Famous Last Words for Week 11

Overall, this week was a good one! This will probably be one of my last posts because I am almost finished with the class thanks to all of the extra credit opportunities. I have almost 390 points so I’m hoping to just finish up the rest of my points by writing my last story for my storybook and then revising it. I decided to only do three stories for my storybook, but since I had four characters I am going to have two of my characters tell their story for my third story. I think it should work out well because my two characters I have left are Vibhishana and Trijata who are father and daughter. I used my two free storybook passes this week and last week, so I think I’ll write my new story for next week and then finish it up the week after. I’m also planning to finish some of the assignments for Week 15 because I know Laura wanted some feedback on the class.

Outside of class, I am really enjoying this Fall weather! Fall is absolutely my favorite season! I love how the trees change, there is pumpkin flavored everything, sweaters and boots, perfect weather, everything about Fall is wonderful! For Halloween, Austin and I had a low-key party on Friday. We got dressed up, played Cards Against Humanity, and watched the Purge with some of our close friends. The Purge was the only scary movie that I would watch. I hate most scary movies. We also had chili and beer bread which is what my family has always done on Halloween. This was the first time that I have ever hosted a party, and there is a lot of work that goes into getting it ready! Austin and I dressed up as Batman and Robin. I really love superheroes so I thought it would be fun. 

Personal photo from our Halloween Party 

I wish we had dressed up as Green Arrow and the Black Canary though because those are my current favorite superheroes. You should really watch Arrow if you don’t already! It’s a great show. Overall, I think everyone enjoyed the party! The best thing about my week though is what my sister just told me on the phone! Jessica, my oldest sister, is dilated to a 2! Baby James was not supposed to come until November 30^th, but it looks like he might be coming as soon as next week by which time he will be full-term! I CAN’T WAIT! I’m so excited to finally meet my nephew!

Famous Last Words for Week 10: I'M ENGAGED!!

This Saturday was one of the best days of my life! Austin and I got engaged!
So here's the whole story:

Austin and I will have been dating for 4 years on November 24th of this year. Around the time we first started dating, I made a bucket list. It included visiting every continent, seeing the seven natural wonders of the world, and going on a hot air balloon ride. So this year for my birthday, Austin wanted to take me on a hot air balloon ride since it was on my bucket list! The first thing that I thought was that he might be proposing, so pretty much as soon as he suggested it, I told my family how he wanted to take me on a hot air balloon ride and he might be proposing. Austin knew he had to get my dad's permission though, so I asked my dad and mom if he had talked to dad. My family is not usually very good at lying, so when they told me he hadn't, I was thoroughly convinced that he wasn't going to ask on the hot air balloon ride. In order to go on a hot air balloon ride, there is about a month wait. Austin and his mom got the hot air balloon ride set up, and we finally got to go yesterday. We needed to be there at 4:30 in order to get up in the air on time, so when we got stuck in stand-still traffic leaving Norman, I'm sure Austin was having a bit of a panic attack. We ended up getting there at 5:00, and the guys that were taking us were still able to get us up in the air by 5:40. Basically, they have to land before sunset due to all of these regulations, so we were originally supposed to take off by 5:30 and land by 6:30, but the sun didn't set until 6:45 so we ended up getting to stay up there an hour anyway. Once we were up the air, it was surreal. I mean once in a lifetime kind of stuff. It was so peaceful up there and just beautiful! Here's some pictures!

Personal photos from our hot air balloon ride! 

About 40 minutes into the balloon ride, I was looking out just taking everything in, and when I turned around Austin was down on one knee (which was quite a feat for how small this basket was). I was pretty shocked so I missed the first part of what he said, but as soon as he started saying "Will you marry me?", I was already saying "Yes". I cannot wait to marry my best friend! I'm so excited to be able to call him my fiance, because it is so much more official! 

When we landed, which was probably the only really scary part of the balloon ride, I saw my whole family and his family waiting for us. Apparently they had been driving below us the whole entire time! After taking some pictures and doing a champagne toast, we went to Hideaway Pizza, and I was surprised to find even more family and friends gathered there for our engagement party! It was the perfect day and even more than I could have imagined! 

The ring!

Austin's parents! I couldn't be more lucky to marry into such a wonderful family!

 My future brother-in-laws and sister-in-law! (Plus Justin's girlfriend, Hayley!)

