Marilyn Monroe said, "Keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about." Too often I forget that there is so much to smile about.  In April's General conference, Elder Ballard talked about how many gold rushers were too caught up looking for the large nuggets othat they failed to see the flecks of gold in their pans.  This past week I realized that I have allowed myself to overlook the flecks and focus on finding only the nuggets in my life.  So, in an effort to change, my persepctive, I've decided to make a short list of some of the flecks in my life.

1. Temples
2. Wonderful roommates
3. Family, near and far :)
4. Laughter
5. Good books
6. Scarfs
7. BYU
8. Hot chocolate
9. Crunchy leaves on the way to school
10. Long runs
11. A job that I enjoy
12. Phone calls to Mama
13. Prayer
14. Journals
15. The scriptures
16. Lazy Sundays
17. Silly nephews
18. Parents who know basically everything
19. Swings
20. Fall
21. An aunt who keeps my cupboards stalked :)
22. The piano
23. No Friday classes next semester!
24. A washer and dryer in my apartment, thus eliminating my need for quarters
25. General Conference

I think my favorite part of college is all the mini adventures that happen while you're living away from home. This last weekend was Girl's Night In and Keyla and I decided to RedBox a movie to watch with our friend Emily.  We picked Something Borrowed and it was perfect! It was the typical chick flick: girl likes guy, guy is unavailable but likes her too, huge drama, happily ever after.  After we finished it, we just started it again :) After this our weekend got busy and we totally forgot about RedBox movie.  Days went by, well only three, and we still hadn't returned it yet.  The deadline to return the movie is 9pm each night or they charge you for another day.  On Monday Keyla and I were sitting in our room.  At 8:45pm she suggests that we return the movie.  We only had fifteen minutes to get it in and the nearest RedBox was a few blocks away.  Since neither of us have cars we knew what we were going to have to do: make a run for it.  We dashed out the door and sprinted all they way to 7-11 and barely got the movie back in time. I felt like we were in one of those overly dramatic commercials for Netflix.  If only we had had some dramatic music to accompany us...
This week has been one of the worst that I can ever remember! Have you ever felt like anything that can wrong does and it all seems to happen at the same time? Well, this week has been the embodiment of this statement.  Last Saturday I went with some friends to play ultimate frisbee in the park.  I love love love this game! Nothing is greater than making an amazing catch for a touchdown.  I was just about to make a spectacular catch when out of nowhere one of my friends knocked me right out of the air. The next thing I knew I was on the ground with a massive headache.  Once I stood up, my vision was all blurry and I knew that something was wrong.  We continued to play and I figured that the headache would wear off later in the day.  Once I got home I went about my normal activities, but the headache subsisted.  I was working on my computer when I got a message that one of my discs was corrupted.  Not having any idea what this meant  I enlisted the expertise of a ward member who, thankfully, is going to fix it.
This week was also midterms and as I embarked to class on Monday my head continued to throb.  I was pretty sure that I had a concussion but hoped that I could just power through it.  My vision continued to be fuzzy and by the end of the day I was feeling pretty terrible. In the midst of my head trauma I needed to take midterms in all of my classes.  I knew that I wasn't thinking clearly but I had no other choice but to take my midterms. I put off my Music 101 final until the last minute and then just ripped the band-aid.  I took it Tuesday night.  It did not go as well as wanted but it was still a fairly good score. Earlier in the day I talked to my mother about going to the doctor to have my head looked at.  Since all my responsibilities had been fulfilled I decided that I should go in and get checked out.  My friend Garin kindly agreed to take time out of his studying to take me to the doctor.  We arrived at Urgent Care and as soon as I described my symptoms the receptionist told me to go straight to the ER. After waiting for about 40 minutes I was finally called back into the exam.  I had a CT scan and was declared to have Post Concussion Syndrome.  I had gotten a concussion on Saturday and my brain was just taking a while to heal.  The doctor prescribed Lortab and sent me home.
I thought that things were finally starting to look up.  The next day I went took a pill before going to class and went about my normal day.  After work, around four o'clock, I began to feel steadily worse.  I took another Lortab, but to no avail.  I felt the worse I had since I had fallen.  I still had things to do so I finished class and my visiting teaching and went home to go to bed.  My headache by now was the worst of my life! Light was a no go and loud sounds sent shock waves through my head.  Before long the tears came.  I felt like a sissy, but I have never been in so much pain.  I literally thought my head was going to explode if too much light got in.  I laid on the couch while Keyla, my heavenly roommate, and Garin made dinner.  I tried unsuccessfully to call my parents in North Carolina to see what I should do.  Keyla and Garin wanted me to go back to the doctor, but I wasn't sure. After several attempts to reach my parents (you would think they would pick up after 7 calls), I decided to try my aunt and uncle.  Finally, an adult! The decision was made that I should go back to the ER to make sure there wasn't something seriously wrong.  So, for the second time in 24 hours I found myself sitting in the industrial lit waiting room of Intermountain Health Care. Aunt Kris met us there, which was a complete blessing.  I was a little nervous since this was my brain we were dealing with.  After what seemed like an eternity, I was called back to another exam room.  The nurse dimmed the lights, which was a small miracle, and we waited for the doctor.  After receiving a priesthood blessing, the doctor said that I just had a severe migraine which is not uncommon for post concussion.  He decided to hook me up to an IV and give me a lovely concoction of medicine to rid my little body of the headache.  I don't know why, but I get super anxious when I have an IV.  It's like I can feel the tube inside my veins and I freak out a little bit.  Luckily, I fell asleep after about 15 minutes.  Whatever they put in that IV knocked me out.  I still felt pretty awful leaving the hospital but I was so tired that it didn't matter.  Keyla and I got home about 1:15am and she promptly put me to bed.  It was one of the longest nights of my life.
It's been a few days since my adventures to the ER and I'm feeling soooooooooo much better :) I still have a small headache but the miraculous Lortab takes care of it.  I am so incredibly grateful for amazing friends and family who are willing to drop everything to come to my aid.  This week has been insane, but it would've been unmanageable without the aid them.  I am truly blessed :)
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