Dream Big

Vegas: Part One

2011-12-10T13:10:00.000-08:00

Our first night in Vegas! We ate at the Peppermill. If you ever go there, plan to share a plate with someone because their servings are huge! This is my mother-in-law, Patricia, and Bill.

A pirate ship at Treasure Island. Their show wasn't running.

This bike was winnable at Treasure Island. It is a siren's body, complete with breastplate, long hair, a face, and boots.

This is a tusk off of some prehistoric creature. They believe that this is only a quarter of the actual length. Throughout generations people have carved the ivory creating military figurines. As you go to the tip of the tusk you can see the differences between generations in weapons, armor, etc.

The whole tusk was like this.

This horse is sculpted entirely from jade!

Mandalay Bay

The frame is covered in bottle caps and locks.

Luxor

NYC

Excalibur

M&M World!

Overly priced M&M's anyone? I was very disappointed that they didn't have any crispy M&M's. I miss them.

This is the signature of the driver (I'm assuming)

We were walking to the Volcano show and suddenly heard music. There were masked performers at the Venetian.

Wynn

Such small tiles.

A curved escalator!

Rain Forrest cafe

Lions at MGM. They were sleepy. Even their handlers couldn't get them to play.

Each crystal is hanging by an individual strand. Ridiculous!

These Paris Pics are for you, Alecia. The Vegas Eiffel Tower is 1/4 the size of the real one!

Bellagio light show

Inside the Bellagio are hundreds of individually blown glass flowers.

Behind the Bellagio reception desk

Bellagio Christmas Tree

Completely made of flowers, sticks, and pinecones.

Even the Polar bears were made of flowers.

Caesar's Palace

Antony, Cleopatra, and Dude.

We ate at the Flamingo Buffet. Huge!

Flamingos

More Volcano. This was my favorite part of Vegas!

The pre-show curtain for the Blue Man Group. This show was great! I wish I could have taken pics! The blue men don't say anything the whole performance. I have a lot of respect for those kinds of performers!

Inside the Venetian. The ceiling is painted to look like you are outside. It works!

He was singing to the people!

I think the biggest thing I learned in Vegas was how dumb people are. They go to Vegas and spend thousands of dollars and don't remember any of it the next day. While we were there, we went to art galleries, stood in awe at the majesty of it all, and watched people miss it all! They would walk into a building and not even notice that the door handles were swords, or the tile butterflies. Billions of hours were spend building these beautiful buildings and everyone was too drunk to notice. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have and that I can take the time to admire art and appreciate it! It was fun being there! I got lots of great ideas for design and theatre! (I took lots of pictures of the floors.) Coming next: The Dance Competition that we actually went to Vegas for!

Welcome to Utah

2011-09-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

This photo is unedited. I was really nervous about our move to Utah but seeing sights like this really makes me feel okay with it. Thank you Utah for giving me these fantastic sunsets.

For those of you who haven't heard, we moved to Utah. I am student teaching at Elk Ridge Middle School and Patrick is doing an internship with the Mayor's office in Salt Lake. Yes, we are unpaid but the Lord always provides for His children. We have been so blessed!

My doctor placed me on a low carb diet for my hypoglycemia so if anyone knows of any great low carb recipes please let me know!

Photography

2011-06-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

I have decided that nature is so much easier to take photos of. No crying children, no red faces, no blinking. Here is some of my latest favorites! Please comment so I know you actually read my blog!

My Set Design Final

2011-04-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

I spent the last two weeks of the last semester working on my final for set design. I have never worked so hard on a project! I finally took pictures of my project! We had to design and build a 3/8 inch scale model set for the play Midsummer Night's Dream. We were given the concept of butterflies and had to incorporate the concept without actually putting butterflies on our set.

HerIe is the palace. Obviously there would be black masking curtains masking the parts of the stage we don't want to see yet and the top of the stage is where the two gray panels on the side end. It is very symmetrical like butterflies!

My army man in scale would be about 5 foot. These chairs aren't very well done but it was 3 o'clock in the morning and I just wanted to get it done!

Here is the forest scene. There are two main branches that go opposite directions with moss hanging down to create "butterfly wings."

I carved bricks from modeling paste.

I carved a platform and staircase out of floral foam and covered them with moss.

I used branches for the trees and glued crafty, mossy, messy stuff on them.

I carved a sofa for Titanya's "lair" and covered it with more moss.

I even glued moss on rocks.

I made a place for people to hide in the root system.

Aerial view

Well, there you go! This is what being a theatre major is all about! Craftiness!

2011-04-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

We had a 1/4 of a century party for Patrick's Birthday! We have tried to throw parties before and no one shows up but people actually came over (and stayed)! It was a lot of fun!

Rockband!

Aren't they sweet? (even if they are sideways)

We love little Tony!

Lots of smoke from the 25 candles!

