Washington Winter

Most things fly south for the winter. I, on the other hand, flew about 1000 miles to come home to beautiful Washington to spend my month long Christmas break. I am about half-way through break now, and I am having a lovely time! Don't want this to be too long, so I am just going to say 5 things I am enjoying so far.

1. FAR AWAY FROM SUU. Really, that place is determined to suck the soul out of any creature it comes into contact with. Yes, your summer is lovely, your classes are small, and your landscape is pretty. But I feel dead there.

2. With my wonderful family! Love them so much! I feel like I have missed so much, being as far away as I am. It's nice to be attending a family ward again, sitting next to my family :)

3. I got AWESOME gifts. Okay, this is shallow- I know. But really, I got some cool toys! Santa brought me an GPS that is the greatest thing I never knew I wanted! My Mom spent a lot of time picking out gifts and things she knew I would like while my Dad was gone doing some army training, and I found that very sweet! My little sister got me the cutest case for my phone, older sister got me a FANTASTIC history book I have been wanting, and my parents worked really hard to make this a wonderful Christmas for us all! I will have to give some more detailed reviews of my toys later, cuzz I LOVE EM!

4. Being with my Boyyyyfriiieenddd :):) (awwwww). Eric has done a lot to make this break awesome! Normally, we are 900 somethin miles apart, so we don't get to go on dates or anything. It is great to spend time with him. Right now he is away on a family vacation (BOOO), and that is way lamer than our normal long distance because I am home in washington without my buddy! He will be home again soon in a few days to celebrate his birthday, so that will be nice! Just trying not to wish my break away until then!

5. Workin' Out! Sounds silly, but it is great to be able to work out with fun people! We have the Kinect for xbox 360, and have been playing some fitness games there in addition to ZUMBAAA which I have been doing with some family :)

I will update again soon! <3

Holiday Hassles

So, I will begin this post by mentioning that the title of this post has nothing to do with my up-coming trip home for thanksgiving. Let me take a moment to talk about that:

Monday, I am driving up to Provo, UT after my classes and spending the night with my sister. Tuesday morning My sister, her boyfriend, and I are all heading back to the Northwest. I can't even tell you how excited I am. Each minute that goes by feels like an hour!!! I am excited for food and everything, but I am just more excited to see everybody! I have a huge extended family and I will get to see a lot of them, also I will get to see my mom and little sister who I haven't seen in a few months! As my mom always says though, "You are just going to want to be with Eriiiic". Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am, I plan on it.

Here is where the holiday woes come it- Christmas Break. Many of you have probably seen that video and blog post about the man who had problems with the TSA pat-down and full body scanner. And many of you may be saying that this is all stupid and he should have just done it and blah blah blah. But guess what, this is my blog, and I can say what I want!

Full body scanners just use x-ray to be able to see past your clothes to reveal if there are any objects on your body.



woman on left, back and front of a man on right

 As you can see, the shape of the entire body is revealed. I actually blacked out part of the man, as you can see, because it was just really not appropriate. Effectively, the machines serve as a strip search.
So anyways, both Las Vegas and SEATAC airports (which I am flying out of in December) have added the Full-Body Scanner XRay machines. So instead of getting nervous about the fact that in 5 days, I will be with the coolest, best, cutest, nicest guy in the whole world, I am getting nervous about my full body scan! SeaTac had metal dectectors for a short while when the new machines were released, but they had plans to get rid of them soon. Las Vegas seems to have ditched the metal detectors all together (as of 2009). Awesome.

I already hate flying. Let me make that clear. I am hoping that maybe seeing my family will be a big enough deal that I won't worry so much about the flight itself, but really, I hate it. I have even looked into those classes where they teach you how to not be scared of flying, but the idea behind most of them is "submersion", where you just fly extremely often. Silly psychologists, the more I fly, the more I increase my chances of dying.

