Sometimes it's hard...

Have you ever felt like you had no control over your emotions/reactions? Well, I felt that way today at work! I felt like I had no choice as to how I was reacting to this horrible prompt (standardized test question) that we're scoring right now. I was getting angry at the students and their ability to come up with methods we still hadn't seen that are bogus or confusing, and I was very impatient with my readers (scorers) who were asking questions, and angry at the way we have to score it because it contradicts itself, and it's a horrible and horribly written question! I felt behind in my duties as the person in charge, and it brought me very close to yelling/snapping, and/or crying! It was terrible!

When I had a moment, I had to walk away for a few minutes, which kept me from bursting. During my first break, I sought to be alone. And in desperation, I texted a very good old friend with whom I very sporadically correspond. He used to always be able to make me laugh instead of cry whenever i was frustrated. So I asked him to send me something funny if he had a minute. He sent me a sentimental text instead--which had the potential to send me into a fit of tears afterall, but it did make me feel better!

By the last half of the day I was in a much lighter mood, and able to laugh and be patient. Thank goodness God is so good! I know it was He who changed my heart and helped me to be able to look at it differently. I cognitively knew even in the morning that I can choose my own attitude. But man, it was tough! I'm not sure why it was so hard, but I will be praying again that tomorrow I will be able to be positive all day long! I know that with the help of the Lord I can be chipper and positive all day, and that can rub off on my readers, and we can make it through this item in better spirits. We have at least 3 more days--most likely 4 more days on it! Worst prompt ever!

But I am so grateful for the Lord's tender mercies that truly are over all of us!

The Last Two Weeks, Comin' Up!

If there are any of you who missed it on facebook, I PASSED my Thesis Defense on Thursday!!

I still have a boatload of edits and rewriting to do on it! (They really probably could've failed me.) So I've got a couple weeks to fix it and get it ready to turn into the Graduate School November 16th! I might be getting an extension of a week, but we'll see what they say. Gah!! I can't believe it is so close. I felt very relieved when it was done. Whew. Big step.

It wouldn't be quite so bad, but I'm working down in Longmont scoring standardized tests, 3rd grade math, and I'm gone from 7-5! So that's most of the day. So I really shouldn't be typing this right now either, haha.

Well, send me lots of motivation and focus. :D

Concrete Motivation

I am definitely not a good picture blogger as of late--someday I'll post some pictures on here too.

But for now, this'll have to do. I am supposed to have my Thesis Defense next Thursday. Which, if you don't know, it's a big deal! It is what determines whether I get my Master's degree or not. Eek. Scary. I do not have a single slide made for it, and I just don't care about my thesis, which is a bad thing because I have to for another couple weeks. Then I, maybe, can decide not to care about it, pretty much ever again.

I have a number of things I have not allowed myself to do until I have my Thesis done and into the grad school. These are supposed to serve as motivation for me to work and finish. I have not written or typed an actual list, so I thought I'd take this little bit of time before choir tonight to compile that list, so that it's written and will hopefully clear my head so that I can focus on my current most urgent task!

1. Read The Hunger Games (trilogy) & watch the movie

2. Read The Hobbit--before the midnight showing, which I will attend!

3. Begin watching Dr. Who--I gotta find out what it's all about

4. Watch the new Sherlock Holmes BBC TV series

5. Watch the BBC Merlin TV series

6. Eat my Cadbury Creme Egg that's in my freezer

7. Watch Lark Rise to Candleford

8. Play FreeCell, Bejeweled, or Tetris

9. Buy Cafe Rio the next time I'm in FoCo or Denver

How could I forget?!

10. DO A PUZZLE!!!!

Well, I think that's a pretty good list--a bit outta control. There were a couple other things that honestly should've been on that list, but I already broke it and did them. So too late now. K, that's a pretty good list of 10 things I really want to do! So this is a good thing. Wish me luck. I think I'll make it pretty clear when I finally do finish...so, we'll be in touch. ;)

Prayers Needed

Well, it sure has been a while. I always do that. None of the interviews I had back in June have worked out. & I had a few more that didn't work out either. Then right at the beginning of August, American Income Life offered me a job to be a Life Insurance Agent for them. No cold calls. Anyway, I felt I had no other choice. No one else had offered me a job!

So I started an 'online' course to learn everything about life insurance (who knew there was so much to learn?!). I hate studying for it (no surprise), it has been really hard for me to retain all of the details! It's crazy. & frustrating. But it has sorta been getting better.

