Today is a Gift

2011-07-18T12:57:00.000-07:00

Hey all! I found this website that is kinda fun. It's called Listia.com. It's a website where you can give and get things for free. It works kinda like E-bay - by auction - but you "buy" things with credits you earn, not with money. The only money involved would be any shipping costs you decide to take on. (there is the option to have the buyer pay shipping). Sign up Here and recive a gift of 100 credits in addition to the credits the site gives you for signing up. (I also get a bonus, but... that's beside the point! :) )

Lots of love to all.

Fun Stuff!

2010-04-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

So, it has been a while since I"ve updated my blog, buy my life just isn't all that interesting. Athough, there are a few things going on.

I did get moved into my apartment. I wuld post pictures, but my room is kinda messay at the moment.

I graduated last June with my BA degree in Spanish, but this month I get to walk. I"ve already paid for my cap and gow, etc., I'm jut waiting for it ot come in the mail. As soon as I'm able to get pictures, I'll post them.

I decided that business was not the field for me, so I droped out of the MBA program I was in. Now I'm just jobhunting lots. I stillhaven't found one; although, I did have an interview with Target. I didn't get the job :(. But I might get an interview with JoAnne Fabrics. I would LOVE that job!

I've decided that I need to spend at least some time in my life on my hobbies. I tedn to go a bit crzy if I don't. So I started composing a song a few months ago. The ideas don't flow as freely as it seems they once did, but I am also trying to write my songs on a little bit higher level; which makes them more complicated. I don't really have a way to share it here, sorry all.... Besides, it's not finished yet.

Also, I have plans for a denim quilt - although, that is still kind of a "someday" thing.

Here is the latest project I'm working on, its an afghan.

I found a pateren online for a denim quilt that I really liked, but I think that it might be too hard on my mahine due to too many layers. So I figured out a way to adapt it to crochet. (By the way, if anyone knows of or comes accross a cute denim quilt pattern, send it my way; I'm still looking for one.) I'm not very far into this project so ou might have to put your imagination to work a bit here.

First you take a circle, much like this one:

Inside of a circleis a square. (This is where your imagination comes in handy.) If you attach the circles together like quilt blocks along the sides of those squares, then the one side just looks like a patchwork quilt and it's petty cool lookin'. but the other side presents a bit of a problem, because it has lots of flaps...

So you take a square, such as the following:

And you place it in the center of the circle like so:

Then you fold the flaps of the circle like this:

And you attach the three layers together along the curves of the circle. If this were denim, that would be done by sewing. Although I have seen crochet projects where sweing is involved, it's kind of a fun challenge for me to figure out how to do the whole thing with crochet. I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to do it, but it's all very experimental. We'll have to see how it goes. (I will definitely post updates on this afghan as I get through more of the steps. right now, I'm just working on making enough circles and squares.)

Now imagine many similar blocks, all side by side and of all different colors and color combos. This project is also fun becasue not only does it look cool in this first side...

...But on this side too!

You can't do that with jeans! :)

Another fun thing I did recently was play a part in a production. A friend of mine was in a productin class at BYU this past semester, and needed another actor for the class project. I'm not going to go into detail about the production itself at this time because there's a chance I may be able to get a copy of it and actually post it here. Suffice it to say, I played Queen Amidala. One of my friend's classmates had a costume and makeup that I barrowed.

This is the whole cast. Left to right: Sherlock Holmes, Alex Trebeck, Harry Poter, Mario, Floor director, Queen Amidala. (I don't know the real name of the cast members, we only had two days to do this production.)

That's pretty much it for now. I hope you enjoyed this segment of life in "Bethaney Land" :)

So much for that idea...

2010-02-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

So, as it turns out, Arizona didn't work out quite the way I imagined it would. The idea was to get a job, find an apartment, and kinda, settle in and start a life there. That didn'twork out so well. I looked and looked for a job, and all I could find was a seasonal job. I took it in the hopes that they would keep me after the Christmas season was over. That didn't happen. So I packed up and came home with dad. We towed my car behind his truck and just packed it like a trailer full of my stuff and I rode in the truck.

