Flowers, flowers everywhere!

As part of my wonderful major, I'm taking a class called Herbaceous Plants. My friend April so kindly told me that this sounds like a class from Hogwarts, not BYU. Though it may seem friendly and unassuming, this class has been very difficult and demanding on my time, largely due to the fact that I have to memorize 25 plants a week, by sight, common name, scientific genus-species name (and cultivar, if applicable) and family. And then there's a quiz on it. I didn't do so hot on the first quiz, because I wasn't expecting it to be quite so rigourous. 38/50 - one of the higher scores in the class. This week though, I've been most dedicated in my learning of these plants (summer perennials this time). I visited the gardens at BYU where the plants are labelled, and searched for the plants on my list.

Then I took pictures, made flash cards, took another tour of the gardens, etc. (i'm very proud of my flashcards, and we use them at work to study, since three of us are in that class).

So not only can I tell you that yarrow and shasta daisies are in the same family, I can also now tell you what the floret pattern of the Scrophulariaceae family is, and that catmint and sage are more closely related to lavender (all in family Lamiaceae) than sea lavender is (family Plumbaginaceae).

Also, I just have to add that I love my new camera and its macrozoom settings which allow me to take awesome pictures of flowers. yay!

Dianthus - Dianthus (these are the best kind, when common and scientific names are the same!), family Caryophyllaceae

Echinacea purpurea - Coneflower, family AsteraceaeGaillardia aristata - Blanket flower, family Asteraceae

Beauty is Pain, darling!

On Tuesday (Sept 15) I bought new ballroom dance shoes! Specifically, Latin ballroom dance shoes. I love them - they're so beautiful! I can tell they will definitely help improve my dancing, but first I have to break them in.

They are a solid three sizes smaller than my previous shoes,

which I purchased on too little information off the internet. My old ones have been adequate for my purposes until now, but since I'm taking a Latin ballroom dance class now, I need shoes that fit correctly. A correct fit for a ballroom shoe is very, very snug. The shoe should be one with your foot! You can see in this picture that my new shoe fits this qualification, while the old one fails miserably. So now I just get to suffer throught tightness and stiffness and blisters until these shoes are broken in. Fun times!

Is it Fall yet???

This year I'm unreasonably excited for the fall season. The other day I was walking through campus when I looked up to the mountains - Red! The leaves are starting to change colors up in the mountains! I especially miss Cache Valley this time of year for the changing colors, Sardine Canyon in particular, but Provo is not too shabby.

For the past month, Melinda and I have been looking wistfully at our long sleeve shirts and our cozy sweaters, wondering when we would be able to justify wearing them. Today walking to church it was cloudy and a bit chilly, and Melinda said, "Hey Jessica, if it's like this after church, we can wear sweaters today!" So guess what we did as soon as we got home from church? That's right. Sweater time. We were so excited by the event that we had to take pictures even. Granted that it's still above 70 degrees outside (which weatherbug reading I'm quite skeptical about, but then, I haven't been outside), but nonetheless!

Some of the reasons I'm so excited for fall:

• Sweaters, hoodies, scarfs, and jackets
• Trees changing colors
• Drinking hot chocolate
• Eating soup, and other hot dishes
• Having a real quilt on my bed
• Not sweating so much at work
• The smell of fall
• The fact that I don't have to rake up leaves
• Football games
• Weather (just, in general, not just hot and nothing else)
• other reasons i'm unable to articulate

As summer ends...

I start school next week, so now is the time to contemplate on what an amazing summer this has been. It's had its lows and its highs, busy times and boring times, extreme heat and relative coldness, but taken all together, it's been one of the best summers I can remember.

In May I went to Seattle for Camp Jitterbug, where my car was broken into. That was definitely a first. Luckily, thanks to great friends who take care of me, it turned out not to be too much of a traumatic issue, just a learning experience.

June was spent in Europe with Tina, the family, and the Smiths.

Third time in Europe, still love it. I'd have to say that the Alps were my favorite, particularly Switzerland. I loved being able to spend time with my family (including Tina!) and the Smiths.

July I mostly remember for Alyna moving home, getting to hang out with Mom, and for the 24th of July camp out experience. Such a party will not soon be forgotten!

August was our Las Vegas adventure, mostly appreciated for the road trip part, and hanging out in South Jordan.

Also, I had a Relief Society camp out and a Ward camp out, both very fun and chilly. It's been years since i went boating, but it was very fun. Mailee's wedding and hanging out with Aunt Kara, Aunt Leanne, and Shelli were exciting highlights.

Whenever I was not traveling, I was in Provo working 8 hours a day. I still love my job on BYU Grounds, tree crew. I got to be good friends with a lot of my fellow crew members.

On Thursdays, some Fridays, and Saturdays I went swing dancing, either in Provo or Salt Lake. After work, I'd hang out with Melinda, or read a book, take a nap, or watch a movie. Generally just hang out.

As fun as this summer has been, I think I'm ready to move on and get into fall semester. I'm excited to meet new people and learn new things. Well, most new things. Not quite excited for Business Finance 300. or Organizational Effectiveness. but the rest of it, yeah! I have lots of goals for this school year, and one of them is to update my blog at least once a week, so stay posted!!!

Summertime!

Sorry I've been a blogging slacker. I really have no excuse since I have plenty of time, and plenty of adventures. I'll try to do better in the future.

This has been an incredible summer. If I could imagine a perfect summer, it would include: being busy most of the time (aka, work), hang out time, friends, family, road trip, swimming, reading, dancing, making new friends, and tan lines. To let ya'll imagine how awesome my life is, I'll give an example of a typical summer day.

5:15 am- wake up and get ready for work

6:00 am-2:30 pm - work: climb trees, learn how to use the chain saw, go on donut runs to the Provo Bakery (occasionally: toasted coconut donuts are amazing!), talk with my co-workers, get tan and dirty, etc.

3:00 pm - go swimming/sun bathe.

4:00 pm - take a shower

4:30 pm - read a book, talk with Melinda and Jerin, or facebook.

6:00 pm - run errands like grocery store or Provo City Library

Evening - FHE on Monday, Dessert Night or Social Dance Club on Tuesday, relax on Wednesday, Blues dance on Thursday, Salt Lake swing dance on Friday, and Swing dance @ BYU on Saturday.

Go to bed early if possible.

Yeah, it's wonderful, especially once you add things like hanging out with Lisa and Cameron or Mailee, ward activities, vacations to Europe or Seattle, and random other activities.

Things I wish I could change about the summer: more variation/better food (mine tends to be the same or non-existant), family nearby for 4th of July, more hiking, camping, etc. That's about all. It's great. Oh, and air conditioning might be nice, too. :)

Ballet?

This morning was an interesting experience.  I decided to go to Ballet Club with Melinda.  I was kind of apprehensive about this, since the dancing I'm used to - ballroom and swing - uses completely different body and posture forms.  And I haven't done ballet before.  Melinda let me borrow a leotard (which was in itself weird, because ballet leos have no sparkles, no sequins, nothing flashy like the gymnastics leotards I'm used to) and ballet flats.  I figured if I'm going to be doing a gymnastics class this fall, my dance element needs a lot of help first.  It was fun.  In a 'I have no idea what I'm doing and everyone can tell' sort of way.  I actually only did the bar part, not center floor.  I was hopelessly lost during the combinations and some of the skills.  It didn't help that it's the last day of club for the semester, so there were people there preparing for their finals.  Hopefully if I keep going throughout the summer, I'll be a little more capable when it comes time for me to dance on the high beam, or on the floor.  

 (PS - I found out the the BYU gymnastics gym has a power trampoline - yay!!!)

Warmth on a Cold Day

So this week has been cold, wet, and yucky.  Today was particularly strong in all three of the said adjectives.  I was going to just do some training at work (aka, watch arboriculture cds), but they wouldn't play on my laptop.  So I went home about five hours early.  I decided to make myself a cup of hot chocolate.  It ended up being a masterpiece of heavenly flavor!

Hot chocolate (made with milk, not water; Swiss Miss w/marshmallows), whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.  Pretty much perfect.