Austrailian Mimi Dolls

I helped out at Red Butte Gardens on Saturday.

Getting there was an adventure.  First off, it was raining hard.  so it was kind of hard to see road signs as is.  Secondly, I was driving somewhere I'd never driven before, so that was interesting.  I had directions in one hand, trying to make sure that I was going the right place, and venturing to the opposite side of the valley.  Thirdly, I was driving through a part of the freeway that people who have a lot of experience driving there get lost in.  it was exciting, to say the least.

It was great fun, once I got there, and I ended up learning a lot.  I ended up visiting Australia.  We made Austrailian Mimi Dolls, based off the Aboriginal Mimi spirits.  I learned they are spirits, and some are good, and help people learn to make fire, and to hunt Kangaroos.  Some are bad, and ate people.  We just made them out of cloths pins, but in real life, they are much bigger than that.

They also had some fun instruments.  they had those cool wood frogs that sound like a real frog when you rub them.  they had a digeridoo, too, which was fun.  I tried to play it, and it sounded okay.  not like it really should. i could get it sounding kind of right, but it didn't sound at all like it should.

Overall, it was a blast.  I wish I was able to help out more of the days.  Sadly, I'm working nights, and this does, of course, take place at night.

"the nothing box"

i have to admit that this all makes perfect sense, and that i'm highly jealous of men. things would be so much different if i didnt have a brain like a ball of wire...

mission call

after about forever waiting and preping, i finally got my mission call. i'll be going to Nashville, Tennessee!

holidays

We had/ will have a whole bunch of holidays this month. I just wanted to share what they were, so's all can remember them and celebrate them. First, we had National Pie Day. This occurs on March 14. the date is then 3.14. in the year 2015, it will really be pie day, as the date will be 3.1415. :) Next, we have the ides of March, on March 15. Thanks to Shakespeare and a very literate family, we "beware the ides of march" and watch for any would be assassins. :) Next is Palm Sunday. This doesn't usually occur in march, but it is always a week before Easter. This year, it gets to be March 16th. Palm Sunday marks the Sunday that Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, with the hosts shouting "hosanna, hosanna!" and laying the palm branches down, celebrating the fact that Christ was comming. Next day, March 17th, is St. Patricks day. The day of the irish. People in Ireland dont actually wear green this day, this is truely an American tradition. Wow, a whole weekend of holidays! We get a break after that however, and until the 20th, when its the first day of spring. This officially starts spring off, and the days start getting longer, as the earth tilts itself the other direction. After that is the 23, when we have Easter Sunday. The day we celebrate the fact that Christ died just for us, and for our sins, and then was resurrected, so that we can eventually have power over death as well. Such a hopeful day.

pumps your blood

a friend of mine is taking an anat/phys. class this semester, and her last test was on the veins and the heart. she shared this video with me, i found it amusing. :)

life

its been a while since i've actually updated my life, so i thought that i would do so, since i have no time, and am trying to put off doing my taxes today. :)

-starting with the most recent, my mission papers have made it in to the stake president as of today. as to when i'll be able to meet with my stake president, that is still up in the air. he is out of town a lot, which is rather frusturating, but i always planned on waiting a lot longer to talk to him. he is the stake president after all. and hey, at least i still get to talk to him sooner than expected. things with my councelor apparantly progressed faster than thought, according to her, which was a wonderful thing to hear.

-i actually have stopped my counceling. i stoped it right after my old councelor left, and i had to get a new person. i'll admit it, this seems to be turning into a habit, and i need to stop doing so.

- i still work at sears, but i'm no longer the only one on my team! we got a new gal just the other day. so, although she is currently doing training all morning, i'll eventually have another person to work with, and the load wont be quite as heavy. it came at a convienet time, because they hadnt been all about giving me days off, and now that i'm doing a class, i'll be going out of town to take tests.

-as mentioned, i'm currntly taking a class through BYUI. its an online religion class (new testament to be exact), and is turing out to be a lot more work than i ever planned it to be. i have a couple hours of reading monday-friday, and sometimes on the weekends. i had figured a lot of reading, but not as much as it actually is. i do love the class though. its teaching me some perspectives that i never would have thought about. its wonderful to be learning again.

