Spring Cleaning

i decided i needed a "mini makeover." so i've made a few changes in my life.

-this whole thing started when i decided to start flossing 6 weeks before my dentist appointment so that i could honestly tell her that i really DO floss! and now i love flossing.
- bought crest whitening strips (i LOVE these things). i used them once about 5 years ago in bible college, and thought it was time to do it again.
-i dyed my hair back to my favorite color, blonde. i'm happiest this way.
-i've been drinking way more water. my water bottle comes with me everywhere.
-i've been tanning again. i love a bit of a tan. and i love GOING tanning. it's so relaxing and warm.
-i bought biore pore strips or whatever they're called - you know, you stick 'em to your nose and let it harden like paper mache and RIP it off! it's so neat!!!
-i actually use a toner before bedtime. i wonder if this is a waste of money?
-most importantly, for the 3rd time this year (haha), hitting the gym again. i love love love the gym once i'm there, but i make up a million excuses before i get there. lynnel is a very faithful partner, and we go together all the time.
-i have wearing way less make up - today i didn't wear any at all. This is amazing, as i have never ever gone to work or school wearing zero make-up, and it felt kind of nice! i like make-up, and i like putting it on and everything, but i also want to know i can feel comfortable with myself not wearing any.
-i'm trying to consume less sugar, especially after supper. i am always hungry after supper, and i don't know why! i love to eat cereal at night... this hasn't stopped yet :)

so those are my little changes. i hope that they make me a bit healthier. i'm hoping that some of them give me some more energy, as that has been seriously lacking lately. energy and motivation. most of them are little things that probably no one would ever notice, except for me and that's okay. the next life changes i need to make will involve organizing my life and having better time management. i really need to get my stuff organized as all of my things (files, school notes, money, papers, clothes, pictures, books, bills) are slightly out of control! my room is so bad that i almost need another flood to get it all cleaned up again. (i'm pretty sure last june i told everyone that the flood guaranteed me to be clean and organized with everything in rubbermaid... hasn't happened).

maybe when i've got all the little things under control i will be better able to make some more serious decisions, i.e what to do with my life and where i am going with it.

i feel like i'm being my own life coach! (a real life coach however, would never tell their client to write blogs instead of writing essays!!!). i'm definitely on my way to "spring cleaning" anyway.

***if anyone has any suggestions of little things they do that make them feel good about themselves, leave me a comment! i'd really love to hear some other ideas of what YOU do for YOU.***

i'm here!

nobody has been blogging lately, it rather stinks. i haven't been very faithful either. but school is almost over and then maybe i'll have something to say other than talk about essays and such. i haven't been leading a very interesting life lately, so that too makes it difficult for interesting blogging! lately i've enjoyed "picture blogging"... but i haven't used my camera since chad's bday, so there goes that idea too :) i should post the email chad sent me regarding my last post about his bday. maybe i'll copy and paste it here, because its quite funny:

"Fabulous...just Fabulous....fantastic blog...I thank you...what a perfect tribute...it makes me want to randomly take pictures of myself puckering up...and then sew together some kind of a made up plot that doesn't actually exist but looks really convincing to those not in attendance. I couldn't have fabricated a greater progression of photos myself...well done."

Ohhh my friend Chad, you do make me laugh! I hope Chad doesn't mind that I just put that on my blog, seeing as it was part of an email he sent. I'm sure he'll tough it up.

So it really is essay writing time at the U. I am always amazed at the extremely important things I find that I must do before I sit down and write the paper. Last week, in the midst of my 20 page anthropology paper (which only ended up being 16 pages cuz I totally ran out of steam), I felt the undying urge to clean the keyboard with q-tips. Honestly people, I could run a keyboard-cleaning business with the pro-job I did! I spent a very long time doing it, and I have to say, the keyboard is in the best shape of its life. Last week I also managed to clean two bathrooms, scanned random pictures, made a MSN My Space because I don't have enough of those types of things, looked up becoming a flight attendant for West Jet, watched plenty of home decorating shows, and wasted wasted wasted my time. I was telling Lynnel last week how I have changed the words to Gretchen Wilsons "Home-wrecker" song to "Time Waster". I sing "oh you're such a... tiiiiiiiiiiime waster!" many times throughout the day. yep.

So that's that. 2 more essays to go, 33 more pages to write. I can't wait!

(I have to admit, i wrote this while on page 3 of "how are women, water and poverty intertwined?") 'oh you're such a.....'

Friday March 3

Gearing up to pucker up....

A little practice makes perfect...

