SPRING V. SUMMER

Okay, I'm on a little bit of a Calvin & Hobbes kick lately I guess, but this comic that was delivered to my email inbox today just so perfectly described my current feelings towards spring. It's hard to enjoy blooming tulips and daffodils when the weather forecast predicts snow! With less than two weeks left, I just want to hit the fast forward button to May already!

ONE WEEK MORE

Officially one week from today will be my last day of classes for my first year of pharmacy school!!!!!  YAYYYY!!! No more doing makeup on the train, feeling like a zombie every morning, or coordinating public transportation schedules! For four months anyway... I am so happy to be so close to the end - only 3 more years to go...But only two more didactic (i.e. test-filled) years, I'm one-third done with that! Woooo!!

ANTELOPE ISLAND

Well, we can check another one off the Utah bucket list -- on Saturday we took my two international exchange student mentees (Laura from Colombia and Lucie from France) out to Antelope Island. We've actually never been there - it's a pretty far drive from Provo, but it was pretty fun to see. There wasn't really much to do on the island besides lots of hiking, and it was SUPER windy and not all that warm, so we just did two small hikes and saw the Great Salt Lake from pretty high up. Yep, the lake is pretty darn huge. It almost made me feel like I was at the beach since the air smelled so salty, but mostly it just made me more excited to visit the Oregon coast this summer. Also I saw a buffalo for the first time in my life - they are so HUGE!!! We were able to drive our car right up next to one, and it was definitely bigger than our little Prius. I was a little terrified, but it was mostly awesome. They probably just thought we were annoying. No antelope were spotted however.

FRONTRUNNER

Yeah, commuting up to Salt Lake City every day is a real pain. It's pretty far, and early classes make for verrrrry early mornings. But I gotta admit, taking the FrontRunner train is 1083094825x better than the bus was! It's impossible to sleep on the train (for me at least), which I was a little mad about at first, but I can definitely be a lot more productive and study more than the bus allowed for. They even have these little tables at some of the seats where I can spread out all of my study materials on the afternoon ride home (mornings are usually too crowded) and it's a great hour to get some work done. They even have power outlets! I wish it was a little bit closer to school (it takes nearly as long to get from the train station to the hospital as it does to get from Provo to SLC!), but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right? 

CARROT CAKE

I love making cakes! I made Jarom's birthday cake this year, and since he requested carrot cake, it was a bit of a fun challenge. For some reason lots of people don't like carrot cake (I love it!) since its too moist and has weird stuff, but I left out the raisins and drained the carrots and pineapple, and I think it turned out pretty good! I used this recipe from allrecipes.com (such a good website) and modified it a little bit, and though there was a little drama with the frosting, I think the finished product was rather delicious!

EASTER PARTY

Devynne had a little Easter party at her place, and though I'm a little late posting about it here, we had a fun time. Mostly by being total weirdos. Including Owen eating 50 jelly beans. I took a video, but sadly it won't load onto here :( Yeah...I don't know if Devynne will be inviting us over again...

LACROSSE

The other day, my friend Kierea invited me to the BYU vs Colorado lacrosse game. It was free since she knows the coach, so I was in! And I found out that I definitely do not know anything about lacrosse. It looks so violent! But it was fun to watch, and at least I could keep track of the ball 90% of the time :) And the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so at least we were able to work on our tan! 

FONT OBSESSED

So Qualtrics is awesome and we got an iPad mini from them, and since Owen works all the time and has no spare time, I've been playing on it. WELL, I decided to break down and buy an app for the first time in my life - I got the iFontMaker app, and it is SO MUCH FUN! I've always been obsessed with handwriting and fonts and having way too many fonts so your computer runs really slowly, so this app was practically made for me! I made 4 fonts just on the train ride home! Yeah, I can already tell this is going to be an obsession for me....Here's the one's I've made!

 This top one's just my normal handwriting:

And I forced Owen to join in on the fun -- here's his normal handwriting :) 

FUNNY POTATOES

Umm...I think we let this grow on a little too long...

FLORAL

"I must have flowers, always, always." 

Claude Monet

MATCHY-MATCHY

Yeah, we're that annoying couple who matches all the time...

GAME ON

I'm not really the biggest "gamer," but luckily there is a cheap place just up the street for us to play some classic arcade games if we have the desire. We went on a little double date with Devynne and a friend from Qualtrics to Nickel City the other weekend, and did a little basketball, Arctic Blast snowmobile racing, Mrs. PacMan (I wanted to do the original, but there was an older guy on the PacMan game literally the whole time we were there...), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and LASER TAG. Yeah, I'm not as good at laser tag as I remember being...But it was still fun! And totally cheap. Some things about Provo are not all that amazing, but at least there are lots of cheap things to do here!

SNOW AGAIN

When the weather's acting crazy, you can act crazy too. Or at least that's what I assume Owen was thinking when he decided to make a snow angel in his gym shorts. 

Spring, you've tricked all of us! Come back! 

LIFE

source

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.

Life is beauty, admire it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

Life is a game, play it.

Life is a promise, fulfill it.

Life is sorrow, overcome it.

Life is a song, sing it.

Life is a struggle, accept it.

Life is a tragedy, confront it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is luck, make it.

Life is too precious, do not destroy it.

Life is life, fight for it.” 

-Mother Theresa-

I have decided that there is nothing that can make your day immediately sad more than seeing an animal on the side of the road. I know that is something awful and harsh to write about, but today I experienced something awful and harsh. I was taking the train home, when all of a sudden I heard the train horn, the sound of something heavy smashing, breaking, and just a combination of every horrible and frightening cacophonous sound you could think of. We had hit a deer. And didn't even stop. 

It made me feel horrible and dirty as a human being, and I wanted to cry - even more so when I realized that there were people staring at their iPhones with their headphones plugged in who didn't know anything had even happened. I know it was "just" a deer, not a person at least, and those who know me know that I'm not even that big of an animal person, but still, it just felt wrong and disrespectful to not even give a moment to acknowledge that deer's life. It's a little silly, but I said a little prayer for that deer and its family, and was just reminded of how short and precious life can be. I had to read Tuesdays with Morrie for a class this past week, and I know everyone on the planet has already read it besides me, but there were two passages that I was specifically reminded of today: 

“Everyone knows they re going to die,' he said again, 'but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.” 

"Death ends a life, not a relationship"

I'm grateful for a true knowledge and belief in that last idea, and I hope to focus on living each day building the relationships with those I love so that my life will have true meaning. 

FIRST DAY OF SPRING

I don't really have much time to celebrate, since I had the first test of death today and the second test of doom tomorrow (plus a dentist appointment in between!), but I am so so so happy it is finally spring! Who cares what the weather is doing? Okay I do a little, but spring is the promise of good things to come! Plus the other day, we saw these little pretties popping up in our yard - they're not much, but it is enough to get me excited for now!