The People in My Life

I love the holidays. I love how they make you reminece about all the good holiday memories. I love how they make you feel thankful for everything in your life. It's too bad though that we don't think of everything we are thankful for on a daily basis. It's sad that it takes the holidays to help us remember how good our lives are.

Although, it is unfortunate that we don't appreciate our lives until the holidays, I'm still glad we have the holidays to remind us. It think it is quite invigorating. This holiday season I've come to the reminder of how lucky and blessed I am for all of the wonderful and marvelous people in my life. I have so many people in my life that care about me and love me. And I just keep thinking, goodness, Heavenly Father must love me more than I'll ever know to put these individuals in my life. Sometimes it's overwhelming to think that he loves me that much; I often think how can he love me that much? Why would he? That's dumb. And I really don't think those are the thoughts Heavenly Father is trying to put in my head, I think the reason He put these people in my life is so that I can have the thoughts of: Wow, He really loves me. I'm worth something, I'm a wonderful person too.

I'm so very thankful that He loves me that much, that He sees that much worth in me. It's incredible to me how Heavenly Father loves us so much that He thinks of the most worthwhile and meaningful ways he can to show us that love. I mean, He puts specific people in our lives and specific times, and they aren't just any people. They are people who astonish and dazzle our Heavenly Father in different ways. And He knows what their capabilities are and how they will help us progress in life and return to Him. I love it.

Pre New Year's Resolution

So I've decided to set my New Year's resolution early. I figure I should start it as soon as possible to make it count.
So many times I've said I'd eat healthy and work out on a regular basis. Time and time again I would buy the healthy food, eat them for a week and then get lazy and eat something junky, thinking, oh well next week I'll do better. I'd try and I'd fail every time. I'd also be good and go to the gym for a couple of weeks, and then something would come up, or I'd find some excuse to where I no longer exercised or went to the gym for a while. Continuously I would tell myself the next week, or after a certain day I would be better.
Well, I decided to analyze my ways and figure out what I was doing wrong. I had talked to a good friend in the past, he told me it's about a change in lifestyle. It's not a temporary diet, it's a lifestyle. He's very healthy, he eats all the right foods continuously, not just for a short period; he works out on a daily basis and even when he is sick he never finds an excuse. It's become his way of life, and he feels better and more energized. After talking to him, and making fun of his way of life for a while, I've decided he is right. I've decided to stop with the "next time", "well, next week", "I'll do better when..." phrases, I'm just going to change my lifestyle.
So how am I going to do this? Well, I'm changing my eating habits. I've developed a plan. I'm going to eat more vegetables on a daily basis, more fruits, more whole grains, more skim dairy, and less fats and sugars. Everyday, I have to eat some kind of vegetable (carrots, cellary, lettuce, bell peppers, cucumbers etc.,). Now, I'm not a fan of vegetables, but Kerrie makes this fabulous dip for them. I think that if I can just eat the vegetables with the dip, eventually I'll like vegetables by themself and won't need the dip anymore.
I also have to eat at least one serving of fruits everyday, at least an apple, a banana, an orange, something. I also have to have at least some kind of whole grain everyday, which more than likely be cherrios in the morning and a sandwhich on whole grain bread. I'm also going to have a glass of milk a day, and some cheese, cottage cheese or yogurt everyday.
What about those uncontrollable cravings I have? I always get a sweet tooth at night, and usually I would just eat some cookies, or find some kind of sweet, fat snack. Well, I've decided that when I get that sweet tooth, instead of eating my normal snack, I will eat some kind of fruit. I think it might help my sweet tooth and would be a more healthy choice. If I get the craving for chips or something fatty, I'll eat vegetables instead. I'm changing these eating habits that I've noticed, that prevent me from achieving the energy level I want and need, as well as the physical attributes.

