Lately

Okay, so I haven't posted in a while and I think it's high time for an update. So as I'm sure most of you know, Andrew was gone for a month Armying it up in Washington. It totally sucked for me, but it would have sucked way worse if I didn't have awesome friends and family. I just wanted to say thanks to Lisa and Stephen and Em and Shawn for inviting me to hang out with them, as well as to all my amazing aunties and cousins, especially Auntie Nani for letting me sleep over at my house. My family also came up for a week (the first week in July) and I got to hang out with them a lot (though not as much as I would have liked because I got a job at Vivint, but more on that later) which was awesome. So anyway, lots of good times, mostly just hanging out with all our various family that lives up here, though we did go the 4th of July Rodeo in Oakley (not on the 4th though, on the 6th), and that was a lot of fun. I've never been to a rodeo, at least not that I can remember, and it was actually way cool. I quite enjoyed having my family here, though I kinda skipped class a lot. It was just for one week though, so whatevs ;). And, just so you think I didn't fall way behind in school from skipping class, I'm taking a statistics class and an organic chemistry class, and I skipped the statistics class three times, and then had a test earlier this week. I didn't study that much, and I missed like five homework assignments from that same week (we have an assignment like every other day), so you'd think I wouldn't have done very well on the test, but you'd be wrong. I got a 94. I only got a 91 on the first test, and I actually felt more prepared for that one. How did that happen? Beats me. I was quite proud of myself though.

Anyway, okay so I got a job at Vivint at the end of the first week that Andrew was gone, and I started the three week training you have to do for Customer Care (they combined their customer support and tech support departments a few months ago and now call on customer care) Monday of the second week. It kinda worked out perfect, cause my last day of training would have been the day Andrew got back. The training wasn't so bad, at least until they put us on the phones. At the end of the first week they let us listen in on real calls, but then the third week they basically just threw us to the wolves and had us taking calls all by ourselves for four hours. I wasn't too excited about that. On my very first call that I took by myself, I got cussed out by a lady who was super mad because her panel had frozen. Needless to say, I was traumatized. I will admit that I sat there and cried a little bit after that call. I'm a little sensitive. Most of the calls weren't actually that bad, but I just always worried that I would get an angry customer, or that I wouldn't know how to help them, which happened a lot, because I feel like the training didn't teach us anything useful. I mean I know it's best to learn by doing, but seriously, they could have at least taught us how to use the computer program we have to use. Well, they taught us a little bit, but not enough. So anyway, I learned that I am not cut out for a call center job. Don't get me wrong, Vivint is a pretty sweet place to work and they have super awesome perks, but it takes a certain kind of person to work there (at least in Customer Care), and I am not that kind of person. So I quit earlier this week. I know, I'm lame. I couldn't hack it. Andrew was pretty understanding about it. I think he was even more understanding because hopefully I'm gonna take over his job in a couple of weeks (fingers crossed that I get it). He has to quit cause he'll just be too busy this next school year for a job. This job would be perfect for me I think, cause I won't have to deal with people and my social skills are a bit lacking, thanks to me being painfully shy as a child. I never really got over that shyness, but at least I'm not painfully shy anymore. So yeah, that's the job situation.

Okay so I said in an earlier post that Andrew and I are moving to an awesome house on Center Street, and we got the keys for it on Monday. Let me just say first that it is TINY. The listing on Craigslist said it was 600 square feet, but that was absolutely an exaggeration. I actually took some crude measurements of the apartment cause I was curious, and it's maybe 450 square feet. 450! And it's a studio apartment. It'll be okay though, I mean we don't really need a lot of space, and we'll make it work just fine, I just felt a little bit gypped. I had the brilliant idea to get a loft bed though, to give ourselves a bit more room, and because I didn't really want the focus of the apartment to be the bed. I found one on ksl.com for $60, which was awesome because that same bed was $169 at Ikea. We found a kitchen table also on ksl.com, and my aunt gave us a love seat and a dresser, so really all we need now are chairs. We also bought a little bookshelf at Wal-Mart. The apartment is pretty cool, it has a bay window with a windowsill wide enough to sit on, and it has wooden beams along the ceiling and wood paneling on some of the walls, which I think looks cool, but Andrew thinks it's ugly. Oh well. I took some pictures of it, but I'll probably just post those on Facebook. So yeah, that's our apartment situation. We don't have to leave the apartment we're in now until the 1st, so we've just slowly been getting furniture for the new place. We haven't even started packing up this place yet. So yeah, that's mostly what's been going on with us lately. 
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Not Homeless

