Hey, guys. I'm really sorry it's been so long. It's just been crazy - I had tests, essays, assignments, and reading all week, and then on Friday and Saturday I didn't really have interenet access. But I'm writing now! I hope you guys like the pictures. I'll post some new ones when I get all of my stuff organized - I literally spend less than 30 minutes a day inside my room when I'm not sleeping, so I haven't gotten a book-shelving system set up on my newly-freed shelf yet.

I'll start with Monday. We had strength testing in weight training, and I was actually surprised at how well I did! The weight that we had to lift was determined using a percentage of our bodyweight, and our grade was determined by the number of repetitions we did. I got 100% on everything except the benchpress, on which I did seven reps of 75 pounds. It was crazy.... On Monday I also went to Book of Mormon, Calculus, English, and Politics. Then I went to the library and studied like crazy, and went home to go to FHE. For our activity, we were celebrating the birthday of one of the girls in my group, so we made cake, and then we took "family pictures" (Send me a recent picture in the mail, please... 4x6 would be perfect...) with hats we made out of newspapers. Finally we had an activity where we got names put on tags on our foreheads and, using only yes-or-no questions, we had to find out who we were. I was Miley Cyrus. Sigh. I went home and studied for a while, and then I went for a walk with Heidi, and we talked about rooming next year. We've decided that over the next few months we're going to put together a list of girls who we'd like to room with, and then decide on the ideal bunch. It'll be fun, but I'm a little bit nervous - before this year, I didn't understand how crucial it can be to have really good roommates, so it's a little bit nerve-wracking.

Tuesday, I went to my classes (Calculus and History of Philosophy) and studied. Again. I didn't get up really early, but I'll have you know that in spite of your expectations, I'm the first one up many, if not most of the days. Not that 6:30 or 7 is early, but when I don't have classes until noon and I get up at seven, I'm pretty proud of myself. Tuesday was kind of boring, but I had fun migrating around the library.

Wenesday was a very full day. In weight training, we had fitness testing. I did 50 pushups, 60 sit-ups, 25 dips, 11 pull-ups (girl pull-ups - ask dad about them, because I told him) and some other exercise that I don't remember... Then I studied some more, went to class, and came home. When I got to my apartment I did my laundry, cleaned my room, and price-compared the various ads that had been in the Daily Universe. Then at 5:30 Heidi and I went to Buy Low Market and got a bunch of things for really cheap, especially since they were on sale. I got granny smiths for 25 cents a pound!!! (P.S. Mom, could you put your recipe for apple sauce in the comments. Also, the recipes for kugen and those amazing chive mashed potatoes?? Thanks.) After that, I got set apart as RS Compassionate Service committee member. I still have no idea what I'm supposed to do for my calling, though. Oh well. Then I went swimming with Shyler, because she had to do 30 minutes of cardio and she didn't want to go to the pool on her own. She can't swim, though, so I started teaching her how to do freestyle, and only got about 1000 yards done of my own swimming. Then I came home, studied until my eyelids were granite blocks, and went to bed.

Thursday I studied (what a surprise!) and went to class. I also went grocery shopping at Macey's and Smiths to take advantage of their advertised deals. That's pretty much all that happened that day.

Friday I took my first test. In the morning, I did some homework that I needed to get done. Then I went to classes, and after those I went to the library and studied for about two hours for my calculus test. I went and took the test - there were seventeen questions, and ten of those were multiple choice, but it still took over an hour-and-a-half. Finally I got out of there and went to check my scores downstairs in the testing center. It said my score (just for the multiple choice) was 89%. I was so confused. How do you get 89% when there are only ten questions?? Whatever. Then, I walked home, packed up my stuff, and drove to Aunt Geniel's. I didn't even get lost. It was amazing! The only problem was that the Bank of America on the way, which is one of three in Utah, was closed, and I have to end my account before I turn eighteen or they'll start charging me. Ugh. So, when I got to the Woodward's house, I ate dinner with Aidan (Aunt Geniel and Uncle Steven were on Aunt Geniel's birthday trip), which consisted of pasta, some amazing homemade spaghetti sauce, and then ritz crackers with cream cheese and pepper jelly. The pepper jelly was surprisingly good - it's pretty much jalapeno peppers and sugar, but the sugar tones down the spiciness.... Then we watched "The Knowing" which was a good movie but a little bit creepy. It was about the end of the world, seeing the future, and so on. Fun stuff.

