Aaah, to sleep away the worry

Good morning world!

Today I find myself in an interesting position that involves circumstances that feel out of my hands. I went to bed last night at around 2am. For a weekend, that's not too terrible since all my Saturday morning plans fell through. The only problem here is that I couldn't actually fall asleep until around 3am. However, it's the weekend, I should be able to sleep in and catch up on lost sleep. Wrong again. Without setting an alarm or asking to be disturbed, I found myself awake at 7am. That's four hours of sleep. This has been a recurring pattern this week. I'm dead tired all throughout the day but once the hours of 10-11pm hit, I'm wide awake and kickin'. What's a poor girl to do when she can't sleep?

On a brighter side, I've been doing pretty well in my schooling so far. I've managed to get all my homework done for the first few days of next week, leaving my weekend free to do whatever I please. Isn't it wonderful to have that freedom with your schedule?

I don't really have anything else to say this morning....maybe you could give me ideas on what you would like to read.

Until my fingers brush these keys again.

School has begun again!

And has it been crazy! I have a full load of classes plus a part-time job. Now, to some, that might sound like a lot so now I add the full social calendar that keeps itself full without any help from myself. (minus being ridiculously witty and fun to be around, but we don't speak of that. ;) ) It has been really great so far though. My Heavenly Father has greatly blessed me with every skill/talent to accomplish everything I have on my "To Do" list. I'm pretty sure if I didn't have Him to cry to every night, my life would be one big empty hole filled with a lot of hot air.

In other news, I've started a second blog. Now, I know what you're thinking, "You barely keep up with this one anymore! How in the world are you going to keep up with a second blog! Shavonne, my dear, you are stretching yourself too thin." 'Tis not so my dear friends! The second blog is for my Principles of Journalism class. I have to write specifically about journalism and my views on the issues discussed in class. I'm pretty excited to take on this project. If you all want to follow it, just click here. I would greatly appreciate all the comments and feedback you can give me. The idea is to create a discussion, giving me an idea on what I want to do with journalism when I graduate.

I'll give you a much more detailed post next time. For now, I could be late for class if I don't skidaddle.

Until we meet again!

Home again!

Looks to me like I haven't dumped my thoughts and impressions of life on you for a while. I apologize profusely! Let me catch you up real quick on the events of my life.

I have recently returned from a week long trip back to my family in Indiana and boy! What a trip! Shall I tell you how it went? Well...okay. ;) So it started off with my own fault, sleeping in. Missed my original flight but managed to snag a later flight with no additional cost. (Somebody REALLY wanted me home.) Upon arrival to Kentuckiana, I immediately contracted "Contact Dermatitis" (the condition of touching and reacting to poisonous plants like Poison Ivy or Poison Oak.) and went to the urgent care center to get treated. I was given some powerful drugs and instantly untouchable for the following week. (makes playing with the younger kids kinda difficult.) Then I went to the eye doctor to find out I have infiltrates in my eyes. Guess what that means! More drugs...yay. If that weren't enough, my brother has legs of steel, causing my poor little toe to get pretty badly bruised for a couple days. My mom says I just shouldn't go home anymore. It's just cheaper that way. Haha little does she know...

The trip wasn't all bad though. Not by any means. It was wonderful to be able to see my family and share in their crazy life. They have been renovating their house for the past three months now so they have been living with my aunt and uncle. In case you didn't know, that is a lot of people in one house. It works out pretty well though. Everyone is very accommodating and self-sacrificing. Only in a family filled with love and the Spirit could pull this arrangement off this well I've decided. I also got to see a couple good friends and talk to more good friends. All-in-all, the trip was well worth it. :D

I learned some really great lessons today. It's amazing what the Lord has in store to teach you when you're not looking for a lesson. Or even what He teaches you when you are looking for a lesson. I'll have to explain that more tomorrow though when it is not so late and I am finished with schooly things.

G'night world! Thanks for reading. :D

I Am a Child of God

Enter girl and guy, slow dancing while meeting for the first time.
Guy: What's your name?
Girl: Jane
Guy: That's nice. What are you doing here?
Girl: Going to school.
Guy: That's cool. Where are you going to school?
Girl: BYU
Guy: Nice. What's your major?
Girl: Communications
Guy: Wow....why Communications?
Girl: (thinking in her head) Why not? Too many questions about life! Head exploding! Oh. My. Gosh! (out loud) It sounded like something I would be interested in. I really do enjoy it.

Thus is the generic first meeting at a dance. So many questions with pretty straightforward answers.

This past week has made me think. What am I really doing here? What are my true motives for the things I do? How can I give my life over to my Savior if I do not know Him like I thought I did?

Do any of these questions sound familiar? Let me share the answers I have learned, all in a culmination of one glorious Sunday morning. :)

What am I really doing here?
Well I've realized that this is far too broad of a question. The word "here" alone has many meanings, each one very different depending on the context. (Gotta love the English language) Let me narrow it. What am I doing at BYU? I am here to learn. Learn what? Learn how to write well, socialize with poise, work in a professional manner, work through mathematical equations, and simply be happy with myself. What am I doing in Provo? Attending BYU. What am I doing here on Earth? I came to gain a body to house my spirit and gain eternal life. (So simple isn't it? Why complicate the good things in life when they make more sense in simpler terms?)

What are my true motives for the things I do?
Does anyone else question their own motives sometimes? In the scriptures we are told to pray "with real intent" but sometimes I wonder if my real intent isn't as real as I would like to believe. There were many powerful talks given in Sacrament meeting today that helped clarify that for me.

But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words. ~Alma 32:27

It says here that if we even have but a desire, we just let it work in us. It's like falling in and out of love I would imagine. You see a guy and you think, Hey, he's kinda cute.
Then you go to talk to him. It gets awkward and you're worried that you may have scared him off with your lack of poise and self-control but that desire to get to know this guy helps you overcome that. Armed with your desire to know this guy, you invite him to a group outing. Then it progresses to a date or two, then you find yourself really wanting to spend more time with this guy. It's been kind of bumpy so far because of first meeting awkwardness but your desire pushes you onward. Finally, you realize you two are compatible, he pops the question and you live happily ever after. Happy day!
The same thing works for our motives. I learned that all I need to do is replace my desires with good ones. Once that is done, my motives will always be pure. Again with the beautiful simplicity!

How can I give my life over to my Savior if I do not know Him like I thought I did?
Trust is a hard thing to have. Trust is fragile and not easily put to use. The answer to this question wasn't expressly answered in a talk so much as it came as a reminder through evidences expressed in the talks. (Does that make sense? I hope so.) One talk was about the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. At first I wanted to tune it out, but there was a great point brought up. (or I could have just imagined it...) We have been given standards to live by, not to ruin or dull our lives, but to thrive and grow through. By living our standards, we show that we are replacing obedience as an irritant and making it our quest instead. We are promised great blessings for doing this by Latter-day prophets.
It could only be by love that we would be asked to stand so far apart from the world. It is in our best interests. Our Savior and Heavenly Father know us well enough to give us hard things. Through our afflictions and tribulations we grow strong. If they know us that well, we had to know them at least a little bit before coming here. They were, and should still be, our best friends and caretakers. They don't require much from us, just our faith. Sweet simplicity.

So I realize this sounds like a scattered version of something you would read in the Ensign or something but I had to get it out there. I hope you learned something here. =)

Until next time.

Sorry readers! I only have a lame excuse for discontinuing the updates on my life. Ready for it? I have been trying to make all my blog posts have a song to go with them, but when I get sad or lonely, music seems to leave my heart. Thus, no song to base my posts on. I told you it was a lame excuse.

Now! What have we missed? Oh yes, I have now joined the ranks of the many people searching for that crazy thing we call a job. Yes, I am on the hunt for work. I will say this, it hasn't been an easy road, but I'm learning many important lessons on this journey. One thing is for sure though, it's great practice for future endeavors. I mean, if my ego can learn to handle rejection when I'm only trying to sell my skills, that's one step closer to my spirit handling people rejecting my religion. It will all work out in the end.

Well, it's kinda late so I'll have to post more another day. Please forgive my inattentiveness.

All Play and No Work...

...makes Shavonne a very unsatisfied soul.

It's amazing the lessons one can learn through experience. I, myself, learned that if you don't work hard, playing hard is just no fun. It also works the other way around, if you don't play hard, working hard will never seem worth it. So here is my shout out to all of you, go balance yourselves! Work and play! Neither are evil while the other exists in equality.

So here's the story for the post. This weekend has been the craziest one I've had yet! It all started on Friday with a massive water balloon fight. You read that right, massive water balloon fight!

I hope you watched the video because I was in that craziness! Following that awesomeness we decided to hoof it over to Costco to pick up some pizza, while still in our wet clothes. Come on now, why not show off our activities to the world right? ;) We didn't even make it in the door before security rushed out the entrance to yell, "Hey! I saw you on the news!" He then began to describe the epic sight that had displayed on his TV set. Needless to say, fame goes to my head waaay too easily. haha

After the pizza we decided we didn't want to dry off just yet so we went swimming. Swimming is always fun, especially on a hot day such as that. After that was frozen yogurt and then work. Guess who is using lotion regularly for the first time in her life to preserve what little color she obtained from the sun? Yeah...that's me...

That was only Friday! Saturday was just as exciting. :D
I went to Foam days with Icie and Jim. They are the cutest engaged couple I've ever seen. Before that though, we went to Elaine's to have Icie's dress fitted. Icie's dress will be so beautiful when completed! Elaine's kids were adorable. Almost all of them attacked Jim while waiting for us ladies to be finished ooo-ing and aaw-ing over Icie's dress. It was quite the sight to see.
Foam days was pretty epic. The fire department sprayed foam all over a large field then everyone was released to play, wrestle and cover themselves in the slimy, kind of funky smelling stuff. It was quite exciting.

After that we began a Star Wars marathon that will go probably weekly, starting with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I forgot how much I love those movies!! :D Definitely worth watching again and again.

Just when you thought you knew all about the greatness the weekend held in store, there came more on Sunday! Leah came over and we made a delectable dinner that we ended up sharing with anyone we could invite. Good food and good people, now that's what Sunday after church should be like. :) I had been plotting a surprise birthday party for Leah for that evening (we couldn't do it on her birthday! She would expect it!) but she was making it very difficult. First she wouldn't leave my apartment so I could set up. Then, when the location of the party got moved, she wouldn't go! She was doing a favor for a friend so I guess I couldn't get upset...but I did anyway. She couldn't understand why I so badly wanted her to go to this location and I couldn't just tell her to go and I would finish her favor for her...so we ended up bringing the party to her. We knocked on her door and sang happy birthday then I happily took over the favor so she could finally go to her own birthday party. haha, gotta love how things work out.

There you have it, my whirlwind weekend. Whew! I thought I'd never get it all down on a post! Haha now there is no time for me to tell you about today so I'll have to save that for another time. Until next time readers!