i am also hungry. maybe that's why i'm so cranky.

When I was in high school, I took a lot of AP classes. I also did a bunch of distance learning classes, earning college credit. I came to college with 42 hours of credit already earned. If I had known this was going to cost me $2500, maybe I would've thought twice about being an overachiever.

To qualify for a government education grant, you have to meet certain requirements, including being below 180 credit hours. I think the point of that is to stop handing out money to people who just sit in college forever, taking classes but not making any progress toward graduation. And that makes sense to me. But I have not been in college forever. I graduated in 8 semesters and one term (which is much fewer than many people). There was only 1 semester I took less than 15 credit hours. I was on the ballroom dance team. I had a French minor. I was a freaking chemistry major!

I am just frustrated. Silly me, thinking I should try to learn as much as possible and do as much as possible in school. Should've dropped the French minor like my advisor told me. (not. I loved my French classes.)

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

roses

Today was our last cake decorating class, and I finally made a cake that doesn't look like it belongs on Cake Wrecks! I was feeling really awesome about it until Aaron and I started watching Cake Boss tonight, and Buddy made a gigantic Transformers cake. Yeah...my basic Wilton cake decorating skills got nothing on that.

cue random photo of Brooklyn trying to save Aaron from being buried in sand

Five books later we're back from North Carolina (isn't summer the best? I love having time to read for fun again!). I miss listening to the waves as I fall asleep. I do not miss the sun entering my room at 6 am every morning and waking me up.

I do miss not having to pack! Ugh. We do not like this packing thing. We've made good progress on everything except the kitchen. There is so much stuff in our kitchen! And packing all that dinnerware is a pain in the butt. Bleh bleh bleh bleh.

[insert vague song lyrics here]

When TOMS donates shoes to kids in developing countries, I hope they don't donate their shoes. They seem kinda flimsy to me. TOMS lovers, confirm or deny?

Also, just for the record, my ex-roomie Laura had TOMS wayyyyyy before every Provo hipster thought they were cool. Which makes her actually cool, instead of brainlessly following trends wanting to be cool. (sorry, I think I just don't like TOMS? Probably because I do think they're cute, but I feel like I can never buy them because everyone else on campus wears them.)

In other news, I finished an awesome book today-"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest". I definitely wouldn't recommend it to just anyone (strong language, although tamer than the first two in the trilogy (probably because the main character spends 350 pages in the hospital not speaking to anyone), and some disturbing material (again less horrible than the first two, probably for the same reason)). The character that Larsson has created in Salander should be totally unlikable, but you come out of these books in love with her. She's irresponsible, she's promiscuous, she's completely unsociable, but you want her to win! You want her to crush all of her enemies! There is so much girl power in these books, it's a feminist's dream.

Anyone else ever read them? I would be gushing to Aaron, but he's golfing and didn't take his phone. So I am gushing to the world wide web instead!

amnesia

After a day that started at 3:30 AM and ended at 10:30 PM, we made it to our North Carolina beach house! (we have a ton of luggage. including three more suitcases not shown in the picture.)

And when I say beach house, I mean the beach is our backyard. It is unbelievable!

We've been hanging out here everyday. I've been racking up the freckles and the pink (red) skin. Typical.

And we went boogie boarding! My participation has caused me to be labeled the cool wife. Yesssss.

Probably Aaron and I should just live here permanently. Med/grad school? Psch.

life as of late

So, I decorated my greenish-blue cakes in cake decorating class on Monday. Let me tell you, cake decorating is harder than it looks, especially if your icing is too thin and you put too much in between your cakes so the top layer starts slowly sliding off the bottom layer. I forgot to bring my camera...and then I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of it when I got home because it was just not cute. Not cute, people!

But that's okay, because I am determined to decorate my next cake like this (for some reason the photo won't load, but go to the link to see the most beautiful rose covered cake you've ever seen, a la i am baker).

In the meantime, Aaron and I have left for St. George, and on Saturday we'll be flying to North Carolina to stay in a beach house for a week with the rest of his family! Yay vacation! We are super psyched.

Oh, and I'm done with my undergraduate schooling! I took both my biochem and psychology finals yesterday and I am done. And so ready to take a three month break until I become a grad student!

childish rant.

I do not like psychology. I do not like my stupid ebook. I do not like my weekly quizzes. I do not like my detail oriented tests. I do not think it is a science, despite the lecture designed to convince us it is.
If dream analysis is still considered a valid activity, then I am so out of here.

Get out of my life, Sigmund Freud!!!!

color wheel

Yesterday, I went figuratively back to elementary school art class and learned

yellow cake + blue gel colorant = greenish. not duke blue.

