Finals :(

I can't believe it's already finals week!! This is when I'm really regretting not doing all the reading homework for my classes but if I get through these next four days of torture I get to come home!! I'm really not excited for some of these test though, I have five, yes five finals in three days. Talk about ridiculous! But I'm really excited to come home thursday night and then on friday I get to see the MC girls basketball team and saturday were going to the USU bowl game :)!!!!! So let the fun begin . . .

~Greatest Uncle and Aunt Award~

Alright sorry guys this post is a little bit old but it was a lot of fun so I'm still going to write about it. When I came out to Virginia my parents told me that I wouldn't be able to fly home for Thanksgiving and so the only time I would be able to come home was for Christmas. This is what I had been planning on my whole time here until I got a surprise text from my Uncle Cody. Cody told me that he wanted to fly me home for Thankgiving and surprise everyone. At first it was just going to be our secret but we had to tell a few people along the way haha. I was SSSSOOOO excited!!! I really needed a trip home and it was so fun to surprise everyone who didn't know including my mom and the rest of my family, Kilee, Perri, and Hannah.

First I surprised my family at Thanksgiving dinner. My Grandpa picked me up from the airport and drove me to my aunt's house where I used my uncles Ipad to skype my family. They all thought I was skyping them from Virginia until I asked them if they wanted to see where I was eating Thanksgiving dinner and then I turned the camera so they could see my aunts house. They all screamed and ran outside. It was SO much fun!! After we ate dinner and then surprised my Dad's family I couldn't wait to get home to surprise my friends.

First I went to Kilee's where I just walked into her front room where her and her family were sitting. Her face was so priceless!! She was completely shocked and after a lot of explaining and a little bit of apologizing for lying she seemed pretty happy I was home. Then we went over to Dani and Perri's. Dani knew I was coming so she came outside to meet me and after we talked for awhile she went inside and started videoing perri. When I walked in Perri threw the chips that were in her hand down and walked out crying. I was a little bit confused but after chasing her into the next room she seemed really excited too!! That night we all had a sleepover and went black friday shopping and the next day I was able to go get ice cream with my friend Paige, and then later with the softball girl where we surprised Hannah because she didn't know I was coming. It was so much fun to see all my friends and family. I had missed them so much!!

So I owe a HUGE thank you to my Uncle!! Thanks Cody your the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And thank you to my Grandpa for picking me up, my Grandma and Aunt Donna for their help, and Mathew Thurber for letting me stay with him, you guys are awesome!!

Me going to suprise everyone

My family skyping me from "Virginia". . .

~My mom and brother after they figured it out~

My Mom, me, and Baby Emma

*Me and Donna's twins in our SVU shirts*

*~Birthday~*

So November 20th was my 19th birthday and it was a little weird since it was my first one away from home. It was a lot of fun though! Rylie's birthday is on November 23rd so we decided to have a big combined birthday party. We had cake, ice cream, music, and food and it turned out really good!! Rylie gave me earrings, a ring, and a scarf for my birthday and I gave her the movie Anastasia (because she is obsessed) and a chargers teddy bear. I also got a pair of toms :) and a new phone from my parents!! And it was a ton of fun getting packages and letters from my brothers, family and friends in the mail!!

~Friend From Home~

This weekend my friend Trichell came and stayed with Rylie and I. Trichell is thinking about attending SVU in the spring and playing softball. I was so excited when I found out she was probably going to come play softball here. Trichell and I played on a summer team together when we were in high school. I have to admit that it was a little weird to see someone from home but I was really excited. We were able to show her around the school, play a little softball, and take her to the football game.

~Grandpa Thorson~

This monday my great grandpa passed away. The funeral was held today and one of the most frustrating things for me was that I wasn't able to attend his funeral and say good bye. Although I don't remember my grandpa being young I've heard so many stories about how he loved to dance, play the harmonica, hunt, and fish. He also served in the army and received military honors at his funeral. What I will remeber about my grandpa though is going over to his house on sundays and walking into grandma's fresh baked cookies and grandpa sitting on the couch in his overalls. He always would tell me how much I look like my mom and aunts. I'll also remember walking around the greenhouse with him and him saying "Well lets go see what we have in the treat box for you", as a little girl that was always my favorite part of going there. A few times I remember sitting in the front room with him and singing hymns as well as playing out on their swingset while he talked to everyone from his lawn chair. And I too was old enough to play the infamous games of hide-n-go seek in the greenhouse being told not to be caught by grandpa. I could probably learn a few lessons from my grandpa about how sometimes the fewest words says the most but I will always miss how sweet and loving he was. Rest in peace Grandpa, I love and miss you!!

