Pasta 4th Cut

To begin and to get your juices going, check out this fabulous lasagna. Yes, I know you all want some. But there is only one piece left and its all mine! This is a late birthday present to myself via money sent from my dear mother. I made it and it turned out great!

For FHE tonight we went to the Civil Defense caves out by the sand dunes and played hide and seek after splashing ourselves and the rocks around us the glow stick guts. It was really fun, except for when I fell (it was crazy icy and slippery) and gouged my hand open on a rock.

This week we don't have classes on Thursday or Friday because of the 4th of July, and since both of my roommates are going out of town one of my friends might come up to visit me from Utah to keep me company, and I'm crazy excited to hang out with her and party hard! Hopefully you all have great plans for this weekend too!!

I'm also thinking of getting my hair cut...short...the majority of people I have asked think I could pull off a short cut. I think it will be fun to do something different with myself, and I'll also save on shampoo. Any thoughts?!?

Rock Climbing Pictures!!

I went to give plasma on Saturday, but my heart rate was too high so instead I was able to go rock climbing with my roommate and some girls from our ward, which is way better than having a needle in your arm anyways. They picked me up from the plasma center, and brought shorts for me to change into, which is the reason the shorts I am wearing in all of these pictures are flaming red. I felt so....what's the word....bright.

I was the second one to go after Patty led the run we were going to do. Here, Felise is tightening the harness for me.

Patty was our expert on the trip, she was the one who made it fun! Here she is spectacularly tying a figure 8 knot. Oh, and do you like my chalk bag?

This is the classic, I'm-in-a-bum-grabbing-harness shot. I think I fill it out nicely. : ) The combination of those red shorts and my pasty white legs...wow.

I did pretty well on the climb, the beginning was super easy, but then I got suck with out any holds for a little bit until I worked around it and made it to the last clip! This picture is my favorite as it shows what little leg muscle I have.

The funnest part by far, was repelling down after I had reached our final clip. The problem by far with rock climbing pictures is they usually all end up being of your bum. Well....maybe that's not a problem....

I hope you also had a fabulous weekend!

Tubing Pictures!!

Waiting to get on the water. No, I did not realize this picture was being taken. Standing next to me with her boyfriend is my roommate from my very first semester out here. She is pretty much awesome. Her boyfriend is roommates with Boy, who is standing next to him. The guy on the other side is Canadian, so we don't care about him.

I'm the one straggling in the back...going on your stomach was the only way you had any control, but tube burns on the insides of my arms from paddling are proof that it will hurt later.

Check out those crazy rapids!! Lol, really though because we have gotten so much rain some of it was a little intense. This girl who lives downstairs slipped trying to get on her tube the first time and hit her head really hard on the rocks on the bottom, which about 2 hours later triggered a siezure. Scary?!? Yes, I think so.

That's me on the far side (this is my second time around). Felise is in the middle. She cooked me dinner tonight...and she's going to be moving into our apartment next semester!!

This is us de-tubing ourselves at the park next to Rigby Lake...I'm hiding behind Felise trying not to tip over after floating on my stomach for 30 min or so.

The Tubing Toast Tale

Last night for a ward activity we went tubing. We started on a canal in the back yard of Brother Baldwin's house (he is in my bishopric) then tubed all the way to Rigby Lake for a cookout. It was fanatically fun, and ridiculously cold. I got to go twice cause I'm just cool like that. I wish I could do it every day of my life.

In other news I experienced a most ironic and awkward ending to my Social Psychology class. One of the guys in the class who is known for making snide remarks and sarcastic comments, said something at the very end of class that must have really set off my professor (I didn't even hear what he said) and they both started arguing nearly to the point of yelling. Class was officially over so we all awkwardly walked out. The ironic part is that this all occurred after we spent spent our second day discussing our Chapter 10 entitled Aggression. After I class my professor sent out an email apologizing to all of us for his behavior.

To close this post...I received back an assignment for my British Literature class in which I was to compose a monologue similar to one of Browning's. Reading mine in retrospect made me laugh. Enjoy.

