Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Life Update

So I guess having internet in my apartment makes no difference on how often I post.  Haha.. whatever right?  So Update on my life. Not too much is new. We had our Christmas Choir concert on the 9th and 10th.  The performances went really well.. I didn't know any of the music for Institute Choir, which, along with my 18 credit schedule next semester, made me realize that I need to rely more on my presidency next semester!  The decorations for the concert were so good and everything went so well, especially the "pageantry" for the first song "Christmastime" (which I had to be a part of, I didn't even get the option, I was doing everything I could to get out of it and Brother Salmond made me participate anyway).  Oh and the CD is on iTunes so Kristen & Adam and Dad, you should listen to the clips and see if you like any of them... the Best songs are: "Christmastime", "Christmas Day", "The Hands That First Held Mary's Child", and "When Love Came Down"  They are mostly all good but those 4 are the best... oh and it's the same price to buy the album as a whole as it would be to buy each song separately so if you only like some of them don't buy the whole album!
What else... Oh yeah, Finals!

I only had to take ONE final, it was awesome. I had 2 classes that had finals: Principles of Information Systems (MIS) and Macro Economics(Econ).  I only had to take one because my Econ professor took all the points we had in the semester so far, added them all together, divided by 900 and multiplied by 100 to get a "proposed" grade on the final, which he then added into the points for the semester and that was our final class grade.  If we liked the computed score we could keep it and not take the final... and if we took the final we received whatever grade we scored regardless if it was less than the proposed grade... My proposed grade was a 99.6 on the final and a 996 as a final class grade. I decided not to risk it and take the guaranteed "A".  I ended the semester in MIS with an A- overall... so all in all a pretty awesome semester!

I'm excited for Christmas, I am going down to Arizona to spend it with my mom.

My next exciting endeavor after Christmas is going to be in March for Spring Break.  I am going to California with some of my friends (Sara, Jordan, Taylor, Maggie and Skot). We're going to Disneyland and a boardwalk amusement park for practically nothing... We're going to go to the beach and Sara said she'd teach me to surf!  I'm pretty stoked!

I just cleaned my room! I decided to rearrange my room at the end of the semester. I took the two beds that are in my room and pushed them together making myself quite a nice king size bed.  I moved my bureaus together against the opposite wall.. It's a pretty sweet set up. Anyway I have been living in a chaotic mess since rearranging it all so I decided it was time to clean it all up and reorganize! It's looks pretty good and the best part, I can find everything I need when I need it!

Anyway, that's about it in my life, nothing super new and exciting! I'll update in a bit but, for now, it's time to stop rambling and just say that I love you all and MERRY CHRISTMAS! TTFN!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Short Post

I know... it's hard to believe... but this will be a quick one. (I promise).  Last Monday I went to dinner with Kristin and Rich Gray, they were in Orem visiting her sister for the day (from Vegas, visiting her parents).  It was fun, I drove down we had dinner, with Pete Gray and one of Kristin's friends from Orem. I had a great Thanksgiving. I spent the day with Ashley and Brian Moulton along with Jeff Freeze and his sisters.  It was wonderful being around east coast friends again! I love my friends here in Utah, but there's something about not having to explain half of everything I say that is just so refreshing!  Anyway, I now officially have internet in my apartment. I am jumping on the guys' internet (from up stairs)... So I'll be able to post more... Okay that's it for now... I will update again in a day or so with a longer post! I hope all is well!  TTFN

Friday, November 18, 2011

Life

Hey all! Okay. So this week was interesting.  It started out okay. We recorded on Mon and Wed of this week in LDV.  I hate recording because I get so annoyed by everyone when they talk and when they don't pay attention to the music and they sing it wrong every time. Don't get me wrong, I am not perfect with our songs (by any stretch of the imagination) and I don't expect anyone else to be...but  learn to count!  Okay that's my rant on that!  Oh and we recorded in Institute Choir yesterday... that was an interesting experience for me.  It was so very different than other recording sessions both this year in LDV and last year in both choirs... I was freaking out a bit because we wasted a lot of time... we "finished" and hopefully it will sound good! Plus it was interesting because until yesterday I hadn't really had the opportunity to sing either of the songs that we recorded. We worked on them less recently and I was always busy doing "administrative" stuff... Pretty much I was busy organizing other things for the choir and never really got the opportunity to learn them!  It made me realize that I should probably assign myself a folder and take the music home to practice it!  

