Crazy Changes

So there isn't much of a gap between May and September right?? So summer got slightly crazy and busy and I never found the time to update my blog. I can explain this by adding that I worked every day from 6am till sometime in the afternoon and frankly, it kicked my butt.  I did get really  good at waking up super early and teaching aquafit- always a pleasure. And although it all sucked and I was exhausted by 9 every night, and missed out on multiple things since I felt the need to gain near 8 hrs of sleep every night, it did prepare me for this semester of school. Which is also kicking my butt. I have to be at school by 730am every day monday-friday. This honestly means I get out of bed at 6:50, grab a hoody, throw on jeans, brush my teeth, maybe comb my hair, perhaps add some mascara (depending on how ambitious I feel) and walk to campus. I look really good all the time!

Ken, my husband, he's new- we got married- he really enjoys the fact that I get so ready every day. It's his favorite. But for real, he does still like me. We have been married a week and a half...so he better. And it's really nice having a husband. They do lots of nice things. For instance, when I forget things at home that are due in class- he goes and fetches it for me! and when all our flowers on our table are withering, he goes and gets new ones for me. It's honestly the greatest. I love him to death. I try returning favours by being a good wife, but it's really really hard! I do not know how people go to school and keep their house clean and make supper all while getting A's. Beat's me. 

ALSO, I should get some wedding pictures in a couple weeks, and when I do i'll talk more about THE WEDDING. It was awesome and I loved every second of it! 

Here are some fancy pictures from the summer...  out of order.

 We had a nice BIG family reunion and this is what Sherwood family could make it. Pretty dang good looking family eh?

 There was a slippery slide we went down lots, Brady really enjoyed it.

 I hung out with this fellow a fair amount of time!

I held her as much as humanly possible and I cry that I can't see her anymore.

I went to the temple for the 1st time!

And now I am  happily married!!

It was crazy and stressful, but I had so much fun with my family this summer and I miss them all to bits! I can't wait to see them again, which really does feel like never. In the meantime, however, I do get to be with the best guy in the world. SO I guess I can't complain! 

Birdy

Brady is 18! I can't believe my little buddy is an adult.  I have to blog about Brady because the kid cracks me up and I have been special enough to have him as my brother for 18 years of my life.
Whenever I describe Brady it always ends in, "well, Brady is just Brady." People that know my family would 100% understand this statement. There really are no words to fully describe him and the only way to understand him is to get to know him.
Brady is our family clown. He can get anyone laughing. No matter how mad I am at him, I am constantly holding back bursts of laughter- he knows this and uses it to his advantage. He also is one of the kindest people I know. He is always looking for ways to help out and to be happy around people. He is always so polite around people, he really has such a special spirit. I do love him and cannot wait to see what life has in store for him! He will do amazing things.
Happy birthday Birdy!

Whirl WInd

Ever since school ended life has kind of gone by fast and a whole lot of things have happened...
1st I studied my face off for a good 2 weeks basically and ended up doing very well in all my classes. So my first 2 weeks out of school I anxiously awaited my grades to come in.
2nd I came home to the most gorgeous niece and instantly fell in love with her. I have not gone a day since without seeing her, I will die when I have to go back to school. I could just hold her ALL DAY! Sadly, i'm not the only one that feels this way so I have to share her. We could say she is definitely loved. Whenever she is at our house everyone swarms her and marvels at everything she does. I wonder when that will stop, cause even when she makes very strange faces people laugh and comment on how cute she is. Let just hope she doesn't think too positively of this and continue it through out her life  :)
3RD!!! The most amazing guy ever (Ken) came to visit me and I was able to show him off to all my family. Ask him, that's literally all we did. My family is kind of a big deal and not just my immediate family -He had to meet my grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. I believe they all approved and they better have because...
4TH!!!! He was SUPPOSE to leave Monday so I said my goodbyes and waited for him to text me and let me know he was back in Montana. He let me know when he was nearly in Great Falls and then that was the last I heard from him... until my Dad told me he wanted to go take pictures out on the Ridge during the sunset and I go out with him and I see Ken!! I knew the second that I saw him what was going to happen. Not going to lie I was a little nervous. He had chinese lanterns going off... some didn't go off due to wind (welcome to Southern Alberta), but I was still impressed. And then  he said a bunch of great stuff and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I of course said yes because he is perfect and there is no better guy.  So i'm ENGAGED!
It's strange being with someone and nobody in Raymond has a clue who he is, and it stinks having him not live in relatively the same place as me- he lives in another country! However, I do still get to talk to him tons and there is nobody else I would rather talk to. He is truly amazing and I cannot wait to marry him!
I really wasn't lying when I told you lots happened! I'm sure the rest of the summer will continue in the same  manner. I now will plan a wedding, hold baby Hazel, look at my ring and visit my future husband! Sounds like a pretty fantastic few months to me!

