Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

I truly feel like I am walking in a Winter Wonderland after the past week. Because of the crazy weather that Arizona has had over the past week, Flagstaff got about 4 or 5 feet of snow! There are literally rolling hills of snow on campus at NAU and around town. It snowed Monday night, Tuesday night, and then the huge storm was from Wednesday night through this morning (Saturday). It snowed almost the entire 2 days straight. It was so weird to look out the window or go outside and have it always snowing. I kind of enjoyed looking out our window and seeing the how much snow has fallen in comparison to my car. I watched it slowly cover my antanae and tires. It was an excellent way for me to judge how much snow had fallen, but I there was always the voice saying, "you're gonna have to dig it out." That voice ruined it for me. But because of the snow, I had a 2-day school week. Monday was Civil Rights day and didn't have school because of that, and then the university delayed opening the school on Wednesday till 10:00, so one of my classes was cancelled that day. The topping on the cake was when Thursday morning they delayed opening the university till 11, which was after I would have been done with classes. So I thought, ok, I'll just work today. And then an hour later they cancelled the university for the day because of worsening weather conditions. Later that day they also cancelled it for Friday. The results were 2 days of school, one of which started later than normal.

During these snow days, I was able to get some things done (clean the bathroom, make real food, did homework) and also go on some snow adventures. Part of these snow adventures included diggind tunnels in the banks of snow, being launched into the snow, learning how to tackle, finding show forts under trees, being thrown into the snow, etc. It was so much fun! I'm glad that I was able to relax and have some fun before I got too far into the semester. I am also very thankful to be able to see the beauty that surrounds me. There is a certain beauty that comes when everything is covered with snow. I feel so lucky to be living here in Flagstaff where I can see that beauty all of the time!

We went on a snow adventure on Friday to a dirt road in Flagstaff. I took some pictures because it was so beautiful!

This is me attempting to make a snow angel in the 5 foot deep snow on our snow adventure. I sunk into it and because of that got snow in my face.

This is my car outside of my window. The one on the very left bottom. And my car was cleaned off on Thursday, so this is not all of the snow that could have been on it. You can't even see my tires!

I've learned that snow has it's ups and downs, but I am enjoying the new way of life! It's definately an adventure!

Act of Service for the Day!

Today my roommate Jasmine and I were outside shoveling out my car. We are chugging along and low and behold, this kind man comes up to us and asks if he can help. He shoveled both sides of my car out and helped clean it off. It was done so much faster because of him and the fact that he knew what he was doing. I couldn't help but smile after this. All I could think about was, there are good people in the world still. I don't know this man, but he lives near me in my complex, but I am very grateful for the service he provided me today.

Baby Maley

I would like to welcome into the world, my new neice

Maley Susan Allred.

She was born on Friday night, Jan 15 and was 6 lbs 9 ounces and 19 inches long. I'm so excited to have another neice!

Happy New Year!

First off I want to say

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year!

I had a wonderful time with my family and friends over the holidays and I'm so glad that I was able to share the special time of the year with them. But now I'm back at school and have realized that this is the "New" time. Everything is starting over fresh. There is a new year, a new semester, a new job, new classes, new people to meet, etc. It is an excellent time to make and set goals and start doing things better in my life. Today, my Relief Society lesson was on being proactive and making goals in our lives. Being proactive means that you think about the choice you are making before you make it. It is not just reacting to the things that are happening, but being conscience of your choices and trying to make good ones. And part of this is making goals and striving to accomplish them. These goals should not only be in the most apparent parts of our lives, but in every part. She said that we should all make goals in these catergories:

• spiritual

• physical

• emotional

• relationships

• mental/educational

These are all areas in life that often need to be worked on to become better in my life. So I've decided to make goals for this semester ad actually follow through with them. I am going to make them in this week before school starts.

And on that note, I want to say on with a new year and a new semester!

Done!

I finished my third semester of college! Sometimes I don't feel old enought to have done that, but low and behold, I have accomplished it! It's been crazy, but a lot of fun! Here are some things that I have been doing the past semester (Not including my school work and hours of practicing and rehearsals):

Sedona

I went to Sedona with a friend of mine on what we thought was the last warm Saturday before winter. I rode his ATV and he rode his dirtbike down a dirt road that went from 5 minutes out of Flagstaff to Sedona. The road went along a canyon that had the famous red rocks of Sedona. It was so pretty and fun!