I made this amazing cake! It is mint oreo ice cream that I added cookie dough to, chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, and oreo crumbles on top. Sometimes you just have to splurge!

I wrapped this gift in layers of packing tape. It took forever to open because I banned the use of anything sharp, keys, and teeth.

He has been waiting for this book since it came out like a month ago. He is so happy!

Happy 1/4 of a century my sweet husband!

To Sell or Not To Sell????

2011-04-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

We are going to be moving in just over 3 months and I have to start thinking about what to sell. Everything has been pretty easy so far because I haven't allowed myself to get attatched to things. The one thing that I just cannot seem to decide on is my wedding dress.

I love my dress and all of the memories that it holds but at the same time it is not like I am going to take it with me when I die...ugh...decisions...

Patrick thinks that it would be a good idea to sell it. We could get a couple hundred out of it. Money is good, especially because we are going to be moving. Patrick has left the decision completely up to me, however and I don't know what to do.

So, here is my question, to sell or to keep?

What do you think?

New Blog!

2011-03-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

I have a new photography blog! It is still under construction but I thought I'd let you all check it out anyway!

http://bluelilyphotography.blogspot.com/

Masks!

2011-03-06T18:44:00.001-08:00

This semester I am in a mask making class. I'm having so much fun that I taught a friend how to make masks! But before you can make a mask you have to make a mold:

Start with a clean face and protective coverings for clothes/floor/hair/etc. Make sure you put vasaline on all hair that will touch the plaster strips.

Cover the face in plaster. Once that hardens, take off of face and fill with plaster. Let it dry. Then you can form your mask to custom fit your own face!

Here is the first mask that I finished! (It is a half mask if you can't tell.)

I bought the base for these masks. I think they turned out great! They look better in person.

A Martin Family Update

2011-02-13T14:58:00.001-08:00

Well, I did it! I passed the Praxis! About a month ago I took two content knowledge tests, one for theatre and one for earth science. I had to pass the tests in order to move forward with getting my teaching licence. I will be student teaching this fall. That means that in about 6 months we will be moving out of Rexburg to somewhere in Davis County, Utah! We will finish up this semester April 9th and then start our final semester here a week later. That semester will end July 23rd and we will be holding our "graduation" party. We won't really be graduated until December after my student teaching and Patrick's internship. We are almost done!

Our turtles are getting huge! They are about 5 inches in diameter and Lilo is almost old enough to start laying eggs...so...anyone know where to send baby turtles?...

I am learning so much this semester! I am in two theatre design classes and a mask making class so all of my artistic talent that I've never use before is being squeezed out of me! Ahh! It is super hard but I'm so proud of the progress I've already made. We just got a wireless printer with a scanner and copier ($32 at the bookstore! Cha-ching!) so once we set it up I am hoping to scan in my work so I can show those who read my blog.

Well, I think that is everything so far...what an exciting life we lead!

What I've been working on!

2011-02-07T19:28:00.001-08:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wedding Bells!

2011-01-28T16:41:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from my first wedding!

Karl

2011-01-10T07:55:00.000-08:00

My handsom brother is graduating from high school this year! Crazy!

Photography

2010-12-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

I started a new website for my photography. You can visit www.wix.com/bluelilyphotography/portfolio to see my work.

Photo Shoot #2

2010-11-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy with how these pictures turned out!

My First Engagement Session

2010-10-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

My friends, Dan and Steph, asked me to take their engagement photos. Here are a few of my favorites!

It's been too long...

2010-10-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

I'm still alive! I realized today that it's been a few months since I posted anything. I'm in school this semester taking 15 credits of craziness. I am also an assistant stage manager for "Arsenic and Old Lace", the play the campus is producing. Thank goodness there are only 4 more weeks of that!
Patrick is still trying to get a job/internship. He was recently called to a single's ward bishopbric on campus. He is the second counselor. He is gone a lot but he enjoys it. We are having a Family Home Evening group at our apartment tomorrow!
Our turtles are getting big and are the stars of our apartment! Kids love them!
We are only going to be in Rexburg for less than a year! I started filling out my Student Teaching paperwork and we are hoping to be going to Utah. Who knows when we will find out. I've been told that some people don't find out until the week before they are supposed to start student teaching. Eeek! For now I will just focus on my classes and hope that I can fit in the rest of my classes this winter so I can work full time in the summer.
Hopefully I will find time to post some pics from the rest of the summer!

Geology Fieldtrip

2010-06-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

This post has a lot of pictures but I'm just too excited to leave anything out!

It's really hard to find a complete skeleton but 80% of the skull of this triceritops was found in fairly decent shape!

Classic T-rex

Cool fossil!!

We got to have a backstage tour before we went through the museum. This is a guy working on polishing a leg bone.

A very large (and heavy) femur bone.

This is a bone that hasn't been cut out of the plaster cast yet.

Skulls!

These are turtle shells. The one in the top right corner was the biggest known Jurassic turtle shell. The guy giving us the tour found the big one on the left and gets to name it!

