The Zit I Found In the Backyard

Whilst weeding the sandlot and gravel areas of our back yard today, I found a very interesting creature among the unwanted nature I was plucking up. At first, I wasn't sure if it was a living organism or part of a tree, but when I touched it, its little swiveling end that I termed a head moved around and around.
It was about an inch and a quarter long, a third of an inch wide, circular, deep red, and had somewhat of a shell, except for one end, which looked like a slug's tail end. I picked up the oddity and watched it mechanically move the one part of itself that was able... and then went back to work weeding.
I showed it to my mother when she got home. She took one look at it and after realizing she had no idea what it was, told me I should show Papa Bear.
So I showed my father when he got home, and he told me to squeeze it "like a zit." Why I listened to him I can only blame on impulse. I squoze it a tiny bit before I realized it was less brittle than I had anticipated and dropped it, as white puss came out of the side of it, poor thing.
Daddy-dear thought it was hilarious.

Just goes to show, never listen to your father.

New Job

When you're in college, SUMMER = JOB = $$$ = If-you-want-to-come-back-to-this-lovely-institution-you-had-better-make-some

Last summer's job was a very difficult one. I worked in skilled nursing and you get everything there. Some days I felt like an under-trained nurse in an ICU. So needless to say, thus summer I wanted that to be my excuse to search for an easier job--something fun like retail.
Eventually, however, my better judgment took over and I ended up applying at an assisted living/Alzheimer's care facility, The Wentworth... and got the job.
I started orientation on Thursday and they had me work in Stratford, the Alzheimer's unit. Holy cow it was not even CLOSE to how hard my last job was!! But in all honesty, I plan on working harder than I did with the CNA I was shadowing on Thursday. I'm used to being on my feet the entire eight hours except for when I'd finally sit down to chart. We'll see how this coming week goes, however. I plan on being busier. And the administrator who hired me said he plans on having me trained as a med tech.
I didn't know what that was either, don't worry.
Basically they just train you to administer medication. When I heard this, I thought, "Sweet!"

It's definitely what an older, more mature person would call "a better career move." :) Medical schools like applicants to have as much patient exposure as possible--years if you can help it. So I feel like my time will be better spent with another summer in healthcare than in the mall. Besides, I love taking care of my patients. :)

Homagin Homagin Giggedy Gig

(I had to leave before Lisa had gotten back from taking her CIL tests so I don't have on with all five of us. :( )

I don't believe it. I just don't believe it! -as Iago would say.
My first year of college is officially completed. SUCH a weird feeling. With my plan to become a physician and seeing all the years of schooling I have ahead of me, the idea always seems like it'll never come. But the fact that just one year went so darn fast frightens me that I'll be there before I know it! Graduation will be so... bittersweet... Oh gosh. Listen to me. I just completed ONE year of college and I'm already speaking of graduation as though I'm just a hop, skip, and a leap away. Noooooooooot quite.

Anyway, I had my last final on Friday at 7:30 a.m. I had to be out of my apartment by 11:20 a.m. AHH! So basically I packed and cleaned during the week so that I'd be out in the two hours remaining. My parents arrived at like 10:20 a.m. or so to help me, and Trev was thankfully with me as well, helping me load the last few items into the boxes my parents brought. I must say, I do not know HOW in the world people fit everything into their little cars. I completely filled our truck--and it's not a particularly small vehicle!

My parents, while they were "up north" decided to utilize some time by looking at some property in Idaho. While they did this, Trevor and I hung out in Logan. It was his birthday on Sunday and since I wouldn't be there for it.... yeah. We went to a park, I met his ex girlfriend, we sword fought with branches, ate lunch with his mother (she threatened me that if I didn't come visit while Trevor was on his mission---.....!!!!), dropped off a few materials I'd used while tutoring the Indian lady off at the Logan library where Bridgerland Literacy is based, and laid on the grass. :) We waited for my parents to arrive back in Logan and whiled away the time by walking to a park in the "ghetto" of Logan and listened to the sirens blare, watched a Mexican family play soccer, and looked at the car part menageries...
When the parental units got back, we ate dinner together and afterward Trev and I said a short goodbye and that was it!

I then spent three more days cleaning, organizing, unpacking my room at home. But it's all done now and looks great, thankfully. I was so afraid to throw anything out before college, but after a year, I know now what I need, what I'll use, and what's just junk. You don't even want to KNOW how high my DI piles were. :)

New Hair! :)

P.S. Yes, I'm still alive. Sorry I've been suffering from a severe case of blogger's slack lately... I'll catch y'all up soon!

