upcoming show

Friday and Saturday my dance company, dancEnsemble, has its fall performance and to promote it, Clayton made a commercial to air on the TVs in the Wilk.

This weekend!

Well, here's my last report on my no-homework Sundays project. I've enjoyed it, but it sure makes my Saturdays stressful. I've decided it's worth it, though. To have a day to yourself without the homework nagging. Saturday I went and hiked "Angel's Landing" in Zion's National Park. It's ridiculously tall and you have to hold on to a chain for your dear life for the last half mile unless you want to slip off the shear cliff face to your death (all the signs tell you so). I was so scared I didn't want to finish, but the group I was with pushed and pulled me along.



Yesterday I got up and made cookies for my young women. They were fantastic!!! I'll post the recipe at the end of my post. Then I finished preparing my lesson and went to church, where I was released from my Young Women's calling and called as a choir director. I'm very sad to leave the young women and I'm very scared of going to Relief Society, but I think it will be good for me. I will have to learn how to talk to adults. The scary women in relief society kind of adults! :-) I was invited by my visiting teacher over for dinner, then talked to my grandpa on the phone, because it was his birthday. I video chatted with my family and went home and did some reading of conference talks. Then, I talked to my best friend Hollie that I haven't talked to in FOREVER until 12:30 this morning. Hence, I am tired. But it was a good day. It was ever so lonely without Clayton and I was stressed out because I didn't get laundry done or the house clean on Saturday because I was gone all day and I have homework and finals to prepare for and a project due tonight. And I'm trying to get in as many hours at work as possible. But, I just have faith that Sundays are for churching, and being with friends, and talking to your families. And it's a good day just to chill. And make cookies. Here is the fabulous recipe. (I just tweaked the quaker oat recipe you get on the bottom of the lid for a tub of oats).

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 - 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup craisins
8 oz (2/3 a package) of Hershey's dark chocolate chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats, chocolate chips, craisins, and vanilla; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. I like to roll the dough in balls and flatten them. It makes a more compact cookie.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

YUM!!!

I made these because Clayton doesn't like oats or craisins. So, it was perfect timing. At least his being gone is good for something...

Another Report

Well, last Sunday I just had a major headache and felt sick all day... I had to stop fasting a few hours early... :-( Clayton and I went to church and enjoyed our day together. Nothing really exciting. I did have a Chinese test coming up the next day and it was ever so SUPER tempting to study. I managed to refrain though. And I think I did pretty well on the test after all! I'm glad I don't study on Sundays, but sometimes it makes me nuts! We also ended up asking some friends over for dinner and watched Psych with them! It was fun. We don't get friends often and I had made ribs which were yummy! Otherwise though, I went to bed early to get up early to study for my test. :-( And now Clayton is gone and I miss him. And my break is just about over. So back to work. I love you all and I'll be extra special glad when school is over next wednesday!

Report #2

Well guys, last Sunday was FANTASTIC! We had a good day. Clayton and I got to relax a lot and after church, we decided that we would make cookies. We read an ensign article together about service and felt inspired, so we made cookies for all the people that had helped us with our flooding issues and went and delivered them. We though it would be a quick delivery, but every house we went to invited us in and wanted to talk and chat, and it was fun. We felt loved and with friends and we just got to casually visit with people in our ward that like us! :-) It was a fun evening. They all invited us to stay and play games, but it was already late and Clayton had to be up at 4 in the morning for his hike!

Clayton was gone until early Friday morning. It was boring not having him around, but to be honest, it wasn't bad. Not nearly so bad as last time he left. So I am hoping for a repeat performance when he leaves again next week. I was just so busy that I didn't have time to mope! And I can guarantee I can make that happen again! :-)

All in all, I am still liking the whole spend time with Clayton thing on Sundays, but Saturdays are still LOOOONG.

Marriage and Family

Lol. I am using my blog once again in order to fulfill a school assignment as a way of coercing myself into blogging. I just like blogging. I do. I just have no time lately. Lots of work and lots of school guys. LOTS! Anyways, I found this incredibly awesome way to fulfill a project requirement for one of my classes. I am very excited. It's for my marriage and family class and I got to pick one thing I wanted to work on that would strengthen my marriage. WOOT! I picked spending more time with Clayton by doing all my homework on Saturdays and spending Sundays together doing Sunday-worthy activities. And how many of you can say you did a project by spending extra time with your husband? :-) It makes Saturdays VERY VERY long because I have SOOOO much to do, but I always felt guilty doing homework on Sundays anyway. This will be great.

And now...a report on last Sunday.

