welcome!

the olson family is proud to announce the arrival of 

a

baby

GIRL

okay a baby girl

DOG!

a

PUPPY!

bringing her home from the pound
that face is killing me

part daschund/chihuahua?
ignore me grinning like a loon please and thank you

all snuggled up

A. passed her math class, so we got a puppy! I'll be honest, I didn't think it was going to happen, but it did! The name is still in the works (okay, they have a name picked out but it's not my favorite so I'm hoping it changes). I just wish I could be home to see her!

Today was the usual school/homework/gym grind. Nothing too crazy to report!

build night!

Today was quite the day! First of all, we had a campus visit from some dancing stormtroopers a la this viral video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyqfHvoUtkU (yes it was filmed in SLC).

here they are at byu. i was on my way to class so i took this
pic pretty fast-can you spot them in the back?

Then after my lab it was antenna build night at BYU ARC! N very kindly brought some treats and I made a 70 cm antenna! Too bad I have a 2-meter, as I found out later...

And while I didn't make it to yoga, I did make it to the gym and passed these guys on my way over!

banana!

Now after homework it's bedtime! Another busy day tomorrow!

The best FHE to date

Tonight was so much fun at Trafalga! We played putt putt golf with black lights, laser tag, and rode on one of those little kid "Frogger" rides. Plus J-Dawg's=DELICIOUS. That secret sauce, man.

T posing.

And then it was back home to do some homework, sneak in a little Korean drama, and now I'm off to bed so I can try and hit the gym before class since I couldn't tonight!

wild week ahead

This week should be fun! Very busy, but fun. I'll keep you all posted!

Today was a lovely day at church, followed by meeting our new home teachers (we weren't ever taught last year, so we were assigned some new ones! woohoo!), a delicious dinner at the W's, and then ward prayer where L was spotlighted and shared her talent of photography. She's National Geographic-worthy, for real.

Then it was time for FaceTime, which included chatting with this cutie:

my favorite (albeit blurry) pooch

Then I finished up my study for my Living Prophets class, and now I'm off to bed! Tomorrow we have our ward's winter Opening Social at Trafalga (kind of like Golfland or Charlie's Safari), which includes some free J-Dawgs! I'll try and take lots of pics to finally get some interesting content on here, don't worry!

a sweet saturday!

Today was quite excellent! We had a yummy brunch of french toast and yogurt, with M as a guest, and then it was homework time. For lunch C and I walked up to campus and we met L, who is from my stake back home and was in C's hall last year. It was so so so much fun to eat and catch up! We seriously chatted for three hours.

Then back home-where I finished some homework, went to the gym, and headed over to C's brother C's apartment for a round of Scum (which is pretty much the opposite of the Great Dalmuti which made things a little confusing). Then we caught The Help on tv and now it's off to bed!

Oh-and C did some much needed laundry.

her basket was overflowing.

As she said yesterday-"laundry day MUST BE tomorrow or else!". Haha. I have definitely been in that boat before...

party hats, party hats yeah!

I will award anyone 50 points to their respective house if they can name where the title of this post comes from! It's a party because today was our friend C's (not the roomie) birthday! Very exciting. We went to see Jack Ryan at the discount movies and it was quite intense. I'm not usually one to think that a movie is "intense" but man this one sure brought it! We also went with our friend D and after that hung out at the house with M.

Tomorrow brings some yummy brunch and some more homework and gym time. Such is the life of mine...

the end is near!

The weekend is near, that is! Today was the usual homework/recitation/class/home/yoga and it was all great. I'm keeping this short and heading to bed so I can get some more work done in the morning before class!

first world problems:
when the yoga instructor is late

And with that goodnight and here's to the weekend!

hallelujah!

And my phone is saved! I guess two and a half days in a bag of rice really does help draw all the moisture out! And as far as I can see, there aren't any problems with the mic or the camera lenses. The miracle of modern technology and the humble grain.

Today was a busy day, just because I had four classes. On a happy note, I did get a 20/20 on my Molecular Bio quiz! All right!

Tonight was the usual dinner/gym/homework grind. Now I may catch another episode of Iris with C before heading off to bed!

