April is for the Fools

Hey ya Bloggers!

Well, I'd write about April, but I'd better finish March first, eh? Life has gotten happier. Rachel Morrell has gotten home, safe and sound :) Spring break was awesome! (Although I had to work quite a bit of it). I went to the Festival of Colors again! This time, I found the meaning of it. There are two stories behind it.

First, (and mind you, I'm doing this from memory, so if I'm wrong here or there, feel free to correct me), it is called the Holi Festival. Holi after a witch named Holika, who was finally executed in the Spring. They had tried to execute her multiple times before because of her witchcraft, but when they went to burn her at the stake, she cast a spell that killed a child in place of her. Many children had been killed in the attempts to kill her. One day, she was at the stake again, and the child she had picked as her sacrifice was a very devout child. He always repeated the names of the Gods, over and over. Hari Krishna Rama. Because of his devotion, the Gods spared him, and Holika was finally burned.

Second, and this is the reason for the chalk throwing, is that Rama would come every year to bring spring to the world. When he did this, it was said to look like he brought up brightly colored chalk from the ground, and as it settled, spring arrived. Thus, the brightly colored chalk being thrown up by all those who attend this festival. Pretty cool, huh? Another fun tidbit, the LDS church funded some of the building of the Hari Krishna Temple (or so I've heard).

I saw a chiropractor for the first time in my life. My back is doing so much better while I'm at work. It is so nice to be able to lift and transfer people without killing myself! Why didn't I do this before??? He just cracks it, then hooks me up to some electric shock therapy and a massage table, and I'm good to go! Woot!

That was all at the end of March. Lets see...I forgot to mention that Monica, Steph, and I went up to Steph's family's cabin. Woo! It was super fun! It was so snowy, good thing we took my car (it has 4 wheel drive, and is bigger than Monica's or Steph's). We had our girl talk, then watched Oscar. It's become a roommate classic. Hehehe. The next morning we played games galore! Then we packed up, and headed off to the Logan temple (we met up with our ward there). It was my first time in the Logan one. The baptistery was small, but it was wonderful to be there still. SO FUN!

General conference was on the 31st and the 1st. I loved Elder Uctdorf's talk... "Don't judge me because I sin differently than you." Also, apply the following to any sin, temptation, or thought: "Stop it!" So simple, so meaningful! Elder Holland gave an amazing talk about accepting the atonement, and not waiting to do so. I need to be better in my life. This was the inspiration to get me started on the right track. Wish me luck on this new journey :)

After the Sunday session was over, my brother and his family picked me up to go down to alpine to celebrate some birthdays! Jessica drove, she's doing very well (she has her permit right now). It was so nice to see them all, and my dog! Jessica (Williams) came with Aiden, and Elise came with Tayven.

Easter Sunday came, I had to work. The Saturday night before I was working too, but guess what? My mom and dad brought Danni Girl up to see me!!! They got to tour my work place a bit, and I got to see them and Danni. I was so happy! Danni was bouncing all over the place as soon as she saw me coming down the stairs. It was the perfect Easter treat. Mom might come up and take me out to dinner on Wednesday this week too, so that will be nice. Maybe she'll bring the doggie again? ;) I do hope so though.

Well right now I'm studying for finals. I can't believe they're already here! I'm waiting to hear back about if I got into a nursing program or not. I was rejected by Weber (expected, but if I have to reapply, I'll have an extra point on my application, so it was the smart move to make), I was also rejected by DATC (neither expected or unexpected, I wasn't sure of my chances there, I do know it's competitive), and OWATC is the last one I'm waiting to hear from. I was supposed to hear already, so I'm getting antsy. I'm not sad about not making it in (well, I am) but I know that if I don't, there's a reason. There are people I'm supposed to meet and help. Plus, this was my first time applying to any nursing program, and basically no one makes it in the first time. So I'm not worried. I'm also preparing for the Spring show my Institute choir puts on :) It's gonna be awesome!

I'll let you know how everything turns out. Life is looking good. Pray for me!

Mary

My Life In Blog (FINALS! AHHHH!)

Oh the funny things that happen in my life! Hello my digital friends.

Run for your life!!! It's finals week!!! If I were to be abducted by aliens right now, I don't think I'd mind. HAHAHAHA! Yeah... I have a massive headache right now but I can't sleep. So I'll blog. Hey, I think it's a step up from facebooking. I facebook enough of my life away anyways haha ;) It's been an entertaining week though, so I've got plenty to talk about. I also have some serious things that I will be posting this week as well.

It is officially finals week. The most hectic and craziest week of my life, which comes twice a year (until I start summer semesters, then it'll come thrice!) I only have to take my Anatomy, Physiology, and Microbiology finals. As well as write a paper. It's the only paper I've had to do this semester! Yay! My anatomy lab final I took on Friday... Please pray that I did well on it! Other than that, I'm just getting ready to go home come Thursday morning when my last test is over! I can hardly keep myself from packing. Though, I really love living in my apartment and being on my own, something is just pulling me back towards Alpine... Probably Danni :) I miss my little doggie so much. I woke up crying twice the past week because I've had dreams that she died. I could hardly stand it. She has brought more joy into my life than I can express. I'm just so glad to have her, I can't imagine not having her anymore... 3 more days!

