Hands

As the suggestion of my Grandma Koch, I've decided to get pictures of my hands taken every few years.  At least every 10, but maybe more often.  Twenty years old seemed like a good starting point.  I learned there's a photography studio on campus and the man that works there was so nice!  He took almost 40 pictures for me, completely FREE.  And when he was done he walked back in his office and burned me a disk of them.  He was so much fun to talk to and he really liked the idea of my project.  He told me all about his dad's hands and the places they'd been and the stories they could tell.

I guess my goal for this project is to have a history of my hands.  They've been so many places in their short 20 years and I'm sure they'll go so many more!  I think it would be fun to get pictures of my family's hands as it grows too.  I mean, hopefully in 10 years I'll have a ring on my finger and another, more manly, set of hands to add to the pictures!

I actually didn't get a picture exactly how I wanted (I know, I need to be more assertive) but he still got some good shots.  I really wanted just a shot looking straight down on them...oh well.  He took a few portraits too, though I don't love any of them...my hair was a little wild that day and boy photographers just don't get girls hair. 

Happy 236th Birthday America!

The celebration started a tad early last Saturday.  I began the day with a 7 hour group meeting for this project.  I spent a total of 12 hours working on that project that day.  Sick.  But, here's the finished product! (actually this was a few hours before we turned it in.  We added little tabs to it which made it look 10 times better, in my opinion.)

Okay, back to American festivities.  I went over to Driggs, ID with Brittany and Hannah for their big celebration.  Pretty much all the food booths closed up before we got there so we had to head to own to find some grub.  We discovered this little sports bar that smelled delicious and decided to try it out.  I'm still not sure if it was a good or bad idea.  The food was delicious, it just took like 45 minutes to get it.  We waited FOR-EV-ER and ended up missing the first part of Jon Hunstman Jr.'s speech.  Not to be judgmental (even though I totally am) but I liked Glenn Beck's speeches the last two years 10X better than Mr. Hunstman's.  (Oh, you can read about my last adventure to Huntsman Springs for the 4th of July here (2011)) 

The party did not end here!  On Wednesday we went to the Rexburg parade, a party at Clarke House and the fireworks in Idaho Falls. 

Mini Lemon Blueberry Tarts

You just have to make cute treats for the 4th of July.  Mini Lemon Blueberry Tarts were my little experiment this year :)  I found the original recipe here from Pillsbury.

Original:

My version:

1. Cut out pie crust circles from store bought pie crust

2. Bake 4 minutes in a mini-cupcake pan

3.  Fill with cream cheese and yogurt mixture (recipe from Pillsbury link).
4.  Top with blueberry pie filling and fresh blueberries.

5. (as always...) ENJOY!!

Single and Childless

Hooray!!!!

Now let me explain why this is a good thing.

My first few weeks at BYUI I was in a small culture shock.  Besides the fact that everyone was Mormon, there were also babies...everywhere.  I looked at the young mothers and thought to myself "oh, I hope I never have to drag my little baby to class with me, or study in the library with a stroller and crying baby."  Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for the girls who have kids and yet are still finishing their degree.  It think it's awesome and something I could never do.  This is why I am proud to say, I have survived college without having a child!!!  I mean, I do have one year left but I'm thinking the chances that I'll meet a boy, get married, AND have a baby in less than a year is pretty darn slim.  Can I go so far to say there's a zero percent chance of that happening? 

Yeah, I'm feeling pretty confident with that assumption.

The Current Bane of My Existence

Bane: a person or thing that ruins or spoils.

Group projects.  Don't they ruin everything?

Allow me to vent for a moment.  Just a moment, and then I'll stop.  This might be a lengthy moment, but if it were short, I'd actually have to start working on homework soon.

Soooooooooo...I have this group project.  It started the first week of the semester.  Basically, this group project is the entire class.  In a nutshell, we have to design a health promotion program.  This includes assessing our target population to make sure there's a need for a program, finding more data and research to back up the need, creating a program, putting together a marketing plan, a budget, goals and objectives, etc.  The only thing we don't do is actually implement the program. 

As I said, we've been working on it since week one.  The way the class is designed though makes it so that you feel like you're right on track for the first month and a half and then the last three weeks are just crazy.  The project is due on Monday and it definitely is CRAZY.  Especially when you're in a group of four people and only two of you are doing most of the work.  And now we're to the point where I don't even want the other girls to do anything because they have no idea what's going on AND the assignments they've had so far have either a) not gotten done in a timely manner or b) been done halfway or are just plain sloppy.  Uggg.  I'm so grateful at least one other person in my group is putting time into this!!

Here are my biggest issues with the two weak links (rude, but true).  

1) Most of our classes are "lab days" which just means that you have that time to work in your groups.  There have been other days though that are lecture where the professor explains how part of a project needs to be done.  The two rarely come to those lecture days which leaves the other girl and I to take notes, understand what's going on, and then take our group time trying to explain it to the ones who were missing.  This would be another reason their work isn't any good, they weren't in class to see what he wants!  What's worse is that I'll talk to them the day before and they'll say "see you tomorrow!" which would lead me to assume that they mean they'll be in class the next day since I've never just seen them around randomly.  But apparently, there's some hidden meaning in this phrase because they don't come to class and I don't "see them tomorrow."

2) They never volunteer to do anything.  Arielle and I will start saying "oh, I'll do that" or "I've already got that started so I'll just finish it" or "I already did that" and they'll just sit there....waiting for us to tell them what to do.  Both of us have just done things so that they'll be done and neither of them have put forth any effort to do something unless it was asked of them.  And we've both redone their stuff a few times because it wasn't professional or complete (one girl told me today she'd make sure her part looked cute.  I said "no, we need it to look professional.  You need to put it in Cambria font, size 12 like the rest of the project).  Today, we went to the professor to ask him some questions and get feedback on what we have done and they just sat in their desks, checking their phones, not really caring I guess.  

3) How do they think this stuff is getting done?!  Are they totally oblivious to the fact that some of the things we've done have taken HOURS to put together.  I've contacted multiple people to set up interviews, taken time to prepare questions and go interview them and spent hours creating marketing posters, a curriculum, calendar and more.  The other girl has typed up PAGES of interventions, goals and objectives as well as put in way too much time doing research for it because the others never did research to give to her. 

I could go on.  

I actually really like this project.  It reminds me of when my siblings and I would play "work" when we were younger.  It could be a fun class and I love our project and what we're doing.  I just wish I only had to do a quarter of it and not half.  If it was my only class, I probably wouldn't mind.  But seeing as I have three other classes, I can't really put all my time into this one.  I know the other girls are busy but WELCOME TO COLLEGE AND SUCK IT UP.  You signed up for this.  Don't think you're any busier than the others.  We all have jobs, we all have classes, we all have social lives and we all have this project that needs to be turned in by 4:00 Monday afternoon.  

Come 4:00, I will be one happy camper.

Second Chances

Remember this post from over a year ago?  Remember how embarrassing that little episode was?  Well I've FINALLY used up all that conditioner and had to buy some more.  I ran out of shampoo at the same time so I had to buy both.  I made sure to double and triple check them multiple times while in the cart and while on the checkout counter.  I made it home with a new bottle of shampoo AND a new bottle of conditioner.  I feel accomplished.

Banishing My Sweet Tooth

I'm now finishing day three with no sweets or chocolate whatsoever.  What makes it harder is that I have no time to go to the store this week and I haven't been there in a while so my non-sweet foods are dwindling fast.  And there's the ever-tempting candy bowl beckoning to me at work.  15 hours a week where all I do is look at a bowl of candy.  I can do this.  I'm going to make it until Saturday and then I'll treat myself to something fantastic :)  Wish me luck!!