Tales from Fleur de Lis

This Tale is Over

2011-05-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

Well I have some very exciting news.... my Tale from Fleur de Lis has ended and now a new Tale has begun. Dan and I got engaged April 20th and I am just sooooo excited. One of the first things Dan and I actully talked about was getting a new blog going that the two of us can write hahaha so you can continue to follow what I am up to along with my handsome fiance at :

laurenanddan.blogspot.com

You Spin Me Round!

2011-04-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

A couple FHEs ago, we learned how to salsa dance! Here are some pictures my roommate anna took!

And now im sure you want a killer song to stand up and dance too... here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJv5qLsLYoo

Dr. Vuttski is in da house!!!

2011-04-14T23:01:00.000-07:00

I am just ecstatic about starting dental hygiene school! I have spent the last two weeks getting everything all ready to go. finally everything this week that i have ordered online has come! actually that reminds me... i still need to order my shoes.... but aside from that, i have my clear protective classes, my stethoscope, my white lab coat, my scrubs... it's all coming together!

I took a quick picture:

just a few more days! may 8th is coming soon!

Stories that make me laugh

2011-04-12T23:39:00.000-07:00

I really love this picture of us! It was back when we first started dating and I got an eye infection. Dan skipped class to drive me to the eye doctor, that's when I knew he was a keeper! This picture was taken at our ward's chili break the fast.

Here are some funny little stories (well funny to me) about Dan.

A few days ago we went hat shopping. Dan wanted to get a Seattle Mariners hat. We drove down to the Provo mall and he tried on all the different sizes trying to find the right fit for him. Dan was struggling with the fractions and kept asking me which one was bigger until finally I had to dumb it down and put it into something he could understand (that's what you get with a poly sci major lol). He asks me "which one is bigger, 7 and 5/8s or 3/4s?" and i responded saying "now dan, which would you rather? have 5 out of 8 pieces of pizza or 6 out of 8?". We both laughed and at least now he knows his fractions a little bit better!

My second funny story. We had driven somewhere in my car and I had dan drive for me.We'd driven for a good 10 minutes and were about to get on the ramp to the interstate when dan realized my e-break was still on lol. He felt bad but I couldn't help but laugh.

My third funny story makes me laugh every time. We were at Target getting him a Bocci ball set and before checking out, we walked over to the girls sundresses to take a peak at what they had. As I was looking, he saw some really short shorts and said to me "wow, those shorts are so short!". An older woman was standing right next to us and she agreed saying, "yah, you'd need a brazilian to wear those". All three of us laughed and the lady walked away. Dan turned to me, still chuckling and said "that was really funny, but kinda racist."
"Racist??" i said, really confused.
"yah, cause brazilians usually wear short clothes"
After he said that, I died laughin.

My apartment door here at Fleur de Lis will fly open with a simple push if it isn't locked. Even if there is a gust of wind, our door will fly open. One night Dan and I were saying good night outside my front door and dan picked me up to spin me around. we lost our balance so he leaned back to catch his balance against my door, but the door wasn't locked and we just about fell right through!

One time Dan walked me out to my car to say good night. After he left, I got in my car, locked the doors and turned it on when suddenly this figure reappeared in my window! Super startled, I gave out a little yelp (and a little piddle) only to realize it was dan coming back to say good night again. We both burst out into laughter because he had scared me so badly.

Everything Going Back to Normal

2011-04-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a weird week without a computer! But yesterday my charger came in the mail (it was only $2.75! WAYYYYYYYY better than the $100 chargers the guys at Office Max and Radio Shack were quoting me!).
In addition to getting my computer back, I got my little car back today. Jana's friend backed into her so it was in the shop for a day. Yesterday was chaos trying to find a ride to Salt Lake for my CPR class. I tried so hard to not let the stress get to me!! I was a little behind schedule so I was relieved when I pulled up to my class. Except one thing was wrong... the door was locked. I walked around the building, trying all the doors, and ya... i was locked out. So I glanced down at my directions and I had mixed up my East and South's mixed up! Another blonde moment to add to my list. But I ended up only being a few minutes late.
So im certified, immunized, and now i need to get beautified (i need a haircut and my eyebrows done lol)

Fainting.

2011-04-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

To begin... my laptop charger died to I haven't been able to get on my computer. It's been weird not having a laptop!! And weird not getting to blog. Anyways, here are some things that have happened here at fleur de lis!

