Goals!

Last night I spent with my great friend Ali and her family. It was really fun. Her family had an FHE on goal setting. We all wrote down some goals for 2010. It really made me realize the importance of goal setting and even more the writing down of those goals. I always seem to have a goal in my head but everyday that I don’t do it it’s really no big deal other than it just bugs me. So I decided that it would be a great idea to write a check off list in my journal so that I would see my goals often. I want to share some of my goals, maybe then they will be accomplished.

So here are a few.

Write in my journal at least 3 times a week.

Complete an Internship

Have 100% visiting teaching

Work out at least 3 times a week.

Learn how to cook some healthy meals

Cook and make meals so that I do snack.

There you have it. Some of my goals for 2010.

Meteors and Jump Rope

As you may know the Leonid Meteor shower was in full swing last night. Some friends and I decided to drive out to the dunes and see what we could find. My car was packed meaning there was 6 people in my little 5 seater. In the freezing 20 degrees we all huddled up and peered into the abyss. After seeing a few here and a few there. We decided to call it a night. Driving back towards town we were about to drop some people off, we saw an intense burning light. I looked over just in time to see a bolide meteor, which means bright flashing meteor. Apparently, It is pretty rare but not too terribly uncommon. According to some news reports it lasted around 13 seconds and was seen from Southern Idaho across Utah. It was a magnificent sight. I only wish we were still out in the boonies where the meteor would have been optimal to see, instead of in town.

Here is a picture of a bolide meteor although this is not the one that I saw.

On Saturday Tim and Kaitlyn's jump rope team put on their annual Extreme show. My first time seeing this show was last year. And it was just incredible! My friends all thought it was weird that I went to got WATCH jump roping. This is is how I explain it. It's like jump roping and gymnastics fused together. A friend of mine who was the only one willing to go with me, Loved it. We both felt the urge to jump rope after watching this show. Here are some highlights!

It's pretty crazy what these kids can do. Good job Tim and Kait. It was a lot of fun. And so cool to watch!

Brownie, Anyone?

For Environmental Sanitation class my teacher signed us all up for a presentation. No big deal right? Well, it wasn't necessarily a requirement but it is common knowledge that if you bring in treats then 1. Everyone loves you, and forgets if you didn't do such a good job because you brought some yummies 2. everyone else before my partner and I brought in a treat and 3. This particular teacher really really like treats. I think this is why we are required to do presentations because he gets treats.

My presentation was on Mold. Now, what kind of treat do you bring in for this? Of course there is the option of reaching in all the way to the back of the refrigerator and finding the leftovers that you have completely forgotten about that now have more hair then Donald Trump. But I didn't want to gross everyone out. So, I started asking around. About 2 days before the presentation and still nothing. The only thing I thought would be cool enough was to make a "mold" of my teachers face fill it with chocolate and hand that out. I thought that was really funny and clever, but that far exceeds my artistic abilities.

So this is what I decided on. Well, with a little help from my boss Kristine. I was going to make Moldy Brownies. Just sprinkle a little powdered sugar on them and bam!...moldy brownies. Now, to go way above and beyond. I tried to dye some of the powdered sugar a lovely blue gray mold color. Only to find out that powdered sugar and food dye do not mix at all. Really, the food coloring will just sit on top. So I mixed the food coloring in with water and then added it to the powdered sugar. What did I get then?.....Paste. So I then added as much powdered sugar as my concoction could take and let it sit over night. I broke it apart the next day. I was hoping it would still have powdered sugar texture, but it didn't.

Here's how they turned out.


Surprisingly, they were almost all eaten. I really wasn't expecting people would want to eat these, but they wolfed them down.

Another Ali and Alicia Adventure!

Ali, my roommate from Alaska, and I always are up for adventures. Considering we only live 4 hours apart we decided that that we would have yet another adventure. So, I packed my bags and headed to Utah. This time my adventure included a stop to Sarah and Jimi's so that I could meet little Gracie.

It was so good to see this little girl. Everyone in the family has been waiting to meet you ever since we heard the great news. I especially loved this part of my trip because I got to talk to Sarah and Melissa about my Grandfather's funeral. It was really good to hear their memories. Sadly, I was unable to attend because I was in Alaska working. While talking about the great memories we have of our Grandpa we also talked about the special connection Gracie has with Grandpa. Just another reason to love this baby.

Meeting Gracie! So Adorable, I love her crusties and all.

The next day Ali and I geared up to go four-wheeling! We got up at 7 which was not fun considering we stayed up talking! We headed to Ali's dads work to pick up the four wheelers. At first Ali's dad seemed concerned with my driving, but then he chuckled and said, "I guess if you can drive a bus, you can handle one of these little things." I thought it would only take an hour or so to get ready, it took about 3. After all the business of getting ready, we finally hit the road. Here are some of the pics from the day.

Ali and I 20 minutes in and already dirty!

