Life, by Merry (and Dave)

New Posts in 2011!

2011-01-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some things that you can read about over at our new blog:

1. Guns

2. Goals

3. Adoption

4. Plants -- I mean, our babies!

5. Saving Lives

6. And more!

And change your RSS subscription or follow our new blog so you can keep updated on us!

If you're wondering what we've been up to...

2010-12-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

Come check out these posts on our new blog about our life. And change your RSS subscription so you can keep updated on us!

Public Confessions on Merried Life

2010-12-02T11:10:00.008-07:00

1. Turns out, on our wedding day Merry got...

If you want the rest of Dave's confessions, you have to check it out here on our new blog. And while you're at it, change your subscription and just check the new blog.

New Posts...On the New Blog

2010-10-20T10:23:00.001-06:00

Okay, if you haven't checked out the new blog, this and this might persuade you! They are new posts about some fun things that Dave and I have been up to.

Also, this commentary on a great movie (which will be published tonight) might be interesting to you. Please check out the new blog!

It Is Time

2010-10-13T22:29:00.001-06:00

I've finally accepted the fact that Dave and I are married (In fact, we've been married for 424 days.) and that we share this blog. And so we're going to move to a new blogspot address:

lifebymerryanddave.blogspot.com

If you are a follower, please come to our new blog and follow us there.

If you subscribe to our blog in Reader, or any other RSS feed manager, please resubscribe to our new blog.

If you check our blog through a gadget on your own blog, please change our URL so that it directs you to the right blog.

We hope that this change won't lose any of our friends. :D

***EDIT*** And yes, we have posted on the new blog, and are planning on posting regularly, so it will be worth the effort! :D

Shout out to Isaac and Camber!!

2010-09-23T11:35:00.001-06:00

Dear Friends in Iowa,

Today I was listening to Ingrid Michaelson. Particularly her song "Everybody." It brought back some really fun memories. Here are a couple.

First, you guys introduced us to that song on our trip back from hiking around Nephi, which was a few weeks after Dave and I got married. I loved everything about love (such a newly wed!) and I also really liked Ingrid Michaelson, so I started singing this song all the time after that.

Second, Dave really likes to change the words to songs. I'm sure you've experienced this before. Well, soon the beautiful Ingrid Michaelson words "Everybody, everybody wants to love; everybody, everybody wants to be loved," became the somewhat morbid "Everybody, everybody likes to eat; everybody, everybody likes to be eaten." I don't know if you ever heard this version, but it has brought us a lot of laughs during the past year of marriage.

I guess the point is, we miss you, and can't wait to see you!

Love,
Your Friends in Utah (a.k.a. Your REAL Best Friends!)

In Which Dave and Merry Are Accidentally Awesome!!!

2010-09-20T10:32:00.002-06:00

When Dave and I go running, we occasionally run down a trail next to a canal, because it's pretty and offers some variety to the run. We go by horses and dogs, and some fields. It's pretty fun.

This trail runs through several big city blocks. We usually run until it comes to a little side street, and then go around a fence and onto the side street so that we don't have to do a huge long run. But sometimes we take the trail until it hits 9800 North, and then run a few blocks back to 27th, and then home. This is one of our longer runs. But I knew that the trail also crossed 94th and 90th somewhere down there, and we planned on running that full distance to 90th someday, just to see how awesome we were.

Well, on Saturday, Dave suggested that we run on the trail to 94th. We'd never done this before, but we were thinking that a longer run would be fun, and this would bring us one step closer to our goal of running to 90th and back. So we started into uncharted territory! We ran by new dogs! We dodged around horse droppings that we'd never seen before! We scared a lot of ducks that hung out in that section of the canal! Okay, it really wasn't that much more exciting than our usual canal runs, but it felt good to know that we were pushing ourselves.

Well, we came to the end of the next section of canal. By this time, the canal had curved to the left, and we were heading just about west, instead of north. When we turned off the canal trail, we headed north, expecting to come to 94th so we could turn east and head home. Well, it turns out that there's no through street at that point! Or at least, none of the streets that we saw looked like through streets. And there was no 94th. There was 9490, and 9350, but no 9400. Uh, sorry honey! I THOUGHT our trail intersected with 94th!

We could have just turned around on the trail, but we'd already run quite a ways to try to find a through street, and we didn't want to turn back. So we ended up running 4 more blocks down to 90th and completing our really long run!

Lest you think that 4 blocks isn't really that much more to add, it was 4 extra blocks down to 90th, then 4 more blocks back that we wouldn't have had to run. And 8 block in Utah equals 1 mile. So we added an extra mile to our run. We estimated that our run was 4.5-5 miles long. Fun!

Weekend!!

2010-09-17T14:19:00.000-06:00

Yes! It's the weekend. This doesn't mean that I have nothing to do, but it does mean that I'll get a few more hours of time with my husband than I normally do! And, seriously, who wouldn't want to spend more time with this man?

What kind of sweaters do pirates like?

2010-09-14T11:00:00.000-06:00

Arrrrrrgyle ones!

September 11th/Autumn Time

2010-09-13T13:24:00.000-06:00

On Saturday, Dave and I went for a run. The weather was brisk and pleasant. The sun was shining. It was great to get outside and exercise after a week of school and work. There were two things that I reflected on as I ran: 1) the date, September 11th; and 2) the season, with its oncoming harvest.

My thoughts on #1: Out on lawns that we passed, there were flags out to...I don't know the right word to use. Celebrate September 11th? That doesn't seem right. Remind people of September 11th? That's probably closer to the purpose of the flags. Either way, I thought quite a bit about the events of that day 9 years ago and how it has affected my life.

I also reflected on the disturbance that this event has caused in the world and in our country. There are lots of people who have been rejected or discriminated against because they are (or look) Middle Eastern. There are people who have been attacked and abused for their religious beliefs. There are even Christians who think it is okay to show great disrespect to religious symbols and to the people who hold them sacred as some kind of protest. I ask, why can't Christians forgive and show respect, even if there is still pain caused by memories of the September 11th attack? Why can't people who weren't involved in that event be respected and loved?

September 11th should be a day when everyone everywhere thinks about the lives that were lost in the terror attacks, and also about the injustices that have come about and how we can change that.

My thoughts on #2: As Dave and I ran, I noticed lots of signs of approaching fall. The temperature was fairly low. There were apple trees and alfalfa fields. We saw a full pumpkin field the other day, and it was the first time that we had recognized the crop as pumpkins.

I reflected that Autumn time is a time for harvesting again at the end of the year. We're blessed with so much abundance. But there's no more time for a farmer to improve his crop. It has to be harvested how it is.

We (everyone) are going to be harvested by God, whether we're ready or not. At the end of our lives (which could come any time) we will be judged with how we've acted and the faith that we've had. We should demonstrate that faith daily. And as a Christian, I don't think that disrespecting other religious beliefs and texts is a demonstration of faith. So, beforfe we are "harvested", we need to try today to be the people that God wants us to be.

ELang 105

2010-09-10T16:54:00.000-06:00

I've been pretty busy since school started. It's the usual run-to-class, run-to-the-library-to-study, run-to-catch-the-bus-home thing. But I have something new in the mix! It's ELang 105.

ELang 105 is BYU's freshman writing class for international students. It helps international students learn more (or something) about the writing process, academic writing, formatting, plagiarism avoidance, and research. It's a way to get them started on writing without throwing them in over their heads with a teacher whose familiar with second language learners. Then they do their normal advanced writing class in whatever area they are studying.

And I guess that technically ELang 105 isn't new to me. I TA-ed this class for almost 2 years when Alison McMurry was the teacher. I got to do a lot of the same stuff that she did as a teacher, but I started out slow, doing basicly nothing. Alison was my mentor and she organized the class and how it advanced, and she taught me so much about teaching, and teaching this class in particular.

And now I am teaching it! I am teaching a BYU day time course! I teach 3 days a week for an hour, and have office hours 3 hours a week. I am in charge, and I pretty much know what I'm doing, thanks to my great training. We've just finished our 2nd week of class, and it's pretty nice.

I am technically considered a student teacher, since I am still a graduate student. So I don't get my own office. But I do get my own desk (that I only have to share with 2 people) in a student instructor office (that I only share with about 30 people). But this is a great experience for me, to build my instruction skills and to build my resume.

And yes, this class does add to the amount of things I have to do. It does make me busier. But it makes me happier. I enjoy teaching this class more than I enjoy the classes I'm taking right now. And I think that's always how it's going to be. I want to be a great teacher, and I have to take these classes to do that, but my real motivation comes from interaction with students in the classroom and I don't think I'll ever want to move away from that.

Kite Adventures

2010-08-27T11:56:00.001-06:00

Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height!

Dave and I bought a kite! It was just a few bucks at Walmart, and we've already got quite a bit of enjoyment out of it, as you can see below:

Here is Dave, getting the kite ready.

It's a cute fish, and the flaps that move are its fins!

Moving out into the field before it's airborne.

You can just barely see it up in the left corner.

The tail that you can see is a school of smaller fish! Fun!

We had a lot of fun just hanging around and watching it.

Another day we went to Walmart and got some more string to add to the length we already had. But I didn't get any pictures of it higher up because we probably wouldn't have been able to see the kite in the pictures anyway. It was way to high!