Sometimes husbands can be really annoying, even when they're gone. Now let me preface that statement a little bit. Actually, that statement requires two prefaces, so here's the first. If you haven't heard, which most of you probably have, Andrew is at an Army camp for a month up in Washington. He left this last Friday and will be back July 13th. It is rather depressing, especially since I can't talk to him (no texts, no calls, no skype, though I can write him letters) but at least I have Chem 352 and Stat 121 to keep me company now that summer term has started. This camp Andrew is at is a leadership evaluation thing, and will basically determine if he gets to do what he wants in the army (and if you were wondering, he decided a little while ago that he wanted to do military intelligence with an infantry detail as his first choice (and if you're wondering how I could let him go infantry, it's because I'm not going to stand in the way of him doing something that he wants to do), and his second choice is field artillery, but then a couple of weeks ago he told me he actually wants to go field artillery cause there's a demand for field artillery officers so he thinks he'd get that easy, but he's still gonna put MI with an infantry detail as his first choice...go figure). So there's that preface. The second preface is that Andrew and I have been a little behind in finding a place to live when our lease here is up. We actually wanted to move earlier the summer, cause this place isn't worth what we pay for it, but it's not as easy as I thought it was to get out of our contract and nobody wanted to take over our contract anyway. So we procrastinated finding someplace for August because we were hoping to get out earlier, but we finally faced the truth and looked for someplace for August. Of course, the downside to this was that there were some seriously slim pickings-and by slim I mean almost non-existent. We checked the BYU housing listings, Craigslist, and KSL but there wasn't really anything we liked. We looked into two other places and I seriously considered signing a contract at this place called Lookout Pointe (yes, it is spelled with an "e" at the end), but then we saw a listing for this house on center street (in Provo) that we really wanted to live in. There had been a listing for it in April, but we couldn't get it then. The listing said that we had to move in in mid-July but we went for it anyway, because we can actually get out of our contract here as early as August 1, even though it technically goes until August 26. We already paid the last month's rent, so as soon as someone else signs a contract here, they'll prorate our rent money (I'm actually not really sure what that means, but I guess it means they'll give us back whatever we don't pay for, days-wise), and the office people told me there are some people who want to get in on August 1. So anyway, we decided to try and get the listing for the house on center street, called the Knight-Mangum Mansion (how cool is that?) and just pay July's rent here and basically take 2 weeks to move in there. We'll lose some money now, but the Knight-Mangum Mansion is cheaper than this place, so we'll end up saving money in the long run. So anyway, that preface was really long, but now on to why husbands can be really annoying. Since Andrew's gone, I had to go by myself to sign the contract today and pay the deposit (which was $600...kind of outrageous, but oh well), and I got home from class about five minutes before I wanted to go. I probably should have thought of this sooner,  but when I stated looking for the checkbook, I could not find it. And yes, Andrew had it last. When it was time to pay June's rent, I couldn't find the checkbook, but it took Andrew all of two seconds to find it, and he was the one who ended up paying rent. And I have absolutely no idea where he left it, and I couldn't call him to ask because he doesn't have his phone. I ended up having to pay with cash, but we bank with USAA, and they're an online only bank, so when you need cash, you have to get it from other banks'  ATMs (and yes, they reimburse you for the ATM fees). And since the deposit was $600 and ATMs have limits, I had to get the cash from three different ATMs. Luckily there are like six different ATMs outside the Wilk on campus. So yeah, that's why I'm annoyed with Andrew right now. The checkbook is probably in some super obvious place and I'm just incapable of finding things, but I really did look for like 15 minutes. But I was able to sign the contract and we don't have to worry about being homeless and we get to live in a cool house. It's actually a studio apartment, and the listing said it was 600 square feet, but when we went to look at it, it looked way smaller than that. It could have just been cause of the people who live there now's stuff though.

Oh and in case you were wondering why I haven't posted in a while, it's because before Alex went into the MTC  he said that when he gets home and gets married he will not start a blog and implied that it was cliche and everyone does it, so then I felt lame. I still kinda feel lame about it cause it is kinda cliche but it is a good way to let people know what's going on with us. And anyway, it seems like it's usually the wife who wants to start the blog, so if his future wife wants to do it, he could just not post on it. So yeah, that's that.
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Things Work Out

It's funny how things have a way of not working out the way you want them to. For example, Andrew and I found this amazing apartment that we wanted to move to, like right now. Well, we hadn't actually seen it on the inside, so it could have been a total crap hole, but the description sounded amazing, and it looked pretty cool when we drove past it, and we would have saved about $100 a month on rent. I read through the contract we have on our current apartment, which is up at the end of August, and I thought it said we could terminate our contract with a $50 fee if we didn't find someone to take it over. Well, I guess I don't know what "prorated" means, because in actuality, if we moved, we'd still have to pay rent until the end of the contract or until the landlord finds someone else, and there's no guarantee that they would. So there went our amazing apartment, because by now it's surely rented to someone else. And to continue with the trend of things not working out the way I want them to, I've been trying to find a job lately and I have had zero luck so far. I applied to work at Macy's at the mall, and they interviewed me, but turns out they didn't actually have any positions to fill, so no job for me. I'm currently in the process of applying for another job at Special Collections in the library (and since Andrew works there now he'd have to quit, because spouses can't work together, even though we'd be doing two totally different things; he's actually totally fine with quitting cause he doesn't like his job  anymore and he'd have to quit anyway since he's now Battalion Commander for ROTC and that's gonna take up a crap load of his time) which sounds like an awesome job and something I'd be totally into cause it has to do with history, and now you all know how much I love history. But I wouldn't be surprised in the least if it doesn't work out, because like I said, things have a way of not working out the way you want them to. I'm sure I have countless other examples of things not working out, and I'm also sure that you do too.

But you know what? It's okay, because things work out they way they're supposed to, and I am a firm believer in that. A lot of times the way we want them to work out and the way they're supposed to work out aren't the same (but sometimes they are), and that's okay, because what's supposed to happen usually ends up being better for us that what we want to happen. It's supposed to happen that way for a reason, though we may not see why at first, and it may take us a long time to see why it happened that way. We may never see why, but I really think that whatever happens to us was supposed to happen, even if what happens is really, really awful. Everything will make sense eventually, and it may not even be in this life. So it's okay that Andrew and I didn't  get that apartment, and it's okay that I didn't get a job at Macy's, and it will be okay if I don't get that job at Special Collections. Things will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end. Things work out.
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Uncertainty

