AX7.....

After a stressful semester, there's nothing better to blow off steam then listening to some loud rock music. The Saturday after finals Danielle, Amanda, and I headed up to Billings to watch the Avenged Sevenfold (AX7) concert. It was crazy, loud, and so exciting. I had a blast, despite getting a drink thrown in my hair. Four different bands played so needless to say, it was a long concert. We headed to Billings around noon, hung out at the mall, and then got something to eat before heading to the Metra. We got out to the Metra 3:00 even though the doors didn't open until 5:30 since we figured the line would be super long, and we were right. If we would have come just 15 minutes later, we would have been standing in about the parking lot.

The concert started at 6:30, and it opened with Black Veil Brides. They performed six of their songs, and they were really good. I'd only heard one song by them because it was on the Transformers soundtrack. They put on a great show and I love to listen to their music now.

The next act was Asking Alexandria. This band did a lot of screaming and I didn't know how much I'd like it, but it was awesome. They performed eight songs, and once again they've converted me to a fan and I listen to them all the time now.

Hollywood Undead was the reason I wanted to go to the concert. I absolutely love their music and can't get enough. They are so good live, and they definitely got the crowd into it. They performed eleven songs and wished they would have done even more.

Finally, the main act arrived: Avenged Sevenfold. I was super excited to watch them too. Wow, their show was amazing!! There was fire, crowd surfing, and tons of craziness. They put on a great show, performed eleven songs, and my favorite part is when they brought someone out from the crowd and had them play one of the instruments during the song. After the show, they came to the crowd to toss out their drumsticks and guitar picks.

I had such a good time and am so happy Dani asked me to go with her! It was a perfect first rock concert and totally worth not getting home until 1:00 in the morning!!

Thanksgiving 2011.....

I'm so behind on blogging, and I figured I'd better catch up before it got any worse. With the end of the semester, and then my busy Christmas break I didn't take the time to write it all down.

Thanksgiving was  quiet event. Kara and her family had Jason's family out to their house, so it was just Danielle, Emilee, my Mom, Dad, and me this year.

I started out the day watching the Macy's Day Parade, helped get ready for the big meal, and then of course had a photo shoot. We ate around 2:00 and it was delicious! Kara and the whole gang came up for pie and to watch some football.

It was a great and quiet day, and I'm so lucky there's a holiday that helps me remember how blessed I am in my life. There's so much I have to be grateful for in my life. It's not even possible to list all the of blessings I have in my life.

For Those Obsessed.....

For those people, like me, who are obsessed with Harry Potter and Twilight, this November is the best month ever! My post is probably ridiculous to the majority of people reading it, but it's very exciting to me; so exciting in fact that I decided to document the occasion on my blog!

Last weekend when Emilee and her friends came down, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 came out on DVD. For most people this doesn't seem like a big deal, but as my fellow pharmacy friends and other die hard Harry Potter fans can attest this day was bitter sweet. I was so excited that the movie was finally out and my movie collection is now complete, but at the same time it's disappointing to know I will never go to the movie theatre to watch the newest installment of Harry Potter again.

The other exciting event is that Breaking Dawn Part 1 is now in theatres. Danielle, Stephanie, Wendy, Katie, Megan Brumfield, her roommates, and I went to the midnight premiere last night for the movie. It was great and totally worth only getting 3 hours of sleep before going to school today! The movie was great and the actors were extremely good looking, making it totally worth going to the show! I love the midnight shows because everyone there is just as excited to see the movie as you are! It was a lot of fun and I loved getting to watch it with my friends.

Now all I have left is wait for next November for Breaking Dawn Part 2 to come out in theatres and get both movies on DVD, until both my Twilight & Harry Potter collections are complete in the the movies and books. Both series have been my favorite for so long and I look forward to a new installment to be released, I'm not sure what I'll do with myself when there's nothing else for me to look forward to! 

Officially Started.....

