swirling tides

you know that feeling you get when life is changing? 
it's like standing in the middle of a river. 
you can feel the current pushing you forward... or you can fight it and try and walk upstream. 
(i don't usually recommend the latter)
i have this theory:
life is going to work out.


i get so caught up in the fast-paced lifestyle... that i forget to stop and smell the roses that are blooming all around my house...

i keep thinking that everything has to be done NOW!
there is no time to breathe. to think. to do anything other than stress about life.
but you know what?
it's all going to be ok.
so sit back. 
breathe.








i have a slight obsession with this song.
:)

the garden. 
my mom didn't get the memo that slavery was abolished...
at least it gives me something to do while i am looking for a job. (any takers?) my dad says that i have "slave labor" written on my forehead. 


speaking of change, my mom talked me into doing a diet... (shhh! you can't tell anyone...)
being an exercise physiology major, i personally find all of these things fascinating... so i am considering this more "research". 
it's all about becoming "leptin sensitive"
so what is leptin you ask?
it is a protein hormone that plays a "key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure, including appetite and metabolism." thank you wikipedia for that flash of inspiration...
basically. if you are "leptin sensitive", you don't get hungry. it's a natural appetite suppressant. 

basically... the mouse on the left is you without leptin.

i'm kidding.

there are 5 basic rules to this "leptin reset"

(the foodie in me died a little when i read this.)

rule 1:  never eat after dinner.  

rule 2:  eat three meals a day.  

rule 3:  do not eat large meals.  

rule 4:  eat a breakfast containing protein. 

rule 5:  reduce the amount of carbohydrates eaten.

if you want to read more in-depth about these rules see here.

what i've learned is that WHEN you eat is much more important than WHAT you eat. (this is only partially true... but you will need to do a little research on your own from here on out.)

suffice it to say, when i get munchy around 9:00 every night, the rest of the family packs up and leaves the room. ;)

the basic way of eating follows the paleo-diet. if you've never heard about it, just think caveman. if you didn't have a wal-mart down the street, and instead lived a million years ago, what would you be eating?

and then you eat it. 

and ONLY that.

which is all fine and dandy until you drive past the chinese buffet... 

self control might need to undergo an overhaul as well...

so we're still in the intial stages of this "experiment".

i'll keep you updated.

only 4 more weeks to go...

--------------------

if you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. 

for where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained.

keep adding, 

keep walking, 

keep advancing.

saint augustine

by any other name

{day 2}

i suppose you are wondering what's in a name.

i find myself wondering that a lot too.

like who came up with things like flexor carpi ulnaris?

someone that is trying to ruin my life... that's who.

(no joke. kinesiology is ridiculous at times. unfortunately, it also makes sense too. which makes me even more annoyed.)

where did this wonderful little blog's name arise from you ask?

well, to make a short story quite long...

when i was deciding to start blogging, i realized that i needed a name.

something catchy.

something unique.

something that would be "me" all squashed into a title.

alas, i am neither witty or creative... 

i am an extremely logical and realistic person that likes to try a whole lotta stuff. and for no particular reason most of the time.  

i tried stuff about "starving student" and "health nut", but none of them really seemed to click.

"bookworm" didn't really fit either. (not my fault though! school seems to sap every spare minute of my life away. the last time i read a book for fun is almost too distant to remember anymore. and by that i mean like a month ago. when i didn't have 6 tests in one week. i told you my teachers were evil.)

what else do i doooooo?

hmmmmm... 

i shop.

nah.

i bake.

so does everybody else on the web apparently.

.

.

.

i dabble?

hmmmmmm... 

i say! i think we might have something here...

and voila!

this little baby was born.

don't judge me.

it's the best i got.

:)

and just in case you didn't get the memo:

i love this blog.

i have been feeling really stressed lately.

you know, the usual...

tests.

registration.

grad school.

boys.

(or lack thereof.)

trying to be social.

being healthy.

working out.

real life... 

i don't really think that i am a fan of this whole "growing up" thing. i really liked it when i could just mooch off of mom and dad for everything. (we had this awesome arrangement where i got a car and gas if i just ran errands for them. those were the days.......)

i don't want to lose that sense of adventure. especially in focusing so hard on trying to be successful and completing goals. i think that it is easy to lose sight of why we do things in the first place. is is to succeed or to have the experience? is it to simply pass the class or to gain the knowledge?

i want to take some risks. to get out of my little bubble of security and smooth-sailing, and go paddle my little canoe out into some bigger waters! (it might sound stupid, but it's my metaphor thank you very much!)