When I came to college, I thought I wanted to major in psychology. I definitely find it interesting, and I feel like I have a knack for reading people, so I figured it was something I would be good at. The first semester of my freshman year, I took a general psychology class, and when we came to the neuroscience portion of the class it didn't interest me that much, until I decided to make a flowchart of all of the portions of the nervous system to study for an exam. It wasn't super detailed, but it was enough to make me realize that I wanted to study neuroscience. It's pretty much the same as psychology, but much more brain/nervous system oriented, and I kind of liked that it was a more concrete science than psychology. I still loved psychology though, so I realized that what I really liked was cognitive neuroscience, which is more like, "the hippocampus plays a role in the consolidation of memories," or basically what area of the brain controls a specific aspect of our psyche, rather than other fields of neuroscience, which might be something more like, "the presynaptic neuron releases a chemical called a neurotransmitter that binds to receptors located in the postsynaptic cell, usually embedded in the plasma membrane. The neurotransmitter may initiate an electrical response or a secondary messenger pathway that may either excite or inhibit the postsynaptic neuron." I mean that's interesting and all, but not that interesting. Unfortunately for me, almost everything I've studied so far has been the latter, and I've realized that I'm not cut out for the latter. Maybe if I went on to graduate school I could study exclusively cognitive neuroscience, but I can barely muddle my way through my undergraduate courses. I used to think I was smart, but I've realized I'm not as smart as I thought I was, and that's hard to admit. Plus it doesn't help that in high school, I was smart enough to ace most of my classes without putting forth much effort, so I never learned to work hard when it comes to schoolwork, and that has screwed me over time and time again in college. I just can't handle the neuroscience major like I initially thought I could.


I've always had a passion for history. There's not much more that interests me than learning about the past (except maybe comic books, but that's a story for another blog post, when I'm ready to admit how extremely nerdy I truly am). I don't know why I find it so interesting, but I do. Now some aspects of history are more interesting than others; I mean, I'll take learning about World War II over learning about ancient China any day. And I've always know that I loved history, I just don't know why I didn't realize I really wanted to major in it until now, the summer before my senior year of college. Technically I realized it last fall semester, and I tried to see if I could change my major without having to spend extra time here at BYU, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to. History is an pretty short major, but it might be a little hard to get done in 3 semesters plus spring and summer terms, if I needed them. I've been kicking myself that I didn't decide sooner that I should have majored in history. Then I could have gone on to graduate school and written books, or tried anyway. Maybe nobody would read them, or they wouldn't even get published, but then at least I would be doing something I truly loved. I don't even know what I want to do with neuroscience anymore. I'm still toying with the idea of switching to history;  I could take independent study classes but I still just don't know if I can finish in time. I don't want to have to spend the extra money to stay longer, and with Andrew commissioning as soon as he graduates that's not really a viable option anyway. And it would kind of suck for all of the neuroscience classes I've taken so far to go to waste,  but then again they're not really going to waste, because I learned from them, and I think what you learn from a class is much more important than the credits you got for it. I'm gonna take a long hard look to see if I can still switch to history but I might not be so lucky. I did decide to minor in history if I have to stick with neuroscience, but I'd still much rather major in it. 


So anyway, it kind of totally sucks that I didn't realize what I wanted to do with my life sooner.  Perhaps you can learn from me though, that you should figure out what you REALLY want to do before it's too late. And trust me, too late is going to creep up on you faster than you think. Stick with what you're really passionate about, not what you're kind of passionate about.  If only I had realized that sooner...oh well. Life's a you-know-what.
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The Quest For A Second Car (That I Can Actually Drive) Part 2

Okay so, here's the second half of our car story. It would have been a lot more exciting if I had written it a week ago, but now I just want to get it over with, so it's condensed. So we saw some cars we liked, but we decided to go home and do a little bit of research before we bought anything. We came back a few days later and Randy had a Subaru Forester that he didn't have before, and we ended up liking it, so we decided to get it. We had the money to pay for the car in full, but Randy suggested we get a loan so that we could build up credit. Well we tried to get a loan, but no one would give us one, which was super obnoxious. Getting the car was actually a lot of trouble and it seemed it wasn't meant to be, but everything worked out eventually. We ended up just writing a check for most of the money that would go through then, and one for the rest that will go through the first week of April. So the car's totally paid for (well as soon as he cashes that check), which is nice, and it's been a great car so far. I've decided to name it Olivia, because that is my favorite girl name, but Andrew's oldest brother and sister in law named their daughter Olivia, so I'm not sure if we're allowed to name our daughter Olivia too. If I can't have a daughter named Olivia, I'll just name my car Olivia. And here she is! Since I posted pictures on Facebook I'll just post one picture here.

This one ended up being really short. Oh well. 

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The Quest For A Second Car (That I Can Actually Drive) Part 1

Haha, I got you guys good didn't I? I seriously had been waiting so long to do that, since we started looking for a second car, and that was awhile ago. I realized that also would have been fun to do on April Fool's Day, but then you might have been suspicious and not believed it, by virtue of the fact that it was April Fool's Day.

So anyway, here is the epic tale of our quest for a second car that I can actually drive, since I'm a failure at driving stick. It all started with ksl.com...(now this is when the narrator gazes off into space and the scene cuts to a flashback sequence). Andrew and I are now pros at spotting scams on ksl.com (yes, we have learned our lesson). If you ever want to buy a car on ksl.com, here are some of the warning signs and definite indicators that an ad is a scam: a car from the 2000's with low miles is selling for the same price as a car from like 1990 with 250,000 miles (those are absolutely, 100% scams); no phone number is listed; and the Contact person listed is something like "P." or "R." rather than an actual name. Surprisingly enough, or maybe not so surprisingly, there are a lot of scams on ksl. You'd think they'd have people who monitor the ads being posted, but apparently they don't, which is too bad for poor suckers like us. They warn you about scams, but personally, I don't think that's good enough. So anyway, we knew which ads to avoid, and now you do too.

