College: Books Don't Have to Break the Bank

Obviously, school is a BIG part of my life now. It's also huge for a lot of you guys! But college is expensive. I'm currently attending one of the most inexpensive schools (for the "payout") in the west, and it's still breaking the bank. One of the biggest expenses, as we all know, is the hundreds of dollars every semester we spend on books. Renting books is definitely the way to go, and CampusBookRentals is the place to do it. I've heard about campusbookrentals.com from a lot of different people, but you guys really need to check it out.
Why?

1. You can save anywhere from 40-90% off of bookstore prices! For example, I bought my biology book for $100 USED ($150 full price), I found it on the site for $60. 
2. FREE shipping both ways (when you rent it and return it)
3. Highlight? Yes, please. Hint- Annotating textbooks is one of the easiest ways to check comprehension. Do it.
4. They donate to Operation Smile (More info here)

Really, it's a no brainer.

                

However, the absolute coolest thing, is Rent Back.

So, instead of selling your books back for TONS less than you bought them, you can rent them out and make way more money.

All you do, is send your book to CampusBookRentals, a student rents it, and you get paid. THEN, they send it back to CampusBookRentals, another student rents it, and you get paid again. And again and again until it runs out of juice and gets sold.

It's easy to do and the site itself is incredibly user friendly. Quite frankly, I don't see a downside.

It's already midterms, so it's a great time to start thinking about your textbook plans for next semester. Our book lists DON'T have to cost a lot, and hey, let's make money on the books we already have!

Catch-up

I hate catch-up posts...Mostly because there's only a few blogs I follow that I really want to know what they've been up to. However, when we write our blog posts, I think it's important to remember who we write them for. Sometimes we write them for "sponsors." Sometimes we write them for ourselves to feel good or pretty or popular. Often times we write them to the world, because we feel impassioned about something, and we want (or need) to share it. But no matter who we write to, there's always people that are close to us that read it all.

And that's why we write catch-up posts. (for this kind of blog anyway)

School: I'm doing very well in school, and Taylor is also. We got this :) Also, after attending both BYU and USU, I have to say that they are pretty much equal. Anything USU lacks, BYU probably has and vice versa (however you say that). I definitely like USU better,  but I'm sure I'm biased.

That being said, we have some school pride. Taylor, actually, has a ton of school pride.

• Games:

Our packed stadium

We camped out in the freezing weather for good seats to the game.

We rocked it on the kiss cam :)

• Choir:

I had fun at my first choir concert (despite every girl feeling like our boobs were falling out of our rather low-cut dresses)

My face is covered...but I'm the second from the left on the second row

Work: Like many poor college students, we work too. Taylor works a lot for comcast, and I work graveyards doing custodial at the University. Glamour jobs? No. But we are very very thankful to have them.

Church: Our ward is excellent! Everyone is very inviting, and we have already made a lot of friends. We also dominated the weird hat competition at our first ward activity and won a $25 giftcard to 4 different restaurants! We also shot pumpkins at a car..oh so fun.

We won!

The car didn't stand a chance

Dates: We try to still make time for dates with our busy schedules, and of course, we dress up for them.

I felt so cute, I had to share :)

He's so hot. I know. And manly too!

College Kids

We're finally full on college kids! After a couple of weeks of school, I've learned that I'm a much better student married. I'm suddenly more mature... I don't know when it happened, but it certainly did! My acting class is nerve racking, of course, but really fun. It's always nice to have a couple of classes where almost any classmate is a potential good friend. I had an impromptu audition for a couple of student directors yesterday, and I did pretty well. At least, I think I did. My choir audition went well also. It was just an audition for parts, but somehow getting into the first soprano section with a "I wish I could sing that high" from my director shot my confidence up. It's been years since I've sang with a choir, but I still have my range. Personal victory? Absolutely.

I still don't know what I want to major in. English, Theater, and Vocal Performance are all swirling around in my head; each one squealing "Pick me! Pick me!" And then there's the annoying voice of Mr. Double Major that I'm trying very hard to ignore. Less than a year ago I was absolutely sure that I was going to be a Math Ed. major, but that little guy is nowhere to be found in my head now.