I decided this because in two weeks or so I was not going to have a place to live anymore, I didn't have a job so I couldn't rent anything, and because of the economy, my chances of finding a job were pretty slim. I decided to come back, live with Mom and Dad while I go back to school.

So, I'm back in Utah and I'm in an MBA program at University of Phoenix in Pleasant Grove. That started on the 25 of January. I think this program will be good for me because I only take one class at a time and each class lasts 6 weeks. I seem to do better when I'm able to focus on one thing at a time. The MBA itself takes about 18 months or so to finish, then they have concentrations I can chose from. I'm thinking of Human Resources for my concentrtion. Either that or maybe Health Care Managment. But I don't know for sure yet.

Originally, I was goning to live with Mom and Dad to help keep costs down. As nice and economical as that would be, I'm ready to be out on my own. I don't have a job, but I do have a little bit of savings. I also have a little bit of exces loan money coming to me so, I'm going to live off of that while I find a job - any job. So, yesterday, I went and saw about 6 different places. The last one I looked was, by far, my favorite. I fell in love when I first saw the room. Not that I'm an expert in real estate, but it seems to me, to be the most for my money. I really like it.

It's in a house in Orem; 4 other girls live there. My room is in the basement and it's HUGE! It's kind of long and narrow and has a wall with an arch in the middle of it, so it's like two rooms in one. The reason it's like that is becasue a previous tenant (a family) put up a wall with out telling the landlord, but the "room" they created could't be a room because it doesn't have a window. So they just put an arch in the wall to make it one room again. I think it's cool because I can make one side be my 'room' and the other my 'office'. I'll have my bed, dresser, a vanity area, and other various bedroom things in the one half. In the other, I plan on setting up a desk with my computer equiptment, and I'll put my electic piano near by. I might even set up a table with my sewiong machine. I'm so excited! :D

So that's my life at present. Even though things didn't work out as planned in Arizona, it was still a good experience. I made it a point to put myself out there and at least try to be outgoing eventough I'm not. It worked out pretty well, I made lots of friends while I was there and I learned that I could do it. So now, going into this new ward won't be quite so scary because I've done it before. :)

A Big Change

2009-09-08T22:59:00.000-07:00

I've contemplated on and off for quite a while now whether or not to move to Arizona. Well, I managed to get a job interview in Phoenix so I've finally decided to take the plunge. Mom and I are going to leave on friday so that I can be down there and ready to interview on monday morning. Even if I don't get the job, I'm going to stay down there and check out the job market some more and see if I can't get a job there. My plan for the time being is to stay until the end of December, see where I'm at at that point and decide where to go from there.

It'll be an interesting adventure! I think the change will be good for me. So.... here goes nothin'!

The Hecticity Continues

2009-08-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

A lot has been going on the past couple of months. First of all, I'm going to follow up a bit on my last entry. I was finally released from my missionary calling (about a month later) and I've been settling into my new calling as 2nd counselor in the Relief Society presidency. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm supposed to do, but I'm slowly figuring it out. BTW, my talk did go pretty well! :)

I did get moved upstairs. There were lots of people nice enough to come help me move stuff around. I finally got my room put together so that I could move on with life. it's a small room, but I managed to fit everything into it...

Yes I know, I have lots of stuff; probably way too much... but hey, it fits! :)

I did finish my 20 page paper, which means I GRADUATED! YAAAAAY!! I ended up getting an 85% on the peper, which is lower than I'd expected, but I still got an A- in the class (or somthing like that) so I'm not complaining. I also finished my internship last wednesday! I am now a certified medical interpreter with IHC (Intermountain Health Care). That may or may not get me very far in the work world - after all, they aren't even going to give me ajob. But it is an accomplishment. At least I have a certificate that shows that I have experience interpreting. And now I am on the official job hunt. I hope to find somthing soon.

I'm an aunt again! Meet Connor Owen Edwards. What a cutie-bug!

I made an afghan for Connor, I finally finished it about a week and a half ago (or somthing like that...)

The thing that has kept me the most busy though, has been the relationahip that I was in.

Marshal Peck was my Boyfriend for about 2 months. We spent time together almost everyday and got to be quite close. Unfortunately, I got a feeling that it just wan't right, so I broke up with him this weekend. For sadness! It's been hard for me because he is the first guy I've dated who didn't, either lead me on and break my heart, or try to manipulate me into what he wanted, whether or not I wanted the same thing. He respected me, my feelings and desires. How am I supposed to give THAT up!? Does it really get much better than that? However, I do believe whole-heartedly that Heavenly Father plays a part in my life and I trust him; so I'm trutsing that what he has in mind really is in my best interest. In the mean time though, life REALLY stinks!

So that's my life in a nutshell right now. Now I've just got to figure out what the next step is and how to take it. So.... I'm off to the next phase of life, here goes nothin'!

Life got really hecktic REALLY fast!

2009-06-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

So, life just got really busy with in the last week, and it will continue so for the next couple. FFUUUNN!

Last sunday, I had an appointment with the bishop, in which he gave me a new calling. I am now the 2nd counseler in the Relief Society. I havne't been released from my former calling yet (as a language missionary) because the bishop has to inform the bishop of the spanish ward that I won't be a missionary anymore before he can release me. The whole RS presidency was reorganized and we are all speaking on sunday. So, I've got to write a talk.

Then, mom and dad found renters for the basement - but they want to move in on monday. That means I get to move everything I own up stairs before then. I don't know where it all came from, but I have managed to aquire quite a bit of stuff... oh dear!

All while trying to write a 20 page paper and turn it into an oral presentation so that I can graduate in two weeks!

Needless to say, I've got a lot on my plate! I guess I'd better hop to!

Hello again

2009-06-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

I, like so many others, have been a way for a while. School keeps me pretty busy and I never have fun pictures to post. Never the less, I thought I would write a little note just to let the world know that I still live.

I started interpreting at the hospital about a month ago, and I got once a week for four hours. It is unpaid, but I think it will be very valuable experience. When I reach 100 hours I will recieve a certificate saying that I am a certified interpreter with IHC (Intermountain Health Care) I don't think that any one else in the world will recognize it as anything valid but it will at least show that I have experience - I hope. At any rate, I think it will be a confidence booster for me if nothing else.

I'm currently enrolled in my last class. This is a bit of a unique class; all I do is research. I meet with my professor once a week to give a report and recieve guidence - make sure I'm doing my assignments right - and I spend the rest of the time doing research and writing papers. I have two 5 page papers and a 20 page paper to write. I've finished one 5 pager. the teacher lets us choose to do an oral report on the second one if we want, I opted for that on my second 5 pager and I give my report tomorrow (June 3) after that I get to start my 20 page gem - can I just say how excited I'm NOT to write this thing! Oh well, what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger. Hopefully I'll come out of it alive! :) Assuming everything goes according to plan, I'll be done somewhere around the 24 of june - yup, you heard me, DONE!!! GRADUATED! NO MORE SCHOOL! (unless I chose to)

well, that's about as much of an update as I have for ya so... until next time!

Pay it Forward

2009-02-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law put this post on her blog and I thought it was a cute idea. As you will see as you read, there are a couple of contradictions in there so I will clarify my own personal rules right now: I will give a gift to the first three (3) people to post to my blog, post this challange to their blog, and post me back saying they've done it. And I will get your gift to you by the end of the year. I'm going to graduate in about July of this year and after that I will have more time to make your gift; unfortunately I'll be immersed in homework until then and won't really be able to think much about it. So! with out further adue here's the challenge:

1) The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a gift from me sometime in the next month!

2) When and what you receive will be a surprise!

3) Then you have to post this "Pay it Forward" challenge on your blog, then come back and leave a 2nd comment telling me you've done it.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year.

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Just a little tidbit of fun for those who love to WIN ANYTHING/better the world through kindness!! Good luck!! Happy commenting!

I can't wait to find out who my winners are!

a new year's new me

2009-02-12T14:33:00.001-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for about a month now, I finally have a minute so here it is.