So I have the healthy eating part down a little bit, now about the working out. So I've decided I need to do some kind of work out everyday (except for Sundays). A lot of times I run out of time during the day to go to the gym because I'm so busy, and I know my schedule isn't going to be changing soon. So, for the rest of the semester, I'll continue going to my aerobics class that I have Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Every other day, I'll go to the gym for an hour or so. If I can't make it to the gym, I have to take 30 minutes at home and do a work out video I have.
To keep track of this, I'm going to keep a chart. Everyday I work out I'll put a sticker on the chart for that day. Hopefully that will motivate me.

So that is my plan so far. It can still be adjusted, but for now, it sounds pretty good to me. Changing my lifestyle, it feels good.

The best thing about being in your 20's

Overall, life is good. I often have struggles, but looking around me, looking at what I've accomplished, looking at where I am and where I am going, life is great. I absolutely love this point in my life. In the perfect position right now, I'm in a place where I can do anything I want. I have nothing to tie me down. This is the time in my life where I can do things that I may not ever have the chance of doing again.

This is the time to take all opportunities that come along, don't make regrets, make experiences and learn. Right now I am doing everything I want to do. This is my time, and I am so thankful that I have it. I'm doing what I want and not making excuses. There is no excuse to be made, the decision is mine. I have the power and authority, no one else can control me and my situation. I'm in control and I love it.

I enjoy being single, I enjoy right now not having the responsibility of kids. I enjoy not being tied down to a career right now. All I have is school and my 2 jobs that I love but am not tied down to. I could get up and just move half way across the country right now if I wanted to. I'm graduating in May and I'll have even more freedom to do what I want. This is the best time of my life right now, these are the days I make the most of and the best of. These are the days I will always remember and will have no regrets. It's all a learning experience and I'm loving every minute of it.

Above everything else though, I think what is best about this time in my life, is I know who I am and I love who I am. It makes all the difference when you've done your self discovery and have found out that you are an amazing person and you come to love yourself. You come to see yourself as Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ see you, and you know where you belong. I think after figuring out who you are, everything just seems better and you become more appreciative and open. Your eyes are opened with your heart and you understand better. You end up loving your life more. I think that is the best thing about being in your 20's. At least for me.

Overwhelmed

So I've been having a really hard time lately. And recently I feel like I'm just going to have a meltdown, I'm so overwhelmed with so many things in my life. Although half of it is my own fault, it's still really tough and I'm not really sure what to do. So if anyone has suggestions, please share them.

This is my senior year, and I've decided to pile it all on. I'm taking 18 credits, still have my 2 jobs (which luckily only add up to 15-25 hours a week), and I've recently decided to take up the roles and responsibilities as ASCSU Senator for the College of Applied Human Sciences, as well as my role as part of the College of Applied Human Sciences Dean's Leadership Council. So those are the things I'm involved in, which is a lot, but that doesn't include my responsibilities in some of my classes. I'm also a TA and group facilitator for one of my classes which is a 3 hour class twice a week. Also for my group organizations and communities class I am in the process of setting up an Informational Discussion Panel on the Health Care Reform. I'm constantly in contact with the Congresswoman of Colorado 4th district, and 2 of the US House of Representatives for Colorado as they will be the educators and participants of this Discussion Panel. It's a lot of work for a project, but I enjoy it. I also am working on my Mock Trial Debate for my Social Welfare Policy class on HIV/AIDS. These projects, mind you, are aside from all of the homework and papers I have due.

So that is just my school life, outside of my school life I have church, I'm the Visiting Teacher District Supervisor aside from all of my own visiting teaching I do every month. I have institute classes with homework in them, and I go to FHE every Monday night and +1 meeting with the missionaries.

As you can see I'm very busy, and the reason why I've decided to pile all of this on is to fill a void in my life. I'm going through some emotional drama. I've been trying to get over Garrett for a while now and I've been doing everything I can think of to get over him. So I've figured that I could just be as busy as I possibly can to forget about him. It works sometimes, but there are a lot of time when I really miss him and I'm confused about what I'm going to do now.

I'm also going through a hard time with figuring out what my next step is in life. I don't like not knowing what I'm doing next or what plan I have. I really wanted to go to nursing school and I have been on the waiting list for a year now to get into Front Range; everything was all set up for me to attend the fall after I graduate CSU. But then I received a letter that pushed it back a whole year because they didn't realize they had so many applicants. So now I'm struggling with what the heck I'm supposed to do now. I could work for a while until I get into the nursing school at Front Range, I could look into other nursing schools (after all nothing is tying me down here anymore), or I could go on a mission.

So as you can see I'm kind of dealing with a lot right now, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to cope with everything, I'm not sure how to feel or what I'm supposed to do. Any suggestions with anything?

Oh, My Silly Life

So, do I have a story to tell...

I've had a swarm of trials in the last few days. And I've discovered that I get very overwhelmed when it's a collection of issues I have to deal with. I'm fine with dealing with one thing at a time, but when things come all at once or without any breaks to relax and enjoy life, I end up taking it all on at once and become overwhelmed. I'm glad I have such a great friends I can rely on and that are always there for me, ones that don't mind me breaking down on them.

So this last weekend, what was supposed to be an enjoyable weekend at a cabin in Wyoming, ended up being a weekend of misery and distress at a cabin in Wyoming. My allergies were terrible. They ended up being so bad that I became sick. Luckily I had some friends there that took care of me.
It took a few days to recover from my allergies, I still haven't completely recovered, but am 98% better than this past weekend. However, just when I think things are starting to get better, my life decides that it needs more adventure...and I discover that the song "My Bonnie lies over the ocean" has a whole new meaning.

This past Monday, Garrett and I were driving home from playing basketball at the stake center. When we got outside to get into the car, it started to rain a little bit, by the time we got down the street a little ways, it started to rain harder and eventually hail came pouring down on my poor car (Bonnie). We decided to pull off to the side of the road for a little bit to let it pass....however, the storm didn't. It just got continuously worse. As we sat there, I looked down at the ground and it seemed like we were moving even though I had Bonnie in park. Apparently the water was carrying Bonnie, so we decided to go up a hill into a neighborhood and wait under a tree so that the hail wasn't so harsh and we didn't get carried away by the water. We waited for a good 10-15 minutes and found that the storm started to dissipate. As the storm seemed to calm down I figured I would be able to get Bonnie home.

The streets of Fort Collins were very wet and the further we drove, the more intense the storm seemed to become, and the more the streets filled with water. We were about a mile away from my house, when I turned left on Elizabeth, and that is when we practically sunk. Elizabeth had turned into a river...like literally. Bonnie's tires were practically completely under water. Bonnie didn't like the water too much and decided to kill the engine. That's when we realized we weren't going anywhere anytime soon. So there we were in the middle of the street, stuck, waiting for the storm to pass...which it didn't. We waited for probably a little over half an hour and decided to give Bonnie a push. Thank goodness Garrett was there and was able to help me. With a lot of waiting, some pushing and a lot of hope, we got Bonnie back home. What an adventure that was.

Fast forward to yesterday, I figured Bonnie's engine was flooded and thought that if she just dried out she would work again. However, later I found out that that was not the case at all. To add to my stress, we discovered that her piston rod needed to be replaced because of the water that creeped into the engine. "Not a big deal, just need to get the part and replace it", I thought. Oh how silly of me, I was told then that it was better and more efficient to just replace the whole engine at this point. The WHOLE engine! Oh, my poor Bonnie.

And thus, begins my financial adventures once again. Replacing an engine is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. So at this point I'm waiting for my mechanic to find a used engine that I might be able to afford....however, there doesn't seem to be any used engines in the state of Colorado. I'm also waiting to hear back from my insurance company to see if they could cover me since I have full coverage and it's flood damage. I'm waiting for them to make an appointment with me to look at my car. So I'm crossing my fingers.

On top of all this work is really busy and getting yelled at everyday does not make my life any easier.....

Lucky for me, because I have this silly life, the Lord has also placed many wonderful friends in my life to help me through it. So I feel very blessed for those many people who are here to help, if nothing else for my sanity and emotional support. They are necessary for my silly life.

