Who'da thunk?!

So I know it's late but it's because I am currently working. I should be using this time to study for my two tests I have tomorrow but I have already been studying for three hours straight and my brain needs a little break.

I have decided to dedicate this blog entry to talking about my institute class I am taking this semester. I have never been one to take religious classes outside of church. I took one semester of seminary in 9th grade because it was the alternate to a class I couldn't get into and I went to maybe one week of early morning seminary after I moved to Texas. That's it. So when I came to college, I didn't even consider taking Institute. It just wasn't me.

But last year I started to get my foot in the door when I would go to something called "Religion in Life". It's a devotional type thing they have here every Friday morning and they bring in some really cool speaker and then have lunch for $1 afterward. It's great. I started thinking about taking an Institute class all last year but never really got around to it. Then this summer, I went once with one of my friends to his institute class and absolutely loved it! It was on World Religions but the lesson that day happened to be on Christianity and after that class I just knew I had to take Institute this semester. But of course, once school actually started, I kinda forgot about it. Then one day while sitting in class with my roommate Desiree, she all of a sudden just handed me an Institute class schedule. I realized I had a big break in my school schedule right after that class was over so I looked for an interesting class and looked for the teacher who had taught that one class I had attended during the summer because I had really enjoyed his teaching style. I picked "The New Testament: The Gospels" and after class I headed over to the Institute. All of a sudden I was super, super nervous and almost didn't go to class that day. But I got up my courage (because it was silly to be nervous about going to Institute!!!) and went to class and have LOVED it ever since!!! Unfortunately, I am only able to go once a week now because my new job conflicts with it one day a week. But I really look forward to going to class every Tuesday! It is seriously the spiritual high of my week. I feel the Spirit so strongly every time and I know that I was supposed to take that class. I love it and I am so glad that I had friends who helped me to get here. It enhances my life each and every time.

Whiny Whine Whine

Since working at The Olive Garden, I have decided that servers are the whiniest people on the face of this planet. All I hear at work are complaints are "this man didn't tip me well enough. I worked hard enough to make twice as much!", "that family is taking forever to order", "a table of 8 and all they want is water, soup and salad", blah blah blah!!! I understand that they depend on their tips to make a living since their hourly wage is next to nothing, but come on people! It is soo exhausting to listen to the complain during my entire shift. I rarely, if ever, hear something like "that table is so nice" or "they were easy to take care of". It's all complaints.

But as of yesterday, my days of listening to OG server complaining are number. I have quit the Olive Garden in order to take a new job offer that I received yesterday. I will be working as a Computer Lab Consultant on campus. This is one of the most sought after jobs on campus and I am very lucky to have gotten it. There were 90 applicants and 23 spots! Phew! So I have training tomorrow and I start on Monday! I am very excited for this job and hope to be able to keep it the rest of the time I'm here at USU, which is quite the load off my shoulders. Now just one more week of OG!

Aggie Athletics Rock My Socks

School has started again which means the beginning of...can you guess it??....AGGIE SPORTS!!! I am so excited for so many sports this year. Let me tell you why.

Gymnastics: Ever since I roomed with two and became friends with many of them, the Aggie Gymnasts have held a special place in my heart. This year my good friend Erica Huelsmann will be returning to the uneven bars after shoulder surgery our freshman year. While this is nerve wracking, it is also exciting and I am way excited to see how our Gymnasts do this year!

Women's Soccer: I've been to a few of these games before and always enjoyed them but now I know some of them, which makes it even more fun. On top of that, as a starter her freshman year is Natalie Norris, cousin to my long time friend Laura Damron. This last Sunday, she scored her first intercolligiate goal and was also the first freshman of the year to score. She is awesome both as a soccer player and an individual and I'm so excited to support her this season.

Football: If you haven't heard, we have a new head coach here at Utah State, Coach Gary Anderson, who I actually lived across the street from when I was 11. Anyway, Coach Anderson hails from the U, from where he brought with him assistant coaches and also recruits. He has enforced a lot more discipline and from what I've seen at scrimmages, it's already looking like a better season than the last two I've seen. This Thursday we have our first game of the year, ironically, against the U of U at Rice Eccles Stadium. While this is intense (and I have little hope of winning) I am very excited to see how the team holds up to them and to get a taste for what will hopefully be the best Aggie Football season in a long, long, long time. Woot!!!

Basketball: This goes without saying. I am ALWAYS excited for Aggie Men's Basketball and we (yes, Dad, we, as if I'm on the team) return to the Spectrum on OCTOBER 30TH for the first exhibition game, which in my eyes begins the season of long waits in line, racing down steep flights of stairs, lots of cheering, booing, chanting, and winning!!! I am even going to attach another video of the Spectrum to give you another taste of our awesome Aggie Basketball.

