Last Final

What would life be like if there wasn't drama for your last testing center test of your undergraduate career?

I wouldn't know.

Yesterday I took a test in the testing center. I got there and the line wasn't that bad, so I was in high spirits! I took my test and was outta there lickety-split because I needed to stop by the bookstore and then get home before my clothes finished in the dryer (I didn't want a stranger to take my clothes out - especially if they weren't dry yet!).

I walked into the hallway to see my score, and I didn't see it. It wasn't there! I figured they were probably backed up because of the finals week mayhem. So I went on my way to the bookstore.

I got home, got my laundry 3 minutes after the dryer finished (and my clothes had already been taken out, put on top (STILL DAMP) and a new load had been in for 1 minute... they didn't waste ANY time!!), and went to the testing center's website online to check my score.

You can't see your scores unless you have Mozilla Firefox.

I download Mozilla Firefox.

My score wasn't there.

Now i'm getting anxious.

I call the testing center (I seriously didn't want to walk back up to campus, it was cold!) and told them of the situation. They took down my information and said they would check it out and get back to me. I started compulsively checking to see if my score changed every 30 minutes. Nothing.

All day, nothing happened.

Then finally, the test appeared under my section but where the grade was supposed to be it said, "See instructor." I didn't know what that meant, but it satisfied me a little, at least they found it!

Fast forward to tonight. I received the email correspondence between my professor and the testing center administrator person... They still hadn't found my test and they looked EVERYWHERE. But my professor said I could just retake it because he was already out of town and didn't have another test I could take.

I guess that should be good news, but mostly it was lame.

So I went back to the testing center and the line was halfway through the crossroads! Luckily I got to go straight into the administrator's office and get it all sorted out. It took forever but finally I was back in the testing center taking the same test I took yesterday, in the exact same seat.

And that's that.

But the best part? I would have been fine just not taking the test either time. On the last day of class my professor brought Christmas cheer with him. He went out of town for a conference and missed the whole last week of class. He missed 2 other days this semester for his associate dean duties. So. He decided, on the last day of class, to DROP OUR LOWEST EXAM! I already had an A in the class so no matter what I got on the exam, he would drop it and I would still have an A...

So I didn't feel bad for the huge advantage I had over the other students... I didn't even need it. That's probably why he didn't care so much...

It's the {Little Things}

Finals week is NEXT week! I graduate NEXT FRIDAY! That's in 8 days, people! In 8 days my 8th semester of college will be over. I don't even know what to think about that. It's crazy... and more crazy... and weird... and scary. But also exciting!

Anyway, here are a few things that have brought joy to this painful part of the semester.

1. My roommates and I hung up stockings on our paper fireplace. Each time one of us goes to the store we buy a little something-something to put in them for each other. (Lots of chocolates, gold glitter eye liner, Mexican sodas, nail polish, more chocolate, etc). It's just fun.

2. The other day I was writing my own theory of personality. It had to be 1500 - 2000 words. It was extremely hard to keep it so short. When I finished my first rough draft I looked down at my word count: 2000 words on the money. IT WAS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.

3. This morning when I checked the weather I saw the most beautiful thing. There was a SUN next to the 18* high. A SUN. We have a cloudless, snowless, BEAUTIFUL sky today, friends.

4. The highs for the rest of the semester are in the 20's and 30's!! No more highs in the single digits!! :) :)

5. Today the crosswalk in front of the Hart building only had a few pieces of ice left. And we could see them with our naked eye.  The sidewalks on campus are also slowly becoming more visible. (The roads all over Rexburg, not so much...) BUT THE ICE IS MELTING... slowly but surely.

6. Because of number 5, we get to enjoy the beauty of  the snow covered trees and grass (seriously snow is beautiful) because you don't have to stare at your feet the whole time you walk to avoid falling to your death.

7. I've lost my footing many-a-times but I haven't fallen yet! But I have seen some pretty epic tumbles.

8. Last weekend I walked to Nielson's in shorts. It was -1* outside.

9. Last Saturday we had a 72 hour stake indexing blitz starting at midnight Saturday morning. I went around lunchtime on Saturday and they gave me free food! Like a legit meal!

