Reasons NOT to exercise

Besides studying and cramming for the exams I have in a few days, I have been exercising. It gives me a break from studying, which is quite sad if you ask me but I have nothing better to do. Plus, this will make up for all the food I will consume in the next two weeks! However, I have found two very good reasons why I am directed to stop exercising. Nevermind the obesity rate in America (a whopping 64% currently), the warning labels on these wonderful machines inform me to stop exercising RIGHT NOW! And because I love my family and friends, I want to make sure everyone understands the dangers of such activity.

One warning label states that if you feel "short of breath" you must stop exercising.

Another warning label states that if you feel "pain," you should stop exercising.

Now according to these labels, I must stop exercising. It is the only option for me. I always am short of breath as I run and I do feel pain occasionally. So until my body magically stops feeling pain or being short of breath, I am resigning from the idea of exercising. What can I do to procrastinate studying now? Eat ice cream I think!

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving is probably one of the best holidays of the year because family gathers without the hype of presents. I love it and as this was the first Thanksgiving I was not at home for in the past 20 years, I realized how much I love my family!
I am so blessed in this life with everything I have. During this break, I've thought of many things that I am thankful for.

- My family! I was able to talk to a lot of peple in my family while they were gathered at my Aunt's house. It was great, especially when I spoke with my 3 year old god-daughter. Megan kept asking where I was so I am anxious to see her at Christimas.

- Good entertainment. Amid the world filled with R-rated movies becoming more popular and music becoming more vulgar, I am happy when I can listen and watch wholesome entertainment (like A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey).

- Friends! My friends are the best ever! They all encourage me to live better and I love that. Recently, I was able to spend time with my friend, Chelsea, from Utah State and it was so much fun.

- Service. The feeling that comes from serving others is simply amazing and I also enjoy the relief when others serve me. It is a great principle to incorporate into our lives and the blessings are endless.

- The Church- it is the greatest thing in my life and I am so happy to be a part of it!

Thanksgiving break was marvelous and full of friends, family and food. Tuesday night, I made holiday cookies with a friend's family and Chelsea. Wednesday, Chelsea and I hung out in Logan at Utah State. On Thanksgiving, I visited my friend, Anthony and his extended family in Farmington. It was a lot of fun and the day was filled with petting goats, playing ultimate frisbee, eating food, playing games and watching movies. We also went to "A Christmas Carol" in 3-D, which was scarier than I anticipated but good nonetheless. My plans for the rest of the week include working (where I am now) and going to the big game tomorrow! Pictures will come soon!

Wonderful World of Work

Today celebrates six years of being a member in the working world.
Here is a trip down memory lane:
Subway was my first job, which I started working at on November 11, 2003. I spent a solid three years there and made approximately 1,000,000 subs. Actually I don't know about that. But I did enjoy working with my brother and sister from time to time. AND... Now I only like to eat subs that I make myself. I became very particular in the world of sub-making.
As most teenage girls, I babysat a lot as well. My first babysitting job was for some neighbors who had two little girls. My favorite job was watching my goddaughter when she was born while her mom taught summer school. We spent many enjoyable mornings playing Peek-a-boo in her living room. Now, Megan is 3 1/2 years old and I can't believe it!
While babysitting and working at Subway, I started working at YMCA Camp Sturtevant as a volunteer junior counselor. Little did I know that the long hours stuck in a hot camp store would equate to a job for the next five years. It also led me to the career field that I want to enter- Therapeutic Recreation.
I also worked concurrently at the YMCA child care and was privileged to change several diapers a day, dry tears of crying children and pick up heaps of toys at a time.


My last job before graduating (mind you I held all four of the above jobs at once... crazy decision!), was working with AmeriCorps. I owe the ability to attend college to AmeriCorps. Above our pay, we also received a large scholarship for the community service we performed. Basically, AmeriCorps is a domestic PeaceCorps. I worked also at the YMCA and the camp in Wausau but did additional projects and work. One highlight of this job was free range to the Y Climbing wall! It was great to climb whenever I wanted to.


Last year, I worked at Utah State University in the Athletics department. It was cool because I got to meet a lot of the basketball stars and everything as I was the one who polished the floor they played on. They never outwardly thanked me but I know I have a high chance of being in their wills someday. :)
Now, six years into paying taxes, social security and the other wonderful perks of employment, I work at Wasatch Mental Health in Provo. I work in the Intensive Residential Treatment center where we have clients who live there 24/7. Often, they are individuals who are released from hospital care and still need the guidance and staff to learn and cope with their illnesses. If you ever really need to laugh and smile, come here because every day at work is a new adventure full of FUN!
With all this work, I hope I get some social security when I am old and wrinkly but I somehow highly doubt that happening.

