Goblins and Ghouls

I'm awful at keeping this thing up to date... Ah well!

This semester I decided to take 17 credit hours. Probably the worst decision I could have made - I'll be taking it down a notch next semester (which I register for in just a couple weeks! Aaaah!). Anyways, it's made it a little difficult for me to do anything other than eat, sleep, and do homework. I'm a little scared for my G.P.A.... but I did a worst case scenario on a GPA calculator online, and it looks like I should be able to keep my scholarship, which is all that really matters to me.

I am living this year in Arcadia Apartments (#11, feel free to stop by!) with some really classy ladies:

Aubrey, McKenna, Myself, Claudia, and Kirsten

Any spare time that I am able to scrounge up is spent with these chicas. I've gotten to be a part of a hot springs adventure, and took some of the gang up to Salt Lake for General Conference.

Any SPARE spare time I have is spent with mi fantastica familia, especialmente mi sobrina, Allisyn:

She is so big, compared to last year! She's walkin' and talkin' and making my life fantastic. :)

My family has also come down occasionally to have adventures, most recently to catch the BYU homecoming game (which we won! Thank you Riley Nelson!).

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I started drafting this blog post a little before Halloween, and now it's December 3rd, so I'll just try and wrap up through Halloween quickly.

The first weekend of October is the LDS General Conference, and I scored tickets to the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions.

 We left way earlier than we needed to, so the drive up involved a lot of sleeping.

 Being there early meant we had time to traipse around Temple Square

In our seats! 

(I realize that I'm not in any of these pictures, but I promise I'm the one taking them).

I left straight from the Sunday morning session to get on a plane to Seattle, where I attended Grandma Till's funeral. I was so grateful for the opportunity to say goodbye, and for the chance to see my family. She is very much missed. 

 Brandi, myself, Grant, and Evan, at Grandma's house. 

At the graveside - before Grandma's death date was inscribed. Grant went back later and took another picture for me:

I came home and got back to work with school, but Halloween (my favorite holiday!) was coming up.

A girl in our ward decided to start a door decorating contest. I'm not sure if we ever took a picture of the finished product, but here's an work-in-progress-pic.

The end result was actually pretty fantastic... .we won! (partially because no one else decorated their doors....) Although we still haven't gotten our prize... (humph!). I'll have to find a picture of it. 

Our ward also put on a pretty kick-butt party. I was disappointed that the pumpkin carving fell through, but I still had fun dancin' with my buddies and getting to know other ward members better.

My FHE group also carved pumpkins, which was fun. 

Here are a few of the pumpkins I carved myself. 

I had carved a couple more by the end.... I'm obsessed. I'll admit it.

The day of Halloween, I saw the giant pumpkin drop at Hee Haw Farms

 This is what the car looked like after having two pumpkins dropped on it. :)

The Sunday before Halloween I made a big Halloween feast including, but not limited to:
Halloween-themed cupcakes, cookies, and jello, broomstick breadsticks, Jack-o-Lantern casserole, mummy pigs-in-a-blanket, and spider pizza.

This had a floating jello hand in it

 And this one was a skull

 We made a gingerbread house!

 Next to it you can see part of a skeleton that McKenna made from milk cartons.

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Ok! I think that's everything of interest to mention about Halloween. Oh! Interesting tidbit - I dropped a 2 credit class, so that made my life a little easier.

Rise. And. Shout.

Ok. So, to finish off my summer, I kicked the pants off of the chorus part of Sweeney Todd.

Then I toured the Mall of America with my dear, wonderful, gorgeous guy-friend Kyle. I had been told by a few sources that it wasn't that great, and that the Canadian version (the West Edmonton Mall, which I visited last year with my darling friend Carissa) was much better.

I was misinformed.

The Nickelodeon-themed amusement park was fantastic! Somewhere in between Six Flags and Oaks Park. The rides were a blast, and there were all my favorite characters walking around, including THE BACKYARDIGANS!!!!
The mall's aquarium was also fantastic. Less big animals (Edmonton had some sea lions), but some amazing sharks and fish, including a few species I hadn't seen before outside of books. I spent far too much in that gift shop, but I'm afraid it was like an addict in a meth lab.

What a goof-ball. After a bit of cajoling, he took me to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Possibly the best restaurant ever. We were lucky to be seated right next to an aquarium/fishtank, and got to make faces at the fish.

Then, to start off the new year right, I chopped off all my hair, and went from this:

(I'm sad 'cuz my hair is so ridiculous (p.s., that isn't even all of it. Half of it is on a bun on my head)

to this:

You can tell I'm happy, 'cuz I'm kissing a moose in Park City.

Since getting back to school, I have moved into Arcadia Apartments, started hacking away at my class schedule (see below), made some new friends, including some fantastic roommates, and spent some quality time with good 'ol friends from last year.

My schedule... Not sure why it's being so small. I'll fix it later.

Austie took Cody, Nick, and I up to Eden, UT, where we ate at this Mexican restaurant, then headed back. It was silly, but a really great day.

The next day was Nick's farewell. Apparently, in UT, right after Sacrament meeting, you leave church and go to the missionary's luncheon. I didn't realize that until it happened, but I was pleasantly surprised.

These two boys saved my sorry freshman hiney last year, in so many ways. I am so scared of doing this year without them, but I know that them leaving me for the Lord is where I really want them to be. Nick is already in the MTC, getting ready to head to Guatemala City, Guatemala. Cody leaves in November for Lisbon, Peru. Oh, and remember Kyle, my guy-friend from before? He heads to Paraguay at the end of this month.

I struggled a bit at the start of this semester. I mean, I made friends last year, why should I have to do it again? With that attitude in mind, I'm sorta letting friends make me. I'm not going out of way to find people to fill the aching void (that's what family and OIMB friends are for =P ). Instead, I'm sort of letting friends make me, if that makes any sense. A couple new friends and lab partners in class, and new people in my apartment complex, and personalities of the ward, are all finding their way into my friend circle. I'm excited to make it to church next Sunday (I missed last week when I went to Nick's farewell), to make even more friends.

I am very much looking forward to the long weekend. I'm using this semester concentrate much more on academics and much less on the social scene. It's an especially good goal, as I'm taking so many more credits than last year. I've been able to keep up with all my classes thus far, and even get a little bit of head. So far so good!

What you've been missing

Here's the part where I try to sum up my entire summer thusfar in one tightly packed blogpost.

Readyset?

So, after returning from OIMB, and a short side-trip into Washington before actually returning home, I scurried down to Utah to attend my brother's fantastic wedding.

I'm so happy to add Nadia to our ever-growing family. It was a gorgeous reception, and a great opportunity to spend time with my family.

My next adventure was another great chance to be with my family - The Despain Family Reunion! This year we went over to Montpelier Idaho to spend some time together and enjoy the great fun that is Bear Lake. I was kicking myself for forgetting my camera, but you'll just have to trust me that it was fantastic. It was my first chance to go in about 2 years, and I'm so so so happy that I made it!

My next real adventure will be moving into my new apartment back in Provo - which can happen as soon as the 20th. Hopefully in there I'll also squeeze in a trip to Minnesota.

In the meantime, I have a couple-few background projects to keep me entertained.

My job - the fantastic OCDC. I usually have nothing but the highest praise for this fantastic institution, but right now I have this year's horrible death and puking disease. I should be happily back to work tomorrow. I love the kids, I love the business, and I love love love the chance to brush up my Spanish.
My other background project has been working along with After School Productions to put together a performance of Sweeney Todd. Check it out, come see it, show your support, and enjoy the FANTASTICNESS that is Sondheim!

Last but not least, I've been scanning in a bunch of the family's old negatives, in the hopes that eventually we'll get around to a big scrapbooking project. I haven't had a *huge* amount of free time, but hopefully in my time between ending work and leaving Mosier I'll be able to get more things done.

It is Slain!!!

Many of those close to myself and my family are familiar with this picture. My brother (click the picture to go to his blog) drew it for our small town newspaper in The Dalles during a district merger.

That particular image has been stuck in my mind all week, but my personal hydra seemed more of this variety:

Oh noes! It's the dreaded Ecology Journal!!!!

