FREEDOM!!!!

Yes, you read that right. Freedom. From what, you may ask? Well... Freedom from writing papers, freedom from being told what to read, freedom from stress about whether or not I'll pass a test, freedom from paying a lot of money every few months for school, freedom from always thinking about what's due the next day...you get the idea. I am done with school! My last final was Wednesday night, and I did pretty well on it if I do say so myself. I am so happy to be finished. I'm not trying to rag on BYU though, with that list above, I love BYU and I think it's a great university and it's helped me a lot in life. I am just over the moon to be done. It was kind of weird because I had a lot going on this week (finals, papers, presentations, work) that everything kind of slipped by without much thought. Usually when a big part of my life is over, I like to muse about it and celebrate it. We did get taken out to Cafe Rio on Wednesday to celebrate, so that was fun. I think I'd like to write about what my time at BYU has meant to me. Warning, this may become cheesy.
First of all, when I came to BYU, it was the first time I had ever moved in my life. That's right, I had never lived anywhere else but my parents home. And, I was so excited to get out of Kearney that it wasn't a big traumatic move, but I think that is significant. I went somewhere a thousand miles away where I didn't know anyone. That was fun.
I also learned a lot about the nature of learning. I'll be the first to admit that I was not the best studier, or that I did 110% on each and every assignment. In reality it was far from that, but I've found out that there are things out there that I am passionate about and that I would be interested in learning about for the rest of my life. BYU really promotes lifelong learning, and I totally see what they mean. I know it took me a little longer than normal to graduate (almost 5 years) because it took me a long time to decide on a major, but I don't think any of my time that I spent here was a waste at all. It was all valuable because it provided me experiences.
At BYU, I learned a lot about love. I know that sounds so lame, but it's true. And, I'm not just saying that because I met my husband there, but rather, I learned a lot about love in friendships,finding love, loving yourself, and loving the Lord. I don't think I could have grown as much as I have anywhere else. I had a LOT of hard times at BYU, a lot of pain and struggles.Struggles over grades, classes, relationships, deciding on a major, friendships, jobs, trying to figure out what tod with my life, and things of that nature. Most of them were probably because of my own stupid actions, but it all helped me become a better person.
I made so many great friends at BYU. Friends that I will have for life. Most of these friends came from people I lived with or people that I worked with, but there's just something about going through the same things together with a group of people that will keep you friends forever. I can't even list them all because so many people have touched my life. It makes me excited to think of all of my friends here and where we'll all end up in the world. I hope we'll be spread out all over so we can always go to visit each other. Anyone is always welcome to stay at our place, wherever we end up.
And of course, I met Eli here. I've always said, even before I met Eli, that I'm certain I only got into BYU because of inspiration on the part of the admissions board. I'm not like a lot of BYU students, academically or ambitiously, but I know this was where I was supposed to be. I can't believe the way things worked out while i was here and how I came to meet Eli and we got married. I'm very lucky to have him. I'm also kind of glad that he still has a year of school here because I like BYU and I like Provo.
Well, this is getting lengthy. If anyone wants to come to graduation, it's on August 14-15. I'm excited. If you come we'll have a party.

Best Husband Award #2...

Still goes to Eli. I have to write 2 papers by Monday (but they're the last two papers I will ever have to write for BYU, so it's not too bad). Eli knows that I like to procrastinate (hey, I do my best work at the last minute and it's worked for the past 4 1/2 years so why change now?). During my procrastination period, I ironically get a lot of other work done, especially housework. So, what was Eli doing all day on Monday when I was at work? He cleaned the whole house! I'm talking dusting, vacuum, dishes, putting away laundry, EVERYTHING! He even had dinner started when he picked me up. And then to make it better, on Tuesday he came up with meal plans for us for the next couple weeks and a grocery list and he even came to the grocery store with me, which is an errand and he hates errands. I think I have the best husband ever. He's a sweetie. He's always very helpful and does more than I expect of him, but this week has been a lot and I'm really grateful. We're almost coming up on a year of marriage now, how weird is that? It has gone by quickly! Oh, and an update on the MCAT, Eli moved the date of it, probably to July 2, happy birthday Alaina, and will be taking it then, if the confirmation comes through. He just felt like a couple more weeks of studying would be just the right amount for the score he's hoping for. He's been studying up a storm though. He found the perfect little study cubicle in the library. It's on the same floor as my work and it is away from all computers and other such distractions, but still easy to get to and I can always run over and talk to him on my break. He's going to do great on the MCAT. So, that's our update. I'll be writing a lot of stuff this weekend. I can't wait to be done!! And I'm also starting my job search, so if you hear of anything let me know!
Have a good night!
Cherie

I'm scared of June

Sorry, I don't have any pictures because I left my camera at Cindy's house. Anyway, I made the headboard and it turned out great, yet for some reason, on the right side of our bed nails will not go into the wall. I spent a lot of time searching for something to secure it, and I found a hook type of thing, and the headboard hung for a couple of days. Until Saturday. I finally selected a picture to hang above our bed and whilst I was hammering in the nail, the headboard fell off and I was unable to get it to go back. I got so frustrated I had to just forget about it for a while. But, I will get it up one of these days, even if I have to completely reconfigure the bedroom. Just kidding, I'd just move the bed at the most. We had a good weekend. Friday night was Eli's friend Tom's birhtday. They had a cookout at Mt. Timp park. It was fun. Then we watched the movie "New in Town" with Tom and Whitney. I really liked that movie. It was really cute and it was one of the cleanest movies I've seen in a long time. On Saturday I cleaned the whole house (which was awesome) while Eli studied then we went to a bonfire up the canyon with some of our friends. It was really fun and so nice to come home to a clean house. Now, we have 17 days to the MCAT so I will be drafting up a schedule for us as soon as I'm done posting this so we can make the most of our time in studying. Eli takes the test the day after I have my finals. So, in the next 16 days I have to write two big papers and present them to the class. We have a lot going on in the next few weeks so we probably won't be doing much. Well, a couple fun things we'll be doing is our ward pool party on Saturday and new baby Tori's blessing on Sunday in Ogden. Wish us luck on our upcoming academic endeavors. Ha, that sounds so high-falutin'. And that sounds so hick. Oh well. Have a good week everyone!