Dumb blond? What? Huh?

I started school on Tuesday, and it is similar to what I expected, only perhaps a little bit worse. I was already pretty confident that many of the girls there would not be the brightest light bulbs, but my worst fear was confirmed--they all seem quite incapable of doing anything other than cosmetology. The test we had had today scared me a little bit though. I only got 106% on it, and I didn't study for it at all. To be perfectly honest, I feel like my brain is melting away when I'm at school. Granted, it has only been four days, so I can't make any true judgements yet. However I am seriously considering taking college classes online as well, to keep me sane. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy school and it is fun, but I really need more. Anyway, here are some pictures:


This is the first half of my walk to school. The second half is boring and ugly so I didn't take a picture of it. I don't mind the walk at all, except that I have to carry a huge bag all the way there. It takes me about 15 minutes to walk.

This is my huge bag. In it, there is pretty much everything a girl could ever want for her hair...including five different hair brushes.

Right before I get to school there's this HUGE dog that barks his head off at me all the time and sort of looks and acts as though he wants to tear me into pieces, but his wildly wagging tail gives him away. Who knows though, maybe that's a trick. His little fuzzy sidekick always follows him and stares at whatever he's barking at.

And here is my school!!! It's located in a strip mall (if you can't tell...), and right next door is where we can buy our supplies at a lovely discounted price. I feel very special going in there, because on the door in big letters it says "License Required" and I totally have one!!! :D

This is just another thing that makes me feel somewhat like I'm in elementary school again. Not only do a lot of the girls act like they're still in elementary school, but the teachers talk to us like that. "Oh you girls are SO smart!!!!!" And today for about 2 1/2 hours, we (just the four of us who started on Monday) sat in our classroom and made dream posters--posters full of pictures and words that inspired us or represented goals we had, cut out of magazines. I guess it's just a tradition they have there.

This is me and my manikin, Annabelle. Her curls are lovely, no? We have to work on these heads before we get real people. I don't know why.... :P

Pictures!!

Yes, I bought a card reader. :)


I was trying to pack, I promise...


I see MOUNTAINS!!


This is the outside view of my new home


Our living room


Dining room


And kitchen



My bedroom


This is Liz...she gets excited. About everything.

Happy Valley

Well, I'm pretty much all settled into my new home now. It's so weird. Everything from the mountains to the grocery stores being a short walk away and the fact that my ward is made up of two of the 13 buildings in my apartment complex, and I live with five other girls my age...yep, it's different. Not to mention that it's January and I can go outside without a coat. It's just weird. But I have to say that I really don't miss the -20 temperatures, and it is so pretty here. I have a nice 15 minute walk to school, and half of it is along a bike path next to a little river. The other half is down a street that looks a little ghetto, but that's only because it's the back side of a strip mall and those are always a little creepy looking.

I would upload pictures, but unfortunately I can't find my camera cord anywhere...so I'm out of luck till I can get a new cord or a card reader. But as soon as I can get one I'll have to upload some pictures for sure.

My roommates all seem cool...I think. We recently had a bit of drama about who was supposed to do the dishes, but it's all good now. Three of my roommates are engaged or planning on getting engaged very soon. I'm definitely in Utah now. :P The one that I share a room with is from California, and she picks on my accent and I pick on her for being a little California girl that never has to pay for anything, so we get along pretty well. Her name is Elizabeth Ainsley, but she said that her mom was thinking of calling her Rebecca Elizabeth. How weird is that?

Winter!!

Wow, it's been a very long time since I wrote on this dumb thing. I mean my blog. I guess I'm not the best at writing consistantly eh?? Not too much is new. Just a different job at Target (again, they never keep me in one place), I only have a month left before I go to Utah, Paul comes home in 18 days or so, I have my school loan all ready and I have an apartment in Utah. Other than that I'm just trying to survive this frigid winter. We've already got a ton of snow and for the past 3 weeks it's been above 25 once, most of the days are below 10, usually around 0 if we're lucky. Yuck. But hey, there aren't any mosquitoes!!

Christmas was good. We got a Wii from my brother, so that's fun. Except that I always get too into things and it makes me sore. :P My brother Andy came home for Christmas with his wife Stephanie, which was very cool.

From left to right: Mom, Mary, Dad, Minerva, me, David, Nick, Andy, Steph

Frog Point

Nick came over on Tuesday and we took Mary and Pippin to Frog Point with us. We just went for the fun of it, Mary came because she longingly told me how much fun it would be when we were leaving, and Pippin because she's a big fatty that needs exercise.

The ancient playground they have there was to be a good place to take pictures! :)

Finally Salesfloor :)

I forgot to mention that the pricing job at Target was just temporary, while they got me switched over to salesfloor. I'm now officially a salesfloor person and it's much better. My only complaint is how I never really know what to do. Like with cashiering, I always knew exactly what I was supposed to do. I kinda of assumed it would be like that though so it's all good. It was funny the other day because I was in charge of five phones in the store, and I didn't even know where they were or how to answer them really. They briefly explained how to do it, but I never actually did it before I was in charge of them. And of course, it's been a little difficult because I'm so used to tuning out the calls, because I've never had to answer them before. I'm getting it, though. Supposedly sometime this week I'll actually be trained and put with someone so I can learn how things are done. Which will be very nice...

The Price is Right

That's what I make sure with my new job at Target. I pulled a muscle in my shoulder a few weeks ago, and cashiering seemed to be making it just get worse and worse till I really couldn't do it anymore. I'd asked to be moved to the salesfloor a while ago so it would be able to heal, but they sure took long enough to move me out of cashiering. It's not quite the salesfloor, but it's definitely better. My hours are 6:00am to 2:30pm every day, which is a little early for me, but manageable. I get up at 5:00 and that gives me about 15 minutes to get ready and go. Basically what I do is put up new prices, put up signs for sales, mark things that are on clearance, and just make sure things are coming up at the right price. It's a party, I tell you. I really like getting off at 2:30. I was kinda tired when I got home today, but hopefully it won't take too long to get a little more used to the hours. I also went to the chiropractor today, and he smacked me around a bit, which definitely helped my shoulder. I guess a tendon was out of place, and that's why it hurt so much. He told me to try not to reach behind me while holding heavy things, and that's exactly what I'd been doing as a cashier. Good thing I'm not anymore!!! :D It's funny though, remember what I said before about how they don't really train you there at Target? Well they did the same thing to me again. One lady told me to work with this other lady, and she said not to give me my own work just yet but to just show me everything today. Well guess what I had within ten minutes? My own work, in another isle. Everything went fine except when I thought the isle went to the back wall when really it went across the back wall too, so I missed some sale things I was supposed to scan and see if they needed to be taken down. But oh well, I can just blame it on the lady because she should have been there. I wanted to ask her to make sure, but I assumed I was because that's how all the other isles went...but yeah, I had no clue where she was. So other than that it was all good. :)