A day in the life of Macsen...

Stop this train

2012-02-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am in fact still alive. It's been forever since my last post! A lot has happened since then......

You know that John Meyer song, Stop This Train?? (Right click here to open the song in a new tab) It's been one of my favorites lately. In the past 3 years I've had siblings get married, have babies and move across the country. I've graduated from college and applied to medical school. My parents moved after having to sell the house my mom loved so much. Change is sometimes hard and, more often than not, seems to happen when least expected. It often leaves me feeling like everything is thrown up in the air, knocking me off balance until I get used to my new reality. Despite the discomfort, I know change is necessary. It's what allows / forces me to learn and grow. Still, it's overwhelming sometimes. :-)

This song sort of explains how I feel about things. My favorite part is near the end:

Once in while, when it's good

it'll feel like it should

and they're all still around

and you're still safe and sound

and you don't miss a thing

'till you cry when you're driving away in the dark.

Singing stop this train I want to get off and go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in

I know I can't

Cause now I see I'll never stop this train

Reminds me of going home to visit, more specifically - the feeling I get when all the goodbye's are said and home and family are in my rear-view mirror. My family is growing up. We're starting to spread out and the times we are all together are becoming fewer and farther between. It's hard to see the close of one chapter of my family's life, but at the same time I'm excited to see what the next chapter will bring.

Props to my dad for being AWESOME!

2011-02-21T22:44:00.001-08:00

Hey! My dad, our family and dad's book about Mom were featured in the news up in Idaho this past week. Click this link to check it out!

Hilights of the Ray Reunion: July 26 & 27 2010

2011-02-08T08:29:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has taken me SOOOO long to post these pictures. These are just my favorite ones. If you'd like to see more of them then go visit my facebook page. :-)

July 26th, 2010

G & G Ray

Brittany and Jason Staley

Ray Snyder with ???

Bryson Viehweg being really good at eating Oreos

July 27th, 2010

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

I think this is Jaylen and Leah's kid. SO CUTE!

Boys being boys

It's like one of those circus cars! How many can we fit before we sink!?

Andrew W. getting every last bit out of those cheese balls
Formulating an awesome plan:
Jackpot!

Thanks G & G for making it all possible!

The ER

2011-02-06T21:44:00.000-08:00

So I recently started volunteering at the ER! Coolest thing EVER! Officially, I really don't do much more than wheel patients back and forth between X-ray and CAT scan, get people warm blankets, and offer people beverages or snacks...and occasionally I give children toys and coloring books... pretty boring, no? But unofficially I get to watch everything the doctors and nurses do. THAT is the fascinating part! I have decided that I really enjoy the ER... maybe not as a full time gig, but if I could run a clinic of some sort and then do maybe a shift or 2 / week in the ER that would be super great. At least those are my thoughts after volunteering there 3 times. I wish I could share what I see every week but that would be breaking some major laws. Oopsies! - and bummer at the same time!
Just this past week the hospital hosted a luncheon for all of the volunteers. The CEO of UVRMC spoke about when his daughter was born, she came out totally blue and the team of doctors and nurses frantically worked on her until she finally took a breath and started to cry. He was crying, I was crying, pretty sure everyone was crying, then he said, "Miracles occur every day in health care - whether someone is entering or exiting this life - that is why I am in health care today." I agree 100%

Sooooo.... it's been over 5 months since my last post.

2011-01-24T23:14:00.000-08:00

Sheesh! I probably should be going to bed but I just want to put a quick update on this little blog guy I pretend to keep up.
School is kicking my butt, but I'm sort of feebly kicking it back.... or at least I'm attempting to. I got all of my syllabussesseseses (or however you spell that) put onto one calendar this past week. That may or may not have been a good idea because I now know that I have a test EVERY WEEK OF THE SEMESTER. Lame. However, at the same time, I now know exactly what I need to read and when, and when quizzes and HW are due, and now that it's written down in a small little list on each day it doesn't seem all that daunting. See, there's my feeble little kick. Haha! I'll have you know I studied quite well tonight.
Too bad I didn't get this whole gig kicked off during the first week of the semester. I moved so I feel like I have a good excuse... but that's a story for another day.
In other awesome but terrifying news: I signed up for the MCAT. YIKES! May 21st is going to come all to quickly. Now I just have to put daily MCAT study on my calendar of death for the semester. I have the Kaplan study books so hopefully they'll help me get ready.
I got the MSAR (Medical School Admissions Requirements) book in the mail this week. I think I'll read it on Sundays :-) I thought it would make me even more stressed about the whole application process, but it is actually very reassuring. I like that a lot.
Along the same lines, I recently started volunteering at the ER. Gotta rack up those volunteer hours for applications.... OH. MY. HECK! I love it to death! I can't wait to go again tomorrow night! It seriously is fascinating. Very different from how I envisioned it, which is good, because I like it much more the way it is in reality. Isn't that nice when that happens?
Recently I was talking with my friend Liz about anything and everything and we got to talking about dating. Once upon a time Liz and I tried to date for like a micro-second but it didn't work out. We are now super great friends and look back and laugh on those few micro-seconds of whatever the heck it was that we were doing. We were so silly! The point is, once upon a time Liz made a goal to go on 100 first dates a few years ago. I'm not sure, but I think she's either reached it or surpassed it and is still going. I often feel like kind of a slacker in the whole dating arena. And when I say "kind of" really I probably mean definitely. It's one of the first things to go when life gets busy. SO, I've decided to do the whole 100 first dates thing. This is terrifying to me - and therefore good for me. I have come to realize that I really don't enjoy pursuing multiple girls at once. A former roommate of mine dates like that and it always stressed me out. I don't know why, but I know I can't think of a good reason so... good riddance! Hahaha! Wish me luck on my new endeavor. I've got 2 date ideas lined up for this weekend, now I just have to find dates. Haha! I'm sure I'll be fine. I'll probably be writing about dating a lot on this blog from here on out, but what the heck. After all, it is more than anything a personal journal.
PS - if any of you out there have a desire to set me up with someone you know, by all means! Let me know!

The rest of my super awesome trip:

2010-08-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

OK, but really we need to rewind a little bit - here's what I did get of Astoria.... and the REALLY long bridge over to Washington. I have seen The Goonies since I've been home and now I'm sad I didn't take more pictures. Hahaha! Oh well.... "HEY YOU GUYS!!!!"

These two pictures were taken from the top of a really old lookout tower :-) Great view!
Down on the wharf:

Seattle WA, oh how I love you! Seriously! I love that city. I really can't put a finger on why either, I just really enjoy it there. It felt kind of like a whirlwind though because we were only there for a few days - which is not enough! We went to the Seattle Art Museum which was TOTALLY awesome! I didn't have my camera and I regret it. They had a few really cool installations going on. One was a $1 photo booth! Everyone that came through got to become part of the installation. Really cool! Here's our little addition - I totally look like I've been fake bakin' it. I promise I haven't!
We also got to eat really yummy seafood right on the wharf on the trips budget. Love that! Anyway, we had a great time, went shopping, saw the sights, went and saw Letters to Juliet and did a LOT of walking. It's always fun to visit a bigger city. On one night we went up to a hillside park to take pictures of the skyline:

These are a few pics I snapped right before we headed out of Seattle. The Green Tortoise was a great little hostel - and it was SO close to the market! Couldn't have asked for anything better!

4 bunks to a room
A full industrial kitchen which we could use whenever.
They provided everything we needed to make breakfast for ourselves.
They also made dinner each night - the cost of both meals is included
in the price of your room, which is ridiculously cheap already!
Big common area - say hello to Karisa, she was one of the girls on the trip
Those neon lights across the street mark the start of Pike Street market.
It was SO CLOSE!

Before I move on I have to tell you about August. Hahaha! So on our last night in Seattle I was working on my last blog post (wow that's embarrassing!) out in the common area. A whole bunch of the other students were still out there too and it got really late. Let me tell you, the weirdies are the ones that stay up late. Michelle's directed studies project was a used novel that she had random people draw portraits of her in all along the way. She got a few choice entries that night. Amy was frantically trying to make a ton of her friendship bracelets for her project... anyway, before we knew it August had proclaimed himself our new best friend. It started out normal but we're pretty sure that at some... or maybe a few points during the night he took some drugs because he just got crazier and more jittery. It was kind of weird/funny/terrifying at the same time. Hahaha! Amy had me be her pretend boyfriend because he was coming on to her pretty strong by the end of the night. Around 2 in the morning we decided we'd had enough so we went to bed. 5 AM came REALLY fast the next morning.

So these few shots are on the ferry from the mainland to Vancouver Island. It goes right through part of the San Juan islands. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was! My camera doesn't do it justice! I would not mind having a vacation home out there at all!

This would be a nice little getaway home...

...or this... especially with that plane!

