Valentines Day, Rock Climbing

I have been saying for a while now that I would include in my blog the pictures of Ammon's fancy bike stand that he got for Christmas. He sent me a picture of it a few weeks ago and i am finally getting around to remembering to put in on my blog. It sounds like Ammon is taking the biking world like a storm (I think I got the phrase wrong :S ) anyway, he is doing some amazing things!!!! If you want to know more about this new and amazing hobby he has discovered you should call him and Dad and talk to them about it, it is quite fun to listen to. I am so glad that Ammon has found this hobby, I may just need to fly him out here to have him work on my bike for me :)

Earlier this week I got an e-mail from Dad titled "Almond Creation" I'm not sure what the title was referring to, I'm thinking it may have been meant to say Ammon's Creation, but it had a very cute picture in it of another smiley face that Dad or Ammon made with their food. I really enjoy these creations they make, they make me smile. He created this one out of his hot dog and potato salad.

I decided that I need to start eating more healthy once again this week, so on Monday before class I got out my carrots and made myself carrot sticks for that day. Dad has taught me well ;) I don't think I cut them nearly as small as Dad used to cut them, but It was a good size for carrot sticks.

Then came VALENTINES DAY!!! Nothing really special happened for me on this day but I did make all of my apartment mates a fancy breakfast. I was going to make some red colored cinnamon rolls. I had started them the night before but when I was letting the dough rise I turned the oven onto a high degree to get the kitchen hot enough so it would rise faster. Sadly I was a bit over zelous with the heat. I put the dough in a metal bowl and on top of the stove that had an oven under it heated to 350 degrees. Needless to say when I came back two hours later it looked as if the dough had done an amazing job at rising. When I pulled it out it turns out the bottom half of the dough had cooked from the heat. Sooooooooooooo that idea was gone.

Tuesday Morning I still had classes starting at 9, but I really wanted to do something "fancy" for breakfast for my apartment. I looked up cinnamon roll pancakes. They were really good, though I still need to learn a bit about them because when you make them the cinnamon sugar filling likes to run off the side of the pancakes and burn in the pan. I was watching a video a few days later and this person had let the filling harden some before she put it in, so if I make this again perhaps I will try that. When all was cooked it was very good :) I am happy with how they turned out.

This week my Fitbit has also decided to begin falling apart. I am pretty sure that it is just wear and tear, sad, but Oh well. I have ordered myself a new one and it should be getting hear shortly!!! I am excited for the new watch, I got my self the newest Fitbit band that the company makes. This is not the smart watch, I am still not really sure how I feel about those. The new Fitbit (Fitbit 2) is advertised to be able to track different exercises, so that will be nice for when I want to run on the elliptical verses lifting weights or biking. Also it has replaceable bands so supposedly if you want a different colored band you can spend the money on a different band and replace the color. I am hoping this means that it will last a bit longer, as in if the same thing happens all I need to do is replace the band instead of the whole thing. And no I am not getting paid to say any of these things, this is just the bare minimum research I have done to see if it is what I wanted to get ;)

Something I am doing this semester and hopefully future semesters is I am involved in the pre-med society. I have told some people this, but I am officially the vice president of the MCAT Study group. This means that I am actually the person in charge of the MCAT study group, but I am called vice president because this is an extension of the premed society so I am technically one of the vice presidents of the premed society that is over the MCAT study group. It is supposed to sound better on a resume. Anyway the study group starts this week, and I am hoping it goes well, I have never done anything like this before and I have never been to the previous ones so I am really taking it and hoping for the best. I do have one other board member and he is really helpful, before you ask if there is any potential of dating - no he is married, But he is really nice to have around to help me.  This past week for the Pre-med society we had an MCAT trivia day. So late on Wednesday night my group member and I got together for a bit and created one based on questions that we were able to find online. It did not take to long, but we found out that a lot of the questions that the MCAT uses involves long passages of reading and then the questions. so it was interesting attempting to find the questions to use that did not involve long passages of reading. The game turned out really well. I'm not sure if you can see the numbers but this is a finished product of what we made. I learned how to make a Trivia game on Power Point :)

Another thing that being the head of the MCAT study group got me was apparently out society has/owns all of these MCAT prep study books, so this is really nice :D I now have all of them to hold onto until the end of the semester I suppose or something like that.

It has been heating up these past two weeks, it is up to the high 30's low 40's lately, So on Thursday and Friday I decided the weather is clear enough I can start riding my bike :). It is doing surprisingly good after having been out in the cold for many months on end. The gears need a tiny bit of adjusting and things may need to be lubricated, but really all that needed immediate attention was the tires needed to be pumped up. I love the feeling of riding a bike with tires that are freshly pumped :D It makes me feel as if I am able to travel so very fast with little effort at all.

The last thing to tell is this Friday some of my roommates, a group of guys and I went to a local rock climbing wall. It wasn't to much money, actually rather cheap as compared to many other walls I have been to. I had a blast! I even completed the wall that had a slight incline to it. I did take a lot of rests on it, but I was able to complete it and I am very proud of how well I was able to do. I hope to continue to do it some time. Here are some of the pictures that were taken there :)

Funny thing about rock climbing. Part of this wall is you belay each other, they don't have people working there belay you. So turns out that once again belay is something that has a bit to do with speed and height. When people are taller than you and you are belay them (which was everyone that night) you have to be able to pull a lot of cord through very fast to keep it tight for them. Thankfully the floor underneath the rock wall had springs in it (it was also used as a gymnastics/tumbling floor so it was springed) and I was able to jump rather high on the floor. So in order to make sure that I was keeping the rope tight enough for people I was literally jumping all the time to pull the rope fast enough. It must have been quite a site to see! Sadly I do not have any pictures of this even, but you can imagine we all had a very nice laugh about it.

The picture below is not me climbing but this is a picture of the slightly inclined wall that I was ale to finish after a lot of rests. 

One thing I discovered in this adventure is how nice it is to have chalk when rock climbing! I was surprised how much it really did help. In this picture one of the girls we were with was almost done with this part of the wall, but was stuck because her hands were sweating to much for her to get a good grip on any of the rocks needed. we were not going to let her down, because we new she could finish, she was so close! So the guy that was the best/fastest one at climbing among all of us got on another rope and quickly brought her up some chalk to help her out. She was able to finish the wall after that.

Well everyone that is all for this week. I have today (Monday) off for Presidents Day, it will be a day full of homework and studying. I am grateful for these days that come because they allow me to have some extra time to get caught up on many of the things that I need to get done. What a blessing!!!
Yesterday I had the opportunity to teach Sunday School again. We learned about The restoration of the Priesthood. I am so happy and feel so blessed to live in a time when we have the restored gospel on the earth. Having the priesthood on the earth today really is an amazing blessing both for the guys and the girls. There are so many amazing things that happen now with this amazing power and responsibility that we have been given. One thing I was touched with yesterday was how blessed I am to have lived in a home and a time where the Priesthood was present. I am so grateful to have a family that continues to remain worthy of this.
I love you all so much and I hope you all have a wonderful week
Love,
Tesia

Is it Spring or just a Joke?

so I know I am late in writing this post, it really is covering 2 weeks worth of life. Last week I had my first O-Chem test, and then this week I had my first physics test. So last weekend I was a bit busy so did not update my blog, and then this week I did not really take any pictures.

Last week I took some time to once again explore the building that I spent most of my college carrier in. I once again found the "geology museum" full of some pretty cool rocks. I don't know what kind of rock this is, but it has a really cool top. I'm not sure if the picture does it justice, it looks like sparkly rocky hair growing on the back of it. 

This Semester I have been participating in the Pre-med society. two Thursdays ago we had a Maxillary/Mandibular surgeon come in and talk to us about hos job. He had a presentation full of pictures from some surgeries he had done. he taught us a bit about the face as well as what type pf physical  and mental issues could arise from a face that did not grow correctly. the physical issues can be pretty obvious, but he also talked about how he helped some people who needed/wanted their noses redone, or some other part of their face. He talked about now this helped them in many cases emotionally because many times he was helping people who were bullied a lot because of said facial features and so were beating themselves up, and so on and so forth. This was a thing that I did not think of to much before as well it is not the first thought that comes to mind when we hear "nose jobs" or plastic surgery. 

My O-Chem test went OK. I ma glad that I am auditing it this semester. I am learning so much and i am excited that I am beginning to understand many of the things. I am also beginning to understand my physics. Physics and Chemistry really are fascinating subjects and it is quite amazing the things we have discovered in this day and age. Understanding O-Chem allows us to make things and understanding Physics helps  us to do things. One of my recent Physics lab we were given a "set up of a houses electrical system" and a bunch of wires. Our Job was to set up the electricity correctly the way the teacher told us to. I was so excited! In the past when I have helped Dad do the electricity in the house, i have felt that I could put wires where he wanted me to put them but I never truly understood why the wires were going where they went. This Lab helped me to understand  what we  were learning in class and connect it to what we were doing. With some help from my group we were all able to get it set up correctly on our first try! What an amazing and exciting moment that was for me!!!! 

Then Friday Night last week I had my blind date. My roommate had a guy that was from one of the areas in her mission. She told me one night that she was convinced he would like me, we were just so much a like and she wanted to set me up on a date; I told her we needed to make it a double date then I would go. So She found a guy to ask, turns out he was dating someone so he couldn't go with her. She was telling a friend about this and the friend mentioned a cousin that would  be cool to go, and that is how she got her date.

For our date night we created homemade pizza, I made the dough that morning and that night we all made our own personal pizzas. This is a picture of my pizza, they turned out rather interesting, I still have a lot to learn in the way of making round pizzas :) After our Pizzas we went to the local escape rooms and did one of the rooms. We finished with 12 seconds to spare!!!!!! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! After that we came home and I talked with my date for a long time. I had a really fun time and I think he did to. I haven't had any follow up offers yet, but I am still hoping :)

And now this week has been full of studies and doing normal everyday things. Not really any pictures. The weather has been warming up significantly. If it keeps this up I wouldn't be surprised if flowers and trees start blooming, Yet today it started getting colder so perhaps it won't happen. Because of all of the parking lot where I live has been flooding, it has become quite the lake.

Also someone in my complex has  made these yarn things on our fence, they look really cute.

 Well that is all I can think about that has happened this week. I hope you are all doing well. I love you tons and tons! have a great week, until next then :)