So we wanted an SUV cause Andrew worries about me driving in the snow (joke's on him, cause winter's almost over, but then again the joke will probably be on me because I'm quite sure there will be a few more freak snowstorms in the next like two months cause Utah is stupid like that). We trolled ksl.com for quite a while looking for the perfect car for us that was within our price range (which was like $1000-2000 initially), and we found several that we liked. The first one that we liked enough to go look at was a  1988 Jeep Cherokee. This thing was a monster. It was black, and it had a 3 inch lift, and it looked pretty cool from the picture. It was in south Provo, so we went to check it out one evening. It was much more of a monster in person, and Andrew decided it was too much of a monster, because he said no to that one. So it was back to trolling ksl.com, and the next car we liked was a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The ad said it needed its windshield replaced (which it definitely did), but that was okay. It was out in West Valley City, which is west of Salt Lake, so it was a bit of a drive to look at it, but we went out there and it was indeed a nice Jeep. It reeked of cigarette smoke though, and the guy who was selling it looked like a very shady character (I legitimately thought we might get jumped a few times). We took it to a mechanic cause we are smart buyers and we know what's up, and unfortunately the mechanic said it was a no go. He said the transfer case was leaking and that would cost $1000 to fix, so it wan't worth it. The guy claimed he didn't know about the leak but the mechanic made it sound like it had been leaking for awhile. We decided not to call him out on it. So it was back to searching, and we found a Honda Passport that looked promising, but apparently it looked promising to everyone else too, cause the guy sold it before we could even take a look at it. At this point we were getting a little discouraged, but we keep looking. We had previously found a 1994 Nisan Pathfinder but decided against it because it had 220,000 miles on it, but at his point we just wanted a car, so we went to go check it out. The kid who was selling it looked like he was like 16, and his mom said he buys stuff all the time just to sell it. So we took the Pathfinder to a mechanic, and the mechanic said it was the worst car he had ever seen and was only worth parts. Yeah. We seem to have the best luck.

So, after that one, we decided to just buy from a used car dealership. And on our drive back from looking at the Pathfinder (it was in Springville), we saw a tiny used car dealership and decided to check it out. We walked around and looked at the cars, and after a little while the owner came out to talk to us. He was exactly the opposite of everything you've ever been told about car salesmen. He was basically the nicest guy ever and not even pushy at all. He let us test drive a few of the cars, and he had couple of Subarus that Andrew was interested in, but he had just gotten them and they hadn't been priced yet, so we'd told him we'd come back. Now personally, I think Subarus are butt ugly (or at least Outbacks from like the 90's, which is what he had at the dealership), but I just really wanted a car, so I figured I could suck it up.

And now I've run out of time cause Andrew wants to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for Boneless Thursday, and this post is already freakin' long. Who wants to read something this long anyway? But I've kept you waiting long enough, so I figured I have to give you something. So here's part 1, and part 2 will be up sometime in the near future. And I'll also include pictures. Who doesn't enjoy a good cliffhanger every once in a while? Not that this is a good cliffhanger, cause it really isn't, but oh well.
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A New Addition To Our Family!

Bet you thought I was pregnant huh? Well ha! I tricked you, suckers.

The REAL new addition to our family is a 1998 Subaru Forester. Yeah, we got a new car. Well a new used car. I don't have time to tell the whole story right now, so I'll make a separate post for that probably tomorrow or something. I was just so excited I had to tell you all now, and I was excited to trick you into thinking I was pregnant. I've been waiting to do that for a while now. So anyway, keep an eye out for my post about the car.

My Take on Kony 2012

Before I get to what I was going to say, let me just express my annoyance with my Kindle Fire and Blogger. I started this post before I had to leave for class at 10, and I didn't have time to finish it before I had to leave. When I got to class I opened Blogger on my Kindle Fire to try and finish it, but I accidentally ended up erasing everything I wrote, and now I have no way of getting it back. So I have to retype this entire post, and of course I can't remember exactly what I wrote before. So I'm kind of annoyed. Maybe it will be better the second time around. But anyway.

Why is it that when someone tries to do something good there are always those who try to tear them down? Yes, I am talking about Kony 2012. I watched the video yesterday and I immediately wanted to do everything I could to help. Yet anyone who is actually following anything that has to do with Kony 2012 knows that there are those who oppose the campaign. I read two articles today that are anti-Kony 2012 and anti-Invisible Children Inc. Here they are if you'd like to read them too:

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things
http://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/18920717928/thedailywhat-on-kony-2012-i-honestly-wanted-to

Now, I think what these articles are trying to do is inform those people who won't inform themselves, and that is a good thing. Making informed decisions is important. How can you support something if you don't actually know what it is that you're supporting? I'm all for informing people about what it is that they're actually supporting. And as misguided as Kony 2012 and Invisible Children Inc. may be, at least they're actually trying to do something good. What are the writers of these articles trying to do? Tear down a good cause? If the guy who wrote the second article is actually donating to those charities he linked in his post, then I can stand behind what he posted, and I'll donate to those charities too. It's one thing to simply tear down a good cause, and another thing to tear down a good cause but provide other solutions and actually utilize them. Somehow I can't believe that Invisible Children Inc. is simply using this campaign to line their pockets and only donating a small portion of their profits to actually helping the Invisible Children. That video seemed so genuine. What kind of despicable person takes advantage of a situation like this to make money? A person like that deserves to burn in hell, and they certainly will burn if they really are people like that. So I can't believe that all they're really doing is lining their pockets, but I can believe that they may be misguided. It's not just about their misguided-ness though. It's about the fact that they're trying to make a difference. The world is a big, bad place, but there are people out there who are trying to do something about that. It seems like an impossible task, but rather than lying down and doing nothing because it's such a big task, you have to start somewhere, no matter how small. Even if you only make a difference in one person's life, you've still made a difference. If everyone tried to make a difference, no matter how small, those differences would add up. I believe in making a difference. Do you? Do the people who wrote those articles?  Does the world?