We're still figuring out this new life of ours. I have two interviews today and one tomorrow. I just need one part-time job! You guys, Subway didn't call me back. Subway. Although, I could tell the interviewer wasn't all too impressed with my religious affiliation. I'll blame it on that.

Fall is a time of change. The leaves change, sure, but don't lives seem to always change around fall? School creeps in, work becomes real, summer fun is over. This year, we're welcoming the change.

Logan

We live in a studio apartment. A tiny little thing about a five minute walk from campus. Its wall-to-wall carpeting dyes our feet dark dark blue. The bathroom, also carpeted, has a light that makes a buzzing sound after about 30 seconds that could drive a deaf man insane. Two of the four walls are made of painted cinder block. Our microwave balances perfectly in the middle of a bookshelf, because we don't have any counter space. Not true. We have about 10 inches of counter space. We don't use the A/C because it smells funny and we don't want to pay the high utilities. Our nightstand is a TV stand with an old rose table cloth on top. And our car usually starts on the second try.

I don't think I could possibly be more grateful for my life. This life. This tiny apartment, breaking car, and wonderful wonderful, well, everything. I feel like I'm in a movie! One of those girls with big dreams and a small living space. Only, I get an amazing man too! I feel awesome.

 I'm so grateful for this working computer that my sister sold to us at a discounted price! I'm grateful for the groceries my grandma surprised us with as a parting gift. I'm grateful for the July girl "days" out with my Mother-in-law. I'm grateful for my guitar, that I don't play nearly often enough. I'm grateful for my friends that I don't see nearly enough.  I'm grateful for my husband and his hard-working attitude. I'm grateful for this tiny apartment. It's adorable and it's perfect. 

In five days, we will have been married for one year. Children are in the far future, and we are living in what I think is the best marriage around. Of course, I'm a little biased. We didn't come from secure, or even "normal," families, but who cares? We are so lucky to be loved and to love both of our families, happily! Even those that would rather be contentious, we don't have any ill will towards. It feels good to know how lucky we are. In-law trouble is not in our book! 

But I'm grateful that, for the most part, we're doing this on our own. I'm grateful for our ability, and the necessity, to stretch a dollar. Even if it's taken us a while to really get it down. I'm incredibly grateful that we can happily live somewhere that others would never even consider stepping into. I'm so thankful that we have been blessed with the perspective of life that we have. 

I'm not an allstar blogger. I don't always get back to people quickly, I don't post every week, and I am not a good button swapper. (I blog like I text. Forgetfully.) I've been blogging for over a year and I don't have a gazillion followers. But I'm proud of the ones I do have. And I wish I could meet them all in real life. (The few I have met are pretty amazing!) I, like many of us, don't want to be the blogger that conforms with this made-up blogger mentality. Some of us forget that not all blogs are crafting, or fashion, or lifestyle, or cooking blogs. Some blogs are just...blogs. Places to record or share ideas. You don't have to be pretty, or have a sidebar with a million buttons, or pay to gain followers. There are blogs out there where people just share ideas. They just type up their beliefs. Many don't use made-up words, or weird phrases and excessive exclamation points/font changes. But many do. And it doesn't matter if they do or don't. They're expressing themselves. Their real selves. Because they don't care if that the number on their sidebar stays at "3" or "15" or "125" or "1,000," they just write. I'm not that blogger. Or at least I wasn't. And although I would say, as many of us have, that I hate the number game and I don't want to care about my follower count anymore... I still did. 

But now?

I asked myself why I wanted that number to grow. Do I want to get paid to blog? No. I don't want to write reviews, and put ads up, and write when I don't want to so that I can get a tiny paycheck or a free tote bag. Do I want blogger friends? Yes...I guess. But I don't want my 1,000 closest friends to be people without faces. Do I want to see myself as popular? Not when more than half my "followers" just followed me for exposure or a free..whatever. I guess I want followers so that I feel validated. So that I can feel like what I do or write or think is...cool? But when I look back on my blog, it's not even me that wrote most of these posts. It's some girl that probably wrote a post on fitness using exclamation points and smiley faces when she was thinking about how scary school is to her and frowning the whole time. 