Well my favorite part of college has officially started. That's right, it's basketball season! I like watching the football and volleyball alright and it's a lot of fun to go to the games, but nothing compares to my love for basketball. I get so excited for the games I can't wait until the time comes to go. Dani and I go to almost every boys and girls game, we rarely miss out on one.

The boys team has already played 3 games, each of them at home, and they've won them all. Our team is looking great this year, and I'm excited to see what happens with the new coach we got. The girls team is looking good too, but it will be interesting to see what happens because they only have 3 players that have come back from last year. They've played 2 games so far and split.

I absolutely love basketball and am so excited that the season is here! Now there's something for me to look forward to almost every weekend and not have to worry about freezing while standing outside like I do with the football games! I have to support my Pokes!!

All About Emi.....

I'm a little behind on posting about all the exciting things that have been going on since I last posted. These last few weeks have all been about Emilee. On Friday, the 22nd, Emi had Regional Volleyball. Dani, Wendy, and I rode down together to Riverton to watch the team play. I had an exam that afternoon, so unfortunately we missed the first round game, but made it in time for the semi-finals. The girls beat Kemmerer in three games in the first round and then beat Wind River in three games in the semis.

The championship game wasn't until 5:30 on Saturday, so we were able to relax and spend time together before heading to the gym to support our girls & cheer loud! Some of the high school boys came to support the girls, and it definitely made a difference to the girls. They came out on fire, easily beating Shoshoni in three games to take home the championship trophy. I was so proud of all the girls, especially Emi and Leanne, and couldn't have been happier for them!

The next weekend, the 27th-29th, was the State tournament. I wasn't going to be able to go to the tournament until Friday because of an exam, but luck was with me and it got moved to the next week. Thursday afternoon Dani and I headed down to Casper and met up with our parents before heading up to the games. Emi's game was the last one of the evening, so she didn't play until 7:30, so we watched some of the other teams play until it was time for our game. At state all four classes play in the event center, so it's exciting to watch all the different schools in the various classes play.

The girls beat Southeast in three games to advance to the semi-finals. Big Horn was their next opponents, and the girls left it all out on the court, beating them in three games straight to make it to the State Championship. The 2A championship game ran at the same time as the 3A championship game. Our girls put up a fight, but the game went to Wright, so Lovell took second place. This volleyball team has done excellent this season and I'm so proud of all that they accomplished. It's been years since Lovell's had a volleyball team make it to the championship game.

After a week of a normal schedule, Emi and her friends came down to Laramie to stay at mine and Dani's house to watch the Lovell football team play in the State Championship. Emilee, Maddie Baxendale, Chelsey Ellis, and Megan McClure came down Thursday night because the boys played Friday at noon. Tons of people from Lovell drove down to support the team. The game was great and the weather was perfect. I'm glad our boys got the first game because it was warm and the wind didn't blow until the very end of the game. All the other championship games had to deal with cold weather and strong winds. Our boys played their hearts out and beat Lyman 21-13 to take home the championship trophy. It was Lovell's second football championship, the first one was in 1978. Our team this year went undefeated with an 11-0 record. Since the team won, Emi and her friends headed back to Lovell to celebrate with the team. It was a very short trip, but it was fun to see them all while they were here!

I'm so proud of my baby sister and loved getting to support her and spend time with her during the semester. I can't wait for the semester to be done so I can be home and see her for more then a couple days and not worrying about schoolwork. It can't come soon enough!!

Changes.....

This year has been full of changes. Last semester in school I had to learn how to study while in pharmacy school, but this year it's been figuring out how to do the same amount of studying plus adding papers and weekly assignments on top of all that work, not fun! I'm surviving though and am adjusting to my workload just fine. 

Not only have I had changes in school, but in church as well. I was aware of the changes that were coming before most other people because my bishop had to let me know for my calling. First of all, I'm no longer in the University 2nd Ward. There were boundary changes that took place this year, and I was put into a new ward. The boundary changes took place because they've shifted wards from being Student Wards to Young Single Adult Wards, so the boundaries needed to be based on geographical location to include all of the young adults in the town instead of targeting only the college students. 

