Finals!

Dear Finals Week,

I don't actually hate you as much as you might think. In fact, you often bring a lot of happy memories. I guess you could say we have a love/hate relationship. For example:

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the semester. It was a great break in between our reading days and the start of test taking. My awesome friends Jena and Mackenzie gave wonderful talks in church. They are both going to be amazing missionaries. Watch out, New Hampshire and Argentina!! :)

I chilled with my roommates after church, and I love them! We laughed so much yesterday. :) We were all in denial about finals, but we didn't have any homework to do. Hence, we got to hang a lot more than normal.

We had a little jam session last night. I played my flute and Brooke and Liesl both sang lots and lots of Christmas songs. I totally loved it! They both have gooor-geous voices that covered up my squeaky fluting. :)

Johanna and I made the best brownies we have made all semester. Chocolate chips, freaking rich choclate frosting, and peppermints on the top. Boom baby. Pretty sure we could have eaten the entire pan.

Photo cred: Johanna. :)

During finals week, I feel like it is more socially acceptable to rock the bun and the sweats. Which is great, because I do that anyways. I just feel better about myself when I see other people working the same bum look as me.

People are extra nice during finals week. Last year, some people were walking around the library handing out cookies and wishing everyone good luck on their tests. :) So kind.

And after finals week comes the best part of the entire semester. I get to go home and see my family!! I can't wait to hang out with my brothers-I love them!

So here's to making happy memories during our last week of this semester. Best of luck to everyone else that is in the middle of finals too! You got this!! :)

Awkward Interview

My parents went on a cruise to Alaska last summer, and they totally loved it. When they docked, a bus guide would take them to see the sights of that city. One of their bus guides was a BYU student, and told my parents how great his job was. I saw an ad for this job on campus the other day, and decided to apply for it! I like adventures, and a summer job in Alaska definitely sounded like an adventure. So I filled out the application and submitted it. I didn't have my heart set on actually working in Alaska, but decided to apply and see what happened. I thought it would take awhile for anyone to get back to me about it, but they sent up an interview for the next day!

Ketchikan Alaska-where I applied to work this summer!

So I dressed up a little bit this morning in preparation for my interview. Nothing too drastic, but nicer than my classic jeans and t-shirt look. I got out of class early, and set off for my interview listening to inspirational songs. I walked into my interview feeling confident and so ready to prove what an epic tour guide I would be. She started the interview off with a couple really easy questions. "Have you ever been charged with a DUI?" Nope, definitely not. "Have you ever been found in possession of drugs?" Nope! I was rocking the interview so far.

Then she asked if I was going to be 21 be the middle of February.

Uh... no. I just turned 19 in July, so I will only be 20 by the end of this summer.

"Well", says my interviewer, "that means you actually aren't old enough for this job. Thanks for your interest though."

And that was the end of my very awkward and embarrassing job interview. We walked past the secretary of the office about 30 seconds after asking her for the key to the room. Wonder what she thinks happened? Haha.

But on the bright side, that's one less option I have to consider as I decide what epic job I want to do this summer! :)

Sock Puppet

Ok, super random post. I'm an elementary ed major, and I'm in an awesome class-drama for elementary education. It is the most fun class ever! For example, we are currently learning how to incorporate puppets in the classroom, and all the fun classroom management ways to use puppets. So, I've been practicing. Totally love it. Here's a video of my sock puppet, Sarah, jamming out to Over by Blake Shelton. Makes me laugh every time. Haha. Yes, I do indeed go to college to learn how to do this. I love my life. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9bXyHqn1yo&list=HL1351148195&feature=mh_lolz

Classic Hannah Moment.

Last night, I started writing a post about how much running I was doing and how good it was feeling. I ran a 9:08 mile! And ran a whole 13 minutes a few nights before that. Woot! I got new running shoes from my

Cool new shoes!

dad, and awesome new running socks from my grandma. My family spoils me for sure! :) I was right on track for my challenge, and my legs weren't even hurting me all that much. I was feeling great!

