Hopelessly Devoted

hello, HELLO, HELLO!!!
I'm back again!

My wonderful grandparents who I LOVE hearing from gently reminded me that I really do need to update and get the word out!

Well Grandpa & Grandma, life is swell. Rushed, but swell. I have a few portfolios due at the end of the semester with weekly assignments that I have to keep on remembering to do, but i'm actually ahead. And I still have tons of free time (Father, send the PS2!!!) I'm taking 17 credits: Geography, lab, body weight management, psych, Old testament, social dance, Mass media, intro to comm careers and career exploration. Is that all? I think so... haha. I really like my geography and old testament classes, the teachers and the assignments and everything are great.

Roommates? well I only have 3 this year. and i LOVE it!!

We'll start with Alexa, a freshman and aged 19. She hails from Twin Falls, Idaho. Most weekends she is gone visiting her boyfriend, Tanner, who I just met this weekend. He is AWESOME. Alexa is fun, and one thing about all my roommates is that everyone is so chill. We get along very very well. Alexa is the most laid back of everyone and she's just funny. Oh.. and she's tall. I don't like that part haha


Next is Savannah, from Highland, Utah. She is 22 years old, about to be 23 and she actually is a sophomore because she went on a mission to New York. Unfortunately, she was only able to be in the field about a month, finding out that she was sick at the end of it and so got sent home. Savannah is sick a lot, which makes us feel bad but she doesn't want us to feel bad. I know she is currently majoring in communications with an emphasis on graphic design. She is a wonderful friend, with a great personality and many experiences. She's also got that 'surfer chick' vibe about her; her grandparents have a residence in Hawaii right on the beach in Kauai so every year they would go to Hawaii in the summer. FREAKING LUCKY!

Finally, there is Shandy. Shandy is from Nampa, Idaho, which is near Boise (YUP all my roomies are either from ID or UT, the Mormon states :D haha). Shandy is a freshman and 18, and she has a missionary. Actually.. I met him. Her boyfriend of 2 years just left 3 weeks ago. He's a really great guy, and Shandy is living the dream! In 2 years, her step parents will pay for her to go on a 2 week honeymoon to Hawaii, and they will be giving the couple their mansion of a house because they will be moving. Her guy has a freaking awesome personality, he's cute, he's going to be a doctor, he comes from a rich family, and he plays piano like a genius. Ridiculous! Shandy is the go-getter of the apartment. She's always doing something, and always offers rides to class and she likes to clean the house. She's really interested in what others' opinions are and just generally interested, which is nice. Shandy is majoring in child psychology.
Next question was about the weather.. well January has been much MUCH better than last year, mostly in the late 20s, which feels good. You only really need a jacket, no mittens, parkas or scarves required. And there hasn't been too much yucky snow. And I haven't fallen yet this year on the ice. However, recently it has dipped into the negatives a bit, which is awful. I hope it doesn't keep that up! The cold last year lasted into May, but observing how it has been so far, I dont know how long this will continue; probably less time till the wonders of Idaho summer. Overall I do prefer this biting cold to the gross-ness of Houston humidity... have yall started spring yet Houstonites? hahah. Ew.

Of course the topic has turned to dating as well. I'm not focusing on dates or anything like that, just on school and, of course, myself hahah. I want to make sure I do well.. I need to!

I'm sad I wasn't able to be there when everyone saw Linda on her vacation! I wish I could visit more. I hope you are all doing well and yes I will keep Bill in my prayers. I hope the job pickings improve by the time I have to step into that world. Landon is being blessed, that's awesome!! Sorry that it gets a little confusing between Landon and London... did you know I came up with his name? Yup I suggested it and that was the only name that Becks & Scott could agree on! I'm really happy about that haha.

Now, I know my mom will want me to update how my room and everything is. Now that my room is all my own, I generally keep it clean and *gasp* I even make my BED!! :O



And here's the other side... I FORGOT THE BEST PART!!: Because I only have 3 roommates.. I have my own room. Stinks for Shandy because she actually paid the extra $400 for hers and I just got one by default because Nauvoo didn't fill up I suppose. I'm really loving it, it is nice to have my own space. Oh, and much better than sleeping out in the open in the playroom! Though I fear now I am spoiled, because I'm going to be super bummed when I get a roommate next semester :(And here's our bathroom...

