India

I have started a new blog and will be updating it almost everyday regarding my time in india! http://laurasindianadventures.blogspot.com

THREE WEEKS!

I get to go home in 3 weeks!!! AH!! So stinkin excited. No more nursing program. No more school. No more freezing snow. No more having to make my own food (love you mom :)) Did you hear that? There is only 3 weeks between me and

these AMAZING people that I love...


and this...


and going here..

(As you can tell from the amount of pictures, the beach is a big part of my life while I am home and I love every second of it, especially because it's with people I love!)

and here...


and doing this...


while playing with him...


and playing this (ps. Im over high school basketball, it was just the only picture I had on my laptop of bball)


while not having to practice this...


or go here...


or be in this :)



THREE WEEKS! Let the countdown begin!

My Grandparents

This is my grandma's absolute favorite picture of herself, or maybe she said that she hated it ;) , either way I had to put it up.

A few weekends ago, I went down to St. George to hang out with my grandparents for the weekend. Growing up, they always made a big effort to be involved in my life. They would come do my house for a few weeks a couple times a year and I loved it, especially as a kid! We would play games and cards and just have a blast. I would even get up early and do my chores just to get in that extra games of cards before school. When I got into high school, I was so extremely busy that when they came down, I didn't get to spend as much time with them. Now that I am in college, I try and call them a couple times a week and really look forward to it. I think I enjoy them more now than ever before. I think even more than when I was a kid which is hard to believe. I love hanging out with them, talking to them, and asking them for advice. I loved every minute of being at their house and it just flew by. I wish I would have had a whole week there with them!

I decided to make a countdown of my top 10 things about visiting my grandparents...

10)swimming in the pool -- This is one of my favorite memories growing up at my grandparents. Grandma would go swimming in the morning for exercise and we would go with her. I always remember that grandpa never wanted to allow me into the jacuzzi because the rule was that you were supposed to be 18. This time at the pool, we found one of those undwerwater torpedoes and played catch with it. It was pretty funny and grandma had a good time. I was not that great of a thrower and grandma was often diving under the water with her goggles, ear plugs, and swim cap to retrieve the torpedo.

9) our inside jokes-- Without a doubt, hilarious things are constantly going down at the grandparental's house. We laugh a lot and many inside jokes are created among us. Personal favorites are "count em up!" (said originally by grandpa when he was kicking my tush in cards), "your face is as round as a pie" (said to me by grandma when I gained weight during my freshmen year. I think it was funny).

8)not having to get dressed-- I am not trying to impress anyone and so I almost never put makeup on and get dressed in comfortable clothes. My grandparents love me even when I look ugly. :)

7) Following an old people's schedule-- My life is pretty hectic right now and I don't have a ton of time to relax. I am constantly doing stuff, and on the rare occasion that I can relax, I get kind of bored because I am so used to having to do stuff. Also, I usually am alone during this time and that makes it get boring even faster. At their house, we just chill, everything is low key, and we do what we want. I love it!

6) Grandma's adventures in the kitchen-- My grandma is a delicious cook and always makes yummy food but she never uses recipes. She just makes it up and then tries to remember it. Also, she does not like to waste food. Consequently, we have some pretty fun adventures in the kitchen trying out new things. A personal favorite last weekend was banana creme pie soup. Also, it is so so so nice to have her delicious home-cooked meals.

5)grandpa's bread-- My grandpa has become quite the excellent breadmaker and he made it a few times while I was there. Nothing compares to warm, freshly baked bread especially with butter and honey. We also used it as delicious french toast. I think I gained 5 pounds from his bread alone.

4)the warm weather-- I love the fact that my grandparents live in St. George. It is extremely difficult for me to go to school in Provo's cold climate. I am a born and raised socal girl and need the warmth! It buoys my spirit and my skin pigment to be in such a warm climate like St. George.

3)I get treated like a princess-- There is no question as to whether my grandparents love me or not. They are so beyond kind to me and help me with anything and everything I need. Ex: I don't have to do any sort of chores unless I volunteer, they have my bed all ready for me, and we always do what I want to do. They are so great and I sure hope I treat them as well as they treat me, especially because they are in their 80s. Oh and grandma always does some sort of sewing work for me, usually hemming. And Grandpa took me to get the oil changed in my car and see his mechanic friend in regards to my car.