Pictures from Mardi Gras!

I look really young in this picture. . .

Gotta love Anike . . .

Best fish face EVER!

In the Trevor's Jeep on the way to hot springs. . .

The five of us, Anike, Jessica, me, Amy (their RA and roommate), and my twin, Emily, before Mardi Gras.

Go Fridays. The end.

Don't you love those weekends when you have positively nothing planned and think it'll be a boring weekend, but then out of the blue your weekend will totally fill up with fun things that include lots of people?? Yeah... me too. :)

So this weekend a bunch of us decided to go to some hot springs in Idaho. The place was out in the middle of nowhere... which, instead of meaning boring, it means STARS!!! Tons of 'em!! The sky was seriously brilliant. But yeah. . . that was pretty much the culmination, for me at least. . . But it was fun bobbin' around in what felt like boiling, hot tub, and bathtub water. :)

On Saturday, I basically spent the WHOLE DAY doing statistics homework and chemistry lab writeups. . . (I don't fill you all in on that... I'll spare you.) But that night I went with my twin, Anike, and Jessica (Hessica) to USU's Mardi Gras party!! We kinda sorta dressed up and once we were in, we walked past performers (dancers, singers...), freeloaders, jesters, etc. The basement of the TSC had been turned into a street in New Orleans. We (meaning Emily and I) then waited in line forEVER for an airbrushed face paint job! After the wait, my twin got up there and got a red bubble-looking design above her eyes. Perdy cool! I sat down a little while later and I wait for the lady to ask me what I want done and she doesn't speak a word, just start testing the color. Finally she's about to spray me and I go, "Wait! I'm not sure I want green!!" She goes, "It's not green. It's yellow." "Well--" "Just sit still. You'll like it." (Ahhhh!) So she starts painting me yellow above my eye.... and then she blows the paint into my hair!!!! I'm thinking, "Ahh! Lady! I do NOT want paint in my hair no matter HOW cool you think it looks! I washed it like an hour ago!!" After this scary ordeal, she stops, grabs a mirror and says, "... got a little bit of animal magnetism coming out..." hahaha.

So actually it did turn out pretty neato frito burrito. :)

After our paint job, we went upstairs and danced. Unfortunately, there were people there that were dancing in the most obscene way!! Like I will not burden you by desribing it, just know it was nastolii. We went to check out a featured live band they had there. They were pretty good, I thought. Not the kind of music I usually listen to, but hey. We were right up front until we decided to head to our next destination: The Illusionist, Mike Super. Apparently he's #1 in the world, next to Chris Angel. There was a show on TV last year that Chris Angel and someone else hosted and this Mike Super won it. Kinda like the American Idol for magicians. :) So since he won it, he got a quarter of a million dollars and his own show that will air this summer or something. Cool beans! I then found out WHY he won!! . . .

The guy freaking levitated a Kleenex!! He folded it into a ball and made it climb all over his arm. Then he made it climb all over a volunteer's arm. The neat thing was, though, was that when it was climbing over hte girl's arm, he wasn't doing anything! He was just standing there next to her! Then he took the tissue, twisted it into a flower, made it stand up in his hand, made it spin (all without touching it), and just let go... and it STAYED IN THE AIR! There was nothing under it or on top of it... I have NO idea how he did it!!

He also did voodoo magic! Haha. So he brought out a doll and picked a random person from the audience. His choice happened to be a big black guy, Tyrone. He had Tyrone sit in a chair about six feet from him and his voodoo doll. Tyrone closed his eyes and clasped his hands our in front of him. Mike then took the doll and tapped its shoulder. He told Tyrone to open his eyes and tell us if he'd felt anything. He said he'd felt two taps on his shoulder. The crowd gasped!! (hahaha) So then Mike said, "Tyrone's still not convinced. Let's take it up a notch." He pulled out a lighter and the doll's hands went up in smoke. Mike then told Tyrone to open his hands and Lo and Behold he had black on his hands as if they'd been singed. Mike had a third trick up his sleeve, though. He told Tyrone to close his eyes one more time. He brought out a pin . . . yeah . . !! As he's driving the pin through the doll's backside, he tells Tyrone to just tells us when he feels something-- Tyrone JUMPS UP and reels around to look at what poked him! Hahaha it was so weird! I wonder what really poked him. It was funny because the entire show, Mike was telling us nothing was real, how it was all an illusion. Interesting...

He did a bunch of tricks, obviously, but those were the two that impressed me most. :)

Good weekend!!!