And our kitchen wall...

and... voila!! Our amazing living room. All the decorations are mine.. including the rainbow things hanging from the ceiling all around. I got the orange canopy from the DI... for 10 bucks only. WOWOWOW that worked out well. I'm really proud of our now-decorated apartment

View from the door:

It's a much better atmosphere because we only have 4 girls, and this setup is more intimate and just feels better. And, as a plus, it's cute!
In speaking of past roommates, Dinga is doing well as a whole. It is pretty much a plan that Dan will propose within the next 2 months and they will be married I think August 7th. Which means I would be returning home on the 8th (I believe my friend Olivia gets married the 8th in Houston). That is all distant from now so I am not thinking about it just yet.

Alexis lives 8 doors down from me - it is always a trial of whether or not my desire to see her is stronger than my laziness to walk uphill to her apartment. Once when it did win, I went over in my footies and was surprised to find that she had footies too! So we thought, of course, lets document this.
She is just as sassy as she always has been.

And then, as always, the jumping pictures commenced. We just love em, what can I say :)

Then one of her roommates, Shari, came and joined us in HER footies.

At which point it made sense to try for another jumping shot. It took us many tries and tons of hilarious faces made in unsuccessful pictures..................









........ to finally produce the results we wanted:

We were so pleased we tried for a backwards shot.

And then Alexis wanted to demonstrate her strength and our friendship so I jumped into Alexis' arms. hahhah! I look about 7 in this pic, just a big baby!:

Other old friends include James!

We decided to go play in the snow one day. It didn't feel too cold to me out there so I just went out as is, in a dress. LOOK i climbed an 'Idaho snow mountain'. It was a perilous journey:
And those are my initials in the snow :)



We went down to the football field which was under feet of snow and ice. We discovered the remains of the amazing igloo that had been out before. Later I found out management had the top taken off to prevent the possibility of it caving in and killing people. I thought that was nice.

Now, of course the snow is very awful up here in rexburg.. it is very dry and unpackable. A few weeks ago we had some moisture and for a couple days there was much rejoicing and snowman-building in all the land. But then it went back to powder. James had never played in the snow before and was convinced all snow was the same and it was possible to roll his own. He proved himself wrong. But then I felt bad so I told him we would make our own snowman from the hunks of ice leftover from past snowmen that had fallen. He got the 2nd piece up and I got the two on top. Behold, our Rexburg ICE Snowman!!
By the way.. did you see my knees? I wasn't cold at all.. it was all fine. But apparently my legs were cold since they were beet red. Look at the difference between them and my face. It's not naturally that way hahahha. Pretty cool in my opinion. I later found out it was about 11-12 degrees. Oh well.

James' first snow angel. I had to instruct him on how to make one:
Me beginning my angel!
Near the end we even found out I had what we now call a 'temperature tanline', speaking of the color difference between the uncovered area of leg and that of the leg which had been safe in my boots. Ultimately James got worried about my health and decided we should head home. It was fun!

Ok now I wasn't in favor of my social dance class at first, but now we are doing swing and I'm loving that. I have a partner that is my fave to swing with who is Jeff - we went to an 80s dance lab and we were swinging better than many (which I attribute to HIS previously acquired skills), even though I was in my tall stilettos. I swore I was going to fall right on my face.. but it didn't happen so I consider myself extremely fortunate. It is obvious that I have no idea how they really dressed living in the 80s cuz I was mixing styles and stuff and came up with my own version.
I do like the makeup though! I stole it from 80s punk chick stars

Rock on! :D
At the dance lab we learned the hustle (kinda) and the chorus to the Thriller (kinda):
I thought it was fun anyways.

Ok, on to my ward. I love my ward! So much better than last year. and my FHE bros are pretty hilariously awesome as well. This is our relief society presidency:
They are wonderful people and very spiritually attuned. The girl on the far right is Kristin and I swear, when she talks I just see her on the podium in the Tabernacle as the Relief Society President addressing all the women of the world.

These particular pictures are from when we had Relief Society breakfast and they made pancakes. That weekend it was just me & Shandy home. We were sposed to wear pjs but Shandy did not. Silly girl.

Well thats about it for me, thank you so much for all your love and care and for sifting through this long and probably dull update. I hope yall are all well wherever you are!

Ciao!