I have been trying to get all my things together for Dental Hygiene School. I met with my financial advisor, signed up for my first loan ever (ouchhh) and have been spending money left and right to get everything in order. White lab coat with my name on it, $75. My own stethoscope, $50 (on sale). Three sets of scrubs, $70. CPR class, $40. TB test and Hep A shots, $55. Cost of getting accepted, PRICELESS!!

Yesterday I woke up early to head over to the walk-in Health Clinic. As the nurse was walking me into the back room, I told her I was nervous and she told me to just relax (easy advice). She gave me my two shots and then walked me out to the waiting area. She asked me if I was okay and I lied saying 'yes' and she told me to call her if I started to feel sick to let her know before she walked off. I called her back quick, I felt like I needed to throw up. Next thing I know, I am waking up in her arms. I was so embarrassed it was hard to fight off the tears. The nurse was so nice and felt bad and ended up giving me half her lunch! Her apple juice, sunflower seeds, a chocolate muffin... I was so grateful and couldn't help but laugh at myself. My pain tolerance is pretty poor and my sister and I will faint pretty easily.
Jana faints every time she has to get her eyes dilated at the eye doctor.
Here is a funny story about Jana. Back when I was in 5th grade, Jana was in 3rd, we got our ears pierced. After a few weeks, my mom told us that we could take our earrings out and sleep without them in. We did. The next morning I woke up to Nate running down the hallway outside my door yelling "Jana's dead! Jana's dead!" I flew out of bed and ran down the hall to Jana's room. She passed out in her chair and my mom was calling her name. What had happened was the hole in her ear had closed a little bit and my mom told her she needed to re-pierce it. I guess that freaked jana out and she passed out! lol
Again, our pain tolerance is pretty poor!!

Yesterday Dan and I had such a fun double date. We met up with the Barnes and went rock climbing and then got ice-cream at Spoon Me. Let me say that rock climbing is hard but it is such a rush. We did some free climbing and the adrenaline that pumped through me as I jumped down from the top was amazing. I did realize that my upper body strength has gotten pretty pathetic. Dan was an awesome teacher (and catcher.. he caught me every time I fell!) I was impressed at Caitlin's skills and Billy was a first timer like me so that made it fun and low key.

Awesome Week with the Fam

2011-04-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

It has been such an awesome week having my parents in town. They flew in tuesday night and my sister and I had the change to drive down to Lehi and meet up with them and my uncle and his family who were visiting from japan! Wednesday I got to meet up with my family on campus and have lunch followed by a fun evening and getting to watch modern family.
Thursday I took a test and did well on it, then met up with my mom, jan, and dan for some dinner at zuppas.
Friday was AWESOME. I got to go boarding with the boys and we had such a blast. It was 65 degrees at the base of the mountain and yet the snow was perfect. It was so hot that I was wishing I had just worn a sweatshirt. I really feel like I finally have gotten a grasp on the concept of boarding too and again, I have mountain fever... just dying to get back up on the slopes.
Saturday we watched conference and in between sessions I got to eat at Tucano's. It was delish as always. Dan and I have kind of made it our tradition to go in between saturday's sessions. To think that back in October we went and two days before we did that was our first date at Cornbelly's Corn Maze at Thanksgiving Point. It's crazy! Saturday night i got to spend time with my sister and mom and some family friends and we ate at Macaroni Grill (I am so full.. i haven't eaten this much in so long). I spent the night with my sister up in Lehi.
Sunday Dan met up with my family in Lehi and I woke up with an infected eye. It was blood shot and soo painful to see out of. I had to wear my sunglasses and felt like a dork with them on inside. We all got to watch conference together and eat the delicious food my mom prepared.
It's been a fun week, that is for sure. Now time to crack down and study for my anatomy lab midterm.

What do your possessions says about you?

