Thanksgiving in North Carolina

So like I said, I am spending Thanksgiving at Rachel and Jeremy's in North Carolina! I love it here!! My favorite part, aside from seeing my sweeties, Brooklyn and Jace, is the AMAZING weather! It was been in like the 70's all week; much better than the blizzards going on back in the west!! And the scenery here is so pretty!! Trees everywhere!!! aww I love it! Anywho, I flew in on Friday (thank goodness everything was on time and good conditions). On Saturday, mom, dad, Rachel and the kiddos and I headed out to Lazy 5 Farm, where you drive through and get to feed animals out of your car windows. It was insane!! There were buffalos, llamas, pigs, deer, zebras, camels, hippos, giraffes, birds, and of course KANGAROOS!! It was a lot of fun. We also got to watch Brooklyn in her Primary Program at church (however, she got a bit of stage fright and Rachel ended up sitting on stage with her the whole time), and her preschool Thanksgiving program. Other than that, we have just been eating out and hanging out in Rachel and Jeremy's beautiful new house! It has been lots of fun so far, and we still have 3 more days!! Unfortunately, poor Jace caught a bug and has been throwing up all day today :( Hopefully he will start feeling better soon!! Here are some pictures so far!! More to come....

Of course, I took advantage of my mom being out in NC at the same time and had her do my hair. I chopped off
about 4 inches and got a completely new hair-do which I absolutely LOVE!! I also dyed it a little darker!


Here is a picture of one of the kangaroos at the farm. It was sleeping in this position and we were all dying laughing!!
Who knew animals, kangaroos especially, slept in a position that looked like they were porn stars?? hehe


Me and 'Blue Sky.' Brooklyn was an Indian for preschool and they got to pick out their own names and she chose blue
sky!!

Lately..

I know, I am a horrible blogger! While at school, I only blog like three times, so I already have so much to catch up on! Basically, the last month I have just spent doing homework and hanging out. At the beginning of October, Carly and I headed down to SLC to go to general conference. We stayed at my Grandma's and drove down on Saturday to attend conference. It was the first time I had ever actually gone to conference at the conference center and it was amazing!! I loved every minute of it and Temple Square was packed! There were people from all over there!! After going, I have made it my goal to go to a session every time since I am so close to SLC.
For Halloween, my roomies and I dressed up as Greek Goddesses and went to our ward Halloween party. Only about 20 people showed up, so it was sparse, but we had a lot of fun at it.
Last week, I headed down to Blackfoot for the day. My cousin Shawn was blessing his little baby boy Tayven and I got to take part in that experience. It was so much fun to get to meet that beautiful baby and hang out with my family. I really wanted to bring Tayven back to school with me, but I don't think Shawn and Destiny would have liked that haha! I fell in love with that little boy.
Other than that, I am just trying to finish off the semester. I am definitely ready for a vacation though!! In two weeks, I will head out to North Carolina to spend 8 days with Rachel and the kids and I am really excited for that!


Me, Carly and Brandi at Guitars Unplugged


Carly and I ready for our Halloween party!


Part of our Family Home Evening group at the party

Me with Mario and Luigi (aka Matt and Shaun)

The Three S's of College

The other night, my roommate was telling me about how she heard that in college, there are 3 S's, sleep, studying and socializing. Out of those three, you are only able to have 2, which is completely TRUE!! Holy cow, there is no way you can study, socialize and get 8 hours of sleep in college!! Lately, I have been choosing the socializing and studying and not the sleeping part. Actually, my whole apartment has chosen these two...we don't sleep throughout the week at all!! This clearly is not a healthy choice, but I obviously can't give up studying and I really don't want to give up the social aspect of college. haha Anyway, lately, there have always been people over at our house at night. This was fun at the beginning of the semester, but now, it would be nice to have a night at home where I can just lay on the couch and relax without having to entertain people. :)
As part of my socializing S, this week, my roommate Brittany and I went on a double date with our good friends, Shaun and Matt. They wouldn't tell us what we were doing, so it was a complete surprise. Anyhow, we ended up having a food fight in Porter Park. It was so much fun! There was pudding, cake, jello, pop, frosting, chocolate syrup, flour, etc. and it was so much fun. Here is a before and after picture of a very memorable date :)



Here is the before picture...They got us these awesome clothes from D.I.!!



The after picture :)

An assignment

So for my educational technology class, we had to create a blog and if we already had one, we had to create a post about ourselves that we would show to our students. So, for those of you who actually read this, that is why this post is here. So here it goes...

My name is Vanessa Palmer and I go to Brigham Young University-Idaho and love it. I love kids and teaching and am excited to get this year started. I am the youngest of four girls and I love my family very much! I love my nieces and nephew and love spending time with them. I love to be outside and travel, watch movies, and spend time with my friends.
I also LOVE teaching young children! I love the their incredible positive attitudes and how much they love to learn. I want to be able to love each and every one of them and help them reach their full potential. I love seeing how their faces light up when they have mastered a new skill. They are never afraid to ask for help and try new things.

