UPDATE.

Just a little update on my life.

My life has consisted of numerous hours of studying with mid-terms just around the corner. On top of that one of my communication teachers is the newspaper adviser, so whenever she needs help with stories assignments she offers them to students in my class. I've taken on 3. Last weeks was on Diversity Week and made the front page, this coming week was on peoples prospective of christmas and skipping over Thanksgiving, an opinion piece, and next week I will have a story on students favorite holiday treats and traditions. So I've been busy with the newspaper as well as classes.

That same teacher is offering scholarships for next semester for the newspaper staff. So I'm currently putting together a resume and portfolio of my photography hoping for a position as a staff photographer preferably sports photographer. I believe its pretty strong right now with letters of recommendations from both my intership with the standard examiner and my old photo teacher as well as my NCAA basketball pictures I took for the standard. Hopefully I'll get the scholarship.. CROSS YOUR FINGERS!

Being a part of; Polynesian Club, Service Club, The Crew, and the L.D.S.S.A (Latter Day Saint Student Association) I was able to be a part of Dixie State's biggest service project of the year. We went to Tuachan to pick up trash and decorate it with thousands of christmas lights. It was one of the funnest service projects at the coolest place... even though it was freezing.

I also last night went on one of the funnest double dates with Shannon. She got asked by this cutie she's been checking out, Zant, and gave me thirty minutes to find a date so I took my good friend Andy. We went to Vegas and rode the rollercoaster on top of the Stratosphere... so scary! Then went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and got to drive a Hummer H3!!

And that's pretty much how my life has been this last week. So enjoy the pictures. Oh ya and i forgot to put up halloween pictures so i included one of those as well. As well as a picture I took from the dorms of the amazing sunset.... and a picture of me voting for mom.

HIGH FIVES FOR SERVICE!

VEGAS... THE VIEW FROM THE VIEWING DOCK.. THEN YOU GO UP TEN MORE FLOORS TO THE ROLLERCOASTER THEN YOU GO UP 12 STORIES TO THE VERY VERY TOP!!!

AND THE ST GEORGE SUNSET...

Christmas!

With all this christmas talk these last couple days I've been thinking a lot about instead of what i want for christmas but what i need for christmas and here are the only four things i can think of... besides money and some giftcards.. (giftcards meaning to FOOD places so i can eat and have groceries lol.... clothing places would be cool too but not a must have.)

Here are the must have's in Samantha's life as a College Student:

NUMBER ONE

This is a MUST MUST MUST have!!!

A Nikon SLR D40 or D60 would work just as good.

D40 is cheaper...

I need this for next semester so i can take my photography classes

and for my scholarship for the Dixie Sun Newspaper... if i get it! CROSS UR FINGERS!!

NUMBER TWO!

This isn't really a must but I'd really apperciate and enjoy it...

Nixon Vega Watch...

Color choices are Emerald (like the picture) Brown, Turquoise, or white.

NUMBER THREE!

This again isn't a must but a "I'd like to have"
Its Ugg's Dakota Slippers..

I want ones that look just like this..

I'd even love fake ones!!!

and lastly...

NUMBER FOUR!

I know i wont be getting this but it is something that i really badly need...

a CAR!

any kind of car as long as it has four wheels and runs is perfect for me!

And thats my Christmas List... hopefully i'll get at least the camera and either 2 or 3 with it!!

More Pageant Pictures...

She's freaking funny"The Samanthas" aka Softball & Blondie

Me and Lacey

Amber.. she's my favorite

Sam (Queen), Natasha (Miss Dixie Spirit) Lacey (1st Attendent)

Shannon and I.. She was freaking out so bad and could barely move so i did her hair and make up for her... Doesnt it look good? haha

Everyone!

Left to Right

Shannon, Amber, Me, Sarah (last years Queen), Sam, Lacey, Jenny, Natasha

PAGEANT is Finally OVER!