2011-04-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

Today marked the end of the 181st Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What a treat it was to be able to sit down and listen to all the messages our church leaders had prepared for us, and what made it even better was the chance to get to listen to it with my family! What a fun week & weekend it has been. (more to blog on that later!)
I've really enjoyed sitting down tonight to read over my notes and decipher my chicken scratch handwriting
One thought I wanted blog about a little bit tonight was the talk given Saturday morning by Elder Quentin L. Cook.
He talked about a girl that had left her purse after a church dance. Of course the youth leaders wanted to return it, they said:
"we didn't want to pry, this was someones personal stuff, so we gingerly opened it and grabbed the first thing on top to identify her. It did, but in a different way."
The first thing they pulled out was a strength of youth pamphlet, followed by a notepad of personal notes and favorite scriptures, mints, soap, a brush, a homemade coin purse, a recipe for cake, then finally her ID. Her church leaders said "oh good things come out of her mouth, she's clean, and tidy, creative and prepared"
She was a quiet example of a young lady living the gospel.
I was reading through my notes on this talk and I had written down, "what do my possessions say about me?". If someone found my purse, looked in my car, glanced in my room, or saw what I was wearing.... would I be giving off a quiet example of a person living the gospel? Elder Uchtodorf said this morning "Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words". My youth leaders back in high school would always tell us that we are always being watched by our peers. And boy wasn't that the truth. I loved the high school I went to because it literally gave me the opportunity to speak with someone about the gospel at least once a week.
Now that I am in college, I do not necessarily have as many verbal opportunities, but I do have the opportunity to be a quiet example to those around me.
Wouldn't it be amazing for someone to find something of ours and be able to say "wow, this person is a quiet example of someone living the gospel"?
Another goal to add to my list! Which just reminded me of another talk given today by Elder Lynn Robbins. He talked about how we make lists of 'to do' to remind us of what we want to accomplish but not very often we make lists of 'to be'. Why??

'to do' can be checked off, 'to be' can never be done, it is not an event, it's something to always be working toward. I am putting 'become a quiet example of someone living the gospel' onto my 'to be' list!

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

2011-03-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

"With great power comes great responsibility"This morning in my scripture study, I was reading when Alma warns the people of Ammonihah that they need to repent or else God will "utterly destroy [them] from off the face of the earth; yea and visit [them] in his anger" (Alma 9:12). Alma also explains to them that even though the Lamanites were a wicked people at that same time, the Lord would look more favorably upon the Lamanites than upon the people of Ammonihah on the day of judgement because the Lamanites were following incorrect traditions that had been handed down to them, whereas the people of Ammonihah knew better. The people of Ammonihah were a "highly favored people of the Lord... above every other nation, kindred, tongue or people" (Alma 9:20)Now it's kinda cheesy but when I read this I thought about the movie Spiderman, when Uncle Ben is in the car talking to Peter and tells him "these are the years when a man changes into the man he is going to become for the rest of his life; just be careful who you change into" and then he later says "with great power comes great responsibility". It is true that this average boy, Peter Parker, ends up getting bit by a spider that turns him into Spiderman and now he suddenly is blessed with all this power; along with that, he has responsibility to protect not only himself, but others as well. His uncle so lovingly tries to tell him and warn him and yet Peter gets defensive and leaves upset. Are there times in our lives where our parents, or teachers, or church leaders have given loving counsel and yet we get upset of by it? I know I have a few times in my life. What does that say about our character when we do that? Food for thought. We need to realize that they are doing it out of love, just like Alma when he is speaking to these people. Alma wants them to succeed and he knows that they have been given such power because they know right from wrong and because of that, they have great responsibility to live righteously.
D&C 82:3 "unto whom much is given much is required".... at times it can feel like the demands placed upon us seem heavy and almost too much to bear, but Sister Sheri Dew said "shouldn't we expect the journey towards eternal glory to stretch us? ...The Lord's standard of behavior will always be more demanding than the world's, but then the Lord's rewards are infinitely more glorious-including true joy, peace and salvation" ("We Are Women of God", 1999)As we continue to go on with our lives, we need to remember that we have a lot of responsibility put on us because of the amazing power the Lord has given us.

Come Ye Out from the Wicked

2011-03-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading in Alma in the Book of Mormon and there was a verse that stood out to me...
Alma 5:57:
And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things;

Elder David R Stone of the Seventy gave the talk Zion in the Middle of Babylon which talked about the construction of the Manhattan New York Temple and how it provided an example of how to remove oneself from the influence of the world.

"Too many of the people of the world have come to resemble the Babylon of old by walking in their own ways and following a god 'whose image is in the likeness of the world' [D&C 1:16].

"One of the greatest challenges we will face is to be able to live in that world but somehow not be of the world. We have to create Zion in the midst of Babylon...

