One Semester Down

This last month and a half has been crazy to say the least. A lot has happened. For one, I finished my first semester at BYU-Idaho. I love it there in Rexburg so much! It is a hidden gem, and going there has been one of the best decisions of my life. That doesn't mean that everything about it has been easy, but it sure has been worth it.

For one thing, Rexburg is cold. Being from Spokane, I am used to cold weather. I'm used to lots of snow in the winter, and below freezing temperatures. Rexburg is worse. On top of it being cold, there is almost constantly windy. There was one week that it was -22 or so at the coldest. That is without windchill. It was so cold one day that the power went out and classes didn't start until 11:30 if I remember correctly. It was freezing!

I also finished up my one and only semester as a music major. I made it out alive!!!!!! I was able to learn all of my pieces and still have my brain intact by the time I was done. I am grateful for the opportunity. I really did learn a lot about life through being a music major. I guess I learned a little about music, but not as much as I wanted to. I learned more about how to focus on one particular thing. I had to learn to be dedicated no matter how hard it got or how much I hated it.

And guess what? I met the craziest guy ever. He is the best. I don't even really know where to start. He has the voice of an angel. He will tell you that he doesn't, but don't listen to him when he tells you that. Just listen to him sing instead. You will understand. His name is Sam, and he is my favorite. And yes, we are dating. He makes me so happy.

I should probably say how I met this guy. We have this mutual friend. Eric. Sam knows him through men's choir, and I know Eric because he's from Spokane and we went to high school together. So, Eric had come over one day to my apartment to hang out, and that was great and everything. He told me that he could give me a ride back to Spokane for Thanksgiving, and I told him I would think about it. I sent him a text the next day telling him that I would love a ride. Then, he asked me if he could set me up on a blind date. I told him that he could. He planned on the date being the next Wednesday. We would go and see the play that was running on campus. Fast forward to the day before the date: Tuesday. Eric sent me a text asking if he could bring Sam over to meet me. He had originally told me that he didn't want us to meet before the date because he wanted it to be a blind date. I told him that they could come over, so they did. They stopped by to say hi on their way to a choir social. We talked for a little bit, then they left. About an hour later, Eric texted me saying that the social was dumb and that they were going to come back over. They came, and we all watched Les Miserables together. Sam and I totally hit it off, went on our not-so-blind date the next day, and as we have been saying, "the rest is history."

I feel so blessed to have someone as amazing as him in my life. I am going to miss him so much these next few months since he is off track. BYU-Idaho has a funny system where students go for two of the three semesters (Fall, Winter, and Spring). Both Sam and I are assigned to go during the Fall and Spring. I am staying this winter as well, and he is going back to Pennsylvania. I am just so grateful for skype. It is one of the greatest of all modern inventions! It is going to make these next three months a whole lot easier for me. I am going to miss him so much! He truly is the best, and I feel so blessed to have him in my life!

Busy Busy Busy

Life is so busy! That's just a fact. My bed is put back together though, and there is no more hole in the wall. It's pretty stinking exciting. My bed is back in place, and it's amazing. I'm not sleeping on the floor anymore.

I have been super-duper busy with crazy amounts of practicing and reading an article for English (I ranted about that in the "my dreams" tab). I still love my English class an awful lot, and all the people are AMAZING, but it has been a lot of work outside of class this week. They are the best. We hung out a couple of Fridays ago to play capture the flag, watch Tangled, and drink hot chocolate. Capture the Flag at Porter Park was lots of fun in the dark. One thing about me, I am usually the kind of person that just stands there in games like capture the flag. I just stand there and pretty much cheer on my teem mates while acting like in some other life I could maybe have the chance of intimidating the other team's members. That's me. I am one of those people that just stand there and say "good job". It's actually pretty pathetic. This time, it was remarkably different though. I somehow got over to the other team's side, and I found the flag. No one on my team had been able to find it yet. I was just glad that I found it. It gets better though. I was able to, through some miracle, bring it back to our side. Yeah, it was pretty intense. I have NEVER done that before! It was one of the most exciting moments of my life. Not really, but it was still awesome.

