"I Can See Life Has Been Patiently Waiting For Me."

This is my last blog post for the semester. Wowsers. I six days I'll be catching a plane for Chicago to spend my two weeks of Christmas break with my fantabulous sister. Then I'll be right back here to give college another go.

The last couple days have been filled with a lot of different emotions. Excitement for break - stressing about finals - and sadness whenever we all start talking about going home. Not that we're not all excited to see family and friends, because we completely and totally are. But we're a little family here too and one that I'm going to miss like crazy. 

It almost seems a little unfair. I've only had four months with these girls and already I love them more than half the kids I spent the last eighteen years with. Our time here in college together has been so short - we'll probably all be married before we get a chance to room together again. 

We've laughed together until we cried, vented until 2:00am about ratchet hoes, been pregnant and then pregnant again. We've been hit on by the creepiest of the creepies, had simultaneous sore glutes from squats, and baked a freaking cheesecake. We've spent countless hours stalking attractive male  classmates on facebook and planning our future weddings down to the center pieces. 

We've got five days left together, so yesterday we spent the day together running around campus with a camera. I've never had a lot of girl friends. I've always preferred the guys and the drama free route. But I'm so incredibly thankful I got blessed with these three amazing girls in my life. I guarantee Heavenly Father knew exactly what I needed this semester and gave them to me. 

While I'm being all cheesy and stuff here, can I just say, I'm going to miss this person so much. I'm pretty sure if I didn't have my brotein shake Kenzie this semester, I'd go cray-cray. Honestly, my first impression of her was not the best. I prepared myself for the worst and thinking back on that makes me laugh. Never ever thought I'd make such a broski in college, especially with my roommate, but hey, I've been wrong before. Who I'm going to judge other people with next semester, I have no idea. 

Not that we really have a lot of room to judge… but oh well. 

So after pictures yesterday, we went hookiebobbin' with a group of friends. Yeah, I'd never heard of it either, but apparently that's what you call it. Basically, we drove out to this icy parking lot in the middle  of nowhere and then you hold onto the tailgate of the pickup… you get the gist? It was crazy fun - probably one of the best times I've had since I've been here in Rexburg. Plus we met some country boys and we all know how I feel about that. 

Well, my last final is on Tuesday - Animal Reproduction - and then I'll be done with my first semester. Fingers crossed it goes well, I'm a little nervous. We'll see what happens!

We've all been talking a lot about how our lives and where we are all going to be headed from here. I kinda came to the scary realization that from now on, I'll spend more of my year in Idaho than I will in Alaska. And in all reality, this upcoming summer is probably my last trip home for awhile. By next summer I should have an internship, year-round apartment, hopefully a fiancé or something close. And I actually really love Idaho. It's not Alaska, that's for sure, but I'm happy here and am completely content living in this state for the years to come. 

I honestly never thought I'd consider this place home. But it kinda is! 

So, the rest of this post will probably just be pictures that we took yesterday. We got like 250, so I won't bore you will all of them, but I wanted to put them up here. 

Well, we're cool, what can I say.

And we love our Christmas lights, but who could blame us.

Pregnant bellies are also way too much fun.

But don't let that fool you. We're pretty thug.

More roomie love. 

We have this thing where we're going to audition for American Idol and then win because we're just that amazing. 

Annnnnnd, we love Brooke's energy!

Also our booties. 

Group hugs are the best. I don't wanna let these gals go!

They love me, no big deal.

I really don't know what happened here.

We shoulda been models probably. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love these girls. We're like the three amigos, but plus one. 

"We Don't Care - We're Driving Cadillacs In Our Dreams."

Two. Weeks. Left.

It's hard to believe that I am very nearly half way done with my freshman year of college. Whut. 

This week was pretty chill homework wise. I worked one my one big paper for my Ag class. It's on determining fertility and libido in potential breeding bulls. Exciting, I know. 

I got a box from my bestest big sister ever also. Ya know, normal people use like, packing peanuts… yeah, not her. I opened the thing and lucky charms marshmallows went everywhere. I'm still cleaning sugar up in my apartment today. She ridiculous. 

But I love her. 

