Spring 2010 Schedule

Here's the update on my Spring schedule that I finalized tonight. I revised it a bit from what I was originally going to do, and I feel a LOT better about this plan:

The Classes:

*Human Physiology (4 credits)

*Human Growth and Development (3 credits)

*World Regional Geography (3 credits) <---Super random, I know. But it fell under my last real generals to take and it fit into my schedule well!

*Hike Arches Park (2 credits)

For a grand total of 12 credits...full time student!

Here's my weekly schedule:

MONDAY: 

Physiology- 9:40-10:30

Human Growth- 10:45-11:35

Weekly Panhellenic Meeting- 3:00-4:00

Weekly AXO Meeting- Usually 5:30-7:00

TUESDAY:

Physiology- 9:40-10:30

Geography- 10:45-12:05

WEDNESDAY:

Physiology- 9:40-10:30

Human Growth- 10:45-11:35

THURSDAY:

Physiology- 9:40-10:30

Geography- 10:45-12:05

FRIDAY:

Human Growth- 10:45-11:35

Ski Teach @ Alta- 1:00-3:00 [This goes from the end of January to the middle of March]

And then my Hike Arches Park will just be one weekend in Moab sometime in March, I think at the end of Spring Break. 

I originally had Nutrition Intervention in there for 4 credits instead of Geography, but it just didn't work with my schedule too well and it seems like a hard class.

I love my schedule. I'm done by the afternoon, and my classes are back to back. I hate breaks between classes, because I go home and get so unmotivated to go back to class! Also, this will free up some time for me so I can fit in working and volunteering. I've planned everything out so I can get certified as a Phlebotomist the first of the new semester. 

Now, you can apply to the nursing program with a few required classes still to go, as long as you're taking them before you get into the program. So, after Physiology, I could apply right to the program, if they had a Fall application period, but they only start accepting in January FOR the fall semester. As long as I keep passing my classes, I can take a break over Summer and then in the Fall, I only have THREE classes to take before I'm COMPLETELY done!! Even then, I technically could take Fall off too, and just take those last 3 classes during Spring 2011 or Summer, because the remaining classes aren't required to be graded already by the time I apply. Also, I'm concerned that my AP English score (I got a score of 4 out of 5....a 3 is usually required to waive a college course) won't take the place of my Writing Requirement. So I may have to take a writing class, but no big deal.

Anyway! I'm happy about next semester, and wrapping things up! I'm just hoping this semester ends well!

Alta

I went skiing today up at Alta for my class. It's not too hard to miss a class up there, and I probably wouldn't have gone today if it hadn't been the day of our on-snow evaluations. Last night, it snowed a lot, and my car had a nice big blanket of snow covering it. I just drove to the base of the canyon because I carpool with some people in my class because I don't have 4-wheel drive. 

Well, I checked the weather report for Alta this afternoon, and the temperature was "10 Degrees But Feels Like -2 Degrees." Oh joy. I put on about 5 layers of clothes, and when we got up there, it was around 0 Degrees. BRRRRR!!!! Skiing wasn't too enjoyable today!

This is me on the chairlift today...taking the time to take off my goggles and my first layer of gloves was pretty painful!

Stress & Finals

Finals are next week, and it's really wearing on me. There is SO much to study for...and it's only ONE CLASS that's giving me this headache-- ANATOMY!!!!!! It's so hard to even explain how difficult this class is...the memorization for Lab quizzes each week, the 500 pages of notes there's a cumulative final over, the super detailed explanation of anything little thing...the functions...Ugh. 

So I looked up "stress" on lds.org and found an article from a 1982 Ensign that really helped me out. I'll share parts of it here:

Reducing Stress:
Welcome Thoughts for the Over-Involved

By Eric Stephan

Maybe you are one of those people who are trying to do more and more in less and less time. You take on too many responsibilities. You rush to achieve everything and feel guilty for achieving nothing. You can’t even relax at home without feeling restless. It seems that everyone is doing more than you are doing and doing it better. Still, you are determined to compete successfully and be perfect in all things.

