The end has come.

There's a week left in the semester, and I SERIOUSLY doubt anything in terms of my goals are going to change between now and next Friday. So, here's how they went.

*Go on three dates: I went on two (one in Utah). One was alright, the other was AMAZING.
*Pay for everything easily: I was able to pay for everything, and it was fairly easy.
*Save money for Spring: I have about $1000 saved up, and my tuition is only $1490 (unless I miraculously get into the class I'm on a waitlist for). I CAN DO THIS.
*Great roommates: while they were great, we haven't really seen eye to eye this semester, and I have basically detached myself emotionally from them since they're all leaving, never to return to my apartment complex.
*Work forty hours a week: I've gotten anywhere between 35 and 40 hours most weeks this semester. Sometimes it's lower than 35, and a couple of times it's been higher than 40. Yay for money!
*Work out 30 minutes at least three times a week: There was a time (*cough* a month and a half *cough*) where I wasn't exercising and eating Domino's like it was going out of business. But I'm back in the game and going to the gym every day. I have to get a bikini ready body (just not for a bikini) by June. Wish me luck.
*Eat slightly healthier: see above.
*Read scriptures daily: I epically failed this. I think I read them once a week. Definitely need to get back into that.
*Pray morning and night: also epically failed. There was a time when I was praying. But it's been a while...
*Go to the temple every two weeks: I have been unable to attend all semester, whether it be because of work or personal reasons. Hopefully I'll be able to go back soon.
*Read three books: I did more than that, I've read FIVE. I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harken, The Host, What Happens Next, and Matched. WOO.
*Get close to finishing story: HA. Nope. I haven't opened that notebook in about three weeks. I should probably do that sometime soon...maybe when I'm done with this.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good semester. On to the next!

Letters.

Writing letters is always fun. At least to me. Most people would prefer the easiest method--sending the receiver a message on Facebook. More often than not, it's instantly seen and can be instantly replied to. But there's something about writing out what you want to say and seeing your handwriting and seeing others and getting things in the mail that makes me happy. Plus its a great way to practice your handwriting since they have you type anything and everything these days.

*Side note about handwriting: Sometimes I deliver pizza to teenagers, and they're the ones who sign the receipt (their parents are gone or something). So I ask them, "please sign and total the receipt." I can't tell you how many times they simply write out their name instead of putting a signature. This literally depresses me. Yes, they lied to you in third grade when they said you'll use cursive all the time. That doesn't mean that you can totally disregard it. You're going to need to know how to sign your name when you buy a house or a car or write out checks. I'm 99.9% certain they won't take you seriously if you don't know how to sign your own name. They NEED to put cursive back in schools.*

Anyway. For the past almost two years, I have written letters to a friend of mine on a mission. He is serving in Brazil, so it takes about 3-4 weeks for my letter to get to him, then however long it takes for his response, then 3-4 weeks for his letter to get to me. So there's about 2-3 months between each letter I get from him. While it helped his mission fly by, it sucked having to wait for a letter. I wrote him a letter in November, which meant I was to get a response sometime in February. Then February came and left, and I still hadn't gotten a letter. I was worried my letter got lost, or his letter got lost, or someone had for some reason taken my letter, etc. Basically, I was paranoid (my friend had been consistent with his letters his entire mission).

Monday morning, I looked at my phone and realized I had some emails. The first ones were from the several stores who have my email address telling me I can get 30% off of something I would never consider buying. But then I realized I had an email from my friend. At first I thought it was either a joke or his email had gotten hacked (which is highly unlikely since its a church email), but then I read the first few lines and got really excited.

Missionaries can now write emails to people who aren't family.

You don't even know how much this excites me. Now I don't have to wait 2-3 months to talk to my friend, I can wake up at 7 AM Monday mornings and get an email or two from him and have said Monday be the greatest day of the week. As much as I loved writing to and receiving letters from him, I'm much more in favor of the email option since it takes forever for letters to get to and from here. Plus he extended his mission by at least a month, so this will (hopefully) make these last two months go by a little bit faster. 

Update.

Well its somewhere near midterms, so I figure I'd update the two people who actually read this on how my goals for the semester are going.

