Thursday, November 21, 2002

Welp, I went to see the new Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets at 12:30 on Friday afternoon with my roomy. Then on Saturday I went again with my roomy and her mom. I got my hair chopped off on Sunday, and I do mean chopped. It went from about an inch below my shoulders & curly, to way above my shoulders. It's SOOOO short. I couldn't help but giggle as I looked down at the pile of hair on the floor when she was done with me.
Monday, the 18th was my 24th birthday. Yikes I'm getting up there ;) I woke up with a lovely cold : ( But other than that the day was great. I went to classes, one of my professors sang Happy Birthday to me. Everybody liked my haircut, but boy did I get some looks. I walked into my Pedagogy classroom and there was a wave of gasps reaching to the back of the class. The teacher stopped in mid-sentence and said "Whoa Aspen...." then continued. hehehehehe I gots me some attention. Eep! After my last class my roomy and I stopped by the concert that the Hall Council was sponsoring, it looked mostly dead. Then my roomy and I met our friend Janelle at Applebee’s and I had a great dinner. They sang Happy Birthday to me & I got a free chocolate sunday! Then the waitress, a girl in my math class, came out and sang to me while the waiter of the table behind us sang to another girl. A double birthday! The Applebee’s B-day song was hilarious. Something to the effect of: Welcome to Applebee’s! This is our Birthday Song! It isn’t very long, Hey!
All in all I’d say it was a good birthday. This Saturday at noon we’re going to my roomates mom's for my birthday lunch & Janelle said she’d cook me chicken parmesan sometime soon.
I got a birthday box from my parents last Friday and I talked them into letting me open it early. I got all sorts of Scooby things – gummy snacks, cereal, a candle, candy cake toppers, balloons, party-poppers, suckers, and Scooby Snacks for Queenie. Plus she sent me some mohair to spin and a beautiful scarf and hat that are very warm. Mom said she was sending me a party in a box and she was right, on top she wrote just add cake!
Gotta love my parents ; )

Friday, November 01, 2002

Holy Cow!
What a month.
My roomy and I are on Hall council, as I mentioned before. We just finished with the Haunted House last night. Between the two of us we called every student organization on campus asking for help (only two helped), we made all of the signs and flyers that we put out around campus, I issued a public service announcement in the local newspaper, called local businesses to get donations, picked up the donations and all other supplies we needed, put up almost all of the black plastic walls, AND ran the front of the Haunted House. Can we say ouch! It took so much time and we were stressing so badly, but in the end it was worth it. On the day of (yesterday afternoon) people finally started showing up to help set up and participate. Paul was in charge of the smoke machine when they entered. We had a stuffed little girl with mutilated dolls around her (Roomy had a little too much fun mutilating them), a tent with on person being stabbed who was yelling "No! Not the knife!" and one person who was doing the stabbing motion. There was a jack-in-the-box with Angie (dressed as a freaky-ish little girl) cranking it and someone popping out, there was a dead/disected body with a nasty looking brain, guts, fingers, etc. and a brew with bones and a skull right next to it. The campus theater group did a room where someone jumped out and scared you and there was a strobe light and a girl playing with something really gross (noodles and fake web). Luke went around with a hat and a flashlight under his chin scaring people and poking the plastic and whenever Roomy would yell "Fresh Meat" (meaning new people coming in) he growled "Meat goooood." It was hilarious, he sounded like Frankenstein. We had a mad Dentist with a drill who was pulling teeth and a patient screaming, then the Dentist would show you the fake teeth he had supposedly just pulled and when you least expected it Benson would come from behind and scare the beegesus out of you - that's the only part that got me and that was because I didn't know he was in there. Then the last part was a "endless hallway" which was extremely disorienting and there was a vampire that snuck up behind you and you could only see flashes through the strobe. When they got through that, and before they got out, we had Robin dressed all in black with a hockey mask and a scithe jump out and scare them one last time. It was great. For the most part, people were scared and said it was really cool. There will always be those few who said it sucked, and to them I say =P
We collected over 100 cans for the Food Shelf and made $650. GO BSU Linden/Birch Hall Council! And once it finally started we had a blast doing it. But boy was it ever stressful before hand.
That's all for now :)

Monday, September 09, 2002

I started school last week and so far - so good.
I am have 17 hours this semester, that's the most I've ever attempted. 15 credits are classes I'm taking and 2 credits are for being a teaching assistant.
I've been to all of my classes but the Creative Expressions one (me as a TA) and that's tonight. I also meet with my boss tomorrow for the first time for my job at the school newspaper. Oh, and I turned in my application for Hall Council. Did I mention this was going to be a busy semester for me? *Grin*

I just found out today that in my Pedagogy class we "must" make a efolio. Darn! They even gave us zip disks... gee does that mean I have to buy a zip drive now? /ponder
We also "must" do a Power Point presentation. I'm not so excited about that. That's just because I haven't had much experience wtih Power Point, but they'll show me and I'm always up for learning more computer stuff.