And, just for fun, here are the lyrics from the song in Mary Poppins:

Mr. Banks:
With tuppence for paper and strings
You can have your own set of wings
With your feet on the ground
You're a bird in a flight
With your fist holding tight
To the string of your kite

Oh, oh, oh!
Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!
Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let's go fly a kite!

Bert:
When you send it flyin' up there
All at once you're lighter than air
You can dance on the breeze
Over 'ouses and trees
With your first 'olding tight
To the string of your kite

Londoners:
Oh, oh, oh!
Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!
Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Let's go fly a kite!

Little Miss Muffet

2010-08-21T11:24:00.000-06:00

I was killing spiders the other day, much to Dave's chagrin. He has a soft spot for spiders. One once saved him from almost certain death...Anyway! He compared me with Little Miss Muffet, and the silliness went on from there.

[Curds and whey are basically like cottage cheese]

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating cottage cheese.
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her

[And said, would you share with me please?]

[And said, my what lovely knees!]

[And said, my what knobby knees!]

[And said, would you share with me, geez!]

Anniversary Weekend

2010-08-19T17:22:00.001-06:00

If you look at the very bottom of our page, you'll notice that we have a ticker proclaiming that today Dave and I have been married for 369 days (Thanks Jo-Pete!). That's right! Sunday was our anniversary!

The last year has been a wonderful journey, and I wouldn't trade it for anything! Okay, enough mushy stuff. This post is to let you all know about the awesome things we did this weekend to celebrate.

First of all, on Friday I woke up to this beautiful bouquet of daisies by my bedside! I adore daisies, and Dave loves to get them for me! (Or at least he pretends to).

Later that day, Dave took me to get a professional massage. I'd never had one before, and let me tell you, it was great! I got it done at the Massage Cabin. It's a massage practice in a home, and my massage therapist, Haruko, was great. We didn't get any pictures of this experience but I'm sure I'll be back!

Next, on Saturday, Dave and I drove up to Bear Lake. You may remember our bad experience floating down the Provo River, so we decided to take out a new blow up raft and try it out on a lake instead of a river. We stopped by this place to get life jackets:

And then we hit the road! I love road trips!

When we got to Bear Lake, we had this cute stretch of beach all to ourselves. It was a gorgeous day at the Lake!

Here I am in our boat.

It turns out that it was a really windy day, and the wind kept blowing us back toward the shore. So we didn't go out very far. It's a good thing that we didn't start from the opposite shore, or the wind would have blown us all the way across the lake! But aside from the boat, we had a lot of fun playing in the water and sunning ourselves on the beach:

It was a beautiful day, and we saw lots of birds flying around.

And of course, we decided to put the BARE back in Bear Lake!!

After we were done at Bear Lake, we headed down to Logan to stay at the Anniversary Inn. And I'm sad to say that the only picture I got of the place was the heart-shaped tub!

I really liked this tub, and really I liked the whole place. Our room was the Player's Clubhouse, and we had a foosball table and a putting green in our room. The breakfast was great, as well as the sparkling cider and cheesecake that was waiting in our room when we arrived. I would highly recommend the Anniversary Inn, whether it's your anniversary or not!
We came home on Sunday, which was our actual anniversary. To celebrate some more we ate a few bites of our wedding cake, which we've been saving in our freezer for a year.

It was pretty good. Originally, this cake was excellent! A year later, the frosting really was the best part.

This was Dave's reaction for the camera. It wasn't really that bad!
All in all, it was a wonderful anniversary. I am so happy that I found Dave and that I was wise enough to marry him. He makes me so happy, and I hope that all of our years of marriage are as fulfilling as this first one has been.

Two Boat Accidents in One Day

2010-08-15T16:01:00.003-06:00

Dave and Merry have a story to tell. It’s about a day when all we wanted to do was feel like sailors, and it just didn’t work.

[Preparing to float down the Provo River]

D: Uh, I don’t think our raft has enough air in it yet.

M: Oh, we’ll be fine. I can’t wait to get in the water.

D: Okay, let’s put it in the river.

M. Wow, these paddles aren’t really long enough to steer the boat!

D: They’ll be fine, let’s just focus on the bridge ahead.

M: We should be steering towards the middle of the bridge, away from those monster-looking bolts!

D: Paddle, paddle, paddle!

M: Augh!!!!

[Pop!!]

D: Well, that’s the end of that.

M: At least we were only in the water for 30 seconds. We can walk back to our car quite easily.

[A few hours later]

D: My dad bought a new sail boat. Let’s try again, and take IT out on the water.

M: Are you sure we should push our luck?

D: Oh, come on!

M: Okay!

[Down at the Utah Lake marina]

M: Wow, look at all of those sailboats! Which one is your dad’s?

D: That’s a good question. I’ve never been on it before.

[Finally in the boat]

D: This motor will not start.

M: Can’t we just sail it out?

D: Not out of the marina, you crazy! I finally got it started.

M: That boat’s coming towards us awful fast!

D: Yeah, we don’t want the wake to push us into these rocks. Turn the motor up a little.

M: The motor just died!

D: Oh [bleep!]!! We’re on the rocks.

[Splash!]

M: I can’t get the motor started again!

D: Well I’m in the water keeping us off the rocks! You have to do it!

[After the motor has started and the boat is finally off the rocks again]

Harbor Police: Ma’am, you’re going to have to help him back into the boat.

D: I can’t get back in the boat. You’re just going to have to go on without me.

M: Dave, you get yourself back in this boat right this minute!

[With Dave back in the boat]

M: Well, let’s take her back into the marina and call it a day.

D: That would be easier if the rudder wasn’t broken!

M: Well, you’re doing a pretty good job steering with the outboard motor.

D: But every time I get it to idle slow enough so that we can get into the slip, the engine dies.

M: We’re just going to have to swim it in. Here grab onto this rope and jump in.

D: It’s a good thing we were wearing our life jackets!

The events you have just read are true. They took place on Pioneer Day 2010. Names of individuals have been changed to protect their identities.

Family Reunion

2010-08-12T08:52:00.000-06:00

We had our Powell Family Reunion here in Utah this year, and it was a ton of fun! Many of the activities took place at Janice's house (whose basement we live in), so we were involved with the reunion as often as we were home. We were both working full-time during the reunion, so most of the things we did with the family were on the weekend.

The highlight of the reunion was the pig! Some of you commented on the fact that we posted earlier about our pet pig. Our family members were told that Dave loved the pig more than he loved me. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Dave loved the pig more than I loved the pig. And that was because the pig was a butchered pig that we picked up from a meat-packing house and roasted in the ground for the reunion!

Dave roasted a pig for a church activity a few years ago, and has wanted to do it again ever since. We were going to roast a pig for our wedding reception last year (it's been almost 1 year!), but it ended up not happening. So Dave was really excited to do it for the reunion and practice his pig-roasting SKILLZ!

The pig was a success, and even though it was a lot of work to cook it, it was pretty fun. All of my cousins and their kids were really interested in looking at the pig, before and after it was roasted, and it just brought a fun atmosphere to our Saturday dinner.

Some other highlights from the reunion were:
1. taking naps!
2. seeing lots of my family in church.
3. saying hi to cousins that I haven't seen for a long time.
4. playing TONS of games! I am a game person, and while Dave is kind enough to play games with me when I want him to, he doesn't really love games as much as I do. So during the reunion I could always find someone that wanted to play a game with me. Some of my favorites are Banaanza and Ticket to Ride.
5. Introducing Dave to lots of new family members. He's pretty good about remembering names, and during that week he met a lot of folks. I was way impressed!
6. Seeing my nieces and nephews! My sister Jill's youngest, Gabe, was just a few weeks old when Dave and I got married, and that was the last time I saw him! So he'd grown a lot and it was fun to see him.

It was a fun week! We are glad to have the house back to its usual peace and quiet, but we are already looking forward to the next family reunion!

My first speeding ticket

2010-08-10T10:04:00.000-06:00

Yes, I got a speeding ticket about 2 weeks ago. And yes, it was the first one ever in my 10 years of driving. It was my goal to never get a speeding ticket! So I guess it should also have been a goal to not ever speed! :D

I went to pay for the ticket yesterday, and (since I at least want my official record to be perfect) to pay for traffic school, which will erase my ticket from my record. I HATE spending money on things that I won't use, or things that are a complete waste of money, and paying for this ticket felt just like that. Of course, I've learned from this experience, and I've been extremely good the last 2 weeks at setting the cruise control and not giving in to the temptation to speed. But I would much rather have learned this lesson without having to pay for it.

After paying for the ticket, I went to the counter to pay for traffic school. It's going to be a 3 hour class in the evening. I picked the day in September and waited for the dispatcher behind the counter to charge me and get me my receipt. She had been working on it quietly for a minute or two when a man came up to the counter, also looking to pay for traffic school. The other dispatcher talked with him about it, took his credit card, entered his information, and got his receipt for him, and all of that took about 2 minutes. And I looked back at my dispatcher, and she was still entering information into the computer.

I was surprised to see this man walk away with everything complete, and then still have to wait for about 3 minutes for my dispatcher to finish the process. Apparently, I should have chosen to approach the other one. In other words, I chose...poorly.

However, there could be an explanation for the circumstances. Maybe she was trying to get a little schooling in early, and was trying to teach me to not SPEED through the process of setting up traffic school. :D

Adoption

2010-08-06T10:06:00.002-06:00

I have two family members and one friend who are trying to adopt. And I just realized how extremely hard it must be to wait for someone to choose you as the parent of their child.