"My involvment with the building of the Manhattan Temple gave me the opportunity to be in the temple quite often prior to the dedication. It was wonderful to sit in the celestial room and be there in perfect silence, without a single sound to be heard coming from the busy New York streets outside. How was it possible that the temple could be so reverently silent when the hustle and bustle of the metropolis was just a few feet away?

"The answer was in the constuction of the temple. The temple was bulit within the walls of an existing building, and the inner walls of the temple were connected to the outer walls at only a very fewjunction points. That is how the temple (Zion) limited the effects of Babylon, or the world outside.
"There may be a lesson here for us. We can create the real Zion among us by limiting the extent to which Babylon will influence our lives...
"Wherever we are, whatever city we may live in, we can build our own Zion by the principles of the celestial kingdom and ever seek to become the pure in heart...
"We do not need to become as puppets in the hands of the culture of the place and time. We can be courageous and can walk in the Lord's path and follow His footsteps" (General Conference 2006)

The Manhattan temple is one of my favorite temples. I love how it is right in the middle of New York City, right amongst the hustle and bustle. The temple is so small that when we would go do temple trips, we couldn't go down with the entire youth, just a small group would go.

I love this picture. It shows all the craziness going on downtown, cars driving, traffic starting to build up, but once you get inside those Temple walls, it really is peaceful. I really enjoyed how Elder Stone uses the Manhattan Temple as an example of 'coming out from the wicked' because you really are removing yourself from wicked when you enter.
I love the 2002 youth theme- Stand Ye in Holy Places which comes from D&C 87:8. I remember this theme really well, maybe because it was when I was a little baby beehive, or maybe because it is very short and powerful. Stand Ye in Holy Places. A simple commandment with such a great reward attached if we follow it. If we can 'come out from the wicked' and 'stand in holy places', Satan will have much less control over us and we will be so much closer to the Lord.

Alma 5:57: And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things;

One thing I want to do in my life is to follow this scripture, to really separate myself from wicked by avoiding R rated movies and inappropriate music, to not gossip or talk about people behind their backs, and avoiding slothfulness. I know by doing so, I am showing the Lord that I am desirous to follow him and he will bless me because of my obedience.

Here are some more beautiful pictures of the Manhattan temple:

Love this picture.

2011-03-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

I downloaded Picasa from Google. It is a free photo editor so I used it to brightened up the pictures that I took with my iphone the other day... im so proud at how this one turned out!

Fifteen Minutes.

2011-03-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

I always stress and complain to myself that I just do not have enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want to get done. I just have this never ending growing list of things I need to do/improve on that it can really be overwhelming sometimes! I really want to devote at least a half hour of time each morning to quality scripture time and not have that little thought in the back of my mind saying you have this and this and this and this and this to do today. But if I really sit down and break it down, I have tons of time to do everything I need to do, and most things just take fifteen minutes. Here's a list of things I need to do each morning that should only take me fifteen minutes:

go for a mile and a half run
stretch and do my 8 minute abs
shower/brush teeth/wash face
blow dry hair
style hair & do make-up
cook a meal
eat and make a list of goals for that day
walk to school

total: 2 hours.

Festival of Colors!

2011-03-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

Today was one of my favorite things to do in the spring... Festival of Colors! It is a Hindu celebration to welcome in the new Spring season called Holi or Festival of Colors. It's a day of singing and dancing and of course, throwing dyed corn starch at each other. This was my third year getting to go.

Here is me two years ago from the first time i went:

I drove and got lost (not surprising) and it didn't help that it took me 1 hour and 45 mintues to get there because traffic was so bad, so many people were trying to get down there that their were accidents all down the interstate.... by the time we pulled up to the Hindu Temple, we saw a huge pink cloud go up into the air. We had missed it. All that driving for nothing. Even all the colours were sold out so we couldn't even have our own celebration!

Last Year:

We made it in time! We got right down in the middle of it.

This year:

Was so fun. Dan, Jana, her friend and I all went down together. We got lost but in the end we found a better way of getting there! As we were driving, a car full of girls drove by (they were exceeding the limit, even the trunk was full of girls)... anyways, jana makes the comment "hey look at all those girls in the car" and Dan responds by saying "yah, you can tell cause it's sinking down low". Can you believe that? Rude.. but funny.

Anyways the car full of girls got their revenge by stealing our parking spot and cutting us off! That was rude.

Here are some fun pictures for our day!!!:

Andrew and Katherine

Dan and I showing our true colors!

We walked by a little kid who was standing by the stairs... he had a bad FULL of orange color. Dan threw some of his last color and him and in retaliation this little kid dumped his entire bag on Dan. It was really funny.

A view from the Hindu Temple... so many people there for 11am in the morning!

Hindu Temple

'The Dan Look'

Smile Dan!

Jana and I!!

Cute.

Cuter.

Cutest... aww

Peace.

Dan's teeth were purple

There was a huge air machine that blew us off so we were allowed into the Hindu Temple. We had to take off our shoes to enter and my feet got so muddy... i crinnge thinking about it again... i hate walking around barefoot where other people with gross feet have been walking.... anyways Dan felt the need to recreate the painting behind him (actually no, I told him to go pose like that)

I did the same.

Driving home!

Jana.... aww cute hair jana.

My unibrow from the color that washed off after my shower

One last highlight:

Dan slipped walking down the muddy hill and instead of me helping him I stood there laughing... karma later struck when someone bumped me and I slipped down into the mud too. It was too muddy for my flip flops to get a grip and I continued to slide down as Dan picked me up.

Great day and home by 12:30. Festival of Colors... see you next year! hare krishna!

Snow again??

2011-03-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I was wearing shorts and playing in the park... yesterday I went running in a long sleeve-t and shorts.... today i woke up, and there was snow on the ground.

i wish i took the picture five minutes before when it was really coming down.

And in case you didn't already know, today is friday, friday got get down on friday, everybody is looking forward to the weekend, weekend, friday friday getting down on friday...

partying partying ya! partying partying ya! fun fun fun fun fun fun !! yesterday was thrusday thrusday, today is friday friday.. .tomorrow is saturday, and sunday comes afterward..

Spring Sunday.

2011-03-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

Dan has had this really cool idea for a date where we go out and observe nature and paint what we see... So Saturday night we went to Walmart and got some paint [and a bocce ball set], and yesterday after church we went down to the park and painted!

Dan's Painting

My painting

My Morning Grapefruit

'Fourth of July'

'Kolob'

I know... beautiful! I am looking forward to doing it again. We also went and played bocce ball. It reminded me of shuffle board (which I love to play at home with the family).

Bocce ball was developed in Italy (makes sense why Dan is so naturally drawn to it... it's in his blood). I won (of course) but Dan put up a good fight. The final score was 12-11. I should have taken some real pictures, I will next time, but here are some I found online... funny thing though, when I typed in 'bocce ball' all that came up was pictures of old people playing hahaha:

(Dan in a few years)

out tossin' the boccia

(me in a few years!)

Dan sent me this picture to cheer me up while I was studying today... believe it or not this is the only picture I have of the two of us:

Today has been a good day too! I woke up early and studied all day and did really well on an anatomy test (finally!) I did have to wait in the testing center line for 40 minutes. I always give myself 2 hours to take a test and tonight I pushed it a bit and headed up to campus at 7:30... the line was so long it was out the door and wrapping all around the building! But the extra few minutes standing in line was what I needed to take a last minute glance at my notes.

Cultured.

2011-03-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

As I have reached my wise old age of 21, I feel like it's time to appreciate the finer things in life and enjoy/embrace a little culture. Now that I have taken all my science classes, when I hear the world 'culture' I immediately think about a petri dish filled with growing bacteria.... but that is not the type of 'culture' I am actually referring too! (I have turned into such a nerd)
I have taken some really cool classes here at BYU that have helped expand my 'Bougie' attitude to being more cultured. Last year I took Humanities and also French and Italian Cinema and it helped me fall in love with art, music and film.
But as poor college students, it can be hard to get cultural experiences!..... but guess what, it's actually a lot cheaper than you think.

Tuesday Dan and I sat down and had a nice evening together watching this AWESOME documentary called 'Wasteland'. It was about a Brazilian artist named Vik Muniz who wanted to give back to his community through art. He took two years out of his life to go to Brazil and study the people that dig through the landfills to find materials that can be recycled. He took pictures of them and then recreated them using the garbage they dig through everyday and sold them at an art auction in London. I love documentaries, and this one ranks pretty high on my list. (Plus it is currently live stream on Netflix)

Today (Thursday) a group of us took advantage of the art museum here on campus at the MOA. Entrance is free and they had two really cool exhibits. The first one we went to was war art propaganda. There was some really cool prints. I love studying and looking at propaganda. In my film class we talked a lot about how the cinema and art was an excellent tool in persuading people how to think.

