A Winter to Remember

So this has been a very rare winter in Battle Ground indeed.
We have had a good amount of snow consecutively through out this past week and that's not even our big "storm". That storm hit last night and has been going all through out today. We got a good foot yesterday then a good quarter inch of inch of ice on top of that and now it has been snowing all day on top of that.
Most years we're wondering if we even will see snow for the whole winter break.

We don't have to worry about that this year.

Cody and I found this amazing philly cheese-steak place called Philly Bilmo's
So we thought we'd treat ourselves before going to see Seven Pounds at movies. movie date!

The snowman in the background was megan's snowman from the day before but got a touch of snow on top of him

The snow was too soft to build forts so Connor let us bury him. he he he

megan helping pack down the snow

what a dork.

After the break out

Lord of the Rings Monopoly is our classic christmas past time

our heat source. the kitties love it

The End at Last

Apologies for not getting a blog up for a while. As a semester comes to an end the work load just seems to pile so high that the top is no longer visible.
All of my energy was put into getting things done and not going crazy in the process. But I made it!! With little sleep and all energy exhausted I made it. I do appreciate finals. Having so much to do and then accomplishing all of those things just has a good feeling that goes along with it. I had a chinese project, chinese oral final, chinese written final, an art history test, a parenting presentation, a parenting final, and a book of mormon assessment, and the most time demanding of all 2 art projects with graphite (one taking over 8 hours to accomplish)...along with class and more assignments intermingled in between all the spaces. So you can see how I had to put all of my energy into getting through all of that along with one last craigo's night and saying goodbyes until next semester.

I just wanted to report that I am alive and well and finished out a very very good semester. One of the best. :)

(Just because I'm proud of myself and want to brag...here's some grades I got)

Chinese
Project: A
Oral Final: 15/15
Written Final: 92%
Overall Grade: 95%

Drawing
In class graphite drawing: A
Out of class graphite drawing: A
(Don't under appreciate these A's. I have gotten A-'s and B+'s all semester. These A's meant more to me than any other from this semester)

Book of Mormon 96%

Parenting
Final: 92 (and I didn't even study for this test hahahahahha)
Overall Grade: 95%

Art History
Last Test (not comprehensive): 96%



:)

the rest of the week goes as follows:

Monday and Wednesday are exactly the same.

and Tuesday and Thursday are the same with the exception of Devotional which is only on Tuesday.

and Friday,
well we like Fridays. Why? Because I only have parenting at 12:45 and then the weekends begin.

happy day.

as days go by... (pt 2)

.tuesday.

8:00am Art History with Brother Toone.
I was excited to take this class and its has been one of my most enjoyed classes (other than the fact that it's at 8am). I love learning more about art history. I get some weird satisfaction out of being more cultured than the general populous. The only thing about this class, now my head is full of random facts about ancient architecture that doesn't really interest me at all. I'm looking forward to when we get to go into later paintings and stuff like that. But it has been really interesting. We just finished up early Christian art, and today we just did Islam. This is a two part class so I'll have to take the 2nd half another semester (it didn't work out for winter). So who knows what my head will be filled with by the end. And probably the best part is my professor is a really really cool guy. He's older and one of those bigger guys, but he knows so much!! He's funny too. He kind of gets lost in his trains of thoughts a lot but I think it's just because he has so much information in his head. He makes what would be a boring class into very fun. For example when we started Egyptian art we started off class with the 5 minute video of Steve Martin's SNL skit of "King Tut" (hillarious) and the next day we watched the Bangle's music video for walk like an Egyptian. Kudos to teachers who make class extra fun.

