New Job!

Last Thursday I went down with my roommate to take a tour of the Church Office Building where she works. By the end of the afternoon I had my tour, an interview, and a part time job as a "Web Media Producer's Assistant/Digital Media Quality Assurance Assistant. So basically I will get to help put broadcasts and other media up on their website and also test them to make sure they work properly. There are other things involved, but that's the short and sweet version.

I was pretty excited about it! I had actually applied for this same job back in May, but the timing wasn't right for them or for me. Things seem to be falling into place though. I finished school and am starting a new job. It is only part time for now, but once the Church lifts the hiring freeze that has gone into effect as of last Friday, I should be able to work full time.

The commute won't be my favorite, but there is an Express Bus that goes down and back everyday, so that will help save on gas. And..who knows..maybe I'll move up there once my contract is up on my current place. We'll have to see.

Done with School!!

I am finally done with my Bachelor's degree! Yay! I have been so busy these last few weeks trying to get everything finished, but it has all paid off!

Just a quick update for the last month or so...I turned 28 and I'm pretty excited about it! I'm in a new phase of life and I feel like new adventures await! It feels so good to be done with school and to move on with the rest of my life.

I had surgery just before Thanksgiving. I had a fairly large cyst that needed to be removed from my abdomen. Everything went well and I'm recovering nicely. Try to squeeze that in with 3 big final projects and see how fun that is. :)

Finished my last week of school on Friday the 12th. It hasn't quite hit me that I'm done. I'm just so tired after everything that I haven't had a chance to really take everything in. It's not only been a long month, it's been a long couple of years. So, I figure I will take a bit of a break and then go from there. At least now..I can finally think about Christmas!

3D modeled living room

A year ago I took a 3D modeling and animation class. I wasn't all that good at the animation part, but I could model (draw) really well. This is my final project. I took a picture out of a magazine and duplicated it. I drew everything that you see in this picture. The walls, the furniture, lamps, carpet, etc. It turned out pretty well for my first 3D modeling class.

Anyway...I'm digging it up again because I was able to fix a few things and actually use it in my Senior Project as part of a 3D example for future students to see. I was pretty proud of it. This will be part of my portfolio as well.

Oh...and you can click on the picture to make it bigger :)

More Pumpkins...

This is my roommate, Andrea's pumpkin. I converted her. :)

Too bad we didn't get any trick or treaters to enjoy our art work. Oh well! :)

Halloween Pumpkins!

Happy Halloween everybody!
Ok..so I went a little crazy with the pumpkins this year! I've always wanted to make fancy carvings and this year I finally did it. I got me a $6 kit and went to town. The spider one was my first and it took forever, but it turned out pretty well! The smiley face was fairly simple, but harder to do because it was on such a small, thick pumpkin. They both turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. ;)

Navajo Reservation

A few of us from UVU got to go down to Chinle, Arizona to the Navajo Reservation over fall break. My roommate is Navajo and we were going to visit her family and learn a little about their culture. I've never been down that way, so I got to see Price, Moab, and Monument Valley on the way down to Chinle.

Ok, so we're total dorks, but we did have fun. They had an open market on Friday and we got a few random things, like air-soft guns. So of course we had to play with them. This is us...doing the Charlie Angel's thing.

Left to Right:
Me, Thor Anderson(the professor who went with us), and my roommate Emily.

This is Spider Rock in the Valley de Chelly.

This is my roommate, Andrea Wagner, showing us how to make fry bread, Navajo style. She's standing in front of her families hogan. Not only did she show us, but we all got to help. So we are all now qualified, Navajo fry bread makers. :)

We made enough to feed the whole Wagner tribe. :)

Reba & Kelly Clarkson Concert

I have been a Reba McEntire fan since I was 15. I love her! She came to Salt Lake with her buddy, and American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson, who I also adore. I found out about the concert back in the summer, but knew I was going to be in Africa when the tickets went on sale. My good friend and mission buddy, Corin Coombs is also a Reba fan and bought tickets for the both of us back in July. Before we knew it the show was here!

The show was AMAZING! They both did a phenomenal job! My camera doesn't do them justice! They both are beautiful women with lots of energy! There wasn't a lot of special effects or flash, it was mainly them singing the songs that they loved.

They sang a lot of songs together, but then they would take turns singing their own songs. No one was better than the other. It was just them having fun doing what they do best!

Not only was the show a ton of fun, but I got to go to dinner with Corin before the show. We got to catch up and just talk! It was the perfect night!

Aloha from Hawaii!

Me and 3 of my best friends went to the island of Oahu a few weeks ago and it was AMAZING! I love Hawaii! It was one of those impulse decisions that I made because I knew if I didn't go then...life would get in the way and who knew when I would get another chance.

We stayed in Ka'a'awa just 20 minutes south of Laie. We rented a condo and we ended up being only a few blocks from the beach. We were away from the mobs of tourists and in our own little piece of Hawaii. It was wonderful!

This is the beach just a few blocks from the condo where we stayed at.

I served a mission in North Carolina and this is one of the Elders that I served with, Jay Mataele (spelling?) and his girlfriend, Jackie. Jay is working at the Polynesian Cultural Center and was able to get us in to see the show. It was awesome! Jackie is a sweetheart and is from North Carolina. They are a perfect couple!

Becca, Me, and Jay.


Our impersonations of the Hawaiian Tikis.

While at the Polynesian Cultural Center, we stopped by the Aotearoa (New Zealand) village. We played a traditional stick game and did quite well!

We went ATV'ing in Ka'a'awa Valley (where LOST, Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young, 50 First Dates, etc. were filmed). This was part of the view from the ride. (Above and Below)

Behind me is where they are setting up to film LOST.
Ka'a'awa Valley!

