Life is good and I can't complain...

Long time no see blogging world! How goes it? So as my title suggests, life is good and I can't complain. Well, let me rephrase. Life is good and I shouldn't complain. But yet, sometimes I do. School is great, today is my last day of practicum (tutoring high school freshmen in reading), I feel like things are going really well. The calling is great as well, and I have learned so much. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father gave me this opportunity.

Sometimes it does feel like there could be more. I know there can be. But for right now, I am content and happy with things. :) I try not to think about leaving school, which helps keep the "contentness" in full swing, but I know it's also a very exciting thing. So I'm trying to see the upside of life everyday.

Random thought: I just painted my finger nails. I never do that! Completely random, but fun. They're pink.

Other random thought: One week from today I will be in SLC and getting ready to leave for Georgia! It's my sister's bridal shower next weekend and I am so excited because I get to go home for a few days! All of my roommates have immediate family extremely close by. They drive 3-4 hours and boom, there's parents. And seeing as how I didn't go home for Christmas, I am ready to go to my southern home and see all those beautiful trees. Georgia- please be warm for me. I'm coming home!

Well I got to run and prepare for practicum. Love y'all and see ya later! :D

Life's Little Surprises

It's funny how life surprises you. Totally unexpected things happen, things you weren't planning on. And then you stand there thinking, "Wait...say what?!" And then it keeps rolling. I guess it was time for me to start experiencing the "roll with the punches attitude." But at the same time, that's why I love the Gospel. Because of the knowledge I have, I know that no matter what punches life throws, whether I get hit or dodge them, everything will work out. And that's nice to know. :)

A New Home and Starting Again

Hello world! It is officially the start of another semester, and my last at BYU-Idaho. Come September, I will be student teaching in Las Vegas. So it's something I've been thinking a lot about.

I've always liked change. Change is good, change is wise. And most of the time change brings you to bigger and better things (if not immediately, eventually). But I don't like this change. Rexburg has become home. When I left for school, I knew that I would always be coming back home (Georgia). I'd be back for Christmas and summer, and eventually for good. But when so much happens and changes your life in one world, that world becomes home to you. It's what you know, what you love, it's part of who you have become.

BYU-Idaho has played such a huge part in my life. I've had the most personal growth and the most spiritual growth as well. After awhile, it became a part of me. When people ask me where home is, I still stay Georgia because that is where I'm from. But when I go home, I tell people I'm just visiting, and I'll be leaving soon. I spend 6-7 months of my life here, and unlike in the beginning, it has grown on me. I never thought I'd say it, but I love Rexburg. :)

Like I said earlier, it's a new semester and I am so excited! I am taking really good classes, I have amazing roommates, and I just have this overall sense of "this semester is going to pretty much be awesome." So I'm really excited. I'll let you know how things go, and I look forward to blogging about it! One of the New Year's resolutions: Be a better blogger. Good luck to me! :P

PS- There are also a LOT of interesting things happening and coming up and going on, so you'll probably hear about it. And I look forward to telling you. :)

The Silence of Snow

One of my favorite things about winter is the sound of "snowing." I love to go outside while it's snowing and listen to the silence and peacefulness that comes with it. I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but when it snows it's like there's a muted bliss over the world.

Today I've been sitting in the Crossroads section of the MC by one of their huge windows writing a paper. Half of my time has been spent listening to my instrumental playlist and looking out the window admiring the snow because its been snowing all day. That's another one of my favorite winter past times. I love to sit by a window with hot chocolate (Stephen's Mint Truffle, preferably) and watch it snow while listening to music. It's wonderful. You should try it. ;)

All the world's a wintry night.
All the world's a peaceful sight.

(Not bad for on the spot spontaneity!)

Deep Blogging

So I feel like I'm a crummy blogger when it comes to topics. Everyone either has really cool lives to report on, or deep topics/thought processes they want to discuss or share. So my new goal: be a "deep blogger." Or, at least be a meaningful blogger. So for starters, my roommate has put me in a situation where I need a date for Thursday. So I pose this question: Is it ok for a girl to ask a guy out? I just got done reading "He's Just Not That Into You." Loved it. And I know Greg breaches this subject a little bit, but I want everyone else's opinion too. What do you think? Girls, if you're taken--ask your spouse or b/f what they think, and I want to know what you think also. I also pose this question because I am not looking forward to asking someone. Sometimes a girl wants to be chased, not do the chasing. So chase me. :)

My history with Rexburg and its Hospital: Madison Memorial

Hello guys and dolls! And welcome to Idaho's very own, REXBURG! Yes, I am back and I am SO excited to be back too. Call me crazy, but I actually miss this place when I go home to GA. So after a 30 hr drive to Provo, and another 4 hr drive to Rexburg three days later, I am home again. :) I can't help but love this place.

At the same time, love does not come without it's thorns. Am I right? As my blog title suggests, I have a history with Madison Memorial hospital. My first visit to this place happened my freshman year. I had been in Idaho for 2 days and Monday morning I woke up to find that my eye was swollen and gooped shut. Hooray for pink eye. The student clinic was closed, and since eyesight is kind of a neccesity, my sister decided to take me to the hospital. Not too exciting, but a good story none the less to tell my mom. "Hey Mom! Guess what? You know how you left me 2 days ago? Well I went to the hospital today!" 48-72 hrs into college and I already had a medical history.

That history has continued. Before I left on my adventurous cross country trip to UT, I was already a little sick. My doctor said to take some allergy meds, use some kind nasal spray and I'd be fine. He also gave me some antibiotics "just in case." My mom made me pack them and said take these "just in case." When I reached Provo and woke up the next morning, sure enough, I needed those "just in case" antibiotics. Joy. I was feeling pretty good when I left Provo at 7 am Saturday morning, and arrived in the Burg at 11 am. I moved in, unpacked (mostly), went grocery shopping, all that jazz, and finally was able to sit down for more than 2 mins at around 8:30 that night. This is where it starts...

