Picture Dump

I finally took some of my pictures off of my phone and my camera. Here is a taste of my life as of late in random photographs.

While Susan and Fred tore apart my family's powder room at home, I was doing some redecorating of my own. Last Thursday, my boss was out and left me the task of taking down the St. Patrick's day decorations and replacing them with plastic Easter garlands and creepy stuffed animals.

Now, it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to remove such lovely dolls as these from display, but I guess I'll just have to wait until next March comes around again to see their happy, cheerful faces.

In order to get to the Easter decorations, I had to venture into the Harry Potter closet. Named after the under-the-stairs space inhabited by young Harry Potter, this little closet up on the fourth floor used to be the data entry cave, but now it houses various seasonal decorations. My photo fails to convey the true darkness and creepiness, but trust me; it's creepy.

Here's just a sampling of what I had to work with. You can see the ever-popular stretchy sequin material, plastic bunny garland, and bunny figurines, complete with ruffled collars. The bunnies really aren't that bad. The ruffles around the neck are certainly unique, but they're at least tastefully glittery.

This is what came out of my backpack when I cleaned it out a few weeks ago. Featured are various receipts, gum wrappers, lists, and several of the little spreading spoons that come with the vending machine bagels. Why is it so much easier to stick my trash in my backpack than in a nearby garbage can? What do you find when you clean out your purse/bag/backpack?

For cleaning checks, we were told to get rid of the soap scum from the shower walls, so I spent a while one night scraping all of this white powder off of one of the walls with an old Gap gift card. The scraping and accumulation of all of that powder was highly satisfying, and I'm thrilled to have a new cleaning trick; showers are my least favorite place to clean, but this makes the whole job much easier!

And finally, I present to you the abominable snow man/woman! This gender-confused individual came into the physics department, wearing a pink snowsuit, ponytail, and giant pink and orange goggles. I followed it around the Eyring Science Center with my camera, trying to snap a shot, and this is the best I could snag. I seriously don't know what gender it is. It had a rather masculine jaw, but a highly feminine voice. It made for quite an exciting afternoon at work.

*What do you think? Man or woman?*
**Will those St. Patrick's day dolls be giving you nightmares too?**

Never Too Far

While reading my scriptures this morning, I came across this scripture in the Book of Mormon that made a strong impression on me:

"And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened . . . and they remained so ever after, even in their carnal and sinful state; for they would not call upon the Lord their God." -Mosiah 26: 3-4

Reading this brings me so much hope and joy in the love of God. The people in this scripture would not come to their Lord even when they were in an unrighteous state. This tells me that the times when we are furthest from God are when we need Him the most. Nobody is too far gone to be able to call upon their Father in Heaven for help. The more we distance ourselves from Him, the more He wants to bring us back. When we make mistakes, no matter how simple or severe, the Lord always welcomes us back with His perfect and wonderful love.

Clean Start

So, it's been a long week. I've had no motivation for school, and I've just wanted to be home, snowed in with my family. It's been one of those weeks where I've been going through the motions, feeling like I haven't actually accomplished anything. In my homesick, motivation-less week, I accumulated a hamper-full of dirty clothes, dirty towels, and dirty sheets. It was a week to be endured, and I'm grateful to have it behind me.

This is how I felt:


Having made it to the weekend, I decided that I was going to have a better week this week, and that it was going to start on Saturday. I had a really fun night with friends on Friday night, then got up early Saturday to catch my friend Kimberly's rugby game. My friend Michael came along, and together, we sort of figured out what was going on. Kimberly provided some clarification later, but it was fun to see her in action nonetheless.

After cheering on the Women's Cougar Rugby team, Michael and I went to Charlotte's orchestra concert. I love seeing Charlotte play and being in her fan club. =)

The best part of the day was my afternoon/evening with Charlotte. We got Big Gulps, took one of our much-loved trips to Target, and watched the newest episode of "Chuck." Then, I decided to make a truly clean start to my week. This fresh start came to me in the form of four large loads of laundry.

