I wrote a song today.

Actually, I rewrote the words to Call Me Maybe.

As a student worker I automatically get any University closure dates off work. That's great, except when I don't have plans and need the cash mons. (Un)fortunately, in December I will have more than a week off of work.

Here's my ode to that:

I can wrap presents well,
I am a pro with Excel,
Will watch anything with a tail,
Because I need the pay.

Will watch your offsprin

g,
While you go shopping,
I'll do anything,
Because I need the pay.

Baking, errand running,
Dinner for your hubby,
Watering your lily,
Let me make you less busy.

Hey, holidays are
Pretty crazy
I'd love to help out.
So call me, maybe?

Well, that is it for my song writing capabilities. Let me know if you have anything you need done. My talents include: proofreading, babysitting, cooking, alphabetizing, filing, typing, emailing, Facebooking, dancing, Harry Potter fact knowing, Christmas song singing, pet-sitting, house-watching, oil checking, errand running, shopping, envelope labeling, scripture reading, high school (and below) tutoring, general cheering.

Happy holidays!

Chanda C. :) :) :)

Obligatory Thanksgiving post

I'll try to keep this a little fresh, everyone is posting what they are thankful for.. But I would be rude to not follow suit.

Tucson: I am thankful for Tucson because we still need to use our AC at the end of November. I miss trees and leaves but I don't miss being cold.

UofA: It is such a blessing in my life to be able to go to a great university on scholarship. Through UA I have two jobs and have met people that have influenced my life in ways I never imagined. I love the Institute program here and I love the opportunities I have been given to grow and learn who I am and what I believe.

Friends: I know everyone says that they have the best friends in the world, and I really do have the best friends for me. The friends who helped me get through high school (even the ones I don't keep in contact with, which is most of them) helped shape me so much. Recently I've seen how much impact friends can have on each other, I'm thankful to have made friends that kept me in line with my goals and encouraged me to be the best that I can be. And now, I am thankful for my friends at UA (even the ones I don't keep in contact with...mostly because a lot of them are married now). My friends keep me keeping on. They're wonderful influences and examples and knowing that they are here for me brings so much joy to my life.

My house/roommates: This overlaps quite a bit. My roommates are wonderful. I love that when we see each other we always have something to say, but we're also good about not being all up in each others' business. We're so different in our personalities but I absolutely love them. I'm lucky to have had this opportunity to live here, with these girls, and be able to have my little dog with me. This house has been wonderful. I am able walk to school and work (or ride the bus) and I get my own room and bathroom and Luna gets a doggy door and we have a giant kitchen. It's wonderful.

Family: Of course, my family. My immediate family really knows how to drive me crazy, but with that they also know how to make me the happiest person alive. I can't wait to see Wade this December (although I will miss going to Idaho). I'm so happy for Taryn (graduating high school). I love that Aaron calls me regularly (even when I usually don't answer). I'm so proud of Melanie and her swimming and schoolwork. My dad sent me a tender birthday card (with an ORANGE envelope!). And my mom almost always picks up when I call her. They're so wonderful. And my extended family is just as good! I love that my aunts and uncles are so willing to help me out however they can. I miss seeing them, but I will see a lot of them in December for our family Christmas FHE and I really look forward to that.

I forgot a few things..

Roland: I'm so thankful that he has been a part of my life this past year. (Last Thanksgiving he joined my family at our meal.) I love how willing he is to do anything he can to help me. He drives me around for errands, he takes me on dates, he drove me to Disneyland, he lets me hang out with (half of) his family, he makes me laugh SO hard, he's so wonderful.

The Gospel: I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for the hope and happiness it allows me to feel. I love my ward and my bishop and the scriptures and the leaders of the church. I've been praying about going on a mission, and while I don't feel that it is necessary for me right now, I do hope to serve one day.

I have so much to be grateful for. And now I get to do homework (which isn't something I am generally very thankful for).

Chanda C.

Thanksgiving, or "Rotisserie Chicken Day"

Hello!

Just a little update while I am here at work bored the day before Thanksgiving...

