The Fat Lady Has Sung -in more ways than one

I'm gradiated. Feels amazing.

Countdown update

Sooooo is it really a countdown if you skip numbers? Because we are at 2 classes left! I am actually counting days now since it seems more tangible....sooooo 6 days left!! I am so excited. I didn't think it would really notice a difference, but I'm so ready to be done. At least with this degree...:)

Potty Training 101

Done. My dog has officially potty trained herself. either that or she has an incredible sense of hygiene and just morally refuses to go in the house. I probably should give Jess some credit? I don't know if they have been working with her on it, but she stayed the night with me last night and I decided I would try something different. Last time she stayed, I woke up every 2 hours with paranoia and took her outside. Last night I decided I should just see what happens. So she sleeps on a couch in my room and after a few hours, I didn't hear her anymore. So i get up and she is waiting for me by the door to let her out. Awesome. I will not say out loud that she has never gone in the house - because I know how that will ruin me - but she's been awesome. Now we'll just see what is waiting for me when I get home from class....
P.S. if it sounds like she is my step-dog, its only because she is staying with a friend until I can get into this house I'm trying to get.....

Changes in the wind.....

So the first big change that is actually occurring in my lineup is that I've got going on in this 4th of 2009 is ....a bird...no a plane....no its a puppy!!! So the intention was not to 'get' a 'puppy' right away....But I asked my friend Jessica and her husband Mike to take me to the Humane Society just to look and see what dogs were there, my options, the breeds.....I will not purport (word?) that it was love at first sight. But she was beautiful, the kind of breed I wanted -- well as much as I could decide to want a German Shepard Beagle breed - and i knew she wouldn't be there if I waited a month or two. So anyways - drama cut short (yes teh humane society has drama) - I got a super cute puppy with funky ears and she is pretty cool. Kind of like her owner. Her name
is Foxy. No she is not a 'stripper' dog, but thank you Jesse for the clarification.

Countdown

I think we should have a countdown. I have 5 classes left before I graduate and dare to never step foot in a classroom again (doubtful). But I will try and titillate (sp?) everyone with a very suspenseful and drawn out countdown. Here goes.....5.....

Growing up.

I have to share this real fast - because I've been trying to make this for 12 years and I have finally done it. Adulthood is mine. I made the best pan of German Pancakes this morning EVER. Ok, so Mom is still probably better - but I don't know. I even made them with wheat flour (White Whole Wheat Flour- King Arthurs. Check it out). but its a little thcker than mom's...anyways. The issue is that you can't just make an individual batch (there are many variables in that equation - take my word it just doens't work out) so I have more than half left....and everyone knows that reheated German Pancakes is unacceptable...so I might be forced to walk around my complex and try and sell them like the Corn on the Cob Lady.....Hodgson's will appreciate the genius and gravity of this moment....

Road Less Traveled.....

So i went for a hike this weekend. I'm trying really hard to figure out ways to get exercise that isn't just going to the gym. And by trying, I mean today was my first successful implementation. It was a beautiful day so I decided to go up to Donut Falls. I did this hike maybe 5 or 6 years ago?? by myself, some day that I had a few hours to kill through the valley...random i know but that's how it was. Anyways. So you hike up to these falls and then you can hike up the waterfalls. At least you could 5 years ago. No longer. Looks like some collapse happened and it was unhikeable. And by that I mean I was scared I would slip and fall and be left up there with a broken leg and no one would find me. So I hiked up, looked at the falls, walked in the water and went back. However, I did go exploring on some unbeaten paths....and by that I mean it didn't have a Trail This Way arrow.....

TDY (aka business trip)

So I spent the week in Ohio. Dayton to be precise. Not thrilling but a pretty nice hotel. Quite nice actually. It had an adjustable bed so that you could make it harder or softer....And it was beautiful. But since the only pictures I took were these two.....maybe that speaks for itself at how Eh it was. The first big moment was in the layover at O'Hare International. I had a Chicago Dog. Hands down, best hot dog i've ever had. All beef, mustard, ketchup, onions, relish, pickle....seems liek i'm missing something. Anyways. And the then there was the airplane. And thats all.

So its been awhile. I kind of think that nobody is reading this -but really, its titled Clarisesworld, so I guess I'm the one that counts right? So i guess I thought to blog because yet again - I am dying my hair! And this time I remembered to take before, during and after photos. Well its not after yet. But here is what it looked like before - if anyone can solve the mystery of why my hair fades to this dirty blonde with about 2 inches of roots at my natural color, i'd be fascinated to know. It never just grows out in one color....anyways. So of course, i'm bored and avoiding homework( more on that misery later) so I'm dying the majority one color and just leaving some wisps of the blondeish stuff. Now, the wisdom of doing it this weekend, 2 days before my first business trip - or TDY as they say in teh Air Force (i'm refusing to acquiese to the anonym mania of the AF) - so who knows who i'll be when I show up for the flight on Monday. And yes, I"m stoked. We are spending the whole week in fabulous downtown.....DAYTON OHIO. I"m super excited. I think any bsiness trip is really all fun and like 2 hours of business. Coolio. So here's the pics. These are my before and current......

Here are some pics of Yinelis and Yasira for those that know them. They are still gorgeous....

So not much is new but I thought since my great angst right now is house hunting, I could try and put that on here. I'll put in the few house pics I've taken but what ticks me off right now is that I actually found a house I like. Way tooo soon. the whole point of starting to look right now was to get an idea of what was out there, what I can afford and maybe if there was a short sell, I could be right on my time schedule of end of the year. Anyways, so I found this short sell and thought super - its a great deal for the size and price and blah blah....so it check into it and of course, its the one short sell that wants to close in 20 days. Egh. So yeah. I think I'm okay now with not getting it. My mom talked a bunch of gibberish that made me feel better about it. So i'm still looking. Between north Ogden and Layton. Nothing on the West side. No Split-levels. Hmmm maybe thats contributing to the frustration. All these blasted split-levels. WOrthless if you ask me. Anyways. Thats a personal opinion. So heres so choice pictures of my journey in house hunting

Now I know everyone in Logan - by that I mean DWS - by that I mean the people that read this from my team - are wondering what I have doen with my amazing gift certificate to Tai Pan. Well, after 3 trips and much deliberation (read my next post. Deliberator) I have brought home....TREE! I'm slightly sad that I couldn't get Spout, but it wasn't there when I went back. Never let Tai Pan fool you into complacency. Anyways, I am super excited. I have always wanted more greenery in my house and I wanted to thank everyone sooo much and show you what I brought home with me. I miss you all very much. OOOOOH I almost forgot - I also took pictures of my office so you can see my memoribilia. I think I've convinced them that Clarise is the bomb.

AIR FORCE ROCKS. So i'm pretty stoked about my job. Today I completed 2 weeks - 1 week of orientation, 1 week of....ummm... work. So I'm on a three person team.....Me, hmm maybe i should change the names to save the innocent. so its Me,..Delores.. and Vinny. Ahhh Delores. Brings back good memories huh Kendra. So its a good time. I have taken a million strengths, colors, and personality tests. I think it woudl benefit us all to know all about me. So here we are. I am a predominate Green, with a splash of blue and gold...so cute....and my top 5 strengths are Relator, Arranger, Deliberator, ummm dang now I forgot the other two.... maybe i'll remember. Anyways - here's an idea of my talent as an Arranger. "... When faced with a complex situation involving many factors, you enjoy managing all of the variables, aligning and realigning them until you are sure you have arranged them in the most productive configuration possible. In your mind there is nothing special about what you are doing...But others, lacking this theme, will be in awe of your ability." Yes you read that right, AWE. I thought that was AWESOME. HAHAHA. So yes, I'm excited about my job. Basically if Organizational Development Consulting sounds to confusing, we basically train management how to be better managers. Hopefully willingly:) Are you any of you asking yourself where I got the qualifications for this job? Please let me know if you figure it out.

So every time I blog I say I won't smash a bunch of blogs into one but yet again, I lie so well. Soooo, I went home to Washington - it was Rad. Capital R. My friends took me out on the river and we took it to a restaurant, where we got rained on, walked into Prom with the Kardashians, and then went to a great dinner at Outback. thanks Lacey and friends. So now I"m 30 and lovin it. Except now I look at every outfit and wonder if I dressing over my age. Tinker Bell is pretty timeless though....So today was my first day of work at my new job. And I must say, Team DWS, i sure did miss you at 5:30am when I had to get up to be at Hill by 7:00. Yes, I know thats like lunch time for Laurie, but its basically midnight. But it was cool - met some new people and had alot of wasted time as it seems we were the biggest group of new hires they'd had in a while and didn't quite plan for us. Good times. went to Popeyes for lunch - fyi for the masses, no i do not get to shop or buy gas on teh base. Only military or retired personnel. fyi. Sooooooo the final news for all the world to see, and since its my only picture i've taken of any of these events, is my haircut. I feel my sister Kendra deserves teh credit for the persuasion, beratement, coersment, coercement, coercment,mmmmm anyways. so I got my hair cut. paid some chick money to cut it 'kind of short', then get home and Kendra says, 'That's not what I had in mind', and proceeded to wack at it with a razor and scissors. And today is the first day I can say Kendra, I was proud to walk out in public. It looked pretty rad. Lower case r.

Oh yes - and a little bangaje going on.

Pretty sad day in the Clarise household. I mentioned a few posts ago that some exciting things had happened but they weren't exactly solid. Well, considering today was my last day at DWS, lets hope its more than solid. A month ago I interviewed and was offered an internship at (this may be top secret confidential info, maybe this should be in code) Oobahill oobaairforce oobabase and I will be starting on Oobamay ooba11th. Anyways. that will be fun. But today was super sad for leaving my job of 4 1/2 years with Team DWS. I'd like to shout out to everyone that I've worked with in the last 4 years. I've been really blessed to work with some crazy cool people and I hate that I can't always ahhh i can't remember what I was going to say. Needless to say I love you all. Hmmmm maybe that was a stretch. You know who are - I really miss you already. Anyways - today was fabulous. My beautiful friends got me the best gift EVER - a gift certificate to Tai Pan trading, best store EV-ER and then we had the best dip party, yes you guessed it -EVERRR!! Thank you everyone who made me feel so special. Sorry I teared up. Like I've said, I think the mold in my apartment has affected me. Like a tenderizer. OOOOOh did I mention we danced to Hangin Tough and - - here's some pics to immortalize my awesome friends.



This is teh dance party - Amy and Linds are rocking to WP - Wilson Phillips that is.





Cutest picture EVER......and of course Scott ignoring all pleasantries as usual. this picture compliments of 12x zoom:)



Janea and Julie - you guys are fabulous- this is my exit interview with Laurie. We both always remember the tender equipment rendered and sweet forms signed.....

Soooooooooooo what is the new adventure? Well, I there are recent developments that are super exciting, but I think I'll first mention my recent obsession with fruit leather. Somehow I don't know how this gem has dropped of fthe radar, but I decided that since I love buying fruit when its on sale, but I can never eat it fast enough before it goes bad, instead of buying less fruit, I decided my only option is to figure out how to make the fruit last. And I remembered this refrigerator-size fruit dryer (drier?) that my mom had growing up that we made the bomb fruit leather on. Alas, it is no more, but I would not be deterred. So I read some recipes on making it without a dehydrator, basically just pureeing the fruit and then slow drying it in the oven on its lowest setting. I also think I missed the part about using parchment paper, not wax paper. So I puree the apples (with the skins on, can't lose the fiber) and spread it out on wax paper and stick it in the oven. This is getting long. So I turn it on low before I go to bed (yes yes I hear you) get paranoid around 1am, so I turn the oven off, and in the morning its pretty good, but I decide to turn the oven back on for a bit. Hmmm, fine line between leather and brittle. Somehow I bet all of this could be deducted from the pictures. Obviously, I got nothing more than a lick.

So I haven't updated on my new talent as a hairdresser (yes I"m makign all these blogs on the same day) I really wish I had taken pictures of me foiling my hair, but I figured if Stephanie can do it, then I could give it a whirl. (Not that you're not amazing Stephanie). I'm going to outline this so we can either praise my brilliance or shiver at my lunacy. So I got buy a mahogany brown (Becca did this last time) with a 20 developer? Maybe I used the 30 developer for that.....I know I bought 2 little bottles, one of each developer. Then I bought MAGENTA, especially for dark hair. I bought 2 brushes, a bowl ( yes just one, dumb huh). Then I tore up strips of foil when i got home because seriously I did NOT need 500 sheets for 13.65. Anyways. Then I start separating hair - MAN i really wish I had taken pics of that. Anyways. Maybe we can see from these pics, but it turned out pretty cool. However, I think its very revealing of the environments I'm in when I go to the office and all I get is ' Ooooh red, that is interesting', 'That is bold girly, you're more gutsy than I am'. HELLLLO it looks awesome!! And then I go down to the lobby at work and a client with black fingernails says 'OH MY GOSH I love your hair!'. Yes that is how fabulous it is.

So as I'm reading other peoples blogs, I realized that I have neither children or pets....or really anything except school right now. And since I am NOT going to put pictures of my textbooks on this blog, I had to hunt for the changes in my life that I could blog about. And that brings me too........du du duhhhhhh.... HOME DECOR! Oh my gosh are you so excited?! Ok not really, but I"m really do love home decor and like to spend my spare time watching HGTV Spice My Kitchen and shopping for the ideal kitchen. Shout out to Jessica Balls. You're my idol. Someday I'll have my perfect kitchen.....but until then, I have a new wall decor. Nothing too large I supposeeee, but I'd like to welcome Leaf to the house. I have a frame in process that i'm excited about - my friend Laurie made the frame herself awhile ago and I stained it and now I"m putting a quote on it but decopaged? pictures, but somehow I got back to Utah missing like 8 letters for the quote -- so if Stephanie is reading this, I need m, i, m, a, u, e, e in Jasmine, I think size 3?

So I debate on whether I should share my joyssss or my frustrations. But since my current moral frustration with the current business associates is really long and drawn out - I'll just stick to my really fabulous new fruit paintings!!!! Unfortunately, I seem to be increasingly anal about quality and when the 2 new paintings came and they are so much better than then the top two that I already had, now i want to buy those ones again so that the quality will all match!! Wasteful yes. Necessary........most likely. I went to Chris Hodgson's farewell today - it was good. Aunt Kerri, Sheryl and Lanny, David and Deb were all there. Hasta luego

Holiday Magic

So there wasn't much magic - but the holidays were good. I got to see some great friends Amy and Erin, which just showed how socially retarded I have become. I was able to go to Washington for both Thanksgiving AND Christmas which hasn't happened in many moons. This Christmas was a STEAL. I would like to be humble and not talk about how much awesome stuff I got, but really this blog is about me, so YOU WILL LISTEN TO EVERY WORD I SAY. (movie reference). Seriously though, I'm so blessed to be able to be with familiy AND get all the cool stuff I wanted:D. AND see one of my coolio brother Kevin's basket ball games. He looks like a Varsity Basketball Player - lol. My holiday decorations were killer too. I was going to put a bunch of pics on this but I think I'm lazy. HOWEVER, since I know everyone is concerned on my candy making skills and my previous demonstration of turd chocolates, I would like to report that I got pretty good - and thanks to the wisdom of my grandmother, my choclate covered cherries are now profesh. And I already boiled a can of Sweet and condensed milk to make caramel. Anyhoo - New years was good - low key. I looked pretty hot para que lo sepan! however, i ripped my pants. Distressful.
I start a new class on Friday - - sooo not looking forward to it. I've enjoyed watching Bowl Games and reading books that actually could be worth $135.00 AND probably be bought back by Wal-mart. as opposed to every single business book i've bought. This is a really long blog. I think I'll stop. Beso.