Then I woke up this morning and got out of bed. I sleep on the top bunk, and if you know me at all you already know where this is going. I usually just hop out of bed, but I tried to climb down a little this morning. And then ended up in a heap of moaning Hannah. Somehow, in the process of getting out of bed, I jacked up my ankle. SO. BAD. By getting out of bed! I'm such a klutz. :)

My lovely roommate woke up because of my cry of pain and then went into doctor mode. She got me onto the couch, and I started throwing up because walking had hurt so bad. I was kinda panicking at this point. I called my mom, and she told me to go to the doctor just in case it was broken. My parents are both athletic trainers and physical therapists who could have figured this out without going to the ER. But, they live kinda far away. Love them both!

Artsy picture of my crutches :)

So I went to the ER! My fabulous brother borrowed his roommates care and took me. The doctors all made fun of me because I was a 19 year old that was in the ER because I fell out of bed. Haha. Quite embarrassing, yet super funny. I didn't actually break my ankle, (Phew!!) but I twisted it way way bad. They gave me a super fancy brace and crutches, for which I'm grateful. The crutches help me not look so retarded when I walk. :)

Happy things from this special moment of mine:

1. Spending the morning with my brother! At the ER. :) We got to go out to lunch afterwards too. I love my big brother, and I'm so glad he was willing to help me out today!

2. Two fine looking men helped me as I struggled to get home. Thanks to my new friends Mark and Spencer! Mark helped me get down the huge sophomore staircase, and Spencer gave me a ride in his sweet truck the last few blocks. People at BYU are so nice!

3. This sure made my day more exciting! Wednesdays are my least favorite day of the week, but instead of having boring classes all day, I got to hang out with my brother and roommate, talk to my mom and my friend Kerri! Miss and love her to pieces. :)

I'm sure I will be back and running in a couple weeks, so have no fear! I shall {hopefully} still conquer my 5K next month. :) I just get to take some time off now!

Also, anyone have suggestions for a better story? Falling out of bed... Kinda embarrassing. :)

Challenge Accepted

Warning: This is a really long post. But, no one is making you read it! :)

So, I ran in high school. Kinda. I ran cross country my freshman year, and I was pretty good. I started off really slow, but I kept beating my best time until I got fast enough that I would sometimes run in varsity races. I totally loved cross country.

I ran track my freshman year as well, but started to have intense pain whenever I would run. I remember on particularly miserable race from that season. I was running the two mile, and my legs hurt so bad that I started crying before the race was over. Yuck. My pain started out similar to shin splints, but got increasingly more severe and started encompassing more of my lower legs. It was quite miserable, actually.

So I started going to the doctor so I could get all better! I went through a lot of tests, some more painful than others. I had a lot of bone scans and MRIs, and we weren't learning anything. Then I was tested for chronic compartment syndrome. The test for that was terrible, not gonna lie. They poked my legs with so many different needles to test for the pressure in my legs before and then after I went for a run.
But, that ended up being the issue!

Post-operation :(

I think I was diagnosed with chronic compartment syndrome right around track season of my sophomore year. So it took about a year to figure out what my issue was. We scheduled surgery for the second day of my junior year, which is a story for another day.

 One of the great things about this trial was that I joined the swim team! Because I was unable to run, I joined the swim team. On my first day of practice, I couldn't swim to the other side of the pool. I was a terrible swimmer. Haha. I got a lot better though, and now I know how to swim and not just doggy paddle! I made a bunch of awesome friends on the swim team too. Swimming was a great experience, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to join the swim team. I swam my sophomore and junior year, which I never would have done if it weren't for my leggies.