So, in order to help with that process, I'm going to post about my friend Rachel and how she's trying to adopt. If you know someone who is giving their baby up for adoption, please read on!

Rachel was one of the girls I lived with as a freshman at BYU. She liked to have a lot of fun, and made life in our dorm very exciting! I haven't really seen her much since that time, 8 years ago, but I've kept myself updated through her blog and a few mutual friends that we have.

Rachel is married and living in Buffalo, NY. She and her husband Ryan both love kids, and they have volunteered in an orphanage in El Salvador every summer since they got married. They are unable to have children of their own, and would love to adopt.

They just recently had their profile put up on LDS Family Services' website, which is the organization that they are adopting through. The adoption agency is affiliated with their church, but the birth parents do not need to share their religion, nor do they need to live in New York. And they would love a child of any race or background.

Check out their profile and pass it on to your friends if you think that they may know someone who needs this information.

Here is the link to the profile: https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/24585097/ourMessage.jsf

I hope that sometime soon, Rachel and Ryan are connected with the right people so that they can adopt.

Kitchen Apprehensions

2010-07-29T16:50:00.001-06:00

Have you ever been concerned about the safety of your fingers while you're peeling something with a peeler?

Have you ever felt in danger of stabbing yourself with your fingernail while twisting the handle of a can opener?

Does the motion of stabbing a potato (before baking it) ever make you worry about stabbing yourself?

Can you tell that I have some serious apprehensions about cooking? :D

Funny Things, by Merry and Dave

2010-07-26T11:23:00.002-06:00

Dave and I have been very silly lately. We really like telling jokes and laughing. Some of our recent gems include:

"Honey, I won a ton of wontons!"
-Dave

"Get that corn out of my face!"
-Merry

"Did something die in here?"
-Merry
"No, it's just a week's worth of stinky tupperware in my backpack!"
-Dave

Updates

2010-07-19T13:19:00.002-06:00

So, updates for the months of April, May, June, and July:

Dave and I have been running pretty regularly. We try to run about 3 times a week. We don't always make it, but then we count in our Sunday walk! When we go for our runs, we have several different routes that we take, to keep things interesting. One is in the field at the junior high behind our house. Another is around the big block (that's actually really a few blocks together). One is through the neighborhood that's across the Jordan Parkway from us. That one is my favorite because I like to look at the houses that we pass and plan what our house will look like one day.

I participated in National Multiple Sclerosis Society MS Walk in Salt Lake City this year. This actually took place on April 24, but I never blogged about it. It was a 3-mile walk to benefit the MS Society and its research on Multiple Sclerosis. I did this with my friend Tara Hoppie (Jenny's sister-in-law) and a bunch of her friends and family. There were a TON of people doing the walk, and it was a blast. I keep meaning to post pictures of this, which has kept me from posting at all. So I am just going to go ahead and post without them, and then write another post with pictures if I ever get around to it!

Dave had his birthday on May 21. He's a few months younger than I am, and let me tell you, it's so much fun to rob this cradle! We had fun, and I am looking forward to growing 1 year older with him.

The show Lost finished on May 23. Wow! What a journey. I was personally very moved by the ending. My interpretation is that the people from the island ended up in some kind of afterlife, where they are somewhat distracted from that fact because they are busy living the lives that they wanted to live. But they are reminded of what was really important to them (their experiences on the island) by the people who truly mattered to them. It was a beautiful ending. It motivated me to really live my life spending time on the beautiful things that I will want to remember after this life.

Halfway through the summer I finished teaching 2 classes and started 2 new classes. The evening writing class ended on June 17. Then my new morning reading class started on June 21. The daytime writing class ended on June 23. Then the afternoon reading class started on June 24! So at most I've been teaching 3 classes at once. Right now all I'm teaching is reading, and I'm so glad to leave behind grading essays, until I start teaching another writing class in the fall!

On June 24, my sister Erin found out she's having a boy! I am so excited for her! This is her 2nd child, and my 20th neice/nephew! Whew!

We just bought a pet pig!

I really like this swimsuit and I want to win it!

Dave is starting to work at the District Attorney's office in Slat Lake instead of the Attorney General's Office. He is going to be doing criminal work now (criminal law that is, not criminal activities). He's enjoyed his time at the Attorney General's Office, but he's looking forward to getting experience in what will hopefully be his line of work after he receives his JD next year.

So that's it for us! I have been meaning to post this for quite some time now, and I'm forcing myself to post it without pictures. But know that we are alive and well, and we'll be updating again soon!

Grosgrain Giveaway

2010-05-18T14:18:00.000-06:00

So, I thought that this dress was so cute! I'm entering the giveaway to win it. Check it out! The Oh Dear Frock

No Cool News, but in Other News...

2010-05-15T13:25:00.004-06:00

1. Our Christmas Cactus is blooming again, twice in seven months. Why, you might ask? Well it's been super cold here until today and we think that might have something to do with it. Also, the pot it's in is now too small, so it can't get any bigger and now it's putting energy into reproductive efforts, I tried to think of some life lesson there but Merry didn't think there were any good ones.

2. For the first time since 2008 I'm working full time, and actually a little more than full time since I'm clerking for the A.G. and interning for a judge, busy busy.

3. Merry has started living in Provo, while I live in Salt Lake, too much drama in South Jordan.

4. Just kidding about #3, we all know she can't live without me...but seriously it's a rough commute.

5. Join the Red Robin Birthday Club and they give you a free gourmet burger with bottomless fries on your birthday, not to shabby.

Rough Mondays

2010-05-10T16:49:00.003-06:00

Okay, this blog is sort of turning into my journal about teaching. I'm sure that that will slow down as the semester progresses and teaching stops taking over my life. But right now I'm doing a lot of preparation for my classes, a lot of grading homework for my classes, and a lot of teaching IN my classes!

Mondays are kind of rough for me. I have usually prepared well for my classes. This weekend I took a chunk of Saturday to prepare. And yet, when I sit down for all of the last minute details, I always find so many things that I missed in my preparation! Today was particularly difficult because I found out that I was going to have two new students in my class at the ELC. They were in a lower level, but they were moved up after the first week because their skills were good enough. So I had to talk to them about a bunch of stuff that they've missed. And I had several students in my writing class at UVU that showed up for the first time today. They've been registered for the class and just haven't shown up. There's one more that still hasn't shown up, because she thought that she was in another section and just realized today that she had been in the wrong class. She's going to come tomorrow. [Sigh] I will be glad when this week is done, I have all of my class rolls finalized, I've caught everyone up on what they need to be doing, and I can stop having these last minute emergencies to take care of.

Mondays are also hard because it's kind of hard to just jump into teaching when you haven't done it during the weekend. I do teach a primary class on Sundays, but it's to 3-year-olds, and I only teach every other week. So I really didn't have to think about classroom management much this weekend. So it's always kind of a jolt to get back into it on Mondays.

Fortunately, I have 3 classes on Mondays, so by the end of Monday, I'm back into the swing of things! You've got to love Mondays!

I really do love teaching.

2010-05-05T20:26:00.002-06:00

So, I may have had some teaching anxiety earlier this week. I think it's understandable, what with starting two new classes this week and all. But tonight I got to teach my community ed. class, which I started to teach 2 weeks ago. It was great! I love that these people want to learn so much, and they are really fun to work with. Tonight I taught them all a bit about how to use Word to write, and how to attach a Word document to an email (since they email their drafts to me). There were some funny moments. Especially since I couldn't figure out how to turn on the projector at first, and I looked a bit technologically backwards myself! But I really love seeing my students smile during class. I enjoy making a fool of myself sometimes if it lightens the mood and helps my students enjoy learning more. This class really is great! So even though I do sometimes get anxious about teaching, nights like this one will always make me feel glad that I'm a teacher!

Teaching Anxiety?

2010-05-03T13:56:00.002-06:00

Last night was not a good night for me. I didn't sleep well. And it was all because I was nervous about starting my class at the ELC (English Language Center) today! I didn't really feel that nervous about starting teaching today. I have felt really excited and happy to teach at the ELC. But I must have had some inner anxiety about it, because it was definitely manifested in my lack of good sleep last night.

First of all, I teach at 8:15am. So I have to get up at 6:00am in order to get to class on time. I've done a couple of practice runs catching the bus, and I was satisfied that I can do this all summer long. However, last night I frequently woke up and looked at the clock. Every single time I looked at the clock, I was worried that I had missed my alarm and that I was going to be late for work.

Secondly, when I was asleep, I was dreaming about my class syllabus and calendar. What!? I mean, doesn't a dream usually have at the very least a plot, even if it is incoherent? My dreams last night did not. I dreamt only in images of my syllabus and calendar. It was kind of like those slideshow presentations, where the images just transition from one to the next. Crazy? I think so!

But my first day of teaching wasn't bad at all! I really think that when this subconscious anxiety works itself out, it will be really easy to get up at 6:00am for work. And I am really going to enjoy this class. It's a reading class, which I've always wanted to teach! And it makes me feel really productive to get going on my day right away. I just hope I don't have any more syllabus dreams! They're really boring!

Another Giveaway

2010-04-28T13:22:00.000-06:00

Grosgrain is giving away a really cute blouse that I would love to win! Check out the giveaway here: Blouse Giveaway

I'm Done!

2010-04-22T12:00:00.001-06:00

I took my last final yesterday, and I'm done with my graduate certificate!!! Wahoo!

Semester's End

2010-04-15T10:46:00.002-06:00

Well, it's that time again: the semester is coming to a close. My last day of class was Monday. This week I've been finishing a term paper (which I turned in yesterday morning), studying for my two finals that I have to take, working on completing an electronic portfolio with all of my teaching documents from this semester, preparing materials for the class that I'm still teaching (the last day of class at UVU is next Thursday), and getting ready for the classes that I'll teach in the summer. So even though I'm not in class I'm still pretty busy. And then, when I finish a lot of this stuff, Dave will finish classes and be studying for his finals. So the rest of April is going to be pretty busy for us.

And here's a quick inventory of my school year goals, as I am finishing off the school year:

Work Goals:
1. I really enjoyed my work this semester. I was able to tutor quite a bit this semester, which was a good job to have around my busy school schedule. I felt like I worked hard at all 3 of my jobs (TAing, tutoring, and teaching). For the goal I set in January, I was able to stay on top of my work and not get overwhelmed by how busy I was. And now, for the summer, I have arranged to teach 4 different classes, 2 reading classes and 2 writing classes. I'm really looking forward to these classes, because they will be my first classes to teach all by myself. Woot! Now my goal is to be a good teacher for my students. This means scheduling preparation time for myself every day, and using it! I also got quite a bit of feedback from my teaching practicum this semester, and I'm going to set some sub-goals for myself from that feedback so that I can be a better teacher.

School Goals:
2. Of course I don't know what my grades are yet for this semester. But I still have my goal of getting all A's. I feel like my effort in my classes this semester has been A material, so I guess we'll just see if my teachers feel the same way. I still have my electronic portfolio and my two finals to work on, so I am going to put a lot of effort into those for the next 6 days until I am done. And then we'll see what happens!
3. This semester I applied and was accepted into BYU's MA TESOL program. This was one of my major goals for myself, and I'm so glad that I accomplished it. Now my goal for myself this summer is to follow the schedule that my adviser and I have set up for myself in getting parts of my project done.

Personal Goals:
4. Well, I can't say that I've done that well at writing in my journal this semester. But I have started writing in my journal this last week. And it feels so good! It relieves stress, and it reminds me of things that I want to do and accomplish, since I can easily go back and read what I wrote about wanting to do. I've written in it once a day since Sunday. I don't think that I will always journal once a day. But my goal is to write in it at least twice a week. And I think that I'm going to start a teaching journal that will help me reflect each time I teach a class.
5. Dave and I started running about 2-3 times a week this semester. We don't always make it running when we plan to, but it is becoming more of a habit. Dave is really good at remembering this goal, and he even goes running by himself when I don't want to go (I've been a real slacker this week!). We're hoping to keep this up throughout the summer.
6. My lessons in my Primary class have been going much better. I plan each lesson out with specific times that I'm going to move on to the next activity, so that I know if I'm on schedule. And then I've been much better at thinking of lots of activities so that we can move on to something new if the 3-year-olds' attention spans are shorter than I thought they would be. :D This calling is pretty fun, and I am happy!

My First Trial*

2010-04-10T07:59:00.002-06:00

I helped Merle Rausche beat the rap! He's been acquitted of murder!

*Our final for my Trial Advocacy class required putting on a court room trial

100k of angst for sale at your neighborhood Art College

2010-04-07T18:12:00.003-06:00

Just read a Wall Street Journal article about how parents aren't able to pay for their children to go to school any more because of the recession. I could rant about how parents aren't supposed to help their children get through school, but I'm not going to because I realize that my parents have helped me a ton, even though it wasn't financial.

What I am going to rant about is how many of the children i.e. students interviewed for the article are artists, photographers, or writers. That got me thinking, is it really worth it to go to school to be an artist? I don't know, but if it's anything like getting a Ph.d in history (which I briefly considered) there are no jobs and you love what you do, but then you also have to love living with your parents and eating Ramen noddles. Besides who needs college to be an artist, Rembrandt did not go to college and he painted some fine pieces. Add a six figure college loan to the mix and you've got enough artistic angst to compete with the best artists out there, maybe that's the plan. These kids had such posh and coddled lives before they went to college that they knew they'd need more angst to hack it as an artist so they took on a crushing debt load with no forseeable way to pay it off.

Of course I know law students who do the same thing, they go to third tier law schools, take on 100k in student loans, and then they never pay it off because, frankly, lawyers don't make the kind of money people think they make unless their name ends in Kennedy, especially if they go to a law school with more than 5 words in its name. This makes no sense because the life of a lawyer is so angst filled anyway that there's no need for more angst. In fact lawyers could probably make more money selling extra angst to artists than they can practicing law.

Any insights from angst filled artists?

Beautiful Easter!

2010-04-04T10:35:00.000-06:00

There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.

We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains he had to bear,
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.

There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin.
He only could unlock the gate
Of heav'n and let us in.

Oh, dearly, dearly has he loved!
And we must love him too,
And trust in his redeeming blood,
And try his works to do.

~ Cecil Frances Alexander

So...sometimes there's a big lull in the blogging

2010-03-31T17:41:00.002-06:00

I can't believe that we posted 17 times in February, and only 3 times in March! So crazy!

Dave and I are both really busy. We have some major school assignments coming up, plus work, plus our church callings. Yeah, life has been a little busy.

Last week we had a little bit of a spring break. Dave was really on spring break, and I had lots of my classes canceled during that week. We had to use most of our extra time working on things, but it was a nice little break from the regular strain of classes.

And I really can't wait for this semester to be over!! I am starting to get a little stressed by all of the things that I have to do before it's over, but then at least I won't have to think about them anymore!

My New Hair Cut!

2010-03-16T21:58:00.007-06:00

Okay, Dave and I couldn't help ourselves! We had so much fun creating all of those pictures to "show off" my hair cut. We actually took some good pictures that same day, and meant to post them a day or two later. Well, this last week has been pretty crazy for us. I was teaching a lot, and I was filmed while teaching so I could be evaluated. Needless to say, I haven't been thinking very much about the blog.

Here are the real hair cut photos. Enjoy!

Reflections on approaching Spring

2010-03-01T13:57:00.001-07:00

Here's another giveaway that I want to enter. It's a really cute dress, and oh-so-Springy!

I really can't wait until Spring arrives. Today the weather feels pretty good, and while I walked up to campus from the ELC I thought it even felt a little warm. It makes me want to sit outside on the grass and read a good book. Unfortunately, it's still too cold for just sitting on the grass. I'll have to stick to just walking.

We Have a Little Announcement!!!

2010-02-28T16:34:00.005-07:00

Life at the Gravett casa keeps changing. It's funny how sometimes things come up when you least expect them to.

The other day, Merry decided to go and get a hair cut and she never looked back (or better, whoo whoo!)

Pictures below, let us know what'cha think about the new do.

I was accepted!

2010-02-27T08:14:00.002-07:00

Sorry for not updating about this earlier. I found out on Thursday that I was accepted into BYU's TESOL MA program! I'm so, so, so excited! I'll start taking classes in the fall.

Thanks for all of the support that all of you have given me while I've been working on my graduate certificate, and while I've been preparing for the MA. :D

TESOL MA at BYU

2010-02-24T14:48:00.003-07:00

I'm supposed to find out today if I made it into the TESOL MA at BYU.

And the anticipation is killing me!!!!!

I Will Give You a Dollar to Be Quiet Ms. Palin

2010-02-17T16:20:00.004-07:00

The former governor of Alaska, Mrs. Sarah Palin does not like it when people say "retarded." I do not like it when she says...well basically anything at all.

So here's the deal...Ms. Palin, you stop talking and I'll stop saying "retarded," i.e. the R word.

Until then...I'm reading an article right now about chemotherapy. It's called, "Sulforaphane retards the growth of human PC-3 xenografts and inhibits HDAC activity in human subjects," found in Experimental Biological Medicine. It deals with how certain chemicals are showing progress in slowing the growth of colon tumors.

I'm also reading an article about SSRI (Selective Seretonin Reuptake Inhibitors), "Do SSRIs Retard Growth in Adolescents?" published in The Journal of Psychiatry and dealing with whether anti-depressents stunt the growth of adolescents.

Anyway...it's all up to you Ms. Palin: continue talking and retarding the progress of intelligent conservatism or do us all a favor and go home.

Another Giveaway!!

2010-02-17T08:46:00.004-07:00

Here's another giveaway that's being hosted on the Grosgrain blog. It's such a cute dress!

In other news, Dave and I had a great weekend. First of all, on Friday we went and stayed at a friend's cabin up Provo Canyon. Then on Saturday we stayed in Provo and worked on schoolwork. We stayed in Provo so that I could go watch my brother-in-law's basketball game. Mark's team won! Way to go, Mark!

Then on Sunday we celebrated Valentine's Day. This year, it was my turn to plan our Valentine's day. So I cooked a little bit and we went for a little walk/adventure to find a hidden treasure. It was a very relaxing day in between our two work days (We worked a lot on Monday again, with just a little bit of play).

And I think that this weekend I fell in love with my husband!

