{Colored Concept Plan}

I love my design graphics class! This is my most recent concept design. Last night's two hour class we spent learning to color plant symbols.

I get kind of stressed about having enough time to complete my drawings, but it is my favorite homework to do! This one took me 6 hours to finish.

I'm heading into the busiest weekend of the year for flowers. Wish me luck!

happy thursday!

{Facing My Nemesis}

debit revenue dividend cash flow balance sheet journal expense EPS
accrual net income asset liability owner's equity capital contributions
SEC matching principle denominal real balance sheet ledger GAAP

These words define accounting. Accounting is my nemesis. I started taking Accounting 200 four years ago, yes, that is right four long years ago. In this class you watch videos of the professor and do quizzes instead of attending normal lectures. I made it through a month and a half of that and withdrew from the class due to over-scheduling and a lack of self discipline.

I decided to take it the following summer through independent study. Even given a year to complete it, that didn't pan out. Then I paid to have it extended a month and STILL didn't get beyond the first lesson.

Fast forward to January 2011. Class schedule; Soils, Landscape Bidding and Estimating, Design Graphics, Pest Management AND Accounting 200. I was mostly excited to come back to school except for that looming accounting class. That class has weighed on me for the last four years, a daunting reminder of the possibility of failure.

If I haven't convinced you yet of how important and wonderful a mission is then add this to the list of pros, my self discipline has increased infinitely! I have no problem doing homework, whereas before I had no problem wasting time. This is what that new work ethic plus some sweet tutoring time with Chris got me.....

91% on the first exam. Take that nemesis!

{What Would You Do?}

I saw this movie during a zone meeting in the mission and it had a big impact on me. It brought up a side of the atonement I had never thought of before.

do you realize what they did for us? will you make similar choices and put others before yourself?

{Hello My Name is......Irene}

I am starting a new section on my blog called "Hello My Name is.." The idea is that I tell you about all the wonderful and unique people I meet. I have always been fascinated by people and one of my favorite parts of the mission was meeting so many types of people and hearing their stories.

One of my best friends started a club in high school called "Hello My Name is" and the premise was to get to know other people. We got together at lunch time and mingled while munching on some snacks. I loved the club idea and the name and asked her permission to use it for my blog. So lets meet....Irene!

Last Saturday Irene came into my work. She was wearing a mint green sweatshirt and jeans. Her hair is blond and shows gray roots. She walks up to the desk and says she has come to pick up her turtle. We walk over to the rock turtles and I find one with a tag that says, "SOLD TO IRENE" and she says, "Oh good, well let me see if there is room in my car to take it now. I deliver bread and bagels and my car is pretty full but let me see." She walks out to the car as I try to lift the seemingly hundred pound turtle off the floor. She comes back in and I offer to carry it out to her car. I walk out to the maroon car and it is completely full of...stuff, but she has cleared off some space in the passenger seat.

We return back inside and she browses the other garden items we offer. As she is browsing I ask her about the bread and bagels she had mentioned earlier. She says, "Yeah Einstein gives me their day old bagels and Kneaders gives me their day old bread and I deliver it to the people who live out of their cars. I have some right now, do you need some?" I politely decline and ask her if she collects turtles. She launches into a story of the pet turtle she had for twenty five years, then a bird she found with a broken wing and nursed back to health and all the while she stares off at the ceiling with her ice hot blue eyes, looking at me only when she finishes each story.

The broken bird wing lead into a discussion of how Hogle Zoo is more a business than an animal refuge. She explains that sick birds are not kept at the zoo because what little child wants to look at a sick and unhappy little bird? So the poor birds are simply discarded and replaced with beautiful and healthy birds.

Irene owns seventeen ducks. She explained to me how she has to teach the mother ducks to be mothers. One time a mother duck and her ducklings had escaped to her neighbor's yard and the neighbor called asking her to come get them. She said that she walked across the street got the duck's attention and the duck simply trotted along side her back to the house.

After this twenty five minute get to know you, Irene goes to walk out the door saying she has got to get going and that she is sorry for taking up so much of my time. Then turns and asks my name, I reply, she says, "You're beautiful, do you go to school?" My answer lead her back in the store and she shut the door as she started to explain to me the changes that need to be made to the BYU botany pond. She thinks that since I am a landscape major I can persuade the university to put in more benches for people to sit, get the pond water cleaned up and a beach built up in the middle of the pond for the turtles to escape the petting friendly kids.

