Yesterday afternoon I wasn't feeling so well, and I woke up early this morning and still wasn't feeling too well so I took a few IBUProfen and went back to bed. I woke up a little later feeling better so I hit the gym. I also left a message for Ann, my supervisor at the CJC, this morning and asked her if she still needed me to come in to help out with the groups tonight and she said that I didn't have to come in at all anymore, she said that if it were her she would try and find something else to do but that if I'm bored I can come in whenever I'd like.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty lazy. Dave and I along with our friends T and Jim do P-90X yoga every Thursday night. The living rooms in our apartments aren't big enough for all for of us so we have to resort to using our apartments complex's common building or "lodge". The only problem is that tonight when we went to go do it there was some big group meeting in our building. So, we decided to head over to one of the clubhouses of a neighboring apartment complex. Well, it turned out not to be such a great idea. We went to this apartment complex called Carriage Cove and their clubhouse was open so we went in to do some yoga. We just didn't see the sign posted out in the parking lot that said that they would start towing cars without a permit after 9pm. You guessed it, my car got towed. And to be honest I'm really miffed about it! I mean honestly! 9pm is a little early to start towing cars, and what if you're over there visiting a friend?! And it irritates me that they went straight to towing my car instead of just booting it. Now I have to pay $145 dollar because some stupid apartment complex decided to be utterly unrealistic! Anyway, Dave did a pretty good job of calming me down, as he usually does and he's going to go take me to pick up my car tomorrow morning.

Today, was my day off and hence a really lazy one. I'm getting adjusted to the schedule during the work week but still find myself pooped when my days off finally rolled around. :{ That being said I don't think that I will be picking up any extra shifts around the hospital until that has dissipated a little bit.
It really was just the same old same old around here. Woke up, cleaned a little bit and then hit the gym.
A few months ago my friend Tyrell (we call him T for short) suggested that we make some home made jam. Dave and I both thought it sounded like a great idea, the only problem has been that its the dead of winter and there aren't really that many fruits that are ripe this time of year that you would really want to turn into jam. Well, I noticed that Strawberries have been around in abundance, and on sale too, what with V-day approaching and all so Monday I told T and suggested that we make jam sometime this week. Well, this afternoon I bought all the necessary ingredients and tonight we proceeded to turn strawberries into jam. The recipe on the back of the pectin box said that about 2lbs of strawberries would make one batch of jam and I bought 4lbs of strawberries so we were just expecting two batches of strawberry jam (about 10 cups) we were way surprised when we squeezed out four batches of jam (about 20 cups) and still had enough strawberries to make milkshakes/pour over our ice-cream. It was kind of ridiculous.
We ended the evening with some board games. All in all it was pretty great relaxing day away from work And now, I'm off to bed (before 7am!).

Update on my Grad School Application Drama: Yesterday after I talked to the grad studies office I called the application coordinator at the social office and left her a voicemail explaining the situation and asked her to call me back or email me. This morning I woke up and headed right over to the CJC. I had Ann fill out the cover sheet evaluation for my letter of recommendation and print out the letter again and then I put it into an envelope and personally walked it over to the grad school office at BYU myself. I was really ticked. After that I hit the gym and did a couple other things. When I checked my email later in the day I had gotten a response from the woman at the social work office that I had called yesterday. She said that already had already had all three of my recommendations, that she had received Ann's via fax a few weeks ago, and that she had forwarded my application on to the admissions board for review. Needless to say I was even more irritated with the grad studies office. I mean really, Ann faxed that letter of recommendation around the 18th of January! And yet somehow they have no record of having received the fax or forwarding it onto the social work office like they apparently did. And on top of that, it took them at least a week to update my application status online and even at that when I look at it my application status just says that Ann started the recommendation but hasn't completed it and officially submitted it yet. Needless to say I'm not too impressed with the grad school office and I think that they will be getting a piece of my mind via a comment card or something!
Other than that, I didn't do much today. It was my roommate Katherine's birthday and we celebrated with her. We all went out to Olive Garden and then came back and had lemon cake that I made per Katherine's request.
Funny Story: Katherine is really quite shy but has this strange obsession with guys with 6-packs. Dave has a pretty good one. Once before Dave and I started dating Katherine saw a picture of Dave shirtless when we went swimming one day and she came rushing over to me exclaiming "You should date him! Have you seen his stomach?!" haha Anyway, for Katherine's birthday our other roommate Lisa and our friend Lacey decided that they wanted to set it up so that 22 men would come and give Katherine roses randomly throughout the day (it's her 22nd birthday). They asked Dave to be one of the guys to give her a rose and when he did he decided to be funny and have his shirt off. So he knocks on our door and Katherine opened it and there is Dave standing shirtless with a rose. I thought Katherine was about to die. Her excitement only deepened when two of the other guys who gave her roses and also knew about her 6-pack obsession showed up with their roses and no shirts! haha