On a totally different note, I am closer to getting my major changed. It really can't come fast enough. Several hours a day in the practice room is taking a toll on me. It is making me hate the thing that I love the most: music. That's just a crime. Because of this, I am ready to take my life in another direction. Web design is calling my name, and I am ready to answer the call. I had an appointment last Friday to work on changing my major, and hopefully I will have it changed by the end of this week.

My wonderful roommate Emily has sadly been sick these past few days. She has had a nasty cold, and I feel so bad for her. Hopefully we can get her feeling better before her birthday this Saturday. It wouldn't be any fun to be sick on your birthday! Kami and I keep on teasing her by telling her that we have something up our sleeve for her birthday, which we do. She keeps on saying that she is so afraid of what we could have planned. It is going to be fun when she sees the surprise. I just hope she is feeling better by then.

One of the best parts about this week that I almost forgot about was what we did for our Family Home Evening thing recently. We played the game "Assassin" for a week, and it was amazing and intense. I was SO PARANOID!!!!! Every single one of my friends can testify of that. For those of you who don't know what this game is, it's a Roman Colosseum based game. Each person in the group is given the name of another person in the group that they have to track down and "kill" we pinned clothespins on each other to "kill" our targets. Once a person kills their target, they then begin to chase the target of the person that they just killed. This goes on until there are two people left, and they fight it out. Kami, my roommate, won the entire game. Another game with a much larger group of people should start here this week, and I am so excited to play that game!

Oh, and you can tell people are having fun at the store when you see this when grocery shopping:

Time Flys

It has been two weeks since I have last posted, and so much has happened! College is still pretty awesome for the most part. Life isn't worth it, and I still despise math, but I can get over that. Music hasn't gotten any easier either. It's not that music is hard. I get it theoretically, but learning it hasn't gotten any easier. I just have to push through this semester though. The reason why? I just changed my major. I am no longer an insane music major. I am going to be a web design/development major. I am so stinking excited! I feel like this is the right thing for me to be doing right now. I will probably also get a minor in photography. Because of this major change, there might be a lot of changes on how my blog looks here in these next few years. I am very excited to dive into this field. I am going to miss this beautiful walk to the Snow building (where all my music classes are). I guess My other buildings aren't too far away, and one of them I will probably walk this way to get to it.

Enough of that boring stuff. I promise I have been out doing exciting things too. My roommates and I went to  a church Halloween party Saturday night, and we were dressed pretty crazily. Emily was a minion from Despicable Me, Madeleine was a Redcoat from Pretty Little Liars, and I was a person from the capitol in the Hunger Games.

We only made it to the last few minutes of the party, but it was still fun. Getting ready was probably the best part, in my opinion at least.

I had another exciting adventure involving the lovely bathroom this week. Yup. The same one that I got locked in two weeks ago. This time, the problem is a little different. The shower has been leaking a steady stream of water, so we had the apartment maintenance come and take a look at it. It turned out that it was a miracle our shower had even been working! It was dripping because some piece had been stripped. Because of this, they had to cut a hole in the wall behind the shower to take out the parts and replace them. My bed happens to be right where they needed to cut a hole, so my bed is on the floor next to my roommates right now until the drywall gets put back on. It's no fun. Yeah. That's where my bed was, and hopefully will be back sooner rather than later.





Last Friday night, some awesome people from my English class got together to hang out. They rock. That's really the simplest way to say it. They are the best, and I don't know what I would do without them. We had an awesome night eating chocolate chip pancakes and hanging out doing dumb things. I'm just going to leave it at that. Okay, we watched football, talked, and might have pranked a person or two. Don't worry, it was nothing serious, but it was way too much fun.

You can read a little more about that night on the tab (up at the top of the page) that says "My Dreams" if you really want to. Just for your info, I updated all of the tabs, and the "My Dreams" tab is new. I am going to post about the awesome stuff that I am doing there. It's kind of a life-long bucket list of sorts. I am super excited to start working on that project, and hopefully there will be more to come on that page soon!

College life!

It has been way way way too long since I posted, and so much more has happened than I will even be able to remember. College is great, but it also comes with it's challenges. I would prefer to focus on the good rather than the miserable, but I will still touch on some of that to keep the picture of my college experience fairly accurate.