Welp lots of homework to do.

Sunday, August 25, 2002

About a week after school got out my roomy and I took a trip to Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone.
We took SO many pictures! I'm sorting through them now and I'll be posting some on my website for people to see.

Here is a breakdown of our trip:

Day 1

Leave Minnesota
Drive FOREVER… finally see some baby mountains…. See some mule deer along the road and antelope too.
Get to Keystone just as it is getting dark and zonk out in the motel.

Day 2

Get up and have nice big breakfast at Mt. Rushmore, looking up at the faces. Spend a little while there checking things out.
Head down the mountain (going opposite way we came) and see 2 rocky mountain goats right by the side of the road.
Go to BEAR COUNTRY! We saw bear, elk, reindeer, mountain lions, an otter, arctic wolves and normal wolves, skunk, badger, coyote, bear cubs, and more.
Go back to town and have lunch at Applebee’s, take a short 1 hour nap before heading to reptile gardens – giant tortoises, birds (parrots), snakes, lizards, crocodiles, performing critters, snake handler/crocodilian wrestler drool … etc.
Heading towards keystone look other way and see big fire starting – turns into huge fire after we leave.

Day 3

Leave for Yellowstone.
Stop in Cody, Wyoming and eat at Irma’s Hotel/Restaurant, named after Cody’s youngest daughter. I petted a horse that was giving wagon rides and saw a bunch of bikers.
Continue to Yellowstone and see a fox inside the park. Get there very late and stay at the Roosevelt lodge – “roughing it” We didn’t have our own bathroom and the cabins were one tiny room.
We woke up at 4am freezing to death. Roomy hopped into bed with me and we cranked up the fire. (no kinky stuff *ahem*) We had to go outside in freezing cold to go potty.

Day 4

Explored parts of the park – saw moose and a bear (though we thought it was a boar at first – close enough ;)
Saw petrified tree and a bunch of the park. Saw old faithful go off. Parents were back in Texas watching online and saw us waving like goobers. I was talking to them on the cell phone and my mom got so excited that she could see us.
We ate at the Old Faithful Inn then headed off to see more of the park.
Another freezing night – only we couldn’t get the fire started :(


Day 5

We took our time going around the park and seeing waterfalls, more critters, etc.
Saw MARMOTS!!!!! We stopped by sheep-eaters cliff, after visiting Mammoth Hot Springs, and there were 3 marmots and several chipmunks bouncing about. One marmot kept standing up on his hind legs chirping – they sound more like birds to me than fuzzy critters. It was really cute. They were doing their little poses and I took a ton of pictures!
Stayed in Canyon Village – much warmer and we got our own bathroom! Wahooooo!


Day 6

We started for home. We went up through the park and through Montana. Saw a moose, some deer, and a herd of antelope before we left the park.
We spent the night in Dickenson, North Dakota.

Day 7

Drove through the rest of North Dakota and Minnesota and made our way back home.

Monday, August 12, 2002

Wowsers. It's been a while since I've written. I was so caught up in getting all of my projects done that I didn't take time to work on this.
Summer school is over now and I've received A's in all of my classes ( Wahooooooo! )
I've always hated summer school in the past, but this time it was actually fun.
Since class was over I also completed a comforter for my dorm room.

My roomy and I are thinking about taking a trip sometime in the next two weeks. I told her it was criminal to live within a days drive of Mt. Rushmore and never have been. So we might swing by there and Wyoming/Montana while we're at it. We'll see. I miss the mountains so much. If we do wind up going my roomy will most likely have to drag me kicking and screaming back home.

It's late so it's time for me to hit the hay.

Monday, July 29, 2002

I painted my paper mache mask today. I took 1/2 of a gallon milk jug and built up a face using newspaper and watered down glue. The face turned out pretty well. I folded pieces to thin strips to make the nose, brow, and lips. I also stuffed some wadded up tissue in there to form cheeks. I made 3 masks to go with my paper mache mask. One represents happiness, one is sadness, and the third is anger. I need to paint eyes and lips and other facial features on my paper mache mask and then it will be done!

There's just two weeks left of class and I have to finish all of my projects and get the lesson plans done. Crunch time! The sad thing is that I've worked on my projects everyday so far, it's just taking THAT long to get all of them done. Oh well, I'm having fun anyways!

Welp I just finished completely redesigning the front page of my website. My roomy had started one for me last year, but we'd never finished it. I am using some of the old links and some new ones that I added. I enjoy working with computers and designing new things. I've got FrontPage and Dreamweaver now and I'm just playing around with them to see what I can do.

Went to Holly's (roomy's cousin) birthday party today. Didn't do much but eat and talk but it was relaxing. There's just something about Grandparents' houses that makes me relax.

Time for sleepy-sleep!

Saturday, July 27, 2002

For some reason I was thinking today about the odd sayings you hear. I think I almost used one... Anywho, I thought I would list a few here.. just as they come to me.

Busier than six killer snakes (my mom's uttered that one more than once).
Madder than a cat on a hot-tin roof.
Up a creek without a paddle (there's a non-PG version of that one I won't share with you).

My Favorite, and I use them often:
For Pete's Sake! (dunno a Pete... but that's never stopped me ;)
Heaven's to Betsy! (dunno a Betsy either...)
Holy Cow... or is it Wholly Cow *ponder*


Saw the movie Austin Powers Goldmember last night. I admit that it's sick humor, but Mike Meyers does it SO well. I watch the first two from time to time and they are amusing, but this third one was hilarious. I haven't laughed so steadily at a movie since Scooby Doo.

Speaking of Scooby... I LOVE SCOOBY DOO! Wow how'd I get through my first post without mentioning that? I grew up watching new Scooby episodes and Scooby re-runs with my big lovable great dane Murphy. As I grew up I always looked for anything Scooby and sad to say I only acquired one item - a large stuffed Scooby. Around my 20th birthday Scooby items started becoming available - that is about the time they started coming out with new Scooby cartoon movies. For my 20th Birthday (there were about 20 people at my party) all of my presents but two were Scooby-oriented. Since that time my collection has become quite extensive. I have bought very little for myself. Most of my Scooby collection I owe to my family and friends. For a while there everytime I turned around my parents were giving me something Scooby-ish. I came home from a trip one time to find my entire bathroom redone, Scooby-style! It was AWESOME! If only I wasn't 6'1" I would have traded in my queen bed long ago for a full and gotten the bed-set too! Oh well :)
Hmmm enough about Scooby for now, but I strongly recommend you see the Scooby Doo Movie if you haven't. It's a hoot!

Friday, July 26, 2002

Welp my friend/roomy, kept talking about her Blog site and how much fun it was, so I decided to make my own.
I'm going to school for my Professional Education Degree (fancy way of saying Elementary Teacher).
I've just started taking classes for my degree, goodbye to lib eds! I'm having a blast in one of my summer classes that incorporates art activities with lesson plans. I might be posting some of the activities as I go along. Hopefully I'll remember to post here fairly regularly. Enjoy and if you'd like to contact me you can do so at aaspenstarshine@hotmail.com

1st Creative Project:

I finished a project for my Creative Expressions class last night. Janelle, a friend, gave me the idea, she had done it in one of her elementary classes.

Supplies:
1 glass bottle (not too big)
1 bottle Elmer's Glue
1 paint brush (about 1/2")
Water
Bunches of old magazines you can cut-up

Directions:
Cut out words, phrases, and/or pictures that describe yourself or are things that you really like.
Glue the pieces of paper to the bottle anyway you like. If you can find different colors and different fonts it makes the end result even better.
When you're done take the water and glue and make a milky-like mixture. Using the paint brush, lightly brush over your bottle. This catches any of those corners you might have missed :) Be careful not to do it too thickly or you might wind up with a white filmy covering.
Another option is to take brown water colors and lightly go over the project (though I would recommend doing the glue first anyways). This will give it an antique look. I suppose you could try other colors as well, just be sure to do it lightly, you don't want to lose your words!