Its a Christmas Miracle!

Because finals week was kind of a joke for me and I had so much free time, I decided that I would use that time to bake. I love baking. I'm not super good and I can't do anything fancy, but I get some GREAT recipes from Kim's Blog and I like to try them here and there when I have time.

I ended up getting ingredients to make 4 different cookies to bake. A little ambitious, I know. But one of them was a cake-mix cookie, so thats easy. Karina and I combined all the ingredients and got the doughs ready Monday night while watching A Muppet Christmas Carol with some friends and I let the dough refrigerate overnight. The next day I baked 3 of the cookies. Well, I tried to bake all 3 of the doughs. Sadly the S'more Cookie dough would NOT turn out fluffy cookies. Against all my efforts, all I got were thin pancake looking things that I had to scrape off. So in the end I only had 3 cookies:

1. Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies
2. Trifecta Cookies
3. Snickers Cake Mix Cookies

My plan was to bake a ton so that I could send off a package to Scott with lots of goodies and then also have some leftover for my friends, roommates, and I to enjoy. So by Wednesday all the cookies were baked and I wrote a letter to stick in the box. Then I had to make a mad dash to the post office to get it out on time to reach Scott on his P-day. I got to the post office at 5:31. One minute too late. Rushing, I ended up putting it in a drop box, even though the last pick-up time had passed. And then as I walked to the car I realized I didn't pay any postage for the box. Epic fail. It was a flat-rate box that I was re-using and I didn't think. :(

So I had 1.5 days left in Provo and I was just hoping it would work out. The package never showed up at my apartment, but when I told my mom the story I had lost all hope he would get it. I could picture the box sitting on my cold doorstep waiting for me to return to Provo.

But today I got a letter from Scott and he told me how grateful he was for the package of goodies and how he has been enjoying the cookies and Wheat Thins! [He is addicted to Wheat Thins and I pretty much always include a box in any package I send him :) ] I was so happy! I didn't fail epicly! The good ol' USPS came through for me and it was a Christmas Miracle! :D

No Place Like Home for the Holidays

I am currently sitting in my cozy bed at home and I love being here! Finals week went well [I took my only 2 finals on the same day] and I worked several shifts. The drive home was much more uneventful than my last drive between California and Utah, so I was very grateful for that!

It rained pretty much non-stop for 5 days. What a great way to welcome me home to the desert. But now the sun is shining and its nearly 60 degrees- thank you Southern California! :D

I can still hardly believe that Christmas is TOMORROW. This semester went faster than any ever has for me and before I know it 2011 will already be here. That is a very exciting thought!! :)

But for now I have family to spend time with, books to read, and food to eat. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Idle hands?

I have spent the past 2 weeks constantly working on some huge project or another. First it was the Medicine Wheel, then it was the Children's book for my Music class AS WELL AS the Writing Program for my English class. Then the day after those were both turned in I had a big lesson to present in my drama class. Free time was a figment of my imagination. But now that is all I have.

It is so strange to not have a huge assignment to do. I am not procrastinating anything... [well I guess thats debatable, but lets just set that aside for now :)]

I only have 2 finals this week and I feel so strange not stressing out like my roommates. I have only emailed a Cover Letter and Resume to my English teacher for our last assignment. Thats it for the week, I haven't taken a single final yet. Today was day 2 of finals week and I baked a bunch of cookies. Not too shabby, eh? :)

I LOVE my major. My classes this semester were so much fun and really opened my eyes for the possibilities of my future classroom and the way I will teach my students. I am so excited for the opportunities I have ahead of me :)

So for now I am just going to read a few books [oh how I have missed reading since the summer...] and work a few shifts. Then Thursday I will take both my finals and Friday drive home. This is the life! :)



And for those of you who do not know: only 5 1/2 months left! Yesssss! :D

The Story of My Life

For my Elementary Art class we had to create a Native American Medicine Wheel on an opened brown paper bag. The circle had to be filled with symbols representing us and telling the story of our lives, past and future, in deep rich colored pencil. This project was assigned on the FIRST day of class to be turned in on the LAST day of class. I hate projects like that.

At first you feel like you have all the time in the world to do it. And then you forget about it. And then you remember it, but you are too busy with the things due very soon so it just nags at the back of your mind. And then you have one week left to do it so you spend every.spare.minute. working on the thing. Or at least thats how they go for me...

I started this project over Thanksgiving Break and then worked on it every day whenever I could the following week so that I could turn it in Friday at noon when my art class would meet for the last time. I literally carried my brown paper bag with me to every class and even over to friends' apartments so that I could color it while hanging out. I had to sharpen my colored pencils so many times that I actually broke my sorry excuse for a pencil sharpener that I had. BUT- I DID IT. I finished my project Thursday night and I am very pleased with it.

A friend asked if i had to draw it as if I were a first grader. No I did not. Please don't hurt my feelings and ask me questions like that, ok? Here is the finished product:

Infancy

Youth

Adult

Old Age

pictures

Before Thanksgiving Karina, Katy, and I went to Nancy's house to play Sunday afternoon. We had too much fun to stop and take pictures with my camera, but here are some shots from the car ride there:

Isn't that mountain GORGEOUS?!

And here are a few of my favorite shots from Thanksgiving :)

Me between the bellies! :)

Thanksgiving Break

I am so grateful that I found a ride home to Palmdale for Thanksgiving! There was a lot of concern about the "blizzard" coming through Utah on Tuesday evening/night, but that ended up being a big joke and the drive home Wednesday morning went really well.

I LOVED being with my family and having some time to relax as well as enjoy delicious food :)

Things I did:
-watched Ponyo [super cute!]
-beat the dumb game Plants vs. Zombies [thanks Heather... haha]
-played with my niece and nephews
-saw Harry Potter 7 again with some family members
-watched Surrogates
-played Rock Band
-SLEPT :)

And I was even a little bit productive on a few projects, so that was great!

The plan was to drive back to Provo Sunday morning, but my ride decided to wait until Monday because it was supposed to snow a lot all throughout Sunday. This was a bit of a problem for me because I would miss my math class and work in the afternoon. Not good. I was pretty frustrated, but what could I do?

This is when my super social superstar sister comes into play. 10:20 am CA time Heather called the house saying she found me a ride, but I needed to pack light and HURRY. I threw a few more things into my bag and threw on a sweatshirt before driving quickly over to a friend's house where I got a ride with her cousins who I had never met before. 10:30 am I was squeezed in the backseat but I was happy because I was headed back to Provo.

I had a little trouble on the way and ended up puking at a rest stop in Halloran Springs, but after a little rest and some very kind fellow passengers I was able to make the rest of the trip just fine! It was quite an adventure though, let me tell you. The adventure then continued as we got caught in slow icy roads around Cedar City so overall the trip took us 13 hours and we got home about midnight UT time. I made some good friends in that car with all our conversations to pass the time, it was really fun :)

It was a crazy day, but I made it back and was able to spend time with my roommates and make it to class and work. It was a Thanksgiving Miracle ;)

Now the hard part about Thanksgiving Break is the 3 weeks left until Christmas Break. Thanksgiving is just a little tease which makes focusing a bit harder for the final stretch of classes. But its ok. I can do this! Here we go...