A little about me

WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?

I was named for Rachel in the Bible.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

January 29^th.

DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?

Sometimes.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?

Chicken or Turkey

DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

Nope!

IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?

Of course ‘cuz I’m so dang awesome!

DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?

Yes.

DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?

Yes.

WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?

Yes and I would probably pee my pants doing it.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?

Probably anything chocolatey

DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?

Of course!

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?

How? Physically or emotionally?

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?

I’m not a huge fan of ice cream. If I have to eat it, I prefer Denali Moose Tracks.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?

Their height

RED OR PINK?

Neither

WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?

:-)

WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST ?

My grandmother

DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?

Yep

JEANS OR PEARLS?

Jeans! Jeans! Jeans!

WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?

A slice of tomato with salt on it. Yummy!!

WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?

The Chanukah Song Part 3

IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?

Black

FAVORITE SMELLS?

Freshly cut grass. Spring. Men wearing good cologne.

WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?

My mom.

DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?

Yep.

FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?

Anything I don’t play.

HAIR COLOR?

Brown

EYE COLOR?

Sometimes hazel, sometimes green, sometimes blue, sometimes brown.

DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?

Yes.

FAVORITE FOOD?

Chocolate.

SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?

Happy endings! I have an overactive imagination so I don’t do very well with scary movies … unless I have a boy to cuddle with. :-)

LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?

White

SUMMER OR WINTER?

Both out West. Fall and Spring back East.

HUGS OR KISSES?

Can’t I have both?

FAVORITE DESSERT?

Chocolate

MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

Good question.

LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

Good question.

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Again.

WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?

“Network Solutions”

WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT?

I actually don’t watch TV.

FAVORITE SOUND?

Children laughing. Men singing.

ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?

Beatles. I’ve recently become a fan.

WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?

Latvija

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?

I don’t think so.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

Idaho, BABY!!

WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?

Everyones. :-)

Thoughts on someone else's blog

I was reading a friend's blog and he shared his thoughts on dating and how we shouldn't give up on it even if it doesn't seem to be very successful right now. That got me thinking about being a young single adult and being in the middle of the dating world. I think everyone needs to relax. It seems like YSAs have this idea that getting married will bring nothing but bliss and happiness. But the reality is that marriage, along with all the good things, also brings a whole new set of trials, problems, frustrations, and disappointments. When we get married, we're not never going to be lonely: we're just going to feel the loneliness more poignantly. We're not suddenly going to be rich (most of us): we're probably going to end up with a lot more financial struggles. We're not going to suddenly be beautiful, perfect, and amazing: we're still going to be our same wonderful, imperfect selves. I'm not writing this to be negative but hopefully to point out that happiness doesn't depend on our marital status. It depends on what we choose. There are so many amazing opportunities and advantages we have because we're single. Don't misunderstand me: we should certainly be dating and preparing ourselves to get married. And when we do get married, we should enjoy that stage of our lives. I'm just saying that I wish that as YSAs in general we appreciated all the blessings we have a little more and thought less about how happy we're going to be when we get married because if we're not happy now, we won't be then. Life is incredible! Even with all its trials, problems, heartaches, disappointments, and difficulties, we have so much! We're educated, we have opportunities, we can go anywhere we want to and do whatever we want to. As a former institute teacher said, "In my humble but correct opinion" the key to being happy and fulfilled in life doesn't come in a wedding ring but comes in loving, forgiving, serving, and trying to be humble. It comes in putting others before ourselves. If we're happier when we're married, I think it's only because we have someone to love unconditionally, forgive constantly, serve endlessly, and will humble us daily. We have someone to put ahead of ourselves. But why do we have to be married to do that? We interact with friends, family, coworkers, and roommates everyday. We can treat all of them that way and be happy now. Anyway, I get tired of hearing how hard life is being single and so I thought I would share my thoughts and hopefully we can all be more grateful for the amazing gift that is each of our lives.

Rock Band

I went to my friends' (Reed and Brian) house and played Rock Band. If you haven't played this yet, you've got to! It's a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of us playing:

I had to throw in the picture of Brian's shirt because it's funny.

Sexiest butt EVER!

Reed and Bronwyn

Ben

Anne on drums

Reed and Bronwyn, again

Jinkies!

Anne on guitar

The band

More of the band

Still more of the band

Anne rocked everyone's world.

Sewing update

I've been meaning to update my blog for a few days now. But the problem is that every time I sat down to update it, I didn't know what to write. But today was really exciting because I figured out how to put the sleeves on the tent (which is actually beginning to resemble a dress!). I've been trying to figure this out for days. Finally today I "hemmed" the lining around the sleeves and then just put the sleeves on the dress part of the dress. (I've been trying to figure out how to sew the sleeves between the lining and the dress. The teacher was gone so I have no idea if what I did will work. I'll find out tomorrow. I have a confession, though. I cheated. After I had unpicked one of the sleeves three times, when I realized that it still didn't look right, I turned the dress back inside out, just sewed it to look right, and left it that way. I have no idea how it will actually look when it's on. I'm kind of scared to try it on. Maggy is convinced that it fits me since we tailored it down, but I'm not so sure. Maggy said to me today, "I think you should leave it sleeveless and just put a sweater over it." I don't think Maggy understands that I'm willing to learn to sew because I'm tired of putting a sweater on over everything I wear. (As a side note, it's a lot easier to shop at home. Things are a lot more modest where I come from. Anyway...) I have to learn how to do these sleeves so that I can put sleeves on clothes I find that are sleeveless and I just want to tailor a little. Once I kind of got the sleeves on, I sewed the back of the dress together. This was after I unpicked both sides where the lining and the dress were sewn together. I really wish I knew why the pattern said to sew the dress and lining together and then had me unpick it later. That just doesn't make any sense! Anyway, tomorrow I'll sew the lining together and then put the zipper in. I wonder if Maggy expects me to wear this dress. It's sure looking scary!

Intelligence

I was just looking at the Newsweek article "He's Not as Smart as He Thinks." Apparently a British researcher studied the differences in IQ between men and women and found that there isn't a difference. He found that what happens is that women tend to underestimate their intelligence and men tend to overestimate theirs. So essentially, men aren't as smart as they think they are. What I want to know is, did this guy spend money on this research? Because I could have told him that for free.

P.S. Sorry if there's a bitter note to this. I'm very frustrated with a "friend" of mine right now. Not only do men overestimate their intelligence, some of them are seriously lacking in communication skills!

Sewing

I'm learning how to sew. Yes, it's true. For those of you who knew me when I was a teenager, I know you're finding this hard to believe. When I was a kid, my mother made a brave and valiant attempt to teach me how to sew. There was just one problem: I hated sewing. I still hate sewing. I'm terrible at it! As a matter of fact, I'm so bad at sewing and the stuff I make is so atrocious that it makes me laugh. It's turned out to be a great source of entertainment. Our fashion design teacher is teaching her students how to sew and her level 2 students each have to create their own line for the fashion show. I figured that as long as the kids are all sewing anyway, I might as well join in the fun. We all sit in the fashion design classroom with our little sewing machines and our pins and try to take that tricky, slippery material and turn it into something recognizeable. The kids are doing a great job and I'm there as the comic relief. Well, not me, actually, but my sewing attempts. The only problem is that the teacher, who hasn't actually really looked at anything I've "made" has asked me to teach a small group of children how to make a bag on Saturday morning. Those poor children! They'll never be the same! They'll be scarred forever. They'll see a sewing machine and run away screaming or curl up in the fetal position in the corner and rock back and forth ... back and forth.

*side note* the girl doing the afternoon announcements just announced that they're going to hold softball tryouts. softball is a spring sport!! The end is near!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, my current attempt is a dress. Yes, a whole dress. Did you know that patterns come in different sizes? Yeah, I know that now, too. Let's just say I didn't get the pattern with my size so now not only do I have to sew the dress together, I then have to tailor it to fit me. Today the fashion teacher and I fit the dress (or as I lovingly refer to it "the tent") onto a dress form. But she didn't pick out the dress form that's my size so I'm not sure if I'm going to have to tailor it then tailor it again or if I'm maybe wrong about the dress sizes. (I've learned in fashion design that what designers used to call a 12 is now an 8 and a 14 is a 10 and so on and so forth.) That's all well and good until you're trying to sew from a pattern and a dress form and you're basing your dress size on the size written on the tag on your jeans but the size on the tag on your jeans is different from the size of the dress form. AIYEEEE!!! (This is part of why I'm not so good at the sewing thing. Let's simplify, people!!) Anyway, so I guess that when I "tailor" (a word I use very loosely!) my dress tomorrow morning I'm going to have to ask if I'll actually be wearing the "dress" or if it's just for show. Maybe it'll be the example of what not to do in fashion design!

