A Logical Explanation

Today has been a weird day. The kind where everything is going just fine, but you feel like something is wrong. I have been trying to figure it out since this morning.

Of course my thoughts turn directly to things having to do with school: Did I miss an assignment or forget about a test? No. Though it is something I totally would do... so it's a good thing I checked regardless :)

Did I forget about work? No. I would never do that. It's seriously one of my worst fears. Anyone who really knows me knows that I get stressed about being late for work around an hour and a half before my shift actually starts.

Did I forget Becca's Birthday? No :) Also something I would never do. Dumb question.

My room is a little bit messy? Maybe that's it... Nah

I decided that sometimes we just have days that are weird. And it's just a mystery as to why that is.

And that is what I accredited my feelings to today...

...Until I got home from school and Becca N. said to me, "Did you get toothpaste on your coat!?"

And that's when it officially all came together. 

I looked down and saw a smear of white toothpaste. Contrasting wonderfully with my navy blue coat. Perfectly placed on my chest.

Great. The mystery has been solved :)

So the truth is, sometimes you have weird days because you have toothpaste on your shirt. Remember to always check yourself before you leave the house for the morning. 

It will save you from a day of wonder and confusion.

____________________________

Okay, I hope you all know that I am not being completely serious. My toothpaste incident wasn't that bad at all. And believe it or not I do know that worse things can happen :) But still, as I was writing all about my "struggle with toothpaste," I remembered a quote from Elder Boyd K. Packer that I read in my mission prep class:

"Teach our members that if they have a good, miserable day once in a while, or several in a row, to stand steady and face them. Things will straighten out. There is a great purpose in our struggles in life."

I'll leave you with that.

until next time,

So long

Blog Nerd?

Bad news: I fear that I may be turning into a blog nerd. Already.

I have been telling myself all day to just "wait till Sunday" to blog. But it's just too much fun to put off. So, lucky you. Because now, due to my lack of self control, you get to read all about my eventful President's Day Weekend.

I had been looking forward to this weekend for weeks in advance, and let me tell you--it didn't disappoint. Mostly because I got to spend all three days with these wonderful people.

Meet my good friends all the way from Provo, Utah: Mikayla, Lizzy, Melinda, Becca, Travis, and Johnny.

I love them all. I'm so lucky to have a friend like Becca who can go off to BYU and make friends, not only for herself, but for me too. We all get along really well, and I feel like I have known them for a very long time, even though I have only met them twice. 

Anyway, the fun started when all seven of us piled into Becca's truck and headed up to Island Park. We were very lucky to get to spend Saturday at Ron and Carrie Mills' cabin. It was the perfect type of snowy overcast day for snow machining and four-wheeling, snow ball fights, building snowmen, Papa Murphy's Pizza, "What About Bob," and a cozy cabin.

Here's the evidence. Get ready for a lot of pictures all taken by Lizzy, who happens to be a pro photographer. 

Getting ready to load up

The drive up.

 (Warning: Don't try to play the Alphabet Game while on this road. You will be forever stuck on the letter J. You can only get so far with "Speed Limit" and "Adopt a Highway" signs.)

The Destination. (R & C Retreat) 

These machines were so fun. As long as you had a good pair of goggles on :) I have been snow machining before. But until this trip I have never gotten to go ride out on the lake. Of course it was all frozen over, which provides snow machiners with a HUGE flat blanket of snow to rome free on. At really high speeds. I have never gone so fast before. Pretty sure we pushed the machine to its limit and got up to 65 or 70... That's a first for me. Haha it wasn't the smoothest ride (poor Travis) but still lots of fun. I loved it!

Johnny throwing his snowball with terrific form. 

This is our snowman. I think we named him Humphrey. He was made in two minutes flat because the snow was so perfect. We gave him a mohawk, a soul patch, chest hair, a studded necklace, and an earring in his left ear. Because that's what cool kids do these days. He was definitely not your everyday kind of snowman. Obviously much, much better.

And as you can see my stylish, and oh-so-generous mother let me wear the infamous purple snow pants! I felt so lucky. Really. I was told they were "hot." The pants don't lie :)

Anyway, we all loved Humphrey the Snowman... obviously some more than others.

Saturday night we headed back to Rexburg (on some pretty slick roads) where we all changed and prepared ourselves for a competitive game of bowling at Fat Cats. Little did I know, my good friend Becca is currently taking a bowling class and is very serious about it (not really.) But she is seriously very good at it. I soon realized there was no point in trying to beat her... though I'm sure that if I had tried I could have crushed her :) But no, I didn't. Instead I just settled for my usual score of 75. I did improve the second time around though. A whole 13 points. I ended the night with an 88. 

Not bad. Not bad at all. 

For me.

                          

 

I'm sure that ended up being a spare. 

Johnny's face when he realized the stiff competition he was up against. Becca whipped her bowling skills out of nowhere. Caught us all off-guard. 

We were all impressed by the prizes at Fat Cats. Such a party atmosphere.

You know you're in Idaho when you see scrawny boys wearing wife-beaters and huge belt buckles (when it's freezing cold outside) out for a night of some wholesome leisurely bowling... And you know you're a little bit creepy when you want to have a picture taken with them "secretly." Johnny. 

just kidding 

I thought it was cool.