Others: But before I do that, I feel I should mention a couple more sports. Tonight I went to part of a Women's Volleyball game and it was actually really fun. I would not mind going to more of those games in the future. Also, this year I am finally going to go to an Aggie Hockey game. Although they are not a varsity sport up here (unfortunately), their games are very popularly attended and I hear I've been missing out on a lot of fun times.

So basically, I plan on having a very sports filled year and am very excited about it. So watch this video, get pumped and realize why I love Aggie Athletics. GO AGGIES!!!

Time Flies!

This summer is coming to a close very soon! The closing banquet for A Team is tonight and if that doesn't signify the end of summer, I don't know what does. That IS my summer! haha The week after next is Connections and then school starts. Crazy how fast this summer has gone. But it has been awesome in so many ways and I'm excited to get back into school and learning and stuff. It's great, even though it frequently causes me much stress.

Right now, I'm watching a storm roll over Cache Valley. The clouds are so thick that I am having a hard time seeing the Valley, which is usually quite visible from my bedroom window. I love summer storms but it kinda chose a bad time to come! The banquet tonight is nice dress and it sucks to have to plan looking nice around rain. Ugh. So much for pretty hair. haha But on the upside, I have a cute outfit I'm borrowing from Deborah (THANK YOU! THANK YOU!), I get a delicious dinner, and I will be having lots of fun with good friends. Maybe afterward, I'll have to play in the rain. :)

Adventures in the Outdoors

Last week I had the awesome opportunity to facilitate Outdoor SOAR. It's our four day long, outdoor adventure orientation session. It was sooo much fun and I enjoyed the students so much! They were all really outgoing, fun and just excited to be there and to become a part of Utah State. That change in attitude from the bored, "I don't want to be here" attitude we get at normal SOAR days makes such a difference! Here are some of the activities that we participated in:

• Picnic at Tony's Grove
• Volleyball Games
• Tin Foil Dinners
• Minnetonka Caves (so cool!)
• Beach Party
• Met the very drunk wife of the owner of all the Flying Js. She had a babysitter for herself. haha She was VERY friendly!!!!
• Dutch Oven dinners and scary story time!
• Hike the Crimson Trail in Logan Canyon. I was the leader and the beginning of that hike is soo intense! I had to make the students stop like 4 times so I could catch my breath. haha But it was so fun! I love that hike.
• Picnic at First Dam
• Ropes Course. Technically, I just watched. But it was still fun.
• BBQ the last night.
• Made lots of new friends. Those kids were great!!!

I am so grateful I had the opportunity to participate in Outdoor SOAR. It was definitely more like playing than it was work. I am such a lucky girl to have a job that I love and makes me feel like I'm making a difference in the lives of these new students.

Random Glob of Thoughts

Random Thought #1: Today I was in Kohl's. There I saw a mother notice that her little boy was about to run out the front doors while she was talking to another lady. The mother asked the lady to hold on a minute, turned toward the escaping little boy and said in a sweet, calm voice:

"Thomas! Thomas! The Boogie Man is going to get you!"

It took everything in me to not burst out laughing. What on earth does the Boogie Man have to do with staying by your mom in a department store?! That's a scare tactic if I ever heard one!

Random Thought #2: On Saturday night, I saw 4 shooting stars. 4!!! I remember growing up always having the people around me see them, but I would always look a second too late. But I saw 4! In one night!!! More like in 2 hours of one night! That has to be lucky in some way, right?

Random Thought #3: The pool in the back of my house is disgusting. We joke that it's radioactive and producing West Nile Virus. After almost two months of looking at it and having my roommates call our landlord to complain, I came home today from an exhausting morning and found some men draining it. They are FINALLY cleaning and fixing our pool!!! Hooray!!!

Random Thought #4: Today I begin my journey in the world of The Olive Garden. This morning I spent almost three hours running around Logan to every store imaginable looking for the correct articles of clothing to make up my uniform. That's right. They give me the apron, I have to find the rest. My uniform includes black slack w/no exterior pockets, a white, long-sleeve, button down dress shirt (the hardest piece of clothing to get a hold of!), a black belt, and black, non-slip shoes. Not cheap! I spent what will probably be about half of my future first paycheck. This seems wrong.

Random Thought #5: My roommates are convicinced our house is haunted. A couple of them have had some creepy experiences. However, I do not believe in ghosts. So I guess we'll have to see about the haunted thing. It does open the door for some awesome pranks though! ;)

Trading Cards and Fame

So for A-Team, they made us these little trading cards to give to our students that have our pictures, our email so they can get in touch if they have any questions, and some little facts about us. To be honest, they're kinda cheesy. But funny all at once. Here are some of the pictures they took at that shoot. This marks my third photo shoot for the university this year. I'm pretty famous. haha NOT! The first picture is the one they used for my card. Not my favorite, but it's ok.

Also! Here is the product of my very first photo shoot! They put my on a flier for a scholarship I'm not eligable for. Funny huh? But yeah! There it is! Me, in print!