Because I was switching wards was the reason Bishop Killpack let me know in advance since that meant I was going to be released as the Relief Society President. Being released was bitter sweet. I was happy because the calling was very time consuming and I didn't know how I was going to handle my hectic school schedule and then care for the 90 girls in Relief Society and fulfill my calling to the best of my abilities. On the other hand, I was sad because I loved the girls and the rest of my ward so much. It was really hard to leave because that's been my ward since I've been in Laramie.

Now I'm in the Laramie River Ward (which used to be the University 3rd Ward). I absolutely love this ward. I knew everything would be okay with switching wards, I'd be able to adjust, but I was really upset about having to leave my ward that I know and love. To my pleasant surprise I've had a great time. Because of the boundary changes, some other people from 2nd ward made the change with me. The ward is a lot smaller, but I like it because we're all close and know each other already. I've already made a bunch of new friends, especially in Relief Society because there's only about 10 girls. Bishop Black and his counselors are great, they're all so friendly and down-to-earth. 

With the ward being so small, it was inevitable that I was going to get a new calling. I didn't think I would get one as quick as I got one, but what can you do. I was sitting in Sunday School the first week I was in the ward, when I was asked to go to the bishop's office, where I was asked if I would be willing to be the FHE coordinator (a.k.a the FHE Mom). I felt a sense of Déjà vu because when I first came to school here in Laramie, I was called to be the FHE mom in 2nd ward. I was really excited because I actually loved that calling and was sad to be released. 

So far my calling has been going great. My partner's name is Dustin Nelson, and he's a lot of fun. We work well together and are both easy going. Since we have a such a small ward, we only have one large group. Each week we have about 20-25 people show up, which is almost the same amount that we have in church each week. We all have a good time and because there's so many people that show up the activities are always a success. Yesterday we did pumpkin carving, and there were 25 people that came. We had 12 pumpkins so we partnered up and did pumpkins together. My partners were Rhiannon and Stephanie (who's in my pharmacy class). We had tons of fun and were laughing the entire time.

I'm loving school, church, my new ward, and my new calling right now. Luckily, however, this semester is more than half way over. I'm ready to be done with the stress and all the busy work. Thankfully I have so many good friends and church that allows me to escape the stress of my school life!

Weekend Fun.....

Danielle headed to Lovell last Thursday (the 15th). I had the busiest week of my school career this past week, which is why I didn't go home. Even with everything I had to do, I did get to have some fun with my friends. Thursday night I played volleyball at the Stake Center with some of my friends from the Institute.

Friday after school, I was going to watch Emilee play volleyball on the Internet. Unfortunately, the TCT West broadcasting wasn't working. Kristen came over and we watched "Jumping the Broom" instead. After the movie was over, we wanted to get something to eat. We headed to Lovejoys, but it was way too busy and we didn't want to wait. Last second, we decided to head to Cheyenne instead to eat at the Olive Garden. It was delicious and was totally worth the hour drive and the half hour wait.

I started the day early with Kristen; we woke up and went to breakfast with Josh. After we were done eating, I came home, cleaned the house, did some laundry, made some cookies, and got ready for the day. At about 3:30, I headed back to Kristen's house, where I helped her get ready for our Christmas party that we were going to have at 6:00. Yes, that's right a Christmas party in September. It wasn't my idea and I'm not wishing the cold weather here, but it was a lot of fun! We went all out with the decorations. There were lights and snowflakes hanging down from the ceiling. Of course there was a Christmas tree, ornaments, and wrapped Christmas presents.

We had our friends from high school come over. Emily, Wendy, Ashley, Kristen, and I were all in attendance. It was a lot of fun. We ate food, listened to Christmas music, made Christmas sugar cookies, and then watched two Christmas movies ("The Santa Clause" & "Elf").

It was a good night and nice to hang out with my friends for the weekend before I had the worst week of my life!