Let's see. Then on Thursday in Ag class I got to do something super exciting. So, in lab the professor brings in two cattle uteruses and puts them on the table in front of us. Immediately like, everyone scatters except one other girl and I. Apparently cow guts are scary to some people. Whaterr. 

Anyway, he tells me to palpate it and he's got this sly look on his face. So I do and I was pretty sure I felt something in there. So we got a scalpel and sliced open one side of the uterus, all the while talking about the different layers and sciency stuff. When we saw a little pair of hooves, everything got super exciting. 

It's a little heifer! Anyway, so we decided to do the same to the other uterine horn and WHAT DO YOU KNOW.

There was a little bull in there. Twins aren't exactly an every day occurrence in cattle, so it was a pretty exciting moment for us. He told us we could get extra credit if we could tell him next week how far along we think the pregnancy is. My guess is 90-100 days. Closer to the ninety day mark though. 

So that was a lot of fun. And next week we're supposed to be birthing calves, which will be even more fun. 

Last night there was the big BYUI Christmas program, so I went to that with a date. It was fun - the music was phenomenal. Afterwards we went out to eat, then back to hang out at the guys' apartment. 

Oh also, I went and took a tour at the Ivy apartments which is where I'll be living next fall. My. Freaking. Word. That place is gorgeous. I cannot wait to live there. Free laundry - huge apartment - brand new appliances - a shuttle bus to the grocery store - and only $250 more a semester. Yeah. Sounds pretty gosh dang good to me. 

Anyways. That was my weekend. Got some little homework assignments done and now we're headed out to go hang with the boys again. So peace out - I'll post again soon!

"No More Counting Dollars, We'll Be Counting Stars."

Alright y'all- blog time!

So there was this thing this week called Thanksgiving break. And it was a wonderful thing. No classes and I didn't have to set my alarm. Not even once. It was heavenly. 

Monday and Tuesday were technically not included in break 'cause I still had classes, so they were nothing special.

Wednesday it began and honestly, I think we were a little unsure about what to do with all of the freedom. So we didn't really do anything that day. Well, except we went to the gym, of course. Kenzie has started coming with me. We don't work out together really (except for when we do squats because safety first), but we go together and that's all that matters. Then Wednesday night I made my first pie ever. It's a new skill of mine, apparently. No big deal or anything.

Also on Wednesday I was forced to go buy a new computer, due to the fact that mine decided to give up on me. Rude. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving of course! Can I just say - I was so proud of us for making our own little dinner. It all turned out so well... I'm pretty sure we are going to make excellent wives. Boys, take a note of this. 

(Our Thanksgiving dinner! That would be my pecan pie in the back... yup. It was wonderful.)

So Friday we did homework in the morning and then went to see Catching Fire that afternoon. Gosh dang was it good. A million times better than the first one. Not like that's saying much, but still. Finnick was picture perfect, which was a good thing considering he was my favorite character in the book and had he been less than perfect I would have been not happy. So yeah.

Got some grocery shopping done this weekend, wrote up an actual budget because I realized it was probably about time, and somehow got pulled into that TV show Game of Thrones. I'm only on episode four and I've got three full seasons to watch. This is no small task. I've also gotten started on this "My Fitness Pal" thing... it's like dieting, but fun. Trust me. 

Alright, well that's about all that I've got for you. The lost roommates (Brooke and Scar) should be home in a couple hours and thank goodness for that because the place just isn't the same without them. Okay, well, I'm going to go eat a protein bar and watch my show... Bu-bye!

(It ain't gonna watch itself!)

"I Loved To Choose And See My Path, But Now Lead Thou Me On."

Wanna see what we did this weekend? Yeah you do.

(His name is Francis. He's very handsome. He's living on our fridge now.)

And you thought we'd mature in college. Psh. What rock are you living under. What with the hand turkey and Christmas lights up, our dorm kind looks amazing. No big thing.

So, let's see. This week I got registered for classes - go me! I'm signed up to take a Book of Mormon class, Live and Carcass Evaluation (farm stuff yo), possibly Animal Handling and Behavior (I'm still on the wait list for that one), and Overall Exercise Physiology (I couldn't help it. I still can't decide where my loyalties lie.) Tomorrow I'll get my math and English classes added then boom, I'll be ready for next semester..