The clouds were really low and it was pretty cold out there on the water.
Not long after this picture was taken I went down to the van and dug out my heave coat. I need both to keep me warm enough when I was outside!
Left to right: Elise, Jenna, Alex, Stephanie, me Karisa
This is my photo professor, John Telford. :-)

Victoria BC - that's in CANADA! Sooooo... i really didn't enjoy Victoria all that much. Hahaha! No really, it was my least favorite place of the whole trip. That may or may not be due to the fact that a) I was super tired - remember how I stayed up super late pretending to be Amy's boyfriend the night before to keep August off of her??..... b) Our hostel was SUPER cramped. I very rarely feel claustrophobic. That place did it for me. We had about 1 square foot of floor space in our room. I was miserable and felt like I couldn't relax which meant I didn't sleep well.... c) China town - or rather the less than stellar Chinese restaurant we ate at in china town. I think I had food poisoning, along with probably 1/3 of the other students. And the food was more oil than food. Not a very pleasant welcome to Canada if you ask me..... and d) it felt like an overgrown suburb.....
Now, having got that off my chest I'm sure that when I go back I'll enjoy it very much thank you.
I went out to photograph on morning with our professor and a small group of students; the dedicated ones. That was pretty fun and I got some good shots of the 2 most beautiful buildings in Victoria:

Some government building:

My professors super neat camera... someday I will own one...
The film for this guy is 4x6 inches.
The pictures it makes look like the real scene! They're UNBELIEVABLE!
In the gardens behind the government building:
I am actually really proud of the following picture.
I took about 30 before I got the exposure right.
It was tricky because in by the doors was SO dark,
but I didn't want the stone on the outside to be super washed out....
Mission Accomplished!
This is the Empress Hotel - its right across the street from the government building.
Its old and beautiful. I tried to go into the lobby
but the snooty staff and classy dressed patrons scared me away. :-)

While in Victoria a group of us went out to a park... can't remember the name of it but it's the ruins of a super old military fort. This is where I discovered that I really like sketching out in detail using pencil before I paint. I sat on the top of a hill and sketched this for about an hour:
I had my paints, but it was super windy and we can all remember what happened when I painted in the wind in Coos Bay.... I don't want to talk about it! So I snapped this and added the paint later in the safety of cabin at our next stop :-) The photographers that came that day were super bummed because of the scaffolding on the lighthouse. The painters didn't mind cause we can choose to just ignore it. Ha! Painting is great!
After that we drove down to this marina where we fed some seals. They were fun! Each of them had a different personality - that was very apparent! One was super shy, one was really aggressive and one was just weird. Haha! It was pretty fun.

Look at this guys eyes! They're HUGE!
He was the shy one:

What else did we do in Victoria...? We went to a community rec center - just like the Y, ya know? That was super fun! We spent like 4 hours there and ended by jumping off the 4o foot platform dive tower. That's always a rush! We wanted to go to Butchart Gardens but they wouldn't give us a deal - the jerks! They wanted almost $60 bucks a pop. Definitely not in the budget and WAY to much for all of us to pay on our own.
I have to say, I wasn't too sad to leave Victoria in my rear view mirror.

Ucluelet, Vancouver Island, BC
Ok, first of all, the drive from the east side of the island over to the west is one of the most beautiful / pristine places I have ever experienced. I almost felt bad they put a road through it. It was that beautiful! And it was rainy/misty so it just looked great! It winds up and over a mountain range through incredible old growth forest, and then it follows a river from the beginning way up in the mountain all the way out the coast. I saw 3 black bear and at one point a bald eagle flew across the road right in front of one of our vans. I thought they were going to hit it! Those things are BIG! Anyway, I loved the drive over to Ucluelet.
Ucluelet is a tiny little fishing town. Emphasis on tiny. You don't go out there unless you have a reason to. There was like 1/2 a grocery store, a couple of restaurants, several churches and small schools, plenty of bars, a used clothing store.... And then there was the wharf. The life blood of the town.

I painted these 2 boats:

It was really slow paced and friendly - which was a nice change after Seattle and Victoria. Tourism is starting to pick up there a little bit so there are a lot of bed and breakfasts, hostels, and things. 60 km up the coast there is another town called Tofino. Between these two towns is long beach, which just so happens to be the surfing capitol of Canada. Who knew!?
Our place was super awesome! They owner looked like a surf chic straight off the beach in California. We rented out their whole property: a 2 story house for the girls, a duplex cabin for the guys (room to spread out! YES!), and a cabin for the professors and their families.

Here are the 2 cabins:
The view from the window in my kitchen door
I did a painting of this scene.
I was heading out the door and I just liked it- the 1 chair, the wood....

This was the view at the end of the trail I ran on each morning we were there:
The waves crashed SO big on these rocks!

The owner of our hostel also owned a surf shop in town. You better believe I went surfing! That was super fun! I was terrible at it, but I had a great time. There were 6 or 7 of us that got a group lesson. It was fun! We were wearing 8 mm dry suits - which made the temp just about perfect. I think I would've froze to death without it! See facebook for surfing pictures, I didn't have my camera.... obviously....
For one evening we drove over to the next town over, Tofino, to take pictures and watch the sunset. It wasn't what I thought it would be like, but it was super pretty!

Underneath one of the docks - LOVE the hammock at the end!
I painted this plane:
I want to paint this plane:
Met some people crabbing for their dinner.
They had more luck catching starfish that night:
Then the sunset started. WOW!
Love how I got the boat right in the light there!

The following pictures were taken at Long Beach, just a couple miles down the coast from where we surfed. It was really misty the day we were there. Made for difficult lighting to take pictures in, but it was still really pretty. Two people in the group had oil paints which they got out while we were here. I want to try that. They made some beautiful paintings!

Ucluelet has a really awesome aquarium too, of all things. The place looked like a dumpy double wide from the outside so I wasn't too excited to visit it. But it was really awesome! They take animals in in the spring and release all of them in the fall. So they do a lot of rehabilitation work too. I can't believe how much they packed into that tiny building. A lot of it was hands on too so that was fun. Sea things are really squishy and slimy. Hahaha! There was also a SUPER cool glass galery - kind of like the one in Cannon Beach, but different kinds of pieces and techniques. And nexlt door was a painting gallery with great watercolors and oil paintings. The owner also showed us some really old Japanese Art he had just found in some obscure warehouse somewhere. He was really excited about it. Ya gotta love artists!
The night before we left Ucluelet the owner of the hostel and her family hosted a sushi and salmon feast for all of us. Oh! I forgot, our professors went salmon fishing. Had I had the money to pay for it AND to pay to ship the fish home I would've done it. But alas, no money. Anyway, the food was GREAT that night! We also showed a slide show of the trip. Each of us submitted 10 pictures. That was super fun! However, it kind of set us in a panic because at that point we realized we REALLY were almost done with the trip. SAD DAY!
On the way back across the island we stopped at an old grove to take pictures. It was SUPER pretty! I can never get enough of these mossy forests!

On to Vancouver, BC
They ferry ride back to the mainland was relaxing. It wasn't nearly long as the other one so all of us were surprised when we got there so fast! It took the vans a while to meet up after we unloaded because we got put on different decks, but once we got together it was pretty much smooth sailing into Vancouver. Sometimes I wish I could drive and take pictures at the same time. Vancouver is super pretty! AND we got to go over a HUGE suspension bridge on the way in. I really like how the majority of the buildings have glass facades. The whole city reflects the color of the sky, which is always changing. Very beautiful! The hostel was 1/2 a step better than the one in Victoria. It was nice and spacious, however, the people were..... interesting. I think most of them were pretty much permanent residents. It takes a special person to be a permanent resident at a hostel. But, they were friendly for the most part so I didn't mind 'em. We were just a short walk away from the Metro station, and the budget covered transit passes for us while we were there. Vancouver mass transit runs like clockwork. It was great - and SO nice to not have to be a taxi driver while we were there! I really like how pedestrian and bicycle friendly Vancouver is too. It just made it seem nice and clean. I dunno, I liked it! They had a GREAT path that winds all the way along the waterfront, which starts at one end of the city, goes into a park at the end of the peninsula, and then comes out on the other side of the city. Needless to say we did a LOT of walking. Sarah and I also ran together both mornings we were there. It felt great! Running at sea level is SO easy!
I didn't get many pictures of Vancouver, probably because I was just enjoying myself so much! We ate at a REALLY good Israeli restaurant, visited the sweet market place, walked through the now deserted Olympic Village, rented bikes and rode around the park at the tip of the peninsula, and visited the Vancouver Art Museum. This place had a LOT of stuff packed into it. I think I spent 5 or 6 hours in there! My favorite installation was a whole bunch of videos. They were very thought provoking. I really like art museums! Here's what I did get with my camera:

We tried to hit the sunset up but we didn't know
how long it would take to get to the spot using the transit system.
Obviously we guessed wrong. Oh well, it was still pretty:

I'd love to go back and spend more time in Vancouver - especially during ski season. I hear Whistler is great!

The first thing we came to after leaving Vancouver was the border. HOORAY for the USA. Getting across the boarder was slightly inconvenient. They decided they wanted to inspect ALL of our luggage, in all 4 vans. So all 28 of us went inside where there was nowhere to seat... except the floor... for like an hour! It got a little old. But people watching was great. There was one wanna be thug with his jeans all the way down around his need, and there was a 3 generation Asian family. The grandpa had no clue what the customs officer wanted him to do. Haha! It was great.
At mile marker 244 we stopped on the side of the road to make art. Why mile marker 44? Because John told Laura to choose a random number and that's what it was. Here's what I did. I wish we would've stopped 50 miles earlier. It was much prettier!
Not long after we stopped we crossed from the east side of the Cascades to the west side. That was a sad moment because the world went from green and wet to brown and very dry. That's always a hard transition to make. The clouds were really pretty though so that made it more bearable. I'm sure we looked like a big group of crazies out there!

