DONE!!

I MADE IT!

I SURVIVED THE HARDEST CLASS IN MY ACADEMIC LIFE THUS FAR!!!

I took my Calculus II final this morning and... didn't DIE!! And what's more, I think I just might pull a decent score on my final and therefore hopefully a decent score for the overall class. *crosses fingers*

I've spent by far the most time on this class (in class and outside of class) than any other so ... :)

Thank you, Ryan and Trevor and Levi!!

Finals Week!

'Nuff said.

Brant

Some exciting news came to Brant last Thursday in the form of a large, white package in the mail. :)
Yes, that's right, he received his mission call and will be serving in the Minneapolis, Minnesota mission, including parts of Canada.
He was pretty mad about not being able to prove me wrong and the fact that I was right. . . once again! I always told him he was going state-side even though he wanted so badly to go to Germany. I just couldn't see him in Europe, though. . .
But he's very happy and excited about it. He'll be pretty close to Tanner, who leaves on his mission for Wisconsin in ten days. Brant leaves for the MTC on Feb. 11th, 2009.

I went over to his apartment yesterday to catch up with him. It was actually really fun to hang out with him again and he showed me his call, told me about the day he opened it, showed me his new Blackberry and told me about his new camera (of which I am SO jealous--it's the EXACT camera I want!! Nikon Coolpix, 10 MP, 5x zoom... grr...) and showed me the picture he sent in with his papers (featured above), as well as some other pictures they took in the spree of photo-taking (featured below). Now y'all know how I always harrassed him about being a model. . . Well, I'm pleased to say that I was not only right about him going state-side, but I am also right about him being a model. :)

If any of you have the opportunity to see or talk to or IM him, tell him congratulations. :)

My Best Friend's . . . A Missionary!

My best friend Zach left on his mission this morning--reported to the MTC at 11:30 a.m.
I'm so glad I had Thanksgiving weekend to hang out with him.
We had fun quoting all our movies and favorite characters, making even more inside jokes, bouncing our senses of humor off one another, giving lots of hugs, taking pictures, laughing hysterically, crying, filling each other in on the details of what has gone on since we last saw each other, talking about the early Christmas his family had, talking about Sweden, etc.

His farewell talk was very good. And when he came down off of the podium after sacrament and hugged me, it hit me harder than I ever expected. I won't see my best friend for a very long time. In my opinion. Lucky for me, college makes time fly. But still! I buried my face and. . . well, let out an emotion I seldom unleash. Tears. Having never had a close member of my family nor a close friend go on a mission before, the shock of him my closest friend leaving was new and quite hard to swallow.

After sacrament, Rachel, Ashley Holmes, and I went to his house and got about one to two more hours with him. I left at around 1:45 p.m. and kept myself composed for the next four long hugs. When we finally reached my car--after a lot of prolonging--and after the final hug, I looked up and... well, all I could say was, "See you in two years." :)

Then I got home and realized that I will most likely leave on my mission before he gets home from his. Three and a half years without seeing my best friend. Eeek! Thank heavens for letters. :)

I'm very exited to get his letters and to share some small part his ups and downs, his ebbs and flows. The missionaries I've written so far have been far from best friends--more like I've barely known them at all--and so they naturally don't/didn't go into great detail. Sure they're tell me about the families they were teaching, etc. But I'm excited to hear about it all. It was frustrating to have missionaries come home and tell me about the hard parts of their mission when I heard nothing of the sort in their letters. I can understand why they left that out, but . . . I want to know when Zach is a bit discouraged, when he's on cloud nine, and all the in betweens as well. Heck, what's the good of having all these guys go on missions before me if I can't hear all about their experiences and have some small preparation for what's down the road??

I wish him well with all of my heart and love him dearly.