Gratitude #4

I am so grateful for the internet!

It's crazy how much I rely on the internet to make it through the day.
I don't know where I would be with Organic Chemistry if I didn't have it.
I look up things like Nucleophiles and Strong Steric Bases all the time.

It's also one of the ways I stay in touch with my family.
At least once a week there's a new picture of my nieces or nephews going up on Facebook.
It's so nice to be able to see them grow up even though I'm not with them physically.

It's also where I find a lot of the recipes I use.
Without the internet I would be eating Ramen Noodles, Macaroni and Cheese from a box, and Spaghettios for the rest of my college career!

Oh, and it's also how I do Family Search Indexing, which is kinda my favorite thing :)

Gratitude #3

Man, it didn't take me long to find something to be grateful for today!

Though it's not exactly zero degree weather outside, I was freezing on my way to institute, so I was dreading the walk back to my apartment.

I noticed my friend Zach (who is also in my institute class) walking by himself out of the institute building, so I figured we could walk together and make it a little less miserable.

Guess who drove to institute this morning? Zach


Guess who got a ride back to her apartment instead of having to walk? ME!


I am very grateful for the friends I have made here in Pocatello.
They help me keep my head on straight.

I love you guys!

Gratitude #2

I am so grateful for indoor plumbing!

Our toilet was clogged for about two days despite my best efforts to unclog it (I finally got it and I kinda felt like a champ).

During those two days we had to schedule our potty breaks around when we would be out of the apartment or risk the public one downstairs ;P

Let me tell you, I never thought I would be so grateful to hear our toilet flush!

Also, can you imagine having to go out in the middle of the night during January to use an outhouse? NO THANKS!

Gratitude #1

It's November again, so you know what that means!
A whole string of my favorite thing, gratitude posts :)

Today, I am very grateful for my awesome lab professor, Dr. Holman.
He is an amazing teacher and has really helped me to understand all of the concepts I learn in lecture.
He's also one of the funniest men I have ever met in my life.
Last week he had a cold and started losing his voice, so I gave him a cinnamon candy and he went on lecturing.
He lectured for another 20 minutes or so and then declared that he needed someone younger and faster than him to run and get him a Diet Dr. Pepper.
Without missing a beat he slammed $1.25 on my bench top and said, "You! You look younger and faster, Go! It's C3 in the machine downstairs."
Well...the machine was jammed, so I told him he was SOL until they fixed it or he found another machine and he looked me straight in the eye and said, "Do you know where the engineering building is?"
He didn't really make me run to the engineering building, but he had me worried for a second.

Later he came down to help run the NMR, which wasn't working right.
I was waiting in line and right after he passed me he stopped, backed up, and handed me five quarters. "Try again," he said.

This week I asked him a really stupid question (well....he thought it was really stupid) and he said this to my group, "I really appreciate you guys. Every time I'm around you, you make me feel really good about myself."

I love the way he keeps me laughing for 3 hours straight, yet I walk out of his class having learned so much.

This is also the first lab I have enjoyed going to.

Dr. Holman, thank you!

Lessons Learned

So I was in one of those moods where everything seems just...blah.
Nothing was going wrong or anything, I just didn't feel super happy. In fact, I was feeling almost a little bitter. Ugh, I hate that word.
It's not a feeling that I really like a whole lot.

Then one day I was sitting around my apartment and it seemed like every time I opened my mouth I was complaining about something/someone.
Then it hit me!
This funk I was in might possibly go away if I just accept life as it comes instead of thinking about how things could be better!

I have come to know that when you judge others unrighteously or complain about your situation you become bitter...very much like the person you never wanted to become.

Let me tell you folks, it's been so much better around here since I opened my mind. :)

Surprises!

On October 12 I took a trip to Aberdeen to see Maci play volleyball.
She didn't know I was going to be there.
I may have gotten lost trying to find the school...shut up.

When I got there Maci hugged me and cried and said she didn't think I was going to get to see her play this year. I felt bad that I haven't been there for her more, but I'm certainly glad I got to see her that night.
I love her.

Aww! Look at my cute little sis!

She's number 1! She's number 1!

Waiting for hitting lines to start (she's the libero)

Look at that form!

Hey Aberdeen, you're doing it WRONG! Last time I checked your colors were Orange and black.

NOT Red and black. (Their senior rock was also painted Red. They must not have gotten the memo)

She's a pretty darn good server too!

Adding to the list of surprises is little "itty bitty" baby Hyrum. 

I say "itty bitty" because he was almost 10 pounds! What a chunk!

I am still finding it difficult to believe that Nate is a dad...time sure flies.

Cute little Maci and Cute little Hyrum :)

And winding up the surprises for this post is this:

Guess who fit into her size 7's??

This girl did XD

My Week of Miracles

This week has been such an eye opener to me.
On Monday in Institute we were talking about all the miracles that Jesus performed and how most people in our day and time write off our everyday miracles as coincidences.
I guess God just wanted to illustrate to me that we are surrounded by miracles every day, so He filled my week with TONS of miracles.

Last week: My OChem teacher announced that instead of having our test on Thursday, it would be on Friday instead. That opened up a whole bunch of problems. I had to work on Friday because...well, I always work on Friday. I made arrangements to take my test from 8-12 in the morning on Friday because that was the only possible time for me to do so.

Monday: I opened up my work schedule and noticed right off the bat that I was scheduled to work during my test review session. GREAT right? I would see to that later.
While at work my client's mother informed me that they would be going out of town on Friday and Saturday.
My first thought was about how over half of my hours for the week were scheduled that client on Friday and Saturday. There is NO way I would have been able to get by with that few hours.
After taking a couple of seconds to process what was going on I realized something else: This is my off week for A&P lab, which means I could work on Tuesday (Miracle!)
Together we were able to figure out a schedule that cut only 1.5 hours instead of the 8 or so that it was originally. (Miracle!)
Also, this meant that I could take my test at the regularly scheduled time instead of at 8 in the morning. (Miracle!)

Tuesday: My OChem lab instructor extended my lab an hour, so it started at 8 instead of 9. He lectured on NMR for an hour and when my lab group was supposed to leave to do a Spartan lab experiment (my lab is split into three lab groups. Every week there are 3 labs going on, so this was my week for the Spartan computer experiment), he gave us the option of staying and doing the computer experiment on our own time so he could help us with NMR interpretation. (Miracle!)

Wednesday: My client was supposed to go to see a specialist for an hour, but my client's grandma was in town for Grandparent's Night and was going to take him to dinner. That hour was cancelled, and I got to pick it up! (Miracle!)
I talked to the Front Office and Seasons of Hope and they were able to find two people to cover a couple of hours with my client so I could go to the class that I was originally scheduled to work during. Their schedule had changed just enough to accommodate my hours. (Miracle!)

Thursday: Commence freaking out...OChem test on NMR tomorrow.
After I got out of my 8 o'clock Institute class I went to do my Spartan experiment. My instructor asked me how my test went, so I told him it wasn't until tomorrow. He looked at me and told me to go home and study and do the Spartan on Monday. (Miracle!)

Friday: Hasn't happened yet, but hopefully another miracle will happen and I will magically get an A on my NMR interpretation :)


I know that most of these things might seem like coincidences, but I am a big believer that God is behind every coincidence. I've had FAR too many of them happen to me in my life (and especially just in this week) to believe that it just happened to turn out that way.

"...this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.” 
~Paulo Coelho

There is DEFINITELY someone out there who loves me and wants me to succeed in my endeavors.