My Lovely, New Reatainer

As most of you know, I got my braces taken off late last month and my teeth are amazing! However, I got my stupid,new retainer yesterday and I already can't stand it!!

Anyway, I wanted to know more about retainer that gives me a silly lisp, so I went on a site called, "The Reality of Retainers". (don't you just love the name?) I was mainly looking for ways to SAFELY clean the retainer, but I stumbled upon some funny information...

"Retainers can help many mouth problems besides shifting teeth. Sometimes they're used to help a medical problem. For example, you may have a tongue thrust (a condition where your tongue sneaks through your teeth when you talk). Some retainers, known as a crib or tongue cage retainers, are designed with small metal bars that hang down from the roof of your mouth. These retainers keep your tongue from going forward in between your teeth when you speak. Your tongue is trained to go to the roof of your mouth instead of through your teeth. The length of time kids wear a tongue cage varies depending on the kid."

It just so happens that I have one of these...'tongue thruster' things. And the analogy they made about the crib to the "cage" is totally wrong. Here is the truth...my tongue has never felt more trapped. I feel like my tongue is in a jail cell! Plus, it makes my tongue sore to have to keep it in the same position behind that dumb "crib" so my mouth is always sore.

Well, my orthodontist told me that I can only take the retainer out when I eat, so I relish in the fact that I am given three glorious meals a day plus snacks at four. I really don't know what I'd do if I had to wear these any more than that. It makes me feel bad for those kids who have to wear head gear and stuff. ew. I can't even imagine.

I don't really know what I was getting at, but...I really hate this retainer, but, as much as I hate to admit it, I am happy that my teeth are going to stay straight.

Experiencing HUGE Facebook Withdraws!! :(

I really can't stand how bad this is getting. I want SO badly to be on facebook right now, but like a wise man once said...."if you break a promise to yourself you have no self respect." Seeing as I don't want to lose my self respect, I am going to keep my promise no matter how hard it is!

And because of the immense concentration that it takes not to type www.facebook.com into the url space, I have made a series of chants to say to myself when I am really close to breaking my promise....
1.You can do it! You can do it! etc. etc. (this one gets old really fast...)
2.You aren't missing anything, you can make up for all the time you missed in a week and a half, you aren't missing anything, you can make up for all the time you missed in a week and a half...etc.
3.not having facebook isn't gonna make you crazy, not having facebook will NOT make you crazy!!
4.I am too busy for facebook. I am too busy for facebook!!

So, these chants are sort of lame...okay....really lame, but it really does help to think that I am too busy to be on anyway...(even though we all know that I am not, otherwise I wouldn't be blogging about it)

In short, I just wanted to say....enjoy facebook!! lol (and blogging)

Even More Pictures!

Painting is so much fun!!

More Ornament Pictures!!

Enjoy........again! lol

Ornament Pictures!

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as i enjoyed making them!!

no facebook = new hobbies

So, for those of you who don't know, I have started a "facebook fast". It will last until January first and I am not allowing myself to get on my facebook at all. This has been day two, and I am having total facebook withdraws. It is quite hard to not know what is going on and such. I guess I could be taking this time to read everyone's blog.....

Anyway, the point of this post is to introduce all of the new hobbies I have due to my no facebook challenge. Getting ready for Christmas is time consuming as it is so I have hobbies like decorating, only now it is really hard core decorating to keep my mind off of facebook, sewing, painting, scrapbooking, making Christmas ornaments,putting up lights, sleeping, cleaning.....well, the last three aren't hobbies, but you get the idea.

My favorite hobby of those has been making Christmas ornaments. There are TONS of ways to make an ornament, but my absolute favorite is making them out of eggs. It is not too hard to blow the egg, but decorating it is the best part. You can also paint burnt out light bulbs for ornaments or I found this really cool recipe for flour ornaments online that is super easy.