10:15 Chinese with Shen Laoshi
(see monday blog for details)

(go home for lunch)
12:45 Book of Mormon 122 with Brother Wightman
Last semester I took the first half of Book of Mormon with this same professor. I cannot adequately explain how much I love this class and what it has done for me in my life. There is a reason I took this second part with the same professor. I love him to death. He is a very enjoyable entertaining person. And he knows what he is talking about. He is one of the few people I have come in contact with that I would just like to go and have one on one lessons with them and just say tell me everything you know. I learned more in the first semester with this teacher than I had my whole 18 years of living. I continue to learn more everyday. If I just had this class and nothing else my schedule would be complete.

the view from where I sit

2pm. Devotional
Every Tuesday campus shuts down for devotional. It's held in the Hart auditorium but there are a couple overflow locations. Since my Book of Mormon class is in the Taylor and the Taylor chapel is used as an overflow I just watch it there. We don't get quite the all-stars that Provo gets but we are always blessed with amazing speakers. It makes Tuesdays a highlight of the week and just is an additional help to life.

Taylor Chapel
(for devotional there's a screen and the sides are blocked by black screens)

My beloved Taylor building

days go by...

I know it's more than halfway through the semester but I would like to walk you through my typical week. So come, take off your shoes and put mine on for a little while..maybe you'll appreciate and understand me more?...ha. prolls not. (probably not).

.Monday.

First class: 10:15-11:15am Chinese 101 with Shen Laoshi. Probably my favorite class of my whole schedule. I walk in and am greeted by Thomas (a quieter but very nice boy), a boy that sits on my left and then Michael (total fun outgoing ASB-like kid) usually comes in a little after me. We're our own little study group, and a fun one at that. I love this class because our side of the room has some enjoyable people that all want to learn Chinese. This class is obviously my favorite because its chinese, somewhere in that 6 months that I lived there I picked up the addiction, and its also full of friends, which is just as important. Our teacher Shen Laoshi (laoshi means teacher) is a very cute and very very chinese lady. She's older and we have a lot of fun. She reminds me a lot of Tina (our foreign coordinator in china). It's like my own piece of china four days a week. :) it's made missing china not so bad (though it still hits hard sometimes.) Wo hui shuo yi diar zhong wen. (I can speak a little Chinese.) ♥

the class room i'm first seat, third row from the window

the first day I saw this poster I knew I had to get a picture of it. I literally laughed out loud when i saw it.
I mean come on people, could we be any more doom and gloom? haha it still makes me laugh.

then I go home switch out books grab some lunch and head out at about 12:30


Second Class: 12:45-1:45pm Parenting with Brother Gardner. I absolutely love this class. I took a family class last semester that was all about the Proclamation to the World and loved it. These classes seem so beneficial is more ways than just being educated about these things. They are so applicable to life, and the most important parts of it. Naturally its all girls with the exception of 4 boys and our teacher. We have two older parents (one's a bishop, another a very opinionated mom), 2 newer moms (each has 2 kids, one is pregnant with her third), we did have an expecting dad but his wife just gave birth to their first baby this past week, 2 other pregnant girls (around my age), and the rest hopeful future parents. I love my professor. He's not loud at all but he has a sense of humor and we have fun, and he knows his stuff. One day he actually brought in his 7 year old and his 14 year old and we got to question them about he's parented. Very enjoyable class.


Third Class: 2:00-4:45pm Drawing with Sister Cook. First of all please note the length of this class. Oh yes, many MANY art classes are 2 hours and 45 minutes long. That alone is just a huge red light in front of you. So drawing, like totally the easiest class on the planet. You just go and draw for about 3 hours. I mean I love doodling. It's a class where I can just do my hobby and get credit for it. Fun right? RIGHT?!! NO. Let me assure you this class is probably the total opposite of the spectrum of enjoyable-ness that I expected. Number one, I'm pretty sure we are Sister Cook's first class. I could probably write a huge long blog just on my frustrations and very very strong dislikement of her alone. Believe me I've vented many a time. This class is turning into the headache of my life. It has made me sit and actually think if I want to be an Art Major (which I am), but if all the classes are going to make me hate art as much as this class has then it is plainly not for me. We do construction drawings (you don't even want to know), pen drawings, we've just started room drawing and have gotten into value with charcoal. I've gotten into the groove now where we go, critique our homework for about an hour, then we just draw for the rest of class while I listen to music. But at the beginning is was mostly sit in these ghastly chairs that were designed by the devil himself while listening to bitter cynical first time teacher that just got out of the program herself and is taking out all of the crap she had to do on us. I know it's pretty much like I'm getting credit for partying really. Did I mention that our homework usually takes around 3 hours? Oh and don't even get me started on the "art majors". For the love.

