birthday week

MY BIRTHDAY :) So I had a great birthday and that is thanks to all the wonderful friends and family I have in my life. I am very very blessed to say the least. To start off my day, my roommates convinced be that I should do yoga but sleep in so I did but then got woken up with a surprise. Abby came over and was making me crepes! Strawberries, blackberries and bananas with whipped cream YUM :) It was so great of her to come and a great excuse to not work out and just kinda enjoy my morning. I did some great scripture study and I had gotten homework dome the night before which was great so no stress in getting to class. Got to class a little late but it was my birthday so it was ok :) I had class then off to the Tanner building to do my Literary Criticism reading before NT. I love the New Testament and I love taking from Brother Griffin. We had a wonderful discussion on Romans and Paul's discussions on Faith, Grace, Mercy & Works. There are so many powerful principles in the New Testament that I just haven't known before and I went and thanked him after class for all the wonderful insights he has helped me to gain. Then I was off to Literary Criticism to talk about Spivak and her ridiculously difficult, "A Critique of Postcolonial Reason - Can the Subaltern Speak?". Even other critics have a difficult time deciphering what the heck she's saying, but never the less I need to understand it for the test. but no big deal it was my birthday :) So after that, I went to the library and did my American Humanities reading and had a dandy time with that. Then went to American humanities and laughed and laughed and we had brownies, Happy Birthday to me :) I then went home and found a large package from my Momma and Daddy :) It was so great that they thought of me and I opened it with my mom on Skype. They got me a really cool new satchel bag, a knit poncho (so hipster), feather earrings, some earrings I left at home over the break,  Hershey bars, an awesome purple coat, a cool belt and lots and lots of love :) It was great and I loved all of it. After that, Abby and Dana had something planned and  they took me to Goodwood's Barbecue, oh my goodness its so GOOD! And lots of friends came; it was me, Dana, Brian, Jasmin, Giselle, Abby, Dylan, Haley Christensen (so great of her to come!) and Madeline even came down from Draper and represented the Hinckley girls of Freshman year. It was so nice of them to come and celebrate with me. I had ribs of course (SO GOOD) with sweet potato fries ans baked beans. And Abby even paid for me (with help from my mother I found out later) which was so sweet and she got me tickets to go and see HUNGER GAMES. I'm so excited! Then our waitress brought us out 2 brownies sundaes for us all to share, fantastic :) It was all around a great dinner with great friends. Then we went back to our apartment and friends surprised me with a dessert party courtesy of Dana's excellent party planning skills and we still have the leopard and pink streamers on our ceiling to prove it. That was really great to have even more friends come and celebrate my birthday with me with a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing and candles in the shape of a 20 and I got sung to :) I'm sure the pictures of my face were priceless. We then just sat around with people filtering in and out until midnight just chatting and having a grand ol' time. I'm so grateful so great friends, they all made me so happy and I hope they all know how special they are to me :) After that I said my prayers and thanked my Heavenly Father for my wonderful family, wonderful roommates and wonderful friends that made my birthday great. I'm 20 years old now so look out world here I come :)

On Thursday, slept in a bit, I got my reading and study guide done before class which was great. Class felt really long that day just cause he was just talking and talking about literature and it just isn't as fun as when there's more of a class discussion. After class, Giselle and I got to go to the temple because we didn't get to since Tuesday was Monday classes. It was more crowded then we're used to but still got some very nice scripture study and just calm time. It was wonderful, I love the temple. I stayed there until work and went to work. I had to leave a little early because I had a subject editors meeting for Criterion where we got assigned the papers we are going to be working on and the people we'll be working with. I'm excited for the opportunity to get some good experience on editing with this project. Then I went home earlier then usual so I made chicken puffs as a delicious meal to last me for a few days. It took a while and I forfeited homework time in order to do it but I'm not complaining :)