One Day I Will

            So it’s been a while and a bunch of goodness has happened. My mom came back to visit me, along with my aunt and uncle Peterson. The weekend they came ended up being gorgeous. It was the weekend of General Conference and Saturday was amazingly hot out. We went to the Saturday morning session, my mom and I watched it in the Joseph Smith building and it was a very cool experience. We went early and were able to watch a vast majority of the Joseph Smith movie and so I was bawling before the Conference even began then conference was amazing and so I cried all the more. I’m rather emotional lately.            

            I wanted really badly to go in to the Conference Center, since I have never been, and so Ken (the best guy in the world) and I decided we would trek down Sunday morning after saying goodbye to my family and go to the afternoon session. WELL, before we even hit Ogden we were stuck in traffic, over an hour later we finally were able to move. We reached Salt Lake and were half jogging all the way to the conference center—with time quickly dwindling. Anyways, we get there and we are seriously 5 people away from the door and they tell us they were full. Ya, you could say I was disappointed. Real bummed out! So I pretended to be tough as we walked back to the car, but I don’t hold things in very well, so I just looked out the window and was a bum for the next half hour. I really wanted to go!!

            Then this last weekend I told Ken that my friend was singing at the Conference Center on Saturday and that we should go. You should know that Ken is amazing and will do anything I want to. So we leave Saturday morning at 11:00 so that we can go find tickets and watch her at 1:00. We drive all the way down; get there and they inform us that they are sold out! Now tell me how the goodness that happens, the Conference Center is huge! So I was a bum… again. I just get really sad when I drive forever to do a good thing and then it doesn’t work out. And it wouldn’t even be that bad If I didn’t drag someone along with me… but I act like it’s this magnificent idea and tell Ken to come with me and then it doesn’t workout so well. Then I just feel bad so then I get sad and then I’m a bum. It’s a vicious cycle. I have now retired on thinking of ideas.

            Regardless, Ken will still hang out with me, he doesn’t really mind too much that I’m not very good at plans. He also continues to be amazing and think of great ideas, so really- my contribution is unneeded.

            To prove that he’ll do anything for me, I say, “ Ken, put on these glasses and lets drive around looking at people and pretend we don’t know anything is wrong” (aka, lets just make fools out of ourselves). He does it.  

* May have based this off of an actual event from the mother*

Mr. Brightside

  My week from Hell has now come to an end! Since I finally finished all of my assignments I found some time to clean my room (which has been neglected) and some laundry. This should be a simple task, however, me and laundry don't mix well. Apparently, neither do black pants and yellow shirts. :( I didn't do this knowingly. i'm not good at laundry, but i'm not dumb! I did not notice my yellow shirt was thrown into the wash with all my dark clothes. It came to my attention that I had done such a thing as I was transporting my clothes into the dryer and noticed a nice yellowish/grey shirt mumbled into the darkness. Poor yellow shirt. And I'm sad not only because it was a great shirt, but I also have this weird thing where I only wear yellow when I write tests-- they are lucky! And I have a very limited supply of those gems and good load of tests. This is a problem. 
  On the bright side (no pun intended) I have now figured out my life.. somewhat. I don't feel great about anything and I am still confused. But, I have signed a contract for a house in Provo and have began transferring all my paperwork so I can be legal when I go. So it's official, i'm leaving Logan. I really try not to think about it too hard, because I am in love with Logan and I love USU. It's just so much money! I have already talked to people about coming back to USU to get my masters in 2 years- so perhaps I will be back!
  I think it's funny how I am always so stressed about everything and then in the end, it all works out. I do trust that I am doing the right thing, it's just hard sometimes to find that confidence in my decisions.  Throughout everything, I have found it hard to make all my decisions while being so far away from my family. Anyone who knows me will understand that I talk to my mom basically all day and I Skype my family on a regular basis. Regardless, it's not the same as being able to sit down on the couch together and discuss things. 
  Although I have struggled and felt alone I just couldn't help to notice how in tune my parents have been with the whole situation. My Mom is continually checking up on me and helping me accomplish my long list of things that need to be done. I have no idea what I would do without her. And then lately my Dad has been like a life coach, I don't know where it has come from, but it works! After talking on the phone with him I always feel more calm about everything. As I was struggling with everything, my Dad would always text me some 8 page text full of words of wisdom and encouragement. One night in particular, I was sitting in my living room contemplating my life- my mind was going 100mph trying to figure everything out. I felt alone and I felt like I wasn't receiving any help.  Just as I was sitting there getting more and more frustrated, I got a long text from my Dad. He  just wanted to tell me that I would figure everything out and that he had confidence in my decision making. I don't think he has a clue how much that meant to me and how that was exactly what I needed at that time. Since everything I was hearing sounded kinda like this.
  This whole time i've been searching for answers, but I guess i've had the tools to find the right ones all along. I definitely couldn't have gotten this far alone. Now if only my parents could do my laundry through texts and skype...