10. One of my professors decided to drop our lowest exam score! He's missed a few days this semester and will miss the whole last week of classes, so we've had to know at least one chapter for every exam completely on our own without any lecture on it at all. He felt bad because people really struggle with his classes anyway... we're not complaining!

11. Scabbers can do the maze in less than 7 seconds, operate the skinner box like no rats business, and is a master on the ropes. And he could do this ALL before Thanksgiving. Which is lucky because I now only have to go to the lab for 10 minutes to feed him most days. Hallelujah!

Power Outage

This morning I woke up a little after 6 and it was FREEZING! I tried turning on the heater but I couldn't get it to work. Then about an hour later I received this text:

Awesome. (But at least I wasn't just stupid and incapable of turning on a heater.) 

There's just something in the air when unusual things like this happen. It's annoying, but also a little exciting.

 An hour or two later I received this text:

It wasn't snowing outside but I checked the weather on my phone, it was a whoppin -10'! That's frigid. (we could have gone up to campus, but that would require a lot of effort and going out in the more-cold) So we all gathered in our front room huddled in blankets without light, heat, internet or anything. We were all starving because we didn't have anything to eat without using the stove, microwave or oven. (We're so dependent on electricity!) 

I did make hot chocolate with the water out of the tap... it worked for the first 2 minutes. But then it quickly lost its warmth. 

We were all home and bored so we decided to bring warm vibes to our apartment by building a fireplace out of paper! I did this my very first semester of college (and everybody thought it would look super dumb... but I did it anyway, and then everyone ended up LOVING it) I showed my roommates the pictures from that:

     2009

and they loved it too! (Even if it was floating above a couch)

So we made this:

     2013

Who doesn't love green brick? I mean, come on! That's getting into the Christmas spirit! 

Then we decided to clean our apartment since we were all still home and needing something to do:

Then about 11 we received a text saying power was restored on campus. So we got ready in our only source of light - the window

But classes still didn't start until 12:45. So, after all that, when there honestly wasn't ANYTHING else to do, I began studying.

A few hours later we eventually received power in our apartment. It was wondrous! 

Just a walk through campus

Just a few photos I took as I strolled through campus to the Ricks building this morning (all unedited, straight from my phone):

Love this winter wonderland!

Thanksgiving 2013

Here are a few videos from Thanksgiving this year. My extended family is seriously the best. TIMES TEN. 

The first one can only be viewed on a computer, no mobile device. Sorry

Gunderson Family Thanksgiving 2013

Sounds of Thanksgiving

Maybe sometime I'll put together a recap of the turkey bowl. 

Trapeze Try-out

My tight-rope-walking circus rat is trying out to be a trapeze artist... much to my dismay

No rats were seriously injured in the making of this {accidental} video

Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming!

I'm usually the one to make sure I wait till after Thanksgiving to listen to Christmas music. Every Thanksgiving I would load my ipod (or bring cds back in the day) with Christmas music to Utah for Thanksgiving, so I was prepared for the ride home. 

But this year, I just can't do it. I want Christmas season to be here now!

A few weeks ago I was on pinterest and saw some Christmas wrapping paper with different Christmas carol lyrics on it. I think it was still the middle of October, but I was a dead man after that. There's no going back, I'm ready!

Then this morning I woke up to a few inches of snow outside my window.

Then I looked out to the parking lot to see a rascally squirrel shivering for warmth cuddled up to someone's car tire.   It reminded me of "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose;..." why I made that connection I will never know. But I collapsed under the pressure.

It's November 16 and I just started listening to Christmas music. And i'm totally okay with it.


What are your top 5 favorite Christmas songs?

It's the {Little Things}

Do you know what time it is?!?!?!?!!?>!?

9:10 11/12/13

Today is a good day. 