Snow Days!

This past week was finals and with that came a blizzard! It was snowing all day Monday. It was literally snowing from the time a woke up that morning until I went to bed that night. That resulted in campus being closed half-way through that day and the next, which meant..... FINALS WERE CANCELLED!!!!! I had 3 of my 6 finals on those two day and then one of my teachers was snowed in and couldn't come on Wednesday. So I only took 2 of my 6 finals. It was the most amazing finals week of my life! Because of the constant snow fall and blizzard (yes there was a blizzard) we accumulated quite a bit of snow.

Here's my car Monday night, and this is after cleaning it off once already that day!

This was Monday night when my good friend Troy took some of us on a drive. He stopped suddenly in a parking lot, opened the door and jumped in the snow. He literally disappeared in the snow. So after that we all took turns jumping in the snow. This is me in action! jumping in the snow!

Homecoming Parade Float!

The LDSSA decided to actually be a part of the school year and make a float for the homecomeing parade. The theme for this year was blast from the past, so we made a giant lumberjack from the 70's and gave him an ax in one hand and a "number one" finger in the other. It was awesome!

Giant Holiday Card Contest!

The Front!

Another thing that the LDSSA participated in was a giant holiday card contest. There is a Christmas Tree with people of different nationalities holding hands around it. We also recorded ourselves singing Silent Night in different languages so have play "from the card". Unfortunately, the music part ended up not working, but we had an awesome pop-up giant holiday card! Oh and we won first place in the contest!

Locket Meadow!

We went hiking at Locket Meadow with some friends from my ward. It was the time of year when the leaves were changing colors, but haven't fallen off yet. It was so pretty! And it was good to go hiking! I love being able to spend time in nature, especially when it's in the trees and vegetation that doens't exist back at home.

Winter Formal!

Every winter, the Institute Women's Asssociation pus on a formal guy-ask-girl dance for the institute. I actually asked someone and went this year! (I'm still proud of myself for that). The theme was Come Sail Away, so the stake center was decorated to look like a cruise ship. It was cool! I asked a friend of mine named Jeph Hunt and had a blast!

My group (aka my roommies and their dates) all dressed up. It's always good for us girls to have an excuse to get all dressed up!

Me Jeph after dinner!

The date consisted of dinner, pictures, the dance, and then a movie to top it off! We had dinner in our apartment. We cooked these pizza roll type things. They are like cinnomon rolls, but with pizza toppings to go in them, and sauces to go ontop of them. They were really good! And we also made oreo truffles. AMAZING!!! And then the girls all changed into our dresses (because we didn't want to eat in them) and took pictures! Then we went to dance and had a blast dancing the night away!! Jeph's a goofy, but pretty good dancer. After we came back from the dance tired from dancing, we went to Jeph's apartment and watched UP!!!! I had never seen it before and loved it! It's so cute! And after that, it was the end and I had to go to bed because I woke up early the next day to help at Bishop's Store House. But the whole thing tons of fun and I'm so glad that I went! Oh and another thing about the whole thing was that it was raining off and on all day that day. It ruined my hair (well the fact that I had to wear it up and not down) and the ground was all wet, but like I said, it was still fun regardless!

Halloween!!!

Ok I know I already talked about Halloween, but here's somepictures of Katie and me, the farmer and her cow. I think the best part about being a cow was the fact that there was three other cows there! I thought that it was a pretty original costume, but I was wrong!

Cinder Hills!

I was also able to go to the Cinder Hills with my life-long friends Marc and Devon Johnson. They came up to Flagstaff for a weekend to get away from the valley and the heat and while there they invited us to go to the cinder hills with them. It was really fun! We climbed through the potato people and climbed up and flew down the hills of cinder! It was crazy because you literally sank into the cinder and you were jumping down. A really weird, but awesome sensation!

So that's some of the highlights of my life the past while. Now I'm back home for a few weeks before going back up and starting my new job at the ID card office on campus and a new semester!