Fried Bread, Apostles, and Bears OH MY!

This week started out quite wonderful. Monday was a busy day, but as the FHE group coordinator for our group I needed to make sure that I showed up for FHE, plus the fact that I promised everyone that I would make scones (fried bread) for them. I was very grateful that Christina was willing to help me, I could not have made it in time without her. It was a hit! not everyone showed up, actually only half of each group showed up, but we all enjoyed it. Here is a picture of the process of fried bread, it was a simple recipe not the actual bread dough, but it still tasted very good. 

Here at BYU-I every Tuesday we have a devotional where usually a teacher on campus speaks to all of us students. We have a huge building on campus sort of like our mini conference center for campus. anyway this week Elder Bednar and his wife came and talked to us!Technically we are not really supposed to take pictures during the meeting, I think they are worried about flashes and distractions from cameras. Yet we are supposed to have whatever we need including phones/tablets/computers to take notes on if we are going to, So I had my phone and took a picture of Elder Bednar. I was very careful to make sure that the flash was off and that I was not distracting anyone else.
Elder Bednar gave a wonderful talk about how it is important that things are repeated to us, and why this is important. With that he gave us an apostolic warning, a repetition of his warnings from the past. As long as we as students, and faculty, and anyone else here at BYU-I do not gain a spirit of pride and a person who believes that they deserve everything because of who they are then the spirit will continue to dwell here and guide us all. But if this type of attitude begins to become a part of campus then the spirit will be quick to leave us. (people call this the "spirit of ricks" )
Sister Bednar gave a nice talk, a story that she told was about the beginning of the tradition of FHE with the president. Apparently it is a tradition here on campus that a ward or FHE group or something like that every Monday has FHE with the president of the Campus, I didn't know this was a tradition because I have never had the opportunity to do this but it sure sounds fun ;). Anyway this tradition started back when Elder Bednar was president of BYU-I. He and his wife were giving a fireside to a stake one Monday for their FHE. When sister Bednar was talking she made a comment how she wished that she could invite them all to her house for cookies and Ice cream. The next Monday there was a knock on Elder Bednar's door (then President Bednar of BYU-I) and standing on the doorstep was an FHE group with a gallon of Ice cream and cookies to share and have a good time with the President and his family. From that point on FHE with the president started.

 This is the most full I have ever seen the I-Center (our "conference center)!!!! It should be this full every week, but sadly its not, I guess it makes sense, students are trying to make good grades and all. I know you can see a few empty seats right there, but this was not when it all started, this was a little before it started and those seats were reserved for the ushers, so don't worry they were filled :)

 I know it is hard to see but standing at the pulpit is Elder Bednar. Not only did he talk to us, but that night he had a "date night" with all of the married couples on campus. I'm not sure what happened there, but I get the feeling that it involved a question and answer session with Elder Bednar and his wife.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go and see The New Shanghi Circus. They came and performed on Campus. Sadly pictures were not allowed to be taken during the performance, so this is the only picture that I had time to sneak in right before I left. the girls in the back are the girl performers. I did not have time to stand in the really long line to wait for a picture so I was trying to sneak my camera around some people. The guy performers were not out by the time I needed to leave. Any way they were AMAZING!!! You can find some videos on YouTube of them, but none of the videos does them any justice. They are so much better than the videos make them look. My favorite was the hoola-hoop girls and the ribbon dancers. It was an amazing night :)

Later that night I was showing my roommate how nice a stuffed animal can be to help us feel happier. The nice thing about stuffed animals is you can "abuse" them as much as you need and they will still "love you" and let you hug them in the end :)

Well that is all for this week. This upcoming weekend is the Power to Be conference. I am really excited for this. I was able to reach my goal and finish a checklist to get on a VIP list to go and see the speakers of the conference in a smaller setting with only 124 other people. As long as I am able to keep up with my studies and homework I plan on going to it and telling everyone all about it. Just for those of you who don't know Power to Be is a conference where some speakers who are well off people, CEO's of companies, high up in companies, started their own successful companies, etc. coming to talk to all of us students who paid for a ticket about networking and being successful in life. So yeah I'm pretty excited about that :)

I love you all and hope you are all doing well.