If you're powerful, I think you have an obligation to help those less powerful than yourself. I admit though, that there's something in protecting your own interests. If it doesn't impact your own personal security or whatever, stay out of it, and I can see how that's a good stance, though I don't personally feel that way. If you see someone being mugged on the street, are you gonna ignore it, or are you gonna help? I certainly would try and help, and even if I ended up getting killed, at least I would have died doing something that was right. You may not agree with me, and as long as your own decision is informed, then I am perfectly fine with letting you think that way. That's my whole point here. Make your own informed decisions. Acknowledge all other options, but don't let anyone else make your decision for you. Decide for yourself, and once you feel you have enough information, stick with your decision. If you're well enough informed, you won't be swayed by opposing opinions. And perhaps there's no right or wrong decision. A lot of times there isn't. There can be good and bad in both sides of the argument, and it is more important than ever to be informed in those cases. This applies to more than just Kony 2012.

So even if we stop Kony, maybe another guy will just take his place. I mean, would it really be as bad as these articles make it sound to stop Kony? If it would be, then I guess I stand by these anti-Kony people. If it's gonna be worse for the world if Kony is captured, then perhaps we should just leave well enough alone, or at least let Africa deal with their problems themselves. But if it wouldn't be, then what the heck are these people trying to do? I can't imagine that it would be better for the world if Kony were to remain at large. It certainly wouldn't be better for those children whose lives he has ruined, or all those people that he has killed. And even if someone else does take Kony's place, at least we've shown those children affected by Kony that their lives matter. At least we've shown those who have died through his hands that they deserve justice. At least we've shown the world that we know what is right, and we're not afraid to do it.

Personally, I support Kony 2012, because I support the cause it represents. I support right causes, but I also support being informed. So make an informed decision people. And while you can let what I've said influence your decision, don't let it make your decision for you. I'm not going to tell you to support Kony 2012, or not to support it. But I am going to tell you to make your own informed decision. Don't let anyone make your decision for you, on any matter. Get educated, and make a difference in the world, in any way you possibly can.

So there's my two cents on that.

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Palm of Your Hand

This is what happens when your husband goes away for one night, you post on your blog twice in two days, like a normal person might, if they had lots of free time on their hands, or didn't have to go to school, or were being paid to blog.

So one of my new(ish) favorite bands is the band Cake. If you've heard anything by them, you've probably heard their song "The Distance," a song which Andrew ruined for me, but I won't ruin it for you. Oh and also, if you used to watch the show Chuck the theme song is an instrumental version of their song "Short Skirt/Long Jacket." So this song that I posted is their song called "Palm of Your Hand," and it's one of my favorite songs of theirs. It has a very pointed message I think, and that message is that you can't say that the future is in the palm of your hands because nothing is permanent. The lead singer sings about how if you knew this particular house, you'd never believe that that house is now gone. Houses are fairly permanent, at least until something unexpected comes along and takes them out. And if houses can be so easily destroyed, who's to say that something can't take out something else we think is permanent? The song is basically saying we can't say that the future is in the palm of our hands because nothing is really in the palm of our hands. It's the nature of this world to ruin our plans. So now that you think my intent with this post was to thoroughly depress you, I'll get to the real intent. We can't say that the future is in the palm of our own hands, because it isn't. "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang aft agley" (I decided to use the actual quote because Alex and I argued one time about whether the quote was "the best laid schemes," "or the best laid plans"). If you've never heard that quote before, you've probably heard it like this: "The best laid schemes/plans of mice and men often go awry." We shouldn't be living in the future, we should be living in the present. We have some control over our present situation, but we have even less control over our future situation. We should appreciate the things and the people we have now, because they're not always permanent. And now I'm going to get a little bit gospel-ey, I hope you don't mind. Our future may not be in the palm of our hands, but it's in the palm of God's hands. And we do have one aspect of our futures in the palm of our hands. We get to decide where we go in the next life. We get to decide, by the choices we make, whether or not we want to return and live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I think that's the one thing in our lives of which we have complete control. When things don't go as we planned, we shouldn't let it get us down. Things aren't always supposed to go as we planned, that's the whole point. The important part is how we react to things not going as we planned. It's a lot easier to deal with it when we keep an eternal perspective. So yeah, I hope that made sense and it wasn't super depressing, cause I wasn't trying to be super depressing. I was just trying to get you to think about living in the present, but also living with the real end goal in mind. 


Oh and I know a lot of times the things people say (ESPECIALLY women) have double meanings and often it's because of something that's going on in our lives that we say things, but I would just like to assure you that there's no veiled meaning or reason behind this post. My life is going perfectly well. I just have a lot of thoughts, and I just wanted to analyze a song that I like. So don't worry, Andrew and I are doing fine. 
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My Hunger Games Obsession

Sorry I suck so much at blogging. I do have a bit of an excuse though, cause I just had four tests in the past two weeks which was a little bit crazy, but I'm still alive, and now it's over with so that's good.

Anyway, so I first read The Hunger Games trilogy last school year. Stevie had all three books so I borrowed them and read them, and I loved them. I thought they were amazing, but I also wondered how in the world someone comes up with an idea like that. Who writes a story about a country which requires its citizens to give up 24 of their teenagers for a competition in which they kill each other? And that third book was crazy gruesome. I can't imagine how they're gonna make the third movie and keep a PG-13 rating without cutting out quite a few scenes. In spite of this, I did love the books. I will admit that there were a few things I didn't like as much about the series, such as how the third book ends, and Katniss kinda started to bug me in the third book too. Not nearly as much as Bella though, when I read the Twilight books a second time around. I couldn't stand Bella, whereas Katniss is only slightly annoying, and who isn't slightly annoyed about something with every person they know? So anyway, I enjoyed the books the first time I read them but I wouldn't say I was obsessed. And that was that.

