You Gotta Dig a Little Deeper...

.... to find out who you are. Diiiiig a little deeper - you're really not that far! When you find out who you are, you find out what you need. Blue skies and sunshine, guaranteed. Just wish upon that wishin' star cuz when you do, your dreaaaaams coooooome truuuuue!!

Well I have to say that the weather this year has been amazing. Just simply amazing. It's only been "FRIGGIN COLD!!" once or twice. Most of the time it's just been chill. Hahah, get it - chill?! Ha... anyways. Seriously though, I've loved it. So much more the improvement from my first semester of -30. More often it is 20-30 which is awesome, like you only need a jacket or even a hoodie. No scarves or gloves really necessary, unless you prefer them.

Side note: Isn't my hair getting long? I'm going to just keep on growing it out. I'm hoping to get it a little further past my shoulders. But not to my waist. WAY too much maintenance required.

Well, since the sem is almost over I suppose I should introduce yall to my roommates. I've really been slackin in this since my first year haha I don't even have real pictures, just pictures from our 'Ward Stalker List' - a list with pictures of all the apartments in the ward. And if you served a mission it says where you got sent - just for those crazy RM hunters

First is Maria, originally from Tacoma, Washington... well actually it says where they're from on their pictures so I'll leave that to them. I do know she's lived a bunch of places just because. I know she's lived in Cali for a time as well as Texas! woot woot. She misses it too haha. Knew we got her. She wants to be a nurse in the armed forces. That's pretty darn cool.
Next is Ashley, who kind of actually reminds me of Myra from my first year. She's bubbly, she loves to cook and clean and paint pictures (although just simple stuff, she's not an art major or anything), and at the same time she reminds me of Alexis because she is the momma of the apartment. She's majoring in child development and I think she wants to be a teacher or something but I forgot haha. I know she wants to be a mommy. Also, she is a Disney kid, who like Myra, lives right next to Disneyland and goes there often, just to hang out. We often have battles about which is better, Florida or Cali.
Next we have Amber. Amber is a sunshine daisy and she's always positive and she's always able to smoothe things over and she's always cute. She's majoring in dance I believe. She also leaves me fun lil notes every now and then. All of my roommates have more or less lived with each other since they started school, so they already have a culture going on and it's cool that I'm kinda welcomed into it
Finally we have Jess. She didn't live with everyone up till now, she is in through Amber. But they're all tight just the same. She is also majoring in dance and don't tell the other roomies but she is my favorite. She just gets me more and we can both really relate to one another. Also we love weird things like the Haka (a Maori war chant/dance) and stuff in other cultures.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand then there was one. ME! I have my own room which is the biggest blessing of this semester, well, that and the fact that my apt is right next to campus so I can get to classes within 10 min. So much better than having to leave 20+ min early just to get there on time, much less being early like I did at Nauvoo.
Do you like my name? Yup. Velma is my nickname as many of yall may or may not know. I've gone by it for over a year and a half or something and I love it. People remember you that way too, so my name is not forgotten like, ever. They even call me that in church. Go life :)
To my roommates, I am Velma, Velms, V, or my favorite alteration: Velmita. hahaha. Love it.
I still don't know if they really know how to handle me sometimes but let's face it, I'm an acquired taste... I'm not the most normal of humans hahahaha. Photo evidence as follows....
Typical sunday afternoon:
For V-day we drew roommates' names and we put together little presents for them with their favorite things. Amber ended up having me, and I ended up getting Amber. Funny how that worked out! In the end I got her a vintage Wizard of Oz book (from DI) which she LOVES - she's obsessed with Oz stuff and loves vintage things so it was perfect. I also got her Ghirardelli (however you spell it) chocolate squares which on her card it was stated as the favorite candy, and an ice cream cone cup. But before I could get all that I made her a really gay looking note (kind of an IOU Vday present because I was going out of town for the weekend), which you can see right after. I tried to make it the corniest/gayest hahaha. Success?
I also was commissioned ($) by my roommate Ashley to illustrate a children's book for class, "Dustin," which is about a dust bunny. Go figure. It's actually a cute story about Dustin trying to make it through spring cleaning. She was very particular about what she wanted as for style of drawings. She wanted it very much like a child had drawn it and gave me a book as an example of the style she was looking for. Following is one of the pages so far. I will post when I finish the whole thing. For now, I have the entire storyboard, I just need to bring it to computer form now.
In addition to that stuff I have the best calling in the world this semester which I am just so very thankful for. I am the publicity leader for Relief Society, which basically translates to I make the posters for all the activities. I adore it and I always get tons of compliments as well - some apartments just keep them on their fridges because they like them. You can't receive any higher compliment than that. I love it. Here are just a few of the ones I've done.. it's not like they're amazing or anything I just did what I thought looked good and could get ppl to go to things.
I also made my own stationary for a couple letters I sent out to people. Yup, I'm the MOST self absorbed! hahah just kidding I just liked it - you can't get any more personalized than this! Click on the picture for a larger view. That way you can read the quotes too.

