school and stuff

I got back from Wyoming on Saturday-I wasn't supposed to come home until Sunday, but I got a call on Friday night from my mom telling me I had to come home because the carpet people were coming on Monday and we had to pull up all the old carpet. So since I'm such a wonderful daughter, I acquiesced to my mother's demands and rushed home, only to not really help at all with the carpet removal. Actually, that's not true, I swept up some nasty dirt that was underneath the padding.

The carpet people are here right now and just discovered that the carpet they had shipped in from the warehouse in Georgia is two feet too short. Apparently whoever measured did a crap job. We best be getting a nice discount.

Classes started up again today. My schedule kinda sucks. I have class from 8-9:50, 10-12:30 and 1-2:50. It was a really long day. I like my classes, though. I'm taking:

• New Testament-This class is actually being taught by a guy who's working on his PhD in Archeology, so it's a lot more historically based than feel-good, fluff stories, which I really, really like. Today he mentioned how after the Maccabean Revolt, one Hasmonean King had 800 men crucified, had their wives and children killed in front of them while they were hanging on the crosses, and then celebrated it all by having a feast with his prostitutes. Or something like that. My notes are a little sketchy.
  
• Temporal Welfare-Basically a class on being self-reliant and not being materialistic. So pretty much skills I don't have.
• Clothing the Family-This class is about concepts and theories in clothing, fashion and consumer behavior. "The Devil Wears Prada" was mentioned several times in class today and one of the assignments is to take a shopping trip to two different kinds of store and compare clothing. Good times.

Oh, and also, I'm trying really hard this term to be friendly instead of just sitting on the back row, rolling my eyes. So pretty much congratulations to me. Plus, just in case you wanted to know, HALF of my Temporal Welfare class is pregnant. I kid you not. Granted, there are only 10 of us, but still. HALF!

Good times

I'm in Wyoming visiting Lorri. Have I mentioned that I LOVE it up here? Be back Sunday!

More greatness

Check out the Awkward Family Photos website. Hilarious!

A Few of My Favorite Things

I saw Betsy's list of her favorite health and beauty products on her blog and immediately had to do my own. Now before you look at my list, I should warn you that I have, on occasion, been called a product whore. I should also warn you that most of these products are expensive, but I'm a slacker and rarely actually get ready, so the expense is justifiable because it takes me forever to use things up. That being said, these are just a few of my favorite things. I could have gone on, but I spared you.

1. Cargo Blu Ray lip gloss. When Cargo originally came out with the Blu Ray line (which I love), they only offered lip goop as a quad compact. I still love my compact, but it's much easier to use the tube instead of having to use my fingers or track down a semi-scummy lip brush. Seriously, if you're going to do a compact of lip goop, you really need to include a brush that stays in the compact. For colors (none of which are actually in the compact, which is weird), I like Vermont and Belize.


2. Sephora Mini Heated Eyelash Curler. I blogged about this one recently, so I won't say anything other than I still love it and I can't call it just a curler, it has to be a Mini Heated Eyelash Curler.


3. Cargo Blu Ray Polishing Cloths. I use these a couple times a week with a basic creamy cleanser and I swear you can feel a huge difference in your skin after using them. I also really like that they're reusable.



4. Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer. I've blogged about this before too, so I'll just say one word. Magic.


5. Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals Powder Foundation. Liquid foundation always seems to leave my skin feeling greasy, so I love that this is a powder. It goes on fast and easy and blends in really well with your skin so you don't get that nasty foundation line along your jaw.



6. Jonathan Product Silky Dirt. I have hair issues. My hair is nasty frizzy/wavy (NOT cute curly) and really thick. This means that unless I'm putting my hair up, I have to do something with it, like straighten it. That's why I pretty much always have my hair in a pony tail. But when I do straighten my hair (which takes forever and then some), this stuff finishes it off perfectly. And I love that you only need a tiny bit to do the job.



7. Philosophy Melon Daiquiri Shower Gel. This stuff smells like perfection. It's also perfect to travel with 'cause you can use it as shampoo too.


8. Vera Wang perfume. I love perfume and own waaay too many. Despite all my options, I always come back to this one . . .


9. Burberry London perfume. . . . or this one.


10. Laura Mercier Foundation Primer. This stuff is magic too. It makes a huge difference in how my skin looks and feels when I wear foundation.


11. Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion. I love that this doesn't have a scent. Don't get me wrong, smelly lotions are great too, but I don't like to mix perfume and lotion scents.


12. Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream. I have super dry skin and this is the only moisturizer I can use on my face. Nothing else seems to be strong enough.


13. Apricot Scrub. I actually just use the store brand of this stuff (Target and Wal-Mart are best). I love how clean my skin feels after using it.

yummy beans

I made these baked beans today courtesy of the Barefoot Contessa, via The Amateur Gourmet. They're time intensive, but not overly difficult, and they're definitely not your traditional baked beans. They have chili paste and fresh ginger in them and that gives it a nice kick. The recipe also calls for real maple syrup, but I wasn't willing to spend that much (of my parent's) money, so I used regular pancake syrup. Kinda ghetto, but it turned out fine. I'd like to try this recipe again, but use different beans; maybe Anasazi. Kidney beans have just never been my favorite.

The redecorating pics . . . finally!

I was supposed to post these a month ago, but just haven't gotten around to it. Unfortunately, we didn't take before pictures, so unless you've been in my house before, you can't really appreciate the difference. Anyway, here's what we did:

We live in a split-level house, and there's never been anything up in the stairway/entryway, so we put up a collage frame (carefully making sure each grandchild had the same number of pictures), and vinyl lettering.


We also put up vinyl lettering in the upstairs hallway. A lady in my ward made the letters for us and she did a great job. You can check out her blog and order letters from her here. It was nice to be able to pick the saying we wanted, the color, font, size, etc.


My bathroom used to be periwinkle with a yellow border. It was nice, but after a while it just got to be too bright, so we went with terracotta and brown. I love it!


Our kitchen cabinets used to be just an ugly dark brown, and they were decorated on top with a hodgepodge of different crap that was rarely cleaned or dusted. Kinda nasty. So we painted the cabinets and put all new stuff up top. It looks soooo much better. We also got new barstools because we had had the previous stools since the beginning of time and you took your life and dignity into your hands every time you sat down on them.


And finally, we redid my parents bedroom. It had never really been decorated before; the walls were just plain off-white and the bedding was whatever shade of brown was on sale, I think. My mom had actually picked out the bedding before they went to Spain, so we picked paint and curtain colors based on that, and I think it turned out great.


You can't really tell but the curtains are a gorgeous green and all satiny.


We also put up vinyl words in here too. We originally wanted to put these up in the entryway, but obviously the cream color wouldn't have worked very well. You can also see the wall color better in this picture. It's a great brown, but the flash kinda washes it out in the other pictures.


And those letters really aren't slanted, the picture is just at a weird angle.

Hilarious!