Nobody likes you when you're 23... well I hope that people still like me.

IT WAS MY FRICKIN' BIRTHDAY THIS PAST MONTH!

Okay, so I used to be way good at writing on my blog. I almost used to write every month. I need to be better at it. Ok- so I literally say that every time I write so I should probably change that and actually stick to my word??? 

So January felt literally like a million years?! Is that just me? Or is everyone else feeling the same?

I started a new semester and its my second to last before I graduate! Next semester I just have my internship and one class to take and I'm DONE WITH MY BACHELORS? Excuse me what? Thats insane. 

I moved into a new apartment complex this semester because the Willows was turned into a mens apartment building... RIP THE WILLOWS!! Its now Cedars Men and I live across the street in Cedars Women. I love it but also there are things that are really frustrating. But, you know, that happens I guess when you move into a brand new apartment. Its really weird not having Katie here at school with me. Katie if your'e reading this I MISS YOU. Idk if she reads my blog but, lol who knows. 

I love my new roommates though!! I've known two of them, (Kiersten and Kayla) from the past two semesters and lived with Natalie and Kaitlyn before and now we got Alyse which was a random person at first but i frickinnnnn loveeeeee her!!!!! She is so funny, chill, down to literally do anything even when I say like "hey wanna go to soda vine?" shes always always down. I love it. We all get along so well in my apartment! which is a BLESSING. We love the same shows, music, and weird jokes. Kaitlyn got us all hooked again on vine complications which is so fun. 

If you haven't seen this vine. 1) I feel sorry for you 2) go watch it right now. 

My favorite part of this month was obviously my birthday ;) My least favorite part? Backing into a car and denting my trunk and then burning my hand the next week. BUT HEY IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY MONTH. If you dont know this already- I love birthdays. I love celebrating other people's birthdays and making them feel so special on THEIR DAY and I also love celebrating my birthday. Want to watch Grey's Anatomy all day on your birthday? I'LL WATCH WITH YOU. Want to go on hike? IM DOWN. Want to have a huge birthday party? I'll be your party planner. I will do whatever that person wants to do. Literally anything. So, my roommates and bffs did JUST THAT. I got swarmed with texts and fb posts from people I love and care about all day. My roommates at midnight took me to McDonalds to get chicken nuggets and Diet Coke. I woke up TO THE LIVING ROOM DECORATED and the fridge literally stocked full of Diet Coke. I am so blessed. Later that night we went to Red Robin for dinner and had some more people over for cake, soda, games for my birthday! Something that is so very important to me is my friends. I love my friends and it makes me feel so so special when we do things together and everyone is just together having a fun time! So my heart was beaming. 

This month has been great. Its finally February. As much as I love January I AM SO HAPPY WE ARE ONTO A NEW MONTH! Also my classes seem way too easy right now? I know I'm going to be feeling like I got hit by a truck and regret saying that soon- BUT its been great. Lots of laughs, lots of dancing to new music, lots of movies, and just so many memories. Heres to the month of February!

2017: BYE BYE BYE

HAPPY FREAKING NEW YEAR!!!! I can't believe its 2018?!? I haven't showered since last year, or seen my brother since last year ;) Okay, all the dumb jokes aside- I am so so happy its a new year!

2017 was good. I mean it wasn't the 'best year of my life' but it was pretty freakin' good.

There were a lot of tears, laughs, dancing, broken hearts, diet coke, chicken nuggets, swimming, popcorn eating, and more. I have so many good memories from this year.

JANUARY

One thing I loved about this month of course was... my birthday! I turned 22!! So you know I was hyped about singing and dancing along to Taylor Swift all day long. I had such a great birthday. WAYYYY better than last years. Katie Rex made it so freaking great! Shes the best and if you don't have someone like Katie in your life- I feel sorry for you. She made me wear a "Birthday Girl" pin all day and it was so funny to forget that I was wearing it and then random people saying "hey happy birthday!" Then we had cake and a mini party for me later that night. 

FEBRUARY

This month was hands down the best month I think of the year. I went through the temple and took out my own endowments. If you dont know what that means you can read more about it here: TEMPLES. I think that this is what started off my year. I know it was in the second month but, I know that it was what I needed to do. I am so so so grateful I did. I feel so much closer with my Heavenly Father and understand the bigger picture a little more than I did before. I understand that sometimes the little things that used to matter a lot don't matter that much in the grand scheme of things. I also had my parents there right by my side and it was so so so special. 