Let's just say, last Sunday I was in a crazy mood. One of those one moment you're ridiculously happy and the next moment you just want to curl up in a ball and cry. And I had a lesson to prepare for Young Womens. But since I didn't have school to stress about, I just planned my lesson all morning and it was on family traditions and family history work. And I just LOVE that stuff! It turned out really well. I began by drawing this rough (very rough) map of where all my family lives in Pensacola and I just drew the places that meant something to me, and I asked the girls what it was. They knew it was a map, but of what they did not know. I then talked about how it was my memories of a place. It was a drawing of a family tradition my family had growing up: going to Florida, at least twice a year. :-) I talked about other traditions: Sunday dinners, pie nights, going to little league ball games, etc. The girls then got to share some of them. Then I got to talk about family history work and how AWESOME that is. If only I could remember my password to the church family history site...but that is a battle for another day.

After church, I gave some neighbor girls a ride home since their dad and Clayton had an after church boy scout meeting, and I made something fantastic for dinner I'm sure... Oh yeah, it was honestly fantastic. It was called... well I forget. Food doesn't need a name to be wonderful. It was whole wheat spaghetti noodles with lots of veggies (brocolli, cauliflower, carrots, peas, sugar snap peas) and homemade alfredo sauce. Pasta primevera! (I'm pretty sure that's the name).

Clayton and I got to play games together and read a conference talk together and just hang out. We always need that after a long week. (Especially with my Saturday homework marathons. Those are killer). So... in a nutshell -- I like spending time with Clayton on Sundays and it is interesting. Truly. The more time we spend together, the more we are able to be better people. The more we are inspired to choose the right! Etc.

Oh, and we had this basement flood on Tuesday night that was just spectacular. Good thing this week ended with a 3-day weekend (one of the benefits of living in Utah -- pioneer day is a state holiday!). We NEEDED it. Clayton leaves Monday for a 30-mile backpacking trip. :-( But our a/c gets fixed Monday as well! I can shut the windows and still be comfy enough to sleep at night! YAY! Okay, time to go finish my homework. I'm guessing 3 more hours. Then a nice long run, a shower, and it's game night with our friends!

Can I go home now?

Well, if I were to rank my day on a scale of one to ten, I would just rank it at 11 and -1. Work was CRAZY!!!! I was manager on duty and every single store needed me and people needed to go on breaks and we were out of food and people got sick and someone didn't show up and it was just nuts. So I was helping one of the many stores needed help and I got a phone call from the ice cream store. So I ran over there and then got chastised for taking the time to put on gloves before I helped a customer. Just don't ask. Basically this guy who thinks he is too good to get a student manager to help and didn't want my help was telling me that I was not good enough to help in his store (that I have trained many hours working in). It was just so frustrating and I got so mad. But I stayed and helped, and then I left and I started crying and I was supposed to go talk to my manager because we were working out the details on my new position (that I'm about to explain), and I had red eyes and it was dumb. And then I talked to him and life got better because now I am working in the office!!! I am so excited... no more changing my clothes everyday before work. I can actually dress up! YAY! Okay, I have a class in two minutes, so I've got to go. But yay for crazy dumb and happy days.

Candy

I have a Chinese language class from 8-9:50 every morning. I eat breakfast every day at seven and then at seven thirty walk down to school. Today I was falling asleep ever so badly. I was trying so hard to concentrate but I just kept zoning out. I've been staying up late the past few days. It's just been a crazy week. At nine o'clock, my teacher pulled out a byu bookstore bag that was full of full-size candy bars for us. She said it was to keep us awake. So I ate a whole bag of peanut m&m's during class today, and guess what? It did the trick. I paid attention the rest of class... but now I feel a little sick to my stomach. I definitely don't usually eat that much candy in one sitting...

For the record...

Straight A's! WOOT! And it's the weekend and I'm stoked. No work tomorrow! My first Saturday in months! :-)

Wow!

Sometimes life just gets a hold of you and time flies by! Well, it's been almost 2 weeks since I've blogged! I finished my finals! I've got two A's and I'm still waiting on Chinese... it's a borderline A/A- so I just don't know! I worked 40 hours last week and somehow am doing that again this week... It's going to stop though. 30 hours next week is PLENTY for my sanity (or lack thereof!).

Friday, Clayton and I had planned a date. Sound kind of funny, I know, but we were going to have a picnic in our bedroom and watch Chuck. (By the way, I am not entirely caught up and we can move on to catching me up in psych. These marathons take a long time because I rarely have more than an hour...)We made turkey burgers with homemade buns (SOOO good!) and corn on the cob, chips and dip, veggies and dip, YUM! We probably had ice cream afterwards knowing us, but who knows? I don't remember. It was really fun. And it was nice after a whole week of closing Taco Bell every night and getting home at 10. Friday I got home at 8:30! Woot!