Our great Lunch. Chase took care of us!


Apparently you're not supposed to put sunscreen on right before you go out. Because all the dirt will stick to you!


I look like a little Kid. All Dirty. Actually this is my first time riding a motorcycle.


Proof that my teeth would be whiter if I had darker skin.


When we got back Ali broke off this branch with the trailer. We later hid the evidence!

Culture Shock

Some of the words you can hear coming out of my mouth, "It's been an amazing summer." I will truly attest to that. I'm sad to see summer leave, but something new will start. As I left Skagway, I was truly saddened to see it go. Skagway had some really ugly weather the last few weeks but my last day was perfect. The perfect goodbye. I was really sad to see my simple but yet amazing life left behind. I am really going to miss hopping on my bike and riding to wherever I need to go. Going out for walks and hikes, just to enjoy the beautiful mountains.

When I got Juneau. A friend let me borrow her car so that I could say some goodbyes to some other friends who lived across town. I hopped in her car and was not accustomed to such a small steering wheel and listening to the radio, a good radio station for that fact, was a lot of fun. This was the start of merging into a crazier form of life.

Then next day was the killer. I went back to the airport to start my way to WA. The airport in Juneau was my last goodbye to Alaska. As I sat and people watched, there was all the classic Alaska people. Men with beards and Xtra Tuff rain boots. Patagonia fleeces, and hiking boots. Hippies with unshaven legs. Once we landed in Seattle everything was instantly crazy.

As I walked off the plane I was assaulted with crowds of people. My next terminal was all the way across the airport and I had to take 3 trains to get there. I couldn't believe it. It was really funny going from hippy to fashionable. Chacos to stiletto heels. I couldn't believe it. Stilettos while traveling! Yuck! My life is changing. I'm going from simply driving a bus and giving a tour, to running late for class and juggling 16 credits and a social life. I'm going from amazing to crazy! I keep finding all this hesitation in me because of starting another school year. I just want to run away and do the easy simple things again.

Here is my motto for the year, Keep Moving Forward. I can do it, and I will do it.

An Update!

Hi Everyone,
Sorry for being so bad in updating on my life. For starters I would have to tell you that I am having so much fun in Alaska this summer. Acutally, I would have to say that this is the best summer I have ever had, and I am very happy. After the stress of last school year I have loved the freedom of my Alaska life.
Skagway has been such a blast. Believe it or not it has been so warm here. And when I say warm I mean HOTTT!! Seriously, this summer has been the warmest I have ever experienced up here. We have actually been swimming. We go swimming quite frequently. I never thought that I would go swimming for pleasure up here. In the past we would just jump in just to say that we had done it, but now we actually go swimming.
One thing that I have come to enjoy here is the spontanity of life. A couple of weeks ago, my roommate Ali and I decided to go to Haines and do some camping out there. As I was parking my bus after work on Wednesday, Ali called me to tell me that she had gotten us on 5:00 p.m. ferry. I looked at the clock and it was 4:00. Since we were so short on time Ali picked me up in her car and we ran home to pack our bags for a fun night of camping. While packing we decided that it would be best if we took our bikes with us so we could get around the town of Haines more easily. But since Ali had picked me up from my bus my bike was still in the luggage bays of the bus. Quickly we ran down to bus yard and grabbed my back. I looked at my watch again and it was 4:50, and we were about 10 minutes away from the ferry terminal. We quickly biked as fast as we could to get there, and pulled up right on time.
We were so excited to be on our way to Haines that we talked and gabbed the whole way there. Once we pulled into the town of Haines we about to get off the ferry when a guy who works for Chilkat Guides came to ask what we were up to. We told him about our impromptu trip and that we didn't really have any plans. He then asked if we would like to go camping at Glacier Point. Which is where the company Chilkat Guides runs a really cool tour where you canoe out to a glacier called Davidson Glacier. I had been there before on the tour and I knew it would be cool to camp out there, because no one goes out there to hang out. So we decided to stay on the boat and continue another 30 minutes to Glacier Point.

It was an amazing trip here are the highlights.This is Ali and I. It was a rainy day but it was still so beautiful! Check out the fireweed behind us.We went for a bike ride and this dog which is one of the guides decided to come with us. She was really fun and would run around looking for us.

We found some wild strawberries! They were so good. We went back the next morning and picked some to take home! So tasty!We were riding around in the woods when we found this! So weird. It's called a Yert and its owned by some basketball player that lives in Haines.This is the inside fo the Yert. It was really cool. Still creepy though!

Woops!

First off I would like to apologize to everyone. I'm sorry I haven't been so active in posting my adventures. I am trying to be better, but it turns out having limited internet access makes things quite hard to update my blog.
Enough of that, Let me tell you about Alaska. It has been such an amazing summer. I have had so many amazing opportunities. I really would love to post about them now but I'm making a promise that I will write about all my adventures and post pictures as well. I just have to compile all my pictures from about 3 different cameras and then I will share with all of you.

