it's FINALLLY summer!

So it is finally summer here in Rexburg. The past four weeks it has been rainy almost every day and the weather was always chilly. The last couple of days however have been pretty nice! In the 70's and nice and sunny. It's too bad I lost my camera in Jackson Wyoming.... or I'd post pictures! Maybe Alex and I will be able to buy a new camera sometime before the end of summer, maybe when we go back to Texas for vacation.

I can't wait to go back to Texas and feel what a real summer should be like! I posted some pictures of water that I took last summer... these remind me that there was once a time when it was hot enough to swim....

long time no see!

Oh my it's been a long time!!!! We have been really busy lately. Summer semester has started for us and we are both taking a couple classes, and trying to work as much as we can.

Alex is now on salary at sonic!! It isn't much, but he worked really hard to get this far. I am also the President of the newly formed Earth Science Society! It has been challenging to get the society running at school, but I'm so glad to be a part of it and contribute all I can!

Alex and I moved out of our apartment for the summer to housesit for a friend.I think I'll scrounge up some pictures of the new place soon and I'll post them here for all to see. It's a basement apartment and the kids upstairs are sooo loud sometimes, but free rent for a few months? who could give that up?!

peace. and don't contract swine flu :-)

6 things about me

Ok Libby, you got me feeling all guilty because I haven't done this yet! So here goes...

Here are six interesting things about me

1. I have had the goal of being the first woman on Mars since I was six years old. I have always loved studying Astronomy, especially planetary astronomy.

2. I will be graduating soon with a major in Earth Science Education, minor in History. I hope to continue my schooling though and maybe be a curator at a museum of science and history one day. Either that or a principal of a high school.

3. I love dogs.

4. Alex and I knew each other in High school since I was in 9th grade. We dated for a long time before we were married.

5. My favorite type of food is Lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli, pretty much anything with a sauce on it.

6. I want to travel the world with Alex someday. I really want to go to India, Nepal to see the Himalayas and the Sherpa, Hawaii, Rome, Athens, Anywhere in Europe where I can see all the castles, I want to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, go to Beijing and see the Great Wall, travel to Egypt, Go to Lima and see the house that my dad grew up in, Belize, Jamaica, and there are probably a thousand more places I'd like to visit.

HMMM.....

There isn't too much to write about.. so here are a bunch of random facts.

1. I was asked to be the Earth Science Coordinator for the Geology Society, along with a friend of mine who is also an Earth Science major. It is pretty cool because it looks GREAT on your resume', and I finally can do something that will help the Earth Sciences stand out (because of course they are the coolest sciences!). So far, I designed a web page for Earth Science (info, announcements, facts etc), and it's going to be put on the Geology Society web page for the school. We are going to get our school involved with some nationally acclaimed science organizations too. And maybe have a trip or two this summer!

2. Alex and I are both doing alright in school. We are just glad that this is the last winter we'll have to deal with in Rexburg!

3. I want a dog. But we can't have one! (darn apartments!)

4. I'm waiting patiently to see where my placement is for Student Teaching. It would be awesome if I were placed in Rexburg!

5. Our little plant is dying because we haven't had sunlight in several weeks. Poor thing. At least we only paid $8 for it.

6. Rent is due tomorrow!

7. Our house is messy and the laundry needs to be done.

8. I have to take pictures of clouds for my oceanography/meteorology class. The bad thing is that there are two types of clouds present here in winter, snow clouds or no clouds. We are required to take pictures of 8 different types though. I did manage to get a good picture of some fog. That counts as a cloud right?

9. Alex got an official name tag that says "assistant manager" for sonic. Exciting huh!

10. We hope that we can go snow boarding soon!

Well, thats about it. Make sure to tune in next time!

Sky in Motion

I saw this video when I was looking at my "Astronomy Picture of the Day" online. I thought it was so spectacular so I posted it for everyone to enjoy! It's about 4 minutes long, but all the shots are worth the time. There is also music that goes with it, so turn up your speakers!

Our New York Video!

This is a short video of ALL the pictures we took while in New york/New Jersey. It's fast, but fun. Enjoy!

You should probably watch it a few times to get the full effect.

Laura and Alex's New York vacation!

Here are some of our favorite pic's from our trip to New York. Soon we'll post a video of ALL the pictures we took while there!!

SNOW!

Well we made it to our final destination.... a day later. We traveled to Chicago and were planning on flying to Buffalo New York next but our flight got canceled due to a huge snow storm. Then we waiting in a long line a finally were able to get new tickets to Buffalo. We waited and waited for our flight, which kept getting delayed further and further, and then it was suddenly cancelled too!! So we went back to the customer service to find that everyone in the airport was in line too. I'm not even exaggerating. It was crazy! It would have taken us until 6am to get to the front of that line.. and at that point it was only 8pm. So we waited for a bit until Alex overheard a lady mention there was another customer service line in a different terminal of the airport. We took the shuttle there to find NO line at that customer service!! We were able to get on a flight to Syracuse New York at 6am the next day. So yes, we spent the night in the chicago airport. It WAS NOT fun!

Once we got to Syracuse, we found that our luggage didn't make it (even though we did all the luggage transfer stuff right). So we are luggage-less, and exhausted. They told us they would mail our luggage to us as soon as they find it. So now it is just a waiting game. Hope they find it soon! We will update more on our fun adventures later!

New member of the Family?

Nope! just babysitting a friends puppy for a few hours. He was very cute, but loved to nibble and bite. We played with him at first for a while and he was SUPER active. After that we took him inside and after a little exploring he found the tiniest spot he could and conked out. He shifted around a bit and finally got to a spot where there was enough light to take pictures of him. So we did, and here they are:
And here is our beautiful (yet tiny) Christmas tree ^_^

I can see!!!

So I have been getting a lot of headaches lately when I where my glasses at school.... and when I take them off in the evening. I decided that my eye prescription wasn't any good anymore so I went to the eye doctor. After blowing air in my eyes and telling me to name a bunch of blurry letters (well I think they were letters, I could have sworn some of them were just square dots...) he told me my eyes have gotten a little worse. He was able to check the prescription on my current glasses by putting them on this little machine thing that told him how strong they were.

While I was waiting in the lobby before my appointment, I was looking at a lot of glasses that they had on display and they were EXPENSIVE!! So when he told me I'd have to get new lenses, I asked him how much contacts would cost. They would only be about $100 a year. I thought about it... and decided it would be much better to have contacts! So I walked out of the appointment with my new contacts on. They took FOREVER to get on and off while I was a the eye doctor, but the second time around was much better. I can now see all the time! It is amazing what I've been missing! When we walk out of our apartment, the Temple is right in view and before I saw a huge white building that looked more like a blur but when i walked out last night with my contacts in, I actually saw detail and individual lights that were shining on the Temple. It was so pretty!

My next step is to get colored contacts once I get used to these ones more. Of course I wouldn't want to hide my "beautiful" brown eyes, it would just be nice to just enhance them a little! lol.

I really like the smiley face contacts on the bottom row... what do you think?!?