Busy, Busy, BUSY!

     It has been a crazy past few weeks! getting ready for Thanksgiving, enjoying Thanksgiving at home, back at school and lots of studying for finals and packing to go home for a few months:)! I currently just finished my first job application. woo! Now just need to fill out a few more and cross my fingers.

     So surprisingly after Thanksgiving this place {Rexburg, ID, aka the Ice"Burg"} started to grow on me a little, not saying I love it....but I guess it's not so bad after all. I have met some pretty sweet people and love hanging around them. I also absolutely love the Christmas season! I have decked out my dorm with lots of beautiful twinkling Christmas lights and hung up cut-out snow flakes. It's wonderful. It's a winter wonderland...literally...there was tons of snow. This past week though it has kind of melted, which is odd because usually the Iceburg is covered in snow this time of year with temperatures below freezing. It's funny because once it hits 25 or 30 degrees here it feels nice out side. I'm crossing my fingers for one more week of this "warm" weather.

      Baby, it's cold outside!

     So with all the snow, Christmas lights, and Christmas music. . . I am in the Christmas SPIRIT! and so it the rest of the Iceburg. Yesterday was the most wonderful day. The sun came out and it was beautiful! I think it's been at least a month since I've last seen that beautiful big ball of light. It made not only me happy but you could feel the joy radiating off of everyone else as well. I got up nice and early and attended my classes, then lunch and in the cafeteria there were beautiful lights and a small group of trombone players playing carols. The student body of the Iceburg was thriving on the Christmas season, and sunlight. After my lunch I went back out into the sun {let me remind you that although the sun was out it was still about 30 degrees and the ground was covered in snow}, anyways so I ventured back to the cold sun light and there were some boys out there who had set up a table. On the table was a big pot of hot water, as I approached I heard them say "free hot chocolate!" Excuse me?!?! There's no way I could have heard that right. FREE..hot chocolate?! Sure enough! They were giving away cups of hot cocoa! What wonderful people! And suddenly they became very attractive looking men as well. I love hot chocolate, especially if it is free. Some girl next to me asked what their purpose or motive was. {I couldn't help but think "who cares?. . . It's free"}. But they said they didn't have one. They just wanted to do a random act of kindness and hopefully we would too. Aw, even better, now with my cup of hot cocoa I was also given an inspiration to do an act of kindness to someone else. Now may I say that was the best cup of hot chocolate I have ever had!

(Okay..so the hot chocolate I had didn't actually look like this. . . But it felt that good! hah)

     So I really wish I had a camera, that is the very first thing on my wish list. I love these moments and really would like to capture them on picture. I would carry my camera everywhere with me, so I could take pictures of these things. Like the young man giving away free hot chocolate, and many other things as well. So I put it on my Christmas and hope Santa shows me some love, after all I have been a very good girl this year! but if not that is the first thing to go on my "to-buy" list, with my money I will be making with this hopefully new job come January. Well I think that is a quick over view of the past few weeks. Except OH!! How could I forget! . . . One last story! I finally decided on a major! After lots of debate and thinking over many different jobs, I would like to major in . . . (Drum roll please..)brum brum brum brum brum brum...clash!!! ENGLISH EDUCATION! I am so happy and relieved that I finally decided. I think that means I picked the right one. Because I am so excited about it and it has been taking up a lot of my happy thoughts :). SO now the problem was I needed to go and declare my major.  I had no clue how to go about that and have kept trying to find time in my schedule, with finals and all, to go talk to someone to tell them I would like to declare a major. 

     Now I'm going to jump ahead a little in the story but don't worry it all ties in. So I was in my history class the other day which is one of my classes with the most students, in a very large room. Now normally my professor will just look at his roll sheet and pick a random person to pray. He'll call them by name and on his little magic list of names it also happens to have a picture, where the person is from, and what they are majoring in. And on this particular day he just asked for someone to volunteer instead of choosing. Considering it is the class I am struggling most in right now, despite how much time I put in to it, I finally raised my hand thinking that maybe Heavenly Father would send some blessings if I prayed in that class. So I stood up and he read of my name and "...from West Linn, Oregon. And majoring in english education. What would you like to do with that?" "SWEEET!" I though!! I don't have to go declare a major! That already is my major! That was even better..it really was a sign. haha. The funny part is..I didn't know that was my major because when I was filling out applications for colleges I hadn't decided for sure yet so my mom and I would go through all the applications just picking random majors of whatever sounded fun. Fancy that!

      NOW I think that is just about everything eventful in the past little bit. Well, besides clean check we had today, and this flash mob/ lip dub thing...but I'll save that one for another entry.

 See Brooklynn be :)

See Brooklynn Be COLLLDDD

     So last night I went to bed to this...

     And woke up to this...

     Winter has officially started I guess. Brrrr! It was beautiful to wake up to snow falling..but not so fun to walk to class in. 

See Brooklynn be counting down till Thanksgiving

     Nothing really new, except the craving to go home grows more each day. I even created one of those countdowns. Like the ones you make in 3rd grade counting down till Christmas, well mines the same except I'm 18 now and counting down to go home for Thanksgiving.