The Humor of Family History

My ancestors had twin girls. One of them was named Marguerite Ivy and the other....
you guessed it: Marguerette Iva. My mom said the girls went by Marguerite and Iva to avoid confusion. Gotta love those ancestors!

Now back to listening to the eerie music playing in the library.

Bucket List

About a month ago, I went camping with a recreation class of mine. One night, we decided to make a personal bucket list for ourselves. If you don't know what that is, just google it. So here are some of the things on my "before I kick the BUCKET" list

- Learn how to surf
- Complete a triathlon (next summer)
- Learn Norweigen
- Write a book
- Be in a dunk tank
- Ride a rollercoaster (I am terrified of them)
- Go over 100 mph in a car (But do it where I won't get caught)
- Make a kite
- Build a canoe
- Use a fire extinquisher (doesn't have to be during a fire, I just want to see what happens)
- Learn sign language
- Run a marathon in Madagascar

Those are some of the items I have on my list of 60 things to do before I die. We'll see how far I actually get.

Tallness does have the greatest advantage

http://universe.byu.edu/node/2709

Go here and it is self-explanatory.

Two Decades Ago...

Two decades ago, I sat (or perhaps laid) on my mother's lap, screaming my head off as a three day old baby. Wow, how things have changed! No longer do I sit on my mother's lap but I am pretty sure I still scream at times (especially when I get mail... hint, hint)

Anyways, as the title states, I am two decades old now. This birthday had a bitter sweet taste; allow me to explain. In my family, I have a tradition of rounding up in ages. So for my uncle, he has been "almost 60" since he turned 50. I always liked it because it was never to my disadvantage. That all changed on the eve of my birthday. Uncle Bill called me and wished me a happy "Almost 30" birthday. Now if 20 wasn't hard enough, 30 is not looking too great. Nonetheless, I am aging and having to start thinking about the vast world of retirement homes, which color walker I want and how I am going to pass the driving test when I am 84 years old.

For my birthday, I had a marvelous time with friends in Provo and Salt Lake. For a small re-cap, my friend Chelsea came down from Utah State to spend the weekend in Provo. BYU played USU Friday night and we won of course. Although I must give Gary Anderson props for the improvement on the team. Then Saturday morning, Chelsea and I went to General Conference in Salt Lake. Saturday night, Janet took me to Quarry, this sweet rock climbing place. We haven't been rock climbing in over a year so it was interesting to say the least. As much as I thought my arms would hurt, they didn't!!! Then after that, we had cake (Janet made a Jello-Cake!) and ice cream. On Sunday, we fed these sweet ducks at a retirement home (probably where I will be in a few years). For my actual birthday on Monday, we had FHE at our apartment and did a cool activity. I also got some sweet presents including a few games, a cook book and other stuff.

Here are some pics from the amazing weekend!

Sweet September

Sorry for the time off in blogging but unfortunately learning about ancient civilizations, volcanoes and getting new fish, blogging took the back burner.

Last weekend, Candace (one of my roommates) and I, along with her brother and his friends, went hiking Mt. Timpanogos. If you don't know what or where that is, go to the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Timpanogos

Good old wikipedia. It is 11,749 feet and the summit is about seven miles in hiking.

We left at one in the morning and arrived at the summit around 7am. We took an hour break at a fire around 4am to warm up and sleep a little. We then hiked back down the mountain later and enjoyed the beautiful leaves of fall.

That weekend we also had a BYU football game (which we won) and the General Relief Society Broadcast so needless to say, I didn't sleep. I stayed awake for 40 hours I think.

This week, Janet and I made a sweet dessert and I have included pictures of our handiwork. We are very inventive here. Perhaps we will make our own cookbook.

The Place I Call Home

On Thursday, I arrived at BYU in Provo and moved into our apartment. Sarah, Janet's sister, Janet and I left Wednesday and made the long trek to Utah. It was a safe trip thankfully and didn't fall asleep in boring Nebraska. Since I got here, I have worked on organizing everything in our apartment, walked around campus, which is HUGE, and tried to find a job. I haven't been very successful on the whole job-finding part but I have applied to a few positions on campus. Other than that, I haven't really done a lot. It is the calm before the storm because pretty soon, I will have too much to do that I will be in over my head in studying. Tomorrow, I am heading north near Salt Lake City to see some friends from last year which will be exciting!

Here are some pictures of our apartment.

Our closet that holds ALL our clothes surprisingly! We can't believe how much space there is!

This is Janet's and my bedroom.