I have still been sending in my resume when job opportunities pop up. Well, it paid off on Monday, RFI Ingredients in Loveland (19.4 miles away, not bad!), called me for an interview. So I had one this morning! I really do prefer the idea of a steady 8-5 M-F job where you know what your paycheck is, and you go in and come home. Sigh.

One of the coolest parts of this job, is that if they decide to hire me, I will get to go to New York for a week of training! Umm, yes, thank you I'm totally available to go! ;)

So...I would greatly appreciate all of your prayers in my behalf, that they choose me for the job!! I'm tired of studying about life insurance. & I found it hard to concentrate on that today. I should hear about this job, hopefully by Tuesday next week. She had some more interviews, and I think is done on Monday with that process. So I was one of the first ones. Gosh, I hope that she wants me. I know I don't have the experience they'd prefer, but someone's gotta take a chance on me!! :/

Thank you all!! The more faith, the better.

I just might have a problem...

So...I have a 1st interview tomorrow at Leprino Foods, and I got a 2nd interview with RegWest for next Tuesday morning. So that's extremely exciting.

And my professor still hasn't read my thesis, which I sent him the first copy back in April, and he hasn't read a lick of it (apparently). Sigh. Makes me think I won't be able to meet the July 6th deadline. We'll see. I suppose it's still technically possible. :/ My other committee members are being awesome, and are willing to help me out more than they really are required, which is pretty great.

I have plenty to do with my job hunt and thesis...and what have I spent far too much time doing?! Watching video blogs on YouTube. Yes, vlogs that people I don't know have made...

I may be borderline obsessed right now. Whew, at least it's just borderline? I am behind on almost all of my real (irl=in real life) friends blogs. But somehow, I just haven't pulled them up (it's mostly those of you having them private, because I have to pull it up to see if you've posted), because I feed compelled to watch 'just one more' YouTube video. Somehow that's a more appealing alternative than reading about my friends who I know. Sigh.

Anyhow, it's been fun, but I think I need to stop watching so many of the old ones, and maybe I can mostly just watch the new videos as they come out.

The main vloggers that take up most of my YouTube watching time are the vlogbrothers, Hank and John Green. I flip flop on which is my favorite, and have subscribed to some of their other channels on YouTube as well. I think my favorite really is John though. Their 'Lizzie Bennet Diaries' are pretty funny too. I've been enjoying them. Between all of them, I know I've spent a few hours watching their videos. So...I decided I might as well blog.

I do really wish that some of my friends would start some video blogging, it'd be awesome!! I'd love to watch videos from people I know, and I know some pretty great and funny people. I'd love April, Michelle, Christy, Chloe, Ryan, Ashley, Bryn, Nicole, Brittney, Jamie, Vanessa, Mary, Joan (to name only a few!)...to start a video blog! It'd be so much fun! I would totally watch it, and I bet you'd get other subscribers too. So much fun. Then I would keep up on your lives even better! Awesome.

Anyway, if you have a little time to kill, I thought I'd post 2 of my favorite vlogbrothers videos. Well, this first is just a FAQ video, but it's a good starter since they've been making videos since 2007.

 How to Become a Nerdfighter: FAQ

Aren't they just awesome?!? I love the way they film, and the way they talk, and most of what they say.

This next one is one of my favorites, though the one that has probably my favorite line is, I think, in the video after this one in my vlog playlist on youtube (username:caroljoyath2o), "Love and Romance Questions ANSWERED."

So, if you will, enjoy!

Harry Potter Nerds Win at Life

DFTBA!!!

Job Interview--Eeek!!

Well, I'm heading to bed hopefully much sooner than later. I finally had to succumb to the fact that I have a cold. Ugh. I hate being on cold medicine, it makes me feel so draggy and heavy-headed? Anyway, not pleasant but preferable to the alternative. I guess.

In case you didn't see on facebook, I have a job interview first thing in the morning! It's entry level lab work. So in a way I'm sorta over-qualified for it, but I just need experience, and want a job, and specifically, one in Greeley, which it is. It's ~6.6 miles from my house, much more appealing than a commute to Fort Collins or Denver!! We'll see.

It's Warren Laboratories, http://www.warrenlab.com/index.html. Which is a food safety and nutritional labeling laboratory that "specializes in all your food microbiology needs, as well as nutritional labeling, shelf life studies, allergen testing, and various other chemical analyses."

I don't know much about the tests that are listed on their site, but I'm willing to learn, and I feel really excited about this job! Which I didn't expect. So I think, as my friend Anna believes, it means something.

I hope I feel this good about it after the interview--and more importantly, that they feel as good about me!!

In addition to that--Vanessa comes tomorrow!!! She's flying into Denver tomorrow, then we're driving to Utah Thursday for Michelle Rotar's wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly stand it!!! It's gonna be awesome!

Sorry it's been so long. I'm crazy.

A Spewage of Thoughts

I just felt like I needed a venue to release some of the thoughts in my head. For those of you who don’t know, I’m trying to finish up my Thesis to turn it in on November 11^th! In case you didn’t realize it’s October 12^th, you know may deduce that my time is extremely limited!

I’ve started to feel close to a mental breakdown today. Sigh. And I’m trying not to be. The past few Sundays, I’ve hoped to get a blog post written, but have been busy with lots of things (I actually tidied up my room so you can walk this last).

If I don’t finish this semester (and it has to be turned in by November 11^th to the Grad School to graduate), then I have to pay tuition for a credit. Granted it’s only $455, that’s still $455 I don’t have! Sigh. And I just want to have it done and behind me. I think there are a lot of reasons why I hate it so much and am having a hard time doing it. But perhaps largest is that I don’t know what I want to do when I’m done, so I don’t have anything specific I plan to use a Master’s degree in Chemistry for. It’s all sad, and could be depressing if I were to dwell on it.

But I’m still happy overall, and positive about life of course! It’s only another month afterall. You can do anything for a month!! But there is an inordinate amount of work that still needs to be done, and a whole lot of writing that’s going to have to almost magically happen. I’m trying really hard to keep perspective.

I’ve been careful not to leave the Lord out of my life (not like I could ever truly leave Him out—He’s always going to be there). I continue to start everyday in the scriptures! I’m still making my way through the New Testament and am right on target to read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of the year starting September 1^st. And reading a column of El Libro de Mormon (in Spanish) everyday. I even have managed to go to my Institute classes. And of course I’m not doing any school work on the Sabbath. I know that, only in putting the Lord first, will I be able to accomplish anything. I know that with the help of my Savior, Jesus Christ, that I can do anything. Even finish this ominous, pressing degree.

Anyhow, just wanted to get those thoughts out, I do feel ever so slightly better already.

Keep praying for me, I know your prayers help!

Is this a problem?

As I drove back into town Saturday night I stopped at the grocery store to get sandwich fixins, see what fruit/veggie they had on sale, & check out the day-old rack. I was pretty happy to see that grapes were on sale for $1/lb! I'm typically pretty wary of purchasing grapes because I'm quite picky about them, a bit of a grape snob if you will.

But they luckily looked pretty good, so I chose a bag (hoping it'd be the ticket) and bought it. It was Fast Sunday though, so I didn't get to start in on them until last night. But I was very pleasantly surprised. They were delicious & I probably ate half of them last night!!

I'm trying to keep myself from finishing them off today, but am considering it, justifying it by stopping to get more today so I can also freeze some for future smoothies...

hmm...all of a sudden I just can't get enough grapes...

(My grapes probably didn't look quite this good...but I liked this picture!)

I'm still alive!

I've been sad that I haven't posted on my blog in SOO incredibly long! I always want to do a long meaningful post. Especially, most importantly, post fun pictures of all the things my life's busy with. Sigh.
But alas, I never make the time to do it. So I was sitting on my couch eating a little lunch this beautiful Saturday before heading out to go play a little Ultimate Frisbee (which I'm finding I can actually enjoy--who'd've thought it was possible?!), & thought I might as well post a little something.

I think it's safe to assume that any of you still reading my blog (more specifically this picture-less blog), do know (or assume) that I am alive because you're also on facebook. But I still thought this could be a good transitional blog post.

So, yes, I am alive. I've even found some motivation (of sorts) to actually be doing my research towards my Masters degree. Sigh. That's been, seriously, the bane of my existence for the past, oh gosh, two years of my life! I still don't know what exactly I want to do whenever I manage to finish this degree and feel that I've validated the past four years of my life here in Greeley. But something'll work out, right?! That's what I keep telling myself.

I'm loving life, being very busy, and trying to stay cool here in Greality, CO! Too many things to do and people to be with constantly. I love it! Summer's actually been quite beautiful so far, and I'm loving the opportunities I've had to be in various bodies of water--awesome!

K, I oughta be heading out to play a little Ultimate (or at least watch) now...maybe I'll post a "real" picture-ful post sometime sooner than ~7.5ish months! Haha.

Signing out for now.