So the pageant was awesome! I loved every minute of it but I'm so glad its over now and my life can be stress free. It was definitely an experience i'll remember forever. I have become pretty close friends with all of the girls and we still hang out.. they are all pretty awesome.

So... the pageant was last Tuesday and it was an all day thing! It started off with personal interviews-- I thought this would be the worse part... My interview was 3rd... and everyone was sittting outside the room freaking out thinking we'd be asked all kinds of polictical questions... Luckily during my turn i wasn't asked one thing about the World... I was asked about my platform which was Blood and Bone Marrow donations, about my dad, about my Talent which was Karate, sports, and about me wanting a jeep! It was so easy and that got my relaxed and pumped for the rest of the day.

Next we had a catered lunch on campus, funny part is i was scheduled to cater that event but got out of it and for once got to eat the yummy food instead of watching others eat it.

After the lunch we had 2 hours to do whatever before we had a last rehearsal of the performance...

That time was spent with me and shannon preparing our talent routines over and over until perfected and sneaking onto the stage to practice the opening dance..

For the performance it went as followed... We had the opening number in our little black dresses, the swim wear, talent, casual wear for on stage question, then lastly evening dresses.. It was all so fast that it was weird having 5 minutes to stand around with the girls back stage waiting for the judge pannel to tally up the scores...

First they called out Miss Dixie Spirit, then they announced 2 attendent which was Shannon, then 1st Attendent which was a shocker because everyone thought she would win but Lacey, then the rest of the girls and i stood there squeezing each others arms as they slowly announced Samantha... with a long pause then Cummings... which was the other Sam that was a Pageant girl... it was a total tease but she's an awesome girl and would make an awesome queen.

Here are some pictures....

Before the Personal Interviews..

Me and Natasha.. Aka Miss Dixie Spirit

Miss Dixie State College Pageant 2008

Yepp. That's right. I entered the Dixie State College Pageant for homecoming queen and a huge scholarship reward, if i win. I just recently attended the first meeting and surprisingly there are only a total of like 10-12 girls competing. I think I have a pretty good chance but who knows. The Director told us how the organization has teamed up with hair and make up and gold gyms to help us out for the next month to prepare for the competion. My Monday and Wed nights are going to be walking in heels for two hours practicing the different portions of the event. there are five different events... Talent (35%) everyone is musical and is either dancing or playing some kind of instrament and I'm going to be doing a Karate Demo with Board Breaks..hopefully that will help me stand out. Private Interview(25%) where i'll be interviewed by my chosen platform.. IF YOU HAVE AN IDEAS FOR A PLATFORM LET ME KNOW!! lol.. Even Wear(20%) where i'll wear one of my old prom dresses hopefully. Swimsuit (15%) which is the dreaded part.. walking around in a swimsuit in heels.. no boardshorts or wraps allowed... hmmm. and lastly On-Stage Interview (5%) to see how you handle pressure in front of an audience!!!

The pageant isn't until October 7th but we start preparing and getting ready on Monday!! I need to have my platform with service summary and all my resumes done and final by Sept 19th.. So if you have any ideas let me know!!!!

I also need help with some pictures... I need CUTE not embarassing pictures of my from the ages of 3-5, 12-14, 16-18, then a current picture thats not my headshot picture.. so if you have any let me know lol.

Wish me luck and let me know if you have any amazing ideas for platform/service summaries.. and pictures...

This is the picture i used for my entry resume... I need to crop it so i can use it as a head shot unless anyone can find me a better picture.... love you all!!!!!

Dixie State!

Wow! College. It's so much fun! I have the coolest classes with the funniest teachers. The first week of classes at Dixie is called WOW week. Each night they have a different activity planned to help the students get to know each other. Shannon and I took advantage of this and made some pretty cool friends from all over the place. On the first night Shannon and I got stopped walking to one of the wow week activities and was invited to play volleyball on the beach volleyball court on campus so we did that instead of watching Farris. Through playing volleyball we met Jason, Nick, Cody, Andy, Drew, Noah, Niko, Tara, Jen #1, Jen #2.. And since then Shannon and myself have been hanging out with them regularly. As well as our old friend Tristan from Ogden. These pictures are from the Karaoke corner from the Carnival Night...
And YES mom they are all LDS and are in our stake.