Now, in addition to pre-flight jitters, I have to keep hitting up the gym so the creepy TSA guy behind the desk doesn't vomit when I go through. AND even more stressful, I have to working my butt off at the gym at the same time I am working my butt off doing finals :(

I do joke about presenting a "good image", but in all seriousness, I have always believed that each person's body is special, and I think its a big deal to trust and love someone enough to share it with them. I do feel a little bit like I am throwing all that away to go on a stupid flight. Thanks government, for making me hate you.

Why My Life is Awesome.

Like seriously, it is.

I turned in an assignment today. Alright, I know that isn't anything spectacular, but life wasn't always like that!

I am almost completely positive I will have a 4.0 this semester. I have been a little unsure about my astronomy lab because there is this assignment where we have to take pictures of the sunset, and usually my life is too busy for that. However, after doing some math, I think I could still land an A in the class. And if not, a 3.9 isn't too shabby either :)

I found out my Education in Society final is just a group discussion. Best part? Show up for 100%!

My laundry is allll folded and put away. It took forever. I did two hugely oversized loads of laundry yesterday, and I put it all away today!

My room is clean. Yes. That means vacuumed too. I CAN BREATHE AGAIN!

I wore my new snow boots today. Seriously, everyone I passed said I looked cute. How kind :) And Eric, for your information, they were all girls. No one to punch today :P

I made the most delicious sandwich for lunch today. Hearty wheat bread, turkey, cheddar cheese, jalapenos, lettuce, cucumbers, and onions, all toasted to perfection.

I see everybody in 16 days! And when I think about it, its practically 15. Which is basically 14. And that means two weeks!!!

I got a 98% on an english assignment today. She wrote "good argument" and "great defense" all over the paper. Yeaaa babyyy. Freshman in advanced writing riiiight here :)

I got to talk to my cool boyfriend for quite a bit. Self explanitory :)

------+------

Tomorrow I have institute (talking about Israel and Palestine) and astronomy (Time to learn about Saturn!), and then I am guessing I will relax a little. I will try to take my sunset picture tomorrow, then I can post it and show you guys the beauty :P

Gentlemen's Intermission

In a recent episode of 30 Rock, Liz Lemon's dad decides to take a break from all his responsiblities and act way dumb and creepy. Though I am not a man, nor have I been acting creepy, (not going to deny the dumb...) I HAVE taken a huge break from my blogging "responsibility". Though all of you do not care about this, apparently it is an outlet for my stress, worries, and frustrations, so I don't end up killing people.

So here goes.

I wish it would snow. I do. People here in Utah start to hate the snow because they see it so often. But guys, I just bought the cutest boots. I need it to snow so I can use them. :(

Yesterday night we started watching "The Last Song" where Miley Cyrus plays the classic angsty teenager who is sure her family doesn't love her because parents broke up, but everything is better when she meets a hot, single, rich guy who works at an aquarium and volunteers in his free time. Of course, another bratty teenage girl attempts to break up there 2 hour relationship by talking smack to Miley and Mr. Right. But don't worry, Mr. Right and Miley's relationship is based of a deep friendship that extends far beyond the 5 minutes they talked to each other.

Yesterday, I also made a Giant Chocolate Truffle. Its way delicious.

I am pretty much really wanting to travel abroad right now. I am taking a theology class from the LDS institute that is about world religions, and today we talked a lot about the middle east. I know its like scary, and I would probably get shot, but you know, I have never been fond of living in one place. Actually I pretty much hate it. My ideal life would involve moving every 6 months (however this isn't really condusive to a teaching career....). Unfortunately, because I live in the middle of absolutely nowhere, in the smallest college town ever invented, I have a 1% opportunity of ever doing anything awesome ever again. Get. Me. Out. Of. Here.

I am sounding really cynical today. I apologize. This doesn't make for good reading.

Basically though, I have been spending money like crazy. Seriously. Not as crazy as some people, and at least I have the money to spend, but I really hate it. Makes me feel like a failure :( And its weird, because its not like me going on a shopping spree, its just 10 bucks here, 5 there. And then I was really sick so I had to buy all this medicine. Idk. I just feel like I will never be able to afford rent, a new car, paying off school loans, and eating when I live my life as an old maid in 3 years.