So why do you feel so frustrated?

Some of us who display this pattern of behavior seem to be engaged in a chronic struggle with ourselves, with others, with time, and with life itself. One moment we feel proud because working harder than anyone else “proves” that we are worthwhile and important people. The next moment we realize that we are just “spinning our wheels,” trying to move in all directions at once.

Predictably, the results of this quick-paced, highly stressed way of living are ulcers, heart attacks, irritability, and an inability to be tender and loving. Too often we keep ourselves so frustrated and upset that we seldom really listen to the broken sentences of a little child or notice the spring flowers beginning to bud.

How can you control your frustrations?

If you are busy and frustrated at the same time and not experiencing the peace and joy the scriptures talk about, perhaps you should slow down for a moment and think about your daily activities. Don’t pity yourself and remain discouraged, but look for ways to break out of these uncomfortable moods.

1. Make peace of mind a family affair. Let the family suggest some appropriate ways to relax. Take the time to enjoy reading, walking, exercising, or playing games with family members. If you become so busy that you get “guilt feelings” about your family, perhaps you should change your pace and make peace of mind one of your first family goals. When you do, money, prestige, and other people will not control your life. And interestingly, you may find that peace of mind leads to increased personal and financial success. Start having a regular, weekly activity with members of your family that you can look forward to.

2. Praying does wonders for relieving some frustrations. The scriptural suggestion is: “If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful.” (D&C 136:29.) Spending a few quiet moments in a peaceful setting is a relaxing experience, and praying for help in overcoming depression is especially important.

3. Eat, sleep, and exercise properly. Ideally, it would be nice to start the day with a good leisurely breakfast and walking to work, enjoying three deep breaths of fresh air—instead of grabbing a thin slice of toast, rushing to finish breakfast, and then maneuvering to get onto the freeway.

Get enough sleep. Sleeping poorly for a night or two won’t hurt you—but don’t lose several nights’ sleep over a distressing situation. As the Lord has said, “Retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.” (D&C 88:124; italics added.)

A balanced, restrained diet is also very important; and if you need exercise, find something enjoyable and do it moderately. Walk, run, hike, lift weights, swim—it doesn’t matter much what you do if you do it naturally, regularly, and have fun. Sweat a little and make the pulse rate increase, but above all, exercise peacefully and relaxed.”

4. Don’t be disappointed because you can’t do everything. And don’t compete against everybody and everything. If you try too hard, you will surely lose the most important race of your own life—the race toward peaceful and joyful living.

When you feel agitated about not completing all you have to do in a given day, ask yourself, “Who will even know or care in a hundred years?” That’s one way to separate the things that really matter from those that don’t.

You can’t do everything and you can’t change everything the way you would like it to be. So stop evaluating your success in terms of the personal or material success of other people. Instead, learn how to (1) do one thing at a time and enjoy it; (2) cooperate instead of compete—combine your resources and talents with those of other people, and obtain recognition and rewards by enriching the lives of others; (3) treat yourself after a successful effort with:

• an evening walk

• a hot bath

• a great salad

• relaxing music

• a hug

• a good cry

• an apology

• some humor

• a two-hour vacation

I really like this article!

Thanksgiving

I'm in San Francisco right now waiting for my flight to Salt Lake. I'm sad to leave Bakersfield! I can't wait to come back for Christmas. I forgot to bring my own sweater with me to Bakersfield, and since the weather was pretty sunny, I really didn't need a sweater. But I know that it's frigid in Utah, so I decided I needed to bring back a sweater with me, but the only sweater left in my closet was my BYU sweater...I feel like a total traitor, especially after the Utah vs. BYU game this last weekend!! I'll have to leave this sweater in the car when I get home so no one sees me in it! :) 

I didn't bring my camera down either, but I'm sure Lauren took enough pictures for us both! But I did get some pictures with sweet Sugar! Here are the photos I took on my camera phone:

Sugar!

Eating a Double Double Animal Style (meaning they grill the onions, and maybe add something else) at In-N-Out. That sure filled me up!

