Just a few life lessons

I have been thinking a lot lately about life. My life, other's lives, etc. It is just such an interesting thing to ponder. Questions like where will I be living in 10 years, what kind of job will I have, will I be married, or will I have any kids, really intrigue me. Then I think about the life lessons I come across on a daily basis and how they help me every day. Here are some of the lessons that have crossed my mind and been pondered to an exhausting extent.

-Fall in love. When it's right, it is the best thing that could ever happen to you.
-Work Hard. Always. It will get you where you want to be.
-Love your family. At any day, they could be taken from you. You are only given one family, so you better learn to love and accept them the way they are :)
-Look past peoples faults. Everyone has them. No one on this planet is perfect. The sooner we can look past others faults, the sooner we can make a new friend.
-Love yourself the way you are. There are some things you just cannot change, so embrace them. They are usually what makes you who you are :)
-Have faith. Without faith in God, you will be lost and confused.
-Be optimistic and happy. It makes your day so much better and brightens the moods around you. Life is short so enjoy it.
-Live every day with gratitude. We were given the opportunity to be here on this beautiful Earth, so be thankful you are still here.
-Serve others every chance you get. It is a double win opportunity. They are thankful for the service and you receive a mood boost.
-Smile and laugh. It's good for your health.



Just a little late night blogging. Thought I would try to get better at this...and I felt like these were good thoughts to share!


enjoy!
xoxo.

This is it.

I officially am the worst blogger...EVER! I have been home from school now for about 3 months. Seems like A LOT longer to me.

Started off my summer with a trip to Cabo San Lucas with the family. It was nice to just be with them for a bit, and soak up all the warm sun I could after such a long time without it. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

The Girls


Cabo Karting!


and here is the whole fam (minus maren, bryan, and reid. haha)




SInce then, we haven't seen much sun here in Cardiff. Its been a bit of a gloomy summer/fall. It's really nice to be home though. Maren is having her baby soon, which I cannot WAIT for. Everyone has been so excited for the newest addition to the family for a long time. It's finally almost time to welcome that little guy into the world!

The holidays are on there way! It's my favorite time of the year and I am so grateful to be home for it :) Things have been a little rough lately though. I unexpectedly quit my job about a week ago and there aren't many opportunities for another one. I'm currently trying to find a seasonal retail job since I am only here for a two and a half more months. It is a hard adjustment from working pretty much every day of the week, to not working any. For right now I am just trying to keep myself busy and not drive my parents too crazy! The weirdest part of not having anything to do all day is that I find myself missing school. Not so much Idaho, but the classroom and the learning part. I will be happy to be back in a classroom, moving forward with my education. I am hoping to transfer after this year. My top two choices right now are LMU or UMass Boston. It is a bit of a pain going through the application process, but I know it will eventually all be worth it. It's all part of growing up. Trying to figure out what I want to do with my life is also one of those things that we all must do at some point. I know I want to be a teacher. That is for sure. But I can't seem to decide between High School and Kindergarten. There are obviously pros and cons to both, but I can't seem to decide right now. I am already a very indecisive person, so a choice regarding my life plans is a very difficult one for me to make. I know that I will figure it all out in time :) Right now I have to constantly tell myself not to stress too much about my future. I am young, and my life is only beginning!

So, that's all there is for now. Again, not too many exciting things going on in my life at the moment. Life is happening faster than I would have ever imagined and it is exciting/a little bit scary. It has definitely thrown me lemons, some being more bitter and sour than others, but I am learning to take and use them to make some amazingly sweet lemonade. I apologize for the lame metaphor haha. Life's hard sometimes. I know that to be true from some of my experiences, but all we can do is pick ourselves up and continue trying. I have learned to not be too afraid of what is ahead, and more excited. So that I am! Excited and ready for the life I have ahead of me :)

I love you all!
Be back soon hopefully,
xoxo (like gossip girl of course. hahahaha)

Me.

It's Almost Over!

Well, here I am again! Sorry it has been a few weeks...(if anyone even reads this). It has been pretty hectic up here in Idaho. We celebrated the 4th of July in Pocatello, Keith's birthday right here in Rexburg, and are now trying to get through finals! Fun? Well the first two things were...

