Smells Like Team Spirit

This is a little late, but better late then never right? At the end of last semester I got a group of people together to run the Temple to Temple Relay that was to take place at the begining of Fall semester. We start at the Rexburg temple and then make our way to the Idaho Falls Temple. It was a total of 36.7 miles of running, and it was so much fun!!! I only ran 3.5 miles, but the amazing Stu ran 7.8 miles (the longest leg). My team consisted of Tiffany, Me, Stu, Steven, Danny, Kris, Marianna, and Kala. Steven drove his truck and we stopped at the check points to drop off and pick up runners. Below are pictures of the team at the Rexburg temple and the Idaho Falls temple. We even made the scroll (our school paper)!

Before the race (Steven, Danny, Kris, Stu, me, Tiffany, Melissa, and Kala).

After

Death by Homework

This semester is going to be a long, hard semester. Good thing I have graduation to motivate me! Here is a picture I found. Thought it was funny, and so I thought I would share it.

forever changed

One year ago today I landed in Jerusalem to spend the most amazing three and a half months of my life. It changed my life forever because of the knowledge I gained, the people I met, and the placed I went. I miss it so much and can not wait for the day when I get to go back!

This is me on my birthday withe Jerusalem in the background. If you look close you can see the temple mount.

Mockingjay!

So the third book in the Hunger Games series came out. A group of us decided to go to the midnight release of the book at Barnes and Nobles in Idaho Falls. We got there and they gave us mockingjay tatoos, we did face painting, we made mockingjay pins and finally we stood in line to get the book! This was all on Monday night and I have finished the book already. SO good and I want to start re-reading the series. Here is proof of our awesome adventure! ps I promise an update of Zion's will come soon!

Me, Devin, Steven, and Amy with our books, tats, pins, and face painting.

one of those days

When I explain to people what I do for work, the most common response I receive is something along the lines of "That must be a really tough job." I love my job, I have grown in ways that I never thought possible, and I can not wait to grow more in the future. For those of you who don't know what I do, I used to work with children in a partial care and now I work in the Case Management office dealing more with adolescence. Most, if not all, of these children have been abused in some way. For the most part I think I handle my job well, but every now and then you get those days when you hear one too many things. Today was one of those days. I will spare you the details, and simply say that today I love my family.

Here is a tribute to my amazing family. Forgive me for complaining because I couldn't go to a friends house or when you made me do chores (which I was fully convinced only evil parents did), or any time I had to do something I didn't want to do. All members of my family are amazing people. I will forget this fact, but I will have another one of these days to help me realize how much I love them again.

Me, Bridget, Finley, Brad, Shelley, Michael, Iain, and Mother (missing: Cassity and Ryan)

Dad and Bridget. I haven't been home for a few years, and I dont have a picture of my Dad, so I stole this from Bridget's blog.

I am growing up...

Growing up my mother always told us that we were finally adults when we liked grown-up foods like broccoli, eggs, and other foods that children typically don't like. Well, I have come to say that I now like eggs and occasionally broccoli!! I think I am finally an adult.

Second change is about my awesome music collection. I have never really liked country music, in fact I would go as far to say that I HATED country music. Let me defend myself here. In High School there was a certain crowd who listened to country music. They were the lifted truck guys who felt like they owned everything and everyone. I hated those guys in high school, so naturally when I heard country music, I hated it. A perfect example of Pavlov's Classical Conditioning. There were a few exceptions through the years, but for the most part it made my skin crawl. A few weeks ago I was driving home from work, and I felt like listening to country music. "What is this feeling?" I asked myself, but I followed my desire and found country music on the radio and I have not stopped listening to it since. I am actually listening to Lady Antebellum Radio on Slacker.com. Not complaining at all. Idaho is proud of me, and maybe Texas is proud of me now.

COMING SOON!! An update about my funny/awesome/incredible weekend down in Zions.

Hi, I'm Alex and I am a Mormon

Ok, so I was watching the very interesting and well done news of Idaho. They cover stories like the local high school play, or the local girl who made it to the final show of America's Got Talent as their top stories. I usually watch, judge, and laugh at such meager news stories for entertainment. Last night I was not at all suprised when they decided to cover a story about the new Mormon ads that are out. They asked people around town what they thought of the new ads. My roommate decided she wanted to watch a few, so we looked them up and they are actually really awesome. These are two of my favorite, but they are all pretty much awesome. Watch and enjoy! Ps. I might have teared up a bit during the one with the mother with 5 children.