This sign is above the men's bathroom. :)

This is a large fish...whoever catches this at the Southwick reunion definately would be the winner!

Prehistoric aligators

Spiny Dino!

This museum is way cool for kids! Lots of hands on activities!

A sideways picture of me compared to the leg of the long neck dinosaur.

This is a very big turtle! Way bigger than my turtles!

Really well preserved fish by a plant.

Mammoth! There was some mammoth hair on display too.

Remember the movie Ice Age? There are some cave drawings of the homosapians killing mammoths. Well, in this display there were 3-4 humans with spears on the left side, one underneath spearing his rib cage, one on the rock pile trying to throw a boulder at the mammoth, and one being squished by the foot of the mammoth. It made us all laugh!

That night we stayed on the Little Sahera Sand Dunes. The dunes are remains from Lake Bonneville that covered most of Utah 12,000 years ago. The Great Salt Lake and Severe Lake are remains of Lake Bonneville.

Tents on the windy dunes!

The next morning we got up with the sun and went to go trilobite hunting. This was a huge pile of rocks that we had to split open with a hammer and pray not to break the little fossils. My dad told me that Alex knows all about Trilobites! If he had bigger muscles he would love this place!

My hammer. If you look closely at the rock there is a trilobite next to the hammer. This was the first one I found.

The Weeke's Formation- These rocks formed 165 Million Years Ago. It was here that we saw some things that professional geologists have only read about in textbooks and papers. Cool!

Cactus!

The second night we pitched our tents at a geology campsite by Fossil Mountain. We woke up and found a couple scorpions in our campsite..."shudder" It was fun to watch the boys catch them and put them together to make them fight.

Cooking breakfast.

Fossil Mountain. It didn't look that far from the vans. Then we started walking. Three miles later we saw...

...this. If you blow up this picture you can see two white dots in about the center of the picture. Those are our vans.

Looking up at fossil mountain. (Named for an obvious reason. Just hiking up the mountain you find fossils everywhere!)

And we found a bull snake and the ground was covered with tarantula holes.

Next stop was the playa lake. (Also remains of Lake Bonneville) Nothing but mudcracks for miles! Our teacher told us that sometimes the vans get to race antelope at 60 miles per hour!

We gathered at the man made wildlife resevoir to look at our oldest ancestor...

...Cyanobacteria! This is the first organism that lived on the earth. It performs photosynthesis releasing oxygen into the air which aided the growth of other life.

This is Tom getting close and personal with his past.

The Spring 2010 Geology 112 Class

We love rocks!

Finally!

2010-06-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

So here are a couple of pictures from our first anniversary. We ate at Red Robin and then went to see Iron Man II at the theater.

An ambulance down in the valley

2010-05-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

My bishop shared this a couple of months ago and it really impressed me.

'Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed,

Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant,

But over its terrible edge there had slipped,

A duke and full many a peasant.

The people said something would have to be done,

But their projects did not at all tally.

Some said, "Put a fence around the edge of the cliff,"

Some, "An ambulance down in the valley."

The lament of the crowd was profound and was loud,

As their hearts overflowed with their pity;

But the cry for the ambulance carried the day,

For it spread through the neighboring city,

A collection was made, to accumulate aid,

And the dwellers in highway and alley

Gave dollars or cents-not to furnish a fence-

But an ambulance down in the valley.

"For the cliff is alright if you're careful," they said;

"And if folks ever slip and are dropping,

It isn't the slipping that hurs them so much

As the shock down below- when they're stopping."

So for years (we ahve heard), as these mishaps occurred,

Quick forth would the rescuers sally,

To pick up the victims who fell from the cliff,

With the ambulance down in the valley.

Said one, to his peers, "it's a marvel to me

That you'd give so much greater attention

To repairing results than to curing the cause,

You had much better aim at prevention.

For the mischief, of course, should be stopped at its source,

Come, neighbors and friends, let us rally.

It is far better sense to rely on a fence

Than an ambulance down in the valley."

"He is wrong in his head," the majority said;

"He would end all our earnest endeavor.

He's a man who would shirk his responsible work,

But we will supporti it forever.

Aren't we picking up all, just as fast as they fall,

And giving them care liberally?

A superfluous fence is of no consequence,

If the ambulance works in the valley.

The story looks queer as we've written it here,

But things oft occur that are stranger;

More humane, we assert, than to succor the hurt

Is the plan of removing the danger,

The best possible course is to safeguard the source;

Attend to things rationally.

Yes, build up the fence and let us dispense

With the ambulance down in the valley.

~Joseph Malins

Our first

2010-05-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

Happy First Anniversary!

I'm so excited for the rest of my family to meet my wonderful husband this summer!