As I rolled out of bed on a Friday morning
Try as I might to get the stick from my eyes
A queer smell caught my nose
And I wandered to find it
Into the kitchen I followed it hence
And found upon arriving a bowl of meal
Sweet cinnamon savor and milk to spare
I thought of sitting and eating alone
Before my comrades noticed it was gone
But there on the stove was waiting a pan
Which I had set out the night before
Knowing in the morning I would want some eggs
And perhaps some ham and toast
Turning from the meal that was not mine
I made a breakfast of my own
And to this day I will never know
If the meal was hot or if it was cold

Dog Tales

In my Personality class today we got off topic and were discussing dog training as it relates to conditioning. My professor has quite the knack for telling funny stories and I thought I would share a few of them with you.

To begin he shared with us how he thought one could best train a dog. 1) Buy the best manual you can find on dog training. 2) Read it and keep it near you at all times. 3) When dog pees on the floor, pick up said manual and smack him with it.

The other one I want to share is a story he told of a friends dog. His friends dog was particularly dumb. It's afternoons often involved the dog running into inanimate objects in the yard, collapsing to the ground, getting up, and doing it all over again. This dog obviously was pretty tough to train. But the man persisted. Every time the dog peed in the house the man would rub the dogs nose in the urine and throw him out the back door into the back yard. My professor was on the phone with this man one day when out of no where he exclaimed, "Are you kidding me?" Surprised my professor asked what happened. His friend still obviously baffled replied, "This dumb dog just peed on the living room floor, rubbed his nose in it, and ran into the back door!"

Dogs may be dumb but they are pretty stinkin' cute!!

Updated Writing Thoughts

To Update: My finger is well on its way to recovery. Had it been a finger on any other hand belonging to anyone else it would have had a stitch or two helping, but my flanges seem to have an overwhelming need for independence so it will just take longer.

I though I would share with you some thoughts I had had while writing a paper for my writing class. The paper is exploring the need for pain in life and how we handle the pain and if we in turn learn from it. While talking in class about one of the articles we read we discussed the following quote, "'I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to remain vulnerable.' We will all suffer in one way or another, but we need a certain perspective if our suffering is to teach us."

If you think about mourning as it pertains to the death of a loved one, the added act of 'mourning' to our suffering allows us to at some point move on from our suffering. If 'mourning' acts as the means to a new perspective our suffering and it is only through our 'mourning' that we can ever overcome our pain, then my question is, do we 'mourn' regularly? I think we will all quickly admit to suffering regularly, but without any 'mourning' we aren't learning from our pain. The scriptures say that God is with his people in their suffering, and I think that it is through Him that we are able to mourn and gain this new perspective. I'm not sure that I regularly mourn, and deal with my suffering in any way that will promote any sort of learning, and I should, because why on earth would we want to just suffer.

Just something for you to think about on this Tuesday afternoon. Have a good one!

Oh, What A Day...

This small, but rather deep, cut my friends was the cause of a rather exciting morning for me. I was cooking breakfast and was being stupid in my desperation to open the sausage tube, and the knife slipped and stabbed my finger. My immediate thought was "Oh crap, last time I cut myself I almost passed out." So I got some toilet paper to wrap my finger in and sat down on the couch applying pressure. After sitting for only a few seconds I started to feel faint; ears ringing, vision blurring, limbs feeling weak, and overwhelming nausea. My empty stomach didn't handle the overwhelming nausea well and I was soon emptying my already empty stomach into our toilet. After that my body got crazy cold and then crazy hot, and then I felt a lot better. I called my mom so I would have someone to talk to and make it all not quite so scary and to distract me from my apparent anxiety. I now have proof that moms can work their heeling magic even when 2000 miles away. Thanks Mom!

But while I sat on our terrifically disgusting bathroom floor aftering emptying my stomach, I wondered how on earth I can sit with a large needle in my arm for45min straight, sop up blood out of my brothers mouth after he knocked loose some teeth, and care for a cut on my brothers leg that would later require stitches all without feeling faint, but when I get a small cut on my own hand I almost immediately feel the need to pass out.