Chasing Pavements

This is an awesome music video that Devin showed me. It has a whole dance with them laying down. It is really cool. Watch and enjoy!

T-14 days till...

The count down has started till the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy comes out! With the help of my co-worker, Melissa, we have officially hooked the entire office (mostly just the girls, which is the entire office staff!). We looked up the times and locations of the midnight party which we are fully planning on attending. 10 pm, Teton Mall, Barnes and Nobels. Excited yet? Well you should be!!

How to Have fun in the Burg!

You might ask, how does one exactly have fun while going to BYU-I in Rexburg, Idaho? Well, this blog entry will answer that question for you.

Big Judd’s: A ridiculous place about 15 minutes away from Rexburg. It is a burger place and boy is it good, and boy does it make me sick every time I eat there. They have this challenge where you can eat their 1-pound hamburger and you get a picture on the wall. I am ok with never accomplishing this challenge.

My preschool team. They are awesome and we took a trip to Big Juds.

Bon Fires: One of the many bonuses of having friends who live locally is that they know what to do and how to do it. Bon Fires is one of these things! Roast mellows, socialize, cobbler, horse shoes, and of course, a fire.

Bon Fire in the middle of no place with EVERYONE!

Ward Functions: Fact: I live in the best ward ever. This semester we had ward Olympics (which my FHE group won) and we also did the 50-lap relay (and our ward got 2^nd)! So much fun!

Ward Olympics and this is most of my FHE group! Wade's World!

50-Lap Relay. Jordi, Me, Holli, Valerie, Kami.

Rodeo: I don’t think this was a real rodeo, but I don’t know any better. BYU-I students got the chance to ride a steer. Both Leanna and Tim rode and both did awesome!

Rodeo before Leanna and Tim rode!!

“R” Mountain: We hiked “R” mountain at like 10 at night and it was so much fun. It was a full moon and so we didn’t need flash lights. On the hike up we gathered wood and ended up having a fire when we got up there. The fire smelled so bad, but the mellows tasted pretty good!

At the top of "R" Mountain. Me, Valeria, Kami, Holli, Danny.

Campus activities: These are actually pretty fun. They organized this huge water day and they had a huge slip and slide, water baseball, watermelon, and lots of other things. Another thing was Extravadance. My old roommate, Brooke, was in it and of course she was amazing.

Water day on campus. We are all wet from the slip and slide!

Valerie’s House: My roommate, Valerie, lives in Blackfoot and she had us over for a little camp out in her yard. Roasted mellows, ate hamburgers, watermelon, had a fire, and camped in tents. It was so much fun!

Holli, Valerie, and I at Valerie's house. So much fun!

Service!: During Spirit week on campus there was a service project making blankets and making cards, it was a great experience.

Kami and I at the Service Project.

FHE: Fact #2: I have the best FHE group ever! We have made shirts, went to the park and played ultimate, played in water, made graham candy houses, went four-wheeling, went and had ice cream and I am sure we will be doing so much more!

FHE when we played ultimate. I was the one that got booted over to the other FHE team and we totally dominated!!

ST. GEORGE!!!: Technically this isn’t in Rexburg, but it was organized with people who live in Rexburg and we drove from Rexburg.

Day 1: Friday. Drove 8 hours to St. George where Dave’s Brother, Dan, greeted us in his amazing house. Dan made us smoothies. We ended to night by watching Sandlot.

Day 2: Saturday. Made sandwiches and had tons of food. Went to the lake and found some cliffs. The pictures say it all. It was so much fun, and so beautiful. That night Dan grilled chicken for us and made us this huge dinner.

This is me jumping off of one of the cliffs. We swam to this little Island. You can see the shore in the distance. It was a pretty hefty swim, but so worth it!

