What happens in Vegas... doesn't really stay in Vegas [:

This past weekend was so perfect! I didn't want to come back to school at all! But thoughts of being back in the Valley with my amazing family make me somewhat more willing to endure three more weeks of college before CHRISTMAS.

So, for Thanksgiving this year it was off to Las Vegas, babyy. For sure I was a little bummed about not being able to go home, but I double love my Vegas cousins and I had a feeling that four days with them would be a party like no other. In hindsight I would have to say I was spot on. [:

Wednesday consisted mostly of driving, with lots of this out the window for five hours (which I can't argue with; it was gorgeous!)

When we got to Vegas, there was much hugging and rejoicing and then we got down to business. Thanksgiving food business that is! Fruit salad and the stuffing were our two main focuses for that night. We squeezed in a few rounds of Guitar Hero before bed as well, a game that I'll readily admit I absolutely stink at. [: The next morning Matt, Dani, Carson, and I went running so that we could properly stuff ourselves later without feeling too guilty. I felt the effects of the lower elevation and had a run like I hadn't in months! It was a nice change from Provo!

Then it was back to the kitchen where orange rolls, turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and baked carrots were in full swing. It was chaotic, but everyone's in such a great mood on Thanksgiving! Bumping elbows and making messes just added to the family-ness. I wish I had gotten a picture of everything that was going on, but I didn't have a chance to get to my camera till after the amazing meal. But it was perfect. [: I loved sitting and laughing with people I love and enjoying delicious food and seeing proof of how BLESSED I am! I am more thankful than I can put into words for all that I have.

Okay I'm done writing so much. Picture time. The rest of the week was spent:

Making beautiful works of art

That's a full blown Bikini Bottom scene Ben's got goin on there ^^

Conquering Lone Mountain to work off some of the Thanksgiving poundage [:

Hitting the city for some fantastic Mediterranean food at Paymon's and then Chinatown for this:

A BoBa smoothie. Those black things are balls of tapioca and they reminded me of really soft gummy bears... It looked intimidating but hey I'm always up for something new and I did try it! I have to say I'm not a fan though [:

Enjoying the Thanksgiving leftovers... one food in particular for me! YUM.

Taking a ride in a Nissan GTR, which, if you were wondering, looks a little somethin like this:

It was about three times better than Space Mountain at Disneyland. And that's pretty darn good.

Went shooting! It was so much fun.

This shotgun was SO HEAVY. And long! I was having second thoughts about shooting it but I played a game of trap shooting with my cousins and whattaya know? I won! [: That'll probably never happen again!

And then of course we girls needed some pictures with our new toys [:

Boys can't handle us and our AK 47s.

I moonlight as a gangsta. As you can see I've got my killshot down. As you can't see in this picture, this gun had an insane kick and shooting this way will probably be the cause of carpal tunnel in my left wrist soon [: We had fun.

All too soon it was time to go back to Provo. ): I loved every second of cooking, coloring, pigging out, hiking, getting in touch with my Chinese side, gun-slinging, and family time! We hit the road, unaware that we were about to go from this

to this!

But I just might be okay with that [: THREE WEEKS TILL CHRISTMAS BREAK.

The current project: Gettin my 'tude on

This video is short and sweet and PERFECT.

Ever since my companion and I used President Monson's talk on gratitude for our visiting teaching message earlier this month, I've been trying my very hardest to apply the points in his talk to my life! The thing I felt I need to work on most was cutting down the thought and time I put into focusing on things I don't have and instead just being thankful for the things I do have! In other words, picking up an "attitude of gratitude." Spiffy phrase, that one. :] It isn't exactly difficult to do, but it does require constant conscious effort throughout the whole day, and I'm easily distracted haha.

It wasn't long until I found that when I look at my life from a grateful perspective, I can't help but be happy. It's automatic. And when I make the effort to thank my Heavenly Father for helping me on an exam or for the beautiful fall colors on the mountains or around campus, pretty soon I'm seeing things all over the place that I never took the time to be thankful for before. Things like good hair days! A teacher who extends the testing period for an exam. A smile from a (good looking :] ) stranger on campus when I'm having a rough day. My mentality changes from one of just thinking about how little time I have and how stressed I am to one where I see proof all over the place that God is on my side. Then I just keep finding more and more things to be thankful for and my happiness grows as I see how blessed I am. It's a domino effect.

Living in thanksgiving every day is a habit that I can't imagine living without before! I love the sweet spirit I have with me throughout the day and the way I feel like I'm looking at life in a whole new way. I'm finding that I can always find a reason to be thankful for anything that I see or experience during my day. Even the things I normally would treat as burdens can be turned into blessings just by using my attitude of gratitude. For example: I am thankful for exams because they mean that I'm attending a school that is challenging me and helping me get the best out of my classes! ...Kayy that's kinda pushing it, but you get the idea.

I love this quote from President Monson's talk:

"We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said that “gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”

I have definitely seen proof of that last sentence. Seems to me that when you recognize Heavenly Father's hand in your life, the happiness that results just makes you want to do everything good! And I intend to keep it that way. Even after the turkey and stuffing leftovers are long gone. Oh! And I'm thankful for this blog that gives me the opportunity to share my thoughts with my family and friends back home.

My life is definitely a good one! :]

Can I just say...

