Healthy Child - Healthy World

Watch this video:

A Wake-Up Story, by Healthy Child Healthy World

I am totally an advocate of things like this! I believe in non-toxic house cleaners, making your own baby food to avoid unnatural supplements, using safer plastics, and being green. If I could afford an electric car, organic food, or live only on solar power, I would. Yes, I am a tree hug-er. I've become this way not only from working in a pharmacy and learning about all the effects chemicals have on the body, but also from all my interior design study. Can you believe there are things like VOC's (volatile organic compounds) that your house constantly emits that you are just breathing in; all the time? Things that have been linked to cause lung cancer, headaches, and increases in influenza and allergies?? Scientific advances are wonderful, but are they worth the chemicals and the effect they have on our bodies?

 Watch the video. Download the app. Be aware.

September Already?

Things I experienced for the first time this summer:
- Going out of the country :)
- real rock climbing

- an Aussie repel. INCREDIBLE.
- actually loving a new job
- working two jobs
- riding a true road bike with clip in shoes - and falling quite a few times
- became the VP of the Student Interior Design Organization
- volunteering for the Utah Diabetes Association
- declared a double major: Interior Design and Marketing
- running 6.5 miles one lovely morning :) it's a wonderful feeling. I'm running my first official 5K this Saturday.
- Attending the National Kitchen and Bath Industry show in Las Vegas - road trip!

- learning how to swim like a swimmer - and drinking way too much pool water
- losing my respect for government funding in relation to medicare, medicaid, disability pay, etc.
- being surprisingly nervous on a date with very admirable/cute/fun boy. I don't generally get nervous...
- stripping wire
- buying real running shoes

- sanding and re-staining a deck
- multiple dates with 7 different boys. haha. It's not as great as it sounds.
- backing up a trailer - oh baby! This one I'm quite proud of.
- sewing a skirt
- sanding and re-staining/painting some new shelves for my bedroom

I'd say it has been a pretty successful summer :) Now that school has started and I'm taking 17 credit hours on top of my two jobs I've got a whole lot more to keep me busy... But I sure love being busy!

Life Goes On

Wow! Life is just running at full speed and I can barely keep up! I'm back from Italy! It was incredible! I had to keep a journal every day while I was on my trip so I'm just going to repost all of those entires with pictures.  But first I need to catch up with everything else that's going on! Oh my word! Where to start...

A few weeks ago Kendall took me to Davis High's Moonlight Serenade (every year the jazz band, moonlight singers, and dancers put on a show where you can come and dance as well). Kendall and I decided that since the Salsa was popular at the same time as jazz that we would dress the part (Okay, I don't really know if that's true but it was easier to find a salsa dress than a 20's style flapper dress). I'd say we looked pretty hawt ;)

It was absolutely one of the funnest dances I've been to! Kendall is incredibly good at dancing and I'm mediocre at following so we made a pretty okay couple. Apparently other people thought so too. We had a few random people come up to us and ask how long we'd been dancing together, if we were professional or that we should be, and how we learned to dance like that. Truth is, we simply repeated the few moves we did know, whether they fit the beat of the song or not. In my opinion, the magic came from the fact that Kendall and I are both performers (I danced and he was in musical productions) so we know how to perform well whether or not we are good at what we're doing - that, and we were having the time of our lives so I'm sure the big smiles on our faces and in our eyes made us look even better :)

Maybe I miss dancing...

Let's see, what else is new? I'm currently unemployed, or jobless if you want to use the more politically correct term. I probably shouldn't complain about my job too much where other people can read it, but it was awful. I hated the negative, backbiting work environment, the power hungry management, the unseen motto of "faster is better and it better be accurate or else", the ridiculous reasons to get written up, and the feeling of walking on pins and needles every day at work just to not get yelled at rather than do my job right. After a year of that I was done. I really don't think I could have endured it long enough to find another job. I can't handle a negative environment like that. One should not have to pray to be a good employee every day before work and be terrified to walk in afraid of who's going to be yelling and for what reason next. That's ridiculous. So if you have any ideas on leads for a new job... preferable one that give me the same $13 an hour, that would be awesome!

I decided not to take a summer semester. I declared a double major, Interior Design and Technical Sales and decided that if I took summer semesters I could be done by 2013 like intended - but I've finally come to the realization that life does not have to be rushed. Why do I need to be graduated so soon? Yes, it would be wonderful to be done with school before or soon after I get married and especially before kids, but I don't see any reason to burn myself out because of it. Life is meant to be enjoyed, not just endured.

Remember two years ago when I went to California for a school trip and had to use a cane because of a leg injury? Guess what little friend I got to take with me to ITALY?? We may not be friends anymore. I'll just explain real quick how I got a lovely stress fracture in my foot just before my trip. At the beginning of May I was working on a final project for a class. The day it was due, 30 minutes before class, my group was still printing pages and gluing stuff to a board (don't worry, so were all the other groups, as well as the professor). I had to run down to the printing center on campus but was slowed down by heels and a pencil skirt. My solution? Take off the heels, hike the skirt up a little bit, and run - there were about 10 minutes to presentation time at this point. With the first or second step I took I felt a snap in my foot, yelped a little, limped a little, but I was fine and kept going. I was fine the rest of the day, but every time I went running after that it would get worse. I figured this was just a side effect of training for a half marathon and I didn't worry about it too much. Until the Tuesday before I left for Italy... I went on a lovely run with Kendall - it was a pretty easy going run, and I kept making him stop to take breaks for "my back" not wanting to tell him about my foot too. I made it home, and within the next hour I could barely walk my foot hurt so bad. I sat in the office and cried a little bit as I explained to my mom what had happened. I made a doctors appointment for the next day, found out I had a stress fracture, was told to stay off of it completely until my trip, good luck in Italy, and to make another appointment when I got home to see what more damage I had done. Great. I was ecstatic about this news.

