After Christmas update

So... it's been a while since I've written... and since I'm enjoying myself so much this is just going to be a short post. I'm in Minnesota! Woohoo! It's been great seeing my family and grandmother. This weekend I'll relearn how to ski... be prepared people of Spirit Mountain because I might severely hurt you if you aren't paying attention! he he he Yesterday my home ward had a nice Christmas program and I was able to sing in the choir. They were severely lacking in the alto section, and even though I am usually a soprano, I sang alto. My parents and some others said I helped them out a lot and that they could tell a difference (not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing... :-) This year for Christmas I got a candle and candle warmer (something I'm sure my apartment will use a lot), a digital camera, gloves and a hat (not sure if I'm going to actually wear the hat...) a new larger capacity memory stick for my GIS projects that were too big for my old one, Swedish fish, and some money. I also recieved a cute new pajama set. It's in a really pretty bright blue color... Anyway, my little sister is wanting to get on the computer to figure out how to put songs on her new iPod nano. I like my mini, but can't help feeling a little envy about that gift... hehehe Well, I'll let you know how skiing goes..

One day left until Minnesota!

I'm trying to finish up everything (finals, packing, etc) so that I can head home on Saturday morning. It will be so nice to finally be home with my siblings and parents... my grandmother is also spending all of the break with my family in Minnesota. She lives in Wisconsin, so it is a special treat. It is very strange thinking that this is going to be my last Christmas with my family for two Christmases! I have to make the most of it :-) Once I'm on that plane, my stress levels will drastically drop :-) (Although I'm not really into flying. I love to travel to other places, but the plane right is the least fun part for me) Well... I'd better stop procrastinating and get my to my prep work! Next time I blog I'll be in my homeland! Woohoo!

Full vs. Wide

I was watching a movie last night and it was brought to my attention that I was watching Star Wars in fullscreen (which is apparently a sin) After this little experience I've pretty much decided that it is not really an issue of wide vs. full but rather men vs. women. Let me explain... Have you ever heard a woman complain that the movie she is watching is in full screen? I haven't. Women seem content to see the whole T.V. screen filled up with the pictures. However, men (like my incident yesterday) seem to have a big problem with fullscreen. They want to see the WHOLE frame of video taken... I think this is the reason they want huge T.V.s and surround sound... so they can have the "full experience" Women however, just want to get the plot and feel good and such. Another reason why I am glad there are both men and women on this earth... so we can balance each other out...

Cooking with Jess

I'm not sure how I've got this reputation... but apparently in my circle of friends I'm know as the cook. In all honestly, between my sister, my mom and I, I am the worst cook. But I guess here at college if you can actually make something like bread, pie, or a meal that doesn't come from a box, you are considered a gourmet chef :-) hehehe I think it's rather funny. For example... yesterday my ward had break the fast and the activity co-chair handed me a 10 lbs Ham and asked me to have it cooked by 4:30...
Is he nuts?! A 10 lb ham in a hour? Luckily it was already pre-cooked... but still... this ham had been sitting on his balcony for a few days... so it wasn't exactly thawed...
I just turned up the heat on the oven and high as I thought I could get without burning it poured a Sprite and some brown sugar on top and started cooking...
It turned out pretty well... although the middle was only warm... I think the basting with the warm Sprite and brown sugar helped at least the outside get hot...
I think that if everyone here is so cooking hanicapped that they should require at least one cooking class as a GE... I mean, we have to take Physical Science... why not make us take something more useful like a cooking class? :-)

Donating Blood and Volleyball

Well last night my sister and I decided to go donate blood. I try and do it frequently because apparently my blood (O negative) is the stuff that can be given to anyone, regardless of their blood type or rh factor (positive or negative) It was my sister's first time going. We got through it... but it wasn't a very plesant experience. Both she and I have not been feeling the best today. However, right afterwards I was foolish enough to go to the ward co-ed volleyball game. I'm the captain so instead of playing I just captained and line judged. I started feeling lightheaded during the game since I was yelling and cheering so loud... but it didn't show its effects until I got home. I slept for a REALLY long time (almost ten hours) before I woke up this morning. I felt much better, however the moral for this story is: Blood loss and volleyball do not mix :-)

Good to know...

I went to Family Home Evening tonight (nothing new) and had a really good experience... let me explain. We played this "game" where each of us took a playing card and depending on which suit we chose, we had to tell different stories from our past. I chose clubs, which was a childhood memory. Spades was telling something embarrassing about someone else in the room. Hearts was a funny or memorable dating story. Diamonds was something embarrassing about yourself. As we were going around the room and hearing everyone's stories, I was all smilies. It was great to hear about other people's mixups and blunders. I then realized that everyone has their little mess ups like I do. Sometimes I feel at BYU that everyone is amazing and perfect and never has any extremely embarrassing things happen to them.... but they do! It was just nice to know I wasn't alone in that department :-) And, well it was way fun to hear their stories. I feel like I know my FHE family way more than I did a couple of days ago... Moral of the Story: Go to Family Home Evening

Wishing I could fast forward...