I let most of my clothes air dry to save them from shrinking, so doing laundry entails using any clear, flat space I have to lay out my clothes to dry. Note the shirts on my extra bed, and in the drawers coming out of the bed. The hamper is full of clean socks and towels, waiting to be sorted, and my bedding is on the floor, waiting to be remade on my bed with my clean sheets.

I laid out more shirts in the empty drawers in my extra closet.

I hang my jeans over my closet doors, carefully avoiding the touch-sensitive fire sprinkler.

My room was an organized disaster of open drawers and closet doors, but I was happier than ever, because I got to hop into this, ready for a great Sabbath, and a better week:

Status

Thanks to Facebook, I often find myself mentally resetting my status. I don't update my actually status too frequently, but in my head, it's always changing. (For those unfamiliar with Facebook, your status displays on your profile and home page and lets you share how you're doing, what you're thinking, or whatever else you want.)

These were my statuses for yesterday:

Emily Wood is cold and doesn't want to go back to bed.
Emily Wood did go back to bed, and is a 10-6 failure once again.
Emily Wood doesn't want to face life.
Emily Wood says "Happy Birthday, Mom!"
Emily Wood is skipping Stats lab.
Emily Wood wants to be snowed in with her family.
Emily Wood is freezing.
Emily Wood hates wind.
Emily Wood is thrilled that her boss is out sick, because now she can study for her stats test, eat Girl Scout cookies, and watch "Arrested Development" with Charlotte.
Emily Wood can't feel her face.
Emily Wood hates wind.
Emily Wood loves her Book of Mormon class, but not the guy who sits behind her and always smells like broccoli.
Emily Wood wants her scarf.
Emily Wood hates wind.
Emily Wood's brain doesn't work on account of spending an hour and a half on her Stats test.
Emily Wood has no more midterms left! On to finals!
Emily Wood actually gasped our loud when she saw a girl walking outside wearing a dress, no tights, and bare feet. Doesn't she know it's FREEZING?!
Emily Wood wants to be snowed in with her family.
Emily Wood loves her Mom.
Emily Wood is glad that she always goes to bed feeling better than when the day started.

*What's your status right now?*

Happy Birthday to Mom!

It is way past 10:00, but I made a 10-6 exception tonight for my Mom's birthday. She is 46 today, which always takes me off guard; it's weird to think that my parents are closer to 50 than 40. I would like to focus, however, what I love about my Mom. Being away, I missed out on the Wood family tradition of going around the table, sharing what we love about the birthday person, so I'm sharing it now. I already told Mom, but I want everyone to know. It's always hard to narrow it down to just one thing each year, but this is what especially stands out to me right now in my life.

My Mom is beautiful. She is definitely a primper--for which I am grateful, as she has taught me much in the makeup department--but she is by no means vain. Her beauty cannot be attributed to her skin care regimen, lighted makeup mirror, and great hair stylist. Her beauty comes from her dedication to the gospel, her commitment to her family and temple covenants, and her relationship with and love for the Savior. Even though I've been away for most of this last year, her beauty still reaches, inspires, and strengthens me each day, and that is such a gift.

Mom, you are one of my greatest gifts. I love you so much and am so grateful to have your beauty and light in my life. Happy Birthday! I'm so glad that you had such a great day. =)

Success!

This is a quick post tonight, but I am determined to post more of a life update tomorrow. For now, I would like to share the joy I am experiencing over my revived iPod. I've had my iPod since Junior year when I saved my cleaning cash to buy it. It's 30GB, and outdated by a couple newer versions. I love it. It has provided me comfort and happiness and study aid on countless occasions, and I have often shuddered at the prospect of ever losing it's friendship. Last month, I couldn't get it to turn on, so in panic I took it to the nearby Mac store, only to have the employee tell me that the battery was just really dead. I swear I plugged it in to charge and nothing happened; I'm really not an idiot who thinks her iPod is broken before attempting to charge it. So, when my iPod wouldn't respond to anything yesterday, I plugged it in, expecting it to surely turn on after an entire night of being plugged in. It didn't happen. Ahhh! I woke up to a still dead iPod, and throughout the day, resigned myself to the prospect of having to buy a new one once I saved for and paid my last housing payment. Just now, however, I tried one last time to charge life back into my music-storing buddy, and, drum roll please . . . IT LIVES! Phew.