Well, with the movie coming out pretty soon, about a month or so ago I decided I wanted to reread the books, so I bought them on my Kindle Fire (which my amazing husband got me for Christmas...he's the best, and I seriously love that little thing (not my husband, the Kindle)) and I reread them. Well, it took me all of about four days to reread the series and I pretty much couldn't put my Kindle down. I all but ignored school for those three days to reread those books, and I fell in love all over again. I think they were even better the second time. The ending still kinda bothered me, and I think it was actually this read through that made me realize Katniss was a bit annoying, but they were still better the second time around. So now after rereading them I'm obsessed. It's a bit of a sick obsession really. The Hunger Games consumes quite a few of my waking thoughts. I bought tickets for Alex and Andrew and I to go see the movie opening night in IMAX (which I'm so excited about that I can hardly contain myself). Andrew's even getting annoyed with me; when I told him I thought I was obsessed he said something like, "Yeah, you are, and I'm getting really sick of hearing you talk about it." I don't think that's exactly what he said but that was the gist of it. I'd really like to go to a midnight showing in IMAX, but I'm dancing in BYU Lu'au in March (BTW you should all come) in the Tahitian and Samoan sections and Tahitian section practices at 6 in the morning on Fridays. Plus Andrew has PT every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6 in the morning so I don't think he would have gone for that. I guess I'll just have to settle for opening night. That's the next best thing right? And if you'd like a little more detail into my crazy obsession, I look up stuff online about the movie all the time, and I even entered a drawing to win all the nail polishes inspired by the movie that China Glaze is coming out with. If you've ever heard the song Pyro by Kings of Leon, I personally think whoever actually wrote the song must have been thinking about The Hunger Games when they wrote it. I'll post it in case you want to listen to it. Oh and also I think the first book might be my favorite, but I liked the Quarter Quell from Catching Fire better than the games in The Hunger Games, so maybe I actually like the second one better...whatever. I'm so obsessed with The Hunger Games that I dedicated an entire blog post to it. So now you know how crazy I am.

Oh, and one thing that I hope they don't do with this movie is play up the love triangle too much. I mean I know it's a huge thing for the trilogy as a whole, but it's not a huge thing in the first book. They can play up the love triangle a little bit, but if it turns into Twilight I will be pissed. The Hunger Games is NOT Twilight, and the two aren't even comparable. I mean, sure they both have a love triangle, but so do a lot of other books and movies and TV shows and basically everything that involves any romance. And one thing that I saw when I was creeping around online is that the producers of The Hunger Games said that none of the actors from Twilight can be in any of The Hunger Games movies. Thank goodness for that. And I'm not making that up, just Google, "Twilight actors can't be in the hunger games." Oh and by the way, I like Peeta a million times more than Gale. I would definitely be Team Peeta, but from what I saw online, the fans of the movie who aren't 13 year old girls also obsessed with Twilight don't want this "team" thing to start, probably because they don't like Twilight.

So basically I'm so so SO excited for The Hunger Games movie. I have no idea how I'm gonna be able to wait another month till the movie comes out, but luckily the older you get, the faster time flies by, so it will be here before I know it. At least that's what I'm gonna tell myself.
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PS- It may sound like I'm a Twilight hater from this post, but I'm really not. I mean, I hate Bella (here's why: she is constantly whining about not wanting Edward and Jacob to get hurt, but one's a frickin' vampire and the other is a frickin' werewolf, what the heck does she think is going to happen to them? ), and I probably wouldn't read the books again, but I don't hate them like all those anti-Twilight people do. And I saw the movies (well the first 3) and I admittedly enjoyed them. I didn't think they were anything to get obsessed over, but I also didn't think they deserved all the hatred they're getting. And I wouldn't mind seeing the fourth or fifth ones.

I can't get this put on this movie's soundtrack since it's already made, but maybe I could get it put on the Mockingjay soundtrack. It fits that book better than the other two I think. Well it fits the series as a whole, but out of the three books it fits Mockingjay best.

Humility*

If there's one thing I've learned in my time here at BYU, it's humility. I wouldn't consider myself a particularly prideful person, but when you're constantly brought low, you start to wonder if maybe you are. I often find myself in humbling situations, as I'm sure many others do, and my tendency when these humbling situations come around is to feel inadequate. I feel inadequate when I look up at that screen in the testing center and see my test score, particularly if it was a test in a class I study 12 hours a week for. I feel inadequate when I find out I'm not as good at Tahitian dancing as I thought I was. I feel inadequate when I just can't seem to figure out how to drive stick, no matter how much Andrew encourages me. I feel inadequate when I just can't seem to do well in a class. I'm a klutz, I can't cook very well, I never really learned the value of hard work, I can't seem to keep anything clean, and I don't think there's anything that I'm particularly talented at. I could probably go on forever, but that would just make me sound like I'm wallowing in self pity, which isn't the purpose of this post. I probably already sound like I'm wallowing in self pity, or like I want you to pity me, but that really isn't my intention. I don't even have a particularly hard life, or anything big to wallow in self-pity about, but life seems to know exactly how to get at me to bring me down. 
So anyway, the point of that was that I find myself in humbling situations a lot. These humbling situations don't help my self esteem much, which has always been pretty low in the first place, but I think I'm finally starting to learn how to pick myself up again. The more humbling situations I find myself in, the easier it becomes to face the next one. I'm also finally starting to learn how much I need Jesus Christ. I realize now I'm inadequate because I'm human, and I'm not supposed to be adequate on my own, or at least not perfect on my own. We like to think we can do it on our own, but eventually (even if it's not in this life) we learn that we really can't. We are absolutely nothing. We live on a relatively small planet, in a rather large solar system, in a rather large galaxy, in a rather large universe, and who knows what's beyond that, if anything. There is so much that is bigger and more important than we are, and yet we are big and important to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We are their children. They know us personally. They know what's going on in our lives, and they care what's going on in our lives. "I believe that He doesn't care one bit if we live in a castle or a cottage, if we are handsome or homely, if we are famous or forgotten. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely. He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our résumé but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God’s love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked." That's from Dieter F. Uchtdorf. 
In view of this, I don't let those humbling situations get to me. Well actually I kind of do, because they certainly get me down, but I don't let them get to me by shaking my testimony or diminishing my faith in God. There could be any number of reasons for my humbling situations. They might be consequences of past actions. They might just be a part of life. They might be Satan trying to make me miserable like he is. They might be God humbling me so that I come to Him. I don't know where this quote comes from (other than a handout taped into my scriptures), but someone said, "God will have a humble people. Either we can choose to be humble, or we can be compelled to be humble." Maybe I haven't yet learned how to choose to be humble, and so I'm being compelled to be humble, but from whatever source my humbling comes, it doesn't make the gospel any less true, it doesn't mean Jesus Christ isn't my Savior, and it certainly doesn't mean God isn't there and that He doesn't care about me. I know He's there, and I know He cares about me.  Life can keep throwing these humbling situations at me, and I will keep loving my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and maybe one day I will come to see myself as they see me. Maybe one day I won't feel so inadequate, but until that day comes, I'll keep trusting that there's a reason for everything, and I'll keep trusting God.
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Update On My Previous Post

