I love this picture because this is seriously the epitomy of how my hair has been the last month. It is so “staticy”. Is that even a word? But seriously, I have had the worst case of static cling with my hair. I need some recommendations on shampoo.

ANYWAY! Besides that, here is a pic of the gang on the Narrows Hike. Good times had by all. I really am so glad that Levi and Julie invited me and I am really grateful in so many ways that I made it out alive!

If you want to see more pics…go to my facebook. 🙂

Today I finished my nanoscience class and I am so excited so it totally put me in a good mood. So then I decided to drive to my moms to get my mail and I saw there was a farmer’s market. I stopped by to check things out and I had so much fun! It’s so cute to walk from booth to booth and get fruits and veggies and sample things. I am such a nerd, but I loved it. This is what I got.

If you look closely, there is some Winder Farms milk in there (it’s skim!). Their milk is the best! My mom orders it and I totally hopped on the bandwagon.

I went to open my mail and I officially have my passport now! Woohoo!

This past week I have been taking some classes towards my masters. I get paid 1000 dollars for six days and get three graduate credits for it. It is all based around nanoscience. Seriously, when I first read that on the application I was totally weirded out and had no clue what it was. So I found out its this big trend now where scientists look at things that are really tiny (not microscopic..but even smaller than that..which is nano) and they have studied that things that are nano have different qualities than normal things that we can see with our eyes. The qualities of nano-technology will supposedly make things like 10 million times stronger, faster, more durable, etc.

Side note: I will spare you the math and science lectures that I have had. But I’ll tell you what, today I totally lost it. I sit with this really funny group of guys. During a lecture on protein self assembly (yes I know, nerdy), I totally lost it laughing so hard that I had to almost leave the room. So it’s been way fun to meet new people, and really funny people might I add.

But anyway, as boring as it sounds, it’s actually kind of cool to see some of the stuff that they are making out there. Like look at this clip on a “nano shirt”:

So anyway, I’m just putting that out there for you guys to start looking at it. It’s amazing how much science has learned and is learning. I’ve been studying it if you have any basic questions…kind of nerdy huh? 🙂

So I have never had the joy of having two swollen ankles. Is this what it feels like when you are pregnant? Cause if so, my hats off to pregnant women!

I am suffering the wrath of hiking the Narrows today. If you have never hiked the Narrows, it’s a sixteen mile hike through Zion National Park. They claim for it to be one of the most difficult trails in the park (alongside Angel’s Landing). The first half is totally deceiving. It’s a beautiful meadow and a tiny river that you have to cross here and there. Then you start walking through a river and spend a lot of time in the water…and then bam..half way through..you officially have to cross rapids, swim with your pack on, and pretty much pray for your life cause your legs feel like they are about to die from slipping on rocks and holding you steady as rushing water is trying to push you down river.

I have never seen my life flash before my eyes until yesterday. The people that I went with are total tigers. They were booking it down hill. Meanwhile, my knees were killing me and being the idiot that I am, I take the minimum medication for it, so I was dying! Thankfully, this guy David was hurt too, so we were the last people out of our group of eleven. So back to my almost death experience. There was one part where the water was really deep. I seriously could not think of a way to safely get past it, so David decides to swim it. Because we were trying to stay together (safety in numbers), I went for it too. I consider myself a pretty good swimmer, but when you are wearing boots and a pack, you start to sink. So here I was, trying to swim, totally sinking, and I can’t grab anything cause the walls and rocks are slippery. So pretty much I thought I was going to die. Then, David holds out his pole and pulls me toward him. He seriously saved my life!

Anyway, long story short. We made it in 11 1/2 hours (which the website says it takes 13..woohoo!).

As for the picture, going home our tire went flat, we had to drive on a donut, we got pulled over and told to go to Walmart and get a real tire, and basically ended up driving home at 50 miles per hour cause Walmart couldn’t help us. We hardly had any sleep the night before, so we were dying! This was the longest, yet really fun, day of our lives!

Yesterday my ward put on an activity where we would slip and slide down a huge hill at Desert Breeze Park. Normally, I just go and watch the chaos, but concluded on Sunday after crying about not having friends on this side of town, that I was going to participate and I was going to have fun if it killed me!

Thankfully Brittany called me yesterday afternoon from work to tell me she was going to go too. I totally thought I was going to be alone in the whole ordeal.

But it was a good time! Britt and I went first together and I totally flew right past her and rolled about twenty times at the end of the hill. We then decided it would be fun to have ten people go at once and pretty much dogpile at the end of the slide.

On the last run, I was the last in the group to go. Unfortunately, there was a huge hole in the middle of the slide. All I remember is my body going one way and my arm going the other (my arm got stuck in the hole!). It’s just a bruise but I seriously thought I broke my arm! Haha.

Good times!

So I have been searching for this movie since I saw it when I was ten or something. This was my favorite part ever. Even watching it now cracks me up! I am such a nerd.

So I did take my bike out on Friday. Little did I know that going to Palo Verde was all uphill, so basically my first five minutes of biking I was done. Not to mention before I even started my bike basket wouldn’t stay on! I ended up using electric wire from my school box (8th grade electricity unit) to basically attach it to my bike.

So anyway, I made it to Town Center and Alta, when I had to cross a busy intersection. There was a car coming from the left, so I had to hurry and ride across. These people were yelling about how I almost got hit even though I did have the green walk sign! They were scared for me!

But anyway, it was a good smooth trip after that. Good times.

I know Doug is going to put this on his blog, but seriously, so my family can see it, I am posting this clip. Today during our home teaching lesson Doug decided to remind us of the scene in Dennis the Menace where the kid with crossed eyes says “A…Apple”. Little did I know there are twenty you tube clips dedicated to it. I seriously could not stop laughing.

So being a science teacher I have to teach my kids about being environmentally friendly. The problem is I’m not, so I feel like a total hypocrite when I am telling them to be reduce, recycle, and reuse. My two coworkers were fanatics about environmentally friendly techniques. They would preach to me every day about changing this or that. I was the evil science teacher throwing away strofoam cups, etc. I would make my kids throw away everything and I would whisper “Don’t tell Ms. Mabbutt or Ms. Furlow”. Even my kids would say “Aren’t you wasting that?”. So yes, I am a poor example to the scientific community.

Yesterday I decided to change my lifestyle just a little. I’m not going to put my own compost heap out on my porch, but I decided to take a little advantage of this summer vacation and pretty much reduce the amount of times I use my car. Hmm…it could also be that gas is now four dollars a gallon too. So last night I went to a bike shop, got a bike lock and basket, and pretty much I am going to use my bike to go EVERYWHERE. Fortunately, I live in a neighborhood that is biking friendly, not to mention next week I have classes at Palo Verde High School which is right down the street. But yep, I am even going to bike to that with my laptop and everything. I will be a mean green environmentally friendly machine. Also, maybe it will help me lose that last ten pounds I have been dying to get rid of!

I’ll take pictures and post them today. I’m sure there will be a story out of this considering I have to ride my bike all the way to Petsmart today and bring back live fish for my pet snake. Haha. That will be a great story!