Whiners and complainers

Let me start by saying that it is BYU policy to take your finals during finals week. Shocking. Even more importantly are the classes with scheduled finals. Fun fact: Doug said the algorithm that would ensure that no one had overlapping scheduled finals would take a year to run. So there is the odd case when someone has two finals scheduled at the same time, but the teachers have to allow him or her to take one at a different time. Add to this that a lot of tests are given in the testing center, and are available all week, and there are some rule-benders who give the final the last day of class.
Well, after that preamble I must have something to say. My English class has its scheduled final Wednesday (20th) at 2:30 p.m. This has been in the syllabus since the first day of class. She mentioned it, we all knew about it. For the final we all just have to do a short presentation about our persuasive paper. The last two days we've been doing presentations, so there are only 3 more groups to go. It will take an hour tops, if people aren't too long-winded. And people have been whining (this is an understatement and the edited version of what I'd rather call it) incessantly about coming in on Wednesday at 2:30. Since last Friday (8th) they have been trying to convince everyone we should move it to a closer day.
The catch is everyone has to be able to come. It is considered the final, so technically we can fail the class if we miss it. The teacher wants to be everyone's buddy, so she's trying to be "accommodating." The last three class periods have ended with students' suggestions of, "Let's do it tonight, at 9:30, we're college students, we can stay up late." When faced with the comment of, "I can't come at that time, I have work," these zealots are quick to respond with, "Just tell your boss it's your final. They'll understand, they have to."
Just today I was indirectly called a "loser." Yesterday at 10 a.m. the teacher emailed everyone saying the final would be that night at 9:30 if everyone emailed her back with a "yes." Everyone had to respond, and any "no's" would invalidate the proposal. I said no. Sorry if I don't want to sit around campus until 9:30, sit through an hour of presentations, and then drive an hour home (we have moved to West Jordan btw, and Doug would have to wait for me). A boy was sitting in the hall before class, outraged that we couldn't have the final last night. He said, "Some losers probably emailed saying no, they've ruined it for everyone. Don't they understand it was for the good of the entire class? Why aren't they willing to just cancel some things? I would've cancelled my band practice, and we're performing this weekend!" Dumb boy.
The biggest annoyance is that it's a very vocal minority of the class who wants to move it earlier, the rest of us could care less, or like me, have planned our own schedules around the 2:30 final. Why should we have to change our plans just to make a few people happy? In case you couldn't tell, I'm annoyed. Almost more with the teacher than the classmates. She's the professor for crying out loud! There is no way we can find a different time that will work for every single person in the class with such short notice. She needs to just pick up some authority and stop all this nonsense.

What's wrong with a final at 2:30 anyways? It's not 7 a.m. or 8 p.m. like some other scheduled finals. And it's not even on the last day. If people are leaving early, that is their own fault, they have known about this for months. Plus, it's against university policy to take a final early because you are leaving (unless it's an emergency). By the way, a shotgun Mormon wedding is not an emergency. (Don't get married during finals, wait a week people.)

I'm done.

Sugar Cookies

Over General Conference weekend I did use my cake decorating kit, for cookies. Sugar cookies. I used this recipe and they turned out very tasty. I also used this recipe for the icing. It worked great. A little tedious to spread the thin icing without it spilling off the sides. Next time I think I'll try dipping them in the icing. I only had one set of cookie cutters, thanks to Cathy. They are woodland creatures: Moose, bear (that doesn't really look like a bear), porcupine, squirrel, fox, and a snail. Not quite sure how a snail made the cut when all the others are actual animals. Plus, Doug says the snail looks like a whale, which it does, but I failed to get a picture of it. Overall, I really liked making the cookies. The icing wasn't as finicky as the buttercream, so it didn't melt, and it dries hard so you can stack them. Here are some pictures, also, I don't know why I chose blue, Doug wanted brown, but I don't have brown and no way am I going to experiment and try making it.

Could not get the pictures to rotate, but you can turn your heads. I was trying out the snowflake like in the OBB tutorial and then I was trying to be creative with the squirrel.

This was taken while the icing was still wet and shiny. Doug really wanted a moose, so I only made one. I broke the legs in 3 attempts, this was the 4th and the last. I decorated it with a white Y, it's a BYU moose.

Oh the joys of Spring

It's my LEAST favorite time of year. I love spring. I love the days getting longer and warmer. I love all the new little baby animals. The flowers growing and trees blossoming. I HATE allergies and shedding! Sadly these two things go hand-in-hand with spring. I was petting Pepper today and realized it has come, shedding season. I started brushing her and this (after just a couple minutes of brushing) is what I got. Keep in mind she is a short-haired cat.

Yuck! And it has only just begun.... I have toyed with the idea of shaving them for the summer (Doug doesn't like that idea). Now, I know they will by funky looking for a while, BUT the benefits are: No shedding, no hairballs, they keep cooler in the hot months. And I mean, they wouldn't look that funny.

Caught in the act

For those of you who don't remember this post, here is a little refresher: Milo can open doors. It seems like recently he doesn't like any doors to be closed. He'll open the laundry room, pantry, and bathroom just for kicks. I finally got a video of him doing it.

I'm pretty sure that our new place has round doorknobs... a part of me is sad I'll never see him open a door again. Let's be honest, you have to be kinda proud that he figured it out and can get a door open in one shot.

P.s. Only one full week of classes left!

Click-It or Ticket or Die!

