Just a thought for the day :)

Okay so I know I haven't posted in a while...and not going to lie I probably won't for a while because when I'm in school I'm freakishly busy and the only times I have free are really just dedicated to sleeping. So...sorry. But my brother just sent me this forward that I honestly love.

Sometimes we wonder,*
'What did I do to deserve this?' or
'Why did God have to do this to me*?'
Here is a wonderful explanation!
A daughter is telling her Mother how *everything
is going wrong*, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend
broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.
Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and
asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the
daughter says, 'Absolutely Mom, I love your cake.'
'Here, have some cooking oil,' her Mother offers.
'Yuck' says her daughter..
'How about a couple raw eggs?' 'Gross, Mom!'
'Would you like some flour then?
Or maybe baking soda?'
'Mom, those are all yucky!'
To which the mother replies:
'Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves.
But when they are put together in the
right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! '
God works the same way.
 Many times we wonder why
He would let us go through such* bad* and *difficult *
times. But God knows that when He puts these things
all in His order, they always work for good! We just
have to *trust* Him and, eventually, they will all
make *something wonderful*! *
God is crazy about you.*
He sends you flowers every spring and 
a sunrise every morning.
Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen.
He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your *heart.*

I love it! How much peace it brings to me to know that God is aware of everything that I'm going through and that all of my struggles and shortcomings are all there for a reason. They are all part of God's plan for me and if I just continue to have the faith to endure, everything will work out in the end!

I just want you all to know that I know with a surety that God loves YOU! He loves you and me and every single one of us. We can't even fully comprehend how much He loves each of us because we can only understand him loving so many people in a mass. But we are not just a faceless mass to Him. He loves us individually. I am so thankful for that knowledge. Life is great, even through all the stressful and hard times. We have so much to be thankful for.

Love you all!

This semester

Where has the time gone? Another semester has come and gone (almost...one more week) and I am going to be honest...SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED THIS SEMESTER! This blog is dedicated to revealing all of the mysteries of this semester. Okay they aren't mysteries but I wanted to sound cool. Did it work?

Okay well I don't even know where to start. I would make sense to go in chronological order but a lot of these things have just happened. There isn't really an order for some. But I'll do my best.

First of all, I had the BEST family home evening group ever. Besides my roommates, we had an apartment from the dorms full of girls from other countries. They're so legit! I really liked them a lot. They were so fun and they were just always up for anything. Then, instead of an apartment of boys we had a group of boys that are all from Rexburg so they live with their parents.They became some of our really good friends this semester and we really did have a lot of fun with them. Here are some pictures I stole from Brandie of one of our activities.

We all ate a dinner of spaghetti, breadsticks, jello, and mashed potatoes with random utensils that we pulled out of a bag. It was so fun haha and we were all good sports about it. Well...almost all of us :) haha. But anyway yeah we had a lot of fun. And I'm really thankful for them all.

Another thing that happened is one of my super good friends Megan Thompson Farmer got married! She looked so beautiful and I was so happy for her because her husband is one of the greatest guys ever. They are seriously like perfect for each other. They really are. And it was just a great day! Here are some pictures from the wedding that again I stole from Brandie (my camera doesn't really work...so I just steal from Brandie).

 
That was a great day. I am so grateful for Megan and for her example to me. She worked so hard to be able to get married in the temple and I am so proud of her for that! She is such a wonderful person.

Also, on February 16 my wonderful Grandma Lotus Rose Cooper passed away. That was a really hard time but it was also a very good thing. She was getting old and she really wasn't happy on this earth anymore. My amazing sister Aimee wrote a blog about my grandma that was like the "famous blog" at the funeral because it was so well said. If you would like to read this blog, go here. It will not be a waste of your time I promise. It's very touching and gives you a great idea of what my grandma was like. I love her so much and I am really going to miss her.

Man...school was quite the treat this semster. I took 17 credits and I worked about 18 hours a week. It wasn't as bad as it sounds...for the first half of the semester. But I will tell you what it got tough. For the past few weeks I have basically spent every waking moment at the Ricks building doing homework and studying. I started the social work program and I really have enjoyed it so much! I love it and I know that it's what I am supposed to be doing. But the homework...yuck. Never have enjoyed that. Obviously...


I wasn't even posing either. Brandie just told me to look at her so I did and that was my face. Haha...I swear I don't wear that dress/cardigan every day. It just happens to be what I'm wearing when I take pictures.

Also, the children's center that I worked for got shut down. Last November, we had to shut down the program that is called Partial Care that was a state funded program for children that had behavioral issues. At that point I was just working as kind of an assistant to the licensed social worker. Then once that got shut down, they couldn't afford to keep the social worker, so they just let me take over. It changed from Partial Care to just an after school program. It was a really good program still...way different...but still really good. But it just wasn't working out like we had planned and little by little we got less and less kids coming. So they shut it down completely. Very sad for me because I love those kids...but they moved me to the office staff doing something I don't know haha I haven't started yet but I get my own office so that's cool. We'll see how that goes.

In about 8 days I am taking a trip with my roommates down to Texas where Brandie is from. We are going to go to six flags, stay in a condo on the beach of South Padre Island, and just hang out with her family. I AM SO EXCITED!!! Except it is going to take us like 28 hours to drive there. GAG. but hopefully it will still be fun. Hopefully none of us kill each other. So anyway...that's all I can think of right now and I am about to go running with Brandie so I'll just post some other pictures of this semester.