In the morning, I realized I'd accidentally set the alarm for 6:40 instead of 5:40, so I was over an hour late to my volunteer thing. But fortunately they didn't really need me until 8:30, not 7 like I was assigned, so it worked out well. I just shuttled t-shirts between the t-shirt table and the registration tables, where people actually got them, so it was pretty boring, but it was for a good cause, so I just stuck it out. On the way back I encountered this huge interchange area of about 12 different highways/freeways, which was exciting. I ended up going into Salt Lake proper before I could turn around, but eventually I got headed in the right direction. I was actually rather impressed by my navigation skills though. I originally looked up directions on mapquest, then I wrote them down and used that to get there, even though two of my exits were closed for road work. Then on the way back, I found my way through the interchange and only went the wrong way one time! I was pretty proud of how my navigation skills have progressed. About two minutes after I got back to the Woodward's house, Aunt Geniel and Uncle Steven got home from their vacation. They invited me to stay for another night, and so I decided to stay! That afternoon, Aunt Geniel, Suzannah and I made peach jam from peaches in their yard. Then I went down to the basement while they went to Suzannah's soccer game, and caught up on some reading. That evening, we had tillapia with this stuffing type of stuff including crab on top of it - it was actually good! It's not one of those things that I'm going to be craving, but I like it nonetheless. Kemper and I also picked tomatoes and raspberries to go with dinner. Then Uncle Steven and I went to pick up a movie - "Robin Hood - Men in Tights". It was a pretty funny movie, but there were a few crude parts that weren't necessary, which was disappointing. I went to bed, and set the alarm for 8:30.

A call woke me up at 8, but I wasn't too mad, because it was Mom. We talked for a little while, and then I went back to sleep. At 8:20, Suz came to tell me breakfast was ready. It was fast Sunday, but I was low, so I ate breakfast. I complimented the strawberry syrup and the pancakes, and Aunt Geniel said that the pancake recipe was Dad's and the strawberry syrup was from Mom. It was funny. Then, Aunt Geniel, Suzannah and I went on a walk around the neighborhood. Finally, I needed to leave. Aunt Geniel had prepared a bunch of stuff for me - homegrown tomatoes and peaches (could you please also give me the recipe for frozen peaches, please, mom?), some peach jam, and some rosemary and chives that I cut. It was amazing. I drove back to Provo, and I got there at around 10:45. Everybody else in the apartment (Shyler, Amy, and Ashley) were still sleeping! It was crazy! I took a shower and then went to a hall council meeting, where we planned a party we're having on Wednesday - the theme is "A Very Merry Unbirthday". Then we had our general hall meeting - at 12, and Ashley was the only one up - and I went back to my apartment to finish getting dressed. I'm so impressed that my roommates can sleep that long. Wow. I finished getting ready for church, and off we went! At Sacrament meeting, there were only a few girls who bore their testimony, and the rest were guys, which is crazy in a ward with our guy to girl ratio. But we have some awesome guys in our ward, so I guess that's okay. Anyway... we'd gotten our Visiting Teaching assignments this morning, right before I went to hall council (Madi had been with the rest of the RS presidency handing those out, so that's why she wasn't there when I got there) and we talked about Visiting Teaching and having a 'house of order' in Relief Society. In Sunday School our second Sunday school teacher was finally there, and we had a good lesson about pioneers. After church, I came home, cooked some rice for our ward Break-the-Fast, and started writing this. Then I had to go to the break-the-fast, where we had Hawaiian Haystacks with only rice, chicken and gravy, black beans, and cheese. It was still good, but we didn't have enough rice, and it went a little bit crazy. Then Amy and I went over to the General Relief Society meeting rebroadcast from yesterday, where we met up with Shyler and Ashley in a strange coincidence. We watched that, and it was really good. I took four and a half pages of notes! After the broadcast, we came home and cleaned the dishes (Amy, Ashley, and I). At 8:30 my home-teachers came here. They are assigned to Madi and I, and their names are David and Adam. They're from our FHE group. Coincidentally, Shyler and Kirsi's home teachers, also from our FHE group, showed up about three minutes after ours, and they had to go out in the lobby. We just got to know each other a little bit better, and then they left. Shyler and I then went to visit the two girls we're assigned to Visit-Teach, and we just introduced ourselves for a minute before coming back here. Now I'm home, and I need to go to bed so I can get up and go to class and study in the morning! I love you lots!

Eliza

P.S. Mom, don't forget the recipes.... I want to get started on them before everything goes bad. Thank you thank you thank you! xoxo