Do you ever wish that you could just fast forward your life a couple of weeks to get through rough stuff? I do. I mean... I know it wouldn't be life and I wouldn't be able to learn the things I do when I go through trials... but I've always wondered what life would be like if we could. I guess the reason I've been thinking this way is because finals are looming in the near future. I've never liked tests. When I am able to sit around and contradict myself over every answer it's hard for me to come up with the right one. Give me fifteen seconds however (like in high school when I was in Knowledge and Quiz Bowl... I know... nerd....) and I can usually produce a qualified answer.
Also yesterday I was thinking about the Sunday School lesson I taught. I swear, every time I teach I always look back and see some huge holes in my lesson or places where I misspoke. I mean, everyone always thinks I'm funny and that they learn a lot... but do they really feel the Spirit? I know I do... but it's mainly from other's comments. I guess it's just another thing I can contemplate on... (as if I don't have enough to mull over :-)

The first snow!

Last night and this morning was the first real snow of the season.... and it makes me happy! As much as I hate driving in it, it's hard to find anything more beautiful than snow. Especially the snow on the mountains. I just wish everyone would be required to take a "How to drive in the snow" course... even if they are from Arizona. I learned how to drive in snow from the start of my driving career. It's kind of a given in Minnesota. If you don't learn the skills quickly, your insurance premiums are sure to go through the roof with all the accidents you'll be in. Anyway, sorry about my snow driving rant...

Deck the Apartment

Well... tonight was my official night to set up my Christmas tree for this year. I wanted to do it before my roommates come home to suprise them. Little did I know that it would take me FIVE hours to do it. Ok... so most of you know that I am a spass sometimes. Trying to get a real tree in my apartment was one of those spass moments. First I recruited the help of a friend. We went to Smith's (a grocery store) and got a tree. Then we tried to stick it in my 2000 Jetta.... HA! Some idea that was.... I put all the seats in the back down and ended up driving home with my trunk completely opened and a Christmas tree sticking out the rear end of my car! The real problems was in getting the tree to stay up. We put it in the stand and tightened all the screws.... but it still kept tilting to one side. We resorted to extreme measures to hold this tree up. The items that are holding up my Christmas tree right now you ask? Electrical tape, a wooden board, and Jenga blocks.... that's right... I said JENGA BLOCKS... (ok, so we were really desperate!) However, the tree now is decorated and brings a wonderful smell and spirit into my apartment... oh how I love Christmas... Even if it takes five hours to put a tree up.... hehehe ;-)
P.S. ok... so that is not really MY Christmas tree... but how neat would it be if it was?!

Me in a closet... and again... I'm having problems
figuring out how to post pictures... it's a miracle
you can see this one... no... I'm serious about that!
Me

I love technology.... (NOT!)

Well I figured it was about time to start one of these things... It will be a journal of sorts for myself. I figure I can type much faster than I can write. Don't worry, don't worry... I'll still have a written journal. However, for my everyday life events, this seems like an easier way to record it. Plus, then everyone can see how my life is going etc.

Right now I have just tried to finish a slideshow I am putting together with pictures of my family for my Sunday School lesson coming up in a few days. I figured since tomorrow (well... seeing its really late... today) is Thanksgiving, I thought I'd get it done before I forget about it. Now for those of you who don't really know me.... 1. Why are you reading my blog? (Ok, now that I've got that out of my system) 2. I'm what the geek squad likes to call "computer stupid". I mean, I have taken some computer programming classes... but lets be honest. What does CS 142 actually help you to do?.... NOTHING! I'm learning Vb.Net Again.... NOTHING! So I'm trying to burn my slideshow on a DVD-R and my DVD burner is not recognizing that I have a DVD in my computer. So I try a CD-R... it burns just fine.... but it doesn't work on anything I put it into... not my computer.... not my TV DVD player. So by this time I'm frusterated. I change the format to VCD and burn on a CD-R again. This time at least my computer recognizes the disk and can be read after it is burned... but now the quality of the pictures has decreased significantly. And there is nobody left in Provo who can help me! :-( I hope my roommate's boyfriend Thomas comes back from Vegas before Sunday. He is our apartment's computer expert... but knowning my luck, probably not.

Well that was my rant for the night. This whole blog thing is very exciting and I hope I can find at least a bit of time each day to tell about my life! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!