AND on top of all of that, these teaching thing is difficult. I really want to get into some History classes or something cool just so I can be passionate about SOMETHING.

And people here are totally weird. This guy like....was weird today. And I do not like it.

Also, like you guys all know, I am going into Secondary Education. But like. I hate this. Because to do what I think I want to do, I have to work really hard. But then if I change what I want to teach, all of those credits go towards nothing, and I become a semester behind.

I really think I would be good at a lot of things. I would be a good teacher. But I would also be a good buisness person. Or a good cook. Or a nutritionist. Or a decorator. Or heck, I would be darn good at flippin' burgers at McDonalds. So what is the point. I can work hard for 4 years, doing what I thought I loved and then turn out to hate it, or I could go to school for 2 years and make practically the same amount of money elsewhere, or I could just not go to school at all, have enough money to get by, and that'd be the end of it.

I think like school administration would be cool. But guess what, that takes 8 years. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! And I could always go back to school later or something, but then I wont be a young and cool principal. I will be old and annoying like every other principal on earth.

I miss my puppy :(

Happy Halloween!

Today, room 206 had a blast!

Best Buds Carving Pumpkins!

Family and Friends of 206 :D

All of our pumpkins! Mine's a cat :)

 After carving pumpkins all of us (minus a few girls who decided they wanted to sleep soundly tonight) watched "What Lies Beneath". Um. It was scary guys. Honestly, I screamed. It is nice in a way because it resolves at the end, but now all of my senses are way heightened.

Apparently I wasn't the only one! Some of my roomies decided to have a sleep over together! We moved all of our beds in the living room and we are just chillin, watching some happy tv, and trying to be reassured by all of our long distance boyfriends :) Our other roommate said she was going to make pancakes tomorrow morning. Can't wait! :D

In other news, I made a pork roast and wild rice today. It was pretty exciting to be cooking this big piece of meat. I felt very official! I made sure not to wait until I was super hungry to cook, but unfortunately after the first HOUR I got hungry! I had made rice, which was supposed to take about 20 minutes, in the last half hour, but it turned out that the roast took an hour and a half. Hungry, I just started to eat the rice. Then I had a plum. Then some crackers. And then I wasn't hungry when the roast came out! I tried a little piece, but I just packed the rest up and put it in the fridge. Tasted good though! Thanks for all the advice, Mom!

So I have always been a little competitive.

And God has blessed me with roommates who share that quality. :P

A few days ago, we recieved a flyer for a door decorating contest for Halloween! You were allowed to go all out and decorate the outside of your door for all of Eccles C (floor 2 :D) to see. The winners are rewarded with a free Bowling Night with our R.A. (and our besssttt friend) Karlee!

Here was the competition :)

And here is us :)

We made little cut-outs like ghosts, bats, pumpkins, bones and tombstones to write our names and cute little messages on!

Roomie #4's neighbor gave her this cute ghost to decorate with! It's eyes and mouth light up!

I made that!

The best part- this all cost us under 10 dollars. We had so much fun decorating together. It was a long day, and there is nothing like a craft project to lighten the mood :)

In other news, I made homemade mac and cheese with Eric's recipe today. It was way good, but not as good as his. :(

<3

Flaws.

"What are they? Oh I dunno, I sing in the shower? Sometimes I spend too much time volunteering. Occasionally I'll hit someone with my car. So sue me. No, don't sue me. That is opposite the point I am trying to make." -Michael Scott (The Office)

There are a few vices I have. I decided to dedicate a post to them.

1. Deseret Book.

Not only can I spend like...hours in that store and not get bored, I am also the most tempted to spend money in there. They have perfect gifts for like...everyone (I mean, who can say they don't like some spiritually based gift you got them?), and also, its really easy for me to convince myself that something is worth the (generally over-priced) expense when it is going to aid my spiritual growth. I am basically Deseret Book's target audience. After all, I spent 45 minutes looking at CTR rings today.

