Final Mess Up

So, as you might already be aware, it is finals week. I just completed my first final. I still have three to go. My first final was awesome though. It was my Nutrition final. It was a 120 question, comprehensive final. I got to class, and buckled myself in for this test. Our teacher passed out the test and I began. The first page wasn't too hard, and I finished it quickly. Then I turned the page and noticed that the questions skipped from 11 to 21. I began to look for question 12, but I couldn't find it. As I was searching the test, our teacher got up and told us that the girl who copied the tests skipped every other page, making our test only 60 questions long. :) We all get free points for those questions that were left out of the test. My teacher said that this is why you should never let someone else do your copying for you. :)

Testing Skills

I have some pretty sweet skills. Numchucking skills, drawing skills... Jk. I have some pretty sweet testing skills. I'm always taking tests. In my Physiology class, we have a test every three weeks. In my other classes, I have a test every four weeks. This week I had one quiz (which was like a test) and two tests. I got 97% on my Psychology test, and 91% on my Nutrition test. So yeah. I have a Physiology test on Monday. Wish me luck you guys!

Halloween Adventures

This Halloween we had a party at my apartment. We made soup and rolls and bubbling apple juice. We carved four pumpkins and set them out on our porch. We played a game called werewolves and watched Arsenic and Old Lace. It was quite the adventure.

Homecoming

Kim and I took pictures of ourselves at the homecoming football game. It's a tradition. We painted our faces and sprayed our hair blue. I'm sharing my favorite pictures with you. Oh... I also want to thank everyone for the awesome birthday party. It was so great to see all my nieces and nephews.

Meet the New 'A Team' Alternate

On Saturday last, I tried out for the USU Big Band Swing Team. Arriving at ten o' clock, We learned a solo Charleston routine. It was really hard. The air conditioner in the room we tried out in didn't work either. We performed the solo routine in groups of five. I messed up the last phrase of the song. But I kept moving and smiling. After a short break, we learned a couples routine. Each of us had to dance with a judge. I did really well on that part. I'm not supposed to know which team I'm on yet, but because the coach happens to be a good friend of mine, I was able to winkle the information out of him. I am the alternate for the A team. So I learn the routine, and then if another couple can't make it to the performance, my partner and I go in their place. I also get to go to Colorado to compete at the end of March. I'm pretty excited that I made the team!

Saturday Adventures

I woke up at 8 0' clock Saturday morning. So I studied for three hours. Then I was done, and I decided to go for a walk. On my walk, I noticed some ducks hanging out in the little stream that runs behind Old Farm and past our church. So I went and grabbed Kim and two pieces of bread, and we fed the ducks. After that, Kim and I followed the stream. We had to sneak past a few fences, and walk through a couple backyards before we came to the source of the stream. It was lots of fun. Later in the afternoon, a group of ten of us decided to go to DI (because Kim wanted to buy a lamp for our end table). We played around and looked at stuff. Then, all the girls tried on a wedding dress. Kim, my roommate on the right of the picture, put the train around her shoulders because the sleeves of her dress were immodest. I couldn't even zip mine up. :( But we still got a good picture. After that we went to Walmart. I didn't buy anything, and as I was waiting for my friends to check out, who should come through one of the lines but my cousin Amber? It was a fun day.

First Day of School

I started out the school year with Biology 2420, also known as Human Physiology. It's going to be a tough class. But I like the professor, and I'll learn a lot. I also took Big Band Swing 2. We didn't do any dancing today, so it was pretty boring. My next class is an Institute one. The one after that is Organic Chemistry. I'll end my day with a Physiology lab at 7:30 tonight (It ends at 9:20). People around campus are very nice. Everybody seems excited to be back. My new roommates fit right in and I'm sure we will all get along throughout the year. I look forward to hopefully getting a calling this year. I'm going to be learning a lot and growing a whole bunch. I miss you all a lot. Hope your first days of school are going well.

One Week

Only one week before school starts. I'm frantically trying to get everything packed, praying I can get my textbooks on time, making sure my schedule will work out, and trying to get in a full week at work before I move up to Logan this weekend. I'm taking hard classes this semester such as Organic Chemistry and Human Physiology. I also have English, Nutrition, and Psychology. I have 17 credits this year. Oh, and Big Band Swing 2 of course. I am going to be on Swing Club Council, and along with my duties I get to go to club for free. I get to have the most amazing roommates ever this year. I'm really excited to go back.

Finally... Something Worthy of a Post

So, I haven't posted for a long time. That's because my life is basically boring. I work nonstop. That's about it.

