flashbacks.

pics i found on my cell phone...

the journalism women proclaim their love to Jordan Steele. 

three-legged monster pizza.

tiff and court take disgusting pics of themselves on my phone.

tiff and court try to make gordo stop being emo. 

brock reads a story. 

korey and i try to be attractive.

trevor, molly, and i sell ducks outside albertson's.

weekend.

{this weekend}
1.  Shayna came to Utah to check out USU and BYU.  I was very happy to see her :)  I showed her around campus and then Kaylene (Shayna's mom) took us to PF Chang's for lunch.  I didn't take any pics, so I thought I'd post these.  They make me incredibly happy--memories from last summer!

2.  I had way too much fun at "Good Earth," a health food store here in Provo.  Bought some things for my pantry.

3.  I recently read that Henry James developed what he described in one of his novels as the "practice of wondering and dawdling and gaping."  I'm pretty sure I'm also developing this practice, because I feel like I could spend all day just walking around, enjoying nature.  Sunday afternoon before the CES devotional, Dallas and I went for a walk.

God loves me.

Today has been wonderful so far, thanks to church.
 Yes, I love church. It is the most important part of my week. 

 Lately I've felt like I can't do anything right,
so today I felt peace as I was reminded of God's love for me.  

kenyon's mission call.

another friend just got his mission call.

Kenyon is going to the Johannesburg South Africa mission!

He leaves July 7th. 

He'll be learning 4 languages

and going to 3 countries.

He said, "Seriously, it's so Gnar."

And I agree.  I'm slightly jealous :)

-photo of Kenyon-

jordan's mission call.

Jordan just got his mission call!
On April 14th

He's going to Indianapolis, Indiana
to serve a two-year LDS mission.

-Which is sweet, cause when my family lived in Kentucky 

we were only five minutes from the Indiana border-

It's a pretty awesome place.

Congrats, Jordan! FH. haha.
You'll be an amazing missionary. 

{happy list}

When I'm feeling a little weird about life

I know it's time to make a happy list :D

-photo of sisters shalane & kaitlin-

Jenna’s Happy List

waking up early

picnics 

bicycles

holding babies

reading a book with a cat curled up beside me

workouts

fruit smoothies

love notes

the relief I feel after taking a test

farmers markets

fresh bread 

gardens

photographs

friendly people

hot weather

layin on the trampoline & looking at the stars
races

fhe olympics.

Mormons have this thing called "Family Home Evening," aka FHE, where every Monday night we spend time with our families.  We have a spiritual lesson and some kind of activity.  

Since we don't have our families here at college, we have our own FHE groups made up of students.  I love my group!  So much fun!  Last night we combined with another group and had "olympics"--competitions like rock/paper/ scissors, limbo, and sock wars.
Here's a video of the boys doing sock wars.
This makes me laugh so much. 

happy news.

Ohhh good things happened this weekend!  


1. I got a job! 
I'll be working at a frozen yogurt place called "Spoon It Up." 
2. My roommate, Mandi, GOT ENGAGED!
It happened Friday night.  We are very excited.  


Other than that, this weekend I did lots of homework and hung out with Ariel--we went to Brick Oven for dinner and watched BYU's Music Dance Theater Showcase afterward.  Hope you all had a good weekend! <3

Ariel at Brick Oven

towed.

Dallas lets me borrow his car sometimes.

Our apartment has been allotted two parking spaces.

And last night I parked Dallas’ car in one of those spaces. 

It got towed. 

I called parking enforcement and not-so-nicely explained that it’s MY parking spot!

The guy told me it didn’t matter if it was my spot, because my roommate called and asked him to tow it.  She hadn’t realized it was Dallas’ car.

We got the car back with a hefty fee.

Last night I cried about it.

Today I’m choosing to laugh about it. 

red and coop sing a song.

Cooper & Daniel serenade us from Jenna Carson on Vimeo.

green smoothies after yoga.

Tuesday and Thursday nights Dallas and I go to yoga and then drink green smoothies.  It’s the greatest.

dear valentine.

Dear Dream Man,

I don’t know where you are or what you’re doing, but I know you’re worth the wait.  You'll be glad to hear I’m not wasting my time with anyone else this Valentine’s Day.  

You don’t need to have massive muscles like Gerard Butler, you don’t need to buy me expensive things, you don’t need to be perfect; you just need to be the perfect one for me.  Oh, and it’d be cool if you like to run, drink green smoothies, and not eat a lot of meat.  But if you love meat I can probably live with that.  It’d also be really cool if you want to travel, learn different languages, and possibly join the Peace Corps :P  

Words to describe you (in no particular order) are: ambitious, motivated, hard-worker, kind, FUN, thoughtful, open-minded, loyal, honest, unique and (slightly) weird. 

One day we'll go to the temple together.  Perhaps we'll have a little cottage on the coast.  We'll plant a really big garden.  We'll have a cat and a dog.  We'll buy a grand piano.  We'll cook together, learn together, go hiking and running together, get a trampoline just so we can camp out under the stars, go dancing, leave love notes for each other, and so on. 

I can wait for you as long as it takes. In the meantime, I'm working really hard to become the best woman I can so that I can be your perfect Valentine someday.

Love,
Jenna  

thoughts at 2 in the morning

It’s really late—or maybe really early.  I have a 7 a.m. class in 5 hours.  I’ve been doing homework for my American Literary History class and still have a lot to read, but I felt like I needed to stop and write a few lines.