You need....
4 cups of flower
1 cup of salt
1 and 1/2 cups of water
(add more water or flour as needed)
After it is all mixed, you kneed the dough and then roll it out very thin. After it is rolled out, you cut out shapes and then put them in the oven on 325 degrees for one hour. It is really fun to paint them and little kids can do it too. And the best part about it is that if they accidentally eat the dough, they won't die and they make a funny face!! It is a good FHE activity at any rate.

I will post some pictures of the ornaments I made when I can, but until then, I am going to go and "enjoy" the free time I have without facebook! :)

Mom and Dad Love Story

Dedicated to my amazing parents, Scott and Laura...
(to the tune of Love Story by Taylor Swift)

We were both old when I first saw you
I saw your pic. on ldsplanet
you were Scott,
and I thought you were really hot.

you had eight kids you were single and lonely
I had five I was working two jobs
and never home.
This is what I know,

That you were forty-one I was thirty-six
And I was positive that we had really clicked
we were talking on the phone
And I never wanted to go!
And I said

Scott Willis, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all we gotta do is go
to the temple and be sealed, yes,
its a love story
Baby, just say yes

Your name was Laura Lee and you lived in Florida
you said you were looking for Mr.Right
and I replied
"Mr.Right has more than one tyke"
Oh oh

Cause you were really grand I wished to get to know you,
And I was positive that we had really clicked
we were talking on the phone
and I never wanted to go!

And I said

Laura, I will take you somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all we gotta do is go
to the temple and be sealed, yes,
It's a love story
Baby, just say yes

Scott Willis tell me,
would it be ok to go,
to go and visit you and your kids
Don't be afraid, we'll bring our own car, yes,
It's a love story
Baby, just say yes!

Oh oh

I got tired of waiting
Wondering when Labor Day was coming around,
the calendar was aging....
When I drove right into your town
And I said

Scott Willis, take me
I never want to be alone,
He said he'd been waiting all I had to do was come,
I had butterflies
didn't know what to say
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring
And said

Marry me, Laura Lee, you'll never have to be alone
I love you and your kids already so,
lets drive to St.Louis
my mom made you a dress,
It's a love story
Baby, just say yes

Oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh

'Cause we were both old when I first saw you

.............And it Made Me MAD!!!

I was in a terribly, shamefully, bad mood yesterday and I found myself trying to pinpoint what had made me so angry. So I compiled a list of the things that made me mad yesterday. This list is long and very very very inexcusable, but I am able to find humor in my anger now that I am cooled off.

1.It all started when one of my teachers turned the heat off in the classroom.......
2.After that another teacher commented on a problem that i had missed on my science work,
3.then a girl in the classroom wouldn't stop talking,
4.then my scarf was too tight,
5.then I had to grade my stupid math book,
6.then the internet was WAY too slow,
7.then the internet was STILL WAY too slow,
8.then I was ready to beat the computer with a bat because of the slow internet,
9.then a Vietnamese boy came in the class in wasn't able to speak in full english sentences, and for some reason, it made me mad!
10.then someone decided to start with these "laughy taffy" type jokes, which he found very amusing,
11. then a woman kept bumping into my seat even when I scooted in!

PAUSE
then there was a woman who walked in with a New Zealand accent and it made me happy.
12. then the laughy taffy jokes continued,
13. then dad came in before i was finished harvesting my crops on farmville,
14.then my dumb chip bad wouldn't open,
15. then i had to unpick lots of stupid thread from a stupid piece of fabric THREE TIMES!!
16. then Judge Judy was really getting on my nerves,
17.then I changed the channel and it was just news...nothing else seemed to be on!
18. then I was in the car with all of the hyper little kids,
19. then my seat belt was too tight because Haylee had her feet on it in the back.
20. then mom told me I had to wait to shower until after FHE,
21. then my sister was made so it made me even more mad.
Then the movie helped me calm down, and I was pretty much fine the rest of the day.
The chat with mom and dad before I went to bed helped too. :)

Like I said, this list is way to long for any justifiable reasoning, but at least I can recognize when I had no reason to be mad....even if it was after the fact.

