Thanks for the Gift!

Thank you everyone for the package sent by Aunt Emily! I got this morning and it made me happy to read the letters you guys wrote at the Halloween party. The blanket is fuzzy, though I have yet to open it.I am enjoying the candy especially =).  It was very thoughtful, and I am so grateful to have such a wonderful extended family. A thanks especially to Emily for sending it! =D
Merry 18 days until Christmas!

The Twinkie Diet

Imagine, if you will, eating a Twinkie, or chocolate cupcake, or some similar type of sugary cake every three hours for two months, and that these snack foods make up two-thirds of everything you eat, the other meager one third  including protein shakes, multivitamins, and a few vegetables. Now imagine that you lost 27 pounds as a result. Sound impossible? Except it's not, because a nutrition professor in Kansas did this experiment to prove a point, and yes, he did lose 27 pounds, putting him from almost-obese to a normal weight.

Mark Haub wanted to prove that weight loss was only dependent upon caloric intake, rather than the nutritional value of what we eat. He strictly regulated how many calories he ate, up to 1,800 rather than the 2,600 calories he would usually consume. And the results are pretty astonishing, which is probably why when word got around about how he had lost weight eating basically all sweet cakes, it easily made international news

When my group for science had to write a paper on some kind of controversial health belief, we chose the "Twinkie Diet." I will mention that my group is unconvinced about how healthy this "diet" would be over the long term, though I think it is an interesting study to consider.Personally, I think it is a pretty funny story, though it is not the type of diet I would ever go on; I can only imagine how gross I would feel full of sugar and preservatives.

If you want to read the article about Mark Haub's diet, click here. Or you could simply type in "the twinkie diet" into Google, and I assure you that you will find plenty of information about it.

Christmas Wishlist 2012

Happy December everybody! This year I am putting my Christmas list on my blog, since I actually have one this year, and so my family can see it. Now keep in mind that these are simply brainstorm ideas, and I love happy surprises, so it's not like I have to have all this stuff. I'm just making a list of the things I've thought over the semester "that would be nice to have." Anyway, here it is:

• Laptop (completely optional, because I know it is expensive, but I 'm putting it on here anyway)
• Potato masher
• Brownie/cake metal spatula (the small square ones that make it easy to get them out of the pan)
• Headphones
• Large bowl
• Frying pan
• Photoshop
• Muffin tin
• Flash drive
• Rice cooker
• Something to keep my ears warm when it's cold
• Some cute shirts
• Scarves and sweaters

Also, a list of things I am always happy to receive:

• Books (my favorite authors are Diana Wynne Jones, Roald Dahl, and Brian Jacques, and I also like Brandon Sanderson and I'd like to read more by Terry Pratchett) some specific ones are:
• Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
• Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Cute earrings (like animals, food, holidays, etc. I would love to have little turkeys hanging from my ears for Thanksgiving, and when I say that I'm being completely serious)
• Fluffy Socks
• Video games
• Movies
• Art supplies

I encourage other people to make a Christmas wish list too, because it helps people come up with gifts to give. It does no one any good to hide what you actually want, other wise you may end up with something strange. But overall, don't forget to be thoughtful in giving, and gracious in receiving. Merry Christmas!

Semester End

Nearing the end of the school semester, things are both speeding up, and slowing down. There is so much that can be done and needs to be done! Fortunately, I do not have too many tests to take, but there are many final projects to be perfected, including the website I have created (and that I am almost finished with). I have enjoyed the past few months of school, which have kept me very busy; however, I am ready for the break for Winter so I can spend more time with my family again.

I hope everyone is doing well, and have a wonderful day!

Grateful for Thanksgiving

I am so happy to be able to be home for Thanksgiving! I have been missing my family and looking forward to it for weeks. Pie Day was a lot of fun, Aunt Kim came and joined us this year, and we also ended up with about 30 pies total. I will write the count-up later of the pies we made.
For Thanksgiving this year, we had two new people join in the feast, my two older sisters' husband and soon-to-be husband. It was wonderful to have our whole family together for a few days, and I at least enjoyed myself.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Hershey's

Happy Halloween everyone! This year I dressed up as a Hershey's chocolate bar, using brown clothing and silver duct-tape. I did not go trick-or-treating, but I did go to a party at a new friend's house! We had tons of cake, pie, and other sweets. We played games and watched Monster House, and someone brought a python and a Macaw later when some people had left, and they let us hold them. It was fun!

I unfortunately, cannot find a picture of me in my costume.

