Happiness of Home

Ohhh where on Earth do I start?

First off, I'm back home in Cali. Yep. Buh bye Rexburg for 4 months! Quite bitter sweet but I know I am where I belong for now. Mom, Dad, and Spence came up to the Burg to pick me up along with all of my belongings. I have found that my father hates driving in snow. Sorry Dad, you're a trooper.

Anyway, coming home was really hard for me and until Sunday, my attitude about it was pretty sour and made everyone at home feel bad. I'm a fixer. So naturally, I tried to fix myself. On Sunday, I was at Sarah's ward and in her young women's they all wrote down gifts to give to Christ for Christmas. Snazzy right? I chose happiness. College is amazing. But so can be being home. There are so many things about home that can call for a "shouting of joy". For all who know me well, you know I'm a big "list" type of gal. If you didn't know that, well, now you can feel like you have a special connection with me.

Here's my Reasons Why I'm Happy To Be Home list:

1. Being able to see my parents.

2. Being crazy (not in the head) with ma Sister.

3. Seeing snails on the ground.

4. Driving a car.

5. Seeing the world go to bed at 9:30. (Okay maybe I shouldn't be happy about this but it amuses me.)

6. TiVo

7. Hearing the rumors spread about me. (No I don't get mad about them. I find it amusing that people have nothing better to talk about than me.)

8. Candy making

9. Good Sushi by legit Asians.

10. Not buying all my food.

Good list. I know. Because I have nothing better to do, I'll explain some of them.

Sarah is my crazy partner. Goofy crazy. It's a treat. Tonight we were making candy with Grandma Hogge and I started singing "What you said" to the tune of "Jingle Bells". Sarah refused. I'm proud of her. But I can always count on her for a good "Up", "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" or "Nail Salon" quote. Glorious.

Snails. Carma. It's a female perro. While taking stuff out to my car today, I saw a snail on the ground and thought to myself, "Heh, heh. Someone is gonna step on that and it's going to be hilarious." After putting some stuff in the car I was running back inside and "Smash/Crackle/Pop"! Yeah. Crap. All over my mocs.

TiVo. I'm not a big "watch it while it's on" fan. It must be convenient. It doesn't tend to be convenient in college so I'm catching up on all my favorite shows.

Rumors. LOL. Literally. If any of you are reading this--I am not dating anyone. Nor have I been close to dating anyone since Ry. Sorry to burst your gossipy bubble. My life isn't a big secret. Ask and you shall receive.

Candy making. 7 hours of it? No big. Well, yes big. But it wasn't a bad thing.

My wonderful roommate and best friend, Lisa, got me in this bad mind frame of thinking I can be crafty when really, it's just me copying her steps and calling it good.

Oh and I'm also a horrible photographer. Can't ya tell?

The weirdos of the World Dance Team.

Love.

Them.

The new BYU-Idaho Center!

Boo yahh.

Yeah, we know.

It looks like the Conference Center

Roomies at the Dedication!

Alyssa and Jaronia.

They are kind of special.

And we love them anyway.

P.S. I got excited about getting a platter from my grams. Domestic much? Yes.

Joy to the Hilary!

Sometimes when your life gets so busy that you feel like locking yourself in the closet and crying... It's good to stand back and list some of the things that make you happy. So here you go folks.

Hilary's List of Joy.

1. Pysch Quotes.

2. See's Candy.

3. Bouquets of flowers.

4. Choreographed dancing.

5. Dancing like a crazy on the counter/couch/floor/sidewalk.

6. Skype dates with Hailey.

7. Pillow talks with Lisa.

8. Texts from attractive men.

9. Dates with attractive men.

10. The fact that I have a prayer pillow.

11. Missionary mail.

12. Making a big snowman. (I've never done it but I'm pretty sure it'd make me happy.)

13. Watching Christmas movies with the entire family.

14. Dogs.

15. People who lock their cats outside.

16. The last 10 minutes of a long road trip.

17. Being so happy that I lose my appetite.

18. Knowing that Heavenly Father knows me better than I know myself.

19. Being at BYU-Idaho.

I'm only 19 so apparently I have to stop at 19. Enjoy!

When Change is the Blessing

Isn't it wonderful how we are blessed with just the right people in our lives? My roommate, Lisa, went through the exact thing I had to go through with my best friend and knowing that she knew EXACTLY how I felt led me to be more open with her. She also helped me fill up the empty spaces on my wall with pictures of herself. I love her! My other roommates have been so supportive and know how to put me in a good mood. I came home from dance practice many days just feeling fatigued and wanting to go to sleep but the energy of our apartment led to me making a fool of myself with craziness. I love it and I love them.

What’s going on in my life you say? Just trying to survive my 3^rd semester up at BYU-I. Extravadance is just around the corner so dance practices now consist of costume run throughs and cleaning up numbers. My 2^nd graders are as adorable as ever. There are so many funny things that happen in class each day I’m in there. I love those kids. Anyway, that is what is new in the life of Hil.

Pictures of the semester thus far....

We thought it might be nice to spend 3 hours trying to get Sky's car out of the mud.

No worries. We enjoyed our muddy selves.

The lovely Collegiate World Dance Team

Me and my new bangs with marvelous Lisa!

Supporting the FHE bros at a freezing cold football game.

Never again.

FHE Pumpkin carvin' activity.

The downside of hot frosting.

(It slides when you tilt it.)

Me and Lisa were feeling bold one night.