2)card games-- I love love love playing cards with my grandparents. We have done it since the beginning of time and the two are completely associated with each other. We have so much fun and laugh and talk. It's just fabulous. I dare you to try and mention a card game I haven't played and am not absolutely amazing at. :)

1) long talks and learning about their pasts- As I have gotten older, I have realized that I don't really know anything. It is so nice to get advice and talk to people that have wisdom. I think they think they might bore me but I really enjoy listening to stories about their pasts. In fact, I loved reading my grandpa's life hisory book and their joint book after their marriage, and am currently really enjoying reading my grandma's personal book (she is going to think that I am just saying that, but it really is true grandma!).

Moral of the story: I love my grandparents very much and really really enjoy spending time with them and being their friend.

Journaling... or the lack thereof

I have friends that will spend hours upon hours journaling. It's therapeutic for them and they look forward to it. They like to use special colored pens and write in cursive and use pretty looking books. That is the antithesis of how I have always felt about journaling. Life is a pretty demanding thing and I feel like journaling is just one more homework assignment that I have to do. I have a few parts of my life captured in journals when I got on a journaling kick but not much.
A few years ago, I resorted to journaling on my computer and that seemed to help. I have horrendous illegible handwriting and consequently, I greatly dislike free writing as opposed to typing. The majority of the memories I have written down are typed besides my 8th grade year journaling kick.
I started a blog 2 years ago and wrote on it 3x and then stopped for a year in half. I have a pretty poor track record in regards to staying with things. But I re-picked up blogging about 6 months ago and have surprisingly stuck with it. There is hope for me. I was telling my friend, Kurtley, all of this the other day and she told me all about this website called ldsjournal.com. You can write a journal through this website and then pay to have it made into a book. This sounds like a sweet idea and kind of got me a little excited. I officially started using it today! Wish me luck!

Spontaneous

The main purpose of BYU is a highly debated subject between getting people married and educating them. Sometimes they are really smart and try to do both at once. This happens about once a year for me when they have this activity where the nursing program and accounting program go ice skating together.
My friends, Greg and Steph, are seriously dating and they came ice skating too. Greg left steph for a second and when he came back on the ice, he grabbed me and pointed out that this other guy was skating with her and putting the moves on. We laughed and I skated up to her and said "hey steph, where is your husband greg?" I didn't know he was going to do this, but right after, Greg zipped by and grabbed steph's hand puling her away. That left me and this random guy. He was decently cute and I felt kinda bad so I talked to him for ten seconds and then he said, "I should seize the opportunity too" and grabbed my hand.It completely shocked me and I didn't know what was going on but thought it was fun and spontaneous and left my hand in his.
The coolest part was that he started doing some dancing moves while letting go of my hand and grabbing it back each time. I started kind of doing the same thing and our craziness just escalated! This sky rocketed into full country swing/ ballroom dancing while skating pretty dang fast. We would weave in and out of people going backwards and forwards while being led by the other person. We were twirling each other and all sorts of moves. It was insanely fun and crazy and the spontaneity of the whole thing made it 10 times more exciting. I only ate it one time pretty good and we almost killed this girl, but besides that, our ice skating adventures were a complete success. The evening ended and we went our separate ways. But remembering craziness of it all still sends adrenaline through my body....



(gross exaggeration)

Latest Obsession

I don't know if it has something to do with the fact that yesterday when I walked outside, the bitter -8 degrees literally hit me in the face and caused it to hurt. Or the fact that I have to wear 5 layers of clothing to stop frostbite from taking its agonizes course. Or maybe that a good majority of my friends are graduating from the nursing program (like I should technically be) and making plans for their future and it's wearing off on me. Either way, when I graduate I want to go and live in HAWAII!

I honestly can't stop thinking about it. Living in Hawaii for a year-ish would be phenomenal. The possibilities are endless. Can you just imagine doing this
and this
and this
and this
and laying in one of these
or sitting right here
and seeing views like this
and this
oh and this :)
while making friends like these

EVERDAY! This sounds like heaven on earth. And just think of it. As a nurse, I only work 3 days a week and get to do this stuff the other 4! Maybe selling my soul to the nursing program was worth it after all...