Chapped Lips

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Dear BYU Vending,

Ever since I went to a bowling place where they had socks in a vending machine, I have realized the versatility of these machines that we once thought were just for snacks. I know you've tried to broaden your horizon and add "healthy" things like granola bars and apples that get bruised when the drop to the bottom of the machine, but I'm thinking that it's time to think outside the box here. Below is my list of suggestions of things to add to vending machines on BYU campus:

1. Chapstick 

2. Dental floss 

3. Ibuprofen 

4. Mini staplers/tape 

5. Jamba Juice 

6. Actual utensils 

7. Cell phone chargers

These are things that, from my experience, when you need them, you really need them. No time to walk all the way up to the Wilk, I need my chapstick now! I truly believe that this would not only increase revenue, but also the general happiness of students here at BYU.

Sincerely,

To Be or Not to Be

I love General Conference because it is like ordering something online.

First comes the excitement of just ordering the package, and then you get to anticipate it's arrival when you can enjoy your purchase.

I love getting to hear the word of our church leaders each April and October, and each conference always causes me to anxiously await the arrival of the Ensign with its printed copies of each talk that I can study and enjoy even more as I try to apply new lessons learned to my life.

Conference this past weekend was no exception. There were so many brilliant and inspired messages delivered, and I cannot wait to be able to go through and read them again and again.

This conference, I felt a sincere impression that I can and need to increase my serving capacity. Also, like every other woman in the church probably, I was greatly touched by Elder Scott's loving tribute to his late wife. I hope someday to be even slightly like his beloved Jeanene!

But I think my favorite message right now is the one from Elder Robbins. I love his question--"So many of us have to-do lists, but rarely have anything on a to-be list. Why?" His message of being rather than doing is something I am going to ponder for a while and see how I can improve in my life.

And thanks to modern technology, I don't have to wait until May to share this message with you through a video clip!

things byu students wear

Sometimes there are things that BYU students wear that I really wish they wouldn't. Perhaps I am biased, but I just don't know anyone who these clothing items look good on.

Exhibit A: Jeans with thick stitching.

Perhaps it is because I have a notoriously not-so-small behind, but I certainly do not think that this is a tasteful way to show off your backside. Heaven knows how these became popular, but then again, so did shorts with words across the bum. Just because they are trendy doesn't mean they aren't tacky. What's worse? Men wearing these pants. No thank you.  

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Exhibit B: Short Uggs

Though I personally am not a huge fan of Uggs in general, I do see how feet could benefit from all of the extra warmth they provide. However, even if your legs are six feet long and twig-thin, no one needs to suffer from the unflattering bulkiness that short Uggs contribute. You know what drives me even more crazy about Uggs? When they get worn in and the base of the shoe is sideways because of how people shuffle around in them. I wish I could find a picture of what I'm talking about, but if you don't know what I mean, just look around campus. You'll see them.

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Exhibit C: Colorful Sweatsuits

This is one thing that has changed about me since marrying Owen. Owen refuses to wear any form of athletic clothing outside of the house (unless exercising of course) and says he would feel uncomfortable if people were to see him those clothes at work or school. Though I wouldn't feel embarrassed necessarily, I do think that there is something to be said about getting dressed properly for day-to-day activities. Your mind is more alert, and you are showing more respect for your coworkers and professors and everyone else. I won't say that I don't have the occasional yoga pants day every blue moon, but I don't think that dressing in sweats every day is a good idea. 

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Exhibit D: Sweater Headbands

Is it a sweater? Is it a headband? Is it a beanie? Is it...what is it?! I don't know. All I know is that once I stepped inside, my forehead would be totally hot and sticky if I tried wearing one of these things, and taking them off would have an effect potentially even worse than hat hair. The only person who looks cute in these is my little sister Lyvia, but she is thin and young and looks cute in everything, so I don't know how much that is saying. 