Relationships with Lawyers

2010-02-13T13:07:00.002-07:00

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, some tips (courtesy of www.avvo.com) on how to get into/survive a relationship with a lawyer. The sad thing is, I actually agreed a little bit with some of the tips...

Birthday!

2010-02-12T09:46:00.001-07:00

Dave is such a trickster. He and I are both really busy during the week, and he has a brief that is due next week that is keeping him extra busy working on it. So we decided that we would celebrate my birthday on the weekend instead of on the actual day.

Well, despite our plans, on my birthday he made me breakfast in bed, gave me my present anyway (even though he told me it wouldn't be ready until the weekend), had lots of his friends text me happy birthday, and surprised me with a quick ice cream break with some family and friends! He is also such a sweet heart!

Merry Gravett

2010-02-09T12:40:00.002-07:00

I think that I've finally taken care of all of the things I need to do to officially be Merry Gravett. I've changed my name on my license, social security card, bank account, car insurance, credit card, school records, and health insurance. The last one that I did (just this week) was sending a copy of our marriage license to my credit card company. And I just have to say, I love being Mrs. Gravett! :D

The Truth

2010-02-08T18:54:00.003-07:00

Actually, we operate a ponzi scheme out of our home and so we use the budgeting software to help ensure we've brought in enough new customers to pay out the old ones, the math was getting a little too difficult.

Btw-let us know if any of you peeps are interested in the investment opportunity of a lifetime, investment in Greek off-shore assets, 25% annual returns on your investment, guaranteed success, a no-brainer. Call me now! This isn't a get rich quick scheme, it's a get-really-rich-really-quick-plan! It changed my life!

"I made more money than you can shake a stick at, even if it's a very large stick!"
-Charles Ponzi, satisfied customer, San Quentin, California

Budgeting

2010-02-08T13:20:00.004-07:00

I recently started following a new blog called Frugal Wife = Wealthy Life. This blog is all about how a wife (or the financially responsible person in a marriage, whether it be husband, wife, or both) can really help a family by living and managing money frugally. Some of their tips deal with spending, some with saving, and some with budgeting.

The blog is written by two sisters and their mother, and they offer suggestions that they personally use to manage their families' finances. I think that it's a very useful blog, and if you're trying to get your finances in order I would recommend that you check it out.

Right now Dave and I are trying to start budgeting again. We started out last semester with a budget, and I would say that we've done a very good job spending money only on things that we can afford. But we've stopped looking at our budget regularly and consciously thinking about it. We've decided (at the recommendation of the Frugal Wife blog) to try out the budgeting tool mint.com. The website keeps track of the different categories that you spend in, and helps you know if you've overspent on your budget. I'll let you know how it goes!

Choir

2010-02-07T10:25:00.003-07:00

I've been meaning to go to ward choir for the last 6 months. But last semester we had 9:00 am church, and choir practice was after church. It was just way too easy to come home from church, eat lunch, and then take a nap, effectively cutting off the opportunity to sing with the choir. I even really wanted to sing with the choir in the ward Christmas program because I love Christmas music. I think that it's one of the best things that ward choirs do. But that idea wasn't even enough to motivate me out of those Sunday afternoon naps.

This semester we have church at 11:00 am, and the ward choir practices at 9:00 am. I thought that it would be easy to get myself to go to choir practice with that change, because I'd already been getting myself off to church by 9:00 am. However, I did not take into account how much I LOVE sleeping in whenever I get the chance. I really do love sleeping in, even more than I love naps. And it is even more appealing to sleep late during the winter. It's so dark outside, and it feels so much warmer in bed. And because I don't have class before 10:00 am any day of the week, I've started sleeping in a little bit during the week instead of getting up at the usual 6:45 am from last semester. So before today, I hadn't been successful at all at getting myself to ward choir.

But today I got myself up! I set my alarm for 8:00 am, only stayed in bed about 15 minutes longer, and then I got up and got ready. I think that I really surprised Dave that I was doing this, since he doesn't have a very optimistic view of my abilities to get myself up. And, to be honest, Dave kept talking to me and helping me wake up this morning. Otherwise, I very well may have just gone back to sleep. But I didn't! And I was feeling pretty good as I left the house this morning.

I got in the car and drove around the block to the seminary building where they hold choir practice (I should have just walked, but I really hadn't given myself very much time to get to choir practice with the extra 15 minutes in bed and all of my dawdling getting ready). On the way, I brushed my hair because it was still wet and tangled. I also struggled to get my clothes straightened and tucked in correctly. But by the time I got there I was looking good, if I say so myself. And I was ready to sing!

I walked up to the door of the seminary building.

It was locked.

Apparently they don't hold choir practice on fast Sundays.

Oh well! It was worth a try. We'll see how well I do next Sunday.

Princess Leia is Ukranian?

2010-02-06T14:01:00.003-07:00

Pictures prove it, the princess and diplomat from Alderan has settled down in Ukraine and is trying to save the free world from there. Apparently she got her hair dyed, weird:

It would be sooo cool to do that with my hair...

Another Weekend

2010-02-05T16:46:00.005-07:00

I always feel SO happy when it is Friday. It means that I can go home, relax for a couple of days, take several uninterrupted hours to work on homework, see a lot of Dave, and not ride the bus for at least 48 hours...And sometimes Dave and I even go out on a date! Oh, and one more thing, either Dave or I gets paid every Friday, so it's always payday!

This weekend, we are hanging out with some friends. Isaac and Camber are coming over tonight, and we've been invited to Stacy and Mikey's house on Saturday. On Saturday I'll be doing quite a bit of planning for my last week teaching my TTTC class. Today Chan and I planned out our lesson plans and decided on what we were going to do for the test, so now I need to prepare my parts of the lessons and test. And I think this week I'll go to ward choir on Sunday morning. I won't have a primary lesson to prepare since my co-teacher will be teaching this Sunday, and I have really been missing being in a choir. So, all in all, I think it will be a great weekend!

Only the Best of Etsy Sample Packages GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2010-02-03T15:17:00.002-07:00

Only the Best of Etsy Sample Packages GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Another giveaway! I've never used Etsy, but it would be fun to get a free package.

A New Idea

2010-02-03T14:33:00.002-07:00

Last night I attended a stake fireside given by Dr. John Lund, a marriage and family counselor and educator. One of the wedding presents that Dave and I got were some CDs of some lectures that he gave, and we've really enjoyed them. So I thought that I would also enjoy this fireside, and I was not disappointed.

One concept that he talked about was our purpose in our family relationships. Even if someone is really far off of the gospel path, making bad decisions, and making themselves miserable, it is not our duty to force them back. Our calling as family members is to love them, not to judge them. And they won't listen to us or be able to realize that we love them if all we do is criticize them.

Dr. Lund suggested that family members take their love to their loved ones, and then take their frustrations to the Lord. This doesn't mean ignoring things that need to change in a relationship. This doesn't mean putting up with abuse. But it does mean that because you can't force someone to change, you need to put your faith into prayer to the Lord and then just love that person anyway.

He also talked about how to approach someone with a critical thought, which he also talked about in his recorded lectures. He said that each spouse needs to tell the other person how they want to hear about their own faults. So I might say to Dave that I always want him to approach me with criticism right after I've eaten, or right after I've woken up, so that I'm physically ready to receive criticism. (I'll tell you what, I hate talking about important things right before bed because I'm usually tired and thus cranky, and the important talk usually puts off bedtime too.) And then Dave should respect that wish, and only approach me with criticisms at the times that I've told him it would be okay. This prevents him from just telling me his opinion whenever he's feeling frustrated, and it helps me be in a good frame of mind to receive his opinion well.

There is so much more that I could say about Dr. Lund's talk. I would highly recommend that you buy his CDs or take an opportunity to hear him speak if you get the chance. But my take home lesson from last night is that the Atonement is so real that we really don't need to force our family members to heaven. They will get there one way or the other, regardless of our nagging. So we might as well get rid of the negative criticism and just love each other.

Change

2010-02-02T14:23:00.004-07:00

I have been teaching a community ESL class at BYU's English Language Center (ELC). The class is called TTTC. It started about 4 weeks ago, and I have about 1 week of instruction left. The students are adults who are seeking English skills to improve their daily life living in an English speaking country.

After my last week, I will move into teaching another class, which will be a regular class offered to ELC students. These students will be focusing on passing the TOEFL and entering an English speaking university.

There will be a lot of change. The setting will be different. The amount of time that I teach will be different. The teacher that I work with will be different. The students' ages, goals, and maturity will all be different. Some of these changes might be hard to get used to. However, I think that the change will be good for me.

New Look!

2010-02-01T13:17:00.002-07:00

A friend of mine edited the html on her blog so that she could have 3 columns, and I rather liked it! So I did the same thing.

I have often wanted to make my list of things on my side bar shorter so that it wasn't so far to the bottom of the page. Mission accomplished!

If you want to do the same thing, check out this tutorial. It is a little confusing, and if you've never edited html before you might want to ask someone to help you with it. Or just be sure that you save the existing html before you go tweaking your blog.

Covet Antiqued Copper Charm Necklace GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2010-01-19T15:19:00.003-07:00

Covet Antiqued Copper Charm Necklace GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I really like giveaways. And to enter giveaways on this blog I have to post a link to it on my blog. I kind of hesitate to post a link on my blog every time I enter a giveaway, because I don't want to make my blog a boring list of giveaways I've entered. But I really want to enter this giveaway. And I may enter some more in the future. So, when you see posts about giveaways, you can check out the giveaway yourself, or just ignore it!