I STILL EXIST!

Wow, I don't even remember the last time I blogged. I really did plan to keep this whole bloggin' thing up while I was at school...I promise I did. I just forgot how much FREAKING work school is. I am taking 17 credits and working about 17-18 hours a week. Plus I have a social life once in a while. So I literally have not had a blinking moment to write anything. To be honest I haven't even read any of your blogs...I'm sorry! I really am. But a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

So hmmm let's see. How can I sum up my life at this point? Well...

I LOVE THE SOCIAL WORK PROGRAM!!!!!!

Like seriously omg it is so great. My teachers seriously are the best. They are the BEST!! And I have made some amazing friends in there. Basically every single one of my classes consist of the exact same people that just move from room to room. Actually no that is a lie. We have all of our classes in one room except for one. It's weird but cool. I've learned some crazy stuff. This one teacher that I have tells us the cRaZiEsT stories ever! Haha I love the stories but somedays I'm like...I could never handle that. And it freaks me out. But then he assures us that you really get used to it and after a while it's not that bad. We'll see. Anyway I have definitely been learning so much stuff. I already feel ten times more prepared for the social work field.

Besides that I have been getting out there and doing some awesome enriching stuff. For example two of my friends from the program and I got together and put up a "Free Compliment" booth where we gave out free compliments to people as they passed. We had some candy and some bracelets that said "Pay it Forward" on them and we told them that if we gave them a bracelet they had to PROMISE to keep it going and give people compliments. It was so much fun. We made so many friends and just met some really amazing people. It was so great!

Also, I don't know how many of you know about Idaho's medcaid cuts, but the govenor, Butch Otter, is trying to cut a TON of money going to mental health services. First of all, this affects my current job and any future job that I hope to get. Second of all, that is not a good idea because some of the mentally ill are unstable and depend on those services. Third, that is so unfair to the people that really need that help. It's just not a good idea! So I have been helping out with that: sending out a petition, passing out flyers for the community rally that is going on next weekend, and going to the rally to help out and hold up signs and stuff. This rally is going to be a big deal. I really hope we make a difference in this whole thing because this upsets so many people. And I hope we make it known that we are NOT happy.

Anyway yeah, that is what's new with me. I'm loving life right now. It's so dang awesome. My friends are so legit!! And my new FHE brothers are the bomb. And I'm going to Texas for a week in April to stay with Brandie and go to an island close to where Brandie lives and staying in a condo there that is right on the beach. I'm so FUH-REAKING excited! Except we're probs gonna drive and it takes about...26 hours to get there. That will not be fun. haha. But hopefully the trip is fun.

I went to a dance party tonight and it was probably one of the best I've ever been to. There were so many good dancers and it was just so much fun to be there and to be back in an atmosphere where I belong ♥ hahaha. I would say jk but I'm not. Haha I got DOWN my friends. I got down.

Okay I'm SO TIRED. I need to go to bed. Obviously I haven't gotten much better about pictures. But I need a new camera. Mine sucks.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Be patient with me mmk?

P.S. just dyed my hair red. No joke.

P.S.S. only the bottom though :) It's really cute I won't lie.

Ohhh 2010. I'll miss you.

A photo recap of 2010

(I know right? A PHOTO recap! Look at me postin' photos and what not.)
Not in any order...I got lazy.

Bracken, Courtney, and I got to go and visit our friends in Logan!
We went to "Pizza Heaven" & got breadsticks.

My niece Darcy came and spent the night.
We all gave each other awwwwesome makeovers! :)

We made Jenny girly!! For the day.

White Gurlz! Check the video here.
Random activity during finals week. Loved it! Haha. So fun.

Last day of Spring semester. Dinner at Wingers.
Good memories with these girls :)

Princess party with most of my nieces.

Dance party at the river. Suuuuch a fun night.

These are two of my BFF's from highschool Brianna and Chelsea.
I met up with them this night and had a lot of fun.
I don't really know why some of these pictures mean more to me than others...
but this one definitely does.

This is the day Brandie, Jocelyn, Nicole, and I rode our bikes to Heise Hot Springs and back.
I would DEFINITELY do this again. Not that bad of a bike ride and way nice to relax in the pools.

Roommates of Spring 2010! Loved these girls SO MUCH.

4th of July! My niece Eliza, me, and my cousin Meili
Eliza doesn't do well with pictures :)

Me in New York City! Looooooved Times Square.

Some of the best friends I've ever had

Washington Monument!

Oh heyyy Obama!
Our trip to DC.

Flag football! Definite highlight of that semester.
Great teammates, great coaches.
And we were almost undefeated.

Megs and I at my 21st bday party.
She so generously and kindly made my cake :)
Isn't it beautiful haha

I went to a circus for the very first time!! That's an elephant!

Harry Potter party!
I'm Hedwig the owl :)

After the Social Work Halloween party that we went to for Brandie.
I found out like two days before I was accepted into the program :)
And I literally threw that costume together 10 minutes before it started.

Brock, me, and Jake.
This was taken right before Maddie backed up into Hayley's car :S
But it wasn't that bad.

Worst sunburn I've literally ever had

The night of the gumballs.

Dan's Bday cake.
Took us sooooo long and it still looked like crap haha.
But it was made with love ♥

The weekend we visited Logan.
This was taken at like 5 AM
Such good times with this crew :)

Valentines Day! haha

Hockey Game for Matt. Sooooo cold.

Look at how little Daisy is!! She's HUGE now!