I did a watercolor of this scene:

We stayed the night in Wenatchee Washington which so happens to be the apple growing capitol of the USA. You know Treetop Apple Juice? Guess where almost ALL of their apples come from... Our hotel was right across the street from a strip mall with Target and Old Navy and a few other stores. They all happened to be having ridiculous sales... we were all sick of the clothing we had been wearing for a month. As you can imagine, we all went nuts - and it was well worth it! That night we had the conference room rented out for a painting party. Joe, our watercolor prof, had each of us lay out all of our work and he went through each of our pieces and suggested which ones we should turn in and pointed out what we were doing right, etc. At that point, I had 8 paintings to go and only 3 nights left on the trip. YIKES! Fortunately the rest of the bunch was pretty much in the same boat so Joe knocked our assignment down from 20 paintings to 16. What a relief! I should have done several paintings that night but I had kind of a rough night and I just wasn't in the mood. It was nice to have a night in a legit and comfortable hotel - with a queen size bed all to myself! Hooray!

From Wenatchee we drove through northern Idaho, stopping in Coeur'd'Alene for lunch. That's a place I'd like to spend more time in. It's quaint, and quiet and the scenery is very pretty. That night we stayed in Missoula Montana. My good friend and former roommate Lee McCready is living there right now so he came and showed us a few places in the city. They have a "hippy fest" in a park downtown on every 1st Thursday so we headed down there. There was lots of good food and live bands going on. Pretty fun!

In the morning it was off to Yellowstone. I love Yellowstone! I've gone many times with my family. We camp in Eastern Idaho every August. We came in through Mammoth Hotsprings, which is a place I hadn't been yet. It was started as a military outpost, set up to protect the crazy features of the Yellowstone area. Mammoth is really pretty cool! They've still got all the old military buildings up and everything too. And there were elk right there on the lawn. One cow had a calf that had to be less than 2 days old. I think she gave birth to it right there in the middle of all the buildings! Pretty neat!

We also stopped at Artist Point to get pictures of the falls. That canyon is SO pretty! Laura let me borrow her super awesome zoom lens to get a few really zoomed shots of it. I like em!

We also stopped at a few geyser basins... perhaps the Norris Gyser Basin? Serves me right for waiting so long to post all of this!

On our way in for the night we saw a few buffalo.

We were originally planning on camping while we were in Yellowstone. But then we saw the weather forecast: blizzards. YIKES! Lucky for us our trip mom's were able to find us room in a Best Western in West Yellowstone. That was SUCH a relief!
The next day we went into the park for the 1st half of the day.

We ran into a BIG herd of buffalo not far into the park:

There were TONS of little babies!
We also stopped at more geyser basins:

and Grand Prismatic.
It was SUPER pretty that day!
The steam was reflecting the colors of the pool!
I really like the juxtaposition of death and life.
Lastly we stopped at the Old Faithful Lodge.
We had just enough time for lunch before the eruption.
Couldn't have planned it better!

The rest of that day was spent down in the lounge of the hotel painting away. I had 4 paintings to do in one night! That was pretty stressful but I got er done! What a relief!
People were pretty sad that it was our last night! I was just tired! I can't believe I drove the entire way! That's probably why I was so exausted. The plan when we went to bed that night was to have half the vans go straight home and half go through the Tetons and Jackson Hole, but when we woke up in the morning no one felt good about splitting up so we all decided to head for home. I was especially happy because all my girls were going to go straight home and I was the drive of the van that was going the long route. I was happy to have my completely dysfunctional yet totally awesome family back. Hahaha!
The drive seemed to go pretty quick. Finally I was back in familiar country. Before we knew it we were back in front of the HFAC where we'd started 1 month previously. Hard to believe. Hard to believe that 1 month ago I didn't really know anyone I was setting out with. Hard to believe that that day I said goodbye to 28 great friends. It was complete mayhem as everyone unpacked and separated their stuff. See exhibit A:

Laura's shorts got stuck on the handle as she jumped out of the van.
I wish I could have caught it because she was hanging in the air wondering why in the heck she hadn't landed yet. Funniest moment EVER!
One by one everyone left until it was just the 4 drivers of the vans. Talk about anti climactic! I don't know what I was expecting but that wasn't it. What a crazy, fun, grand adventure it was!

Holy Smokes!

2010-06-05T01:51:00.001-07:00

Posting a million pictures takes a LONG TIME! I've got a lot of them up in my previous post now. More to come later....

Long time no post!

2010-05-30T19:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry about that! I haven't been the most faithful blogger in the world. But can you blame me!? With the end of the semester and finals PLUS trying to get everything together for my little field study thing all whilst working and trying to play too.... anyway.... you can see why blogging got pushed to the back burner for a while. :-)
Speaking of Field Study..... It has been SUPER awesome so far! I've loved every minute of it! We decided last minute to get a 4th van and I was unofficially appointed driver of said van. I love driving so I couldn't be happier. The trip just seems to be less boring and quicker when I'm behind the wheel. Plus - a lot of the students just sleep along the way. They miss a TON of really beautiful scenery. I seriously want to stop and take pictures just about ever 50 feet. Let it be known that I LOVE the Oregon coast! It is SOOOO pretty! One day I hope to have a little summer beach home - or maybe just a time share that I can come out to for a few weeks a year. Seriously, I love it out here! Everything is so slow paced and relaxed. And all the hippies and granola types are really interesting to talk to / watch in general. Hahaha!
So... where have we been so far?? I'll tell you:
Bonneville Salt Flats in UT - 'nough said.

Gerlach Nevada: the armpit of all the earth. No seriously, it is. Talk about a horrible place! We drove up and got out tob e immediately attacked by swarms of nasty little tinsy bugs. I am STILL itching! YUCK! It seems like ALL of the businesses in the place are hotels or bars that also work for restaurants. There is a gypsum mine not far away - if it wasn't for that I'm sure NO one would live out there. We found out that the whole reason we went out there (a really cool guyser of all things!) was closed to a group of our size. It's on private land and the owners were a bit worried about a group our size. Too bad. REALLY too bad - especially because we seriously drove through the most boring / ugly country in the world to get there. Suffice it to say I hope I never find myself there again. Hahaha! ANYWAY. That night we had a perfectly clear night and because there is so little light pollution we got to take really neat pictures of the stars. I even spent all night out there in my sleeping bag. It was a bit chilly but totally worth it:

On the way between Gerlach and Reno NV we saw this cool rainbow around the Sun! I've only ever seen this around a full moon so this was super neato:

We also stopped at Pyramid Lake where I did a few paintings which I'll post later:

Reno, NV: Just a step or two above Gerlach in my opinion. It really is trying hard to be Vegas....only it epicly fails. I was unimpressed - especially with the low class people. Ew! It was nice to move on.

Orick CA - we got to stay in a neat little hotel here. I'm sorry I don't have pictures of it. :-( The dear old lady that owns the place burried her husband the day we drove into town. She, I think was 85, he was even older and had been basically bedridden since sometime last year when he had a stroke. Their little hotel was kinda out of place with a Palm theme that stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of the redwood forest.
If you should ever find yourself in Orick you should know that everything shuts down at about 3 in the afternoon. including both the restaurants in town. That made for a fun evening for some of our group. Lucky for some of us I brought a coleman stove so we made dinner for ourselves - Spaghetti.
While in Orick we visited the beach:

...Lady Bird Johnson Grove:
...and a place called Fern Gulch. It was pretty awesome! 20 foot vertical walls covered in ferns with a small stream winding its way down the bottom of the gulch. It was pretty awesome:

Coos Bay, OR - this place was pretty sweet! We got some great pictures of beautiful sunsets and neat boats while we were here. We also had fun at the laundromat The drive up from Orick was really pretty. I LOVE Highway 101. There are a lot of cyclists traveling along the coast line. I've decided that I really want to do that some day. From Mexico to Canada or the other way around. And while I'm at it I might as well do it on both the East and West Coast. Someday....
Anyway, on the way between Orick and Coos Bay we visited Revelation Trail:

...and Battle Rock:

We totally dominate any gas station we pull up to. :-)

While in Coos bay we stayed at a camp ground with yurts! Those were fun! They even had electricity and heaters - which was nice because it got a little chilly at night!
Coos Bay gave us one spectacular sunset!
We started at one beach...

See the boat there on the lower left!? LOVE it!
...and then we moved to an different one, conveniently called Sunset Beach...

We had some fun in the laundromat in Winchester Bay - just up the road from our camp ground. This is Maddie, Laura and Sara. They are usually in the van I drive.
This little gem is on the side of the road between our campground and Winchester Bay. I did a water color of it. I'll put it up once I find a good scanner...