My whole family!

Personal photos from our engagement party

Famous Last Words for Week 9

This week was kind of a rollercoaster of emotions due to some personal issues, but hopefully I am finally off of that ride. It is amazing how confusing and complicated life can get in a very short period of time. A month ago everything is going fine, and then somehow you find that your relationships are in a completely different state than they were only a month ago. It’s terrible how that happens.

Aside from some difficulties in my personal relationships, last week wasn’t terrible. In this class, I felt decent about my writing. I finally decided to do a storytelling post after skipping for the past two weeks before review week. I think it really helps when I brainstorm ideas while writing my reading diaries, because then I have an idea on Wednesday rather than having to come up with something. For this week’s story, I used a modern style of retelling which I hadn’t had a chance to do this semester so I really enjoyed it. I did end up skipping the second assigned reading this week due to my rollercoaster of emotions, but I’m hoping to go ahead and read that part when I read for Monday. For my storybook, I hadn’t been really happy with my second story so I ended up with a lot of revising to do, but now I feel much better about it. When I first wrote it, I just wasn’t in the zone, but during revising I was finally able to add some emotion into the story.

My other classes have been going well up to this point. I have a midterm in my biochemical methods class on Wednesday which I am pretty nervous about it. The problem is that it is my only really difficult class so if I don’t do well I’d be really disappointed.

Although this week was difficult emotionally, I found that visiting my little sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters could really benefit me, as well as her. Visiting her really cheered me up! We worked on a craft for Halloween with these toilet paper rolls. These are the product:

Image information: Personal photo of my Halloween craft with my "little sister" 

I also saw the movie, Independence Day, for the first time at the request of my roommates. It was a fantastic movie! "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on, we're going to survive. Today we celebrate our independence day!" 

Famous Last Words for Week 9

This week was kind of a rollercoaster of emotions due to some personal issues, but hopefully I am finally off of that ride. It is amazing how confusing and complicated life can get in a very short period of time. A month ago everything is going fine, and then somehow you find that your relationships are in a completely different state than they were only a month ago. It’s terrible how that happens.

Aside from some difficulties in my personal relationships, last week wasn’t terrible. In this class, I felt decent about my writing. I finally decided to do a storytelling post after skipping for the past two weeks before review week. I think it really helps when I brainstorm ideas while writing my reading diaries, because then I have an idea on Wednesday rather than having to come up with something. For this week’s story, I used a modern style of retelling which I hadn’t had a chance to do this semester so I really enjoyed it. I did end up skipping the second assigned reading this week due to my rollercoaster of emotions, but I’m hoping to go ahead and read that part when I read for Monday. For my storybook, I hadn’t been really happy with my second story so I ended up with a lot of revising to do, but now I feel much better about it. When I first wrote it, I just wasn’t in the zone, but during revising I was finally able to add some emotion into the story.

My other classes have been going well up to this point. I have a midterm in my biochemical methods class on Wednesday which I am pretty nervous about it. The problem is that it is my only really difficult class so if I don’t do well I’d be really disappointed.

Although this week was difficult emotionally, I found that visiting my little sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters could really benefit me, as well as her. Visiting her really cheered me up! We worked on a craft for Halloween with these toilet paper rolls. These are the product:

Image information: Personal photo of my Halloween craft with my "little sister" 

I also saw the movie, Independence Day, for the first time at the request of my roommates. It was a fantastic movie! "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on, we're going to survive. Today we celebrate our independence day!" 

Famous Last Words for Week 8

BOOMER SOONER! So glad that OU beat Texas this weekend! Unfortunately, I had to work during the game, so not only did I not go to Texas, I didn’t even get to watch the game. I was constantly checking the score on the computer at work. From what I hear, it was not a great game so maybe I didn’t miss much. Usually, I only work on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, but this week I worked Thursday and Friday, as well, to cover some of my co-workers shifts who went to Texas. While I was sad that I missed going to Texas, I will probably go next year since I will technically still be an undergraduate at the OU nursing school and my boyfriend will be a senior. I really want to go at least once, so hopefully we can make it next year!

Image information: Oklahoma beat Texas... Again!

Web Source: Cargo Collective

In this class, I really enjoyed having a review week! I have liked the reading for this class, but it was nice to have a break from that. I’m glad that the next book is written by Narayan rather than Buck, because I definitely preferred Narayan’s version of the Ramayana. For my storybook this week, I added my second story about Mareecha. For my first story, I did not change anything major in the story, but for this story, I changed a major part of the ending. I’m really anxious to get feedback about this story, because I am not sure how I feel about it.

In my other classes, I had one test this week in Nutrition which went well. I finished up my tennis class this week. My tennis class was only half of a semester. I have a volleyball class the second half of the semester. I kind of wish tennis was just the full semester because I really enjoy that sport more. I played volleyball my first two years of high school, while I played tennis all four years. Overall, my classes this semester are going well. 

Famous Last Words for Week 7

This past week was fairly good. In this class, I wrote my first storybook story about Viradha/Tumburu and revised it. I also ended up changing my background theme, because it was so difficult to see some of the words due to lack of contrast. I feel really good about how my first story turned out! I just hope that my next story will flow easily like the last one. My next story will be about Mareecha as the golden deer! One of my favorite storybooks that I have read so far is Epic TV of India by Elena Morgan. Her storybook is set up as a TV channel that has the shows: The Real Housewives of Dasaratha, Judge Dharma, Swayamvara: The Bachelorette, and the UMFC Championship fight. I thought it was so creative to model the stories of the Ramayana after popular TV shows. She even added in commercials with advertisements like Dr. Rama’s Magic Potion Lotion that could turn stone like Ahalya into a beautiful woman! How creative!

My other classes were pretty relaxed. On Thursday when I was supposed to have tennis class, I ended up sleeping in, but when I looked at my phone later, I realized that my class had been cancelled anyways! So that was pretty nice. This semester has been great, because I don’t have particularly difficult classes; however, I am a little worried it will be hard to adjust to next semester which will be much more difficult. It’s just been so easy to procrastinate this semester, especially since I am a senior. Hopefully, I can get out of that next semester.

Outside of classes, this week was pretty uneventful. My sister had a 4D ultrasound on Friday. Unfortunately, I had class so I didn’t get to go, but I did get to see some pretty amazing pictures, so I’ll share one here! Some of the things that we can do with technology now are just incredible! Can’t wait to meet my new nephew in less than two months!!  

Personal photo from my sister's 4D ultrasound of sweet baby James 

Famous Last Words for Week 6

This week I was probably the world’s worst procrastinator. For the first time, I did not do a storytelling blog post, which I was kind of disappointed in myself about. I feel like I have earned enough points to make up for it though! For my storytelling post, I feel really good about my introduction, but I have not quite started my first story which I plan to do immediately after I finish this post! My first story is going to be the story of Tumburu/Viradha! I will probably go in order of how the characters were introduced in my introduction.

In my other classes, things haven’t been too busy! Biochemical Methods is still my hardest class! In lab, we have been doing chromatography which is actually pretty interesting. The concept is basically that you are able to separate a mixture on the basis of size or charge.

Outside of class, this week was my birthday! I turned 22 this Friday! On Thursday, I went to dinner and bowling with some of my really great friends! We went to Logan’s Steakhouse and Sooner Bowl. On Friday night, I went to the Phillip Phillips concert with my little. It was really good, but I didn’t know a bunch of the songs because I hadn’t realized that Phillip Phillips came out with a new album. His music is so relaxing though! On Saturday, I got off work to go to my oldest sister’s baby shower! She is now 31 weeks, almost to the safe zone! For her shower, my other sister and I got her a diaper bag. I’m so excited to meet my nephew, James Anthony in about 2 months! After the shower, my whole family went to Musashi’s. My favorite gift was the necklace that I got from my sister and brother-in-law that says “Aunt Taylor”. Overall, I had a really great birthday with awesome friends and family! 

Image information: Personal photo of my new necklace from my sister, Jessica

Week 5: Famous Last Words

         This week seemed to fly by for some reason! On Monday, I worked a double shift at work which was exhausting, but after that my week was really light! I was really worried about writing my storybook introduction last weekend, because I didn’t know if I would be able to write it as well as I wanted. After starting it though, I felt really good about it! The story really just started flowing. I think that I’ll definitely enjoy writing stories for it, and I hope y’all will enjoy reading them! I was really impressed by the story, The Time of a New King, by Jeremy Wiggins! He retold the story of when King Dasaratha passed and the messengers rode for Bharata. Instead of the messengers refusing to tell Bharata what had happened, they mourned with him. I thought that this made the story so much more emotional and touching.

            In one of my other classes, I had a nutrition assignment this week that asked me to do a nutritional analysis of an unhealthy recipe, and then modify it to make it healthier. I chose to analyze a banana bread recipe that has been in my family for years. To modify it, I substituted Splenda for sugar and fat-free sour cream for regular sour cream. I don’t know if that would still taste good though. I definitely will have to try it sometime and see if it is any good, because I’d really like to eat healthier. Also, if you use gluten-free baking soda, it really decreases the sodium content! In Biochemical Methods Lab, it seems that I finally got good data for once. It’s definitely one of those labs where you could do everything right, but still somehow get terrible data, so this week was quite an achievement. 


           Outside of school, I have started running again. Over the summer, I ran quite a bit, but when school started back up, my running routine was completely forgotten. Finally, I’m starting to get back into the schedule again, but it is so hard. The mental part of running has always been the hardest for me. It takes so much will-power to keep going when all you want to do is stop. I refuse to be a quitter though!

Image information: Quote about running

Web Source: Pinterest

Week 4: Famous Last Words

I think that this week was my best writing for this class! I wrote about Sita’s exile. I felt that this writing was especially strong, because my sister is pregnant like Sita, so I know of some of the fears that Jessica, my sister is experiencing. I tried to really capture the maternal instinct that Sita would have felt. For my storybook, I have chosen to write about some of the good asuras. Vibhishana, Trijata, Mareecha (not quite good, but he tried to be), and Viradha have made it into my storybook, Asuras Anonymous! I really considered doing a user’s choice storybook which I did last year, but I decided not to because I wanted to be able to focus on more characters. Asuras Anonymous is supposed to be sort of like Alcoholics Anonymous so I think it will be an interesting storytelling style!

In my other classes, I had my first test this week in Nutrition. It wasn’t too difficult, and I have really enjoyed the class. I definitely wouldn’t say I eat super healthy or anything, but through this class, I have changed my diet a little bit and really tried to add fiber into my diet and cut back on soda. I would like to cut out soda completely, but I just like it too much! I find that I am experiencing a little bit of Senioritis. Symptoms include severe lack of motivation, failure to study, and can lead to long all-nighters the day before assignments are due. My Senioritis has been especially severe in my Biochemical Methods Lab. I just really hate writing lab reports. I actually still need to write mine which is due on Tuesday at 1:30. You would think I have plenty of time, but I pretty much work all day tomorrow.

Outside of school, I went to a murder mystery dinner with my family and boyfriend. Austin and I were these young characters who were in love and engaged, but then we found out that our characters were first cousins, so that was awkward. Austin’s character was also only with me for my “family’s” money. Scandalous, right? All of the characters had these terrible secrets, and you would not believe how many of them were cheating on their significant others! It was a really fun night though, and I really enjoyed it! My dad’s character ended up being the murderer! Although, I had at one time pushed the victim down the stairs, so I was definitely a main suspect. If you want to do a murder mystery, there is one in Guthrie, OK at the Stone Lion Inn, and I would definitely recommend it! 

Image information: Personal photo of Austin and I from the Stone Lion Inn Murder Mystery (September 2014)

Image information: Personal photo of my father and I from the Stone Lion Inn Murder Mystery (September 2014)

Week 3: Famous Last Words

This week was pretty good! I still haven’t finished my Storybook assignment, but I think I have a couple ideas for storytelling styles. My favorite storytelling post that I read this week was Jatayu and Sampathi by Austin Clanton. I really liked the storytelling style of a bedtime story that he used. I am considering using that style of storytelling for my storybook.  I felt decent about my storytelling post this week. I decided to fill in the gap about what happened to Sita while she was kidnapped by Ravana because I thought that was really important. 

I have felt decent about my other classes. Nutrition has been really interesting. It definitely has been making me want to eat healthier. It seems like vegetables are one of the best food groups out there, but variety and moderation are really important too. It seems like Biochemical Methods will be challenging this semester, but our professor keeps saying that the class gets easier after we get past the first couple of assignments. I also just really dislike labs and lab reports. They have got to be the worst thing about being a science major. I'm also taking tennis this semester, and it is from 11:30-1:10, which has been pretty terrible because it is in the heat of day. I've definitely come back dehydrated from that class a time or two. 

Outside of school, this week was pretty uneventful. I've been working on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturdays at the OU Tennis Club, and I'm still really enjoying that. I also am continuing to volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters this year, which I did last year as well. My little sister is so sweet, and I'm really glad to see her again after the summer! I went hope for part of the weekend and saw Guardians of the Galaxy with my family. I highly recommend it! It's a lot serious than most Marvel movies, but there is a lot of humor and touching moments, along with great music! 

Image information: Photo from the movie, Guardians of the Galaxy 

Web Source: Wired

Week 2: Famous Last Words

When I first saw how much we had to read this week, I was a little bit overwhelmed. However, after reading a couple of pages, it seemed like I was just reading for fun, not doing required reading. The story is so interesting and easy to read. For my storybook assignment, I came up with some ideas that I really liked. My favorite is probably the “good” asuras storybook. I think it would be really interesting to tell their stories. I felt pretty good about my writing this week. From my experience in Dr. Gibb’s class, there are some weeks that the creativeness just flows, but other weeks, it can be really difficult. So far, I feel like I have had a pretty good flow.

My favorite writing that I read this week was probably The Break Room, by Elena Morgan. Similar to my storytelling post, she also focused on the character, Kooni. However, she told the story from the perspective of Kooni, who secretly is overjoyed, while the rest of the kingdom cries about Rama’s exile. I thought it was a very interesting perspective to tell the story from.

My other classes are going pretty well. During the first week of school, I ended up dropping Physiology, therefore, my schedule has become much easier. I am now taking this class, nutrition, understanding statistics, tennis, and intro to biochemical methods. My most challenging class will most likely be biochemical methods. I’ve really enjoyed my tennis class, because I played tennis in high school and always loved it. When I got to college, I just kind of stopped playing, and I didn’t realize how much I missed it until taking my tennis class. I also am really enjoying working at the OU Tennis Club. I just started at the end of the summer. Up until this year, I had never worked during the school year, only the summers, because I am lucky enough to have parents who financially support me. It’s really nice to actually be earning on my own money this year though.

Outside of school and work, my boyfriend and I watched the movie, the Delivery Man. Personally, I think Vince Vaughn does a great job in those heartwarming comedy types of movies, like Delivery Man and The Internship. It was really nice being able to relax over this three day weekend. Unfortunately, I work every Saturday, so it is unlikely that I will be able to attend the football games. This week, my mom kept me updated through text, and it was like I was hearing about a touchdown every 5 minutes! Sooner football is back! 

Image information: Racquet with tennis balls lying on a tennis court

Web Source: Idaho Falls Community Tennis Association

Week 1: Famous Last Words

This week seemed a lot like deja vu in this class! I have already taken Mythology and Folklore, so some of the assignments for week one definitely overlapped, which was kind of nice. This week I was reminded how much I love the format of Dr. Gibbs' classes. I think it is so cool how we all interact with each other each week through our writings! This week, I read a story, The Echo of Tommy Lin, by Jessica Ackerman. Basically, she turned a nursery rhyme into a scary campfire side type story. I was really impressed with the haunting tone she was able to create. 

Outside of this class, I was enrolled in Human Physiology because I thought I needed it for Nursing, but I found out the Physiology I took last semester already fulfilled the requirement. This means that my semester just got a whole lot easier. My schedule is actually really light now, so I'm looking forward to my first easy semester since the first semester of my freshman year. Last night, I finally got my nursing applications in. I'm hoping to get into the accelerated program at OU in OKC since I will already have my bachelor's degree by the time that I am attending. 

I always have found the first week of classes to be overwhelming, but by the end of week, I feel like I am really starting to get a handle on things. I find it especially frustrating when professors don't really give you a couple of days to get acclimated to class. I definitely felt that way in Human Physiology so I was more than happy when I found out that I did not need to take it. This weekend, Austin and I went with his family to Great Wolf Lodge in Texas. It has been nice to get away, but sometimes it feels like our weekends would be better spent getting ahead or at least caught up in classes rather than just relaxing.

Image Information: Funny meme about syllabus week 

Web Source: Vidette Online