I decied that I would make a new year's resolution to do myself up all cute every day. For my birthday, Meagan, Ashley and I went to a makeup counter and got a makeover. Then Meagan, Britney, and Ashley went in together to get me a hair cut and some hair and face products. Here are some pictures of me experimenting with my hair.

first I tried hot curlers, this is curly take 1:

unfortunately the curl only lasted about an hour so I tried again..... and again and again.....

here's curly, about take 4:

this one was a little more successful because later in the day I still had curl! This is curly take four about 6 hours later:

Next I experimented a little with a straight look. In this next one I straightened my hair with a fat curling iron so that there would be a very slight curl in the ends and make the layers pop. It actually worked out a little better than I thought it had:

Then I went way out on a limb and experimented with gel. this is the scrunched look. I've discovered that it works best if I drench ever bit of hair in gel and then scrunch with a blowdryer.

So, there's my experimentation with my new hair cut. I have to admit, it's been kinda dificult learning how to do all of this and having the patience to do the styles that take some time, but I think I'm getting it down. I've also been doing makeup every day too. So far I think my new year's resolution is going pretty well. I have to say, the new me looks pretty good! :)

6 down, 1 1/2 more to go!

2008-12-23T21:37:00.000-08:00

So, I've finished another semester! YAY! that makes me so excited because that means that I have 1 full semester left, then one class next summer then I'm DONE! I can't hardly believe it! I thought this day would never come!

This semster turned out pretty successfull. I had five classes:
- medical spanish terminology --> A-
- business spanish --> A
- spanish translation and interpretation --> A
- oral proficiancy --> A
- silver latin ballroom --> B

I have to admit, I'm kinda bummed about my B, it's the first one I've recieved since I got home from my mission. However, it doesn't surprise me too terribly much, I did miss several class periods. But still, it was probalby the easiest class of the bunch - second only to oral proficiancy - and it is my lowest grade! oh well, life does go on.

Two of my spanish classes were mainly focused on vocabulary so I made lots of flash cards. this is a picture of all of the words I learned this semester. If I had to guess, I'd wager that there are nearly 1000 words in that pile. (the red ones are business spanish and the blue ones are medical spanish) I was pretty much swimming in vocab this semester!

(Dory wants to learn too!)

(It's not every day you come across a bilingual cat!)

I passed the training course at the hospital, which makes me elegible for that 100 hour internship as an interpreter there (as I talked about in my last post) I just have to put in the aplication for being a volunteer at the hospital and I can start.

This break has been quite nice so far. It's been nice to not really have any commitments. I just hope that I'll be ready and motivated when it is time to start school. I start again in Jan. 5 (I'm pretty sure). I can't say I'm terribly excited for the classes that I have next semester; I have two literature classes, a phonetics class and another dance class. I think that the phonetics and dance classes should be pretty interesting, it's the literature classes I'm worried about. I struggle with english lit, how am I supposed to do it in spanish! oh well, it'll be over before I know it.

so that's what's up with me right now. until next time!

An update

2008-11-19T23:48:00.000-08:00

There are some things that have, in the past, been tentative but have now been made concrete; so I thought I would update you all since I have a few minutes.

- This friday and saturday, I'm going to take an interpretation class that the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center provides. This is particularly exciting because I first found out about it about two years ago and have wanted to take it ever since, I just wasn't in a position to be able to until now. I thought I was going to have to wait at least until february, if not longer, to be able to even take te pre-test to see if I could be in the class; but as it turned out, the director of the program came and talked to my medical spanish class and offered to hold a class especially for us if there were enough students interested. There were, and now I get to start this process about three months earlier than expected! I say process because upon successful completion of the two day (16 hour) course, I get to do a 100 hour internship as an interpreter at the hospital. It is unpaid, however, at the end of the 100 hours, I will be a certified interpreter according to IHC. And I hope to be hired after my hours are done. Even if I'm not though, to be able to put that internship and the experience on a resume will be quite valuable.

