Escalante

Tanner and I went down to Escalante State Park in Southern Utah with my family a couple of weeks ago. We went during reading days because really, who uses reading days...well I don't at least. It was a blast.
We got super burnt and walked for miles. The slot canyons were amazing. Peek-a-boo, Spooky which Cami combined and called, "spookie-boo". We had to squeeze through small spaces:


Many times we thought we'd get stuck.
We walked across barren waste lands and got extremely burnt. Tanner and I were peeling even weeks after.

Camping was lovely. We had grilled steak and
Tanner is a hard worker.


So here is our trip in pictures. There are quite a few-I apologize for the photo overload!















It was a lovely trip! :)

Today I...

We're having a party of sorts tonight. This mostly means my mom and I are making delicious homemade corn cakes topped with shredded pork, avocado, tomato, etc and amazing, heavenly, homemade, slow roasted green salsa. It is to die for.

I spent this morning laying outside with my dad, mom, and cute little Jack soaking in the sun. We just chatted for a while about life and it was oh so relaxing.

I went shopping and remembered how great Costco was. I can not wait to have my own membership and to shop there for my family. Weird. The other day, Tanner said to me "you were born to be a mother". I think that was the nicest compliment anyone has ever given me. Speaking of, I can't wait for Mother's Day. I love planning a wedding mostly because my mother is amazing. We get to put our heads together and our creativity sky rockets. She's so patient and sweet and I am just really glad we have bridesmaids dresses finally done. Wedding planning is something we get to do together and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to get closer with her. I love any chance I can get to learn from her and she never ceases to amaze me.

Well, it's my turn to start on that shredded pork-I'm switching to pandora to get some mexican music going. It's gonna be a party in the kitchen!

Soon to come...
engagement pictures
escalante trip
New Hampshire trip
I know. You're excited. :)

fyi

I'm going to New Hampshire today.
And I'm really excited :)

Music, sweet music

My last post was dripping with negativity and a bad attitude. I feel weird keeping that up there and for using this blog as a way to let off steam. I guess it transformed into my journal for the day. But I should have never said those negative things about my professor and the class. I am very grateful for my education and that I even have the opportunity to go to classes. Most people don't.
I'm sorry.
SO! Let's have something a little more happy shall we?
MUSIC
I got the Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD "Love at Home" for Christmas and I think I have listened to it every day for two weeks now. It is beautiful. I love the peace it brings into my apartment and can not wait until I can play it in my future home.
I also love classical music. I have two gorgeous classical CD's I inherited from my Aunt Berda when she passed away a year and a half ago and always listen to those after "love at home".
I am so grateful that music has the ability to calm and invite the spirit. I have never been one who's been up on the latest bands, or even listen's to the popular radio stations. I've only been to two concerts in my life, N'SYNC (anna, remember the dancing water?) and The Fray (I was on a date and knew like two of their songs--*awkward*). I listen to Mr. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and the like. Michael Buble is like the most modern music I listen to. The most rock n' roll I get is with music my dad listened to growing up. I remember being really really little listening to "separate ways" by Journey and deciding that it was my favorite song ever. It secretly still is. I love belting that baby out. Michael Jackson also stole my heart with his music.
Here's my point, and you may disagree. A lot of music right now, on the radio is hard to classify as music. It's hard to listen to and hard to sit down and enjoy. There's great stuff when you want to go running, music when you want to get pumped up and even stuff for dancing/warming up for dance classes. That's how I'm exposed to modern music-when I'm warming up for PAC.
Is my hair still brown or do i see flecks of gray? I remember going and visiting my cousin Rosie. I not only looked up to her for having a billion hamsters, the coolest sketch books, or the best paper dolls (Adele? was that her name?). I loved her stacks of CD's and when she strummed on the guitar. I remember asking for a guitar that year for Christmas because I wanted to play "kiss me" just like she did. I got the guitar-just three years too late :) But she could sing like no one else and I loved sitting and just listening to her beautiful voice.
Music is powerful and can motivate a person to do a lot of things. Those things can either be bad or good...so be careful of what you're listening to.