I went to DISNEYLAND for my 21st birthday!! It was really wonderful.
Roland and I were both feeling sick before we went, but we didn't know when we would have the opportunity to go again and we had both already gotten the time off. So we kept with our plans.
The first day was rough, we both had headaches and sore throats that were aggravated by rides (the headaches at least). It was really nice to walk around and eat delicious food and chat though.

The next day (thanks to many prayers) we felt totally better. We got to go on all of the rides we wanted and the longest line we waited in was probably only 30 minutes. We had SO much fun.

I ate like 5 churros, which is all a girl could ever ask for. Also, we discovered this adorable little restaurant called the Jolly Holiday Cafe (it is Mary Poppins themed- made me nostalgic). It kind of took the place of the bakery on Main Street USA, put me in a room with peppy music and loads of baked goods and I'll be over the moon.

For the holidays Disney had a whole slew of special treats. My favorite were the gingerbread beignets! SO GOOD. Who knew you could improve from a traditional beignet?

We also had a Dole Whip and a Turkey Leg (we had never had those Disney staples prior to this trip, which is crazy considering how often he and I have been to Disneyland separately). Those were so delicious.

Roland and I had agreed that if we didn't get along at Disneyland that we would have to break up, thankfully for us we got along splendidly.

The semester is winding down and I can't express how grateful I am for that. My classes are going well, I'm getting good grades. But I have given up on my dream of speaking Spanish. That's been squished out of me. And I realized that Statistics is just a way to confuse people. And I hate online classes. So, a lot of learning experiences this semester.

I'm excited for next semester (I'll be taking almost all Psych classes). It has been tough working two jobs and taking classes, by the time I get home I just want to sleep or watch TV until my mind melts. We'll see how next semester goes. More classes and hopefully more hours at work (why do I do this?)!

My friend from high school died last week, I missed his funeral because I was in California. I hope and pray that everyone affected by his death will find a positive way to deal with the tragedy.

That's been about it. Thanks for reading.
Keep on keepin' on!

Chanda C.

I really will study...

I have a Spanish exam tomorrow.

Tonight I just haven't really felt like studying. So instead I ate dinner, chatted with my mom, looked at funny things on the internet, facebook-stalked, texted old friends, made banana bread.

About the banana bread, I have this terrible (or wonderful) habit of not being able to follow recipes. Not because I don't know how, but because I always assume I can make it better. My last few loaves of banana bread haven't turned out very good. For example, the most recent one was too dry. I think it is because I substituted things too much. Like whole wheat flour instead of white, et cetera. It actually didn't turn out too bad because I ended up making a really tasty bread pudding out of it. So I guess that was a win.

Anyway, I really want some good banana bread so I told myself that I would follow a recipe EXACTLY. And then I started the recipe and realized it wanted me to use THREE bowls (ridiculous). Ain't nobody got time for that. And then I remembered that I had been wanting to try something new (browning butter before adding it to the recipe) and then I just took a giant leap from there. Let's hope this loaf turns out well. That is what I am trying to say.

In other news, my profile is up on the site for the conference where I will be giving a workshop. I'm really excited (despite some typos/spelling errors). I hope I do well and don't embarrass myself.

I should be more focused on my Spanish exam. I want to write in Spanish, but I'm not sure how to add the symbols so I don't know how much it would help me practice.

How do you focus when you don't want to? How late do you normally stay up? Lately if it gets past 10:00, I'm out for the count. I don't know why but I turn into a pumpkin so quick. I sleep until at least 6:30, so I should be getting enough rest. I don't know what is going on.

Thanks for reading!

Chanda C.

Starting my career! (LRC320)

Kind of, anyway.

This past couple of weeks I have been asked to do TWO workshops.

Those of you that know me know that my one true career dream is to be a motivational speaker. I tell everyone this even knowing that the likelihood of it happening is pretty slim.

However, I am THRILLED to be able to do at least a little part of what I want to do in the future.

One of the workshops I will be doing is a motivational workshop for the SALT Center (where I am a receptionist). One of the learning specialists there knows of my career aspirations and, when planning the workshop, thought of me. I can't wait to be able to talk to students and hopefully motivate them to see and fulfill their potential! I'm so excited and I've already started working on what I want to talk about.

The other workshop I will be doing is for the LDS Single Adult Conference. I will be teaching  a workshop (possibly 3 times) to single adults about how to support their adolescents through their divorce. I am excited to share a little bit of my experience (being an adolescent when my parents divorced) and hopefully help parents connect with their children.

I seriously can't wait. I'm incredibly intimidated by the thought that I will have to somehow fill up 45 minutes talking about what teens want from their parents. It'll be great experience and definitely something I can learn from.

What did you want from your parents when you were an adolescent? How did they support you?
Also, what motivates you to do your best?

In other news, I decided to experiment with my old cookie recipe (my family calls them "Chanda's Cookies" because I always used to make them) and I would like to say that it was a lovely success. I wanted to increase the amount of oatmeal in them, and I did! So that is exciting. Also, the ones I made just now are half chocolate and half butterscotch chips...sogood.

What are your favorite cookies?

Chanda C.

So I'm taking this class..

Called LRC320: Technology in the Classroom (or something like that, I know it has something to do with technology and education and using technologies in classes as a teacher). It is an online class, which I have discovered I kind of hate. But I also have learned a lot.

For this class I made a website. You can visit this website (if you feel like it) at u.arizona.edu/~chandalc.
It is a work in progress (I recently learned that I am terrible with technology).

It took me like 4 weeks and a lot of tears to get that picture on my site. And it is stretched weird so I look fatter than I really am. But I got so frustrated that I haven't changed it.

Last night, Taryn, Roland, and I went to the Tournament of Destruction. It is a real thing. A monster truck rally. Roland and I got to ride in a monster truck! And we saw demo derbies (we made a lot of jokes that demo stood for demonstration and that they didn't make much sense... It was funny, trust me), and monster truck races, and motorcross stunts, and a lot of rednecks. I felt like I was back in Lakeside. The most embarrassing part of the whole night was that the program for the event had at least 3 typos on it. I want to post an ad to businesses everywhere,
"Proofreader: $10/two page document. Don't make your business/event look like it was planned by rhesus monkeys. Have anything that the public will see read by me first."

Anyway, I had a great time. Check out my Facebook for some photos. Or my Twitter.

Also, I have a Tumblr. I repost funny things. I don't make the pictures so some of them have bad words. Sorry about that. But you can check it out. My cool, sometimes questionable tumblr!

Also of note this weekend, GENERAL CONFERENCE!! (That is when the Prophet speaks to the world in a broadcast. If interested, click here! Or here for general inquiries about my religion.) It was so wonderful to hear inspired and uplifting words. I really enjoyed conference and I look forward to getting to read the talks and study them in more depth.
I noticed, however, that all women in conference speak the same. That Utah accent is sometimes more than I can bear...

Have a good day!

Chanda C.

2012 has been a doozy of a year

I've been busy. Really busy. Just a little update:

1) I got another job. That makes three. But one is very sporadic, so it practically doesn't count. But when I feel like making people feel sorry for me then I can say I work for three different places.

2) I am over halfway done with my undergraduate career.

3) I am selling my car. Because I can't afford insurance and I don't like driving. And Roland drives me most places because he is so nice.

4) I went to Disneyland with my roommates Sarah and Beth. Beth's family also went but we didn't spend too much time with them. Not because we were being snobby, but because we just didn't. They were very nice.

5) Next semester I will be finished with my ACE minor (halelujah). I really love it. But also, it stresses me out.

6) I'm still debating whether or not to get a Spanish minor. It is four more classes, reasonable. But I am just so bad at Spanish....

7) I live in my new house. 8 bed/7bath. It is so lovely. Luna has a dog door, which she sometimes uses to go outside and bark all night and sometimes doesn't use to go outside and relieve herself. For some reason she has an affinity to bathroom rugs. She can't help but do unholy things to them when she is in the same room for even a minute.

8) I have an honors awards assembly thing this week.. I'll get my honors cords. Which I think are used to hang yourself with after graduation when you realize you still have no idea what you want to do with your life.

9) I still have no idea what I want to do with my life.

10) I started volunteering with a program called Mentors for Moms. Now I won't have a car, so I'm not sure what will happen.

11) I still really like riding the city bus. I see this one guy a lot, he always has a weed whacker. I don't know why. But those kinds of mysteries are what keep me an avid city-bus passenger!