What's this post about then you wonder? Hmm... Should I tell you? What could be exciting enough to make me write a post? Could it be a movie? Or a date? Or could it be a rattlesnake? Well folks, it's the latter. I foolishly went hiking on the zigzag trail by myself without a hiking stick or first aid equipment. I had a lovely hike up, though it was quite hot. I enjoyed some nice solitude at the top and read my scriptures and wrote in my journal a bit. I even saw a deer. Then I started back down. About halfway down, I was strolling along and feeling great from the endorphins. Suddenly, I turned a corner and to my left I heard a rattlesnake!! That was the first time I've ever seen one in real life. I immediately stopped and backed up about ten feet, so I could still see it. I pulled out my phone and called my mom. She talked me through throwing rocks at it until it moved away. I was so scared it would bite me. I kept making noise and throwing rocks. I backed up some more because I thought it would come closer to me. Finally, I thought it had moved far enough away it couldn't reach me if I ran past it. So I did just that. I ran past it. I stayed on the phone until Kenny and Hayden met me (Kenny and Morgan had been at my house and they came up to get me when they heard I was stuck). We went the rest of the way down playing Journey on my phone. We got home just before dark. It was a scary experience, and don't worry, Kenny chewed me out for hiking alone.

Utah Lindy Hop Jam Session

This past weekend was the first ever Utah Lindy Hop Jam session. It took place in various venues in Salt Lake. It included social dancing, and competitions. Josh Ferrer and I entered the 30 Second Showcase. This is a competition where a couple choreographs a 30 second routine and them performs it. Only one other couple entered this competition. They've been dancing for a long time, and I only started in the fall. We figured that they might win. Much to our surprise and delight, Josh and I won!!! We each got a trophy, twenty dollars in cash, and a free pass to go dancing on a Friday night (That usually costs five dollars)! So, I had an excellent weekend, and maybe next year I'll enter some of the other competitions, such as Strictly Lindy, or Lindy Jack and Jills. Thanks for reading my blog.

Pedicures!!

I'm offering to give pedicures for a low price. Only $15. Prices are negotiable. I give a full out treatment, including painted toenails at the end. If any of you are interested, you can contact me by commenting on this post, or at my home phone number.

Still Looking

I'm still looking for a job. If any of you have odd jobs you'd be willing to pay me for you should let me know. I've been doing yardwork for my parents and grandparents.

Sisters

I would also like to say that I have the most beautiful sisters in the world. I was looking at all your blogs, and I love to see your beautiful faces. I'm so grateful to be related to such gorgeous, amazing people. You guys are such good examples to me, and I hope that I can measure up to your lives.

Home Sweet Home

I've moved back home for the summer. Hooray for a free washing machine and free groceries! We even have a vacuum right in the house! This place is heaven. I don't even have to do all the cooking when I want to eat something. These brothers of mine don't know how good they have it. I don't have to pay for utilities either!!! Wow! This place just keeps getting better and better. I'm allowed to have pets here, and I get my own room. Plus some of the people I love most live here. And I'm in a prime location to see all the grandkids. Sigh. It's so great to be back home.

Ear Infection

I've had an ear infection for a few weeks now. I went to the doctor a week ago, and he wrote me out a prescription. The prescription was this little bottle of ear drops. I have to put four drops in my ear three times a day. And I have to let them sit in my ear for five minutes. It's not the most convenient medicine. He also told me to put this mixture of vinegar, rubbing alcohol and water in my ear four times a day. I haven't been as strict with that, and now I'm worried that I won't get better as quickly. I'm thinking that this ear infection is from getting my wisdom teeth out last month. Anyway, I know you all are fascinated by my health issues, and desperately wanted to hear that.

What Just Happened?

So, it is wet outside today. A condition reminiscent of my downstairs bathroom last night at about 11. Kim and Heather and Josh and I were all just sitting in the family room when we heard this big cracking sound, and then the sound of running water. We jumped up and looked in our bathroom, and our toilet had cracked and was leaking all the water onto the floor. Heather had the presence of mind to turn the water off before the toilet filled up again. We called the management and they told us to clean up all the water and they would come and get us a new toilet. Well, we had to use all our towels to dry up all that water. The management is also giving us quarters to wash all our towels. As of right now though, we have all our towels hanging up all over the place. It was pretty exciting, and we're just praying that our upstairs toilet doesn't break, because it is always running. So that was my adventure this week. I hope that any other adventures that I might have this week are of a better nature.

It's not the best day today...

I found out that I did worse on my chemistry test than I did on the previous tests I've taken in that class. I also found out today that I don't get any financial aid for next year. I don't know how I'm going to make it. And just to complain a little more, it's raining today. But hey, at least I look pretty. Maybe I can marry rich...

April Fool's

So, I stayed up til three last night with Kasi and Josh and Greg setting up pranks for this morning. Here is a list of all the naughty things we did last night. We put food coloring in the toilet, moved the pictures around on the wall, moved the magnets from the fridge to the door, put the couch on top of the little chair, put a small table on top of that, and piled various items there. We saran-wrapped the kitchen chairs, made it so the faucet sprays, put peanut butter on the handles of various kitchen appliances, put the mail keys in Jello, and stuffed the microwave with cereal and grapes. We stole the rock paper scissors trophy and framed another apartment for it. Greg and his roommate Matt stole Kim's fridge, and we replaced the movies in Stephanie's movie case with blank disks. So yeah. I'm worried about anger and revenge, but it was fun.

Relay for Life part 2

The event started when the cancer survivor of our group Brent told us about his experience. Then, all the cancer survivors attending walked a lap around the track. Then we all joined them. After that lap, one person from each team stayed on the track at a time. We walked in half hour increments. I walked at 11, 2, and 5:30. There was free food, and some on site fund-raising as well. We played The Great Dalmuti (like Scum but better), and the M&M game. And randomly at 2:30, our whole team did the Bunny Hop around the track. It took us 20 minutes to make it all the way around. But every time we did the hops, we all yelled "Cancer Sucks." It was pretty fun. By the way, our team's name was "Krebs Saugt" which means "cancer sucks" in German. At about 10, we put electric candles in luminaries that people had made in remembrance of cancer victims. We all took a lap of silence together. It was pretty neat. At the end of the event, they handed out some prizes. Our team got the prize for the most money raised. We also had the top two fund raisers in the whole event as members of our team. We all got a T-shirt from the event, and a water bottle for winning the top fund-raising team. It was a neat experience, and they asked our team to return next year.

Relay for Life part 1

I am participating in Relay for Life this year. It is a huge fundraiser to raise money for cancer research. Stephanie Maxwell, my roommate is our team captain. Our team has raised over $1100 dollars. Tonight we are going to pull an all-nighter and stay up walking around the track in our field house. The idea is that the track represents the suffering of a cancer victim. And the suffering (walking) doesn't end until we find a cure for cancer. It's really cool. And this is titled part one because I'm going to take pictures and let you know how it goes next week. I'm really excited to participate in this event.

St. Patty's Party

I had a great time at the party on Sunday. It was so nice to see all of my family. I had a great time showing Lexi around and telling her how we are all related. I also had a good time playing with Cory. It's so much fun to be around the little ones. I miss them so much while up in Logan. The food was really good. I love the Irish soda bread. The mug also had a great time, though he did get pinched because he forgot to wear green.

Testing

I just completed my third test in two days. I really want to find out how I did on all of them. I studied so hard for my Chemistry test. But when I got to it, I couldn't remember everything. I ended up doing some (very educated) guessing. Then, I had an easy Creative Arts test, and I just took an online test. It was open notes, and I only missed one question. I'm so nervous about finding out the results of my Chemistry test. It was such a hard test. So much material was covered. I wish we had homework assignments in that class. The grade is calculated purely off the tests. I don't like that very much.

A Call to Repentance

Hear Ye, Hear Ye. I issue a call to repentance unto my sisteren. Today is February 26. This means that in 3 days it will be exactly a year from March 1 2008. I hope you all recall what took place on that historic day. Let me remind you if you've forgotten. We all (Stephanie Lambert, Marinda Townsend, Morgan Goudy, and I, Lacey Johnson) took a vow to abstain from consuming chocolate. The conditions of this vow included dying your hair blond if you broke it. To my knowledge, I am the only one that has kept this vow. I now call on you to fulfill the conditions of this vow.

A Major Award

I've won a major award. It might be a bowling alley. Or a leg lamp. Or $100!!! I think that I personally would like to have won 100 dollars. Oh wait. I think I did. This weekend, the USU Swing Club put on Harlem Nights. They flew in professional dancers from Seattle. Their names were Mike Faltesek, and Casey Schneider. They taught some amazing workshops. There were also dances and competitions. Josh Ferrer (he taught me practically everything I know) and I entered the First-Timers competition. We figured we'd maybe get 2nd place if we were lucky, because some of the other couples had more experience than I did. They were even doing lifts and stuff. And we'd talked to several other people who thought that we'd get 2nd or 3rd. Well, they announced the winners, and the 3rd place was the couple we thought would win. And the 2nd place was a couple we thought might not have done as well. So, we were figuring that maybe we'd gotten fourth place. But then they called our names and we were shocked. It was so cool to go up and shake the professional dancers' hands and have them congratulate us. They had been two of the 5 judges. We also collected a $200 prize, which we split. We weren't even going to enter the competition until one of our swing teachers encouraged us to. I'm glad I listened to her, it really "paid" off.

Morgan's Shower

While I have my camera here, I think I'll share some pictures of the baby shower.

Muhahaha

For those of you who can't tell, the title of this post is me, laughing evilly. This is because I pulled a dirty trick. Actually, I was only an accomplice, but still. It was funny. On Monday, we were bored so I brought down my copy of 199 Ways to Confuse a Roommate. One of the items was: Dance around them excitedly when they get home for five minutes. After that look at your watch and say, "Shouldn't you be going somewhere?" Well, we determined that we would try to confuse Kim because she wasn't back from home yet. As we were waiting for her to get home, Kasi had the brilliant idea to switch her and Kim's bedding. I helped pull of the switch. So, when Kim got home we all confused her with our behavior. And then somebody said, "Just wait til you go upstairs." So she ran upstairs and saw the result of our mischievousness. The picture on the left is Kim's bed with Kasi's stuff on it, and the picture on the right is Kasi's bed with Kim's stuff on it.

Two Months Late

The mug enjoyed the bountiful feast shared by the Johnson Family this Christmas season. It loved the eggnog and peppermint pleaser, as I'm sure we all did. We're so grateful for this addition to our family and look forward to the fun we'll have with him throughout the year. I shall keep you updated on his activities throughout the year.

Snow

I find myself a little in bit in the humdrum of Winter. It started snowing on Sunday, and hasn't stopped since, even if it's just tiny flakes. All the trees are covered in snow, and one has to be careful walking under them or they might find that their necks are cold and wet (this has happened to me a couple of times). It just feels really dreary up here. But, all this dreariness and bad weather just makes Spring and Summer seem all the brighter. I can't wait til they arrive!

Veterinarian?

I've been exploring some career options for my Career/Life Planning class. One that I've recently come across is veterinary medicine. I'm really interested in this. I love biology and I'm starting to understand and even like chemistry. And a lot of the classes needed for this major are biology and chemistry classes. There is only one school in Utah that offers a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. It just happens to be Utah State. I've always liked animals, and I've always been interested in learning about them. This may be the career that I should go into. I'm going to be doing a lot of research and exploring and praying about it. Any input or opinions from you guys would be really helpful.

Taco Tuesday

We have a friend named Kwin Willis. He's a very fun individual. He lives across the street and down a little ways from Old Farm. But he comes to hang out with us frequently. Every night at 9:00, we hold scripture study at our apartment. It's really neat. Towards the end of last semester though, we split the responsibility of hosting with the girls from E1. Anyway, once a month, Kwin invites us (all 20 or so of us) to his apartment and feeds us tacos and leads scripture study. It's a long walk over the ice in the cold and dark, but it's worth the free food and good times we have. I love Taco Tuesday!

Prayer

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye
When none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;
Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high.

Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
The Christian’s native air,
His watchword at the gates of death;
He enters heav’n with prayer.

Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice,
Returning from his ways,
While angels in their songs rejoice
And cry, “Behold, he prays!”

The Saints in prayer appear as one
In word and deed and mind,
While with the Father and the Son
Their fellowship they find.

Nor prayer is made on earth alone:
The Holy Spirit pleads,
And Jesus at the Father’s throne
For sinners intercedes.

O thou by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way!
The path of prayer thyself hast trod;
Lord, teach us how to pray.

James Montgomery

Homesick

I just spent some time looking at all of my siblings' blogs. I miss my family so much! I'm feeling homesick again after only one week back. I wish that I could go and hang out with Morgan and see her new puppy. Or visit Steph and Rich and see Alaina. Or hold Ethan and follow him around. I really miss Cory and Isabelle too. I can't wait until summer so that I can be with you guys for more than a weekend or two at a time. I miss you all and love you.

Kasi Porter

Kasi is the last roommate to be spotlighted. She is from Lindon along with Kim, Heather, and Emma. She is an Elementary Education major with an emphasis in Math. She is 5'1" tall, which makes me taller by a whole inch! She is one of the funniest people I know. We'll just sit and make jokes and laugh together nonstop. Kasi is our FHE mom. It's so nice to live with her in our apartment, because then we know exactly when and where FHE is. She is such a delight to have around. She is generous and always shares whatever she can. When I got back from the Christmas break, she was the only roommate there. She and I had a good time watching MASH and just hanging out. The next day, we built a tower of chicken bones at dinner it was quite hilarious. Kasi went snowboarding yesterday and she walked in the door with a big scrape on her forehead. It looked really bad, and she just said that she'd hit the snow. The picture of her is after an FHE hike. She sprained her ankle, and she barely complained. She's an adventurous person, and I love having her in my apartment!

Happy New Year!

Well, here I am back at school after a brief hiatus. This semester looks like it will be lots of fun. I'm taking 14 credits, and probably 2 Institute classes. I just bought all my books today and all combined they cost less than 200 dollars!!! This makes me really happy. Over the break, we had a major celebration for my father's birthday. It resulted in the Christmas tree being set on fire. Luckily, I had my camera phone at the ready to take pictures. It was a glorious sight to behold. I like the picture of the embers. I think it looks really cool. I'm glad to be back up here, but I miss my family dearly. I love you all!!