Top 10

I've been home for almost two weeks now and I'm loving it!! Oddly enough though, I miss Rexburg too. This is a new feeling that I've never experienced, so it's weird. My living situations in the past have not been so ideal, so I've always been more than ready to come home to my family. However, this past semester was the freaking bomb and believe it or not, it was a little bit hard to say goodbye to good old Rexhole.

For my Top 10 this week, here are some things that I miss (in no order, as usual):

1. My "Hugs from Grandma Blanket."

My grandma made all of us blankets. She said since she couldn't be near us all the time, we could wrap ourselves in this blanket and pretend that she was hugging us. Ever since I got mine several years ago, I've slept with it every single night. I cuddle with it when I watch movies and when my tv shows get too intense for me to handle. When I was packing, I saw it on the couch and I told myself not to forget it. I didn't think I would because I sleep with it EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, but guess what. I forgot it. It was really tough to sleep without it for those first few nights, but it's getting better. I feel silly that I'm 20 years old and I can't sleep without my blanket, but I love that thing.

2. Shay and Kristin.

I loved these girls. We got pretty close over the course of the semester. I'm sad that we're splitting up this fall. Thankfully, we'll all be close enough that we can still get together for our game nights on Sundays and maybe for an occasional "Criminal Minds" episode. :] I had a video to show just how great we really are, but I've been having some technical difficulties, so I'll save it for another time. You know we're great anyway. The video was just bonus.

3. Shay's soccer games.

Shay was on a soccer team called "Velveeta." They wore orange shirts and since there were a couple left over, Kristin and I painted them and wore them to her games since we were her biggest fans.

4. Track.

I miss my track team. This season wasn't my best because my lungs are still recovering from that accident and it's even harder when your lungs have to adjust to higher altitude, but it was still a good season. I made a lot of improvements and a lot of new friends. I even had a little fan club! My roommates came to a whole bunch of my races. I'd never had anyone cheer for me at my races since high school, so it was super fun having them there.

5. Criminal Minds, White Collar, Psych, and Burn Notice

Shay, Kristin, and I used to curl up on the couch and watch "Criminal Minds." It was so fun. I'm really into that show because I think that would be the coolest job to have. I find it incredibly fascinating that they can catch a criminal by analyzing their behavior. I want to study psychology as soon as I'm done with Special Ed. My dad thinks I'm weird. He calls it "Creepy Minds" and I think my roommates would agree. We love that show, but they get scared to death sometimes. I remember one night, we stayed up until probably about 1:30 just telling stories of scary things that had happened to us. Shay had some pretty legit stories. It was freaky, but those were great times.

As we all know, USA has some of the best tv shows known to man. Me, Kristin (my roommate), Sena (my old roommate), and Nick (my not roommate) used to come over and we'd watch some of these shows together. I love watching them with my family, but shoot. I miss watching those shows together on that stupid couch.

6. SRC

We have a "Student Representative Council" at BYU-Idaho. It's like Student Government. People can go online and voice concerns or suggestions for improvement at the school. We divide those up between the committees and work with the administration on them. I was on the SSA (Student Services and Activities) committee. We were in charge of doing well, services and activities for the students. For BYU-Idaho's 10th Anniversary this summer, we worked with the Activities council at the school to put together a big picture. We had about 6,500 students come, all wearing blue and white, to spell out BYU-I. It looked awesome. Well, see for yourself. Here's the picture that was printed in our school paper.

Obviously, that's not the whole thing, but pretty legit still, right?

Our committee was also in charge of putting together books of remembrance for students who died throughout the semester. Students can send in pictures or memories of the students and we compile it into a book and give it to their families. It was a cool experience to be able to do that because one of the people that died was a distant cousin of mine. Even though I didn't know her, it was still cool to be a part of that for her family. Another student that died was a chair for one of the other SRC committees, so he was well-known among the SRC. That was hard for a lot of people on my committee, but also really special to be a part of. I love the SRC and I loved my committee. Half of my ward was in it (it seemed like) and my roommate, Meghan, was one of the chairs, so it was a blast! Here's us...being us:

We had a birthday party for Meghan, that's why it says "Happy Birthday" on the board and that's why she's getting kissed on the cheek. Unless there's something going on that I don't know about....

7. Being able to take a weekend trip to see Sarah, Ginger, and Robbie.

I can't very well do that when I'm in Indiana. Ginger isn't from Indiana, so there's really no chance of seeing her when I'm home. Robbie was here, but left to go see his girl and to work (really? Who needs to work?). Sarah, however, is coming home on the 17th to help her parents drive her brother, Jackson, out to BYU, so I'll see her SOON!!

Sadly, I have no pictures of us from this summer, but here are some old-ish ones.

This is Me, Sarah, and Ginger at the BYU vs. Utah game last fall and then me and Robbie at Yellowstone (this summer, actually):

Notice my "Hugs from Grandma Blanket" that's sitting on my lap. That game was pretty intense, as you hopefully remember, so I was REALLY glad to have had that with me. :]

8. Jamba Juice.

I don't know why I'm so in love with this place, but I am. Strawberries Wild is my favorite. My best friend, Sarah, works at Jamba Juice and she's always telling me that I like the boring ones. Well, when you're a lactard, your only choices are the all-fruit smoothies, so WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO, SARAH? :] Anyway, I love Jamba Juice. YUM. Oooh! That reminds me, the Yumberry smoothie is really good.

9. Twizzleberry.

I love this place. I'm usually not a fan of Fro Yo, but this has changed my life forever. Like Jamba Juice, I have a limited selection because I can't have yogurt, so I have to get the sorbet. It's still awesome though. Especially after you put all those unhealthy toppings on it. At the beginning of the semester, The Scroll (our school paper) printed three 15% off coupons for Twizzleberry. On the day before the new issue came out, I realized there were still a lot of papers left, so on my way home from campus, I took 10 of them. Yes, 10 copies of the Scroll. I now have 30 Twizzleberry coupons (minus a couple that I've used since then). So if anybody ever wants a trip to Twizzleberry, hit me up. I can get you 15% off!

10. Being unladylike and casual whenever the heck we wanted.

Okay, so I can still do this even when I'm home, but there's something about doing this with Shay and Kristin that makes it so fun. I miss Shay and Kristin burping at the top of their lungs whenever they wanted. Shay used to apologize afterward, but Kristin, she sort of had this attitude of "Hey, it happens." It just used to make me laugh. I also miss Shay walking around in her spandex shorts, Kristin walking around in her sweat pants, and me walking around in my comfy man shorts. And I miss how we all used to crowd around the AC when we'd come back from running (and sometimes freak people out when they would walk by our window). We just really couldn't care less about what we looked like sometimes and I loved it! I love that we can just wear whatever the heck we want and not do our hair and that's still acceptable. It's just so nice to not have roommates who feel like they need to put on make-up before they go running.

Here's one of my favorite pictures. Amy (on the left) who had just gone running, Me who had just finished a track meet, Shay who had just finished a soccer game, and Kristin who doesn't really enjoy exercising and is still skinnier than me (hate her). Look how good we look! And we don't even care! Haha.