Wee Post

I was walking to switch my laundry earlier tonight in the dark across my parking lot. I love this 'cold' Fall weather, and I just thought it was beautiful outside. But for some reason the short jaunt made me wish I had someone to take a walk with.

This is all.

The Lord's hand IS in my life--& YOURS!

I really need to go to sleep. But I've just had such an amazing day. The Lord blesses me with so much everyday and today was especially great. I often wonder what I ever did to deserve it. But it just goes to show how much our Heavenly Father loves us all and wants to bless us! I just feel SO blessed and loved and would feel ungrateful if I didn't share.

Thankfully today started well because I remembered before going to sleep that I was teaching a professor's lecture for them at 10 this morning. Had I forgotten, it would have been disastrous! I even got all ready for the day (including makeup--shocking) before class.

It was SUPER windy here today, and I loved it as I walked into school. I got to wear my red pea coat, and I loved my outfit today, so that was a good start. But it wasn't an absolutely freezing wind, it was still only around 50 outside. So I just enjoyed the leaves blowing, and actually felt the wind had a calming effect for me. I was walking across some grass to my building, and the wind was so strong that the grass (which isn't very long) just blew in waves, and it looked like water to me. I thought it was so beautiful! I felt like I was walking on a sea of grass. Really I was. It had to be a good thing that I was finding beauty in such a simple thing--the Lord was making sure I was a little extra sensitive to His Spirit today.

I ended up getting to play the piano for a while at the Institute, and that is always relaxing/soothing/fun. Our last Choir piece got copied today, and I feel much more prepared for our big Fireside on the 14th of November!

There's a girl in my ward who I was assigned as her visiting teacher last year when she was a freshman. Almost no one knew who she was, and I just did 'what I was supposed' to, called/texted her, visited her, brought her cookies, and invited her to everything. She never really started coming, but I was fairly persistent through the summer, and the missionaries and I have worked to get to to come to things (she's come to a few lessons, and church once). Her phone was broken for a while which complicated things, but I did what I could.

This afternoon, I got a text from her asking if we could get together sometime this week! I was thrilled because she hadn't really done that yet. So I responded that we could today, and invited her to come to meet with the missionaries with my already scheduled lesson. She said that that was just what she needed.

It was one of the sweetest, and most sacred experiences that I have had. I was able to help this girl decide to make some needed changes in her life, and she's ready. (I don't think she'd mind me sharing this much.) I'm just so happy, humble, and grateful to be able to have been an instrument in the Lord's hand in her life. I really did hardly anything! And even she said that I was just there. And that's what she needed.

That's all that someone needs sometimes, and how incredible is that?! It was so easy, but it helped her see the need for the Lord's love she had and she had the courage to do something about getting it back in her life.

I was in tears with her earlier, and I'm definitely crying just writing about it and feeling SO overwhelmed with gratitude and love that it's hard to express what I'm feeling. I'm so pleased to have this opportunity to grow and help another of our Father's children to grow. Today was just such a sacred experience for me, and I have already grown today in my testimony, which was already strong, of our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. They love ALL of us so much! I got to feel that again today, and it was absolutely beautiful. They are SO in the details of our lives! We ought to recognize it more.

There are so many times that other people have been the hand of the Lord in my life, and I'm genuinely humbled to have the opportunity to be the hand of the Lord in someone else's life!

I wanted to share a little of this experience I had the privilege to have today with those of you who read. It was SO powerful to me, and I hope that it helps you to realize the Lord's love in your life a little more as well!

Have you ever?

So, have you ever had something coming up that you were nervous about, & then it turned out so awesome after that you couldn't stop smiling & even maybe felt like crying because you were so happy?! Well that's how I feel today.

I don't even know if that description makes sense or not. But, okay, I'll explain. It does have to do with this combined Choir this weekend. Our Stake President asked me to conduct it about 6 weeks ago. I thought he was a little crazy because I'm not a 'real' Choir director. So I've had a while to worry about it. Yesterday we had our only rehearsal. I mighta had a bit of a spaz attack Saturday morning. I was just stressing about it. So I really hated myself and felt bad for my friends in my car with me. It luckily didn't last very long. I didn't get there as early as I planned.

Choir members filtered in for a while and Kati was able to get some presets ready on the organ, she ran them through a bunch of warmups (I definitely don't know my scales well enough, nor any exercises) we tuned Andy's viola, and got started. It was AWEsome! They followed well, and they sounded great.

I just had to tell them to watch a couple things and I had to remember my cut-offs. Really, once we got started practicing I was fine, I didn't even feel all that nervous anymore. And it became fun. So today when we met I knew what was going on, and they sounded even better. Sigh. I am SO blessed!!