And on goes my MoTab....

my rant and rave

I just went to my final for my Design in the Home class.
BLAHHHHHHHH
It was just a little tour of my professor's home and then we picked up our graded big projects. I pulled of a glamorous c-.
Here's the story. We had a blank floor plan. We had to design all of it, color it with $40 colored pencils and then mount it very nicely on a board. We also had to get samples of flooring, paint, and pictures of how we envisioned our lovely homes. Correction: how we envisioned our professor's lovely home.
During the class, people would constantly be going up to the professor and asking if he liked this color, or if he liked this carpet choice. They wanted to know what his opinion was because he was grading it.
Let me back up to the first day of class:
"This class is graded solely on creativity. I want to look at your design and be inspired. You will be graded on your talent."
Talent and creativity according to who? So people would pick colors that they knew he would like. They would use marble and place built in bookshelves so he would like them.
Because I will be designing a home in the future that my professor lives in? I don't think so.

So I decided something. As my classmates went to class every morning and waiting patiently in line to get his feedback and find out if he liked what he had chosen, I mean, what they had chosen to design. I slept. I didn't go to class and I did my project on my own time. I colored it the way I wanted. I chose paint samples that I liked and flooring that I thought was practical and pretty. I liked the feel of my board and the way I shaded my couches.

He did not.

I'm not here at BYU to try and please my professors just to get a good grade. I'm not here to design the perfect home for him either. I didn't go and spend $50 dollars on my mounting board like he said I would need to. I bought it for $3. I wasn't going to pay for my grade, nor grovel at his feet just so I could get a good grade.
I love education and learning. I just don't love the game we have to play to get good grades.

It's who you know...

Someone asked me today if I was from Minnesota--because he thought I had an accent? This was at the grocery story, after I had talked to my mom for a while. Then he told me to tell my mom hi. It was weird.

I have a project due tomorrow and I needed something from the bookstore. Like...the board to mount it on. It closed at six. I have class until six. It made me sad. I almost bought a wrap at L&T but decided that I needed to save that six bucks for my future married life. Then I went to the grocery story. I spent nine. Ironic.

Today we went and looked at a pretty little basement apartment and it was just right for us. Don't you love how things just always seem to fall into place sometimes? Beautiful really, those tender mercies from the Lord.

But I would not have found this lovely place if it weren't for the people I knew. I remember the first time someone told me, "it's not what you know, but who you know". I remember being really really angry and deciding that I would prove him wrong and never ask anyone for a job or whatnot. I also remember my friend asking me (before I made the touring folk dance team), if I had started to suck up yet. I thought that was absurd. I wanted my talent to get me on the team...and don't worry I didn't suck up and it took me two years to get on...

But this statement is generally true. I've learned it's not a bad thing either. Here are some examples:

My uncle works at BYU, we're printing out invitations at BYU with a nice little discount. This isn't bad
We found that nice little apartment through my mom's friend's sister in law...blessing.
Our dear friend Cody is letting us borrow his car this summer while he's in Alaska...again, tender mercy

So my point.

I have no shame in what I'm about to ask. Tanner and I need jobs. But we only need them for the month of May. So if you know of anything that is temporary or whatnot...could you just let us know? Thanks.

And it's really nice to know you.

Circles

I'm in the library again.

I am irked by the level of noise that surrounds me.

I have to do a presentation on an assigned artist for Humanities. I was semi dreading this but it proved to be a wonderful experience. Remarkable really. It's the reason I'm writing this post.

Wassily Kandinsky was his name. I won't go into his biography or anything but he was the man. Modern and abstract was his specialty and he was an art theorist. He believed that color and form had the ability to penetrate the human soul. He wanted there to be a connection between artist and viewer and believed that certain shapes and certain colors communicated different things.
I always viewed modern art as sometimes strange. I want to hear what the artist is saying when I look at a piece of work. I have felt the spirit through dance, music, and the written word but never through a painting.

I had to pick one piece of art to represent my friend Wassily. Just one. And he has so many. All of them were loud and weird and I thought-how in the world am I going to explain this man to my class in three minutes through this one painting I have to choose. I found one.

Wassily wanted the viewer to experience something when they looked at his work. I experienced something when I saw this.


http://www.wassilykandinsky.net/work-49.php

Wassily said, “the circle is the most peaceful shape and represents the human soul”.
I believe it.