Lately I’ve felt so overwhelmed in life—but in the best sense of the word.  I want to live every bit of life and soak it all up and rejoice in it and thank God for it and share my happiness with everyone around me.  I’ve been having these liberating moments of peace.  I’ve been noticing the beauty around me.  I’ve been blessed with patience and understanding when I pray and when I take some time to just let my thoughts flow wherever they need to when I’m in the temple.  I’ve been noticing how God blesses me whenever I ask for His guidance and strength.  I love that Christ is in me and that I am in Him, and how we are all part of this HUGE plan that we can’t even begin to comprehend.  I love that God’s divinity is made manifest in all His creations.  How can anyone doubt Him?  Just look around; God is in the nature around us.  I feel his presence.  I can’t ask for anything more.          

This is a simple picture that might not seem like much, but when I took it, I was thinking about how life is about cherishing the simple moments when we can feel God’s love surround us.  Seeing the bright sunshine on the snow reminded me to step back and be amazed at His creations.  I take too much for granted. 

home for Christmas :D

I'm writing this post at home in Idaho :) Finals were last week and I'm  finished with my first semester at BYU! 

So many books! Writing a research paper. 

Classes I took this semester:

-ballet
-religion
-writing
-geography and world affairs
-history: world civilization to 1500
-sociology: current social problems

Best things about BYU:
*Living by the "honor code." Before coming to BYU, all students sign contracts in which they agree to live with integrity.  When you've got 30,000 kids on campus who are working to become better people and do what's right, amazing things happen.
*The campus.  It’s beautiful!  It's right in the mountains.
*Parties without drugs and alcohol. We have fun without getting messed up.
*The professors.  
*L&T.  It's this restaurant with the yummiest vegetarian wrap! Try a wheat wrap with spinach, black beans, craisins, feta cheese, tomatoes, water chestnuts, and poppy seed dressing.
*The Provo temple.  It's only a 30-minute walk.
*Diversity.  Students come from all over the world, so when you’re walking around campus you usually always hear different languages being spoken.
*Starting classes with a prayer. 
*The religion classes.  Every time I leave religion class, I'm determined to be more like Christ, I'm more thankful for everything I have, and I have a clearer perspective.  You have to go to one of these classes to understand.  Come visit and we'll go :)

Important things I've learned:
1. If I put God first in my life, everything will work out
2. It's better to study sooner than later
4. It's good to clean the apartment a little bit each day rather than doing big cleaning overhauls every few weeks haha
5. Grades aren't everything

Random pics from the last few months

landon is coming home!

Today is a HAPPY DAY! My best friend is coming home from his mission. He just spent two years in Lima, Peru.  I'm so proud of him for all his hard work and dedication. He is such a good example to me--he has so much faith.  Congrats on everything, Landon!  I'm excited to see you soon.

november 28: 19th birthday.

I started off my bday by cutting my hair.  (If you need a good salon, check out The Defining Line in Idaho Falls.)   I love changing my hair.  I had tried so hard to grow it out, but it just wasn't looking good.  So we did an A-line and made it kinda funky by leaving one of the sides longer than the other.

I got to celebrate my bday twice this year, one day with my family and another day with Shayna and Nicole. I got running shoes and Ed Hardy perfume from my parents. If you haven't smelled Ed Hardy (the pink kind!), you're missing out!

Shayna and Nicole spoiled me!  They're amazing friends, we're so close, and I miss them while I'm away at school.  We got dinner at Johnny Carinos and went shopping at Macy's and Zumiez (best store ever), and then we went to Nicole's house. Nicole is quite the chef--she made a delicious ice cream cake. Thanks, girl! We also hung out with Candice, Nicole's sister who I LOVE
cause she cracks me up and is just fun to be with.

Shayna, me, Nicole

Cake yummm :)

sisters.

My little sisters inspire me--they work so hard and are extremely talented.  I love hanging out with them and I love to tease them.  These pics makes me laugh :D I licked Shalane's face and she was pretty grossed out--check out her reaction :)

<3

happy thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving post is late, but I want to write it anyway, because Thanksgiving makes me so happy!  This year was my favorite Thanksgiving so far, probably because I got to go home and spend a week with my family.

We spent the day in my grandparent's cabin in Island Park, Idaho (place near Yellowstone) with my Aunt Sherry, Uncle Greg, and their kids--my awesome cousins! We were missing Chris and his family, Molly and her family, and all the rest of our family living far away, but it was so good to see some extended family :) It was a beautiful, snowy day.  We ate way too much (that lemon pie killed me), played lots of games and had a great time.

McCall and Eric on a walk

Making a "Sprite Ball"

I am thankful for so many things.  God has blessed me with everything I could ask for.  Lately I've been grateful for the challenges in life, because I feel like I'm learning so much from them.  They're making me stronger.  God is giving me the opportunity to fix my many weaknesses.  He loves me and is helping me become the person I need to be.

Knowing that I am God's child is the thing I'm most grateful for this Thanksgiving.  I am blessed to know who I am and where I'm going.  I feel lost sometimes, but in the end, I know I have a purpose and I know I have the truth.  I know that God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to atone and die for me so that someday I can return to live with them again.  I know we are loved more than we can imagine, and that as we turn to Christ, he will change and heal us.  He knows how we feel.

In my favorite scripture, Isaiah 53: 3-5, Isaiah wrote of Christ, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not.  Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

half marathon, halloween, swine flu.

I am a horrible blogger. Here's some news and pics:

Colleen and I ran the Provo Halloween Half Marathon! It was my first half and it was a lot of fun.

A few days after the race I got swine flu!  It was intense, but my roommates took good care of me. I think I watched more movies during that week alone than I had over the past 6 months put together.

The weirdo costume I ran in, completed with Underarmour

Waiting to get on the bus that took the runners into Provo Canyon.

Sweet velcro time chip.  Makes ya feel legit.

It was a beautiful, sunny day!

For Halloween, Ariel was Ophelia from Hamlet (fun idea, huh?!)

Colleen gave me her cat ears to wear.  We went to a party on campus.