At the movies with Alvin and the Chipmunks :P

(That is NOT a BYU sweater...I swear!! lol)

More AXO Stuff!

Hola! We just had our elections for the upcoming year, and we voted on every position! This means that I will no longer be Vice President of Intellectual Development, but my good friend Katrina is my "successor"! I'm excited for her. However, I did get elected to another Exec position, and so now I'm Vice President Panhellenic Delegate. Panhellenic is the umbrella organization that is in charge of most of the national sororities and sets all the rules and such for them. On campus, Panhellenic organizes Greek-wide events for all the sororities and fraternities to participate in, to better unite everyone, instead of just individual houses. My position means I have to attend a meeting every Monday at 3, where we'll organize events, discuss issues, etc. It's a relatively easy position, and I'm excited for it. I enjoyed being on Exec, so I'm happy to be on it again! 

I also was voted into another position, Sophomore Member at Large. I'm kind of the representative for my Pledge Class (although we're not allowed to use the term 'Pledge' anymore, Nationals considers it a form of hazing!). On top of the Sunday night meetings I have to attend for Exec, I now have to stay an hour longer and go to the CRS meetings. CRS is held downstairs in our chapter room, and if you get in trouble, or are having certain issues, you go into CRS to discuss it. I'm going to be pretty busy with my new AXO positions but I'm glad to do it too! 

This last week, I had to host a sorority-wide Teacher Appreciation Night, where all the girls could invite their teachers to come and have pie and ice cream with the lovely ladies of Greek Row. I was in charge of getting all the sororities involved in it, delegating which house would bring what, making a million copies of invitations (I had my assistant make the flier!), and picking up all the Marie Callender's pies...honestly, the hardest part was getting girls to invite teachers and decorating the house. I should have taken a picture of how I set it up, but everything went so quickly that I didn't have time! I just set up three tables: One had the milk and water and utensils on it, the second table had all the pies (apple, banana cream, razzleberry, peach) and the third table was decorated with pictures, T-shirts, and other knick-knacks the sororites set up to show off their chapter and the events that they do. It was a good way for teachers to get to know what Greek life is all about. We had a turn-out of 7 teachers, which was far better than last year's turn out. Last year, we only had one teacher turn up! Talk about awkward! I'm really happy with how it went. It was a nice event and I think everyone enjoyed it (at least they enjoyed the pie! You can't go wrong with Marie Callender's!). 

School is starting to wrap up....I don't have anymore tests until Finals on December 16th. I only have two finals this year, and can you believe that they're both on the same day??!! Stats and Anatomy on the same day. Not fair. I'm going to get a hard start on Anatomy. That's going to be one crazy final. 

Well, I feel like I've written an essay, here are a couple of pictures for your viewing enjoyment!

This is me with a Kappa Sigma, Steve, at our Philanthropy event, Burgers and Babes. We served hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes and invited all the sororities and fraternities to raise money for our philanthropy, which is Domestic Violence Awareness. We raised $1,000 this night!

This is me with my Little, Katie, in our CUTE AXO sweatshirts! I love the way they turned out! [Thanks, Mom!]

Random Outdoor Adventures

Here are some pictures from some outdoor adventures I've had lately with Andy. On the weekend of General Conference, Andy and I took a hike with his dad inbetween sessions. It was up Big Cottonwood Canyon (before you reach Solitude and Brighton ski resorts) and it was beautiful! It had recently snowed up there, and even though my feet were soaking it was so fun! At the end of the hike you reached this lake, and it was gorgeous! Here are the pictures :

Then, just a few weeks ago, we decided to bike Bobsled, which is a great downhill bike trail that's up in the Avenues (a neighborhood in North Salt Lake...really close to the U). We went on a Saturday that I thought would be one of the last weekends the weather would be nice, but it so happened that this Saturday had the WORST weather! It was raining, hailing, and all of that good stuff while we were biking. Needless to say, I fell down a lot since the trail was so muddy and it was pretty exciting. This trail is awesome-it has old cars on it that you can actually jump over, and other great scenery. If I had my Brodie this trail would have been a lot easier, but the challenge was pretty fun. Here are the pictures from it:

Me at the top of Bobsled

Andy

Part of the trail-notice how high it curves up! It was super muddy so I slid off a lot!