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Despite my clothing rant, today has actually been a pretty good day! Only two and a half more weeks of classes--hallelujah! And I register for fall classes tonight, which is always exciting besides the staying up until midnight part...At least I'm going to see Tangled in 3D w/ Devynne tonight! Yay!

P.S. Like my new blog design? I was bored at work (again) and didn't feel like cutting off all my split ends like I did last Monday, sooooo I played around with photoshop brushes and bugged Owen at work for some html tips. Love that guy.

an unbeliever

hat: qualtrics, scarf: disneyland!!!, shirt: f21, pants: kohls, belt: f21, shoes: thrifted keds

Things I don't believe are real:

1. Mincemeat pie. Has anybody actually ever eaten this before? It sounds so weird.

2. Baby yoga. I taught babies how to "swim" and even that was a little far-reaching for me despite the whole babies-are-natural-swimmers-since-they-swam-in-the-womb-thing.

3. BYU is rated #3 on ESPN Men's Basketball. This is incredible.

4. The awesome long-lasting nature of this nail polish that I bought for 97 cents at Walmart. I even cleaned our bathroom and I only have three tiny chips even though I painted them like four days ago.

5. Global warming.

Just kidding.

I'm only trying to be controversial.

6. The fact that I won $25 to Smashion.com from Clothed Much. Thanks Elaine! You rock! And your outfits are pretty awesome too.

I also can't believe that this 30 for 30 is almost over! Only two more days, only two more outfits. I think I have forgotten how to blog about anything besides what I am wearing. I better start doing some interesting things with my life so I can blog about it. Any ideas of what to do here in boring ol' Provo when the weather refuses to reach 50 degrees. And no, skiing is not an option due to my lack of money and lack of foot-eye coordination (that sounds so much better with hand-eye coordination, but how else are you supposed to describe it?)

day 28- a picture of you from last year and now, how have you changed since then?

Then:

Now:

same pants & same pose

I know I'm cheating again by doing two posts, but I just thought that it would make so much more sense if I finished day 30 on December 30th. Plus I'm at work right now, and don't really want to work of course, so what else am I going to do?

I have changed so much since last year, it's insane. Some of the most life-changing events for me have occurred in the past year, and it kind of makes me hope that next year will be a tad more boring. I could deal with a little normality for a while.

First off, in the last year, I went from being Chelsey Barret to Chelsey Hancock. Talk about a huge change!

In the last year, I decided to challenge myself and pick up a music minor to expand my creativity.

This past year, my father passed away, and this has changed me in ways that I haven't even realized yet.

This year, I turned 20 and am now considered fully independent.

Other than that, pretty much nothing else has changed. I still am a planner fanatic, still pose in pictures the exact same way, still love my family to death even though sometimes we drive each other crazy, still am super competitive, still like wearing orange shoes, still like food way too much, and still love Beauty and the Beast. But as you can see, this past year has been one of most paramount years of my existence. I hope that next year will bring some good changes to my life, but nothing as dramatic please! :)

Also, can't wait to spend the rest of the day celebrating Quinn's 10th! Laser tag, here we come!!!

day 4- a habit that you wish you didn’t have

I don't know if it is just that super stressful time of year right before finals or if it is the fact that our car is being psychotic and sadly is STILL not fully functioning, but for some reason I can come up with lots of habits right now I wish I didn't have! Chipping off my nail polish, messing with split ends, being awkward around new people I don't really know, blogstalking or writing new blog posts instead of studying for my tests (guilty at the present). But I think right now the most significant habit I have that I wish I didn't is getting into a habit of negativity. Sometimes I can be really negative and think that everything in the world is all out to get me. And the problem is that it is a REALLY easy habit to get into! Whether it is finding out that my microbiology teacher scheduled another dumb midterm on the last day of class in class just to torture us, or discovering that our headlights aren't working after all of that repair work and money we spent on the car and now we can't drive after 5 p.m., it is easy to focus on the things that are not going exactly how I would want them to. I'm hoping that all of these situations are just being exacerbated by the fact that it is almost finals and I am terrified out of my mind for my genetics and biochemistry classes, but I going to try (key word=try) to think of at least a few positive things every day to balance it out. As President Jeffrey R. Holland once said

 "No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse." 