So here's whatall was due today:

Ecology Journal -

100 pictures of Ecological Events

100 descriptions of said events - handwritten on index cards

Species, Date, Locality, Tidal Level, and Event description for each.

Silly little borders for each picture

Chopping scrapbook paper into 50 8.5 x 11 sheets

Chopping the scraps into 1 inch strips for the silly borders

Draw lines on both sides of all of the newly cut sheets to have the cards and pictures be placed centered

Ecology Notes -

Formatted Notes (harder to do than you'd think... our professor is hard to follow)

Diagrams - done to Dr. B's standard, which is ridiculous. The man teaches a course on biology illustrations

Embryology Notes -

Formatted Notes (see above)

Diagrams (see above, and multiply by two)

Embryology Pictures -

Pictures of the developing embryo (stresssssful - I lost some of my pictures)

Sketches of said pictures (see above, multiply by four)

See why I liken this to a hydra? With every head I thought I was tackling, I found myself with more coming at me from all sides. The whole week was super stressful, and even though I'd thought I was making good progress throughout this whole course, and that I'd been fairly productive this week, I still found myself down to the wire at the last minute, putting finishing touches on a project that I wasn't especially proud of. I just know that I could do so much better! Hopefully I do fairly well with my grade, as our professor seems reluctant to give less than an A as long as everything is complete. I hope I'll have the discipline, however, to re-do the parts I'm not proud of so that I can have a journal that I'll be more proud to show off.

So THAT'S a huge load of stress off, but now we're moving on to the research project presentations. Which we're giving in front of many esteemed professors at BYU. We have two days to get everything done, and my group still isn't completely sure what our data proves.... oh well, I'll worry about that tomorrow.

My dad came down for the weekend, and my wonderful Aunt Pam is coming down Monday for "Dr. B's Bash". It was great to have Dad here, although I wish I'd had more time for him and spent less time with my journal. Still, I managed to get him to buy me a meal, show him the campus and the nearby beaches, go sea lion spotting, and tidepooling at my favorite pools, all in the about 24 hours that he was here! He also made it up to Bandon without me while I finished up my journal.

The lighthouse of Lighthouse Beach

I'm crazy excited for Pam to make it up here. I haven't seen her in a few months, and she and I don't get to hang out just the two of us very often. And this'll be a great opportunity to nerd out and be marine biology nuts together!

Random picture from a couple weeks ago - those of us who got wet at the docks.

It was requested by some of my peers here that I mention them in the blog. But I have to find a way to do it unforced... I think that'll be my next posting, a detailed, in depth description of all of my new pals and our shenanigans.

I'm so excited to finally have some time with no class and few obligations to spend with these amazing people! Too bad it didn't happen until there were only a few days left.... :(

Undah Presh-uh!

Woof.

Okayso.

OIMB is drawing to a close. And I am waaaayyy more stressed about everything than I should be.

Things that are stressing me out:

Class - I still need 20+ pictures for my journal, my "babies" all died before they got to the stage that I needed them to get to, my research project just changed and I am once again not sure that we're doing it right, I can't get the drawings for my notes to look as nice as my classmates, Dr. B gave us a semi-impossible assignment on plankton, and I have to get it alllll done in the next week.

My personal life - my room is always a mess, I'm such a loser when it comes to keeping goals I set, I have been sleeping wayyyy too late (tomorrow I have to wake up before 8 for the first time in like, 4 days. Which I haven't been doing), and I've just kinda been failing at life in general.

My future life - and this one's a biggie. I have to decide whether to go back to Mosier and work at OCDC over the summer, and be surrounded by the not-so-great influences of The Dalles, as well as the risk of terminal boredom. OR I can go back to Utah, struggle to find a job, pay rent, but make some new friends and get a head start on life away from Oregon.

What it all culminates into is this:

I. Love. Fast. Sundays.

I am so grateful to be a member of this church, and so grateful for the Tender Mercies of a loving Heavenly Father. He knows exactly what I need, even when I fall so far short of deserving it. I know fast Sundays can often be seen as a chore, but I am always so excited for them. Every Sunday is a chance to renew and repent, but I know that if I really commit to every fast Sunday, my Father will add a little more light into my life. I am rarely so close to Him - which isn't a good thing. But He offers me this little chance every month to feel His love and presence just a little more, and I am so grateful for that.