I'll end with the last photos of Zion before my phone went for a swim...

a little swamp

D scaling the wall...

can you spot C's shadow?

look! a mermaid!

posin.

nothing much to say

Today was just the usual Tuesday schedule of lab/dinner/Amateur Radio Club/yoga! Nothing new to report. I'm off to bed a little early to get up and finish some homework, so just a quick post tonight.

Phone update: it's still hanging out in a bag of rice! Let's hope another day will really get all the moisture out and it'll be good as new...

back home!

Today began with a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, strawberries, and OJ! Then we headed off to Zion's again to do a couple more hikes, eat some lunch, and hike some more. We never did any difficult hikes, which was actually the best! We just walked the trails and had an awesome time soaking in everything. Then it was back to St. George to pack and then we headed back to Provo and made it in at 9! Not too shabby.

The only downer is that during one of our hikes today I dropped my phone in a puddle :( It was submerged, but only for about 2 seconds. So it's currently drying in a bag of rice and will probably remain that way for the next few days...let's hope it makes a full recovery.

Tomorrow it's back to school. At least it's a Tuesday schedule so I only have one class, my MMBio lab. And then a ham radio meeting and hopefully I can finally make it to yoga!

sunday in st. george

Today we had church, a delicious dinner of stew, and then some tv time because tonight was the US premiere of Sherlock! And with some old-fashioned popcorn, too!

First: a couple more cute pics from the hike!

i like rocks. and this roommate of mine.

look how cute we are.

matching with a random bag
today in church. sweet.

he was simultaneously listening to the tv show
and popping popcorn for us. all right.

And then after that came the weekly write-lots-of-missionary-letters and now I'm off to bed! Tomorrow we're going to head back to Zion for some more hiking and then it's back to Provo.

adventure is out there!

We arrived without incident in St. George, and then the rest of the day was an absolute blast. We first had some lunch, which consisted of some delicious sandwiches, and then drove out to Zion National Park. Prepare for a picture overload because it was so so cool! <-- not all of them would load (I seriously had about 30!), so hopefully I can get more up tomorrow.

 

my favorite.

panorama.

the most perfect, natural mint green/turquoise ever.

and some cherry almond nielsen's to finish off today!

Tomorrow we're headed to church and are planning on taking a ride in Pa's Model T! Hopefully it's fixed up enough that we won't die :)

off on an adventure!

Tomorrow my roommates and I are heading to St. George for the three-day weekend! A fun little getaway. Hopefully the drive goes well and we can have a wonderful time!

Tonight we had a little game night and played a censored Cards Against Humanity! It's basically an adult version of Apples to Apples and can really can be quite funny or horribly inappropriate, but I think we were able to weed out the bad ones and have a good time.

And now I need to get some rest since I'll be driving tomorrow! Luckily it's just about 4 hours, so compared to my Boise trips it should feel like a quick trip! At least that's what I'm hoping, haha.

I should be in bed

I should be asleep because it's late and especially because I'm trying to wake up early tomorrow to get a flu shot! Here's a quick recap of my day:

I just had my Clinical Lab today, and it was still a lot of intro stuff. Pretty chill.

did you know the bathrooms in the widsoe
have beds in them?

I also discovered this lovely note at home:

coconut dip that you eat with graham crackers.
yum.

And then tonight I went with C. to support her as she supported her friend N in the jazz band! Pretty fun. I do miss band sometimes...

Tomorrow brings the start of the three day weekend! And if all goes to plan it's going to be awesome, let me tell you. Stay tuned for more!

cultural activities

C and I have discovered a whole new world- Korean dramas, thanks to her brother and co who all served their missions in Korea. It has certainly been fun to watch some of them, especially because sometimes the characters go to Japan on secret missions and C can practice translating! Haha I guess it's up to me to introduce everyone to some good telenovelas now-I'm thinking Corazón Salvaje?

Today was the usual school, but tonight for dinner we made homemade pizza, which was kind of fun! It was just hard because we made a couple of different varieties, so by the time one was done another was cold, etc. But I'm glad we could do something different for dinner and all together! It really is fun to get back in the habit of eating all together. We have too much fun.

Tomorrow brings another lab and preparation for cleaning checks, as well as trying to figure out what our plans are for the three-day weekend! We're trying to maximize all the fun we can have :)

quick post

Even though today wasn't super busy for some reason I am tired tonight! So it's a quick recap and then I'm off to bed.

Today I just had my MMBio Lab, where we actually did some experiments! It seems to be a nice review of a lot of the labs that I did in AP Bio in high school, so that should be good.

After class we went grocery shopping, where I finally picked up an ice scraper for my car in preparation for any more storms that come through. Then we made some delicious baked sweet potato fries with black bean burgers for dinner. Yum.

Today also brought more fun texting with the madre...

voice to text is just killing it. 

And I was able to get a cool shot of the moon and the mountains! Not too shabby for a cell phone camera.

just peeking through...

And with that, I'm off to bed! Tomorrow is another one of my longer days, so here's to waking up a little early to get off on the right foot.

another monday

Another good day! Today was missionary Monday and I just have to share this hilarious snippet from my friend Elder Ball. I had mentioned that winter classes had started here at BYU, and he said in his reply:

"This semester I'll be taking Book of Mormon 563, Bible Bash 457, and Baptizing techniques 123. Just the norm you know."

I just about died of laughter! Too funny. Today we also had FHE with some new apartments and it was way fun with lots of doodling and cupcakes and resolutions. 

This week all the aerobics classes start up again, so I'm looking forward to yoga tomorrow and Thursday.

all these awesome classes I can take!

Tomorrow brings my MMBio lab and that's it! Hopefully I can fit a grocery store run in there too :)

a sunday well spent brings a week of content

So.....Today I went to church and then headed to the W's for dinner, where we played the Great Dalmuti for I swear like two and a half hours. We're pretty hardcore. Then we ate some birthday cake for J and watched a little bit of the Golden Globes, I was able to do some laundry that didn't cost $5 a load, and then headed back for ward prayer!

hijacked phone

one of the many great dalmuti's

Tomorrow brings the start of another week! Let's hope it's great. So begins week 2 of Winter semester...

super saturday

Today was great! I got to sleep in, then I hit the gym. After that I went to the International Cinema to watch El Orfanato, or The Orphanage, a Spanish movie for my Spanish Literature class. Holy cow. It was just a little crazy! Plus I found out it's a Guillermo del Toro movie which explained a lot of the scary weirdness, to be honest.

Then it was time for some homework and then getting ready for a bonfire! Which was pretty fun. We went with a bunch of other people from the Riv and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. So a win-win.

pre-bonfire: testing possible kindling
substitutes.

fire.

some of the peeps.

Tomorrow brings church and another great time at the W's! And then just another week, but then with a 3-day weekend! All right!

first week of school: check!

And with that the first week of winter semester 2014 is over! It's officially no longer Syllabus week and the real work is kicking in. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun on the weekends :) Tomorrow brings the International Cinema and a bonfire! I'll try and not freeze and take some cool pictures.

Tonight was nice and low-key. We even did some doodling just for fun. And L made a delicious asparagus pasta with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes for dinner! Yum yum yum.

the doodle masterpiece.

And in other news, I made myself get out of bed before 9 o'clock this morning! It's really nice to have classes later in the day, but I'm trying to force myself back on to a regular schedule so I can get some work done in the mornings as well. Which means that tomorrow I'm going to try and wake up at a reasonable hour too...sigh. Although my roommate has to be up on campus for a work meeting, so maybe she can help drag me out of bed too.

already almost friday?

This week went by pretty fast! And it worked out pretty well. Too bad snow had to come in and freeze everything over...I swear I have almost slipped on ice 10 times today!

it's a far cry from California weather...

can you spot the snowman?

Tomorrow I just have three classes and that's it! I'm hoping to be able to go to the International Cinema for spanish either tomorrow night or Saturday, we'll see what happens!

snow

Ew. The snow came back in full vengeance today, and it will be that for almost the rest of the week. Blah. And of course I forgot to take any pictures of it, but I guess I should be able to get some tomorrow or the next day (gross).

Nothing much to report today, just the usual school/gym grind. I found the easiest recipe for a white bean chicken soup though! So we had that for dinner. Yum. And no cilantro, which D was very happy about because it isn't her favorite.

Goodnight and I'll try to get some rest-these past few days it has been really hard to fall asleep! And then of course I wake up and feel like I didn't sleep at all. No fun!

today was a good day

I only had one class today, my MMBio Lab, and I loved it!! And I was also added to my Spanish class! Tonight we had an Amateur Radio Club meeting that was very technical but I stuck in there. Yeah!

Found this note of encouragement while waiting for my lab.

the note says to keep smiling. i'll try.

Plus I also had this funny convo with the mom. Love that voice to text option on the iphone!!

texting with the mom

Tomorrow brings more classes and spending money on textbooks :( I swear, if you want to be a millionaire that is the way to earn some money quick. The prices are crazy! Luckily Amazon is always there to save me.

first day winter 2014

And with that another first day of school is over! Today was a pretty good day. I like my schedule and hopefully it will stay this way.

a new semester means a new schedule!
although it still isn't final..

This morning I had my first class start at 10 (woohoo!), and it was The Living Prophets. My teacher is awesome-she looks exactly like a friend/her mom mixed together from back home. Crazy! It's going to be an amazing class, I just know it. Plus we get to tackle all sorts of crazy topics which is always interesting.

Then I had Molecular Bio, and man can I say I am so glad to be getting back into my major classes. So. Happy. It's stuff that I feel like I have had a grasp on my whole life and it's not like it changes even if you don't take a science class for a semester! So that should be good.

Then I had my Infection and Immunology class, and I was worried about the professor because I hadn't looked up any reviews/ratings on him since he was the only teacher for this class this semester and sometimes ignorance is bliss. But never fear! He is hilarious and it sounds like another stimulating class where I can continue to use what I already know.

My last class of the day was a Spanish class, and it's the one I'm nervous about because myself and a couple other people are still on the waitlist. I would really like to get in because I have some friends in that class, plus I wanted to keep my Spanish writing skills up to date and not waste a semester without a Spanish class. So keep your fingers crossed that I can get in!

 I also was able to unpack some more and even put up a Christmas gift! Just a little bit more of California I have with me in Utah :)

yeah.

Tomorrow I have my Molecular Bio lab and that is it! Although it's 3 hours, but hey, time flies when you have fun! (let's just hope it will be a fun class...)

catchup and school starts tomorrow

Whew. Get ready for a major post of catch up.

Monday: A got her wisdom teeth removed and she did much better than I did on medication. Not fair. But I didn't throw up at least! I'm no cheap drunk.

sleeep.

"take a picture of meeee!"

are her eyes going in different directions?

 

walked the Dish and found this house
still decked out for christmas! fun!

Tuesday: New Year's Eve! We had some fondue (cheese and chocolate) and then I babysat and made some moolah. Woohoo!

make a wish! or resolution!

 Random: found this on my phone (...little A....)

a catapult perhaps?

 Wednesday: Creme brulee.

propane torch in action.

artsy.

Thursday: Visited Capitola, walked around downtown and hit the beach! It wasn't super hot but not super cold either.

ah California.

postcard-perfect. 

a and his bridge. 

Friday: I got to tour Stanford's clinical labs and hospital to be kind of a preview for a class that I'm taking this Winter! It was a pretty awesome experience. And it got me excited to learn more about Clinical Laboratory Science!

hey i'm a visitor! guess i'll park here. 

Saturday: I was soooo sick. Both me, little a, and the mom had a horrible bout of the stomach flu. Eugh. It was probably the sickest I have been in a long, long time. Luckily I was able to recover in time to fly home today and not barf on my flight home today. 

Sunday/Today: Made my flight, caught a scary shuttle home, had dinner at the W's, and am back home trying to unpack. I'll admit, I'm not super excited about starting another semester tomorrow, but I'm hoping it will be good!

spotted: doge in the airport. 

Now that I've updated my blog (ahem dad), I just need to email my missionaries and then it's off to bed. Luckily class doesn't start until 10 tomorrow! All right!