Today has been a totally crazy day. Is it just a rule that madness must ensue when families get together for the holidays? :)

Anyhoo, the last few days have been kind of a crazy whirlwind of emotions (if you've been following my blog, I am sure you have noticed this is kind of a pattern in my life)

I am THREE WEEKS from graduation. This is the quite possibly the craziest thing I have ever typed out in my life. THREE. WEEKS.

I don't have a job yet. Meh. I know there are SO many people in the same boat as me, but it is a crazy feeling to have absolutely no clue where my life will be a month from now.

Today was a great reminder of all of the things I am so thankful to have in my life. Even with all of the craziness going on, I really am lucky to have such awesome people to spend my time with.

15 things I am thankful for this year....

1. Justin Bieber

2. Justin Bieber being on both The Today Show and The Talk yesterday.

3. My wing woman / bff Carey

4. My little nephew Jackson

5. My bank account having a comma in it because I am a rock star at saving my dollar bills while working 50 hours a week

6. My newly repainted bedroom (thanks momma!)

7. Our turkey-free Thanksgiving

8. Being 3 weeks from finishing my undergrad degree

9. My health !

10. Only having two classes this semester so I have free time to act like a normal human being (kind of)

11. My internship in the primate department at a nearby zoo (meet Jaya!)

12. Cake balls and apple crisp. Except mine looked no where near as perfect as these.

13. My sweet puppies Meeko and Charlie, and my baby hedgehog Pineapple

14. Having had the opportunity to take a trip to Utah, which turned out to be amazing

15. My sister / bff

16. My AWESOME blogger friends -- you guys are all rock stars and I am SO thankful to have each and every one of you! I have had the opportunity to get to know some of my blog followers outside of blogger, and it has been so much fun. You guys are the best!

17. The most amazing Christmas/graduation gift from my parents-- a trip to NYC in January!

18. Pinterest.com (seriously people, it makes me happy)

19. Christmas is so soon and I love every minute of the holiday season.

20. and last but so so far from least, MY MOMMA :) She is thee best. Isn't she so pretty?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

I just got back from a mini vacation to Utah!

I adored Park City. If you've never been, you should probably make a ski trip there. I was there on the first snowfall and all the Christmas lights were up and it was beautiful. I did learn that the population is only around 7,000. I am totally confused why this little gem of a town is not more highly populated.

I actually only spend one day and a night there. But I loved it.

I spent most of time in a tiny little town an hour and a half from SLC, and hiked a lot. and ate a lot. I ate much more than I hiked, because that's how I like to do things.

I worked up a research coyote. My life is kind of awesome and weird.

Also, I look ridiculous in this picture. I think this is what Utah does to you...

I can bite into apples now. Like a normal person. and it's awesome.

I no longer have to cut them into pieces and I no longer get bits of apple peel stuck in my previously crooked bottom teeth. I have been eating apples like crazy now.

Life is good.

My tooth is successfully WHITENING! wee!

No veneer for me!

It is such an awesome feeling because this is something I have been so self conscious about for a long time. It's terrible when I smile big in pictures and one of my front teeth looks so much darker than the rest. I have really nice teeth, but it was just another thing that kept me from smiling big, I didn't want anyone to notice how discolored it was. Well, discolored no more!

I will probably do the whitening treatment for a few more days to get it to match perfectly with the other teeth. I will post a before and after picture when I reach the desired results.

I stopped by the dentist today to pick up my whitening tray. As of now, I am only doing the upper to try and whiten tooth #8 (my left front tooth) and if that is a success, I will whiten all of my teeth. It's a bit expensive so I didn't want to go all in on something that may not work.

The tray is similar to my retainer, but is a much for flexible plastic and can pretty much be rolled into a ball without doing any damage to it. I am to wear it a MINIMUM of 2 hours a day, and the whitening stuff will become ineffective after about 6 hours. The only issue this presents is this is less time I will be wearing my retainer. Also, I am hungry pretty much all day long, I am a constant snacker, so having to wear this for multiple hours in a row kind of hinders on my snacking ability :)

The dentist said it may take one week, it may take two, it just depends on how consistent I am with using the tray. Right now, my tooth is something like 5 shades darker than the rest of the teeth.. uhh. Here's to praying this treatment works and that I don't have to get a veneer!

This is a long shot, but I am going to go for it anyway. and by long shot, I mean, I am praying for a miracle here....

I am about to graduate in December, and I have no idea what's after that. I am doing anything and everything I can to get out to California. Ideally, I would like to have a job pertaining to wildlife/environmental science (possibly as a biological monitor with an environmental consulting company) but am willing to kind of take anything to at least get me OUT to California and allow me to afford rent. I have been applying quite a bit, but without the 2 years of experience that so many consider 'entry level' now, I am having a really difficult time finding anything I am even qualified for. I have lived in the Midwest my whole life, other than my 6 months in Australia, and I want more than anything to get out and explore, and I know at this point in my life, California is where I need to be.

I have gone to my blogger friends for so many things in the past year and a half, so I am coming to you with this. If anybody as any way they could help me make this next step, I would appreciate it more than you know. If you know of somebody, some company or some job, that could help me in ANY way (even if you think it's not so helpful) please toss some ideas my way. I know a few people out in California, but I am really just trying to build connections. Even if it's a PT job at a coffee shop or something random I am up for anything that can help me live there. It's hard to make professional connections on the west coast while living in the midwest, so getting there and being able to afford living there is the big issue right now, and finding a job in my field will become easier with being closer and gaining experience in other ways. If you don't have any connections

I am not super location specific, other than wanting to be in a city near the coast.

So random and so not blog related, but I'm trying anything I can :)

Send me an email if you have anything that can help :) Even if it's a little job hunting piece of advice... I could use it! da.anderson9@gmail.com

I went into the dentist to get the impressions done for the whitening trays. I am only doing an upper whitening tray and focusing on whitening the one front tooth. If that works, I will then whiten all of my teeth.

Apparently it takes them a few days to make up the trays. I am a little bit annoyed, because this is a multi-week process and I am going out of town for a few days in two weeks. I am not willing to do the trays while I am out of town because you have to leave them in for like 2 hours a day, and I have too much going on and am not going to be worrying about that...so if I had them TODAY, I could get 2 weeks in, take a few days off, and then keep going if I needed to. They told me I won't get them until Monday, which means I have 10 days of whitening before I will take a break... My retainer was made the day I got my braces off, within the amount of time it took me to get them taken off, so I am kind of confused why the dentist can't just make the trays today.. I can imagine it's the same process...?

I am slightly crabby :-P

I asked my dentist about the bleaching from the inside of the tooth, and she said she doesn't think many dentists do that any more because it can damage the root. If the whitening tray method doesn't work, I am going to try to find another option before going the veneer route.