So ever since Andrew saw my last post (he didn't actually read it though, he just saw the title, and probably the word "dog" somewhere in that post) he's been taking the time to inform me that we are never getting a dog. He's told me point blank like three times that we are not getting a dog. And when I told him I still want a fish he even said no to that. "First it's a hamster, then it's a fish, then it's a dog," apparently. Maybe when Harley dies I'll get my fish, cause he's already told me we're not getting another hamster. And now he even acts like he doesn't like Harley as much. What kind of man did I marry??? No I'm just kidding, I know exactly the kind of man I married and I'm perfectly okay with that man. I decided if we never get a dog I'll be okay with it, cause I'll still have him. Unless he dies (since he's going into the Army after all), in which case I will get my dog, and I will probably never be happy again. That's kind of a depressing thought and you probably didn't come here to get depressed so we'll just move on from that.

Also, Harley is not quite so vicious anymore. I think she really just wasn't happy with being forcibly taken from her old home. You'd probably lash out too if someone took you from your friends and put you in a box and shook you all around while they were driving and then stuck you in a new cage in a completely foreign place. In fact, you'd definitely lash out, and you'd probably call the police, if you still had your cell phone. That actually sounds like the basic plot to a lot of movies. But hamsters don't have cell phones, nor do they speak English, so all Harley could do was bite us. Like I said though, she's calming down a lot. She lets us pet her now without whipping around as fast as she possibly can and trying to bite our fingers off, and she even let me hold her last night without trying to bite me. She's still as feisty as ever, and she doesn't like being held, but maybe in a few days (or weeks...or never) she won't bite at all.

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I Am Slowly Wearing Andrew Down

Don't worry, it isn't as bad as the title makes it sound.

So I've really wanted a fish for awhile now (I've been asking if we could get one since before Thanksgiving), but Andrew wouldn't let me get one because what were we gonna do with it over Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks? So I patiently waited for winter semester so I could get my fish. Well it's now winter semester, and after asking a couple of times and begging if we could go last Saturday, Andrew (rather reluctantly) gave in and said we would go Monday (as in yesterday). Well on Saturday night Andrew, Alex, and I went up to my grandparent's house and Alex told us he wanted to bring his dwarf hamster with him but he was afraid of being caught on his way out of the building. Obviously this implies that they're not allowed to have pets in his dorm, so please please don't turn him in or show this blog post to his RA (or any other RA for that matter, unless you know they aren't gonna do anything) cause I would feel really bad if I got him in trouble and you would be a jerk. I mean, neither my brother nor his hamster are doing anything to you, so what would you possibly gain from turning him in? Nothing, that's what, besides maybe a new reputation as a jerk. So anyway, Alex told us we should come look at his dwarf hamster when we got back to Provo, so when we got back to Provo on Sunday night after a relaxing day with our grandparents, we did indeed go look at his dwarf hamster. It was freakin' cute. Either Alex would make a good salesman, or I'm just a sucker, cause after that I wanted a dwarf hamster.

Monday came around and Andrew and I had lots of errands to do, like grocery shopping, going to Plato's Closet to get some new jeans, and picking up our new pet. Oh and here's a random story that made me super happy but has nothing to do with our new pet. A couple of weeks ago Andrew and I went to Big Lots to look for stuff to hang one of our new Christmas presents (it's obviously a picture), and there's a Dollar Tree next to the Big Lots, both of which happen to be next to the Macey's at which we shop. We stopped by the Dollar Tree too, and I found some two-packs of nail polishes that were the one of the brands I like and were only one dollar (because they were at the Dollar Tree). These nail polishes are like $2.79 or something at Target and $3.79 at the Macey's next door, so I was amazed at what a steal that was. I didn't get any then though, but since we're over there like every week when we go grocery shopping, I figured I'd get them eventually. So yesterday when we went to Macey's to do our grocery shopping I ran over to the Dollar Tree to get some of those nail polishes. I ended up getting a 4-pack of emery boards, two of those two packs of nail polishes (one of them had one nail polish and this Vitamin E nail and cuticle oil), and base/top coat. I go up to the register thinking this is gonna cost me $4 (which is actually really good for all of that), and the lady rings me up and tells me my total is $2.17. Thinking something is wrong she checks the price, and sure enough, the two packs of nail polishes are ringing up at one cent. She calls her manager, who calls another manager, who says that that is indeed what the price is. She actually yells this across the store, as she didn't actually come over to the register. So if any of you need new nail polish, you should definitely check out the Dollar Tree next to the Macey's on State Street and Bulldog, right across from the hospital. Even if they fixed it so they don't ring up at one cent, you're still getting a $7 value for $1, and who doesn't want to save $6?