2. Baking Things.

It sounds harmless until you realize that the harder things are to bake, the more weird (and expensive) the products to make them are. That's why I am kind of stuck. My roommates are pretty sick of chocolate chip cookies by now, but I am sure my boyfriend still wants some. :) I am feeding my love for cooking with my new shopping plan though. Now I make every dinner fresh. Gives me the opportunity to experiment, and I am starting to learn a lot of cool things.

3. Cleaning.

No. Don't get excited. This is seriously one of the worst things on the list. First of all, I like to clean my way, which makes anyone who asks me to clean very frustrated. Secondly, I can no longer function in a mess. Before I cook, I have to do the dishes, clean the counters-- everything, before I can even read a recipe. If my laundry is crazy, I have to tend to it before I start homework, and before I go to bed I need to do a quick clean up of everything. I feel so much better when everything is clean, but it sure makes it difficult when I want to be lazy!

4. Weird Candy.

I am all over it. Whenever you see movie theater candy that you are pretty sure no one would like, I probably love it. I love Halloween because Candy Corn is readily available (yum) and Sweedish Fish are the bomb. I just finished off a box of Red Hot's. I usually can't eat much in one sitting, but if its around, it will get eaten. Yum :D

5. Talking on the Phone.

As my Dad pointed out the other day, his side of the family isn't big on the phone talking. However, talking on the phone makes me feel very important. Whenever I am talking on the phone, I feel extremely grown up. I am pretty sure I have felt this way forever, as I was always offering to make my Mom's primary president phone calls for her. I still love it. I wish I had to call people more often. Right now I just call my family, and Eric. They probably wish I had other people to call too.

No pictures this time, but I do have to use this time to thank my parents for all the treats they sent me in the mail! Super fudgy brownies, cookies, candy corn, the cutest card ever, and all my mail from back home! I picked it up on the way to institute, and before my class started, everyone was asking me who loved me enough to send me stuff! I am sort of learning that taking a package around is like in elementary school when you get an invitation to a party during class and you are supposed to hide it so no one gets jealous or tries to pull your hair. Thanks guys!

Yummy Yummy Yummy I Got Food in my Tummy!

After a few months in college, I have really started to miss some real meals. I eat very well, but I was sick of microwaving all my food, and I wanted some nice big sandwiches and things with lots of veggies :) When I went shopping yesterday, I got all fresh foods! Nothing frozen. I was so excited. When I got home I immediately organized all my vegetables, and chopped parts of them up for easy food making. While I was doing this, I realized I could make some fresh picco de gallo-- so I went at it.

First, I chopped Onions, Cilantro, Tomatoes, and Green Peppers

I used to work at taco time when where we would make our own recipe. I pretty much used this same recipe, however, I didn't have chili powder or anything to give it a kick, so I actually put a little medium salsa (pureed) in it. Probably like a quarter cup, not much at all, just enough to coat all the vegetables.

Then I added really finely chopped jalapenos, and that was it! :)



YUM!

Then today, I made some steak!

First, I melted butter, mixed with vegetable oil, added Mrs. Dash's Garlic Herbs and Spices mix, and finely chopped a clove of Garlic.



I used this mix to sear the meat (which was a 1/3 of a Rib Eye Roast, for those of you who care)

To sear, I placed my oil mixture in the pan on High, and placed the meat in once it looked hot. I seared each side for about 2 minutes. One problem I ran into was that my garlic burned in the frying pan. The meat got so much flavor from it that I would hate to omit it during this process. I ended up just kinda shaking it off the meat before I put it in the oven so it would look nice. Anyone have suggestions on how to fix this problem for next time? I dont really know what I am doing.

Then I put it in the oven (Broil on High worked very well) about five minutes on each side. I then turned the oven off and let it stay in there while I finished making my mashed potatoes and gravy so it would stay warm. I think this probably ended up cooking for the equivalent of about 2 minutes on High. When I got it out, it was Medium Well, and ABSOLUTELY perfect.