Valentine's Day! <3

Saturday morning was spent sleeping, getting ready, running valentines to my visiting teaching companion and girls, cleaning, asking Trev when he called about how he did in his ski race that morning (in which he placed first), opening my valentine from my parents (which I loved!), talking to Lisa, my roommate, checking the mail unsuccessfully, taking a shower, and receiving a valentine Symphony bar from my FHE husband, "Hubby"!! Yummmm. It was really nice of him. And Richard said he has one for me too. I love these guys, they're so nice to me and I love their friendship. Good guys. Good examples.

Anyway! After Trevor got back down the canyon from his race and the raffle at which he won new ski poles and a shirt (yay), he came over to get me for our date. After talking to my sister about the awfulness of restaurants in Logan on Valentine's Day, I kind of hoped we'd go to his house and cook dinner on our own, but wasn't sure about the plan because he hadn't given anything away.

As it turned out, we did!! When we first arrived at his house, he hugged me in the living room and as I looked around I found the frame and pictures I'd given him... ON THE MANTLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LIVING ROOM with no other pictures around it! I quickly pulled away, astonished, and said, "I thought that was going in your room! We're in the middle of the living room where everyone notices?" He answers, "Umm... they like you?" Haha. I felt honored, LOL.

Anyway, we made dinner--a very good pasta he's been wanting me to try for a while (with the strangest ingredients!) and which I'll have to make again--and when it was about done, I asked, "So... ya wanna set the table now?" He gave me funny answers until I finally figured out we weren't eating in the usual spot. We got it into bowls and everything and then he led me through some halls and down into his mother's flower room, where she makes her flower arrangements, with lots of windows. In the room, there was a little table with candles and a flower and the tinest salt and pepper shakers haha, and pretty plates and crystal glasses. As he walked out to get something he called back, "The card's for you. . ." I read it and he heard me laughing from the kitchen haha. The card fit him SO well and it made it funnier because I had talked about its contents with Meagan and Richard the day before! It said, "Honey, on Valentine's Day I want to show you what a hopeless romantic I am. . . " (open card) ". . . but since you already know I'm hopeless, I'll focus on the romantic part. XOXO" hahaha! So funny.

He came back with a box, which, when I opened, contained a dark brown bear, a cd I'd been bothering him about borrowing because I love it, and a book called Time Is A River. I figured out why he adamantly refused to let me borrow his Quietdrive cd then! I also figured out why his mom had interrogated me about that kind of books I like to read the night before haha. (She ended up lending me two of her books. Rach, I know, you'll be familiar with one of them, which I'm reading now, The Secret Life of Bees and another one, Love In the Driest Season.

Then he asked me, "So have you figured out the other part of your present?" I hestitated and hoped for the best, "Umm... the orchid on the table?" "Yep." I SO wanted it to be for me when I realized it was a orchid on the table, but wasn't sure because it very well may have been his mother's because she's very flower-oriented. :) But it was for me! And now it sits on a little table in my room. :) It's pink!

After that, we ate our dinner and talked and laughed. We cleaned up afterward and even though he hates it, I did the dishes and cleaned off the table, haha. (I'm starting to get to know his kitchen better than he does haha. Seriously, though.) After wel cleaned up, we sat in front of the fireplace because I'm always cold and so I basically reside in front of that thing when I'm there, haha. We decided to watch Moulin Rouge, but he doesn't have it so we were going to go get it. I get sick of driving, or sitting in the passenger seat, rather, so I was going to make him go by himself, hahahaha, so he'd hurry to come back, right? (I'm eeeeeeeevil!) But he didn't want to go alone so he devised this sneaky little plan to have me come along. . . he knows I have a weakness: boys handing me keys to cars. So he handed me the keys, saying, "I've never seen you drive." Fun! So I went, haha. I drove the Jeep and it's lucky I did because it was slick! Naturally, the time he lets me drive it's slipperier than ... yeah ... and I won't tell you how it went, but it was interesting haha. I didn't hit anything, don't worry, lol.

We got the movie and even though his parents invited us to watch a movie with them, we declined because I don't like scary movies and his mother can't stand mushy movies--in case anyone was wondering why they'd watch a scary movie on Valentine's Day. :) We went back to my apartment and watched it on my laptop and then he went home after inviting me to go to his church the next day. I said I'd let him know later. I talked to my roommate Lisa about it that night and she said she'd go with me so we went on Sunday to his and Ryan's student ward. This was beneficial because my twin, Emily, and I need to scope out wards for next year when we live off campus. I really liked this ward so we might be attending there next year. Lots of women Rms!

Well! That was the weekend. . . Hope all of your weekends went well!