So far I've done the easy part of the dress. I still have to put on the sleeves.....

mylifeisboring.com

I was sitting in my room tonight not feeling well. Not feeling well enough to go do something fun but feeling well enough to know how well I wasn't feeling and that I was bummed about not being able to go do something fun. As I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself, I heard people out in the living room and that only made me feel more depressed because I was in my pajamas and so I wasn't sure I should go out and say hi. Finally, in a desperate fit of frustration, I got on the internet (my laptop was on my ... well, on my lap) and I typed in mylifeisboring.com. It's an actual website. Who knew!

In other news, I get to help work on another PSA. I love television production! I think it's so fun! We're making a PSA to enter into a contest about internet safety.

In further news, I've decided to post my pictures that I took while we were cross country skiing over Christmas. The "model" in the pictures is my sister. She was having a great time "modeling" for me. Enjoy!

Snow

It snowed today and I'm so happy!!! I love snow!

That's all.

Thievery

Not only did I steal this survey from someone else (that would be Chris Terrell) but I left in his line about stealing this survey. But it looked like fun! And yes, if everyone was jumping off the cliff, I probably would, too.

I stole this survey from someone else :)
] Became single
[X] got kissed
[X] kissed someone new
[ ] kissed in the snow
[ ] kissed in the rain
[ ] kissed on the beach
[x] 'fell in love'
[ ] 'fell in love' with a fool
[X] had my heart broken
[] broke someone else's heart
[] had a stalker
[X] lost a friend
[X] had a good relationship with someone
[ ] came out of my closet
[ ] got married
[ ] had a divorce
[] kissed someone of the same sex (on the cheek)
[] dated someone that you will never forget
[X] did something I regret
[] lost faith in love
[] kissed under mistletoe
[] got a promotion
[x] got a pay raise
[] changed jobs
[] quit my job
[ ] dated a co-worker
[ ] dated my boss
[ ] dated my boss's son/ daughter
[ ] got fired from my job
[ ] got straight A's
[x] met a teacher who I became friends with
[x] met a teacher who I really (strongly dislike)
[] found the subject I love
[] failed a class
[x] cut class
[x] skipped school
[] got in a fight with a classmate
[X] did something I was proud of
[X] discovered a new talent
[X] proved myself that I'm an idiot
[x] embarrassed myself in front of the class
[] fell in love with a teacher
[] got the lead/minor lead role in the school play
[] made a team
[X] was involved in something that I will never forget
[] painted a picture
[] wrote a poem
[x] ran a mile
[X] listened to music I couldn't stand
[X] double dipped
[x] went to a sleepover
[] went to camp
[] threw a surprise party
[X] laughed till I cried
[X] flirted shamelessly
[x] visited a foreign country
[X]visited a state
[x] cooked a disastrous meal
[X] lost something important to me
[X] got a gift I love
[X] realized something new about myself
[] went on a diet
[] tried to gain weight
[] dyed my hair
[] came close to losing my life
[x] someone/thing close to me died
[] got arrested
[X] read a great book
[X] saw a great movie
[ ] saw a movie so scary that it made me cry
[ ] saw a favorite band live
[X] did something that I wanted to tell everyone
[X] experienced something new
[X] made new friends
[] found out who your real friends are
[] lied to your parents
[ x] snuck out
[ ] got in trouble with the po-po
[ x] kissed in a pool
[X] kissed under the stars
[X] had the time of your life
[X] danced
[ ] fell out of love
[X] had a crush on someone
[X] swam in a pool
[x] made a snowman
[ ] went snowboarding
[] went sledding
[X] slept in past 2pm
[X] held someone’s hand that you care about
[ ] got wasted in a public place
[] told someone you like them as more than a friend
[X] gone on vacation
[X] gone on vacation with a friend
[X] driven a car
[ ] danced in the rain
[] got in a car accident
[] seen someone get in a car accident
[ ] got in a fist fight
[X] laughed until you couldn't breathe
[X] missed someone
[ ] sent someone to the hospital
[ ] got a new pet

A YEAR-END SURVEY1.) Who was your best friend at the beginning of this year? The end?
My best friends at the beginning of the year were my best friends at the end of the year.

