And Straight on 'Till Morning

  I can't wait for school to start!!!  I'm really excited to start a new semester. I've always liked the feeling of being able to start over fresh, but this time is even better. I got three A's and two A-'s this last semester and it has left me feeling like I really can do anything. I've become a better student, and I understand better how important it really is to put lots of time into all of my classes in order to get good grades in them. I've also realized that in truth, time is the important thing. It's never that I'm not smart enough or not cut out for such and such, it's that I have to be willing to put in the time and effort to really excel. I can do things that are hard or that I'm not good at. I just have to be willing to work. And once I put in the time and effort and work I often realize that it's really not that hard. My father once accused me of being a hypochondriac. Although I resented that accusation I have come to real...

And the summary continues . . . Christmas morning I woke up and heard Mom, Dad, and Jackson talking. Jackson got in bed with Mom and Dad to keep warm, then Carli woke up and went to join them. I could hear them talking about me so I spoke up and said I was warm where I was. However, eventually I got up and went to join them in their bed. It was a king size bed, but it was still a bit of a squeeze to fit all five of us under the covers at once. My dad read us Luke 2 and then we all got up and ready to go do stockings. In my stocking I found an apron that said “Queen of Everything” on it (that was as close as they could find to Princess of the World), a beautiful scarf that I jokingly fashioned as a burka (reminiscent of the domestic violence lecture), an oven mitt with a pattern of snowflakes, medicated lip balm for extremely dry lips, and fingernail clippers and files. After stockings were done, we sang some songs, and my dad played his guitar, for a Christmas program that my sist...

So as you may or may not know my family spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in a yurt on Tamarak resort. I don't like traveling and I would have much rathered stay home for Christmas but we went anyway and I did have fun. The following is a summary of key events. On the way to Donnelly we listened to a lecture on domestic violence. The speaker told all kinds of stories from women in the US pushed around by their husbands to women in Muslim countries who get sprayed with sulfuric acid if they allow their faces to be seen. Then my mom and dad proceeded to give us the same lecture that my mom has given several times. “If your boyfriend tries to control you, frightens you, intimidates you, or hurts you in any way; that is the end of the relationship and you never speak to him again. If your husband does any of those things you take your kids and all the money in your accounts and leave him. The first time.” I absolutely agree. Finally, just outside of Donnelly, we go to the hot sp...

So, I just saw this really cool video on BYU's home page, and I thought I'd share it with you. If you want you can also check out the article at . Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo .

I've been studying MCom (mass communications) all morning, and I need a break. So, let me tell you about my scripture study this morning. Since yesterday I've been trying to study the principle of faith. Monday morning I started my study by reading about faith in the Bible dictionary. That day was mostly an overview of the principles I already knew. This morning I went over it again and a few things jumped out at me. The first thing was the definition of faith. The "seminary answer" to that is, "to hope for things that are not seen, but which are true." However, the part that jumped out at me this morning was a little bit different; "To have faith is to have confidence in something or someone . . . to place confidence in Him without reservation." The second thing was in concert with the principle "faith without works is dead." I switched the order of a few phrases in the third paragraph to emphasize their meaning. "[True faith]...

So I have a crazy amount of stuff to do in the next three weeks. Today is the 1st of December, and by the 16th or 17th I'm going to be completely done with finals. Before the reading days starting on the 10th I have to complete the following:  Nativity World Lit Analysis Paper Grammar Test Re-take Biology Stewardship Paper ISys HTML Project ISys HTML Exam MCom Business Evaluation Report (part of final) All other general class work (mostly reading) This is going to be an interesting few weeks and I probably won't post again until it's over unless something really big happens.

That was a sigh, not a yell. It really is nice to be back after the break. I love going home to visit my family, but at the same time it's nice to be back in the normal routine. Yesterday when I got home I found a mass of bags and boxes in our living room and my bedroom. I turns out that my roommate decided to move out. We have very different sleep schedules, and she just couldn't handle it anymore. I find it strange however, that she is the one who couldn't handle it. She stays up late and gets up late, and I go to bed early and get up early. When she comes home or is in our room after I'm in bed she turns on her desk lamp and types away on her laptop with no regard for the fact that I'm trying to sleep. When I get up in the morning, I don't turn on any lights, I go in and out of our room as little as possible, and I try not to make any noise. She moved out last night though and it was actually really nice to be able to go to sleep without tying a bandanna aro...