Halloween Dance

On saturday our school had a halloween dance. Mine and Rylie's costumes were pretty last minute so she dressed up like facebook (or bookface for those who watch the office) and I dressed up like a nerd. The dance turned out really fun though and there were a lot of really funny costumes. Our friend Melissa dressed up like a smurf and painted herself completely blue and our other friend Sarah dressed up with her boyfriend as Adam and Eve. Another couple went as Barack and Michelle Obama and Laura, a girl from the softball team wrote CEILING on her shirt and took pom poms and said she was a ceiling fan.

Me and Rylo :)

We finally got our picture with the President!!

* * * SVU * * *

So I realized that I haven't really put any pictures up of what virginia and my school look like so here is a picture overload. Sorry for all the pictures but since I kind of use my blog as a journal there's a lot of stuff I want to be able to look back on. And for those of you who I keep telling it looks like the twilight movies, hopefully you'll be able to understand a little bit haha.

Front of Main Hall

Back of the school

(I work in the building on the right)

Inside of Jonezzey's Cafe where I work

-Durham-

Most of the buildings here are really colonial looking obviously

-Durham Again-

Most of my classes are held here

This is a picture our church on the bottom and  the top is the Lofts where I live

This is downtown Buena Vista and this is pretty much it, there's really only two main roads. Notice the stoplights, lots of cities including Lexington have these. It's probably a good thing I'm not driving or I wouldn't even see them!

Virginia~ The tree's are beginning to look ssoooo pretty!

This is when it looks like the Twilight movies :)

A lot of people ask how I tell directions without mountains and the truth is I don't. Most of the time I have no sense of direction. The really isn't any huge mountains to look at its just constant hills.

P.S. Dani, I'm still killing you in our blogging war!! :)

~Just for Fun~

So a lot of people have been asking me what we do in Buena Vista for fun and the truth is, it's such a small town we kind of have to make stuff up. Sometimes are ideas are really good and sometimes they are well . . . pretty stupid haha. But one thing that everyone does here is jump off the footbridge so here's some random pictures from the footbridge and the shenandoah river. We also watch LOTS of movies (especially disney ones), hang out at Waffle House, play games in Walmart, and sing Karoake at Franks(the local resturaunt)!!

~Dirt in the Skirt~

So me and my friend Dani are now unofficially in a blogging war, so I thought I would make a post about our softball games. We played EMU and ended up losing both games. The first game we were ahead the whole game until the seventh inning and ended up losing by one so it was kind of sad. It was a lot of fun though, and I was excited because I had two doubles and I havent struck out in a college game yet :) (Knock on wood!!)

*Knights and Days at SVU*

~Homecoming~

A few weeks ago we had our homecoming game and dance. It was a ton of fun even though we lost our homecoming game the fight afterwards was pretty entertaining! And of course me and Rylie painted our faces like indians, it's kind of become our trademark. The theme for the dance afterwards was "Under the Big Top". It was super cute! They had a kissing booth, fortune telling booth, and a popcorn stand. We also had a powder puff game during homecoming which was a little unorganized but a lot of fun. It had been raining all day and it rained during the game so we were all pretty muddy. Here's a picture of us at the dance, hopefully I can get some more up soon!

 

Me, Laura, and Kenzy :)

Monticello

On wednesday our class took a trip to Monticello, which is the home of Thomas Jefferson. It was so gorgeous!! The house is set up on a hill and is surrounded by fields, flowerbeds, ponds, and trees. It was definately worth the trip and it was fun to see how such an important man in history lived his life. Hopefully pictures will be coming soon haha

Jericho Road

This weekend Jericho Road came to our school to do a concert and a forum. One of our couselors is actually in the band, his name is Justin and he's really cool! Their concert was actually a lot of fun. Friday night we also went to a concert by Elephant Shorcut which is a band of kids from our school! They are really amazing live and they actually have some of their songs up on itunes now so check them out!

~DC United Game~

On Saturday Rylie and I along with some other kids from our school went to the DC United vs. Sporting Kansas soccer game at RFK stadium. It was so much fun! We got to see the White House and the Washington Monument along the way. We also crossed the Potomac River on our way which was one of my favorite sites so far!! It was SO pretty!! The game was crazy, I'm pretty sure the majority of people were drinking but it was fun to get out of Buena Vista for awhile. Even though DC United ended up losing 1-0 we all had a blast!!

