To Do:

Yikes, there are things to do this week! School starts a week from today, and the time between then and now is going to be FULL! I am so excited- I love being busy! And I love school, and positively can not wait to take the classes I am signed up for! But before I can celebrate and rejoice in my status as a full time student, I have to get things done.

Today I went to the BYU Bookstore. A few hundred dollars later, and heavily weighed down with textbooks, I emerged triumphant: my books are absolutely beautiful! Yeah, so I'm a total school dork. I have a 2-inch thick book on the structures in Landscape Architecture, and two gorgeous, full color encyclopedias, one of garden annuals, the other of perennials. They are lovely. I've already gotten teary-eyed over my perennial book...

In addition to text books, I need to:
-Find out move in procedure for my apartment
-Move in to my apartment (can't do that until Friday)
-Make a serious grocery store run (also, not until Friday, and not until I can rope one of my friends with a car into taking me)
-Get everything out of storage (same conditions as the grocery store)
-Meet with (as soon as their offices open again):
-my faculty adviser
-the general advisement people
-a business school adviser
-another one of my professors
-Go to the Cougar Football game Saturday
-Print out my Football tickets
-Figure out which address I had BYU send my sports pass to (oops!)
-Make about a million thank-you cookies for all of the people who have helped me SO MUCH this summer (once I have a kitchen, and ingredients, and baking utensils)
-Probably many more things that I am forgetting

The craziness can't really start until Friday, because I need a house to do most of this stuff, and a lot of the other things don't apply until school offices open again for fall. But it's overwhelming to think about it all!

Finished!!!

Well, I am officially done with my summer term classes, and it feels wonderful! And now I'm done, and am going to go swimming! What bliss to have it over! Ok, that's all.

Time Crunch!

Yikes! I have too many things to do by this Thursday! I don't know how I'm going to get it all done! Actually, it will not be too impossible, because I am taking today off of work so that I can do my schoolwork. But there's a lot to do in the next few days! I have a final to take, a 6-page paper to write, an apartment to pack up, move out of and clean... so many things that need to get done! And so I find myself blogging... which is cathartic, but really a non-essential at this point. I should get out of here and back to work!

Aside from my to-do list, I am trying to not be severely annoyed at a friend of mine. He's just so... dumb right now! It's hard not to be irritated! But that's ok. I don't have to think about his issues right now. I have enough of my own to focus on!

So, last night I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about all of the things I need to be doing right now. I don't know if I should take a nap this morning or not. I don't want to take my final drowsy, but I don't want to nap and wake up with a fuzzy, sleepy brain, either. We'll see how long it takes me to get ready for this test, maybe. Testing Center doesn't even open until 12:00 on Tuesdays in the summer, so it'll be a while before I can take this test anyway.

OK, so this isn't the most interesting blog entry. But it's what's in my head right now, and I needed to get it out so that I can focus on Organizational Effectiveness! What a fun time this class is... unless you're the very reluctant business minor type.

Reminder

A dear friend reminded me about an hour ago that my life is in very capable hands, and that when I trust in my Heavenly Father it will all work out. Just wanted to say thanks for that reminder, and to mention a few of the things in my life that show just how blessed I am.

I have eyes that can see all the glorious summer colors around me.
I was able to get caught in rainstorms two days in a row.
I am not allergic to chocolate or peaches, and so I can eat them anytime I want- yum!
There is food in my kitchen (finally made it to the grocery store!)
I have an apartment (with a kitchen!) that feels like a home.
I have the most amazing family and friends who watch out for me and love me.
I am blessed to be at BYU studying something I have a real passion for.
I know how to work hard and am good at learning things.
I will never, EVER be alone, because I can always trust in my Savior.

He said "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; Not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). This used to be my motivation to get through the day. Another wonderful blessing in my life is that I no longer find myself always in need of greater peace. My life is peaceful, and joyful and absolutely lovely! I have been blessed with new enthusiasm for life, and love for the people around me. With this in mind, I feel really quite silly for stressing the little stuff. I have been blessed, and will continue to be blessed every day as I live my life the way I have been commanded to live it.

I think that sometimes I get so caught up in what I'm missing that I forget to look at what a wonderful place I am in. My life right now is really, truly spectacular! That doesn't mean it's easy. Whatever life is, it isn't easy. But challenges can be blissful. So, in conclusion, my life right now is a magnificent and well-guided challenge. What a blessing to be able to learn from it!

p.s. Thanks for the reminder, my beautiful friend!

Thunderstorms and Lavender

I am incredibly homesick today. I just want my family to be all around me again. I have absolutely loved this summer, but I miss my home.

I was walking in the BYU Terraced Garden (one of my favorite places on campus) this afternoon in a rainstorm. There were familiar plants all around me: snapdragons, balloon flowers, scabiosa, liatris, columbine, foxgloves, lavender, and campion. Meandering through the rows of flowers always reminds me of my daddy, and today was no exception. In fact, today it was worse. I miss my dad. I miss working along side of him in the yard, and talking to him about everything. I miss the way he cheers me up by having me tell him about the best things in my life right now. I miss seeing how he loves my mother. I have the best family ever, and I want them around me today.

I'm about to go eat dinner with my almost-family here in Provo. They're wonderful, and have sort of adopted me while I'm out at school. I'm so grateful for all of their love. I don't know what I would do without my family!

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I think I'll move to Australia.

Such a silly book, but I know the feeling well. Generally, I love my life. Sometimes I don't. Right now, I'm not really feeling it. Right now, I want to curl up and be held by someone. I'm tired of being lonely. I want my big sister back. But she's a bit busy... so I think I'll go to her- in Australia!

I don't know how to do this. I'm not old enough to be grown up today. I want to be taken care of today. I need someone to tell me it will all be OK, to reassure me that I am still doing the things I am supposed to be doing, and so it will all work out in the end. I need someone to remind me that my Heavenly Father is looking out for me, and that there is a plan. I could also use a distraction or two so I could focus on someone other than myself. I should go do service. I'm sick of myself. That's all.

David

Who ever it was who first thought that life could or should be easy had things quite backwards. Living is not easy. It is not always fun, and things do not always go the way mortal justice says they should. People are hurt, people die. There is suffering all over the world. Life is not an easy thing to get through. And yet we continue. When there are so many reasons not to keep living it, why do people bother to make the effort? How is it that there are people who actually love life? They must all be crazy. Turns out, I'm one of those crazies. I absolutely love being alive. It's not perfect, or easy, and can break your heart sometimes. But life is worth living for as long as we're blessed with the opportunity. I am feeling so blessed that I have the chance to take chances, and make choices and mistakes. Every second I am here, I am blessed. "For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend on the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have?" (Mosiah 4:19)

The folk hymn "My Shepherd will Supply my Need" says:
My Shepherd will supply my need,
Jehovah is His name,
In pastures fresh He makes me feed
Beside the living stream...
The sure provisions of my God
Attend me all my days;
Oh, may Thy house be my abode
And all my work be praise.

I have and am nothing without the gifts of my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm working to live my life in a way that "all my work [is] praise." When placed in this context, loving life doesn't seem so silly after all. My life is a work of rejoicing and giving thanks to my God! Not very many things can inspire happiness quite like gratitude does. I am so grateful for the life I have been granted, and ever since I've realized how much a blessing my life is, I can't seem to contain the joy inside of me! Bubbling bliss, I said jokingly the other day, but it's an accurate description. Life is a joyous thing!