final push

It's stuff like this that helps me get through finals. I watched this video at least ten times while working on a blasted ten page paper, which I was able to finish at 10 o'clock last night. I guess ten is just my lucky number these days. Oh, the little things. :D RIP Chris Farley.

swoon-worthy

So one of my recent favorite movies would have to be 'North and South' (the bonnet movie, not the one about the Civil War). I'm pretty sure most of the ladies in the family have seen it; I watched it about a month ago with some friends who share my affinity for bonnet movies. It is very long and kind of sad for the most part but the last 5 minutes make it all worth it! Fortunately I found those last 5 minutes on youtube, so I decided to post it here so I can find it easily and watch it any time I want! *Caution* - you may want to be seated while viewing, as swoon-worthiness level is off the charts! Please don't faint and hurt yourselves!

valentine's day

Despite being separated from my honey for Valentine's Day, my weekend wasn't half bad. On Saturday I got not one but TWO cards from Sambo which made me giggle and grin. Plus he gave me an early gift before he left in January (seen below - a rose for each year and one to grow on). He done good. In the evening Loren and I went out to eat and then we went to see 'Dear John'. I thought I would cry buckets because the movie is about a couple who keeps in touch via letters while the guy is off in Iraq but when the credits started rolling both Loren and I wanted to throw something at the screen. Darn you Nicholas Sparks! Reel us in with 'A Walk to Remember' and 'The Notebook' and then churn out this crap. At least the main guy was nice to look at. Sunday morning I was asked to meet with the bishop before church, and much to my shock and excitement I was asked to be the new ____ - any guesses? After church Loren and Jon made dinner and then I made brownies and we enjoyed some hot chocolately goodness with a little bit of ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup while watching the Winter Olympics (I generally do not watch TV on Sunday but sometimes you have to make a judgment call in situations like this - seem anti-social and lock myself in my room or hang out with the best friends in the world while the TV happens to be on). Click on the picture for an up-close look at epic goodness. So all in all, not bad for a Valentine's Day. Here's a quick pic of all of the cards Loren and I got over the weekend:

snow day!!

On Friday morning I woke up to this:It was beautiful! Tennis at 8:30 was my only class so I thought about skipping to play in the snow but then I realized that since Loren was out of town I wouldn't have anyone to play with. So I drove (instead of my usual biking) over to the courts and my teacher just took roll and gave us bonus points for showing up. I came home and took a few more pictures and then snuggled up on the sofa reading my scrips while occasionally glancing up to watch the snow falling. It turned to rain an hour or so later and all of the snow was washed away but it sure was pretty while it lasted. I saw online that on Friday there was snow in 49 states, which has never happened before. Thanks a lot for holding out on us, Hawaii!

a little something I forgot to mention...

So there was a small bit of information I didn't mention in my previous post that is also kind of important...so 'member that guy I told you about? Well his name is Sam and Sunday is his birthday. His nineteenth birthday. I turned twenty-two on January 12th. So yes, that makes me a cougar. *MEOOOOWWWWW* And do you know what also happened on January 12th? Sam left for the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. And he'll be spending the next two years in Los Angeles, California, speaking Spanish and spreading the Gospel. I'm surviving. It's kinda fun and romantically old-fashioned to keep in touch through letters. I'm definitely learning lots about the little virtue called patience.

three months later...

Forgive my blogging hiatus. This past semester ended up being the best of my college career. Despite having more responsibilities than ever before, I was able to:

get a 4.0 GPA (for the first time since high school)

AND

get the boy I've liked for a while (although I never in my wildest dreams thought that he would like me back :D).

Score.

NephCure Walk

My friend has had a rare kidney disease (Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis) since he was 10. There is an organization called the NephCure Foundation that focuses solely on finding a cure for FSGS and Nephrotic Syndrome, another rare kidney disease. They are sponsoring a walk here in Baton Rouge next weekend and we are going to participate as an Institute. Pres. Riggs has asked all of us in the Institute to donate at least $10 and we are hoping to raise at least $500. Pres. Riggs' secretary, Sis. Donna, lost a nephew to this disease last year so we have a lot of connections to it around here. Contributors in Baton Rouge have a goal of $25,000 and have raised almost $22,000 as of tonight. So yeah, you guessed it, I'm asking y'all to donate just a few dollars to this cause if you wouldn't mind. I am not usually the kind of person who's really big on fundraisers but when you know someone suffering from the disease it makes it a lot more personal. If you'd like to help us out, just go to http://www.active.com/donate/BatonRouge2009/SWood67. Thanks so much guys!

flying high

Hopefully the stewardesses on my flight this week will be like this!

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mcconaugHEY!

So since school has started so has Tiger Football! To be quite honest, I'm not the rabid fan I was my freshman and sophomore years but I still enjoy going to home games. The first home game was on September 12th against Vanderbilt. I passed up on tailgaiting to study but headed to the stadium about an hour and a half before kickoff to enjoy the pregame show. Guess who was there also enjoying the festivities? Mr. Matthew McConaughey himself! I am not really a fan of his but no one can deny his good looks and Southern charm, and it's always exciting to see famous people even if I tell myself if I ever met one again I would act like I'd never heard of him/her. It was kind of funny that when I was trying to spot him I instantly recognized his stance and then commenced to take a buttload of pictures. Enjoy (Becky and Leena, please stop drooling :P)!Matthew McConaughey and Ronald McDonald in the same shot!
And then LSU's own Shaquille O'Neal came and congratulated the men's basketball team for something. In this shot he is hugging their coach Trent Johnson and the baseball coach, Paul Manieri is looking on (in the gray jacket).
Shaq is one huge dude. Seriously he is massive and frightening and I would not want to meet him unless I was wearing Iron Man's suit.
The game itself wasn't too exciting and it rained almost the whole time. I thought was prepared with the yellow hand-me-down NorthFace rain jacket I brought, but I guess somewhere between passing from Ben to Tim and then from Tim to me it stopped working. So I got soaked anyways and would have been better off without it especially since all of my friends were teasing me about wearing a NorthFace jacket. I had to explain that it was originally my brother's who has actually CLIMBED mountains and therefore has every right to own such an article of clothing, as opposed to the group of people at LSU who wear NorthFace who have never seen snow and only wear it because everyone else in their fraternity/sorority does. But I digress. Despite the rain it was fun to be back in Death Valley surrounded by 92,000 of my closest friends (including Adam and Erica, who I haven't seen since their wedding in August...cough).

roller coaster

A month later, I'm sure you're all glad to finally see something besides me in an afro when you come to my blog. With school starting last week and a series of unfortunate events, I haven't had much time to post. Let's recount all of the crappy things that have happened to me recently:

1. School started on Monday, August 24th
2. I burned my wrist on the oven
3. I dropped my make-up bottle in the bathroom sink and it broke so now it's leaking in the cabinet because I don't plan on buying a new one anytime soon
4. My computer cord stopped working so now I can't use my computer until I buy a new one
5. I got in a minor bike wreck last Friday
6. In that bike wreck, the chain was messed up, I cut my leg with the pedal, and got blood on my brand new beautiful running shoes
7. While draining the water out of my mashed potatoes, they all fell into the kitchen sink
8. I ate most of them anyways
9. There is a boy at church who am not attracted to and never will be who will not leave me alone
10. This past Monday evening I started getting the chills and was achy and feverish
11. I had to stay at work until 1 am
12. On Tuesday I felt worse but had class ALL day and then Institute
13. While removing my bike from the bike rack the pedal hit me on my leg in the EXACT SAME SPOT where I was cut last week (and now I'll have an H-shaped scar)
14. I had to go to class with a bloody leg and achy fever
15. Wednesday I wasn't very achy anymore but now had a sore throat and still had to go to my jogging class
16. Thursday night I had to work because the other girl is sick so I didn't get to go 80's clothes shopping with my friends for the 80's dance tonight
17. Which I guess doesn't matter because I can't GO to the 80's dance tonight because the other girl is still sick so I have to work tonight, too
18. This morning an idiot in a minivan almost ran over me (on my bike)
19. This afternoon an idiot in a truck almost hit me (in my car)
20. And now my ears hurt and my stomach is upset
21. Everyone is teasing me about having swine flu
22. But I can't go to a doctor because I don't have one here in Baton Rouge and the Student Health Center is booked up until who knows when

So yeah. Sometimes life throws a lot onto you. But it hasn't been all bad.

1. I'm from the school of hard knocks so don't really plan on going to the doctor's regardless
2. I was able to get the blood off of my shoes with Oxy-Clean - thank you Billy Mays
3. Lauren let me do laundry at her house once again, saving me $10
4. Joriann and Lauren and I enjoyed warm brownies and 'The Wedding Singer' last Friday
5. Mom and Dad came bearing gifts last Saturday
6. I got my annual Father's blessing
7. I got to stay in a sweet hotel in New Orleans and got $100 to put 5 kids to bed and then sleep for 8 hours
8. The ward dinner I organized after church last Sunday was a huge success
9. I love making smoothies in the mornings
10. I finally have my Institute Council picked out and they are all awesome
11. I LOVE all of my classes
12. Yesterday I learned about nuclear warheads and according to my teacher I now know more about them than most members of Congress (though I'm convinced that's not too impressive)
13. In my music class we had to figure out the time signature and meter of some MUSE songs
14. Listening to the Tchaikovsky station on Pandora while I'm at work makes me happy
15. Picking up an extra evening of work was a blessing because I'm off for Labor Day so that makes up for it
16. I love biking to my classes and running every other day
17. I got my football tickets this week in my inbox
18. While teasing me about having swine flu my friend David recommended this website: http://www.doihaveswineflu.org/
19. Today I finally won a game of BallKnockers at Friday Lunch at the Institute
20. Tomorrow (if I don't feel too crappy) I'm going with Lauren to her dad's for a BBQ/pool party celebrating the first game of the season
21. Labor Day = no school or work
22. UPDATE: I got off of work at 10 so I was able to go to the last half of the 80s dance
23. Afterwards I went to IHOP with Lauren and the Baron boys/Doobie Brothers/Curly & Moe/D-Bear and J-Bear (it is so easy to come up with nicknames for these two) and John paid because he's awesome

So in the end, I guess the good really does outweigh all the bad.