-i'm no longer teaching the really cute sunbeams. i'm now teaching the CTR 9-10 class. its an interesting experience to feel like you know nothing when your teaching them. the kids are way way smart, and it sometimes amazes me just how much those kids know.

-rachel has left, but oddly, i'm not doing too bad. i expected a whole onslaught of a bunch of crap that happens with my bad depression, but it hasnt come, and i've been able to stay really happy. i guess that means that he therapy i did for those three months really wasnt a waste of my time and money. i do miss having her around, and all the fun we had together, and the house is now really quiet. it does mean we can eat things she really didnt like though, like spinach things, and things with peaches in them, and rhubarb! i've missed being able to have rhubarb things. :)

-for the first time in 21 years, i now have my own room. its kinda interesting to be able to have things in my room how i want, and to sleep not 5 feet off the floor. becasue of it, i spent a few days and rearragned things all by myself (okay, technically dad did take the beds apart, but only because i didnt get to it the day before since i was sick), and i'm proud of how the room now looks. :)

-i've started, or, more like, tried to start a daily yoga and cardio routine, but it hasnt really happned. between my class and what mom needs me to do during the few hours that i'm home and she isnt, i've found myself lacking in time. its something that i need to try and do better at though. it would help if i would prioritize my time, and not play as much. :)

-happy day for me, i've planned some trips up to good ol' rexburg to get out of the house. admitidly, two of those trips have educational reasons behind them. i need to go and take my tests somewhere, but instead of deciding to just take them here in utah, i'm going to save a lot of trouble, not time, but trouble, and take two trips up to rexburg to take some tests. it will be nice to get out of the house for a few weekends. :) i'm also going up to see the opera they are doing. one of my old roomates, RL, is a music minor, and she told me she was going to auditoin for the opera. i'm going to go up and support her being in the opera, or if she didnt make the cuts, i'm going to go and watch it with her. i just wish i could stay a little longer that trip. its a trip up the night of the opera, and leaving early the next morning. :( it should still be fun though.

- last, but not least, i've kept up my photo a day blog. its been a wonderful thing to do in my life. its made me look for the good things in life, and its helped to keep my mind where it needs to be, and focusing on what it needs to focus on. i just wish that i could do it for a bit longer than will probably happen, since eventually i'll be leaving on my mission, and i doubt my mission president will allow me to keep posting. maybe i'll just invest instead in a whole buch of those disposable cameras and take them with me, with instructions to my sister to upload them for me if possible? we'll see when the time comes.

ideas

i've been wanting to come up with some sort of a creative story recently, or do some other such thing all creative like and using the right side of my brain. only problem is that i cant seem to figure out anything to do. i could write another story about the great dragon, except that i cant think of anything else for him to do or create (thanks to B, my ideas for anything else are all corrupted by the myths that she wrote, and i have no new ideas). so, i'm asking for ideas. what can i do that is creative, using the right side of my brain?

It should have been today

Today is offically 90 days from my birthday, meaning that my papers should have gone downtown today. thats great! except for not.

Reason one:
my bishop wants me to get a "missionary screening" from the LDS family services to make sure that my depression et al. wont get in the way of my being able to serve. the bishop says that he isnt worried about it, it is more for clarification for the missionary councel, because they might have questions. this meeting is apparantly two sessions long with a councelor. my first meeting isnt until next wednesday. since i've done this kind of thing before, i'm guessing it will take about a week before my second and hopefully final meeting with them, then they will send a letter to my bishop saying yea or nay i will be able to serve without any hinderance. as of right now, i'm really really hoping that they are a yea yea instead of a nay nay. i have guesses as to what it would do psycologically.

Reason two:
i have yet to meet with my stake president. president R is out of country a lot, so i have to wait a long time for his secritary to call me and set up a time. also, i have suspicions that my bishop has yet to give my papers to president R. reasoning? see reason one.

so, although this should have been a great day, its not. i should have had my papers in to downtown today, but they wont. Fie on Melinda being stupid!