- it is official, I will be attending BYU in January. My original reason for going there was to have access to their student insurance plan. In January I'll be 26 and no longer able to be on dad's insurance policy. With my eye however, I need to make sure that my insurance never lapses so that I can continue to have coverage throughout my life. As I researched my options, BYU's covereage seemed to be the best deal - the most coverage for the least amount of money. So I applied and got accepted. During all of my research I also applied for an extention on Dad's plan (because of my disablity) and it was granted. Why then, you might ask, will I still be attending there? after all, at UVU I'll graduate in about July while BYU will require about two (or more) years worth of school of me. Well, I figure, I already got accepted and I wouldn't mind a change of scenary. Besides, I found three classes that will transfer back to UVU and fill three of the remaining classes that I need, I'll take my last class during the summer from UVU and still graduate as planned.

- and for anyone who may be seceretly (or not so seceretly) longing to know... no, I'm not dating anyone right now; nor does it appear that I will be any time soon. Granted that could change at any moment but for the time being, I'm still just chugging away at school. It's probably better this way anyway because at this rate, I'll be graduated before I even meet anyone so I won't have to worry about distractions! :O)

so, that's my life in a nutshell...

UNTIL NEXT TIME!

Funny thing about interpreting... ya kinda need to know the language...

2008-11-05T20:09:00.000-08:00

I couldn't figure out how to just upload this video to my blog, so here's a link. It's a short video clip that my interpretation teacher showed us in class a little while ago, it's pretty funny. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iHQbLNal6A

Ode to Dory

2008-10-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

I was going to do this post on monday, but I didn't get time. Monday was the chosen day because monday was one year ago exactly that I brought Dory (my kitty) home. Yes, she is named after the fish on 'Finding Nemo' I just thought it was a cute name for a cat too. this picture on the Left is of her on the first day I had her. Isn't she cute! I Just love her little tail! (or lack there of....) The one on the right is just a close up of her. you can't see it in this picture, but she has very pretty blue eyes.

I'm not exactly sure how much joy she brings to how many people, (she does meow ALOT!) but she sure does bring lots of joy to me. Mom and Dad have been out of town alot this year, leaving me home alone alot. I have to admit, it is kinda nice to have the house to myself for a while, but it does get lonely. Having Dory around helps me not be quite so lonely.

When I first got her, I kept her inside all the time so that she didn't get sick or wounded (in fights) or run over by a car. During that time I got lots of pictures, but she's become an indoor-outdoor cat the past six months or so, so I havn't really been able to take as many pictures (as she is not always around. I think she's is happier that way though). So, in honor of her being here for a year now, I thought I would post some of, what I call, her finer moments! :)

Exploring

When she first arrived, she climbed and explored everything ...

I was actually quite glad that she discoverd the bathtub because she later discoverd that there are sometimes spiders in there and she takes care of them for me! (she loves spiders)

Learning to Climb

Before Thanksgiving last year, I put up my little 4" tree and decorated it so that all of the nieces and nephews could enjoy it while they were there. Some people decorate their tree with lights and ornaments...

... I just put my cat on there! Ok not really, she did that all on her own. I guess that should have been my first clue that she wanted to go outside!

And my all time favorite...

Gone fishin'! With out the fish...

I can't believe a whole year has gone by since I got her! there have been many more fun momentes but I, apparently, have not done a very good job of keeping track of pictures because I don't have some of them, and there are just too many, I'm not sure the blogger program could handle it all! :)

I hope you've enjoyed 'The Dory Show' ! love you all.

untill next time!

Translate that!

2008-09-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

so, I wasn't going to start a blog just yet, I didn't think I had time to even set one up, let alone keep up on it. Then, as I looked at my sister's and my sister-in-law’s blogs, I started to realize how easy it all really was, and then I started feeling left out because I didn't have one. So here I begin my own blog. I can't garentee very frequent posts (unless you want to hear about all my homework and tests! :) ) but I'm sure that every once in a while I'll come up with somthing fun to say.

I thought I'd start out with a fun little somthing I found in my reading assignment for my translation and interpretation class... (you can click on it to see a bigger immage)

(this comes from: "The Translators Handbook" by Morry Sofer; sixth revised edition pg. 30)