5/18 - Radiation

Without planning this at all, Kelsey and I ended up in the same Environmental Health class and it's fantastic! Although I don't find this class particularly interesting, it is always livened up with a comment here and there from Kelsey or me to the other. Today, we learned about radiation and my teacher passed around different machines that show how to detect radon. Kelsey was at the end of the class so she accumulated everything by the end of class and her desk looked like if she moved an inch, it would all explode. Of course, knowing us, we had to take a picture or two!

5/17 - Healthy

I am really excited to begin this semester and after taking a nutrition class over the winter, I have made the goal to eat better in college. I have learned that I can get away with smaller amounts of food if I eat more fruits and vegetables which are so good for you and make you feel so much better anyways. Along with this, I am also working out with Kelsey three times a week. It's going to be such a healthy semester!

5/16 - THE Couch

This is the couch that we have a work. Nothing special right? Actually looks pretty gross. Well it's an unwritten rule at work that only the current or past floor crew gets to sit on it and everyone else sits in rolly chairs around a table. The floor crew consists of three guys and there are a few other guys that have previously been on the crew and can also sit there. Recently, there has been an upheaval and a couple people feel they can sit there. It's so silly because we are all college students but it's made a few guys upset. You can't actually say anything to anyone because it is an unwritten rule but they are still irritated. They informed me the other day that only floor crew, Becca, and I are allowed to sit there. I feel so cool because I have been accepted into the group that's allowed on the couch :)

5/15 - Borsch!!

Every Sunday, one of my roommates makes dinner for the rest of the apartment. I decided to take my turn and wanted to make the Russian soup, borsch. I was a little nervous because I had never actually made it before but it ended up turning out pretty successful and everyone ate it right up. I think this may be a recipe I will make forever because it's pretty easy and very good and filling with all of the vegetables in it.

5/14 - Doralee

Kelsey works at an assisted living home up here in Rexburg and Saturday was a nice sunny day so we decided to take one of the residents out that hadn't been out of the building for as long as Kelsey could remember. Not even with family. This is Doralee and we took her to Porter Park for an hour to get out and see what there is to see in Rexburg on a Saturday afternoon. She has really bad dementia which could have made it really hard but she did great. We had to rest every once in a while but that was great because it gave her the opportunity to make wise cracks and to hit on the boys that passed. What a great way to spend an afternoon!

5/13 - For Christine

You see that plant hanging down all the way to the floor? Yeah, that's the same plant that you can't seem to kill :) For those of you that don't know this, Christine has had a plant for a year or two now that will live on for the eternities no matter what she does to it. She can't keep anything else alive but this plant has been going strong for a very long time. It cracked me up to realize that this plant was the same and that basically it will never die. Good luck!

5/12 - Wet Floor

Joe my office-cleaning coworker decided to try to push the cart through the door really fast and managed to drop half a bottle of disinfectant on the floor. He then threw this tiny towel on the floor and spun around in circles to get it up. It was pretty entertaining and I am pretty sure that spot is thoroughly clean!

5/11 - Paycheck!

Matthew got a job!! He is working in IF doing whatever jobs around yards and washing windows. He is so excited! It pays well and he gets to set his hours. Once he got his first paycheck, he called me up and asked if I wanted to go get something to eat in celebration. Not much better place to do that than Craigos! We had a great time chowing down on some all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, and salad and got all caught up on each other's lives. Afterwards, now that he had money and I had a ride, we made a stop at Wal-Mart for some much needed groceries!

5/10 - Evening Walk

I know this picture is a little hard to see so you may have to tilt the screen forward to see better. It says, "No Parking, Violators will be Restrained and Ticketed." I went out for an evening walk the other day to clear my mind after an extensive amount of studying and came across this sign that I felt was a little humorous. I just thought it was funny that they felt it was important to include that violators with be restrained. No running crazy through the streets, violators!

5/9 - Teachers

I've been moved to offices at work which is probably the most entertaining job we have. The teachers have some pretty entertaining things in their offices from a Yoda mask to a real stuffed fox. This one brought me a little laugh when I walked in and realized it was a Mt. Dew IV. Trust me, teachers drink an amazing amount of pop and this makes me laugh because it definitely takes that obsession to the next level!

5/8 - Happy

Is this little boy not the most darling thing or what? I love Skyping with him and knowing that he remembers who I am. My microphone isn't working so I have to call and have the audio through the phone which makes it fun to see him try to figure out if I am on the screen or the phone. Connor truly is a blessing in my family's lives and we all just love him so much!!

5/7 - Civil Defense Caves

Matthew invited me to the Civil Defense Caves with him and a few other friends and while we were waiting around for Kelsey and Eric to show up, Josh texted me asking what I was up to. I told him that if he got to Broulim's really fast we could take him to the caves with us. He grabbed another roommate and headed out. We thought we didn't have enough seats so Josh and I sat in the back of Matthew's truck. Halfway there, Josh came up with the idea that if we both laid down going opposite directions, we could hold onto the ropes on both sides of the truck bed. He found it a little too entertaining and decided we needed some pictures because it was pretty crazy and this is one of the results. It was pretty fun but I think I am done with that for a while.

5/6 - Farewell Long Eyelash

I have serious problems growing eyelashes. Ask anyone in my family and they will tell you that I seriously fail at this task. This long one fell out and I felt some great agony. Here's an ode I found online to commemorate the loss of this long lash - it takes about the wonders of eyelash curlers:

"Eyelash curler, if not for you,

My eyes would merely exist on my face,

They wouldn’t pop, shimmer,

Quite the way they should!

Operated between two fingers,

A device sweetly silver and simple

Make wonders tonight,

Make my eyes a performance, one of a kind

In every blink!