2.) What was your status by Valentine's Day? Single.

3.) Were you in school (anytime this year)? Every single day.

4.) How did you earn your keep? Slave labor. Or teaching.

5.) Did you ever have to go to the hospital? Yep.

6.) Have you encountered the police this year? A lot. :-)

7.) Where did you go on vacation? Idaho and Alaska and the Yukon

8.) What did you purchase that was over $500? Airline tickets

9.) Did you know anybody who got married? I'm Mormon - of course I do!!

10.) Did you know anybody who passed away? Yes, my grandmother, unfortunately. :-(

11.)How many times did you go on facebook/myspace? I didn't keep track

12.) Did you move anywhere? Alaska

13.) What sporting events did you go to? Not enough

14.) What concerts did you go to? none

15) Are you registered to vote? Yes

16.) If so, did you do your patriotic duty on Nov. 6? Yes

17.) Where do you live now? Virginia during the school year and Alaska and Idaho during the summer.

18.) Describe your birthday. Surprisingly and pleasantly filled with boys!!! Thanks Bronwyn!

19.) What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2007? Made it back to Alaska to drive the motorcoaches and give tours. And I had my own apartment.

20.) What is one thing you regretted this year? Keeping my mouth shut when i should have said something - in a lot of different situations.

21.) What's something you learned about yourself? Whoa - don't go all Dr. Phil on me!

22.) Any new additions to your family? Yes! An adorable nephew and a beautiful niece!

23.) What was your best month? Middle of June to the end of August

24.) How would you rate this year with a scale from 1 (crappy) to 10 (amazing)? Depends on the time of year

Tigers

My wonderful friend Reed loaned me his copy of Life of Pi. I'd seen it in bookstores but the only reviews I'd heard about it had been from critics and they seemed to like it and since critics and I tend to disagree about everything (books, movies, food - it doesn't matter) I had stayed away from it. But I really liked it. If you haven't read it, read it.

Guns

At the end of last week we went shooting. (We take our criminal justice kids three times during the school year.) At the beginning of the year we shot Glocks and Sig Sauers. This time we shot revolvers. I like revolvers better. There's less kick. I had a great time.

I hate coming up with titles.

Yesterday one of our fashion design girls showed up in a sweater and a pair of nylons. Yep, no pants. No skirt. Nothing underneath that sweater. I was speechless. I hadn't seen that - ever - at my school and I've seen some pretty shocking things. The sweater covered her little behind - barely. We have a lovely Christian girl that teaches the class and she had the student in tears! Today she showed up in a pair of jeans and a nice sweater that covered everything. I think she learned her lesson.

Sometimes I have a really cool job

So, today I got to go shooting. I drove three criminal justice students to the shooting range and the criminal justice teacher taught me how to shoot a revolver. I liked it better than the Glocks we shot last time we went. Sometimes I have the coolest job ever.

2008 in Virginia

I've missed my blog so I decided that for 2008 I would keep updating it, even though I'm not in Alaska right now. There are plenty of exciting things going on here in Virginia. Like I almost passed out at work today. In the middle of a presentation. In front of 30 high school students. EMBARRASSING!! In happier news, I went to New York for New Years and met up with a couple friends I met over the summer. We saw Phantom of the Opera (it was the first time for me) and it was AMAZING!!! We also went to a taping of David Letterman - so funny! Donald Trump was the guest star. I'm not a big fan of Donald Trump but it was cool to see him in person. I think the makeup people had tried to fix his hair. It's unfortunate that we didn't make it into the earlier taping because Robin Williams was the guest star. It was a trade off - Robin Williams or Phantom and Phantom was TOTALLY worth it!

So, I went to the link on Anne's blog (http://frecklefacedgirl.blogspot.com) and took the personality test. Here are the results:

You Are An ISFJ

The Nurturer You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal. A good listener, you excel at helping others in practical ways. In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music. You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for. In love, you express your emotions through actions. Taking care of someone is how you love them. And you do it well! At work, you do well in a structured environment. You complete tasks well and on time. You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist. How you see yourself: Competent, dependable, and detail oriented When other people don't get you, they see you as: Boring, dominant, and stuck in a rut

What's Your Personality Type?

Well, I copied and pasted that in so hopefully it will work!