The view of Salt Lake from the upper Avenues

Me, all super muddy...

Mud and blood...cute :-P

Andy, and a cool old car in the background

The Faint

I went to Provo to visit Lauren in June 2007 and to see the Faint perform in Salt Lake City. The Faint was definitely, and still is, one of my favorite bands. They have an eclectic electronic sound that's super catchy. Mom and Grayson both like them, or at least one of their songs (Agenda Suicide). In July of 2008 I went and saw them in Salt Lake again, but they didn't come back this last summer :( I was very disappointed! They put on one of the best live shows, second to Green Day. 

I just found an old video I posted on YouTube two years ago of their 2007 performance that I recorded with my phone. I'll post the link on here just so you can see them...they have cool robotic dance moves and the lights and videos they have going on stage is awesome! Enjoy :)

PS- You probably want to turn your sound down...it's pretty scratchy to listen to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx9wfFtqP-I

The song is called "I Disappear" and here's a link to the music video for the whole song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f7tgprbjtg

Big and Little Week!

Last week (or, 2 weeks ago, technically..) was my Fall Break and I miss it so much! It was so great to be in Bakersfield and see everyone. This past week was Big and Little week for AXO. It's when a new member chooses an active member to be her "Big", and this is just a good way for new members to connect with active members and to have someone to go to. During Big and Little week, the Bigs put out little gifts in the house and the Littles come and get them each day. They're not told who their big is until Friday, so throughout the week they're guessing about who it is. It's fun, and then during Initiation Week the Bigs give their Littles lots of candy and food and other things for when they have to sleep over at the house that week. 

My Little is Katie Christensen and she's awesome! She's a pre-nursing major like me and is so easy to talk to!

Here are some pictures of us from Friday:

This is the blanket I made for her! It was super comfy. I wanted to keep it :)

I really struggled with decorating this board...oh well!

Anyway, I'll be posting up other things this week! Stay tuned! :)

  

Moab!

Hey! AXO has its own blog, if you want to check it out, it's www.axouofu.blogspot.com. There's a few more pictures of me on there than I post here...and you can get more of an update of what we're doing! 

I don't really have much to do say, but I finally got some pictures from my weekend in Moab to put up!

In July I went to Moab to visit my friend Nate and his family over a weekend. Moab is such a great place! I absolutely love it. While I was there, we went to Arches, went biking, and went 4-wheeling in Nate's Jeep! It was such a fun weekend and Nate's family is so nice! I had a great time.

Driving to Moab, I kinda got lost...big surprise, right? :) I took the long route to Moab by going through Fairview and Ephraim and places like that, but it was totally worth it. It was raining and kind of storming when I left, and as I went through central Utah it was GORGEOUS!! Central (probably more like East-Central) Utah is lots and lots of farmland, so the view of the countryside after the rain was breathtaking. I'm so glad I got lost. I took this picture from my camera phone of a rainbow I saw off in the distance. I can't say enough how beautiful it was! Sometimes I'm just tempted to take a mini-roadtrip and drive through those places again :)

Here we all are at Arches...from right to left it's me, Nate's dad, Nate, Nate's mom, his brother Ian and Ian's girlfriend. 

Here's Delicate Arch, and me right underneath it!

This is Nate in his Jeep, 4-wheeling in Moab!

All 3 of us decided to bike down this one hill, and all 3 of us fell and got pretty scraped up!

This is me...in a crack in the mountain...it was pretty claustrophobic!

The view from the inside

By my bike!

All of us biking

Recruitment!

