Just call me Piet

This weekend I became an artist- I painted a painting for my bathroom.
It all started because I had this shower curtain that was white and black, and both yellow and blue towels and I felt that I needed something to tie it all together.
I started by coloring a few of the white circles on the shower curtain yellow, but that took too long. Markers are small! So I thought bigger. And that led me to a painting I loved from ArtH 202 a year ago. An altered version of it was going to be just what I needed! So, I bought canvas, paint and those cheap sponge brushes and designed my work in the neo-plasticism style of Piet Mondrian's Tableau 2.
And then I took the paint to the shower curtain (much faster). :) I had a lot of fun, and didn't even get the paint too many places that it isn't supposed to be! But I am still waiting for the blue to come off my toe :)

Honorable mention for this blog goes to the football team. There has yet to be a point scored against BYU during their past two games! Woohoo! They are so awesome!

As a very random side note, I would also like to mention that I apologize for the obnoxiously gigantic picture of myself that has been at the top of my blog for such a long time now. "How conceited is this girl?" you are wondering. The truth of the matter is I couldn't figure out how to make it so much smaller the way I wanted, and so I got frustrated and gave up and have been ignoring it ever since. Please try to do the same until I find the time and patience to fix the problem. Cheers!

I suddenly love football

Dear readers,
I am writing to inform you that I went to the BYU vs. UCLA football game today, and I loved it! As someone who previously has had a very hard time sitting through an entire game, this comes as a small surprise. My throat hurts from screaming, and my hands were sore from clapping. I would just like to say that admiring the skill with which people beat each other up in a civilized way is thrilling. I mean, at the beginning of the game there was this amazing tackle, and another time one guy vaulted himself over the man that was running at him. It was crazy! The point is that this is the first time I have owned an all-sports pass, and I am loving it! I had excellent, twelfth-row seats today and I heard that they aren't rotating the seating this year! (And btw, I was so glad when the guy in front of me finally took off his huge gardening hat. It was totally blocking the view.) An added perk is that we are in the corner next to the portal through which the players run onto the field! Mmmm yeah :) Ha ha ha! Life rocks.

Major #4 or #5, I've lost track.

Yes, its true. I've done it again! I changed my major. I understand that these changes are so frequent its getting a bit ridiculous, but the change was necessary. I left the elementary education program and am now a business management pre-major. I have some classes I have to take before I can apply, but hopefully I will be in the program by spring term, so that way I will not be as behind in my efforts to graduate on time.
After starting off here at the Y as a Physiology and Developmental Biology major I've switched to education, to accounting, to the Elementary Ed and Early Childhood Education program and now to business. Its been a lot of work!! And just so you know, I'm not making any guarantees that this one is going to stick. Maybe I have commitment issues :-) But seriously, I am almost nervous to post this, because I realize how flighty all of these changes make me seem. But all I can say is that it is what it is :)
So good thing I enjoy going to school, because I'm going to be around for a bit longer, especially if I take a break and leave on a mission this summer. But who knows if I will ever be able to make a decision and stick to it on that one! Ha ha ha :) So, come 2011, look for me on campus, because I might still be here!

Movie Stars Love Lake Powell

So life is blissful under the Southern Utah sun :) I got to go to lake powell the weekend after I got home from d.c. and the weekend before I got knee surgery. I'm completely in love with wakeboarding and boating in general.

The other thing of note lately is that the movie that I was an extra in, approximately 6 years ago finally came to theaters! Its called "The Flyboys". My role in it is one of those things where if you blink you miss it, but I think that you can see me in a couple of the scenes when they are at school. It's a pretty good kids movie though even if you don't see me (I didn't even see myself, but other people claim they have). There are some excellent stunts, good acting for the most part, and the main characters reaffirm my desire to have mostly sons :) I love boys! So anyway, I'm officially famous now. Oh, and if anyone reading this knows Laurel Snow Horchem, she plays the snotty sister in the film, and she did a really good job, it was fun to see her up there:)

A super weird and funny coincidence is that one of my best friends, Keith, is an extra in a movie that is in theaters currently as well. His movie his called "The Errand of Angels" which is about sister missionaries. Its also a pretty good movie that I recommend seeing. Its like a step down in goodness from "The Best Two Years", but I still enjoyed it, probably because seeing Keith in it was like the happy surprise of my life! It was filmed in Austria where he is serving his mission so I haven't seen him in a year and a half, but there he was up on that huge screen, and I almost screamed. Truly. The amount of screen time he gets is significant. The camera loved him :)

The Big D.C.