This is followed by the statement, "Our Provo city fathers have betrayed us, have you been on the Provo river trail?" She talks about the trail being in people's back yards and the recent rapings deterring the interest in the trail. She wants a beautiful, open and clean river.

Irene turns to leave again and the snow flurries outside lead her into a story about seeing a real bald eagle in her neighborhood. Then comes the third attempt to leave the store and she asks what year I am in school. She shuts the door again and counsels me about buying a house with lots of property. Her house doesn't sit on much property and she doesn't have much room for all the animals and garden decorations she buys.

And with that she turns, opens the door, and says, "Bye Amy, write some letters to BYU about the pond." "Bye Irene, have a good day."

Help the poor. Help the animals. Take more note of beauty. Share your interests with others. Thanks Irene.

{Have You Ever Wondered....}

....why we yawn? Yesterday morning I was sitting in my soil science class and was yawning uncontrollably. Like once every five seconds. And the thought came to me, "Why do we yawn? What does it have to do with being tired?" Pretty good question right? What does opening your mouth do to alieviate fatigue?

I did some research and found out that we don't really know why we yawn!
Check it out here.

{Alguna vez se ha preguntado, "porque bostezamos cuando estamos cansados?" Yo tenia esta pregunta ayer en mi clase cuando estaba bostezando mucho. Bueno busquelo en google!}

{Practicing the Basics}

Here's the assignment I turned in the other day. I spent three hours drawing these lines with my Ames lettering guide and perfecting my architectural lettering style. We are really starting with the basics. It reminds me of the story that Deiter F. Uchtdorf told in his last general conference talk.

"The story is told that the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi had a ritual he performed on the first day of training. He would hold up a football, show it to the athletes who had been playing the sport for many years, and say, “Gentlemen, … this is a football!” He talked about its size and shape, how it can be kicked, carried, or passed. He took the team out onto the empty field and said, “This is a football field.” He walked them around, describing the dimensions, the shape, the rules, and how the game is played."

-Deiter F. Uchtdorf

Notice the part about why flowers inspire me.

it's all in the power of basics.



{la foto es una tarea para mi clase de disenos graficos para paisajismo. pase tres horas practicando mi letra y aprendieno como dibujar lineas rectas. Estamos practicando los basicos primero. }

"Se cuenta que el legendario entrenador de fútbol americano, Vince Lombardi, ponía en práctica un ritual el primer día de entrenamiento. Sostenía en alto un balón de fútbol, se lo mostraba a los atletas que habían estado jugando ese deporte por muchos años, y decía: “Señores, ¡esto es un balón de fútbol!”. Hablaba de su tamaño y forma, de cómo se podía patear, cargar o pasar. Llevaba al equipo al campo vacío y decía: “Éste es un campo de fútbol”; les daba un recorrido, describía las dimensiones, la forma, las reglas y cómo se jugaba el deporte."
-Deiter F. Uchtdorf

{Listening to Condoleezza Rice}

These are my favorite quotes from Rice's forum address last Thursday.

Speaking of nation myths, “Ours is the log cabin. It doesn’t matter where you came from; it matters where you’re going. Across the world, that is admired about the United States and it is what has lead people to come here for generations from across the world.… This great American dream, this great American myth, must be true not only for those who come here; it has to be true for those who are already here.”

“You might not be able to control your circumstances, but you can control your response to your circumstances. If you can keep that in mind, you will not give way to aggrievement and entitlement, both of which rob you of your ability to control your own life.”

“Whenever you’re lacking in optimism, remember your special responsibility because of where you are and what you’ve been granted, to hold up those who don’t fall to cynicism, and to hold up those who can see a world not as it is but a world as it should be.”

"I encourage you to find your passion while you’re here. Find what you’re passionate about, what will make you get up every day for the rest of your life…"

{Nuestra secretario de estado anterior, Condoleezza Rice nos discurso en la universidad la semana pasada. Nos hablo de la importancia de democracia y que los Estados Unidos tiene que abogar por democracia en el mundo. Nos recordo del mito nacional, "No importa de donde viene- importa para donde va." Nos pidio a encontrar una inspiracion que nos va a dar ganas de despertar cada manana. Ella dijo que no tenemos que perder nuestro optimismo y que necesitamos compartirlo con otros. Me gusto mucho!}