Anyway, back to the pet story. After we did everything else, we stopped by Petsmart (even though Alex told us he got his hamster at Petco) and we found out that while Petsmart may be the superior store for pet supplies, it is most definitely not the superior store for actual pets. They did have way cooler fish than Petco did though, so if I ever convince Andrew to let me get a fish too (I still want one), then we will definitely be getting it from Petsmart. So anyway, by this point Andrew was in one of those pissy moods he gets in when he doesn't want to be doing something or is mad about something, but we went to Petco and found our dwarf hamster. We ended up getting this cute little female one, who, while she may look cute, is actually quite feisty and somewhat vicious. Sounds like a lot of women doesn't it? She spent the whole ride home trying to claw and bite her way out of box she was in and if you put your finger anywhere near her, she'll try to bite it. We figured it was just because of her eventful day and because she probably wasn't happy about being taken away from her two pals that she shared the cage with at Petco. We decided to name her Harley, because we couldn't think of any other names and that was one of the suggestions when I Googled, "What should I name my hamster?" We also Googled stuff about how to get your hamster to stop biting, and there were lots of good suggestions, and if you have a biting hamster you should also check it out. I actually don't know if we're allowed to have pets in our apartment complex, but another couple who lives here got a dog, and they got permission from the managers, so if they can have a dog, I'm sure it will be okay for us to have a hamster. Oh and if you're wondering how they can have a dog in a tiny apartment, it's just a little pug puppy, so it's probably okay. It's not like they're trying to cram a Great Dane into their apartment.

So anyway, here's why I'm wearing Andrew down. I really really REALLY want to get a dog eventually, but Andrew absolutely refuses. He says it's the one thing he won't give in on. He basically thinks they're a waste of space and money and if he's gonna spend money on something, it's gonna be our kids. My dad pretty much felt the same way when I was growing up (though his big things were that a dog sheds all over the furniture and that he'd end up being the one taking care of it), but eventually he gave in when my Grandma Kalauli actually gave us a dog. I'm holding out hope that Andrew will eventually give in, even if it takes 16  years, which is how long it took my dad to give in. I've always wanted a Great Pyrenees, or at least since my Auntie Nani got married and we went over to my Uncle Walter's friend Geo's house and he had one. If you don't know what they look like, they're white, and they're massive. They're one of the biggest breeds of dog. Anyway, Andrew didn't seem too happy about getting this hamster at first. He said it was "my thing," and he claimed he didn't care either way. As soon as we brought Harley home though, she started growing on him. He doesn't like "bitey things" (his words), but that doesn't stop him from going over to the cage to look at her, or talk to her, and when I suggested we look up ways to stop your hamster from biting, he was all for it.  He even used one of the suggestions and went and got some gloves that he got from my parents for Christmas to mess with her inside the cage. I guess it's just too hard to resist the allure of your first pet (his first pet of course, not mine). So that's how I'm wearing his resolve down. I know there's a big difference between a hamster and dog, but I'm warming him to the idea of pets, and you have to start small right? I'm performing inception on his mind, and eventually he will give in, because he always gives in if it's important enough to me. I'm not saying I always win arguments, nor am I saying that I don't ever give in, but what I am saying is that he might one day give in on the dog issue, and when that day comes I will be very happy indeed. Oh and as soon as he saw this post he said, "No. No. We are not getting a dog, so you can just forget about it." We'll see about that.

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Oh Hi

Did you miss me? Well Christmas break is officially over, and it's back to school for Andrew and I. We had an awesome Christmas- we spent it in Kansas with Andrew's family and then drove down to Texas to spend New Year's with my family. We both loved spending time with our families and had tons of fun. Personally, I don't think we spent enough time in Texas (we were only there about 3 and a half days), but oh well, it was Andrew's family's on year to spend Christmas together. I definitely missed spending Christmas with my family, but I had a good first Christmas with Andrew and his family. The most exciting thing I got for Christmas was a Kindle Fire, and I love it. It's awesome. I prefer it to the iPad, and not just cause it's like $300 cheaper. Of course, I'm saying this based playing with other people's iPads, cause I don't have one of my own. We didn't do anything too exciting over the break. We spent time with family, saw a few movies (Sherlock Holmes, which was amazing; War Horse, which was really good-kinda depressing but at the same time it had a fairly happy ending; and Mission Impossible 4, which was good), and blew up gingerbread houses on New Year's Eve. All in all, it was a good Christmas break.

And now, it's back to school. Andrew is taking 15 credit hours and I'm taking 16. I'm super excited for a few of my classes, namely genetics (which some people might not find interesting, but I find it fascinating), astronomy, Greek and Roman mythology, and the second half of the Doctrine & Covenants with Brother Bott, who is one of the best professors at BYU. I'm not really excited for the second half of organic chemistry or history 201 though. Normally I really love history, but I don't like discussion based classes, and that's what this one is going to be. I'd prefer to be lectured to. Plus this class is pretty much all papers. Another reason I'm excited for genetics is because the professor is really funny. Today in class when he was explaining to us why he doesn't accept late homework, he declared, "I'm not Solomon. I can't cut that baby!" He also joked that some of the students in the class were ugly.

So yeah, I've lost interest in this blog post and I've run out of things to say, so I guess I'll just wrap it up. But first, if you have similar musical interests to me you might enjoy this. It's a remix of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. It was actually on the trailer to the new GI Joe movie. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m7e7tCn7Bk. And if you really like it, there's a link to download it in the description box.
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