Weird?!? Yes, I think so too.

I am fine now minus a headache from the "almost passing out" part and my cut still killing me no matter how much Neosporin(with pain relief) I put on it. I was worried at first that it wasn't going to close up very well on its own because the area around it was so inflamed pulling it open and its on a part of my body that is always moving, but looking at it now it didn't close completely but has at least finally dried up.

The End.

Flaming Meatloaf Pants

Time has been getting the better of me these last few days. It seems before I even realize an hour has passed three are gone. Someone needs to fix weekends, so they are a few days longer. I did not get enough done. But I did have fun.

To begin, I managed to bring up my grade in Social Psychology a little with a lot of additional time spent studying. After taking a test on Friday I went out for ice cream with some friends, and then we decided to drive to somewhere, and ended up at the sand dunes. We laid on a blanket and stargazed, which would have been incredibly romantic if any boys had been with us. I don't think I have ever in my life seen so many stars at one time. It was really incredible. Then we had a mattress party at our apartment...

I was the only one who stayed a wake for more than half of the movie. On Saturday I did some classy shopping at Winco with Scott, Cassie, and Dan and I got drenched just trying to get the the parking lot. Sunday after church we went to go visit some aunts and uncles who live close. We went first to visit Aunt Joann and Uncle Nyle who recently returned from a mission on the east coast. Two of our cousins and four of their kids were there as well. Then we went to visit Uncle Durrell (who looks just like my Dad) and Aunt Joy and we helped make some amazing caramel popcorn. It was great to see Aunt Joy up and moving around and looking so much healthier! (for pictures see Cassie's blog)

Monday I decided to make meatloaf and almost remembered completely how to make it off the top of my head but did have to call my mom for the cooking time. It turned out pretty good, but ended up a little more heavy on the loaf than on the meat.

Later that night Dan was over at our apartment and we were bored and trying to light stuff with a lighter we found. And I learned a cool trick. If you put hand sanitizer on a hard surface and light it, it will burn for a long time without damaging the surface it's on. My roommate made a flaming smiley face.

I also this weekend inherited a pair of jeans from one of my roommates, which is fabulous as most of mine don't fit very well.

I love them already! HURRAH for free pants. And HURRAH for being single again. I kind of feel like a new woman, and having so many terrific friends and family around to support me and give me things to do is more than I could have ever asked for!

Texano Cake Weekend

My naked snail seems to have drawn a less than welcoming response from those in blog world....I still think its funny...don't worry.

I have had a fantastic week, and can hardly believe that it is already Friday. I have been so busy with school work and my roommates trying to drag me out of the apartment now that Boy is never around. Aside from finally cleaning my room, watching Castaway and Tuesday's with Morrie for the first time in my life, here are some pictures of a few other highlights of my week.

My roommate was kind enough to drive me to the store, so I could finally purchase cheesecake making accessories. I am attempting to exhibit self control when it comes to how much of it I eat a day. I'm not doing too bad. I have made it nearly an entire week and it isn't even half gone yet.

Last night after a roommate date to Ramierez for a Texano, my roommate decided to interrupt the make out session going on in our living room by walking out in her sumo suit and asking if anyone had seen her towel. This way taken mid-giggles prior to the act. I'm not sure if the accused were more surprised that we caught them in the act or that my roommate was four times her usual size.

This picture has nothing to do with my week....I just thought it was funny.

Have a fantastic weekend!!

The Devoted Snail

I was bored yesterday in class and drew the following in my notes and then spent an hour or so replicating in on my computer. I suppose naked snails are not something everyone thinks about, perhaps only the most educated and elite of society. Or maybe it's just me.

