Kami's Birthday Party

Word Scavenger Hunt

My second to last assignment for my Photographic Vision this semester was to take a list of words and take pictures of them. You were supposed to go out and find something that represented the word for you, rather than set something up. The second part of the assignment was to photograph a landscape that has a humanistic element to it. He talked about how "landscapes" are usually seen as just trees, flowers, rivers, etc... but it is really hard now days to find somewhere like that. He wanted us to take landscape pictures, but not try and act like humans hadn't been there. Instead he wanted us to include it. The first picture is my landscape. Here are the pictures I took for the scavenger hunt:

STRESS: Okay, this one WAS a little set up, but it was something that had raelly happened recently and that is where I got the idea. I had Sarah's permission to take this one though.

SECURITY: There is actually a double meaning in this one. The first one is obviously the financial security, and the second one has to do with whose house this is. If you don't know, you can ask me later. I don't want to post it just in case I get in trouble.

POWER: I wanted to show the divided power between the Church and State in Utah.

PEACE: Okay, so the top one is the one that I ended up using for my class, but I had a really hard time choosing this one. So, here are a couple of my next choices too. (Short story... I was originally up at Sugarhouse Park to take pictures of the stream since when I think of peace, it usually involves some kind of water. However, after I got there and was taking pictures, I slipt and fell on the cement that leads up to the water. I didn't try to catch myself in case I dropped my camera into the water or broke it by catching my fall. I ended up about knee-deep in the water, laying on my back on the cement. I cut open my elbow and Allie later told me that I also gave myself whip-lash and put a rib out of place. So, most of my pictures of the stream looked more menacing rather than peaceful to me. Although, the last of my five pictures here is of the stream. Does it look like I am sitting in it? Well, that's because I AM! )

OBSESSION: I told my class that these were just the cards that Geoffrey wanted to get rid of and not his whole collection. My teacher said to me, "Hey, we've seen a picture like this before. If I changed these all to DVD's, wouldn't this be your collection?"

KNOWLEDGE: I was going for the vast amount of books that was also leading up to the light. However, it has been pointed out to me that one of the only books in focus is the Work and the Glory. Completely accidental.

GREED: Enough said. :)

CHAOS: So this was actually a debate in my class. A few people did this as chaos, but some other did it as freedom. So, I wanted to clarify that I don't think that ALL graffiti is chaotic, just the stuff that is where it shouldn't be. The buildings downtown that people are allowed to go and use are very artistic, if stuff like this ends up on the side of Baskin or my apartment, not so much.

So, there is my assignment for you. I am a little sad that I am working on my last one right now. Friday is my last day of school this semster. I have decided to take the summer off and then go back in the Fall.

Vegas Pictures

Here are some of the pictures that we took down in Vegas. I really did have a lot of fun on my trip down there. :)


Sarah and me singing in the car on the drive down to Vegas!


Me with the M&M outside of M&M World. I LOVE M&M's!



We spent a lot of time looking at all the toys in this store. We even played on the giant piano, even though neither one of us knew how to play chopsticks.


The best part of the Coke factory has to be the Coke Bear! :)


Sarah made friends with Moose. I think she took more pictures of Moose than any other thing in Vegas.

And then, of course, the pictures of Shavonne and Don that I went down there to take.

He's Back!!

Even though Will's flight was three hours late, he eventually did make it back in. I rode out with his mom and some of his family, and some of our other friends met us out at the airport to wait for him to get in. At around 12:15 - 12:30 am, Will finally was home again! He seemed really happy to see all of us. He also was kind of just dazed to be home and didn't look like he knew whether or not he was dreaming or awake.



Some of my friends and me went to see if he wanted to come bowling with us on Saturday, but when we got there, Will's mom told me that Will hadn't fallen asleep until 6 pm. She told me the next day too that he ended up sleeping until 7 the next morning.



On Sunday, after racing for Easter candy with the family, I went to church for Will's homecoming. A lot of my friends were all there. Will and Will's sister both spoke. I felt pretty awkward at church, but I was glad that I went to be supportive. Afterwards, Will's mom had an open house, so we went over to talk with him some more. It is still a little awkward, but as the day went on, we were able to talk better and it started to feel more like it did before he left. He also gave me his photo album to look at. (I gave it to him before he left.) It had a most of the pictures I had sent him on his mission, and others that he had taken too with captions on them. I got to see the girl that got him emergency transfered, and a lot of other people that he had talked about. It was really nice.



Another nice thing about Will coming home was that I was able to spend some time with a lot of my friends that I don't really get to see very much anymore. Tasha and Wendy both came down from Idaho to be there. Torrie was in town from Logan. My friends Ben, Molisa and Billy just moved back to Bountiful from Ogden, so they were here too. Eddy and Jen came to the airport and to Will's homecoming. Natalie and Sarah made it for Will's speech at church. It was just nice to be able to see so many people all at the same time again.

Vegas Vacation

Hey everyone! I made it safely down and back from Vegas! I left Monday afternoon after I got off work, headed down with my friend Sarah, and I think we got there around 9 Vegas time. Sarah was nice enough to drive down. I didn't mind it, but she wanted to, so I was fine with letting her do it instead. I had a fun time taking a long needed vacation, seeing Allie and Steve, sight-seeing and taking some awesome pictures of Shavonne and Don. (Pictures will be posted at a later time. I don't have the CD of Shavonne's pictures with me, and the ones that Sarah and I took on our trip are on her digital camera at the moment.)

The first night there, Sarah had a hard time sleeping, so she was already up when I got up. We were able to get going faster that way and got down to the Strip at about 10:30. We then proceeded to park and walk, I can't way ALL the way down it, because I don't know how long it is, but by the time we were done I was SO exhausted! We shopped until about 6, and then headed back to the car, getting back to Allie's around 7ish. I have NEVER EVER shopped so much in my entire life. And, actually, it was more of me accompanying Sarah shopping, because other than my few purchases at the M&M world, I stayed clear of any of the other shops. I am totally Anne Hathoway in the Devil Wears Prada. I have vaguely heard of some of those big name designers, but I could never tell you who did what, etc... Sarah spent around $250 on just a new purse, and I would rather save the money and spend it on other things, or buy a ton more clothes at home where they are nice and cheap(er).

Anyways, after that, we went to dinner with Allie and Steve. They took us to a Thai restaurant. It was really good. I enjoyed it. That night, after Allie and Seteve had gone to bed, I made Sarah watch Sliding Doors. She had never seen it before and she really liked it. I fell asleep during it though since it was pretty late and I was meeting Shavonne around 7:00 am to do her pictures. Allie wasn't able to come with me, but I had a good time with Shavonne and Don and they were happy with how their pictures turned out. (I should add though that Allie made me a wonderful Chai Protein drink before I left. So good!)

After I got back from taking pictures, chatting over Starbucks and dropping of the film with Shavonne, I came back to find Sarah still sleeping. She is used to staying up REALLY late and then sleeping in really late. She had said that she wanted to come when I did Shavonne's pictures, but I couldn't get her up. When Steve accidentally set off the alarm and she didn't even move, I decided it was better to let her sleep. Anyways, she was still sleeping when I got back, so I did my photography assignment and cleaned up all of my stuff for the trip back. When she still didn't wake up, I started reading Danae's version of Twilight that Allison had asked me to bring back home. I have to say, I am addicted. I just keep reading it, and reading it. It is really hard for me to put that book down. To everyone that recommended that book, I think it is excellent. I think I got about half way in that first day. Sarah got up a little after one and Steve took us to Capriotti's. It was really good and Steve said that I should brag to Jay that we were able to go.