So Monday night I was able to register for all my classes for next semester but one, for which I had to take an English Usage Exam as a prerequisite.  I took the exam on Tuesday, passed it and was able to register for the class later Tuesday evening.  So I am officially registered for next semester, 18 credits!  I'm excited, people keep telling me I'm insane but 3 of the classes are math based 2 credits are gym classes and I need to fill my time so I put it to better use!  Plus I am really excited about my whole schedule next semester.. by no means is it a "walk in the park" but I like a bit of a challenge.

I've met with my Econ group once this week, we have another meeting today, to work on our "research paper" and hopefully we'll be able to finish up by the end of the weekend and hand it in on Tuesday for some extra credit... but only if it's a high quality paper by then!

I worked Tuesday and Wednesday so far this week. Work is going really well.. I am at a point (only a month in) where I feel like I am pretty comfortable with everything.  I should be getting some more hours during the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, because a lot of people are going home or have requested time off during those times.  So that will be nice.  I'm excited to have enough money to pay for my last rent payment!!!!

I FINALLY got my laundry done...I've been so busy (and I have to go to the Laundromat to get my laundry done) that I was literally running out of clothes, I had no real socks left, I was making things work... I'm not kidding it was ridiculous! It's finally all clean, now I just need to put it away! Haha.. that will be a project for Saturday morning I think!

I've decided that I need to stop trying to date for a while... I have been fairly unsuccessful as of late. I am just going to have fun and work and go to school, and I am going to just relax a bit.  If someone comes along I wont ignore them but I am done actively pursuing for the time, I need to relieve some stress and I think this is the biggest contributor currently!  Don't worry I haven't given up, I'm just taking it easy for a bit... I invest way too much emotionally into TRYING to date and I am just going to minimize that investment for a small while... Plus... I want to be pursued and I want to be wooed... and that's rarely the case... I usually put in way more effort than most girls have too and yield less results, so I am going to just chill for a bit!

Other than that...not too much has happened this week... I think I will try to update once a week with some of the highlights of the week and occasionally I will post during the week, when something big happens!  I'm sad that I don't get to go home for Christmas this year, and even more sad that I probably wont be able to come home until probably June the earliest, but I am excited for the new experiences it will open me up to!  I miss my friends and family back home, but I love my friends and "family" in Utah!  I hope everyone has a great week. TTFN!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Another post... you should be proud!

Hey all... So I don't have a ton to update but I figure if I get into the habit of updating more often... I'm pretty excited... I was invited to Thanksgiving at Ashley and Brian's House (in Heber) with a bunch of New England friends!  I'm stoked... Also, I had my last physical therapy appointment today; I have some exercises I need to do on my own but they felt I was doing well enough to not need anymore therapy. I'm procrastinating my Econ homework, I'll finish it before Econ tomorrow.. but I am so tired of reading the boring chapter... plus there is a bunch of noise going on around me and I can't concentrate! (ADD.... it's easy as 1..2..7)

I'm probably not going to sleep tonight...I want to register for classes right at midnight and I have a 6:30am Aerobics class... We'll see!  I have to talk to my academic adviser sometime this week (maybe Wednesday morning) and I have to take (and pass) an English Usage Exam tomorrow so I can register for one of my classes.

We recorded some of our songs in LDV today! It was awesome, I love recording. I get frustrated with the other people sometimes (cause they all talk to much) but I enjoy it regardless.

Oh my I need to do laundry... I have NO clothes left... I'm not even exaggerating... I am literally out of clothes!  Well I am done ranting for now.  I'll update in a few days/a week or so!  TTFN!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

I'm not dead, just busy

Hey All!  So I am terrible at this whole blogging thing... I should have known.  I've never been very good at keeping a written record of my happenings for very long (keeping a journal physical or online has never been a strength of mine) Anyway.  I don't even know what I posted last so this might be repetitive and if it is I am sorry!