The drive between Coos Bay and Cannon Beach was really pretty as well. Everything was wet so all the colors were really saturated. If I hadn't been driving I would've taken a million pictures. We stopped for lunch at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for ice cream and lunch in that order. YUM!
Cannon Beach, OR - OK, I love cannon beach. I remember coming her on a family vacation when I was in middle school, but it was nothing like I remembered it. So probably I combined a place or two in my brain. Anyway, Cannon Beach is gorgeous. Almost all the houses have wood shakes as siding that they have just allowed to weather into a pretty silver/grey color. And they almost all have white trim and black shutters. It makes for a very uniform and manicured look. Again, I wish I would've taken more pictures of the city. But I just kept feeling like the things I saw through my lens looked a lot stupider than when I was just looking around. Plus I focused a LOT on watercolor while we were here. I finished 5 paintings even! Which is a lot for me, ok? We stayed in this SUPER nice and huge "beach" house that was about as far away from the beach as you can get. Hahaha! But it was up on a hill so the view was incredible!
While we were here we...

rode the little 3-wheel beach bikes - mine had a few issues:

shot at sunrise:

shot at 3 different sunsets:
1:

2:
This is Stephanie, the other girl usually in my van:

3:
First we had to do some great jumping pictures. Apparently I can't count! I'm the ONLY one that is late in these ones!

Maddie is a gymnast for BYU so we had some fun with these ones:

took some sweet dusk pictures:

took a day trip to Multnoma Falls:

and had 2 magical days of sunshine on the beach. That was lucky - the forecast predicted rain the whole week!
Ya gotta love jumping pictures during a quick break while watercoloring on the beach!
Cannon beach has a whole bunch of art galleries that we all visited throughout the week. Probably my favorite place was the glass blowing shop. We got to watch a two artists in action as they blew 3 pieces. It was really fascinating! I've decided that I am going to take the glass blowing class at BYU next spring. It looks really challenging but super fun at the same time! I didn't have my camera with me or I would've taken a few pictures of it.
The drive between Cannon Beach and Seattle took forever and a half. I felt like we stopped every 15 minutes for the first bit of it! Probably because we did. We stopped for 2 hours or so in Astoria, which is apparently where The Goonies was filmed. Who knew!? I've never seen it so I wasn't all that excited, but there were a few in the group who were SOOOOO excited! We did get to stand in the cell that the bad guys broke out of... and we took pictures of the house "they" live in....whoever "they" is. Good stuff
Seattle, WA - I LOVE SEATTLE!!!! I have been here several times for choir tours and family vacations and such. I love it every time I come here. We are staying in a super awesome Hostel literally across the street from Pike's Place Market - the place where they throw the fish and all that! Couldn't ask for a better location! I will probably stay here every time I come to Seattle. $25 a night, with free communal breakfast and dinner. It's great! We had seafood on the program budget our first night here - I got a Smoked Salmon dinner and some popcorn shrimp. Seafood is so much better on the coast. 'Nough said. Our pour little GPS guide got a little confused driving around Seattle I think we maid about a billion u-turns and at one point crossed 4 lanes of freeway traffic in order to make our exit. Parking is another story. Parking our huge vans was pretty much a nightmare. But after about an hour and a half of searching we got it done. Still, I love Seattle. I need to check if there are any med schools out here that I have any hope of getting into.....
Wow, it's now 12:01 AM and I have to get up in about 4.5 hours. Oopsies! I'll post more when we have internet access.... which may not be for a week or so....
..... OK, so I had every intention of posting photos. Then it got late... then we drove from Seattle to Victoria BC..... and took a ferry on the way.... and I still haven't posted em.... so I will later....

Spring is in the air!

2010-04-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

And consequently I can hardly even breathe! In the space of one hour on last Wed. night I went from being totally fine to completely stuffed up. I knew it had to be allergies. The next morning I woke up and noticed that pretty much every plant in Provo had sprouted some green overnight. Definitely allergies. Stupid allergies! I never had a problem with them as a child. That ended my sophomore year in high school when I went to the doctor after having a cold for TWO WHOLE MONTHS. She looked at me like I was a moron and said, "You have allergies". Who knew!? Anyway, Thursday I went to the store and bought some knock-off brand Zyrtec. I'm doing much better now. Hooray! In honor of spring we have decided to plant a garden in our backyard. Right now its just a tangled mess of vines over-grown grass and a few really pretty blue/purple flowers.... I may be slightly color blind when it comes to blue, purple and grey..... Anyway, we're going to invite people in our ward to come and participate in our garden. I can't even wait. Homemade salsa and zucchini bread here I come! Should be totally awesome if we can keep it alive and watered all summer. :-) Wish us luck!
Today is Sunday. I love Sunday. :-) They're back to being relaxing. A few months ago they were less than relaxing and I didn't like them much. Hahahaha! Anyway, the weather has FINALLY warmed up here in Provo. It's so nice that I pulled out my super awesome linen pants from Russia. They're super thin so they are nice and cool. Right now I'm enjoying the afternoon on my front porch. The sun is shining. It's great!
The semester is finally over and I couldn't be happier! I'm glad to see my least favorite year of college come to an end. I don't know why, but I just haven't enjoyed it...... Actually I don know why: Chemistry. I hate Chemistry. But, most of my college Chem is behind me now and for the rest of my time here I'll be taking mostly fun art classes and Exercise Science classes that totally fascinate me. I'm SUPER excited! Yay! As for the rest of finals, I have two more. I'll take one on tomorrow and one Wednesday. Not to shabby.
Work is great! I am now trained on the donation floor so I'm a full fledged phlebotomist - which is what I wanted to be when I was hired back in December. I like it a lot! It sure beats sitting in a small screening booth all day long. :-) Plus I have one more little bling to put on my lanyard. The company gives us a little bling for everything we're trained in. The one for phlebotomy is bright red. How appropriate!
So my study abroad is getting closer and closer! For our last prep class we got to do the BYU van training. Wow. That was.....exactly what I thought it would be. Haha! The guy was perfect to teach it too. Super safety oriented and his presentation was full of video clips of cars careening out of control and rolling all over creation. It was a bit much. I was trying really hard not to laugh the whole time. On the bright side, I'm really glad that I'll be allowed to drive. I'd much prefer to drive. I feel like the time goes much quicker - and you get the best view!! I still feel slightly unprepared/uninformed. My teachers are slightly disorganized. :-) Hopefully it'll all come together in the end. I'm sure it will.

Sorry about the long wait....

2010-03-21T22:26:00.000-07:00

So mostly I'd like to say I have a decent excuse for why I haven't posted for the last few eternities. I think I do. It's called 32 hours of work each week + 15 credit hours (12 of which are chemistry) + a night pass at the local ski resort + trying to start dating someone + a calling that takes a lot of my Sunday time = one busy Macsen!
I have since repented, withdrawn from my toughest chemistry class (best decision ever!), come to realize that this girl and I are not going to start dating and the ski season is fast coming to a close with all this warm weather we're having. Not to mention that I'm finally getting the hang of this whole "Ward Clerk" thing. Turns out it really isn't that time consuming when you actually know what you're doing. Hahahaha!
But seriously though, just to do a quick catch up on my life.....
This semester has been one of my busiest semesters yet! I thought it would be a good idea to cram in the last of my chemistry credits all at once. You know, to have one last semester of h*** followed by a nice and easy final year of college. Well that turned out to be the worst idea I've ever had. Ooops! I should've seen that one coming. Oh well. To make a long story longer, with two days to spare before the withdraw deadline I came home to an unusually happy roommate who proceeded to tell me that he withdrew from one of his classes. It was like a lightbulb went on in my head. I followed suit and now both of us are much less stressed than we used to be. I was already planning on re-taking the class anyway. For the life of me, I don't know why I didn't think to withdraw earlier! AND I'm still at full time status as a student. So, now I'll be able to do well in all of my classes instead of miserably failing one and doing mediocre in the others.
Probably my favorite class this semester is my Intro to Drawing class. I love it!
PS - I decided to add a visual arts minor to my college career. I've always wanted to take art classes, but never felt like it was worth the time. Well, the more I thought about it the more I realized that I probably would never have an opportunity like I do now. I mean really, what are the odds that I would actually make the time to do it later? So I started adding all these fun classes to my college plan, and then I got to wondering if there was an art minor. Turns out there is! It's an open minor so all you have to do is declare it, and I only needed three more classes than I had already added - two of which can double as honors credits. SUPER! I love it when that happens! Yeah, it added another semester to my college career, but I figure its worth it. Hopefully it'll make me stand out a little more when applying to med schools. And even if it doesn't its going to be super fun and I'm set to finish in December of '11 so I'll have a whole 8 months or so to work..... and by "work" mostly I mean play and work.....or not ;-)..... before I start school again in the Fall of '12. Now here's to hoping I can actually get in somewhere.
Well, since I've already done one crazy thing this semester (like add another 8 months onto my college career) I decided to go a little nuts. The Visual Arts department is doing a study abroad this spring and guess who is going!? Yours truly. Only mostly it's not abroad. Its to Canada, and by "to Canada" mostly I mean that only the last week or so of it will be in Canada. Hahahaha! I feel silly telling people I'm going on a study abroad only to turn around and say it's mostly not abroad. We'll be taking a couple 15 passenger vans and driving all up and down the west coast from the Redwoods to Vancouver Island including a little side trip out to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone. All along the way we'll be doing photography and watercolor and visiting a ton of art museums and stuff like that. I get 6 credits that will apply to my minor and I'm pretty excited about it!
Its going to be interesting getting to know the "artsy" crowd I'll be traveling with. We have this prep course once a week during the second block of this semester and I have to come straight from work so on the first day of the class I walked in wearing my scrubs to see a whole bunch of very well/artistically dressed people with all the latest hair styles and everything. Everyone just kind of looked at me like, "Who is this guy? You're totally in the wrong building." I had to chuckle to myself. Clearly I am not the kind of guy you'd expect to find on a Visual Arts study abroad. Still, I'm excited to get to know everyone.
Remember like a million years ago when I was talking about my drawing class? Sheesh, that was a long PS up there. Anyway, here are a few of my pieces. Keep in mind that before this class I have never really drawn anything - especially this big! These pieces are on 16x20 inch paper! That's a LOT of space - especially when you're first starting and its all blank!