Hola! Long time no talk...Recruitment for AXO pretty much took over my life the second week of school! Recruitment pretty much went on for a whole week and every day, girls would come to our house and we'd rotate in groups talking to different girls and getting to know them...it was so tiring!! 250 girls registered to go through Recruitment, so on the first day we pretty much had 250 girls in our house throughout the whole day. Every day, the less and less girls came until we got our 32 new Alpha Chi pledges! They're really cute and fun and it's really great to have new faces in AXO! I'm just glad it's over though! Here are some pictures from the week and Bid Day (the day we got our official new pledges):

Just A Thought

Hello everybody! 

So, finals week is quickly approaching for me...I just had a Biology test yesterday, I have a Chemistry test Monday, a Bio paper due Tuesday, my Bio final on Thursday and my Chem final on Friday! And then I'm done!!! WHEW!!!!

This summer has been a lot more stressful for me than I would have liked, and didn't have any time for long breaks or a vacation (except for a quick weekend getaway to Moab). So with all the studying I had to do this past summer, as long as all the studying I did during LAST summer's Chem class at BC and then starting at the U in the fall and spring semesters, I'm a little burnt out!

I'm thinking about going part-time for school in the Fall. My plan for next Fall was to take Anatomy, Statistics, Classical Mythology and Ski Teaching. That's a pretty easy load, but I'm thinking about dropping Classical Mythology. My reasoning is that even though it's an easy class, it's still a class I will have to put time and effort into, and there are a few papers due throughout the semester. I would much rather put all my time and effort into Anatomy and Stats, which are both Pre-Req courses for Nursing. Ski Teaching is a no-brainer. The reason I wouldn't drop that is that there's hardly ANYTHING due in it, it's only two times a week and I get to learn about how to ski. And I get a FREE SEASON PASS to Alta for the winter!! Sounds like a good deal to me :)

The main reason why I want to go to part-time for Fall: ANATOMY.

Ask anyone who has taken this class, and it is HARD!!!! The professor, Mark Nielsen, literally tells students to study 3 hours a day for the class. And he's not joking. I've seen people literally study 30 hours for his tests and still barely pass, and grown men have walked out from a test nearly in tears because they studied so much and yet it was still so hard! (That's not an exaggeration!)

Without the Mythology class, this is what my schedule would look like:

M, W: Anatomy-8:35-9:25 am. Stats-2:00-2:50

T, Th: Anatomy-8:35-9:25 am. Ski Teaching-2:00-3:55

F: Stats-2:00-2:50.

With Mythology, it would be M, W, F from 10:45-11:35.

So this was a super long Blog about why I want to go part-time next Fall, but I just wanted to let everyone know what was up. With the schedule above, I'd only have 9 credits, and 12 is full-time. Also, there's a 2 hour lab that goes along with Anatomy sometime during the week. 

If you guys have any thoughts or input, let me know!

Just laugh :D

This just cracked me up :)

LOLCATS!!

My life is currently rather uninteresting, so instead of posting things that are currently going on, I'm going to post up my favorite LOLCATS!! You can find more at www.icanhascheezburger.com :D

Somedays you just feel like this...

Random cartoon thing I found online that I enjoyed:

Green Day! <3

Green Day still rocks! Here are their two music videos from their new album, 21st Century Breakdown. I get to see them in concert in August, too!!! YAY!!!

Oh, and Billie Joe is still hot :)

Know Your Enemy

Green Day - "21 Guns" - HD

Rachel Weisz?

Today I was told for the sixth time (Yes, I'm keeping count!!) that I looked like Rachel Weisz from The Mummy!! It's so flattering, and I think I can see some resemblance, but I'm so surprised that so many people have said it to me! What do you think? :)

Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame...WHY?!

This is just a random thought I was thinking about today....

Why did Disney create an animated film out of The Hunchback of Notre Dame???!!!

I read the actual book a couple years ago, and a few nights ago I decided to watch the Disney movie of it again.

First of all, the animated movie is NOTHING, and I repeat, NOTHING like the novel!! The whole storyline is completely out of whack!! Yes, I know that every Disney movie changes every single story it makes a movie out of (Pocahontas, for example) but this movie was ridiculous. 

Only the setting, the characters' names, a few general events, and only certain characteristics of each character are correct. Disney just used the book, Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo as a general template to create THEIR own story.

