Haircuts and Happiness

A month or two ago, I made a pact with Becca not to cut my hair. She's trying to grow her's out, and I wanted to be supportive, so I've been resisting the urge to cut my hair for about a week and a half. But, Becca cut her bangs, which I consider a total loophole in the pact. So, I made an appointment on Saturday to get my layers shortened. I kept the longest length about the same, but everything else is shorter. I'm completely loving it! When I'm hope I'll take pictures (just for you tina:)). Pretty much since then I've been in a super happy good mood and I'm fairly certain that it's because the excitement of my new, awesome haircut just hasn't worn off yet. Hooray for new hair!!!

99 Red Balloons Ain't Got Nothing On Me

While I was living at Heritage, Kristi would frequently call on me to retrieve coupons from the Sunday papers delivered to the Central Building. Yesterday, I told her that I could probably still get the paper there if she ever wanted it. She called me on my way home asking if I could grab one for her, so I stopped by. Becca was working the desk and she told me that the guy who opened just put them all in the recycling since usually no one comes for them. I went outside to find both newspaper recycling bins (the big blue ones) with tons of Sunday papers spilling out of them! I hastily moved them all to my car; they filled the back seat. I estimate that we had close to 35 Sunday newspapers, if not more. Talk about savings!

Job

As the deadlines for midterms and papers start drawing near, I'm finding myself super busy with my job. While it's great and I love it, it's a little stressful. I've got students not turning in papers, skipping class, and wanting extra study sessions. They turned in their first paper about a week and a half ago, so I got to grade for the first time. Even that is a little unnerving. I'm only grading them on grammatical and formatting stuff, but I'm always afraid that I'll grade them too harshly or go too easy on them. For the most part, they've all been fine, but a few have been really awful and it makes me feel terrible to have to give them bad grades. I'm just thankful I don't have to worry about grading them for content! On top of trying to finish up the grading, I've been put in charge of leading an in class study session for their upcoming first test. I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to do it, it's just so much to cover in only a 50 minute period! And to add more to the pile, I'm rewriting a chunk of the test and adding more questions to it. So in other words, YIKES! But, even with all of this to do, it's still a ton of fun and I love what we're studying.

Socks

Most of you know that most of my socks have holes in them. For months and months, and sometimes longer, I've just kept on wearing them. No more! On Saturday I did my laundry at Kristi's and recruited Allie to help me find all of my socks with holes and throw them away. Sadly, it was probably about half of my socks....

These Boot Were Meant For Torture

On Saturday I bought some boots. They were $30, which I'm told is a great price for boots.
On Wednesday I ran out of jeans. Usually I wear one pair a week, but my scheduling got off, so what was supposed to be this weeks pair got too stretched to stay put properly. My khakis are also dirty. I decided to wear dress pants, but since it was raining (I literally woke up to the thunder. It was awesome!) I had to wear heels. I figure, why not wear my great new boots! So I do. First thing I notice is that they are quite noisy. However, it's the kinda cool authoritative sound, like I'm an angry principal going to bust the child deviant. By the time I get to my second class, I've noticed something else: my feet hurt. When I get to my third class, I tell Cami that my feet are killing me. After my last class, Cami and I meet up again. My first sentence to her: "My feet feel like pain." And it was true. By this point, they were hurting a lot. Once I got to my office, they came off and stayed off until I had to go to the testing center. As soon as I got home, I went to the gym. When I am finally home to stay, I take off my sock to find that my toes were so compacted that one of my toenails had gouged my other toe. Ouch.

Four Square

Yesterday was our first FHE with our official groups. Just like last year, we've got one guy apartment and two girl apartments. We were, however, greatly outnumbered by the guys last night since another guy apartment didn't know what they were doing and spontaneously joined us and a recent acquaintance of Bernice's came (long story short, she met him about five days ago and now we're working on bringing him back to the church). Anyways, we went through introductions then an interesting lesson about the word of wisdom then, ironically, root beer floats! Everyone left after that piled into cars and drove over to a big, empty parking lot. We measured to make squares with the parking spaces and laid down some duct tape and BAM! FOUR SQUARE!!! The last time I remember playing four square was around fourth grade, but it was a blast! We played individually for a while before switching to teams with two per square. Then, we lost a few more and created six square. The "king" got to make rules, like dictating which body parts were allowed and that you had to make animal noises every time you touched the ball. The night definitely hit its peak when I got hit in the face with the ball. Man, I love FHE. And I love four square!