Today I got to see President Eyring speak. Because he is cooler than most of our other speakers we had to "purchase" free tickets ahead of time and wait in line. I waited two hours in line only then to realize that there were no lines and the people who had only been waiting for 20min were going to get in the door before me. I was upset and then joined the mob that swarmed into the auditorium the second the doors opened. President Eyring gave us a wonderful talk on the miracle of our having a temple and a church university on the same hill. And Dan while singing in the choir, had one camera do one of those creepy zooms on his face, but he looked great nonetheless!

What a fantastical Tuesday it was....

Registechology

Last week I was able to register for classes for the fall semester, and I realized to day that I had yet to share with you the fantastic classes I will be taking.

I will be taking:
Fiction
American Lit: Colonial and Romantic
Preparation for Eternal Marriage
Adult Development
Psychological Assessment
Juvenile Delinquency

I am particularly excited for the last one... think it will really interesting as recently I have been leaning towards Child Psychology or Rehabilitation/Substance Abuse Counseling. Hopefully it will help to lighten my seventeen credit load.

I also was able to get a ticket to see President Eyring who will be our devotional speaker tomorrow. Thanks to not having any classes before hand I should have a pretty good seat. I just need to find someone else who got a ticket that I know and can sit with so I don't feel like a loser.

Have a fanfreakintastic Monday!

Friday Infatuation

I love Fridays. No correction...I am IN love with Fridays.

I had a funny thought today and thought I would share it with you as an exclusive into my minds inner most workings.

My roommate and I were chatting and she asked me who my favorite band or artist was and I of course responded that that is an impossible decision to make. So I gave her a top ten.

Emily's Top Ten Favorite Musical Artists (subject to change at any moment)
1) Katy Perry
2) Daughtry
3) Nickleback
4) Fergie
5) Michael Buble
6) Coldplay
7) No Doubt
8) Mariah Carey
9) Taylor Swift
10) Eminem

With the last one my roommate goes "Eminem?!? I would not have tagged you as someone who likes rap." And I said, "well with Eminem it's more like wrap with a 'w' because he's white. Kinda like a white guy trying to act black is a wigger." Friends thats my brain for you...Eminem is a wrapper.

Happy Friday!

The One For Wonderful Men

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

The wonderful man responsible for not only my existence but approximately half of my genes as well, is a fantastic __ years old today! (You'll have to wonder exactly how much __ is because I fear I a not at liberty to divulge such information.) While the majority of his life has been spent in an office to feed my face and eight others, he has been a dad to out class any other dad. Love you Pops!

And another wonderful man now adorns the background on my lappy. After swooning over google's elaborate collection of Jim Carrey photos I could not resist making several of them my very own.

Look out Jenny McCarthy, I am on my way...

Miscellaneous Moments Minute

As I sit here, smelling of the brown rice I cooked only minutes prior to retiring to my bed, I let my mind wander from the mundane task of discovering an insight from M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled. I marvel at the almost inaudible sound of thunder in the distance and smell fresh cut grass. I think back over the days events, lulled by the mellow tones of Sixpence None the Richer's Kiss Me, only to realize that nothing notable happened and that I really want to learn to play he guitar so I can serenade someone special with this particular song. With the impending rain comes the first humidity in days, and my jeans that are several sizes too big for me seem laden with the moisture and oppressive. The moisture in the air is accompanied by the inability to do much of anything except watch clips from Ellen on youtube. The hunger in my stomach indicates that the minute rice was not filling enough and that my solitude here on my bed with the thunder may be rather short lived. And indubitably something will come up and I will have to leave this soothing world of guitars, grass, thunder, and no sense of commitment...

like now.

Bodacious Boxes

I recently found on sale scrabble Cheez-its. Not only are they fun to eat, but also intellectually tasty and an excellent source of spell-tacular words. For example...in spelling the word 'fish'....

The 'H' an 'T' were particularly delicious, but the ridiculous nature of the the word 'ghoti' also being pronounced 'fish' were simply titillating.

I don't get bored easily don't worry.

We listened to this song in my Personality class today Little Boxes - by Pete Seeger, I think it has also been redone by Linkin Park. Be forewarned it gets stuck in your head.

"Little boxes made of ticky-tacky..."