So since I moved back into my apartment I decided to try some herbs again. I love oregano and sage and decided to also do lavendar because it is pretty and smells fantastic.

I decided this time to also try a vegetable, and one that grows easily: zuchinni.





I'm moved back in to my apartment!! Now that all the cleaning and readjustment is mostly done, I can maybe get on with a normal life. Maybe.
I'm really enjoying my instructional design job. It is growing on me and I think it is a great fit.

My students want to write like Stephenie Meyer !!!! ACK! I apparently have my work cut out for me.


Then again... if they write like her they will make a lot of money off of it. Maybe I shouldn't try to train them out of it.

This weekend will be my first since December where I won't have a load the size of an elephant weighing me down. It is so sweet-I can't even begin to describe.
I might even make my own batch of extremely yummy creamed eggs on toast for Easter (hard-boiled eggs cut up into a white sauce and then it is poured over crumbled toast). I think it is my favorite of all holiday foods. I will probably also make custard for dad's birthday on Sunday. It will be an eggy weekend for sure.

Yay! Things have slowed down a bit and the sun is shining.

I saw this funny picture on someone's blog and thought I would repost.

Wow, it's been a while. I guess that's what happens when work takes over your life. I just have 40 papers to grade and grades to submit and the Pines HOA taxes left to do and I will be basically a free woman for a week. Cool. Well, wait, I have to set up my class for next semester, so not really free. It will be so much nicer to know what is going on with the class this semester though-to not be teaching it for the first time.
My instructional design job is keeping me busy. My design lead (the person who checks all my work) loves me, and my new project manager (the person who keeps track of the hours for the projects I am working on and how long it is taking me) and I have not gotten off to the best start. The hours have been over on the projects and she blames me, but my design lead doesn't. Hopefully the relationship will improve.
I still live at Lisa's, which has been both very generous of them and very fun/fantastic for me. One more month until I can move back into my apartment.
I have realized what everyone who has had to suffer around me in the morning already knows: I am not a morning people person. If I have a busy day than the sooner I have to see other people, the sooner my day begins, so ugh. I try to avoid seeing people in the morning for as long as I can. This is one bad habit and one I will have to break.
General Conference was fantastic and I look forward to reviewing the talks. It was nice to see family again. With my working so many hours I feel like I haven't seen them in forever.

I don't really have anything to say. Work is keeping me busy. I am overwhelmed with grading and hours. I am just waiting for the middle of April when my life slows down. Let's hope I keep my head above water until then.

Well, I've officially moved into my cousin's house for the duration. There wasn't room for me in the apartment with a fiance practically moved in. I'm doing much better now that I have this arrangement.
I've started reading Absalom, Absalom! by Faulkner and Frankenstein by Shelly. It will take a while for me to get through them that's for sure. Faulkner requires too much concentration for a before-bed book. So far I am enjoying it, but it is heavy stuff.

I don't really have anything to say, so I guess I'll ramble about a few things I've been thinking about lately.

I'm so glad it is Daylight Savings next week. I know a lot of people hate it and I don't much care for when it ends, but I love having light later in the evening. Before work: who cares? During work: I'm in the basement. But after work I can exercise outside because it is light and it is so nice.

The TV show Lost, which I just finished watching with Lisa, has a really good point about Satan doing his best to talk you out of good actions right up until the moment you actually do them. You have to stay firm in your course and have an individual knowledge of right and wrong to guide you.

I am getting a little trunky in my BYU-I job. The end of the semester is coming and I can feel it. I'll have to endure to the end.

I turned in mid-term grades for my students and their assignment next week is minimal, so I should be able to stay on top of the grading I have. I hope. My other job just gave me a long-term training course to design, and that will keep me busy for a while, which for right now is not stressful.
I still float between cafes and libraries to do my online job and then between sleeping at my apartment during the week and Lisa's (my cousins) on weekends. It is getting kind-of old. I miss cooking and baking. But my roommate who doesn't leave me clean dishes to cook or bake with (or a clean apartment to stay in for that matter) will be gone in two months and I look forward to the return of normalcy.
There's my update.

Update on amaryllis, which is progressing far better than I am at the moment.

Nothing much to post these days. I am again behind in everything I need to do. How do some people do multiple jobs? I am not mentally able to keep up.

But the good news is the amaryllis I thought I had killed just needed a little warmer air. Now look at it. Yay.

I got caught up on my grading last week (which I am promptly procrastinating again), and my life feels so much more managable these days.

I thought I would post a great song by one of my favorite folk duos: In Lieu of Flowers

Well, it's been a while. I don't have to go in today until 11:00 so I thought I would post something hilarious that my friend Jen showed me.

On this website they discuss a new internet series "Portlandia," where they do little skits about indie designers, locavores, those who only eat organic, etc. Here is the link to a website that links to the three video skits. My favorite is the second one about chicken.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/portlandia-put-a-bird-on-it-know-your-chicken-137921

My instructional design job has got to stop working me 10 hours a day!

Two things I have noticed:

1) One of the "option jingles" that we can choose to have as background music on the trainings we create in my instructional design job is a rip-off of U2. It has the same chord sequence and guitar effect of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," but played differently.

2) Never let someone else write your curriculum (very ironic considering my daytime job is to write curriculum for other people). They will have a bunch of mistakes that you will then spend hours emailing your students about the corrections.

So I find it highly ironic that I am the new Avon designer. I have to create the training materials for Avon Representatives to help them sell their products. We are talking about me here! Someone who doesn't wear makeup, doesn't dress fashionably, struggles to write things like "beautiful and romantic ingredient stories." Now I have to fill my writing with it. Yuck. The universe is against me, I tell you. I will probably be creating their materials for the next two years (thank goodness they won't be the only projects). Agony.

I am catching on to the software program. I still have 80 small assignments to grade. I have gotten things off my to do list, but I am still a little overwhelmed. I am to the point where I like doing instructional design though. It is fun. I even don't mind the writing I have to do. Now that is shocking.

Well I started both jobs Wednesday. I am feeling a little overwhelmed and anxious about learning the software for my instructional design job and grading the 72 items that are waiting for me after the first three days of class. I know it will take some time for me to get into a schedule, but hopefully in a week or two it will be easier.

It is my last day of freedom. Both of my jobs start tomorrow. I'm spending the day running errands and trying to make my to-do list as small as possible. Hopefully there will be a little sushi thrown in later on.