On March fourteenth 1993 a baby girl was named Jessica. Did this have anything to do with the fact that her mother's name was Jessica? Did her dad like the name? Well, maybe it just clicked. Anyways, I have done a little bit of research on my name so that I could appreciate it a little better.

Many celebrities have the name of Jessica. Jessica Simpson, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, there are more, but I am not familiar with all of them. Lots of my friends names are Jessica. Jessica Haddix, Jessica Atwater, Jessica Mackey, Jessica Bohaul, Jessica Robinson, there are so many Jessica's.

The name Jessica actually means "foresight", or the ability to see the potential in the future, but most people think that it means "wealthy" and "God's grace" because of the 'yud' on the end of the name in the Hebrew language. The name Jessica was first used in Shakespeare's play, 'The Merchant of Venice' (1596), where it is the name of the daughter of Shylock. (Don't ask me who Shylock is, I haven't ever read the play) Scholars think that Shakespeare probably based it on the biblical name ISCAH, which would have been spelled Jescha in his time. It was not commonly used as a given name until the middle of the 20th century.

I acquired this information on Wikepedia, so it might not be completely accurate, but anyways... "Jessica" was the most popular female baby name throughout the 1980s and 1990s in the United States. It also rose to # 1 in England and Wales in 2005, dropping to # 3 in 2006. Common abbreviations of the name Jessica include "Jess" and "Jessie."

Well, all in all, I think that Jessica is a good name. I hope that I can grow into it, or maybe that is what I am doing already.

Human Torso

I walked into my Biology II classroom today and I noticed a box.
It was just a long cardboard box that was loosly closed. It was sitting in the spot where I usually put my books, so I was going to move it.

My first thought as that it must be filled with the extra frogs from disecting last week. It didn't smell like fermaldihide so I thought that maybe it was just stuff from around the classroom.

As I aproached the box I noticed, written in permanent marker, "Human Torso". I stopped dead in my tracks. I was so scared that it wasn't even funny. I knew that in Biology you were expected to disect things, but to me this had gone just a little too far.

I gathered my wits and walked to the box and hesitantly grabbed a corner of one of the flaps. I slowly began to open the box. As one of the flaps was completely open, I could see a human torso.......

I saw intestines, the liver, and then noticed that these all had numbers written on them, and that there was a glare on them as well.

This torso was just a model we had been using only a few weeks before this to identify body parts.

I sighed in great relief to find that it was just plastic.

"Letter Full of Tears"

I saw this information on the internet and thought that it was pretty cool. Crying is sooo not a bad thing, and I have scientific proof!! :)

We’ve all experienced a “good cry”—whether following a breakup or just after a really stressful day, shedding some tears can often make us feel better and help us put things in perspective. But why is crying beneficial? And is there such a thing as a “bad cry”?

The term crying from Middle English crien or Old French crier,commonly refers to the act of shedding tears as a response to an emotional state in humans. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secretomotor phenomenon characterized by the shedding of tears from the lacrimal apparatus, without any irritation of the ocular structures".
A neuronal connection between the tear duct and the areas of the human brain involved with emotion was established. No other animals are thought to produce tears in response to emotional states, although this is disputed by some scientists. According to a study of over 300 adults, on average, men cry once every month, and women cry at least five times per month or more. In many cultures, it is more socially acceptable for women and children to cry than with men. Men cry less often than women and are less likely to have flowing tears when they do. Tears produced during emotional crying have a chemical composition which differs from other types of tear: they contain significantly greater quantities of hormones.

It is believed that tears provide an outlet to painful and sad emotions. People suffering from any trauma are asked to cry to ease their pain. But sometimes people feel worse after crying rather than feeling comfortable. Recent research revealed that level of comfort or discomfort experienced after crying depends on the surroundings at the time of crying.
Psychologists Jonathan Rottenberg and Lauren M. Bylsma analyzed more than 3,000 recent crying experiences (outside of lab). Data analysis showed that majority of respondents felt better after crying. However, a third of the study subjects had no improvement in mood and a tenth felt worse after crying.