ONly 43 more days! 
  

Finding a Way.

SO stressed!!


I feel like my life goes in one giant cycle. I have a couple good months of stress-free goodness- I am 100% sure about what I am doing in my life and I don't doubt anything. THEN! I come across a point where I begin to question everything! I start thinking way too much and then I decide I need to do something different with my life and I end up in a pickle. This is exactly where I am right now.


I recently applied to BYU since it is half the price of what I pay to attend Utah State and it really is a good school! I just spontaneously decided one day that I was going to apply. I didn't think much of it afterwards and, to be honest, I didn't think I would get accepted. However, I got accepted! Now I have to figure out what the heck I am supposed to do. I just went down and spent the weekend in Provo with Lacey Holt and Kaitlyn Turner.

 They showed me around campus and got me all the more confused :). I have some major issues to begin with when it comes to making decisions, I can't even choose what movie I would like to watch at night, let alone choose a school for the next two years that could ultimately change my entire life! 


If everything I have worked so hard for at USU would transfer perfectly to BYU I would do it in a second. However, if I go there I have to take 5 religion classes and 3 extra GE classes I wouldn't normally have to take if I were to stay in Logan. However, BYU would save me around $10,000 dollars in the next two years! Pretty convincing if you ask me...
I just want answers right now and it makes me sick having to sit here waiting to see if everything will work out. I just want someone to tell me what to do! I have zero patience.


 In his talk, Waiting upon the Lord, Robert D. Hales said,"Too often we pray to have patience, but we want it right now!" 

I would have to say that is exactly how I am. I have been praying and fasting about what I should do, but I just feel like my answer is, "It's up to you!".... Not all that helpful. 
I know that whatever I choose it will work out and I will be just fine! I just don't enjoy not knowing right now! 

Then I watched this and decided my life probably isn't all that bad. I may have giant questions that I feel are unanswered and I may feel stressed about what I need to do in my life. Regardless, I know that if I am doing everything that I need to be then I will get where I am supposed to be. My questions will get answers. Everything will work out.

oh the agony!!

Marvellous Things

Who would have guessed that trying to go home for a week would become such a chore? I am about to the point of asking complete strangers if they would like to go for a 10hr drive north for a nice, cold tour of southern Alberta for a week in March... I may just have to come up with a better pick-up line.  People tend to want to go to California and Mexico instead, hard to believe, I know!

Turns out that after the break it will be very near to the summer months and I’ve been doing terrible when it comes to working out- I blame it on my cold. Regardless, my one piece, speedo swimsuit that seems to hug my body in my most favorite areas, may not be such a lovely contraption to squish into this year.  It usually fits so well other years…. Ha-ha

On a completely different note, my anatomy class has the lovely PRIVILEGE of working on cadavers for the remainder of the semester. How special! There is nothing I love more than handling someone who has been dead for over a year and is watered every now and then so they don’t dry out. Wednesday was our first time in the cadaver lab, which was conveniently after our test-so I was already stressed! I already felt light headed from thinking so hard for the past 20hrs. (No, my test did not take me 20hrs to complete, that was the time Courtney and me crammed as much knowledge we could into our caput, also known as your cranium, skull, or head.) So we walk in and there are three black body bags on the tables. We are taken to the end of the room to put on some aprons and gloves. We are then asked to put on some safety goggles- just incase some of the “juices” squirt into our eyes. We go through precautions; what to do when we feel light headed and then asked to not high-five the cadavers or steal them and take them to the ball games with us (charming).

The next two hours were spent “checking out” Mary, Robert and Sally. I am glad to tell ya that I did not pass out and was able to stay focused the majority of the time. The only thing that did make me sick were those terrible plastic goggles, they spent the majority of the time on top of my head or hanging under my chin- I have confidence in my blinking reflexes when something comes lunging towards my eyeball, I don’t need those!

 Now don't all go running to your nearest cadaver lab! As thrilling as that may all seem, it's really not all that exciting and was somewhat disgusting. 

I apologize, this entry has no direction. I just looked in the mirror though- that I do a lot since it covers my entire wall directly in front of my bed- but I have mascara under my entire left eye, down my cheek and then across my left hand. In a perfect line.. I’m confused my this.  Heck, I probably wandered campus all day looking like this! This is why guys flock at my feet! Girls, take note! 

Now as fulfilling as this whole thing has been i'm going back to my books! And just incase any of you are curious, I now have 71 days until May 4th-my day of freedom! Just thought i'd throw that out there.