Also, Clayton and I have been walking everywhere lately! And I totally love it. Except for those last five minutes up the hill to our house where it gets super steep...it's really fun. We get to talk together without music blaring in the car (not that music is bad, it just jumbles my thoughts and distracts me). We get to enjoy the rather chilly weather Utah has at 7:30 in the morning on the way down to school and wish we were in Tennessee where it's warm. It's fun. And I feel good about being free from the car. Not HAVING to use it. I know it's totally not possible for many people to go without a car, but my dream is to one day live close enough to places to walk, yet have a big yard to play in and a park nearby... One day! Anyways, I'm heading to work for the next five hours and then more homework and class! YAY!

Oh two more things. This semester I am taking Chinese (big surprise there) and a religion class called LDS marriage and family. I like them both a lot so far and I hope they stay fun. Seven weeks is a perfect length for a class. It doesn't drag on and on forever like in winter. And the other thing is tomorrow is Clayton's birthday. And he's begging me to let him open his present at midnight. I don't want to be up at that hour, personally. What do you think? Should I let him? Or make him wait until eight thirty at night when I get home from work tomorrow? :-)

Taco Bell

Today I watched a man eat 15 soft tacos. In one sitting. It was disgusting. FIFTEEN! Who does that?

Sorry...

Guys, I apologize, but I just have nothing to say. Kind of a down week, you know? Nothing wrong. Just tired. I have lots of homework and working to do. :-) But I'm alive and well and will write an incredibly engaging blog post about my ridiculously interesting life another day.

Oh, random tidbit. Yesterday we had a family of 3 come to Taco Bell (a mom and her two teenage children) and they spent $22 on Taco Bell food! Twenty-Two dollars! I packed two trays full of food. Is that just me, or is that beyond disgusting? BLECH!

Granola Bars

Guess what? I saw a recipe for homemade granola bars in a cookbook a friend gave me so I decided to try them since I've quit buying them. I'm trying to no longer buy anything that comes in a single serving package since it's basically a huge waste of packaging. I've had to change my yogurt habits, but I've found one that comes in a 32 oz. tub that I really like called Stoneyfield organic yogurt. It's yummy. Anyway, long story short, I made them, they're really good and here's a picture and the recipe.



3 cups of oatmeal (I used half steel cut 1/2 rolled for a texture variety)
3 cups of anything else (raisins, chocolate chips, nuts, fruit, coconut, dry cereal)
* I put craisins and coconut in my half and chocolate chips in Clayton's. We both got bran flakes and life cereal
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Mix everything together in a bowl and press into a 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Then let cool for at least an hour. Cut into pieces and serve. You can also use a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan if you like thinner, crispier bars. Finally, I highly recommend using parchment paper underneath to get them out easier. I didn't have any so I just greased to pan well and they came out okay...

Also, I believe I added more than 3 cups of the extra stuff and my half of the bars are pretty soft and break easily. Clayton's are a little thinner and stick together really well, so I think you should be careful to keep it to 3 cups total so that the milk can stick everything together.

Anyways, they are good and it was exciting to make. I'll make them again sometime! I'm headed to work now. I'll be off at 9:30 tonight!

Erika

Squash Casserole

Well, I promised I'd post it, so here it is! It was really good, but I can't promise these are correct amounts for the ingredients. If it looks like it needs a little more or a little less, than do so! :-)

Squash Casserole
3 medium yellow squash, washed and diced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2-3/4 c. of cheese (I did about 1/3 c. of shredded pepperjack and a thick slice of provolone cut in pieces, but just about any cheese would be good).
1 large handful of crackers (I used sundried tomato triscuits, but ritz or saltines would work too).
In a large saucepan, boil the squash for 10 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, in a skillet, sautée the pepper and onion in olive oil until tender. Drain the squash and return to saucepan. Add butter and milk and mash with a potato masher over low heat. Once it is about the consistency of chunky mashed potatoes, remove from heat and add the pepper, onion, sour cream and cheese. Add as much cheese as you prefer. Pour into greased casserole dish or 8x8 pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Turn oven to Broil and broil until the top is brown (3-5 minutes).

Crazy busy!

