The life of a college girl

I guess I haven't posted in a while, huh? College has been great! It's definitely had its rough areas, though. I've learned that it requires reading many chapters a day and homework assignments that can be thrown at you before you know it. I am hoping that I will have time to also read over my notes and not just the 10-20 page chapters for each class every day. I am usually doing my vest treatment (that means I am shaking in a blue vest haha) while reading the small text in the Book of Mormon, which we are having to finish half of it by this Tuesday! Yikes that's not much time at all! But it's been great and I have learned so much from reading it. I love this precious book with all my heart and wish I had more time during this assignment to read half of it in two weeks so I could throughly study it. I may have mentioned this before, but I always have more energy every day that I read my Book of Mormon in the morning. And if I don't, they usually end up being worse days and I feel as if I am dragging my feet more.

Along with studying, I am having to remind myself to keep up with exercise. Yes, there are the many stairs to climb around campus, but it felt so good to go running last Saturday and this Wednesday before class. And not to mention I this last Sunday I was called to be 1st counselor for our Relief Society. I am so grateful that I have the chance to get to serve and get to know the girls in my ward and am loving my calling so far :)

Other than all of the fiasco for college life, I have learned the importance of having fun! I learned that your day can feel so imbalanced without more laughter or simple fun every day. It made me think of a quote by Mary Poppins "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job's a game!" Yes we wish this would always be the case but it's true that you need to have fun every day

On top of all this, here are a few highlights from the week:

I was able to go home over the weekend for labor day with Kara and Kasey. I enjoyed seeing my family and relaxing. My grandpa still didn't stop with his jokes and my grandma didn't stop offering food. Same as always :)

And on Monday I relaxed, did some homework, and then was able to go on a hike with my daddy. We decided to take a short hike, but ended up going for a little bit longer on a path that we discovered. It was beautiful! We are so grateful to be so close to the mountains

It was then time to go back to school. When I was in Book of Mormon class on Tuesday, I looked across the row and my jaw dropped. One of my best friends from my childhood in Arlington was sitting there! I couldn't focus as well during the rest of class because I knew it was her. She came up to me and asked if I was Rachel, and I asked if it was her, and it sure was! We caught up a little bit and it was weird because we hadn't seen each other in so long but it was really neat!!

Later in the week on Thursday, I was thrilled because I was able to help Kasey propose to my cousin Kara. He took her on a scavenger hunt so I was dropped off to I awkwardly sat on a bench at Trafalga with a rose and letter for Kara from Kasey. She finally came after being lost and I gave it to her. We got lost on the way back to BYU, but eventually made it. I walked back to my dorm as she continued with the clues. I will just say that I am soooo happy for her! (I love you Kara!)

So tonight I went with a couple of girls to a day care with children with disabilities. Haha yes it was a little chaotic as most of them had down syndrome or severe autism, but we had a lot of fun bouncing around in a bounce house, jumping around outside, and keeping an eye on them for a few hours. Yes most of the pics are blurry, but that's only because we were moving around a lot. They were so cute and we couldn't stop laughing because their smiles are contagious