First off, There have been many fun times between my roommates and I. One time, it was pouring rain on the day that we had a campus wide devotional. We hurried home from the building so we wouldn't get soaking wet. My wonderful friend and awesome roommate Emily is an usher for the weekly devotional, so she had to stay after, and thus got stuck in the worst of the rainstorm. Because of this, she took cover in the apartment of some of her other friends that was closer. She waited there until the storm calmed down, then came back home. While she was gone, I had been telling another roommate of mine, Kami, about working for Tracy Jewelers. This led to us both looking at engagement rings. Emily came home and I said to her rather excitedly, "Emily, you missed it! We were just looking at engagement rings!" She just heard the "engagement" part of it, and automatically assumed that I was engaged. Needless to say, the whole apartment was in tears since we were laughing so hard! There have been several other experiences like that, but I think that one alone perfectly illustrates the mood of the apartment...for the most part that is. I would rather not go into the other side. Let's just leave it at that because that's a whole lot easier.

Schoolwork isn't necessarily harder, but there is a TON of work. I agree fully with this pic that I found online

It's seriously ridiculous. All of us just hope to "defy the laws of physics" although we feel that it is utterly impossible. I know that as I get minimal amounts of sleep, yet still do my very very best to maintain good grades and have a social life, I do end up like quite a bit of a zombie. With me though, this usually results in more giggling with my favorite roommates than anything, which tends to make us stay up even later since we can't stop laughing. There have been far too many funny instances of that to even start listing them off.

Yesterday was an interesting day as well. It started off with an experience that I will never forget. I woke up, and went into the bathroom. I went to unlock the door and open it, and then things got interesting. As I grabbed the doorknob to pull the door open, the knob came off the door. That's right, I was holding the doorknob in my hand, and it wasn't connected to the door. I was locked in the bathroom. I tried using pressure to put the knob back into place so I could forcibly unlock the door and pull it open by grabbing the bottom of the door and pulling it open. This proved to be futile, and I had to come up with another idea. Thankfully at that moment, Kami came by, so I knocked on the door. She had seen my hand at the bottom of the door and wondered what in the world was going on. We ended up getting a screwdriver sent under the door so I could completely remove the door handle and get out of the bathroom. We now have a doorknob sitting on our bathroom counter.  

Being a music major has been stressful as anything gets! I have just about had it! Music is great and everything, but it has been far too frustrating. I have been putting in the extra effort to learn the music correctly, but it has made it so much more difficult as of the past two weeks. My first week learning the song, I was able to learn the sections of the piece perfectly. Since then, I have practiced twice as hard and long as that week, but have accomplished way less. In the hour that I have practiced so far today, I have only been able to learn one more measure. For all you out there that don't know what that is, it's about 3 seconds worth of music when played. This is not fun to handle at all. I will figure something out though.

All in all, life has been super fun, but I'm not sure I will be involved in music on the academic level for much longer.

I'm Finally Here!

After all the wait, I finally am all settled in to my apartment, and will begin classes tomorrow. It is a new experience for sure, but I LOVE it! I have already made several new friends, my roommates are the best, and I am super excited for this. It is still kind of frightening, but I will feel much better once I get settled into a schedule. It is still pretty darn nerve racking though Orientation this past weekend was a BLAST, well I-Night was probably one of my favorite parts, next to spending time with my I-group (orientation group). I am excited to see what life here at BYU-I has in store for me.
Everyone has so much energy and is so kind toward everyone. This is truly the place to go if you ever want to feel like a part of something that's important.

It was quite the hectic day on Friday while moving in, but we finally all got settled, and now I'm ready to begin my new adventure. We made several good friends from the apartment just down from us, and I made some friends in the music/art department as well.

Here goes nothing! I start everything for real tomorrow!