Wow. This week is flying by. And I'm flying by the seat of my pants right now! YAY! :-) Oh well... I'm surviving. I'm trying to pick up a bunch of extra hours at work right now, so I'm extra busy, but I've been doing great on my exercising and that keeps me happy. Clayton did a 10 mile hike last night, but I assume he'll cover that. And I have a mass Chinese test on Monday! I'm working 19 hours in the next two days, so it's time to go study now! Love you all!

Places I've visited

I know we've all seen these maps before, but I think it's kind of cool...I did not include just stopping over in the airports on mine, because that is not seeing a place. I do include driving through, though, because you can see a place that way. Anyways, I've been in the airports of California, Arizona, and Nevada, for what it's worth. I just think it's funny how I've been all over the east except for the far north, and then it's like I avoid the west like the plague or something... :-)


visited 28 states (56%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

MEMORIAL DAY!

Happy day off of school everyone! Guess what I'm doing?!?!?! HOMEWORK! WOOT! Okay, so not all day. I'm just finishing up a moving picture project and learning a few Chinese characters. Then off to the park to play, maybe throw a hike in, over to a friend's house for dinner. And back home for an early bed time. Got to get well rested for the week ahead. Can you believe it? Only 16 days until spring term is over! That I am very excited about. Summer is going by quickly and it has been fun, but I'm not looking forward to fall semester in September. Too much business. Good thing I love to dance! My "moving picture" project is a movie on how to dance the Charleston, 5th grade style (definitely no couples dancing). I'll have it posted on my blog tomorrow if you want to see it. Also, I typed up my recipe for the squash casserole. Once I put it on my flash drive so that I can bring it from home to a computer with internet, I'll post it. Clayton is sitting next to me in the computer lab typing up his own blog post. Also we both journal-ed yesterday. We're pretty much being awesome little goal keepers. (Not the soccer kind). And, well, I don't even know what else. But we're having a great day so far! Can't wait to go play!

Oh yeah, Clayton is writing about our Friday night date, so I'll write about our unexpected Saturday night date! I got off work 4 1/2 hours early (4:45 instead of 9:15). Long story short, all the stores but Subway were supposed to be closed because of Memorial Day weekend, but none (absolutely zero) of the employees were informed. When we, as managers, found out on Saturday morning, after Taco Bell and Cougar Express had already opened, we had to call everyone and tell them not to come in and we shut down Taco Bell and Cougar Express early. So once Subway closed up, I headed home. Clayton and I met some friends at the park and threw a frisbee around, then ran to the grocery store for a few things. We went home and made a homemade pizza. Made the whole-wheat crust from scratch, added pizza sauce and bbq sauce for some pizzaz, then mozzarella, pepperjack, bell peppers, tomato slices, ham and pineapple, and a little parmesan on top. YUM! We ate and watched planet 51, that we rented from a redbox at the grocery store.

Yesterday was Clayton's first plan and make dinner himself adventure. I helped him make rolls from scratch and we did a roast in the crock pot with potatoes and carrots. Then he made some broccoli. Also we made monkey bread from scratch. That takes forever but it was oh so very good! If you couldn't guess, it was a teach Clayton how to use yeast kind of weekend. What should be the theme for next weekend?



The broccoli and vegetables



The roast and rolls



My lovely husband

Forgetful me...

Can you believe it? I forgot a very important step in the pulled pork recipe! It is now revised below. :-)

Also, just so everyone knows, Clayton is now going to start blogging on a regular basis, (as in at least once a week...hopefully:-). So make sure to start checking out his blog again!

Life at 99 mph

Do you ever have those days where you wake up and then all the sudden it's time to go back to bed. And you don't even know what happened? That's been my life for all of spring term. Can you believe we are wrapping up the 5th week here! 2 more weeks to go, then finals, and it's over. WOOHOO! I just love spring and summer. Too bad classes that I really need to take aren't offered in spring/summer. Otherwise I would never go to school in winter. We'd just find a place to hibernate. Like Tennessee, or Florida, or the Grand Canyon. Somewhere warm. I am super dooper tired today. Too tired to do more studying for my quiz in an hour and a half. What if I've already spent 1 1/2 hours studying. Should I do more, or just be okay with that inevitable B+/A-? Do I even care if I get an A or A-? No, not really. It will barely effect my GPA either way. Maybe .001 of a point. That's what happens when you go to school for too long with too many credits to get scholarships anymore. No worries though, tuition is still more than paid through next April. Then I have to get to applying for different scholarships. BLAH!

I'm looking forward to my 2 o'clock nap. I scheduled it. I've just got to fit it in today. You know, having Clayton do all the housework lately has really been ever so nice. I have more time to do homework, sleep, play games, play outside, etc. Weird how curses can become blessings. I guess that's all folks. It's all my brain can process in English right now. Back to Chinese...