Here was the final product! It turned out SOOOO delicious. I personally wanted to cut up my steak into small pieces for presentation sake, but it looked beautiful as one piece as well. It was soooo juicy. It was Eric's idea to sear it, and I think that is what kept it so flavorful. This was really easy, and the meat itself was pretty cheap. I got about a pound of it at the grocery store for 5 dollars, and that is enough for 3 meals for me. Awesome!

Tomorrow is Sunday so Roomie #4 is making dinner (Chicken Tortilla Soup! Yummmm :D ) and monday, I am making a Quesadilla for dinner. I am excited :)

Can't leave without saying a quick thing about my grocery shopping. I was trying really hard to stick to a budget, so as I crossed things off the list, I wrote the price and at the end of my shopping I totalled it up. I was a few bucks under so I decided to "reward" myself. How did I do this? I allowed myself to buy two types of cheeses. Haven't been this happy in a while. :) haha

Advil PM.

Pros of Advil PM:
You put Eric right to sleep.

Cons of Advil PM:
You put Eric right to sleep.

I had a lot more typed out that I wanted to say, but I don't know how to say it. I just miss him. Not really just when he is sleeping either. Life is kinda hard without seeing your best friend.

Anyways. I got 132% on a test today. How crazy is that?

I also got my car fixed. Everyone was really nice, and it wasn't an expensive fix at all. I noticed when I was pulling out of a parking spot today a little liquid was on the ground. I didn't check to see if it was oil or water from the air conditioner. I will have to check on that tomorrow. If it is oil, I will have to drop it off again so they can fix that, but its fairly likely it is just condensation.

I went to see the social network today. Fantastic movie. I totally loved it. I would recommend it. Parents don't seem to get it, but I think the stories of the actual people who created something I love to use every day are really interesting. Part of that is because the people are actually really cool, unlike the guy who invented the toaster. He probably isn't as cool.
.....and one of the guys in it was totally rockin'

I know its really late. I just had to get a few emotions out. haha
I hope everyone has pleasant dreams :)

Wednesday Night = Party Night

I want to just start in the verrrrryyyy beginning of the night. What on Earth would have gotten 3 teenage girls so hyper?

It all started with one room.

In my appartment-style dorm, we have one space that all of us (6 girls!) share together. That is our kitchen and living room area. We often hang out in the mornings here, and spend our evenings together watching NCIS, Law and Order, Teen Mom, or any chick flick we snag for red box to have a girls night together.

Yet recently, there seeems to be a little discrepancy with the furniture. Though some liked the furniture against the walls, other roommates seemed to prefer the furniture moved into some sort of half-circle. I am not one to give my opinion, so I won't tell you how much I absolutely hated this new setup.

Every morning for the past week, I have gotten my workout moving the furniture back to the position I liked it at. Only to have to do it again after lunch, and one more time around dinner. I was not the only one to move it to its original position, believe me, I had allies. I almost wish we had a camera in there so we could watch everyone move the furniture all around that week.

At around 9:10pm, we decided enough was enough. Me and two other roomies decided a new layout for the room, hoping it would please both those who enjoy the perpindicular setup and the half circle setup. It's like designing for the sexes, except we are all girls.

So, here is the final room! We got the approval of all of our roomies, and I look forward to not having to do any more rearranging!

After redoing the room, we decided we had a lot more energy to spend. Roomie #5 said she wanted ice cream. Roomie #4 said she wanted french fries. And I metioned I could go for some sweet cuppin cakes. Deviously we planned how we would spend our evening. NO ONE WOULD BE DENIED OF THEIR DESIRED TREAT. While I stayed home making cupcakes, the other two girls went and got 2 large curly fries, and 1 large french fry. Though Roomie #4 decided against gettin ice cream, we did just have some the other day...

Roomies with all the fries and Ketchup :D





Magically Delicious!




Roomies + Friend :D

 Roomie #4 said "this is our freshman 15 right here", but I would like to point out that we all go to the gym all the time and when we do get around to eating, we generally eat healthy. We can afford a caloric splurge :P

Now, don't forget. During this whole time, I was making cupcakes. I have to show you what I did...

Basically, I never got a cupcake pan. My mother told me that most of the time, cupcakes will turn out alright when you just set the papers on a regular pan. In general, I actually don't think this would be so bad. The foil ones managed to keep their shape nicely. I think the problem I ran into though, was using the high-altitude recipe, which calls for you to add flour to the mix. This made it quite a bit denser than regular cupcake batter, so it kinda cooked flat in the papers...



The COOLEST RA EVERRR :)



Nevertheless, they were a crowd favorite.

In all of the partying, one thing went unnoticed. Roomate #5 and I had locked ourselves our of our room. It generally costs ten dollars to get your room unlocked. Totally sucks. So, my roomie calls the On Call R.A. to come and unlock us. To our joy, a guy answered the phone. Now, we are all taken young women, but desperate times call for desperate measures. He knocked on the door wearing too-tight Mtn Dew Pajama Pants and all. We decided we most certainly wouldn't flirt with him, but we would offer him several cupcakes. Once we did so, he said "Are you bribing me?" And we all nodded. It seemed to be working, but roomie #4 told him she liked his pants. I think that is what really what helped our case.

The only problem was, that after he unlocked our door, he seemed to think he was invited to the party. He said "You girls are too cute" and would not leaavvveeeee. He even started to go out the door, and came back just to smile. Poor thing. Probably thinks we offered him baked goods because we liked him.

Summary of the night:

French Fries: 6 dollars

Frosting, Cup Cakes, and Cup Cake Papers: 8 dollars

Getting locked out of your room: Priceless.

Mix It Up.

This past little while has pretty much been a mix of several things:

Yesterday
-Sent Eric cookies :)

-ANOTHER 100% on astronomy. Shyeeeaaa.

-Went to a city council meeting for my Education in Society class with my roomie. It was way hot in there so we got out as soon as possible and went to Dairy Queen. Delish.

- I found 6 bucks in my coat pocket, which was seriously like the coolest thing ever.

-Went to astronomy lab. My teacher said I was funny, which is good. I didn't do so well on my moon journal this week (because it's so cloudy...and a new moon...sooo....) so I didn't necessarily score lots of points on that, but I turned in my 12-Hr moon watch info, and he said it was "beautiful". Hopefully all the other A's will even out my moon journal failure for the week.

-Watched Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmere's with Eric

THENNNN today:
-Woke up and totally pwned the crud out of my Education in Society test. Suhhweetttt.

-Got a letter from Eric :D

-Called Eric on the phone. I woke him up. After talking for a few minutes, he suggested it was time to take a nap. Lazy :P I did try to sleep for a little bit, but then I got bored and watched some good ol' television.

-Went to the dark room and developed an AWESOME photo. So much fun, I will definitely go again. This is the awesome picture of the moon I developed all by myself!

 I included my feet and the textbook in this picture so you can see how big the moon photo is. I will definitely go again!

-Went to English class where I wrote a letter to Eric. We were learning about paragraphing, which after peer reviewing some kids essay, I decided it was a necessary lesson for them, but I kiiinndaa know that paragraphs have to have one (and only one) point. The great thing is, because that class is so miserably long, I had pllleeennnttttyyyyy of time to pay attention to the other bazillion power point slides.

-For my english class I am preparing a exploratory paper towards the media's use of rhetoric to create bias. After a few recommendations from my daddy, I decided to hit up the library. There are soooooo many books that I found that talk about media bias. I decided I would just look at the first 6 on my list, and choose which ones fit best. I wasn't sure how many books I could check out at one time, so I didn't want to get every single book I had listed. I had only been on the research and study floor, so I was soooo excited to see what the actually library floor was. I walked through the door and seriously, had the most nerdy, magical experience ever. There are huge picture windows everywhere, different types of study tables. They have rooms that you can actually reserve if you want private study time, or you can sit in the main part of the library. They have little places on each aisle to put books you took off the shelf, and the whole place is just silent. I can't wait to go again tomorrow to get more books :P

(And, not to mention. The school has this reeeaaallyyyy cool automated self check-out that even prints you a receipt to tell you when each book is due!)

-After my amazing library experience, I set up a meeting with the Education advisor to talk about my minor. I have a few questions about endorsements vs. certification. I also added Psychology, Political Science, and Sociology to my list of potential minors. My goal is to have another subject to teach. I am a little worried that I wouldn't be good enough at something to teach it, but Eric always assures me that I can do anything, I just should choose what I like. Thanks for the support, E (:

-The rest of the day was puuuree fun. My two roomies and I went to wingers and had the beeessttt food ever, and then we went to Walmart. SOOO much fun.

As you can see, we found particular entertainment in the Halloween costume aisle. We are planning on renting some movies, carving pumpkins, and having some buddies over. We want to decorate our little home soon. Hopefully I can convince the girls to dress up a little :)

My roommate just came to tell me that there was ice cream in the freezer. Yea. I live in Zion, baby.

Crafty Weekend: Mooning, Booties, and Treats :)

This weekend, I have mostly been glued to the wonderful (but long) LDS General Conference. For me, sitting down and devoting 8 hours to the tv sounded hard, just because I felt like it was a lot of time that I couldn't do anything else. Though I never was much of a busy-body at home, now that I don't have a job here at college, I find I have tons of energy to expend. So here is what I have been up to :)

For astronomy, I had to finalize my sketches of the moon I did a few weeks ago. At home, acrylic paint and paint brushes are easily found, so it took me back a little when I realized I had to go art-supply shopping! After working for quite a while, this is what I had!



Here is the basic background of the project. It has the mountainous horizonm, and then the sky. Because my project needs to display time, you can see the normal sky in the daylight on the left, slowly changing to night on the right. Fun!




During this picture I was still working on the sky. This is my cute little work area. My little set of acrylics and my make-shift paint palette. Now that I think about it, probably not the best idea to have my laptop and phone there next to all the paints. Crisis averted.





Here is the finished result. It's not 100% perfect, but I think that gives it charater. I had fun :)



This morning, I made cinammon rolls! I know that's not a great creative accomplishment because they were just from a tube, but you know what? It was fun. They taste delicious! The brand I got only has 140 calories a serving, so I didn't feel so bad when I had two for breakfast :P Making cinnamon rolls for conference was a tradition growing up, and it has remained one of my favorites! I wasn't brave enough to wake up early and make the recipie my mom uses, but maybe by the time the next conference rolls around I will have tried it by then and I can make them.

While I was listening to conference today, I was crocheting. I picked up a huge thing of cheapo yarn and a cute little hook from Walmart yesterday, and I had been playing around with it. I got to thinking that I actually wanted to do something cool with it, and here is what I did.

I was looking online at charities for crocheted or knitted items, and I one of these things caught my eye: Baby booties! There are several charities that collect baby hats, jackets, or baby booties to give to mothers who cannot afford it, premature babies who have to stay in the hospital, or babies who get sick and also have to stay in the hospital. The thought of a little baby having little ice-cube feet made me so sad, so I decided I would take on the project and make a couple pairs to send to a local charity.

My one problem was, I really don't know how to crochet. I had never learned much as a kid, only enough to make little squares for my barbies that had holes big enough for them to fit their heads through. So I decided, I just needed an easy little step by step pattern

I found this website http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/bevsbooties2.html for these ADORABLE baby booties!

The only problem was, even though the steps were so basic, I didn't know ANY of the stitches. So, I went to youtube and found Teresa's Step By Step, How To crocheting videos! They helped SOOO much. I now know so many more stitches and making the baby booties was fun, not frustrating.

Here was the beginnings of my first booty. The stitches you use make it curl like that so it actually WANTS to be shoe-shaped

Here I was stitching up the first booty. It's pretty skiwampus, but it was a great start



Here is Booty #1 Completed




Here is the very top of the booty that goes around the ankle. I learned to do a little ruffle to put at the top. It says that the ruffles are only for girl babies, but I think a manly baby would appreciate them too. Can't imagine donating the booties without this cute little ruffle!




This is booty #2. It is a lot tighter looking than the first. I think that comes with practice. I folded over the stitching for the picture so you could tell what it was. In this picture, I still had a row to do of the ankle, the ruffles, and I still had to stitch it closed.




Here is the final product!

 Booty #1 (on the left) looks weird. You can see from the photo that the ankle size is much too large and the booty is kinda twisted. I am not sure how that happened, but it must have been a mistake because my second booty (on the right) looks very nice. I will definitely redo booty-#1 before I donate, I just wanted to show my progess! I am thinking I will add little bows like the website pic shows, but I would rather do that with ribbon, rather than yarn that will fray.

I think crocheting could become a nice hobby for me. I am never patient enough to work hard on something that is mine, but I would love to be able to give crocheted gifts or donations.

I am thinking I will make a little somethin'-somethin' out of my cookbook tonight. I made cookies from Nestle Dough a few days ago, but I really want to actually make something! Here I go!

Little Ol' Me

After seeing a few family members follow in Funky Junk's footsteps and introduce themselves for the link up party, I thought I would play along too :)

Who I Am.

I am:

A determined college student, trying to keep my 4.0

A stubborn conservative who knows that socialism just doesn't work

A hard worker who works almost as hard to spend money as I do to make it

A little nut-case who loves to goof off with friends

A daughter of two amazing parents

A sister to two gorgeous young women

A girlfriend to one of the luckiest guys on the planet :P

And I am a follower of Christ.

Where I Live.

I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world: Southern Utah

This is my stomping ground

And this is my home!

I am so lucky to live in my apartment style dorm with 5 of the most amazing girls in the world. We are all crazy college students who listen to Eminem when we feel scandalous, and go to Walmart when we want to partyyyy :)

My Favorite Room.

My favorite room in my whole house is my bedroom. This was taken before I really settled in, but since then I have had a great time adding my own personal touches. This is where I read and study for hours, call my family, and have long-distance date nights watching House or Community over Hulu.

I share my room with another student from California, and we get along very well. My room isn't at all private or a place where I go to be alone, but I always feel relaxed cozied up in my bed :)

What I like to DIY.

I am a certified Zumba instructor, and I love to dance my heart out.

On good days, I spend hours choreographing and pumping the music!

Yes, I am aware this is super nerdy, but I love to make projects and things that help me get organized. This is a chore chart I made a month or so ago for my roommates and I. I suppose what my hobbie is, is to make daunting things seem fun.

I also love to create study tools. I never did well in school when I was a kid, but I think part of that was I never made effort to make myself enjoy it. I look forward to teaching so I can help kids  learn in ways that work for them.

One other thing I really love to do is play around with digital art. In the past I have made many handouts, school projects, desktop backrounds, and facebook pics all using Microsoft's Digital Image Suite. I have never really enjoyed sitting down to sketch with a pencil and paper, or painting things to give as gifts, but I love using colors, filters, and other computer effects :)

Here I had fun messing with saturation, shadows, and color, all to make things more interesting.

  

Talents I Wish I Had.

I absolutely love music, but I wish I were better at it. I wish I could play piano like Chopin, play the guitar like an ace, and sing like those amazing women on braodway. The truth is, I feel like these are all things that I have already developed at least a little talent in. The one talent I really wish I had, was being able to do or fix anything on the computer. Though having the smartest computer guy in the world for a father makes life easy, and does put my tech knowledge ahead of some of the other students out there, there is still so much I don't understand!

Why Blog?

At the very beginning, I started my blog so I could let other people know what I was up to while I was 1000 miles away from my old home. Now, my blog is so much more. I like to express myself. I like to write the silly and stupid things down so that months or years from now, I can look back and remember how amazing my life is. To me, what I write in my blog is proof that I am blessed. I could never ask for a better support system, a better school, or better college experiences.

Life is Beautiful :)