And So the Adventure Begins!!!!

For the past two summers I have come up to Skagway, Alaska to work for the season. It has been a great experience for me. I really think that I have done a lot of growing while I have been here. My first summer I came up here as a 19 year old fresh out of my first year at school. It was definitely a growing experience to be all the way out here meeting new people, luckily I had my brother and sister-in-law to help with the progress.
This year I am totally on my own. Tim and Kait are not coming up this year and I feel like I am ready to go on. It's always nice to have family around but I think I will be able to go on and have a fantastic summer full of adventure.
Here are some highlights from the time that I have spent here.

The Del Sol gang having a bon fire.
Out at Dyea bear watching. Check out this grizzly!
Hiking the Chilkoot Trail.

So here I am ready to start a new adventure. Bring it on.

Bad Day!

I had a pretty good day today! I had stake conference which meant we got out at 2:00 p.m. instead of 4:30 which was really exciting. Having a few extra hours to enjoy the day was especially nice, because it was a beautiful day in Rexburg. And then the day made a sudden drastic change. A good friend of mine came over and she seemed upset. So we went up to my room to chat. But when we got to the top of the stairs. She turned around and started shouting at me about her boyfriend making out with another girl. I was startled and took a step back. But I was standing on the edge of the stairs and I fell. That is my bad news. And look at my bad face.

Just Kidding! My roommate is taking a theater makeup class and I let her practice on me. I just wanted to see if I could get you guys all going because it looks realistic. Now check out some other photos of my beautifully bruised face.

Things on my end.

Hi Everyone,

It's been a long time since I have blogged. Even though I have a very busy life right now, I feel like it is boring and I have no new news to update everyone. Also the Internet at my apartment complex has not really been working at all for the last month, so it has been really hard to blog.

Enough of excuses. So here it is, My new calling has been going really well. It seems to have quieted down compared to the first couple weeks when I had meeting after meeting, and training after training. Even though I still have a lot of meetings it has been a very rewarding experience to see how a ward is organized and to know on a first hand basis the revelation the Lord gives to His leaders. I am very thankful for this experience.

Something different about this semester compared to others: its been extremely nice not worrying about having something to do friday night and making sure that that something is better than what happend last weekend. Don't get me wrong I still like to do fun and crazy things but I have learned thatI don't need to go all out every weekend.

Speaking of fun things. My roommates and I have started a tradition. Every Tuesday the cheap theater has $2 Tuesdays. My friends and I decided to take a some time off from studying and worries to go and see a movie every Tuesday. This Tuesday we saw Bride Wars. I was really excited to see this movie because it looked hilarious! And it was! This movie showed how catty ladies can be. Especially the best of friends. But in the end the two friends realized that they would rather have their friendship than the victory of a hurtful trick on their side.

I just wanted to let you all know how I am doing. Hopefully, I will have some more to report later.

Busy, Busy, Busy

This semester I decided to take a lighter load of classes so that I can have more time to study, and to train for new job as tour guide/driver this summer. This new job requires me to obtain a commercial drivers license (CDL). My company brings a bus down to Rexburg and generally trainees train and take the test down here and Idaho. I thought it was time for to make some changes in my life so I have made some goals for myself. One of my goals was to become closer to Heavenly Father and also to do the things that I have been neglecting. Well I think the Lord heard my prayers to become closer to Him because I got a phone call from my Bishop the day before school started and he asked me to come in for an interview. At first I didn't think anything of it, and then I walked into his office, and he asked me to be the Releif Society President. My heart stopped. I immediately thought, how am i going to be able to pull this off. I felt like I had huge shoes to fill because the Relief Society President was way cool, and cared a lot about every each girl. As this week has gone on its been full of meetings. And I have been really busy. I hope things quiet down and I can be a good example to all the young ladies in my Relief Society. Wow! I need help.

A New Beginning

Hello Everyone,

I have decided to begin a blog partly because it's a great way to keep in touch, and partly because I have become addicted to checking all of your blogs. Seriously.
As I start this new semester, I have a lot of goals that I have chosen to accomplish. I have finally realized that studying is a lot of work. I need total lack of distraction to finish the studying I need to get done. So I want to get some better grades than I have in the past. I am trying to get no less than a B. Another thing I am not the best at is time management. This semester I will have to jobs. I work on campus in the Information Technology department as a student secretary. Mostly, I do a lot of grunt work and its really easy. My second job will be training to get my Commercial Driving License. For the past few summers I have worked in Skagway, Alaska for a tourism company. This next coming summer I will be a driver/guide! I am really excited for this opportunity. I love Alaska. It's been a great place to meet new people and discover who I am. But as for the here and now, I have decided it's time to learn more about myself and what I want in life. I first need to conquer the bitter cold of Idaho.

What I am going to learn to drive a 45 ft. long bus.