The Easiest Pulled Pork in the World

about 5 pound boston butt pork roast
about 1/2 c. of water
1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce (I love local flavors from Memphis, but Sweet Baby Ray's rasberry chipotle is pretty good too).

Cut all the gross fat off the outside of the roast. Cook it in your crockpot with the water on low heat for 8-10 hours. I usually do at least 10 hours since I'll put it in right before I go to bed and we'll eat it after we come home from church. I've done up to 16 hours before. About 1 hour before you want to eat your delicious homemade pulled pork, pull the pork out of the crock pot and pour out most of the juices. Shred the pork with a fork and knife (it should basically fall apart), return it to the crock pot, turn the heat to high, and pour in the bottle of bbq sauce. You can add more or less depending on your preference. I will do a whole bottle and then have extra to add on my sandwich, nachos, salad, or anything else I make to go with the pork. But I love my bbq sauce.

And that is it! Sorry I am so very exact. I won't be posting my chicken salad recipe, because there is none. And that, as Clayton said, is my problem. I just make it up as I go. :-( But go ahead and ask. I'll type something up for you to try!

Guess What?!?!?!?

I figured out how to get an email every time someone posts a comment. That way I no longer have to check my blog all the time. I just check my email because I always am waiting for those comments! I'm addicted. Sorry. I just feel like I put so much effort into communicating with everyone, they should give me a little communication back. I love you all!

Personal Progress

Sometimes I go on blogging streaks and other times I hate blogging. Right now I'm on a blogging streak. Why? I wish I could answer that question. But unlike many of my posts that are so witty and sarcastic (all right just let me dream here), I was kind of contemplating last night and wanted to share my thoughts.

Yesterday I was putting my jewelry away in my jewelry box (weird, I know, but I'm trying to look nice when I go to school. Clayton's trying to make me look like a lady. Nice clothes that I don't work out in, jewelry, new haircut, who knows what's next.) and I came across my personal progress medallion that I got on 4/18/2004. I just took it out and though, wow, I made it! Last week I was in the Salt Lake temple with my awesome husband and had a great experience. We made it! I don't know if that really makes sense, but your whole life in church they tell you to prepare yourself to get married in the temple/go to the temple/etc. And I just thought, I spent all that time working on my personal progression and after all is said and done, I made it that far. Not to say I don't have a long way to go, but I am ridiculously happy right now, if stressed out. I know our life is kind of in limbo right now, but you know what? It will all work out, because we are doing our part and we are so happy together. The end. I am apparently not very good at saying what I want to say.

Oh yeah, last night was the season finale of Chuck, the first t.v. series I have ever followed vigilantly. Well, there was a ward young married couples fhe at the same time. :-( So, we decided to go to the fhe (good thing because only two couples came besides the ones that planned it) and watch old episodes I hadn't seen to get me caught up. And we had an awesome time at FHE and watching Chuck and I didn't feel guilty at all. Now we get to watch the finale on Hulu tomorrow. When I have an hour and a half to spend on it.

And last thing, Clayton made chicken tortilla soup last night (I handed him a recipe and gave hints while in the other room doing my homework) and he did a great job and added a few things to make it even awesomer! He loves food so much, one day he'll be an incredible cook.

Our date...

Well, last Friday Clayton and I decided to go on a date. Having planned it two weeks beforehand, we were ready to go! I got out of class at 1:50 and we were in the car at 2 pm, on our way up to Salt Lake! Five minutes into the trip, we realize we forgot the gift certificate to the restaurant we were headed to, (I hid it in a place that we wouldn't forget it...you all know how that goes). So, we went back home and were back on our way at 2:30 with snacks to help us last until dinnertime. We got up to Salt Lake and only had to circle the conference center once before figuring out how to enter the parking garage. We went in the Salt Lake Temple and did a session. It was fairly entertaining since we had no idea where we were going inside and were always asking for directions and hoping we could get back to the place we said we would meet back up. But we survived and enjoyed it and were VERY HUNGRY! So, we walked back to the car to grab the gift certificate. I changed into tennis shoes and we were on our way to the restaurant. We walked since it was only three blocks down. We arrived and, to our dismay, there was a sign on the door. Upon further inspection, we determined that we could not eat at that restaurant, as it was closed early for a private function! ARGH! So, we ran across the road to Gandolfo's deli and ate sandwiches. By the time we left it was RAINING! We walked the three blocks in the rain. No worries though, we were still on time for the play we were going to see! We got to the play, Clayton dropped me off so I could pick up the tickets at will call while he parked the car. The ticket agent proceeded to tell me that she had no tickets for "Cravath". I went to talk to a different lady, who looked it up and told me our tickets were for next Friday, the 28th! I went to tell Clayton who had just walked in, and once I told him I just started crying! It was so silly, and I wasn't upset. It was just us not paying attention to things likes dates of performances and having bad luck. But I just start crying and feel bad that I'm making Clayton feel bad, blah, blah, blah. So we get in the car and go home...

