Hidden Lake

For our Memorial Day McKay, Christy (my old roomate), and her husband (Jason), and I planned a camping trip to Hidden Lake, Montana.  It is north of Island park, somewhere relatively near Henrys Lake.  In order to get to the camping area you have to travel up to Island Park and then take a dirt road (for about an hour) until the end.  At the end, you unpack all of your things and carry it down a hill to the edge of the lake and canoe everything across (about a mile) and set up camp.

The bear signs were pretty nerve-racking especially we were 7 miles away from the nearest person. It was just us... Christy and Jason.. and the animals.  Looking back, we decided that it would have been smarter if we had brought something for self defense... ya know... just incase we had any unwanted visitors.

Above: Christy at down at the lake for the first time

Below: After we canoed across and found where we were camping

McKay and I canoeing to our campsite (that purple spot, in the trees, is our tent)

Setting up and making dinner.  I love cooking in dutch ovens! They are easy and make really good food.  The bad part is trying to clean them.

Later that night McKay and I didn't sleep at all.  I think all of the "Beware of Grizzlies" signs had something to do with that.  Right when I almost started to fall asleep McKay woke me up and whispered "Jessica, there are like five animals outside our tent". This was most likely just the wind rustling leaves and branches but we were having a heart attack. 

The picture below is a footprint a couple of feet away from our tent.  I'm pretty sure it is a moose print (correct me if I am wrong).  There was a whole bunch of elk and moose poo poo all over our camping area.

Karate Grizzly Cubs... first off I wish this picture was mine, and I wish we could have saw them... wait, no, not really.

Early the next morning, we went canoeing  and it was the most beautiful, quiet, and untouched area I have ever been in.  

There was an awesome echo and it kept the guys entertained for quite a while.  Christy has a video of it on her blog so go check it out 

Cool, abandoned, non smelly, broken, outhouse.  We saw this on our hike, along with a moose.  I think this outhouse is AWESOME and has future ceramic project potential.

When we were packing everything up the hill it was much harder than going down.  We were exhausted and I almost had another heart attack.  And after we left we ended up getting stuck on a steep curvy hill along the dirt road with the canoe trailer starting to jackknife off of the cliff.  Yeah, I almost had my third heart attack.

And we all lived happily ever after.

The End

Homework

This semester I have it pretty easy.  I am only taking two classes.  Elementary Art Methods and Sculpture.   The elementary class is cake, pretty much you just have to participate in class and you get an A.  She doesn't grade on the art.  That is kind of nice when I don't feel like trying (which is happening a lot this semester).

This was one of the projects that I actually put some effort into.  The whole deal with this project was to pick a time period and recreate it.  I did pottery from the Ottoman Empire.  They actually have some pretty awesome things. I wouldn't mind buying a real one but they are all in the $200 dollar range, so thats not going to happen.

Sculpture is good.  I spend a lot of time on my pieces.  As you can tell from the picture no one from my class stays after to work on their projects.  I don't know how they get them done or how they can not do any work outside of class and still expect a good grade.  It is really boring spending working hours by yourself.

My first project was a leather Trompe L'Oeil project.  AKA "make it look super realistic" project. I started by making baby moccasins and my teacher (who had me for ceramics) was disappointed by how small they were.  So I threw in some baby cowboy boots too.  

All of these pictures are still greenware (not been fired) and I still have to finish them.  I will post finished pictures later.  

I know, I know, these moccasins look like ducks... but once I stain them, string leather laces through the holes, and attach some traditional looking beadwork I think (hope) they will look just fine.

This was an interesting, and fun project to do.  I think it would have been a little more fun if I would have broken it up into smaller work chunks (yesterday I spent nine hours on it) Look closely because it is not what is seems.  Once you figure out why look for nine specific "things"

This other picture is of a cadaver's hand.  Ha! Yeah, I would like to think that but no, this is my hand.  Seriously, the clay has sucked moisture out of my hand like salt on a slug.

Random Stuff

Sorry it has been a while since I have posted anything.  Life has been pretty busy. We have traveled down to Blackfoot and Pocatello a couple of times to visit family.  Grandpa Hatch met Ethan for the first time, which was fun.  He mentioned that Ethan was "the most widest awake baby" he has ever seen.  I have to agree, Ethan's eyes are pretty dang big.

Also, we are also pleased get so much response for the raffle. We would like to thank everyone who participated. But now to the good stuff...

The winner, of an awesome 1990 VW Golf, is....

....

Braiden and Sharon Willey

Congratulations!

This wonderful new *cough* car comes with tons of features including new struts, sharp squealing when ever you turn the wheel (which is great for alerting pedestrians that YOU own the road), and a great compact size perfect for stealing parking spots. 

haha!

Panic Attack (from McKay)

I'm one of the assistant executive secretaries in my ward. One of my roles is to assign opening and closing prayers for sacrament meeting. Well, I didn't ask anyone to say the closing prayer so I told the person conducting the meeting that I would say it. When I returned back to my seat I looked up at the stand and then panicked.

"What is president Clarke doing hear?" I asked Braiden.

He said " forget president Clarke, what is Elder Bednar doing here?"

It turns out that Elder Bednar, President Clarke and our stake president all decided to attend our fast and testimony today. Had I known this TINY detail I wouldn't have assigned myself to say the closing prayer. To make things worse, I didn't shave my face that morning or wear a suit jacket. Yeah I know, I'm a real brainiac. Seriously, that was the most scared I've EVER been.

decorating with cents

Our bedroom has been constantly put on the backburner since we have been in school and all.  Blank walls, piles of junk, and 11 loads of laundry prevailed around the room. I could say that I was purposely going for the disorganized look but I would be lying.  Once I finished student teaching I decided that it was time to fix this problem once and for all.  So here you have it, Mission Organization: $40 or Less

I apologize for my poor cut and paste job for the "after" picture being cut together, but you will get over it. It took a little work and even less money to transform our room into something halfway decent. I'll break it down for you...

2 frames from DI = $9 (that's a rip off I would say)

1 light blue flat sheet = $15 (you could get a cheaper one but I wanted a specific color)

1 jug of liquid starch = $3 (Instead of painting the walls (no-no) I starched the sheet on the wall)

wood for shelf = $12

Paint, stain, and other = $0 (McKay's parents already had some)

One of the main problems was the overpopulation of things on top of my dresser.  I sketched up a shelf and showed it to McKay.  He really liked the idea and told me "Oh that would be SO easy to build."  But this was a totally different story when we were in a house that had TV in it.  Carrie, your brother is also a TV addict. ha! After some begging and some "encouragement" from his dad it was built in 30 mins. I love it!

...now, if only the dressers matched

Ending and Beginning

Student teaching is over and let me tell you, it has been fabulous coming home and not having to do anything. One of my favorite things to do is to not do anything.

While I was teaching all of the kids wanted to know my first name. Whenever they would ask I would just say "Mrs." This really bugged some of the kids and they would keep asking me questions like "Is your name Penelope? Britany? Sarah? Tiffany?" Eventually I told them that I would tell them on my last day. My last day came on April 1st and at the end of the day, after the bell rang, I had scores of kids come and ask what my name was. I told them my name was Katie and after they were all gone I wrote this message on the board so they could read it the next day when I wasn't there! Hahaha! I got a kick out of it! I'm sure they were angry! haha!

It has started to warm up here in Idaho. Most of the snow has melted and I am looking forward to spring. Temperatures have been in the 40's-60's and it has been wonderful. I still find it amusing to see people walking around in shorts and tee-shirts because it is in the 40's and that is "warm".

McKay has been doing well. He has a really hard job as you can probably tell. TV for 5 hours, work for 3 hours, and paid for 8 hours. Not fair.


Braiden and Sharon are back too. They just moved into their new apt this Friday and it has been fun hanging out with them.


It has been fun seeing their new home and helping them move in. Check out their pretty curtains! Oh, and I got another haircut.


For Easter we all went down to Pocatello to eat dinner with McKay's and Braiden's parents. We all rode in the same car and McKay and I sat in the back with Ethan. Ethan likes McKay and was laughing at all of the weird noises and faces McKay was making. It was really cute.


Dinner was wonderful and we loved spending time with family. Currently we have one more week until the new semester starts. We will be busy cleaning, repairing, shadowing, painting, applying for jobs, building, and hopefully getting all of this stuff finished before the new semester starts! Yay!

Theres no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid people

Ok, well maybe not. I just thought that this saying was extra funny because of the subject matter that I am about to address, so I'll start at the beginning. I received an email from the floral dept asking for art pieces so they could do floral interpretations of them for the floral show. I thought that sounded interesting so I gave them my number and eventually I got a call from some girl. I showed her pictures over the internet and I let her decide which project she wanted to pick. She ended up choosing the "Bridge Under Construction" one.

I really like how she hung the rocks from it! She went really abstract with it and I think that hers was the best one (I'm not biased or anything.) Anyway, the day of the show I called up Heather and we went to the show (McKay was in the testing center). We had just found my sculpture when I got a call from McKay saying that he was out and was coming up. So we waited for him but as we were waiting we eavesdropped on all the people walking past us (this is where the "stupid people" comment ties in). Here is some of the things we heard:

"Is that a cake?"
"ha ha ha ha!"
"What is that?"
"Did she make that?"
"Is that a cake?"
"Interesting"
"Oh, it's a cone thing."
"That is a...."
"Is that a cake?"
"Daddy, is that clay?"
"Some people do some really strange art."
"Oh, man!"
"I don't get it."
"Is that a cake?"
"They are going to use it to make Cheese Wiz."
"That's Jessica's. It says so."
"What the... is that?"
"Is that a cake Daddy?

McKay looks nice and innocent in this beautiful scenery but really he jumped into the picture. Thanks a lot babe.

This cake was seriously the best cake in the whole show! I love it! (above)
This table arrangement of orchids is soooo pretty! When I'm rich I'll have one of these arrangements in my house. (below)

I love this arrangement and I took a picture of it not knowing that Ashley (the girl who did my ceramic project) did this one. After we saw each other in person we both realized that we were in the same ceramic class together.

This was in their Japanese themed room I love the woven snakegrass placemats! Awesome!