Writer's Workshop

So, I decided to join a Writer's Workshop group, which I went to yesterday for the first time. It was a small group in the corner of one of the campus buildings. I hesitant at first, but they made me feel very welcome, and as the time passed I found that these were people who knew what they were talking about regarding writing. Stories were presented and read aloud by different members of the group, and at the end the audience would give their critique to help the author improve their work. If I'm not mistaken, they even took notes on the stories in order to have better suggestions, which impressed me, because all other writing groups I have attended throughout the years has been very lax and "laissez faire" in their approach. The people were fun to be around, and I find that I respect their opinion. I will definitely keep coming. =)

Also, I found out that November is the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo ) where each day - if you accept the challenge - you write 1600 words, and by the end of the month you should have a (unedited) novel! I find this exciting, and I think I will take on the challenge this year.
Which means I need to get ahead of my homework so I can have the time for it. (1600 words is about 4-6 pages every day after all)

General Conference 2012

General Conference was so good this past weekend (though it's always good), with inspiring music and talks to draw knowledge from. I am so grateful to be a part of this church, led by such kind, loving, and inspired leaders who are blessed with revelation. I also enjoyed the company of my family, and it's too bad I missed out on the discussion, but I still liked being with my family - and the free food! =)
I feel like the first Session on Saturday was the one that touched me the most, and not just because of the missionary announcement at the beginning (I'll talk about that later). I really liked President Uchtdorf's talk about living with no regrets, and  Russell M. Nelson's talk: "ask the missionaries - they can help you!" there is also Sister Dibbs talk that asks what kind of message we would proudly proclaim on our T-shirt - for her it is “I’m a Mormon. I know it. I live it. I love it.” May we all learn to live without shame of our church! These talks influenced me the most, and are the ones I remember clearly. Of course, I also loved many of the other talks, especially the one by President Monson, but these are a cluster of some I easily think of.

Regarding the missionary announcement, where young men are able to leave on missions at age 18, and women can leave at age 19 (a jump from 21 years old), I think it is exciting, and a good step forward for the church. The work is hastening on. I have heard many different experiences and responses from this announcement, some wept, many gasped in shock, others open-mouthed in disbelief or perhaps even dismay (some will have to wait for their 19-year old girlfriends to return from their missions), but it is undeniable that a stir was caused, and everyone has something to say about it. Even the news took notice, and they should, because everything is about to change; this includes the very culture of LDS society, especially my age group. I think it is a good work to be done, and there are many who intend to leave as soon as possible. But what do I think? you ask; well, truthfully I don't know. Besides what I've stated above, that it is good and exciting, I don't have much else of an opinion, though many have asked. Even at the announcement I was not as surprised as everyone else seemed to be, and I believe my comment I made to my sister was (and she can correct me if she remembers), "Oh; that's exciting!" Then I talked to my parents for a minute or two before conference continued. I do not know whether to go on a mission or not, I find I lean neither to the right nor the left of the matter, but on the center. I fully support other people's decision to go on a mission, I simply to not know about myself. I did not even consider the prospect of going on a mission until I recieved my patriarichal blessing and my dad made a comment on one of the phrases! I have not thought to much of it since then! I thought I had more time to consider; now I find myself needing to come to a decision!
For now, I can only pray, and wait to see what happens... so we shall see what happens.

Off To College

Hello everyone! I am doing great, and I love being here at BYU-Idaho! The campus is absolutely beautiful, and I have some really nice roommates. All six of us are freshmen, and hopefully we become good friends by the end of the semester. I have actually been here for over a week, but what a crazy week it was! So many classes and so much homework to keep track of, I have been working hard to keep up on it so I do not fall behind. Sometimes there is so much information to take in and my brain feels stuffed, and sometimes I'll stare at my reading (math especially) at not understand a word of it. I am enjoying my classes though, and I like the teachers that I have.
It it so strange though to have a prayer at the beginning of class, as well as church principles taught alongside academic information. The Spirit of the Lord is here, and it is a wonderful thing. I hope that by being here I can become more spiritual and a better person.
How is it back home? I love being here, but there is a huge difference between Home and my apartment, and I wonder how my family is doing. And, I keep forgetting to call them, oops (I'll do better I promise!). I miss you all, and I hope you are all doing well!

My Bed: It's so yellow!

The shelf with my stuff on it, my roommates made a comment on how many books I had. What are they talking about? This isn't even 10% of all the books I own!

The living room: the couches are quite comfy, and that's a stack of my homework on the table.

The kitchen (while clean): on the far left there are some flowers my dad got me, if you can see the leaves poking out.