And since I am sitting here writing a blog post and being bored all by myself but not wanting to do homework, I would say that Owen's habit I wish he didn't have is procrastinating his humongous History of Creativity assignment that he has had all semester to work on but didn't really start until like a week ago and now he's cramming to do that instead of doing something awesome like watching Pysch with me :) But I do have to admit that the video portion of his assignment turned out pretty dang cute, I'll try to convince him to put it up here for you all to see. And in the meantime, I will put forth my first attempt at making cake balls. Wish me luck! 

Happy

I feel like this quote is something that has been on my mind a lot lately. It has been so easy to get wrapped up in all of the little details and to freak about every little thing that seems to be going wrong and to think that it is going to RUIN THE REST OF OUR LIVES!!!! But really most things aren't that big of deal. For example, last night we went over to Owen's parents house for dinner and found out that somehow Owen's wisdom teeth (remember those traumatic stories?) were not covered by his insurance. And unfortunately, we are not currently at a point in our lives where we can just whip out $952 to cover something like that. Of course I was a little freaking out about it, and thought that Owen and I were destined to be poor forever and we would never be able to sustain a family and everything!!! Fortunately Owen was able to stop by the oral surgeon's office today and it turns out that they accidentally entered his information wrong and it should be fine (wish they had let us know ahead of time) and we won't have to live in a cardboard box after all.


But what is basically comes down to is that I need to remind myself that happiness is the key to life. I was having a particularly self-pitying week last week, and when Owen and I were reading scriptures on Thursday, we came across this verse from 2 Nephi:


"Therefore, ^acheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are ^bfree to ^cact for yourselves—to ^dchoose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life."


And how true it is. So my goal for this week is to choose to be happy--to not freak out about being five minutes late to genetics, to remain calm if there are still dirty dishes in the sink, to spend time helping Owen prepare for his Pixar internship interview tomorrow instead of reorganizing our closet again, and to not flip out while trying to study for biochemistry and microbiology. Because in five years, I won't care about that 78 I got on my first midterm...right? 

No More Studying Please

Yes I do have a genetics test tomorrow and biochemistry midterm on Wednesday and I need to finish up the trim in our apartment and I really ought to bake more things and clean up and put away the laundry and I really ought to tackle that six page biochem homework packet but what do I want to do instead? Blog. So here I am.


People are confusing. It is strange how some people change so much, and how some people stay exactly the same. Even people who were close to me, family members, can make such a 360 degree turnaround before you even realize what's happening. I like to think that over the years, I've stayed pretty true to my nature. Though I like to think that I've become a little nicer and more considerate of others, I still like to win everything, am an anal organizer, and always think I'm right, even though it's not always true.


I like playing Scrabble on Facebook instead of doing homework as well.


Too bad Facebook is banned at my work now :(


I really wish that more people I knew blogged or at least read and commented on blogs, since I can't go on Facebook at work anymore. I feel much more disconnected from people, which is so lame because I shouldn't have to rely on technology to stay in touch with people but sadly that is how the world is now and I fall into the trap of ever-encircling busyness and to-do lists.  Is busyness a word? Hmm it looks weird.


I really loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk on focusing on the fundamentals. Definitely something I need to work on. Next week...


I should read more. I thought about joining our ward's book group, but I would be too embarrassed if I didn't finish the book in time.


Also, I need to travel. Go somewhere and see something new. I love BYU and being here in Provo, but there's got to be more and I want to see it.


Okay enough of me talking. Sorry for this inconclusive and sporadic ramble of thoughts. Here is something fun to make up for it: