it's a new year!

Work selfies. They're the greatest. 

Wow, I honestly thought for a while 2014 would never get here! How crazy! I don't have any resolutions per say, but I do have some goals for sure.

 Make some serious progress in school. I am literally swimming going nowhere. I mean, I have a general idea but I'd really love to have a definitive career path lined up. For heavens sakes, I'll be applying to vet school in a year. I should probably figure out my life.

Be more organized. That means cleaning out my truck regularly, saving all my receipts for things, and tracking my spending more closely. Man, I feel like a responsible adult or something. 

Take more risks and have more fun. I am so excited for this year... I'll be 20 this year and so I want to do fun things! I'm kind of over playing it safe. 

Save some money. Mostly because I'd like to have an emergency fund that's bigger than $50 at any point in time. Also, having a nice little nest egg is always a good idea. 

other updates: Brandon and I are doing great as usual. He came and stayed with my family for a few days over winter break and seeing how well he meshed with them was seriously awesome. I sure do love that man. This year is going to be a seriously tell tale year for us. Lots of exciting things on the horizon! We got a new roommate in our apartment and she actually looks like a lot of fun, I'm pretty excited to get to know her. In general, things are going amazingly. I am so happy with the upward turn my life has taken, and the wait for it was so worth it. 

Also, here's a good song to listen to. 

 xoxo

Jessica

untitled: december 10, 2013

i love this picture. partly because this is how we look 98% of the time we're together... happy. and probably making stupid jokes and laughing at each other. the other reason i love this picture is because for whatever reason, my neck has completely disappeared. it's great, huh?

i just got done looking at flights with my mom and michelle, trying to decide if it's more economical for me to drive than to fly. it's stupid because a one way flight from SLC to BOI is $140... but a flight from BOI to SLC is $315. makes sense. in conclusion: it's definitely cheaper to drive.

even though i don't see brandon every day, i love all the little reminders of him around my room. the quotes he wrote on my noteboard, the christmas candle, our picture, the elf movie on my bedside table, the knife that never leaves my pocket or bag, the blanket i stole from him, and the dozen roses that are still blooming two weeks later. i'm pretty dang lucky, if you ask me. in fact, i'm pretty sure there's not another college sophomore with a better boyfriend. (P.S. dear brandon: i'm sorry i suck at texting. i'll do better tomorrow than i did today, okay?? :))

i feel like there's something important that i was supposed to do today that i forgot to do. worst. feeling. ever. 

also, this cold is getting worse. mayday, mayday. but- hallelujah for modern day medicine. nyquil is my best friend! also i'm good at eating cough drops like they're candy.

hope you are all having a great day- and hey, the week is half over! whoo!!

love, 

jessica

Christmas memories.

I woke up this morning with my favorite Christmas hymn stuck in my head: 

Oh, Holy night! The stars are brightly shining! It is the night of our dear Savior's birth. 

Christmas is such a special time for me. Being in college is hard because i'm missing out on all of the things my family does together every Christmas. My family has such fun, strong traditions and part of the reason I'm so excited to have a family of my own is to carry the traditions on that I love so much. 

After dinner, we used to turn all the lights in the house off, but leave the lights on the Christmas tree switched on. I used to love to turn on Kenny G's Christmas album, lay on the cool leather couch outside the kitchen with a blanket and just relax. The beautiful soprano saxophone is so soothing, and when Christmas comes around there's nothing I love more than turning on a little Kenny G right before I go to bed. 

My mom always simmers mulling spices on the stove to make our home smell like Christmas every year. The smell of ground nutmeg, cinnamon, orange, lemon, clove, and bay leaf reminds me of home. On top of the mulling spices, she would make the best soft gingerbread cookies, coined "ginger gems" in our house, and we would make cinnamon applesauce ornaments which both also smell amazing. Nothing else smells like Christmas so perfectly. 

Christmas music is always playing in our house- but not just any Christmas music. The oldies. I can't listen to any of that modern Christmas music crap. Every holiday season, I start to crave Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Gene Autry, John Denver, Elvis, Ella Fitzgerald, Andy Williams, The Ray Coniff Singers... you get the idea. There's just one thing I can't stand: The Carpenters Christmas. My mom is in loveeee with the Carpenters but I just can't handle it for whatever reason-so we bond over Transiberian Orchestra instead. It's a good compromise. 

Like I mentioned earlier, "Oh, Holy Night" is my favorite Christmas hymn. 

My great-uncle Gordon has the most beautiful, deep, rustic singing voice ever. I didn't know this song especially well until one family dinner in the Tri Cities when Gordon sang it to us. There's nothing quite as tender as an old country boy singing a Christmas hymn about the birth of our Savior. He sounds just like Bing Crosby, and it warms my heart to hear this song. 

I love Christmas. 

What are your family traditions and favorite memories?

five things that don't suck about today

ONE. 
i got some much needed girl and horse time without the stress of a lesson. it's amazing how therapeutic burying your face in a patient horse's mane is.

TWO. 
27 dresses is on tv. as far as chick flicks, this is on the top half of the list fo sho. 

THREE. 
my apartment smells like the caribbean. it's nice.

FOUR. 
i love my girls and all, but having a good talk with a boy is always nice. guys have a totally different perspective on the world, & talking to and getting advice from him was so needed. 

FIVE.
rekindling old friendships. i love catching up with people i haven't talked to in months or years.

oxox
jessica

winter: it needs to be over.

for real though. it should be done. once february hits, i'm really over the whole snow thing. ugh. when you go outside and it's cold and you fall down, that's natures way of telling you that you've made a mistake. you're supposed to take the day off and go back to bed. whatever.

i'm over it.

xoxox

jessica

this last week.

not going to lie, this last week was really hard. classes got super challenging, i got called into work when i wasn't planning on it and theres a coworker that i seriously dislike. (she's a first class beyotch. one of those girls who makes you feel like a speck of dust. and she's not even pretty or anything. call me shallow but you know the type i'm talking about.) a small bout with the 24 hour stomach bug decided to pay me a visit, and then was replaced by a serious case of the winter blues. add that to my four obnoxious roommates, i just felt low and sad. even yesterday, after a heavy dose of church, i wasn't feeling like myself. but then i woke up this morning to go out to the farm.  

the blizzard that came through last night cleared out the inversion and i saw blue sky for the first time in two weeks. it's never felt so good to see the sun shine through clouds. class was cancelled because of all the snow, and i feel so much better today. it's like seeing a little bit of blue sky gave me the refuel i needed to make it through the rest of january. only four more days, and a new month will be here. 

hurry up february. you're one month closer to spring.

xoxoxo

jessica

some sunday things.

look how dang beautiful my home is. and look at that beautiful temple. i sure love this place.

i've never really been one to be openly spiritual, or one to share personal spiritual experiences without being prompted or asked. but, there are some things i've been thinking about lately that are just amazing and i feel like should be shared.


YOU WILL NEVER BE LEFT WITHOUT A PLACE TO TURN.
i have found this to be more true than i ever thought it would be in the last couple months. someone might show up out of the blue and say, "here, let me help you," or situations might miraculously work out that just a day before seemed hopeless. and, when nothing else works, listen really closely with your heart. your father in heaven is probably trying to tell you something. but it doesn't really matter which way help comes, it just matters that it always will. 

THE EARTH IS A BEAUTIFUL, MIRACULOUS, AMAZING, PERFECT PLACE.
i've decided that i love being up before the sun rises, and before the birds even start singing, and watching the sun rise. i am so lucky. working out at the barns has just solidified my love for animals, nature, and hard work. there is something infinitely remarkable and satisfying about the partnership that humans have with these animals. sometimes i swear at them and call them stupid, but i really do love them. i couldn't be any more blessed that every morning is spent around these horses and cows that i love so much. i have witnessed some seriously amazing things in those barns, and i truly believe that our relationship with god can be made stronger through spending time with his creations.

THERE IS NO ONE YOU CAN'T LOVE ONCE YOU KNOW THEIR STORY.
incidents and trials in my life have changed me in a lot of ways in the last year or so. i've become less trusting and i usually assume the worst about people at first. it's not a very good way to live, but this new semester in school has already shown me that there really is no one you can't love once you know their story. now that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't annoy you & you don't want to smack them every time you hear their voice, it just means that you understand that they have had trials in their life that have shaped them, just like you've had some that have shaped you, and that they're doing their best.


really though, my life is kind of a mess right now but it doesn't even matter. i just feel so blessed, that there isn't any room in my heart for stress or unkindness or anxiety. and that's all.

xoxox
jessica.

p.s. i love this song.

home.

after an amazing break, i find myself back at my home away from home. i missed it. 

so many things are different this semester.

a new job, advanced classes, practicing treatments on animals... i feel like a big kid. 

and i like it.

whoo!

the bangs are back.

too many angels.

heaven is too full of angels this christmas. 

sweet shauna passed away today. we were all hoping and praying that she would make it and be a christmas miracle, but it turns out that heavenly father had other plans for that beautiful girl. i never knew her especially well, but i was friends with her sister in high school and i am so so so proud of the strength she & her family has shown these last couple days. i cannot even imagine the pain of her family having to decide to pull her life support and having the courage to let her go and say it was going to be okay. 

as i was thinking about the children from connecticut and shauna today, i just felt really calm. i felt the same type of peace i feel while driving through the canyon by myself in the quiet, when i'm closest to him. i think that when heavenly father's children leave the earth, the veil that separates us from heaven is so thin and we are able to see what our father in heaven needs us to see. with that & all the prayers that are being said for families all around the world tonight, the families that are especially struggling are going to have so many blessings given to them. of course, this isn't something that anyone would ever want or wish to happen, but the lord has such a wonderful plan and his timing of things is so perfect. sometimes it's hard to trust him. but in the end, that's all that we can do and we will see, in time, the bigger picture that he has been painting for us the whole time. 

all you sweet angels, we miss you. 

but we know you're doing better things and were welcomed home.

all my love.

jessica

john 14:27

if you asked me if i was an artist,

i'd say no. unless you were talking about making paper snowflakes. then i'd say yes. 

adios and vaya con dios.

after my final tomorrow, i'm headed back to the good ol' 208. i've missed it. 

and i'm ready to be out of this tiny apartment with my psycho roommates. 

see you this weekend.

xoxo

jessica :)

lately in #112,

my crazy roommate sings too loudly all the time.

i love special k cereal with red berries. the generic kind is just as good as the original.

i put up icicle lights all around my room. i love them.

going to bed at 3am has become a habit, which is awful.

clara and i like to reminisce about eagle high school. what a great place.

ella fitzgerald, frank sinatra, bing crosby, gene autry, barry manilow, the carpenters, transiberian orchestra. nuff said.

still no snow... waaaahhhh. 

today i had my practical for my riding fundamentals class. i was super nervous because this is hands down the most important class i have this semester... but i passed with flying colors, with only a few minor mishaps. i'm really proud of myself. this class challenged my horsemanship in every way and i am so much better for it.

i love winter.

i love horses.

i love my truck.

i'm glad finals are almost over.

i love utah state. 

i love christmas lights.

i love christmas music.

i love my life.

xoxo

jessica :)