Here's an 8x10 inch photo that I had to blow up to 16x20.
And here's the finished drawing.
I think it turned out well considering I've never drawn a face before...

And here's a cubist piece I did.
Here's the picture that inspired it.
I really like they way it turned out! It's kinda fun!

We currently have 3 projects going. An abstract piece - my least favorite. It has no meaning to me! And then another cubist one that started out as a proportions assignment and will end up as a collage. For our final we are to do another self portrait only this time we can do whatever we want. I think I'm going to draw my face and then surround it with a collage of photographs of things that I love and my hobbies and stuff. Hopefully it turns out super awesome. That's all due on April 8th so I have my work cut out for me! This class has taught me / made me realize a lot about myself - the biggest thing being that I HATE to start something if I know I'm not going to finish it in one sitting. Seriously. I HATE IT! Seriously! I think I've always sort of known that in the back of my mind, but this class has really shed some light onto it. I have no idea why I have that mentality, but now that I know I do I look back and can see it is a recurring theme in my life. I don't like studying because I'm never done. Almost every paper or project I have ever done I have started on the day before its due only to stay up all night frantically trying to finish it. I cram for all my finals and mid-terms for hours straight and then sleep on it, wake up and head in to take it. Anyway, I've always felt like I procrastinate way to much. Well, I never thought I procrastinated because I was lazy, but I also never had a good reason as to why I did either. I think its because secretly I don't want to start whatever it is and not finish it in the same sitting. Isn't that silly!?!?!?! So, in a way this class has been really good for me because it has forced me to do things a little at a time, day by day. And I hear this study abroad I'm going on is going to be the same way. Apparently there's NO WAY you can finish a watercolor painting in one sitting. Nuts. I guess I just have to get over myself. :-) This is a good thing. Now I need to apply it to my school work and other areas of my life.

Wow, I feel like this is a super long post............ but there's still a bunch I want to talk about. :-(

So this girl I tried to date... I've known her since the beginning of Fall semester and the whole time I've known her I've wanted to date her because she's totally awesome. She, however, has commitment issues and, when I first met her, was still getting over a previous relationship. So mostly we've just become great friends but I've always gotten a weird sort of "we're great friends but maybe I want be more than friends???" vibe from her - emphasis in the "???". Finally I couldn't take it any longer so I asked her what was up. She was very complimentary and said some super nice things about me, but she also said that I am one of a few boys she really wishes she wanted to date but for some strange reason doesn't. Not sure I understand that one. Anyway, a few days later she gave me the whole "here's why it would never work between us" talk. I was a little shocked especially because I thought the last talk we had went well and meant there was potential there. I guess that's what I get for assuming things. I don't know what its going to take to get me to finally learn that I shouldn't assume anything EVER. Anyway, I was slightly upset/bummed about wasting so much time wondering if anything would ever happen between us. However, I'm glad she had the courage to be honest with me. And, the best part is it all happened in a way that didn't totally obliterate our friendship. I'm glad, because she really is a great friend, and an awesome bike ride partner. Hahaha! At least now I know that's all she'll ever be and that I can move on with my life instead of keep wondering.

Last item, I promise. If you're still reading you deserve a prize. My dad was in town for the weekend this weekend. He came down to watch my sister Kristin's last home games for BYU Women's Lacrosse. Well, over the last few months I've heard little rumors about him writing a book. The first time I heard about it was over the summer, when my Uncle that I was living with told me that he had just finished editing a chapter in my dad's book. I was floored! "Dad's writing a book?!?!!?" Hahaha! Then just a few weeks ago Jessica mentioned in her email home about how cool it is that it's almost ready to be published. So this weekend I as we were eating dinner all together I asked him about it. It's called Mom, interrupted. and its a compilation of all his email updates and thoughts and experiences of the last month and a half of mom's life - from the day she was diagnosed to the day she passed away. He said that he was so secretive about it because he never knew if it would actually materialize and be published - and then once the ball got rolling he wanted it to be a Christmas surprise but it wasn't done in time. He credited my super awesome step-mom Debra for encouraging and pushing him to get it done. I'm so glad she did! I can't wait to read it!!! I think its going to be something that not only I, but a lot of my extended family will cherish. I'm sure it will be difficult to read, but it'll be a good kind of difficult. Its in the final stages of editing and should be published within the next few months. I can't even wait!

Whew! That was a lot and it's now 1:20 AM. Mercy me! At least I dropped that O-chem class so now I don't have to be on campus 'til 10. SUPER! I'm never going to wait so long between posts again! Goodnight!

Date Night at the Thorns

2009-12-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

Wow! Brother and Sister Thorn are the coolest people ever! They also have a SUPER fun house complete with great views, great artwork, great architecture AND a great indoor racquetball court.
Brooke and Liz bought this fun night-with-the-Thorns at our Ward service auction a few weeks ago, and Brook asked me to come with her.

Don't worry we leg wrestled and I definitely won. Hahaha!

Despite Brook trying to intimidate me.

Liz Brought Sam.

Nice Sam. Nice!

And Kaitlyn (sp??) brought Jonathon.

I wish I would've taken more pictures. Sister Thorn made a yummy dinner for us, then we headed over to the racquetball court and played 5 or 6 games of Volleyball. Then it was back inside for a game of pool.

Poor Brother Thorn.

He tried so hard to set Sister Thorn up perfectly for this behind the back shot...but something went wrong and the cue ball only went a few inches.
We all had a good laugh over that one.

We ended the night with homemade pie and card games. So fun! Even though I lost horribly. Oh well. I think I'm definitely going to invite myself over again sometime. Everyone had a great time!

New Calling

2009-12-12T15:31:00.000-08:00

So what's your record of how many callings you've held in one month??? In the last 30 days of my life I've had THREE!! I went from being a member of the Spiritual and Temporal Welfare Committee (Try saying that three times fast!) to being the Ward Financial Clerk to being THE Ward Clerk (who is over the financial and membership..... and one more clerk that I can't remember right now....) Yikes! Not sure why they felt like they had to make all these crazy changes right when tons of reports and whatnot are due. I'm totally lost with all of it. All I can do is my best and when something slips through the cracks I just shrug my shoulders and say, "It's not my fault! I have no idea what I'm doing!" Hahaha. Here's to the next few months of me learning how the church functions. Wish me luck!

Mountain biking in St. George

2009-12-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Gotta love that red rock!

So I went Mountain Biking in St. George last Saturday. We must be crazy! We got up and left by 6:30 AM drove down, rode two trails and then headed for home. Hahaha! I was a little worried on the drive down because my little temperature gauge wasn't going a blip over 19 degrees. That's COLD! It remained that cold right up until we started biking. Which was probably around 10:30 or 11. But then the sun broke through the clouds and it turned into a gorgeous day! We couldn't have asked for a better day! We had a much smaller group this year compared to last year. Sometimes I feel like smaller groups are better when mountain biking. The more people you have the wider they vary in skill level and the more likely you are to have problems with bikes. There were just 5 of us this time. The guy who rode in my car pretty much slept the whole way there and the whole way back. We did Gooseberry Mesa again. There are actually a lot of trails all over it, we did the South Rim. Super pretty!

This is the group. Left to Right: Koda, me, Kate, Liz and Ian

By the time we finished that we barely had enough time to do the other trail. In hindsight we probably shouldn't have done it. However I'm glad we did! It's called the JEM trail - after the initials of the three guys who have blazed and maintained most of the biking trails in the area. Props to them! It was SUPER FUN! Ian and I shuttled the cars down to the bottom while Koda, Kate and Liz started down the trail. By the time Ian and I got back to the top the sun was down, it was getting dark and it was COLD! So, naturally, off we went! The first 1/2 mile of the trail was pretty much going down the face of a cliff, but after that it was relatively flat with small rises and dips here and there. We were FLYING! It was a super fun trail! And once we got going it wasn't all that cold. Lucky for us the dirt on the trail was a little lighter than the surrounding dirt so we were able to see where we were going fairly well. We caught up to the other three just 100 feet before the end of the trail. By then it was pretty much pitch black and they were walking thier bikes. I'd like to go back and do that one a few more times in the daylight. We had to slow down quite a bit once it really got dark.
The drive home was uneventful. We drove through 3 separate snow storms though! I thought they were SO beautiful but Koda was sure we were going to die. Hahaha! He was kind of a weirdy. ;-) One of the storms we drove through was incredible. The snow was so fine it literally looked like we were driving through glitter. Everything was sparkling! Too bad my camera was in the trunk. I totally would've taken a few pictures of it.
It was a fun trip - and probably the last mountain biking I'll do until spring. Bummer. But at least it's finally starting to look like winter around here! BRING ON THE SKI SEASON!