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays Dave has a two hour break in his work/school schedule from 11am-1pm. That being said, it has become my habit Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights to ask him if he'll have lunch with me the next day. It's a thing we do. Sometimes if he has a lot of homework that he's behind in or something he says that he'd like to but that he'd better stay on campus and finish it, which is no biggie. The majority of the time though he obliges. Well last night (Sunday) when I asked him if he wanted to do lunch the next day he said he didn't know because he thought he had some homework to do. I told him that was fine and if he decided he could make it for lunch to call me when he was on his way home. This morning/afternoon around noon I woke up to a text message from Dave telling me that he had come home for lunch but forgotten that he had a presentation to give in one of his afternoon classes and needed to stay at his apt and work on it. I hopped out of bed, pulled some sandwich stuffs out of my fridge and meandered down the hall towards Dave's apt where I proceeded to make us lunch while he worked on his presentation. And for all my effort I got Dave teasing me about my bad morning breath. haha :p
After lunch I dropped Dave off back at campus and headed to the gym. It was a really short workout in the exercise plan that I follow which I was both grateful for and disgruntled about.
Last month I applied for the Master's of Social Work program at BYU. Everything went in around that time except for the letter of recommendation from my supervisor, Ann, at the Children's Justice Center.  She tried submitting it electronically like BYU asked her to and they never marked the letter as submitted, but they also never told us why. We never heard anything from BYU about whether or not the letter was submitted, no confirmation, nothing. But they also never mentioned that the submission had failed, so if Ann and I hadn't constantly been checking we would have never known that the submission didn't go through. Ann tried numerous times to submit the recommendation electronically but they weren't taking it and so she finally got fed up and called BYU and asked what the deal was. They told her that when they would try and open the file that it was corrupted on their end and asked her to send it via fax. Ann told me that this occurred about 3 weeks ago. Roughly around the 18th of January. Well I got an e-mail from the Grad. Studies office last Friday night saying that a change had been made to my application. When I looked it just said that Ann had simply started my letter of recommendation and that it hadn't been submitted. And even at that they're showing that it wasn't started until the 25th of January which is about a week after Ann talked to me and told me that she faxed the letter to BYU. Well, it was so convenient that they e-mailed me Friday night when the offices were going to be closed for the weekend and I couldn't call to talk to anyone. So I finally called someone at the Grad Studies Office at BYU about the situation today after I got back from the gym. They said that they're not showing record of having ever received a fax from Ann! :{ I could think of some very choice words for these people right now. I mean, really?! I understand that faxes sometimes don't go through but it seems that the very least the person that Ann spoke to the day she called in could have done would be to wait on the phone with Ann to make sure that the fax went through, or at least checked to make sure that it did and then let someone know. Or, the Grad Studies Office could have let me know sooner that I was still missing a recommendation! I mean my application was due on the 15th of January, here we are nearly a month later and they're just barely telling me that they're still missing a submission. Overall I'm not very impressed with the Grad Studies Office. And what bugs me the most is that their inconsiderateness may cost me a spot in the MSW program. Because really if you think about it, they have started reviewing other applications but they won't have considered mine yet because it's still considered incomplete technically without the letter of recommendation even though everything else was in on time and it's out of my hands now. I just feel like Ann and I both have jumped through hoops and done everything we could to get the letter submitted and have received very little if any help from the Grad Studies Office. I wonder if the people that work in that office realize that they're not just processing application materials but that they're possibly dinking around with someone's future as they have mine for the past few weeks because they can't even send out a courtesy phone call/e-mail to me or to Ann telling us that her numerous attempts to submit the recommendation have all failed! And now, it may delay my entrance into Grad School for another year! I'm really perturbed and have half a mind to call up the office and start ripping someone a new one about this, but I know that I shouldn't because it won't accomplish anything all it will serve to do is get me more worked up and angry about the situation.
I'm working on my anger issues that I have. I know that I have a long way to go but I'm working on it.
After that I showered and hit the store to pick up some stuff for dinner. I'm in a dinner group in my ward, basically a group of 11 of us have gotten together and we each take turns cooking meals one night every two weeks for everyone else. It's a good way to save money, eat real food (besides ramen and mac n' cheese j/k), and get some variety in my diet. Tonight was my day to cook so we had Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I had to cook it over at Allen and Dave's apt because a) their kitchen was actually semi-clean and b) they had some of the necessary equipment that I lacked. So after I got back from the store I went straight over there and started cooking. I was in the middle of roasting red pepper when Allen announced that he was going to get ready to go do some Parkour training. It's something that Allen, Dave, and their roommate gym all do for fun/exercise. Anyway, Allen mentioned that Dave had just texted him and that he was going to be on his way home soon and that they were going to go "train" when he did. I found this news a little odd since I dropped Dave off at school after lunch and hadn't heard a thing from him. Needless to say this revelation from Allen was immediately followed by a phone call from Dave asking me to come get him from campus. haha
The evening was pretty uneventful, I missed FHE because I was still cooking dinner at the time. After dinner was done I cleaned up Allen's and Dave's kitchen and then we all just hung out until I had to go to work. And again, that's where I am right now.