So there's a list going around Facebook of 100 books that the average person will read only 6 of. I went through the list myself. I bolded the books I've read all the way through, italicized the books I've read parts of or listened to on tape, and color coded the one's I haven't finished. Dark blue means I want to find out more about it before I decide to read it or not, purple means I definitely want to read it, light blue means I probably should read it but I don't want to so I probably won't. Oh, and I won't make you count but I've read 22 of them all the way through and 8 partially or on tape. 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 8 22 30 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible (OT & NT) 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - Geor ge Orwell 9 His Dark Materials - Ph...

So I haven't posted for a while (things have been busy) so now I will attempt to catch everybody (including me) up. The last thing I wrote about was my MCom project. I am happy to announce that it was a success. We got everything done and only had one minor mishap during our presentation. After it was over I went to my ISys class feeling free as a bird. I then realized that one load of stress had been taken away and another had promptly fallen into place. It was Tuesday and I now had to finish a project (due that Thursday) and prepare for a practical exam (also on thursday). I did manage to get everything done however, and turned in, and I feel good about my exam. This class scares me so much, but I seem to be doing really well. I hope that holds true for the final. After that I relaxed a little and on Friday, Jared and I went with my ward to see the last dress rehersal of Savior of the World . It is a musical put on by the Church in the Little Theater (in the Conference Center) ab...

So I spent all day working on the same thing (minus 20 minutes of time to read part of my assignment for world lit). I've been trying to finish a project for my Mass Communications class that's due in class tomorrow. It's a group project and we were assigned to analyze the major complaints against the hotel chain Days Inn, write a formal report (to Days Inn) and prepare a Power Point presentation to give to the class (pretending they're Days Inn representatives) along with a handout. I somehow managed to land the role of coordinator/leader of our group and it's been crazy! No one else seemed too worked up about actually finishing the project so I handed out assignments and created Google docs. I also ended up being the one to put everything together. When everyone sent me their paragraphs for the report I put them together and wrote the introduction and conclusion. However, I soon realized that this just wouldn't do (at least we wouldn't get an A). Each pers...

Jared and I went to see a play called Stage Door on Thursday night. The way they staged it was very interesting. The stage went down the middle of the room and there were seats (on risers) on each side. The stage was set at the beginning as a living room/music room with stairs at one end, and there were no scene changes. While we were sitting waiting for the show to start a black and white movie was playing in a picture screen that was on the wall of the set with the stairs. The movie was made by the same actors as were in the play as well as the director, costume manager, and other people required to make a play happen. They introduced all the actors and had several short clips about the 1930's, how the idea for the play had come about, and about the play itself. When the play started it took me a moment to realize that all of the actors had their faces and sometimes hair powdered white, wore gray lipstick, and all had clothes in shades of gray, black, or white. The whole play was...

Today, Jared and I walked back to my apartment after his voice lesson. On our way back Jared was practically giddy about how beautiful the weather has been recently. The leaves are gorgeous, there's snow on the mountains, and the sun is shining. His enthusiasm for all different seasons really is infectious and I was feeling it to. We like to walk down the stairs that are west of the Maser building when we're heading to my apartment, and on the way we have to walk past a big hill. Today there were piles of leaves at the top of the hill. I told Jared that the leaf piles made me want to jump in them and roll down the hill. His response was to cross the road, take off his backpack, and roll down the hill. We left the leaf piles in tact (grounds crew would not thank us if they had to rake them twice) and rolled down the hill several times. I tried to show Jared how I'd managed to role down the hill straight and ended up with my head downhill and my feet uphill so I gave up. Then...

Yesterday I was walking home from campus and had the coolest experience. Snow was falling and at the same time the sun was shining and it wasn't too cold. The snow was in tiny tiny flakes that weren't sticking to the ground or to you and it wasn't wet. If you couldn't see it you almost wouldn't know it was snowing. The sun was reflecting off the flakes was making everything kind of shimmery. It was like walking through a snow globe that had just been shaken up.

So Caitlin's blog has gotten me thinking. I'm not as creative of a writer, and I'm definitely not a paint artist, but I am away at college and not in as direct contact with my family and friends. I would like to be able to share my life and ideas with those that I love. I can't promise to post every day, or even every week, but I will try. I hope you all enjoy.