So just after I posted my last post on Friday night I got a phone call, from Doug. He and his brother had gotten in a car accident on their way to Denver. They were going along on the highway and a deer jumped out in front of them. Jared (brother) was driving and instinctively swerved out of the way, the car flipped over and rolled 4 or 5 times. Both Doug and Jared were wearing their seat belts so they did not get thrown out of the car. A semi-truck driver saw it and stopped, he thought they were probably dead. They both were able to walk away just fine. They declined an ambulance (later the doctor at the hospital basically told Doug he was stupid for not getting one). Scott (another brother) drove up from Salt Lake and picked them up (40 miles out of Evanston, WY) and drove them to St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake. Doug got x-rays and a CT Scan and everything looked normal and fine. He just has a long cut on his thumb, they just used liquid band-aid to secure it together, no stitches even. The Highway Patrol guy told them they will probably go on the "Seat belt Survivor List" because it is honestly a miracle that they are alive, let alone healthy and well. So to all of you who don't wear your seat belts religiously, think twice.

On a lighter note, Jared still drove to Denver with their other brother David. By the grace of Jimmer, BYU won the game, and it was exciting. Doug stayed home and slept all day while I was on my field trip. He is doing fine, just a little sore all over.

That is the closest I ever want to come to being a widow until I'm at least 70 years old. I want a 50 year anniversary, and by-golly I better get what I want.

Madness, March Madness

I--Lizzie--coming from a household full--except for Dad--of girls, has never really lived through this so-called "March Madness" business. Last year wasn't too exceptional, I hardly remember it. But this year, Jimmer Madness has made March Madness even more mad. Doug and I went to Las Vegas for the Mountain West Tournament. It was lots of fun, even though we lost in the finals. Sidenote: San Diego State fans are awful! They are so crude and rude, which is exponentially elevated through copious amounts of alcohol.

Now the madness begins. BYU was given the number 3 seed and is playing in Denver tomorrow. Today Doug's brother suggested they drive to Denver for the game. So Doug is in a car and I am watching Bones and blogging (I might've gone but I have a field trip tomorrow that I will discuss later in this post). Doug texted me this picture. He was so proud. He hooked his computer up to our tv and had all four basketball games going on at once.

So for my Animal Husbandry class we have two field trips. The class is 3 credits, but we are only in the classroom for 2 hours a week. We go on field trips to make up for the extra hour/week we're not in class. I'm really excited for them. Tomorrow we will be going to my professor's house--he has an alpaca farm--and a dairy, and somewhere else. We will help him shear an alpaca, draw blood from a ram and alpaca, and a few other things. The next field trip will be April 14th, we will go to a sheep farm, turkey farm, and turkey production plant. The sheep farm will be in peak lambing, so chances are I'll get to see a lamb being born, and cuddle with a few. Maybe that's where the saying "In like a lion, out like a lamb" comes from... lambs being born, coming out at the end of March...hmmm.

The only thing that makes me less excited about my field trip is the fact that currently an injury to my lower back limits my movement and ability to wrestle goats. Wednesday night we had a Relief Society Activity (I'm on the committee and had to help set up). I pulled out the giant rack of chairs, stacked to full capacity, from the closet. The job fell to me because everyone else there was pregnant, and we didn't want any early labor. Apparently, I failed to properly brace my legs as I pulled the 1,000 lbs of chairs out of the closet. I woke up Thursday, jumped out of bed, and promptly collapsed to the floor. I crawled back into bed thinking, "Shoot me now. I can't work like this, I can't shower like this, I have to turn in a project today. Shoot me now." Doug went to work and left me at home to recuperate, until the afternoon when I had to go to class. I worked on my project practically all day (don't even get me started on that stupid class). I had a little incident in the bathtub, mainly I was lying down and couldn't sit up for a little while. I am doing better today, but I doubt I will be 100% by tomorrow.

I also chopped off my hair on Monday. I was getting so sick of styling it everyday, so most days I didn't. It got in the way all the time. Doug would put his arm around me and pull it, it would get staticky, tangled, not worth it. He didn't want me to cut it, but every time it got in the way I would say, "If I had short hair, this wouldn't be a problem." Finally, I got through to him. It's shorter in the back than I've ever had it. It's a fun new challenge.

In like a lion...

Viva Las Vegas... almost. We're going for the Mountain West Conference Tournament (Men's b-ball) but any excuse to go to Vegas, miss school, and gamble (maybe not the last part) is good enough for me. Doug bought tickets to all the sessions, on Thursday BYU will only play in one session (don't know which one yet, so to be safe he bought tickets to both). So once we find out which session we aren't going to we can sell the tickets. B-ball fans pay big bucks for tickets. Just Wednesday a guy at Doug's work gave him (Doug) his (guy's) season tickets for the game. We sat in row 15 center court= awesome. I could see the wood grain in the court. The game was sold out (students were camped out in tents in line for their tickets since Sunday night) so we sold our old seats (row 110 or something like that) for $45... each!! I sorta feel sorry for the sucker who bought them because we lost, horribly.
Sidenote: We've been talking about grammar in my English class. I know I've been going parentheses crazy, but according to her you can, "break the rules as long as you know the rules, and you aren't just arbitrarily doing it." To be honest, I don't know the proper way to use parentheses yet, but they're really fun, and helpful to keep you (the reader) following what I (the writer) am thinking.
Well only 49 days until graduation, but who's counting? Doug and I found an apartment we would like to live in and put a deposit down. That was last Friday. They still haven't called us back to tell us how the background and credit check went. It should be fine though, right? This is the website in case you were interested. We got the 3 bedroom townhome with a garage. I like the extra space, and I wouldn't mind living there for a few years or so until we can get a home. Compared to all the other apartments we looked at this one had the most space for the least cost. Not to mention they are brand new, still being built.
Viva Las Vegas!