Already got tuition paid for out of my market check (sheep are good for something after all) - by some twist of fate I got my room switched so I don't have to move all of my crap over Christmas break - things are just really falling into place.

Nothing extremely exciting happened this week. Classes were super chill, probs because Thanksgiving break is coming up and even the professors are looking forward to that. I didn't get to fulfill my dream of AIing a cow this week due to the fact that the dang cows decided to mess with their heat cycles, but I'm holding out on said dream. It will happen soon enough.

I started squatting this week. Yesterday, to be precise. And let's just say I'm a little sore back there. Walking to church was an adventure, to be sure. Speaking of church, it was my turn to teach Gospel Doctrine today and bro, turns out I'm kinda loving my calling. Who woulda thought teaching could be so much fun? Plus, it's an opportunity to show off my amazingly artistic stick figure drawing skills on the white board. Perks, I tell you, perks.

Thanksgiving break starts on Tuesday - my last class ends at like two and then I'm free to lounge about and mess around in the gym for a whole five and a half days. BOOYA. Also, I get to try out my possibly awesome pie-making talents. We'll just see how that one goes.

Not much else to say about this week, but since it's Sunday I'll add just a little spiritual thought. So, for a couple months now I'd been praying for something that I really, really wanted. Like bro, it was all I could think about. And I thought it was a good thing, I really did. I got my answer this week (finally) and I'm just gonna be honest, it was exactly the opposite of what I'd asked for. I was a little shocked and unhappy, to say the very least. But after thinking it through (alot), I realized that what I had originally wanted would not have been the best thing for me. The Lord knew that and honestly I think he was waiting for me to figure it out myself and when I didn't he was like, "Okay, seriously hun, here's the thing..." I am so incredibly grateful I have Him to look out for me. He knows me better than I do and he loves me so much he's willing to tell me "No" on something I want in the moment, in order to cause me to wait for something much, much better. I'm pretty gosh darn lucky.

A'ight. That's a wrap. Love you all - Happy Thanksgiving!

(Saw this on Pinterest of course and it struck home. Just change "Life" to "God" and boom, you got it.)

"It's a Holiday When We're Together."

Okay. I have a story. It's titled, "My professor changed my big semester project last minute, basically throwing away all of the time I spent studying for it and gave me a lame one on golf instead."

And that's about it. I'm really not much of a story teller, so that sucks. But you get the gist. So, I've got to give an hour long presentation on golf now, instead of rugby (which I had actually come to enjoy, thank you very much). Wow. Go figure.

In other news, this week was actually pretty chill. Minimal homework now that midterms are basically over and no parties until next weekend. Soooo, yeah.

I did take the military physical fitness test again for my class and I took just over a minute off of my run. I was so freaking excited. Put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. I'm only at an 8 minute mile these days, but bro, that's spectacular for this person.

So on Friday Kenzie and I decided to attempt the impossible and make a cheesecake. Yeah, really. Things didn't start out promising... pretty much right off the bat I put salt in the crust instead of sugar. But we saw it through man, and guess what. It flipping worked.

Whoop, there it is. Our glorious cheesecake. 

I am still extremely proud of this dessert. Get over it.

Saturday it snowed. And it actually stuck! Like, it's currently still out there! People were making snowmen for gosh sakes. It just put me in such the Christmas mood - bring on them holidays. 

  The view from my front door is spectacular! Also Christmas break is in like a month. Whaaaat.

So, since it snowed and Christmas is basically here, we decided to go on an adventure for decorations. We braved the cold and the wind and all of the boys who honk when they drive by... and we were in fact victorious. 

  It's like Christmas all up in here.

Our ghetto decorating skills still amuse me. We got three strings and hung them in random places around our apartment. I'm telling you, I'm pretty sure we should all go into interior decorating because obviously we have natural talent. 

And we also got Christmas mugs because it would have been ridiculous not to. 

Today was church, did mah visiting teaching like the good little Mormon girl I am, and now we're all on the living room floor watching Parkland and waiting for Kenzie's crockpot dinner to finish. This is the life I tell ya. 

On Saturdays we wear plaid. Rock on, my friends, rock on.

"Let Me Hold Both Your Hands In The Holes Of My Sweater."

IT'S WINTER TIME, FOLKS.

You see that? Snowwww! Of course, this was a couple days ago and now that snow's gone, but that's completely beside the point.

I don't understand it, honestly. At home I was never a huge fan of snow. But here, when the white stuff starts coming down and I'm like the energizer bunny on crack - it's amazing. Maybe it's because everyone here has some kind of vendetta against snow, so I feel obligated to defend it as an Alaskan... who even knows. It's a mystery, I tell ya, a gosh darn mystery.

Anyway, so it snowed this week, as I already said. And it's finally starting to get that Christmas-y feel around here. Like the neighbors have been putting up lights, and paper snowflakes, and crap, and I've been in the mood for apple cider 24/7. I've even had this inane desire to bake cookies recently despite the fact that I'm pretty sure it would kill our apartment. The roommates and I have talked about getting a tree - the plan is still in progress because I'm pretty sure it's illegal to take one from the park. We'll figure it out, no big deal.

So I went to the temple again this week. Looking for a little inspiration and I figured that'd be the place to find it. It's so awesome being able to just walk up the street and go to the temple whenever I feel like it. Points to you, BYU-I.

Went to see Thor 2 with Kenzie and Brooke Friday night. The theater was crazy packed - obviously everyone and their brother wanted to see Chris Hemsworth shirtless too, which I completely understand and am not judging them for. So that was fun.

Last night Kenzie and I went to Battle of the Bands on campus. It was fun - my favorite band won, so obviously someone has good taste, just saying. Also, turns out there are alot of good-looking guys in the music department here. I should start on the piano again...

Registration for next semester starts in eight days! I've already gotten all my classes (hopefully) written out and I'm gettin' kinda excited about them. I'm about 97.3% positive that I'm going to change my major from Exercise Physiology to Beef Production. I still plan on taking all the kinesiology classes at some point and my plan is to get into a weight lifting class next semester, but I think I'd be better suited trying for a career in the animal science department. Unfortunately the AI class I wanted to take got taken out of the winter semester (poop), but there's an animal handling class that I'm planning on taking which sounds like way too much freaking fun. It's all hands on and deals mostly with horses and cattle... I.can.not.wait.

Anyways, so that's been my life this week. More mid-terms to finish up this next week and then Thanksgiving break before long. Life's bein' kind - always thinking about everyone at home. Adios amigos.

"Eighteen Years In Her Rearview."

Mm, well, I'm not gonna lie, this week was a tough one.

There's this thing called "more midterms than I like to handle"... not so chill. I also managed to go and lose an entire notebook of lecture notes. Smooth, Ash, smooth.

*sigh* Also, I didn't get to the temple like I was originally planning on doing, which really didn't help my already crappy mood. I'd like to formally apologize to my roommates and thank them for putting up with my pissy self over the last few days. They are pretty much the best a person could ask for. Really though.

It wasn't all bad though. I got a huge essay out of the way this week - amen, halleluiah, thank the heavens above. I took an econ test on Friday and I'm pretty sure I aced it. I started benching this week and even though I'm only at 40lbs for three sets, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

 (And I'm loving my new lifting gloves. So yeah.)

So on Saturday I sat down to write my essay, wasn't feeling it, grabbed my Nikes and ran away for awhile. I decided to head up behind the temple, took a left and literally walked out into the middle of nowhere.

 After about an hour, I came over this hill and I saw snow-capped mountains off in the distance. It reminded me of Alaska so much.

All of the fields and pipe made me feel like I was back at the farm. Never thought I'd miss all those hours out in the dirt weeding, but guess what, I do. Honestly, sometimes I wish I could just relive last summer. It was really some of the best times I've had. 

I also listened to Imagine Dragons on repeat for pretty much the entire four hours I was gone. I'd forgotten just how much I love them.

I found a random hill out in the boonies and claimed it as my new hiding spot. Reminds me of the Butte a little - it'll have to do while I'm here.

I can't wait to get back to Alaska. The very first thing I'm going to do when I get home (after I say hi to the family of course) is drive up to Hatchers. I need some real mountain time. Idaho's just not doing it for me, honestly. 

I do love it here, I really do. The school is great and I love my college bros. But I'm missin' home.