Don't worry, there is a happy ending to this story! I took a shower and calmed down,(I was mostly just stressed out in general, truly I didn't cry all evening over a play), and then my awesome husband played boggle with me! And guess what!?!?! He beat me twice! Out of probably five or six rounds. He's starting to like my favorite game, I just know it. All in all, we had an AWESOME Sunday yesterday (we just stayed home after church and made peanut butter cookies and had mahimahi and squash casserole for dinner), and now I get to laugh about how tragic our date was Friday. Plus, I have something to look forward to for this Friday!

Classroom Website

So I've been working on an imaginary classroom website for my technology class. It's actually kind of cool. Go take a look!

Mrs. Cravath's Classroom Website

5 minutes

I'm in the library about to leave internet for the day, so I decided I'd post for five minutes. What about though? My mind is swirling in Chinese. Wo bu shufu! I mean I'm uncomfortable. Argh. Make it stop! Okay fine, I guess thinking in Chinese isn't that bad. At least I can mostly express myself. Keshi, I mean, but, I want to speak English too. Aiya! Seriously guys, it just keeps coming. Wo you hen duo gongke. I have to do some much homework tonight. Haiyou yi ge shangwang project. I am making a website for a pretend fifth grade dance class. It's fun, but I have to go home and make a pretend syllabus and powerpoint presentation for a class. Hmm... what to teach, what to teach??? What would you teach fifth graders about dance? They are learning about WWII right now. Maybe we'll do a power point about the Charleston and I can link youtube movies and make an instructional video. Good, I've already taught that class. That'll be easy. Now for the second class lesson plan... They are learning about poetry and earthquake/volcanoes/and weather erosion. That could be fun. I'm not sure how I could tie genetics to dance... In math we've got algebraic symbols, area and volume of a 3D object, working with decimals/fractions, and probability. All righty I need ideas people! That are preferably not in Chinese. I do have two other classes I'm taking after all...

By the way, I only know how to write in chinese characters on a mac. :-( Someone should teach me how on a p.c. Then all my wildest dreams would come true.

pencils

I have mentioned before how electric pencil sharpeners and I don't get along. And I refuse to be so helpless as to make Clayton do it for me. Nor do I truly appreciate mechanical pencils. You have to refill the lead! WAAAAY to much work! BUT GUESS WHAT!?!?!?! I found a real deal, just like was on the wall in my elementary school classrooms, pencil sharpener in the library. I will be frequenting it from now on. You just can't write chinese characters in pen. I mess them up way to much! And I might just have gotten a 100 on my character quiz today! YAY! Also, my class has a bunch of returned missionaries who served in Taiwan in it. So it is very intimidating. I thought I was doing terribly, but I just checked my grades and it looks like I'm doing okay. And also, just to shout it from the rooftops one more time, I got straight A's last semester! Shall we look for a repeat performance? Maybe... just maybe.

In Translation

Well, you could copy and paste in google translator and mostly make sense out of my previous post. Or, I'll just translate. It really isn't exciting. It was just me rambling during class.

Look! I can write in characters on a computer!

I really like Chinese class, but we have a lot of homework. Today my Chinese class went to a Chinese restaurant to eat. Awesome!

I love you all! But I am very busy so I need to get back to class.

My Chinese name, Bai Qui Yuan

Sorry if I annoyed you. I just wanted to play with my new toy.

I got to teach Kindergarten and 4th grade today! It was lots of fun! I'm drowning in homework though, so I better get to it! have a wonderful day!

CHINESE!

Look I just got taught how to type characters on a computer!!! Here's my post for the day!

你們看吧！我可以寫在電鬧！

我很喜歡中文課。 可是我有很多功課。 今天我的中文課去中國飯館吃飯。 太幫了！

我愛你們！但是我很忙。 所以我得上課。

白秋媛

No more english for me!

It's my birthday!

Well, Clayton has required me to blog before we can go and get lunch and I am STARVING!!!! So, begrudgingly, I'll write this post. (I thought you got to do whatever you want on your birthday!)

