Germany Berlin Mission

So I think everyone that checks this already knows, but either way, I have been called to serve in the Germany Berlin Mission. I report to the Provo MTC on Feb. 17, 2010. I'm so excited!

Curious George Cake

So today I moved back home and was really bored. I was watching a cake making challenge on the Food network. Then I decided to make a curious george cake. It looked awesome!! Since Josh really liked (likes) curious george, I decided to dedicate it to him. Happy Birthday Josh!

Promised Pictures

So I work in a usually very pretty place, doing usually repetitive work, but I still enjoy it. (usually) and this is why . . . A beautiful sunset The Shelters at site "Awesome" (We named it as a joke thinking Rick wouldn't approve, but he was totally ok with it. Too bad we didn't try this earlier, we could have named all the sites cool names.) "Alpine Cabin Elev. 10,900" These are the really cool dataloggers that I have been working on for over a month. In the upper right you can see a storm rolling in; that storm is the same one that caused so much damage in Utah valley. About an hour later it was pretty scary as we drove down the mountain. Baby birds in a nest we found on the ground near one of the sites. There are 2 brand new birds and one egg left. Sadly we came back in 2 weeks and the nest was totally gone. Tristan thinks something ate them. Sad.

My Job

What exactly do I do? I get this question a LOT so let me tell you. I'm a research assistant for Dr. Gill in the Biology department at BYU. Basically it is a great title for manual labour with a bit of science involved. We are studying the effects of climate change on an already fragile ecosystem. People say the climate is gradually warming, well why do we care? Because they say that it will probably make the wet seasons wetter and the dry seasons drier, or everything will become drier and warmer. Again, why does this matter? The ecosystems in Utah are super complex and fragile, a slight change in when the first summer rain comes can completely change the harvest, or whether the trees live or die. (by the way I am not a tree hugger – if someone owns land and wants to cut down their trees they can – it’s their own problem, although I do think we should respect the environment. It has so many natural cures, a couple of guys in the lab I work in are studying plants that might have cures to the four main cancers- amazing) So anyways we are studying the probable effects of climate change in Ephraim, Utah.

Back to the unanswered question: What exactly do I do? Ditch digging, sifting, organizing, research, record keeping, construction, camping, pest control, electrical work, software programming, and engineering. Really I am learning lots of skills. And now most of our manual labour is finishing up so I might be able to do some actual science stuff this summer.

Any more questions?

Student Council Representative

My friends and I decided to run for elections in the environmental science club. The club has been kind of none existent so Sean and Brent wanted to change it. They put together a fabulous platform and turned it in to the professor. They asked me to send my resume in as well and we would all be on the council. Well. . . the elections turned out to be quite a surprise. I was thinking maybe secretary or treasury or something like that. Oh no. When my name came up as a nominee for Student Council Representative along with Eric, who was on the council the year before, I didn't think much about it, because everyone from last years council had been winning again. This position is probably the most work - even more than the president. You have to take a class and meet with the BYU student council every week. I decided to leave my name in, because I was sure Eric would win. Nope. I am now the Student Council Representative for the Environmental Science Club at BYU. CRAZY.

Roommate Pictures :)

Roommate pictures are like family pictures, because we kind of are a family. and I love them all!!Meagan, Chelsea, Erin, Erika, Me, Zephne

Erika, Chelsea, Me

Erin, Me, Chelsea, Zephne, Erika, Meagan

Meagan, Erin, Erika, Chelsea, Me, Zephne

I love Elms W16 Girls!!

My Roomies are awesome!! We decided that we needed to take roommate pictures. (for any of you that don't know what that is (mainly my brothers) it is where all the roommates of an apartment plan a time to get together and take pictures.) It is not uncommon for girls apartments. We also have a friend who is a photographer and she said she would take our pictures for free. AWESOME!! So here we are:Zeph, Chelsea, Meagan, Erika, Erin, Me

Zeph, Me, Erika, Meagan, Chelsea, Erin

This is Chelsea trying to get on the monkey bars. She couldn't figure out how the rest of us had climbed on top. No worries - she is a dancer and is all streched out.

So CUTE!

Zephne, Me, Erika, Chelsea, Meagan, Erin

Themed Weekends: Temple Weekend

So last weekend Meagan had 10 tickets for the Draper Temple open house. So we went and saw the temple. It was so awesome. I can't wait till I can go when it is dedicated. Me, Erika, Meagan, Chelsea, Jessica (Zeph's friend) Zephne, Liz (Joey's date). Front Row: Jarom, Adam, Joey.

Wedding Weekend

This is my roomie Erin and her fiance Craig. This is a bad pic. but it is the only one I have. They are getting married on April 25! Wohoo! So a few weekends ago we went wedding dress shopping and then Erin took us out to eat to fulfill the roommate code. They are really cute together the few times I have seen them. They aren't around very much. Then we went and watched a wedding movie. I don't remember what it was called, but it was funny. congrats to Erin and Craig!

Rugby and St. George

So our apartment has tended to have themed weekends so far. A few weekends ago it was rugby weekend and we went down to Saint George to watch a rugby tournament. It was so warm in St. George and it was really nice to get out of Provo for a while. We stopped by to see the St. George Temple. It was so gorgeous as the sun was setting. Me, Chelsea, and Erika. This is at the rugby game. We were there for their game against Penn State and Utah. They won Penn State something like 86-14. And tied with Utah. And they won their two games the day before. If you have never watched a rugby game you definitely should. It is better than football, because they rarely stop the game. And they throw each other in the air, as shown by picture. Really the only guy we know on the team is Adam. Meagan met Adam six years ago at EFY and they are still friends. Wow. I don't remember anyone from EFY except Katey. Adam had a really good game, he scored a try. (I think that is what it is called. aka a touchdown) So this is after the game. Me, Erika, Chelsea, Adam, Meagan, Heidi (Adam's sis.) Aaron (Heidi's boyfriend). Then to finish our theamed weekend we went and watched the movie Forever Strong. (it's about rugby.)

Elms and the Roomies

So I moved out this semester into the Elms, W16! I didn't know anyone before I moved in, but it has turned out amazing! These girls rock and my room roomie is so amazing. The other day, I wake up and come out to the kitchen to make breakfast and two of my roommates are sitting there making moccasins. Here is a picture: Meagan, and Zephne making moccasins on kitchen floor. Here is a picture of all my roommates. We had a roommate bonding day, last Saturday. Erin (another new roommate) just got engaged. So we went wedding dress shopping and out to Cafe Rio. From Left to Right: Chelsie, Erin, Meagan, Erika, Zephne, and Me. So I made a cake one night because I was bored and we took pictures with it before we ate it because I must say it looked really good. Erin, Zephne, Me and Cake, Erika!

Yay for my awesome roomies!!

Newness

Happy New Year!! 2009! and to add to the newness I redesigned my blog. cool eh?