Recovery from surgery was a slow process, but I was able to race at the very end of my track season junior year. It was so rewarding when I was able to run again.  I raced cross country my senior year which was SO much fun! I absolutely loved cross country that season.  We went to Tempe and raced at Nike Cross Regionals, which was an absolute blast. Not being able to run with the team for so long made me so grateful when I was finally able to run.

My team at Tempe! :)

But then my pain started up again. I couldn't stand running anymore because it hurt so bad! That was so incredibly frustrating, since I was loving running again.

There are four compartments in your lower legs, and I had only had two of the compartments released. After a lot more tests, it was decided that it was those last two deep compartments that were the issue now. I had surgery again a few days after I graduated. Because they were the deep compartments, the surgery was more intense and it took even longer to recover. I have still not really gotten back into running. Running is still not pain free for me, and I'm not sure if it ever will be. But I love running! 

So here is where the challenge comes in.

I have signed up for a 5K next month! Lame, I know. Haha. Especially since my beast of a roommate Johanna ran a marathon yesterday! And totally dominated it, might I add. But a 5K is a big deal for me. I haven't run a 5K in over two years, I think. 

I have already gone for a few runs since I have signed up for it! So the challenge here is that I won't give up on running, even if it hurts sometimes. Because as I build up my muscles again, I am hoping it will become less painful. And then I will finish the 5K! I won't worry about my time, I will just race again. Then I will keep running. :) My brother and Johanna have signed up for the 5K with me-what great friends I have! 

So here's to late night runs, sore muscles, and conquering a mental block against running! I will finish the 5K that is in 5 weeks and I will love every moment I spend running. :)

I love BYU!

Wanna know a really good reason why I love BYU?

Because there are tons of incredibly nice people here.
And I have three stories to prove it. 

Story Number 1:

So there I was, on my way back from my climbing class. (Yes, I'm in a climbing class. Way sweet.) A guy from my class had given my a ride back to campus, which also goes along with this kind person theme. Anyways, I was struggling to get my bike out of the bike rack. There were two bikes on either side of mine, and my pedals and handles had become firmly stuck in the tires of the neighboring bikes. Not very nice neighbors! Some guy saw me struggling, and ran up to help. He rescued my bike, and made fun of the lame road bikes that had trapped my beautiful red Giant bike. Then he wished me well and was on his way! Totally made my day. :)

Story Number 2:

I work at the gym at BYU, and I on my way into work. It had been a super rough morning, and I was running really late. I had burned my breakfast (which was just scrambled eggs, don't know how you burn those. Haha.). And I forgot I had left my bike at work on Saturday, so my form of transportation was currently where I needed to transport to. Because of the breakfast fiasco, I was already running late when I realized I would have to longboard to work instead of ride my bike. Which is so much more work, especially with a huge backpack! I struggled all the way to campus, but finally made it. I was super sweaty and frustrated and angry and thought I was going to have a terrible day. But! There was a girl sitting right outside the gym, working on her homework. She just looked up at me, smiled, and said "Good morning! I hope you have a great day." And my mood was suddenly so much better, and she turned an awful day into a great day. Just by saying hello!

Story Number 3:

This is my favorite of the three stories. Again, I was at work at the gym, and I was just doing my thing. A girl walked in wearing jeans, which is a no no in the gym. I was about to get after her, when she walked up and handed me a smoothie. From Jamba Juice! And just said, "I thought maybe you could use some breakfast. Happy Monday, hope you are having a wonderful day!" She said to pay it forward, which I am totally going to do. Because she absolutely made my entire week! What an incredibly nice thing to do for some complete stranger. Not to mention that she got me a super yummy smoothie, and gave it to me on one of the few days I didn't eat breakfast. What a great person. :)

It just makes me so happy!

I hope these stories made you happy like they make me happy! And I hope they will encourage you to do something nice for someone else too. Even just smiling at someone can totally turn their day around. You never know how their day is going, and how much they may need that smile. One of my favorite quotes is, "Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give."