Coming Soon

Tina gave me a call the other day and told me that I don't post enough pictures of myself on my blog. I'm sure those who read tina's blog will agree with my retort, which was that she doesn't post enough of Holly and Claire either! Consequently, I promised her that I would post a "Jana's First Year of College" set of photos. So, as soon as I have time, which may be a while from now since Education Week is checking in today and I'm moving next week, I'll get right on it.

Two Guys in a Car and a Hamerburger Run

It's been awhile since I posted, so I started thinking about anything interesting I could write about. I suddenly remembered a funny experience that I'd meant to blog about before my computer got mad at me.

A few weeks ago, Kira and I had had a bad day. We both were working til midnight and needed a pick-me-up when the day finally ended. And what could be a better pick me up than a western cheese burger without the cheese from Carl's Jr.(if you haven't had one, stop reading and go try it. It is absolutely the best burger I have ever had!)? On our way back, we got stopped at a light and heard some guys yelling at us from the next car back. I figured they were just being idiots, but when the light turned green, I rolled my window down just a little to hear them. They pulled up next to us and started yelling again. It took me a second to figure out that they were saying "Idaho?" before I enthusiastically rolled down my window and said, "Yeah! Idaho!!!" (you'd be surprised how very few people from Idaho there are down here, so it really was that exciting). Anyways, we drove side by side the whole way us the hill. When I told them I needed to be in their lane, Dexter (the driver) pulled in front of us then slowed down so we were still driving together until I had to turn. Needless to say, Kira and I were seriously amused. While Kristi thinks we should have gotten their numbers, I think it's much funnier to just a have an incredibly random experience with complete strangers that I'll never see again. Only in Utah!

Hairy, Harry Situation

Yesterday was packed. My day started out with a cut. Unlike he promised, Levi couldn't convince himself to wake up early enough to come with me for my haircut. So, I went by my lonesome and got my hair all chopped off. Most of you reading will probably see me soon enough, but I'll still tell you a little about it. It falls just above my shoulders now and, in the usual style, I got it relayered. Thankfully I listened to the rational part of my brain that told me hair shrinks when it dries when the lady asked if I wanted to take more off the bottom! When everything was done and my hair dried, I was pretty ok with what I saw. Unfortunately the salon supervisor kinda killed it when she told me that it looked like Jennifer Aniston's hair (I really don't care for Jennifer Aniston). Kristi says that since Jennifer Aniston has basically had every hairstyle known to man and then some, no matter what I did, it could be qualified as Jennifer Aniston hair, so I guess I had no choice. In any case, my hair is cut now!

After that, I had to go to work for a while. Once that was all done, Becca and I left to go do one of my favorite things. Any guesses??? If you thought Give blood, you're spot on!!! Becca has never donated before, so I dragged her with me. The first time they did the finger prick, I was too low on iron. I was at a 11.9 and needed a 12.5. The guys said that we could try my other hand and went to get someone. I started thinking, What is Bec and I both get deferred? That would be awful. At this point, I'd been building myself up to give blood for almost a week and really, really wanted to do it. So I sent up a quiet prayer that I'd be able to give. My second finger prick put my iron at 12.5 exactly. I was so happy!!! I finished up the preliminary stuff and went back to find Becca sitting at the recovery tables. She'd been deferred. Apparently, iron deficiency runs in her family. We're going to try again with her though. I donated and then we went to Panda.