I was exhausted. I went to bed at around 9:30 and woke up several times in the night because it was so hot in my apt. I was burning up! And each time I woke up I felt more and more sick. I woke up at 6 am (an hour earlier than I had planned) and felt horrible! I had a headache, I wanted t throw up, I felt dizzy, and again I was burning up. So I decided to take a cold, COLD shower thinking it would help. No such luck. And I was still burning up afterwards. I brushed it off thinking I was just weird and got ready for church. Relief Society was first and I felt pretty ok. Then Sunday School started. I got up to get a drink and splash some water on my face because I was feeling hot again. On my way back I had to use the wall as a guide because I was feeling dizzy again too. What the heck?! I stayed in Sunday School for about another 2 mins then grabbed my stuff and left.

I got home, changed into jeans and a t-shirt and layed on the couch for a little bit thinking "this too shall come to pass." I didn't feel any better. In fact, I felt worse. Then the thought occured to me, "hospital." No, I don't want to go to the hospital. Too expensive. "Hospital." No....Fine. Hospital. "Thank you." I called every person I knew who would be in a 30 minute distance of me. And ofcourse seeing as it was Sunday, everyone was in church. Grrrr. But suddenly, some luck! My dear, wonderful, amazing friend Amanda called me back! I had left her a voicemail completely crying into the phone telling her to call me back asap, and it worked. Yay!
"Amanda?"
"What's wrong?"
"I need to go to the ER because..."
"I'll be there in 2 minutes." Click.

Oh. Ok! Amanda came, we got there, I was in. They asked me the standard questions like name, address, emergency contact, all that good stuff and then told me to wait for the doctor. Everytime the nurse or receptionst lady left the room, I fell asleep. The doctor came in, asked me more questions about symptoms and such, and then said that I had a very bad sinus infection and that I was also experiencing exhaustion and dehydration (to sum it all up in one sentence. He took a lot longer explaining it.). So for 2 hours I sat in the ER while they did blood tests, gave me a whole IV of sodium something or other, half an IV of antibiotics, and then a pain reliever and some nausea medicine. After about an hour they let Amanda come back and sit with me because she had been texting to to make sure I was ok. When she walked in I was half asleep, had two different IVs plugged into me, covered in a blanket and the nurse was taking a blood sample. "Wow girl! You're legit!" Totally made my day! :D

So after I had all the meds they wanted the doctor came in and told me I was good to go home. Before I left though I asked the nurse if I had a fever when she checked me and she said no. Little did I know, they had checked me for Swine Flu and pnemonia (or however you spell it). Along with some other things. So glad I don't have either of those!

So I came home and life was better. Whatever they gave me really worked! But then I felt a little bit sicker when the thought occured to me, "I've got to call mom. Crud."

"Hello?"
"Hey mom. How are you?"
"I'm feeling better. You?"
"Um, well, funny story."
"What?"
"Now before I say anything, I want you to know that I'm fine, everything's fine."
"What happened?"
"I made a little trip to the ER this morning....."
(Invision a rolling of eyes...) *Slight chuckle* "Oh my gosh, Elizabeth. What did you do?"


And that my friends, is the slightly long tale (sorry about that...) of my most current history with Madison Memorial Hospital. :)

Summer is winding down...

It is August 7th, and I've been spending some time looking back on this summer and I have come to the conclusion that: I loved it. This summer has been great! So here are 5 reasons why this summer has been great (in no particular order):

1. My coworkers---As many of you know, there have been slight issues with my job and where I work, but this summer has been the best summer of my 6 years working there. Today was the last day of two of the kids I work with, and I was slightly tearing up. I love those kids. I say kids because I am about 4-5 years older than them AND they call me Mom. Lol. Several of them are leaving to go attend their freshman year of college and as lame as this sounds, I truly felt like a mom sending my kids to school. I'm worried about them, I'm excited for them, I'm definately going to miss them, and I love them.

2. Primary--- I've been attending the family ward this summer instead of being a good single and attending the singles ward. And I loved every minute of it. Not only did I get to go to girl's camp as a stake YW's leader, but I've been in primary every Sunday as well. I got to teach a few of the primary songs in sign language, which was so much fun, and I got to spend time with the primary kids, whom I love. Because of primary, I am so excited to be a mom. Excited to have children and teach them the gospel and watch my eternal family grow. I love my sunbeams. :)

3. My family--- Even though they can drive me nuts, I love them. They are so supportive of me and push me to be the best that I can be. I would be nowhere without them.

4. Boston--- Best trip I've had in a long time! Boston was beautiful! I cannot even express. I absolutely loved it and plan on going back again. If you would like to see pictures, check my facebook in a few days. And I'll post some on here too.

5. Personal Growth--- I have grown and learned so much this summer. I have matured in some ways, been strengthened in others, and have just all around been tested and tried, and have overcome. For those of you who don't know, earlier this summer I was diagnosed with "Insulin Resistance Syndrome." In english: there is too much insulin in my blood stream. Aka: pre-diabetic. Not gonna lie, I was scared. I went to a lot of doctors, had a lot of blood drawn (icky, icky, icky...) and through a lot of prayer and faith, I am coming out on the other side better, and more prepared. Good news: IRS [yep, that's what it's called. How ironic. :)] is 100% reversible. I can turn this around. I'm not dying, and I don't plan to for awhile. But this illness alone has completely changed things this summer. I have a better attitude about things, I'm trying harder to be healthy (which is working out quite nicely actually...), I have a better outlook on life and people in general, more faith in myself, and more faith in my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Yep, it's been a good summer. :D