The other exhibit that was amazing was Carl Bloch. What a cool experience that was to see his art up close. Amazing pictures. So beautiful. He was an artist known for his Christian art in the late 1800s. His paintings of the Savoir are absolutely astonishing. You would be amazed at the number of Church publications that use his paintings. My favorite painting they had displayed was 'Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda'.

Such a beautiful picture with a lot of symbolism behind it. One thing that I read at the exhibit is that lots of Church members are familiar with his work but until they see these paintings in real life, they do not realize their amazing size and detail. This picture above is HUGE. Experiencing his art (or any art for that matter) in real life makes for such a cool experience.

For dessert I made cherry dump cake. Cherry pie filling, sprinkle yellow cake mix on top and some thinly sliced butter. Cook at 350 degrees for an hour.

Tomorrow we are going to the International Cinema here on campus. The movie they are playing is called Mutum and the director is going to be there and available for questions before and after the film! I love watching foreign films... maybe it's the subtitles, maybe it is the different flow of events they present.... but there is something them that mesmerizes me. Price for such an event? Free.

Lastly, we got tickets to Mozart Symphony No. 40 played by the Utah Symphony next Friday. We got some awesome second tier seats ($60 a pop) for only $10 because we are students! I'm sure I will blog all about it next week.

So in conclusion to this very long blog post.... (I think im just making up for being such a slacker the last few weeks) go out and explore. Don't be afraid to mix up your life a little bit. Sitting around and watching TV every night is fun (kinda) but there are so many other things out there that can help educate you, make you more cultured, more bougie, more interesting! and it doesn't have to cost you a lot.

**thanks Michelle for proof reading my post.

iPhone Eyes in Vegas!

2011-03-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the pictures off my phone;

Jana and I in the elevator before Friday's Game

My new Vans! (told you I had a new sole mate!)

Nate Dogg outside In-N-Out!

Jana and I outside of In-N-Out too before Saturday's Game.

The birds were SOOOO annoying, so we tried throwing french fries at them to get them to go away... then we saw this sign haha. Sorry!

Waiting for the game to start!

After we ate at Rainforest Cafe!

Anna and I finally got to meet up Saturday night.

Ahh yes, can't go to vegas without running into one of these guys passing out the cards!

The fountains outside the Bellagio!

Anna and I outside Serendipity 3!

Jana enjoying her $10 frozen hot chocolate... look at that smile on her face lol

Dad and Nate at breakfast Sunday morning, just a few minutes before we had to say goodbye. Miss you guys, see you soon though!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

Today is St. Patrick's Day. And for the last 17 days, for some reason, I have been waking up in a panic thinking... oh my goodness, is today St. Patrick Day? I don't know why, I haven't really ever thought much of this holiday... But I think to celebrate today I will go get some cream soda in a glass bottle, wear the cute green hair clip my mom gave me and watch the Disney Channel Original Movie- Luck of the Irish haha.

My mom had this cassette tape (yes, cassette tape... not CD) full of children's songs and we would listen to it all day, all the time, when we were in the car. These are the lyrics to the St. Patrick's Day song (and my mom's current facebook status):
Today is the day for the wearin' o the green

Today is the day when the little people are seen
Today is St. Patrick's Day, so if you're Irish me lad
Join the celebration for the grandest time to be had!

In Chicago (the place where my family currently lives), every year they dye the Chicago River Bright Green!

Chicago has been dying their river every St. Patty's Day since 1962! I'd like to think that there is a little Irish blood in me, but I don't think there is.

Growing up my mom would tell us to leave our shoes out so that the leprechauns would come and leave money in our shoes. Last night I left my crocs out and I'm sad to say (but not surprised) there were no pennies left in my shoe. I googled this tradition earlier today and couldn't find anything... maybe my mom made up this tradition! Haha.

Another thing my mom used to do growing up would be to dye our scrambled eggs green and she would also take us to the library and have us check out stories.

My favorite St. Pattty's Day story is this one:

There is a story of a man who once tricked a leprechaun into revealing the whereabouts of his valuables. The treasure was located beneath a bush in a large field surrounded by other similar shrubbery. The man needed to go off and get a shovel for which to dig up the treasure, so he tied a red ribbon to the bush so he could identify it on his return, and made the leprechaun promise not to take it off. Convinced he was more clever than the leprechaun and had secured his gold, he made off to get his shovel. On his return however, much to his dismay, he found that the little creature had tied a red ribbon on every other bush in the field.
Author Unknown.