So I went to Washington D.C. for a week to visit my sister Andrea who lives out there with her husband Adam. He is going to George Washington University for law school, and Andrea just got her paralegal degree from there and is now working for a law firm. Needless to say, they are both crazy cool people who are very accomplished.
I had the privilege of having my wonderful friend Audrey come with me on the trip, and I am so glad that she did. I had so much more fun because she was with me! My sister had to work during the weekdays, and so Audrey and I kept ourselves very entertained by running around D.C. to all of the monuments, memorials, and Smithsonian museums that we possibly could. It was excellent. Audrey was in her history-nerd happy-place, and I had a blast observing her joy. And I loved going to see everything as well. Both me and Auds loved the mall the best, and the outdoor memorials and monuments surrounding it. We saw all of them at least once, and then went back to see our favorites at night. We went to the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Engraving and Printing, the Holocaust Museum, the Library of Congress, the Capitol (we got a tour through our senator's office), the Supreme Court, the National Archives, Arlington National Cemetary, and other places I am sure that I am just forgetting at the moment. I also made Audrey go through the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of Contemporary and Modern Art, which was totally awesome and amazing, and I loved :) It reminded me of how much I totally love art! Which is a lot.
This whole trip brought back so many memories of my trip through Europe it was crazy. It made me miss Europe and that whole experience so much! And the architecture of all of our national buildings didn't help. They were all designed by European architects, and are therefore all totally reminiscent of Roman, Greek, and especially French architecture. Like for example, the Library of Congress looks so much like the Paris Opera house on the outside, it is crazy. And the whole layout of Washington D.C. was done by some french dude who modelled it after Paris after the Hausmannization. The mall is completely reminiscent of the Champs-Elysees... Anyway, you can imagine me talking about the European influences on architecture and Audrey spouting off facts about U.S. Presidents and various historical events, and it is easy to see that we weren't the typical tourists. We saw about three times more of D.C. than Andrea has seen of it, and she has lived there for a year :) I am so proud. Audreys feet were literally bleeding by the end of the trip because of all the walking we did. It was hard-core. Go big or go home, and we really didn't want to come home :)
P.s. the first picture is of a group of college students protesting abortion on the steps of congress (congress is currently not is session and we were wondering if they knew that). props to them, and i love this country's freedom of speech. it was cool to see it in action in our nation's capital.
p.p.s. the bottom two pictures are of the library of congress and the paris opera house. they are ridiculously similar! there is just a lack of unique creative thought that makes our national buildings "American" rather than just copies of European grandeur. this reminds us of how young our nation was when these things were being built. craziness!

Oops I did it again

So, what do you know! Rachelle is home for the summer and dying her hair! Just two tasteful purple streaks in blonde... I love them! :) but this is better than the pink tipped hair I did last time, because i don't have to cut my hair when I want it gone.  but truly, will I ever want these gone?  i think not!  My mom's reaction was wonderful.  I really think she is getting used to me coming home from Tami with completely different hair :) I am so proud!

Florida and Finally Home

The fam and I went on vacation to Florida!  I flew there from London (by myself I might add - I didn't see anyone I knew for over 32 hours) and met them at the airport.  

We had a fabulous time despite the rain. We went snorkeling, safari-ing (in a wet bayou kind of way), and beaching :)  I loved being with everyone!  Including the gators, racoons, and jellyfish :) And I am loving life here in St. George!  Its good to be home :)