It is now 3:00 A.M..

and I'm only half way through my research paper. My brain is totally fried, but I'm not tired. I don't think I can do anymore tonight. Good thing we're peer reviewing tomorrow in class and I only have 5 pages. Is it April 6th yet???

Love,
A Burned-Out Southern Girl in the Land of Potatoes

Pat Benatar, Fake Margaritas, and Belly Dancing

Today was incredibly productive! I've finally caught up on most of my school work. Except for my 12 page paper for English 201, which, to be honest, I'm not too worried about. I can pretty much hammer that out this week and revise this weekend. I guess that's one of the perks of being an English major!

I finished my Senior Writing Seminar portfolio today. It took me from around 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, but it feels so great to have it done! While I was making it I really came to realize how much I've writing I've actually done in college. A LOT. That's how much. And I didn't even include everything in my portfolio! Even though it felt like I was never going to finish all of the formatting, I'm really glad that I had to do that assignment. I'm pretty dang proud of it! If you'd like to peruse it, you can find it at:

http://rebekkajfogle.weebly.com/

Next, I worked a lot of kinks out of my Senior Research Paper. It's still nowhere NEAR perfect, but I'm definitely feeling better about it.

Now that I've talked about all of the boring stuff...

My health has made a complete turn around. All semester, I've been feeling nauseous and tired everyday and this weekend I finally found out why. I realized I haven't been taking the right amounts of insulin because my doctor changed all of the settings on my insulin pump when I saw her in December. So, I changed my settings back to they way I had them programmed and it has made a WORLD of difference. I have insane amounts of energy and I feel great!

I also got this neat app for my iPod called Diabetes Buddy which allows me to track the amount of carbs I eat everyday and the amount of water I drink, and it's a place where I can log my blood sugars, and I can tell it if I exercise. It's pretty sweet.

Speaking of exercise, I now actually have time to workout and I love it! For the past 2 days, Jennica and I have been doing dance workout videos from Netflix! (I know it's kind of lame, but we are totally loving it.)

Now to explain the title of this blog.

Firstly, we were watching The Voice today and two girls had "battle-sing" We Belong by Pat Benatar which brought back awesome memories of seeing her live at Universal during the summer of 2010. I absolutely LOVE her. She is a goddess of song. I wish I could have even an ounce of her fierceness when I perform. She's amazing even now, she still sounds incredible.

Secondly, Crystal Light has this new line of drinks that are flavored like alcoholic beverages. I guess it's for summer, or Mormons who don't drink, but like the taste without the alcohol. So, a few weeks ago I got Mojito flavored Crystal Light and it was delicious. Mouth watering even. Today, I got the Margarita flavor, not so. It's ok, but I was just really wanting it to be super tasty like the Mojito one, but alas, I was disappointed. Next time I'll just stick with the one I know I like.

Lastly, belly dancing. As I mentioned before, Jennica and I have been doing some dance workouts this week, and I got all kinds of excited when I saw on Netflix, "Egyptian Belly Dancing for Beginners." I immediately texted Jennica to tell her we were all over that tonight. Yeah...about that...we were all over it for about 7 minutes and then we realized it wasn't fun and we kind of hated it. So we did a dance party workout video instead, where the host said, and I quote, "Welcome to our dance party, no RSVP required!" Gosh, I just love those workout video instructors, you could feed all the rats in New York City with the amount of cheese that those ladies dish out. "Shake those hips, it's your time to shine!" "If you don't squeeze those buns, no one else will!" haha, thanks ladies, I'll keep those little gems in my back pocket for the next time I'm feeling blue.

Anyways, like I said, today was great! Despite the fact that it was freezing today and I've pretty much decided that Rexburg weather isn't going to make up its mind about whether it's spring or not. I'm not going to worry about it anymore because in 18 days, I'll be in beautiful South Carolina where the temperature is a balmy 80 degrees. Love it. Can't wait.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
A Southern Girl 18 Day Away from Beautiful SC Weather But Until Then, Freezing Her Patootie Off in the Land of Potatoes

Soundtrack to My Family

Today, I REALLY missed my family. More than I usually do. Not sure why, I think it is just because I am so dang close to being back with them. I guess also because this is the longest I've been without seeing any of them. I've had Holly here every semester up until now and Kyle was here last semester. When I'm in Florida, I'm close enough to drive home or hop on a plane for an hour and a half. But here, well, here I'm far away and I can't do anything about it but call on the phone every once in a while when I'm not busy with school. So, today, I came up with a small solution to my problem. It is a playlist on my iPod called Family :). I would now like to share with you these songs and why they made the cut.