It resulted in a date and a phone number. ;)

The things I do for my roommates...

Conference Weekend

2 weekends ago I had the opportunity to travel down to Utah to see my family and go to conference. It was such a great weekend. It was ALMOST our entire family. Everyone except Sarah and her family. It was sad not having her there but she was going to Oregon to see my great grandma West so travelling time with the girls was precious.

I got there Friday night and grandma had made tamales. Yum! It was a nice night hanging with my best friends. It's great having friends that you know you can be with forever. I know that a lot of people say "I'm going to be with my family forever anyway, why do I need to be with them now?" But c'mon. Why would you want to be stuck with people you don't want to be around all the time? I am so incredibly thankful that I have been blessed with people that I WANT to be with.

Saturday, the girls went to the morning session of conference. I invited my lovely roommate, Becca, to join us since shew as down for conference as well and so we all went. It was fantastic. President Uchtdorf's talk about "Slowing Down" was music to my ears. I really needed it and I am thankful that I was there, in person, to hear it.

Mom and Grandma Buck

Me and Becca! :) Love her!

The girls minus Sarah

(oh did I mention that Julie is engaged to Joey?

YEAH. I'm so excited for those too!)

Some people call me Mini Mindy. Yeah. I know.

After we went to conference we listened to the 2nd session at home and the boys left for the Priesthood session in the conference center. The girls got to go to Momma Niu's house and enjoy a Girl's Night. Mom treated us to glitter toes and of course there was a delicious chocolate foundation which I took full advantage of. After that, we went to Kohl's and did some shopping. I scored some rockin Keds and a pair of groovy earrings.

Spencer's birthday was the weekend after conference so we celebrated it altogether the week before. Mom and Dad made ribs and Mindy made a yummy cheese sauce with mashed potatoes and broccoli. It was a lot of fun! I had to leave after dinner but going down for the weekend was entirely worth it! I love my family!

Me and Pops

My brothers love me soooo much!

Happy 18th lil bro!

Drinking Foundations

Drinking Foundations. I have noticed two things.

1. People generally don’t use the shorter one and if there is someone using the taller one they will wait. This happened to me earlier in the semester. I’m not too tall… 5’2” and there was no one at the drinking fountains so I went and began to fill up my water bottle from the taller one. While doing so a girl comes up behind me. My height. And waits. I thought it was ridiculous so I moved to the shorter one and what does she say? “I’m sorry.” Girl. You aren’t sorry. It’s shear laziness that led you to waiting and there was no empathy in her eyes. I chuckled all the way to class. So from then on I have been doing just fine using the shorter one every time. Take that other short blonde girl. It is possible to bend down a couple more inches.

2. How do you drink from the foundation? This morning I went to take a drink and found myself making a kissy shape with my mouth. A fine stream of water going into a little passage in your mouth. At first it didn’t make sense to me but then I figured that if you didn’t purse your lips then all the water that goes into your mouth would drop right back out.

Another thing. Do guys want us girls to think they are super sensitive? While walking to class today I saw these two guys sitting on a bench. One of them saw and spider and said, “Smash it!” The other fellow gets his foot up ready to slam the little thing and then looks up, sees me, and says “No, you do it.” I definitely gave in to a chuckle. From my point of view it looked like his response was a reaction to seeing me but hey, I might just be conceited in my thinking.

Days turn into weeks. And weeks turn into Months.

I am back at BYU- Idaho and it’s great! I am taking many classes pertaining to my major in Elementary Education. One class requires me to go off campus and spend 2 hours in a 2^nd grade classroom. I haven’t had an opportunity to official teach but I love it nonetheless! The teacher is awesome and the kids are amazing. Seriously. They are so good! It’s fun seeing the techniques the teacher uses in teaching and in discipline. I think I’m going to enjoy my profession. I am taking Clogging Tech II once again with Gary Larsen. It’s fun of course!! I made it onto the BYUI Collegiate World Dance Team. It has been so much fun! We just finished an Aboriginal number and we moved onto an African/Hip Hop dance. The girls, all 13 of us, are funny, unique and outgoing. There is definitely never a dull moment at rehearsal.

My elementary school!

ROOMMATES! Okay, this semester my beloved Hailey is in China but that didn’t stop me from receiving rad roommates. There are 6 girls in the apartment including me, Lisa, Melissa, Becca, Alyssa, and Steffani. Me and Melissa have been roommates since our first semester up at BYUI. Bec was with us last semester. Lisa was our FHE Mom last semester and is now my room roommate (I’ve never had such a consistently clean room). Alyssa is new to us. She is the sister of one our FHE bro’s last semester and is engaged to a stud in our ward. Steffani is a fresh out of high school freshman. I think it’s safe to say that we all enjoy Steffani with her pink cooking supplies and her serious commitment to football.

Me and the Beccers.

I have found that something I enjoy about many other things is sending and receiving missionary mail. Writing 4 of my missionary friends on a regular basis, I am the unofficial mail checker for the 504 and don’t worry, you won’t see me missing a day checking the mail. I LOVE MISSIONARIES.

I get to visit some of my family next weekend when I go down for conference to Yay!

Well!!! I love my life and when I start to feel sorry for myself then I know I’m not thinkin! I have so many things to be grateful for!

Love, Hil

Goals for July 11 - July 23

I am horrible as keeping the goals I make.

Here are new goals till the end of the semester:

• Exercise Monday - Friday
• Don't leave homework for the morning of

I figure I should start small with two and grow from there.

Good Luck to me!