Love Tesia

Forts and snow

This semester I believe is going to be a full one, so probably not as many picture opportunities as I would like to have. Though this upcoming two weekends I will have some activities going on, so I will hopefully get some more pictures. 

This past Sunday (not yesterday, but the week before) two of our apartment-mates were away on a trip so the four of us left decided to build a fort! It was really fun, in fact the idea started with Christina in our room and then progressed to the living room with all four of us involved. we built the fort, and watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding along with The Man who Knew to Little. It was very fun, look at the pictures and watch the progression of our fort :)

 As you can see here, we used a lot of random things to hold the sheets in place, including random pieces of heavy clothing, and some safety pins.

On Monday it was Civil Rights Day (also know as Martin Luther King Jr. Day) So there was no school. At some point I went onto campus to grab some things that I needed in order to do my HW. I saw a couple building a huge snowman in the middle of the outdoor "amphitheater" (that is what it is called, not sure why since it is not an actual amphitheater).

 With This picture I am trying to show you all the typical day of my life with what I carry. At least it was so when I took the picture last week, this is not including my backpack, this is just what was typically in my hands. Now it has narrowed down to just the O-Chem book, and the lunch bag.

 Christina's parents sent her, her stuffed animals this week :) It reminded me of when I got my stuffed bear from Mom and Dad on my mission, it was so cute.

 It is hard to see in this picture, but I was trying to give everyone an idea how hard it was snowing on this day (I think Wednesday). It was everywhere, and made it quite hard to see with all the snow blowing in your face.

And now to show you all what an O-Chem lab is like. This is the setup for a Distillation Lab. I was so excited for this one, because it made me think of the type of things you see in movies with mad scientists :) 

 This is to just give you all an idea of what the weather is like here in Idaho. It gets below freezing during the night, and then progressively during the day it warms up to above freezing (by no means does that mean it gets warm) and the snow begins to melt some. But sadly it does not melt all the way so by the time it becomes dark once more the now newly melted snow refreezes and we get beautiful things like this. Although this is beautiful it makes the sidewalks in the mornings quite a trip.

And last but not least just to show everyone that I am learning something here is one of the chemicals we are learning to draw in Organic Chemistry. This is its official name (as far as I have been taught)
2-ethal-4,4-dimethylpentane
I know this sounds so official!!!!  I can sound so smart when talking about chemicals now he he he

Well everyone that is all for this week. I hope you are all doing well, and I love you so very much.

Love, 

Tesia

Not Much

Well this week has been full of studying and homework, in consequence of this I do not have many pictures. only 3 to be exact.
Some things that happened this week...
Last Sunday was the World Wide Single Adults devotional given by Elder Nelson. There were a lot of  wonderful things said in the devotional. Elder Nelson talked about what makes a "True Millennial" One of the things he said is that true millennials will do impossible things. This was such an inspiring talk, and I would like to suggest anyone who did not have the opportunity to watch or read it to go and do that.
Monday night I met my Home Evening Group. Today I was just called as the female Home Evening Group Coordinator for my group. This is pretty cool. Tomorrow we are planning on having a dinner and planning activities for the rest of the semester.
Well that is all for this week. Hopefully more will happen this upcoming week and I will have pictures to show you all.

 This is a picture of Sarah, one of the girls that lives with us.
For the last few days it has been snowing nonstop so here are two pictures that I took this morning of some of the beauty snow does in Rexburg.


I love you all so very much and hope you are all doing well.
Much Love, Tesia Kellar

A Late one.... and first week of new semester

I missed last week. It was a crazy Sunday, full of me getting ready to leave for school so I didn't have time to write the blog. To make up for it I will include pictures from last week into this weeks blog and explain a little of them.