Happy 25th Birthday CHAD!
(kisses from me and lynnel)

old mcdonald had a farm

And on that farm there was a......

snowmobile????

well there certainly is on Jeff's farm :) we had lots of fun. even though it's very life threatening. at least it feels life threatening to me.

anyways, i just thought i'd post a picture from spring break and jeff and i went to the farm. i can't believe i didn't take any pictures of the little animals there!!! what was i thinking? there were several little cute calfs (calves? i don't know, little baby cows!!!) that were born that weekend. i was too scared to go pet them because i didn't want the mom cows to charge at me. one was seriously giving me the evil eye... i didn't want to get near her, and i had to get past her to go pet the other babies, so i just decided to look from afar. i still thought they were cute. one cow was trying to get her new baby to get up on its feet, but he just kept falling back down into the hay. so cute!

Be Mine, Valentine!

(Thank you Jeff!)

yesterday i had my night class and my biggest presentation of the year. when i got to the university, i stopped at tim horton's for a tea and i didn't have enough for a large, but the girl didn't care, and she gave it to me anyway. that was so nice! funny thing is, i did have a $10 bill in my wallet, but she didn't see that. i didn't want to break it, just for 25 cents!

anyway then i went to my class, and i think our presentation went really well. i was nervous up until the time that i actually had to talk, and once i started i felt just fine. i pretended like i was talking to lynnel, or my mom. :) really, i did that!!! it was a conscious decision, and it helped me. (lynnel will be so happy to hear that!). plus i think my tea drinking made me feel nice and calm inside. so i should get my mark back some time this week.

right after my presentation, the fire alarm started going off. at first, we were all just sort of trying to ignore it, but then when we saw all the other classes leaving the building, we all packed up, and stood outside for 10 minutes, before we decided to just go to the health sciences building and finish up class there. we went to the cafeteria there and thought how nice it would be to have class there every week. it's all set up with round booths around a round table, and its so casual. another girl did her presentation in there, and i was thinking she was so lucky because we were all in there with our feet up and lounging so comfy. but she was so super nervous, she had the whole shaky hand thing going on, which is the ultimate indicator of nervousness. i'd WAY rather have shaky voice than shaky hands.

anyway, i can't tell you how much better i feel having that over with. my presentation was all about HIV/AIDS and how it specifically affects women and girls. this topic is my absolute favoritist topic in all development. not that it makes me happy, b/c it's so sad, but that i find it so interesting, and it's incredibly vital. so anyway, it's all over now!

next week is reading week. i am working full time Monday to Wednesday, and then i have two glorious days off. not that they will be glorious, because i truly have great plans to write TWO full essays. i need a topic for one of them yet. anything to do with western world religions - Judaism, Christianity or Islam. does anyone have any questions about one of these religions that i could perhaps to do a little research for?

so this weekend isn't too exciting. jeff and i were going to go with jenna and kyle to the mansion-cabin this weekend but it didn't work out, sadly. kayden called me this morning, asking for me specifically, to ask me if he could go see baby Ashton (his cousin - on the other side of the family, obviously). i was like, ummmm sure? jenna didn't know why he felt like he specifically needed to ask his auntie kristin if it was okay but i gave him my blessing to go see baby Ashton.

well, i realize i haven't been the greatest blogger of all time lately, but i will try to pick it up again! as for now, i'm getting back to work.

have a great weekend!

agriculture students have it good

i just took a big walk from the arts building to kirk hall, only to find the girl i was meeting there not in her office, but off to an early lunch. wow. i had to look up a map on the university website just to find kirk hall, and secondly to map out my route there. i had to go from arts, to thorvaldson to geology to biology to agriculture to kirk hall, and not once did i have to venture outside. there are some things i love at this university! it was an interesting walk because rarely to i go into any other building besides arts and sometimes thorvaldson. geology is the building with all the dinosaurs in their lobby (and also a relatively new tim horton's which i was even more excited to see than the dinosaurs). but the ag building is really something. it is by far the nicest building on campus. i guess i do live in saskatchewan. its got this huge open lobby with beautiful greenery and trees and you can look up and see all the classrooms around, four or five stories high. and the whole thing is tinted green glass windows. and a glass elevator right in the center. the hallways are lined with paintings and pictures of farming landscapes and plants and animals and stuff. it's really a beautiful building. all the classrooms have brand new tables and matching black plastic chairs. i was hoping to see a couple of straight-from-the-farm boys with their oversized fertilizer company caps and flannel shirts and tapered, too tight wranglers, but alas i didn't see any of them. yah actually i didn't really see anybody, probably b/c it was right in between classes. anyway today i marvelled at all the learning there is to be had and how there are thousands and thousands of students here all engaged in some sort of specified learning subject and i'm just little me. i'm not learning about chemistry (i'm not asian afterall), or dinosaur bones or about plant cells or about genetically modified seed varieties or any of that important stuff. all these people have a career to look forward to after four years of university. well i hope they realize how lucky they are, that they did well in high school science. if i had really enjoyed grade 12 biology or had tried a little harder in chemistry, would i be one of these smart people? i realize i am now rambling, which doesn't actually make for good blogs, so sorry. i just continually find myself analyzing my choice of international development and hope that i will find something interesting and sucessful as well. i'm pretty sure i didn't come here to become a full time volunteer for the rest of my life.
anyway, the point of this blog is that the agriculture students have a damn nice building.