Five Months of Marital Bliss

2010-01-19T09:44:00.002-07:00

That's right folks, Dave and I have been married for 5 months. And we've pretty much loved it. We think that we'll go for another 5 at least. Maybe even a year. :D

The Really Big Question...

2010-01-13T13:16:00.011-07:00

Merry is great, thinking about goals and highlights and stuff. I, on the other hand have been thinking about much less (or perhaps more) weighty stuff. Namely burgers, whose is better.

Five Guys started as a Washington D.C. area chain but has since branched into many parts of the county. They offer burgers and fries and that's about it.

In-n-out I think we all know, so I won't say much about it.

To be honest I've already made up my mind. Both resturants opened in Utah recently and I've tried both. In-n-out's big plus is that it's cheap; that having been said, the burger was small, unexceptional, and hardly worth the hype. The problem with In-n-out, and most of the other burger joints is that they seem to have forgotten something important along the way, namely beef. The beef on their burgers could be switched with the beef from any other burger place and no one would notice the difference.

The fries were even less interesting than the burger and could have been served at any burger joint in town, in fact I will go go so far as to say that each of the big three (you know who they are) serves better fries than In-n-out. The strawberry milkshake I ordered was depressingly reminiscent of a McDonalds milkshake and did absolutely nothing for me except shorten my life a little (yes, in California it is heresy to mention McDonalds and In-n-out in the same paragraph).

Ewww gross, if I'm going to stop my heart early through the consumption of fried potato sticks, it sure as heckfire ain't gonna be these ones

Five Guys, on the other hand, is a spiritual experience every time I go. The burgers get all the free toppings you could want, the beef is delicious, and the buns hold together even though they can get a bit overloaded. The fries however, are one of the best things about Five Guys. They are made in the fine tradition of English Chips, fried to a golden brown, more than enough to satiate any Irish potato lover.

An image so inspiring it should have been painted by one of the old masters...or at least silk screened by Andy Warhol

I must also admit a sentimental attachment to Five Guys. When I spent a summer in the District (for the uninitiated this is Washington D.C.) I had no money and so lived on rice and beans the entire summer. In spite of my poverty however, I still went to the Five Guys in Georgetown and ordered a cheeseburger every Saturday. For someone who's been living on 800 calories a day (for once I am not exaggerating), those burgers are absolutely delicious.

So that's it. In-n-Out stinks, Five Guys is much much better, I've said it and I won't take it back. The gauntlet is down.

Reflection on School Year Goals

2010-01-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

As the New Year starts, I thought I'd take a look at the school year goals I set back in October.

Work
1. I've done well with my work goal. I worked hard last semester and finished off all of my work for the semester with a bang! And I am starting 2 new jobs this semester! I'm going to be tutoring, and I'll teach a grammar class. There's also a third job that I'm applying for right now, to be a writing tutor. I hope I get it! So, with my 3 (maybe 4) jobs, I am sure going to be busy this semester! My goal now is to stay on top of my work and not get overwhelmed.

School
2. My classes were pretty time intensive last semester, and took a lot of effort. But I'm glad to say that I did very well! I'm looking forward to my classes this semester (we've already had 1 week of class, but the work hasn't really started yet), and I hope to achieve my goal of getting all As!
3. I've already accomplished my sub-goal of finding a project for my masters program. I've written the project proposal and had several people look at it. I've also started my letter of intent, although I'm not as far along with that as I thought I would be by this point. But I'm going to work hard on finishing those two things this week, and I'll have my TESOL MA application turned in by this Friday!

Personal
4 and 5. I have not done well at achieving my personal goals. I haven't journaled or been running once since I set these goals. But I'm going to try again to start these goals. I think that this semester I can get better at both of them. To do this, I'm going to make a reminder for myself, so that I think of these goals more often than once a semester!

Marriage
6. Well, Dave and I were teaching the 13-year-olds. Now he is teaching them by himself and I am teaching in the Primary. I just started teaching the Sunbeams (the 3-year-olds). In my class there are 3 little girls. This makes planning lessons for them really difficult. First of all, they want to be out of their seats and moving around a lot, so the lessons have to take that into account. You have to use a lot of activities to keep their attention. And then the second thing is that there are so few of them that the activities always go so quickly. If we had a few more students the activities would take longer, and then the activities I planned would last the whole hour that I have them. As it is, my lesson went short. I'm going to be teaching again in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to try to plan enough materials to keep the little girls busy and happy the whole time. And since this is now a goal for myself, I'm going to move it to my personal goals.

It has been fun to look back at these goals and reflect on them. I think that I'm going to set some more goals for this year, and try to take an inventory on them at least once a month. Wish me luck!

2009 Highlights

2009-12-30T12:28:00.006-07:00

Not all of these happenings are going to be that interesting to read about, but here are some of the things that Dave and I experienced during 2009:

January: Dave and I met on January 3rd at Jason (a mutual friend)'s party. We were both smitten pretty quickly with each other. Dave had 1 extra week of vacation before he started school, a lot of which he spent hanging out with me. Then he kept commuting down to Provo to see me during the next two weeks. We started dating exclusively at the end of the month. Dave was starting his 2nd semester of law school. I was still working for an office on BYU campus where I had worked as a student, but I started new responsibilities because I was no longer in school and could take on extra work.

February: Dave and I went on a road trip to Preston, Idaho. We saw some of the places where the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" was filmed. And we discovered that we liked to spend even long amounts of time with each other! Dave started living at his parents' house in Provo during the weekends, and I bought a car from my grandma so that I could drive up and see Dave in Salt Lake during the week.

March: Dave and I experienced our first real trauma. My mother had a heart attack and I drove to Arizona to see her. I was there for a week, waiting to see how she would recover. Dave called and texted me every day, and we came out of the experience much more attached to each other. I found out that I was admitted into the TESOL certificate program at BYU.

April: Dave and I talked a lot about marriage this month. We discussed what it would mean for us to be attending different schools 40 miles apart. And we continued our courtship. I moved into a house in Provo and continued to enjoy work. And I replaced the alternator in my car.

May: Dave took his finals. Then he proposed! And he had appendicitis. This was a busy month for him. I took care of him, had to replace the fuel pump on my car, and continued working.

June: Dave and I kept preparing for our marriage. Dave took classes during the summer time and worked. And I drove to New York with my friend Emily. Also, Dave and I floated the Provo River and did all kinds of summery things. I'm looking forward to doing that again next year!

July: Dave and I celebrated the 4th of July, hiked, swam, and generally had fun. We sent out our wedding invitations. We read a lot of "Dandelion Wine" together (I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy, pleasant read). And we started moving some of our belongings into our new home.

August: Dave and I got married! We spent about 4 days in Arizona before we got married, then spent our honeymoon in the White Mountains in eastern Arizona. The last night of our honeymoon we camped at Goblin Valley in Utah (I can't believe that no one commented on my post about Goblin Valley, since Dave and I were trying to trick people into thinking that we'd spent our whole honeymoon there). And then at the end of the month I started school!

September: Dave and I started our commuting life style, Dave taking the train to school and me taking the bus to school. And we started to get more settled into married life.

October: I set some goals for the school year. Dave and I babysat my niece and nephews, and decided that it's going to be several years before we have any kids. We fell more in love!

November: Dave and I continued on with school and work. Dave got hired to work at the attorney general's office. And we went to Arizona for our first Thanksgiving together. It was a fun trip.

December: I finished my first semester of grad school! I have one semester left in my certificate program, and I am applying in January to BYU's MA program. Dave and I celebrated our first Christmas together! And we are excited to celebrate our first year of knowing each other on January 3rd, 2010!

Our Christmas Cactus Bloomed!

2009-12-22T15:30:00.003-07:00

I didn't take any pictures, though, because I was trying not to take too much time blogging during finals. And now all of the blossoms are gone.

However, I really enjoyed the blossoms while we had them. I've had the plant for 3 years, and this was the first time it bloomed. They were gorgeous flowers. I've taken the liberty to lift a few pictures from this blog post because I want you to see how pretty the plant was.

Each blossom was attached to the end of a little "leaf" on the cactus, like this.

It was amazing to see how beautiful these blossoms were! The petals of the flower would turn up while the flower hung down from the cactus leaf. So this blossom is actually upside down, and you can see the petals turning up (down in this picture).

I didn't have this many blossoms. I had about 12 little buds come on at the beginning of November, but because I kept picking up the pot to have a closer look and fiddling with the plant, I caused most of those to fall off before they could bloom! Only about 4 or 5 of them actually bloomed.

I am excited to keep my cactus growing, and maybe I'll post some blossom pictures next year!

When I'm a teacher...

2009-12-17T13:41:00.003-07:00

I'm going to give my students review sheets with some direction for their finals preparation. I'm studying for my last final, and I feel so lost! I'm wondering if it's just too much effort to try to organize my notes and figure out what's important and what's REALLY important (i.e. on the final). But life goes on. By this time tomorrow, I'll have at least started my final, and maybe even finished it. So I guess I just need to get back to studying!

Feeling Stupid

2009-12-07T12:26:00.003-07:00

Last week I helped host a Graduate Student Society meeting for grad students in the Linguistics/English Language department on BYU campus. We asked some professors to participate, and requested that they tell us what they wished someone would tell their graduate students. This could have anything to do with their thesis/project work; their interactions with their advisor and committee, teachers, and other faculty members; or anything else they thought was important.

One teacher said, "Don't let yourself feel so stupid that you decide to quit." She said that she had felt stupid when she started her program, and that some students feel like they're the only ones and that they don't belong there. I thought that this was an interesting insight, and one that I think will be beneficial for me, as I hope to start my master's next year.

Today, for our assigned reading, my syntax teacher had us read an article which didn't have to do with syntax. It was about feeling stupid. I thought it was a well-written article, and I would recommend anyone to read it. I don't think that it only applies to graduate students. It applies to anyone who is trying to grow to become something beyond what they are.

The concept is that, if we didn't feel stupid, we wouldn't feel pushed to discover. If we felt smart all of the time, that would mean that we hadn't even approached our limits, and that we would never push or expand them. So go out and feel stupid today!! But don't let that feeling make you quit. Let it make you work harder!

Thoughts on Golf

2009-12-04T15:58:00.003-07:00

So apparently Tiger Woods's wife tried to bludgeon him with a golf club. This brings two thoughts to mind: 1) he got married? huh, who knew, and 2) I really doubt that all those light weight titanium/carbon fiber alloy clubs are actually heavy enough to do any damage. It's not like Tiger's swinging a $1.50 DI special 5 iron.

The real issue for me however is how all the pundits are saying, "He may be the greatest athlete ever, but that's no reason to expect him to be perfect." It's a sad day when the worlds' greatest athlete is a golfer. I mean, it's cool that some guy can put a little ball in a little hole 500 yards away, but I'm not sure he should be called the greatest athlete ever. What's next, Pierre Zimmerman (world bridge champion) or Nigel Richards (former world Scrabble champion) as the world's greatest athlete? The world's greatest athlete should at least break a sweat while being said greatest athlete.

The pundits are also saying that they love watching Tiger play golf, but that doesn't mean he has to have a perfect family life. Really, who actually watches golf except for little kids looking for more Saturday morning cartoons? The real athlete is the person who can sit through watching the entire 18 holes of a golf tournament. I tried once, but didn't quite have enough endurance.

Nigel Richards, 2008 world Scrabble Champion and future world's greatest athlete. Nike is already working out the ad campaign, "I am Nigel Richards" has nice ring to it.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-01T09:51:00.002-07:00

We had a WONDERFUL time in Arizona for Thanksgiving. There was lots of food, lots of playing games, and lots of kids! All of my siblings were there, with their spouses and kids. At one point we were all there, except for one of my brothers-in-law. I think that's the first time we've all been together like that in a LONG time.

I loved eating all of the Thanksgiving food! Dave and I both felt like we ate too much, but it was so good! Especially the green olives! :D

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with family or friends, and that you're getting into the Christmas spirit!

Honeymoon

2009-11-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this isn't a thankful post. But I finally got our honeymoon pictures off of Dave's camera, so I'm going to post them.

Here we are, driving to our honeymoon:

We headed from eastern Arizona to the southeast corner of Utah:

That's right! We camped at Goblin Valley! It was great. Here's our campsight:

We were really close to the goblins. I'd never been here before, so I didn't know what to expect. I certainly didn't expect this sign:

So, apparently the park was concerned about bicyclists causing damage to the goblins. However, Dave and I found that they were pretty sturdy:

A lot of these formations looked like smurfs, I thought:

What a crazy place to have a honeymoon! It was a lot of fun!

I'm Thankful for Road Trips!

2009-11-19T11:24:00.004-07:00

Dave and I are going on a road trip to AZ for Thanksgiving. And it's going to ROCK!! We've decided that we're going to get a book on tape to listen to, probably an Agatha Christie mystery. We love reading to each other, and this way we'll both get the chance to listen and drive/do homework/do work during the drive.

Can I just say how much I love spending time with this man? Our first road trip was to Preston, ID, on Valentine's Day when we'd only been dating for a few weeks. Dave was worried that we might hate spending that much time in the car together and that that would be the end of the relationship. Needless to say, we enjoyed our time together and didn't have to break up!

And I still anticipate loving my time in the car with him. I don't think that I could ever get tired of being around Dave.

I'm thankful for family.

2009-11-16T11:30:00.002-07:00

Instance #1: Dave's sister Anita and her husband Dean came over to our basement last night. We ate dinner and played games. It was so much fun. They got married 6 months before Dave and I did, so they're newly weds like us.

Instance #2: Dave and I went to eat dinner at Jenny and Craig's house on Sunday night. When we were done eating, we just sat for a while and chatted. We laughed and had fun. Their kids are constantly saying, "Dave!" and trying to show him something or do something with him. He's definitely been adopted into the family by them!

Instance #3: Dave and I are driving down to Arizona in about a week for Thanksgiving!! All of my family are going to be there! I'm going to get a break from school! And I can't wait!

And also

2009-11-12T16:30:00.004-07:00

I'm thankful for a warm house to live and good food to eat! This is such a blessing that Dave and I enjoy. We aren't literally starving college students, and that is mostly because my aunt has been kind enough to let us rent her basement very cheaply. With the rent that we save, Dave and I are able to live comfortably. We don't have to worry about making ends meet every month, although we are frugal. And there aren't a whole lot of things that we are pining away to have. We are content to just be comfortable, poor college students. We're not getting ourselves into debt so that we can go on crazy expensive vacations or go out to eat every night. And we're happy!

So, take home point: I'm glad that we are so happy with our lives that sometimes we don't realize how poor we are!

I am thankful for buses!

2009-11-12T12:24:00.003-07:00

I was able to get so much work done this morning on the bus ride to BYU campus. I didn't have to pay attention to the road. I didn't have to think about merging into lanes to get around a huge accident on the freeway (there was a car on fire, and everyone had to exit the freeway). I didn't have to find a parking spot for my car. And I didn't have to pay for gas! Granted, the bus ride took me about 1.5 hours instead of .5 hours. But I was working that whole time. I am becoming a bus lover!

I am thankful for

2009-11-09T12:55:00.002-07:00

my job. I like it, and I am gaining a lot of professional experience. I feel very blessed to be involved in teaching English!

The Spirit of Thanksgiving!!

2009-11-03T14:34:00.003-07:00

For you faithful blog followers (Hi Mom!), you'll remember that last year I tried to make all of my November posts about things that I'm thankful for. And I'm going to do that again this November! Feel free to play along!

I'm thankful for the upcoming winter. Several weeks ago, I told Dave that I thought winter had arrived. There was snow on the mountains and a chill in the air. And of course Dave made fun of me, because it was only the beginning of October. We've joked about that frequently since then, when it's been especially warm. One of us (usually Dave) will say, "It must be winter!"

Well, this last week we did get our first snow down in South Jordan, and it was lovely! Dave and I were snug in our home and watched it fall past the windows. Then, when we were ready for a break from homework, we went for a barefoot run in the new snow. It's a family tradition of mine. It was so fun, and it was even funner to go back inside and snuggle up to get warm again.

So, I'm thankful for winter, because it is a new season in the never-ending cycle of seasons. And I'm thankful for the opportunities it gives me to snuggle up with my honey!

What I've been up to

2009-11-03T10:35:00.003-07:00

Dave has been posting a lot frequently. And I like that!

But, to prevent this blog from becoming "Just Life by Dave" I'm going to start posting again!

Life has been a little busy lately. I'm still working and going to school, which really is enough to fill up almost all of my time. I occasionally do things with my husband! :D

And I've also been spending two hours a week watching this cute little guy!

This is Emily's cute little babe, Joshua. They're in Provo for a few weeks so that Emily can finish up her work for her master's, and I get to spend a couple hours a week with him while Emily works with her clients. Here we are together. Joshua looks like he's looking away from the camera in disgust. But actually, he's just waking up, and trying to resist.

And I actually think that Joshua likes me quite well. I just rocked him to sleep!

Meet BYU's Newest Librarian...

2009-10-23T11:06:00.008-06:00

Over Fall Break (Def. for those of you who don't attend a state school: a week off from school for no particular reason) I spent a couple of days at BYU, my alma mater, composing a brief and doing other school work. One morning as I sat poring over cases Merry called me and asked if I wanted a dounut. I obviously said yes so she brought the dounut to me at the front door of the library. We chatted for a few minutes while I munched on the superbly delicious dounut.As I walked back into the library I heard someone say, "excuse me sir," but since they said sir I assumed they weren't talking to me. As I continued walking I heard again, this time in a voice loud enough to rouse all sirs, dead, living, young, or old (and probably some ma'ams as well), "EXCUSE ME SIR!!!" At this point there were at least a hundred people going in or out of the library and we all stopped, mainly to see who had a gun and where we should run.

Much to my shock the voice belonged to the BYU library hall monitor guy and he was pointing at me! I realized that he thought my half eaten doughnut was a gun!

I very slowly started to back up, not making any sudden movements lest he beat me with...okay I am not really sure if those guys have anything with which they could beat a person, but I wasn't taking any chances. I decided to take a slow bite to let him know that I had a pastry in my hand and not a dangerous weapon. "Sir," he said with a voice less likely to engage panic circuits in citizenry across three continents, "you can't have food in the library."