Well, this morning Clayton woke me up at 3:30 in the morning to tell me what my birthday present was. (He might claim that he woke me up because I was having super crazy awful dreams where people were chasing me because they thought that I had murdered somebody and I was chasing the murderer because it wasn't my fault, but we all know that 21-year-olds don't have to be woken up to escape a nightmare).

In case you're wondering, he bought me tickets to go see a play "3 Musketeers" up in Salt Lake in a couple weeks. Yay! A real date! To be honest I don't mind our grab dinner out then watch psych or chuck at home dates, but I'm not complaining about this one either. Maybe I'll get to dress up in my new clothes... With sneakers of course -- no need to make my feet uncomfortable for the sake of matching my shirt.

After staying up for 10 minutes because I was too excited to fall asleep again (or because I wanted to make sure the dream would stay away -- take your pick), I fell back asleep until I had to get up at 6 am to get to my 6:30 meeting. They said they'd feed me a good breakfast -- and they fed us doughnuts. YUCK! I really don't like BYU's doughnuts. I like krispy kremes but byu's doughnuts leave this terrible taste in your mouth. Then I went home and pouted about the doughnuts that I didn't eat or bring home to Clayton because they're GROSS and got back in bed. :-) Got up at 9:15 (Happy birthday to me!)and ate a grape fruit and raisin bran. Then went and ran 3 miles (I did the first two miles in 16:07 -- my new record!) and did some weights, stretching, etc. Next, I went to Chinese and did a skit my group prepared. Everyone loved ours the best because it included a prince, princess, evil man, and magical cabbage. What is better than that?

Now I'm at the library typing a blog so that Clayton will feed me. The end!

P.S. As an addendum, I know I'm wacko for spending my day working out and eating grapefruit and raising bran, but I figured your birthday should be the day you feel the best on -- and I feel crappy when I eat crappy kinds of food. That's my goal lately -- to figure out what feels good. Still working on that one...

Can you believe it?

I have to make a new blog for my technology class. I just have blogs coming out my ears! Oh well. I will make the best of it. Now I have to learn how to do things like add pictures, links, and videos to my blog. Yuck! Is there an instruction pamphlet in the library for blogger.com?

Technology sometimes just boggles my mind. For instance, last Wednesday I tried to sharpen my pencils with our battery powered pencil sharpener. I pushed and pushed and it made sharpening noises, but the pencils weren't getting any sharper. Yesterday, I complain to Clayton and he picks up my pencils and the sharpener and sticks them each in, pulling them out sharp as can be. How come I can't do that? I've got to learn his technique.

Anyway, in summary, I am procrastinating learning how to blog because I don't like constructive exploration style learning. I like handbooks.

Clayton would be proud

I made a decision this morning, as I realized how ridiculously overloaded I felt after one half hour of my first class this term... :-) I am not going to take ballet this term. Kind of sad, but after all, I was just taking it for kicks and to do ballet since I haven't in a while. We made the whole "stay in Utah for two more years" decision so that life would be a little less crazy and we might could enjoy being around each other and seeing Utah. That won't happen with 9.5 credits (equivalent to 19 in a regular semester) and 20 hours of work every week in spring term.

Also, I had an AWESOME vacation in Tennessee. Green trees, rain, thunderstorms, a brand new haircut, talent show, faith's softball game, NFL draft (okay, not exactly my choice of entertainment), 2 free movies, birthday party, awesome carrot cake, new clothes, new bread maker, all in all pretty much AMAZING! I'm glad to be back at school because I do enjoy it, but it's ever so much easier with Clayton here. 4 more days -- the countdown has begun.

yeah!

Tax refund and text book sell back all in one day... not a bad day's work! :-)

Sitting and waiting

I'm sitting in the computer lab waiting for my dvd to burn so I can be DONE with this dumb technology class. HALLELUJAH! It's been good because it has forced me to get Clayton to teach me to use things like a computer, but let's be honest. I've learned WAY more from Clayton than from my teacher. Good thing Clayton's patient with me...

So, today is Taylor's birthday. I had Shannon and Taylor over this morning, so Shannon and I made Taylor french toast with cinnamon raisin bread and peach syrup. This afternoon Taylor and I are going to go running up in the canyon. Tonight we are either going to buy cupcakes from a bakery that has AMAZING cupcakes, or buy milkshakes at Sammy's. That way we don't have to eat an entire cake! :-)

I taught the Charleston to the 5th grade class I teach at the elementary school today. They are learning about pre-WWII era. It was hysterical.

Well my dvd is done. I'm heading home!