This is the jumping rock at Waimea Beach and YES...we did jump off the rock. Several times in fact! :)

They have a Bubba Gump's Shrimp Restaurant in Honolulu. We got our picture taken with our own "Forrest Gump." We even gave us some of his chocolates. :)

We stopped by the Dole Pineapple Plantation. This is (L to R) Becca, Claire, and me enjoying our pineapple ice cream. Good stuff!

Oertel and I went SCUBA diving while we were there. Can I just say...I LOVE diving in WARM water! We went down about 105 feet to a shipwreck and the visibility was crystal clear! It was still warm at 105 feet too! So much fun!

We also went SKYDIVING! This was me and Oertel's 2nd time going. It's not as scary the 2nd time around. We actually were able to enjoy it a lot more! Here we are on our way up to 12,000 feet. (Left to Right, Oertel, Claire, Becca, Me.)

Our view of Hawaii 12,000 feet up. Totally changes your perspective!

Free Falling is my Favorite part!

Proof that we all survived!

Hi..my name is Marianne...and I'm a Travel Addict

So...just a week or so after I got back from Africa, I decided to go to Las Vegas. They were holding a New Media Expo and I was encouraged to go from one of my professors. It was a fun time and I learned a lot. It was a quick trip though and I don't think I had quite adjusted from being back from Namibia.

A week after Vegas, I flew out to Washington, D.C. with my mom to see my brother Kyle graduate as a LPN in the army. It was my first time to D.C., and it was awesome. Another quick trip, but we saw quite a few things while we were there. We made sure to see the LDS temple while we there. Mom had lived out there when it was dedicated and it was her first time back since then. It was a pretty cool thing for both of us.

We saw a few of the other sites quickly one day. We saw the Jefferson Memorial, the White House, Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Memorial. The picture below is one I've entitled: Tall, Taller, and Tallest. Appropriate, don't you think? ;)

Here's my brother Kyle and his wife, EvaLyn at his graduation. Pretty attractive couple I think. :)

Last Week in Namibia

This is a bit late coming, but I wanted to make sure I documented my last week in Namibia. It went by so fast and things have been so crazy since. Mainly we got everything ready for us to leave with the students at the Poly and then we also delivered the stuff we brought from home. We had two pallets of shoes, clothes, sanitary kits, school supplies, books, etc. that were donated from the good folks at home. We took one day and just spent delivering goodies. It felt like Christmas to us and to those we were bringing gifts too!

The picture above is of a little girl at the first primary school we went to. It was called Dinosaur land and it had 144 kids and 3 teachers. It was pretty hard to take in, but these women are phenomenal. They are guardian angels to these kids.

They sang us some of their favorite songs and were so excited to see us! Wonderful kids!

There were three rooms and in one of the rooms was where the babies were. They were about 9 months to 2 years old. This little girl was face down and crying on the floor when I walked by. I grabbed her and had her on my lap. Both of us weren't quite sure what to think of each other. She was a cutie though!

This was at the Center that MaryBeth Gallagher runs. She is a saint and has been in Namibia for 3 years working with these people. She set up this center for the kids to come and get food and to continue learning. She makes games out of "rubbish" and teaches other teachers how to do the same. Above is a picture of two brothers sharing their food. The bigger one ate all of his and the smaller one is sharing.

Brittney and I found a couple of "shadows". They loved hugs and we were sure to give them plenty! They loved to feel my hair, so I would let them play with it.

This is Patricia. She was one of my favorites!

One of the books that was donated was a pop-up book. This is me reading them a story. They were fascinated by the "pop up" part!

This was one of our last stops. This lady, we called her Oma (means grandmother), had an orphanage and also a primary school. Her two daughters helped her run it. There was so much love in this place and you could see the difference in the kids! They were very well behaved! This is them waving goodbye after we came for a visit. We left them with a lot of clothes and stuffed animals.

The Rector had us all over to the Hotel School for dinner. It was fun to get all of the Poly students and UVU students together one last time!

Trip to Luderitz

This weekend we went to Luderitz which is a small, coastal town in Namibia. We stopped at a place called Keetmanshoop Thursday night. We got to see Cheetahs and Meerkats and we even stayed in Igloo Bungalows.

Curious meerkat checking us out.

Me petting the Cheetah. If it looks like I was a little scared, it was because I was. I've got cats, I know they can be a little unpredictable.

Quiver tree forest sunset at Keetmanshoop.

Group photo right before the sunset.

Emily and I being risky...

The igloo bungalows were fun to stay in and reminded me of the houses in the original Star Wars where Luke Skywalker lived.

Beautiful Cheetah named Chakita.

Chakita eating dinner. It happen to be horse meat that day, which was her favorite.

Here I am petting the cheetah. Apparently cheetahs are one of the few cats that you can pet while eating and they don't care. I still was a bit hesitant though.
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Friday morning we drove the rest of the way to Luderitz. We walked around town and saw the old buildings and had fresh seafood at the waterfront. The buildings were picturesque and the sight of the ocean was beautiful.

One of the original buildings built in Luderitz back in 1909.

We went to a place called Diaz Cross, where the Portuguese landed back in the 1400's. When they got here they looked around and didn't see much worth sticking around for. They put up a cross to mark that they had landed, but then headed back to Portugal. It wasn't until the early 1900's when the Germans came back around and saw something more. They are the ones who found the plethora of diamonds in the sand. Luderitz and Kolmanshop are still diamond territory.

Shot of the waves crashing against the huge rocks near Diaz Cross.

Atlantic Sunset.

One of the few houses at the ghost town, Kolmanshop.

This was a common site among the houses. The sand had taken over everything.

On the drive out we saw a lot of different wild life. The ostriches were my favorite to see. At one point we saw a bunch of them still sleeping with their heads in the sand.