Since Christmas

I was thinking today and I decided that I would finally make a blog so that everyone could know exactly what I am doing here in Provo and at school. To start off I am taking 15 credit hours which include Housing the Family, Home and Family Living (can you guess my major), College Algebra, World Music Cultures, Church History from 1805-1844 and Gold Latin Ballroom. All of them are going pretty well for right now. I enjoy the subject matter and my professors are wonderful, funny people--it definitely makes going to class and paying attention easier.

This semester I realized how idle I really am with my time. I always thought that I was so busy, but upon reflection I noticed that a lot of my time was spent doing nothing of importance. I believe I noticed this when I found out how much I love decorating food. I therefore decided that I would start learning new skills and talents that I always wanted know. I started off with knitting, which my roommate Emily taught me, and although it is a little rough and somewhat ugly, it is coming along. When I told a friend of mine in my ward about my new found need-to-change, he offered to teach me guitar. So lately I have been plucking away at the strings and am on my third lesson. I finally decided that I would start all of the scrapbooking that I said I would do. I have a million pictures and am finally starting to get them organized. It is a lot of fun, but also a lot of uphill work. On of the last changes I made in my life was to read more. I mean, I read a lot for school in textbooks, but I am talking about personal books, ones that I want to read. I happen to have a couple of hour breaks in my days, so I have picked out a couple of starter books and already I am loving it.

Other then this I decided to try and improve myself generally. I decided to take qualities of people and characters that I love and try to implement them into my life. A few of these qualities come from our departed prophet Gordon B. Hinckley. I am taking his optimistic outlook on life and his efforts to improve himself and making them my own. The other qualities come from my favorite heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, in which I am trying to be more personable and think of others' feelings before my own and try to make them comfortable by being friendly and encouraging. Overall, I think that I am trying to improve myself for the better and I would like to say that I am seeing results. If anything, I am more happy with myself and I am loving my life and learning new things.

As for random things that I have done since Christmas my roommates, some friends and me went to the Sundance Film Festival and saw an arts film. It was a French film translated "Fear(s) in the Dark." It was a sketch animation in black and white and I must admit it actually scared me. I definitely don't like seeing people's fears visually, it is creepy. But it was an amazing experience and I had a wonderful time. We also went sledding and my roommate Emily hit a snow hill that was a foot and a half high, literally flew through the air and landed on her face. She ended up with a bloody nose and a swollen face. I never realized how dangerous sledding is; there ended up being 18 people in the hospital one night from the same hill with injuries--let that be a lesson to you. Other then that my life is a lot of the same going-ons, but I am enjoying myself and it is all worth it!