Erika

:-(

Have I mentioned how much I hate technology classes that the professor gives you an assignment and on occasion hands out sheets of paper with instructions, but mostly says -- this is the program you should use. Enjoy!

I'm so upset at this.

:-) AND :-(

Clayton left today. :-(
Today is my last day of CLASSES! :-)
I have a mass project to do tonight. :-(
I'm going to make muffins while I do it though! :-)
My house is a wreck. :-(
I'll have a tiny tiny bit of extra time to clean it this week, if I quit offering to do extra things. :-)-ish
I'm STARVING!!! :-(
I have dancEnsemble class time at 3 pm and we are all getting treated to free lunch at costa vida! :-)
I have to be patient for 7 days... :-(
But, THEN, I get to go to TENNESSEE!

Wo zui xihuan Tiannasi! (for the record that is a phonetic spelling of the Chinese for, "I like Tennessee the best!")

I think that's everything. I'm too hungry to think... I'll guess I'll have to go lay around somewhere and whimper that I need food right now or I will die. (In chinese you can say that really easily. Wo e si le. I'm so hungry I'm going to die). If I was a problem solver, however, I would go visit the vending machine and buy crackers. Too many choices. And my final :-), I set a new record for my self today! 2 miles in 16:45! I don't think I'll ever beat Clayton's 3 miles in 17:30, but for a girl, 2 miles in under 17 is respectable, right?

Erika

I'm really not a bad student

So, I'm in the middle of my technology class. I feel like I'm so sneaky and terrible for blogging in class. But let's be honest, I can't figure out how to adequately use the programs that we have at school, and Clayton has the same or better programs on his PC at home -- so I work on my projects at home with Clayton helping me every step of the way. I really don't like the macs at school. Mac's confuse me. Also I'm super afraid my teacher will walk by. lol.

I am super incredibly afraid of the dark. It's really interesting. I'm not a real scaredy cat but whenever I'm alone and it's dark, no matter where I am, I am freaked out. I'm not looking forward to when Clayton leaves next Tuesday... But at least for the first week I am forcing Taylor and my friend Shannon to stay with me. Now to find someone who will still be around the last week of April that will come stay with me...Or let me stay on their couch. As long as I'm not alone, I don't care. Okay, I'm going to pretend to be useful again!

Saturday

Clayton and I had the most awesome day today. I woke him up at eight when I wanted to go to the bathroom but couldn't because when I went earlier during the night I decided to lock the door as I walked out (I do that a lot and I have no idea why -- weird). He opened it with a screwdriver. Then we layed in bed and watched an episode of Chuck. It's my favorite tv show. (Of the two that I on occasion watch -- after they come out on dvd). Clayton's favorite is Psych. They're both awesome. Then, we went running, watched conference, and made breakfast (waffles for him, french toast for me -- I wanted french toast and he doesn't like it), watched more conference, studied Chinese and went to work. We both worked 2-7 (well he worked 2-7:30). Why was it an awesome day? I have no idea. But I didn't do any school work! YAY!

Now I'm going to go end my day with some repentance in the school work area. I find that I would much rather go to work than do my homework. Why is that? Any ideas?

5 more minutes

How does five minute blogging sound? Everytime I decide I have five extra minutes when I'm at a computer (that is NOT often), I can type up a blog for all five people who read my blog to enjoy... PERFECT! So, I fixed my problems from Friday! YAY! I am so excited! Oh I haven't announced this yet to the world, so here goes... I am changing my major from Dance Performance to Dance Education. This master plan will add two additional school years to Clayton and my stay in utah. :-( However, I will have almost an entire year taking pretty minimal credits so that Clayton and I have more play time -- we're stuck because of class progression requirements and classes only being offered in the fall. But then, we are going to come back to Tennessee -- where we have decided we belong. So in the long run, more time in Utah but we get back to Tennessee faster. YAY! By the way, I love teaching dance. It is my favorite. Period. And I really miss teaching aerobics. I need to just start a class for fun on Saturday mornings at my ward building or something... I wonder if people would come? I wonder if Clayton would hate me for coming up with one more great thing to do before 9 am on a Saturday morning? Well, there's my five minutes of rambling. I'm done.

Erika

BLah!

I've had such a crappy day today. I just want to hide in a corner and pretend the world doesn't exist. And once Clayton gets home he can come find me and bring me ice cream. Peanut butter flavored. Can you believe it randomly snowed for 10 minutes today right when I was trying to film a video for my class? I can't decide it that will be a blessing of added interest or a curse of the weather not matching up in all the shots. Oh well. Lame post, I know -- but I'm in 15 minute parking and I've used up 13 of those.