Great Day!

Today...

MY BROTHER COMES HOME!

FROM EL SALVADOR!

I'm so excited!

A MAJORLY Awesome Day!

Can you tell the difference between these two pictures:

What's this? You, too, can tell that the girl in the second picture is some how more confident? She looks like she has direction? You can tell that she is moving forward in her life? You can tell that she not long ago has peered out into the daunting future and decided to CARPE DIEM? You can tell just from that one picture that she has declared to the world that she would not be passed by, she has decided what effect she will have on the world and has moved forward to that goal!?

All that from just one picture. Whew.

So my exciting day has led me to talk about myself in the third person (obviously), but in case you couldn't tell from all that:

I HAVE OFFICIALLY DECLARED MY MAJOR!

YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE NEWEST RMYL

(recreation management and youth leadership)

THERAPEUTIC RECREATION EMPHASIS MAJOR!

so watch out world... i'm coming!

Right....

This was the helpful hint from my Daily Fitness Tip:

Find yourself constantly fighting cravings? Check your television intake. Commercial breaks are laden with food cues. Distract yourself with a phone call or some crunches.

Because I so often feel the need to do crunches when I have the munchies. Joke.

Another funny awkward moment of my day that has nothing to do with that.

This story is a little complex. There was a grad student standing in the office getting his computer worked on. There was a man in the doorway talking to my boss who happened to be in my closet/office. There was also a girl standing behind the man that was talking to my boss.
(Got all that?)

So my boss is talking to the gentlemen in my doorway, and I decide to talk to the girl behind him. There's kind of an awkward-too-many-conversations-at-the-same-time-in-a-5-foot-space vibe going on. But it all got worked out. So after all the commotion settled.. I apologized to my boss for kind of interrupting his conversation.

I say: "Sorry if I interrupted your conversation there."
My Boss says: "You did, and now we're going to talk about it."
(It might be necessary to explain that John is always threatening disciplinary action and it never actually happens.)
I say: "Oh man.. Okay.. This is terrible.."

Awkward Grad Students says into the silence:
"So I guess I'll just leave while you work out those ... issues."

I don't know why, but it was so funny.

This is really a filler post to say I'm alive.
I'll get some real stories and pictures up sometime SOON.

My Week One in Review!

WARNING: THIS IS A MARATHON POST.

PLEASE FORGIVE THE LENGTH, AND ENJOY!

Sunday

We got our first taste of living on our own! We (Chelsea, Stacey, Darcee, I) decided to start the tradition on making a big meal on Sundays and eating together. So we cooked some amazing spaghetti. (Not like mom's cookin' but still very decent.) We then started doing the dishes. We had quite a few dishes, so we decided to just fill a sink. A nameless member of our party put the plug in, filled the sink, and we washed our dishes in harmony. We go to empty the sink, when the nameless member of our party says: "Is there a trick to getting the plug out?" The reply: Nope just pull on the knob. . . ." " There is no knob." Yes you guessed it, the plug went knob side in and was pretty impossible to pull out. We eventually had to call in back-up:

Jose fixed us right up!

Very memorable, first time doing the dishes (for one of our party ;)) experience.

Monday

First Day of School!!! This was extremely exciting, because I only have two classes on Mondays and then work! So I headed out at 7:30ish with my fellow apartments and we hiked up to campus. My first class at 9:00 was Stats. The memorable story of the day happened in the middle of the Q&A about the syllabus. A boy raised his hand, and said "So I have a confession... I took this class winter, . . ." (and preceded to ask his question not relevant to the story). So embarrassing point number one: he failed stats once before already. Then the professor answered his question, and said: "Will you please stand up? Turn around for everyone, say hello. Everyone see that kid -- isn't that the ugliest hat you've ever seen?" (It was a Boston baseball cap.) number two: the professor has just made fun of him in a group of 800 students! At the end of class, I just by chance happened to walk out next the failing, ugly hat kid, and I hear him say to a fellow class-member: "I can't even take off my hat, cause I messed up cutting my hair and I have a bald spot." number three: the failing, ugly hat kid, can't cut his hair. I knew that however my day went from there it had to be better than his. I laughed a lot about this one.

