Mean Lines

I have mean lines. Yes, it's true. You probably do to, you just don't call them that. I'm talking about the vertical lines between the eyebrows that appear when you scowl. Except I don't only get them when I scowl, I get them when I'm concentrating or when I'm tired, and probably a lot of other times, too. Which means lately I've had them ALL THE TIME. The other day I was listening to some music and one of my favorite songs came on. It's happy, it's upbeat, it's catchy, and I was singing along in my head (I was surrounded by other students so I wasn't about to sing out loud). It's impossible for me not to smile when I hear this song. I happened to catch my reflection in my laptop as I was listening to this song, and it totally surprised me. I assumed I'd be wearing a happy expression since I was listening to such a great song. I was smiling with my lips, but holy cow-my mean lines were so fierce!! My neighbor said she always looks to see if your smile reaches your eyes, and until now I didn't really understand what she meant.

Totally unrelated: I'm in lecture right now and the professor is talking about the crazy things that happen to some people on Ambien, and I just can't help but think about the time my brother was waiting for his Ambien to kick in and then woke up with a half-eaten Triscuit in his mouth. That always makes me smile.

Back to the post...school is hard, and it's only getting harder. That's all.

Ho, Ho, Ho???

My cousin posted this photo on Facebook a few months ago, and I just had to snag it. My two older sisters and our cousins went to see Santa...um, wait, is that Santa? Really? Cuz that's sure not a twinkle in his eye! Doesn't he look like he's about to do something diabolical? Freaky!!

Lactose Intolerance? Not At Our House!

I went to the store the other night to pick up a few items, and this is everything I came home with. I guess we do just fine with dairy around here!

Back to Life...

Does this here blog still work? I guess so!

I never thought I'd say it, but I'm so happy to be back in school. I had a VERY packed summer, and none of it included a family (ie-Evan, me, and Mesa) vacation. NOT ONE! And no, I don't consider Asthma Camp or Girls' Camp a vacation. What a tragedy! (I think it's a true tragedy because my "downfall" was due to my own actions, right? I mean, I'm the one that chose to work full time while doing summer school, and then added on a second job halfway through the summer.)

This semester is going to be a good one. Last semester we had 4 main "hell weeks". All of our professors had planned their tests for the first week of each month, which basically means we SERIOUSLY crammed the week before. Talk about stress! Hence, one of the reasons leading up to my first school breakdown. But this semester will be so much better because our tests are all spread out. So while it seems crazy to say that I'm glad we have a test almost every single week, I AM! It is so much more manageable when it comes at you a little at time.

Here's a little memory from many years ago. My family goes on a camping trip every spring, and one year it happened to fall over my sister's birthday. We planned a surprise party for her, complete with cupcakes and presents. The plan was for me to take her on the four-wheeler over to the bathroom and stall long enough for them to get everything set up. So, off we went. In order to fully appreciate the story, I have to get a little personal, sorry. Both of us (read: my sister) thought this would just be a quick trip there and back so we didn't take any wet-wipes with us. This was before the days of hand sanitizer, and we used wet-wipes to wash our hands. Little did she know I would be hanging out in the outhouse to kill time...dedication, right? Well, when I came out she refused to let me drive the four-wheeler back because she said I had "poo poo hands", since I didn't have a wet-wipe. Don't ask me why we thought it was gross to not wash our hands immediately after #2, but after #1 it was ok to wait 'til we got back to camp to wash. There's no reasoning. And I don't even think that was the common practice. Anyway, I wasn't allowed to touch anything, and FOR THE RECORD, I didn't even pee...I was merely stalling! Needless to say, she was very surprised when we got back to camp! I almost stalled too long because the candles on the cupcakes were half-way melted.

So, here's me with my "poo poo hands", which has become a favorite saying around here. (It may bring back an entirely different, recent memory for my brothers...that's all I'm sayin'.)
And here's my sister in a lovely dress, complete with a necklace, that we picked out of a bargain bin at a Flying J on the way down. (Wow, that's a lot of prepositional phrases!) It looked smashing over her rain gear, don't you think?
The gentleman in the bottom corner is a long-time family friend. Family, click on the photo so you can get a good look at his face. Can't you just hear him laughing that classic laugh of his?

Asthma Camp Rocks!!!

I volunteered as a counselor at Camp Wyatt this week which is a camp for kids with asthma. I'd like to let you all think I'm just that nice of a person, but the truth is I did it because we get credit for a class up at school. It was held at Camp Wapiti in Tooele. I was so close to home! Here are all the PharmD students that went:

My co-counselor Melissa and me:

It was so fun, but I must say that I do not have the energy of a 13 year old girl anymore! These were our girls....

They were the best-I love these girls! The camp was Harry Potter themed, and our house name that we chose was The Magical Unicorns of Doom, which was shortened to MUDs throughout the week. Here's just a few of the things we did.

Rock Climbing:

This kid Isaac was amazing! He climbed the wall a million times and then decided to try it using only his arms.

Tasting Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans:

Attending Care of Magical Creatures (This is a program called Reptile Rescue and yes, Evan knows the man who runs it!):

Visiting the Owlery (Dissecting Owl Pellets):

Defense Against the Dark Arts (making marshmallow shooters and having a war):This is what our shoes looked like afterwards. It felt like walking on clouds!

Canoeing on Black Lake (Stansbury Lake):

Chores-looking oh so glamorous:

Flying Class (Rocket Launching):

Winning the coveted Silver Dustpan Award for cleanest cabin:

Camping out on the Quidditch Field:

Making Snitch Holders (Egg-drop competition):

Playing Quidditch:

Dancing like crazy at the stomp:This is Cholo and the ladies. He was such an awesome kid:

And pranking the boys’ cabins! I don’t have any pictures, but we pulled some awesome pranks, and got pranked pretty good ourselves.

I don't know if I'm crazy or just a glutton for punishment, but I want to go again next year!