Next Semester

I may be going to Europe next semester. Maybe. One of my best friends, Jackie, and I are plotting some grand adventures. We want to go to Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, England… Because we can!

Our current idea. Any thoughts?

And why not go? This will probably be a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I don’t want to pass it up to stay in Provo and study textbooks. Also, I’m not in my program yet which will make next semester useless anyways. (Because I won’t be able to take any more major classes until I’m in the elementary ed program, which will take a semester to be accepted. If that makes sense) We will learn so much and have so much fun at the same time! And potentially do some sick climbing. Whaaaattt!! J

But, the thought of leaving Provo does make me sad. If you can believe that! Mostly the thought of leaving my roommates makes me hesitate. I love them, they are the best! My roommate and I have so much fun just hanging out in our apartment, talking about boys (or the lack thereof), and eating ice cream (which doesn’t help with the lack of boys J) I would freaking miss my roommate Johanna way a lot. Christmas break would roll around and I would be moving out, not just packing up my duffel bag for a fun little visit home. Scary! 

Yes, this trippy trip would cost us quite a large sum of money. Which would be totally worth it, I think. We will have to work super hard this summer to have enough money to pay for school next fall though. But we shall return! We have taken an oath that we will return to BYU post-adventuring. We swear we will still graduate, we just want to have some epic adventures. This is my darling mother’s greatest concern, so I had to add a disclaimer. J

Do you think I should go? Do you think Jackie and I should actually take a semester off to travel the world?  We can totally make it happen, we just have to decide if we want to actually do it. To travel or not to travel, that is the question! 

Bountiful Basket: Week 1

Our first basket! 

Johanna and I signed up for Bountiful Baskets, a co-op where you can buy a whole basket of fruit and vegetables for 15 bucks. It's a way good deal, and then you have so many fruits and veggies to love and eat throughout the week!  We signed up for our basket on Monday, and then picked it up on Saturday. You should sign up too, because it's the best decision we have ever made. :)   

So what did we do with all these goodies? Most of it we just gobbled right up, especially the adorable little watermelon. We demolished that little guy in about 5 minutes. Wanna know all the fun things we made? Welp, you are in luck because I am going to tell you! :) 

I have the cutest roommates ever. :)

Sunday was Jena's birthday and so we used a few of our yummy things in her dinner. We made fettuccine alfredo that was way good and incredibly easy. We used the broccoli for that, and the cucumber, lettuce and carrots for the salad.  

We boiled the leftover carrots, some bell peppers, and the bag of radishes. We were stumped on what else to do with a bag full of radishes, so we just boiled them. It blew our minds to watch the radishes as they cooked. First, the water was super purple. And then all the water just vanished! Cool dude. The radishes were way good after we added a ton of butter, salt and pepper. :)

Fries-so good! :)

We also made twice baked sweet potatoes and sweet potato fries with our carrots. Just kidding. :) We made up our recipe for the twice baked sweet potatoes. We added a hunk of butter, a bunch of brown sugar, some nutmeg and some cinnamon. And I added marshmallows on top of a few because I could. :) I thought they were super good, but Johanna was not such a huge fan because they were too sweet. Which is why I liked them! The fries were a total hit. They were super delicious. We made a batch with just salt and pepper, and then a batch with paprika and garlic salt in addition. They were both really good, and way easy to make. 

Love me some banana bread!

We made some classic banana bread with the bananas that got a little too brown. We took some over to my brother and his roommates, and I think they might have liked it a little bit. :) The recipe used sour cream, which made the bread really moist and super yummy. We also left the bananas a little chunky so the bread had yummy banana pieces in it. Sooo good! 

What else did we make? Apple crisp! In the microwave. Whhhaaaattt? Johanna made this, and I have no idea how. I just cut the apples perfectly and then devoured the finished product. It was freaking delicious, and a great way to use those last few apples. 

So basically, we gained about 20 pounds this week, but it was so worth it. I love Bountiful Baskets! 

All About Attitude

I'm back at good ole BYU! Not gonna lie, I have been having a hard time adjusting to life back at school. I had an awesome summer working at Firewalker with some of my best friends. I got to spend tons of time with my family too. Basically, this summer rocked. Then I came back to school, where I had to get a job, start cooking for myself, and go to classes... It was a rough transition. There were about two weeks where I was in a not very happy mood most of the time, which is super crazy weird for me.

I talked to my mom one day, and told her how unhappy I was, and asked her what I should. Wanna know what she told me? That I needed to change my attitude. I was hoping she was going to tell me I should probably transfer to a school in England or something.

So what am I gonna do about it? Every day, I'm going to come up with one really good reason why I am glad to be back in Provo. This last week has been lots better already, and I am much more like myself again. But I am still going to come up with a reason I'm glad to be back at school. This will help me realize how great life is now, instead of just wishing it was still summer. What's the reason I'm glad to be here today? My awesome friends!

Today is actually my roommate Jena's birthday. Jena is the sweetest, nicest, most caring person you will ever meet. She is always smiling, and she can make you happy no matter how you are feeling! We were able to celebrate her birthday by going to Texas Roadhouse yesterday, where we made her sit on the birthday saddle so we could all give her a big birthday "YEE HAW!!!!". Great times. Here is a super cute picture of us from dinner yesterday! I'm grateful to be back in Provo so I can hang out with all of my amazing friends from last year. I love my friends!! :)

My brother is home!

Ok, so some of you may realize that this post is about two weeks late. Better late than never though, right? :) My older brother Neil has been serving a mission for the Church of Jesuse Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the past two years. He was assigned to serve in the Sofia Bulgaria mission. He absolutely loved his mission! He was blessed to serve alongside the mission president for a good chunk of his mission, and loved it. He has told us lots of great stories about those he served in Bulgaria. And now he is home!! :) I have totally loved having him home. He is basically the exact same as before he left, just a bit more spiritual now. But just as hilarious! One of the best parts of having him home has been to see him try to adjust to life in America again. Some funny things he said the first day he was home:

• In Bulgaria, they shake their heads for yes and nod for no. So it's backwards from us. This is probably the funniest part of his culture adjustment. We were at Qdoba, and the lady making his burrito was SO confused. It was great. :)
• "The toilet paper is SO SOFT here!"
• "The doorknobs spin, weird."
• "I feel like I'm in a model home!" (He is used to the communist block housing, I guess.)
• And he keeps using Bulgarian words without really realizing it.
• He still can't pray in English. I love hearing him pray in Bulgarian though. :)

Those are just a few of the fun parts of having him home. I have missed my big brother, and I'm so happy to have him home again!

Camp Firewalker!! :)

Basically, I have the best job ever. I live in the mountains with six awesome people and we have a blast. We are the staff at a high adventure LDS camp. We belay campers on things like high ropes, rappelling, and leap of faith. It's so fun! I totally love it. I don't know what else to say! So here are some of my favorite pictures from camp. :)


All of us with the awesome camp truck!



I just really love this picture. We're so cute. :)

We used an air compressor to make our hair crazy. :)

Look! We're clean!!

Jake let us cut his hair into a super sweet mohawk. Aww yeah!

My brother was a camper one week, which was so fun!



Best job ever. :)


I love my job!! :)

Happy weekend! :)