Random Funny Remembrance

My family's nickname for me is Llamaly. I'm pretty sure it originated in Jessie's younger days, when she would come to visit, play with me and Charlotte, and teach me how to correctly pronounce "yellow." I've always been a fan of the name, and in high school, our friend Rachelle took to calling me by her own variation, Llamers. Again, I'm a fan. Last week, however, my nickname turned on me in the form of a text message from Sarah, sent from Dad's phone while they were on their way over to visit:

Hello Lamers! I'm so car sick. I can't wait till we get to Utah.

Now I'm Lamers.

Felix Felicis Day

I had a Shamazing day last week and meant to post right afterward, but as with so many things lately, I just didn't make it around to it. I'm posting now, however, because a day as amazing as last Tuesday cannot go without my expressing my gratitude and awe.

6:00 - 9:00 a.m. I got up, and had a stressful, guilt-ridden morning over trying to finish up a Book of Mormon assignment that was due that afternoon in class. I love love love that class because my teacher is so wonderful. She gave us the assignment at the beginning of the semester, but I underestimated the task and never made it a priority, which put me in my Tuesday-morning predicament. Because of this, I left for work feeling horrible, and that feeling lasted all morning.

9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. I fought tears at work and during devotional. I was tired, and felt physically and emotionally drained.

2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Book of Mormon class was great as always, but I walked out of the building and felt everything coming down on me. I needed help because there was so much on my plate and so much to be working on that there was no way I could do it all. I didn't have enough time to do everything and I needed to know how best to use my time so that I could do all that I needed to do.

Let the magic begin!

3:00 p.m. I'm walking over to Charlotte's house to pick up the car, and as I was walking past Smart Cookie (an ice cream sandwich store) I felt the spirit prompting me to get some ice cream. I'm not kidding. I felt prompted to get a scoop of ice cream. I'm walking down 7th East, just wanting to get to my car because that's a safe place, so I go into Smart Cookie and buy a scoop of my favorite Double Fudge Brownie Dryer's ice cream. With ice cream in hand, I walked down the street, listening to Sting, enjoying the sunshine, and I couldn't help but smiling and just feeling happy.

When I got back to my room, I was ready to hunker down at my desk for some quality study time, when I felt a sudden desire to walk back up to campus and go to the library. What the?! I normally have to psych myself up for trips to the library or force myself to go while I'm still on campus. Normally, when I'm back in my room, I'm there to stay. Acting on my sudden excitement, I packed my bag, grabbed the Coke Zero from my fridge, and walked back to campus, loving the sunshine and loving my life.


I spent about three hours in the library, and left with everything crossed off of my to-do list for the day. Econ homework: check! Stats homework: check! Bio Paper research read: check! I was already on a homework productivity high, and on my way down the hill back to the dorms, I felt prompted to check my mail. Lo and behold, there are THREE cards waiting for me in my mailbox! Yes, I received out-of-the-blue Good Mail from Michelle, Rachelle, and Jill! Jill even sent me my own Good Mail labels. Sham. Wow. By this point, I was completely happy. I walked back to my room, reading my mail, listening to Supertramp.

At the end of the day, I was so amazed by how much I'd seen the Lord's hand guiding me every step of the way. I started out as low as I've ever been, and by the end of the day, I was as high if not higher than I've ever been. It was a testament to how the Lord knows every move we make and he cares about everything we do. It helped me see that I don't have to know the whole picture of how I'm going to do everything I need to do. I just have to follow every next step the Lord lights ahead of me.

Oh, and here's some Paula. Sorry I've been gone for so long. =)

I'm Still Here

I'm still alive and have many many posts in my head. My last month or so has been a whirlwind of tests, papers, and being an academic hermit, but I'm approaching a period of respite before finals hit. I'm finishing up my last paper for the semester tonight, and hope to celebrate with a little blogging.

Don't write me off just yet!