So, I feel really bad writing this, kind of like it's a cop-out, but my work schedule is making it ridiculously hard to get to church on time. My church starts at 11am and getting off work at 7am and then going home and only getting like 2.5hrs of sleep is a little ridiculous. Today my roommate Lisa came into my room and was like "Felly, it's 10:50" at which point I rolled over and told her "Ok, thanks. I'll get up later. I'm not going to Relief Society." And then I rolled over and went back to sleep. I didn't wake up again until 12:05 when Dave texted me and asked me if I had any intention of coming to church. haha I told him I did and asked him to save me a seat in Sacrament. I promptly bolted out of bed and frantically began getting ready for church. Even at that I still  missed the passing of the Sacrament. :{ I think what I may have to start doing is just staying up after I get back from work and then zonking out for a couple of hours after I get home. On the bright side, I did get caught up on all my tithing today! :)
After church I changed my clothes, grabbed some food and some necessary baking supplies and headed over to Dave's. I made No Bake Chocolate Oat Bars. They turned out alright, but I don't know that I'd make them again. The butter separated from the oats despite the fact that I cooked them and they tasted a lot like No Bake Cookies, which I think I prefer just a little bit more. It was a test out though.
Dave, Allen, and pretty much everyone else went off to Break the Fast at that point. They had soup and bread bowls. Let me tell you, give a bunch of college age males very short notice and no real ingredients and ask them to concoct soup and you'll get some very interesting mixtures. It was quite an entertaining spectacle to behold. It kind of reminded me of that scene from Singles Ward where the guys makes Lasagna with feta cheese because that's what he has. haha
After everyone returned from retrieving their soup we all sat down and talked for a little while before the Super Bowl started. I was completely opinionated for some reason and wanted the Packers to win. Weird since I really have no history with the Packers whatsoever, I think it was basically because they were the underdogs. Anyway, it proved to be an exciting game with the Packers intercepting a pass from the Steelers and scoring a touchdown and then making 2 more touchdowns from turnovers (if I 'member correctly.) That was basically what we did with our afternoon here in Provizzle. About half way through the game Dave and I made some 7 Layer Bean Dip which proved to be a delicious snack to tied us over for the rest of the game. The Black-Eyed Peas did the half time show and let me tell you, while there wasn't any indecent exposure like there has been in Super Bowls of the past, the Peas really don't sound that great performing live. We all wondered how so many people in the stadium were cheering for them and decided that they must have done a studio recording which they played over the loudspeaker at the stadium in Arlington, TX where the game was played. The game ended with the Packers winning, which most people were quite ecstatic about.
After the game I took the liberty to clean up Dave's kitchen a bit since I'd made a mess of it throughout the day. Dave came over to help me and when I told him that he could go sit down and relax and enjoy himself he told me that he enjoyed spending time with me, even if it was just cleaning the kitchen, and that that was what he wanted to do. A little piece of my fell in love with him all over again when he said that.
When the kitchen was all straightened Dave and I joined in for a couple of games of Rook with our friend's Lacey and Ryan. We played guys vs. girls and Dave and Ryan slaughtered Lacey and I which Dave was pretty excited about.
 Sometime around the first of the year Dave and I started reading scriptures together nightly. I know that the Brethren have counseled young couples against it, and I don't even know how it happened but somehow we started. Well ever since I started my job at the hospital Dave and I have been kind of slacking in our paired
scripture study. The other night when I was at work I got a text from Dave telling me that we should pick it up again. So tonight after Rook we sat down and read some scriptures together (only half of 1NE 13 because I had to leave for work.)
After that it was pretty much time for me to head to work which is where I find myself now in between hourly checks and intermittently texting Dave.
So, today I mentioned in passing that I don't really think I'm that nice of a person. I say this occasionally and it always seems to bother Dave. It's not that I think I'm a terrible person, but I don't think I'm as nice as I always could be. I find myself getting easily irritated or doing things begrudgingly when I don't really want to. Well I said that today and Dave finally said he'd had enough and told me that I needed to stop saying that because if I kept saying that then I wasn't going to become a good person but rather, I really would become a mean person. He said that your subconscious will more easily believe things that you say out loud than it will things that you simply think so that I needed to start telling myself that I am a nice person. He told me that he thinks I'm a wonderful person and that it makes him sad when I discount myself. What a great guy right?  I honestly wonder everyday what I did to deserve that boy. But for now I have decided that even if I don't necessarily think I'm the greatest person, the least I can do is start telling myself that I am, if for no other reason than for Dave. And who knows, maybe Dave is right and my telling myself that will eventually help me become the person that I want to be. As long as I don't get too prideful. But then one of my new years resolutions is to be less prideful and judgmental so hopefully I'll be aware if I start doing it. Who knows? Until tomorrow.