Shannon, Nick, ME

(Nick is from Alaska and is a singer/ guitar player with his own record album)

he's way good.

Here is Nick, Cody, and Jason cheering people on at Karaoke

Jason and Nick doing their amazing deuo of Taylor Swift

Then here are some pictures of my Dorm..

This is the bathroom... pretty basic, and ugly.

this is my desk before i organized everything. That door there is the one that connects us to our suitemates and the bathroom..

This is my lovely dorm room, Well my half of the bedroom. It the exact same on the other side mirror image with my roommate Karens stuff. She's on the wall with the door and I'm on the wall connected to the bathroom and our suitemates.

So that's college life so far.. I'll add more pictures of my other friends later when I take some. :)

Flashback!

Wow!! What a month this has been! I've been so busy going from one place to the next. The first adventure weekend of August was youth conference. The young men and women from my ward went to St George. We toured Fort Cove, the St George Temple, stayed in way nice condo's, chilled by the pool, and hiked the narrows at Zion's National Park! It was most definately one of the best youth conferences I've ever been to. Here's some pictures...





This is all the girls who came at Cove Fort.


This is Melinda and Brooke my awesome leaders saying goodnight to myself and shannon.




1/3 group shot hiking the narrows! You literally have to walk through water sometimes as high as your waist!
left to Right
Mary,Janae(she's my leader, tiny, and pregnant!) Hannah, Rachel, Shannon (my BFF) and ME!





I stepped aside from being the leader of the group for a little bit to take pictures of us hiking!

There were so many of these random holes in the walls, so I had to take a picture!

This is Fred. He likes cherry twizzlers, and he is my friend. He actually took food from my hand. sat on my lap and followed me when we left. I miss fred.

Shannon and I bored on the guided bus ride to the trail head... He pointed out everything to us even a random bird in the sky and an insect that hit the windsheild!

A Change in Plans

Yepp. That's right a change in plans. A huge change in plans. Today at church my old sanday school teacher approached me and told me his sister was in need of a Nanny because she is a teacher for the Ogden School District and needed someone to help take care of her three kids. Me loving kids thought this would be a great opportunity. There's one little girl Kindergarden age, a two year old little boy and a little 6 month old baby boy. The hours are really reasonable with pretty good pay. Doing this I will be able to stay home and be around my family, work, and be able to take a couple night classes at weber state and have the weekends off to do my own thing. I would also be saving a ton of money. I'm excited to start calling and around to transfer my financial aid to Weber State and informing Dixie State of my decision tomorrow. Although I'm sad to not being going to sunny st george and happy to still be at home with snow covered mountains! :)

Oh yeah, and today is my brother's birthday... And I can't wait for him and Taylor to move to Ogden and go to the same school as my brother... weird.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!

Joining the Gang!

Whats up?!? I guess I decided to join your guys blogging gang so I have a way to keep in touch with everyone while I'm away at college. Uhh. I decided to go to Dixie State in St George. I'm very excited. I leave in twenty days and am no where near being ready to leave as far as packing. I'll be majoring in Mass Communications in hopes of landing a job in photojournalism. I really want to one day get a job with Sports Illustrated of National Geographics but thats far in the future. I am extremely eager to finally get down there and meet my roommates I've been communicating with via email and facebook. They seem way cool and I think we will all get along great! At the moment I'm trying to convince my mom to let me get a motor scooter like a vespa... all is welcome to help convince her! haha. I think it would be a great CHEAP and easy way to get around a small college town between classes and work.. And I'm doing everything I can to make these last couple days in Ogden with my friends awesome!