The first day of school picture:

Tuesday

I went to my second class of the day, History 201, and I found some interesting discoveries. I hear my TA talking to one of my fellow students. "Hey man, welcome to class. {hand-shake with adoring eyes from my MALE TA} That was a great commercial you did. I saw it on the nightly news. In Georgia." (I'm little miffed at this point, shouldn't the man be sucking up to the TA?) But I look a little closer, and of course its the man featured in the following video:

I've learned quite a few things about him so far:

• My TA has a man-crush on him
• He is a senior
• He speaks Spanish
• He comes from a place where having no black-people, and everyone talking about their bishops is a major culture shock
• He looks very strong
• He likes to find Gospel analogies in history
• He wears his hats with his ears tucked in

Also, I've never talked to him... he just likes to raise his hand a lot... :)

Wednesday

I'm not quite sure, what happened this day. But I do remember that one of my co-workers, told me, that I "think slower" than he does. But he does not believe that his is smarter than me. Somewhat offensive, but I just let it roll off my back. Office politics.

Thursday

I was in my abnormal psychology class, and we watched a movie called something like 'Madness: A History.' Pretty normal film about terrible treatment of people with mental illnesses. Until we get to the part where the lobotomy is discussed. Apparently, lobotomies are current enough to have video footage of an entire operation, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT CAME ON THE SCREEN. Totally disgusting. I had to look away. Trust me you would too if you saw pointy sticks being pounded into someone's eye sockets! Even my professor was looking away. But sentences like "Then they pound the pick another 4cm into the brain" still come floating out towards you. It was the grossest thing I think I've ever seen.

Friday

I decided that because it was the last day of the week, and because I only had two classes and no work, and because there was a long weekend that I would go FULL ON GIRL for the day. I looked GREAT. Problem: Part of full on girl is looking super cute! I let my vain side take over for a split second, and that's all it took for me to have the worst pair of shoes in the world on my feet as I left the apartment! After I got out of stats, I felt like I had blisters forming on the balls of my feet. I called my ever-amazing mother. She told me to put paper towels in the bottom of my feet. I did-so (trying to be as inconspicuous as possible... I mean .. who actually wants to be VISIBLE doing something like that?). It was a lifesaver. But my feet still hurt. A LOT. In between classes, I ate lunch (and was gawked at by a BYU-golf-cart-tour...), and went to the Marriott Center to pick up my All-Sports-Pass. It was at that point that I turned to my emergency plan. I called Toni, and she being the BEST sister in the WORLD agreed to pick me up and take me home. My feet and myself couldn't be more grateful for her unselfishness!

(My discreetly paper-toweled foot...)

For those looking for an awkward laugh: After I went to the Marriott (it was 90 degrees FYI), I went straight to class. It was hot, and I was SWEAT-Y! There was this girl sitting in front of me. She turned around and was sort of looking around and sniffing. I WAS SO EMBARRASSED thinking that I was the reason for her to be sniffing out the nasty stench. Turned out though, that she just had a serious cold. I observed her sniffing away when she was up front as well, so don't worry. It was just me that was self-concious without need (I think).

Overall it was a super great week, and I'm excited to start the next one!

Good News

I'm back in the blogging world and I decided to put up some things that are currently going right in my world! Here it goes:

• Taylor Swift has a new album coming out in October and the video for her new single came out YESTERDAY, and I liked it!
• I'm all moved into my new apartment. For the most part its great!
• I like my new roommates, although I hardly know them.
• It's raining, and I don't mind. (miracle)
• My niece is the cutest, and I get to live very close to her for the next 8 months! (Also my sister and her husband, and my other sister and her husband!)
• My brother is coming home in almost exactly ONE MONTH! (Sept. 30)
• I have reliable internet, so I can blog again!
• many more that will not be named (because I'm feeling lazy)

And for those that would like pictures of my summer adventures, I'll throw you a bone:

New York:

Yes, that is me eating a big apple IN the Big Apple!