What bugs me most is how out of untrue the characters are in the movie compared to the book.

How the characters really are:

Quasimodo, the Hunchback--He's deaf. He doesn't express any earnest desire to live among the people. Overall, he's just fine in his belltower. He's not smart and doesn't know any better. All he knows is his loyalty to Frollo. But, he really does love Esmeralda and saves her from death (at one point).

Phoebus--He doesn't even love Esmeralda. He's engaged to another woman but thinks Esmeralda is "hot" and figures he can just fool around with her before he's married.

Esmeralda--Probably the most precise character in the movie...She is kind to Quasimodo, but not especially. She's kind of rude to him at times but is only playing along with him because she knows he can save her from Frollo. I was disappointed by her in the book, because she's not the strongheaded woman she is protrayed as in the movie, but is instead more of a whiney little 16 year old who happens to be very attractive. I think her attractiveness has gone to her head a little.

Frollo--Yes, Frollo is creepily obsessed with Esmeralda, in both the movie and book. However, he does not kill Quasimodo's mom on the steps of Notre Dame nor does he try to kill Quasimodo as an infant. I don't know WHY Disney would add in those gruesome details!! That's awful! Instead, he takes Quasimodo in voluntarily and keeping him in the belltower wasn't as much of a cruelty as it was just kind of sensible, given the shape Quasimodo's in. Bottom Line: Frollo isn't evil, he is just severely torn between his rigid religious beliefs and how they are faltering due to his desire for Esmeralda (but that's still gross).

So if they had to skew SO much to create this story, why even do it in the first place?

First of all, Victor Hugo wrote this! THIS IS NOT A HAPPY STORY!

So yes, change it around so that it's a happy story. But WHY in the world would you keep in the detail of Frollo's obsession with Esmeralda?? That's CREEPY and just WRONG! They should have just justified Frollo's hatred towards Esmeralda due to the fact that he just hates gypsies. The end. Growing up, that's just what I figured was Frollo's reason for hating her. Six year olds are NOT thinking about what Frollo's real intentions were!

Sorry for this rant, but this movie seriously does not make sense. They left in all the wrong details, and totally RUINED the book. The animation and the soundtrack are FANTASTIC, don't get me wrong...I really loved this movie growing up. But this is not exactly material for a children's movie!

Good grief!

Fun week!

Hello everyone! Well, I've had a pretty fun week! I've had my bike for 8 days now, and so far I've taken it out to ride 7 of those days! Tuesday was my first day taking it on the mountain trails, before that I was just riding up and down campus. At first I just went out on the trails behind the U, and then after that my friend called me up and we went on a harder trail (I had to push my bike up about halfway...I was way too worn out!) but it had an AWESOME downhill single track. I fell off my bike on a sharp narrow turn, and cut up my knee pretty bad....there's a picture below of what it looked like after the ride :P

Also, on Memorial Day I went to Snowbird to ski! The snow was pretty awful, nothing but slush! It was really hard to ski down, I got worn out really fast! It was also hard because since I hadn't skied in nearly two months, I had to get my "Ski Legs" back :P But there was a great view from the top of the mountain!

Then on Wednesday night I went to see Anberlin and Taking Back Sunday in concert with my friend Katrina and her friend Kriston. I only know a few songs from each band, but they played the songs I knew it was so much fun! The crowd was absolutely crazy, but totally fun! I haven't been to a concert in a LONG time so it was great to go to one again! 

Taking Back Sunday:

Then last night, Friday, Katrina and our friend Keith went to see Basshunter in concert! I have a music video of his posted below :P

That was also a lot of fun...for not having been to many concerts in a long time, two in one week was a blast!

And speaking of concerts, I'm going to see GREEN DAY in concert in Salt Lake in AUGUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited! I really like their new album, I can't wait to see them live again! Their concerts are really the best!

Well, tonight there's a ward hike to Ensign Peak which is right around the Capitol, and I heard it was a great view of the city. I'll get some pictures!

Adios!

My knee after my fall: