My BYU College Life

Still in Limbo

2012-02-05T19:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm still in limbo, but the amount of things I can do in limbo just got reduced to almost nothing. Why? Because I got in a car accident and broke my collar bone. I blogged all about it over on my mission blog, so feel free to head over to www.sisterbusath.blogspot.com and find out just what happened =]

Life in Limbo

2012-01-08T22:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I am now a non-college student, but not yet a missionary. Therefore, my life hangs in limbo...

I'm not a fan.

School finished up, I forcibly quit my job (the only reason I quit was because the University wouldn't let me keep working at the library if I wasn't a student. Boo) and I moved home. It will all be worth it because I get to be a missionary!

I now spend my time...not doing a whole lot of anything. I am getting to nanny more, which is wonderful. I want to spend as much time with "my kids" as possible before I go away for 18 months and the forget me =[ Hopefully that won't happen! I have also begun to really study Preach My Gospel. That is one amazing book. Even if you aren't preparing to serve a mission, I highly recommend studying it! I am learning many great things. I also need to get my Chinese study on.

I haven't decided for sure whether I will be emailing out my weekly letters or having them posted to a blog or both =] So just in case, and because we all know how much I love blogs, I have created one for my mission! I was shocked, but the URL sisterbusath.blogspot.com was available, so you can check me out over there while I'm on my mission!

Seeing as I'm no longer a BYU student (well, for the time being) I will be mostly posting my mission preparations over there, and most likely (as long as I can convince a family member to do so) my letters will be posted over there as well.

Fear not, this blog will not disappear. I will resume posting here when I get back from my mission and once again become a BYU student!

Follow me to: www.sisterbusath.blogspot.com

See you in August of 2013!

-Andrea

End of another Semester

2011-12-09T15:21:00.001-08:00

Well, another semester has passed me by. All I have left are 4 finals, and then I will be done until Fall 2013! Wow, that sounds crazy! I am so ready for a break in school! I know a mission will be hard, but I am so ready for it, and I am so excited!!

I talked with brother who works at the MTC and evaluates incoming missionaries who have experience in their assigned language. He asked how much experience I had with learning/speaking Chinese. And then we talked for about five minutes in Chinese. He asked me my name, where I am from, where in China I had been, if I liked Chinese food, what kind of Chinese food I liked, how many kids were in my family, how many siblings I had, whether they were brothers or sisters, if I was the oldest, and maybe a few other questions. I was able to answer all the questions he asked, and only had trouble understanding him when he asked me where in China I had been, if I liked Chinese food (only because I couldn't understand the word he was saying for 'to eat', even though I knew it; it sounded different over the phone) and another question, which I don't remember. So, I did pretty well, I thought, but then he said he'd recommend that I stay in the MTC for twelve weeks. He asked what I felt, and I told him I felt like 12 weeks might be too long, but that I was happy to do whatever he felt would be best for me. He explained that the way the six week program works is that, the first 3 weeks are spent mostly speaking English, and you are taught how to teach the gospel in English, and then the last 3 weeks is Chinese, but you are already expected to be able to then teach in Chinese at almost the same level to which you were taught in English. Yeah, that wouldn't be good for me. I don't have the church vocabulary to do that. Or enough grammar to do that either. So after he explained that to me, he asked how I'd feel doing that and I said, you are probably correct in saying that I should stay in the MTC for 12 weeks. So 12 weeks it is! He said that, after I study for the next few months, if I feel like I have improved enough, and feel that only 3 weeks of Chinese would be sufficient, I could call him again and we could talk again, but I don't think I will have enough practice speaking Chinese before I go into the MTC to be able to do that. So I will practice and build up my vocabulary, so that when I am in there, I can progress further and be able to help out the other missionaries who may not have as much (or any) experience with Chinese as I do.

The thought of being in the MTC for 12 weeks is a bit daunting, but I am excited and it will be great!

I have sold my housing contract which is such a relief! I am about 1/3 moved out of my apartment, and will work on getting most things moved out tomorrow and Sunday. Finals are next week, and I have one a day through Thursday and will go home either Thursday night or Friday. Friday we are picking up Noelle at BYU-I and moving her and her friend home for the next semester, and then Saturday we are leaving for California! We will only be there till Thursday, but we are going out for my cousin's wedding, which is on Wednesday. I am so excited to go to California, and I am so excited that I will be able to go to my cousin's sealing! This will be the first sealing I've been to, so it is exciting!! Once we get back from California, we will be having an early Christmas Eve dinner with my Mom's family and then Christmas! I'm really excited for Christmas =] And New Years!

And after the holidays, I get to spend 2 1/2 months studying Chinese, Preach my Gospel and nannying lots =] Got to get in my fill of kids for the next 18 months!

Oh to have the faith of a child

2011-11-27T22:39:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite blogs (who I think I've mentioned before) is A Full Quiver. They are an LDS family who has adopted five special needs children from China. I got to meet the family by chance this summer when I was volunteering at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. They are an absolutely amazing family and I just adore them! About a year ago they adopted two girls from China: Lexi, who is blind, and Sophi, who was born without arms. Lexi is 6 years old and comes up with some of the funniest things! She has grasped the English language very well, and has also grasped gospel principles amazingly well, even for a six year old, let alone a six year old who only started learning about the church less than a year ago, and is learning it all in a language that isn't her native language. Talk about one special little girl!

Well, the reason I'm mentioning all this is because of a recent post on their blog. You can read it here on their blog and I would highly encourage you to read it.

Lexi knows that she will be healed (her eyesight restored) when she dies, and she is very excited about this and the fact that Christ will heal her. Her parents shared an example tonight of this, and for me, this was a great example of the kind of faith we all should have:

"Tonight as I was tucking her into her bed, I was just overcome with how much I love this beautiful, special girl. It's been almost a year since she joined our family and I can't believe her grasp of English, her resiliency, her happy demeanor, and her pure testimony of Jesus Christ. As I kissed her goodnight, she said, "Mommy, can I fix my eyes?" I said, "No, sweetie, only Jesus can fix your eyes." She replied, "But I know how! I just have to go like this," and proceeded to put her hands over her eyes. [my insert: her parents had showed her how Christ might heal her eyes, and it was by putting his hands over her eyes and then when he takes them away, she would be able to see]

Such childlike faith.

I have no doubt that it is faith enough to be healed now, if it is His desire for her. "

Lexi is such a sweet example of the kind of faith we need to have. We need to have the faith that we can be healed, or that Christ can and will take away all our pains. He will never leave us alone, I know that. I am so grateful for the examples of children who have such pure faith in Christ and his atoning power. Without them, I would often forget how much Christ loves me.

Oh how I am grateful for these simple reminders.

Well?

2011-11-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

Well, what has been going on in my life? Not a whole lot really. I've just been trying to keep up with school and finish the semester! Once it is over, I won't have to go to school for 1 1/2 years! Yay! I'm really happy about that =]

I officially changed my major...again...to Biological Science Education, which is the Biology teaching program. Why did I do this? Because I didn't want to take Organic Chemistry (I was 7 weeks into the class and had had enough). So I switched! I am excited to come back to school and start my teaching classes (after my mission though =] )

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving next week! It is probably my favorite food holiday! OO I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Things are going well in getting ready for my mission! I have bought a few clothing items, and have been filling out lots of paperwork! And I am going through the temple tomorrow, and I'm so excited!

That really is about all that is going on right now. We are going to California for Christmas for my cousins wedding, and I am so excited to be going back to San Jose! It has been way too long! I'm excited to get to see people one last time before my mission =]

And then we will come back to Utah for Christmas, and hopefully then go to LA after Christmas =] Yay for going to California twice over Christmas!

My Mission Call!!

2011-10-26T22:00:00.001-07:00

I got my mission call tonight!!!!

I AM GOING TO THE TAIWAN TAICHUNG MISSION!!! Mandarin Chinese speaking!!!!!

I report to the MTC on February 29, 2012!!! I am beyond excited!

Here is the video of me opening my call!!!

Love you all!

TOMORROW!!!

2011-10-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya! Tomorrow! You're only a day away!!!!

My mission call should be here tomorrow!!!

I'm opening it at 9 PM!!!

And then I'll post the video of me opening it, and make you watch it to find out where I'm going =]]

CAN'T WAIT!

Waiting isn't fun

2011-10-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

No, waiting certainly isn't fun.

So the process for how mission calls are made is: Thursdays, prospective missionaries pictures are shown on a screen and, through revelation, mission assignments are made! Fridays, calls are written up and mission packets prepared and ready to be sent. Mondays the calls are sent out! Wednesdays (if you are in Utah...and probably all the US) calls are received!

So my papers were sent in on Wednesday, and there was a chance my call would be assigned the next day, but that didn't happen (I know this because my bishop is able (somehow) to see when my assignment has been made), and so I know I won't be receiving my mission call tomorrow. But that's ok; I will know on Friday if it will be coming next Wednesday! Which it probably will be! Some people have said they can't believe how quick it will come, but others don't know how the anticipation isn't killing me. I just say, I'm grateful I only have to wait 2 or 3 weeks. One friend had to wait 6 weeks, another 2 1/2 months, and back before any of it was electronic, people were waiting 3 or more months! So I'm just counting my blessings that I don't have to wait all that long =]

Announcement!

2011-10-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

I'd like to interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast (of nothing...since I'm a horrible blogger!) to make this special announcement!

I have decided to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

My mission papers were completed tonight, and the member of my stake presidency that I met with said, unless there is a large number of papers being submitted, there is a 70-80% chance that my call will be assigned on Thursday and arrive to me by a week from Wednesday! I can't believe that by next Wednesday, I could know where I will be serving the Lord for 18 months!!!! (and if not next Wednesday, then the following for sure =] )

So! Now that that is out there, please guess where you think I will serve =]

And now, back to your regularly scheduled broadcast =]

Tomorrow!

2011-10-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is a very important day!!

BUT!

You'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out why =]]

hehe =]]

Here is a clue:

The picture was required for my special announcement =]

Check back tomorrow!!!!

When you realize you know nothing (about cars that is...)

2011-09-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

It was reaffirmed to me today that I know nothing about cars. At all.

So I was gifted a car from my cousins earlier this summer. It was wonderful, seeing as I didn't have a car, nor did I have the money to buy a car. So a free car? Perfect. I knew it was old (1994), had a lot of miles on it (228,000), but it ran great. So after about a month, the oil light went on for a few minutes, but then went off. I mentioned it to my dad and he was like, you drove around with the light on? And I was like, well it went off. He went out and checked the oil, and sure enough, there wasn't any according to the dipstick. So he filled it up and said I needed to go get my oil changed, and that every time I put in gas, I needed to check the oil level. Ok. So about a month ago, I finally got the oil changed, where they told me the car was in great condition, but it needed a new battery. Ok, I'll go to Walmart and have them put in a new one.

So last night, my car started shaking real bad while I was driving (but only when I was pressing on the gas). I made it to my destination and kind of dismissed it. Then on the way home, I was driving down the freeway, and my car was shaking sooooo bad and it was really freaking me out, so I quickly got off the freeway, and it hit me, I hadn't checked my oil level since I had my oil changed! So I pulled into a gas station, checked my oil level, and there was barely any on the dipstick. So I pulled out two quarts from my trunk and poured them in. I started home and the shaking went away.

Then, this morning, I was going to my parents and stopped off at Walmart to pick up more oil since I no longer had any spares in my trunk. At that time, I also decided that I really should put more oil in my car, since I only put two quarts in the night before. So I put in another 3 quarts, pull out of the Walmart parking lot, am about 2 seconds from getting on the freeway, and I look in my rearview mirror. And what do I see? A TON of white smoke billowing from the back of my car! I immediately swerve out of the lane that was about to take me onto the freeway, and I proceed to go to a parking lot. I am freaking out, as my car is smelling horribly bad of oil and my car is billowing smoke like crazy.

I park my car, turn it off, and check to see if it is on fire (since I was pretty sure it was!). Thankfully though, it wasn't, but I immediately call my dad and tell him what's happened, though apparently when I tell him the story, I only told him I put in 2 quarts (or that's what he understood). He says I most likely blew a gasket head because I drove around without oil last night. So he comes and rescues me (this is when it is nice that my parents live close) and I show him what the car is doing. He said, yes, that's probably what it is, and it is going to be real expensive to fix, and I need to decide what to do with the car. So we leave it in the parking lot and head home (we were having a family bbq). So I was totally upset because I really just needed my car to last me a few more months. That was all. And then I wouldn't needed it and it could die. So this totally wasn't part of the plan!

We get back to my parents house and after a few hours, I was talking with my uncle and it became clear that between last night and today, I had put in 5 quarts of oil in my car. Yes, 5. My uncle said, you put waaaay too much oil in your car, and its quite possible that that is my problem. He said he would drain in it and then start over, and see if that fixes it. So I began to have a bit of hope! My cousin has AAA and said she had free towing, so we ran to the car and called AAA and they came and towed it to my parents. I told my dad and he said he didn't know I had put in 5 quarts of oil, he thought I had only put in 2 and that that could quite possibly be my problem. So we got the car to my parents house, and my dad kindly drained all the oil. There was easily 8 quarts of oil in my car...yes, my car that holds no more than 4...

Well, long story short, I just had way too much oil in my car!! After they changed the oil, it took a few minutes for the white smoke to stop billowing from my car, but after once around the block, there was no more smoke coming out my car =]]

Now. How did I end up with too much oil in my car? This is where I inform you about how much I didn't know about putting in oil in my car.

1) I know how to check if I have oil in my car, and I know where the line should be. What I didn't know was that, when there isn't any oil registering on your dipstick, that doesn't mean you don't have any oil in your car (like I thought it did), but it means that I need more, but still have about 2 quarts left in it. Hence, I put in 5 quarts, because I thought I had zilch.

2) I didn't know that you should really only put one quart in at a time, and check your dipstick after each quart to make sure you don't put in too much.

Anyway. Now you know how uninformed I am.

And to make things so much better, my uncle is NEVER going to let me live this down =]

The Plight of the orphans pt.2

2011-08-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

I promise my blog isn't turning into a plight of the orphans blog, but when I see the way these special children are treated, just because they were born with an extra chromosome, it kills me. It is hard to see them living like this, and it makes you wonder why the Lord allowed them to come to families where they would be abandoned because of their special needs, but then I remember that, they are children of our Heavenly Father, and while it appears that everyone has forgotten about these children, He has not, and He never will, and once they pass from this life, they will live with Him in the Celestial Kingdom forever. That's how special they are.

This beautiful little girl is Liliana.

This beautiful girl, she is 11 years old.

Yes. You read that right, ELEVEN!

She weights 10 pounds. Yes, you read that correct too. TEN POUNDS!

And she live in an orphanage in Eastern Europe, where she has spent that 11 years, all because she was born as an extra special daughter of our Heavenly Father. She was born with down syndrome, and in the country she lives in, people with downs are cast out of society, given up to orphanages, all because of their extra chromosome.

And it kills me. It kills me that the beautiful girl has to suffer, all because she was born a little different than "normal". I know so many 11 year olds, and I can't imagine them having lived their lives like this little girl.

Please, if nothing else, pray for Liliana. It looks like she has a committed family, but this family is relying on the Lord to provide the $22,000 ransom to bring Liliana home.

If you are interested in helping out Liliana's future family and to find out more about Liliana, please go to: http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2011/08/because-it-is-our-problem.html

I've posted about Adeye before, and she is amazing when it comes to helping to raise the ransom for these children.

Happy Birthday to me!

2011-08-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my birthday was...13 days ago, but I can still celebrate right =] I turned the big 21 this year...I'm officially and legally an adult everywhere and (as far as I know) can legally do everything except rent a car. Really? Why do I have to be 25 to rent a car?? They really should make it 21 to rent a car and 25 to drink. Bizarre.

I didn't do a whole lot for my birthday, nothing in fact. I worked...though I did go home and my mom had made me a chocolate cake for my birthday =] It was delicious. And I got Cafe Rio for dinner, which is always delightful. We celebrated again on Wednesday by having Dickey's BBQ for dinner (so good!) and then we left on Thursday for a family reunion up in West Yellowstone! That was so much fun! Almost all of the family was there, and it was great to just be able to sit and visit with cousins who I don't get to see very often. We had a family meeting and I made and announcement (I'll make it on the blog in a few weeks, once some things are more set in stone) but I'm very excited for this up coming year!

School starts in 16 days and I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not...I've got some good classes but I have better things to look forward to after this semester, that this semester could potentially go by really slow! Or it could go by really fast =]

The plight of the orphans

2011-07-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

As some of you might know, I nanny for a very special little girl who has down syndrome. Aubrey has opened my eyes to how amazing, incredible, loving and so special children with special needs are. Caring for her and interacting with her has helped me to open my eyes to those around me who were born with special needs, but weren't as fortunate as Aubrey to be born into loving families like hers.

I follow several blogs of families who have children born into their families with special needs, or who have adopted children with special needs from other countries, mainly Eastern Europe. I've also become familiar with the website, Reece's Rainbow, an adoption website that advocates for these special needs children in EE who so desperately need families.

One of the blogs I read, No Greater Joy Mom, has adopted four special needs daughters, two from China and two (with down syndrome) from Eastern Europe. When Adeye brought home Hailee and Harper, they were 5 and 2 respectively, and dear Hailee weight only 15 pounds. Yes, 15 pounds at 5 years old. She grew up living in they "laying room" which essentially meant she spent her entire life, the whole 5 years up till that point, just laying in a crib. All because she had down syndrome. If you looked at the pictures of this poor little girl, your heart would break! Absolutely break! She was as thin as could be, couldn't really sit unassisted, definitely couldn't crawl or walk. But, she was adopted out and has been home a year how, and its amazing what the power of love and nourishment can do for a child! She is walking, talking, has gained weight, and though she is still small for a 6 year old, she is loved and she is saved! It is amazing!

Anyway, Adeye made a commitment to advocate for the 5 children who were in the laying room with Hailee and she made the commitment that, through her blog, she was going to rescue those children! And guess what! She has raised the money through her readers and found families for 3 of those 5 children! They all got the chance to escape, and through the amazing readers of Adeye's blog, the money was raised for the ransom for these children. It is not cheap to adopt from EE, and a grant of $20,000 is considered to be enough to pay for the whole (or almost all) of the adoption. That much money was raised for EACH of those three children! But they aren't the only orphans Adeye has advocated for and raised money for. There are at least 3 or 4 others whom she has advocated for, and through the power of the internet, has raised $20,000 for each child, so that money is not an issue for their families, so that these families who so desperately want to rescue one of these beautiful children doesn't have to say, We can't afford an adoption. All these families need is faith.

And now, Adeye has done it again.

This is sweet Teri Lynn.

She is 5 years old, and has down syndrome. She has been living in a baby house, and has been taken care of quite well.

Four weeks ago, she was transferred to a mental institution because she is 5 years old.

This is what Teri Lynn looks like after 3 short weeks in the institution.

Three weeks! Three weeks in a mental institution did this to a beautiful little girl! That, my friends, is how horrible these mental institutions are. 95% of the children transferred to the institutions will not survive, and most of them don't survive past a year! How can you not want to do something!

And that is where Adeye has come in. Over the past 5 days, Adeye's readers have bonded together and raised over $21,000, plus two people have agreed to match up to $2,500 if that much was raised in a day, which it was. So beautiful Teri Lynn's waiting family has over $26,000 in her grant to be used for her adoption! This is more than enough to pay the ransom for this little girl.

The only problem? She hasn't found her family yet. And without a family, all the money in the world can't save this little girl.

So, could you be Teri Lynn's family? Do you know someone who could be Teri Lynn's family?

Just take a look at this sweet girl. She doesn't deserve to live in an institution, and neither does any other child.

To learn more about how you can help Teri Lynn or to inquire about her, click here.

EM:HE Pt 4 - The Reveal!

2011-07-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

This was by far my favorite day! As the morning started, I didn't know if I would be able to go to the revel, as I had to work that morning, but I was able to go! They were supposed to reveal the house at 2 PM, but after having been onsite as much as I had, I knew it would be later. I was there by 2 PM and there were so many people there, probably more than 1500! But because there were so many people, I wasn't able to get up front =[ But I was close enough to get video of the reveal! The area right behind where they were going to be standing was packed with people, but that was ok, because I wanted to be where I could see their faces. I really didn't care all that much about being on TV. I wanted to be there to see them, and see how thrilled they were to be getting their new house. That is why I was there.

I have to say: there were several mothers there who I was very unhappy with. Many of them were there with their young children, who were exhausted, dehydrated and wanted to go home. But these mothers wanted to stay, and so they just let their children cry and be hot and unhappy. It was close to 100 that day, and there was no shade, and those poor children were just so hot! There were several times I wanted to tell the mothers to leave and take their poor children home. I also wasn't happy that strollers and wagons were allowed in the crowed, because it just too up space that other people could have been standing in.

Anyways.

Before the family came, they did the taping of us saying the three magic words: Move That Bus! That was so neat to be a part of! Then the family came in the limo, a few times, while they did some taping of it, and then finally, the family got out of the limo! They did the customary thank you's and such, and then it was the big moment! Ty finally said, MOVE THAT BUS! And off it went! It was such a neat experience to witness first hand the reaction of the family. I was very glad to know that they only move the bus once, and so the reaction you see on the faces of the family are genuine and true. And I'm so glad that I have video of it (crappy, yet still wonderful) and to know that I was a part of their dream coming true, there is nothing to describe that feeling! It is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

As soon as the family went inside, 3/4 of the people left. I knew that the family was going to have to come out of the house (either via front door or laundry door) to go see the guest house, so I positioned myself to be there when they did. And before long, out they came! I got some great shots of Ty and the family and again, being able to see their genuine, true reactions was priceless.

So, while I never officially got to meet any of the designers, no matter how much I really wanted, my week with EM:HE was fulfilled because I got to do the most important thing; build a house for the Gomez family!

EM:HE Pt 3

2011-07-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

So my last shift day was Tuesday, June 28. My sister and I were signed up for the 8 AM to 2 PM shift. It was definitely a different environment being there during the day verses during the night, mainly in that there was actually the film crew there! That is always exciting =] The designers for this house were Michael Malony, Paige Hemmis and Xzibit. I am an absolute fan of Michael and so I really wanted to see him. So my sister and I got there (and our friend Drew came too, with the hopes that he could get in as a walk on) and we sit around for the first 2 hours. Finally this painter guy comes up to me and my sister and says, do you want to do something, and I'm like, yes please! So he takes us to the house, gives us some putty and 8 doors and says, putty the holes in the moulding that are around the door and in the door jams. Yes sir! I was so excited to be doing actual construction work! So we do the front door, 4 doors that lead to a small court yard, door out the master bath , laundry room door and the door to the guest house. While we were over at the guest house, I hear "What is the ETA on Xzibit" and I'm like, he is coming over here?! So Noelle and I keep working on the door, and all of a sudden the whole film crew is right there and they are at the door to the guest house, discussing what is going to happen (I won't reveal it, so that I don't spoil anything). The guy asks if the three guys who are standing by Noelle and I if they are volunteers, they say yes, and needless to say, they get in the shot, but Noelle and I don't because we finished working on what we were working on before they actually shot it =[ We were so close!!! But we did get to see Xzibit up close.

After we finished with the putty, we found our painter guy, Jerry, and ask him if he has anything else we can do. He asks if we've ever caulked before and I said no, but I can learn. He says, ok, lets see how you do. So he shows me how to do it, and gives Noelle sandpaper to sand down the doors. I start caulking and realize I'm doing a horrible job! But I soon enough get the hang of it. I'm so excited to be able to say, I caulked those doors, when they show them on TV!!! Who else can say that?! So we caulked all the doors we had just puttied (except the front door, that one was already done) and while we are caulking the guest house, I see a little girl running towards the tent that the stars generally are at (she was in the spectator area). I recognized her and saw the rest of her family =] It was the family I had met on Sunday! So Noelle and I finished up, and then went over to the family to say hi. I introduced my sister to them, and she struck up a conversation with their oldest daughter. Six-year-old Lexi (who is blind and was adopted from China 6 months ago) comes up to me and grabs my hands. I get down on her level, and she asks who I am. I tell her, and before I know it, she is asking me to hold her. I wasn't going to deny her that! So I pick her up and we became best buds right then and there. She is such a sweetheart and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet this extraordinary family and their amazing kids! That was just as much of a highlight for me as was being able to build a house for such a deserving family!

Holmes Homes, the contractor for the project, had a photographer walking around, taking pictures, and then they put those pictures up on facebook, and they have one of Noelle and I!

Noelle, sanding or puttying

Me, caulking one of the doors to the patio

I have more pictures from the whole even that I will post later =]

EM:HE Pt 2

2011-07-05T18:28:00.000-07:00

So Sunday night, June 26, I decided I wanted to go again and try to get in as a walk-on volunteer. So my friend Drew and I headed up there, but they didn't need us right away, so we hung out in the spectator area for a while, just watching construction, and then about 9:30 PM (we had gone around 8) we went back and they said if we wanted to do landscape and clean up we could go in! So we said sure, anything to get us in. So that night we helped moving sand for pavers, moving the pavers themselves (twice, because the first time, the plywood that they were on was hanging over the edge of the concrete into the driveway, and so they needed it to be moved), and moving gravel to a window well (we left before that project was done, and boy was it going to be a huge project!). So not quite as exciting as the first night, but definitely still great!

A fun experience that I had while we were waiting in the spectator area: As Drew and I were walking to the spectator area, I walked past a little girl and did a double take because I knew who she was! I looked at the other kids in the family and realized I knew exactly who they were! I read their blog!!! They are an LDS family who have adopted 5 special needs kids from China (in addition to their 3 biological children). So of course I had to stop and say hi and introduce myself! I was beyond myself that I got to meet them, as I very much love reading their blog and love that they have adopted from China. You too can follow them at: kidjunkies.blogspot.com I absolutely loved meeting Jeremy and Christi and all their kids!! Thanks guys for letting me meet your beautiful and wonderful kids!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition pt 1

2011-07-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

Many of you probably know the ABC TV show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. My family and I dutifully watched it every Sunday since it began, up until we moved to China. Since being back, I haven't been able to watch as many episodes, but that doesn't mean I don't still love the show! Ever since I began watching it, I have always wanted to volunteer with EMHE (and own a coveted blue shirt!), but up until recently, the opportunity had never presented itself.

On Tuesday of last week, I was driving home (in my new-to-me car!) and heard on the radio that EMHE was coming to Utah, THIS WEEK! I knew immediately that as long as it was within reasonable driving distance, I would be there! And they were! The house they were going to be building was in South Jordan, not far from me at all! I got home and immediately signed up to volunteer for the following Tuesday (June 28) from 8 AM to 2 PM. But then, when my roommates got home I thought, why didn't I think to ask them if they wanted to do it with me. I talked to them, and they said they did, but couldn't do it at the time I had already signed up for, so we looked at all the options and decided we would do that Friday, June 24, from 8 PM to 2 AM. We were all so excited!

So Friday came and Chelsey, Marianne and I drove up to South Jordan, received our blue shirts and hard hats, and were taken on-site! At this point, construction had been going on for about 26 or so hours, and they had the guest house and garage built, and the foundation was being finished in the basement/for the rest of the house. We were taken to the volunteer tent and basically told to sit around and wait, and that we would be on call to help with food. Kind of a bummer, since we wanted to work on the house. But, we figured, at least we are here, helping with what they needed. So we picked up trash, emptied trash bins and just hung out. After about 1 1/2 hours, they finally said they needed our help! Yay! We were so excited to go out and be at the construction site! Our first task was to move 2x4's from one area to the next. So the 20 or so of us made a line and we passed the wood down the line to where it needed to go. Unfortunately, we didn't have gloves on, so we all got a few splinters; ouch! After we completed that job, we sat and waited for something else to do. After a while, there was another wood pile that needed to be moved, so once again, we formed a line and moved the wood pile.

Finally after about 3 hours of being there (our shift was 6 hours long) we finally got word that they needed everyone to help with taking the forms off the basement walls! For anyone who has never done construction or been at a construction site, when you are doing a basement, they put up these huge forms, and and then fill the middle with the concrete, let it dry, and then take them off. There were about 60 or so volunteers and just as many, if not more, volunteer construction workers. So the construction workers would take the forms off the concrete, pass them to the men, and then the men would pass them off to us women and we'd take them to the truck. Now, there were mainly two types of forms: 4 ft-50lbs forms and 8 ft-100 lbs forms. So these aren't lightweight things! They had wanted us to form a line all the way to the trucks, but there were too many things and they weren't all going to the same trucks, and it really was just easier to have the guys doing a line to pass them to us, and the we would carry them where they needed to go. And that is how it went for 3 hours. We took all the forms off the house in 3 hours! We were told this would take a normal sized crew 5-7 DAYS! Yes! That is the power of volunteers =]

So that was absolutely incredible to do! I so much enjoyed my first day there (and it was so nice to be there at night!) that I couldn't wait for the next time I was going to come!

My resolve to do better!

2011-06-28T21:46:00.000-07:00

I don't know why, but I want to be a better blogger! Before I went to Europe, I had gotten in the habit of journaling every day (and then got out of it while in Europe...dang it!). When I was getting into the habit of journaling everyday, I started looking at my days differently. I began to look at them and really try and find the exciting things in my day. The days that I normally would have considered boring, I began to find something interesting in them, whether it be something at work, or something at home or church or school or wherever, I began to find that at the end of the day, there was so much I wanted to write down, and so much that I wanted to remember!

While I was in Europe, I *kept* a blog, www.bloggingfromeurope.blogspot.com and while I didn't update it every day, I did go back and blog the whole trip (almost...) because I don't ever want to forget that trip! And now that I've been back a whole week, there are so many things that I've done that I want to remember and share! And I want to be better at posting pictures!

BUT!

To make me want to do this, I need people to actually be reading it and commenting because knowing someone is out there, wanting to read my blog makes me want to keep writing so I don't lose them (like I have...)

So, I've opened up my blog again, so that it isn't private anymore.

I won't be posting about every little thing, but there are definitely things I want to share, and I really want to start doing flash back posts.

I'm not taking classes this summer, and have plenty of time to blog, and for as much time as I spend reading other blogs, I can definitely do some posts of my own!

And so it begins.

My summer of blogging!

*and if anyone knows how to do one of those cool signature things that posts to the bottom of my posts, leave me a comment!*

School, Finals, Europe, Oh joy!

2011-04-18T10:28:00.001-07:00

Well, its been another month =] Classes are now over and finals are among me! I have three more finals to take, one today, one tomorrow and one Wednesday! As you can tell, I'm not studying =] OH well.

Europe! Less than one month! If anyone is still reading this blog, you can follow my Europe blog at bloggingfromeurope.blogspot.com and I've actually been posting on it! A miracle I know. I have my schedule of what we are going to be doing there and such, and I just can't wait to go!!! It will be so fun!!!

Also, I've started my photography business, capturing.joy photos, and you can find me on the web at capturingjoyphotos.com I've done one engagement photo shoot since starting my business, but I've done several other shoots before that to build up my portfolio! I'm loving my new camera and working towards a new lens. I priced it out, and if I could manage to get 8 photography shoots before I leave for Europe then I could buy my new lens...but I don't think thats going to happen, so I'll just rent the lens for Europe and work towards it when I come back =]

Not much else is going on! We had a garage sale on Saturday to sell all the rest of Aunt Barbara's things that we had still. It was a huge task, but we sold probably 85-90% of it!! Which is AMAZING! Considering we started with close to 1200 books, 15 buckets of holiday decorations, some bigger items, and lots and lots of little random things. We were left with maybe 200-300 books, and just a handful of other things. It was incredible how much stuff we sold! My mom is very excited to have her garage back =]

Anyways. Back to studying!! If I keep on track with my once a month posting, my next post will be from EUROPE! But I'd just recommend reading my Europe blog because its more likely I'll just be posting there =]

Well then.

2011-03-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

Once again, its been a while =] Nothing too exciting is happening, just school, of which I only have 21 more days!!! Can't wait!! And...

I'M GOING TO EUROPE ON MAY 16!!!!

I am beyond stoked!!!! I am going to the Netherlands for 2 weeks (with a weekend in Belgium to visit a friend from high school) and then my family comes June 1st, and I'll go meet them in London, where we will spend a few days, and then go off to France, Germany and Italy. I am so beyond excited!

I'm also getting a new camera tomorrow! Its a Canon 40D and I got it for an amazing price, as well as its coming with a lot of extras...like 5 batteries and 4 memory cards! Which is awesome because I am going to need a lot of memory cards and batteries for Europe!!

My cousin Megan Jensen is featuring me as a guest blogger on her blog on Monday, so check it out! www.so-ingbuttons.blogspot.com She does Monday Memories, and she asked me to contribute a memory! I think I am going to start doing that as well, since I have so many pictures and so many memories, especially from my time in China, and since I didn't blog much (or ever) while we were in ~~Europe~~ China =], I thought this would be a cool way to go back and do that. No guarantee, but hopefully I will do it!

Like I said, school is almost over! This semester has been death...three science classes, two labs, and mission prep. Yup, thats a lot. But its almost done, then I'll have a week off, a week of nannying, then another week, and then EUROPE!

And the another great thing? I found out my friend from high school, Ryan, is coming to Europe with me!! He wanted to, but didn't think it was going to work, but he texted me today and said he could go for sure!!! I'm so excited and it will be so fun to have someone to travel around the Netherlands and Belgium with! And he and I and my friend that I've visiting in Belgium all went to high school together, so that will be a lot of fun as well to all get together! Can't wait!!!!

Provo Tabernacle Fire

2010-12-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

So as many of you may (or may not) know, the Provo Tabernacle burned down over the course of the last two days. I went out to see it yesterday (Friday) and to take some pictures. The fire was still burning 12 hours after it started, and continued to burn for about 24 hours. The reason for this was because when the roof collapsed, it trapped all the debris underneath and since the firefighters couldn't go inside, they were only able to poor water on top of everything, which never could get to the underneath debris. Last night on the news I was watching the clips and footage that they got of the fire, and I noticed in one of the clips that, in the doorway, you could see a picture of Christ. The weird thing was that the whole picture was burned, except for Christ. I kind of thought I was just seeing things, until I came across this blog post: http://www.eat5hams.com/2010/12/fire-and-ice.html

And then I realized I really had seen something! It saddened me though because I figured the picture would be gone by the time I got there the next day. I went over today and I knew which door I needed to go to to see if by some miracle the picture was still there. Pretty much everything inside the tabernacle had been burned and fallen down by this morning, and the wall that the picture had been on was no longer there. I figured the painting had perished, but it was still neat to think about. Tonight, I was looking at more articles on the fire and noticed that one of the articles had new pictures. I opened up the pictures and you will never believe what they were of. The firefighters had saved that painting! They went in and got it and truly everything in the painting was burned except for Christ. You can see them here: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13709985 I really could not believe that. I don't know when they rescued the painting, but I hope it gets preserved. To me, that was a testament that the Lord's hand really was in all of this. For the painting to have been sparred in the way that it was is just incredible. It is literally a perfect circle around Christ. Amazing.

End of the Semester!!

2010-12-15T16:46:00.000-08:00

Well the semester is over, well, it will be completely when I finish my last two finals. It wasn't a horrible semester though. I enjoyed my classes for the most part, and I really enjoyed all of my professors; they were wonderful! I already too my Doctrine and Covenants final and my chemistry final, so tomorrow is going to be humanities and maybe statistics, but if not, I will take statistics first thing Friday morning! And then I will be done! Well, for two weeks. But I am excited for next semester...though I am always excited for the next semester =]

Nothing exciting is going on other than school though. I am looking forward to Christmas break, especially because I am doing three, over night nanny jobs for three different families. It will be a lot of fun! And I'm excited to have a break from working at the library. I'm not working there over break because of all the nannying, so it will be nice to come back in the new year ready to work again =]

Well, that was short and sweet and to the point. Pretty much I'm sick of studying and just needed something else to occupy my time. And I'm also working on creating a photography website (that's something else I've recently become really interested in, again!) So when I get that up I will post for people to see =]

What's new?

2010-10-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

Not much =]

It snowed today on the ground for the first time this season! I was pretty excited!! It didn't last a whole long time, but it was still great.

I've been figuring out whether I'll be taking Chinese again next semester. I was going to, no question, but as the semester has gone on, I've stopped enjoying Chinese. I don't enjoy doing the work, I don't enjoy learning the language, and I think its time to stop. Its becoming more of a chore than something I really enjoyed and loved. So sadly I won't be taking Chinese anymore (or at least not next semester). This left me with a need for another class (since Chinese was a 4 credit class and i was at 13 credits). So I've picked up Physics for next semester. So I will have 4 classes and two labs: Molecular Biology, the second half of the chemistry class I'm in now (plus a lab), first half of the introductory physics class (and a lab), and mission prep. My roommate thinks I'm pretty crazy to be taking all of that, but I think I'll be ok. Chem is just building off of what we've learned this semester, which I've pretty much understood all of, and molecular biology is mostly proteins and nucleic acids which is what I love learning about! And then there is physics, which I've never taken, so I'm thinking that will be the hardest class, but I'm really excited =] And mission prep is just to (hopefully) help me decide whether I want to serve a mission or not...since, scarily, if I do, it will most likely be within the coming year! But who knows!

This semester is going well. As I said, Chinese is no longer fun, so I'm struggling through it. Chemistry is great, I'm enjoying what we are learning about, Humanities is also really enjoyable (I saw my first opera, The Magic Flute by Mozart on campus last week: Amazing!) and I'm starting to really enjoy classical music, Doctrine and Covenants is great as always and stats isn't too bad!

Work is just work. We get a new supervisor on Monday. It will be sad to say goodbye to the one we have now, but we're hoping the new one will be just as great!

Funny, yet sad story: Last Friday, my chemistry professor was doing demonstrations with pressure. One of them was to heat water in a large can and then roll it in ice to see it implode. After it was heated up, he put it on the floor and proceeded to jump on it to show us that it wouldn't collapse under his weight. I'd seen him do this experiment before, so I knew it wouldn't. Unfortunately, he fell right off that can while jumping on it. He is tall and thin and he landed right on his shoulder. He got up and said he thought he dislocated his shoulder. He finished the experiment (shows how dedicated he is as a professor) and then went to sit down. You could tell he was in a lot of pain and his face was draining of color. Turns out, he broke his arm, right at the base of the ball at the top of your humerus (upper arm bone) that goes into your shoulder. So sadly, he now has his arm in a cast (or sling, not sure, since he hides it in his shirt, and then his hand comes out the bottom of his button up shirt, its actually quite hilarious to see). The other sad part is normally, he has a Halloween magic show in class right around Halloween. But because his arm is broken, he can't do it =[ So I'm pretty bummed since I've been looking forward to it since, no joke, the first day of class when I realized that Halloween would occur during this class (I had him last fall semester for another Chemistry class, so I knew =] )

Well other than that, there isn't a whole lot going on. I've taught Sunday School once and it went well! I'm teaching again this Sunday so hopefully it will go well!

2 posts in one month?!

2010-10-05T22:29:00.000-07:00

Oh wait. Its October...I forgot! But I'm glad its October!

I woke up this morning to a glorious sight! Snow on Timp Mountain!! I was so excited to see that! I wore my rainboots today, and a sweatshirt...though the sweatshirt was a bit much...not quite cold enough to consistently wear one.

School is going good. Definitely much better, except for last week, when I had three tests and a bajillion homework assignments. But that week is done, and this week is much better =] So far at least.

I joined a dinner group! We eat together Mon-Thurs and only have to cook every other week (there are 8 of us). We also all happen to be in the same FHE group, which is a lot of fun! I was a bit bummed at first, but then I realized that its actually great, because I really like everyone in the group and it makes going to both activities fun because I already have friends in both places! Tomorrow is my night to cook, so I am making Chicken Ziti with garlic bread and a salad. Hopefully it will turn out good!

Work is work. We hired a bunch of new people, and they are all really great! It can be a lot of fun! One sad thing though is one of my bosses is being transfered to another area, and we will be getting a new boss. This could be a good thing, but it could be a bad thing. I'll let you know =]

Not much else is going on. I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I am a Sunday School teacher now, specifically the Marriage and Family Relations teacher. And Sunday is my first time teaching...thankfully (or maybe not, we'll see) I team teach, so I'm hoping that will be good.

BYU football isn't going so good...we have our homecoming game Saturday...and I am going, but we'll see for how long (I do have to work as well). And the parade is Saturday morning, and I'm planning on going to that (and then I get to take a test).

Anyways. Thats about it!

-Andrea

School!

2010-09-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

So school started this week, and boy am I in for a fun semester (not really...). I have Chemistry 105 every morning at 8 AM, Statistics 121 (formerly 221, and I've already taken...) at 9 on M-W-TH-F, Chinese 201 every day at noon, Humanities 202 MWF at 3 and Doctrine and Covenants (the second half) TTh at 10. It's a lot...especially Chinese, but once I get into a routine things will shape up. I really enjoy all of my professors except for Chinese. She is a westerner and I don't like her, especially her attitude and her tone of voice when she answers students questions; its almost like she makes us feel dumb. I only have her twice a week, the other three days is with a TA, whom I do enjoy. Hopefully I'll get used to her...

Work is going good. I don't work Monday's or Wednesdays which is really nice, but I do work Saturdays, which is fine, most of the time.

Yesterday was the first football game of the season, and so I went! I bought an all sports pass this year, which is something I haven't done before, and it looks like it might have been a waste because yesterday's game is the only full game I think I will be able to go to. Every other home game I will either be late to or have to leave early from because of work. Oh well. I did get bored after about half the game anyway, so I guess it will be ok =]

Anyways. I'm looking forward to this semester. It's going to take a while to get adjusted to all the course work, but once I've got it all down, it will all be good!

Well then.

2010-08-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

What a surprise! It's been over two months since I posted! And seeing as the last thing I posted was sad news, lets post happy news.

Well, I don't really have any.

But. School starts in less than a month!!! I'm really excited about that. And I get to move into my new apartment on the 25th, and that is really exciting too!

Summer has been great. I got to go to California for 10 days with the family and that was a lot of fun. Other than that, I've just been working at the library and as a nanny 1-2 times a week, which of course I love.

I did a 9 day nanny stint while the parents went to Honduras. That was fun! But a long time, but none the less, I very much enjoyed it.

Not much else is going on. I am taking Chemistry, Chinese, Humanities, Statistics (again) and the second half of doctrine and covenants. That's 16 credits...we'll see how that goes!

Oh and I changed my background if you didn't notice =]

Hope everyone else is doing well!

-andrea

Barbara Jean Whaley

2010-06-01T21:12:00.001-07:00

My Aunt Barbara died today. She was only 61 years old. We found out 6 weeks ago that she had stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which had spread to her liver, spine and bones. She did a week of radiation and a round of chemotherapy. The radiation helped shrink the tumor in her knee to allow her to walk for a few more weeks. The chemo made her weak and only prolonged the inevitable. We were able to celebrate her 61st birthday with her on May 8th. It was great to be able to have one more gathering with her. She was in good spirits at that time. At the beginning of last week (the week of May 23), she went down hill and we thought we were going to loose her then. She had been in a rehabilitation place, but had to be transferred back to the hospital. We found out she had an infection and so she was put on antibiotics and given a blood transfusion and everything turned around! I got to see her on Thursday (May 27th) and she seemed pretty coherent (or at least while we were there she was). We got to visit with her for a good 2 hours. We helped to decorate her new room (she had been moved to a hospice center) and just get to visit with her (unbeknown to us kids, for the last time). On Friday, she started to go down hill. She was getting another infection. From Friday on, she only continued to go downhill. She was in and out of consciousness and she didn't remember things. Last night was not good for her. She had a fever of 104 and her oxygen level had dropped from 86 to 64. Her pupils were fixed and dilated; she was unresponsive. We were surprised to wake up this morning and find she had made it through the night, but we knew it would only be a matter of a few hours now. I went to nanny, and I got the call that she had passed away. She left this mortal life to continue on her journey around 12:30 PM on Tuesday, June 1st. What is interesting is that she died right around the same time that my Auntie Janice did, almost 7 years ago.

We are hoping to have her funeral this Friday, June 4th, but we will know for sure tomorrow if that is going to be possible.

Crazy people in the library

2010-05-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

So we get some interesting folks come through the library (or who call/chat us). I thought I'd share two of them with you.

1) I got a call, and on the caller ID it said Ut St Govt. Ok. Interesting. I answer, and the first thing out of the guys mouth was "Are you in front of a terminal?". I was confused about what he was asking, so I asked him to repeat the question. He did, and I still didn't know what a "terminal" was. So I said I was sitting in front of a computer, and he was like, yeah, a terminal. Ok, so now a computer is called a terminal, good to know. He the proceeded to ask me to look up books and call numbers, though he didn't have a specific book he wanted. He asked me to go to an online translator and translate a word (forgot what it was) into Chinese (he didn't know I spoke a bit of Chinese) and then put it into the library catalog. By this time, I have a few people waiting for me. I tell him that if he isn't looking for a specific book that I can help him find, I need to go help other patrons (it had been about 7-8 mins). He tells me just to do it so I do it quick and he asks me to read through the results. And this is when he asked me if I spoke Chinese. How random. So I read him the pin yin and he asks me to click on one of them. I do, and then he wants to speak to someone about this book. I tell him the librarian isn't in right now, but I'd be happy to give him their number. He says no, he wants me to call them, leave a message with the call number of the book and his phone number. He rattles off a different phone number from the one he was calling from, but I didn't catch it before he said "Ciao" and hung up.

Come to find out, this wasn't his first (or last) time calling. He called a total of about 4 times before one of my coworkers kind of told him off. Another coworker and I did some research and found out he was calling from the mental hospital in Provo. Great. So that was exciting.

2) So I work till midnight 4 nights a week. On Tuesday night, I was sitting at a desk where I can't see out to the foyer. I by chance look that way, and see three police officers coming. Interesting, this could get good. One stays around the corner while the other two approach a man who is sitting in the chairs. One of the officers asks the man if he has a weapon on him! The man gets a bit confused and goes to check. The officer says woah, put your hands up. The man does, and the other officer asks him to stand up. He stands and the officer checks his belt loop. It looked like he might have had on an empty gun holster, and maybe another holster for like a phone or something. I think the determined that he did not have a weapon on him, but asked for his ID and questioned him about why he was there. The cops left without him, and a few minutes later he was gone. He was kind of scary looking. He was super tall (like 6'5) and had a super long, black beard, and a wide rimmed black hat.

Oh the joys of the library =]

Aunt Barbara

2010-04-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

I know some of you already know this, but some of you don't. Most of you do know my Aunt Barbara though. She was diagnosed with cancer about a week and a half ago. We are slowing finding where it is, and right now it is in her pancreas, liver, spine and bones. Every time she goes to the doctors they are finding it in more places. She was admitted to the hospital last night because she was in such pain (because it is in her bones) and the pain medicine she was being given was not doing enough. An oncologist has seen some of her scans, and she had a biopsy of her liver today, and an oncologist will review everything on Thursday. Things are not looking good as it is. From some of the research I've done about it, by the time someone is in pain like she is, its almost too late, so we are really praying that things will work out, but know they may not. So if you all would be praying for her, and for my family, that would be wonderful. I'll keep you all updated on how she is doing.

Oh the joys of school

2010-03-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

So school is almost over!!!!! Only this week, next week, two days of the following week and then FINALS! And then no school till September! Can't wait!!

I won't be going to school over spring/summer, just working in the library and doing some babysitting twice a week for a family who is related to a family I babysat for in China (and now here since they moved back). The parents are going to Honduras for 9 days in June, so I'll be watching their kids while they are gone. They have a girl, Aubrey, who will almost be 4 when they leave (and she has Down Syndrome but is the cutest thing ever!) and Michael who will be 18 months old when they leave. It will be great!

Not much else is going on. Haven't officially declared a major, but I pretty sure I am doing Biology with a Chinese minor. I was going to do Biology Education/Chinese teaching minor, but I'm going to just do straight biology because if I want to later on, I can go do an accelerated nursing program. And with Chinese, the straight Chinese minor is less classes than the teaching. So I'm pretty excited. For now though the plan is to get my teaching credentials after I get my degree.

I also got to see the family I used to nanny for this past weekend which was great! I didn't know when I was going to get to see them again since I'm not going to be able to go out to California this summer. So that was great!

I'm moving home for spring/summer as well, but will come up to Provo to work/go to church and then babysitting in Springville. I was moving out of my ward because my bishop was getting released, but then they called the 1st counselor, whom I love, as the bishop, so I decided I didn't want to move out anymore! Originally I was moving into an apartment with Lily (from China), but now I'm moving one building over to live with my other roommate Michelle and I'm really excited to live with her! She is great and I think we will have a lot of fun together! And I'm excited to NOT move out of the ward!

Thats about all thats going on with me =]

Snowmobiling and more

2010-02-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

I feel bad that this has been sitting waiting to be seen. Here are pictures from snowmobiling almost 2 months ago =]

So my family went with my dad's sister's family (The Algers) to West Yellowstone, MT at the beginning of February so we could all go snowmobiling! It was so much fun! I had such a great time! I actually got to drive my own snowmobile, which was awesome. The not awesome part: I crashed my snowmobile into Noelle's. That was fantastic. Some damage to my mobile, but no one was hurt =] Lots of us got stuck in the snow, which was awesome too!

Johnson Family

Really neat trees covered in snow

My poor stuck snow mobile..or maybe it was Moms...or Noelles

Sam and Julie

Same snow mobile stuck

Maybe I'll post more pictures...some day. Blogger is annoying and doesn't put the pictures where you want them...

Missionaries in Romania

2010-01-31T13:30:00.000-08:00

I don't know who of you have seen this news article, but 2 missionaries who were serving in Romania died this weekend. And sadly, I knew one of them. Elder McKay Burrows was in my ward freshman year. He was a great guy! One of my friends on Facebook had posted about this, and she said something like, Pray for the Burrows family, and the missionary in Romania had died. I was like...I know a missionary in Romania with the last name of Burrows. And sure enough, it was him. He and his companion died of natural gas asphyxiation. Its incredibly sad. I remember when he announced his mission call in sacrament meeting, and he was excited to be going to Romania, but nervous at the same time. Its so sad to see missionaries die on their missions, but you know that it is because the Lord had a more important mission for them.

Anyways. I just wanted to post that.

You can see the article here: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=9522925

-Andrea

Life.

2010-01-24T14:31:00.000-08:00

So school is going well, which is good! I still need to get my major (biology education) officially declared, as well as my minor (chinese teaching). So hopefully that can get done sometime this semester =]

I'm really enjoying all my classes and all my professors. Stats is kind of boring, and so is my PDBio (Physiology and Developmental Biology) class because, at least for PDBio, its all stuff I've already learned. Stats is just boring because...it just is!

So I have to start trying to figure out where I am going to live next year...not sure. I'd like to stay on Condo Row where I currently am, but I want to get out of my ward. There are about 130 girls and 36 guys...and I'm not joking at all! I don't like a lot of the girls either; they seem too stuck up and too, like they are better than everyone else. There are a lot of really sweet girls too, but this definitely isn't my favorite ward people wise, though I do love my bishopric! They are fantastic! So we'll see where I end up, but I do really need to start figuring it out! February is the month where you pretty much have to decide.

Not much else is going on. I am taking pictures of my roommates this afternoon (hopefully!) and if they turn out like I am hoping they will, I'll post some! I really am getting back into wanting to take pictures, and so yea!!

Hope everyone is doing well!

RESULT!

2010-01-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

I think I have finally found a Religion teacher I love at BYU!!

He is my new D&C teacher and his name is Scott Esplin. He is absolutely fantastic and I am very excited to learn about the Doctrine and Covenants this year!! We do have to write a paper, but I'm not worried because I'm just happy to have a religion professor that I am excited about on the first day of class!! Luckily he teaches the second half of D&C so I'll be taking it from him!

Just had to let everyone know that I'm really excited!!!

New Semester

2010-01-05T11:27:00.000-08:00

So I started a new semester...already! Christmas break was way too short! I worked most of it, which was fine. Long, but fine.

I got my grades back too, and they were exactly what I was expecting. Nothing fantastic (except for Chinese) but at least they were not lower that what I was planning on them being. Believe it or not, my lowest grade was in New Testament.

This semester I am hoping my religion (D&C) professor is much better! I haven't had the class yet (I have it in 30 mins), so I'll have to report back, but I read great things about him.

I am currently in 4 classes and trying to get into another one. They are: Chinese 102, Humanities 201 (like from BC to 1500 AD), Stats 221 and D&C. I am trying to get into a PDBIO class...we'll see if it happens. I went to the class yesterday, and there were about 40 kids sitting on the floor...thats how many people want to get in. Hopefully though!! Otherwise I'll just be taking 12 credits. I was going to take an intro to public health class, but I'm pretty set on being a Biology Teacher that I didn't want to take the class and make my major decision any harder. And I haven't regretted dropping the class, so I figure that is good!

I also have my new work schedule, and sadly I work on Saturdays now. So I work Mon 8-12, Wed 8-12, Thrs 9-12, Fri 7-11 and Sat 4 hours (rotating). Oh well.

So I think it will be a good semester. I just really hope that I get into the PDBio class that I need. I'd really like to get it over with while I have PDBio stuff fresh in my head.

And I'm super excited to be in Chinese again with all my friends! The class is about 1/2 familiar people and 1/2 new people. And some of the new people are intimidating!!! They are much more advanced than us!!! Oh dear!

Well I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Years! I'll have to post about those two events (though I think I did post about Christmas). One of my resolutions (that I just made up) is to blog more. I managed to blog almost the whole month of December, so I'm sure I can blog once or twice a week!

-Andrea

A Decade in Review

2009-12-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

So you know how, at the end of the year, or decade, lots of newspapers and such post "The Best ... of the Decade/Year", I thought it would be neat to do one of those. So here I go.

10 Biggest Events of the Decade (in my life) that I am not soon to forget (Not necessarily in any particular order):

1. Moving to China

2. My Aunt Janice and Grandpa Alan passed away

3. I started middle school, 2 high schools and college.

4. I some how made it into BYU

5. I finally decided what I want to be when I "grow up" (this is the one question you are asked your whole life, so finally deciding is pretty exciting!)

6. I got to visit New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and lots of places in China.

7. I took a tour of the East Coast

8. I started babysitting and nannying, which spurred a life-long love of kids =]

9. I got to visit Hawaii

10. September 11: I was luckily not affected directly, but it is one world-wide even that I won't soon forget.

Top World Events that stick out in my mind:

-September 11

-Fighting in Xin Jiang, China (this is really significant to me because I visited here before the most recent fighting, and it was my favorite trip)

-Disappearance/Murder of Laci Peterson

-Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart (and her subsequent finding)

-Disappearance of Susan Powell

-Crash of AirFrance Flight 447 that disappeared over the ocean

-Tsunami in Southeast Asia

-Hurricanes that devastated the South

Top Movies I have seen (and this probably isn't a comprehensive list since I've seen so many!)

-Angels and Demons

-Twilight/New Moon

-Poseidon

-The Secret Life of Bees

-Enchanted

-Juno

-(I know there are more!)

Ok. I'm going to stop here and think more, and come up with more lists =]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

2009-12-25T09:46:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

So my Aunt Kathy wanted to know what the first thing we watched on our new TV was...the Utah VS Cal State Football game....not our choice =] We had family over that night, and I have one diehard utah cousin, so we had to watch the game. After that though it was 3 Star Wars movies. My dad's choice.

Christmas eve was wonderful. We went up to Temple Square, where the lights were not on. We were told that Temple Square would be closing 6, but turns out the buildings were closing at 5 and the lights didn't come on till around 5:30. So we went into the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to the viewing deck, and waited till the lights came on. Then we did a quick tour (as we were freezing and hungry!) and then went back to my aunts to eat left over soup and sandwiches. Yummy!

Then we came home and I watched half of A Christmas Story.

Christmas morning we started opening presents around 8:30. We all got great things; lots of clothes, I got a few movies, but the best???

WE FINALLY GOT A WII!!! So excited!!! Its the perfect addition to our new TV and entertainment system.

Overall, we are all very happy people!!

Now, off to Aunt Sandy's for a great brunch!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Holiday Party #1

2009-12-23T21:05:00.000-08:00

So tonight we had a gathering with my mom's side of the family. It was the first real big one in a long time. All my mom's family was there except for one uncle (and family) that lives out of town, and an aunt (and family) that lives out of town. It was a lot of fun! We had probably 30 people including kidlets. We did a "white elephant" gift exchange game, except that we brought useful gifts and not weird gifts. We had soup and sandwiches which were really good and lots of yummy desserts!!

Tomorrow we are going up to temple square to see the lights which I'm excited about =] I haven't been up there this year, so I'm glad I get to go with my family.

And then its Christmas! I'm really excited this year!

Also, my family got their new, beautiful, massive entertainment center and 47" flat screen tv. All fantastic Christmas presents!

Merry Almost Christmas!

Clean apartment and almost Christmas!!!!!

2009-12-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

So this evening I did all the dishes, washed some towels, wiped down the counters and stove, and swept the floor. And now we have a clean apartment!

I was also able to finish wrapping christmas presents (my moms were the hardest because they were weird shaped) and now I am watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the original). I'm so excited that tomorrow will be my last day of work for a while!! It will be way nice to have a break!

And I can't wait for Christmas!! I'm getting really excited to see family and eat lots of great food!!!

And I also got my work schedule for next semester...and I work Saturdays =[ Its only 4 hours, but I'm not excited. And then I work Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I start at 8 this semester instead of 7, except for Friday. So hopefully all will be fine.

I can't believe that it is almost 2010!! I'm going to have to do a decade in review post, seeing as a lot happened between the year I turned 10 and 19.

-Andrea

Oops

2009-12-21T10:48:00.000-08:00

So I guess I didn't blog last night. It was a long day. My roommate Lily was taking a friend to the airport, but she wasn't comfortable driving home by herself. So I went...at 5 AM with them to the airport. We were actually dropping two people off, and the first person's flight left at 7:15 AM, and the second person's flight left at 9...so we dropped off the first person than drove to temple square and ate breakfast, then back to the airport. It was a really long day.

I also went to the Asian ward yesterday with my roommate Lily. She got a new calling as the Chinese Sunday School teacher, so I went to listen to her give her first lesson. She did a good job =] Of course I didn't understand the majority of it, but she had a powerpoint in English. So that helped.

And now today I am at work. For 10 hours. Not too sure why I signed up to work for 10 hours...today tomorrow and Wednesday...but I did. So here I sit. I have yet to start reading my books, but my favorite that I have read before was "The Bean Trees". Probably because it was the only one that had an interesting story line to it. I also love the book "The Secret Life of Bees" which is also a fantastic movie!!

Anywho. It had just dawned on me that I hadn't blogged. So I blogged now. I'm way excited for Christmas and food and gifts, but mostly for lots of food. And no work or school.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Book List

2009-12-19T21:27:00.000-08:00

So my Aunt Kathy wanted to know what books I had plans to read.

They are as follows:
The Bean Tree by Barbara Kingsolver

I know why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

The Catcher and the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

And a Mary Higgins Clark book

The only one I haven't read is the Mary Higgins Clark book. We'll see if I can finish them all!

MckMama

2009-12-18T09:47:00.001-08:00

So I am an avid blog reader. And one that I check everyday (other then family blogs of course) is MckMama.com

I started reading MckMama when her son, Stellan was born. He was born with SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) which means that his heart would beat too fast (around 220 beats/min) unless he was on a cocktail of medicines. He was rushed to Boston when he was 4 months old for an ablation (where they try and zap the extra electrical pathway in his heart that causes his heart to beat too fast), but it was unsuccessful because he was so small. It was also hard to complete because his extra pathway was located right on his AV node, which means that there was a good chance they would destroy his AV node, meaning he would have to have a pacemaker for the rest of his life. So they sent him home on more (and higher) doses of medicine. Fast forward to November, the week before his 1st birthday. Stellan stopped responding to the medicines and was becoming sick because of being on all the medicines. They took him to the hospital where it was decided that he would have to have another ablation. He was flown to Boston, and he was taken off all medicines so the doctors could see when they did the surgery where his pathway was exactly. They started detox on Sunday, and had the surgery planned for Thursday. Sadly, Stellan coded on Monday morning. They were able to revive him, but had to do an emergency abaltion. They decided that if they had to, they would destroy his AV node and he would have a pacemaker for the rest of his life. So during the surgery, they had exhausted all options, and the pathway would not go away. Right before the main Dr. decided to destroy the AV node to get rid of the pathway, one of his colleagues suggested that they go through his aorta to try and get rid of it. Now, if they were able to ablate the pathway, they wanted to ablate it for 2-3 seconds to be sure it would be gone. (Oh and the chances of a successful surgery without destroying his AV node was like...20%) SO they go through his aorta, have access to this pathway WITHOUT touching his AV node, and they ablate it...for a whole minute. His surgery was a home run!!

Stellan was curred of his SVT with no lasting effects. He still has an intact AV node, and there was no damages to his aortic valves. There is less than 1% chance that his SVT will ever come back.

So why did I post this? Not quite sure, but I love reading this blog! It is quite a well known blog now, because of Stellan. His parents have been on the news because of him and his mom is just a fantastic blogger (and photographer). They also have 3 other children.

Though the reason I blogged about this now is because MckMama is giving away Lightroom 2 (a photo-editing software) and if you blog about it, you get another entry into the contest. So I'm blogging about it and getting another entry into the contest! I doubt I'll win, but thats ok.

Now you all know about Stellan.

So go check out www.mckmama.com to learn more about them and to enter to win Lightroom 2!

-Andrea

DONE!!!!

2009-12-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

I'm DONE!! I decided to just study and take my last final tonight so I could be done!! So I studied and took it. It took 1 1/2 hours, and wasn't fun. I went through and answered all the ones I knew...which was almost 1/2. And then I went through and used process of elimination, and then I completely guessed on about 10. I didn't do so hot, but the class is curved, so yeah.

So now I'm free! I made a list of books I want to read over break. They are all ones I read in high school, but I want to re-read them now, thinking I'll appreciate/understand them more. So I'm pretty excited.

OOh. And last night I was craving sweets...so I made homemade, from scratch, brownies. And they were sooooooooo good!!

I worked for 7 hours today, and it actually wasn't too bad. So I'm less worried about break work (I was afraid it would be realllly long) but I'll be able to read and such too.

And I'm hoping to get a hair cut this weekend, so I'll be posting about that!

Have a great night/day!

Once Again

2009-12-16T19:49:00.000-08:00

I did nothing today. I was supposed to study, but because I didn't have any work, that didn't happen. I work tomorrow and I will study (because I won't come home from the library till I do) and then either take the test tomorrow night or first thing Friday morning. And then I'm done!!!

Really

2009-12-15T17:34:00.001-08:00

don't have anything to blog about. Took another final today. Didn't do so hot.

Only one more to go!!!!

And I'll be done!!!

Its the start of something new?

2009-12-14T18:26:00.000-08:00

Nope. Finals.

I had my first (this semester) final today. Well thats not entirely true, but I don't really count Chinese. Which by the way, I found out I officially got an A- in the class, which is just fine with me. So that was great.

Today I had New Testament. I went in feeling very confident, knew all the terms and such that my instructor had on the study guide, and knew the maps we were going to have to draw/label. And then I started taking the test and a good majority of the test was not on the study guide, which kind of frustrates me. Either make an accurate study guide or don't make one at all. Anyways, I pulled a C on the final, which was fine with me, and got a C in the class, which is also fine, seeing as I hadn't done too well on past tests.

Tomorrow I am taking Chemistry and either Wednesday or Thursday night, but probably Friday morning I will be taking human physiology. So thats all great.

I'm really excited to be done with all this, and then I'll just be working all break (with the exception of a few days). So yup!

Hope everyone is doing well!

-Andrea

Fail.

2009-12-13T20:56:00.000-08:00

So I totally didn't blog twice yesterday like I was supposed to. My roommates and I had another movie night (we've had one every night for like...the last 4 nights. or more). And then we ended talking till 2 AM and were watching the snow. I love it! I'm so grateful that I have such great roommates and that we can do things like that.

And I forgot to talk about cinnamon rolls in my last post. My friend Kelly is moving to St. George for an internship next semester, so she had a cinnamon roll party (she is famous for making them). She came over to borrow some pans and I asked her if she needed help. She said yes, since she was single handedly making 8 dz cinnamon rolls. So I went over for the next 3 hours and helped her make cinnamon rolls. Needless to say I am now a pro at making cinnamon rolls.

Today I went to my ward and my cousins stake conference. Then we went to visit my aunt and take pictures of my cousins kids. So we had fun doing that. Then my cousin and I played the new Wii SuperMario Bros. And we died...a lot. But we had fun.

And I conducted the choir for the first time in sacrament meeting. Or maybe I never told you guys. I'm the ward choir director. So we had our Christmas program and I had a lot of people compliment me on how well the choir sounded, and that it was the best they had sounded in a while. So I was proud.

And now my roommate Lily is having a game night with a few friends, and I come home, recognize one of them, and realize I know the other two as well. One I went rock climbing with once, and the other one was doing a study on my Chinese class. So that was kinda weird.

Anyways. Tomorrow starts finals. I have New Testament tomorrow, and then Chemistry on Tuesday, and possibly taking Human Physiology on Wednesday. I took Chinese last week.

Wish me luck!

-Andrea

Work party and Cinnamon Rolls

2009-12-11T21:10:00.001-08:00

On Thursday we had our work Christmas lunch. It was so good! Our bosses made soup and we all brought other things. It was all great! And it was so awesome to get to hang out with all the people I work with. I really do like them all, but even if I work at the same time with some of them, we never really work together, as we all work in different areas each hour. So that was fun to get to chat with everyone. I of course had my camera so I took some pictures of people. I had wanted to get a group picture, but that didn't happen.

Anyway, here are some pictures of that event.

The table in the workroom they so nicely decorated, and the food we ate. It was all fantastic!

Some of my coworkers =]

More of them.

Some of the crazy guys I work with. The one in the plaid shirt, Rob, wanted to go and have a dance party in the library, so he asked Ben (in the stripped shirt) to dance. And then proceeded to start dancing =]

And then he wanted to fling this braclet at Ben, so I of course had to capture it.

We all have a lot of fun, and even though we don't get to hang out much, we still are good friends!

And I'm sorry this didn't get posted on Friday. I had it all written out, and for some reason I saved it, and left, thinking I'd come back and finish it...well I didn't get home till early, and so I forgot. I'm sorry. So you all will get 2 posts today =]

-Andrea

A memorable last Human Physiology Class

2009-12-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

Today was our last day of classes, which was super exciting!! My human physiology professor is an older gentleman who has lots of ailments (his words) but he suffered through a lot of pain this semester so that he could teach us. He was diagnosed with shingles this week among other things. A few days ago our class got an email from a fellow classmate that they were going to do something special for this professor (Dr. Rhees). Then last night we got the details. Dr. Rhees lectures without shoes on because of his pain, and so the first part of the plan was that, a few minutes before class started (after Dr. Rhees had taken his shoes off), one of the students (who was actually recently diagnosed with Lymphoma) was going to take her shoes off and place them with his. This was our cue that we were to take our shoes off and put them with his as well. So we did. And this was the result.

Our pile of shoes =]

Dr. Rhees then went on to finish up the last of our material, and then he gave his "Last Class" lecture. Sadly, the projector kept breaking, but luckily he was able to finish it. Background: There are these cookies called Granny B cookies. They are big sugar cookies with pink frosting, and Dr. Rhees loves them!! Anyway. The plan was that we were to write thank you notes to Dr. Rhees, and on our way into class, we picked up one of these pink cookies. Once Dr. Rhees had finished his presentation, one student stood up, walked to the front, placed the cookie and note on the front table and shook his hand. This was our cue. I was prepared with my camera, so I had a friend take my cookie and note up, but we all went up to show our appreciation to Dr. Rhees. He shook everyone's hand, and was so amazed that we had done this for him. Another neat thing was that his wife was able to come to witness this.

Receiving cookies and shaking hands.

Dr. Rhees and his sweet wife.

This is my classmate who had organized this all. He was in Dr. Rhees' class 10 years ago (He then went off to med school, but something happened and now he has to retake classes again..hence he is in Dr. Rhees' class again). If you notice, in his left hand, he has an apple. 10 years ago Dr. Rhees had a thing for apples, and this man had organized a similar thing, but with apples. When we all started to bring up the cookies, he immediately called out "Steve, did you do this?!". Dr. Rhees had remembered what Steve had done 10 years ago, and that showed us what an impact something like this means to him.

The end result. A mass amount of cookies and thank you notes. Dr. Rhees vowed his grandchildren will not be allowed one cookie. He will be eating them all =]

Our fantastic class (well, a good part of them). They wanted a group picture. The awesome thing was I didn't even have to organize people!! They organized themselves into rows and everything. That was neat =]

So that was my fantastic day! We also had a work party today, but I'll save that event for tomorrow's blog post =]

Hope everyone has a great day!

-andrea

New Look

2009-12-09T19:48:00.000-08:00

So how do you like my new blog look?? I decided it needed a change, so I spiced it up a bit.

I really need a new haircut too. I've decided that as much as I want it short, it needs to get a little warmer before I cut it super short again. But it does need some stylin.

I took the first part of my Chinese final. Well actually it was the second half, and we'll take the first half tomorrow. I'm pretty confident. It was just reading and answering questions and matching, which wasn't too bad. I also had to write a dialogue, which wasn't too bad either, since any word I couldn't remember was somewhere on the page, which is awesome. So tomorrow we'll have vocab and sentence structure, where they give us a word and we have to make a sentence. So that will be fun.

I'm also excited that I don't have to work on Friday. It will be fantastic!! Though I have a lot of review sessions that day so not much free time. No worries though, the "free" time is right around the corner!! I say "free" because even though I have no classes, I do have work, but its not like I'll have to actually do anything but sit and read and surf the web. It will be fantastic!!

Oh and by the way, when I got to work this morning it was -1 degrees F, and 2 hours later, it was -5 degrees F and it felt like -20. Great. I was freezing!!!

Hope everyone is staying warm!

Finals, Finals, Finals

2009-12-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow begins finals for me. Well, thats not entirely true, since I had my oral Chinese final on Monday, but that was a piece of cake. Tomorrow I have the first half of my Chinese written final, and then Thursday I will finish it. Exciting!! One down, three to go!

Thursday we are having our work Christmas potluck. Thats pretty exciting. And we are also having a potluck after we finish our Chinese final on Thursday, also exciting! Thursday is also, finally, our last classes for the semester! I am beyond excited!!!

Friday I don't have to work, since it is the beginning of our reading days, which is great. I have some reviews scheduled for Chemistry and New Testament, which is great and hopefully will help!

So my posts are going to be a bit boring from now till finals is over, but do not fear! I will blog! Maybe I'll do some flashback posts, things from China or something.

Have a great day everyone!

-Andrea

Family Home Evening

2009-12-07T20:24:00.000-08:00

So tonight I had to decide between two different FHE's to attend. My ward FHE group was caroling with llamas. My FHE dad organizes caroling with llamas every Christmas, and they go caroling and collect food for the food bank. And my extended family was having FHE together, which is something I always love going to. I ultimately decided to go visit with family and I'm always so glad when I do. My family family didn't come down because of the snow, but most everyone else was there, and I remember why I love extended family FHE so much! I love singing with my family, especially about our Savior's birth. Being it the Christmas season, we read the Living Christ and sang Christmas hymns. We have been doing these extended family home evenings since, forever, and I have always loved them and I'm so grateful we have started them up again here in Utah.

Being the holiday season, you think more about what you are grateful for, and I am truly grateful for family and the closeness I have with them, and that we can always get together and have a great time.

Anywho. This is my last week of classes and I'm beyond excited!!

Have a great week everyone!!

-Andrea

Fantastic Christmas Dessert Party

2009-12-06T22:10:00.001-08:00

So my roommates and I put on our Christmas Dessert Party tonight and it was a huge success! We were hoping for at least 30 people to come through, and we had over 40 at least (we only had 40 cups =] ) We had just the right amount of desserts and everything was great! The only thing that we ran out of was punch, but it was ok!

So we had our apartment all decorated, and we had truffles, chocolate cupcakes, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, peach pastries, rice crispies and scones.

We were really proud of ourselves. We had scrubbed our floor like 10 mins before it was supposed to start, but it had snowed....needless to say our clean floors are no longer. And we have some mud spots on the carpet too...but its ok. It was a great party!

Next party: January. Crepes party. Were stoaked. It won't be as big and people will need to bring things (since crepes can get expensive) but its going to be so fun!

Saturday

2009-12-05T18:23:00.000-08:00

So Saturdays are great days because I get to sleep in and don't have to do anything. Except today I needed to go to the grocery store, and didn't have a way to get there. No worries. I have a fantastic cousin who is going to get me to go grocery shopping =]

Not much else went on today. There were some snow flurries, but nothing heavy. Hopefully tomorrow night!!

Tomorrow night is also our dessert party! I really hope it turns out!!!

I'll post pictures of it tomorrow night after its over and give it a review =]

Hope everyone had a great Saturday!

-Andrea

Couponing!

2009-12-04T21:24:00.000-08:00

So my cousin Jennifer started doing this new Grocery Savers program and tonight she held a class so we could learn all about it. I went with an open mind, but wasn't too interested but I figured, what the heck. Oh my goodness, I am so excited to be doing this!! It is so much easier then the "binder" method, and pretty much all the work is done for you. You go to a website and it has all the local ads (Smiths, Macy's, etc) all ready for you to look at. You collect the coupons from the Sunday newspapers and put them in file folders till you need them. No cutting and sorting and such. On the website, it tells you what date you can find the coupons in and how much it will be after all the savings. She showed us how much she has spent and saved...its crazy! Like she would spend $100 and would save $250! Crazy!!! I know I don't have a lot to spend since its just me that I'm shopping for, but its a good habit to get into for sure. And if I can get to the point where its no big deal, then all will be well.

And the best part??

Its free...well almost. You have to pay $15.55 a month for the newspaper...I get three every Sunday for that price (the cheapest way was to buy 3 so I did).

I'm really excited so hopefully I can start saving some mula!!

Today was also the last Friday of classes so I'm pretty excited for that too!! So only 4 more days of classes then free!!! Well. Then finals. Then free!!! Sort of. I am working a lot over Christmas break, but thats ok. I'll just read =]]

Hope everyone has a good day!

-Andrea

Ward Christmas Party

2009-12-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot to blog today!!

We had our Ward Christmas party tonight. Two girls in our ward are from Springville, and their family cooks food, and they have some mexican in them. So when I found they were cooking dinner for us, I was desperately hoping it would be Mexican food, and it was!! And it was soooooooo good!! So we ate, the activities committee put on a skit to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, there was a musical number, then the Bishop read us a story. It was all fun. But the best part was I got to hold a baby for most of it. Our second counselor has a 6 month old baby, Owen, and our counselor's wife and the baby come to our ward, since its just the 3 of them. So they were at the activity and I got to hang out with Owen for most of the activity which was great, since I don't get much interaction with babies anymore,a nd you all know how much I love babies/kids. So that was way awesome.

We were supposed to have a white elephant exchange, and my roomate Michelle had gotten something for it, but she wanted to keep it more than anything, so we brought it home. We all opened it together, and it was A Christmas Story Ornaments. They are so fun!! Lily has never seen the movie, so each of the ornaments had a picture on it, so we told her that story and put them on the tree. It was a lot of fun!! I'll post those pictures tomorrow.

Were getting really excited for our Christmas Dessert party, and I'll for sure post pictures of that when we have it.

And one of my aunts asked me if I had found a travelling companion yet for my Europe trip, and I haven't. I asked one of my best friends if she was interested, but I haven't heard from her yet. So I'm still looking, but I really like the idea of going alone. So we'll see what happens.

Hope everyone had a great day!!

-Andrea

Thinking about China

2009-12-02T17:55:00.001-08:00

So I've been thinking a lot about China today and my time there and what not. When I moved there I really did not want to be there, but as I look back on it now, I am so grateful my parents made me move there.

I was in Chinese today and on MWF, we only speak Chinese in class (or are only spoken to in Chinese) and its crazy for me to think that 3 years ago, I couldn't speak a lick of Chinese, and now I'm getting so much better and I am even beginning to read and write. I was thinking on the first thing I learned in Chinese (other than ni hao) and it was my address. It was a simple phrase, and it took Noelle and I all day to learn it. We were going to meet up with a family in the branch who were going to a museum that we wanted to go to. Our branch president offered to have us dropped off by his driver on his way to work. He tried so hard for the 30 minutes we were in the car to teach us Jingshan bie shu yi bai er shi san hao (Jingshan Villas #123) That was it. But it took Noelle and I forever to learn it! And now, looking back, I think it was so funny that that seemed so hard!

Another reason I have been thinking about China lot is because of what has been in the news. As some of you may know, I visited the most western province in China, Xin Jiang, almost 2 years ago, and now that area that I visited is becoming a war torn area, and the historic areas of it are being destroyed. I absolutely loved that area, and it was by far one of my favorite trips. As I have been seeing pictures of them tearing down this beautiful area to build high rises is so sad to see. I wanted to post a few pictures so you all can see what it looks like there. Most of the people there are Uighers and are from Arab/Russian/European descent, so they don't even look Chinese.

It was so beautiful here!

Now living in Utah, this isn't such a rare scene (desert front, snowy mountains in the back) but at the time, I was fascinated by it and it still is beautiful!

This is by far one of my most favorite pictures ever. This little man has on aviator goggles and is ridding a motor bike.

This is the inside of a house we ate at. Their attention to detail is superb and they have so much color and everything is so ornate. I had the thought that the government is tearing these houses down.

This is a Uighur man. He doesn't look Chinese at all, but ethnically, he is.

The best food ever. Lamb Kabobs.

A beautiful Muslim mosque. I hope they don't start tearing these down too.

This is where the farmers go to sell/trade their animals. There was a picture in a news article that was taken at this place. It was so neat to visit this.

There was another picture I was looking for but I couldn't find it. Anyways. There is my update for today =] Even though it is more of a flash back.

-Andrea

Blog Challenge

2009-12-01T17:02:00.000-08:00

So my cousins Julie and Becky are committed to blogging everyday for the month of December. I told Becky I would do it if she would! So here I am. I don't have much to blog about...pretty much since its just finals!

So Thanksgiving was great! I worked Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, then went home Wednesday afternoon and stayed till Saturday night. We had family over for Thanksgiving dinner, and then Saturday morning I got to go see a friend from San Jose who moved when we were 13, but was visiting family in Provo, so that was really fun! Saturday night we had family over again because one of my cousins and her family that we don't see often were visiting, so we had dinner all together again, which was a lot of fun!

I'm in the homestretch for the end of the semester!! The last day of classes is one week from this Thursday so I'm way excited! We found out in Chinese today that our final is going to be next Wednesday and Thursday in class, so that is great! I have two other scheduled finals, and one that I have to take in the testing center. Hopefully things will go fine.

I'm so grateful for my roomates! We have so much fun together! We have been wanting to have a dessert party since September but have just never gotten the chance to do it. So we decorated our Christmas tree and put up lights last Sunday and we decided we were going to have a Christmas dessert party on Sunday, so we are so excited! We have some more decorating to do. I'll have to do a post with pictures after we clean and finish decorating =]

So I should probably stop there or else I'm going to run out of things to blog about!

-Andrea

Hi =]

2009-11-19T19:29:00.001-08:00

So again, its been two months.

Not much has happened, otherwise I probably would (not) have updated =]

I didn't get into the nursing program. No surprise there. So I am taking an intro to Public Health class to see what that is all about, but most likely going to major in Biology Education with a Chinese minor. That way I can go live abroad =]]

School is school. Thanksgiving break is next week! I can't wait! This week was the first week of the semester that I had more than one test in a week. And last week was the first week since the 3rd week of the semester that I DIDN'T have a test. It was great.

Not much else is going on. I have my classes picked out for next semester. Taking some basics again that I need for Biology education. I'm really looking forward to being a teacher. I've been told I will be a good teacher.

Also, I'm planning on going to Europe in May. Nothing official yet; still trying to find my tickets at a good price. I'm going to visit a teacher that I had back in China. Her and her family moved to the Netherlands, so I want to go visit them. I also have plans to go down to Paris and Rome while I'm visiting. So that is really exciting!

I'm still loving working at the library. Planning on working there as long as they will let me!

Anywho. Hope everyone is doing well and going to have a great Thanksgiving!!!

-andrea

Wow

2009-09-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

So I didn't realize it had been almost 2 months since I posted!!!

Summer went well. I worked 4-6 hours a day in the pastry kitchen.

Mom and family moved into their new house, and a week later all our stuff came! That was a great day. So mom pretty much has the house unpacked and pictures are on the wall and what not.

Oh and I turned 19. That was fun.

My roomate/friend Lily finally came back to stay and were having a grand time. I have two new roomates, Michelle and Allie. Both are great. I think we will all get along well.

I got a new job! I now work in the Periodicals section of the campus library!! It is great! Definitely a change from the pastry kitchen, but I think I am going to love it! It came with a nice pay raise too!

I started classes on Monday. I am taking 14 credits/4 classes: Human Physiology, Intro to Bio-Organic Chemistry, Chinese 101 and New Testament - the First 4 Gospels. So I think I am going to really enjoy the semester. I am worried about Chemistry, as I never really understand it, but that is the only one I am really worried. And there are a few people I know who are in both my Chem and Physiology class, so we can get some good study groups together.

I got to know lots of people in my ward this summer, but then they all moved out, and so now I have to get to know people again at church, but I think I'll be fine.

I think that is about it. I know just spend lots of time at work and school, as I work everyday but Tuesday and I have all my classes everyday but New Testament.

Oh! And I apply for the Nursing program this month, so wish me luck. I don't currently have a back up plan, but I'm kind of looking at maybe EMT, though it might be too high stress. Who knows. Maybe I'll just end up as a science something or other....or maybe I'll go back and try photography...and who knows. Maybe I'll just get married before I have to make any of those decisions....though most likely not, which is just fine with me.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

I'll attempt to post more, though I really don't have much to post on!

My parents have a house!!!

2009-07-08T15:21:00.001-07:00

So my parents got the house they were hoping to get!! Its in American Fork, and it is way nice!! Hopefully it will close by the 17th, but the 31st at the latest. Here is a website you can check out to see pictures!!!

http://www.justsnooping.com/tours/2534649/

Enjoy!!

-Andrea

AND BACK =[

2009-06-18T17:20:00.001-07:00

So I had every intention of posting while in China, but lovely China had blogger blocked, so that was the reason for my lack of posting. I had a wonderful last trip to China. It was so great to see my family and all my friends!! And of course the shopping was great too =] I have lots of random pictures and maybe I’ll post some. I didn’t get to go to Vietnam like I was hoping to, but my mom went and had a fabulous time. I went to Hong Kong a few times, and went to a few theme parks. When I first arrived, my really good friend Tessa was already there, and there were three other college kids there as well, Destiny, Paul and Kevin. They are the children of a family in the branch, and were there visiting for a month. So it was way fun to get to know them and become friends with them and hang out all together! And of course I saw my friend Alex in Hong Kong as well (Tessa and I met him at the temple at the end of our senior year, and then he went to BYU with us!). So that was all fun! I went to school a few times and saw people there. Went to graduation and the fun after-party! There is a few guys at school who have a band so we went to listen to them play. And then there is a band with a few teachers in it who played after them. They were awesome! Anyway. That was pretty much my trip. Oh and I also tutored while I was there. Two boy, each twice a week. So that was nice to make some money. Overall, it was great trip.

Except for the flight home. Monday night (my last night) I wasn’t feeling so hot. I had a pretty upset stomach, but it eventually went away. I went to Tessa’s and her and I and our friend Ryan watched a movie. Went home and slept fine. Tuesday morning I woke up when my dad came to say goodbye, and all of a sudden my stomach exploded. I spent the next 3 hours, every five minutes, on the toilet. I was throwing up and all kinds of stuff and it was not fun. I could not believe it! I had to be on a plane in a few hours!! I would have just rescheduled my flight, except I had to be back in California to babysit because the parents were leaving for Hawaii the next day!! So I braved it up and some how made it to the airport. But not before throwing up, in immigration, in front of the officer who was processing my passport. Somehow though, they let me through!! I felt much better afterwards, and when I finally got to the airport I just went and laid down (since that was the only position that really felt good!) I stocked up on Immodium, and prayed that I wouldn’t need to use the restroom every five minutes, seeing as I had the window seat. Amazingly I was fine the whole rest of the trip. I didn’t eat more than 2 rolls and a bit of cup o noodles (they threw the rest out before I could finish because I fell asleep and they thought I was done). So I made it to California safe and sound, and I have been nannying this past week. I leave for Utah on Saturday and start work again at the pastry kitchen on Monday. I was hoping to work the 6am-2pm shift, but they are having me come in at 11 =[ Oh well. Hopefully eventually I can move to 6. I just don’t want my whole day shot by working the afternoon. Anyway. Thats about it!!!

On My Way!!! AND HERE!

2009-06-18T17:08:00.001-07:00

5:32 PM MST: So I decided I would do some good blogging!! I got this idea from my old home teacher who is currently in Ireland. I am going to write when I can and publish when I have internet access. I am in the SLC airport, and when I went to put in my headphones, I found out that I am missing one of the comfort pieces…not going to work. So I need to buy a new pair. Headphones are an essential part of flying, especially since I sleep while listening to music. And if my headphones won’t stay in, I cannot sleep. Oh well. My flight doesn’t leave until 7:05 PM, so I’ve got some time to kill. I fly to SFO, arriving around 8:15 MST, 7:15 PST. My flight to China doesn’t leave until 1:20 AM PST…good thing I slept in till noon =]

Anyway. I’ll end here and write some more when I get to SFO!!

11:38 PM PST: So I’ve been in SFO for a while. I arrived around 8:30, go to check in around 9:15, but there was a line, and no one helping us. So I decided I did not want to just stand in a line, so I went and sat down. I got in line around 9:30 and was on my way by 9:45. I had checked two bags in SLC, and had a carry-on suitcase, a backpack and a tube with a painting in it. They made me check the painting. I told them I already had checked two bags and didn’t want to pay for a third bag. They said that since I was only going to Hong Kong they wouldn’t charge me. Good thing. I changed some money (they charge 8 bucks to change the money for you!!! geez!) and then went through security. It was way crazy, almost crazier than LAX, which is hard to believe. My gate was, of course, the last one. I stopped and got an expensive bottle of water and a new pair of headphones so I could listen to my music. They are not as good as my other ones but oh well. I have now been sitting for about an hour and still have an hour before they board. I was playing my Sims game, but it was getting boring…but luckily I have my phone so I can go on the internet. And since I had money that I still needed to use on my phone, its all good. Hopefully my phone still works when I get back!! I’m supposed to put money on it every thirty days, but I’ll be gone longer than 30 days. Oh well. We’ll see what happens with it when I come back! We’ll when I post next, I’ll be in China!!!! I cannot wait!!!!!!!!!!

Monday May 4th, 10:33 AM China Time: SO I have arrived!! Thats about all I’m gonna say right now as I’m going shopping!!!!

I promise to update for all of you who are not with me =] Which is…everyone…pretty much =]

Love from China! Andrea

New Computer!!!

2009-04-30T13:37:00.001-07:00

So I got a new computer!! And it has this really neat program so that I can write a blog post on my computer complete with pictures and what not, and then it publishes it to my blog! So exciting!! So maybe now I’ll post more often!!!

So yes. I got a new computer. And it is absolutely beautiful!! It is really shinny, and I’m afraid to get it dirty =]

And…I LEAVE FOR CHINA IN 36 HOURS!!!

I cannot wait. I’ll be there for 5 weeks, and then 10 days in California. So excited!

-Andrea

Fun Times!

2009-04-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

So once again, it has been a while since I've updated. No surprise there!

Lots has been happening! For starters, I only have two more days of classes! Then finals begin next saturday...oh joy. I have 3 scheduled finals and 2 that I can take whenever. That will be so much fun.

Last night I registered for my fall classes. I will be taking Chem 285 (Intro to Bio-Organic Chemistry) PDBIO 305 (Human Phisiology), Chin 101 (Intro to Chinese) and New Testament. It is 14 credits, 3 4-credit classes and a 2-credit class. Oh joy! I really have to focus on my sciecne classes so that is why I am taking Chinese...hopefully it will be easy!

On the 27th I get to move into my new apartment! With Lily! Except she will be in Japan for spring semester and then Taiwan for two weeks in July. So I won't get to live with her till then...

Which brings me to my next surprise!!!

I LEAVE FOR CHINA IN 22 DAYS!!!!!

I wasn't going to post about it till after I was there, because I was trying to keep it a secret from a few people there...but oh well! I'm way stoked!!! I will be there for 5 weeks, and then in California for 10 days. So excited!

And as most of you already know, my family is moving back this summer...most likely to Utah. So I am even happier now that I am able to go back one last time. Had Christmas vacation been my last visit, and I had not known it, I would be way upset! But I'm going back again so it its all good!

Not much else is going on. Just trying to make it through finals and such. Hopefully they will all go well!!

Hope everyone else is doing well!

Love,

Andrea

Another new picture

2009-02-21T11:27:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to add in this other new picture. My cousin Jen wanted to do my make up on me since I got a new hair cut as well, so of course I let her. This was the result =]

New Hair!

2009-02-18T20:46:00.000-08:00

So I decided that it was time to cut my hair. I have not significantly cut it in probably 2 years. I really wanted it long, and have been resisting the urge to cut it. Until now. I was going to wait till Summer and cut it then, but my cousin Jen convinced me to cut it now! So I was going to donate it, but it was going to be a little too short, so I just chopped it all off! And I know you all know how much I love having dark hair, so after the cut, my cousin Jen and I colored it! It turned out so good! I even have pictures to prove it!

My hair before it was cut! See how long it was!!!

New cut, styled, but no new color...yet!

New Color! But not completely styled.

New hair style, color, and its straightened!!

Another angle.

Hopefully I can get a better picture tomorrow of my new do.

-Andrea

I suppose...

2009-01-19T14:20:00.000-08:00

that it's time for an update!

China was absolutely fantastics! As was Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Yes. I did indeed go to all those places in a short 14 day; actually I went to all of them in the period of a week, but none the less, it was marvelous!

Christmas was great! I got a bunch of new church clothes, which was very much needed. It has been cold here in Provo. A big change from China and all the rest of the places!