1. Dreams by Van Halen- Two words: Power Rangers.

2. Prologue to Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone by John Williams- My family and I (Holly excluded) are the most Harry Potter obsessed people I know. We went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter the second day it was open to celebrate my mom's birthday. We are diehard Potter fans for life. Also, this is what plays when my mom calls me :)

3. Through the Fire and the Flames by Dragonforce- Back in the good old days, Holly, Kyle, and I would play Guitar Hero ALL NIGHT LONG. This was a favorite.

4. Theme from Jurassic Park by John Williams- Many Friday nights in my youth were "Jurassic Park in the Dark" nights. My family absolutely loves this movie. We can pretty much quote the whole movie. "You will remember to wash your hand before you eat anything!!"

5. Jai Ho  by A. R. Rahman- When we were on a cruise last summer, there was a Bollywood themed show. It featured this song and so after the show, we would play this song when we were getting ready in our cabin.

6. Good Vibrations by the cast of Glee (originally Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch)- While I was at Disney one summer Holly and Kyle created a hilarious video to this song. Also, Holly really likes to rap Finn's part.

Now they start getting a little more individualized

7. End Credits from E.T. by John Williams: This December right after we got back from school, my family went down to Orlando to go back to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on vacation (see what I mean about the obsession??). When we were at Universal, my dad and I rode E.T. Adventure together while everyone else went to see a show at Islands of Adventure. It was really fun to be able to do something just the two of us.

8. February Song by Josh Groban: This summer, I really wanted to go see Josh Groban in my hometown, but I didn't know who I could get to go with me. My dad agreed to go, even though he didn't know anything about Josh Groban. So, I gave him all of his albums and now he loves Josh, too. Too bad he got food poisoning and cancelled the concert.

9. Take a Bow by Rihanna: This one is mostly because my dad LOVES this song. It is so funny when he sings it and dances to it. PLEASE!

10. I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night by Kiss: This one is for my mom. When Kyle first got Guitar Hero, she wanted to play this song over, and over, and over. I got sick of it then, but now I have this great memory.

11. Reunion of Friends by John Williams: This is Kyle's favorite theme in all of the Harry Potter movie music. We played the Lego Harry Potter video game together this summer, so this song brings back some great memories as well.

and finally...

12. Hollyann by Boston: Wonder if you could possibly figure out why I would listen to this one! This is the song my sister Holly Ann was named after. After talking to her on the phone today I think I listened to this song 5 times on repeat.


Obviously music is a big part of my family's life, which is why this comforts me when I miss them. So, now all I have to do is grab my iPod when I miss them and I'll be reminded of all of the fun we are going to have in 31 days when I get home!


Love,

A Nostalgic Southern Girl in the Land of Potatoes

It's really happening...

I can't believe I'm getting this close to being done with college! I take the English Praxis on Saturday. For those of you non-education majors out there, the Praxis is an unnecessary test that pre-teachers take, asking them obscure questions about things which, they will be able to look up in a book to find the answer to in their future classrooms. I'm freaking out a little bit, don't know if you could sense that. Mostly because this week is also tech week for Over the River and Through the Woods, so I'll have to be in the theatre for long hours at night AND it is also the week before we have our live Disney College Program Presentations on campus. So, I'll be juggling class, homework, tech rehearsals, Disney recruiting stuff, and studying for the Praxis. I've got a bunch of flash cards made, so hopefully if I spend every minute that is unaccounted for studying I'll feel more confident about this test :/

On a more positive note, I took pictures for my graduation announcements today! It was freezing outside, so I'm really grateful to my roommate, Jennica, who braved the cold and took the pictures for me. Here is the final, edited picture that will go with my announcement. It's really happening. I'm really graduating!!!

Love,

A Southern Girl about to Graduate in the Land of Potatoes!!

Deep breaths and Disney music

So, being a senior in college is hard. Who knew?? I feel like maybe this is the reason I've been in college for so long because if I had to do what I'm doing right now 2 years ago, I honestly don't think it could do it. But anyways, update on my life:

I got my (tentative) student teaching placement!! As of right now I'll be student teaching in Mesa, Arizona at Mesa High School. I wanted to teach at a middle school, but I guess there aren't any in Mesa that take student teachers from BYU-Idaho, so I'll deal. First off, getting this all sorted was such a mess. It all started when I was talking to my friend Scott who saw on i-learn that his placement was posted, so of course I darted to my computer...I've only been waiting 3 years to find out where this crazy thing called student teaching would take me (though I was pretty much positive it would be Mesa because I had been in to the Field Services Office on more than one occasion to discuss with them my need to student teach in Mesa). So, when I pulled up my i-learn page I was so excited and nervous and once I glanced on the screen, irate. Almost to the point of tears. I saw four letters, not M-e-s-a...

 U-T-A-H

That word never upset me more than at that very moment. I was all kinds of out of sorts. So, after sulking and seething and complaining, I finally decided that I'd call them in the morning and give them a piece of my mind. I SPECIFICALLY told them I needed to go to Mesa, Arizona because that way I would be able to remain a Campus Representative for the Disney College Program under the same recruiter (my amazingly funny boss John), so that he could write me a recommendation for the Professional Internships I want to do at WDW after I student teach. They were messing with my life and my dream. I was NOT alright with that. They were gonna hear about this. So, I called them, and after jumping through several hoops and filling out a few more forms, I now have my tentative student teaching placement in Mesa. Whew! And it is honestly such a relief.


Next thing, I LOVE MY JOB. As a Campus Rep I get to relive all of my awesome Disney experiences by telling other people how great the program is. We have a lot of limitations on campus here at BYU-I, which makes our job as a Rep Team more difficult, but we still get it done and have such an awesome time doing it! The season is in full swing now since our recruiter is coming in 2 weeks! We still have so much to do and honestly, sometimes I worry we won't get it all done, but we always do and we do it with flying colors. We were one of the most successful Rep Teams in the country last semester, and we are working hard again to keep that true of our team this semester. My goal is to make it onto the list of the top 50 reps this season. That would look so amazing on my Professional Internship applications, so I'm really working as hard as I possibly can!

Now, onto my classes. Deep breaths. That's all that is getting me through them right now. Well, that and listening to music from the Disney Parks as a consistent reminder that in approximately two months I will be back in Florida. I will be away from the snow and biting wind, but more importantly away from English majors who can't help to act superior to everyone else because they are applying for law school or because they feel cultured because they are well read or because they are an editor-in-chief of a FAKE magazine that we are being forced to write for a class. Note to these people: get off your high horses. You are trying to "impress" the wrong people with your snooty attitudes. We are your peers, we don't care what score you got on the LSAT or why you believe you are the best thing since they put the pocket in pitas. Save that for your grad school admission interviews and spare us the headache of listening to you drone on about how excellent you are. We know. You told us yesterday. Now that I have fully gotten off the subject of the classes I'm taking...

Rhetorical Studies: Tons of busy work and we are in groups creating our own magazines. My group's is called The Understudy and it is about overlooked and under-appreciated films, actors and theatre productions.

Senior Writing Seminar: Again, tons of busy work and little projects. I'm team writing a paper on how the graphic novel Maus helps increase literacy in 8th grade boys. I love partner papers, you only have to write 8 pages. It's awesome. Love it.

Directing: At the beginning of the semester it was my largest cause of hair loss, but now that we are done with assignments of reading 4 chapters in our textbook and discussing them in class, it's a lot less stressful. Now we are spending a big chunk of our class time rehearsing the scenes we are directing. I'm directing a scene from The Show-Off by George Kelly. Then I'm also in two scenes, I'm playing Mama in A Raisin in the Sun (yes, I'm still white. no, we are not doing it minstral style in blackface) we are just taking the scene out of context a little, we're basically going to be poor southern women. The second scene I'm in is from Proof, in which I play Catherine, a mathematical genius that could be on the verge of mental illness (cool, right??).

Reading in the Content Area: Basically I finished that class today. I was in a group of 3, all of us are English Ed. majors and we had to come up with 2 separate week-long units in our content area. At the beginning of the semester we had the students write their own stories that we then made into comic books, which was really fun and they loved it! Then this past unit we focused on Dr. Seuss books and used them to improve the students' literacy skills. Today, we had an early birthday party for Dr. Seuss (it isn't until March 2nd). It was a fun unit. We had one really rough day, but other than that it was really successful.

I'm also taking English 201, but that's basically not worth mentioning other than the fact that I have Brother Brugger, he seriously is the best. But, the class is essentially a bunch of English classes I've already taken condensed into one course for the foundations program.

Now that I've given you the Reader's Digest version of my life for the past 2 months, I'll stop bombarding you with my life and get back to the massive pile of reading I have to do and continue to remember that in approximately one month and a week I will be walking across a stage in a cap and gown having my very last great day at BYU-Idaho.

Love,

A Southern Girl Taking Deep Breaths and Listening to Disney Music in the Land of Potatoes :)

Life is hard, but I'm good with that!

I've been going to classes on how to be a better diabetic this week, and I'm excited to report that I'm going to have a complete health/lifestyle change! It's going to be so incredibly hard, but I couldn't be happier! I'm going to be healthier and have more energy and just have an all around better life!

I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was 11 years old and it has been a constant battle in my life to keep control of it. I never let on to anyone that it was hard for me, but it has been extremely challenging. After a while I just gave up trying. I've been living like a normal person for all of these years and I was never concerned with how it would make me feel later in life. There is nothing wrong with me, so no one need be worried. But, I just have a new outlook on life since I've taken these intensive diabetes management classes. My blood sugars are normal and I feel great!

Having said all of that, I want to share with you all some recipes (as I try them) from my diabetic cookbooks. A lot of the recipes are lo carb and lo cal, so they will be good for all those out there that are earnestly dieting :) I don't plan on making this into a food blog, but I think it will be fun to try out new recipes and share them!

The first one is called Banana-Pumpkin Snack Cake and it's from this cookbook that only uses 4 ingredients or less in each recipe! This one just has 7.5 oz of canned pumpkin, 1/2 cup of water, a box of banana nut muffin mix and 4 tsp of cinnamon sugar. You mix the first 3 ingredients together bake it in an 8x8 pan for 22 minutes at 400 degrees, then after it comes out of the oven sprinkle the top with the cinnamon sugar.

Here's a picture. It's not the best quality because I was too lazy to get my digital camera, so it's just taken from my computer and doesn't look super appealing. However, it's delicious! There is only 21 carbs and 111 calories in a piece when you cut the pan in 8ths. I recommend it to anyone who loves pumpkin. That means in the Winter I'll probably be making them a lot for my best friend twinner roomie :)

Until next time,
A Diabetic Southern Girl in the South :)

Overheard at the South Carolina Children's Theatre

I love my hometown. Don't get me wrong. I REALLY, REALLY do. But, I feel like somebody has pulled a Dorothy on me here. It is so ridiculously HOT this week. I feel like if I'm breaking out in a sweat just walking from my car into the theatre, it's too hot. I'm just glad I have a job that's inside! I don't know how landscapers and whoever else works outside in Greenville is handling it! Anyways, enough complaining... today I'd like to share some of my favorite things I've heard (or have been told) that students said this summer:

1. "I was on a cruise this weekend and I think I saw Justin Bieber on the Disney Cruise next to my boat. He said on the Disney Channel that he was going to go on a surprise cruise, so I think that I saw him, and the old guy who made him famous."  Old guy = Usher. I almost DIED laughing.


2. Teacher: Tell me 6 things about presidents.
Student: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington.... um, I don't know anything else.
Teacher: How about our current president?
Student: Uhhhhh.....
Teacher: Obam...
Student: Obamlincoln!!!!

3. Male student: I'm not allowed to eat lunch this week.
Me: Why can't you eat?
Student: I'm a dancer and I have a recital. So I have to skip lunch.

4. I took a 4 year old boy in Pirate Camp to the "potty" and this is what happened.
Me: Are you almost done in there?
Student: Yeah. (opens door with his pants down) Wanna see my underwear??? They are really cool. They have penguins on them.
Me: Oh, nice. Those are cool penguins.
Student: I know. They are from Madagascar.

Later that week. Same boy had to go "potty" during class
Student: (Opens door with pants already pulled up, buttoned and zipped) Wanna see my underwear??? They have penguins again!
Me: Oh, no thanks. Just tell me what they look like buddy.
Student: No!!! I really want you to see them!!! (proceeds to pull down his pants and show me)

4 year olds have no shame.

5. "I have these chips in my lunch and they are lime flavored. They are so good....(bites down on a chip) Ouch! I got lime juice in my eye! It hurts so bad!"

These are just a few. I'm sure there will be more to come in the future :)

Love,
A Southern Girl Melting in the South