So be careful today! Don't let a leprechaun fool you!

I Love Tacos...

2011-03-17T12:25:00.000-07:00

Okay everyone... I think I've mastered the taco....
For those of you that don't know, my favorite thing to make/eat here at college is the taco. It is so cheap, fast to make, and healthy because you get a little bit from all the major food groups. It's really whatever I have in the fridge thrown onto a corn tortilla.
You can get 100 little corn tortilla's from costco for like $3. Now I know what you are thinking, 100 tortillas?? That's ridiculous, I'll never eat that. And you are right, you probably wont... but for 25 at the grocery store it costs the exact same. So you might as well stock up. I have found that they last a really long time up in the cupboard. For example, over a month ago I bought a package. And two sunday's ago, Anna made these delish chicken enchiladas (and enough to feed an army, except we all must have been really hungry because they all disappeared)....

....And I still had a ton of tortillas left over... So my point, they will last you a long time and they are so cheap.

So anyways, today I was wondering what to make for lunch and of course taco is the first thing that comes to mind. Usually I fry up whatever protein I have in the fridge (if I have hamburger, I'll use that, if not, one froze chicken breast is easy too), i'll throw in a chopped onion, green pepper.... really whatever vegetables need to be eaten. When the chicken/hamburger is pretty cooked, ill add some onion powder, garlic powder, and taco seasoning (it's like $0.50 a packet and will last lots of meals) and if im using hamburger (this might sound gross but it adds a little something something), a quick squeeze of ketchup. Boom! heat up a tortilla, add some cheese, salsa, salad mix, and you've got a taco.

Today's meal though included flavors from all over the world. Last night I made indonesian satay on the BBQ and served it with a salad with balsamic dressing and quinoa (my new favorite cooking obsession... im still learning how to use it).

So today I had leftovers, so I cut up my leftover chicken (Indonesian) and put it in the frying pan on top of a tortilla, sprinkled on some leftover quinoa (South America), feta cheese (Greek), and since I was out of salsa, I added some Zest Lite Italian Dressing (Italian). It was delish.

The End.

Onion.

2011-03-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

I love cooking with onions. They add so much flavor to everything and I always have a couple on hand because I'm using them every time I cook. But this morning as I was making my marinade and chopping up the onion, something happened that has never happened before! My eyes started burning and watering! Why does that happen??

sulfuric acid!

When you cut an onion, you are slicing cells that release enzymes that mix with the air and produce propanethiol S-oxide which is a sulur compound that goes up into your eyes. This gas reacts with the water in our tears to form sulfuric acid... which burns... and causes your eyes to tear to wash away the irritant.

So now you know.

VEGAS BABY!

2011-03-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

Just got home from Vegas last night. I wanted to upload some of the pictures we took. I'll blog more about it later!

the four of us outside UNLV's arena

Nate and I

The Three Wutzke Children

Nate walked out of the bathroom like this, we couldn't help but laugh

Let's go Cougars!!

Nate and Dadd!

BYU coloured M&Ms of course!

Jana and Dad!

Nate and I, happy as can be!

We won!!

We were up kinda high, but great seats because we could see the whole court!

Doing some sightseeing in Vegas

I wanted to have an Anna Gleave Photography moment.

Best Makeup Remover.. Seriously

2011-03-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

My grandma introduced my mom and I to this make up remover. All three of us swear by it. I've been using it since my senior year in high school and I will never use anything else. It's super gentile on the eyes and works really well to get all your makeup off, even water-proof mascara!!

Avon Eye Makeup Remover

Best part about it?? It's on sale for 99 cents!!!!

Boarding!

2011-03-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

Anna, Me, Michelle, Dan and Chase all went boarding on friday. After we ate at red robin. It was a blast.
The End.

I've grown lazy with my blogs... it's because I have been soo sooo soooooooooooooooo busy. School is kicking my butt, work is eating up all my time. I've felt friendships start to slip out from under me, and my room is good evidence of how busy i've been. But it's a new week. I've set new goals. Here is a much better description of our snowboarding adventure...thanks to Anna!!

oh and as an additional pitch- it is cool to wear a helmet when you ride/ski/bike.... the expression 'better out than in' does NOT apply to your brain.

