Thursday, January 29, 2009

Loook what I did today!

Yes I know look has three 'o's in it but isn't suppose to. And I meant to leave it that way.
So i came home with every intention to finish up my homework today. I decided a quick break to check blogs. My regular blogs includes pioneer woman. Pioneer woman has some mad photoshop skils and happens to sometimes share her secrets. And now about 2 hours later (long enough to complete atleast 1 whole mass transfer problem). Here's what I've accomplished.
About the only productive outcome was a love for photoshop and an extreme hatred for my mouse (computer mouse that is!). I've now resolved to go out and buy a new one.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Long Day!

I came up to campus at 8:30 am today and worked on homework all day. I only got like 4 problems done and they all took forever! I'm really tired and hungry.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Where were you?

Do you remember when you were in grade school history learning about the moments in history that shaped who we are today? Do you remember going home and talking about what you learned with your parents? Were you flabbergasted when you parent said to you, 'I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, or the iron curtain fell.' Do your grandparents remember black Tuesday? What about the first day of the 20th century?

When I was a kid I never thought I'd have anything to say 'I remember the day that...' about. And then I got older and not only did more historical events take place but I also realized the significance of things I had already lived through (mind you when I say lived through I mean watched on the news.)

I remember coming home from buying a tea set from the ZCMI toy store to find mom telling us to watch the news. At the time I did not know why I had to sit and watch a white bronco being followed by cop cars but the story lasted for years after as OJ Simpson continually popped (pops) up in the news.

I remember sitting in my first grade class listening about how Oklahoma City had been bombed.

Within weeks of the beginning of school I was sitting in my first period 8th grade science class when my best friend and next door neighbor came in asking me if I heard what happened. The rest of the day was spent watching buildings burning, people panicking, and heroes falling as the twin towers fell.

I remember where I was the last four LDS apostles and the current Prophet, Thomas S Monson, were called and sustained and remember watching the funeral procession of Gordon B Hinkley (the only prophet I had really known my entire life).

And then of course today being the day it is.. Where were you today when the first black president was sworn into office? Because though it seems odd to think of just another Tuesday as historical that is what it is. 3oo years ago we were a colony of great britian, 200 years ago we had fought for our freedom from britian but still enslaved the blacks that were thought to be inferior, 100 years ago another war had been fought and although slavery was abolished blacks were still oppressed and considered 2nd class citizens. 50 years ago the fight for equality was just begining. And today, regardless of who we voteded for, regardless of how his presidency turns out we are a triumphant nation for overcoming the injustices of our past.

And now I ask you where were you when the world changed? Our country changed? Your own life changed momumentally? What are the moments that shape the being you've become today?

Saturday, January 17, 2009

We need an intervention.

Okay this picture isn't the topic of my post (although it accounts for 3/4's of the post) but... I got a new snowmobiling helmet for Christmas and I love it. The one that Brett gave to me on Christmas day was a child's medium. Needless to say it was too small. When we went to exchange it I got to pick out the adult size helmet I wanted. I started out with a nice innocent helmet.. like Brett's in this picture. Then saw a nice pretty white one with swirls on it. Then I saw this one and it was love it first sight. I don't know why I loved it so much at first glance but I did. Then Brett pointed out the small skulls on the sides and oddly I loved it even more. And when I saw the large skull on the back I thought... 'my mother-in-law probably won't approve but I love it.'

Now I've gone out snow machining in it and I love it even more. It's bad for me to wear a helmet doing anything because while I might be 5 times safer I act 10 times crazier while doing things. In this helmet especially! I have to act hard core like the helmet is right?



So here is the actual purpose of this post. These books.

Four books, four different subjects ALL the same design. Come on people. Can't you come up with better covers! Right here is over $500 worth of books and the publisher won't even take the time to come up with interesting covers. How boring. I think as a member as the Student Advisory Comitee for the chemical engineering departed at the U of U I should speak out about this atrocity. What do you think?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

One year down.

So Brett and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary almost two weeks ago. I originally had not intended on getting a wedding cake but plans changed and we ended up getting one. And upholding tradition we froze the top layer to eat on our one year anniversary. Here is us and our cake.

(I know this picture is kind of dark but I don't
feel like taking the time to fix it right now)

I love frosting and I just couldn't waste the frosting on the server so I had to lick it
(I think I still have a few manners I need to learn)

I know that I got Brett just as much as he got me... I think the frosting mainly got on the side of his face not visible in this picture.

So now a year has passed. I was sick on our anniversary so we didn't try to eat our cake top them but a few days later we decided to pull it out. We had left it in my parents freezer. Well I went to find the cake, I searched high and low in all four (that is right 4!!!) freezers and can't find it anywhere.

We found what was left of the bottom layer (which we did eat and it was actually still pretty good) but we don't know where the top went. But we're not too worried about it. Maybe we'll look for it next anniversary.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Insight into Margaret

One of the nieces of Brett's side turned 11 last week. In trying to pick out a birthday gift for her I tried to go back to my days as an 11 year old and try to remember what I would have liked. We ended up getting her a bracelet making kit but while at the party the discussion of the significance of her next birthday came up. I don't know if the whole world puts such an emphasis turning 12 but at least in the LDS culture that means you are about to leave Primary and enter Young Womens (or Young Mens). It also seems to be the time that many girls are told they can partake in some rites of passage such as getting their ears pierced and beginning to wear make-up. I was one of those toddlers you look at and think 'how loud did she scream when they pierced her ears' and could not be kept out of the makeup as a little girl so neither of those were rites of passage on my twelfth birthday. My niece however expressed her excitement at being allowed to wear make-up after her following birthday. Well I now know what I'm getting her next birthday. Although it's a little too soon to worry I briefly wondered if I should go one really nice item like a good mascara or the big box of a million colors of very low quality makeup.


My years have wizened me and now I would ask for a nice tube of mascara over a lifelong supply of cheap eyeshadow in hot pink, blue, and green however, when I was a tween I ogled the makeup sets that always appeared around Christmas time. All consisting of a wide range of colors of eyeshadow, a few different blushes, and some a few tubes of lipstick. A few times my father indulged me and a make-up set would appear under the Christmas tree.

I'm going to diverge for a moment and try to express to you my love for make-up. I LOVE IT. I love trying new ways to do my make-up. Experimenting with new colors. Trying new ways to apply it. Desperately trying to get my straight lashes to hold a curl (Brett has beautiful long lashes, I hope our children get his!). Have you ever notices an elephant's eyelashes?? They are straight and have a down ward angle.... yeah I got elephant eyelashes.

There are a few thing I never touched numero uno. My eyebrows. Mom, Dad, thank you for my eyebrows. The other month (at the age of twenty one) I tweezed about four eyebrow hairs. That is it... my lifelong total eyebrow hair loss. (Is it bad if I pray every night that our children will get my eyebrows and not Bretts?? That used to be the top of my husband requirement list, joking of course, that he cannot suppress my good eyebrows gene in our children.) Okay maybe you think my brows are awful and I should just shave 'em and start over with a pencil but I like them. Where was I??? Oh yeah making a list.


So what else did I leave alone? My cheeks. I have a thing or two of blush but I never use it. I have red cheeks. Call them rosy if you want to be tactful. I'm not sure what the word ruddy actually means (and I don't feel like looking it up) but I always thought it was unattractive and applied it to my complexion. So thus I never saw the point in blush and skipped over it. Sometimes I would over do it with foundation and so I had to add a little blush to keep from looking ghostly but mostly


Last thing I never messed with much... my lips. I'll add gloss with a tint sometimes but mostly lipchap was enough for me. I don't understand lipstick... why wear it??