I am also starting to do more art both hand drawn and on the computer for fun. I'm trying to branch off from translating a picture to cartoon form and instead create something without looking at references at all. My most recent attempt has been a Na'vi from Avatar... it's far from done (her hair is like nonexistant right now! And there's no color! - but I personally have a huge weakness when it comes to coloring things; it's never been my strong suit), but here is a preview of it.
Avatar has to be my 2nd favorite move of all time, right behind Hook. I've seen it 3 times, all in 3D and hope to be able to see it again soon. It's just amazing and a total thrill for the senses and a visual feast for the eyes.
The people I'm hoping to see it with are Quincy & Steph. Side note: I pretty much only hang out with married people, don't hate hahaha. I counted it out, when I'm not at home or school or doing errands, I'm at one of these places: James & Brooke's, Dave & Livy/John & Alli's, Erica & Mark's, Inga & Dan's, or Steph & Quincy's. I think I mostly just go to the last 3 homes though. I love them all so much. Anyways, Steph & Q haven't seen it yet and I KNOW they'd love it so I'm hoping to go to it with them soon. We'll see.
I also created their graduation present (Steph graduates this sem and Q is next sem, but I won't be here for that and I'm super impatient so I gave it to them last week). I got them a vertical canvas board (half off! woo!) because they love to paint together - esp splatter paintings, as well as these next 2 crafts. So that they make sense, you have to know that Stephanie is OBSESSED with Tabasco sauce. It is the theme for their kitchen. She is even in a sculpting class and is making a tabasco cookie jar. Yeah. SO I whilst strutting round the craft store one day (this amazing store I just discovered this semester), I just caught an idea in my mind and brought it to life as follows - hope you like it! - also, the green is more bright in person

And then I decorated this clip. Because I had leftover supplies and I wanted to decorate a clip for something so yea. hahah. Yay.
I've also been creative with hair styles. Actually this next one was a complete accident and I went with it hahah
Okay enough of that. Also I went down to Utah not too long ago for a lovely extended weekend vacation of 5 days. I got to see my cousins babies! I'd seen all but Lacey (spelling?) before but this time I got to see little precious. But for most of the night I had the deluxe pleasure of hanging out with the darling, gorgeous baby McKinley. Isn't she a doll? She kind of reminds me of Cassie's adorable Hailey.
Ty, my fave lil cousin-once-removed, also graced us with his handsome presence along with his beautiful brother Brody. Ty was so cute; on his piece of cake he got to have a candle which was lit up many times for him to blow out. I love him. And his pop & mom, whose bday we also were privileged to celebrate that weekend! Thanks for having me Mindy!
We also got to see the sassy, beautimous London (who I love making faces with)......
............and her mom, pop, and happy go lucky baby bro Madden. I love these guys - Ty actually had just seen my family, including my papa Rippstein, which made me completely jealous!!
Aaaaaaaand the guests of honor! Presenting lil miss Lacey and her mumma Tess!

The mittens always crack me up on babies. Here's one of my pretty grandma with the little sweetheart...... I don't think she wanted to let her go :)... but she let Maddie have a go at it. I never did get a chance but I like babies that are a little less fragile so I was good with McKinley. I want to call her Mickie so bad but I don't think her parents would approve. Or maybe they would. who knows. Anyways.. here's Maddie :)


The kids were all over and they were generally a happy bunch, I was impressed. lol I loved when Madden started eating the paper goods. He was way into devouring that plate!And just the happiest baby ever... I can't believe how she just kept playin and laughin and kept goin and goin. Thanks for letting me steal your child for the night!
Side note: Madeline doesn't approve of taking pictures..
In other news, we celebrated Dan's birthday recently.
Remember his 22nd?
And his 23rd?
Well this year we celebrated dear ol' Daniel's 24th hoopla! -- I should really start taking pictures at these occasions with me in them too -- this year we had heart shaped cuppie cakes with yummy Vday frosting. A bit after the fact but hey we got there! He had a great birthday - he got P90X (an intense workout program), shoes, weights, pull up bar and I got him a jar of candy :) and they are stoked to start up on that workout sched. I should probably pick that up more than them though! hahah
This last weekend I went to Utah for Inga's nephew Ethan's baptism. I look hideous in that picture but look at him - what a stud!! He's such a great kid. Inga's family is my second family. They even coerced me into attending a family event of theirs that is usually just reserved for family. Her sisters and mother claimed that I am part of the family and I am honored. The only upsetting part was I didn't get to see Mindy or Ty or Cory or Brody like I was going to. That would have been awesome. Thanks for being so understanding and willing to take me in, Mindy! I hope I can see you guys soon!
Anyways for Ethan's baptism I wanted to do something more special than just a hymnal or a bookmark or something so again whilst brainstorming in the craft store of dreams, I came across just a plain wooden box shaped to look like a book. I painted it, put paper on it and his name (which didn't turn out the way I'd wanted but oh well. It's in the past) on it......
..... and when you open it up......
... I put the paper and a CTR clip on there as well as his picture (below the papers inside the box). The papers are for him to write down what he is feeling about his baptism day and how special it was, that way he can remember it down the line.
..........Unlike me, who only remembers getting dressed hurriedly afterwards, the cake my mom made, and going out to I think it was either Sister Fulmer or Sister Chan's car (for the life of me I don't remember which one) and getting a present from her. Yeah. That's depressing that it was all I could do to remember those parts. lol.