Amazing facts about the nervous system

2011-03-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

Billions of nerve impulses enter the brain every second
Human’s have an estimated 60-100 billion neurons, a spinder has 100,000 neurons
Large myelinated neurons conduct impulses over 200 miles/hour
One neuron can send 1000 impulses per second
Spinal cord is 17 inches long, stopped growing at age 5
Most neurons remain the same form birth
Brain contains trillions of synapses and new ones form when we learn
We loose 10,000 a day after the age of 35
Everyone has their own unique pattern of wrinkles or gyri on the brain
If you play the violin there will be a larger motor region in the cortex
Neurotransmitters influence behavior, moods and emotions

In a talk I stumbled upon by Russell M. Nelson called "The Magnificence of Man" he talks about throughout the ages, people have tired to explain the existence of us being here without scriptural understanding. Some try to explain our existence by "pretentious words such as ex nihilo (out of nothing), others have deduced that, because of certain similarities between different forms of life, there has been an organic evolution from one form to another, many of these have concluded that the universe began as a 'big bang' that eventaully resulted in the creation of our planet and life upon it".

I love the part when he says "To me, such theories are unbelievable! Could an explosion in a printing shop produce a dictionary? It is unthinkable! Even if it could be argued to be within a remote realm of possibility, such a dictionary could certainly not heal its own torn pages or renew its own worn corners or reproduce its own subsequent editions!"

We were created by God and formed in his image. He knew exactly what he was doing. My physiology teacher referes to our Heavenly Father every lecture and calls him the "Master Creator". Of all my semesters here at BYU, this one has been the hardest, but has helped strengthen my testimony even more about how there truely is a Master Creator and he created us in his image. In Abraham 4:26-27 it says “The Gods took counsel among themselves and said: Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness. …

So the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of the Gods to form they him, male and female to form they them”

"God has made it plain over and over again that the world was made for mankind. We are here to work out our divine destiny, according to an eternal plan that was presented to us in the great council of heaven. Our bodies have been created to accommodate our spirits, to allow us to experience the challenges of mortality and continue our eternal progression." -Russell Nelson

The human body is so amazing.

Gratitude.

2011-02-27T17:51:00.000-08:00

Whenever I see my manager at work he always smiles at me really big and says "hey lady, it's a great day to be alive!" and gives me a high five. It puts a smile on my face and reminds me that ya, it is a great day to be alive... i have so many things that I am thankful for.

Today in relief society, we learned all about gratitude. The teacher started out by drawing a chart on the board. Down the left side is when things are going well, or when things don't go well, and along the top is big/small things that help us remember to be grateful.

	BIG	SMALL
WELL	3 Nephi 11:15-17 When Christ comes down to visit the people. What a great big moment for these people and how grateful they must have been.	Alma 34:37-38 Amulek reminds the people that they live in thanksgiving daily. A small thing to show the people that they have many things to be grateful for.
DON’T	Moroni 1:1-3 Everyone Moroni knows has died and he is the only one left, wandering wherever for the safety of his own life. He never once complains, and in the last verse in chapter 10, he wrties "I am brought foth triumphant through the air to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah".	(we ran out of time to get to this box so I tried filling it in myself) 1 Nephi 2:4 Lehi tells his family that they must "take nothing with them, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness". This is a time when I think thing were not going so well for the children of Lehi. Who would want to leave everything behind? But Nephi obeyed, and I am sure realized that he was very grateful to have a righteous father that lead them out of Jerusalem.

As I was listening to this lesson I realized that I have so many things to be grateful for. I could fill out this chart on my own of personal experiences I've had.

President Thomas S. Monson gave a talk called "An Attitude of Gratitude". He says:

A popular refrain from the 1940s captured the thought:

Accentuate the positive;
Eliminate the negative.
Latch on to the affirmative;
Don’t mess with Mr. In-between.

Good advice then. Good advice now.

This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth. Our opportunities are limitless. While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help.

We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues.

We have so many things to be grateful for. Let's live our lives with an attitude of gratitude. I recommend reading the full version of this talk here. And I challenge you (and I am going to do this too!) take some time every day to fill out a gratitude journal. Just write down a few things each day that you are thankful for to really show yourself how blessed you are!
here's my new blog: My Gratitude Journal