A Poem by Kent

Kent's Classroom Assignment: write a poem about what BYU-Idaho has done for you.

“BYUI

I for Idaho

Idaho for freezing tundra

Someone I met

That I thought I had known

Was not sure of this the unknown

She was so foxy

Wished I could be so luck to get to know her

She invited me over we got to know each other

We went dancing

Felt as though we were prancing

A spark was lit

We could not just sit

Skyping, letters and many months more

A best friend I had in store

A best friend, the best wife I could ever hope for

Ricks has given me life

And a wife to learn from and grow with

We will have hard times and good times

All things are possible with Christ and your loved one at your side.

The someone I met is Anna.

Anna Christine Freeby Buys.”

When Kent got to the line that said, "A best friend I had in store" he started tearing up. I love that man.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Those past blog posts were an assignment for one of my classes and I thought they were good enough to share. I learned a little bit more about myself by looking at past photos of myself.

Thanksgiving weekend was Wonderful and I hope yours was too! We safely made it to and from Las Vegas, and let me tell you, it feels good to be back. Traveling is fun but at the same time not fun.

Here are pictures from our day in Las Vegas!

In Summary

I have a great life and I love to create and imagine. This picture was based off of another picture I saw. I wanted to make it happen, so I did. My creativity comes from my unique perspective of the world. I have a desire to create and explore new ideas, but I am afraid of failure. If I know something will be hard, I will try to avoid it. I think this picture explains who I am because I rely on my husband to help me through life. I’m worried what others think of me and how they are being treated. I want everyone to feel good about themselves and so I try to fix uncomfortable situations. 

I was raised in a family that did so much good for me and helped me see my path and the way I want to live my life. My way of communication is unique and important for knowing who I am. I am excited to become a mother to them and lead our kids by example. The memories we create together help mold us into the people we want to become. It is my goal to carry on traditions in my family and keep our hearts and minds focused on what is most important. 

I want to become a mother.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to become a mother. My mother was
an excellent example to me. I am holding Nora, a family friend who loves me and loves to play with me. I love to see children grow and watch them learn. I want to have my own children and help them learn teachings of the gospel and also how to be a kid. My communication style with Nora is simple. My self-esteem has grown enormously looking back at when I first started babysitting. I am comfortable around children, which I think was preparation for my future children. Seeing Nora grow and learn has affected my positively. It has helped me see how I want to try to communicate with my children. I have a nurturing side to myself and also a very sensitive side to children. 

I want to become active.

This is after my first and so-far, only, hike of the famous “Y” Mountain. Kent, my husband (boyfriend at the time), is in the picture with me. I feel myself when I exercise and I am able to do hard things physically. There is a fear inside of me of failure. I am scared that if I start going to the gym, I’m going to stop sometime. This keeps me away from all things active. This affects my communication style because I cannot see the end of the road for my “health” so I stop trying to face the challenge of becoming healthy. I should know by now that results are not everything. I need to take care of my body and keep everything active. I get really stressed when people talk or ask me to go to the gym. I can come up with 100 other things to do, when in reality it’s the one thing I need. I can improve my self-esteem by going to the gym and not thinking about results or other things I could be doing. I need to go for me to boost my confident and self-esteem. This hike of the Y was definitely a test of how far I can go and push myself. I was able to make it all the way to the tip of the Y - which was the hardest route. My body is capable, I just need to begin and help it get better. 

I am a wife.

I am standing with my husband, Kent. I enjoyed the moment of being sealed in
the temple the most out of all other moments of my life. I was sealed to my eternal companion and our children were sealed to us. I am a better communicator
because of this experience to my husband and to my extended family. I have never communicated with someone as much as I do now with my husband in our marriage. I think it’s good for us and important that we keep a strong communication going and that our goals are in line with each others’. My communication style definitely differs between my husband and others. I am able to connect with him about things that bother me or that are happy to me and he listens and understands. I try to do the same with him. At times we learn together the importance of communication or the effect that lacking in communication has on our relationship. This activity definitely affected me positively and I am more mature because of it. I can see a bigger picture and I know the focus of family is so important. 

I am a member of a family.