So, I've decided that since I have a lot of free time on my hands at work most nights why not update this thing more regularly. Even if I am just sending these out into the void.

This morning I meant to get up early and go to the gym (I have a monthly membership at 24Hour) but that didn't really happen. I didn't wake up until about 11:20am and Dave was coming by a little after 1pm to pick me up to go to the University Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) vs. BYU basketball game. Normally I would have gone but I probably wouldn't have gotten there until closer to noon and I never take less than an hour at the gym no matter how hard I try. That means that I probably wouldn't have gotten back until around 1pm and wouldn't have been able to be ready in time for Dave to pick me up.
 Dave picked me up a little later than expected and we headed over to the game. It was packed! Apparently it was pretty highly anticipated game for some reason. My roommate Anna told me that there had been people camping out in line for that game since Wednesday, that's a die hard fan right there. The game was pretty spectacular! Jimmer Fredette the guard for BYU has garnered a pretty good reputation. At today's game he broke the record for most points scored by a single player in the entire Mountain West Conference! He's pretty much guaranteed to make it to the NBA.
Dave and I had a double date this evening with his old roommate and our mutual friend Cody. Unfortunately we had leave the game a little early. Dave was a little bummed because it was his first time at a BYU basketball game and it was proving to be a pretty good one. Anyway, we went and saw a play that Cody had picked out for the date, get this Babe. I know what you're thinking...pig movie? And yes, you would be correct. We got there and it actually turned out to be more a production for little kids, with the actors pulling them in as extras and such. It really was more a play for young families and such but we all enjoyed ourselves anyway. Afterwards, we went to this place called Nicolitalia Pizzeria! Best Pizza Ever! It was so delicious. Dave and Cody decided to try this drink called the "Mitt Romney" it was equal parts Sprite, Root Beer, Gatorade, and Apple Beer. Nasty if you ask me but they both loved it. 
After dinner we went our separate ways. Dave and I headed to the grocery store so that I could pick up some much needed milk, eggs, and butter. I actually ran into an old friend of mine from my ward last year. It was good to catch up with him. Dave and I then headed back home. We hung out with his roommates for a little while and discussed the phenomena that is male back hair. Finally, after being sufficiently grossed out, Dave and I went back to the store to pick up some stuff for dinner tomorrow. We are going to be making 7-Layer Dip and watch the Superbowl!
So last week I went to the gym and my right shin was sort of hurting a little but it went away so I didn't think much of it, but the Pain came back tonight. I asked Dave about it and he thought it could be shin splints. Whatever it is I hope it goes away quick because I dislike them whole heartedly, and it really hurts to walk up stairs. There were a few times that Dave noticed me limping from it and just scooped me up and carried me the rest of the way. He really is too good to me!