Four More Days...and a Social Media Rant

With less than a week to go, I  am having a hard time believing that it's here already. I'm leaving on Thursday for my new grand adventure. The preparation is practically done, with just a few things left, like packing up my clothes (which I will be doing tomorrow) and loading up the car. I also have a random boxes to pack, but that shouldn't take long. I am excited to move on in life, but at the same time, it's pretty daunting. I can't go back now, and would much rather go than stay at home and not progress in life. It's just new. Not that I don't like change, but I have never done anything like this. I mean sure I have moved before and had to deal with that, but I have never gone to live on my own (kind of, I mean there are five other girls in the apartment and I already know two of them) and I will get to see a different side of life. It will be fun, yet stressful. I feel like I'm ready for the challenge if anyone is though. So on Thursday, we will embark on the six hour journey to Rexburg, Idaho, the place where dreams begin...but really, it is going to be the start of something new. I will be able to develop skills that I have, learn new ones, and learn more about my various artistic passions while at school.

Gosh, I don't know what else to say. I love my new computer, I just bought a mouse for it on Friday, the screen protectors for it came in the mail yesterday. I don't know. I am just to busy thinking about getting ready to think about or do anything else.

Oh yeah, we are taking family pictures this afternoon. I guess that's something different than college prep and the stress that it entails. For me though, I would much rather be taking the picture than being in it. I think a lot of people are never really happy with the way they look in pictures. It doesn't help for me that I was on the yearbook staff for two years and spent a lot of time behind the camera instead of in front of it. I love taking pictures! I really do, I promise. There is something satisfying about getting an artistic "vision" of sorts and being able to capture it. I guess that's why I Instagram a lot too. I just get some crazy idea, or see something cool and try to bottle up the emotion and story of that thing. It's fairly addicting when it is a good emotional outlet I put way more on Instagram than I put on Facebook. I don't usually feel the need to tell everyone in Facebookland how I feel about what I ate for dinner. Unless it's in some amazing five star restaurant somewhere in Europe, I honestly don't think people really care. On Instagram however, I can share emotion through art, and let others enjoy it too. I mean, It's not like if I posted something about the previously mentioned restaurant on Facebook that everyone that saw it would suddenly be able to eat the food and enjoy it too, but with Instagram, I can let my audience see and enjoy the same thing that I saw. It's just different.

And sorry there are no fun pictures on this post. I put several on the beloved Instagram this past week though, and there is a link to my page off on the right sidebar of this blog, if you feel so inclined to view them I guess.

1.5 Weeks...and Other Cool Stuff

That's right! I have about a week and a half before I leave for Rexburg. I seriously can't believe that it has come so fast. I am pretty much done getting ready, I have most everything (including my new laptop). I just need to pack up my clothes, but that will have to wait a little bit. I had a wonderful birthday last Monday. It included FABULOUS homemade chocolate ice cream, made from a chocolate custard base. Follow this recipe for the best ice cream ever.

It really was wonderful, and I was able to share the leftovers with Emily and Madeleine when we got together the next day for pizza (and a movie) to talk about college stuff for our apartment.

For the last month or so, I have had the chance to go to the Spokane, Washington temple at six each Wednesday morning. It has been a wonderful experience. It was early, but the dedication it took helped me remember how important it is to me as well as what lengths I am willing to take for the things that are important to me. When I was done on this last Wednesday, the sky was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen.

I was just in awe at how gorgeous it is her in Spokane, and how much I am going to miss this beautiful part of the world while I am gone in Rexburg for the next bit of my life.

One thing my family was able to do on Friday was visit River Front Park. This park is in downtown Spokane, and was built for the 1974 World's Fair. I have so many fond childhood memories of this park. My family used to get season passes each summer when I was a lot younger, so I remember when several of the rides were put in, the fun rides on the Looff Carousel in the park, and viewing various IMAX movies in the theater in the park.

This is my sister, Julia, and I on the "spider" ride in the park. We were waiting at the top of the ride while others were loading down below us when I took this picture. I remember being so excited when this ride was put in the park. It is probably the best thing there, but I LOVE roller coasters, so I have a different opinion than a few people. It is just a ride that does a whole lot of spinning, and makes for a lot of giggles when ridden with your thirteen year old sister.

That same day, Emily got her wisdom teeth out. I wasn't able to see her until Saturday, the following night. She is doing pretty well so far. I took her ice cream and said hi. She is seriously one awesome person, and I'm so glad that I can call her my best friend, and soon roommate.