Shoot!

2009-12-12T14:50:00.001-08:00

It's been a month and I haven't posted anything! I shouldn't let that happen.
It's been a fun month though....

Thanksgiving was.....nice. Hahaha.
The drive up was an adventure. Poor Jason threw up - what? Seven times? Maybe even more??? The poor guy! I'm sure he just thought he was dying. His little whimper was just so pitiful. My heart hurt a little bit for him. Brit, Brent and I had a pretty good system going by the end of the drive though. We got pretty good at catching him before he managed to vomit all over the world. Hahaha! I'm chuckling now just thinking about it. Brittany thinks it was food poisoning or something. Who knows. At least he didn't pass it on to the rest of us! He was great for the rest of the week AND for the drive home. Except for the part when he fell down the last few steps while going down the stairs. Don't worry, it was only like 3 or 4 steps. It scared him more than hurt him. He actually picked up on how to navigate the stairs pretty quick! Smart little guy!
As for the rest of the week....I wish I could say I enjoyed it more but I spent THE ENTIRE TIME down in the basement buried in my Organic Chemistry book and notes. That class is going to be the death of me. Despite studying ALL break long I still did horrible on my test. :-( So stinking frustrating. I feel like I just managed to study all the wrong things. However, the final is coming up and I think (hope) that is going to be my redemption. I feel like I've really internalized everything. We'll see how it goes. It's not until Thursday.
Thanksgiving dinner was great! I really love how Deb organizes and plans everything. There was just enough food - which I've decided is perfect. That way, you eat and are satisfied and then the food is gone instead of being there all afternoon long just waiting for you to eat more and more and more and more.... Enough said.
I was pretty sad we didn't get to go up and cut down a Christmas Tree together this year. That is one of my very favorite traditions and I don't want to let it go! I guess they went up and got one after Brittany, Brent and I left for Provo. Oh well.... sort of.

BYU won the game vs. Utah! Hooray! That totally made the drive home a day early worth it. I had never been to the BYU vs. Utah game - and this is most likely my last chance because next year it'll be in Salt Lake and then I graduate! I'm glad I went to it and I'm even more glad I we won! On the way in to Provo we stopped in West Point to pick up my friend Liz. I ended up going to the game with her because no one from my group was going to be there. It was fun! She has non-rotating seats. Meaning they've been at the same spot all season long. They've become acquainted with the people that sit around them and it really made for a fun time.
When Liz and I headed off on our bikes to the game it was a pleasant 50 degrees outside so we were just wearing pullover hoodies. BIG MISTAKE! That sun went down and it got COLD! And then we had to ride our bikes home! My hands were red and swollen and aching by the time we got home. Hahaha. Oh well. It was a fun game anyway!

Iron Chef Date Night

2009-11-15T20:57:00.001-08:00

This is seriously the best date idea I have ever had!
I've done it twice before; previous secret ingredients were cranberries and walnuts... or was it pecans??? One of the two anyway. Saturday nights ingredient was...
...as chosen by my former roommate Jared Brady! After we found out what we all had to include in our dish we hopped on our computers to find a recipe to use. Then we gathered what we could from our respective apartments and went to the grocery store for the rest. Once we got back all of us went crazy getting everything ready. It's a good thing my kitchen is a pretty big room, however, there is basically NO counter space. We were all on top of each other. Hahaha! It was fun!

I was with Liese Rodger from my ward
We were in charge of the main dish so both of us were slightly terrified when we heard what the secret ingredient was. We found this super yummy recipe from Rachel Ray: Coconut-Crusted Shrimp with Peanut Butter / Curry Sauce. OH MY HEAVENS it was so good! And it was pretty easy to make too. We made did one pot of shrimp and one pot of chicken bits. They were totally different from each other but both were super good! We served it over rice.

Ben was with Kaitlin Westergauard - also from the ward.
They were in charge of the appetizer so they did the timeless classics of Muddy Buddies as well as Celery Sticks & Apple Slices with Peanut Butter.

And I set my little sister Kristin up with Nathan Bunch who is also in our ward. He just happens to be BYU's starting pitcher! He seriously is going Pro someday! Fun guy though!
The were in charge of the dessert. They made Layered Peanut Butter Dessert. It was SO good! Here's a link to the recipe.

I gotta say, it was some GOOD FOOD.

We're So funny! Hahaha!

After eating we just sat and talked on the couch telling stories and stuff for a while. It was fun and nice to relax after frantically trying to get everything ready!

Peace out ya little piecer!

2009-11-15T20:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, maybe I shouldn't call that bike a little piecer. It did last for a really long time and was pretty faithful until the end. However, after two major breakages in the frame I decided it was time to go. So on Saturday during the BYU game I stripped off all the useful components and tried to make it as flat as possible so no one would really notice it in the dumpster. Hahaha!
If you look closely you can see the two break points. 1) The little white area right by the yellow rear shock is where I had the first one welded back together. And 2) you can see a little bit of silver right by that red reflector on the seat post. It's between those two blue parts. Yeah, those two blue parts are supposed to be one part. Rats.
See ya!

PS - I LOVE SNOW! I can't WAIT to go skiing again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(times infinity!)

I'm a phelbotomist!

2009-11-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

So a friend found this add on Craigslist about a phlebotomy training program. It was $500-700 cheaper than any other program I looked at over the summer. I was a bit skeptical at first but it turns out it was legit. SWEET!
I really liked it! The instructor was great. He'll even let us come to any of his future classes to practice doing blood draws. Now if I can only get a job! Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday To ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

I had a very relaxing and low key birthday this year. Never done that before but I kinda liked it! I slept in, skipped my one class and didn't do any homework at all! It was great!

On the day before my birthday Kimberlee and I went out to breakfast at:
We did this last year too! Our birthdays are only 4 days apart so we've always been pretty close. Too bad she's graduating in April - next year who knows where she'll be! Thanks Kimberlee!

Ok, back to my real birthday. That evening Lisa & Max, Brittany, Brent & Jason and I all went out to eat at this new restaurant in town
It was SOOOO good! And great prices too! I will definitely be going back! My favorite was the raspberry dessert pizza! Heaven! Kristin was MIA because she had lacrosse AND a flag football game AND.... you get the idea. She's crazy!

After dinner with the fam I headed home where my good friend Liz was hosting a waffle party. She's the chair of our ward's friendship council so there were lots of people there. Liz even made a Cake for Tae and I - her birthday was on the 9th. we had to improvise a bit because we didn't have any candles. So we used the pumpkin candles Brad bought a few weeks ago. Perf!
I love how Lee looks like a serious creeper in the background there. Hahaha!

It was a great day!

Apparently I talk in my sleep!

2009-11-13T10:23:00.000-08:00

The other night I must have been really chattering it up because I managed to wake my roommate up! He somehow had the presence of mind to grab his cell phone and type down what I said;
"Why do you THINK I ate that sparrow in my living room!? I ate the rest of it!"
Said in kind of an impatient / why-are-you-asking-me-this-you-should-already-know-the-answer tone.
I guess it made him laugh out loud. What in the heck do I dream about anyway? Sheesh.

Bon Fire Date

2009-11-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

After Jason's b-day party my roommates and I took dates out to The Clifton's house in Mapleton to have a bon fire. It was great! The zip line was a hit, but I forgot to get a few pictures of everyone on it!

I was with Liz

Brad was with Tiffany - our FHE mom from last year

Ben was with Kellie Pursee

and Spencer was with Erica

I love watching fire! It's so mezmerizing!

And so are the coals!

After the fire died down we went inside where Aunt Joice had hot water all ready for us to make hot chocolate. She is SUCH a great host! It was a super fun night!

The Little Monster is ONE!!!!!

2009-11-08T22:38:00.000-08:00

Brittany and Brent threw a B-day part for Jason yesterday. It was super fun! We had baked potatoes and then watched him open his presents:
He enjoyed them once Brittany pulled the wrapping paper off for him. I don't think he understood at all. Mostly he just liked throwing the cards and stuff on the floor.

So in my family we have this tradition.... On all of our 1st Birthdays mom took all our clothes off and let us have at the cake. WE LOVED IT!! We all made a huge mess of the cake, entertained all the older people and all that good stuff. Well, poor Jason... he did NOT so much love it. In fact I think he hated it! I guess the poor guy just doesn't like to have stuff on his hands. Here he is freaking out, trying to run away from the cake and in the process get frosting all over Brittany:
Hahaha! So they put him into his high-chair - more familiar environment and all that - and gave him a small piece. Once he tasted the cake he REALLY liked it and got all happy. Then he'd realize he had frosting on his hands and he'd have a little bit of a melt down. Then he'd manage to put more cake in his mouth - followed by another mini melt down. We were all laughing SO hard!
What a cutie! He sure is fun!

