happenings this semester

In case those of you who have not been in Rexburg to experience our IBC company, I thought I would post a few pictures to let you all see what Lyle and I have been up to. :)

I was on the marketing department for our company and Lyle the COO (Cheif operations officer). These are the posters that I helped to design for my company. The vision came out of my head and I had good people on my team who helped me implement them. 

Lyle took this picture with Bryan's camera

 This is the booth that we made. It had "real" rocks on it (they were made of concret) the booth weighed over 800 lbs.

These are various weaves that we sold as bracelets. 

One of my team members had the great idea of putting samples of our products in random places for them to gather attention.

This may not look like a whole lot. But using 22 people to make a company and have it up in running after only knowing each other for 2 weeks is TOUGH! And the fact that we had to actually purchase cord, make products, and get people to buy them is even TOUGHER! All in all, it has been a hard semester. But we have survived and now only have 2 days left!!!!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But if there is one thing that I have learned, it is this:

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is a progress. Working together is success.”

~ Henry Ford

I have also learned to live by this quote:

“Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that power to work is a blessing, that love of work is success.”

~ President David O. McKay (1873–1970)

So, since I learned these things, I guess I had a successful semester.

Oh IBC....

Currently I am sitting in my Marketing class, which is a part of the IBC program, and I am listening to a guy do a presentation and he speaks like a valley girl. Why do boys do that? You know what I mean, the upward inflection at the end of every sentence, as if every sentence is a question (check this link out for how I really feel about this topic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCNIBV87wV4). But that's a slight tangent. What I really need to say is, this class is going to kill me. I must be a completely "In the box" person, because I am having the hardest time "Enjoying my IBC experience!" (*Sigh* & *Eye Roll*) Every single person I talk to who has taken this class before talks about how good it was, and they seem shocked when I tell them I am not enjoying it and it is really tough. Really? You really enjoyed all of that stress and being involved in this class to the extent of 50 hours a week? You must be crazy or I must be crazy, but really.... REALLY? (side note, Shukrani, another IBC company just commented that their "Fashion Fights Poverty." I highly doubt that. If they want to fight poverty, they need to do something more than buying from a corporation that purchases the beads for a cheap price from women in Africa. Isn't that called outsourcing? Not that I'm anti outsourcing, but glorifying it to that extent? They wouldn't be "fighting poverty" if children in China were making these same beads.....But I'm not bitter.)

SO.... back to how much I am not loving this class, I spent all day last Saturday making an Integrated Marketing Campaign. ALL DAY. This week, I have had to listen to other students present their less than exciting projects. (But who can blame them for their lack of energy? We are all worn out. ) The only positive side of being bored out of my mind in class is that at least I have had less homework. Wooo.....19 days, 57% of Project Operations Management assignments left, 59% of Finance left, a couple more huge papers, and a few more gigantic projects....That just sounds super exciting. I understand the purpose of this class is to give us great exposure to the business world and I can appreciate that. I just want to get some sleep, have some time with my husband, and actually enjoy my education. Is that too much to ask?