This is right inside the front door and our kitchen. Again, we have tons of storage space to fit our food and dishes. We also have a dishwasher AND a garbage disposal. I've never had one before!

Last but not least, this is our living room. We just need a T.V. and then we'll be set. It is pretty comfy and spacey. All in all, I love the apartment and look forward to the times spent in it.

To Do List

I am ending my long hiatus of no blogging. It seems pointless to try to catch everyone up on my summer so here are just some pictures of what I have been up to.

CAMP!!! It is the best place in the world despite the tough campers and the long days. I love almost every moment and I am thankful for have a job this summer. It is coming to an end this week and I know it will be hard but it was fun while it lasted.

I went to the Balloon Glow near the Wausau Airport with some friends. It was really cool and neat to see.I went, with my sister and mom, to Minocqua one weekend this summer. During the trip, we went to Jim Peck's Zoo. It was really cool and we know one of the zoologists there so she was able to take us around and get hte animals really close to us. We also went to the Depot Museum and was able to find more information for family history!

Here I am with Madison. She and her brother, Michael, are my camp director's two children who I live with this summer. We play almost every night and have tons of fun together. I am going to miss them so much when I leave.

So I found this online one day and thought I would share it with fellow friends and family. The list is called, "The Top 101 Things Every BYU Student Should Do." Here is the link:

http://theboard.byu.edu/index.php?area=viewall&id=46949

While I liked a few of them (mainly the ones about roommates...), I decided to come up with my own list entitled, "Top Ten Things I NEED to do at BYU."

1- Shake Cosmo's hand

2- Learn the Cougar Fight Song

3- Count all the stairs on campus

4- Study Abroad

5- Complete another marathon or at least run in a few races

6- Avoid as many ward/stake dances as possible

7- RUN up Y mountain

8- Never, ever get lost... on campus or in Provo

9- Shake a Church leader's hand (President Monson would be sweet but anyone would do)

10- Find a job with kids

I have just about two years to complete my list as well as the other one. Classes start at BYU in just two weeks!

New Challenges

My life has been pretty boring lately so I must resort to blogging about the new high ropes course that is at the camp I work at. We built three new elements for the campers this summer and ten of the staff had the opportunity to be trained on them first. An instructor came from Kentucky for the training and I was able to try some of the elements. I was terrified beyond words but I did finish the day. Here are some pictures of what we did that day.


This is me jumping off a platform on top of an extension ladder. I am trying to hit the hanging tetherball in the air. The only thing holding the ladder up are six individuals holding long ropes that are tied to the top of the ladder.

Other than that challenge, camp started last week and I am enjoying the new challenges that it brings. I love every moment of it and can't wait to see more campers come throughout the summer. Also, I was called to the Nursery at church a few weeks ago so that is challenging me as well. On average, there are eight toddlers running around in the room and screaming or crying depending on the moment.

Home Sweet Home

After three days of driving through the marvelous states of Nebraska and Iowa, I am thrilled to be home in Wisconsin finally. The trip went the very best it could aside from the snow in Wyoming. Coming home and being able to have a home-cooked meal was something I have been looking forward to since January!

Since I’ve been home, I haven’t done a whole lot. I surprised my friend, Jackie in Milwaukee by visiting her on my way home. She screamed a lot and we were able to go for a walk along Lake Michigan and enjoy a few hours together. Then I arrived home and was able to see my mom and sister! Tuesday, I started at work at the YMCA Camp Sturtevant. Once again, I am one of the Camp Program Directors. I absolutely love every minute of it. So far at work, I have learned how to fix a split water line, how to place benches in the ground and how to use a complex pocket knife. It is awesome because everything I learn this summer I will use eventually in my future. In less than a month, the campers will start arriving and there is so much to do before that!

Other than work, I’ve eaten the famous one pounder at Briq’s (ice cream), had dinner with my dad from Madison, played with my camp director’s children and gone to a baptism of a family friend’s daughter. I don’t really have any pictures but I will get some for next time!

Saying Farewell to Utah State

Friday was my last day of official classes at Utah State. It is bitter sweet. While I am excited for the summer and BYU this fall, leaving USU has its downfalls as well. These last few weeks have been full of studying for final exams which are this week and trying to hang out with my friends as much as possible. Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.


This is Heather, Chelsea, Jake and I at a park off campus.


Chelsea and I are trying to swing like a spider which was something
we did in elementary school. Things have changed since then :)

And lastly, Chelsea and I at the Logan Zoo having fun.

I am going to miss all of this but I am ready to get home and enjoy some fun times with my family and friends back home. I will be home next week!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

I have my fingers crossed that all the rain we've gotten in Utah will only bring sunshine and flowers in May in Wisconsin. I am ready for summer to come in full force.

General Conference was last weekend and I was able to attend Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. It was a really cool opportunity! I loved all of it and can't believe that it has already been six months since the last conference! Here is a picture from the top of the Conference Center after the Sunday morning session let out. The protesters were probably the funniest part!

Otherwise, there is little to report on here in Logan. My sister came out to visit me for 1/2 a week and we enjoyed that. We got the chance to go hiking and just hang out again. Also, I registered for classes at BYU and am looking forward to that this fall! I am taking two classes in my major: Recreation Management and Youth Leadership, which makes me super excited! I have two weeks of classes left and then a week of finals. Then I come home! Three more weeks... HAPPY EASTER to everyone!!!

Spring Break Time

This past week was spring break finally!!! Because I had to work both weekends, I couldn't go too far but I was able to have some fun along the way all starting with Sunday night. Chelsea has some family in Logan and we were invited over for dinner after church on Sunday. Our dining services on campus are closed for the entire week so it was very nice to dig into a home cooked meal. On Monday, Chelsea, Jake and I left to go to Ogden and Salt Lake City for the week. Monday, we hiked Waterfall Canyon, which was about a four hour hike. Then we went to something called Inflatable Zone. It was way fun. Here are some pictures from Monday.

Tuesday, we travelled down to BYU to attend the devotional and then we all headed over to Draper, Utah to go to the Draper Temple open house. It was so amazing to see the inside of the temple and it was absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait for the opportunity to be married in such a beautiful place. Again, here are some pictures from that day.


Wednesday, we spent the entire day in Salt Lake City. Chelsea and I went to do baptisms for the dead at the Salt Lake temple. I took some family names with me finally and it was amazing. Later in the day, we went to the zoo and walked around Temple Square for a while.

Today, Chelsea and I went to do baptisms again at the Ogden temple and then Jake, Chelsea and I went hiking around the Great Salt Lake for the day on Antelope Island. It was absolutely beautiful on the hike!!!

Now I am back at school and have classes again on Monday. Only six more full weeks of the semester left and then it is time to pack it up and head on home!

February Frenzy

So it has been a few weeks since my last post. Sorry! My dad called me and was wondering what was going on since I hadn’t posted for a while. And I also forgot to call him because he sent me yummy cookies (Just for you, Dad. Sorry again!)
Anyways… life in Utah has been pretty low-key so far this semester. My classes are quite a bit more demanding and that equates to many more hours spent in the library studying and reading and less hours doing exciting things. I cannot wait for the day to come when I am completely done with college and the moment comes when I have absolutely no homework. Classes are going okay. I received my first round of tests back over the past week or so and got mostly A’s on them. Many of my classes are simply based on tests so if I fail (or do poorly) on one, it has the potential to ruin my overall grade. My favorite class though is my Family History class (partially because there are no tests). It is really relaxed and is a class that I can take at my own pace.
I started playing indoor soccer for our church once a week. My friend, Heather and I go play for a few hours every week. It is really fun! We now have to take a few weeks off though because Heather was in the hospital this week with a really bad infection. She has MRSA and it is started to really affect her so she ended up in the hospital yesterday. She is recuperating slowly and will be back up to speed soon I hope! I start my university soccer class next week here so I am excited. I am hoping I can improve my soccer skills for those days at camp when we play against the campers. They always seem to kick our butts.
I found out where I am living next year. Here is the link, in case you want to see. http://belmontapts.net/
Spring break is just in less than two weeks here so I am getting anxious for that. I plan on hanging out with a few of my friends down in the Salt Lake City area. Sadly, I have to work both weekends so I can’t go anywhere too far from Logan. Then after break, there are only seven more weeks left of the semester! Yikes! I can’t believe it was Christmas two months ago… where did all the time go?

BYU...

I will now have to give up my love and adoration for the Utah State Aggies at the end of the semester and switch over to our rival, BYU and cheer for the Cougars. I found out Friday night that I was accepted into BYU starting Fall of 2009. Despite our basketball team's domination this year (20-1, they are tied for the most wins with Oklahoma), I have decided to leave the wonderful Aggies and soon call myself a Cougar.

Random-ness

Some friends asked me to do this on Facebook (the wonderful website that uses up all my free time and then some). And then I thought I would add it here for the enjoyment of my family and friends!

Some Random things about me…

1) I always sleep on the left side of the bed if I have a choice.
2) When I was younger, my sister convinced me that I only had 99 “feelings” and one day she hurt my last one so I cried because I thought I could never feel any emotions for the rest of my life. (I was/am still really gullible.)
3) I love camp and can’t wait to start my own camp one day.
4) I LOVE countdowns…and just to let you all know, 94 days until I come home!
5) I would do anything for my bestest friends. Even beat up creepy people if they asked me.
6) When I run, I have a unique breathing pattern. I inhale twice on steps 1 and 2 and exhale once on steps 3 and 4.
7) When given the choice, I hate being touched.
8) I want to run another marathon in Madagascar or South Africa.
9) When I was young, I played school with my older siblings and I was the teacher. I wrote quizzes and everything for them. Every time, they would yell “RECESS” and run up the stairs. I just cried.
10) I really love looking at the stars.
11) I want to marry someone with two tall alleles/genes so my kids actually have a chance at being tall. (The short life is not that grand.)
12) When mail comes, my roommate and I sing the Blue’s Clues song!
13) With a passion, I hate the movie Aladdin.
14) My favorite memory is when my brother got hit with a birdhouse after going sledding with my dog. It was a marvelous time.
15) Ice cream is the best food group in the world. I have a bottomless stomach for ice cream.
16) Running is the best thing in the world no matter what the weather is like.
17) I dream of going to Europe (with Jackie from Wisconsin!) South Africa, Morocco and the national parks in Canada.
18) When I was little, I wanted to become a meteorologist. I literally watched the WeatherChannel for hours at a time!
19) Sarcasm is the best and worst parts of my personality.
20) I have blown up a cheetos bag in the microwave. You should try it some time! It is the coolest thing in the world!

Exciting Weekends in Utah!

Classes have been in session for over two weeks now and yet it feels like I never left school. I like most of my classes but can tell that this semester will be far more challenging than last. Each of my classes has more reading assignments and more scheduled tests and exams. Plus, many of the classes give essay exams in addition to multiple choice tests, which I haven’t had since my senior year in high school. I am hoping I did not lose much in my writing abilities since then. One of my classes, Parks and Recreation, is very interesting. The professor used to live in Wisconsin and actually was the previous camp director at the camp I work at. It was very fun to meet him finally and talk about camp and how it is progressing. I am taking another statistics class this semester that is extremely boring since it is a review from junior year. The professor is from Germany and has a very rich accent and that is probably the best part of the class. We spent the last few days learning about how to find the mean… and it is a 2000 level (at most universities, that would be a 200 level) class.
Last weekend on the 11th, I had the opportunity to go listen to President Monson speak in Provo, Utah. He spoke at BYU so some of my friends from USU drove down for it. It was a long day but well worth it. It was absolutely amazing to hear him speak again. We also got to have a homemade dinner at Heather (my roommate’s) house in Highland, which is located about 30 minutes outside of Provo.
This last weekend, we had the delight of having a three day weekend. I had to work most of last week and put in almost 30 hours within four days. But then Sunday and Monday, I was able to rest and relax. On Monday, some friends and I decided to go hiking in the mountains. We left too late though and ended up walking back down the mountain in the dark. But we arrived home safely, no worries. I included some pictures of the hike for some enjoyment.

this is in the Wind Caves up in the Logan Canyon.
Yep, they're pretty much the coolest thing in the world!

The New Year in Utah

I arrived back in Logan on Saturday. Classes for spring semester started on Monday. I have had most of my classes so far and most of them are good. I am taking the following classes: Political Science, History, 2 religion courses, Statistics, Life Science and Introduction to Parks and Recreation. It is 20 credits total but I have Thursdays off completely.
The rest of my winter break was pretty good. I got to spend some more time with friends and family. Christmas was a marvelous time spent with my family. My brother and sister-in-law came up for Christmas Eve from Kansas and it was nice to see them again. After they left, they ended up rolling their truck but thankfully they were okay. Other than a few scratches, cuts and bruises, they are fine, just a little shook up. I also spent a few days over break working at the YMCA camp that I worked at throughout high school. It was great to see the campers again and also to hang out with some of the staff. With this are some pictures of my break and Christmas.
2009 has arrived all too quickly and I have made a few resolutions that I doubt I will stick to. One is to be more optimistic. People have told me many times that I am very pessimistic. I always reply saying that I am just realistic but somehow that doesn’t work for people. I do not really know how I should become more optimistic but we will see how the year goes. My other resolution is to be less sarcastic. More often than not, my sarcasm gets me in trouble or I fail to catch myself before I say something that probably should not have been said. I believe this will correlate with me being more nice and kind to people around me. My last resolution is to run two marathons this year. There is one in July that I am running with a friend from camp and perhaps another friend. Then I plan on running the Top of Utah Marathon again in September. Even though I vowed after my marathon in September that I would never run again, I really want to see if I can get better. And I think it will be fun to do it with a friend this time!