We sang 3 songs, and I directed for the 2 congregational hymns, and it was just so much fun and awesome. Both yesterday and today when they were over though I felt such a huge relief. The Spirit was so strong in that meeting, especially for the music. It was so clear how people felt from it. During the last song (Let Us All Press On) Elder Hillier (the presiding G. A. from the 70 who chose all the songs & wanted tons of music as a stipulation) turned around to look at the choir! That's a huge compliment.

I don't know if I've stopped smiling. It turned out so well and I'm just so happy--I am so blessed. All those prayers asking for help sure were answered. President Packard shook my hand after and told me, "See, you did it. And you did great." And I was able to genuinely thank him for giving me the opportunity. A few other people stopped me to thank me, and I really just felt so good, and so loved. It truly was a wonderful experience for me, and I'm impressed, pleased, and relieved that I did it!

One woman was super cute, she grabbed me on my way out and gave me a huge hug (thankfully I don't have a bubble, lol) and thanked me profusely for a while, she even went so far to say we sounded exactly like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Hah, that's just too cute because we did sound awesome, but definitely not that good. But I'm sure to some people there may not seem to be as much of a difference between choirs as there really is. Haha. She was fun, Sister Lane.

I would write more, but I've been going for a while, who even knows how many people are still reading? And I've gotta go. The Conference was fun.


Ashley stayed with me since after Choir Thursday night, and we got up early Saturday to 3-barrel my hair for the Conference that day! I may have been (just) a tad vain about my hair yesterday...hah. But seriously, look at how awesome it looks!

Here it is from the back! ;) Oh, and Megan braided Ashley's Friday night, so hers was fun too.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures during the dance, but my hair stayed in pretty well, and the dance was a ton of fun! :) (I know that for many of you that's hard to imagine--me having fun at a dance.)


My friend Chanae graduated from Cosmotology School, and there was a surprise party for her Friday night, look at my friend the balloon that stuck to my hair from the static! It was funny.

Clearly I had a phenomenal weekend! What did you do?

58?!?

So this is the big weekend, I was asked to conduct a Multi-Stake YSA Choir for this YSA Conference that we're having in Fort Collins. Scary. I'm not entirely sure they realize I'm not a trained choir director. Hah.

I was only allowed to pick 19 singers (ideally even parts) from my own 35ish person choir here in Greeley! That was too bad. But there's supposed to be 39 other singers from the other stakes. Unfortunately (though maybe fortunately really, the other stakes were unable to get the numbers, and of course I found out late and couldn't fill in completely.

So 58 is misleading, but it's supposed to be a 58 voice Choir! I was given 3 hymns (that I wouldn't have necessarily picked myself) and I've gotta be ready to go. Gah!

Wish me luck. I just practiced a little with a couple people. I hope I don't have a heart attack!

Uh, only since April...

So it's a bit embarrassing that I've let my blog go SO long without updating it! I don't really have a great reason for not updating it. Though I could give a huge list of things I've been doing. I think part of my problem is that I want to put everything I've been doing up, so I feel like I can never get enough up to get caught up. But clearly I need to just get over that.

In no particular order (and perhaps not an exclusive list):

I had 11 wedding receptions to attend since April, I made it to 9!
I went to Utah for a weekend.
I went to California for a week and a half.
I saw lots of people.
I watched a few movies in the summer.
I went to the Drive-in for the first time, and then another time since.
I met my brother's girlfriend--not fiance!
I read Peter Pan out loud with Alessandra.
I moved apartments.
Joan came out to Colorado to help me move into my new place.
I cleaned the new place.
I moved my school stuff out of my office, back into my office, and then lastly into a new office.
I no longer get to teach Sunday School.
I am now a Ward Missionary--that's been a big change.
I helped a lot of people move.
I went tubing on a lake--got WAY burned on my legs.
Went to quite a few Bridal Showers.
I made a bunch of boutonnieres.
I went to a dance that I actually had a TON of fun at--much like my Stake dances of yore.
Best of EFY.
I did get a little cold for a few days and fairly lost my voice.
I said goodbye to quite a few people who left Greeley.
I welcomed people who moved to Greeley.
I gave rides to people.
I made sure to take care of a friend who had his car taken away.
I talked on the phone/skype to a number of different places!
California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Utah, Australia, China, Peru, Colorado.
Went four-wheeling for the first time.
Watched Little Dorrit again. :)
Cooked a lot of food.
Had a 'summer choir' for a week.
Started to get ready for Choir this year. Yikes.
Got rid of a lot of stuff.
Went hiking some.
Lol, had a few swim lessons.
Still enjoying my long hair!
Started and finished reading Preach My Gospel!
After much work, got a shelf up to help alleviate floor space, found a place for everything.
Went to the Temple, a few of them, and all ordinances!
Making a dent in my food storage.
Laughed.
Played.
Swinging on swings.
Swimming in a river.
Caught up with old friends.
Finished a lot of crocheting.
Made my first apron.
Mailed my first and likely last package to Australia!
Played the piano & sang a lot.

There are many more things I've done I'm sure. But I suppose that's a pretty good list. Lol. Now I've got a lot of things to get done. I need to clean the apartment--the kitchen, bathroom, my room. I need to do some laundry, & put away the laundry that I have still in a basket from earlier this week. I need to take a shower. Get ready for Stake Conference this evening. Give rides. Have a movie night with Sister Huffines. :) I anticipate a great rest of the day. But I've gotta get going. In my defense I did get to sleep in a little (which is good because I need the sleep), but I have already studied all my scriptures!

Maybe it won't be another 5 months before I post again. :/ I hope it won't be...

Retreatness

So I looked at my posts, and I had this one all typed up and ready to go from back in the end of February! I'm not sure whether I was gonna add something else to it. but I just looked through it and it looked pretty done to me! So here's an old post. Lol...



So we had our Institute Retreat up at the YMCA in Estes Park. Sam and his roommate, Rhett Garrett, came out from Orem to join us. It was a great time! We were a bit crazy, of course.

Megan french braided my hair friday and I was going to just take them out to leave my hair a little crimpy on Saturday so I didn't have to wash it. I forgot jaw clips to hold the braids up while I showered. So I improvised with crochet hooks! ;)

Andy's just so tall, and funny. Lol.
Pretty cute of Sam, Sanra and me as we were gathering for our huge group picture.
I tried to count, it was over 100! Crazy! (Looks like I accidentally uploaded one of the blurry ones instead of the clear, whoops.)
Look! Alessandra's taller than Sam!!
A little photo shoot with Sam, this one's pretty cute.
Hah, I'm threatening to lick his face here.
I'm clearly disgusted at the thought of Sam licking my face...hah!
One of the group games thingies was walking with these boards. Our team was WAY good, we smoked the other team. Amanda was awesome at leading and Josh was a good caller from the back.
I did get some grading done in the car.
Yay, it was great to have Sam here, it just was way too short! Poo. At least he lives much closer now. And the Retreat was good. We also played Family Feud and Human-sized Institute Clue but I didn't get any pictures of that. Oh, we also did a 'get-everyone-through-the-spider-web-through-a-different-hole' team building type thing. I thought I uploaded one of those pictures, but guess I missed it. Whoops. Oh well. We had a good time. As always.

Full Day(s?)

Today:
11:15 Friday Forum
Take Car into shop. Listen to Alessandra practice her English Horn piece for her Jury next week.
2:30 Undergraduate Poster Session
Phone with Maureen! ;)
4:00 Institute Field Day Activity
Start Laundry
Get car back
Start crocheting baby beanie
6:00 Vanessa (Yahosh's wife)'s Baby Shower
7:00 "Girl's" Dinner at Kathryn's! (YumMY!)
Finish Laundry
Should have bought gas

Tomorrow, Saturday 1st of May
Sometime really early: Wake up and get all ready for the whole day! (Blow dry hair and all that kind of stuff.)
7:00 Meet at the Institute for the Temple Trip
Buy Gas on the way down since I didn't get it Friday night
9:00 Endowment Session!
11:00ish Eat lunch at Temple
Drive down to Colorado Springs.
Practice Choir Stuff (honestly because the Sopranos want it, well the basses could probably use it too, lol)
3:00 Actual Tech Rehearsal stuff
5:15 Driving to different building for Dinner
Eat, Chat, Change
7:00 Combined Choir Fireside! (Greeley, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins Institute Choirs and Air Force Cadet Choir!)
Uh, maybe start my fast nowish...?
Drive back
11:00-12:00midnightish: Arrive back in Greeley and die of exhaustion! ;)

Sunday:
Up early to get ready and do more work on my lesson
9:30 Church
10:45ish: Teach Temple Prep Sunday School Class (as always)
12:30ish: Done with Church
Get things done.
Maybe nap.
Get some notes written. Sigh.
4:00 Pending baptism
Eat some dinner sometime to break the fast
6:00 CES Fireside with Bishop Burton
7:10ish: Institute Graduation at the Institute (yes, yet another Advanced Certificate...)
Cookies or something fun.
Maybe a Disney movie? Dunno...
More notes to write...