Eben and Joshua

2010-04-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

These two boys are already makeing an impression on the world!

http://coloradocommunitynewspapers.com/articles/2010/04/03/tri_lakes_tribune/news/07_mo_soccer.txt

Spring Break

2010-04-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

We drove down to Salt Lake and flew down to Colorado. Patrick's dad, Tim, picked us up with Trek and Joshua and we all went to Joshua's soccer game. He is awesome on the field.

Eben and Joshua trying "bones" (aka ribs) for the first time.

My handsome husband!

We had a huge birthday party for RaeLynn (April 2), Eben (14, April 11), Patrick (24, April 13), and Jolie (10, April 15).

He loves his Dad!

When we got down to Colorado, Joshua asked Patrick to give a talk and me to conduct the music at his baptism the next day! We had no idea and we were so excited for him!

Joshua and Tim

Joshua and the missionaries.

Happy Birthday Eben!

While the kids were at school one day we went to the zoo in Colorado Springs. This zoo is so cool because all of the animals are so close to you. First stop: Giraffes.

We got to feed them crackers.

Freakishly long tongue!

Zebras!

Monkeys. This is exactly how I sat as a monkey in "Children of Eden"!

Okay, who was the brains behind this animal? Zebra...deer...giraffe...thing...

This is Patrick's Pirate Bird. He loved Patrick!

RaeLynn and her bird friend.

Bir-Duh!

My hubby and his Pirate Bird!

Some kid with a stick with seeds on it.

Tiger!

Bear!

Sea Otter! (I love this picture. You can only get these shots in the little caves built for kids.)

Komodo Dragon!

After leaving Colorado we spent some time with my family in Utah. We took family pictures and went miniature golfing at cherry hill. It was tons of fun and so sunny!

Daddy!

My wonderful hubby!

I love my mommy!

My crazy brother, Alex!

Easter!

2010-04-21T10:21:00.001-07:00

I know this is late but I have been quite busy. (Ask my hubby if you have any doubts.)

I had my last performance of "Children of Eden on Friday before Easter. G-ma, G-pa, and GG-ma Southwick and Dad, Mom, and siblings came to see me. On Saturday we listened to conference and hunted for Easter Eggs between sessions. Sunday we watched Conference and said our goodbyes. It was a nice little weekend. Then came finals week. Patrick and I did very well this semester. Woo hoo!

Patrick coloring Easter Eggs!

Yay!

The finished product! Yes, that gross brown one was done by Patrick.

They are home!

2010-03-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

Raelynn and Eben and Joshua just flew into Colorado today! They are finally home after a very long and stressful process. The Lord's hand has been in the whole process and when Satan tried to thwart the adoption the Lord always pulled Tim and Raelynn through. Patrick and I will be going down to meet them in a few weeks during our break in April!

Tim and the boys

2010-02-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

More about the kids in Ghana!

2010-02-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited! Patrick's dad and step-mom are still trying to adopt these kids. They are now waiting for passports! Tim went to Ghana for a week and spent time with the boys. He made a blog about it. Here is the link if you are interested!

http://bckcntryskr.blogspot.com/2010/02/luckyhill-orphanage-kings-international.html

I love musicals!!!

2010-02-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

This year on campus the Theatre Department is producing the musical, "Children of Eden." It is basically the book of Genesis...well, kinda...it's more of a spoof on Genesis. I auditioned a couple of weeks ago and made it to callbacks! I am now in the chorus of Storytellers! We are on the stage all the time! We had two weeks to learn all the music and have it memorized for this week because Jessica, a student at BYU-Provo is here teaching us choreography until Pat, a teacher at BYU-Provo can come and teach us herself. This is not jazz square/grapevine dancing. I feel like we are on Broadway! We move so quickly through the dances! Performances are going to be March 24-27 and March 30th-April 3rd. I am so excited and so busy!

Yes!!

2010-01-23T14:54:00.001-08:00

Tim and Raelynn got the papers from the US approving the adoption! The boys will be in the US and about a month and a half!

Update!

2009-12-30T16:20:00.000-08:00

Ghana says yes! Tim and Raelynn are the official legal guardians to the boys! Now they are just waiting for approval from the US government!

Ebenezer and Joshua

2009-12-29T10:03:00.000-08:00

Patrick's dad and stepmom have decided to adopt. They are waiting for the final appoval letter to come and then they are off to Ghana to finish the process. Eben is 13 and Joshua is 11. Raelynn sent them journals in which she wrote about the little things that they do in their lives. (What time they get up, what they like to eat, etc) She asked them to write back so that they could practice writing so that they could be prepared for school here in the US. They are adorable and on all of their school work they already sign their names Eben Martin and Joshua Martin. The following videos are the boys opening their journals and the photo album that Raelynn put together. They were so excited! We should hopefully find out this week if they will actually be adopted!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AcH6kQIJCM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T92_OYXZzC0

Turtles Attack!

2009-12-04T13:26:00.001-08:00

CAUTION: Graphic Material!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Nursery Kids!

2009-11-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

These are some of my nursery kids at our Halloween Ward Party. They are so cute!

Princess Elli

Cupcake Ella

Spiderman Lily

Our Primary President's little boy, Cody.

The cute little red headed boy in our ward. He isn't quite in nursery yet.

Turtle Time!

2009-11-05T10:51:00.001-08:00

We love our turtles! They are so funny!

Pictures

2009-10-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a Humanities class this semester and one of the projects we had was to take some pictures using the principles that we have learned about in class in regards to photography. Here are a few that I played with.

More Mexico!

2009-09-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

One of Patrick's favorite families in Teoloyucan.

Patrick wearing an authentic Mexican sombrero.

Giant cactus!

These are cool. In Mexico they are called Tunas. They are the fruit off the cactus. You peel it and squish it in your mouth. Yes, I said squish. There are too many seed that you don't want to chew so you take a bite, squish the bite to the roof of your mouth with your tongue, enjoy the wonderful juice running down your throat, and finally, swallow! Seeds and all! So good!

We visited a place called Tula. We went to the pyramids. This is our destination!

Distracted by a cool looking cactus.

These are the playing fields. It's in the shape of a big "I". People would play games here while onlookers watched the players die.

A cool puma/jaguar/beast on the side of the big pyramid.

Pretty sure this means "Keep Out" but I don't speak Spanish.

Sideways piture! If you turn your head sideways you will see the wall of snakes. It tells a story about giant snakes eating corpses. Gross. But still in pretty good condition. Some of it was redone.

We called this the cigarette building.

It would be a great place to play paintball. These are columns with plaster on the bottom to keep them from falling.

This pyramid used to be huge! The top collapsed and now the only way up is a steep trail up the left side. It was too hot so we didn't go.

Here is my favorite part: the stairs! These things are about as wide as my foot. It is almost impossible to go down forward because of the size of the stairs and the steepness. The stairs were designed this way so that people had to go down sideways, that way they couldn't turn their back on the King. This pyramid was actually a temple and on top live...

these guys! They held up a ceiling that collapsed. There is a lot of symbolism in these guys! There are four of them on top of the pyramid and only one of them is the real deal.

Patrick, me, and my cool chinese hat that I was forced to wear by the sister we went with.

They have very defined rears.

Here is an origional statue found on the pyramids. They put it in the museum thought to protect it.

I never imagined that while I was in Mexico I would teach the relief society sister to dance...

Yup...I can't believe it either. They asked me through Patrick's mom if I knew any dances. This is the first one that came to my head that was easy and didn't require partners. They performed it a couple weeks later at a Relief Society Pageant thingy...

Zoe!

Chicks for sale...they must put food coloring in their food...

Turtles for sale! These are about the size of a quarter.

This is where Patrick lived in the city of Coacalco.

Our last day was spent in the heart of Mexico City. We walked around all the street sellers and saw awesome street performers and dancers.

The cathedral.

A govenrment building. This building is so big it has it's own block!

The statues on top of the cathedral.

Leaning tower of Pisa eat your heart out! This whole street is leaning!

Inside the cathedral.

The really cool organ in the cathedral on the upper level!

After a night in Mexico City we flew home to the United States! It was an awesome trip and we can't wait till we can go back!

California and Pachuca

2009-09-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Patrick and I had the awesome opportunity to go down to Mexico and visit the areas where he served. First stop,

California!

Mexico City

We have arrived! We went to the Mexico City Temple and did some initiatories.

My first meal in Mexico!

Pachuca

Governor's Mansion

The tower in the center of the town.

KFC...

A Cathedral in Pachuca

The organ in the Cathedral.

Some dead lady...Just kidding. Her name is Saint Columba. Her body is being preserved in side the Cathedral in this little glass box. She was probably only 4 feet tall. And her face is caving in...

More of the Cathedral.

What you see when you walk in. Wow!

Patrick at his favorite place, the panaderia! They had tons of different types of breads to try!

The city of Pachuca is huge. It is a mining town. The mine was built on the hill so the city started at the hill and built down. It makes walking places a great workout!

This is Pachuca. Well, a small part of it. It extends in every direction from here.

This is the mine.

Christo Ray

This is where Patrick lived.

The giant flower clock in a park. It really does work and usually has more flowers around the boarder.

There is a legend behind this tree. There are supposed to be a little boy a girl hugging the tree. I still can't really see them. I'm told that one is on the very left of this picture and the other is on the right.

More colorful buildings.

Rosa and two of her three children. This room was so small. The back wall that you see is the whole back wall. The length of the room was two times the length of the back wall. They do have one more room and a tiny kitchen outside this one.

More to come!

Turtles!

2009-09-12T09:11:00.000-07:00

This is Lilo and Oogway. Patrick and I bought them Wednesday of last week. The one with white spots on it's shell is Lilo. She eats a ton! Oogway is the boy and is bigger than Lilo. They love to eat strawberries and run around on our carpet! They are fast!