Oh well! Aqua is close enough for me. I'm going to learn how to properly ice the cake tonight at cake decorating class, so that should be fun.

Edit: photo of cakes in all their blue/green glory

sidenote: is anyone else sick to death of their blog layout/overall look? I realllllyyyyy am. So I made some small font changes. Mostly, I'm sick of all the little lines and boxes all over this page. Oh, and I need a new header. I think it will have to wait until finals are over on Wednesday (my last undergrad finals week ever!!!!!!)

also, I'm feeling a little bored about all of my posts lately. I can't seem to find the effort to write something thoughtful or interesting, I just keep slapping up some photos with a couple sentences. Not a fan! Pull your writing self together, Katie!

b is for bowling. and brooklyn.

 Meet Brooklyn. She is 3. And she beat us all (her parents/my brother and sister-in-law, Aaron, my other sister-in-law, and me) at bowling:

 (Her score is the top one. It says RARA because it was Rachel playing but she had to leave before the second game started for a murder mystery party.)

And Brooklyn finally likes Aaron!

And we all liked eating ice cream afterward! (probably for the last time at the creamery? Graham canyon, I will miss you.)

this is how we roll

We drink a lot of Diet Coke.

you like?

 We have a few items that we don't need to take with us to Philadelphia, and I would hate to throw them away/give them to DI, because I love them. So, would you like them?

 

A green leaf shower curtain from Target! (the color is much cuter than this photo makes it appear!)

 

Queen sized bedding set! It's Aaron's little sister's set that we never used because we got some other bedding and none of our sheets match (they're all grayish). Anyway, the set is really cute and kind of bohemian. Again, the colors are cuter in real life (teal, berry pink, light brown). There are three throw pillows, four pillowcases, and a comforter.

If you'd like to add either [set] of items to your personal collection free of charge, just let me know! :)

the future of science is in their hands so we tried to make it look as cool as possible

I never posted about our second annual chemistry Open Lab Day, so here it is! Last year we did the same sort of thing where we invited all students 5-12th grade to come to the chemistry building, do experiments themselves in our teaching labs (this year they made a component in sunscreen, analyzed caffeine content of painkillers, and identified some unknown compounds in a solution). We also have a big chemistry "magic" show, have tours of our research labs (lasers! nuclear magnetic resonance! oh my!), and serve liquid nitrogen ice cream. It's been my job to run around and take pictures and generally make sure things are running smoothly. It's so much fun to watch the kids get excited about science, especially high schoolers who are normally way too cool to get excited about anything. My former AP chem teacher told all of her students that if they got a picture with me at the event that she'd give them extra extra credit. So it was fun feeling like a mini celebrity getting my picture taken with all of these kids, he he. 

My sister Becky helped volunteer! And when the elementary school kids got finished with an experiment early, she was pro at keeping them entertained in the hall (she's an el ed major).

 My little sister Abby came and in this photo is demonstrating her superb reasoning skills with the magic fish experiment (put your goggles back on, missy!)

High school students work on their aldol condensation (a lab straight from the chem 353 course at the university-how cool is that?)

More high school students work on their caffeine content experiment.

Basically, it was awesome. A film crew from the college showed up at the end to capture some magic show footage and made a sweet video. Basically, chemists are the closest a muggle's going to get to Harry Potter. Click here for proof! (look for the goblet of fire)

i feel...happy of myself!

If you ever feel like you can't do something, just watch this. You will be so inspired, I promise.

"Thumbs up...for rock and roll!!!!!"

where did the time go?

Since I'm not working in a wet lab anymore and no longer come into contact with acetone (a potent nail polish remover), I have been painting my fingernails a different color almost every week. And it's been so fun! I've done dark purple/gold, deep blue sparkly, lighter deep blue, light pink, and bright red. I'm sort of in love with all of the taupe/gray/brown polish I've been seeing lately, though. Need to get my hands on some of that stuff. Also, matte nail polish! I'm curious about that!

In other news, Aaron and I are moving in 33 days. July 8th. People. This translates into 4 more weekends, 2 of which we will be gone in St. George or North Carolina. So two weekends open and available for playing until we move across the country! AHHHhhhhhHHHhhh!!! I sort of want to throw ourselves a goodbye barbecue at the park across the street from our apartment. Maybe like a big goodbye party for all of our friends who are taking off this summer for grad/med school too. Would you come? We provide the meat, condiments, buns, etc., you bring a side dish to share? I'm thinking maybe July 5th or 6th ish. More details forthcoming via facebook I'm sure.