end of summer semester

I can't believe one week and I'm done. Thursday and friday are finals and then off to wyoming for camping. This semester has been nice. I like having less people on campus and transport, but it's also more accelerated so you have to learn more in a shorter period of time. So that can be stressful especially when you have to take a final on something you only started learning the day before. The only grade I know so far is my o chem lab grade and I got the highest in the class with a 99.5 which is good because there is a down curve where 95 and lower get an A-. I talked to giles and he said he is going to hook me up with an awesome letter of recommendation for chemistry, so I'm excited about that. The only downer is that the TA position I thought I had is not a formal position. I need it to be legit for my application, not just helping the teacher out. So now I'm scrambling to try and TA something else, but it might be too late. However, I talked to matt linton and he's interested in having me design the diagrams and charts for the new edition of his textbook. So that could be a unique little addition to my application. Other than that, I'm just tired. You know you are tired when you stand with your hand under the paper towel dispenser and get frustrated because no soap is coming out. Brooke was extra juicy this morning when I left. It was hard to say goodbye. Our hands were together and then they slowly slid apart...then just fingertips...a chicago song was playing in the background...a single tear in her eye. Actually she was mostly asleep and a little sweaty, but she rocks my world.

7/2

sometimes I look at my life and I'm just like, what is going on. If you had told me a year ago that in a year I would be at huntsman cancer institute doing drug dilutions and experiments on zebrafish embryos, I would have slapped you right in the mouth. How did I get here? A year ago I was covered in sawdust, working in my shop, spending much of the day in my underwear, watching movies at lunch with brooke, feeling tired if I had to wake up before 8. Life is so crazy. But it feels good to be exhausted and busy ALL THE TIME. It's very fulfilling. I had a physiology test yesterday and feel pretty good about it. I felt a little rushed so that makes me a little nervous, but it should be fine. I studied so hard for it yesterday my brain just hurt at the end of the day. So only one test left in both classes. Two and a half weeks and the semester will be over and I'll be camping in wyoming. I can't wait. On a side note, I should do some research into why asparagus makes your pee smell so nappy. I mean, what's up with that?

7/7

for the last year I have woken up every weekday at 5:10. For some reason, for the last two days I have slept through my alarm. What the crap is going on. I'm not that guy, I don't ever even hit snooze. I slept in yeaterday until 5:50, and today until 6:45. I got a little over 7 hours of sleep, which was amazing, but I've got to get this figured out. I guess I am losing my mind.

4th of july weekend

this weekend was so much fun. first of all, i got monday off, which all by itself is so exciting. but we went to fairview canyon to camp with our best friends the stewarts. we got up there on friday night and stayed until monday afternoon. so three nights. i freaking love camping. its sad because we had built up all of our camping gear when we lived in st. george and we were planning all these trips, and then we moved. so it was fun to break it all out again. it was pretty hot in the day and pretty cold at night, but the kids all did really well. luckily my parents got them great sleeping bags, so they stayed warm. brooke forgot our air mattress, so the first night was a little rocky, but then we borrowed one from my aunt connie and uncle lane who live in fairview, and snuggled for the other two nights. going to bed and waking up when all the kids want to get into bed with you is my favorite part about camping. we played lots of cards and just talked and got all caught up. we had a big soccer game in a field and of course fat matt got a little sore just playing with the kids. the crazy thing is that it started raining on sunday, the 4th, and then snowed for two hours. big dumpy flakes! on the 4th of july, i couldn't believe it. then it got all sunny and we had kind of covered up the wood, so we were able to get a fire started again. but it was so fun. i seriously love the stewarts. lesa is like 7 months pregnant, so that was kind of funny to see her waddling around, trying to pick stuff up. she even played soccer for like 5 minutes. what an amazon. no serious injuries with the kids, besides the occasional burn on their hand after telling them 10 times that the camp stove is hot. i had to make like 3000 cups of hot chocolate for them, and we forgot to put a diaper on jonas for the way home, and he peed his pants and filled up his car seat with a pee puddle. i showered twice to get the smell of beef jerky off of me, and brooke and i made out a little bit. what a great weekend.

2nd physiology exam

i gots a 98. we'll see if that's impressive, when i find out what the rest of the class did. there are a couple people i'm trying to beat that edged me out on that last one. maybe it was good that i got a low A on the first one, if i steadily improve from there. better than going down. its just so much memorizing. about 80 pages, each with two slides on them, so basically memorizing about 160 slides. but this is nothing compared to anatomy, so they say. so i'll look forward to that.