So a little about our cruise! We left the Saturday after Christmas for Singapore, and boarded our cruise ship that night. Our first stop was Malaysia on Sunday. The kids didn't want to leave the ship, so my parents and I left them on the ship and we took a taxi into KL (Kuala Lampur) and the taxi guy drove us around to different places. We went to the Kings Palace, National Mosque, 2nd tallest towers in the world, a Chinese temple (which I saw 3 of in a period of 3 days...in three different countries. I promise they all look exactly the same!), and I think that was all. Our next stop was Phuket, Thailand. This time the kids came with and we went and rode elephants, went to a cashew factory, a handicraft market (that was rediculously expensive) and, of course, a chinese temple. After the tour, it began to pour while we were driving back. I wanted to get some Thai food, but the kids all wanted to go back, so my dad and I walked around, found him an ox, me some thai food (which turned out to be not good) and then went back. I loved walkin around Phuket. I wish we could have stayed a little longer. The next day was an at sea day, so I just hung out in the sun, getting a tan, and reading! I was able to finish two books while on the ship! It was so awesome!! We got into Singapore early Wednesday morning, which was New Years Eve Day. We took a tour to see some of the sights and that was a lot of fun! We had been trying to figure out where to watch fireworks since it was New Years Eve that night. Turns out we didn't need to go anywhere! Our original rooms at the hotel were not ready, so we got rooms on the 24th floor, which was the top floor. The views faced inland, so we were still needing to find a place to watch fireworks. But then they couldn't fit the rollaways into the rooms, so we were moved down to the 20th floor, on the other side of the hotel, which was marvelous! The view there faced the bay, which was where the fireworks were going to be! And since we were so high up, we could see over al the other buildings! We could even see the Singapore Flyer (the largest ferris wheel in the world, even larger then the London Eye, but it was broken when we went!). So we just chilled in our rooms that evening, then watched the fireworks at midnight. So its pretty sweet because I have spent the last 4 new years in 4 different countries! 2005 was in the US, 2006 was in China, 2007 was in New Zealand, and now 2008 was in Singapore. So all in all, it was way fun, all of it! But we didn't get stamps in our passport for malaysia! I was way sad!!!

While I was actually in China, I didn't do too much, just lots of running around, seeing a few people (most were gone), and just hanging out with the fam.

And now I'm back in Provo, studying a lot so that I can get into the nursing program. I am taking 14 credits: English, Human Development, Book of Mormon, Health (HEPE), Intro to Nursing and Chemistry. I found out I cannot apply for the nursing program in May, so I'm waiting till September, and if I don't get in then, then I'll apply again next May. By then I'll pretty much be done with my GE's so hopefully I'll get in. If not, I'll go to another school. So the earliest I'll be able to start a nursing program will be in a year. Longest will be 18 months. So we'll see!! I'm still at my job, but I have an interview for another job this week, but we'll see what happens. There were a lot of people applying for the job. With my current job, I just don't have enough hours to make the money that I need to go to school. I'm also going to be going to school in the spring to finish up my nursing pre-requisites, and I'll work part time, then work full time over the summer. Hopefully as a nanny! But who knows. And then back to school again in the fall doing GE's. So there you have it!!!

Now I'm sure most of you would appreciate some pictures! So I'll post some of my favorites from the break!

Well those are going to have to wait...since I had them all picked out, and then my computer decided to hate me, and I lost everything on my computer (it was all backed up!) So I am now going to have to find them all again, but I have midterms this week, so after I finish them up, I will post a ton of pictures!!!

Keep looking for them, and for a post with an essay that I wrote for English about dating =]]]

Love!

Andrea

CHINA!

2008-12-21T05:23:00.000-08:00

So I guess I should have posted that I was going to China. I was going to do a whole countdown thing, but that never happened.

Well. I'm in China already! It is mavelous to be back. I was able to go to church today, which will be my only Sunday at Church, so that was sad but happy! And they needed a sunbeam teacher in Primary so the Primary Pres (who is my old Young Woman's president) asked me to teach, and since I love the sunbeams, I of course said yes. It was an ok lesson, considering I didn't have anytime to prepare anything. But I guess it is a good thing they are cool with coloring =] It was a lot of fun to see how the kids are all growing up, and it was nice to meet new people.

So tomorrow we are going shopping in the morning to look for fabric and a few other things. Then I'm hoping to get my hair cut and colored in the afternoon and get nails done and all that fun stuff! There are 4 of us from my senior class who will be here tomorrow, plus one girl who was in my junior class, so I think we are all going to try to hang out tomorrow, seeing as one of them leaves on Tuesday. So I'm really excited to see everyone!! It's been a long 6 months.

Finals all went ok. Hopefully things will be good!!

Anyway! Hope everyone has a great Christmas!!

I know I will!

Love all the way from China!
Andrea

Hurray!!!!

2008-11-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

Oh boy. This is the week I've been waiting for since the beginning of October!!! It's Thanksgiving week!!!! Hurray!!! I'm going up to my Aunt Barbara's house for the week, and down to Aunt Linda's for actual Thanksgiving dinner.

I am sooooooooooo glad that it is Thanksgiving. And that I esentially have a week off of school! I had full classes today, and tomorrow (Tuesday) is a Friday class schedule, which means that normally I'd have two labs and a lecture, but both labs are cancelled, and my bio professor said that it didn't matter if we were in class or not. So I'm thinking I'll probably not go. And then I'm going up to SLC tomorrow night! For a nice, relaxing week. It will be marvelous. Even though I won't have internet, I will have TV. I really miss having TV. Even though we had it in China, I didn't watch it because there wasn't any american shows on really. But now that I'm back here, and have access to it, I miss not having time to watch it. And I have two papers to write and a ward directory to do =] It will be marvelous! And I will hopefully start studying for finals.

Once we get back from Thanksgiving break, there is 2 weeks left of school, which means mostly only 4 actually days of lecture, 2 labs, and 5 biology lectures. It is a marvelous thought. But finals is not a marvelous thought. I'm a little worried, but I'm hoping if I just start studying now, all will be well.

And in other good news:

I ONLY HAVE 25 MORE DAYS TILL I GO TO CHINA!!!!!

I am sooooooo excited!! Not only to see my family, but to be back in China! This will most likely be the last time I visit, unless my fam is still there next Christmas. But I will most-likely not be going back in the summer (which, why would you go to China in the summer?! its crazy hot!)

So there you have it! I also don't have to work at all this week, which is amazing. I had a rough week at work last week, so this is a very super nice break.

So ya!!!!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, and don't forget to be thankful for all you have. We are all very blessed to live in the USA and have the freedoms we do.

-Andrea

Major, Classes, Papers and More!

2008-11-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

So essentially I am procrastinating right now.
But I figured I'd update my blog!

So for the first bit of exciting news!! I know most of you thought that I was majoring in photography, and while I am still going to apply for the major, I officially declared my major as PRE-NURSING! I am super excited! After going to St. George, I realized that is what I really want to do. So I have to start working really hard and keep my GPA up so that I can get in to the program. I don't apply till May, so I have a ways to keep my grades up. And I will apply for photography in February and know by April. So we'll see.

Second, I get to registar for classes for winter semester on Thursday at midnight. As it stands right now, I am planning on taking Book of Mormon, Chemistry (pre-req for nursing), HEPE (PE) English, Human Development (pre-req for nursing) and Intro to Nursing (pre-req for nursing). So I'm super excited, especially for the Human Development class and the Intro to Nursing class. And I also found out today that, if I get into the program, I get to take anatomy! Which means I get to work with cadavers!!! I know that sounds really weird, but I'm really excited! But thats still aways off. Like, a year. Still exciting.

I have also had midterms for the past 3 weeks, and one more next week. Its only been one a week, but still kind of stressful. I also have a biology research paper due on Thursday...which is what I am procrastinating. It will get done...eventually.

Anyway. Its getting cold here in Utah and I'm very excited. It's snowed once! Was all gone by noon but still exciting.

Thanksgiving break is in two weeks! YAY! I cannnnnoooot wait!! So need it. And then,

I LEAVE FOR CHINA!! Well, somewhat soon after that! I leave Dec 18 and will get back Jan 3! So excited...pretty much.

Anyway I'd better go finish my essay. But just wanted to fill everyone in.

And I may or may not be moving to a new dorm room...still not sure.

Andrea

Elections...

2008-11-04T21:23:00.000-08:00

So as we all know...Obama won the election...338 projected electoral votes to...156...how sad. I wish that I had looked more into the canadates and made a more informed disicion about who I was voting for, instead of being swayed. But I didn't. So I'm really hoping that maybe everyone just thought McCain was who as supposed to be president, but maybe Obama is who is supposed to be president...I don't know. But all I hope is that things will turn around in America so that we can start going up hill instead of down...

At least things are looking good for Prop 8. Currently it is 54% yes, 46% no. But that is only 15% of the precincts having turned in their results...so who knows...

I'm thinking of moving to Canada... =]

Actually I'd rather move to China and become one of their citizens, but I think I'll get more freedoms in America =]

(Those are just a joke...except that I do want to move to Canada and back to China =])

Random BYU Updates

2008-10-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

So I had a whole bunch of things to talk about...and now I've forgotten some of them.

One of the big things was about my major. As most of you know, I was hardcore set on doing photography. And I still so totally want to do photography, but now I want to do nursing more than anything. So, since both programs are hard to get into, I am going to apply for both of them. If I only get into one, then that is the one I am supposed to do; if I get into both, then I'm going to choose nursing; if I don't get into either...then I'm in big trouble. So there we have it. I will start taking the pre-nursing requisites that I have to take before I can apply, and I will be taking as many GE's as possible (only about 15 total credits though) and then I apply in May for the nursing program. For photography, I apply in February and will find out about April. Only thing is you can't "defer" your major or anything like that, so if I get into the photography program, I will be a double-major until after I know whether or not I got into the nursing program. Also, because the nursing program is so hard to get into, I am going to be having to work really hard to get a 3.6 or better, and making sure that I get a C or better in all my pre-requisite classes (which are an Intro to Nursing - taking next semester, Human Development, Chem 101 and 285, and as many GE's as possible). The reason for taking as many GE's as possible before getting into the program is that, once in the program, you take 15 credits of Nursing classes every semester, but in Photography you take 15 credits of photography and GE's. So yeah!!
I am super excited and really hope that I get into nursing. And if I do, I'll be looking at another 5 years of school, but at the end, as long as I pass the national exam, I'll be an RN and will be able to get a job right away! And then I would take outside photography classes so I could still do that.

Anyway. Another really neat thing that happened today. So ever since I got to BYU, I have always hoped that I would see Elizabeth Smart. I followed her story a lot when she was missing, and I read the book that her mother wrote and everything. But then I got here and kind of forgot. Well today, I was sitting outside making flashcards for my biology midterm, and I look up because there is a small group (like 3) people and a man has a huge video camera. So this lady comes and sits next to me and so I look at whats going on. So I look, realize they are filming something and go back to my work. But then I do a double take because the girl being filmed looks familiar. So I look again and there she was. It was Elizabeth Smart. I was like...oh goodness! I got kind of excited just because I had always hoped I would be able to see her, and there she was standing 3 feet from me. I didn't talk to her or anything because she was being filmed. It was kind of weird because the guy was filming all around her (like going in a circle) which means that I would have been in it too since she was standing right in front of me! Don't know what it was for but I was still really excited. One thing I noticed was how beautiful she is. I always thoght she was really pretty in the pictures, but she is really just georgous. Anyway. That was my one exciting thing for the day!

My other exciting thing was that I bought a Book of Mormon and a hymnal in Chinese! It doesn't look like I will be able to take chinese next semester because of the Intro to Nursing class conflicting with Chinese, but I don't want to loose it either. And I've wanted to try to read the Book of Mormon in Chinese, so now I have one! And then the hymnal was in pin yin and characters (pin yin is using the English alphabet to write words) so I am able to read it! So I'm super excited!!!

I think that is pretty much all. I'm excited because it is really fall now! It's cold everyday and the leaves are changing colors and falling and what not! Its so pretty! I haven't seen fall in 2 years, so it was awesome!! Oh! And I am so excited because in less than 2 months I will be back in China!! When I first got back, I was so happy to be back and didn't miss China at all, but I'm kind of going through withdrawl right now and I really wish I was back there. It's kind of crazy to think that I've been back in the states for almost 5 months!!!! Wow. I remember when I was saying that about being in China! That was definitely a long time ago!!!

Well I think that is about all. This weekend is going to be busy. I have to work at midnight on friday night because of the home football game on saturday. Then I'm helping my cousin Jen with the Provo City College Graduation pictures, then hanging out Saturday and studying for Biology midterm. Sunday I'm going to Jen's ward for the kids primary program, then maybe to my ward and hanging out the rest. Sunday night my friend Bonnie and I are singing a Chinese song at our ward wrap-up then tunnel singing as always =] Monday is more review for bio then I'll probably take the test Tuesday. The following week I have Book of Mormon and American Heritage midterms so it might be a while before I update again!!!

Oh and just one other things for all you Californians (which most of you are =])

It is super important that Proposition 8 is passed in California on the November 4th election. If this is passed, it will change the definition of marriage in California to be between a man and a woman. So Vote Yes on 8!

Love,
Andrea

Cold. And St. George!

2008-10-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

So not much is going on. I had the amazing opportunity to go down to St. George last week with my Biology Professor and 12 other students from the class. Now the class is 120 kids, and only 13 of us got to go. How you might ask? Well the trip was opened up to my lab section, and so my first thought was, well, I've never been to St. George, so I'll go. Most kids didn't want to go because we were going to miss 3 days of school, but since it was a Tues-Thr, it wasn't a big deal for me because I don't have classes on Tuesday or Thursday. So we left last Tuesday to drive down to St. George. Oh. The purpose of the trip was a service trip. We have to do 8 hours of service for Biology, and so we went down to help out with the Senior World Games. We helped them do the health screenings...I'll get to that in a minute. So we left last Tuesday. I knew it would be a great trip because I love my bio professor and I was excited that we were going to get to do medical things. So I was in the van with my professor, and he just talked and told stories and gave us Book of Mormon quizzes the whole way down (not only has he been a bio professor for the last 35 years, he has also taught Book of Mormon since then and is a Branch President at the MTC for a non-native English missionaries). So he has so many neat stories and is incredibly knowledgable about the Book of Mormon. So that was fun in and of itself. The whole trip was funded by the Freshman Academy office (since we were all freshmen academy students). So we got to stay in a hotel and get free meals for 3 days. It was wonderful! So we go eat buffet that night and just hang out. We had a "little" devotional (turned into 1 1/2 hours) after dinner where our professor told more stories! He really is an incredible man. I would take biology forever if I could have him as my professor. I'm actually thinking of being his TA so that a) I can take his class again and b) go to st. george again...thats how great it was. Anyway. Wednesday started our tour of service. We were at the Convention Center at 7 AM. There are about 15-20 health stations for the health screenings, and we helped with about 5 or so of them. The different stations that we helped with were: balance test, osteoperosis testing, blood sugar testing, BMI test, blood sugar and vision tests and I think that was it. I mostly stuck with blood pressure and pulse because a lot of the other kids were afraid they wouldn't be able to do it, becuase we were taking it manually...meaning a manual blood pressure cuff and a stethescope. It was a lot of fun. I also did do some blood sugar testing and helped a little with the vision tests. So we did that for Wednesday and Thursday morning, then left on Thursday afternoon. Turns out Thursday was our professor's birthday, but he didn't tell anyone, till we were halfway home. He said "So today is my 68th birthday and I didn't recieve a single gift". And were like, well, you didn't tell us!!! So at the next rest stop people went and bought him tons of stuff! It was so funny! And he ate most of it too!! A few weeks ago we learned how to calculate the percent of fat and carbohydrates in foods, so we were doing that for all of our food we were eating. Oh and on Wednesday night we go to go to the St. George temple since about half of the group had never been! That was really neat too. It is very visible since it is quite a bit higher then the surrounding buildings, so it was neat to go see it up close. It was about 7 when we got there, and the Joseph Smith movie was starting at 7:30, so we stayed to see that too! It was such an amazing movie. I had never seen it, so it was really great to see. I highly recommend it if you have never seen it. The ending was so hard to watch. They have scenes playing of the Prophet being taken to the jail and it is playing to Praise to the Man. So sad.

Anyway! Needless to say, this was an amazing trip! And it's made me want to change my major to nursing. I've always wanted to be a nurse or doctor, but wasn't sure I was capable of all the schooling, but I think I might try it now if I can get into the program. They are having a major fair at school tomorrow that I am going to go to to look more at the nursing and photography program. So yeah!

I think that's pretty much all that's happened.

Except for this! It is definitely getting to be closer to winter! It "snowed" this weekend! It didn't stick, but it came down a little on Saturday and Sunday! This past week was homecoming so they had the homecoming parade on Saturday morning. I went so that I could take some pictures and it started snowing about 2/3 of the way throught! I was excited, and not at the same time (I mean, come on, snow and expensive cameras don't mix!) So that was neat. Its perfect weather outside right now. Probably low 60s. And there is snow on the mountains, but it is definitely melting. But there will be snow on the ground soon enough!!!!

Ok! I should probably go and do homework. I have several writing assignments!!!!!

Love you all!
Andrea

Exciting Happenings!!!

2008-10-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

So a few exciting things have happened!!! So first, on Monday, I was walking through the Wilk and noticed a kind of long line coming out of the bookstore. So I peak in and who do I see?? Kirby Heybourne from The Best Two Years, The RM, and all those other movies! I got kind of excited, but didn't want to look like a dork standing in line to get a picture with him (I didn't even have my camera on me...shame). But then I see my friend and she wanted someone to stand with her so I said I would. Then I called Lily to see if she had her camera because she generally does! And she did! So she brought it to me and I waited a whole hour to say hi and take a picture and get an autograph. He is a pretty funny guy! So we chatted with him for a minute and then took pictures and I got his autograph! It was marvelous! Here are some pictures!

We were singing "Andrea". He was a little on the weird side =]

It goes: Heidi (we met her in line =]) Kirby, Me, Alyssa, and Bonnie. Bonnie is from Taiwan! So she speaks Chinese!

The next exciting news is that I am going to conference! My wonderful Uncle was able to get me tickets for conference!!! Both sessions on Sunday. And guess where I am sitting....on the floor, section 4, which happens to be right in front of the podium and right behind the general authorities...I am beyond stoaked!!!! It is going to be so amazing! My best friend Tessa (from China...she was in grade 12 with me) is going with me and it is going to be astounding!!! I will detail all about it! We can bring cameras...but can't take pictures during conference, obviously. But I will post some pictures of Tessa and I and around the temple grounds since we are just going to chill between sessions!!! Ahhh!!! So excited. I am literally shaking with excitement as I write this!

Anyway.

I also finished 2 midterms. Biology and Book of Mormon. Biology was all multiple choice...I went in thinking I knew it all, took the test thinking I knew it all, came out thinking I did amazing, but I only did ok.

And I have no idea how I did on Book of Mormon. It was all free response, but we get 12 free points (out of 100) since there were 54 questions and he forgot to unbold the correct answer for the 2 mulitple choice questions there were. So 12 free points! That always helps!

Anyway. I need to go write my American Heritage opinion essay! Hooray!. Not really.

And just an FYI: You can subscribe to my blog through Blogger. Go to the bottom where it says: Subscribe to: Posts (atom) and click the "Posts (atom)" and it should send you an email every time I post!

Love! Andrea

School, Work, Church, Social, etc., etc., etc

2008-09-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while, but I have honestly been meaning to post for a long while now. As most of you know, college life is super busy! As I have now found out...

So I'll start back on Sep. 3rd when I had my first day of college classes. If I haven't already said, I am taking 12 credits, 5 classes. I have Book of Mormon 121A, Anthropology 101, American Heritage, Biology 100 and University 101 (aka Freshman Seminar). The only day that I have all these classes is Wednesday...which is what Sep. 3rd happened to be. So my first day of college classes was, of course, my busiest day of the week. Anywho. I am thoroghly enjoying all of my classes...for the most part. Today marks my 4th week of college. Seriously, thats crazy! This semseter is going to fly by so fast! I have two mid-terms on Monday, then another mid-term the following week. I have a research proposal and outline due tomorrow for my Biology class and I have lots of community service that I need to do! As for community service, I have to do 8 hours for Biology, 10 for American Heritage, and 2 for University 101. So for Biology I am going with my professor and 14 other students to St. George on October 7-10 to help out with the Senior World Games. We will be doing things such as taking blood pressure, testing glucose levels, testing for osteoperosis, BMI indexing, and testing for glaucoma (spelling?). So I'm super excited! I have always wanted to be a nurse or doctor, but there is just too much schooling for me, so this is really like the short cut way I guess to at least get to perform some of the functions that a nurse would do. So yeah. For American Heritage I am working with a company called ConSource. What they do is transcribe all the Founding documents and put them online for people to use. So I think I will be proofreading the papers. Needless to say I'm super busy!!! Or will be =] I think that's all about school =]

Work: Work has been super busy. At least the last two weeks were. I was working late and coming in early...needless to say I wasn't particularly thrilled. Anywho. I think it was just because we had two home football games in a row, which made for lots of busy days. This week has been much better. So hopefully it will stay not too busy, otherwise I might have to quit just because it is taking too much of my homework/study time out.

Church: So church has been going well. I got a calling! I am in charge of making the programs/bulletins for Sunday! Its one of the most perfect callings ever! Its much better than teaching =] Which is what my roomate does =] I've continued going to tunnel singing, but a lot of the time people just like to talk, so it's kind of annoying. Oh well. Its still really neat.

So other then those, not much else has been going on. There have been things to do every weekend...namely dances. So me and a bunch of friends have gone to those every weekend.

Oh! And I went to my first BYU football game on Saturday! That was exciting...sort of. We won, which is always good, but we won 44-0...which made for kind of a boring game. I have one pictures...but its still on my camera. But when I get it on my computer I'll post it for everyone to see! It also snowed again on the mountains on Monday, but it only lasted an hour...but I know there will be plenty more to come =]

Hope everyone is doing great!!!!!

Andrea =]

More Random Connections!

2008-09-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have a lot to post about, and I'm planning on posting tomorrow after work.

But I did need to post this before I forget! Not that I will.

So as most of you know, I'm in Freshman Academy, and with that, I have a peer mentor. Her name is Mollie Dickerson, and she is from Conneticut. So we all have to meet with our peer mentors to get to know them, and so they can get to know us. So we have been talking for close to 30 minutes when she finally says "So your last name is Busath right?" And I'm like yeah, and props for saying it correctly, because no one ever does (though one of my professors and a TA have said it right because apparently there is a Prof. Busath at BYU). And she was like, yeah, I was asking because my sister got married this summer. So I'm expecting her to say that they used Busath Photography...but instead she says "And she married a Busath" and I was like....what?! So I ask what his name is, and it turns out it is Chad Busath, son of Rick and L-J Busath, who helped me out a lot with one of my projects 2 years ago! I was in complete shock!!! I told her, no way! I totally "know" Chad (though I don't ever recall meeting him, were good Facebook friends" and I was just in complete shock. So it turns out that I am distantly related to my peer mentor by marriage (its her twin sister who married Chad). So anyway, that was more random discoveries that I have found at BYU!

I promise to write all about my first week of classes and what else is going on!!!!

Andrea

Current Weather in Utah

2008-09-01T21:09:00.000-07:00

So as most of you can figure out, today is September 1st. So last night I mentioned how it was raining and cold. And I didn't think more than that. Well I wake up this morning and guess what, it's still raining, a lot, and its about 50 degrees outside. Yes. 50 degrees F. And its September 1st. And guess what is on the mountains. SNOW! Yes friends. Snow on the mountain in September! I was so excited! I got to wear my comfy warm boots and my sweatshirt and everything. And there was still a little bit of it left tonight, but it's mostly gone. And it is supposed to be hot again by Friday. Shucks.

Here is a picture I stole from my friend Alex as well.

There you have it folks. Snow on the mountains. And quite a "bit" of it too!
You guys are also going to figure out that I am going to post more because I get to talk all about me!
I know. I'm so self centered =]
Yay for no classes tomorrow! And hopefully it will still be cold!
Andrea

Sunday at the Y

2008-08-31T23:23:00.000-07:00

So today was church. Which I mentioned in my last post. But what I didn't mention (because it hadn't happened) was that I went tunnel singing!!!! As you all should know, I love to sing. And I didn't sign up for choir here at BYU, which made me sad. But somehow we did discover that there was a thing called tunnel singing where people from all over campus get together and sing hymns for an hour in a tunnel by the Marriot center. I had totally forgot about it till one of my friend mentioned that she was going and I was like...I totally want to go!!! So we got this huge group together (which was amazing) and were afraid no one else would be there because, get this....it was POURING RAIN!!! AND COLD!!! IT WAS LIKE IT WAS WINTER, BUT IT IS/WAS STILL AUGUST!!! Anyway. So we start walking there, not expecting a lot of people, and we were still like 2 mins away and we could hear the singing!!!!!!! It was incredible. This tunnel is about 50 ft long and 25 feet wide and it.was.packed! The singing was incredible and there were all different parts, and the best thing...they were all hymns! I just love singing hymns in a big group, and so to have that many people who all believe the same thing I do, singing songs that have so much meaning to them, all together, outside, in a tunnel, in the rain was just incredible to me. So that will definitely be something that I will be doing every.single.sunday. For sure. And we know they sing in the snow and rain and everything else. And everyone just huddles together around song books and it is just amazing.

I just had to post this before I forget all about this.

I was also told today when I was picked up my my cousins and their friend that I should go home and journal about where I think I'll be in 10 years because one of them was at BYU 10 years ago and she is no where where she thought she would be.

So, in 10 years I for sure hope that I will have been happily married in the temple, hopefully have a child or two...or more; have a degree in photography and be doing something with it (but just taking pics of my kids would suficith too); I wouldn't mind still living in Utah, but I would love to be living on the East coast; maybe own a house, but probably not yet. Yeah. I hope that's where I'll be in 10 years.

love.andrea.

1st Real Post!

2008-08-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

So I finally made my blog private so I can start blogging! So much has happened in the past week!

So first off, I got a job on campus! My best friend Lily works at the pastry kitchen at BYU and she told me all about it and I decided I wanted to work there too! So I got an interview and got the job! So my shift is 3-6, which is the last shift of the day. My job is to finish up what ever pastry orders didn't get finished for the day, and then clean up the kitchen. There will be 3 of us for an hour when I start, and then just me and one other girl until the end! So yeah! I started working last Thursday (I got the job on Wednesday) and I've been working 6-8 hours last Thursday, Friday and then yesterday. So my first day I got to experience a little of it all. I cut brownies, scooped out 16 dozen chocolate chip cookies, helped roll out little loaves of bread, and then cleaned the kitchen. Cleaning consists of throughly wiping down all counters and mixers, and then using Clorox diluted in water to wipe them down; cleaning out the sinks; scrubbing the floors and then mopping up the excess water. It took 3 of us about 1 1/2 hours to complete but the better I get, the faster it will get done. Friday I did much of the same, but Monday I spent most of my time whipping butter. Yes, butter. We had an order for 17 cases of whipped butter. A case consists of 18, 1 lb tubs of butter, so that was 268 lbs of butter that I whipped! That was a lot of butter. I also got to make sugar cookies. That was fun! So this will be my adventure for work this year! I am planning on keeping this job as long as possible and I think I am really going to enjoy it!

After I got the job on Wednesday, I got to meet up with my roomate! Her name is Michele and she is from Conneticut and we match up so well! We have a lot of the same interests and all that jazz. We are all moved into our dorm room, and after we met up 2 wednesday's ago, she fell and tore a ligament in her foot. So she has a black boot and a wheelchair and crutches. Lucky for her though, we have all the same classes and so I can get her to all her classes and what not. It's not the most ideal situation, but I guess I needed a lesson on service.

As I mentioned, we are all moved into our dorm! I do have pictures and so I'll go through a tour of my dorm room.

First off, here is me and my roomate Michele. And her booted foot.

This is my bed. And the door to our room.

This is what you see when you look down the hall to the left.

This is what you see when you look down the hall to the right.

This is the view from my door. My stuff is in the front half of the room, Michele's is the back half.

This is our door. It has our names on it...and a sign my parents gave me for Christmas. The sign doesn't stay very well so some times it falls off.

This is our room number. 2109 Chimpan Hall!

This is my desk and shelving area. Its messy...and will most likely look that way all year.

You can see my textbooks on the first shelf on the left hand side.

This is my closet. And drawers.

This is our mini fridge.

A closer look at my rediculously expensive text books. And my globe that SIS gave us for graduation.

Another look at my shelves. Not sure why the iron was up there...it no longer is there.

The sink IN OUR ROOM! Yes. It is quite nice!!!!

So esentially that is where I live. It is really nice. And since our room is right by the bathrooms, everyone walks by, and then stops to chat! It's wonderful!

This week we had NSO (new student orientation) which was a lot of fun. We were all broken down into groups which I think were kinda based on where we were living. So there were like...20 or so kids in our group and we had a Y-leader and we also had our Freshman Academy Peer Leader with us. And our group was the most easiest to find (except in the dark) because we have the tallest kid on campus in our group (he's 6'9) and then we have Michele who's in a wheelchair! So it was pretty awesome! Everyone in my Y-group is in the same FA group as I am, so we all have classes together. We just did a lot of tours and little workshops for freshman. And I didn't have to work all week (except for Friday night which I'll talk about in a minute). Last night we had kind of like a NSO closing dance/school year opening dance for everyone who did NSO. It was a lot of fun to be able to hang out and dance and what not. Also during NSO we had a few events in the Marriot Center. One was on Thursday night and it was a Tradition of Honor "assembly" (not sure what you call them in college). Anyway, they had this whole skit planned out and video and all this stuff and it was so funny! Then at the end Jerico Road came out and sang. Then we had the prayer and they said there was this guy here and he wrote a song for his girl. I knew what was gonna happen. So he sings the song and then proposes. I knew it. But I couldn't figure out why he did it in front of a bunch of Freshman. Oh well! We also had some other "assembly" in the Marriot and the Marching Band came out at the end and it was really neat!

So about work on Friday night. As all you BYU football fans know, we had our first home game on Saturday. And as you all know, I work in the pastry kitchen. Well, what happens in the pastry kitchen when there is as home football game? You get to work late. Or early. However you want to phrase it. Needless to say, I worked from Midnight on Friday night, till 4:30 AM on saturday morning making pastries! It was a lot of fun but super crazy! And before that I went to Lily's house and we watched a movie. The Stepford Wives. Creapy movie.

So now it's Sunday (fast sunday for us because next sunday is regional stake conference) and that was really good. We did a lot of just business stuff during all the meetings (but we did have testimony meeting and relief society) but no one has been issued callings! But you will all be the first to hear when I do get called. I just hope it isn't relief society president.......

Anyway. Monday is labor day, tuesday is the first day of classes, but since I don't have classes on tuesday I don't have classes till wednesday. That gives me time to work on my homework!

Until next time (and hopefully I'll have found something to take pictures of)

Andrea

Whoot!

2008-08-19T18:41:00.000-07:00

So I figured since I no longer fit under the title of a "China Traveler" that I should start a new blog since I am now a BYU student! I am going to make this blog private, and I'm not going to put anything else up till I set it private, but I'm going to give people a week to leave me a comment or email me to get added to the list. Then I'll go into full detail!

So, if you want to be added to the list, leave me a comment or send me an email to me
And if you know I have your email, you will be getting an invite anyway =] But if your unsure, email or leave me a comment!

Hopefully I'll be better at this blog then the China one...though I highly doubt that =]

Andrea