MARCH

I remember one fun thing that happened this month- Meredith one of my old roommates taught me how to penny board and that was a lot of fun. Not much else "exciting" happened that month that I an remember. 

APRIL

Well, spring break was this month and I loved it. I love getting any breaks from school cause lets be honest- SCHOOL BLOWS SOMETIMES AND ITS HARD. So any break is a good break. Of course I hung out with my dog all the time and it was also the start of SPRINNNNGGG SEMESTER!!!! Spring is so much fun in Rexburg. It was also Katie's birthday month and I threw her a party everything Katie style. We had Soda, Lime, Starbursts, Pizza Rolls, etc. It was so fun and I am so happy that I got to do it for her! 

MAY

Well, Katie and I took our first ever bff road trip together this month which was FUN. We drove to Seattle for memorial day weekend because it was our old roommate, Kelsey Johns (now Kelsey Garcia) wedding! It was so much fun because Katie had never been to Seattle so I got to show her around all the fun spots. We went to Pike Place, Kerry Park, Gum Wall, Fremont Troll, and Snoqualmie Falls. Oh and how could I forget of course we stopped by the wedding!! Something else that was super amazing that happened in May was NAT FISH CAME HOME FROM HER MISSION!!! 

JUNE/JULY 

I combined these two months because honestly... cant remember much that happened in June. July was great and so much fun!! There was the 4th of July, Brooke Jolly came to visit Rexburg and we celebrated her birthday, I went and visited Annie in St. George which was SO FUN, Kohlmann got married, I saw my niece and nephew, etc. PLUS IT WAS OFFICIALLY SUMMER BREAK!! 

AUGUST

August was so freaking fun. I went to Pikes Place with Natalie, went on a beautiful hike with her and her sister, went to bainbridge island with Natalie and Kaitlyn, lots of swimming, my friend Kyla came to visit for the day, went to Lake Chelan with my family and the Beans, and went to Sand Point, ID with Natalies family and we also went to Silverwood after! It was such a fun filled summer. 

SEPTEMBER

Well, for about the first week I went to Utah and visited Ellie in Provo and took pictures of my friend jordan and her husband for maternity pictures!! Then I went back to school. September was fun. It was filled with Soda Vine, McMidnight, The National Parks concerts, and we snuck back stage. It was so muuuuchhhh fun!!!!

OCTOBER

Ohhh October. It was so good. I went to the Palisades, Jackson Hole, Pumpkin Patches, visited my nephew and niece, my whole apartment dressed up as Goth's for halloween, and it was just a good month you know? It was such a perfect fall month. The colors were amazing, the air was soooo crisp. 

NOVEMBER

Thanksgiving freaking break was MUCH NEEDED. That was my highlight of November I think! It was just a good month all around. November always seems to fly by. Its hard to remember what happened this month- but seeing my dog was the highlight.. oh and of course my family too. ;) 

DECEMBER

Well the semester flew by and it came and gone. Katie graduated college, which was fun to go to with Kaitlyn. Then it was winter break- which is definitely the highlight. I hung out with Ashlyn a lot which was fun, CHRISTMAS and New Years eve!! I also had a little photoshoot with Natalie and my friend Morgan which was so fun. This month was so great and so happy. I've gone to Pike Place, it snowed on Christmas eve so we woke up to a freaking WHITE CHRISTMAS!!! SO much snow. Abby didnt know what to do with herself. 

Overall this year was really good. I loved all the friends I made and the memories I shared. Of course I have some goals obviously because New Year New Me duh ;) But basically they're simple goals and I think I can accomplish them. They also are some things I learned in 2017 and want to continue to put into practice in 2018:

GOALS: 

1. Practice empathy more- Its not that I don't do it but I want to be better at it, to not be so quick to judge.

2. Put my Mental Health first ALWAYS. Its more important to be healthy mentally than physically first I think. Its easy for me to deteriorate my mental health and become hyper focused on my physical health. I went to see a therapist this past semester for myself and it was super beneficial and so I think I need to put it first always and make sure I am trying to be better each day.

3. Workout to be HEALTHY 

4. Eat more nutrient dense foods

5. Look for not superficial attributes about people- compliment them on their worth i.e. the way they light up when they talk about what they love instead of the way they look. 

6. Continue to be more assertive and not a people pleaser all the time. You will let people down. THAT IS OKAY. They will forgive you.

7. Don't apologize when there is nothing to apologize for. 

8. Dont go on a date with someone just because you feel like you should. 

9. Treat yo' self when needed

10. Remember to treat myself like a daughter of God, treat others as children of God and remember that I deserve to have my feelings valued, heard and listened to and should give the same to others.

I hope you all had a wonderful 2017 and learned things, loved yourself more, and I hope you have a Happy New Year!!! 

FALL SEMESTER 2017

I was planning on writing this right when I got home for winter break but I had to sleep for like 50 hours to catch up from this fall semester. Just kidding, well kind of. I slept SO MUCH when I first came home. I would stay up super late and wake up... early-ish. Or my brain was just exhausted and I needed sleep from emotional and mental exhaustion from this semester.

Fall semester was so much fun. I had the best roommates ever and it was just laughs the whole time I swear. There was lots of dancing, back scratches, mini road trips, photo shoots, Kaitlyn singing and playing the guitar, puppies, lots of chicken nuggets and soda vine runs. so many soda vine runs.

One of my first favorite memories of this semester was at the very beginning when Kaitlyn tried to see how many grapes she could fit in her mouth... no joke. She ended up fitting 30 in her mouth.

Of course we saw the National Parks and it was amazing!! It was Natalies first time seeing them live EVER so that was so fun. I had been messaging Megan the violinist, I once went to their Seattle show and it was such a tiny crowd that we got to talk to them after and kept in contact with her ever since! And so, told her I was coming to the Rexburg show, and I wanted to say hi after the show. So, what did we do? We all snuck backstage afterwards and waited for her and the rest of the band to say hi. It was a BLAST.

Another fun memory was on the Sunday of General Conference weekend, Paige, Katie and I went to the Palisades so I could take Katie's graduation pictures and it was BEAUTIFUL. I kid you not- it was like out of a book. The colors of the trees were breath taking and we couldn't get over it. We just kept stopping every time we could to get out and look.

Oh how could I ever even forget... MEREDITH CAME TO VISIT!! I'm so proud of her for going on a mission. She is so awesome! I am so so proud of her. She is the funniest person ever and I love her so much. I'm so glad she surprised me (kind of) and came to hang with Katie and I one last time!

I also went to Utah to go to my nephews first Primary Program and UGH MY HEART!!! I am so happy and lucky to be an aunt :) Scarlett and Jackson are the cutest kids EVER! I know I am biased but they are the best! My heart is so full and happy whenever I see them.

Kiersten, Natalie and I went to the pumpkin patch and took pictures... of course. It was so fun and fall-ey (if thats a word?) and we also went to Mesa Falls the next day and UGH MY HEART AGAIN! i love the trees. love love love them.

Going home for Thanksgiving was much needed. Even though it was short- it was SO NEEDED. Seeing my parents, grandma, dog, and siblings was so fun!

There were so many memories, laughs and tears. There were many tears (from me haha) but I couldnt even begin to list all the fun memories there were just so many! I made new friends and restored the strength of old ones. I am so grateful for the school I attend and the friends I have. School of course was good! I had two jobs this semester, being a TA for Nutrition again and then for BIO264 with Brother Bailey! It was really time consuming but so much fun because I met so many great people in those classes! I also had great classes in general. I worked hard and pulled out the grades I wanted!

Katie graduated this semester and even though I cried the week before graduation because shes been my best friend since I've gotten back from Lithuania at school and just the greatest- I am so proud of her. Im going to miss living with her SO MUCH but I am so excited for her to start her career and see all the wonderful things she will accomplish!

Im so excited for next semester and for the new year! I cant wait for all the new memories I'm going to make and the laughs I will have. Even though 2017 was hard and Fall Semester was hard in its own way and a really great growing opportunity, it was really really great. I love BYUI, I love my friends, I love my family, and I loved FALL 2017. Only two more semesters and then... I GRADUATE?! AH! I've taken longer than planned to graduate but I am so glad I am. Its good for my mental health and also... word to the wise: dont change your major like 5 times ;) Bring it on 2018!!!

 I am sooooo happy I'm living with Natalie again!!! She is the best and so great to have around.