*3 dates--I've been on one, and its looking like that's going to be it. Woot.
*Pay for everything easily--so far so good.
*Save $$$ for Spring--sort of good. I don't think I'll make enough :\
*Great roommates--about that...
*Work 40 hrs/wk--most of the time I get around 35 per week. Very rarely is it under that.
*Work out for 30 mins. at least 3x/wk--HA! Nope. There was a point where I was going to the gym every day, but not anymore. I do need to go back though...
*Eat slightly healthier--I eat Domino's almost every day. So that failed.
*Read scriptures daily--nope.
*Pray morning and night--Not morning and night...most of the time its at night, occasionally in the mornings.
*Go to the temple every two weeks--I haven't been able to go all semester.
*Read 3 books--I've read one, and am working my way through the second (which is taking forever...become interesting, book!). 
*Get close to finishing story--nope. Not even.

51,350!!!

I have officially passed the 50,000 word mark, which means, according to NaNoWriMo standards, I HAVE OFFICIALLY WRITTEN A NOVEL!!

This is basically the best news of the day. I'm so excited! 

My story is coming along nicely. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to write the next section, but I'll figure it out the next time I pick up the notebook it is being written in. I'm estimating there will be at least ten more chapters before it is finished, but that number could go up or down, depending on how much I want to cover in said chapters. 

Here's to the 60,000 word mark!

Lucky.

My friend did a post similar to this, so I decided I would give it a try.

I’m lucky enough to have not one job, but TWO that I absolutely love (even if one requires waking up early).

I’m lucky enough to have my health (even if it has disappeared momentarily--stupid cold). But for the most part, it’s marvelous.

I’m lucky enough to have a car that works, even if sometimes it makes noises that make me think otherwise.

I’m lucky enough to have enough money to pay for my food (even if I don’t eat at home as often as I should), car, phone, and rent. 

I’m lucky enough to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that I know the truth.

I’m lucky enough to have four amazing roommates, even if I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like.

I’m lucky enough to have a family who loves me, and I miss them dearly (thank goodness for FaceTime).

I’m lucky enough to be a student at BYU-Idaho. Even though most of the time I make fun of it or say how much I hate it here, I’m grateful to be up here, because if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have the opportunities I do now.

I’m lucky enough to have several friends at work, which makes my job so much fun.

That’s all I can think of for now. :)

Winter 2013 Goals

Since the semester officially starts tomorrow, here are the goals I'm hoping to accomplish in the next three months:

• Go on three dates. 
• Be able to pay all my bills and buy food and gas with ease
• Be able to save money for Spring 2013
• Great roommates (I already know three of them are awesome, so now I just need to get to know the new one)
• Work 40 hours a week at Domino's
• Work out for 30 minutes at least 3x a week
• Eat slightly healthier
• Read scriptures daily
• Pray morning and night
• Attend the temple every two weeks
• Read three books
• Get close to finishing my story

It's a lot to work on, but most of them are pretty easy. Around midterms I'll give an update :)

2013 Goals

Nobody reads this thing anymore, but whatever.

I'm calling these my goals instead of my resolutions. Nobody ever keeps their resolutions for more than a week past the new year, but people tend to stick with goals. So, here are my goals for 2013:

• Get to a better place spiritually
• This means reading my scriptures more often and going to the temple more often and paying more attention in church.
• Get relatively good grades
• Nothing lower than a C (I would say nothing lower than a B, but where I'm at right now, a B is really stretching it) at any given point in the semester.
• Get to a better place emotionally
• No more wallowing in self-pity when I feel physically/emotionally alone. That's what friends are for.
• Go to my journal if I feel the need to be super depressing. The Internet doesn't need to know.
• Just be happier.
• Get to a better place physically
• I'm shooting for 150 lbs and (again with the stretching) a size 7 waistline
• Only eat work food 3x a week, and cut back on my intake of Diet Pepsi (not exactly working with this 2-liter sitting next to me...)
• Exercise at least 3x a week
• Take off my makeup EVERY night, and wash my face morning and night
• Go on at least 5 dates during the calendar year (I only went on THREE in 2012). 
• Preferably 3 dates every semester/summer break
• Break out of my comfort zone/hermit shell and actually TALK to the guys I associate with (aka the single ones I work with and the guys in my classes)
• Always try to have a smile on my face; I'll never know who's watching

So five goal categories isn't too bad, right? I'll just have to remember not to be intimidated by the longer list...I'll be putting these on the sidebar as a sort of reminder to me.

Up next: Winter Semester 2013 goals.

Side note: A fun idea I'm going to do this year is take a jar, and write the good things that happen to me and put them in the jar. Then, I'm going to open the jar on December 31, 2013, and look at all of the good things that have happened to me in the past year. Y'all should try it too!