don't judge a book by its cover

Many of you may remember at the beginning of this summer my personal goal to to read more. Well, i'm sad to say, it didn't work out as planned. I did read Tuck Everlasting!... but thats pretty sad for a whole summer. I even taught an enrichment lesson about the importance of reading good books. But i have nothing to show from it. My most recent motivation was Education Week. I helped one of my supervisors prepare and present her lecture series. All 4 classes related back to good books somehow (picking, sharing, etc). Each day i left with a renewed desire to read more! (especially when i have kids! I can't wait to cuddle up next to them and read aloud!) Once again, i'm hoping that i can follow through with this goal. This next semester might be a tad bit busy, but we'll see how it goes.

Just to give you all a peak inside my life. Here is what i have in store for the next little while.

Classes start a week from today. My classes include: Crisis Intervention, Perspectives on Cultural Diversity and Marriage Prep (calm down.. its just for fun). Most of my credit hours (5) will come from my academic internship. I'll be working part time with the Social Worker at the local hospital. I'm excited to see what that holds!

Outside of class, i'm still working at the Library. My plan is to stay until i graduate in April. That means i'll have held the same student job all 4 years of my BYU career. Pretty spiffy, eh? I recently got a new title of "Head TA" and all the extra work that comes with that. It was also approved for me to help the Social Sciences Librarian teach her advanced writing classes this year. So i'll be teaching library sessions on how to research in the Social Work and Psychology fields. Our freshman english tutorial (the big project of the summer) is about done! so thats a relief. And although we ended up not using my voice in the recording (thankfully) it still has quite a bit of me in it. so thats fun.

Outside of work and school... oh wait. is there life outside of work and school? haha, I sure hope so! After all, its important to keep a good balance. I'm not sure what to expect in that regards. A new house, a new ward, a old roommate is back again, and brett gets back in town soon. Lots of fun adventures for sure. Speaking of, for those of you in provo pay attention! We are having a house warming party next saturday. You're all invited!! More details to come.

I think that will suffice as an update for now. I'm on my lunch break at work and its about time to head back.

I hope everyone is enjoying the last few fleeting moments of summer!!

much loves!

its been a while

hello again. sorry its been so long. classes ended, i took finals, moved and then worked full time for a week. I would have loved to blog about all the exciting adventures involved, but i just didn't have time. or when i did.... i didn't have access to the internet. (my new house isn't fully equipped yet).

Speaking of the house... here is a picture of the outside. Yes, its a little ghetto but its gonna be great. Its pink.. how could it be anything less than great?!



Here is our living room. I'll post more pics of the inside when i get everything unpacked.



Yes its true, i have yet to finish unpacking. Instead i went to the driving range...



and to the county fair



and saw a rodeo.


I've been busy doing lots of other things as well. but these were the only pictures that i had.

In other news my very awesome younger brother got his mission call!! (this is him at his eagle scout last year). He is going to burn and sweat to death in Arizona. spanish speaking.

All in all I'm doing pretty good. :)

I am spoiled...

No, i am not the type of spoiled that happens to your roommates food when she leaves it in the fridge for too long. I am spoiled lucky by people who care about me! Now, i wouldn't normally consider myself to be the "spoiled child" type. Generally speaking, I have worked for and paid for all of my schooling and any recreational activities (including shopping) since i turned 12. But let me tell you, i'm feeling pretty spoiled these days.



Last week i celebrated by 21st birthday! I was reminded of how many people care about me and are willing to do things for me. I also realized how awesome life is and I've felt pretty happy for a while which is a blessing.

Since you are all wondering what i did for my birthday, i will tell you! It started at midnight (tuesday night/wednesday morning). I was with Brett, who provided the first happy birthday wishes. I also received multiple text messages from friends who remembered. Thanks girls! The next morning my Tyler brought over 2 dozen red roses. The roses were a present from my parents and David.
I absolutely love having fresh flowers in our apartment. so that was an exciting surprise. I then went to work (what kind of boss schedules a meeting with me for 9 am on my birthday). but work was pleasant as well. Both of my supervisors wished me a happy birthday as well as all of the coworkers that i saw. And lets be honest, who doesn't like all the excitement and attention that comes with having a birthday? After my meeting i headed off to class. boring, yes. But we got out early. I got to talk to my mom before going back into work. Luckily i got everything done for the day and convinced my boss that i was taking the rest of the day off. Then it was time for dance class. decent. then my whole office went out to lunch with me. By boss treated me and the food was yummy! The rest of the afternoon consisted of a somewhat successful shopping trip(thanks to my parents for the spending money!). I did buy two new pairs of shorts. White and brown. I also got a new skirt that has pockets!! always an added bonus. and a black shirt. Despite the successful shopping trip, i was still discouraged when i couldn't find anything to wear to the dance lab I had to attend that night. Luckily i did my laundry recently, so that shouldn't be a problem again for a few weeks.

As i alluded to, i spent the first part of the night at a dance lab. i was bored and anxious to celebrate more of my birthday, so i left after the first hour. Brett surprised me with a balloon and a present! He got me this really awesome book called The Infinite Atonement . His mission president wrote the book and apparently its really good. I'm way excited to read it! Brett and I then went to a quaint little diner for dinner because they have these AWESOME ice cream cones that i wanted for dessert. the machine adds flavor to the outside of the ice cream. I wish i could remember what they were called so i could encourage you all to try one!

