Future Librarian.

     Thanks to some great friends and a ridiculous video resume I am officially an employee of the BYU-I David O. McKay Library!! I will start doing training next week and will start at the beginning of next semester. I am super excited to finally have a job and will be working alongside two of my best friends. It is going to be an adjustment working, taking classes and enjoying the summer weather but I'm ready for it.

     Here is the video that started it all.

Courtney's Virtual Resume

Embracing My Inner Hick.

     Here in Idaho, a typical pass time is to go out to the Butte and go shooting. It has finally gotten warm enough that we have gone out at least once a week for the past few weeks. Of course Anna and I had to go all out and found camo hats for only $3! We wear them every time we go shooting. We are embracing our inner hick.

     Brad has 22 shotgun and Bryce has a riffle. I prefer the riffle over the shotgun. The shotgun is too big and too loud. Its fun to shoot but scary. Once I figured out how to handle the gun it was easier to shoot. I rarely hit the clay pigeons with the shotgun and when I do I get extremely excited!haha With the riffle we just shoot targets and I hit those a lot more frequently.

     Today was a beautiful day and now that it's staying lighter later, thanks to day light savings, we were able to go out again. Bryce brought his camera and got some really fun pictures. 

        

  

I hit this one!

  

Somehow we always get a picture of us laughing at something random.

     

The gang: Brad, Anna, Me, Bryce!

Back At It.

     Im back here in Rexburg for my first winter semester. I am off track and have no luck on the job front. I have had a lot of free time which I am enjoying but I am ready for the spring semester to start. It has been fun having time to really do whatever I want because Im not taking classes.

     I was able to go to Chicago for ten days to watch the Boswell boys while their parents went to Hawaii. It was so much fun being back home. The boys were so awesome and so easy! It was a nice break away but it was so much colder there than it was in Rexburg, like a good 30 degrees colder. We have actually had an unusually warm winter here, which lets be real I am not complaining!

     This week Brad, Scott and I found some super cheap tickets to a Utah Jazz game and a BYU basketball game, so we road tripped it to Utah mid-week... Oh the joys of having other friends that are off track as well! Both games were extremely fun. The Jazz were playing the Brooklyn Nets. Both teams were pretty equal in their playing abilities and it was a fun game, unfortunately the Jazz lost but it was still fun to be there.

     I stayed with Sarah and Matt which is always fun! I love being able to live so close to them and that I am able to come down and see Benson. He changes each time I see him. He is getting so big! The next game was the BYU game which was an absolute blast. They played Gonzaga. Brad is from Washington so he was totally rooting for the zags. Scott and I were BYU through and through. I loved being in the Marriot Center. It really made me wish I went to a school that had sports teams. Don't get me wrong I love BYU-I but the sporting events are so much fun! The game was awesome and pretty close in scoring the whole game and luckily BYU pulled through with the win. Scott and I were ecstatic, Brad on the other hand was a little grumpy..haha.

Blind As A Bat.

     Well it turns out I have the vision of an 80 year old. I finally went to another eye doctor after months of really not being able to see much in the distance. I have had glasses for my far sightedness for a few years now and have noticed that my near sightedness was progressively getting much worse. I knew I was going to need a new prescription.

     After the eye doctor did all his tests the first thing he says to me was, "Well you're blind as a bat!". Very comforting...haha I knew my eye sight was bad but not that bad. I guess it was more than a little dangerous for me to be driving. Ooops!

Might as well have been me the past 9 months.

     So I am now wearing multi focal contacts and I also have progressive lens glasses. All I can say is that I got the short straw when it comes to my Dad's horrible eye sight.

We See Babylon Everywhere.

     "We do not need to adopt the standards, the mores, and the morals of Babylon. We can create Zion in the midst of Babylon."

-Elder David R. Stone

     This semester I changed my minor to Sociology. I am loving it and so glad that I decided to make that change. However I am learning so much and a lot of what I am learning is upsetting. It is scary to me how much society influences us. Don't get me wrong society is not all bad, but there are so many things out there that permeates our environment with evil. After this semester I cannot walk outside without seeing the negative affect society has on the people around me.

     As the semester has come to an end our teacher had our class read a General Conference talk titled Zion in the Midst of Babylon given by Elder David R. Stone in April of 2006. I thought it was amazing! In his talk he goes on about how we can be lights in the darkness that encompasses our society and culture today. We truly do see Babylon all around us, we must do all that we can in order to remain in our own personal Zion.

    I recommend that you all read or listen to his talk. It had a great impact on me and we can all have a simple reminder to better ourselves.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/04/zion-in-the-midst-of-babylon?lang=eng#watch=video

Power Outage.

     If you ever want to know what's going on with the weather, forget the weather channel just check any social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc). I woke up this morning to get ready for work and the power was out. I was the only one awake so I just went about my routine and started to get ready. It was actually really difficult trying to put on makeup while holding my phone up as a flashlight and then not being able to straighten my hair... #firstworldproblems.  I just kept getting ready and then one of my roommates came out and asked if I had checked Facebook yet, she told me that everyone was posting that because of how cold it was there was a massive blackout. It was affecting most of Southeastern Idaho. It was crazy, I've been in super cold weather before but never lost power.  I looked at my phone and realized that it was -9 degrees but with windchill it felt like -15. Oh and I forgot to mention, Anna and I slept with our window open last night, so our entire apartment was an icebox (sorry about that one guys!).  Our apartment thermostat was dropping by the minute. I was really reconsidering this whole going to school in Idaho thing.

      Then the text's started flooding in. There was no power in the whole town which meant campus was shut down. Classes were cancelled for the morning and until further notice. We had no heater, no hot water, and no way to warm up food or hot chocolate. Anna has a power outlet in her car so we thought it would be a genius idea to take our toaster out and try and make warm toast. Unfortunately it took too much power and burnt out the outlet. We were then notified that classes would be cancelled until 12:45. This meant no work for me and I didn't have class until 3:15. We were getting desperate for something warm, we went all through town looking for something that was open. I seriously felt like I was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, no one was out, nothing was open, and it was so dark. Maybe I have been watching too much Walking Dead, but town was creepy.

     The hours kept passing and still no power. We decided we needed some warmth, we drove out to Rigby and found one and only one open gas station. We went inside and got some hot chocolate. Im not a huge hot chocolate fan but let me tell you that was the best hot chocolate I've ever had.

     The power had been out for three hours already and we started to get concerned about our food, so we just put it outside, we all know it was cold enough!

     There was really no hope for warmth, so I just bundled up, Im talking two pairs of fluffy socks, a fleece and a sweatshirt, gloves, a headband, and then got in bed with three blankets. I just wanted to be warm and take a nap. Later I was able to take refuge in some friends apartment who was able to get power back early. Seriously I have never been so grateful for a heater! Our apartment finally got power back around 1:30 after 8 hours of no power. After today I seriously am question my sanity and why I am going to live here in the winter. I can guarantee there will be more posts like this in the upcoming months.

So I May Be A 12 Year Old At Heart.

     I may or may not have been waiting for this day for a few months now. Lets be real Anna and I have been counting down the days. 

     One Direction debuted their third album Midnight Memories today. Anna and I were stoked! We got up early and went right to the store. They hadn't even unloaded the boxes yet, we had the store attendant go in the back to get the CD's. Yes we may have been a little too excited, but we didn't even care. We popped the CD into the car and immediately began taking in the glorious sounds. It was beautiful. And yes I know I sound like an overly excited 12 year old girl, but you know what thats how I felt.

     The album does not disappoint. It is a much more grown up sound for the boys and I love it. It has been playing nonstop since I bought it and I basically know all the songs by heart now;)