So then we went to their family event, here in the car is DInga & Inga's younger bro Nolan.
Here are the Baker girls! From left, Trish (soon to be married to Inga's bro Stephen in May) - she's from Scotland and is so cool I love her, Inga, Melissa, Rachelle, Eliza (married to Inga's bro Ryan), and Vanessa. Now the only one left to go is Nolan hahah.
We went over to Vanessa's home for the activity and guess what?! THEY HAVE CHINCHILLAS!! I never got to hold one before and oh my goodness I shouldn't have been allowed to because I adore them waaay too much. They're like the bigger, softer version of my darling teddy bear hamsters! I think I'm going to end up getting one whenever I ever get to a place where I can own a pet. Inga had chinchillas growing up, her favorite being named Gizmo. Isn't this one DARLING!! (pardon the annoying piece of hair in my face...)
Closeup of the lil dear. Such a treasure. LOVE her!
The activity for the night involved delicious ice cream. But no one knew exactly what we were doing until Melissa & Vanessa finally told us! We were paired up (I became Nolan's date) and we were to feed each other ice cream blind folded. Going into it I knew I wasn't going to be trying to hard before we'd fight. We are too immature hahahah. Here is the before picture:
We were pumped! We ended up being drawn first and needless to say...............


...... we became the cautionary tale. hahah. After me, all the girls knew to wear a bandanna turban so their hair wouldn't get ice cream all in it, and the teams also gleaned strategies. Everyone was afraid that they'd end up being attacked by their spouses and were fearful of the same kind of fight that we had. haha. It was fun though, and for us that's what counted most.
Next it was the engaged Trish & Stephen. They were so sweet to each other it was funny. They patented the "finger method" where they found each other's mouths with the fingers holding the spoon first so they wouldn't miss and get each other messy.

Following them was the odd couple out, the brother/sister duo. Eliza couldn't eat ice cream because of something crazy with her pregnancy or something and Scott had to stay home because Gracie got sick and had been throwing up since the last night, so Ryan and Rachelle were paired up. They were pretty nice to each other - which was hilarious because of all the girls, Rachelle suited up the most. She had a turban, a big shirt, basketball shirts and a cloth hahah it was so funny. They did a pretty good job even though they missed and kept on hitting the other's cheeks hahaha.

Next came the high school sweethearts, Melissa & Alan. (sorry I don't have pictures of all these, my camera was dying and I was saving it for Dinga). They were super funny; Melissa would get it near his mouth almost every time and he would just hone in on the spoon and get it. He however unintentionally kept on feeding her HUGE spoonfuls and he would shoot too low so he'd keep getting her neck. It's funny because she is taller than him too, even when kneeling haha. They were so cute.

Then there was Vanessa & Seth, the fun loving couple and hosts of the event. Seth was a HOOT! He was definitely the life of the party and stole the show.. he kept on doing all these hilarious things that I suppose you had to be there for. they ended up with messy faces but that was probably it. I think it was hard for Vanessa to keep eating while laughing so much.

Next was the couple that reigned supreme. The seasoned marriage veterans, Stephanie & Mike - Inga's parents!!!!!! Momma Baker was feeling sick to her stomach so she wasn't to eat anything really, but we sliced some bananas for Inga's pops to feed her, just cuz she had to have SOMETHING. Oh my goodness, I was so glad these weren't my parents - I'd have died! hhahaha I think Mike's entire intention was to gross his kids out and just go crazy. He kept on sticking out his tongue and trying to feed Steph a piece of banana with his mouth hahahah and she didn't know what he was doing and was just trying to keep feeding him the ice cream LOL he just was hilarious and it was just so funny and in the end they kissed a bit and Nolan was like covering his eyes - "I'm scarred for life!!!" And all the sibs were like aaauuuuggghhh!! SO funny. After it ended, and everyone was red from good-humored embarrassment and laughing and all, Mike and the sisters were all like "Hey Trish, guess what, it runs in the family!!" hahaha and Trish took off her wedding ring - - - OH SNAP!! hahah. But no harm done she put it back on and their imminent marriage is not in jeopardy.