the class room

designed by the devil yes? yeah try sitting in those for 3 hours two days a week and we'll see if you're in a happy disposition afterwards. it's as if the small inadequate cushions are mocking me.

these beauties took a good 3 hours to draw. enlarged from an 8x11 to a poster size piece of paper. no rulers allowed. (these are construction drawings)


we seriously spent 2 hours one day drawing rolls of toilet paper.


my first pen drawing. i think i only like it for the subject



pen drawing: turn this

into this


(construction drawing) make this

into this

more construction drawings:


more pen drawings:



this one is a particular favorite :) shoe face

Tomorrow: Tuesday

A Weekend of Goodness

Saturday Chantelle and me went to see the African Children's choir. When I first read about this performance I knew that if I had to go see any of the performances here this one is taking priority.
The African Children's choir is made up of children from Uganda. In 1984 Uganda was involved in a very vicious bloody civil war that affected a lot of people and a lot of kids. Since 1984 this program has taken children and given them an opportunity of their lifetime. Kids that they find, or are brought to them live in a small community where they have housing and a hot meal provided for them everyday along with an education, something that these kids would've never even dreamed about having. Then every year a different group are picked from auditions to tour to the west to share their story. They perform in France, and Italy. This past year they performed for the Queen of England and for President Bush and his wife.

The current choir

I can't believe how lucky we were here in Rexburg to get the chance to hear these kids. My ears have never heard anything so purely beautiful. Their voices were beyond was words can describe and dang did those kids have rhythm. They did dances for countries all over Africa, along with narrative dances and some inspirational songs. I just still can't believe how beautiful and amazing their voices were. It was a very humbling experience, one that I will never forget. I just felt so lucky that I got to experience their love of dance and music.

yep, we still like each other

Then... Sunday night (tonight) I just got back from a party that my Chinese teacher hosted at her house. She told us that she wanted to celebrate it not being midterms anymore. So all of her students from us (101 kids) to her 300's class. Everybody brought food had a good time. I have a very good class full of fun kids and we got to meet a lot of other students studying Chinese, and we have a super nice teacher. She's adorable. So we just spent the night eating and playing number games and sharing stories. :) hen hao.

halloween festivities at the burg

our fhe sisters (creepy contacts)..............Kip cracked me up & Pj's kid is hillarious

the old people


the FHE fam (L to R..front: James and Sabin; back: Paige, me, Emily, Alex and James)

the roomies...................me and captain america (yeah..he made it out of thermals)

1st councelor Bro. Ricks and his wife..........................awesome grandma's (the cup says world's greatest grandma)

Pink shirt = kid dressed up like Sabin; Hulk = Sabin; and James

Me, Emily, Paige and Kelly

awesome mullet kid.............................................................blue man group

Brother Webster as a skunk (His wife had a matching outfit) and our Bishop :)

Tuesday we had a ward Halloween party. We weren't sure if we even wanted to go, within the hour of it starting we all found costumes and hopped in a car and headed out. I feel dumb for not wanting to go because it was a blast. We had it in our 2nd counselor's heated shed thing?.. but it was decorated up right good. It was awesome. We had baked potatoes, music and a very very fun ward family. It's always 50/50 with BYU-I wards at things like these. We didn't know if people would show up and dress up. But turns out we have one of the funnest wards. Everyone was so creative with their costumes. I was so proud. :)

And before that on Monday for FhE we carved pumpkins. Every family was asked to have this be the activity and then one pumpkin from each family was nominated to be judged at the party.

emily and me

James, our FHE dad

wilfred the dinosaur. Did that one all by meself

i'm carving a pumpkin


Paige carving Harry Potter

its harry potter okay. ;)