Sorry that was a LONG deviation. Oh wait.. I'm not even done with my deviation yet... just my list. So from my list you can deduce that really I love experiment with eye color. When I was in Jr. High and even some in high school doing each other's make-up was a very fun thing to do when friends were over. I don't know where my love of make-up came from. The only thing that ever covers my mom's skin is sawdust. My sister really doesn't wear make-up. I thought she did in high school, actually I'm pretty sure she did because I would watch her put it on... she had the classic hot pink (<-- tube color not mascara color) mabeline mascara with the bright green lid. Then after she moved back home while I was in high school she'd ask me to borrow my make-up and put it on her. So maybe my love of it came from the lack of its presence in my life.

As I got older I rarely spent hours trying out new make-up styles. That probably stemmed from my desire for higher quality product thus I couldn't exactly afford to waste money on bright green and blue when I needed to basic every day colors.

One of my biggest regret was buying Lancome eyeshadow for prom. I bought it to match my dress..... hot pink. I've used it maybe 3 times and it was not cheap.

So now I only have a few products that I use very often but the love of it is still there. I never feel like its a chore to put make-up on every morning (doing my hair however bleh!)

But back to my tween years. a few times at Christmas I was blessed with a plethora of eye shadows to play with. One time I got a train case of make up. I loved it. It had some fun colors and room for more makeup. I'd take it everywhere I went... sleep overs, my family's cabin, road trips. (Now back to the original introduction.)

My memories returned to this train case after thinking about my niece about to turn twelve. Well when your the youngest, have a propensity to keep EVERYthing, the make-up train case you got in elementary school is still at your parents house. Look here it is.
As you can see the colors are hideous and horrifyingly well used. In the bottom a large jumble of stuff. I found in there old clothing tags, a pen or two, white-out (I swear it was not for huffing! I have no clue why it was in there... used as nail polish maybe???) a few batteries, some quarters, and a lot of cheap hair rubber bands in addition to some old make-up.

Well tonight I was home alone... okay not alone my parents and brother were home but Brett wasn't so I didn't have anyone to pay attention to me. So I decided to pull out the old train case and throw it out. As I went through it old memories of hours spend sitting on the bathroom counter came flooding back. I went through and to toss out each thing individually... and I admit the temptation was too strong and even though I knew it was probably riddled with yuckies I just had test out the make-up. And do you know who benefited from the experience?? You.

How about that turquoise eyeshadow and though you can't see it blue eyeliner. I don't know what color the lipstick was exactly but I hope I never wore it in public. So what do you think? Scary or should it be my new everyday wear?? Boy I wish I had thought to do my make-up like this or my wedding...

Now I dared to put this make-up on because I was about to get ready for bed and wash it back off.. Well I don't buy the 'i get off cheap make-up' face wash any more and was a little frantic to find turquoise/blue still rimming my eyelids and red still staining my lips after washing my face. Luckily the never throw anything out was still effect and I had some OLD dove cleansing pads. I briefly wondered why I had only used a few of the cleansing pads... I quickly remembered. They have a weird smell and the abrasive side could replace the 80 grit sand paper in my mom's wood shop. But they got the make-up off.

Now I really meant for this to be a quick short post... I don't think I know how to write a short post. It's good I don't post too often because you'd get so bored of my ranting you'd delete my blog and never visit again. But I want to close with what I learned from my old make-up case and all my other nostalgic moments while living at home this Christmas break. I love the person who I used to be. I love the little girl with crazy hair I used to be. I love the tween I was who probably wore some pretty darn hideous make-up. I love the teenage I was who got my license the first possible moment, ditched school to go skiing with my mom, and would spend hours in my parents back yard under stars just talking with my friends. Sure I've made mistakes and done stupid things but I love looking back on the journey that has shaped me into who I am today. While it's a little harder to love who I am right now tonight I realized I do. I especially love that my make-up is a little more subdued ( most the of the time) now. I'm not perfect or even close. I have tons or shortcomings and there are a lot of things that I wish I was. But I am who I am and I love who I am today. Tomorrow more experiences will change and shape me and you know what. I'll love who I am tomorrow too.... Who though so much personal insight would come from an old make-up case... maybe I should go rescue if from the garbage.... nope better not. Brett doesn't know it yet but he better learn to love my pack rat tendencies.