MOAB - Oct 17th 2009

2009-11-08T21:57:00.000-08:00

So there's this crazy awesome guy (Ian Beaty) in my previous ward who is probably the best networker I have ever met. He knows just about everyone at BYU and LOVES to organize mountain biking trips. We had 17 people all together - most of us didn't even know each other! There was randomly a guy from Eagle there! Josh Gilman - who just graduated and knows my little sister Danielle.
ANYWAY.... We all met at like 6:00 AM to load up. Ian of course was up all night getting bikes ready for everyone else and then BUILDING his own bike! He got the frame the day before! He's crazy!
Amazingly enough we managed to get on the road by 7, but we had to meat Andy Kerlin in Spanish Fork Canyon. He joined us after camping up there with friends. So really we were REALLY on the road by like 8:00. I had Tyler Newton, Andy and Majid Abbasi (from Iraq!!!!) in my car with me. Majid immediately conked out pretty good on the way there. Come to think of it... everyone did for a while! But we got a really good picture of Majid:

We rolled into Moab sometime around 11:00 and stopped at a bike shop to get a few last parts for Ian's new bike. (I can't believe he put a whole bike together in one night!)
The first trail of the day was Slick Rock. Somehow I managed to get put into the advanced group of riders! It was nice of them to let me come with them. :-) I hope I didn't slow them down too much. About 1/2 mile into the ride Tyler's deruailler snapped off. Total bummer, but at least we weren't super far away from the car. He took my keys and headed back to town to get it fixed while the rest of us rode the trail. About a mile late Josh's chain broke, but one of the bikers passing by had a tool and we got it fixed. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. For those of you who don't know much about Moab; its in the middle of red rock country. Absolutely beautiful. Slick Rock trail is just rolling hills of solid sandstone. It's a pretty unique ride because you get the steep descents and hills of mountain biking combined with the kind of traction you can get on sold concrete! That means you can have a pretty controlled ride which = SUPER fun!
Breaking for lunch. Me on the left, Josh in the back and Majid in the white. I should've taken a picture but from where we were sitting we could see people going up and over this crazy steep / tall ridge in their jeeps and hummers etc. It was pretty cool. I wouldn't be caught dead taking my own car over stuff like that. We were pretty sure they were all rental cars though because they all looked brand new!

Me on the left, Josh in the middle and Majid on the right.

Me on the left, Andy in the middle and Josh on the right. That's Moab down in the valley behind us. Check the great yellow fall leaves!

PS - I bought a new bike! A few months ago my mountain bike frame snapped in half. Booo! So I got it welded back together. Yay!!! Then, 2 days before this trip I took it out for a test drive and it broke in a different spot - where it really can't be welded so it was totalled! BOOOO / PANIC! I was supposed to go to Moab in less than 2 days. So what did I do? I jumped on KSL.com and found this steal of a deal. A 2 year old K2 that runs for $900 new. I think the guy only used it like 3 times EVER! It looks like it's right out of the box. AND I talked the guy down to $400! YAY! I was shocked at how much better the ride feels on a higher end bike. It is great! And to make the story better, I got clipless pedals and shoes for 60% off! WOW those make a huge difference. I love 'em!

Just a little way further along the loop was this great view up the canyon. Left to Right: me, Josh, Majid, Andi. You can see the road way down there on the right of the river. The resort Dad and Deb and the other adult Viehwegs were staying at was up this canyon.

One more for good measure.

At the end of this 12-ish mile loop I was totally beat! But the other guys - and Tyler with his fixed bike wanted to ride Porcupine Rim (the trail we did last year - see that post here). I would've loved to do it again, but I knew I would get about 1/2 way down and just die of fatigue. So I played shuttle / taxi and even managed to meet up with the parents etc. up at their resort to chat for a bit b/c their resort was just up the road from where Porcupine Rim ends. PERF! Anyway, that place is BEAUTIFUL! See Deb's pics here.
I couldn't stay for long, and once I was headed back to the end of the trail I got real nervous that they'd be waiting for me for a real long time. It was DARK by the time I got to the parking lot. I pulled up and sure enough they were all there - and they were all giving me this weird look! I thought it meant, "where the heck have you been - we've been here forever already!" But once I got out and appologized they just started laughing. I guess they had JUST pulled up, hopped off their bikes, saw a car coming and said, "that would be cool if that's Macsen." The timing couldn't have been better.
Needless to say they were all beat! I'm glad I didn't go. I would've died. We were all starving so off we went to Wendy's and then we headed for home. Majid immediately fell asleep across the back bench. He didn't flinch until we got to Spanish Fork. I thought I'd be super tired for the drive home but it really wasn't that bad. Tyler was great company and kept me talking the whole way.
What a fun trip! Next time I go I want to actually stay for a few days and get a few more trails in. I think 1 trail a day is enough. I guess their's a HUGE trail called "The Whole Enchilada" where you pay a shuttle to take you to the peak of the mountain - which is like 9000 feet and you ride the WHOLE way down. Apparently it takes ALL DAY LONG. Sounds super fun! Maybe next year....

The other night....

2009-11-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

OK, so this really happened like a week and a half ago, but I gotta get it down before I forget any more details.
As a preface:
My roommates hosted a birthday party for someone in the ward which involved a wild tourney of Dance Dance Revolution. Unfortunately I was directly underneath them in my basement room trying to study. I seriously feared for my life as I watched the ceiling bounce up and down - fluctuating about 6 inches! I swear this old house I'm living in is going to come tumbling down around us someday.
On to the story...
At 3 AM I bolt out of bed convinced that the house actually IS caving in around us. I think some random noise outside triggered it or something. Anyway, you know how you're usually paralyzed for your dreams?? Well in this case my "paralyzer" was definitely broken so I acted everything out in full.
Of course the first thought to rush into my mind is, "oh shoot I have to save my roommate Brad!" So what did I do? I jumped out of bed and in one motion bounded across the room, grabbed Brad's legs and flung them around like rag dolls so they ended up somewhere up by his head. I also vaguely remember was asking Brad where our third roommate was, but I was super frustrated because I couldn't remember his name! **We don't even have a third roommate!** I'm sure I was just repeating, "Where's?....Where's??..... Have you seen.....???" And Brad was like, "Have I seen WHO?!?"
By then I was 1/2 way awake and 100% confused as to why in the heck I was standing over Brad holding him in such an odd position. *I guess Brad could see in my eyes when I went from dreaming to awake* Then I remembered the dream I was having. Brad just looked at me and was like, "what in the heck is going on??"
For the life of me I couldn't formulate a coherent thought - let alone voice it! It was SUPER weird! Finally I managed to say, "hang on..... I can't even think....." Or something like that.
At this point we both start to chuckle a little bit. I mean, come on. What a ridiculous position to be in!
I finally manage to explain the dream I was having which only made us laugh harder. After a few minutes I stumbled back over to my bed and fell right back to sleep. Poor brad was WIDE awake for the next 1/2 hour because of the adrenaline rush that came with me practically throwing him across the room. Hahahaha!
Poor Brad. What's the deal with all these crazy dreams I'm having? I NEVER remember my dreams!

Questions:

2009-11-02T08:42:00.001-08:00

First of all, this took me FOREVER to figure out how in the heck to upload a document onto my blog. And now that it is uploaded it doesn't fit. Bummer. Does anyone out there know how to make the body of my posts wider??? I know it has something to do with editing the HTML in the Layout tab, but I have no idea how any of that works. There's just so much wasted space on the outsides and I think that's silly. I think I remember Nicole posting about stuff like that a long time ago but I couldn't find that post on her blog. :-(

Anyway, for now you can just click on the blue "fullscreen" link to be able to read my proposal.

So this is what has been eating my life lately:

2009-11-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

For the last few months a former roommate and I have been trying to get a research project going with one of our professors. Both of us are going into medical professions so research is really going to make us look good as we apply to different schools. We decided to apply for an ORCA grant because, hey! Ya might as well make some money off the deal right?
Here's our proposal:
Proposal FINAL

I should be studying for O-Chem....

2009-10-13T21:07:00.001-07:00

Three quick things:

1) By the time I get to coming in to the library to study at night people are already LEAVING for the night. They look at me like I am insane. They are probably right. :)

2) Sometimes I go a little crazy with all the stuff I have to do. I was UBER stressed yesterday because I feel like at the end of every day I look at my list of stuff I wanted to do and feel like I haven't accomplished anything. It is SOOOO frustrating! I need to work on my time management skills.

3) A few months ago I cracked my mountain bike frame in half. About 3 weeks ago I got it welded back together (yay!) And today I had a few cables replaced that were damaged in the original mishap. The point is, while I was at Outdoors Unlimited waiting for them to finish up with my bike I noticed that they had a 40% off table! I, of course, mozied (how do you spell that anyway!?) on over and found crank brother pedals and 661 shoes (both are really great and really expensive)! Naturally I bought them both. :-) I think I saved over 120$ on the deal..... and really I saved a ton more than that by welding my bike (50$) instead of buying a new bike ($500-$800). And now my mountain bike is good and ready to go for this weekends trip to Moab. I am SUPER excited!

4) Point #3 really wasn't the original point #3 I wanted to write about but I can't remember what it was anymore. Oh man - am I loosing it?!?!