College Prep and Birthday

I feel slightly like a terrible person since I haven't posted in about a month, and I have spent more time updating the look of my blog than writing. Yes, it is the same quirky blog, but it looks different. I thought for the past few weeks that I didn't have anything to write about since I had spent all of my time getting ready for college and hadn't done anything "special" or "fun". Then all of a sudden, I had a super eventful week and realized at the same time that I could have just written about getting ready for school.

To get ready for school, I have spent time packing and all that other boring stuff, but I have also utilized my creative outlet and made canvas signs to decorate Emily's and my bedroom in the apartment. It has taken a while, but I am thrilled to have them. I used a Cricut cutter to cut each word out of card stock, then I modge-podged them onto painted canvases and modge-podged over everything to secure it. The signs all have something that will motivate me to keep moving forward and to enjoy life.

While making these signs, I had some fun and felt a little like Jackson Pollock while painting the canvases when I would initially put the paint on before spreading it around the canvas.

I am so glad that these signs are almost done! They have been lots of fun to work on, but I am ready, and my mom is REALLY ready to have the mess cleaned up.

Last Friday I had the chance to ride the famous Hiawatha Trail with Nathan and his family. This 50 mile bike trail truly displays the natural beauty of the inland northwest. Here is a picture of one of the tunnels on the beautiful trail that I found at the Hiawatha Trail website.

This picture was taken at the end of the first tunnel on the trail. That tunnel is almost two miles long, so it's pretty dark inside. I can now say that I know what "tunnel vision" is after riding through that tunnel with only a headlamp to guide me. It was absolutely stunning, and we had a wonderful time spending the day in this beautiful world.

Last thing, today is my 18th birthday. It's weird being an official adult. I got fancy notifications from Facebook telling me that they wouldn't automatically keep my things private, but I have them all set that way anyway, and I have to fill out my own paperwork for my orthodontist appointment tomorrow, and it just feels strange. I have had lots of wonderful birthday wishes and gifts from family and friends, and I got the best present from the sister missionaries that are serving in our congregation right now. I have spent a TON of time with them the last few months, and they have become some of my good friends. They left me this adorable heart-attack in my bedroom today while I was gone and left me a yummy bottle of lotion and some gum. I seriously love them and hope the best for them as they serve the Lord and live their lives both on and after their missions. I feel so blessed that I have had the opportunity to get to know both Sister Knowlton and Sister Clark. They have blessed my life so much more than they could ever imagine.

Guardian Angel

I have several people in my life that have passed on that I now consider to be "guardian angels" of sorts. This week, as well as many other people in my community, gained another guardian angel that none of us expected to get. On Tuesday, Jansen Badinger drowned while swimming in the Spokane river. Jansen had just graduated from CV with me in June, and he really was the last person that anyone would have expected to loose that soon.

Jansen was one of the most amazing guys that I ever knew. He was everyone's best friend, and he truly understood the worth of each individual person. I am so grateful that I knew him and that I had the wonderful chance to be blessed by his life just like so many around me. He was not only known for his love, but also the way that he showed his love and support. Jansen has now been nicknamed "Mr. Spirit" and was voted "Bear for Life" in the Senior Bests in the yearbook. He showed his love and support by attending every sporting event (for every sport) in full face paint and other spirit wear. He was a super-fan that everyone could recognize at any game.

Jansen also did the incredible thing and greeted every student as they would come through the doors of the school every morning. He would always say "good morning Victoria!" in his bright and enthusiastic voice along with his beaming smile every morning as I walked through those doors. I know he always brightened my day, and I also know that I wasn't the only one that was positively affected by his cheerful attitude each morning.

There has been a lot of talk of replacing the cement outside this door with new cement with Jansen's name and footprints where he stood as a memorial to him. What he did at these doors will never be forgotten. I remember getting to school 45 minutes early one day to work on things for the yearbook and Jansen was already standing at the door to greet people. I asked him if he always came that early and he told me that he got to school at seven every morning just to be there to greet the students. That's the kind of guy Jansen was. THAT is what a true CV Bear is. That is why we believe. From the cheer that states "I believe that we will win", we believe. We believe that we can carry on the legacy of a smile, that we can change a person's day simply by saying "hi", and that random acts of kindness don't go unnoticed. Because I saw what a difference one person can make, it has motivated me to try a little harder to do a little better. To carry on the legacy of an amazing person, and to live my life to make others proud of me, and more importantly themselves. Those things are what change other's lives.