After that we played some pool (i lost) some ping pong (i lost) and some chinese checkers (i won!). Then we sat outside, where i got bit 10 times (see previous blog) and then midnight struck and my birthday was over. or was is? My brother actually surprised me the next day with an awesome present. A i-pod! and amanda and rooi came over to visit and amanda brought me one of my favorite snacks... peanut butter and graham crackers. Also, my visiting teachers brought over these yummy strawberry treats and the relief society baked me a cake. See, i really am spoiled! Thanks guys! My birthday was awesome and i'm was lucky to have good friends to spend it with.

On a slightly related note, i'm getting an semi late b-day present soon from Verizon. My 2 year contract is up and so i get a new phone. I'm got an LG Venus and its my new favorite toy! It came yesterday and i'm slightly addicted. Espeically since i can check my e-mail on it AND play songs AND text friends! what more does a little girl need?!

happy, blissful, chipper, pleased, glad, joyous

I'm in a good mood today. Which is surprising, seeing as i only got 4 and 1/2 hours of sleep last night. Why the limited sleep? Well, because yesterday was friday night so of course i stayed out late and then this morning we had a work breakfast at 8. normally i'd wake up at 7:30 for something like that, but we had cleaning checks this morning and i had yet to clean up my room or the bathroom. so i got up at 6:30 to get everything done. Luckily i wasn't too tired. When i got home from the breakfast i took an hour nap and woke up feeling refreshed. Its such a good feeling. My favorite story from today was a conversation i had with a friend. The topic was about her saying i love you to her boyfriend. Somehow i took that topic and quickly and excitedly progressed their relationship to the "i have a one year old baby" stage. I got so excited for the baby's b-day party complete with cake in the face. haha. it was a good converstation! In other news, I was somewhat productive this afternoon which is good, but whats better is that i wasn't stressed! Now i'm at work, and i actually cataloged some music and although i still have an hour and a half left I'm feeling pretty good. I'll probably hit the wall with one hour remaining. We'll see though.

I wrote a blog about my birthday week extravaganza! but i want to add pictures from my camera so i will post it a little later.

until then, do as the singing fish say and "don't worry...be happy!"

little bloodsuckers

as the title of my blog states "sometimes words come rushing out, sometimes they just trickle" today is a day of rushing words my friends. why? well there are multiple contributing factors 1) i'm at work avoiding music cataloging 2) its friday and i finally have some free time to blog... its been a while and 3) i'm in a good mood. :)

The focus of this blog is on the pesky little bug we call mosquitos.

I was sitting outside with brett the other night. near grass, which was my first mistake. when suddenly my knee started to itch. Frustrated i looked down to see a nice red mark appearing. Of course i itched it. Of course brett told me to stop. Now lets fast forward to today. my knee still itches, but its not alone. I have two bites on my left knee, two on my left calf, one on my left foot, one on my right foot, one on my right achilles tendon, and two other small ones on my right leg. yes, count them, thats NINE (9). And if you know me, you know i am a picker and itcher and a baby. so its really hard to try and "ignore" the itch. I realize that ignoring them makes them decrease and eventually go away, but its just so hard!

I found this website about how to "How to Get Rid of a Mosquito Bite" Maybe i'll try some of the remedies when i get home from work.

isn't it about... time?

I've worked at the library for 3 years now. I've spent countless hours studying in the library, sleeping in the library, working in the library, even eating in the library. One might say that some days i live at the library. That being said, in my 3 years i have NEVER experienced a library fire alarm. shocking, i know. some of my co workers have "lived through" over 10. and me... zero. Until today. My dance class got out early (we had a test, and i tested second and got to leave) so naturally, i migrated to the library. The rest of the story is pretty boring. The alarm went off, blaring loudly in my ears, we walked outside through the special emergency exit (i HAD been out this exit before when we were trained) and waited in the hot sun for the ringing to stop. As an employee, i got to enter back into the library through the secret exit and go back to work. terribly exciting. okay, not really, but now at least i can say i've experienced one!




As with all good life changing experiences, todays events got me thinking. Be prepared these are profound thoughts:

1.) why does the alarm have to be so loud? OW. nuff said

2.) what happens to people who can't use stairs? you are not supposed to use a elevator during a fire alarm. Where i work, on the second floor, there were many older patrons in the area for a family history conference. Convincing them all to go out the stairs and not back to the elevator was tricky. Luckily they all made it. But seriously, what if someone couldn't walk up the stairs? I've seen little contraptions to help people get down stairs, but what about up??

3.) how often am i aware of the closest emergency exit? the library is HUGE and as we all know, there is only one main entrance. In the event of a fire, there are multiple "hidden" exits that are available. Luckily i know about them since i work here, but what if i was unfamiliar with the layout. what would i do? I would burn to death. so, from now on, i am going to find the emergency exit prior to sitting down.

4.) why don't some people listen? there was a girl waiting outside the classroom when i got back to work after the alarm. my boss asked her "did you not leave the library?" She said no. WHAT? what do you mean you didn't leave the library? she explained that they were in the maps section when the doors closed and no one moved. The announcement came on the loud speaker for everyone to evacuate and yet, no one moved. Seriously, what if there really was a fire? Unlikely.. yes. but possible. Maybe they didn't know where to go, maybe peer pressure made it easier to stay, but maybe next time the won't be as lucky. On a similar note, a month or so ago i was sitting in the library when an announcement came on that said to evacuate the library. again, no one moved. There was no fire alarm and no apparent reason to leave. So we didn't. It ended up being a mistake, but we all sat there for 5 minutes until they finally told us we did NOT have to leave the building. When should we follow directions and when should we ignore them? I don't have an easy answer.