 Okay so classes are going really well.. I actually really like my Economics class, who knew I would care about any of it... Those of you who know me know that I am a here and now person, I hate to look too far into the future and I hate to watch the news.  I'm pretty excited, we have a group project/paper that we are working on. We broke into groups of 10-13 people (my group has 13) and we have to research something, anything, happening currently and say how it affects us and the economy.  My group decided to research the 2012 elections/candidates.  So we split up into two groups, the researchers and the writers. I am a writer (to my family... would you ever have thought me to VOLUNTEER to do the writing for a research paper?) and so the researchers were all assigned specific candidates to research and the writers were all given specific issues to compile information about... So in essence the writers will look through the research for each candidate and pull out issue specific information to get each candidates view.  We haven't discussed this yet as a group, but I think it would be interesting to end the paper (if we can all agree) will our choice for a presidential candidate, or maybe if we had a split vote, we could give an economically convincing "argument" for each and end out paper that way... I'll bring it up at the next meeting and see what everyone thinks... Anyway, I will be writing 2 pages on Energy and how each candidate expects to help our country become self-sufficient in producing our own energy I know that sounds fascinating right? haha... It's okay, I told you I never thought I would be this excited about economics...
Anyway, So my MIS (management information systems) class is going really well too.  I don't really like the "lecture" portion of the class... I feel like my professor just talks to kill time sometimes, plus he's Japanese and can be, at times, difficult to understand so if you're not following along in the power point on your own computer it's easy to get lost.  I loved the HTML unit we did earlier in the semester. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I need to talk to my professor because I got a 98 on the assignment and it should be a 100. I was docked 2 points for not having a background, when I had a kick awesome background! It's sounds ridiculous but I worked super hard on mine and other people didn't put nearly as much effort in and got 100's... Also I just got docked a point on our latest Excel assignment for having my Amortization sheet slight off, but it was exact to how he had it in class so I need to talk to him about that too!  Other than that I am loving the Excel stuff we're doing... I have to come clean... I think I am becoming a computer nerd!

So, I really like being active and pushing my physical limits... I am in a gymnastics class and I am learning so much about my limitations and how most of them aren't physical!  Although, I haven't been able to participate much in the past few weeks. About 3 weeks ago I pulled something in my leg while doing round offs. I finally went to the clinic about a week and a half ago cause it was still bothering me when I tried to do any stretches and tried to lever into anything for class.  I had/have a medial quad strain.  I'm doing some physical therapy so I can get back to gymnastics...I was able to do some stretching the other day but it was still super tight and kind of sore trying to lever into even just a hand stand...  So hopefully 2 more visits and a ton more stretching on my part and I'll be pain free!

On a less scholastic note... work is going really well..I am enjoying it, even drive thru. Although they are having a competition right now at work to see who can get the most pre-orders in for pies and breads and such for the holidays and I am not very good at committing people to it when I have them in line... Plus.. I've had almost everyone tell me that they make their own breads and pies and such for the holidays, otherwise they would... Logan is a very homey place and people like to be domestic.  Anyway... Yeah I'm getting really comfortable with pretty much everything, there are still things I am learning and there will always be room for improvement, but I'm keeping up pretty well!

Last Friday (11/4/11) was a stellar day!  So I guess it kind of started Thursday night. After Latter-Day Voices (one of the Institute choirs I am in) a group of us went to Village Inn to hang out, then I went with my friend Sara to Kaysville to pick up a dress that she was planning to wear the next night (IWA dance, I'll elaborate in a min).  We didn't get home til like 1:30am and I fell asleep around 2.  Friday, 5AM, I woke up to get ready for a day of singing at Seminary. We were meeting at the Institute at 6:30 so I needed to be there by 6:15 to let people in with my gate key, which only gave me about an hour to get ready!  Then I was in Tremonton all day singing.. Such a spiritual experience!  Then I had to get back and get ready for the IWA (Institute Women's Association) Dance.  It was a semi formal girls choice dance.  The IMA and IWA are ending after this semester so they can focus more activities at the ward and stake level rather than sponsored by the institute.  So this was their last big dance/activity, they have a Christmas fireside and then they are done.  Anyway so I had asked a guy from LDV, Spencer, to go with me... I borrowed a dress from my roommate that looked killer on me.




Sara and I organized dinner for the group that we were part of, so I went  to Sara's to make spaghetti and get ready for the dance... After dinner we decided to go to Kneader's for dessert and then we headed to the dance. I had SUCH a great time... Spencer was a great date. He was spinning me around and teaching me all kinds of different dances (very patiently because I am a terrible follower!) and I just had such a good time with him.  Then we went back to Sara's to play games and Sara, Jordan, Spencer and I ended up talking until almost 3am... So it was a long but wonderful weekend... (pictures: top, obviously Spencer and I.  Left: Sara and Jordan.  Right: Maggie and Mike.  3 of the 5 couples in our dinner/dessert group)

I'm sorry this is so terribly long... I promise it is almost done... I just want you all to know how much I love and appreciate all of you... Particularly my family.  I love and miss you all so much much and I want you to know that I will be thinking about you all through Thanksgiving and Christmas and I hope you have a very wonderful holiday season!  Oh and exciting (maybe not for everyone else in Logan but for me) I just looked outside and it's snowing!!!! If you've made it this far, you deserve a prize and if you died before reaching the end I am sorry!  Love you... TTFN!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

October 23 2011

So I know not much can really happen in 2 days but I wanted to talk about my first day of work while it was still fresh in my mind.

I worked yesterday (Saturday 10/22/11), opening day, and let me just start off by saying that I was terrified when I went in for 3pm.  Not so much because I was scared that I couldn't do it, but more so that it would take me forever to get comfortable doing it.  Oh for those of you who don't know... I work at a Bakery Cafe called Kneaders.  I am a cashier.  Anyway, so I got to work, had to count my drawer to make sure it had the correct amount of starting money in it, and then I just jumped into taking people's orders!  The first hour or so I was still nervous and felt rough, but then I got into the swing of things.  Most everyone was understanding and nice, some people were a little impatient with me but no one was really mean or rude, which was great.  One of the owners stood behind me for a handful of transactions and then said that she was going to go do something else because I was doing great and didn't need her there!  The night went really well, I chatted with a few customers about more than just their meals, so I was already getting into the swing of the Kneaders atmosphere and I even signed some people up for Loyalty Cards!  I enjoyed it so much that I didn't realize when it was past 9pm... Finally, after realizing that I should have been heading home, one of the managers taught me how to close out and count my register (not that I needed to be shown how to count but that I needed to know the procedure Kneaders requires for closing/counting the register).  So he showed me how to fill out all the paperwork I needed and my register came out even (I was the only one that day who balanced) and I was over the goal for average transaction... I was a great night and I am so excited about this job.

Otherwise nothing else is really new... I will update again probably at the end of the week or if something really AMAZING happens!  I love you all! Toodles for now!

Friday, October 21, 2011

First Post

Alright... So I guess it was about time I created a blog. I mean, come on... my life is super fascinating!  Haha... Really though, I can be pretty lame at updating people with how my life is going and I figured this was the best solution.

So... Let's see what's new in my life.
I just got a great job, I'm a cashier at a Bakery Cafe.  I was hired at $8/hr. I've been to 3 days of "work" (orientation and 2 days of training) and I have already been given a raise!  I'm very excited!

What else... School is going really well. I am taking 5 classes this semester. Principles of Management Information Systems; Introduction to Economic Institutions, History and Principles; College Algebra; Aerobics; and Gymnastics. (sorry about the improper use of punctuation, but I wanted to easily avoid confusion of what my classes were and there were commas in one of the class titles)  I'm loving all of my classes and I am doing really well in all of them!  I especially love my gymnastics class.. I can almost do a back handspring... ME. Who would ever believe it?

I'm Institute choir president this year and loving my calling, I'm also in Latter-Day Voices!  I love choir!  Oh and I was asked to sing the National Anthem at a Gymnastics meet again this year! I'm super excited for that.

I am not dating anyone currently, but I am flirting with a lot of people... I have decided to just enjoy where I am at and not force anything either way. I don't want to say that I am trying to be single, but I am also not "trying to date"  I am going to let things happen naturally... I am not going to sit back like a lump and wait for something to happen, and I am not going to get myself down if I am not dating.  Sorry, that was really confusing... I am just going to chill out a bit and stop worrying so much about "dating", I can't force what isn't meant to be and I can stop what is!

So I think that is good for now... I will try to be somewhat diligent at updating my blog to keep you all in the know of my dealings and happenings! Toodles for now!