{andre gide: man cannot discover new oceans until he has courage to lose sight of the shore.}

now get out there and make some waves.

here comes the sun...

sorry you don't get a lot of me writing today.

i want my lunch.

 st. george monastery in the wadi qelt

this is after we crossed the sea level marker on the way to jericho... and sang 'under the sea' from the little mermaid.

we are that awesome.

 my hair was interesting today.

besides getting up increasingly later, i don't want to come back at the end of the summer with a white forehead, so the bangs are not allowed out of the center.

 i want to build my future house on the side of a ravine.

on a more spiritual note, this is what the area where the good samaritan story would have occurred.

it was hot.

rocky.

and if you took one wrong step, you would fall a long, long way down.

the interesting thing is that these hills would have been a lush, fertile green only a month ago. they are quite brown now.

but this is the "fertile" wilderness!

the grass that dies here is actually used to feed the herds during the rest of the summer. even though it is dead, they still eat it.

yum.

 this is a sycamore tree.

bible lesson:

zacchaeus climed this tree like when he wanted to see the savior pass by.

actually it isn't this exact tree.

but it was still pretty cool.

 we were storming the walls of jericho.

march two, three, four!

at herod's winter palace outside of jericho.

he died a miserable death here...

but we like to practice our crane move too.

just in case we ever need it.

----------------------------------------------

it was SO HOT!

but i love the sun :)

oh what a beautiful day!

today started out early.

at 6:30 my alarm went off...

yes, i know that it is a saturday, but i forgot to turn it off

and i couldn't go back to sleep.

so i chilled in the living room and wrote in my journal for about an hour before i started getting stuff ready for a big breakfast that my roommates and i had this morning with a bunch of our friends.

don't you just love a little "me" time?

one of the friends invited us to go shooting with him this afternoon

[he's our go-to shooting buddy... which is way fun - since i didn't shoot a gun until this last summer! we have a ton of fun going shooting with him]

i know i've mentioned how cold it is up here in rexburg, but you don't quite get the impact of just how white

it is.

i had to wear sunglasses it was so bright.

exhibit a.

sagebrush and snow.

(there might be a few bunnies hidden in there somewhere... but i couldn't hit them if i tried, so i don't even bother looking.)

exhibit b.

the snowshoes! :)

we got these babies for christmas... and talk about FAIL... this is the first time we've actually gotten to use them!

notice the lightweight jacket i'm wearing???

it was a beautiful day today! (i pretty much wrote that in a sing-song voice in my head. you should read it that way. it makes it so much better.)

exhibit c.

me.

in my bright green (and most favorite-est jacket in the whole wide world...

pssst! wanna know a secret?

it's my favorite because it has finger holes!!!)

you really can't get a jacket better than that.

oh yeah, and those are my new snowpants too.

they have these sweet little zipper-vents that you can open so that your legs don't get too hot!

i wanna meet the guy that invented that.

i was playing with them and unzipped them (and then forgot that i had) and was wondering why my knees were feeling a draft...

exhibit d.

the partner in crime.

the other half.

the brunette one (for the time being anyway).

the one that steals my clothes (the jacket is mine).

my best friend.

and now my new snowshoe buddy!

meet the younger sis: Brooke

this picture pretty much sums her up.

exhibit e.

more snow.

kinda pretty in a monochromatic way.

i love my face in this one.

we were just so excited to get showshoeing!

i don't actually think i got to shoot a gun today... we wandered around the area for probably an hour before we realized that we had left my roommate with a bunch of strangers. oops.

sorry carissa!

i'll make it up to you i promise!

(as long as it's food i think i can make somethin' happen)

you don't see this...

but this is me off-balance and on my way to making good friends with the snow

yeah brooke, good idea, let's lift our legs up in the air while we are standing in snow... i don't think that it cares whether we have snowshoes on or not. when you hit the snow after falling, it's kinda hard to get back up.

probably not listening to her posing suggestions in the future.

love the gum.

i think this one is my fav.

remember, this is not mid-summer.

we are like 4 feet deep in snow here and we're running around in t-shirts.

today was heavenly!

the craziest thing about rexburg?

you think that 40 degrees is warm

that 50 degrees is balmy

that 60 degrees is a sauna

at 70 degrees you are sweating like nobody's business

and anything above 80 feels like you have relocated to the surface of the sun

i wonder how jerusalem is going to feel this summer...

this could be interesting!

saturdays should not be wasted.

every whim should be obeyed, no matter how weird or strange.

even when that means dying your hair blue.

(i can actually do my hair... but we had to bleach the hair before we dyed it and i had to keep the piece separate from the rest of them.

actually, if you really wanna know, i am starting a new style, and you have to leave out a random piece of hair and you just use a clip to pin the rest to the top of your head.

i think it's gonna catch on reeeeeeeeal well.)

oh and don't judge me.

i decided that makeup wasn't worth it today.

cara and lauren gettin' super excited for our amazing hair adventure!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

today i am thankful for heat.

for the stuff that comes from the heater

from the sun

from cuddling

and the warm fuzzy feeling i get inside when i think about special people

(nah, nobody like that yet...)

just cool people like the one that puts up with all my antics and bad moods and still loves me anyway. because honestly she has no other choice.