I must post before December ends....

Okay, so this is going to be a monthly blog. Obviously. I just don't have exciting things to report on, really. So we'll see where this goes.

So fall semester has ended. It was a great semester, but quite difficult. But I made it through, and got pretty good grades after all. This semester, as you probably know, I was a TA for Math 113 (calculus). It was fabulous. I absolutely loved the job, and the students became good friends of mine. I'm really going to miss that class. My professor is teaching a big lecture class next semester where they have grad students as TA's. So yeah, it's sad...no math 113 TA anymore. But, good news...I got another job! I'm going to be a math 334 T.A. (as a sophomore!) with my friend Erica, and it's going to be a good experience. I just took the class this past semester, and it was hard, but I think I'm pretty qualified to T.A. the class. I'm excited...it just might be a little awkward since almost every student will be older than me. Haha.

On thursday night (the last week of finals), a bunch of kids from my ward went to IHOP at like 10:30. I had a final the next morning at 7:00 and had to get up at like 5:45, but I really wanted to go, and my mom told me to (she encourages me to go out and be social since I tend to think I need to do homework 24/7). I had a really good time, and my final the next morning went well. It was my last final any way, so I could be a total bum the rest of the day. So yeah, after the final was over, I met up with Cort and Linds (my cousins on the Smith side) and we had breakfast and talked. Then I went home and cleaned, packed, and watched full house. Then I went out to lunch with Katie and Connor which was really fun, and then I came back and did some more bummish stuff like napping and more full house watching (I'm quite a fan--in fact I got the whole series--8 seasons!!--for christmas!). Then Katie and Connor came over for dinner and then we went to the basketball game since my cousin Davis (on the Baker side) was playing on SUU's team against BYU. He did really well--played almost the entire game and was tied for the leading shooter on his team. I was in the BYU cheer section since I have a BYU student all sports pass, so I think a lot of people thought I was really confused or knew nothing about basketball since I'd cheer really loud whenever BYU scored AND whenever Davis scored. It was fun. :)

My trip home on Saturday was pretty gross. K&C dropped me off at the airport around 7 for my 8:30 flight, but it ended up being delayed because of Chicago weather (FOG), so we didn't leave till 9:30. We made up some time in the air, but once we got to Chicago, we couldn't land, so we ended up circling around for an HOUR and then finally landed....but then we had no gate to pull up to, so we had to just sit there for another 30 minutes. So an hour and a half layover turned into a "the plane is leaving in 10 minutes" freak out, running frantically through the airport moment. But then even tho the screen said the plane was boarding, it wasn't. It turned out that our crew had just landed (their plane was delayed too), so we left an hour late. It was intense.

So I came home for christmas and it has been fun, but crazy. I'm not used to so much noise and intenseness. Also, the weather here is insane!--it's averaged about 50 degrees every day here, and it's like 15 degrees in Utah. Much different. It's nice to have warm weather (although my sisters are constantly saying it's freezing, yeaaahhh right), but it sure doesn't feel like winter time. I miss the mountains and the snow. But I really really like having access to a car. I can like....drive places! If I want to go get something, I can! I don't have to beg someone to drive me somewhere. It's so nice. Soon I will buy a car and it will be fantastic. I like not feeling stuck.

My friend Amy (from high school) got baptized a little over a month ago, and so just yesterday we drove up to the temple and did baptisms. It was a great experience. We then went to the visitors center and looked around, and then went to the little store near the temple that sells pictures, books, jewelry, and all that other churchy stuff.

So I think that is all my random updates for now. Maybe I'll add some pics later. We'll see.