Be ready for the week...

Sound like much? Hah. It kinda is...

Sigh

Well. I don't really have any pictures. &/or I'm not feeling like going to find them. & I only have like 10 minutes. Agh!

So my Seminar is over! It was mildly a disaster. Now before some of you jump down my throat saying that you're sure it was fine, yadda, yadda, let me explain. Now I know that it could have been way worse. But I definitely was not prepared. Whoops. All my fault. And I'm aware of that. So the fact that I was not prepared did not help.

I was also exhAUSted! I'd gotten up at 4:00 and 4:30am Thursday and Friday, and had gotten up a little earlier than usual (haha) the other days. So I also kept saying things wrong. Really, it was kinda bad. One on of the slides I said something outright blatantly wrong and just kept going. By the time I went to the next slide I realized that I'd said it wrong, but didn't really know if I was allowed to go back and explain. So I didn't. One of my professors called me out on it after everyone was gone. Whoops.

My other professor called me out on one of my structures because I'd used the wrong form. Don't worry, I didn't have an explanation for why because I just honestly used the wrong one. It was pretty awful. Funny. Well a little. Eh, oh well.

So trust me when I say that it really wasn't very good. Hah.

But it still feels good to just have it out of the way. Now I have lots of research to get figured out. But it will be better.

K, I gotta get to dinner, and then a fireside in Fort Collins. Yikes. no rest for the weary. I will write again. ;)

A Day In My Life...

So Vanessa had a blog that I loved earlier this week: here
It inspired me to do one the same way. And I'm a bit out of ideas tonightish? At least I'm a bit out of energy. So I hope this can still be funny. At least a little bit to the few of you who read this. ;)

For sure a pretty typical day a month and a half ago:
Between 6:30 and 7:00 am - definitely sleeping. Probably didn't even consider setting an alarm nearly this early the night before!
7:15 to 8:40 am - And still sleeping! Well there may have been an alarm that went off in case I miraculously felt like actually getting out of bed to go to the gym. Well, I probably had one set for 8:00 anyhow, so I could "get up and do something"
8:40 am - By now I bet that my alarm was going off and I was doing the 5 minute snooze sleeping routine where I have crazy vivid dreams about all kinds of random stuff
9:15 am - Pretty close to dragging myself out of unconciousness to say morning prayers that will hopefully be meaningful. (Well I think they were more often than not.)
9:15 to 11:30 am - Oh yeah, at least 95% of the time I have definitely dragged myself out of bed by now and showered (which we know especially if I wash my hair is a long ordeal), I may be on my way up to campus by now.
11:30 am - This is often around the time I would be wandering through the Institute on my way to Ross Hall (Chem building) and that was inevitably a bad idea if I wanted to actually make it beyond the black hole that we fondly call the Institute building. I would start talking to Sister Huffines (Sec) or Brother Coleman (director) or whatever person happened to be sitting in the foyer, or the library, or the game room. Any person who would listen to my voice. Normally I was whining about having to go do Research (that I really ought to have been honest about the fact that it wasn't going to happen that day either). Or I'd talk about Choir stuff, or ya know, try to solve the problems of the world.
12:30 pm - It was usually around this time, or a bit before that I would most often make it into my office. I would be chatting with Erica, Kevin, and/or Dennis. I would grade. I would work on quizzes, look at labs. Somehow I was always busy. Just not as much with Researchy type things I should have been busy with.
2:00 to 2:30 pm - Still at school, quiz stuff probably.
2:40 pm - May have wandered over to chat with Tessa and Chelsea in the Stockroom (or teaching my lab on Wed's)
3:15 pm - Probably home by now. For something important. Reading the Bible--literally. I wouldn't let myself read my scriptures when I woke up so late because I didn't deserve to start my day with it when I didn't wake up when I should have. Perhaps not the best, but I was trying to motivate myself to wake up earlier. Maybe giving someone a ride somewhere. Or baking something for Choir. Or doing our dishes, or cooking. Or taking a nap. Or getting stuck at the Institute again. Or running errands to go get things.
3:15 to 4:00 pm - Same as above.
4:00 to 5:00 pm - Same
5:00 to 5:30 pm - Eating. Napping. Could be doing something to give someone a ride. Or talking with someone who needs it. Choir things.
5:30 pm - Gah, Vanessa's days are broken down way different than mine would have been. Gah, same as above.
5:45 pm (or so) - Definitely hadn't had enough change in these 15 min!
6:30 pm - Oh, by now I'm waking up from my nap or starting to wrap up whatever I'm working on because I'm on my way to go to an Institute class or some performance of sorts, or I'm runing errrands with people. Or we're on our way to watch a movie with someone, or there's some party I feel I need to go to support, or Alessandra's over while we're all working on important things mainly on our computer while we watch some movie. Maybe by now Alessandra and I have read El Libro De Mormon for the day.
7:30 pm - In the middle of all this stuff right above.
8:00 pm - And definitely still early in the night. Always had the goal to go to sleep by 11 or so--at least before midnight, and never making it before midnight! All kinds of important things. Like solving all problems of the universe with Kristin!