One more for today

2009-10-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, I realize this is my THIRD post for the day, but I just wanted to get caught up on a few things...
So last night I apparently was having a dream about cooking. In my dream I was cooking some sort of white sauce that had little chunks of chicken in it. Of course I had to taste a little bit of it to make sure it tasted good - so I grabbed a little piece of chicken and popped it in my mouth. You can imagine my surprise (and disgust!) when I immediately woke up to the taste of ear wax instead of yummy chicken. Behold my little piece of chicken:
Ew!!!!!!!!!!!!! Somehow in my sleep I had pulled out my ear plug, mistaken it for a piece of chicken, and put it in my mouth! I was fully awake by the end of all this so I kind of chuckled to / at myself as I rolled over and put my ear plugs on my night stand. Good grief!

Warranties

2009-10-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

For the life of me - I can't figure out why I have never taken advantage of product warranties before! They are SO great! And I'm just now beginning to realize that I can use them! What's up with that?!?

Behold exhibit A) My trusty camelbak - or rather, Jessica's camelbak that I stole from her a while ago. (Sorry Jess! I owe ya!)

Recently my camelbak has decided it's a good idea to leak from the lid. I wear it a lot when I go on my roady rides and it gets my back SOAKING wet! When it was warm outside this was actually a good thing. But now it's cold and by the end of my rides I am freezing and wet.

I ordered a new bladder online, but it ended up being the wrong size. So then I decided to go to Camelbak's website to see if I could find what I needed there. I saw a link for "warranty information" and boy am I glad I clicked on it! They'll replace any defective bladder for free! Awesome!

Exhibit B) My trusty Tevas:

Hands down the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn in my life. One slight problem though - the black part of the sole is coming off. I've already super glued it 3 times! And it's coming off again! After my neat Camelbak discovery I decided to visit Teva's website. A few other customers have complained about this problem on this specific shoe so Teva has posted a note saying they've updated the shoe and you can mail back defective ones for a brand new pair for free. Woohoo! I can't find these guys in any stores these days and I really want a new pair. Now it looks like I'll get one for free!

Exhibit C) My not very old Levi Strauss 501 Jeans:

Super comfortable! Love the button fly. They're only like 4 months old! That really big hole started out as a super small one. I don't know what caused it. It grew a lot last night as I was playing volleyball. And yes - it happened during an amazing save by yours truly. Anyway, you better believe I'll be on the phone with their customer service reps tomorrow. Hopefully I can get a new pair of jeans out of them... don't know if it'll work but I'm sure going to try.

The moral of the story is: When something breaks don't rush out and buy a new one immediately - do some research and see if it has a warranty. Most companies want your return business so they're going to try to make you has happy as possible. I'd be willing to bet that if you push hard enough you'll end up with a new item every time - even if they don't have a great warranty. They'll do it because they want you to come back and buy from them again.

The biggest nightmare of my adult life:

2009-10-11T13:34:00.000-07:00

This actually happened a few weeks ago.... and really, reading it is probably going to feel like watching a train wreck in slow motion - especially because its so long! But this one needs to be remembered - after all, I'm sure we'll all be laughing about it someday....maybe.

Once upon a time Brittany, Brent and Jason flew to Florida for a few days and they asked me to pick them up from the airport on their return trip. "We'll get in at 11PM" is what I heard, so what I understood was "Our flight gets in at 11, but then we'll have to get our checked baggage and everything - Oh and PS - flights are always a bit late so basically, we'll be on the curb ready to go around 11:30." I don't know why my brain interpreted that simple 5 or 6 word sentence as all of that, but it sure did.

SO..... I was sitting around doing homework and starting to think about leaving for the airport in about an hour-ish (so I could be there right at 11 like a good brother) when a good friend called me having a quarter life crisis. They really needed someone to talk to and wanted a blessing. "No problem," I thought to myself - "after all, Brit and Brent probably won't be out on the curb until 11:30 ish anyway." So, off I go to my friends house at almost 10:00.

For the next 1/2 hour this person cried - nope - sobbed - on my shoulder about why they were so frustrated / confused with life. I just put my arm around them - what else could I have done?! I felt really bad! I wanted to be a good listener, but at the back of my mind I knew that I really needed to get going. Eventually we made it back to my house where a few of my roommates helped me give a blessing. My friend really didn't want to be alone at that point so they decided to come with me to the airport.

By now it was almost 10:40 and I figured if Brittany and Brent's flight didn't get in until 11, and they weren't out on the curb 'till 11:30, then they'd really only be waiting for me on the curb for 15 maybe 20 minutes. So I give Brent a call to leave a message explaining all of this when, to my dismay, he answered! "Hey! We just landed....blah, blah". I PANICKED! I gave them the brief version of what I just went through and said, "I'm going to be late.... sorry."

I'm pretty sure I was sick to my stomach the ENTIRE drive to the airport. I just knew I was going to get it, but at the same time I was trying to reassure my friend that, really, it was going to be ok, and they'd understand and all that.

We pull up to the curb at around 11:35 - pretty good time if you ask me. But by then Brit and Brent had been waiting for an hour. YIKES. As I drove up I saw their faces just fall even further and I knew I had done yet ANOTHER thing wrong. You see, before I left I didn't go trade my car with one of theirs because I was already late so we just took mine. Well, I had assumed that they took their car seat on their trip with them for my little nephew Jason. And they had assumed that I would bring their car - with the car seat in it. Needless to say, Brittany was slightly upset with me: "What are you doing!?! You'll have to go back and get it!" I. Felt. Like. Garbage. I was so completely torn! I've never felt like I've had to be 2 people at once and be in two places at the same time - believe me, it's not fun! Anyway, I ran into the car rental places to ask if we could rent a car seat - you have to rent A CAR to rent a car seat. I called airport security to see if they could help - nope! Why did I even think they'd be able to help in the first place!? Meanwhile my friend was calling their aunt to see where the closest Walmart was - she didn't know. Lucky for us unhelpful-car-rental lady called me back over to the counter and told me there was a Walmart in West Valley - not super far away.

So off we went to Walmart leaving Brittany and Brent in a cloud of dust. Of course we ran into road construction on the 20 minute drive between the airport and Walmart - of course. But we eventually found it and I bought this lovely...for 45$!

Perfect for my little nephew, right?! OK, ok, it was the first one I saw - I looked around for a non-pink one, but everything else was more expensive so I gave up. After buying it we spent the longest 5 minutes of my entire life trying to adjust the stupid straps so Jason would actually fit in it. They were set at the smallest setting - which I'm sure even a doll wouldn't fit in! Stupid.

By the time we got back to the airport it was now around 12:20. Two and 1/2 hours! They had been waiting for 2 and 1/2 hours! I honestly wanted to die. I just kept thinking, "oh man, Brittany was upset an hour ago - what's she going to be like now!?!?!" Apparently I drove up onto the sidewalk when I pulled up. I was just trying to get as close to them as possible... AND in my defense it was on the same level as the pavement - no curb whatsoever. How am I supposed to know where the sidewalk ends and the street begins? The parking enforcer guy was all getting up in my face over everything. I was severely annoyed but I moved my car anyway. Much to my surprise I was greeted by Brittany with a smile. I was blown away! I was fully expecting her to come at me with guns blazing. While we were at Walmart Jason had fallen asleep, which relieved a lot of stress for them I'm sure, and both Brittany and Brent had calmed down a lot. After Brittany strapped Jason in I gave her a hug and told her how sorry I was - I almost started crying I felt so bad! She just kind of shrugged it off and, again, I was blown away! Brittany's capacity to forgive is apparently HUGE.

So we all got in the car and I turn and say, "This is 'so-and-so' and they're the reason I'm late!" Hahaha! My friend took it well and we had a pleasant conversation until mostly everyone fell asleep and I was left alone to my thoughts. I just kept shaking my head in disbelief. Things definitely didn't turn out how I had envisioned - and boy am I glad. We didn't get back to Provo until just before 2:00 AM. Wow.

A few days later when I was repackaging up the car seat to return it I realized that we didn't even re-fasten the straps to the back of the car seat when we adjusted them. They were just flapping free in the breeze back there. UNBELIEVABLE! I couldn't help but chuckle. Why did we even go get it in the first place!? We might as well have just not had one because, had we gotten in a wreck, it wouldn't have done anything anyway. Then I felt really grateful that we got home safely! Don't tell Brittany.... oh wait, she'll probably read this..... I guess the truth should be known... I hope she laughs....

So through this all, this is what I've learned:

Don't ever assume anything. EVER. I thought I already knew this one...apparently not.
Ask questions to clarify EVERY point of question or confusion
Forgiveness is amazing and I need to work on it
I need to learn how to use car seats properly

THE END!

(finally!)

And so it begins!

2009-10-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've toyed with the idea of doing this for a really long time. On my mission I kept a vigilant daily journal, but since I've been home I don't think I've written once. BAD IDEA! This blog is meant to be a journal of sorts. I'd like to say I'll have something to write in it every day but we'll see what happens.
A good friend of mine has a tradition called "Picture of the Day". She rarely lets a day go by without taking a picture of the day just as a way to document her life. Perhaps I'll modify her idea and use a picture of the day (or week) as a prompt.
Enjoy!