Stuart the Squirrel

Being in the small city of Rexburg, there is not very many things to do sometimes unless you have a car. Sitting so often in the living room in my dorm, I met a friend. This friend is definitely no ordinary friend, mostly because he can't talk, can't walk on two feet, and his diet pretty much consists entirely of nuts (of every kind). Stuart is what I named him and he is a squirrel. I decided that I would be nice and occasionally feed him pistachios that my mom sent me in the mail. I figured he would need them for the winter time. I am pretty sure he enjoyed them very much because I found the remnants of the pistachios all over the sidewalk outside our dorm. It was fun doing this! So, the other day my roommate Brooklyn left for her class and attempted to shut the door behind her, but wasn't very successful because our door is a little bit stubborn at times and in stead of it shutting, it stayed open about a foot to a foot and a half. About 2 minutes or so after she left I walked out of our room to get something in the kitchen and I see the door open. I stare at it for a second until something else caught my eye. A movement under our kitchen table. STUART! Stuart was under our kitchen table nibbling on a cracker. I thought to myself  "Who do you think you are?" or as Camila would say it, "What the heck in the whole world" haha So I stood right there so scared. I didn't know what to do, but I think it was as scared as I was because it left less than a minute later. I slammed the door behind him and that was the END of our friendship!

My Roomie.....Brooklyn Whitney!

So, my roommate for this semester is Brooklyn Whitney. I think that it is really funny that her last name is Whitney and my first name is Whitley. It's really funny because when we label things in our fridge, her things are "BW" and mine "WB". I just think that is really funny! We get along so great! We often have great heart to heart discussions. We love each other. It's also way funny because we will take turns having "messy days". We rotate on and off who is messy and we don't even plan it. One of us will say to the other, "Sorry, I'm the messy one today". haha and we just laugh and say "that's alright". I think she's great. We are really alike. When it gets to a certain degree of messy.... we can't handle it. We go crazy if things get too messy.

This is Brooklyn and I last night. We wanted to be silly. We are silly! Brooklyn had 80's hair and me....me? I just looked like the biggest weirdo on the planet. We like to have fun. Sometimes when we are having great chats, we lose track of time and often go to bed at around 1-2ish in the morning, which believe it or not, is very typical for the BYU-I student! I love her! She's a great roommate and I will miss her during the winter semester because she will be off track. :(

Arepas with Camila!

On various occasions, I have walked in to our dorm kitchen from being out and have been immediately surrounded by smells that are not common to grace the walls of American homes. Because Camila is Peruvian, she enjoys making food from her native culture. The other night she did something that people do in Peru...she deep fried her frozen french fries in vegetable oil and when she finished, she dumped the oil out in order to make eggs. She then proceeded to put her eggs on top of her heaping pile of french fries--She was HUNGRY! Tonight I walked in to find her making one of my favorites that she prepares. They are called arepas (they originate from Colombia, where she served her mission) and below is a picture of the finished product:

 The basic ingredients for these yummy creations:

 As it's being made, it turns into a ball of dough basically and you pull it apart and flatten it into thin circles and drop it into a pan of boiling vegetable oil. Camila, having experience with these in their native country, best knows how to whip up a tasty snack. Yes, that's cheese and ham on top!

Me? I just stick with nutella to savor it as a sweet treat!

I LOVE CAMILA!!!!!!

Family Pictures!!! :)

I love my family so much. I am biased but my family is just the best most cutest family ever!!! I love and miss them so so much!! But I cannot wait to go back home during Christmas break to spend time with them!

My Best Friend. :)

So here's the scoop...My best friend in the whole world is Michelle Nelson. I just call her Michellie though. We met freshman year of high school when we both aided for the office. We would basically walk around the school to deliver passes and notes to students from the office. It was really fun. I have to be honest, at first I thought Michelle was weird. I cannot exactly remember why, but I just know that I thought she was peculiar. I am really not even sure if I told her this before. Oops! Ha When we were sophomores in High School, we both took conditioning together, but not on purpose. It was so much fun hanging out with her struggling to push the bar of weights above my head. It truly was a difficult class and I was always relieved when it was over. As best as I can remember, I cannot recall seeing Michelle very much junior year. We were not close yet, that didn't happen until our Senior year. It was my best year because I had finally and truly made a best friend. We began hanging out all the time with our other friend Kelsey. We had a ton of fun, but things with prom really changed things. When Michelle discussed prom with Kelsey. Kelsey didn't talk to us much after that, which was a really big bummer. Michelle and I stayed so close though! I love her like a sister, she's the best! Since I have been here at school in Idaho, she wrote me this 4 page front and back letter, it made my entire week :) So I wrote her back , but I couldn't make it as long as hers unfortunately....I just love her, she's so great and I cannot wait to go back to Ohio to see her during Christmas break!!!!

Below: We were playing with one of my Ian's toys....I am sure we enjoyed it more than he ever did, which is pretty funny :) We are still little kids at heart <3

 To the right  is a picture of us at the mall in one of those jumpy things, it was really fun to jump around like a little kid even when people were staring as they walked past....LOVE HER!

College Life!!!

It's the first time that I have been living on my own. And the crazier part about it is that I am halfway across the country from my family. I came to Rexburg, Idaho all the way from Mentor, Ohio to attend school at Brigham Young University- Idaho. I am majoring in Elementary Education and I am so excited. I am taking some classes right now that are required for my major, so it's nice that I am not only taking generals. I am taking Child Development and History and Philosophy of Education. I really enjoy child development, I think that it is probably my favorite class out of all the classes I am taking. MY ROOMIES; Jessica (from Boise, Idaho), Camila (from Peru, 23, served a mission in Colombia), and Brooklyn (some funny sounding city in Washington state). They are so great! I am so blessed to have such great rommies my very first semester! :) I cannot forget Katherine (from the place Brooklyn came from) and Kylee (from where Jessica is from)...they are basically our roommates too because they are always in our living room or rooms just hanging out and talking about life. 

 This is us except Camila (from the left); Jessica, Kylee, Katherine, me, and Brooklyn. They are so much fun to be around and it's so awesome because we feel so comfortable with each other. If you were to walk into our place, you would often hear things like "Shut Up" or "I Hate You". I love it! <3 Even though I am having a ton of fun here, I get homesick and cry. I miss my family so much, but we skype often, which is great because I will enjoy Head-Shoulders-Knees and Toes from my nearly 3 year old brother, Ian. And when I don't get that, I get my sister Sydney smiling so big back at me with what looks like a wig on top of her head, but really isn't. The doctor says that she has the hair of a 3 year old...she will be 1 later this month.

Sydney and I

Ian

Sydney's Adoption

From Left; Our adoption caseworker: Spencer, Dad, Ian, Me, Judge, Mom, and Sydney