These are a few of my favorite things

In random order:

• 1.    The Arizona Diamondbacks
• 2.    The Gospel
• 3.    Memories
• 4.    Photos
• 5.    Recording memories: journaling, scrapbooks, pictures, videos, mementos, etc
• 6.    The Book of Mormon
• 7.    Psychology –
• 8.    ALL learning, education & knowledge
• 9.    Good books on rainy afternoons
• 10. My family
• 11. My extended family
• 12. Social media
• 13. Jewelry
• 14. Arizona rain storms
• 15. Clean sheets
• 16. Good friends
• 17. The smell and feel of the dishwasher right when it finishes running
• 18. The prophet
• 19. Sports rivalries
• 20. Technology
• 21. Laughing
• 22. Temples
• 23. Malcom Gladwell
• 24. Digital cameras
• 25. Rummikub
• 26. My testimony of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
• 27. Stripes
• 28. Brain functioning
• 29. Arizona
• 30. The atonement
• 31. Pinterest
• 32.  Chocolate cinnamon bears
• 33. Family in general. Not just mine (see #10&11), but just the concept of family
• 34. Nature
• 35. Little kids

Awkward and Awesome: Halloween Style

You know those awkward and awesome posts? I kinda like 'em. I think they're pretty funny so i'll give you a little teaser into my awkward and awesome life to keep the suspense raging.

It's called Awkward and awesome: Halloween Style - A look at my most awkward and most awesome Halloween costumes.


Brace yourselves.

Awkward:

2001. I don't think my 10 year old self realized I was dressing up as a naked person...
But I think Matthew's costume takes the cake for the Gunderson family most awkward costume ever... (Beating my bubble bather and the one time Rachel was a piece of gum under a chair... and we don't even know what he was) Clearly this was a bad year for us.

Awesome:

2009. The stick figure. Bast last minute costume of my life, we rocked that party.

And here's this year. Halloween started Saturday night with our ward party and then a few other costume parties around the Burg.

2013. Ms. Frizzle. I was pleasantly surprised at how many people knew and appreciated who I was.. even with an evil looking Liz on my shoulder. And in case you're interested, The Magic School Bus is on Netflix :)

And just for kicks... my first ever doughnut-eating contest...

Was a fail... Rosie the Riveter beat me (She can do it :) bahahaha) And I didn't want to get chocolate frosting all over my teeth!

Assignment Photobombs

On Sunday, Sierra needed to take some pictures for one of her assignments (With homework like that, maybe I chose the wrong major after all...).  Kristen, Georgina, Kellie and I all decided to accompany her.

This was our result.

I'm sure glad I have the opportunity to live with these people. We rarely have a dull moment. They're awesome! 

SNOW in SEPTEMBER?!

Well the caption says it all... it's like I don't even have words to explain. 

It's just wrong... 

 

On the bright side, it's worse 5 minutes to the north, east, south and west of Rexburg. There's still hope for this pocket that is Rexburg. We're still hanging on............... Let's at least make it to October before it sticks. And if we could just wait till November that would be awesome, December, even better. January? I would be ecstatic! 

Here's to hopin' 

:)

The latest Gunderson-Dbacks Adventures!

Remember my last post about the Diamondbacks here? Well let me bring you up to speed on our latest dbacks adventures!

First off, remember how we were able to be part of the photoshoot for advertising and marketing collateral and all that cool jazz? Well I couldn’t make it, since I was in Idaho and all, so Matthew and Mariah were going to go. But turns out they had to clean the building that day – alas, a missed opportunity.

But oh well. Life moved on. I still had 2 sets of infield box tickets for home games in August  - 4 for the 7^th and  2 for the 10^th (Paul Goldschmidt bobblehead night).

And before I knew it, the 7^th was here! Matthew, Kayla, Jacob and I were all ready to go to the game! The tickets were at will call under my name – but that day at work I decided to check my email just to make sure I didn’t mess the dates up. Ha. Turns out my August 7^th tickets were really for August 6^th – the day before. I botched big time. So that was lame. Not only did we miss the photoshoot but we missed the game as well. It was sad – but I was just glad they were free tickets, and really I didn’t even know I was entering a contest to win when I posted the picture – so all was still well in the world – just a little sad.

That Saturday was the 10^th so Jeremy and I went and got free Goldschmidt bobbleheads! The game was great –well actually we lost, but the seats were great! 

THEN on August 24 the Diamondbacks beat their old record for the longest game in dbacks history! It went 18 innings and was over 7 hours long! When I saw this I remembered earlier this season when they beat the record with a 5 hour 32 minute game and Derek Hall made part of the upper deck tickets only $5.32. But to do the same thing again would be lame because now they would be more expensive … But don’t you worry! Derek Hall didn’t disappoint! For the next home series he made EVERY SINGLE LOWER DECK SEAT EIGHTEEN DOLLARS for the record 18 inning game. Yeah. CAARAAZY! SO… even though my whole family is poor and half of us were about to start another semester of college, we couldn’t let this opportunity pass us by! So… Jeremy went down to the box-office at 6am Monday morning and was the first in line! Rachel and I went Monday night (the 26^th) and sat right behind home plate (and were on TV in every pitch) 

Then Jeremy and Mariah went Tuesday night and sat one section over behind home plate. (Matthew didn’t want to spend the money, Kayla didn’t want to stay out late – she has XC at 5 in the morning; and Jacob and my dad already had tickets for Monday’s game that Jacob got for his birthday – more on that later. Maybe. This is getting long.)

But alas, the story doesn’t end there.  On the 7^th when I realized I messed up on getting the 4 free tickets I emailed the people who ran the contest and told them of my mistake. And, once again, the Diamondbacks staff proves why they were voted the most fan friendly team in the MLB. As I was in the car driving to the game on the 26 (the $18, right behind home plate game) I got an email back that told me they were giving me TWO MORE FREE INFIELD BOX TICKETS for Wednesday’s game! So Matthew and Kayla got to go on Wednesday! FOR $FREE.99!

But then today I realized something else. I was on instagram and happened to click on another picture I posted at FanFest. 

There was a comment on it from @dbacks that I had never seen before:

“We love this picture! Please send us the highest resolution size that you can to instagram@dbacks.com by 3/20/13 for possible inclusion in an upcoming game day program. If you could just send us the two pictures where you are holding the signs separately, that would be great. Thanks!”

Hahahahaha! I really stink at this! So alas, we’ll end on another missed opportunity. But who cares... because there were sure a lot of awesome opportunities this season! And for that I couldn't be happier!  (Now if you could make a run for the play-offs I would be ecstatic! Am I asking too much?) :)

2 Heads are better than 1 (A useless post because i'm REALLY bored)

A day in the life:

Sunday, August, 11, 2013

Sundays are perfect for matching:       

                         

Mariah and I unintentionally do it all of the time.

After church:

To dad's house we go.

Tammy gave the little kids sheets of stickers with foods on them and a piece of paper to put them on.

It was pretty fun. 

Then it was time to interact with real food. Dinner.

Chase thought my food was much better than his plate of the EXACT SAME food.
He also thought it tasted better coming from my fork. 

Then we had ice cream! And we don't let a single drop go to waste over here. 

 Then Chase took all the heads off of the lego people and put them all on one person.
 Because 2 heads are better than one.

And 10 are better than 2, of course.

Naturally, it was then a contest between Chase and Charlie and Alex.
A race to the most headliest lego person. 

 I felt bad for these poor guys. 

Left lonely and rejected. 

 And this was just kind of disturbing.

All the while Mariah, Kayla, Jacki (and I guess me) were trying to watch a movie. It's kinda hard when every 2 seconds you have to take a helmet off of a lego men. And listen to arguments such as, "Hey, that's my head!" "I found those heads first!" And questions like "Can you take his head off for me?" "Will you find me some more heads?"

Yeah, it was an excellent Sunday activity for sure.

But Alex was soon declared the winner!

 The lego head hunt champion!

I can't wait to see what the next lego adventure will be. Stay tuned.