One person touched so many lives. This really shows the difference that one person can make. One smile, one "hello" or "good morning". They make a difference, I promise. Miss you Jansen! You will forever be in our hearts!

We all learned what a difference you made, and we want the whole world to remember you for the amazing person you are. We will, for you Jansen, "Keep Calm and Smile On" as we try to live your legacy of unconditional kindness for all who you saw around you.

Endings and Beginnings

It has been far too long (like two months instead of a week) since I posted, and in that time, a lot of things have happened. I went to St. Georges prom, graduated from high school, had a few visitors, and celebrated the Fourth of July. I will try to summarize all of this, since I don't want this post to go on for seven million years, or some other ridiculous length. I'll start with prom.

Really quick before I go into prom itself, I'll just let you know how I answered MaKormick. I decked-out his bedroom with streamers and confetti, and left him a sign saying "yes" with a bag of skittles, since my brother said that he likes skittles. Since there was so much teasing going on in asking and the whole "I actually can't go with you" stuff, I decided to play along too. I decorated his room while he was at work, and once I was done, I sent him a text saying that I was so sorry that I couldn't actually go since my grandma had passed away that very day and her funeral was planned for the same day as prom (she lives in Arizona). He freaked out, and called my mom WHILE AT WORK just to ask her if it was true. He was panicking so much, and it was so stinking hilarious! My mom just told him, while giggling, that he would have to wait until he got home to find out. It was so mean, but totally worth it!

Prom was a blast! It was a cruise prom on lake Coeur d'Alene, and it was wonderful being out on the water all night. It was strange though that only one of the eight people in our group went to St. Georges (Emily) and the rest of us went to CV. MaKormick was a very fun date, and we all had a fun time all night, from pictures to swimming and hot-tubbing after.


McKay, Karis, Amanda, Alex, Emily, Derek, (me), MaKormick

 Pictures were hilarious, and everyone was just being goofy. On the ride into Coeur d'Alene in the limo, we played "mafia" and even continued the game into dinner for a little bit. We had a delicious Italian dinner, and barely made it to the boat after dinner. We got on the boat after going to the wrong dock by the resort, and they had been told (on the boat) that there was one more group coming. They were actually waiting for another group, not us. As soon as we got onto the boat, it left the dock, then had to return back to the dock since they realized that there were actually two more groups. Once the next group came, we had everyone, and we embarked on a fun journey. After the dance, we went back to Emily's house and went hot-tubbing and swimming. I don't think I will ever forget that night!

The photobooth was pretty fun, and I certainly have some crazy pictures from it! It made me even more excited to room with Emily next year.

A week after this prom, I graduated from high school as a CV Bear! It was strange to be at this point of my life. I feel like I have worked up to this my entire life, and it was just suddenly here. I had Senior Sunset, Senior Mother Tea, and the graduation itself.

Remember the random amazing streak of good luck that I had at the beginning of the school year  with getting an awesome picture of Nathan at Senior Sunrise? Well since that photo was in the yearbook, it has been pretty well known and everyone was asking me to take pictures of them like that, and of course I had to take another one of Nathan like that. It was a bitter-sweet night for sure.

Two days after Senior Sunset, I graduated from Central Valley High School, and can now claim to be a bear alumni. I guess you could say it was exciting to graduate, but for me it was just more of a weird feeling because it was something that you look forward to your whole life, and it was suddenly there.

We also had several visitors lately, and have enjoyed all of the cousins and the fun things we get to do with them.

And for all those super hero fans, I did take my brother and his friends to see Man of Steel  (in IMAX 3D) for my brother's 16th birthday.



 Last thing for today: my super-late coverage of the Fourth of July. My family spent the day in Coeur d'Alene at the lake cabin of some of our friends. It was lots of fun, and the fireworks were of course, stunning. I am sad though that I only had my iphone for pictures, so they aren't the highest quality.