Good Weekend

I had a really good and eventful weekend, thought that I would share!

Ready for Spring Recruitment!
Andy and I at a free ice skating night at the Gallivan Plaza in Salt Lake City. It's an outdoor ice rink right in the middle of downtown. It's awesome!
We walked around downtown just a little bit and I got this shot of an alley. It looks really cool.
Nate and I went biking up the trails I biked all last summer that are right behind the dorms. It was so fun! Really cold and really hard going uphill, but it was a fun challenge that required a lot of bike control and stamina! Biking in the snow is just like running on sand. It's really tough.
Wearing a helmet as always :)
I have a picture of this same view from Fall, Winter, and Spring now. I'll have to find the other two. This is always my resting point going up the hills.

Good Quote

Just replace India with Bakersfield! (Or Bahrain, for Dad & Paula!)

"In India, "cold weather" is merely a conventional phrase and has come into
use through the necessity of having some way to distinguish between weather
which will melt a brass doorknob and weather which will only make it mushy."
-- Mark Twain

And while I'm here, here's a random picture of Coco and Grayson playing basketball with me:

"You're gonna end up eating a steady diet of government cheese and...."

Hello family! Right now I'm in Phoenix, waiting for my flight to Salt Lake City! I had such a great time in Bakersfield for Christmas Break, it's sad to leave :(

I'll post up pictures from the break soon (Well...I don't have the best track record for posting on here but I'll really try!) but I just found this picture and thought I'd share :)

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)