(It was a very delicious apple I might add, thanks to Chelsea for the idea!)

Bomber Mountain:

This us, after a short jaunt up a steep cliff with some wreckage from a WWII plane that crashed in the Cloud Peak Wilderness area. I'll be your tour guide anytime you need! :)

I have no pictures of the Rockies Game quite yet, but that was another adventure I went on!

And now.. I'm starting school again so I think I'll have plenty to blog about, so no need to worry about another sabbatical from blogging!

Todd ... Jeff Probst?

Todd has asked for a 'Jeff Probst shirt' for the past couple of gift-giving events. We weren't really sure what he met, but for his 17th birthday we happened upon it! Let me just say it was really a great find! After we gave it to him, we just wanted to check how close we were to the actual Jeff Probst ....

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Pretty PERFECT huh?

Brandin' the Calves!

Today, I knew I was home. We went out to brand some of my grandpa's calves! It was a pretty good morning and we got a lot of calves branded, banded (for those that know what that is ... there are no pictures!), and ear-tagged! Its quite an adventure and I'm pretty sure one that not many people get to undertake! So I've documented the ENTIRE EXPERIENCE for you ---- PLEASE BE WARNED. As many of you know there is a Adult Content Warning to get in here, but my warning for this post is that this one may not be suitable for animal-lovers. It's a little graphic if you've never seen it before!

I've followed this little cow through the process -- I've named her May-belle!

Step 1: Divide the cows! This actually turned out to be a little bit of a challenge because my grandpa had less than medicore help -- Todd and myself --- so there was quite the learning curve. There was also a difference of opinion between the farmer of more than 50 years and my dad so that took a few minutes to correct as well!

Step 2: Load the cows into the shoot! This was mostly Todd's job, and he was kicked a couple of times by some the feisty cows! He toughed it out though, and ended up being a big help!

Step 3: Vaccinate! My dad tried to pass this job off to me, but I refused. I know that's terrible, but just the thought of sticking a needle into the cow was too much! I'm okay watching all this, but actually doing it was an ENTIRELY different thing! So I settled for filling the syringe, and made my dad do the sticking the needle in part.

Step 4: Notch off the ears. I'm not sure why this is done, but it is done. And it's gross. I did learn however that I have nail polish that EXACTLY matches cows blood... if anybody's interested! My dad did this part as well.

Step 5: Banding ... You do this to make little boy cows ... little it cows. I did not take any pictures of the de-manning of the cows however so I'll let you use your imagination!

Step 6: BRANDING! This part is pretty terrible, but necessary to make sure your cows stay your cows even if they're lost or anything. It involves taking a hot piece of metal and sticking it on the side of the cow and searing the brand onto their skin. It smells terrible, and must hurt even more. I'm not such a fan of watching, but it has to be done. Todd would hold the front leg to prevent it from kicking(?) and my dad would do the branding. The worst part is when they move around and have to be stuck a couple of times to make sure the brand is really put on.

The final product:

Step 7: FREEDOM! We release the cows to their mommas and comfort! A few were pretty dazed but little May-belle just ran as fast as she could!

A few memorable side stories. Todd was not a fan of the feisty cows. There was one cow in particular that Todd disliked. His quote about the cow: "It kicked me, it head-butted me, and then it crapped on the table." It was very funny how he said it.

My dad was angry when Todd and I accidently let a cow escape (although how we were supposed to stop it when we looked over just in time to see its little legs kick through the fence I'm not real sure). So instead of waiting till we were done with everything else he just went after the cow. He was walking real slowly up to the calf as it was nursing. Then he lunged for the cow out of NO WHERE! He grabbed for it and came up with the calf's back leg, he then preceded to drag the calf the 100 yards back to the coral. The momma cow followed almost the whole way; she seemed pretty upset. It was really sad to watch... I didn't like that part at all.

Please note the conquered cows in the background!

Over all it was a pretty good day, and I'm glad we were able to help!

I thought I would also add this, because it makes me laugh. My dad found a cowboy hat, and was wearing it .. maybe to cowboy up before our big event?