my mother

one of the best things about my mom is this:

every time you tell her a story, it's like she's hearing it for the first time. it's great because you get the same reaction every time. even if she's heard it three times already, you'll get the same gasp of shock because she honestly has no idea that she's heard it before. my mother is fantastic. and i am really, really lucky that she is my mom.

lately.

lately i've been thinking a lot about life. all aspects of life, really. who i am, what i want to be, what i like about this world, how my relationships with my family and friends really are. and i realized that there is so much more that i want from life than to go to school, go to work, hang out with people, and go to bed. i want to be passionate, creative, proactive, adventurous, optimistic. i want to truly live each day.

as part of that, i want to jump on the project 365 bandwagon. a picture a day for a year. i'm not much of a photographer. but i'm going to give it a shot anyhow. (give it a shot. get it? ha. ha. ha.) we'll start with a month and see how it goes.

so here's day one. old town mankato. :) i didn't feel this way until i left, but i love my town. i really, really do.

sexy chunk.

that is what i call my baby sister. chunk. it's a long story. she calls me chunk, too. somehow it rolls off the tongue more easily than "bri."

yeah, we don't really get it either.

bri is fantastic. mainly, of course, because she is funny as heck. but also because i frequently walk into her room to find her sitting on her bed doing homework. which is fine...

...but if you're secretive, you can catch her simultaneously checking herself out in the mirror. it's wonderful.

and today we worked out. which, in the winter in minnesota, usually consists of any combination of the following three things: the weight machine, the elliptical, or workout dvds.

with brianna, it usually means workout dvds. she starts by pulling her sweatpants up ridiculously high. (and i mean ridiculously.) then she gets out her weights and starts moving. and, of course, talking back to the workout dvd people. "work it! work it!" they say. "iiiii'm working it!" she says back. "you should feel this one in your hamstrings," they say. "i feeeeel the burn!" she says.

it makes it very, very, very difficult to stay upright and refrain from laughing.

and that, my friends, is why i like my little sister.

i did something wonderful today.

i'm off-track. and i hate not having anything to do. so i was signed up for three online classes: family foundations, english 201, and math 108. all generals. none of which i was excited for.

i lasted one week in family foundations. then life happened and i didn't want to have to think about families every day for the rest of the semester. so i dropped it.

i've been thinking a lot lately about what to do with the rest of my life. it's strange, going from having everything planned out to having nothing planned out. and i'm not sure byu-idaho is where i want to be anymore. i love this school so, so, so much. i really do. it has been everything i wanted it to be. but i'm not sure it's where i want to graduate from.

the more i play around with the idea of a change of scenery, the more i like it. and if i transfer, i won't need math 108, and i won't need english 201. translation: they would be an utter waste of time.

and so tonight, i pushed that glorious button and said, "yes, i do want to drop all of my classes. no, i don't want to solve pointless math problems or study how to paraphrase and summarize."

and then...

it was honestly the greatest feeling.

life sucks.

here are some things i have learned.

sometimes, things don't happen how you plan.

sometimes, Heavenly Father has a different idea of how things should go than you do.

and sometimes, life just plain sucks.

i'm home for a few weeks.

as jonny said to bri, "what, so she's going to come home and be emotional with you?"

yes, jonny. that is exactly what is going to happen.

for now, i guess it's just one day at a time.

i have a new passion..

and it is snowshoeing.

i really, really, really love snowshoeing. you might point out that i have only gone snowshoeing twice in my life. but do you know what? that is not the point. i am in love. and as soon as i get a job this semester, my first paycheck will be spent on my very. own. snowshoes.

ps do you love my new snowpants? because i definitely do.

my christmas break was perfect. we went to colorado to my grandparents' house, and it was so fun. zack came and spent a week with us, which was fantastic. grandma and grandpa brought us all to see hello, dolly! at a dinner theatre. dinner theatres are for sure in my top five favorite things. also, i got my uggs for christmas and i have been wearing them nonstop since then :)

for new years we went to wyoming, where my aunt and uncle live. it was so fun! we played a lot of games (my new favorites are uno flash and anomia. check them out, seriously.), went skiing, sledding, and shooting, and had a really good time.

i like breaks.

and i like my new roommates.

(and i am especially glad i am living with chelsea again this semester. i love that girl.)

i think this semester will be pretty great :)

so.. i got my hair cut...

one day, there was a little girl who wished she was a boy. and so she said to the lady that cut her hair, "brenda, i want my hair cut like a boy."

so brenda cut her hair like a boy.

that little girl loved that boy haircut. and that girl's little sister loved that boy haircut. so she got one too.

only somehow she looked even more like a boy than her older sister did. one day at church, a real boy said to the little sister, "how come are you wearing a dress if you are a boy?" the little sister cried. and so the little sister grew her hair out and looked like a girl again.

but the big sister wanted to look like a boy. one day while she was playing at the park, some teenage girls said, "let's let this little boy go first." and they were talking about her.

she was thrilled.

eventually, she grew out of that stage, and so did her hair. she decided she loved being a girl and never wished again that she was a boy.

but she still didn't love her hair long.

and then the little girl was grown up, and she was getting married in only three and a half months. she went home for christmas and she went to the hair cutting place. and brenda said, "what would you like today?"

and the girl said, "just a trim, please."

but then as brenda talked and talked and washed the girl's hair, the girl couldn't stop thinking about having short hair. because even though she was getting married so, so soon, and even though she always had wanted long hair at her wedding, that girl really, truly hated not having short hair.

and so she told brenda to cut it off.

and so brenda did.