There really isn't much to say so this will probably be a short post. The 4th of July was fun. We went and watched fireworks at this hick-orific fair in Pocatello. Seriously, it was an experience I will probably never have again. hahaha. Just ask Keith how much he loved it! Idaho is definitely a whole new experience. Everything up here is so different than at home. I like it, but it makes me miss San Diego. Keith was worried about spending his birthday here since it would be the first time he has ever spent it in school since, hmm...forever. I decided that we would try to make it as fun as possible. I bought him the Fifa 2010 World Cup game (which I knew he wanted very much), a new pair of Pumas, went to see a movie and out to lunch, then played some of his game in between everything! I say it was a pretty good day. We did all there is to do in Rexburg! haha Oh, and I even bought him a cheesecake! So, we started the week off pretty well...and it has only gotten better! The weather has improved significantly, classes are almost over, I am passing all my classes with a very healthy amount of points, and did I already say that we are almost done??? It is hard to believe that this semester is already over. It went by incredibly fast. I swear the weeks were shorter or something. It has been a fun semester. It is so cool how much one place can change over the course of two weeks. Idaho is very pretty in the Spring, buuuut the Winter is a whole different story.

Well, I am not sure what else to say in this post. This month has been a blur of tests, homework, and deadlines. I am truly ready for this semester to be over. I'm exhausted. Funny how tiring school can be when you actually do it. haha. It definitely wears you down. It feels great to be done and know that I put my hardest into all my work. It is a satisfying feeling, I don't know why I waited so long to experience it! hahaha.

I feel like this post has been a lot of rambling, sorry about that. I am tired so that will be all for now :)

Love you all! 9 days from now and I will home with you!!

The Worst.

This title can pretty much sum up the last few weeks here. I'm the worst at writing on here, the weather has been the worst, and Keith owns a shirt that says "You're the worst". Which he decided to break out of the closet this last week and wear it with pride. hahaha. That boy always keeps me laughing. School is going well here. I am halfway done. 5 1/2 more weeks of school and then I can finally go home to the sunshine and beach. I'm not going to lie, the past 3 weeks have been hard ones. Every other school is getting out for summer and I am still here for awhile...with the worst weather ever. I have been more homesick these past weeks than I have since I came here in January. I miss the sun and my family and just San Diego in general. It snowed at the end of May and has been rainy, windy, and cold since then. Definitely NOT warm. There are good things about this place though. I promise. My classes are all really fun. I love them actually, which is rare. The only one I'm not very fond of is science, but Briana (my roommate) and Keith are both in that class with me soooo I get through it. We all have A's in there and if you know anything about my past science grades that should be a shocker.. It is ridiculously easy though. haha the kind of easy that actually bores you. My teacher looks like Dwight from The Office, so we pass time by making Dwight jokes. We sit in the back of class so we don't interrupt his lectures. I guess I do kind of enjoy that class. But it is still towards the bottom of my fun list. That's all there really is to say about the learning part of being here...

Outside of the classroom I feel like I always have something to do (It is usually homework, but surprisingly not all the time. I have discovered that if I just go do my hw after class or before eleven at night, it actually gets done and leaves more time to hang out! hahaha). Keith and I are both playing lacrosse up here on competitive teams and both our teams are undefeated! He usually plays goal in the second half of his game and ends up saving his team every time. Keith likes to drag me to the field on days that we don't have practice and have me shoot on him. It's probably pretty funny to watch since I end up hitting him more than a few times which I don't think he enjoys...yet he still drags me out there with him. It's all good though, I enjoy the extra practice and fresh air. I actually really like watching him play since I have never had the chance before. He is an amazing goalie! Our games are on the weekends so we don't usually do much other than lacrosse, a movie, and church. haha. I am glad I am playing up here though...and that I forced Keith to play too since he is having fun now. There really isn't much more to do around here. There is a mall in Idaho Falls but I have decided that I don't need to spend anymore money and Keith has decided he is sick of waiting while I try everything on. hahaha I think both my parents can agree with him on that...

I had a hair fiasco. Most of my family knows about it, but I will share it again anyways. It is funny now that its all over. Well last semester I dyed my hair brown so this semester I decided I wanted to go back blonde. I went to the Paul Mitchell Partner School to get it done. The girl that was doing my hair asked what I wanted done to it so I told her. I wanted to go back blonde and get 2 inches trimmed off. She told me that would be easy enough so I trusted her. hahaha. Shouldn't have done that. It took 5 HOURS to dye my hair and when they finished rinsing it I was shocked. It was yellow/white. NOT what I wanted. Just wait, it gets better. She then started cutting my hair. Mistake again. Instead of the 2 inches I wanted off, my hair is now 4 1/2 inches shorter. I was a little upset at the end of that appointment. haha. I walked out at 11:30 and when I got in Keith's car he did not say a word. That's when I knew how bad it was! He later told me he thought I was wearing a wig when I walked out!! hahaha thanks Keith. We ended up going back the next day and through the tears and many complaints, my hair got fixed. I am happy to say that it is back to normal now :)

I think this is enough for one post. I really really really will try to get better at this. I am so excited to go home and to Utah for the 4th of July to see my family. I miss the beach, the sun, mexican food, being barefoot, laughing with my best friend Lauren Soppe, my family, Pizza Port, my own bed, and basically everything else about Cardiff by the Sea. I have many things to look forward too! All the things listed above as well as one more...Maren is having a babyyyy! She is so excited and so am I! I get to be an aunt to a cute little nephew and be there when it all happens. I can't wait for the new addition!

Well, I will write back soon :) love you all!

<3

Oh, How Time Flies.

Well it has definitely been the longest famine on my blog so far. I had actually forgotten that I even had one! Oops! My first semester up here in Idaho is over and we are now starting the second week of the Spring semester. Man how I love the Spring, so much more than the Winter, up here. haha can't imagine there are many people who don't feel the same way. The end of last semester was quite a whirlwind. Made tons of new friends, only to say goodbye as April 9th approached. Luckily I can still creep on them on Facebook. What would I do without that site?!

This semester has been great so far though. Keith and I drove up together after my week break spent at home. We turned the 11 hour drive from home to Salt Lake City into a 14 hour one...he was not a happy camper when we finally arrived. haha. We had to stop, not kidding, every 50 miles on the way to Vegas so I could use a restroom. I learned not to drink a large cup of orange juice before a long road trip. haha. Then I proceeded to get us lost for an hour in Salt Lake trying to find Hayley's house. That put him over the edge and I now know why I am NEVER in charge of directions. My mom asked if we ran out of things to talk about. HA. Not with me around! One of the best conversations we had in the car had to be when we were lost in Salt Lake...
Driving on the 15 in Salt Lake..
Me-"Here I will look up directions on my phone. I have Hayleys address."
Keith-"Ok, yeah do that, or call her."
Me- "No no I got it on here....(long silence while I study my phone).."
Keith-"Where do we get off?"
Me-"Hmm maybe this exit coming up, wait no no keep going its not that one. Crap maybe it was.."
Keith-"Oh my gosh. What do the directions say?!"
Me-"They don't say anything!"
Keith-"Let me see the directions."
I hand him the phone while saying "It's a map!"
Keith-"Paige..."
As if the freeways in SLC aren't already difficult enough, I was trying to read a Google MAP! He definitely wanted to dump me on the side of the freeway after that one. Poor guy. Once we finally got to the 80, he says "Let me apologize now, for screaming at you later." hahahah what a test of patience I am. My parents can second that I'm sure. I am glad to report that the next morning we made it safely to Rexburg, Idaho! Oh what a wonderful place this is. We arrived to dry, hot weather. I have never been happier to be that hot in a place. It is crazy to see how much a place can change in one week. I left when snow was still on the ground and came back to green grass, flowers, and insects! My roommates and I were actually happy to see bugs, which is unusual for all of us. It was nice to see other living things in Rexburg (that is a very rare sight in the winter) haha. I helped Keith move in, met a few of his roommates, and spent the rest of the day getting his school errands taken care of. Tuesday was the first day of class. I have loved all my classes from the start. My professors are all really good and the classes themselves are really interesting. I have discovered a new love up here at school....the LIBRARY! I am actually writing this in the library now. Keith started out by dragging my butt out of my room, and now I happily accompany him whenever we have homework to do. I never thought I would say this, but the library is a good, fun, productive place to be!

I have high hopes for this semester. I am loving the weather, my friends, having Keith here :), and (surprisingly) my classes! I will honestly try to be better at this blogging thing. I know I'm terrible at it. haha. But thats it for now. Not much going on here..I am making my roommate Briana, and Keith, go horseback riding with me while we are here. As well as going on a wagon ride at some point. They love me for it too :) I am looking forward to a semester of studying and some outdoor fun. Bring it on Idaho!

With love from the library!

Magical Mayhem

ok I know it has been a loooooong time since I last posted. My bad. I know it has been a long time from the text messages and facebook posts from my mother usually saying something like this, "You fail at posting on your blog" and "Paige you suck at remembering to write on your blog." Can you feel the love? I can. So here I am, writing on my blog. Just for you mom :)

Well, it's hard to remember everything that has happened since my last post. I know we passed our next clean check and because of that we didn't have one last Friday. It pays off to clean one day, just so we can have two weeks of being slobs. haha. Somehow i don't think it should work that way. But hey, we earned our right to be slobs. Mom, don't worry, I keep my room pretty clean. I don't have a choice in this tiny thing. Anyway, not much happened last week. This last weekend my roommates and I went with our friend Ryan Stone to a Save Haiti dance on Friday. It was....interesting. I don't think I will be going to anymore of those. haha. I only went because it was for a good cause. Saturday night Ryan dragged us all ice skating, literally. There is an ice skating rink on campus, but the complete opposite side and on top of a large hill. Now, if you know anything about Rexburg during the winter, the last place you want to be is on top of a hill, at night, on a large chunk of ice. I only lasted about ten minutes. We all ended up leaving soon after and going back to our dorm to watch a movie and eat cookies haha. oh the fun things we do on the weekend! Sunday we walked to church in 3 inches of snow. That was a blast, with the wind blowing and heels on. Not much has been happening other than the usual. We spend our days in class and our nights causing mayhem. It's quite the life :)

Nothing much has happened this week so far. We played basketball after FHE last night and then our friend Ryan Stone entertained me and my roommates with a short magic show. It was quite a night. I love magic shows! Everyday seems to be a good day around here. Today I had no school, a basketball game, and received a cake. Our game went well, we won by....a lot. I received a "friendship" cake (that's what I am calling it) from Ryan today. It was actaully really delicious. I was actually a little impressed that he kept his word on making me a cake, and it was made within 24 hours. Impressive right? It will be gone by tomorrow too, I can guarantee that.

I'm sorry this post isn't very interesting! Life is good up here, and I can't wait to go home in a week and a half to see my family. As well as my best friends baptism :) (which I need to write a talk for....)

love you all! I will try to get better at this! promise.

Fail.

It has been a week since my last post, so it's time for another! This week was pretty good..lots of homework, but lots of fun too. I am enjoying my classes and the weather hasn't been too bad lately. It was only windy one day this last week, so we got lucky. The wind sucks. haha. I got two packages from home, one from Keith and one from my mom. It was nice to get something from them, I didn't realize how much I missed home. I was surprised how smoothly I adjusted to life away from home. I mean, it wasn't SUPER easy, but it was a lot easier than I thought it was gunna be. Even though I still miss my family on a daily basis. I just try to stay busy, since there isn't a whole lot I can do about missing them besides counting down the days until I go home.

Well this week was a busy one. Monday I had class all day, Tuesday I worked on homework all day and attempted the whole library thing, Wednesday I had class all day, and then nothing on Thursday. Thursday night my roommates and I watched half of a documentary on Charles Manson and were all scared for the rest of the night. haha it was soo great. Then on Friday I had class all day and came home. We finished our documentary and then continued to watch some more biographies on creepy serial killers. Don't ask why. I guess we were all just interested in learning about them. My one roommate, Sharetta, was begging us not to make her watch them by the end hahahaha. But hey, we learned about the Night Stalker (Richard Ramirez), Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy in one night. We decided we got educated on what to look out for...haha. We then proceeded to watch a scary movie and by the time we were done, we were all a little jumpy. It was a Friday horror night. I loved it. I found out thats one more thing I have in common with two of my roommates, we love to learn about creeps and watch scary movies. In my opinion, that was a good way to wrap up the week. Sharetta was threatening us all that she was going to have to sleep with one of us since we made her watch all that stuff. ha, but I'm glad to report that she made it through the whole night by herself. Today was a pretty slow day, woke up at 11:30 and walked to the Post Office around 1. Took awhile to get up today (Don't worry mom, we were all asleep before 3:30 am). I got a package sent home for my family, and then just took the rest of the day easy. Not much happened this week, nothing too exciting at least. Lots of funny moments with the roommates and still some new things to get used to. One thing I definitely learned this week was that Fridays are the best day of the week. I always took them for granted. Not now.

Oh, and the title of this post actually refers to our room check. hahahaha soooo we cleaned like crazy late Thursday so we could pass our clean check the next morning but apparently our efforts were wasted. She walked in and said "You guys are the worst I have seen" hahahahaha sooo funny, she didn't even go further than the living room and then she didn't even tell us what was wrong!!! The annoying thing was that the living room was actually clean for once. The floor was dirty though because our vacuum was broken and made the floor worse when we tried to use it. So that wasn't really our fault, but she fixed it for us. Anyway, she told us she would come back today to check, so we were cleaning AGAIN last night and she didn't even come by! what a joke. but hey, now our rooms are all nice and clean! So we failed our first room check. Good start? I think so.

Where it all begins.

Sorry, like I said before, I struggle with this blogging thing.

The last post was about picking Reid up from the airport, so it has been awhile. haha oops! well the Sunday after he got home he gave a GREAT talk in church. He has changed so much while he has been gone. (all for the better of course!) It was great to have him home for a bit though, as well as everyone else in the family. It was a week of many stories and sweet moments. It will be hard to forget.

Well, it was finally time for me to go off to college for the rest of the year! I brought in the new year with one of my best friends Keith at the YSA dance in Balboa Park down in downtown SD. We had lots of fun just hanging out...but I'm not going to lie, saying goodbye was not any fun. I don't think anyone likes saying goodbye, and especially to your best friends and family. But I survived and my family and I left that following friday morning and arrived in Salt Lake City that evening. It was quite the drive, but we got to stop and see Maren and Bryan on the way since they were in Utah with his family. It was a safe trip, we had three cars out on the road so it was an accomplishment to get them all to Utah safely. But we got it done! I was a pretty sad on that drive because I could only imagine what was about to happen in my life. My family means everything to me, so the thought of leaving them for months at a time was kind of hard to swallow. I just tried to enjoy those last hours with them and I think I got that accomplished haha. We all hung out that first night in the hotel and got to bed early so we could get to Idaho at a decent hour the next day. We finally got to Rexburg, I got all checked in for school, got my dorm assignments, and started to move in. I met everyone in my dorm and found out we are all from California, with one exception. haha. I spent one last night with my family on saturday, and then they left me in the frozen tundra of Idaho the next morning. That morning was a little hard, but I had a lot to do and kept myself busy. My roommates and I spent that Sunday just sitting around chatting and figuring out how to do things haha. Monday no one had class and my roommate and I spent the day hanging out and going to new freshman activities. Us and one of our other roommates, as well as a few guys, walked down to walgreens later that day only to find out that it was closed because the power went out. The result of this trip was not what we intended it to be. haha it ended up being a 4 block walk/snowball fight, both ways. It was great fun :) that night we had our first FHE and then went back to our dorms living room and watched a movie with some friends. Yesterday class started for pretty much everyone, except for me! I went and bought my books and ran a few quick errands so I would be prepared for my classes the next day. Last night I went to my friend from back home's apartment and had dinner and hung out. It was nice to get out of the dorms for a night! Today was my first legit day of college, and I loved it! I spent the day running (practically) from class to class, but they all seem like really fun classes so I had a good day. It got nice and cold today..it had been pretty warm the last couple days (30 degrees was very warm) so today was a bit of a shock. haha it is actually 0 degrees as I type this right now...should be a fun weekend! haha. anyways, I am absolutely loving it up here and the adjustment wasn't quite as hard as I thought it would be. I miss my parents, my siblings, and my besties Lauren and Keith, but I know this is what I gotta do!

Its been a crazy last couple of days...getting settled into a new "home", meeting lots of new people, going to school, and missing my crazy family. I seriously love it here though and I am already learning so many things! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here and to learn and meet people in this environment. I am looking forward to a wonderful 4 years up here :)