I love my family. My parents are converts to our religion. I love my grandparents and all they do for us. It’s amazing how loving they are and happy. There are such good people in the world and I am blessed to have my family as some of them. It’s hard to see them grow older. I was blessed

my first semester of college as I was able to skype with them and talk to them over the Internet on social media sites and email. Skype is too confusing for them to understand now and they have trouble sending emails and chatting on social media. I can definitely see my communication with my grandparents as something valuable. I can tell I act differently around them than I do my regular parents or my friends. They are so special to me, I would hate to let them down or do something that they do not understand. This is why it was so hard to tell them that I was getting married in the temple and they could not come. This affects me positively though because I am able to show them my standards and how I will live them to bless my future family. 

I am a photographer.

I was interested in a DSLR for Christmas, so I asked for one and got one not knowing how much it would change my life. I started taking pictures of my sister, and then people started coming to me to pay me to take photos. My photography business sort of just “happened” and I wouldn’t change it for anything. I have grown so much in knowledge of my camera and in communicating with others. I don’t think I realized how much of a people person job a photographer has. I need to be professional when I talk to future clients or current clients so that my reputation stays high and has a positive influence on the people. I can improve my self esteem with my photography by putting my skills and gifts into the image and being confident in what I produce. Often I am scared that the customer is not going to like what I give them, but they are paying for my services so I need to show that I love what I do. This experience has affected me in a positive way. I am definitely not the same person I was before
I got my first DSLR camera. I am able to view the world more clearly and listen to my surroundings. I want to continue this talent and keep learning more about photography. 

I was a good sport.

Halloween with my family is always entertaining. I am the bird named “Kevin” in
the blue shirt, my sister Claire is the dog named “Dug”, my younger brother Parker is “Russell” and my parents are “Carl & Ellie” all from the movie UP. It is tradition in our family to dress up as a theme for Halloween each year. I enjoyed doing this activity together because it was a way for us to bond and enjoy our time together. It made Halloween fun and exciting because I knew we were going to come together and be awesome. It’s a family tradition that I want to continue with my own family. When we would dress up like this and show up to Halloween parties, we would receive lots of comments how fun we are and creative. This affects my communication style because I felt like every year we had something to hold up and carry on. I would sometimes be bossy at what the costumes should be and how we should look. But in the end it all worked out and we looked great no matter what our idea was. My mom still has every picture of our Halloween costumes hanging on the main wall of their home. This has affected me in a positive way because when looking back on my childhood, this was a big part of it. 

I was an animal lover.

I am the child holding the cat named Callie. Callie was our first “real” pet. My mother worked for a Financial firm and one of her clients was selling kittens. I still remember going to pick Callie up, it was like we were taking home a new friend and a new family member. I did everything I could with her. I enjoy being with animals because they don’t judge you and they want to love you. This has affected my communication style by showing a more caring and loving side. I remember finding baby rabbits in our backyard in a nest and picking them up because I was worried the mother wasn’t going to come back. Then my mother explained that now she definitely won’t come back because I touched them. I have learned how to help and care for others. I see this reflected in my daily life as well. I am concerned about how others feel before myself. I would rather have them okay and me uncomfortable. 

I was imaginative.

A new doll-house was the beginning to hours of imagination each day. I was in my own world when I controlled and created new stories for these plastic people to live. I loved having control over what happened and acting things out by myself. I was an only child at the time and I would usually play by myself, my sister would come the following March. This has affected my communication style because now I find enjoyment in being alone and working alone. I feel like I can think better in an environment that is free from others. This activity affected me in both a positive and negative way. I am able to work on my own great, but it’s also hard to deal with other’s ideas. I also think I am a creative person because of it. I think I am given a tough situation in life and I’m able to come up with a solution quickly, even if it might not work. I would give these dolls difficult stories/situations and then overcome it by figuring out a solution. Looking back I think it was a challenge for me to have a sister younger than me. Now I see her as a blessing, but having other people around is hard for me to work and get things done.

