Close your left eye

This weekend I have been denying the truth but today I am finally willing to admit that I have nodes.  Just kidding I am just losing my voice and getting sick.  I haven't really recovered from being sick over the holidays and on Friday night I went sledding and got soaked.  Ever since I have been getting worse and worse but I thought if I just kept telling myself I wasn't sick, then I wouldn't be.  Makes sense right?  Anyways this evening some of my dear friends came over and brought me medicine and encouraged me to get better.  One of them wrote me a prescription of how to get better.  He is from Samoa and likes to make things up and the problem is I never know if he is lying or telling the truth. (truth truth on the roof, or liar liar pants on fire)

 When we went sledding I got hurt and he started to pretend to know how to make me better.  He made me close my left eye (his left not mine) and then put my hand on my left ear (my left not his) and then tell him when I felt pain.  It didn't work when we tried it the other night and I don't know if it will now, but hopefully the NyQuil and cough candies will.

I also got the chance to talk with this lovely lady for a while tonight and she always cheers me up.  I miss her so much and I can't believe she is almost going on her mission!  She is the coolest lady ever and you should all be jealous that I get to be her friend.  

Anyways Oil Painting is coming quickly so I must get some shut eye.  Love Hannah <3

by Small Means

I have read the first chapters in the Book of Mormon so many times and yesterday while I was in 1 Nephi I came across this scripture.  There are other scriptures that say things like this as but this one really stuck out to me.  As long as we are working towards our goals and progressing we can do great things and become amazing people.

I told my roommate and dear friend Rachel Fischer about this scripture and asked her to design something for me.  I love what she came up with and I think she is brilliant!  

Remember that you are incredible and you can do great things in your life.

Happy Friday <3

Delicious Granola Recipe

This is one of my favorite things to eat.  I usually don't really like yogurt but this granola makes it delicious.  I love to put a ton of it into greek yogurt for breakfast. or lunch. or dinner. or a snack.  It is just so good.  I don't know where the recipe is originally from but my dear friend Stephanie Lee taught me how to make this when we were neighbors.  

I mad made it last night when I got home from my workout and for some reason I couldn't take a nice picture.  I either made a funny face or closed my eyes for every single one but I still like the pictures.  (I just have character)

Granola:

1/3 C vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 C honey

8 C oats

1 1/2 C packed brown sugar

1/2 lb angel flake coconut

2 C almonds (I usually substitute chopped pecans)

1 C raisins

(or whatever else you want in your granola! I add whatever nuts I have and do a mix of raisins and cranberries)

Directions: Heat oil, vanilla, and honey over low/med heat until it gets bubbly, stirring constantly. Combine dry ingredients EXCEPT raisins in a large bowl. Add liquid ingredients over dry and mix well. Spray large cookie sheet or pan with Pam before pouring granola on. Bake at 325'F for 15-20 minutes stirring every 5 minutes. I sometimes put it on two sheets so it cooks faster.  After 10-15 minutes in the oven add the rasins or cranberries and continue to bake for the remaining time. It won't seem crunchy when its done just darker golden. It hardens as it cools outside of the oven.

Light a Fire

Today was the First workout for Biggest Winner this semester and all weekend I was dreading it.  I have just been feeling like I don't have the energy or motivation to get back to the gym and actually cooking food.  I may or may not have been eating fruit snacks and peanut butter cliff bars as my main meals for the past two weeks...  

I think I have just been nervous that I am going to let people down.  That I am going to let myself down  and so instead of that i would rather quit before it starts so that I never tried or failed.  The problem with this though, is I hate quitting.  Especially if someone tells me I can't I want to just say watch me and prove them so wrong their pants fall off, or I suppose in this situation my pants fall off because they are much too big.  

Want to know a secret?  I dropped about 8 pant sizes since I have started losing weight so I suppose I am doing something right.  Anyways I made it to my workout and once I was there it was great.  It feels so good to have endorphins back in me making me crazier and happier.  I am really excited for Biggest Winner and this semester to be amazing.

I think I just need to stay focused on my goals and the important things and if I can manage that everything else will fall into place.  

Opening ceremonies

Goodness Gracious!  It feels like it has been such a long week and I just never know what is going on.  Tonight I had opening ceremonies for the Biggest Winner program here at school and I have very mixed emotions about it.  I am so excited to get back to the gym and to progress and improve more but I am worried that I won't be good enough and I will let me team down.  I know I have already come so far but at times I feel like it just isn't good enough.  

My trainers said that we are going to be doing insanity this semester and I once tried the fitness test for it and I wanted to cry.  It was horrible.  I know that once things get going, as long as I have a positive attitude things will be great.

I just have so many things I want to do and places I want to go and I am always getting scared and holding myself back.  I need to work on letting go of those silly fears because honestly I am really cool and I rock.  Also I am kind of gorgeous.  I know I sound really conceited but you have to be confident in order to pull anything off.  One thing I am always saying to people is that if you are not confident about yourself or an outfit or whatever it won't be as good.  I really should just listen to my own advice.  Maybe I would be less crazy.  Oh well.

Shirt: JC Penney
Skirt: DownEast Outfitters (christmas present from Josie)
Watch: Aldo Accessories 

( song I am loving right now)

Good days

Isn't it crazy how a day can go from good to bad and then back to good?  This morning school was cancelled which I was happy about because one of my teachers kind of scares me and I was happy not to have to go to that class.  

Then I was trying to deal with my money problems, which it seems I always have, and it turns out nowhere in rexburg will exchange my canadian money unless I have an account with them.  Which is frustrating to me.

I was just feeling really down after class walking home carrying a bag of textbooks that I had just purchased when I heard someone ask if my hands were cold.  A really sweet boy put my books inside his bag and walked me all the way home.  I thought he would walk with me until we got to his apartment but he walked me all the way to Brookside and then all the way to my stairs.  

I am so grateful that the Lord is looking out for me and sending people into my life at the right moments.  Today I would have come home cranky and sad but instead I am remembering how good people are and how wonderful life is.

Belated New Years

This Year I was sick in bed for New Years so I knew I wanted to do something once I made it back to Rexburg as a back to school/new years celebration.  So I decided after the first week of school it would be wonderful to celebrate.  What I didn't realize was how much work it would be and also how much fun it would be.  I had a general idea of what I wanted to do but I didn't really have time to get anything done until Friday afternoon (day of the party).  

One problem is I don't have a car but I do have two perfectly good legs so I decided to use those to walk the two miles to Walmart.  Unfortunately my roommates did not like that so I might have told a small white lie or two and pretended that one who was at school was going to drive me and told another one someone else was driving me and I snuck out.  

The part I didn't realize was that some roommates might see each other and realize what I had done.  So I was gone for about ten minutes before they called me and said they were coming to get me.  They might have also tried to ground me.  I went and found the cutest cups at DI and picked up a bunch of decorations/ food.  Then I hurried home and with the help of my lovely roommates set things up.  

By the time we finished setting up and cooking the food it was 9:00, right when the party started.  I was so nervous that no one would show up but luckily our friends like us and they came!  We just mingled at first and had some delicious food, I ate my first tortilla chip in a year and it was pretty good.  Nothing spectacular but decent.  One delicious item on the menu was a cake full of coins wrapped in tinfoil and there was one loonie wrapped up and whoever won the loonie got a prize.  Unfortunately most americans don't know what a loonie looks like and so one of my dear friends thought she had it ut it was really just a Canadian dime.
  After about an hour though we decided to play a game which had some hilarious results and was much harder than I thought it would be but I think I got kind of good at it after I smacked a few people in the beginning.  

We had a resolution wall where people could redo their new years resolutions.  Some ended up being silly like meet peter pan, or discover buried treasure... twice. but others were more serious like, be more humble, read the scriptures everyday, and lose 50 pounds.

And... we had a photo booth!

Then at midnight we got a teensy bit cray cray.  We had some silly string and confetti poppers and it got quite messy

Thankfully boys stayed and helped us clean.  It got really bad after the cake was thrown, but it was thrown to save me after I was threatened with silly string.  

Overall I am going to say it was the best new years for me in quite a while and I think from now on I will be having a belated new years.  When most people are breaking their resolutions I will just be getting started on mine.

Happy New Years. Bring it on 2013.

Business as usual

The night before classes started I felt so nervous for everything to start again and I felt panicked about some of my classes.  

(me feeling panicked)

But I would just like to say so far they have been amazing!  Yesterday (monday) morning I had oil painting at 8:00 and I got up extremely early for it (6:30 is early for me).  I was scared for this one because I haven't really painted before but my teacher pretty much just said that we were all going to suck and we didn't know anything but we might get better as the semester goes on.  The thing is he is such a fun teacher that I didn't care and I know I am no good at it so he was just being honest.  Then I went to Ceramics which I am so excited for because I am thinking about applying for the BFA in it.  That means I would get my Bachelor of Fine Art instead of just a Bachelor of Art.  

My last class yesterday was one I thought about dropping all day because it makes it so I am in class for 7 hours straight on Mondays and Wednesdays but I decided to go and just see how it went and it went amazing!  The teacher is the most incredible man ever.  We didn't even get to the lesson plan because he went off on other thoughts and answering questions students asked.

Then when I got home my roommate Elizabeth asked if we have any first day of school traditions and we said we didn't so she decided to make us breakfast for dinner and then take first day of school pictures in front of the door with our backpacks on.  It was just such a good day and it made me feel excited for the semester.  Day two hasn't been as great but more on that later once it is figured out.

Lets get to it!

Well I am back in the Burg ready (?) for the semester to start.  

I am a teensy tiny bit nervous for it to all begin.  I have a wonderful apartment and some of my best friends are with me right now!  On the other hand though, I am thinking some of my classes are going to be rough and I just hope I am good enough in my art classes because it can be intimidating sometimes.  I just need to work hard and be confident and  should survive... right?

I also have to get up at 6:30 in the morning which I highly dislike so I should get some shut eye.  Wish me luck for the semester, I have a feeling I will need it.