Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 ... Bittersweet ending

11 things.... good and bad... that occurred in 2010 (in order even!)

1. Faced one of my biggest fears, skiing, and fell in love with it!
2. Made the Dean's list winter semester with a 4.0
3. Cross country road trip with my best friend aubs!
4. Being there and helping clean up after the 500 year flood that hit middle tennessee
5. Spent about a week in DC! Such a cool city!
6. Said goodbye to amy as she went halfway around the world for a mission in the philippines
7. 5 marriages - 5 really good friends, lots of crutch dancing (Mitch+Syd, Kort+Dustin, Emily+Ty, Annalee+Dan, Rachel+Weston)
8. Tore my ACL (again) on a jumping picture the day before Kort's wedding (it doesn't get more lame than that....)
9. Knee surgery! woot woot.... second time was better than the first, gotta count your blessings
10. Got to be home for Thanksgiving for the first time in 3 years
11. Realized how dumb boys really can be if they put their mind to it.

Loving my life and looking forward to 2011: to my last semester at BYU, to being a real life teacher, to surprises...

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The surprise...

About a week and half ago I got a crazy idea. My parents bought my plane tickets to come home for Christmas several months ago in order to get a good deal. Since they bought the tickets, I had received offers from two good friends to drive home to Tennessee and back for Christmas break. I turned them down, explaining that I already had made plans to fly. Then, it hit me. About a week and a half ago. What if I switched my Christmas tickets to Thanksgiving and then took up these offers to drive there and back for Christmas? Genius. I know. That's why I'm a college students. So I called my dad, we switched the tickets, and kept our mouths shut. No one knew but my dad and I. He picked me up from the airport on Thursday and we went to my sister's swim meet. I casually walked in and stood next to her and just asked how the meet was going. She looked up and seriously jumped back 5 feet as if she had seen a ghost. Maybe she thought she had. "What are you doing here?!" Nice to see you, too. She was shocked and I couldn't stop laughing. My mom was helping out with the meet so we snuck down to the pool area and I asked my same casual, "How's the meet going?" question. My mom slowly turned around and looked at me. Silent. She was beyond confused. She just kinda stared for a few seconds - it seemed like forever, then her eyes went to my little sister. "She thinks I'm Alia," was my immediate thought. Later, she told me, "I just looked at you and couldn't figure out why Alia wasn't wearing her suit, then I saw Alia and it clicked." She screamed and hugged me and cried and didn't let go for about five minutes. She says it was the most surprised she had ever been in her life. She had no idea. I guess I can keep some secrets :)

The stressful week before trying to get all my school work done before I missed 3 days of classes, knowing I'm going to be driving all the way to Tennessee and then back to Utah, the extra money it took to switch my ticket and the gas money I'll be spending in December - it was all so worth it, to see my mom's face (her shock and complete joy), to be home, to have a break from school before things get crazy, to spend Thanksgiving with my family for the first time in three years - totally worth it. I feel so lucky, so blessed, and I'm so dang excited to see my adorable niece! I will miss having Thanksgiving with Reni and Will and my grandparents - but this sure is nice. (Plus I hear its snowing, and sleeting, and freezing there, today it was 70 degrees in Tennessee - you can be jealous :)

Happy Thanksgiving from the Volunteer State!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

look, i'm blogging again!

So.... I was kind of against blogging when I got back from Jerusalem (as you can see, I've only posted one thing that was not about Jerusalem) because life was just kinda lame in comparison.... I couldn't write, "So I just got back from the Garden Tomb..." or comment on how hot Egypt was. But I'm sitting at my grandparent's and thought I would just let anyone who wants to read this know whats going on in my life!

This semester has been insane. Actually, not really, that was an exaggeration. But it has been crazy. I have a four hour class every day of the week. I love the people in it, usually I don't make lots of friends in my classes cause they're big and I'm all about the in and out, but I really like the people in this class. Its fun and I'm learning about what I want to do when I grow up (which turns out is in just a year and a half.... how does that happen?!) I get to go visit schools and
pretend teach to my peers and occasionally for real teach at the schools we visit. So I like the class but it is basically my life and I'll be happy when my schedule is freed up on February 25th. Hallelujah! (I've found myself saying that a lot lately, and "amen" too. Apparently it's not as socially acceptable here in Utah as it is in the South... too bad.)

I'm also taking my "Capstone Research Seminar" class. Sounds scary? It is. I have to write a 20+ page paper, mostly from primary sources that will contribute to the scholarship on slavery. I'm writing about how Uncle Tom's Cabin was received in the North versus the publication of actual slave narratives. There's nothing like carrying a stack of over 10 books out of the library to improve your nerd image. You should probably get on the waiting list to read it, you don't want to pass this one up.


I'm also taking New Testament from one of my professors at the Jerusalem Center, Bro. Skinner. He's pretty awesome and I recommend taking one of his classes or reading one of his books. Him and our director, Bro. Brown put together a series on the Messiah that plays on BYU TV at 5 and 8 on Sundays. You should watch. Seriously, it's amazing.

So its been a busy semester so far, but good. Last weekend we had a 149th ward reunion at our house. The theme was white trash and it was so much fun! We got an old RV from one of our friends and went driving around and dancing, avoiding the po po at the same time... it was a blast! Last night I went snowshoeing, definitely not my thing. I felt like I was wearing boats on my feet like DaVinci in Ever After. Needless to say I was not very graceful and fell multiple times. I lost my phone and a glove in the snow and somehow they both turned up again later... It was fun though.... Pretty entertaining for everyone around me.

So thats about it. Reni and Will are back and we're gonna eat some grub! Woot Woot!

Paisley