So what I should have been doing:
5:30am Wake up; pray, read scriptures.
6:00am Gym
by 7:00am Shower, eat a little somethin and make it out of the house before 8 for sure!
by 8:00am In the office! Doing reasearch.
A bit of a lunch in somewhere...
But maybe by 6:00pm Come home. Do other commitments stuff. Grading, Institute Class, Choir, Chatting/Being Social with people. Dinner.
10:00pm Start getting ready for bed, picking clothes and stuff
by 10:30-11:00pm-ish Praying, Journaling, and ASLEEP!


Hah. Well that's a little shot out to Vanessa. And it was fun to try using her blog. ;)

Hope you enjoyed laughing at my ridiculousness. I cracked myself up at least. Wish me luck this week (and pray for me of course), I'm gonna be giving my Seminar this Friday after all. But I think it's gonna be alright. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Eh, not as bad as I thought it would be.

So, in case you didn't see on facebook, I ended up canceling my Seminar this week because I definitely couldn't get enough research done to be ready. Whoops. But I did get some work done, & a fairly decent start on what to do for this research stuff. Sigh. I still don't really like it. But I am almost always in the lab by myself so I just listen to my ipod and sing along which is kind of fun. & I suppose that overall it isn't too horrible.

I can do this! That's my new attitude. Last week I did get up to my office before 7:00 in the morning 2 days. It was crazy. I stayed there in the office/lab for 11 hours on Monday. I was pretty proud of myself! I haven't had those kind of hours since my first year here and I worked on homework tons, everything was new & Kelsey & I had fun working on classes.

It's still going to be tons of work, discussing all the details with Dr.'s Hyslop & Pringle helped tons but I also saw how much I have to do to make the whole thing legit. It may get interesting. I love that Dr. Pringle seems so excited to help me figure how to do everything, and that he's going to let me work on his lab bench! That really is a big deal because he's a super clean freak & doesn't want anyone to touch his stuff & definitely won't let anyone touch it who he doesn't like. So he doesn't hate me! Whew.

Well I was going to get to sleep much earlier, but I got my clean towels and socks folded and put away. I washed 33 pairs of socks yesterday--& that's not nearly all my socks! So I also organized my sock drawer for the first time since Omaha I think. Haha. It was funny. But then Alessandra & a couple other people were over. We watched a Vegietale, & we looked at some pictures. Ya know, the really important stuff.

Love to you all! I hope I can get a bunch of NMR stuff figured out in the next couple of days. Wish me luck!

Hmm. Hair

So I've been growing my hair out for a few years now, and I love it. I was sure that it was gonna drive me crazy! But, huh. Now I don't wanna cut it. See my intent is to donate it--and I know I will, but I'm loving having it long so much. I haven't had it nearly this long since high school/halfway through Freshman year.
Randomly my friend Bryn started telling me that I ought to cut it. Sigh. It seems everytime that I look at pictures when my hair was short I don't like it. So I looked through my pictures and I found a few of my short hair that I feel explain my dislike for the shortness. I don't think it's very flattering to my face, and I apparently was never very satisfied with how it was styled or something because it was never perfect. It's way more noticeable when it is short. I used to love getting it cut though.
Lemme know what you think.

You can totally see the highlights I had here too. These old classes were definitely not the best for me either...

Maybe I just have a weird expression in this picture, but see how it just doesn't do much for my face.
It just makes my hair look a lot thinner too. Weird. And highlights here!
Another weird expression, but I still don't like it really...
And I think I spent a fair amount of time on my hair this time because this is at a wedding reception, but I dunno, it just doesn't look so good, my hair...
Another wedding reception, and huh, I don't think it looks so good.
Weird expression before I blow out some birthday candles...I look like I'm about to sneeze!

Ahh, so whattaya think?