I had one more work shift, 9 to midnight. When I was finally off, Levi, Kira, and I piled into Levi's car and drove to the University Cinemark. We waited in line for two hours to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at 3:30 in the morning. We played a few games and Kira gave Levi and me dark mark tattoos. Kira actually dressed up as Fleur Delacour (I can't remember if I spelled that right). We got out of the theater at 6:15, just after dawn. We came home and ate cereal before we all split up to sleep. Poor Kira had to work at 8 though. I woke up at 11:20ish, an hour before I had to be back at work. The new hair definitely cut back on my normal time, and I was able to get completely ready in an hour. Unfortunately, since I slept this morning, I still haven't packed to go home tonight. I think I'll just pack during my roving shift.

Thus ends the excitement of my yesterday. Tonight, the drive home!

A Shopping Spectacular

Today (Monday - my computer is broken so I can't blog except when at work. Consequently, my timelines get all messed up!) I went shopping. The whole trip began this morning when I was checking in EFY kids and my friend CA Levi came in. He told me that he found gum stuck to his khakis and consequently needed new pants. So, in between my two desk shift that day, we went to the mall.

We both got some really awesome deals. Within five minutes of walking inside, Levi found a pair of sunglasses for ten bucks. While that may not seem great at first, it's important to note that we were in Nordstrom's. So, that was our first find. Then we got khakis which were regularly priced at $45 for $15. Next, Maurices was having their red tag sale (75% off everything, even the clearance stuff)! I got a shirt for just over five dollars.



Now, before you get too excited about all of our great finds, there's more. I've saved the best for very last. Levi really likes argyle. And Levi found a sweater. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I think I'll just let it speak for itself. Enjoy ;)

p.s. Thanks go out to Kira for holding the shirt in this photo.

Haircut

Recently I've been thinking about getting my hair cut - recently being since about yesterday. And instead of doing what I normally do, brood over whether or not I'm making the right decision and freaking out everytime I think about what I'm considering doing, I made the appointment today. By lunch time tomorrow, my hair will be very different. My friend Levi said he wanted to come with me, so at least I'll have a support group. YIKES!

Homeward Bound

This post will be short and sweet. For the first time since February...

I'M GOING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FOR A WEEK AND A HALF!!!!!!!!!!

Bikes and Bruises

So, yesterday I rode my bike for the first time. I've now discovered all of it's flaws (but considering I got it for free and delivered and can probably fix them isn't a big deal)! The seat won't stay up, so the whole time I was on it, my legs were kinda squished. Surprising, I know, since my legs are pretty short. I can't even imagine how Mark rode it! But hopefully Danny, another CA, will be able to help me fix that and my loose front wheel. I'm also pretty sure my bum is bruised. The seat is really really hard. Luckily, there is an abandoned bike right outside of my back door with a cushy seat cover which I will steal. It was still pretty fun riding a bike again. It's been so long that I'm still a little overly cautious. I slow down a lot on corners. And yes Dad, I wore my helmet.

Blood and Guts... well, maybe just blood

I think we all know I'm a little weird. As evidence, I love giving blood. I mean seriously LOVE it. I get so excited when I hear about drives going on and even more so when I sign up for them. About a week and a half ago I made an appointment to go the American Red Cross Blood Donation Center in Orem to give blood today (While it's technically Friday, this applies to Thursday). All week I've been telling the other CAs how excited I was to give blood. I went up to Orem, got lost trying to find the place, eventually had to call someone else to get the place's phone number, called the Center, and found it. When I finally got to the "we're now going to stab you with a needle" station, my technician's marker was running low. Instead of getting a new one, she decided to just to push really hard. You know when you're trying to get a pen to work so you just make circles really hard until it works but then you've dented your paper? That's basically what this woman did to my arm. I donated babies blood for the first time (You can't do it in the traveling drives. They have to use special bags). I filled my bag in 5 1/2 minutes. I was pretty happy. When I was done, the technician (a guy now) yanked the needle out of my arm! My arm is a little sore now and I've still got lines from the marker. It looks like I have a really weird shaped bruise. Having given blood twice in Utah now, I've decided I like doing it better in Idaho. Our technicians are nicer and gentler and nicer. Seriously. These guys were all business. The ones in Idaho were always fun. Plus, we have a better ball to spin to get the blood flowing. Here they want you to squeeze the whole time. That is really painful! You've got a needle stuck in your arm for heaven's sake! Despite their shortcomings, it was still totally worth it. And, p.s., I was so vocal about being excited to go that I convinced Becca, my coworker, to give blood for the first time. We're going in 56 days!