     I think I just miss the home life. I am such a home body. I enjoy running errands or going to lunch with my mom. I love my bed. I love listening to music while helping with dinner in the kitchen. It's these simple little things. I miss our street at home. I think it is the most beautiful street in the entire world.

     (Pretty. huh?)

     I just feel like I wasn't ready for this part of my life yet. I am trying very hard to move on and be in the present, but it's difficult when I'm stuck on the past. I loved high school and always having my parents to rely on. I lived a very comfortable life. With my friends, family, and community. Being somewhere where I don't really feel any of that is hard. This is something new I'm still trying to get use to, but once I get in my comfort zone I know I'll be a lot happier. Right now I'm just trying to find where exactly that is.
     One thing I do really look forward to is Tuesdays. On Tuesday's I go to my FHE sisters dorm, they met some fun kids who they hang out with often. But usually on Tuesday you will find them in their dorm with these boys. One of them I find particularly interesting. His name is Sam. Now Sam and his friends returned from their missions not too long ago from Mexico City. So lots of times they will start speaking spanish to each other. Anyways this is not the point, the point is on Tuesdays Sam comes down to make crepes. He has this entire business plan of how he wants  to sell these crepes, but for now he sits in the girls dorm with all of his ingredients and supplies and makes crepes to sell to the girls around the dorm. I was very intrigued by all the action. I asked Sam all about his little business and where he came up with it. It was an interesting story, and now I help Sam sell crepes, by going door to door and selling them with a few of his buddies while he bakes them.  It is a silly little thing but I always look forward to crepes on Tuesday.

     Oh...I almost forgot about Halloween..

My roommates and I...Rockstar, Dalmatian, Rosie the Riveter, Gypsy, Kitty-Cat, and the Devil.

A few pumpkins in front of girls dorms

At Sammie's on Halloween..(well day before Halloween because since it was on Sunday so of course Rexburg celebrated on Saturday)

See Brooklynn Be a College Student

     I'm finally getting the hang of how to work this blogging stuff, thanks to the help of Addy Baird.
     I am finishing up only my second month in college, although it feels like an eternity. It's not everything I expected it to be. I thought it would be all fun and games, but so far it is mostly just a lot of hard work. I don't know how I'll also keep up a blog but I need something to enjoy and I thought this was perfect.

    I have six roommates, and share a room with one other girl, McCall Packer. I got lucky with my roommates. They are all super cute girls with different personalities. McCall and I find many things about college funny. For example not one of us (my roommates) has a car, so getting to the grocery store is a big deal! We always have to find new rides to get to the grocery store and it's a pain. Another funny thing is how we spend and save our money. We ran out of toilet paper (since we don't get to the store often) and we made jokes about going around to all the bathrooms around campus and just stuffing our bags of toilet paper to use for the week. Funny what life is like with no car and no money. Another problem is running out of plastic utensils. After every meal in the MC (manwearing center aka the cafeteria) I grab myself a few spoons and forks to last me a few days in my dorm of eating cereal and other foods. Just silly things like that keep us laughing about our new lives.

 (most beautiful sunsets here)

     I now live in a little bubble and can't just go anywhere, anytime I want. My bubble consists of just the few blocks I can walk around campus. My roommates and I do pretty good about getting off campus at least once a week and go eat out at dinner. but it's never very far since it is in walking distance. So my bubble isn't very big. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed the two weekends I spent down in Utah. It felt sooo nice to get out of my "little bubble" and enjoy a bed, a home with decorations, a nice shower etc. Thanks to awesome aunts I have who take good car of me!

     Because it is Halloween time there are all sorts of fun decorations around campus. All the girls dorms have carved pumpkins in front of them. (It was the popular thing to do for FHE this week.) In fact that is what our FHE group did. We drove (yes, I know, we actually drove somewhere! It was one of those few occasions because some of the members in our FHE family have cars)..anyways so we drove down to the store and picked out three good pumpkins! It was fun being able to do some sort of tradition. I think everyone enjoyed themselves:)

Yesterday was the official first day of winter! The temperature dropped into the 20's..  tooo cold for me! I wore lots of layers, including leggings under my jeans, 2 shirts, 2 jackets, and a pair of mittens. My roommates ask me all the time what I expect to do once it drops in the NEGATIVES for the winter! eeeks! That will be cold, I might have to consider hibernation. Although yesterday I thought I was going to die, today was the most beautiful fall day. The sun was out, and the leaves were gold and sprinkled across the green lawns and sidewalks. It felt like a glimpse of home. It was so beautiful.

       I love getting mail and packages. The other day my mom sent me a package with a bunch of fun surprises and Halloween treats for my roommates and I. It felt like Christmas! It was so fun, and exciting to receive something like that. Or an occasional letter from friends and little cousins. It is always a delightful surprise.

     Besides the occasional feeling of overwhelming home sickness it has been a great experience. I have grown and learned a lot about my self, and other people. I have also grown a closer relationship to my Father in Heaven. Although this has been more of a challenge than fun it has been good for me.

See Brooklynn Be

     So this is me trying to be creative. Creating a blog. I decided with so much going on in my life and so many changes happening I need to keep a record of it all and the best thing to do is to blog about it. Not for others, but for myself. I figure it might be the easiest way for me to organize my thoughts, and put pictures to them. So here I go...See Brooklynn Be.