Day 3: Sunday. Went to church. Had an interesting Sunday school teacher, he was very dramatic. Had a funny Relief Society President. She called us “Dave’s Harem.” Made me laugh. Then we went home, played games, took naps, ate another awesome lunch. Then we went to Stari’s, Dan’s wife, parent’s house. I thought Dan’s house was big, but this thing was crazy big. First we jumped on their trampoline, then we played volleyball in their backyard, and tether ball. Then we had Kabobs, which Dan cooked. Then we played soccer in their indoor soccer gym. But before all this we got a tour of the full gym they have, the full theater room they have, and the rest of the huge house. Crazy fun!!

This is Julie in the sand box that is underground/ under the trampline. So awesome!

Indoor soccer! I scored at least 3 times. Kind of proud of myself :)

Day 4: Monday. We decided that we needed to go on a hike before we left St. George and it was the best decision made all weekend. It was just outside Cedar City and it was through a river and up waterfalls. Once again the pictures don’t do it justice, but it gives you the idea. It was almost like a mini narrows hike. Then we drove 5 hours to my house where my wonderful mother provided dinner for us, and then the remaining 3 hours the Rexburg. Best weekend EVER!!

Climbing up the waterfall. Devin, Kami, Valerie, Rachel, Julie, Dave, and me at the very top!

The whole crew again! Love this picture!

Boating: Another plus about having roommate that live locally. My roommate, Holli, has a boat and her father took us on Saturday. I only went tubing, but they have wake boards, skis, slalom, knee boarding, and the skyski. It got really cold, and that is why I stopped once the sun went away. Still so much fun!!

Boating on Holli's boat and she isnt even in the picture. I am on the tubes all the way to the right.

Upcoming events: Jordi’s cabin in island park, floating the river, more boating, swimming at beaver dick park, Rigby lake, water fights, and more fun things that involve me getting tan!!

Back to the Burg

I have now been home from Jerusalem for almost 4 months and it has been even longer than that since my last entry. I apologize and will try to be better…not that anyone reads this thing anyways.

This winter semester has been a crazy one. From school to dating to working to being ill, it has been a ride!

Lets start with school. I had the opportunity to take some really good classes this semester including Social Psychology, Social Problems, Adult Development, a Vocal class, Professional Development and a religion class.

Favorite: Social Psychology

Reason: We studied things like; why people get mad, why people help, personality, aggression, understanding yourself, the need to justify, and other awesome and interesting topics. Class was so much fun and interesting. We also had such a diverse group of people that it made class that much more interesting. Downfall was the tests….killer.

As for my social life, it has been a lot of fun this semester. Lucky me had three engaged roommates, so they were pretty much useless when it came to a social life. I ended up meeting tons of new people and had lots of things to do. Not much more to say in this area…maybe it wasn’t as great as I thought? No, it was great!

Working is work? I am now working in the office mostly, which means I get to talk to some very interesting people when they come in. I am in on most of the scoop and I am learning how to do tons of stuff. Part of me misses the kids, but then I get the chance to work with them on Mondays and Wednesdays. They are fun and cute, but they have their moments. I think I like them better from a distance…

As most of you know it has been an interesting semester with me being sick most of it. I got sick at the beginning of the semester and just never really recovered. I got sick again about 2 weeks ago and it got really bad. Body aches, headaches, temperature, extremely sore throat, and the feeling of death approaching. Tuesday morning I went to the Health Clinic on campus, they looked at my throat and then sent me to a specialist who sent me to the hospital to have emergency surgery to have the abscesses on my throat removed and take out my tonsils. Went to the hospital where they hooked me up to an IV. By this point I hadn’t been drinking water because it was extremely difficult so getting the IV in was an interesting experience. It took about 10 minutes of them tying my arm, flicking the back of my hand, and sticking me a needle to find the vain. Once they got it in, they gave me some morphine so I was no longer mad at them. They gave me a few more drugs, took me into surgery and I was a goner. Next thing I know, I am awake and life still sucks. If you don’t have to get your tonsils out when you’re an adult, I recommend that you don’t do it—not a fun experience. My mother was awesome enough and drove to Rexburg to get me. I went home for the rest of the week, which means that I missed a full week of classes right before exam week. Exam week was fun J

That pretty much sums up my semester.

See you again in 5 months! (Just kidding. I will try to be better about writing in this thing)