V2

I had my first day yesterday for the job. It was so great! I am excited, I got details on my job and I got more hours for the semester. The other secretaries are nice, I won't be working with them directly though, but in the spring for the convention we'll be going to Nashville together! The apartment is great, I've been havin some serious Diana withdrawals though! :D We went from seeing eachother and working together 24/7 to seeing eachother once a day, or less! Monday and Tuesday was definitely a struggle as well, I was alone in my apartment. It was so quiet, and my itunes was not working on my computer till Tuesday night, so my saving grace actually was kelsi and dayvisson's blog....hahah how lame, I kept reopening their blog because it plays music, because I was so scared alone in my basement apartment at the nights, but it worked out good. I broke the bank taking numerous grocery trips, but I got a pretty good workout too :D hikin back and forth to Smith's Grocery Store. I felt bad because I now had a job in the valley that I got on Monday and then I was thinkin...hmmm well I could totally be working @ AG right now, but I guess that bridge is burned, so there's no goin back. But to override the guilt I had to remember that if I wasn't in Provo at around 11 on Monday morning, I wouldn't've been able to go to talk with Coach Stiggins. Going to his office was my saving grace. It was so great. Tender mercies...seriously. So that was a blessing. Jake brought the rest of my stuff from his house today, it was so nice! Then we took stuff over to Erin at her dorm. Aunt Kay's now answering her phone, "Paulson storage" hahaha....eeeks :D So I'm excited for school this semester. First semester was so great, because I had the perfect balance of social life and school focus. Second semester didn't quite have the same story. Semester 3 is where I'm crackin down. I'm still....me :D so there's no way I can be all books, but I'm setting rules for myself, I scheduled no Friday classes, so I'll just have work on Friday's and be then be off for the weekend, so that's great. Carla's also been a great influence as well. She's a great girl and same with Whit and Tara as well, I wish D and syd were livin here w/ us though! It's alright, no use cryin over spilt milk. So we got all our new dishes through the dishwasher! First football game is tomorrow and I'm extatic! I love football season byu vs. northern iowa! I met keith's fiance today! I love her, her name's keri, she share's my momma's name :D what a lucky girl, and funny too bc my cousin chris(keith's brother) just had his 2nd baby and wanted to name him spencer dean stolworthy, but my little bro already has had that name for 16 years, and since Aunt Connie's so into geneology she thought they shouldn't give him the same name, so his name is spencer kent, still just as good of a man's name though :D So great, so I'm sorry if this blog is all over the place, it's late and i woke up this mornin, still a little sick :/ but I'm sure i'll be better soon :D xoxo

The Valley

Welp, last thursday I was feeling extremely stressed about the whole job sitch, so I went and talked to Scott(my direct manager at AG). I explained to him how I needed a job for fall and I've been searching while up at Aspen Grove, but it just wasn't cutting it. I was feeling bad because I don't have a car and I was having to bum rides all the time. No one wanted me because they want to train before school starts, Aspen Grove goes all the way up to the first football game, we don't get done till the afternoon of the 30th. So I explained it to him...he didn't seem too pleased(even though I knew I shouldn't be ditching my coworkers, I had an intense feeling that it was what i was supposed to be doing) It was my last resort, really. I wouldn't have done it unless I felt I had to. So he just tells me, "Well, tomorrow's the end of the pay period, so we'll just consider you terminated after tomorrow." Uh, it kinda hit me like a brick to the head, so I was like....errrr okay.... I'll start packing, because Friday's we get off at 1, so that means that I have to pack all my things find a place for them ( I couldn't move into my apartment until Monday) and so Diana said I could go home w/ her and Matt for the weekend to Idaho. So I just started packing, and then I went and applied to about 10 more jobs on byu's job website, the ones I could not apply online to, I called and left voicemails. (It was after office hours) So I get everything packed, Diana and I go down to the valley to play soccer, and Kelsi and Dayvisson say I can keep my stuff at their apartment so when we went down for soccer we brought some of my things and drop them off. The next day when we left for the weekend, we brought the rest of my things down and dropped them off as well! It was all falling into place, but believe me, it was a stressful feeling being homeless and finding a place to keep my things, and then how to get them to my apt monday mornin, because the office doesn't open till 10 and Diana had to be back up @ work @ 10. So the weekend was fantastic. Idaho is beautiful, well in comparison to Utah. It is definately different from TN, but I still loved the landscape, so beautiful and rural. So then Diana said she'd help me get my stuff to my apt and we can just leave it outside my apt door, and move her stuff into her apt that mornin too, turns out the riv office doesn't open till 10 either, so she had to go to work late, so we got all my stuff over then went and signed her in etc, and when we were done she dropped me back off at liberty. So I run to the office, pay my early fee, and then go and bring my things into my apartment, so I drag it all in, and my apt is more than I could imagine! I'm the first here, so I grabbed me and Carla the best room, but there's a close second and I snatched that for Whit and Tara. Our two randoms come this week too, so I'm anxious to meet them. Okay, so I start unpacking some things. I call my mom to tell her about it, and a Utah # calls in while I'm on the phone, so I call it back, it was Coach Stiggins, someone who I had called on Thursday. He asks where I'm from, I tell him Nashville, TN, he tells me to come to his office right then, so I get dressed and head over to his office across from 7eleven. He sits me down and talks FOREVER about how he loves Nashville...I was kind of like...where's this goin? He was a football conditioning coach. He coached w/ Lavelle Edwards for 25 years! He had his PhD in Physiology and so he went and taught some at BYU and then he is now the President of the CSCCa (Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coaches association)! He already hired another girl as a receptionist, but he said he'd need me in January, so I told him I had enough savings till then, and that I could pick up temp jobs, and then he says they are in charge of the conditioning coaches convention, and that last year and this year its goin to be in Nashville! The secretaries go too, to help w/ the convention, so basically I get a free trip home for a week in Nashville, but I'll be super busy, but still, I'm so excited!! So then I leave and they call me saying they have hours for me to work in the fall that cooincide with my class schedule! It was seriously sent from heaven. Scott was inspired to let me go on friday, because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to snag that job in his office, bc being here was why I could walk right over to his office and that was my saving grace. I'm so excited for this job and to work with those people, and Coach Stiggins and his wife are the bomb, seriously, so cool! xoxo

Before and After :D

So got the hair job fixed, its now darker than i think it was before i originally went in to get it colored, but it looks more natural, and not all the fake-o stuff...soo i'm super pleased! :D here's a before and after picture :D enjoy! BEFORE FAILED TRY NOW xoxo

There's no place like HOME.

Franklin

This is Downtown Franklin square, 5 minutes from my house, I love it here. Lots of fun memories walking to and around it with my friends, even when we were so young! So great! This is where the Mainstreet festival, veteran's day parade, Homecoming Day Parades, Christmas Parade, Dicken's Christmas Festival, the fair, and awesome 4th of July festivities, with bands, sparklers, games, little sidewalk stands, etc!

So a few reasons why Franklin's so great! The Historic side! This picture is the Carnton plantation. This was a confederate landowners mansion and he had a plantation all around, and the Union soldiers came in and made this house their hospital, there are bullet holes in almost every wall and there are blood stains still in the hardwood floors, pretty intense!

(The picture at the top of my blog, w/ me doin the cartwheel is from on top of the Natchez Valley Parkway Bridge)

The Natchez Bridge! So beautiful, right by our new house, so awesome. I remember one time in 5th grade or so watching a documentary on how the Natchez Trace Bridge was built (not knowing that my family would be living out by it in a few years). A lot of people died making it.

Some bomb awards Franklin's been given:

• Money Magazine's Top 10 Places to Retire
• Money Magazine's Top 100 Best Places to Live
• Clean Cities Award (TN Department of Transportation)
• Tree City USA
• Great American Main Street Award
• Preserve America Community
• Number One Small Town in Tennessee
• Reader's Choice Award for Natchez Trace Parkway/Scenic Drive
• One of Five Best Places in America to Antique Shop
• Five National Register Historic Districts

I LOVE FRANKLIN!

xoxo

Fall Classes!

So I got to talk to Momma today! mmmm always so great. Can I say my mom is the freakin bomb.com!? :D So I'm finalizing my class schedule for this fall semester! It's lookin pretty sweet so far...no friday classes...SO great! The past semesters I've had a big load on fridays... I set up my schedule so that I could get a morning shift on-campus job. The on-campus job shifts are from 8-12am and 1-5pm. I'm prayin to score a morning one, or else I can always snag a job at the bindery, listen to my ipod loud, tryin to block out the bindery sound, and bind books. I'm really not bashing it, I just don't think it will help my resume, because most places are looking for someone who has had 'previous experience' in the receptionist or paper-work area.....I haven't gotten one of those classier jobs yet... hopefully one day I will. It gets hard though, because most people want previous experience, but not the newb. I've done similar projects in other jobs, but the job itself is not that.....its like the time that the family didn't want me to grill the hot dogs because I'd never done it before. Out of frustration I said, "Well, when am I going to learn if I never get my 'first try'!" :D haahahha pretty funny, out of guilt they let me cook them (and they were FANTASTIC, so they said; not a hot dog fan :D). So anyway, my fall schedule as of right now, always opt to change, is: CPSE 400 4:35p - 5:50p TTh Western Humanities 1 Cales, Diane Smith PDBIO 305 1:00p - 1:50p MTWTh Human Physiology (with lab) Rhees, Reuben Ward REL C 325 12:00p - 12:50p MW The Doctrine & Covenants Bird, C Penny REL C 333 2:00p - 2:50p MW The Living Prophets Wilkes, Charles Wynn STAT 221 2:00p - 3:20p TTh Principles of Statistics Reese, Christopher S 12:00p - 12:50p T and depending on if i get the 8-12 job, i'm registered also for: CPSE 400 9:00a - 10:50a T Ex Studnts:Prin of Collaboratn Plowman, Suzanne F xoxo

Plastic

Oh totally forgot this minor detail that I got my hair done on Saturday at Paul Mitchell beauty school. Great place, I've been there once before, they give you a great deal, and promise to fix it for free if you're not satisfied. It's the only place i've gotten my hair done besides jaime back home. So, I decide to get hit highlighted, they guy doin my hair is totally awesome, and the only straight guy in the entire salon. We had great conversation, but the appointment that the receptionist said should be 3 hrs turns out to be 5...my hair is always thicker than expected....faaaaantastic, so i end up having to run out the door w/ just the length cut off, and not the actual hair cut, just because i was late for work, also making Diana and Matt late for work, bc they so kindly gave me a ride down to the valley. So i come back and look in the mirror to find my hair stark white...not kidding, soooo light in the front, but it looks bleached, its like playboy style....seriously...its so sick, I'm so embarrassed though, i'm setting an appointment and the same guy is going to cut my hair, and maybe he'll fix it or someone else will...but it definately needs to be tamed! that's for sure! hahaha k just thought i'd share that experience! :D xoxo

Jobbing?

Welp, I've been lookin for a job to keep during school, it kind of makes it difficult, It's hard finding a campus job, just because they want to train people about 2 weeks before school starts, but aspen grove goes to 2 days before school starts, so it's difficult. One job I didn't get, because of my obligation to Aspen Grove, but I applied to more jobs, praying that one of them will work out! We'll see! Aspen Grove is going well, work's getting better, everyone's kind of just happy because we're in the last home stretch. It's almost time to move into apartments, and i'm definitely getting really excited for it! Can't wait! Today church was so great! Kelsi and Davisson spoke, it was a really incredible sacrament meeting, they did an awesome job! Nursery went really well, we only had about 12 kids, as opposed to our usual 30(= DEATH). We did have a biting episode though, from one little boy, he bit this other kid, Jack, 's fingers, they were red and swollen from him trying to tear them out of the other kids mouth, and got some purple fingers and it broke the skin in one part. Jack was bawling, i went and washed his hand in cold water to make it feel better, and i realized when he was cryin he only had 1 front tooth...prayin he came in with only one...because he was about 2 yrs old...to young to lose teeth and too old to have them still growing in, but i cradled him till he calmed down and he ended up falling asleep on my shoulder. boy was he a drooler. he drooled this HUGE spot into my shoulder, maybe it was half tears, i don't know, but it drooled so much it started dripping down my arm from my sleeve! hahaha and then he repositioned himself and drooled all over another part of my shirt, but i didn't even care, it was so sweet to be able to comfort him and hold him so he wasn't sad anymore! I love that! Also, I haven't blogged about this, but I'm so excited because i redeclared my major and i'm now doing special education, i CANNOT wait! :D I apply to the program in january, I'm so excited! We'll see what happens there! Welp, I'm reading breaking dawn right now, so i think i'm goin to get back to that! xoxo

USA! USA! USA!!!!

I love the olympics! I remember watching them with my family when I was little and throughout the years! I'm sad I can't be home right now to watch them, because my mom and I would always stay up late and watch them (it felt especially late when I was younger or during winter olympics during school!). We would all snuggle up warm and watch the olympics! My favorite summer events are swimming/diving and gymnastics! So great!! Some of my favorite athletes on Team USA this year are:

The one and only Michael "beautiful" Phelps

The 4'9" Shawn Johnson! She's awesome, seriously!The US women's gymnastics struggled through the prelims, but I think they'll step it up in the finals! So great!! welp, see ya later!

Long Summer?

Man, the days are going easier, as in we have the whole dining hall part down; what works best, how to best work with eachother, etc. Yet I am just getting burnt out. My optimism is starting to wear thin. The mountains are beautiful and I've loved being able to live up here in the mountains, it's been great, and they're beautiful! BUT first of all its hard being stuck up here w/ no car, I feel stuck, yet I also feel bad bumming rides off of everyone. Tough call, but I do get to go down to the valley, the love shack is great, and D and I are still havin a rockin time in there, but the small space is starting to make me claustrophobic. It may sound super spoiled to talk about a small space, but really I've seen walk in closets bigger than our shack. Its just really tight and hot w/ 2 people and our stuff. Yet it has been a great summer, I've made some awesome friends and also learned a lot about working with different types of people, which is good! It's also been fun doing nursery, I love getting to spend times with the kids! The Dining Hall is also a tricky place to work, we work when the other staff is off and eating their meals, and then we're off when they're working some, in the end we all work the same # of hours, except maintenence probably. Those guys work hard! We get a lot of flack from the other staff about 'not working', but frankly I feel like that's a selfish thing to say because they can't look past when they see us and they only see us when they're in there eating, but little do they know we come early have 2 shifts(not just part of one that they're at) and we stay about an hour or more after the meals...so that gets frustrating. But it seriously makes it all worth it when we get comments like this: today after a meal, a guy came up to me, maybe 21 or 22, he says "Rachel," (we have name tags) I was like, "Yes, sir?" (saying that w/o thinking because I said that before I looked at him) and he said, "My name is Will," we shook hands, he said," I have 2 things for you, first of all, you do an absolutely awesome job in there," gesturing towards the dining hall. It was so nice, he goes secondly,"I love your hair!" hahahah I thanked him and laughed so hard. Surprisingly a lot of guys comment on my hair. It doesn't even phase me, but I wear my hair up in a hgih side pony tail all the time, and I don't think twice about it, but I guess it's not very common. But seriously, it meant a lot when he said that. There's also a boy here maybe 14 or so and all week he has said things like, "thanks for the food" or "thanks for all your hard work!" I just seriously think that is the nicest thing, to feel appreciated like that! It's what's giving me the little gusto i have left here! There was also a very thoughtful little girl last week that came up and pulled on my shirt last week and was like, "excuse me, but when do you get to eat?" I told her that was a very thoughtful question, because a lot of people whine at the door if they have to wait for their shift, but half the dining hall gets to eat before the meal and the other half gets to eat after everyone leaves, and I can tell you its hard workin in there servin the food on an empty stomach, its okay though, I just thought it was seriously considerate of her to ask that!