Anyways.

What it comes down to is that I feel much better. I've decided I'm staying in Mosier for the summer. And my heart is just so much lighter. Pressure's still there, life's still crazy, but I know I can do it!

Also, I was introduced to this song in Relief Society today:



"We Seek After These Things"

It was perfect - exactly what I needed. It's especially poignant out here where everything is so beautiful....

Yay for the gospel!!!!

On that note, let me fill the rest of this post with some from pictures from life 'round here in Charleston. In no particular order....

I got to try out my new underwater digital camera down by the docks - it was also a good excuse to finally put on my wet suit. I was happily surprised with how warm it kept me, although my feet were still numb fairly fast.
Here we all are in our fancy duds - those of us who wore them, anyways. Some people stayed dry.
We went dredging out in the boat for plankton such as this. We didn't catch a lot, but this little guy was by far my favorite.

The two are crazy similar, amirite?

My mom, Lauryn, and Evan all came down for Memorial Day weekend. This is a picture taken while we were all crabbing and Mom was testing out my new camera.
Okay, so, this HUGE PELICAN JUST CAME FOR A VISIT. We were down in the mudflats and it just landed right in front of us! It actually landed closest to me, but I moved away once it started walking at me. That thing was surprisingly intimidating.

Here's some video. I have more like it, maybe I'll upload it later.

These are some of the hermit crabs that we're using for our research project. They've all been painted with nail polish and have numbers written on them. the only problem is that these numbers fall off, which keeps us on our toes.

This is kinda unorganized and sporadic. I'll try and catch up on Memorial Day weekend better, once I download all the pictures from my mom's facebook album.

Till then, I have class in 7 hours, and I should probably get some sleep before that.

Makin' Babies

Yesterday we started our developmental biology class - as if I wasn't swamped enough. On the plus side, apparently this means that the next few days are spent chillaxing and occasionally checking on our "babies", as Dr. B refers to them. This is giving me a bit more time to organize notes, draw diagrams, and fret about the looming research paper that I need to write.... oi vey.

Anywho, we're working with two different species - dendraster excentricus (a sand dollar) and strongylocentrotus purpuratus (a purple sea urchin). We were originally only going to use the sand dollars, because their eggs are so much prettier.

This is a sand dollar egg - notice the pigment cells around the egg in the jelly layer.

And these are the urchin eggs - no pretty dots around, so Dr. B likes them less.

To get the animals to broadcast their gametes, we inject them with KCl. This gets them CRAZY excited. Ever think that an urchin might not be an animal? Check out this clip - watch that sucker dance!

So, I uploaded a picture of each early development stage of both species, but now that I think about it, I doubt y'all are that interested. So I'll just share a few of my favorites.

4-celled sea urchin. See that circle surrounding it? That membrane forms after fertilization

8-celled sand dollar

One reason why we're working with both species is because only two of the groups were able to get their sand dollars to take. My group was one of them, but in the process, many of our cells lost their jelly coats when they were exposed to too much heat. Which is lame, because aside from that, the two species have more or less identical embryos. It means I have to be RIDICULOUSLY meticulous about labeling the pictures and paying attention to when I took samples of which..... blech. Also, while changing out their water, we got a bunch of filter paper in with the eggs, so a lot of our pictures have fibrous nonsense in the way.

BUT, things are a lot less stressful now that things have at least started moving. We spent the first three hours or so of today fretting over these sand dollar eggs that just would not take. Now that things are moving, we can sit back, relax, and watch these babies grow! Tonight my shift is from 10-1 a.m. - not too much later than I'd already be up. I'm not excited for the 1-4 shift, though....

Short and sweet

Nothing too terribly eventful today. Jason gave me a bit of a self-esteem boost at the tidepools, calling me an "Adventure Woman", because I was clambering to hard to get places with him. Helped relieve me of some of my frustration with my own silliness from yesterday.

Speaking of which, remember that crab, the one that took a chunk out of me?

Well, he was delicious. :)

Now I'm off to try and fix the jumbled impossible to understand quandary that is my lecture notes... or maybe Dr. Who. We'll see ;)