Family Camp 2012

Family Camp was this last week. So much fun, especially with all the new family members! =)
I have to say that Family Camp is one of my favorite annual family traditions, where we all get together, discuss life over s'mores, and enjoy the company of cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. It is also one of the few camping trips I don't mind going to, because there is always something fun to do.

The whole family in stick figure form

A sign example: each tent area for each family had one

Hey look! it's me! =)

I intend to put up the skits that I recorded, but they're really dark, so I shall have to fiddle with them.

Yay Graduation!

So I graduated today, making me an official high school graduate with diploma and everything. =) It was pretty fun, and went by so fast, though I'm pretty sure it was a lot longer for the audience than us graduates down in the middle of the stadium. It was so fun coming out of the tunnel, and seeing my parents, aunt Alison, and cousin Amy right there! I took pictures beforehand, because we had to turn in our gowns to get our diploma, so here they are.

See the cute little hat in my hand? It's a small chocolate covered in red paper to look like a graduation cap.
It's so cute! My friend gave them to people for graduation.

AP Art - Concentration

The second part of my AP Art portfolio, which is focused on a single idea. Mine was a story told by means of graphic novel, and I used my Prismacolors and ballpoint pen. There are a total of 12 images/pages:

 

 

AP Art - Breadth

My Breadth pieces from my AP art class. This is half of my art portfolio I turned into for the AP Art Test. It is the part of the portfolio filled with as much random stuff as possible. Sorry, it's a long post, with 13 images total:

Island Turtle
Water color

 Box Demon
Pencil and Colored pencil

 Space Whales
Acrylic paint, Prismacolor (a type of oily colored pencil), ink

 Onion
Prismacolor, ink

 Dragon
Linoleum Print (carved from a tile then pressed on rice paper with ink)

 Tools
Ballpoint Pen

 Color Wheel Chameleon
Colored Pencil

 Dragon Tesselation
Colored Pencil, Prismacolor

 Fish
Pencil

 Masked Lady
Colored Pencil

 Analogous Dragon
Prismacolor, Watercolor

 Chameleon
Oil Pastel

 Candy Machine
Fine-Tipped Marker

Ze End Of Ze Year

Recently it has become a lot more difficult to get up, and go to school, mostly because it is my last month of school EVER (college is different). I have started becoming impatient with it, and I am very much ready for graduation.This impatience if mine can be a little troubling, considering I still have 1 more AP test to finish (I have finished 3 tests already, so hooray!) , and I don't have any dedication left to my classes. I'll still go to school, but I am really tired of every part of it, even the movies all the teachers have you watch at the end of the year.
Now I have the question of what to do with my free time, and mostly I've been drawing some simple sketches and drawings an a new little notebook I have.

 I am also excited, and a little scared, for college. What am I supposed to do with my life? Where do I go from here? Will I ever get a job? How am I supposed to get housing and pay for tuition if I don't have a job? Will I be able to make some good friends?
All serious questions I have been wondering about for awhile. It makes me feel very unprepared, and a little stressed. Also, will I still keep close with some of my present friends?

Blog of Thoughts

Yep, I made another blog. It helps me to keep things organized, and I like to diversify. It is called Wisdom and Knowledge are Stability, and will be a collection of my thoughts, mostly about church or scripture related topics. I will continue to use this blog for daily activities, but my life can be pretty boring, and I always forget to post (I'm a lot more consistent with my actual journal). I also don't want random people looking at this blog, just friends and family, so I took it off search engines.
It might also have to do with the fact that I like projects, so having more than one blog sounds like fun to me.
Anyway, check them all out! ( all pages have been moved to the top ^ )

My Sister's Wedding

The temple they were married in

    My sister was married today! She is so sweet, and I am very happy for her. Her husband is also very fun and gentlemanly, and they are so cute together. I wish them the best!

The in-laws

Some cute pink tulips on the grounds

The couple standing with my parents

Friends who attended the wedding

The lovely couple

The photographer, a friend of my sister

My sister and I in our wedding attire

Back to The Lagoon

I went to Lagoon again today with my friends! We had a great time, got wet, and had many fun conversations. I now have a sunburn, but it was still worth it to go. They have a new ride called Sky  Race as well!
Here's some pictures (I didn't take very many because my camera ran out of space):

My friends

 My friends on the merry-go-round

 The Musical Express

Looking back at what I've written, I realize that my description is kind of vague (though funny, so I'll keep it the way it is). Let me clarify: Lagoon is an Amusement Park, I got wet on the water ride Rattlesnake Rapids; no, I did not actually go to a lagoon and jump in. I don't even think a lagoon exists near where I live.