I've been going over my fall schedule already. I'm working on generals and such, and boosting my GPA and I realized today as I walked from the Science Lab building to the Student Services building and then back to the Science Lab building, that I may have my Associates degree before I get my RN! Generals are much easier to knock off while your waiting for a spot in the nursing program. I doubt I'll get in my first application (next spring, I can't believe I missed the deadline this spring!) So the spring after that is the plan. Which means I'll have 2 semesters left to get my RN starting Fall 2012. They apparently take applications yearly instead of semesterly. It would've been nice to know that before hand... In the meantime I pray that my finals go well enough that I won't have to retake Anatomy or Physiology. Though if I do have to retake one, I really really hope it's not gonna be Physiology. UGH!!! Keep your fingers crossed folks! Keep a wary eye on April 2011, I may just get a degree!!! Albeit, a degree of generals without my RN...

OH!!! MY GOODNESS!!!! My choir put our spring show on, Saturday the 17th. I cannot tell you how amazing it was!!! I spent Friday night from 6:30 to 11:15 in our dress rehearsal. Ugh. That's the one bummer about shows, night-before dress rehearsals are painful. However, I did survive and Saturday morning, I got up, got ready, left my house at 5 to 1:00 and off we went. We had the pre-show devotionals (I love the institute for that), then went on-stage at 2:30 and did a killer matinée! Afterwards, we all headed down to the institute where we got free lunch! Subway! Yum!!! Then we got to chill there from 4-6, when we went back to the nice big auditorium here on campus and started the evening pre-show devotional. The evenings performance was indescribable. The spirit that was felt there was so strong. My numbers were first and last, so between them we gathered in the holding room around the piano and sang hymns and the EFY medley. What is a better way to spend that time? My family (well, mom, dad, and Rachel) were in attendance which made it that much better. After the show was over, we walked out discussing it and a lady walking in front of us turned around, and with tears in her eyes said, "Thank you. I got the announcement in Relief Society to come to this, so I did, and I am so glad. Thank you so much for performing." I was touched! Everything that my choir teachers had said to me about the reason for our performance came out in those few words from a kind stranger. Not to mention, college performances are just another step up from anything I did in High School. Amazing!!! :D

Sunday was a wonderful day, the weather was warm, church was good, and I had an unexpected suprise! My home teacher called me to see if he could make dinner for me (he's trying to clear out his pantry before moving home). So he came over and made some killer spaghetti. He served his mission in Italy, so it was pretty legit. We didn't have onions or meat so we shredded a carrot into the sauce and used tuna fish! Crazy, right? Well an Elder on his mission couldn't eat hamburger meat, so they used tuna once. It was amazingly good! Then he invited me on a hike for Monday morning. I said sure! Then he decided we should do a sunrise hike. Yikes!!! I don't do mornings! However, I already agreed to go, so I said okay, and at 6:20 am he sent me a text saying "look out your window" and there he was, ready to pick me up and go! We hiked up waterfall canyon to the waterfall itself! It was so big due to the snow melting! Totally worth the sunrise hike. We got to watch it rise over the valley on our way down. It was beautiful!!! Talk about a home teacher going above and beyond in his calling :)

On a more serious note... I ask those of you who may read this (I know, there's not many of you) to pray for my dear sister-in-law this week. She's going into heart surgery next Monday. They will be taking out the heart, putting her on a heart and lung machine, so they can work on the back of it. She's had this surgery once before, and it was a long recovery... This one may be longer. The operation holds a lot of risks... She may need a heart transplant, the heart may not restart and she may be hooked up to a machine for as long as a few months, or there's a possibility of death. I myself am confident that things will work out just fine. She has a wonderful husband (my brother) who is a worthy priesthood holder and will give her a blessing, and she has the prayers of all her family and friends. I know I'm moving home on Thursday, but I'll be back up in Ogden Saturday for Matt's track meet (yay!) and to move the heavy duty furniture out, then on Sunday I'll go live in Plain City to take care of the cutest girls in the whole wide world, my nieces, while their mom is in recovery. I should be in Alpine again by Wednesday.

It's gonna be a crazy summer, I can feel it. My boy is moving out of state early may, my best friend up here at Weber (Rachel, you remember her, right? Love the girl!) is moving to Iraq for a year with her family, (Her dad supplies water to the troops over there, so that's where business is, and that's where family follows), and my best friend in Alpine doesn't get home till June. Aw shucks.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm sorry this was a freakishly long post! I feel so long-winded... Not good. :S Anywho... Pray for me for finals week!!! I'll let you know when I kick butt in that wrestling match ;) hahahaha!

Peace be with you.

Tinkerbell