We then waited for Allie to get home so that I could say goodbye and for Shavonne to come over with the pictures before hitting the road back home. And Allie, we made it safely, but I am not telling you how long it took us! ;)

Love you all! Happy Birthday to Wesley, Kjersti's birthday is in six more days, Allie's results in seven more days, and Will comes home in eight more days! I am very excited, so everyone feel equally loved. :)

I've been so patient!!

I have already talked to a lot of you about how my faith in the Academy Awards is diminishing after seeing some of the nominations this year. And, it was not redeemed after watching the actual thing. No Country for Old Men won Best Picture and I HATED that movie! I agree with mom that it was intense, but there wasn't anything redeeming about the movie that made you watch some very gruesome things, and with a lack of resolution to it, I have no idea what the point of the movie was at all! :( If anyone else has seen it and has an opinion, UI would love to hear it.

Sorry that I haven't been blogging lately. I have been pretty busy with school, work and watching Sonja's boys for a week. I also got sick for about a week. I was pretty miserable and barley able to talk, so most nights I just went home and either slept or watched SVU.

Shavonne has asked me to come down to Vegas and take some pictures of her and Don for their graduations, so in 12 days I will be heading down to Vegas! This trip is LONG overdue since I still have never seen Allie's apartment. Allie is also going to see if one of her other friends wants me to take some bridals of her while I am down there. They will be covering my gas, film and developing expenses as well, so that will be nice. And, I get to go see Allie! My friend Sarah from work is going to be driving down with me.

I also just sent a package to Will. He is coming home on March 21st. His flight is at 6:30 in the morning, and he doesn't get home until 9:30 at night and he is seven hours ahead of us. I wanted to make the trip as enjoyable as I could for him, so Kjersti helped me buy him two boxes of candy bars at Costco. I also sent him Harry Potter 7 since he hasn't been able to read it yet, along with a suddoku book, crossword puzzles and word searches. I also made him a couple of CD's with songs that have come out while he was gone that I thought he might like, a calling card so that he can call me on his layovers, and some cash so that he can buy the headphones to watch the movies on the flight. :) Mom said that I got her tendancy to overdue things, but I think that he will really like it. I am really excited for him to come home! (And for Allie's results on the 20th, and Kjersti's birthday on the 19th and Wesley's birthday on the 12th.)

A Cake Decorator's Worst Nightmare

On Sunday I was scheduled to train a new cake decorator at the Bountiful Baskin. Justin came in the day before and gave me a key to the store, and then told me that the girl I was supposed to be training cancelled, so I was just going to be working there on my own.

The next morning, I get to the store and I realize that I have left the key to the Bountiful store at my store. So, I have to drive out to Salt Lake, get the key, and then come back. By then it is about 9:45. I go look to see if they have any cake orders and they have 8!! Two of the are due at 11 am, three more at 12, one at 1, one at 2, and one at 5. I go to pull out the ice cream to cut down for the first cake (A full and a third sheet cake) and they don't have the ice cream for it! I found a little partial of a tib though, so I ended up using the entire thing to make that one cake. My second cake order is an oreo on chocolate. They don't have ANY oreo ice cream OR any chocolate sheet cake. I ended up grabbing a 9" round chocolate cake, cutting it into a 1/3 sheet, getting a pre-packed quart of oreo ice cream and building the cake from that. Oh, and did I mention that they didn't have ANY deco vanilla?? I had to frost all of the cakes in regular vanilla ice cream instead.

Next are the noon orders. The first one is a 6" mint on chocolate. But again, they don't have ANY mint ice cream. Anywhere. No quarts, no tubs, nothing to serve to costumers, NOTHING! I did find one cake in the case that was mint on white, so I let the cake sit out for a little while, then I got a spatula and took the ice cream off the white cake and put it onto the chocolate cake. My next order was an oreo on white cake. At least they still had some white cake in stock, but again, I had to build the ice cream portion of it from a quart. The thrid one was actually a flavor that they had there already.

