i, truth, am thy redeemer

uhm, so i just said goodbye to one of my best friends.

the great stephen michael tomoser is leaving for the mtc tomorrow

i met stephen at efy in 2007

and thennn life was just great

hes one of the best people i know

im just sad i dont get to see him very often

anyways, he got called to santa rosa california and reports on wednesday

he read this poem in his farewell talk, and i really like it

so im sharing

its by james allen

i, truth, am thy redeemer, come to me;

lay down thy sin and pain and wild unrest,

and i will calm thy spirit's stormy sea,

pouring the oil of peace unto thy breast:

friendless and love-lo, i abide with thee.

defeated and deserted, cast away,

what refuge hast thou? whither canst thou fly?

upon my changeless breast thy burdens lay;

i am thy certain refuge, even i:

all things are passing; i alone can stay.

lo i, the great forsaken, am the friend

of the forsaken; i, whom man despise,

the weak, the helpless, and despised defend;

i gladden aching hearts and weeping eyes;

rest thou in me, i am thy sorrow's end.

lover, friends and wealth, pleasure and fame-

these fail and change, and pass into decay;

i blame thee not, nor turn my face away:

in my calm bosom hide thy sin and shame.

stephen tonight

stephen and our friend michael in 2007

can i just say that i hope this two years goes by fast?

telling friends goodbye is the absolute worst :(

yayyyy 50th post

i absolutely love sundays

wanna know why?

actually having time for breakfast

getting ready with 6 girls in the same bathroom

xanning singing church music to us... so lovely

cute church clothes

cute church boys

fighting stephanie for the hymn book

fabulous sunday school lessons by jules

being forced to play the piano in relief society

leaving feeling better

letters to and from missionaries

skype dates with my family

afternoon naps

dessert parties at the boys' apartment

etc

happy sunday to youuuu

los viernos son mis favoritos

uhm, so ive been in a spanish speaking mood alllllll dayyyy

and i dont really see a problem with that

maybe its because in 76 short little days,

i will be in ECUADOORRRR!

also, fridays are just great

even though theyre long,

and tired cause i get no sleep on thursdays

but thats okay because ive been thinking about my free redbox sitting at home waiting for me

and im going to walmart too

and walmart is a pretty good place to be

highlights of today:

i slept through my first two classes (even though thats not a highlight for most, studious, people)

my spanish class is the most hilarious part of every monday, wednesday and friday

i got my natural disasters weeklyassignment turned in on time

cutie choir boy sat by me at lunch

i skipped choir so my afternoon is freeeeee

im a bad student lately

happy viernes chile

still no camera :(

since i dont currently have a functioning camera (though i am forced to look at my broken one everyday), life seems so much less exciting. however, we're gonna play a game. it goes like this. i show you a picture from however long ago, and tell you what happened.

meet baby optimus. last fall semester (so like a whole year ago) i was a freshman and i lived in the dorms. one morning i woke up and went into the bathroom to get ready for school. and i was greeted by this little guy.

apparently, the night before, my roommates were walking to the store and they found him, all tiny and dirty. so they brought him home, gave him a bath, and decided to keep him. now, we're not allowed to have pets in the dorms, or anywhere else for that matter, so he lived in our bathroom for about two weeks.

i really loved baby optimus. i was the only one he liked cause i was the only one that showed him any attention. he watched me while i got ready, he would come jump on my lap while i was doing homework, and sometimes he took naps with me.

seriously, cutest little guy ever. after a few days we noticed his ears were smelling funny, so my friend jeremy took me to the vet in IF and we got him checked out. on the way home he pooped in jeremy's car. probably from the traumatic events of the day. i felt sooo bad, it was pretty funny though. but eventually our head resident found out about him and we had to get rid of him. it was the saddest thing. i loved baby optimus.

1:19am

i am absolutely awful at doing my homework lately. i am the QUEEN of procrastination, believe it or not. so as it is far past by bed time, i am sitting on my freshly washed sheets in my newly cleaned room. its pretty magical, i must say. and before i start on my homework (yes, i said start), i decided it was time to blog.

first of all, yay for birthdays. yesterday was my baby brother's 16th birthday. i guess that makes him not a baby, but he's still little to me... even though he's like three inches taller than i am. i love my stepbrother with my whole heart.

AND scott tietjen's birthday is today! i cant seem to find the only picture i have of me and scott, but it's real. haha he's serving his mission in peru right now and he turned 21 today. how exciting.

also, my phone broke and im upset about it. but im getting a new sim card tomorrow. ive gone a whole 24 hours without it and its harder than it looks i promise.

im thinking now would be a good time to start my hours of studying and homework? i'm sorry my life is lame right now. love me through it.

this week has been lame, but...

...i will share some of the things it entailed:

• i am still catching up on homework and such from missing 9 out of my 15 classes last week
• im really starting to dig our choir song that i previously despised
• i finally went grocery shopping, for the first time in a month
• i got the new cosmo, yesssss
• i went to montana yesterday! on a natural disasters fieldtrip
• i met an attractive latin boy named edgar with whom i spent the entire aforementioned fieldtrip and with whom i fell in love, until he told me he has a girlfriend and plans on marrying her next year
• i learned a new japanese word
• i had three skype dates with stephen
• i turned in my deferment application and will officially not be at byui for spring semester
• i reached my 480th tweet
• i went to an OSSO meeting, getting ready for ecuador
• fall hit rexburg, on thursday to be exact
• i made an appointment for a haircut on wednesday
• aaaaaand i think that's all that happened this week

hopefully this next week will be more exciting

guess what

countdown time

22 days til halloween, 41 days til vegas, 70 days til home, 82 days til ecuador

i think i want to move here

hello world; alright, its 1:34am and clearly my homework is not getting done. so i just figured i'd put my procrastination to use and do something productive liiiiiike blog! yay me.

i had the absolute most fabulous weekend. calaighs reception was on thursday. she and sterling looked incredible. and so very happy. i almost peed my pants when i saw them, i just got way too excited. i did get to see phil and jimmy though, and that was good.

then friday night i stayed home and made brownies with sue and talked to her and we just had the very best time.

saturday i watched general conference at the petersen's. and then at like 4 we headed up to salt lake cause bruce and andrew were going to watch the priesthood session at the conference center. they dropped me off in downtown salt lake to go find emily. it was quite an adventure. but i just followed the sea of mormons and i was just fine. its temple square right after conference gets out, i mean, nothing was gonna happen. so i found my sweet emily and i about screamed. we didnt get a proper goodbye in rexy so i was ecstatic to see her.

then we played with her cousin robert. and went shopping at gateway and i spent all

sorts of money i didnt have and it was just fantastic. let me tell you what i bought...

• awesome glasses in which i look like a complete freak, but i cant get enough of
• peace earrings
• a ring that turned my finger green but i still wear anyhow
• aaaaaand thats it

okay so i didnt do too bad.

basically i just love every weekend i spend in utah and i cant wait til im living there in SIX MONTHS. yesssss it will be just spectacular. also can i just say a couple things? the boy that took me down to utah (sam) is the absolute greatest and tonight after he dropped me off he said, "hey, lets hangout" and it just about turned me into a puddle. it was fantastic. and i talked to phil tonight and i just really like him sometimes. and also jimmy told me i looked cute at the wedding. so that's always a plus. but it's only because i was wearing betsy's cute highwaisted skirt from forever 21. so thaaaaank youuuuuu betsy for getting me a "you looked cute at calaigh's wedding" ...i sincerely appreciate it. i think that's all i have for you.

back to my homework, which i haven't yet started. even though it is now 1:51am. paige sucks :(