There's something about Dead Week that makes you want to study your brains out but at the same time makes you want to do anything but homework. It's some weird psychology thing I think. So here's what happened this week (sorry there's not much photo evidence of it):

Monday: honestly, I don't really remember what happened on Monday but here are some random selfies that I took that day for your viewing pleasure. Moving out of Snow #208 next week is going to be the most bittersweet thing ever.

Tuesday: Allie and I had our last mission prep class with the coolest ex-mission presidents ever (Brother & Sister Greene), I got my Alaska flag in the mail (thank you Amazon Prime), then the power went out in our building, and Allie and I had a pretty brutal Fight Night. 

My body hurt pretty bad the next morning.

Wednesday: On Hump Day, I just wanted to go and do something crazy so after watching Abbey's Swing performance (and trying to learn Timber but epically failing and just getting stepped on), I made Allie and Ashly drive through Logan Canyon with me so we could jump in Bear Lake at midnight. Looking back on it, I don't know why I thought this was a good idea. It was 31°F outside and so obviously the water was going to be freezing. Oops. So I called my Biggie (because she jumped in Bear Lake a few weeks ago) and she told me about this marina that had a small pier on it that they jumped off. So we climbed over the fences and passed all the "Do Not Enter" signs and had decided that we would just run into the lake by running down the boat ramp. It was freezing. Not as cold as the Polar Plunge at the cabin, but it was way cold. So we ran in until the water was at our belly buttons and then we ran back out and wrapped in our towels. Then I thought it would be lame if I didn't jump fully in the lake (I think my adrenaline was going a little crazy right then) and so I tossed my towel on the ground and ran to the end of the pier with Allie and Ashly trailing after me. We decided that Allie and I would jump and Ashly would get it on video. So I jumped. Allie didn't even though I threatened her. It was freezing. My limbs just felt like heavy logs and I was swimming as fast as I could to shore and then I had Allie and Ashly huddle around me to keep me warm #deadweekdecisions

Thursday: Allie and I have been trying to go to the temple everyday in April and so we decided to do a little road trip down to the temples in Ogden & Brigham City and then come back and do the Logan one after that. At home, our temple is Rexburg and that's like an hour and a half away and so to drive a little less than an hour and be able to go to three temples is so crazy to me. Go Utah. Allie, Ashly, and I stopped at Dairy Queen between Ogden and Brigham City so that was another blessing. I am so excited to live in the same town as Dairy Queen soon (aka home). We pulled into the Logan temple parking lot around 7:30pm and when we went in, all the seats were full and there were people standing along the back wall too. The "greeter" guy (I have no idea what his official title is), told us that they didn't have enough time to fit us in and do baptisms before the temple closed so we had to leave. It was way sad, but we will be back tomorrow.

Friday: Allie and I got up at 6am to go and do baptisms in the Logan temple (to continue our April streak and make up for not being there yesterday), then it was my last day of classes for the semester which is so crazy because I feel like the semester just started. Time flies when you're having fun/drowning in homework and projects. After class, I went to have a library party with myself for six hours while I finished my last English paper ever. No more English classes for me! Which is kind of sad because usually my A in English makes up for my other classes like Chemistry and Stats but I am so excited to never have another persuasive research 3000 word whatever due again.

Study hard out there kids. 

I'll be home on Wednesday!

PS look at the bags under my eyes haha

Love, Caitie

Called to Serve

It all started on Monday morning when I told my mom that she should go and check the mail for my mission call because my bishop told me that it had been assigned about a week ago so it should be in the mail any day now. IT WAS THERE! But do you want to know the worst part about it was? It was Monday. And I had a quiz on Tuesday. And a exam review on Wednesday. And a quiz on Thursday. And a quiz and paper due on Friday. So there was no way that I could get home to open my call until after my stats quiz at 8:30am on Friday. And that sucked. I was the worst student ever this week. I couldn't focus to save my life- all I could think about was the white envelope with my mission call inside sitting on my kitchen counter at home. I just wanted to open it. It was finally Friday and I almost ran out of the classroom on Friday after my quiz to go home and pack up Henry for our road trip. 

The whole road trip consisted of singing really loud Disney music and Country Shindigs then honking at cows as we passed by. We had to stop in Idaho Falls for some Jimmy John's and a potty break and then got back on the road and headed to Quickwater Ranch.

Of course, we were put right to work in the garden at the Ranch digging out weeds and lining the rows with compost. Then we had dinner and changed into clothes that weren't covered in mud and it was time to (finally) open my mission call.

There's no way to really explain what it feels like to hold you mission call envelope. And there's no way to prepare you for the overwhelming presence of the Spirit either. I practiced saying "Dear Sister Dunlop, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" a million times and didn't even cry once. But as soon as it was real, I lost it. And the way that everything had lined up about my call opening was perfect; being at Quickwater Ranch, opening my call exactly five months after my scary car accident, having my family and Fierce Felicia's there, and everything about it was perfect. It's amazing and terrifying and exciting because inside that envelope is your life for the next 18 months and you have no idea where that is. Once we had everyone FaceTimed in and ready for my to open it, my heart was racing. Like racing. I thought I was going to throw up or something. 

"Dear Sister Dunlop, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the ALASKA ANCHORAGE mission."

At first, I was shocked. I had never even thought of Alaska, there's like nothing up there but trees and eskimos. My cousin, Riley, had told me that you will get called to wherever you don't think of and so all week I had been looking at maps and imagining myself at each place, just to prove her wrong. She was right though. The whole shock wore off really quickly though because I knew that this is exactly where Heavenly Father needs me right now. I am so excited. 

#calledtofreeze #thefrozenchosen #caitiegoeseskimo

The Fierce Felicia's got to take over the LTeam cabin Friday night and I think that all my stories about living there this summer with all the mice and all the crazy things that happened there freaked my roomies out a little bit. Don't worry, we survived the night. I didn't sleep at all. I just kept watching videos of the Northern Lights and reading blogs by the missionaries that are serving in Alaska Anchorage right now. I am so excited.  

drenched

I love LTeam 2015 (and Victoria & Rebekah)

I don't know if Allie, Ashly, and Abbey really knew what they were going into when I invited them to come with me to open my call at Quickwater. But they were troopers and dug a fabulous trench in the pouring rain for hours anyways with me. Bless you.

Once we had finally thawed out and started to feel our fingers again, I drove the Fierce Felicia's over Teton Pass and into Jackson. We made a quick pit-stop at my house to drink Wyoming Water and grab blankets and dry hoodies then headed over to watch my high school's boy's soccer team play Worland. It was so weird to be back on that field and not in high school. But once a Bronc, always a Bronc. Then we came back to my house and met up with my family then ordered enough Pinky G's to feed all of Alaska. Then we were going to watch Brother Bear but my roomies were out before the title scene was even over. We are going to have to re-watch it sometime. 

 On Sunday, we went to my home ward and it was so funny to watch Allie, Abbey, and Ashly put names and stories to faces about all of the people in my hometown. After church, I decided that I was going to try one last time to show my roomies the Tetons (because they had been hiding under the clouds all weekend) and so I drove them out to Mormon Row but my mountains stayed in hiding. Thanks. But we just pretended you could see them and it worked the same. Mother Earth made up for it by having bison walk across the road right in front of my car on our way back though.

#jacksonhole in a photo

when you try to take photos in WY

Abbey is good at making animal friends

strike a pose

welcome to wyhomeing

jumping photos are always a necessity

so lucky to be randomly assigned to live with these peeps

I love Fish Stick and am so excited to live in the same room as her in a few days
(I love you Abbey)

Alaska+Anaheim

rush kappa delta

After lunch, we packed Henry up and headed back down to Logan for our last week and a half of school. I have no idea how I'm going to make it through Dead & Finals Week without thinking about Alaska. But I won't have to write another English paper or do another organic chemistry equation for 18 months so that will help a little bit. 

Go Aggies!

I'll be in the lib.

Love, Caitie 

(and the other Fierce Felicias)

Endure to the End [of this semester]

I wish that I had more exciting things to tell you about. I don't. I have been drowning in exams and papers and all this last minute stuff that professors are cramming into the last eighteen(ish) days of the semester. But hey, look how pretty the sunset was at the temple last Sunday. Allie and I have made the goal to do 200 names in the temple this semester and so we have gone just about every day in April and I love, love, love the Logan temple. 

I love the Fierce Felicias

I found this really awesome MormonAd for how I am feeling about the end of this semester (I know it's way cheesy but I don't care). Summer is so close but I am so ready to be done with due dates and word counts. I'm just going to steal the 2016 Youth Mutual theme scripture really quickly but it says, "wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the words of Christ, and ENDURE TO THE END, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life," -2 Nephi 31:20

Even though I was mentally done with this semester as soon as I came back from Disneyland, it's not over and I have to keep on keeping on. The finish line May 5th! It's so close and so much has to be completed between now and then but I'm going to make it because I can do hard things. There may be times that I stumble and fall on my face, but I know that Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ will be with me every step of the way cheering me on and I know that with their help, there is nothing that I can't do. Go team.

This week it was snowy and sunny and rainy and all this crazy weather so getting ready to go to campus was always a struggle in the morning like what am I supposed to wear today? Burks and shorts or a rain coat? It pretty much ended up with me wearing like nine layers on the bus, sweating by noon and taking most of them off because it had finally stopped raining or being crazy windy, then putting them all back on by two o'clock because it was snowing or something.

Jackie came to one of our classes together this week
That's a big deal people

yes, I carry around a jar of pb because it's the best snack
I don't need your judgement

On Friday night, Allie and Abbey and I dragged our mattresses out into the living room and decided to watch all of the High School Musicals in reverse order (watching Senior Year first) which was a sad throwback reality of how old I feel because those movies came out when I was in like fourth grade. Like ten years ago. And now I was watching them in my college dorm room like what the heck. To be honest, I will always have a crush on Troy Bolton and high school basketball.

Saturday morning, Allie and I went to a devotional that Al Fox Caraway spoke at and she was so funny. Something she said that I really loved was, "I want the whole world to know that there is happy,". I love that and I am so grateful for the blessing of the gospel in my life for the way that it has shaped and led my life. The church is so, so, so awesome people. If you want to know more, ask me because I would love to rave about it to you. I'm dead serious.

If you need me, I'll be in the library until May 5th. 

Food and snacks are much appreciated.

Thank you. Love, Caitie

Step Show & Salt Lake

On Friday night, all the Greeks had an annual event called "Step Show". It's where each of the Greek chapters performs a dance/step combination and compete against each other to win the trophy. In reality, it's a fundraiser event for the philanthropies of both the multicultural sorority and multicultural fraternity that are here on campus at Utah State and they raise a ton of money from it which is super cool. The overall theme of Step Show this year was movies and so for the Kappa Delta step, we decided that we wanted our movie to be "Rocky". We ended up taking second place (behind Pike- boo) but it looked pretty awesome so take a look...

Kappa Delta Beta Delta Step Show Team 2016

cutest family photo ever

I am so grateful for my Biggie and her continual love and support

On Saturday morning, I got up early and drove down to Salt Lake for Leo's baptism. And some free food. And my family was there too. And sometimes you just need to get out of Logan.

After Leo's baptism, we went to Paul & Holly's house for lunch. I told Lizzie Lou that there was no way that I wanted to see her take the biggest bite of her lunch that I had ever seen. So she shoved the whole brownie in her mouth. It was amazing.

Then we headed back at Grandma Charlotte's to pack up from my family's two week Spring Break adventure (see previous post for more about this) and then stopped by Hire's really quickly so we could get some Cherry Limeade before heading home. Hannah came in my car with me and my parents and Max drove ahead of us in the suburban and then we pulled over in Brigham City so that I could drop off Hannah to the rest of my family and then head back up to Utah State while everyone else went back home to Jackson.

It was so good to have a quick hour to hang out with Fish Stick and just talk to her and get the full low down on her life and all that's going on. I miss her. I miss talking to her in the morning on the drive home from seminary in town and in the hallway of the high school between classes. I miss late night chats about boys and adventures and summer plans. I just miss that chick.

When I got back to Logan, Ashly, my twin, a group of Kappa Delta's and I went to Delta Sig's luau party for a little bit and then decided it was way too cold and so Ashly and I went and got Wendy's Four for $4s (maybe for the second time in a row) and then went home and crashed.

I can't even tell you how many times Wendy's has saved me from a complete meltdown. It's a lot. I would highly recommend the Four for $4 with BBQ sauce. It's bomb.

Love, Caitie

(but I actually am

the Wendy's Wendy)