We had a super fun weekend! We started it off by going to the Air Force Academy graduation. One of our cadets graduated! We have sponsored him since he was a freshman. Sponsoring a cadet means they hang out at your house whenever they can escape from the academy. Bryan has been like a brother to me the past four years. He is so much fun. J Graduation was really fun. We were getting a nice tan whilst playing go fish. A bunch of his family was in town, and they were so much fun to have around. Then a couple days later, we went to Bryan's wedding! He married one of my favorite people, my amazing and beautiful friend Mandy. (By the way, I was the one that set them up last year. Boom baby.) Their wedding was incredibly happy, as was their reception. Their reception was absolutely beautiful! I am so happy for both of them. One of my very best friends in the whole wide world had her baby the next day! He is the cutest little guy ever. I love him already! My family went to the Denver zoo on Memorial Day. It was a blast! I love the zoo. J We had a lot of fun taking pictures of the animals and eating a TON of cotton candy. I love my family!! I am super stoked for this next weekend, because one of my best friends from school is coming here! And then we’re going to play in the mountains and get paid for it. Woot woot!! Happy quote of the day: “When I was in grade school, they told me to write down what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down happy. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, I told them they didn't understand life.” –Unknown  I love this quote! J I want to be happy when I grow up too. J

Thunderbird from graduation!

Cutest couple ever. :)

Mission (almost) accomplished!

Hello friends! Slash, my mom, who might be one of the few that read my last post. :) I've spent the day just cleaning my room. An overwhelming task, I might add. I got back from school a month ago, and I still have suitcases in my room. And just random stuff from school everywhere. But after a day of hard work, you can see most of my carpet! Enough that I can dance around my room now. Success. :) I realized some funny things about myself while I was cleaning, which I thought I would share. I need a break from productivity anyways. :)
1. I am incredibly in love with corduroy pants. I found a pair of cords basically every earth tone color imaginable. Most of which don't fit anymore, thanks to that lovely freshman 15. So I stacked them all in my closet, determined to be able to fit in them comfortably again by the end of summer!
2. I had so much fun freshman year! For example, I have a frame with room for 4 pictures. I knew one picture that had to go in, a picture of me and Jayna! It's an adorable picture. I was going to fill the rest of the frame with pictures from freshman year, but I couldn't. I could not pick just 3 pictures out of all those memories! What a wonderful problem to have. :)
3. I love to eat candy at church. My scripture bag was full of candy wrappers and handouts. :) Threw the wrappers away, but kept the handouts! My church bag is significantly lighter now. Sweet! Literally. :)
4. Apparently I am subconsciously worried about starving to death. I found snacks stuck in every bag I unpacked. In multiple pockets and everything. :) I hid them all, to save them for next year. Which is when I really might starve to death, since I have to cook for myself for the first time! :)

Random pretty flower from the Denver temple :)

Here's to a much cleaner room! Woot woot! I have had a very exciting weekend, including the adventures that took place in my room today. Maybe I will blog about them all tomorrow. :) Hope you are having a fantastically beautiful day today!! :)

First is the Worst! ...hopefully at least. :)





Hello to whoever is brave enough to read this! I'm Hannah! :) I have to learn how to blog for my major, elementary ed. Who knows quite why, but I think the best way to learn is just to blog. So, here I am. :) I have no idea what else to say. Hmm. I named my blog "Smile While It Rains" because I believe in being happy! Having a positive attitude can make anything better. I am kinda naively optimistic sometimes. I will create a silly explanation for an unfortunate situation. For example, we discovered a cute little nest with four robin eggs in our front yard. We kept an eye on them, and then a couple days later my dad said they were gone. He said a fox or big bird must have gotten to them. I am still sure that they just hatched and took their shells with them. :) My all time favorite scripture is Doctrine and Covenants 123:17. "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully  do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." I love this scripture! To me, this means that we will be given trials, but how we deal with our trials is up to us. We can complain, which can make the trial seem harder than it may be. Or, we can go through the hard times with a smile on our face while whistling a happy song! Doing this makes the hard times I go through seem a little more bearable. Or even a lot more bearable! It is hard to be happy sometimes, but you gotta fake it until you make it! :) Anyways, welcome to my blog I guess! I doubt I will update it much, seeing as how my life is incredibly unphotogenic. :) Here is a happy picture though. It's the newly-hatched-yet-flew-away-already bird's nest. :)





Bird's nest!