What Life's About

Today was not my ideal amazing day. It was colder than cold and the world just seemed to be frustrating me. I was at the point of tears just thinking about school and just wanting to go home when I found out that I wouldn't be able to be home for as long as I thought...it was just one of those cold, annoying, Rexburg kind of days. So I just came home from school and tried to do homework...worked a bit and then came home again to find myself working on more homework...my daily routine it seems.

For one of my classes I am doing an assignment where I have to find 3 research articles about a specific topic that have to do with Child Development. (For those of you that don't know...I'm a Child Development major) The topic that I chose to research is Pediatrics Oncology. I chose this because my dream job is to be a Child Life Specialist. I would work with children that have long-term or terminal illnesses. Such as kids with cancer...which is what I really want to do. Anyway...So I was looking through articles about kids with cancer and I came across this one titled "Quality of Life as Conveyed by Pediatric Patients with Cancer". It was about how researchers are finally going straight to the children in order to find out what they think about their quality of life when they are receiving treatment for terminal illnesses. The researches go and interview these children and ask them 3 questions. The questions were:

1. What makes a good day for you?

2. What makes a bad day for you?

3. Are there some things you like to do that you cannot do now?

One of the children interviewed was a 10-year-old girl. Keep that in mind 10-years old!!! At the conclusion of her interview she said, "You did not ask all of the right questions." She was asked to explain her statement and she said, "You should have asked 'How has being sick been for you?'" So the man interviewing her asked her that question and she responded,

"I would tell you that I wonder why I am the one to get leukemia but that I tell myself it is better that I get it than my little sister. She could not do this."

The fact that this little girl...10 years old...said this made me realize again why I'm going to school. Her statement made me look at my life and see what I'm doing to help someone else. To make sure that I'm living my life everyday so that I am not taking for granted what God has blessed me with.

Please...if anything...just keep this scenerio in your head the next time you want to complain about it being too cold, or that life just isn't fair. Let this little girl's response inspire you. Do something that you wouldn't normally do today. Be a little nicer, a little kinder, a little bit more like the person you have always dreamed of being. Do that today, and do that tomorrow, and soon enough you will be that!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Well this past weekend I celebrated my 21st birthday! It was so good to be with friends and roommates and just enjoy my weeekend! Friday night was my night with Chris! She came up and took me to dinner and then surprised me with friends at the Millhollow Yogurt and then spent the night for a fun girl's night! Then Saturday my roommates took me out to Craigo's for what is called a "Cookie Monster". Basically it's heaven on earth! It's a BIG cookie baked only part of the way topped with ice cream, whipped cream, caramel syrup and chocolate syrup. Yes like I said....heaven on earth!!! After dessert we came back to the apartment and well to make a long story short my roommates so kindly locked me in my bathroom for like 10 minutes while they hid my presents. It was quite a hilarious night! And then Sunday...my actual birthday...my roommate Janelle made us delicious White Bean Chilli...it was AMAZING!!! Then we played some intense Uno and just had a great time! I still can't believe that I'm 21. It seems like just yesterday I was running around in the front yard back home being chased by the boys that lived next door to me! Oh the memories! And oh the memories that will come! Thanks to everyone that shared my birthday with me and for all the birthday wishes! Here's to another year in the life of Mandi!

Yep....Chris and I are strange...but we like it! Bri and I at Craigo's

Janelle and Jen...

That's Jen way too excited for the Cookie Monster!

All gone....

Roommates!

I'm glad they can entertain themselves with my camera!

Finally, they let me out of the bathroom!

I came home Sunday to find my room full of PINK balloons...

I have some of the BEST FRIENDS!!!!

Thanks everyone for such a great day!

....snow...

So I'm back in Rexburg and I finally realized what it is about the snow that I dislike so much. I'm not talking about the fact that in Rexburg, snow is colder, wetter, and more irritating than anything else in the world! But what I'm talking about is the fact that whenever I see snow it usually means that I am not with my family. I realized this on Thursday when I was on the shuttle from Salt Lake City to Rexburg. Anytime that I see snow, besides at my sister's house, I am usually leaving my family. Snow really is not all that bad. It's more the emotion that is tied to the snow that drives me absolutely crazy. I see the snow and all I want is to be with my family in our warm house with the wood fire place burning!

But I guess this is just another semester where I will learn to deal with my car being covered with a foot of snow and the completely irritating fact that if I want to go anywhere I have to scrape that foot of snow off my car! NOT my idea of fun. Hence the reason I try to walk as much as possible in the winters. Yes...the underlying of that last sentence is that I'm too lazy to scrape snow off my car so instead I put on 2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, a beanie, gloves, scarf, and of course my parka in order to go to school. I guess it's good that I'm walking and saving money on gas but truly what has this thing called snow done to me? Pretty much, it's done everything to drive me crazy!

As every past winter semester though, I'm going to try and appreciate the snow a little more everyday. (Yeah we'll see how long that lasts!) Enjoy the sunshine wherever you are and PLEASE...enjoy it some for me!