I love running. Today and yesterday were nothing but stress, stress, and death and I didn't have time to run, which resulted in me feeling icky and tense and just in need of some form of exercise! Tonight after my astronomy lab ended at 10pm, my head was jammed full of all sorts of things and I just wanted to go to sleep. But my crazy cross-country shoulder angel thought otherwise. And I caved. Off I went for just a quick half-hour. And it was marvelous. Just what I needed to clear my head. I'm in a good mood. :]

So I'm kinda pining.

Exams are stressful. That's not news to anyone. And when I'm stressed I usually go into no-human-interaction mode. Withdraw and collect myself then plow through whatever it is that needs to be plowed through. Probably not the best, but it's just natural. And back at home I could always depend on my cat to tolerate my need to snuggle with something warm that didn't want to just talk a lot. I know that sounds totally anti-social but come on... we've all had those days. Right now I am totally and 100% pining for my kitty.

I am most definitely a cat person. Our personalities just kinda mesh. I love that cats are quiet, independent, and polite. They don't jump all over you or slobber, and they're neat & clean. I love their random mood swings from frisky and silly to completely lazy. I love how content they are to just sit on a windowsill for an hour and watch the world go by. They appreciate the good things in life (sometimes just as simple as curling up in the sun [: ) and nothing ruffles them. They are the best cuddlers on the planet (sorry boys) and above all, the purring is just the best sound in the world, no lie. I'd say people could learn a lot from cats. [: (Except the purring part... that'd be a little weird.)

So this is to my kitty, who's been my best buddy for the past eleven years of smooches and squeezes and hearing me call her things like muffincake, poopsie, fluffykins, chubbster, & pudgemeister. I miss her to bits! Though she's probably enjoying my absence. [:

Pure and utter joy on that face. [: Yep. We're besties.

Geological humor

I'm taking Geology 101 this semester. The material itself is enough to make it my favorite class. I'm in love with rocks and volcanoes and just Earth in general. Period. [: But on top of that, my teacher is simply hilarious. Every lecture is solid stand-up comedy. He is the best professor I've ever had. This guy can get 100+ students totally psyched about what most people think of as boring lumps of dirt.

Some of the things he says are just too good to let go by, so I write them down in the margins of my notes. Here are some of the best ones so far:

Explaining how nothing can really get in the way of lava:

  "Lava plus trees equals lava. Lava plus houses equals lava. Lava plus you equals lava. The basic point here, class, is that lava plus anything else equals lava, unless the 'anything else'... is Chuck Norris."

       “The Earth is hollow. How many of you knew that? The opening is somewhere around the North Pole. But no one’s found it yet. Why? The government is hiding it. It’s a government conspiracy. Because they all know that if we found the opening to hollow Earth, we’d all want to go live in the hollow Earth. Yeah. No sales tax down there...”

Talking about earthquakes:

  "There are quite a few things that make the earth shake - faults, dinosaurs, and: my mother-in-law."

While showing us a government-produced list of three things you should do if an earthquake occurs:

  “I love this number three - 'If in a moving vehicle, stop as soon as possible.' NO WAY. If I’m driving down I-15 and there’s a 7.0, I am puttin’ it to the floor! How many chances like that do you get? That’s the closest you’ll ever get to flying a TIE fighter in your life.”

Okay, tell me honestly, why would you NOT take a class from this guy? Look at him. He is the epitome of awesome! Geology is the epitome of awesome! [: Oh dang my life is good.

Halloweening!

First off, a recent discovery: Halloween gets so much hype in college. I don't know, maybe I should have expected it, but people were partying about a week before Halloween. For example, on Thursday night there was a dance party being driven in circles around the dorms on a huge flatbed truck. Creative, no? [:

Anyway, here are some of my Halloween adventures!

On Friday there were some pretty fantastic costumes on campus. For instance, I had an encounter with a hobo outside the science building.

I also got to see my Geology teacher as a prison inmate (complete with arm and neck tattoos) and my Astronomy teacher as Professor Dumbledore. Perfect [:

What good is Halloween without a few haunted house thrills? I went with some friends to one in Salt Lake that was voted best in the nation. It. Was. Terrifying. I will admit, I screamed/almost cried/covered my eyes/jumped out of my skin/did all the other things wimpy people do. And I did them a lot. In my defense: I was at the back of the group, so I was always the one who got picked on by all the friendly haunted house people with chain saws and bloody axes. Luckily I had a buddy to hold on to during the 35-minute nightmare, and I was really quite impressed when he came to school the next day with his arm fully functioning. I'm pretty sure it received no blood supply during the entire thing due to the death grip I maintained.

This was just walking around while we were waiting in line outside! Horrifying!

Everyone was alive afterwards [: so we made a Denny's trip to celebrate.

I, like a Boy Scout (and a broke college student), believe in being thrifty. Therefore, here is my completely free and somewhat lame Halloween costume. But I was a happy lioness just the same.

Rawr.

I had such a good time with some friends at a "Minute to Win It"-style Halloween party on Saturday. After some ridiculously funny challenges like "Face the Cookie," "Bobblehead," and "Elephant Walk," Team 2 was victorious. Huzzah. [: We finished off with pizza and a movie.

P.S. Some of these pictures are from Kirst- she got some good ones!

Bobble those heads, boys! [: