. As soon as I got there, Hailey had a bunch of her friends over for a game night and pizza. I love me those game nights :)

Notice I'm now wearing socks with my mocks ;)

Here's my poor roommate Morgan last night. She was not feeling good at all. Seriously she couldn't leave the bathroom. Some of our friends came over and gave her a blessing which was way nice of them. As sad as it was, I just couldn't pass up taking a picture.

And that is college in a nutshell-- so far. I know that there are many more pictures, stories, and memories to come and I can't wait.

Quick missionary update: Brad has officially hit his YEAR mark! As for the rest of the boys, they're doing just fine.

Colorado Catch-Up

I have really been slacking in the blogging & journal writing lately. There is so much that has gone on! But before I jump into my college life right now I want to post about all the stuff that went on right before I left Colorado. So here is yet another catch up post.

Last day of work

Christmas Eve was my last day working as a Johnny Carino's employee. (I know, I'm crazy enough to pick up a shift on Christmas Eve.) This was actually very bitter sweet for me. As much as I dreaded working doubles on doubles on doubles, once I got to work it was always hard for me to leave. I was lucky to have such awesome co-workers that made my working experience just that much better. Hailey and Matt (both ex-coworkers of mine) came to visit me on my last day. Hailey was even so kind to bring me and Meghan pumpkin muffins-- our fav :) It's been a good run Carino's!

Christmas Eve at the Billat's

There's no need for pictures. Just watch this. (Thanks to Hails!)

It was so sad to think that this was our last Christmas Eve with the Billat's since they were moving to Texas :( It's been a fun tradition our two families have kept throughout the years!

Going away party

Yes it's true.. Hailey wasn't at her own going away party. But the night was filled with lots of fun, friends, family, and FOOD. Oh, I was in heaven. As soon as the party started dwindling down, a couple of my friends came over for a game night (one of many). These mainly consisted of multiple rounds of aggravation, around-the-world, 'the name game', water pong, and a variety of card games. Seriously so fun.

New Years Eve

For New Years Eve I went on a double date with my friend Ashton. Funny story: I met Ashton at a youth dance around four years ago. We met, slow danced, exchanged numbers, and occasionally kept in contact throughout the years.. maybe ran into each other at another dance or two. Other than that, we never saw each other. He did a semester at BYU-Idaho, went on a mission, and then transferred to BYU Provo. While he was home for Christmas break he called and asked me on a date. (I just spent this last weekend in Utah, and I hung out with him two of the days I was there.) Kind of funny how things work out.

The date was way fun! It seemed as if I had been friends with Ashton for all the years we 'kept in contact'. Him and his friend Zach cooked us dinner, then we stopped by the YSA New Years Eve dance for a little. After that we headed down to Denver to watch fireworks, walk around, and take pictures. Hello 2014!

Our last Sunday

Instead of spending my last Sunday home in the singles ward, I decided to go to my home ward instead. Not only was it my last Sunday before I left for Rexy, but it was also the Billat's last Sunday before they moved to Texas. Obviously we had to snap some goodbye pictures in our Sunday best ;)

Movin' out

My second home :(

This is self-explanatory. There is now an empty house across the street, and an empty room upstairs.

Goodbye Colorado!