 

Okay, I know I'm ridiculously bad at updating this thing! What can I say? Life just kind of gets away from me.

Starting where I left off.
I had an awesome summer here in P-town. I made a lot of new friends and it seemed like there was always something going on. Whether it was going fishing in the Provo River, to trips to the local hot springs, to the rope swing out in the Mona Pond, to just getting a game of Ultimate Frisbee together, or having a cap gun war on a Friday night, or going to see a movie, or watching fireworks or whatever. It got to the point where half the guys called me the social epicenter of the ward. I know what you're thinking. Really? Felicia? But I swear to you it's true, and I still question how it happened. Anyway, the point is that I had a great summer and really feel like taking the time off from school was the right thing for me at the time. Even if I never really found a job and struggled a bit financially.
Starting in the fall I began a job working at BYU Independent Study (IS). Also, my roommates Jenny and Rachel moved out which I was really sad to see. They are both really neat girls and they have helped to make me a better person.
Also starting in the fall I sort of began spending a significant amount of time with a friend of mine from the Summer. His name is Dave Weston and he is in the Mechanical Engineering program at BYU. Well, it is Provo, so give it a month and we were dating. I had my doubts at first, but I think it was mostly me just over thinking things as per usual. Now, I'm sure that he is really good for me and to me and that I am lucky to have him. He's really mellow and patient where I'm high strung and irritable. He likes to goof around and play games and find never ending ways to torment me while I tend to be a bit more serious minded. But somehow we made it work. We still are...have been since October.
During the fall semester I took a class on Adult Development and Aging, and it made me kind of realize that I think I want to work with the elderly. Dave laughs at me because he says that most girls see a baby and start falling to pieces about how cute it is...I get that way with old people. At the end of the Fall I graduated with Bachelor's from BYU. Yeppers, I'm a college grad. Weird huh?
In November with my impending graduation I began applying for jobs that would promote some of the concepts I learned in school and aid me along my way to getting my Master's of Social Work (MSW) (yeah, I finally picked). I applied for a position at the Utah State Hospital for the mentally ill working with the patients, helping to implement treatment plans and conducting groups activities as well as assisting them with ADLs (Activities of Daily Living). Well, I missed the initial interview setup and the supervisor let me know that she would contact me if they had any openings. I got a call from her one day while I was at work at IS and so didn't pick up, she left a voicemail saying that they had a canceled interview that day and to call back if I wanted it. I very nearly didn't because I thought that the chances of my getting it were slim. However, I thought better of it, decided it was worth the shot and gave her a call back to set up the interview. Even after the interview I was still pretty skeptical but I received a call back during finals weeks for the Fall Semester notifying me that I was being offered a position. I now work the graveyard shift (11pm-7am) at the hospital. I really feel like the Lord's hand was in it somehow. In any case I just feel blessed to have been able to find a job so soon after graduation, especially in Provo, especially in this economy.
You may be wondering, why I chose to stay in Provo upon my graduation from BYU. And those of you who think it was purely for Dave would be wrong. He did have something to do with it, but the real reason was Grad School. I want to get into the MSW program at BYU, and that being said I decided why bother with moving and then moving back if I am accepted into the program? That being said I finished applying to the MSW program at BYU in the early part of January and now it's just a wait and see game as to whether or not I will get in. Dave was great in helping me to get my application ready. He spent hours proof-reading my essays and making sure everything was polished and then of course Mom did the final review. I was going to apply to other schools but in the end decided against it. I just have a good feeling about BYU, and I don't know that I would be able to afford any of the other schools anyway. But I'll have to see. BYU is still giving me the run around about one of my letters of recommendation having been submitted so I'm going to have to call Monday and make sure that I light a fire under someone's rear-end!
Anyway, I'm trying to think, but I really think that's the end of what's going on for me here in the Utah neighborhood. Love you all!