It’s your steely curves that do the trick,

Not my own of flesh and tissue."

5/5 - Messy Work

For this week at work, I was in charge of sweeping/mopping the staircases and cleaning the windows of the entryways. My boss came up to me and asked if I would get the garbages outside which I didn't mind because I love being outside on nice summer mornings. There's only three garbage cans outside and instead of lugging them through the building like most everyone does, I decided to go around the building because then I could be outside longer. Thank goodness I did! Look at that mess I left going around the building from something wet in the bag. Made me chuckle a bit!

5/4 - New Love

Russia had the most amazing yogurt ever that I had every morning for breakfast and I knew I couldn't find it in American and found that incredibly sad. It's wonderful because it's thick and you know has real fruit in it. Pear flavored was the best! I told my mom my heartache a little while ago and she recommended I try Greek yogurt. So I eventually bought some at Winco and it was my Russian yogurt in Greek form!!! The Yoplait isn't as good as another Greek brand but it was just so exciting that I didn't really care that much.

5/3 - Utah

On the first day of school, my humanities teacher announced that we were going to be having a trip to Utah on Tuesday, May 3rd. Wow! Gotta love college classes and their crazy field trips to different states! Fast-forward to May 3rd and we drove a huge bus of a wopping 21 people down to Utah and spent the day going to the Carl Bloch exhibit, the Church History Museum, and the Cathedral of the Madalaine. It was so much fun and great to get out and see really art instead of just talking about it in class. I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the Bloch exhibit otherwise one of them would be my picture of the day but this painting I thought was also beautiful from the Church History Museum. This picture doesn't do it justice but it was a magnificent picture that radiated off the wall of the angels coming down and everyone rejoicing that Christ had come to the Americas.

5/2 - Funny Story

To start out the story, you need to know that Eric Dennis got a job working as a security officer who tickets cars when they are parked in the wrong place. Also, I work out with Kelsey every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. According to Eric, they weren't ticketing a certain area for a little bit because it was a new parking lot and they assumed people would need a little time figuring it out so Kelsey decided to take advantage of that. On Monday, we got to her car and what did we find? A parking ticket from some other officer. We had to run to Kelsey's house for something and when we got back to campus, decided that instead of parking really far away where she was allowed to park, park in the same spot and just stick the ticket back on. Great plan that worked successfully! Luckily, BYU-I parking tickets are only $10 so she got off pretty easy.

5/1 - Wow...

So I don't really have all that much to say about this picture but I thought it was an important event and it should be my picture of the day. Such a cool story on how they killed him and what a blessing for the United States. It was wonderful to watch the joy on the news of the people of this incredible country and how they were just so happy to know they might be just a little safer.

4/30 - Night Out On The Town

I spent all of Saturday with my best friend Christine but forgot to take a decent picture anywhere. Jason, Christine's husband, had to work all day so we spent it together by going to the Body Museum, shopping at Ross, and ending with some Cafe Rio. The Body Museum was fantastic and only Christine would have fully appreciated it with me. We spent forever looking at every detail of the bodies and just marveling at how cool the body is. We weren't allowed to take pictures so that's why my daily picture isn't of that. From there, we spent forever at Ross and both ended up with a few things. Next was blessed Cafe Rio. So incredibly delicious! This picture is of us both having devoured way too much food but Christine claims it was just the right amount :S (Mom, imagine Baja Fresh nachos sized food)

4/29 - Gym Time!

If you ever want to have a thoroughly entertaining time at the gym, go with Kelsey. We have started going every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for about an hour right after our Environmental Health class. We have yet to run out of topics to talk about the whole time but the other day we found a new topic. We were walking back to the locker room and came across a sign with a bunch of names on it including the wonderful ones I have included. We then spent the next five minutes trying to sound out the names with different accents. Oh goodness Kelsey :)

4/28 - What's Wrong?

Do you see the problem in this picture? Maybe the Skittles hanging in the air in the vending machine? As I was sweeping the staircase next to the vending machines, I looked over and saw this curious case. I called another worker over who wanted them so badly but was afraid of the cameras watching so she just kept trying to casually bump into the machine hoping it would just easily come lose. No such luck. She even got other people to try but nothing worked so we just gave up. Later in the day, one of the guys started helping me because he was done with his work and he saw it, shook the machine until it came loose, and enjoyed his Skittles. He didn't know the back story so it just made me laugh that he got them with all the effort that went into it beforehand.

4/27 - Bright Idea?

Working from 4-7 AM can do some weird things to you. We are all often times coming up with "good ideas" but they are usually just really stupid when you think back after you had had a few more hours of sleep. This happens to be one of them. I was in charge of sweeping and mopping the staircases with Joe and he had to go do something so instead of having me carry the wet floor sign (because that might be too much for me when I am pushing the mop :S), he just stuck it on top and thought it was brilliant. As I walked to the staircase it was evident that he was the only one who thought it was great as I got many weird stares.

4/26 - Happiness

I just adore my Matruska dolls and am so happy I brought them up to school to brighten my day every day. I debated back and forth for a long time as to whether or not I should take them on the 12 hour trek to school but eventually asked Kaylynn and she said of course I should. So I wrapped them up very nicely and brought them on out. I just love having something legitimately from Russia in my bedroom that can make me smile with the gold and red. I don't take all of the pieces out so I don't lose any but they still bring me joy.

4/25 - Oh Man

This picture has been up in the Romney building since I first started working there two years ago. It drives me nuts!! This man has got to have the worst hair I have ever seen. Don't you just wonder if he got up that morning, put on his tupee, looked in the mirror and said, "Man, I am looking good today! I am all set for my picture." I think this frequently as I pass this poster in the hall every day :)