The survey also revealed that criers who received social support during their crying episode were the most likely to report improvements in mood.
Researchers found that crying in a lab setting often results in the study participants feeling worse. They believe that this may be due to the stressful conditions of the study itself, such as being videotaped or watched by research assistants. Researchers concluded that social support during their crying leads to improvements in mood.

It makes nine out of 10 people feel better, reduces stress, and may help to keep the body healthy. It's also free, available to almost everyone, and has no known side effects, other than wet tissues, red eyes and runny makeup. Crying may not be a blockbuster drug, but the latest research suggests it's highly effective at healing, and that it improves the mood of 88.8 per cent of weepers, with only 8.4 per cent feeling worse. So beneficial is it that the researchers suggest there may be a case for inducing crying in those who find it difficult to let go.
But while almost all of us shed emotional tears at some time – at least 47 times a year for women, and seven for men – exactly why we cry, and much about what happens when we do, remains a mystery. For crying, a uniquely human form of emotional expression, to have survived evolution, it should have a practical purpose and give some kind of survival advantage. Laughter and anger are both well known to have advantages. Laughter, for example, has been shown to promote healing, increase blood flow, reduce levels of stress hormones, boost the immune system and produce more disease-fighting compounds.

In King Henry the Sixth, William Shakespear wrote, "To weep is to make less the depth of grief." So, crying won't make right the pain that we are feeling or the wrong that was made, but it certainly does "make less the depth of grief."

UB Memories/ Miss Managing Editor

Part I: UB Memories


I may have mentioned before that I am in a class called Upward Bound Memories. This is a Newsletter/Yearbook class. There are about twenty some odd students in the class and we are divided into three groups. In each group there are about 6-8 students.

It is our job to put together a Yearbook for this Upward Bound session and to provide a newsletter each week. We were assigned different jobs within our groups and work together to get things done.

Each group is in charge of a certain thing every week. This week my group is in charge of yearbook. This means yearbook is our "main-event", if you will, or our "big-focus". We were given specific things to work on throughout the week dealing with the yearbook such as, layouts for the yearbook, interviews for other research classes, research class pages, etc.

Next week my group has newsletter. I am soooo stressed out. I know that we have like five days to work on this newsletter and three hours to work on it every one of those five days ,but I am still very "on edge". I don't know what I would do without the three hours to work.

Anywho, we have to put together a "functioning" newsletter. By functioning I mean more along the lines of well written articles, catchy fillers, fun columns, good looking layouts,and so on.

With all of the work that has to be done there needs to be someone in charge of it all.....someone to make sure that it all happens.....someone to boss other people around.......

Part II: Managing Editor


In each group there are five jobs....

1. the managing editor--it is their job to make sure that everything is finished and functioning on time. They are the "head-hancho" of the group.

2. Next is the copy editor-- it is the copy editor's job to make sure everything is proof read, corrected, and sounds right in the newsletter/yearbook.

3. The layout editor--he/she is in charge of the backgrounds for the newsletter and the set up of things. They have to get all of the pages for the yearbook ready too. (It's a lot of work!)

4. There are at least 3 reporters in every group--it is the reporters duty to give interviews, write articles, columns, fillers, help with other jobs, and get things in on their deadline.

5. The photographer-- it is the photographers responsibility to take ALL the pictures that we need for every article, column, yearbook page, etc.

I was made the managing editor in my group. This is quite a task for someone like me. I really don't like to "boss" others around and I don't like to tell people that their ideas don't always create a functioning newsletter or, quite frankly, that the idea is just not very good.Luckily, I don't have to worry about a whole lot of bad ideas, because I have really creative and amazing people in my group.

The stress is almost unbearable though. For those of you who know me fairly well, you would know that Jessica is not a very calm person when it comes to deadlines and especially being in charge.

I can barely take care of myself and getting the things done for school that should be done. I have absolutely NO idea why the teachers picked me to be in charge of six other people!

It has become a famous statement in my group to say, "I quit!" I sinceraly hope that I was not the one to spark that statement. If people wanted to quit because of me...I don't know what I would do. :( Anywho, every twenty minutes or so, you will hear someone in the room yell, "I QUIT!!" but it is only because they are having a hard time with what they are working on. I have said it several times because of writers-block, frusteration with the computer, anger problems with the printer, and sometimes just because I am tired.

Anyways...it all comes down to this-----
Does anyone have any advice for my very inexperienced self? I mean, have you ever had a really overwhelming job that just kills you to even think about it?
This job has been quite overwhelming, but I am learning to love it.

Eggs and Bacon....Minus the Eggs

Have you ever seen roadkill?? Do you remember the feeling you get when the roadkill crunches under the wheels of the vehicle that you are in?? I know that it is gross, but that is the only thing that I could compare my "experience" to.

I have to take Biology two this year because I took Biology one last year. We were not required to disect anything my first year because the teaacher had something of a weak stomach. I thought for a while that I must have been lucky because I got to skip out on disecting frogs. Well I am not as lucky as I thought....and it wasn't a frog this time.


We were required to disect a fetal pig. DISGUSTING!!! I almost fainted the first day that we worked on it. But anywho....during the disection, we had to locate all of the major organs and arteries. We had a packet that outlined what we were looking at and how to identify the different parts of the pig's body. It also gave a detailed description of how to make the incisions, what tools to use, and where to and not to make the incisions.


I was paired with the only boy in my four-person class. Boys are gross and immature when it comes to cutting things up and grossing girls out. Well, I was VERY grossed out.


We bagan by getting a pig from the bag and putting it in a disection pan. Then we were let loose as far as the "process" went. I thought that I was doing okay, but then we were to make our first incision.

Through this incision, we were to locate certain things in the mouth and touch certain parts of the tongue. Well, when something has been bathed in fermaldahide for so long, it is hard to cut it. It was so hard to see the back of the mouth that we had to break the jaw to see what we were looking for. Like I said, it was VERY hard to cut...and when your partner is making pig noises, pointing out nasty things about the pig, siging pig songs, talking about hunting experiences, and saying , "we should call him Wilbur!" it is EXTRA disgusting.


The rest of the class time and today's class time went pretty much the same. I would tell my partner where to cut, I would look down at my paper while he cut it and I would hold my stomach. Then I would ask about certain body parts while still holding my stomach....I pretty much held my stomach and starred at the paper for as long as I was able. Because a drawing of a pig is much more pleasant than an actual pig.


In closing, I would not advise any one of you to go disecting animals. Not that this would be a choice that most of you have to make. (Oh yeah...and the best part about all of it was that for lunch on both days that we disected, we had pig-based food for lunch. Great huh?! I think that they planned that one!)

Crowder College/Upward Bound

I just realized that half of those that I talk to have no clue what I mean when I say "Upward Bound" or "Crowder College". I am taking this time to post what all of this means.....

Upward Bound, often reffered to as UB, is a school program for high school kids to help them with their chances of getting into a good college, giving them the experience, or because their parents never got above a Masters degree, etc etc. The list goes on.

Anywho, they are given the chance once a month during the school year to go to the closest Crowder College and take two, two hour classes. By participating at these once-a-month activities during the school year, they recieve $30 and the knowledge that these classes have given them. During the summer, the students are given the opportunity to go live and take classes on the Crowder College Campus.

While living on Campus, students are expected to treat the facility with respect and do their part as far as cleaning, bed-time, personal hygiene, getting to classes on time, and maintaining a passing grade goes.

The official Upward Bound "lights out" time is strictly 11:00pm. It is up to the Residential Assistent, or RA, if they mind that the people in their house are still talking or texing and what not.

At UB you must take four classes, a research class, and a knowledge quest class. The four classes that you take depend on what you have taken already and what you are required to take. For instance, I have to take an advanced spanish class because I took spanish two last year. :( Each class is about an hour long with ten minutes in between to get to and from classes.

The research class is a bit different though. There is a choice of about five or six research classes here at Upward Bound. This year I chose UB memeories. Your research class is either your very first class or your very last class and lasts three hours long. Throughout the month you will be expected to, not only learn, but to plan and present a presentation on the last week of what you learned and the processes that you took, etc. etc.

Knowledge Quest is simply a study hour to get done what you didn't get done or to go to the library and get on the computer or whatever. It is pretty much a study hall.

Anywho, I think that I have covered most of the UB idea. It is a good program and I have really enjoyed participating in all of it!

Home-Sick....

Being away from home was never a huge problem for me in the past. I had all of these great activites like girl's camp and youth conference and sleepovers, etc. etc. etc. I have been thinking though of why I never really got homesick before. I decided that I never really got the opportunity to be away from "home" because my parents were usually with me when I went far away.
They say that home is where the heart is. Obviously my heart is not with me if I am feeling homesick. These last few days without my family have been quite empty and very home-sick-ie....or however you would say that.... :)
I got curious, so I looked online for cures to homesickness....seeing as I have like five more weeks of being away from home. I actually found on another blog some "cures" for homesickness.....

1.Bring a piece of home with you
2.Stay in touch-call home when you can!
3.Use technology-IM or e-mail your loved ones
4.Blog it- Blogging is a good way to be updated with your family
5.Pick the right place to stay-If you get homesick easy, don't go too far!

Then I found some on Yahoo.....

6.Watch your favorite movie play lots of games and keep busy until you are ready to go to sleep. Then make sure you run round the block 3 times take shower(very warm) drink a nice cup of hot chocolate. At that point and time you wll be so tired you won't think of home.
7.some of the best things to do are:To keep busy, and socialize, time seems to pass quicker.If possible get your family to send something personal to you that reminds you of home, like a childhood teddy etc.Try doing activities such as bowling, gym, etc, anything to keep you busy.Try not to phone home too often because the more you phone home then the more you will want to get back to your family.hope this helps a little.

Then just around the internet....

8.Other than going home? Explore more of where you are at. Take your mind off of it every now and then.
9.By going home and staying for some days ...that's what I did :-) !
10.I watch TV. I use to live in California where a lot of where I lived have been filmed. Do something that reminds you or makes you feel of home.
11.Have something with you that reminds you of home.

I personally thought that these were all some very good ideas. Obviously you cannot "cure" homesickness, but there are some very good ways to hinder the homesick flu. Now I know what I can do to feel less homesick while I am gone the rest of this month and half of the next.

I really can't wait to get home to see you guys!! I love you all!!!!

totally embarrassed!!

So, I was in my Spanish class on Friday and I was really hyper.............................(can't you tell that this isn't gonna end well?) :)
There is a podium that sits on wheels in the front of the classroom and I was rolling on it. You know, like holding onto it and running and then jumping on it while it rolls. Well, I was having an awful lot of fun. My friend Jacob told me that if I kept doing it that I was gonna fall. He said that he was worried about me falling over and over again. But did I take heed to his warning? No.....my mistake.
Anyways, in the midst of all this, my teacher wanted to show us a video. So she had the video showing on the smart-board and I was rolling and all of a sudden.................
BANG!!!!
The next thing I know, I was on top of the podium that had fallen on the floor. Did I mention that my teacher is pregnant? She was scared out of her wits! It wasn't funny either. I felt so stupid and embarrassed that instead of hurriedly getting myself and the podium off of the floor, I just rolled over and layed on the ground thinking that if I concentrated hard enough, that I could disappear. Well, disappearing is harder than it sounds. Because it didn't work., despite all of my embarrassment.
However, I must say this..... falling on the floor was no where near as bad of an embarrassment as your friends making fun of you for it.
The next time your friends tell you NOT to do something......just don't do it.