It's still healing - I never went back to the doctor... :S It hurts every Wednesday after volleyball but I really am taking it easy. I swear if I take it any easier I'm going to lose my mind. The half marathon will  have to be postponed until it heals completely though...

Well I think that may be all the catching up I can do for now. Oh! Jeremy graduates from high school tomorrow! This blows my mind - what is happening to the life that I've known for so long?? My goodness...

Winter, Weddings, and Waxing!

I really should post these pictures when they happen but better late than never, right? I'll try to go in chronological order, but just be prepared for quite a lot of pictures!

My first ever 4 DIGIT PAYCHECK! It came to a grand total of 1000.35! I worked A LOT of overtime during December but I was still excited to see such a large number on a little piece of paper. I figured this was a moment worth documenting...even though you can't read the paycheck in this picture. (I made a copy of it and it's been on my 'inspirational board' since I got it. One day it will happen again.)

Celebrating my 20th birthday with my roommates Christine and Kaitlin and my dear friend Sara :) Love them!

The wonderful card that Kaitlin Lloyd gave me for my birthday. Isn't it soo cute!? Best card ever!

My roommate Alli Warnick got engaged and we threw her a bridal shower :)

Alli married a wonderful boy named Brad on February 2nd and became Mrs. Alli Nelson :)

when girls get hungry...

And possibly my favorite picture of me and Kaitlin :)

A beautiful scene from the top of the conference center at sunset :)

And last but certainly not least... WAXING

So maybe it was my idea... Kaitlin and I had been complaining one day about how we were tired of shaving and I said something about how I wanted to try waxing sometime. If you can wax once and have smooth legs for 3 weeks, why not endure a little pain? So for my birthday Kaitlin got my a waxing kit! And guess what we did last Sunday? Bahaha! The minute I put the wax on my leg I thought, "What the heck am I doing?? I don't want to do this!!" I turned to Kaitlin and the look on her face matched the thoughts in my mind. We decided we had to do it together though, plus there was on turning back at this point. 

It hurt sooo bad! And it didn't even work! We were both rolling on the floor crying/laughing/screaming and then when we investigated the area... the wax had hardley even been pulled off! Let alone any hair! How could that have hurt so bad?? After a few failed attempts we ended up having to scrape the dried on wax off with our fingernails as it pulled on each individual hair... we sat by the fire we had built to try and reheat the wax so it would come off easier and then run into the shower to get it off... probably TMI, sorry. Anyways, I'm sticking to shaving from now on. It's really not that bad. haha but thinking back on how hilarious this moment was, I'm glad Kaitlin and I got to share it ;) hahaha!

Stuck in a Rut

This week I worked a full 40 hours at the pharmacy! I'm a full time workin' woman :) However, I can honestly say that I don't really enjoy it. It's not too bad of a job, the people are fun, but it's pretty high stress and I'm constantly running around doing things faster than I can think somtimes. I can't imagine having to work full time for the rest of my life. Poor husbands :(

Tanner and I were talking about this exact thing just the other day. How do you not let yourself get stuck in a rut? How do you stay passionate about life (stole that from Crystal ;) thanks) when life gets so routine and monotonous? I wouldn't say that I'm a pessimistic person - I think I enjoy life - but I wish I was more passionate about it - that word just has so much more emotion to it.

As fall gets closer and closer, and with Tanner getting ready to leave on his mission, I can just see my life falling into a routine where I go to work, go to school, eat, study, sleep, go to work, etc etc etc. I don't want it to be like that, but I don't know how to not let it. I don't think I know how to just go with the flow or be spontaneous... Ah! I better figure it out quick or I'm gonna be stuck in the very rut I'm trying to avoid!

Pharmacy Technician!

I FINALLY got a job as a pharmacy technician!!

I went to the Davis Applied Technology College (DATC) my senior year of high school to take a pharmacy tech. class so that right after high school I would have a good job with good hours making between $15-20 dollars an hour. Well the research and what high school counselors had told me wasn't true. Pharmacy techs are not in demand, they do NOT make that much money, they work long hours, and the DATC has a terrible class where you hardly learn anything and pharmacies in Utah know it. I've been trying to get a job for a year and haven't had any luck - until today!

I got a call from a pharmacy, The Medicine Shoppe, yesterday wanting to interview me. (I had turned in an application a few weeks ago, but they weren't even hiring at the time). I had my interview today, I really liked the manager, and she hired me on the spot!

I start the beginning of May, after school is over. Part time for training making $11.50 and after a few weeks - full time with a raise :) Right now I'm both nervous and excited... so we'll see!!