Which finally brings us to the newlyweds. Dan & Inga were like well how can we follow that?! hahaha. Dan started it off with a bang, grabbing Inga and bringing her down into a dip for a smokin smooch! He won for that move for sure. They did pretty good in feeding each other...

Until Dan kept on going in for kisses and she was like "NO TONGUE!! NO!" haha she almost flipped out ahahah i bet she was so embarrassed hahah tongue in front of her whole family. Love it. Kudos, Daniel!
As they kept feeding one another, Dan kept on going in for kisses and she kept on resisting; it got so ridiculous at one point hahahah Seth was like "A wife shouldn't avoid ya that much! What are you doing wrong Dan???" LOL so funny how she kept on trying to evade and fight him without giving into a kiss hahaha. In the end they wound up pretty messy but they were golden. This was a WAY fun night! I always feel so sad coming away from Inga's family's place. Well, I always feel bad coming back to school in general. Zero fun, sir. I have a billion and a half assignments, including 6 semester long projects, only about half of which are half done. AND I have that book to illustrate.

I treated myself to a movie night a couple weeks ago to escape and saw Leap Year and Blind Side. I thought Leap Year was WAY cute, and the guy was way good looking!! :) Which never hurts hahah. Blind Side was excellent just as I knew it would be. I loved it and I'm so glad Sandra Bullock picked up the Oscar for that performance - she definitely deserved it. I also had a date last week and we went to Princess & the Frog. I gotta say, I LOVED it this time. Hated it the first time I saw it but now I'm lovin it. Just sooo much better the second time. Might have something to do with the fact that it has been some time since my separation from Disney so I'm not watching Tiana's Showboat Jubilee every day and building up the story in my head to what I thought it should be. I just went in with low or no expectations and it was swell

I have reaaaaaallly been missing Disney recently. Quite a lot. I miss strolling through the parks, indulging in the magic surrounding me and just enjoying seeing the happy faces all around and seeing dreams come true. Being able to go explore with Nemo and visit different countries and learn about the Circle of Life with Timon, Pumbaa & Simba, and wish with a minimum of 14000 other people every night to an enchanting and overwhelming fireworks display! To explore the jungle or a haunted house, to become an honorary bug, to be an extra in the Indiana Jones' show, to play games with Woody & Buzz, to see a yeti or drop in a haunted hotel's elevator or to zoom in a super stretch limo to an Aerosmith concert... OH my goodness memories.. rushing back.. can't.. handle.. it............ I miss it so much. I hate being away. Disney was my home! Part of my heart is still there! The magic! The splendor! The pure joy! ... and all that coupled with cast discounts wasn't so bad either..... I just hate that the next time I will be there isn't for at least 3 years. It hurts! lol. I went once every year for the last 3 years..... and it still wasn't enough! Goodness me. I even miss my uniform. I felt too bad about stealing it in the end so of course I didn't. Because that is wrong. I wanted to sooo badly though! At least I still have my "Mandy" name tag. Too bad I can't find my "Courtneys" anywhere. *sigh*

On a less depressing note, flower arranging is progressing smoothly and I'm learning new skills. Awhile ago we practiced form and line and to do so we used play dough to create an arrangement of our choosing. Here's how mine ended up - my teacher ended up keeping it :)

And I tried my hand at my first centerpiece as well. We didn't get to choose what types of flowers or anything like that. Idk I don't really like how mine turned out - I'm not to good with color and arranging that is hard for me. But hey my roommates allow me to display it in our living room proudly so that's a good sign.

Aaaand today we made corsages. Idk what the flowers are called. It didn't turn out how I wanted but I was rushed - we weren't given enough time to do them sooo this is how mine ended up. ugh. Oh well. At least it was comfortable. I like her style of corsage so its not elastic which is either too tight or too loose (there's no good middle ground!) And yea. It would be better if I went back and made another.

On a REALLY exciting note my obsession with weddings continues and will be indulged this weekend with the Floral/Wedding show put on by the event planning, floral arranging, clothing construction, cake decorating/culinary and etc departments. I'm sad to say this is the first time I'll ever have attended. I'm thrilled though. The theme this year is focusing on popular color schemes now and what is projected to be popular in the next couple years. Pretty cool! We were watching some dvds of past shows and the exhibits looked pretty gosh darn awesome so I'm thrilled to attend. Don't worry, I'll take my camera :)

Well. Now that this blog is taken care of and off my mind I can begin on those million and a half assignments I was telling you about. Wish me luck!!