second semester

i have some time here so i thought i'd write a bit about my classes. i was inspired by carmen's comments about wanting to know what else i am taking, and also by megan's blog, who wrote about a very weird experience she had involving spicy chick peas and a professor who decided not to wear the costume he brought because it showed to much skin. ahem. very interesting?! those trinity westerners...... they pay 3 times the tuition but they sure get interesting learning experiences!

my classes are not nearly as eventful. as we all know i am taking my third course in spanish which perhaps i should take a new and more positive view on. the prof spends most of the class moving from person to person asking them questions that everyone else seems to know the answer to, except for me and the girl beside me. i should sit with someone more spanish smart. i am gonna try a little bit harder from now on, and make sure i do my homework and study.

secondly i have world religions which i don't really have anything to say about.

thirdly i have cultural anthropology which is going to be okay i think. we don't have an actual textbook, but instead, three novels written by anthropologists that are about three different cultures - natives, inuits and drug dealers in east harlem. our midterm is a take home book report on these three books. how easy is that? i've started the drug dealer one and its quite good. definitely a different world view, that's for sure.

i am still in history of the third world. first semester was all about events that have happened which didn't seem to have anything to do with development, but this semester we're getting into the goods, like economic theory and people/institutions who have shaped third world policies, and the underdevelped world, and why we think half the world is in poverty and if we think development is working. very interesting stuff, i'm loving this class this semester.

finally i am in a sociology class, women and development. there are only 16 people in the class, which is great and bad at the same time. i like to hide out in class and take it all in, but as years go on, i am put in these types of situations where i have to have an opinion and i have to be part of the discussion or else i am viewed as the girl who doesn't have any opinion... which is not really a good rep to have among your fellow students in university, and also not true of me at all. i do have quite an opinion on the things we talk about, but in my first two years of university i didn't have much opportunity to express it, and suddenly this year, so many of my classes are discussion classes, and here i am, not so good at presenting and not so hot at discussion. well i gotta get used to that, and i gotta get used to it fast, b/c i have plenty of presentations coming up. i'm getting better. anyway its a night class, and not only is it a night class, it's a THURSDAY night class which means no more O.C. and no more ER. unless i find someone to tape it for me... luckily, Survivor and the Apprentice are over for this season so i won't be missing out on them.

so that is my semester. i have been using time wisely, and i have 2 hours on mon, wed and fri to go to the PAC gym which makes me feel good about me. they gym will do that to you, you know.

i wish i had something terribly interesting to say about my classes, like megan did, but unfortunately my saskatchewan educational institute just doesn't do it like trinity!!!

Some Christmas photos

I love this little kitty, her name is Blue. So sweet.

I love kittys and Christmas trees.

(RIP Edwin hehe)

Jeff and I at dinner on New Years Eve

The "little-ist" and the "biggest" grandkids - me and Destiny
(and her Bratz doll of course)

espanol RANT and RAVE!

oh MY school has started again with a big bang boom. i started it all off with fricken SPANISH of alllllllllllll classes. i am DREADING IT!!!! i've already failed it once!!! first of all, it's at EIGHT FREAKING THIRTY in the morning. second of all, the one friend that i have in this class was not there this morning. this fact terrifies me . thirdly, he went through the class asking random questions and i have no idea what he is saying and all i can do is look down and pray to God he will not ask me how big my family is or what my major in school is or how i'm freaking doing today!!!!! AAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH! i can figure out the question and i can answer it, but it takes me 18 minutes to do it before i'm ready to answer!!!!!!! fourthly of all (hehe maybe i should take an english class) i thought i was so awesome because i was gonna borrow lynnel's text book from her 114 class which SHOULD be the same for 117 except this year he decided to CHANGE it and i just went and spent $145 on a new TEXT BOOK for a class i DESPISE!!!!!! i'm just dying people, i don't think i'm gonna make it. again.

that is all i have to say for now.