It most definitely felt too soon to be Friday because of the funky schedule for the week but it was a good Friday nonetheless. Did yoga in the morning and my shoulder is still bugging me so I've decided that I'm going to do my shoulder exercises on the days that I don't do yoga in hopes that it will actually help my shoulder and it won't cause my body to collapse in the middle of a yoga pose. I went to class decked out in my birthday gear and definitely felt very stylish :) We had a sub in American Usage who was really funny and actually co wrote our textbook and had taught usage at BYU for 40 years before retiring so it was definitely a good time. Then went and worked on my Literary Criticism paper that was due at midnight for a few hours before actually going to Literary Criticism and talking about our upcoming test. I worked on my paper some more until I went to work. I got another note and a sighting :) A little late birthday present that made me smile lots and lots. Even my friend Chris who works with me noticed and totally called me out on my silly little smile and blush I get when I see Jared. Thats ok though, I definitely don't mind :) A bunch of us from work walked home together and then I got to talk to AJ on Skype for a few hours. I took a break from that and finished writing my paper. I turned it in at quarter after midnight so I pray i don't get docked. Then AJ and I talked again for a few more hours and he kicked my butt in chess. I am definitely gonna miss that kid. He ships off to basic tomorrow actually for 2 months then 5 more months of job training for special intelligence for the Army. But he'll be great it always just makes me worry with friends going off and doing stuff like that. We'll write and I'll do my darnedest to make sure he keeps himself out of trouble. Finally at 2 Saturday morning, I collapsed on my bed.

So Saturday morning I woke up early with my stomach feeling terrible and staggered downstairs to collapse on the couch. No bueno. I decided I probably shouldn't go to work and expose the missionaries to my ickiness so I got a sub and just studied for my New Testament exam and lying down. Maya and Papa came into town so they came over with Darl and Nyc and gave me my birthday present. They gave me a really cute 30s hat and a sweater and a knit purse. So awesome. I made lots of awesome marks in my scriptures and now I have those forever and ever. Awesome. After much studying, I went and took the test and got a 94, I was very pleased :) I got home still not feeling great so I took a nap while my roommates went to the temple (jealous . . .) and woke up as they got home. I was drinking lots of water through the day and some Vitamin water for some electrolytes so by the time I woke up form my nap was feeling much better and actually hungry. I chomped down on Chicken Puffs and then got invited to go and eat at Slab pizza. So I got dressed up in my new hat and sweater and went and ate 1/4 of a buffalo chicken pizza - so so good. It was fun with Jackie, Carter, JD, Brian and Dana. Then we came home and I ate two of the leftover crepes from my birthday breakfast and everyone was surprised that I can eat so much. What can I say, I love FOOD. We discovered a Natural Hallucinogen on Youtube that made the world move in all sorts of weird ways and it was really fun, this is what Mormons do to experience getting high without actually getting high. After much deliberation, we all went to Ty and Robert's apartment and watched Ocean's Eleven, a classic movie. We were there way past curfew but shhhh no one has to know that. We felt so rebellious. NBD

Sunday morning got lots of great sleeping in and lots of scripture study in the morning. I read some really cool stuff in I Nephi today. In Chapter 15 verse 24 when Nephi is talking to Laman and Lemuel about the contents of Lehi's dream and what it means to hold fast to the iron rod (and we sang that song twice at church today too!). Hold has a cross reference to Proverbs 4:13 and I turned to it and I had 11-13 highlighted and they say "I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast ahold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life" and I just thought was was a really cool scripture that really emphasizes how important it is to cling to the gospel of Christ. Also another scripture (15:33) had tons of cross references talking about how no filth can be in the presence of God and what we need to do to be clean - having clean hands and a pure heart. Its all about working on the little things everyday huh? :) So then I got ready for church (I did a sock bun with one of my leg warmers and it turned out so good, I was so proud!) and then to go to church and have wonderful lessons from wonderful people and it was just great. I got to partake of the sacrament and it was just a wonderful experience overall and lots of guys complimented me on my outfit and even my walk so hey bonus right? lol Then went to family dinner at the Larsen's with all the Utah people present and had a great time chatting with family and playing with little Levon. Brittany is pregnant again too, more babies! Our family loves them :) Came home and started blogging and then got distracted and went to ward prayer and socialed at 462 for a bit before realizing my visiting teachers were coming over so I ran home and had a great little discussion with them. Then continued blogging and then got home- taught again by Phil and Jason which was super great and now just sitting and finishing up my post. I'll probably stay up late responding to Jared's letter and then doing homework for my 10 o'clock class tomorrow. Delightful. Have a wonderful week all! God bless!