 This week started out with Ammon and I working over in the Lawson Drive house. Mom and Dad bought a very nice looking floating laminate floor that clicks together. Ammon and I had the job of prepping the basement to put it in, and then putting it it. We originally thought that we would get started putting it in on the first day, but it turned out that there were quite a few things to get done before we did that: moving things, sweeping, caulking, sweeping, more caulking, pulling up old floor, scrapping, sweeping, sweeping, caulking some more, then eventually by Wednesday night it was ready! During the beginning of the week it was raining nonstop. I took some pictures of the creek in the Lawson Drive house for everyone to see what it was doing.

Here are some Pictures of what the flooring looked like as we got started. I didn't actually finish the flooring, mostly because of time, but also because of a few complications including but not limited to me messing up a few time. not enough to make a huge difference, but lets just say whenever I put floor in from now on I will double, triple, and quadruple check my line before I cut ;)

 I did get a lot further than this, in fact I was sure that I took a picture of more of it done, but I guess not. Imagine the part you can see done a lot bigger. I would like to thank Dad and Ammon for helping me do this floor. Dad helped me a lot with the math of it all, and we had a good time talking with each other. Ammon helped me stay focused and did a lot of work to help! He was like a worker bee.


It is hard to tell from this picture, but I was walking home one night from working on the house and I looked up and saw the house with all the windows lit up. It was really cool to see the Library, and looked rather beautiful. These pictures do not do the beauty of what I saw justice. But they give a flicker of the idea that I had.

On the 29th was Mom's Birthday. Dad and Sarah made mom a fancy Indian food dinner, and Dad also went to a cake shop and got Mom a fancy Carrot cake. Mom said it was the closest she had had to the Carrot Cake on her wedding. The dinner was very BIG and very yummy. There was so much it took us most of the rest of the week to eat it all.

 We are all so greatful for Mom, and love her so much. What a wonderful blessing it is for us to have such wonderful parents who have strived their entire lives to raise us well, and show us what a good marriage should be.

 

Not sure if you can see it here but Sarah posted a very nice and great tribbute to Mom. Sarah is really good with her words. Every word she said about Mom was true. I love both of these beautiful women so much.

On Wednesday Morning we all got in the Van and dropped Sarah and Brandon off at the airport. We all had a very fun time together and wished the visit could have lasted longer. I guess part of growing up is learning to enjoy these moments and then use them as things to look forward to in the future.

During this time Dad and I took many trips to Lowes and Homedeopt. One of these trips consisted of finding matching tile for the bathroom in the Lawson Drive house. I think we found a match, don't you? Dad and his impeccable memory/matching skills is amazing. :)

On one of our trips to Lowes, Dad and I saw a package of vacuum bags. I made a comment to Dad how I have always wanted to see if they really work. So we got a package (plan on getting them online from now on). I kept one and Dad/Mom kept the rest of them. They work quite well. Here are pictures of how awesome it is!

Ammon finished his apron at the end of the week, It looks really good.

At the end of the week Mom and Dad took me out to Golden Corral so that we could have a night together, It was yummy as well as fun. We had some very good conversations.

Last came Sunday, the day for me to leave. This is Ammon and I having some pictures taken at the airport before I left.

Once I got to SLC airport I waited for a good long time. Finally my ride came, and we were off! funny thing is as soon as we left the airport the hood of the car came off. The hood popped up and hit the car/windshield. Thankfully the windshield did not break, but the hood was bent to out of shape to use it again. After a while the driver called a mechanic, found out that the car would be OK if he drove without a hood. So that is what we did. The driver took the hood off the car, left it on the side of the road, and drove to Rexburg. Here is a picture of our ride :)

Finally I got to Rexburg, it was time to get ready, and move in to my apartment. Here are some pictures of Christina my roommate and I shopping for some things that we needed.

And then my room after I am all the way moved in. The cinder blocks under the bed are a wonderful idea. They give lots of room for storage of boxes and things.

You can tell from this picture that I was clearly tired and ready for bed when we took this picture.

And here is a nice picture of me and Christina, with me wearing the wonderful hat that Dad helped me find :)

Beggining of the week I figured out how to use my Crockpot! Here is the outcome of the Chicken soup that I made. It was very yummy and I still have a littlebit left.

Well that is all for this week. The rest is filled with HW and studying. hopefully I can get some good pictures this week. Love you all so much.