My ordders after that went a lot easier. There weren't as many to get done, and by then I had gotten a hold of Justin. He went to other stores, got the ice cream that bountiful was out of and brought it to me. I knew that he wasn't going to be able to get it to me before my orders were due, but the store was out, so I knew that they were going to need some later. He also brought me some deco vanilla that I could use on the remaining cakes, and a mint roll cake, since that was my last order and they didn't have anything to make those with either.

I actually calmed down a lot after Justin got there. I was trying really hard not to panic, and by the time he got there I was trying not to cry with frustration since they were out of almost EVERYTHING that I needed to use. I had to fill up all of their frosting bags, dye more colors, and find creative ways to make cake sout of things that they didn't have. When Justin got there, he took care of all of the opening stuff that I had missed in my frenze to get all my orders done on time. He also helped all of the costomers that came in, so that I could just focus on what I was doing. He was really mad that the store was out of so many things, and they hadn't done a very good job closing the store. It was really dirty, so he went through it, cleaned it up, and later talked to the manager about what she needed to fix with that store.

I am happy to say that even though I was extremely stressed out, I had all of my cake orders done on time and everyone liked them. Although, I have to admit, they weren't my best work. I was glad it all turned out okay. If someone had yelled at me, without knowing everything I had to go through to try and do their cakes, I probably would have lost it. Justin was really thankful. After he left he kept calling to check up on how things were going and to make sure that I was doing okay. He said that he was sorry that it happened to me, but he was glad that I was the one to take care of it because none of his other cake decorators would have been able to get all of that done.

And the nominations are...

Best Picture
- Atonement
- Juno
-No Country for Old Men
- There Will Be Blood
- Michael Clayton

Best Actor
George Clooney in "Michael Clayton"
Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood"
Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah"
Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises"

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
Julie Christie in "Away from Her"
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose"
Laura Linney in "The Savages"
Ellen Page in "Juno"

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men"
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War"
Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild"
Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton"

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There"
Ruby Dee in "American Gangster"
Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement"
Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone"
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton"

The Adventures of a Dollar Bill

Sorry it has been so long since I have last blogged. I don't feel overly busy even with school going and working six days a week. I actually feel like I have more time since I am still only getting 40 hours and usually just getting to leave work earlier. Anyways, I have no idea where the time goes, (other than a minor addiction to Law and Order: SVU) but here is a little update about what I have been up to.


School started again and I think that I am going to love my class. It is all about creativity, pushing your boundaries, and learning all of the rules of composition so that you know when to use them, and when to break them. On my first day back at school, I realized that this class will be exactly what I need. It is only once a week, so I won't be over working myself like I did last semester. And, I also realized, that ever since all the drama at Baskin with two of the girls quitting, my confidence about my photography was shaken. I found out once they left that they had been talking about how much they hated the portrait pictures that I took for them, and I didn't realize how much it bugged me at first. Anyways, my first assignment in my class was to write a short paragraph about an object, and then we had to photograph our story. I chose to do the adventures of a dollar bill. Here is how it turned out:









Will also wrote me and told me that he will be coming home on March 21st. That means there are only a little less than two months left before he comes home! I am so excited, but I am also getting a little nervous.


The kid that I babysit in the mornings got suspended from school, so I didn't have to go last week, but he is back in now, so I am back at it. His mom is really have a hard time. Her dad just died, her brother just died about three months ago, her ex-husband is suing her for estrangement from his son, and then her son just got expelled from school. She normally comes and vents to me over a Cappuccino Blast at Baskin, but I wish that there was more that I could do.

The only other new thing I can add in is that the windshield wiper fluid in my car still won't come out. Eddy told me that the people at Jiffy Lube add water to their fluid so that it isn't flammable. So, here is to hoping that it is just frozen and not something more serious, like a broken pump. In the meantime, I have just been stopping at a gas station and cleaning off my windshield any time
it starts getting too bad.

Just think about it!

1- I fell for it again!! Some guy came into the store, parking in the "no Parking" zone right out front of the store. He says, "I need a pen to write down an address real fast, can I borrow yours?" I say sure and hand it to him. He then walks out of the store and takes off! I can't remember if it was the same guy that took my scissors but it pissed me off that I am so gullible!


2- There has been a guy calling trying to get free money/ ice cream from the store. Day one- the guy calls and says that he is really pissed off because he bought a cake from us and it was really freezer burned so it ruined huis daughter's birthday party. I tell him to bring back the cake or the receipt and I can give him a refund. He says that he cut up all of the cake, so all that is left is just a big mess and that they didn't give him a receipt for it. I tell him that I don't think that there is anything that we can do for him, but he can call back later and talk to the manger. He never calls back, but he does call up to Sugarhouse with the same story! He even went into that one expecting his refund, and wouldn't talk tro Justin even though he was THERE! Day two- the same guy calls again telling me that he came in with his wife and bought two brownie sundaes from us and they had really bad ice cream in them so he wants new ones. First of all, I asked him if they were bad sundaes why didn't he say something to the people working last night. He said he took them to go. I said, well bring in the ice cream or the receipt. He says okay, "I'll be right in." Never showed up. Then he called Sugarhouse not even two minutes later with the same story! Idiot. First of all, come up with better stories because I have heard these ones before, and then don't call two stores owned by the same person with the same story! Then we really know that you are just full of it.


3- Can you find the garbage can??

You would not believe how many people can not see it!! Peolpe either walk to the other end of the store, or ask us if we have one. I point to the garbage can and they walk around it, and then usually just set their garbage on top of it, or leave it on the table!! Come on people! Not only is there a big one, but there is also a little one right in front of the register! There are two in this picture! It's not rocket science!

4- Does "Baskin Robbins" look like a convience store? In the last two days, I have had people come in and have me look up hotel addresses and numbers for them and help them book a hotel, lock their keys in there car so they need me to call a locksmith (while I am trying to help a line of customers, and want me to call them a cab! I just don't get it! People are always coming in and asking for change, directions and if they can use our phone... I know that we are nice people, but there is a gas station a block away. That is their job, not mine.

I'm a Dork

...But I love it. :) I put in my Spice Girls Greatest Hits CD and have been jamming out to it in my car. It brings back a lot of good memories.

Books I read in 2007

I was keeping a list on my MySpace page of all of the books that I finished reading in 2007. Here is my list in the order that I finished them:

-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin


-Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks


-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling


-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling


-The Princess Test by Gail Carson Levine


-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling


-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling


-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling


-Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling


-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling


-The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks


-Invisible Prey by John Sandford


-Broken Prey by John Sandford


-Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind


-Hidden Prey by John Sandford


-Winter Prey by John Sandford


-Easy Prey by John Sandford


-Chosen Prey by John Sandford


-Mortal Prey by John Sandford


-Mind Prey by John Sandford


-Rules of Prey by John Sandford


-Shadow Prey by John Sandford

Grades and Cons

I got my grades back! I got A's in all three of my classes!! I am so excited! I worked SO hard. I am glad that it paid off. I am hoping that since I got a 4.0 with more credit hours this semester I might be able to apply for a scholarship this coming semester or next. I am thinking that I'll take a lighter class load this semester to give myself a break and save up some more money. I also kind of like taking my classes slowly. It will take me longer to graduate, but it lets me really absorb everything that they are trying to teach me. I have more time to spend on my assignments and I get to put my full effort into it. Plus, photography is SO expensive, so taking it slow makes it so that I can make money too rather than just spend it all on my classes.

I also wanted to tell you guys about the "Con Chelsee" day that I had at work the other day. First off, in the morning some guy came in and said, "Can I use your scissors real fast?" I thought it was a weird request, but people seem to think that Baskin is some sort of convenience store and always stop in and ask us to use our phone or directions, etc... so I gave him the scissors. He said, "I'll bring them right back" and walked straight out of the store. He never came back! The stupid guy stole my scissors!! Who does that??

Next some guy came in and ordered a small hot chocolate. I asked him what flavor he wanted, and he started getting frustrated that it was taking me so long to get it that he changed his order to a kid scoop rather than just answer if he wanted white chocolate, milk chocolate or mint chocolate. So, I got his kid scoop, which is $1.71 and he handed me $1.75. I remember because I thought maybe he didn't have a lot of money, and that was why he was being so weird. Anyways, I ALWAYS leave the money on the counter until I count out the change so that there is no mix ups, and when they hand it to me, I count it and repeat how much is there. But, I after I had given the guy his 4 cents, I put the money in the register and closed it, thinking that we were done since he seemed to be in such a hurry. He then looked at me and said, "I'm still waiting for my change." I said, "I gave it to you. 4 cents." He said, "No, I gave you a twenty." I said, "No you didn't. You gave me $1.75." He said, "I just got the twenty out of the ATM and I needed the change for the bus, that's why I even came in here." He said that he had been looking at the ISBN number printed on the 20 before he handed it to me and recited the first four numbers off of the top 20 in my drawer. After arguing with him for a little while, I ended up giving him the change for the 20, but I know he was lying about it. I have been doing this a long time. 20's and 1's don't look anything like each other. I know that I didn't mess up. And we ended up being short on the money when I did the paperwork the next day. I KNOW that he cheated me. :( Jerk. It was the worst feeling.

Also, the day before that, someone stole my tips out of my tip jar. I had gotten really busy. I did a $130 hour by myself. (It might not sound like a lot, but when one scoop of ice cream is $2 and a small shake is $4 it takes a while to get to $130.) Anyways, I was running around the store like crazy, trying to be as fast as I could. People saw that so they didn't give me a hard time about the wait and almost everyone tipped me. My jar was over-flowing with the money that people tipped me, but I was busy so I didn't do anything about it. When my rush was finally over, I washed the dishes and wiped off the tables and then noticed that someone had taken my tips. :( I was SO mad. I hate Christmas time. Everyone is so desperate for money that they do the meanest things. I bet they didn't even consider that I might need that money. Jerks.

Oh well. It wasn't the first time it has happened, and I am sure it won't be the last. All I can do is just do the best I can, and maybe someday they will grow a conscience.

The Faces of Success

School is out now, so maybe I'll have some more time to keep up with my blog. I have been wanting to blog about my final project in my diversity class, but I am missing some pictures. I decided to just do it anyways, and then add in the missing pictures later.

The Faces of Success


Amanda created her own company, is a professional dancer and helps raise someone else's child.



Sarah became the manager at Baskin Robbins when she was 18.



Allison is less than a year away from becoming the doctor that she has always dreamed of becoming.



Danae is a Paralegal at a law firm while being a wife and mother.


Kjersti became the head Medical Assistant at her clinic even though she was the youngest one working there. She is also taking a class on Radiology and still makes time for her family.


After Kae Loy got divorced, she stayed in a job that she hated and did everything possible to get the house refinanced so that her children could continue living and going to school in a place they called home.



Margie used to be a model and today is still a successful fashion coordinator.



After Jana's husband died, she raised all eight of her children on a teacher's salary, while putting herself through school so she could continue raising them on her own.

After Megan had her son, she built a hair salon in her basement so that she could still work and take care of him at the same time.

(missing picture)

Rene started taking pottery lessons five years ago and is already an award winning potter.

(missing picture)

All of Ashley's siblings are either in jail or on drugs. She was the only one of her siblings to finish high school and go on to college. Today she is a Physicians Assistant.

Success knows no color, race, gender, etc... It doesn't have to look any particular way. It is what you make it.

That was the project that I turned in for school. I got the feedback from my teacher that he also would have liked to see a self-portrait in it, so...




Chelsee works full-time to be able to put herself through school and live on her own. She is proud of her independence.