Someone told me it was my birthday....

A day in the life of Jamie being 21.

So in order to celebrate my birthday, I woke up, and went to class. When I was done with class at 11, my mom and my best friend Emily DeWeese came and picked me up from class and we went shopping and went to lunch at Olive Garden. Yummyness!!! We then hit up Kohls, where I found a fantastic shirt! The funny thing about it was that I wanted it 2 months ago, when it was $36. I didn't want to spend pretty much 40 bucks on a shirt. Yesterday, I found it on clearance for $10. Birthday bonus? I think so!

I still had classes in the evening, so my mom dropped me off back on campus. After my physical science lab, Ilarene came and picked me up from campus. When I got back to my apartment, my friends Erin and J.J. came over to give me a birthday present. Erin made me some incredible cookies that were really yummy. Erin was also holding a picture frame, and at first I thought it was going to be a picture of us at her wedding, but instead, it turned out to be a picture that J.J. had drawn of our apartment from last year. It absolutely made my day!!! It was incredible! It is currently my profile picture on facebook.

I had class again from 7 to 9. Once I was done with that class, Ilarene came and picked me up from campus. We then went with our friends Michelle, Allison, and Eleena up to the temple for our weekly temple trip. I love going to the temple! It was a good way to spend my birthday. We were there for about an hour. Since it was my birthday, I decided it would be fun to go get some ice cream afterward. We tried to stop by the creamery, but the ice cream part was closing up, so we decided to just buy a couple of cartons of ice cream and then go back to our apartment and eat it. It was such a good night. I have incredible friends!!

Rachel, Lauren, and Megan. They are my my 8th, 9th, and 10th roommates pretty much. They let me crash their apartment pretty much everyday. I love them!

Me and my friend Trent. Trent is J.J.'s little brother. He gave me good chocolate and jelly-bellies for my birthday. He is amazing.

I kind of look like I am glowing. I'm 21. Why shouldn't I glow?

My New Favorite Instrument...

So one thing that I have become a bit obsessed with this weekend is the guitar. I've been able to play a little bit for about a year now, but I definitely am not the greatest. I love it though! This weekend, I spent some time learning some new songs and some new chords to some of my favorite songs. My favorite one that I'm working on right now is "Fallin for You" by Colbie Callait. It's got some hard chords in it, but I can do it if I practice. I've also learned "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias. That's actually a really easy one. It's been a lot of fun, even though I've started to get calluses on my fingers, and I have a small blister on my thumb from strumming. I'm working on getting my fingers all tough and everything in hopes that one day, I'll be able to play really well!

Gratitude

Okay, I know that Thanksgiving isn't for another month and a half, but I just have to take a moment to say how incredibly grateful I am for the life I have been blessed with. I have an incredible family. I love each of them and the moments we have had and all of the inside jokes. I have such wonderful friends who love me and watch out for me here at school. I am able to go here to BYU, which, while it is difficult, provides such a wonderful opportunity to learn and to grow. I'm thankful for the weather. I love fall. I love how the mountain changes color. It is beautiful. There's a temple, 5 minutes away that I love. The spirit felt there is amazing. I am so thankful for my parents especially, and for the love and support that they have given me and continue to give me. I am thankful for the way they raised me. I love them and love the wonderful examples they have set for me and my siblings. I am so grateful for my testimony of the Gospel. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is wonderful. I am so glad to be blessed to be a part of this work. It makes me so happy. It is true. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and the knowledge that He loves me and knows what I'm feeling makes things bearable. I am so grateful for all I have been blessed with. It really is incredible. And I do love fall : )

Just another Manic Monday....

So I'm going to try and be better at blogging on a regular basis. My goal is to write something on Mondays and Thursdays. We'll see if that actually happens.

Before, I talked about my first chance to give blood. I'm fine now. Except for the nice big bruise on my arm. Since last Thursday, the three individual bruises on my arm have kind of grown together and then gotten bigger. If I had a camera right now, I would take a picture and post it along with this. Maybe I'll do that later on. It is very pretty.

So I was in the library today. I spend quite a bit of time there. It has especially become my favorite since I discovered the juvenile section of the library. I am currently in a Children's Literature class where we are required to read 42 books over the course of the semester (no worries, though, because 24 of them are pictures books, and the rest are books that I've been wanting to read anyways). As I do not own a lot of books (or I don't have them with me here at least) and I do not have a lot of money to buy them, I am relying a lot on the library. I've become a bookworm again. I used to read so much in junior high and high school, but since coming to college I've discovered that if I read books that I don't have to read, I feel guilty because I know that I have other homework that I need to do. But for this class, I love to do the reading! It's fantastic to have to read a book that I actually want to read.

Giving my life source away...

Today I did something I've been scared to do my entire life: donate blood. It was sort of scary. I'm not going to lie. But I had Trent and Erin there to help me not be as nervous (although sometimes I wondered about Trent...one always does :) It actually didn't turn out to be that bad. After filling out all of the paperwork, a nice lady took back into a little cubicle thing and pricked my finger. I wasn't too scared of that. I've actually pricked my own finger before, which I was really proud of. She also took my blood pressure. I was pretty sure that it would be okay too, because one of my roommates is in the nursing program, and she had to take my blood pressure. She told me mine was perfect!

So basically I'm a physically fit person, all ready to donate blood. And scared. I walked over to the place where they actually did the deed. Trent was already there, giving his blood away. And, it turns out I knew his phlebotomist. We worked together last year in doing custodial. She's definitely moved up in the world.

So they asked me the typical questions ("You allergic to latex, iodine, or shellfish?" "Nope.") and they got started. They put iodine all over my arm, and we waited for a few minutes. In the meantime, Erin came over and they started getting her all ready to go. I watched Trent as he bled into the bag. "Is that your blood?" I asked him. He responded that, yes, it was. "Wow. That used to keep you alive, but it's not anymore..." I told him. Yes, I know. I'm very observant.

Then came my turn to be poked with a freaking huge needle. Rather than watch her put it in, I looked over at Trent who was making odd faces (which, incidentally, is not odd for Trent, which is why we love him). That helped to keep my mind off of the prick which then bothered my arm. The needle was in, and there I was. I was giving blood for the first time in my life. I guess my blood wasn't flowing too fast though. I was there for a while. In fact, Erin had almost caught up with me by the time I was done, and she started a while after me. I also guess that the tape was being ridiculous or something. It wasn't holding the needle in like it was suppose to, or whatever that is that it was there for.

Finally, I was done. They took the needle out of my arm. I saw that there was a lot of blood coming out of my arm. This time it rather intrigued me, rather than making me sick. I got to pick what I wanted to have my arm wrapped in. I chose a pink wrap with smiley faces on it. Yes. I thought it was a good idea. And then I was done!

Then came the best part! Cookies! and juice! and chips! Yes. All a good part of putting fluids and sugar back into my body. They had the good kind of cookies there too. Once Erin was done, I headed off to choir, proud of myself for giving blood. It wasn't as bad as I had imagined it. It still is not my first choice of activities to do in my spare time though.

Tonight I took of my bandage. I was actually at Erin's apartment when I did it. She had taken hers off and had a little bit of bruising where the needle entered her arm, which is natural. She said that it hurt though, so I was kind of scared to take mine off. But finally I did anyways, and I discovered that I had three nice bruises on my arm. They look really purple. And kind of cool. But it kind of made me queasy. Oh well. I always liked battle wounds... : )