Blast from the Past

In looking for the pictures for the puppy frame I just blogged about, I found some others that would have made good blogging topics had a taken the time to do it. But, I decided that I'd do it now and fill you in on some of my college fun.

The picture I want to tell you about is from Halloween. For an FHE activity, we carved pumpkins. Kira is very talented in the drawing department and I'm very talented in the I-don't-care-if-I-get-super-gross-from-pumpkin-guts department, so we were pretty well suited to working together. We decided to carve the Potter Puppet Pals into our pumpkin. For those who don't know what the Potter Puppet Pals are, Potter Puppet Pals are a series of online videos created by fans of Harry Potter. They're ridiculous and childish, hence why I love them!!! Just google Potter Puppet Pals to watch the shows. Here is our finished product (again, cell phone picture, sorry):


Dumbledore's siloute is in the middle, Harry's on the right, and Ron's on the left. We were pretty proud of our pumpkin and displayed it in our kitchen for a few days until it started to cave in on itself. There you have it. Your very own blast from my past.

Plans

I figure I'll take this opportunity to update on my plans for the coming months. As probably everyone knows by now, I've been offered and have accepted a job down here in Provo working for Heritage Halls. We had our first meeting on last Thursday and I start my 30 hour mandatory training on Tuesday (which I'll be getting paid for). It's nice to know that I'll finally having a steady income again!!! When I finally remember what my new address will be, I'll send it out. I'll be moving into my summer home hopefully on the 25th.

On a different housing note, I signed my contract for fall and winter semesters a week or two ago. Cami and I are going to be living in Centennial Apartments! It wasn't necessarily our first choice, but The Colony was a lit too high for Cami's price range. We decided that we'd save it as a reward for another year. I can't remember if any of the siblings have lived there, but Eric has and he said he liked it. We've liked what we've seen. I guess I should say that it's not like we settled on living here. It was our second choice and has nearly everything we wanted. We can move in on August 20.

I'm also looking into getting a bike. I found a really nice looking one on craigslist that comes with a bunch of extras for $100, but the seller hasn't contacted me again. It's incredibly frustrating when they only give an email address. Well, I think that's all I have to report for now. Happy Conference Day!

Puppy Love

So, on Saturday, Kristi and the kids and I got into the car to go see two garage sales. Allie was pretty excited to buy a toy or two with her money and Lincoln was doing what he usually does - going with the flow. The first one we stopped at was a bust; they'd canceled on account of the weather. The second one didn't have very much either. But, I did pick up a new pitcher (mine having been stolen/lost by my roommates). I also found this picture frame.


I battled with myself for a while about whether or not I should actually get it, but when I remembered the picture of Cassi on her graduation day, I knew I had to get it. And today, I filled it all in. I attached the individual pictures I put in it because the picture isn't very high quality, a cell phone being the only tool I have with which to take pictures. Anyways, I suppose the whole purpose of this post, besides retelling my brief weekend adventure is, I loves my puppy dog.... And all of my siblings should get a dog... or dogs. (p.s. I'm not kidding)

As Asked For

Well, here it is. A picture of Kira's new hair.

I'm the new cancer

So, I know that I haven't posted for a while - a very very long while (And sorry about the underlining. I couldn't shut it off). But I did today something fun today and decided that it was a good excuse to start blogging again. My roommate, Kira, decided that in honor of St. Patrick's Day tomorrow that she would dye her hair red. After the first go around, I got rid of the gloves I'd been using since I figured that I wouldn't need them anymore. We dried her hair off a bit to see how it looked and found that she needed some touching up. I decided that I'd just use my hands without the gloves. Well, the dye turned out to stain more than I had anticipated. So now I look like I've got really really bad psoriasis or something. The worst part is that tomorrow is a Tuesday and that means I've got Book of Mormon. Every day in class my teacher asks me to conduct for the opening song. So my whole class will see my disfigured hands. Needless to say, I intend to wear gloves.