The rest of our time spent together consisted of eating lots of good food, including some of the best pancakes I have ever tasted, talking, playing games, celbrating Becca's 20th Birthday, taking trips to Cold Stone, playing with becca's cute nephews, listening to Travis and Becca visit their awkward jr high days as they "serenaded" us with their saxaphone playing, giving/getting small tours of Rexburg, and lots and lots of ping pong. 

Happy 20th (on March 1st)

Cute Caleb. He says the funniest stuff. I love kids!

It sounded great :)

Bring it on!

All in all it was a great weekend. I hope I get to visit all my Provo friends soon. 

Just as a side note:

I feel like I should tell you all that every time I walk to school I risk my life. Today I slipped several times and somehow got caught standing next to a small tractor that blows an incredible amount of snow at anyone nearby. I happened to be that person today. Right in the line of fire. I laughed about it the first time, but after the guy repeatedly tried to run me over, it wasn't funny anymore. I'm sure I made somebody's day though. It must have been very entertaining to watch me try and dodge the giant tractor blowing snow directly in my face as I yelled, "Oh my gosh!"

Also don't jay walk. I did it today and watched in horror as the car behind the car that stopped for me spun out of control, stopping only inches behind the kind man that waved me on.

whew...
I tell you what--I never knew walking to school could be so scary.


So long.

Dreams

WARNING: This blog post got a little out of control and consists of lots of stuff that you don't really care about.

My name is Courtney Hazard and I have wanted to start my very own blog for sometime now. I have always put it off because I know myself, and I know that if I did start one it would become like the 9 billion journals I have lying around that have a total of two pages written on and the rest left white as they came. But as I was sitting in my room today, I decided that I would just buckle down and do it. So, I did. I sat down at my little desk and before I knew it-- Bam! I had a blog. Turns out they aren't too complicated after all.

Just to give you some background information about myself... I am a Sophomore at Brigham Young University Idaho, and I really do love it here in little Rexburg. I am living in Tuscany Place Apartments right now, and I feel so blessed to be here. I have always felt very close to my family and I love them more than anything. My small, but very close, group of friends follow close behind :) I love to observe people and their behaviors, which is why I am majoring in Sociology and minoring in Marriage and Family Studies. I am so excited to get started with the classes!

__________________ 

Lately I have had so many thoughts about my life after college. It's coming up right around the corner, you know? And even though I know it is important to live in the moment and enjoy every day (which I feel I am doing) I feel like I better at least have an idea of how things may be after I graduate...

Up until now I have had the hardest time imagining myself as a graduated student. I have never been good at making decisions, which is a really bad thing when you are expected to sign up for a career to do for the rest of your life. Because of that, I have literally changed my major several times (if not officially, at least in my head.)
I started as a Sociology major. A few months later, I decided that I hadn't been thinking straight when I signed up for that, so I decided to do nursing instead. I was going to BYU at the time and I was dead set on being a nurse. A pediatric nurse. Until a few weeks later, when I decided that was way too out of reach. So I changed my major to photography. I love taking pictures. Here are some that I took a while ago for fun.

I still love to take picture, especially of kids, but my plans were changed again when I got to work Apple Tree Learning Center last summer. I got to be a "teacher" in the toddler room, and I realized that I really enjoy working with kids, especially those with disabilities or behavioral problems.

So, of course, I decided that Early Childhood/Special Education was the right major for me. Or was it Child Development? You know what... No. Let's just make it Occupational Therapy. For kids. Or something like that. Thanks.

See what I mean?

Even though I loved the idea of each one of those things, none of them seemed right.

So I decided to go with my original dream. The one I had felt so good about in high school. Which was to major in Sociology and eventually become either a social worker, or a child/family therapist.
And it feels pretty right. And I am happy about it.

_______________________

So now, finally, I feel like I can actually imagine myself as a graduated student. With a career.

My most recent dream is to live in Charlotte, North Carolina in a cottage styled beach house. You know the type.

Here is my future home.

Here is where I will eat breakfast on warm summer mornings...

Then I will go out to relax on the nice breezy beach.

Okay, I'm Just kidding. Kind of. But that would be pretty ideal. I really am a very practical person.

Two of my real, and very reachable dreams are to go to Ecuador to work in an Orphanage.

I want to help little boys like this. How can you resist that?

Another one of my dreams is to go to BYU Jerusalem for a semester. 

So I can see things like this.

Go to places like this.

And talk to people like this.

 

I would love to have the opportunity to have those experiences! Hopefully one day :)

One more dream of mine is to be a model :) Now now, you have to understand that when I say this I am mostly joking. Because I am the least photogenic person on this planet. No joke. So I guess what I am saying is that I wish I was photogenic enough that I could be a model. You know what I'm saying. It looks like fun. You get all dressed up and people make you look pretty, and then they take really good pictures of you for everyone to see. It would be great.  

Here is what I mean when I say I am not photogenic.

hahahahah horrible! But really.

When I was in Utah, me and my friend Melinda wanted to be models for a night so we dressed up and took pictures of each other.

How embarrassing to admit.

Anyway, let's do this Tyra Banks style and take a look at our best shots.

Melinda

Me

Sometimes it takes desperate measures to keep yourself entertained. 

______________

Welp, now you know about three of my wildest dreams. They may seem out of reach. But sometimes, it's okay to dream big 

My life is filled with hopes and dreams. And lucky for me, I get to pursue them and even live them every day! 

For now though, I'm sick of writing. So until next time...

so long.