Missing Australia

 

I wish I could be back in Australia.  I dont like these finals looming over me.

 I miss my big brother, Mark.  On big trips we used to be partners cuz we were the only ones not married.  I am glad we both married awesome people though.  :)  I like my roomie now 

 I miss the koala that I pet.  He was a cool guy..pretty chill

 OH AUSTRALIA.  Let me go back someday..this time with Brian!

Finals, you are not my favorite

March 25 Blizzard

March 25th, what a day!  I woke up startled by my alarm clock going off.  I couldn't figure out why it was going off in the middle of the night.  I grabbed my phone and looked.  It was indeed 6:45 and time to start waking up.  You know what though?  It wasn't even light outside, so i pressed that snooze button.  Finally after 6 snoozes, Brian and I got up and ready for our 8 o'clock classes.  Brian walked outside and came back in saying that it was pretty cold out there.  I decided its okay to pull out a big jacket one last time before I really put my coats away for the summer.  We left home, made it to our classes on time and I sat in my class for 50 minutes.  I had to walk to my next class, which is entirely on the other side of campus.  There was definitely some small rain drops coming from a very gray and cloudy sky.  another 50 minutes went by, then I was on to my next class, which was in the first building I was in today...THE OTHER SIDE OF CAMPUS.  It was freezing outside and drizzling.  50 minutes pass.  I head to the library, which is the center of campus.  When I walk into the library, my hair was soaked and my black coat I wore today was completely covered in white.  I walked up to Brian who is studying in the library.  He says, oh it looks fun out there...so i shook my body, yes i did..and I got him alllll wet!  It is currently 11:45 and I am in the library looking out the window at the snow falling listening to Garth Brooks and dreading going to my noon class...what a day..  Come on Summer

Senior in College!

Well, it is my senior year of College!  Yes, I am almost a College Graduate!  And yes, this means that senior night saying goodbye to Jimmer Fredette and Jackson Emery was the night they said goodbye to me as a lowly college student.  Brian and I had to leave an hour ahead of the game just so we could get in our seats at the very tip top of the rafters.  Thanks to Sarah and Kurt, we were able to get that close!  ha!  Below are some pictures of the game.  It will start with a bowl of fruit..  I just wanted to show how healthy I was..thats all..  Whoo!

 My husband is so cute

 So when we walked in, they were handing out basketball cards.  I got three decks!

 We saw Rachel and David climbing up to the tippy top with their cute baby.

 Miss Sarah Van Wagenen..i may have gotten the last name wrong..sorry!  I like you though

And the basketball game was a winner!  We got over 100 points!

What a fun game..  and what fun company!

Scrubs

So Brian has entered his first semester of nursing.  He is so awesome but is always trying to do my blood pressure!  We need more friends so he can practice on others when both of my arms are dead.  :)  just kidding.  So a few months ago, he got his scrubs and had a clinic for his class taking blood pressure.  He wore his scrubs all day.  Well, im glad he looks good in them, cuz im sure I will see him in this more than just this once.  :) 

Enchiladas

So, I have tried to stick to one of my goals for the new year, which is to cook at least one new thing a week.  I really didn't do it in January.  Sad, I know.  Anyway, so I decided to do a dish just the other day.  I looked through my Flake Family Cookbook and found the best thing I could find.  I found something to help consume the 60 + tortillas in our fridge (thanks to brian's bulk buy): Enchiladas!  In the cookbook, they are called Cheesy Beef Enchiladas by Carin C.

All it asks for is:

1 lb ground beef

2 C. Salsa

2 C or 3/4 lb Velveeta Cheese

10 Flour tortillas

Directions:

Brown meat; drain.  Stir in 1/2 cup salsa and half of the cheese.  Then, spread 1 C salsa in a 9 X 13 in dish.  Place meat mixture down the center of each tortilla.  Roll up.  Place tortillas, seam side down on salsa in dish.  Top with remaining salsa and cheese.  Bake at 350 Degrees for 20 minutes.

It was fun to make for sure.  When the food was almost cooked, I realized we had way too much and we needed some other mouths to help us eat it.  We called our neighbors Trever and Mandy who were also making dinner.  We decided it would be fun to have a potluck.  They came down with yummy chicken and potatoes and a wonderful salad.  Thanks for sharing with us guys!

 

Date Night

I love having fun with Brian.  This is from one of our first dates last year.  We went on a double date and had a picnic!  We then climbed some playground equipment and played hopscotch on the sidewalk.  It is always fun to look back at these pictures and remember our fun dating experience.

He is taking me to the movies tonight!  I am so excited.  Problem is, its a 945 movie...haha  Late night with an early class schedule.

innappropriate

I have loved all of my classes so far at BYU.  Its hard to really actually come out and say that because I am sick and done (mentally) with school.  I feel like giving up in the classes I am in now, but I continue to chug along.  I am able to do this because all of the classes are inspiring to some extent as we are a school that is mainly LDS with many giving answers which can have the word God or Jesus within the context.  Oh how great it is to go to a university where I can be uplifted and edified in class (which is one of the aims of BYU). When I look back at last semester and semesters before this one, I remember so many things.  I learned how awesome it is to learn the psychology of children and their development from prenatal to age 11.  In another class I learned about adolescents and their problems with drug/sex abuse, the church's standpoint on the issue and parental impact on adolescents.  Even though I hated being in the classes and doing the papers last year, I really learned a lot from them.

This semester is a little different because I like almost all of my classes!  I am taking a fun English class where we study Poetry & Drama.  Right now we are reading Othello, which is a great Shakespearean play!  I have an awesome religion class where I learn so much about marriage and family which uplifts and edifies me to want to be a better person.

The class that I don't like as much is Sociology of Gender.  I find things in that class to be highly inappropriate.  I have come home on countless occasions already this semester with a bad attitude on my reading assignments with the F word and much more vulgar language (topic on Gays, Lesbians, Trans, and Bi).  I have put up with these things.  Yesterday though, as Brian put it, broke the camels back.  I walked into class to the teacher being absent and the TAs with a video to show through the entire 50 minutes of class.  Before the TA put in the video, she said the video was edited, but if anyone feels uncomfortable, please feel free to leave.  Is that appropriate to say in a BYU class?  The TA then puts on the board, For Essay one, be able to answer: what are the three major themes in the Media?  The movie was a woman who was talking with a class of about 200 on the impact of advertising on television.  She explains how advertising is all around us.  You think you can avoid it? You can't. "Advertizing goes into the subconscious and you can recall it" she says.  As the woman was speaking, pictures of models for Victoria's Secret pop up, pictures of women in provocative positions come onto the screen.  One was a commercial ad for Burger King.  A beautiful woman was eating a hamburger and the hamburger would drip, as it is dripping off her mouth it would show her open blouse and chest.  Okay, I could have probably handled this for a two minute clip in all reality, but 45 whole minutes watching women models hardly dressed?  I was outraged! The poor boys in my class..who knows what was going on through their minds (don't worry men, it will just be dumped into your subconscious now). 

The last five minutes was about media and masculinity.  Guess what was shown? Pictures of men with only underwear on, no shirt, and without pants.  I don't want to see that! I came out with horrible feelings as I felt my body was degraded by watching these beautiful women with hardly anything on (one shot completely nude side view with the face and tip of the chest barely out of the picture).  Yes, the class was supposed to be discussing how women are being objectified by the media and that men can turn women into just "things" they can possess, but was that appropriate to show in a class at BYU where the church standards should be inforced?  Could the TAs have blanked the screen and let us just listen to the woman discuss the women issues of eating, dieting, morality and being objectified?  Maybe I am old fashioned, but that was not BYU honor code approved.