The Inadequacies of IQ

So if any of you know me, you know that I'm minoring in Anthropology. I love the study of humans socially and biologically through the evolution of time. The other day I was going through one of the books I had read for my Human Biological Variations course I had my sophmore year. The theme of the that class had to do with race....which makes sense hence the name of the course. The question we were trying to analyze during that whole semester is: what is race and does it matter?
One of the books we read was called "The Mismeasure of Man" by Stephen Gould. This book really caught my amusement and interest as it talks about what intelligence is and ultimately what is race. This book is an argument to the book "The Bell Curve" by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, which talks about IQ scores and inborn cognitive limits. In this book the argument is called biological determinism. "Shared behavioral norms, and the social and economic differences between human groups-primarily races, classes, and sexes- arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that society, in this sense, is an accurate reflection of bilogy. (Gould 1996: 52)"

"The Bell Curve" makes the suggestion that the IQ is an innate variance that everyone has that can determine an individual's intelligence....it does not take into consideration that there are environmental factors that can determine innate intelligence. Gould's book illustrates how this is a propostrous determination, he also explains how the IQ test is a terrible analysis of an individual's intelligence and that it leads to social class differences (even race differences) that are inaccurate and falsely protrayed. How does the IQ test lead to social class differences? It's just a test to see how intelligent right?

IQ is based on a test that was developed by Alfred Binet to determine where a child was educationally and to find out if they need extra help in school. It was not a measure of innate intelligence by any means and it should not be used as such. However, in today’s society the IQ test is now used to measure intelligence of an individual to the extent of getting jobs, determining a position in society, and even in schools as a labeling mechanism. The IQ test gives children and individuals a label that they live with in society which leads to social class differences.

The IQ test is a ridiculous tool to measure one’s intelligence. Environment is a big factor because what we’ve learned affects our intellect and reasoning. Our genes can only code for so much, the environment is what determines if we are to reach our potential for those coded genes. Culture, economics, politics and the physical environment all affect whether we reach our potential or not.

Harebrained Hybrids

So last Monday I had my first encounter with one of the new Hybrid cars. It was my duty to take Rob to his Softball game on Monday. He had just gotten back from his trip to Ohio and his parents had his van that I usually drive. So to get him to his game we had to use his parents' new Toyota Prius.
Now, I've never been in a hybrid car, but I assumed it worked like every other car, where you put the key in the ignition, shift it to drive or reverse and press on the gas. Ha ha ha....yeah....that's NOT how it works.

So we get into the car and Rob hands me the "key" it just looks like a square block with buttons on it usually used to unlock and lock the door from afar. There was no key coming out of it. I looked at Rob with uncertainty and confusion...what am I supposed to do with this?
He told me it was the transmitter. The car doesn't use a key, it uses the block to transmit a signal to the car so it can turn on.....ok....cool....so how do I turn it on? Apparently there is a power button near the steering wheel....really? a power button?

Hmmm....that seems kind of cool, right? So I press the power button and the green light comes on but I don't hear anything, just the fan comes on and the radio. I try to put it into gear, and nothing happens. Rob suggested I press again, which I did, nothing happened. We played this turning on the power button at least for 15 minutes before deciding to call his sister to ask how to turn on the stupid car. I just wanted to drive and get him to his game, why does this have to be so difficult? So his sister tells me that I have to make sure that all the seatbelts are buckled in and that all the doors are sufficiently shut and all the windows have to be rolled up, and my foot has to be on the break and the e-break has to be off before I can start the car.....WOW, a little unnecessary right? I can understand the e-break and seatbelts, but the windows and my foot on the break, really? So after about 20-30 minutes of trying to figure out how to work this stupid car, we finally got it running and headed off his softball game.

What an experience, it was kind of frustrating. It also didn't help that during the time we were trying to figure out how to start the car it was like 90 degrees outside, and since the windows have to all be up it was really hot and dreadful. So I've come to the conclusion that although Hybrids are supposed to "save" energy and gas, the amount of time and energy that is put into figuring out how it works turning it on really doesn't save you anything. We should all just drive regular cars because these are just harebrained hybrids.