Good Weekend!

Well Momma came this weekend! It was SO great to see her! I missed her, and she even helped me job search! We went down and stayed at dani's house in Provo and Diana came too! It was such a great girls night! We went to outback and all got the chocolate dessert, it was definately so fun! We had some good 'girl' conversations, despite all the looks from the tables around us! :) Sunday I had to work breakfast so Dani and Mom came to Aspen Grove for church. After the first hour we drove up to SLC and hung out w/ Brian and Aunt Kathy up @ Kathy's! It was so great!! Monday morning Mom was so helpful and went around w/ me and helped me apply to different jobs! I feel like it went well! If all else fails I can fall back on Intramural refereeing! I got a good call back for a secretary position in the Rec Management Department! I'm really prayin I get that job! I registered for classes hoping to get an 8-12am shift so I have all afternoon classes, so I really hope it works out! I also recently redeclared my major as Special Education! I'm really excited! I feel like things are working out and falling into place! I'm really excited for this next semester at school too! I can't wait for my new apartment, even though I'll totally miss living w/ my shackmate, I'll see her all the time, I'm sure! I also can't wait for football season! and I can't wait for Christmas when my whole family will be back together again! It's weird to think that my family is getting so old as to have to say when the 'whole family is back together again' because I would always hear from my friends w/ older siblings about how it was goin to be a good holiday w/ everyone home, but everyone's always come home, but this past summer, i was only home for a month and dani was gone! Then she came home for a few weeks and I was back out in Utah, so that was really sad! But Christmas will be really great, and we'll hopefully be moved into our house that has taken 3+ years to build! Momma and Dad are doin practically the whole thing on their own! So it's taken a while, but things will be how they want it, and that's what they've worked hard for, so I'm so happy for them! I just feel so independent and at peace, it's a great feeling! I am hoping to work really hard during the week and do really well in school this semester! I am applying for the special education program in January! pretty wild! We'll see how it goes! Diana's cousin was in his 40's and recently passed away from a fall while hiking, please pray for his family, he left behind a wife and 6 kids, the oldest of which just left for his mission. I've been thinkin about this, and how sad it is for their family, it makes me want to cry for them. It makes me think back to May of last year and Carrie and David, how it was such a shock and totally blind-sided everyone. You always hear stories about things like that or watch the news and see stories, and think, oh how sad for that family, that couldn't ever happen to me. It's not what we say, but kind of just think. But finding out about Carrie and David was one of the most horrific things ever. It was sad to think that all that we had w/ her at 10 and him at 8 were all just memories now and no more will be forming, but still knowing that they're happier! Circle of life, right?

Football Camp!

So Diana, Kelsi and I all signed up for the 4th annual BYU football clinic this summer and we had the camp yesterday. It was SO great! We got to meet some of the players, coaches and other staff, and we got to tour the stadium locker room and the press boxes up above ! We had a little Q/A session w/ coaches and the players. I learned a lot about the inside of football, even though we had known quite a bit from our friends, Jason, Naaki and Kane who played last year but Jason and Naaki are doing missions this fall. They taught us some drills that they do. Even though I'm sure it was the basics just watered down. We had so much fun! it got me SO excited for football season, that's definately my favorite part of school!

Diana and I with Dreamy Mangum...I mean Parker Mangum

Definately checked Nixon out last football season too, key player to our defense!

Coach Reynolds givin us a little 'soak in where you are right now' speech

Kelsi, Diana and I by Kane's Locker! Jason and Naaki's were taken down while they're on their missions.

Max Hall(QB), Me and Dennis Pitta (tight end)! (They're now brother-in-Laws!)

Me, Coach Doman, and D. He was the one that recruited Jason!

Jeff Bell, Me and Nixon (Linebacker)

Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall!