ALL of liz's itunes on shuffle today

(1) All my Life (K-Ci & JoJo)
        -- One of the best intros ever
        -- Why have I not listened to this song for like 5 years?

(2) Sexy Plexi (Jack Johnson)
        -- Reminds me of Summer 2007 in my lab...analyzing data...8 h a day...with Jack Johnson playing all day every day

(3) Everyone (Backstreet Boys)
        -- from "Black and Blue"...the first cd I ever purchased.

(4) Felicity (Sense and Sensibility Soundtrack)
        -- I love my Jane Austen movie soundtracks. Great for studying back in the day.

(5) Myth America (Liz Story)
        -- A little New Age piano music. Love.

(6) She's My Kind of Rain (Tim McGraw)
        -- I feel like almost any boy could woo me with this song. (Perhaps an exaggeration. At least any cute boy)

(7) Seize the Day (Newsies)
        -- Gotta represent my love of musicals on the shuffle line-up.

(8) Thriller (Michael Jackson)
        -- Love MJ.

(9) Sonata No 7 in D Major (Beethoven)
        -- No one beats Beethoven.

(10) All I Want is You (U2)
        -- Classic.

(11) (Secretly A*Teens popped up next...let's pretend this didn't happen.)

(12) Things People Say (Lady Antebellum)
       -- I've been on a Lady A kick this week.

(13) I Feel My Savior's Love (Mormon Tabernacle Choir)
       -- :)

Just thought I'd give you a taste of the randomness that is my itunes. Love music.

Prayer of the children

I just returned from a FABULOUS day in Salt Lake. Annie, Abby, Ryan and I went to the Kurt Bestor concert at Abravanel Hall (we used to go every year when we were young and thought it'd be fun to revive the tradition!), ate dinner at Zupas, and headed to Cummings Trees (once again a tradition! Dad used to get his tree there when he was a little tyke) to pick out our gorgeous Christmas tree!! I must say, today really filled me with the Christmas spirit! We also watched "Scrooge" while we decorated the tree. Favorite. So grateful to have sisters nearby. :)

Honestly, one of the most powerful moments of the day for me was the song "Prayer of the Children" during the concert. He dedicated it to those involved in the shootings in Connecticut. It was really powerful to me. It reminded me that Christmas is all about hope...the hope that comes through Christ and His Atonement. I was hit with the reality of all the heartache that exists in our world. BUT this season we celebrate the miracle that Christ can heal all. My heart and prayers are with the victims and families of victims in Connecticut!

last minute girl

If only I wasn't the procrastinator that I am...

If only I could be super productive and focused when working on a big project weeks before it was due instead of at the last minute...

However, I am secretly proud that I do such good work when under pressure.

Confession: I'm totally in the zone and actually LOVING working on this project at 12:42 am.

Maybe it's because I'm a nerd and I love that I get to teach my class about my love for membrane biophysics tomorrow...

Maybe it's because of the twinkle lights behind me...

Maybe it's because Michael Buble is giving me a private concert of Christmas music (and wooing me in the process)...

Maybe it's because it's my LAST homework assignment EVER! My last chance to procrastinate like this...

Whatever the reason, I'm just going to cherish it. :)

Grateful

Today I am grateful for...

*Technology! It connects me to the people I love :)

*FAMILY far and near

*Fantastic Roommates

*Good friends that are always there when I need them...whether it's to fix my car, listen to me, or just enjoy life with me!

*A great ward!

*Prayer, the scriptures, and Latter-day revelation that invite the Holy Spirit and bring peace. Here's my recent fav:

*My best friend and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is as real to me as all of you!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! (or as we say in my family, Happy Thanksgibbons!)

recently...

Recently...

I've tried analyzing these babies about 10 different ways...

...and I THINK the most recent try is a win! We will know once I try it out on a few more runs. Cross your fingers that this one will be the winner and I can move on to the hard part of the project haha. Oh and for those nerds out there wondering...these are images of F-actin!


Recently...

I've been team-teaching PDBio 120...

...and LOVING it. For real. I'm all kinds of happy and excited after I teach. Up until now I've taught portions of most classes, but today was my first day teaching the whole 50 minute class! I think it went well! I love getting to know more and more of my 200 students. Yep, definitely thinking I chose the right career. :)


Recently...

I've been having fun...

...country concerts, Jazz games, BYU football games, hipster photo shoots, family get-togethers, perspective-gaining drives up the mountain, 3D movies, intense workouts (yes that is a cupcake), pumpkin carving parties, haunted forests, etc. 

Recently...

I caved and bought a cd on itunes...

...and have been listening to it for days! I was doing so good with my resolution not to buy music, but I couldn't help myself. I have a weak spot for music.


Recently...

I've been learning a lot about how I sleep...

...using this super crazy app on my phone. It lays on the bed and uses my movements to track my sleep cycle. Best part? I give it a 30 min window and it wakes me up at the most ideal time. I honestly feel great when I wake up now because the alarm isn't jolting me out of deep sleep. The future is here, folks.


Recently...

I've started apply for teaching jobs...

...and I can't believe I'm going to be all grown up with a real job in less than a year! Crossing my fingers somebody will want me!

Books, Fish, Bonnie, etc.

This morning I was reading an article ("Teaching and the Expanding Knowledge" by Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, 1964) for an education class I'm taking. IT WAS SO GOOD. And it got me all excited, so I decided to blog about it, lucky you. I was reading this thinking about science education, but it applies to all kinds of teaching in some ways I think.

The first part that got me excited were these two passages about textbooks and cramming knowledge into our heads:

"There is a widely spread misconception about the nature of books which contain knowledge It is thought that such books are something the contents of which have to be crammed into our heads. I think the opposite is closer to the truth. Books are there to keep the knowledge in while we use

our heads for something better. Books may also be a better place for such knowledge. In my own head any book-knowledge has a half-life of a few weeks. So I leave knowledge, for safekeeping,

to books and libraries and go fishing, sometimes for fish sometimes for new knowledge."

"I do not want to be misunderstood - I do not depreciate knowledge, and I have worked long and hard to know something of all fields of science related to biology. Without this I could do no research. But I have retained only what I need for an understanding, an intuitive grasp, and in order

to know in which book to find what. This was fun, and we must have fun, or else our work is no good."

I especially loved the line about "us[ing] our heads for something better." Education is so much more than memorizing facts (or memorizing our textbooks). It's all about connecting those facts, finding meaning in them, and using them. I can think of lots of experiences when I was taught facts but not taught how to use them. I also loved the part about knowing in which book to find what. I feel like further I advance in my education, the better I get at recognizing what is important to know off the top of my head  and what I can leave in wikipedia to be accessed in the 2 seconds it takes me to google it.

This next section really resonated to me because I love the idea of life-long learning and schools teaching use HOW to learn rather than just teaching us STUFF. It's totally the whole teach a man to fish versus feeding him for a day kind of thing. I also think the last line is a perfect description of a really great teacher:

"My next remark is about time relations. The time spent in school is relatively short compared -to the time thereafter. I am stressing this because it is widely thought that everything we have to know to do our job well we have to learn in school. This is wrong because, during the long time which

follows school, we are apt to forget, anyway, what we have learned there, while we have ample time for study. ln fact, most of us have to learn all our lives, and it was with gray hair that I took up the study of quantum mechanics, myself. So what the school has to do, in the first place is to

make us learn how to learn, to whet our appetites for knowledge, to teach us the delight of doing a job well and the excitement of creativity, to teach us to love what we do, and to help us to find what we love to do."

That last line immediately made me think of my piano teacher, Bonnie Winterton. She is amazing. I really think I owe a lot of who I am to what she taught me for the 7 years I took lessons from her. She taught me a lot more than how to play the piano. She taught me to love music, to love teaching, to love people, and to love life. My lessons were 45 minutes long, and I really think we would spend at least 10 of those minutes talking about life. I want to be that kind of teacher when I grow up.

Liz's weaknesses...

*the soft pillow as my alarm is going off...

*buying really good country songs on itunes...

*symphony bars, chocolate-covered almonds/cinnamon bears...

*Zupas and Cafe Rio with Steph...

*scratch that, Steph in general...she has a look/tone of voice that can get me to do almost anything...

*watching "one more" Smallville episode with the siblings...

*putting off doing grown-up productive things (like folding my laundry or doing the dishes) to spend time with people...

*staying up late doing semi-productive things (or sometimes not productive things) like blogging, writing in my journal, and balancing my checkbook...

stream of consciousness...

just smeared a bug across my computer screen :(

steph's fan is blowing in the next room... it's getting HOT at night... summer :)

michael buble is wooing me as usual

a clean room makes everything happy

finished reading "blink" tonight... now i keep studying everyone's facial expressions to read their minds and wondering what everyone's first impression of me is... short? nerdy?

tonight i will dream of sPLA2, patman, phospholipid tails, and finishing my paper this week

it's hard to remember to clock in and out after you've been on salary for 8 months

reading emails from jenny makes me miss my little ones and wish i could give them a squeeze

why do i stay up so late? i blame it on my mother's genes

speaking of mumsy and popsicle, getting excited for siberia in august! :)

cure for a bad mood

1) wake up at 7:30
2) run 3.4 miles with a cute friend
3) stretch
4) take a hot shower while blasting James Taylor (and singing along of course)
5) throw in a load of laundry
6) read the word of God
7) wear neon yellow shoes

loving today. the end.

mountains

today i discovered a new favorite: taking a random drive in random scenic neighborhoods i've never been with the windows rolled down and listening to good music. ended up on the mountain overlooking the valley. totally spontaneous. cleared my head. gained perspective. love it. mountains have always been special to me. these are my 3 mountains :)

randoms

after eating waffles, cleaning my whole house, and rocking out to awesome music while doing so... i am sitting down to finish my prospectus!!! i will not get up until it's done.  i knew if i committed on the internet i had to do it right?? right. i'm sure there will be a celebratory post coming shortly (well maybe not shortly...but eventually ha!)

getting excited for . . .

THANKSGIVING!!! 

i'm getting excited already :) is it weird that i've been listening to josh groban's song "thankful" on repeat for the past 45 min?  if you haven't heard it, look it up. amazing.

the news!

well i'm supposed to be sleeping right now, but i am just in a blogging mood! mostly for one big update...

 I AM OFFICIALLY ACCEPTED INTO THE PHD PROGRAM!

other than that, it's been a great summer so far! (if you can call it summer with all the rain...which i have secretly been loving...)

my dear friend/mission companion kayla got married!

 fun times with high school friends

 mother's day!

 kelly and i in our matchy rain jackets! (she is also in the lab full time this summer so we have plenty of adventures together)

 my roommate stephanie won a vacation off the radio!

 kelly and i again, this time with the awesome flask of cells i composed a limerick on . . . everyone likes a good limerick :)

yup, life is pretty great :) seriously . . . today was just fabulous. it was WARM, pops and i ran 12 miles with a gorgeous view of salt lake valley, i got to reunionize with some high school friends i hadn't seen for years (kenzie, dani, marianne, and amber to be exact), i got to go to the temple, we listened to elder lynn robbins at stake conference, i came home to my acceptance letter in the mail (and a letter from my first greenie who's coming home in 2 months!), AND i got to belt out country tunes with my windows rolled down quite a bit today. lovin' it.