College Sophmore Year

Well, I am back in good ol' Rexburg and I have been awful about blogging!! BUT, here is a little recap of the last month and my first month back at school. The middle of August, I headed out to Blackfoot, ID where I worked at the Eastern Idaho State Fair with my aunt. She graciously got me a job there and let me crash at her place for 2 weeks and it was a blast! I got to spend time with her and my uncle and hang out with my cousins. So, I spent 2 weeks working (80 hrs a week) and made bank! haha Then I headed up to Rexburg to move in and start classes. I am living with my friends Brandi, Carly and Brittany and then we have two new roommates. They are both brand new freshman and are both from like 30 minutes away, so we don't see too much of them. My roomie Brittany and I have also been incredibly social lately! I think I made more friends in the first week here than I had in the last two semesters!! We made it our goal to meet as many new people as we could and we have been doing great at it!!! Other than that, we have just been staying up way too late, watching movies and catching up.
I am taking 18 credits so I am totally swamped but I am loving one of my education classes! I am doing my practicum and get to be in a kindergarten class two days a week in St. Anthony and I LOVE it!! I love my kindergartners and I have a great cooperating teacher!! I am excited to see what new things I learn this semester from being in an actual elementary classroom!
Well, here are some pics from the fair and the first few weeks of school. For the benefit of my family, I will try to be better about posting this semester!! :)

A Realization...

So, the last 3 weeks have been part of my 6-week summer break away from school and sadly I have to head back west next week. I am definitely not ready to go back! As I told my parents, they haven't bugged me enough to make me want to get out of the house that bad! :) I love my parents and love being home because it is so comfortable. I know that once I get out to school again, I will love it and realize how boring home really is, but every semester, it is always bitter sweet leaving.
Last night, I came home from a long day at work with a terrible headache and a fever. I then proceeded to have a breakdown about going back to school. (For those of you who don't know, I have a terrible problem with homesickness) I started balling and got really upset. My dear mother then came over to the couch and started rubbing my head and tried to calm me down. She then asked me what I wanted to eat, even though she had already made dinner for her and my dad. My dad is such a goof and knows just what to say to cheer me up and get me laughing. Last night when I was feeling bad, he started joking around saying that he and my mom are just too cool and too much fun and that's why I don't ever want to leave and that maybe they should tone down their 'coolness.' I am so blessed to have come to this earth into a wonderful family. I love my sisters and my mom and dad so much. I would be lost without them! :)

Family Reunion

The entire White clan (minus a couple of cousins who couldn't make it)

Last weekend was my mom's big family reunion. We all headed down out to Bear Lake, Utah where we stayed in a HUGE house and hung out for a few days. While there, we celebrated my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. It is amazing how they have been married for 60 years! It was so much fun to see all of my cousins and their kids. My mom has six sisters, so I have tons of cousins and we don't get to see each other a lot, so it was a lot of fun to see everyone. We did our annual bingo, had a water olympics, layed out by the pool, went to the lake, ate lots of food, and just relaxed!

Feels Like Home

About a week ago, Carly and I heard that it was storming outside, so of course, we ran outside to play in it. Within the first 15 seconds, we were drenched from head to toe. It was pouring and windy and thundering and lightening. So of course, Carly and I splashed around in the puddles and danced in the rain. We then headed down to the round-about around the corner, which was flooded with about 2 feet of water. There were tons of students surfing and standing around being splashed by passing cars! It was a blast! We had so much fun! It felt just like I was home in an Iowa thunder storm! We are now slowly counting down the days until the end of the semester. Today, we only have 12 more days! YAHOOO!!!

My chunky monkey :)

My dad just sent me a few new pictures of my darling niece Madelyn. I just love this little chunk! Sadly, she was born 2 weeks after I headed out to college, so I didn't get to meet her until she was about three months. However, when I did finally meet her, I feel in love with her! She is my little chunky monkey!! I can't wait to see her again in just over three weeks. From what I hear, she has already changed so much in the 2 1/2 months I have been gone again. She is crawling and jabbering away! I love being an aunt to her and Brooklyn and Jace!

Here are just a couple other pictures from events earlier this week. Enjoy :)

This week in a nutshell

Well, here I am....a blogger. Don't ask me why I am doing this, I just thought it would be fun and a good way to keep track of what I am doing up here in Rexburg. So this past week has been Spirit Week, so we have all been super busy. On Tuesday, my roommate Carly and I took a little trip to DI to get yellow shirts to support our ward in a 50 lap relay at the stadium. Then on Friday night, we headed to the Rexburg fairgrounds for the rodeo. I must say, the rodeo was pretty lame compared to the rodeos back home. The horses were pretty much just ponies and the bulls were little baby bulls..pathetic! Then we, along with our roommate and some friends went bowling and then came home. Saturday was a beautiful day and so we took advantage of it by driving down to Rigby Lake for a swim and a picnic. It was so much fun, except for the fact that I got fried and am now in terrible pain from my back peeling. It was all worth it though! :) The rest of the weekend was basically spent relaxing and recovering from all the fun. Only 5 more weeks left in the semester and I can not wait for the much needed break and vacation back home! :)