Pictures at last!

2009-08-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

Our Wedding May 23, 2009

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Martin

2009-05-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

More to come! I promise!

Albuquerque, New Mexico!

2009-04-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

Patrick and I went to New Mexico so I could meet his mom. It was so much fun and sunny! While I was there it snowed in Idaho! Haha!

Albuquerque Temple!

Patrick's Mom's old house.

Patrick's old jeep that they sold to the neighbors! It still has a dent in the bumper!

Patrick's Dad's old house.

On our way back to Kaysville we stopped in Draper for our friend's wedding reception. So fun!

Natural Disasters

2009-04-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

This is an avalanche site. It killed a number of campers in the campgrounds.

It carried these huge rocks across the canyon.

The 3 Natural Disasters classes on our fieldtrip.

This was our last stop.

We went to a fault line.

Here it is. It's kinda hard to see but the ground here used to be flat.

The snow was kinda deep...a lot of people fell through.

Here is the fault scarp. Keep in mind that where the top people are standing and the bottom people are standing used to be flat. The hill behind the bottom people is almost vertical.

Blood Drive Madness!

2009-03-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

So, on Friday I went to the blood drive on campus with Patrick to be a superhero and save up to three lives. I am not so good with needles but I'm trying to suck it up and deal with it. I have really little veins, small enough that they use a toddler needle on me when they do blood tests. I told my nurse this when she was having trouble finding a vein. She refused to believe that and said that I probably had, and I quote, "Perfectly good veins that are just hidden." Well apparently my veins got tired of hiding and when the second nurse put the needle in me this is what I got.

Sunday Night

Monday Night

She stuck the needle straight through my vein...she didn't know it until I

gasped and said that there was a lot of pain in my elbow. She made the "oh crap" face and got the needle out of my arm. They put ice on it and told me there would be a bruise. Meanwhile, 7 other nurses came over to feel my other arm. One guy felt confident that he could try it. Whenever they poke me I look the other way. This time, I had no idea where to look! If I looked the other way then I would see my swollen and bandaged up arm. I turned my head and buried it in the chair as best I could. The nurse put the needle in and said, "Tell me when it starts to hurt." He said WHEN! Great! I started to feel some pain and he immediately took the needle out. I have a small bruise on my right arm from that. My bruise as seen above is growing AND I didn't get to save up to three lives! No good deed goes unpunished...

Okay...it's official...

2009-02-23T21:09:00.000-08:00

I'M ENGAGED!!!!

Patrick proposed to me Friday night!

We are going to be married on May 23, 2009 in Salt Lake!

ENGAGED!!!

2009-02-05T16:41:00.000-08:00

This is not my hand! This is the hand of my high school best friend, Tracie Bair, and on April 11 she will be Tracie Thompson! I moved Tracie up to Rexburg on the 2nd of January so she could start school at Evan's School of Cosmotology. My school started Wednesday the 7th and hers didn't start till the 13th. She was so bored so I invited her to my social dance class on the 7th and watched as she gave some guy her number. That night my roommate, Taura, and I went to Tracie's to watch Transformers. This random guy called Tracie, it was the boy from dance class. He came over and then there was no stopping them. They have spent every minute of everyday together. (except when they have school) Two weeks and one day after they met, he proposed. Insane? Absolutely. Scary? 100% Too fast? You be the judge.

What?!?!?!?!

2009-01-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

(Chrissy, Angie, Myself, and TauraLee)

Yes, this is a midget market...We saw it while we were in Idaho Falls today and couldn't pass up the opportunity for a great photo! Please take note of the people behind us with a tv in a shopping cart. They were laughing at us the entire time.

Final Potluck, English Class, and the Temple

2008-12-24T21:27:00.000-08:00

The last Sunday of the semester our neighbors held a potluck. Our neighbors were amazing and Taura and I are so glad that 4 out of 6 of them are staying! There was never a dull moment with them! You could always hear them wrestling and laughing!

Roomies!

Cory, Patrick, Sam, and Katelyn

My English class was amazing! It was incredibly hard though! (Words cannot even begin to express the difficulty of that class! Detail by request) However, I know the name of everyone in my class and we are very good friends! This was a part of our final project. Our entire class got together on a freezing cold night and took a picture to put in a book of what we learned over the semester. Half of our class is either from Texas or California. We just had to laugh at them.

Absolutely beautiful! That's all I have to say!

Roomies! Gotta love them!

2008-12-24T21:20:00.000-08:00

The Saturday before finals Katelyn, Becky, Taura and I said, "What the heck? Lets have a sleepover!" So we pulled our mattresses to the living room and stayed up till 4AM laughing, cleaning, and just having a great time!

Bridal Shower!

2008-12-24T21:12:00.000-08:00

My lovely roommate, Samantha, got married in the Seattle Temple on the 20th of December, 2008. We got to throw a bridal shower for her and had a blast!

Toilet Paper Wedding Dresses! Classic!

This is Sam...sideways...sorry.

Sam's sister made all the food! Mmm!!

Warning!!!

2008-12-24T20:55:00.000-08:00

If you lay around our apartment, expect embarrassing pictures to be taken!
This is our amazing friend, Ashleigh! She decided to take a nap on our couch so Becky and I decided to put the leftover balloons from Sam's bridal shower on her. Becky got a little happy with the permanent marker...

Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-12-03T10:53:00.001-08:00

I got to go home for a whole week over Thanksgiving! Gotta love BYU-I! Chris and Michelle (and their kids), Grandma and Grandpa Southwick, my family, and Patrick were all at my family's home for Thanksgiving. There was so much food and we had so much fun! After my family was done questioning Patrick we ate and then went to an amzing park! It was a castle! Quincy and Brinnly were so cute! We had an intense game of tag and then went home to eat dessert.

Friday night Patrick, Issac, Sam, Amy, and I went to temple square. It was so amazing and I ran into a couple of people that I knew from Kimberly!

Saturday my family and I went to the zoo! There were so many monkeys! I was content!

Countdown!

2008-11-20T13:13:00.001-08:00

My Accomplishment

2008-11-16T16:20:00.000-08:00

I can officially dance again! I had the opportunity to go to the Manwaring Center and go Latin dancing with Becky and Patrick on Friday and had so much fun! I didn't have any problems with my knee! It was great to get back on my feet and learn the dance that dislocated my knee in the first place! (For those of you who don't know, yes I dislocated my knee learning how to salsa dance. It has now been declared the most dangerous dance know to knees.)

Twilighters Anonymous

2008-11-15T15:44:00.000-08:00

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

That's right I'm Bella! All Bella's deserve an Edward in their lives, hopefully I will find mine!

Roommates

2008-11-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

So I guess I should post a pic of all of my roommates...i'm such a slacker!

Jen, Me, Katelyn, Becky, Taura, Sam

Thanksgiving!

2008-11-04T07:18:00.000-08:00

FHE/Ward Halloween Party!

2008-10-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

Monday night we had a Ward Halloween Party in which we competed the other FHE groups. We had a relay with multiple activities that we placed 4th in, had a pudding eating contest that my group forced me to do, (yuck!!!) and a donut on a string eating contest that my roomie, Becky, placed first in! Taura made some oreo truffles that were absolutely amazing! (and easy!) We took first place in the desserts and Taura and I won cutest couple! Woot! That was such a fun night! I love my FHE group! (You'll notice in the group picture that there is only one guy...well, we have a total of 3 guys but they aren't big fans of FHE...but we all love Patrick!)

Ropes Course!!!

2008-10-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

Today my ward got to go to the ropes course! It was a blast! I was very worried because I didn't know what I'd be able to do with my knee. I was able to do everything! We started at the giant swing. (You are pulled up 30-35 feet in the air and released and you just swing!)

Please watch this movie. It has all my pics on it but I couldn't get is onto here. (I'm not very technology savy)

Ropes Course 10/18/08

The girl who wouldn't drop is my lovely Taura. She HATES rollarcosters because she hates the feeling that you get when you drop. If you listen closely you can hear her say, "Can we go lower?" and then Ashleigh, her old roommate says, "Suck it up!" So funny!

I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to do much that day. I took some ibuprofin and dived right in. I climbed to the top of that tower and was so proud of myself. I was pretty sore the next day though!

OUR FIRST ROAD TRIP!!!

2008-10-17T13:36:00.001-07:00

There is a girl up here that is one of my favorite people in the whole world! Her name is Ashleigh and is my roomie's, Taura, old roommate. She is absolutely darling and hilarious! She is also very spontaneous and loves to travel. She came up to me the other day and said, "We are going to an opera in Salt Lake on Thursday. Are you going to come?" It was going to be a rehearsal night so it was three dollars a ticket (with our student discount!) and was absolutely incredible! Ashleigh drove and got us horribly lost. Her childhood friend, Frank, sat shotgun and two of my roommates and I sat in the back.

Katelynn went to a different concert so we dropped her off at a parking garage. We were lucky that the parking garage was deserted because we all changed into our "opera attire". We got into our formals (Frank was in a suit) and walked over to the Capital Theater.

The show we saw was called Madame Butterfly. Apparently it's a world famous play but I had never heard of it. They showed captions on a screen so we could understand. I definately recommend this show! It's so funny and sad!

Frank posing on the stairs.

Ashleigh...so cute!

TauraLee and Ashleigh! Looking good!

Me (wearing my $180 dollar dress that I got for $30!), TauraLee (my roomie), Ashleigh (she hates wearing dresses and curling her hair. This picture is proof that she is a cute girl!), and Frank (he stayed awake the whole 3.5 hour drive to keep me awake while I drove home.)

Ashleigh (once again) She is such a work of art sitting on a work of art!

Bear Lake

2008-10-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

I thought that since I had a bunch of really cute pictures I might as well post them. We went to Bear Lake for general conference this year and had a blast, all things considered. Haha.

A Moment to Reflect...

2008-10-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

So I have had very little time to myself lately. I've always been surrounded by, not boys, but by homework. I swear, it's a living thing! It breathes, crawls, kills, and multiplies!! No one is safe! I had three exams this last week and had to write a song for my english class. My ENGLISH class! AND we only had TWO, let me repeat, TWO DAYS to write it! Most people took the easy route and wrote a rap to one of their favorite songs. I was the only one who took the challenge of writing not only my own lyrics, but my own melody as well. Can you spell hard?!?! I worked for hours on that thing and I had so much other stuff to do. I showed up to class the next day after only a few hours of sleep and our teacher never showed up. He had the flu and class was cancelled. I had worked so hard on that song and was so frustrated that I had worked so hard for nothing that I didn't look at it again untill we had to sing them for the class. Yes, you read correctly. Each and everyone of us had to sing for the class. And let me tell you, we would never make a very good choir. Overall, school is fun. I am going to the gym three day a week to do physical therapy for my knee and feel so dumb because I can only lift twenty pounds. People walk by and just stare. I like to imagine what they are thinking. "Wow that girl is a whimp!" Oh well. I'm improving and that's all that matters. Our ward is going to the ropes course this saturday so we will see how much of that I can do. It will be freezing tho!!!

We Love Our Idaho Potatoes!

2008-09-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

My roommate, TauraLee, convinced me to go to Idaho Falls on Saturday to the annual Spud Day. It has been so hot here in Rexburg so we were surprised to see rain pouring from the heavens when we woke up! We got there, ate a ton of food, saw all of the booths 3 times (we took Taura's aunt and little cousins to see everything when they met up with us), and got completely soaked. I was so excited for the Spud Tug! Who wouldn't want to watch people play tug-of-war over a pit of mashed potatoes?! We got to see them fill up the pit with mashed potatoes that were mixed in a cement truck and very liquidy and then, once again, the heavens opened up and sheets of rain came pouring down on us! Everyone ran for cover and we headed home. I didn't get to see anyone fall in the pit of liquid mashed Idaho potatoes...oh well... I talked to one of my roommates yesterday about it and she said that people were diving in, even the missionaries got in on it. She also said that usually the potatoes are fluffy and not nasty liquid. I'm so excited to try it again next year!

This was the cement truck that they poured the potatoes in.

Getting ready to fill the pit!

And here it comes!!!

We were absolutely drenched and frozen the rest of the day!

Photo Shoot

2008-09-11T08:54:00.001-07:00

Here are the pics that Kristi (my english partner) and I took. They are awesome! The one we ended up using was the close up of the bus. We think ours was the best!

College!

2008-09-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

Monday was my first day of school! I stayed up late Sunday night finishing an english assignment and had to get up early for my first class, Book of Mormon. At 7:45 AM! Crazy, I know! My teacher was really nice and loves to tell stories. So I then had 15 minutes to hobble over to the Smith building from the Hinkley building. I got so lost! When I finally found it it was 9:10. I was going to be 10 minutes late. Not that bad. Then I realized that my class room was on the 4th floor. So it took 5 minutes to climb those stairs (cause I forgot about the elevator). When I finally got to my classroom, I opened the door and there was no one there! I walked around the floor two times and found a lady at the foreign language department. She sent me walking around the floor again. I came back and told her that my class started 30 minutes ago and that I had no idea what to do. She called some people and got ahold of my professor. I then had to walk 10 minutes to his office where there was another girl who had the same problem I did. Apparently there was a room mix-up so my professor let everyone out after he gave the assignment. I got my assignment and started working on it with Kristi, my partner from texas (the girl who I mentioned above). We spent hours taking pictures and trying to come up with a motto. Our best pic is a grasshopper. Who would have thunk? I then had American Foundations. My teacher is hilarious and the class is huge! We had our first FHE activity tonight too! I'm in the 41st ward and everyone is really nice. We ate, met the bishop and his counselors, and played ultimate frisbee. So much fun!

Knee Surgery

2008-08-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

I guess the first thing I should start with is a major event that happened in my life on friday. I had knee surgery. I dislocated my knee three years ago trying to learn how to salsa dance at a stake dance. We finally went in to the doctor and he suggested surgery. It went really well and I am up and walking around. I almost fainted yesterday (sunday) because I saw the staples for the first time. No one told me there would be staples in my knee! What kind of a sick joke is this! Thank goodness for mom being there! (I'm such a whimp!) What a great 18th birthday present...

I have a Blog!

2008-08-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

I finally decided to start a blog! Now my mom can see what I do with my spare time at college!