~Bomb Threat~

So for those of you who havent heard, our campus did receive a bomb threat and so we were all evacuated at one in the morning!! First we were put on lock down and told there was a bomb threat so we were not allowed to leave our rooms. Then a little while later there was a banging on all of our doors and we walked out into a mass of SWAT officers with mask and everything. Just a little bit scary! We were evacuated to a nearby church while they searched all the campus building with dogs. Finally at 3:30 in the morning we were let back into our dorms, and the best part is, they still had classes the next day! Luckily my professors were really cool and my 8 and 9 oclock classes were canceled!

Washington DC Temple!!! :)

Today SVU had a school temple day; they took all the students who wanted to go to the temple in Washington DC. We did baptisms for the dead and explored the visitors center as well as helping out with some grounds work. It was a ton of fun and the temple is SO pretty!! Rylie and I also had a ton of fun on the ride there and back and taking random pictures!!

Me and Rylie :)

This pretty much sums up our relationship!

~Raising the Bar~

Our neighbors Sarah and Katie, Me, and my roomate Rylie

DC Temple Visitors Center

-Hitch hiking to go see Obama-

Laughter is the best medicine :)

This is a replication of Buena Vista, literally!

Softball Tournament ~ Tennessee :)

So two weeks ago our softball team got to go watch a division I softball tournament where Tennessee was playing!! I was so excited!! It was an awesome day, I sat at the ballpark with a hamburger and a dr. pepper and afterwards we went to Dick's and Olive Garden :)

Tennesse Celebration!!

~Ivy Pitching~

Virginia Tech huddle

P.S. This picture is just to show you guys where our new softball field is being built. It's right by the soccer field and its absolutely gorgeous!! As you can kind of see its surrounded by trees!!

Here's a picture of our actual field being built right now :)

Softball Practice . . . and the bats :)

So crazy story . . Lately we've been having occasionall night practices so we practice till like 10pm. Well on thursday we are out taking grounders and all the sudden something thuds to the ground. At first I thought it was a bird that had died and fallen from the sky haha. But then our assistant coach got closer and realized it was two bats!! Creepy!! But no worries our coach had an empty bucket handy, so she just turned it upside down on them and told us to keep going!! Umm excuse me those are like the most disease ridden animals ever, if you get bit by one your sure to get rabies haha. Pretty soon though they started flying around in the bucket so they knocked it over and they flew away accompanied by screams from all the girls!! It was obviously a good day at  practice :)

SVU Football!! :)

So I finally have some pictures!! This weekend me and Rylie decided to be really spirited and paint our faces for the football game. And it worked!! We killed Radford!! It was a lot of fun and of course other people started copying us because we looked so cool haha :) And the best part of this week is that on Saturday I get to go watch Tennessee play in a softball tournaments!!

This is Melissa, Me, and Rylie (Top Row)

Katie, Kristen, and Jon (Bottom Row)

~Update~

Ok so I still don't have any pictures up but hopefully they'll be coming soon!! I finally feel like I'm starting to get settled in here. I've started working at Jonezzey's Cafe which is on campus and I really love it!! The boss is super laid back, the people I work with are really fun, and we can make our own food for free while we're at work!! Pretty cool huh? On a different note softball workouts have started and they are kicking my trash. Most days I can't even walk up the stairs to our room because my legs feel like they're broken! But it's a lot of fun and I'm starting to really like some of the girls. At the end of September our team is taking a trip to watch Tennessee play which I am SUPER stoked about!! I absolutely love my roommate Rylie! She is loud and crazy and we have a ton of fun!! So far we've set the alarm off in the elevator (multiple times), gotten in trouble in the cafeteria (although we are learning the art of utilizing the few cooking tools we have there), explored the "Haunted school" and much more!! I really like college except for the fact that I really have to study and do LOTS of homework which I never had to do in high school!! While Virginia is fun I really miss home and all my friends and family there! I can't wait to come home in December!!

Virginia!!!!

Alright well I really need to get some pictures up but since I don't have any I'll just give a quick update. Virginia is really really pretty. There's trees all over and everything is in rolling hills.The school is absolutely gorgeous!! But its also very old and they say it's haunted haha! Me and my friends plan on going in all the haunted towers!! The professors are really nice but I'm not a super fan of the size of the school. I think that this school will be a really good start away from home because there's lots of people who are good examples and support but I don't think I will want to go here very long because its pretty small. Softball practice starts in about two weeks and I'm soooo excited!! And we've even met some football players LOL!

Final Pictures!!

Before I leave for college we decided to take some senior softball pictures in my uniform. I tried to steal my jersey but my coach is insisting that I give it back :( Donna did a really great job though and I love a lot of them!! We also decided to take some pictures of me and my brothers. You would think we're old enough that getting us all to look at though camera would be really easy but T.J. and Quinn were being impossible! I think we got some cute ones though!!