I guess what I'm getting at is that I wanna live like no one else. I like my corner of the internet. I probably really like yours! But if I wanna be like every other blog in this blogging world I planted myself in, then I should probably do everything they do. Remind me what's so great about being just like everyone else? If I wanna be like everyone else after I graduate (debt...and nice things), then I should live like them now! But I don't want that.

If you want to live like no one else, then you have to live like no one else. 

It's weird that this post turned into a post about blogging.

..and that I wrote it at 2am. 

I like it.  

Here We Go

In 16 days, we will be Aggies! In 10 days, Taylor starts his job. And in 5 days, we move up to our little bitty apartment in Logan!

There's carpet in the bathroom. You guys. THE BATHROOM! But hey, I'll only ever need to vacuum! 

We will be Loganite Aggies! All that's left is to get me a job! We're pretty strapped until the day after our anniversary, but that's okay. I'm excited to be grounded somewhere, and to have a ward that we can work with the Bishop consistently and get us in that pretty Logan temple :) Once we move up to Logan, we will have moved 4 times in 4 months. Provo to California to Oregon to Provo to Logan.
We're currently sleeping on two twin air mattresses squished together in my grandmother's "playroom." It's quite the cramped living space. But it's nice to spend time with family.

 My Okie mom came home yesterday! She wears cowboy boots now and she says "y'all" a lot. I haven't seen her since November! She's also very small and tan, she used to be not as small and very very white. In the past year, she's done a lot of crazy Oklahoma'ey/red necky things. And last night, my mom went to bed in her boyfriend's shirt... Am I weird for being uncomfortable, yet very interested in this boyfriend of my 45-year-old mother that I have never met?

We've also been able to spend time with some friends! Preggo friends! Two of my good friends are expecting. It's so exciting! Although, I'm not at all baby hungry, just excited for their babies!

My grandma is redoing her entire kitchen while we stay here. I just told her I was going to blog about her kitchen remodeling, and she said "What kitchen?"

It's pretty gutted.

In conclusion, my life got a little crazy, but I couldn't be more grateful for it. :)

The Charm of Portland

Portland is very quirky, and I love it. It makes for interesting dates and adventurous nights! Last night was no exception.

Taylor surprised me with a movie date at a theater with some Portland charm. We waited in line outside where a girl with purple hair complimented my shoes and proceeded to scream at every car that drove by. But hey, I'll take the compliment!

 We finally got to the ticket booth and asked for two tickets to The Great Gatsby (1 buck!). The lady promptly asked us for our IDs. At first I thought that maybe she had misunderstood us. As far as I knew, The Great Gatsby is only PG13. She seemed to interpret our quizzical looks and explained that it was 21 and over 'cause it was booze night. Lemme tell ya, there's nothing better than watching a movie with a whole bunch of buzzed adults. Everything  was funny.

Oh gosh I love my man, and I love this town. 

I'm a Southern Girl...Oh Wait, I'm not.

Why wasn't I born in the South? My mom lives in Oklahoma, isn't that enough for me to be considered a Southern Girl? No? Well...I love rodeos, and cowboy boots, and NASCAR, and I say "ain't" all the time, and I can easily slip into an accent, is that enough?

Of course, anyone actually from the South would call me a "poser" or something of the like. They might even say that I'm trying much too hard. But I can't help it! The title Southern Bell sounds so desirable, and my family is pretty hickish. No, really!...only a step away from becoming like the family in Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration.

Taylor and I might go to Texas one day, and maybe we'll even stay there and I can be that southern bell!

 Now that I have left Utah and experienced living away just a tiny lil' bit, I feel different. Like a different Nikole. This summer hasn't been all butterflies and ice cream, it's been hard. But it has been such an awesome adventure, and it isn't even over yet! We have learned so much, and now I feel a little more empowered to just go do it. Whatever it is.

So, let's move to Texas, or live in a 200 sqft apartment, or stay in Mexico for a year, or learn a new skill, or anything. We can do it!

I guess it's weird for me to feel like we could do anything in the whole world just because we've survived a hard month, but whatever. I'll take it.