Journal Snipit From Tonight

I got there and couldn’t believe this day had come. I sat there waiting to be called up and thought, “I will never have to be called up and push in my chair again.” I got there and the guy said, are you excited it’s your last day? And I said, yessss. It went by pretty fast and I got a lot done while I was there. I was DONE! While I was there, Kent and I kept texting saying “one hour!” Less than 2 hours! Less than one hour!! It was fun. When I was done I went to the front and handed over my paper and said "goodbye forever!" To the manager. He said, "have a nice life! I went out the first set of doors and Kent was right there!! It was so exciting! He came for me on my last day!!!!!! I was so happy and I am so happy he came. It was so sweet and fun to see him there in the building on my last day. We skipped to the car and kissed in the car and he told me how proud of me he was and how much he appreciates me working for extra cash. He was so sweet and I just couldn’t wait to celebrate! I have less stress and I feel so free.

I usually don't use that many exclamation points, but that is real excitement right there!!!

How We Feel About School Right This Minute.

This picture explains how we both feel right now with school and work.

I am DONE with the call center Monday. I know I'm going to feel Free and grateful for all the jobs I have and will have that don't include calling people that do not want to be called.
And School is kind of at that point where you're standing there and 20 tons of water comes shooting at you. Maybe not that much water, but you get the idea.

I set up our Tripod Christmas tree yesterday! I love it and since it snowed, it feels more like Christmas is coming. Better start playing some music!!

One event and then your day is compeltely different

I was walking out of work to get my bike to head to class. I wanted to get there a little early because I wanted to meet up with Kent (since our classes are close to each other). I took a short cut to my bike on some dirt, instead of the sidewalk, and the next thing I knew I was standing up after hitting my face right on the metal bars of the bike rack.
I tripped over a sprinkler and landed on my nose. People saw it happen and came over to try to help me. Of course I busted up into tears! That's just who I am. Every time people are worried about ME, I break down. Anyway, the guy who saw it happen said that I should go to the Health center and that he could walk me there (I'm tearing up now just thinking about it) and then the girl gave me a hug. Sometimes people are so nice.
I told them no, I think I'm okay, but I've never broken my nose before so the first thought was I'm probably going to have a crooked nose in the rest of our family pictures! (haha) That made me sad even more.
So I biked quickly to Kent's class and waited for him. I told him what happened and he was so worried, he wanted me to go to the health center too. I needed to calm down and then I would decide what to do. I went to the bathroom and it wasn't as bad as I imagined. I washed my face with water and went to class. While in class I texted my mom to see where I could go to get my nose checked. She said anywhere and was worried, but I didn't call her until after I got home.
Call Center work was in half an hour and so I tried calling them, but they wouldn't pick up, so I biked over there and told them I think I broke my nose. At first they were like, "You're nose is the easiest bone to break in the body." I was like, "okay, so I want to get it checked out." They said I didn't have to come in and that I could just have a sick day! Hallelujah. First day of not going in when I'm scheduled. It feels amazing! I only have 6 more days of that place (until I'm done)!!
I went home and took these pictures. You can kind of see it in the top and then the bottom picture is of me with an icepack.
Moral of the story: I will be fine and I remember thinking, now my whole day is going to be different just because I tripped. Remember to stay on the sidewalk.

3:19 a.m.

This is the latest I have ever stayed up. 2a.m. is normal to finish homework around. 3:19a.m. is not, at least for me. I started homework at 4p.m. and took a break at 11p.m. to go to the bathroom and go home and talk to my husband, then at 12:15a.m. I got back to work.

Midterms are the worst.  But have a happy Wednesday!

On our way home | Reflection

Goodbye Fall

Hi.

Today was one of the last days of fall, I have a feeling. Things are getting colder and darker. I'm glad I was able to appreciate the color fall brings to Idaho.
I walked home in the rain and tried not to splash in the puddles. When I got upstairs and into the apartment, I heard Backstreet Boys and smelt some delicious food. Kent made dinner while listening to Backstreet Boys. Oh that man is my favorite.
By the end of this week we will be half way done with this semester of school. I have started looking for classes for next semester and that semester doesn't look very fun either. We are grateful for school. But it's hard at times. 
One thing that we have been doing for a while is taking a walk on Sunday. It's so refreshing to get outside and notice the beauty of things (before they all die) and just talk. We are closer because of those walks.

Fall Colors

I. love. the. fall. 

The only problem is that it comes and goes way to fast! There is not enough time to take pictures and appreciate the color. But I'm trying to as much as I can.