Life got really hecktic REALLY fast!

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

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

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

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!

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

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...

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