That was it!?! Fifteen years frightened off my life for that!? The crowd, obviously relieved that nuclear holocaust was apparently not imminent moved back to life while I shakily took the last bite of my dounut. At the time I was shocked at the trouble the poor kid took over two bites of pastry; however, I soon realized that he was really...

CONAN THE LIBRARIAN disguised as a puny BYU hall montior lest the students be frightened away.

From now on we're making sure not to return any books late because one never knows what might happen.

Restful Doorway Syndrome

2009-10-20T13:57:00.006-06:00

A neuro-physiological condition affecting the ability of affected persons to walk through doorways without slowing down, or in extreme cases, stopping movement all together. The syndrome is most pronounced in situations involving an exit from crowded rooms although exits from warm rooms into the cold outdoors also bring out symptoms of the syndrome. Although Restful Doorway Syndrome can express itself in solitary infected persons, it is much more likely to express itself in groups.

This image exhibits some of the manifestations of Solitary Restful Doorway Syndrome

There is no known cure for restful doorway syndrome. Among attempted therapies is repeated applications of "excuse me." Studies universally indicate that this therapy is completely ineffective. Another attempted intervention is for those standing behind individuals suffering from Restful Doorway Syndrome to push against them from behind. Results from this therapy are mixed because it causes potentially unwanted side effects such as: resentment and frustration from sufferers.

The long term prognosis for individuals suffering from Restful Doorway Syndrome is not good. Over time sufferers lose the ability to walk through hallways, lobbies, and down sidewalks without stopping. Additionally, long-term sufferers increasingly walk and stop shoulder to shoulder in groups. Eventually Terminal Sufferers begin to engage in what is commonly referred to as the "cell-phone walk" where they compulsively manipulate their cell phone, Black Berry Device, or iPhone while simultaneously slowing their locomotion until they move slightly slower than frozen snail snot.

Right now I should be doing homework.

2009-10-17T16:56:00.004-06:00

But instead, I am looking at past posts on my blog, and thinking about how much I LOVE having a blog!

The other day I attended a conference session that was talking about how blogging can be used by writing teachers. A blog allows students and the teacher to comment on different writing assignments, and gives the students another forum for writing. I think that if I ever teach another writing class, on my own, I might incorporate a class blog into it. I think it would be fun and rewarding.

Having a blog has been a really great experience. I've used it to get to know myself better, write about my frustrations and joys, publish my writing from Two Good Things, and tell jokes. And now I get to share it with Dave. It's just so fun!

A Perplexing Conundrum

2009-10-13T12:49:00.005-06:00

As many of you know, Merry is gluten-intolerant. I knew this when we started dating and it didn't really bother me too much because there are some great gluten-free foods and even if there weren't I would give up gluten for Merry any day of the week. However, we have discovered since our marriage than I am allergic to xantham gum. Normal foods containing xantham gum have very small amounts and don't bother me; gluten free foods of necessity often contain quite a bit more (relatively) because the xantham gum takes the place of gluten and binds everything together.

The upshot of all of this is that Merry can't eat glutonous pizza and I can't eat gluten-free pizza; since we're still poor college students we certainly can't afford to make/buy one of each every time we want pizza so for now we are just doing without and mourning the loss of one of our favorite comfort foods.

Ah pizza, how we mourn your fall
and weep your early demise
To be cheesy was delicious
But put that on crust? divine.
Alas, the crust was the end
And in it we see only hunger's pall
And though we cross Rubicon and Rhine
Never again your name we will call.

School Year Goals

2009-10-09T15:04:00.000-06:00

If you remember this post, you'll know that I decided to set some goals for this school year. Here they are:

Work Goals:
1. I will work hard! Next semester, I will possibly be looking for another job, because one of my current jobs conflicts with my class schedule. So I think that I will try to get individual tutoring jobs that I can schedule flexibly around my classes.

School Goals:
2. I will get all As. This is going to be hard. Graduate school has been harder than I thought it would be. But I'm glad that it's hard. I have wanted to go back to school, and I'm willing to put the effort into it. So, all As - that's three this semester and three next semester.
3. I will apply to BYU's MA TESOL program, and be accepted. In order to accomplish this, I'm going to need to do a couple sub-goals:
a. I will find a project that I can do for my masters (They give the option between a thesis and a project.), This will involve talking to a few people down at the ELC to see what needs to be done.
b. I will start writing my letter of intent now, so I can have it looked at and edited by a few people.

Personal Goals:
4. I will journal at least once a week. I blog now, but I can't really say a lot of things on this blog. And blogging on my blog makes me want to read all of the blogs I subscribe to, and that can be a real time-waster during the week.
5. I will run for 20 minutes, three times a week. That is only the commitment of 1 hour per week. I can do that. I need to do that.

Marriage Goals:
6. Dave and I teach the 13-year-olds at church. My goal is that we will prepare good lessons for them that are involving and meaningful.

What the Heck is a Whoopie Cake?

2009-10-07T17:04:00.005-06:00

Some of you may have been wondering as you read Merry's last post, "what the heck is a whoopie cake?" well, whoopie cakes, or more accurately, whoopie pies are an Amish pastry concoction consisting mainly of sugar, chocolate, and marshmallow cream. Why are they called whoopie pies you may ask? Well, legend has it that when the amish farm workers would open their lunches after a hard morning on the farm, they'd see the treat their wives put in and say, "whoopie!"

I don't really believe this account of the name's origins because it's far more likely that the amish guys opened their lunches, saw that treat, and said, "Hey, Brother Obadiah, I've got a tasty cookie/cake thing that I will trade with thee for half of thine vanilla pudding." I think they're called whoopie pies because they were first popularized by Whoopi Goldberg in her lesser known film: Ghost II, Pastries Past.

In Ghost II: Pastries Past Whoopi plays a chef's assistant who can put the chef in touch with his long lost love. There was also a rat who would stand on the Chef's head and controlled his cooking; needless to say, the chef was a pretty messed up guy. Anyway, they (Chef, Whoopi, and rat) invent whoopie pies as a way to bring back the chef's long lost love. It doesn't work but they discover that the little cakes are quite popular and start a highly successful franchise selling whoopie pies all over the country.

"I love these Whoopie Pies, they're worth way more than half a vanilla pudding" -Whoopi Goldberg

Bad Date Stories

2009-10-03T16:58:00.001-06:00

I recently read a blog that told about bad date stories. And I thought it was hilarious! So, let's open up and talk about bad dates!

I've got a couple of stories to share. First, my very worst date ever was a blind date. My co-worker set us up because she wanted another couple to come with her to a latin dance. She set me up with her Brazilian friend (she's Brazilian), and we went...and I don't know how to latin dance! Needless to say, I was an awful date because I couldn't dance. And he was an awful date because he spent most of the time dancing with my co-worker! I've had some other lame dates, but this one takes the cake.

Second, I also want to you about an almost-bad-date that I had with Dave. We'd been going out or spending time together a couple times a week for about three weeks. Dave lived in Salt Lake, and I didn't have a car, so he was making a big effort to come and spend time with me. And he had almost convinced himself that I wasn't interested in him. He had some friends telling him that I didn't seem interested, but he also had some friends encouraging him. So just couldn't make up his mind.

Well, this date almost made up his mind for him that I didn't like him! This is what happened. We went to watch a movie. I REALLY liked him. I was having so much fun with him. But I also didn't know how he felt, and I didn't know if he was going to keep coming down from SLC to see me, especially since he was starting another semester of law school and really busy. Let's just say that I was really confused, so I was kind of limiting my show of affection for him. Okay, I sat on my hands at the movie!!! I'm an idiot! But I wasn't trying to get rid of him, I just needed to be made a little more comfortable with the situation.

So, on the way home from the movie, Dave is sitting in the drivers seat, fuming! He is getting himself ready to drop me off and tell me that we probably won't go out again. There was a lot of silence in the car. I am oblivious to the tension there, though. I am sitting there, thinking away about how much I ADORE this man next to me. Dave chose that moment to ask, "What are you thinking about?" AWKWARD! I couldn't just casually say, "I was just thinking about how much I like you."

It took some quick thinking. There was a funny story about my biology class at BYU that I had alluded to but not told him, because it was embarassing. I decided that as my cover at that moment, I would break down and tell him this embarassing story. So I said, "I was just thinking that it was time I told you what happened in biology." And I proceeded with the story. Lucky for me, Dave took that as a sign of good faith, that I really was interested in him, and several hours later that night we both ended up telling each other that we liked each other. I didn't find out until a while later that I almost blew it that night!

Okay, now it's your turn! I'd like to hear some bad/embarassing date stories from all of you. And I'm contemplating giving a prize to whoever has the best story. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but Dave made some fabulous whoopie cakes tonight that I think would be worth the public embarassment!

My hand felt naked yesterday!

2009-10-01T14:58:00.003-06:00

I accidentally went to school without my ring on, and it felt very weird all day long. When Dave and I were dating and getting close to being engaged, I thought that it would take a long time to get used to wearing my ring, and I thought it would be uncomfortable with it on at first. But I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it became a part of my hand. And I definitely missed it yesterday!

In other news, I love being married! I love all of the "firsts" that Dave and I get to experience. Today was our first frost as a married couple! It is getting nice and cool here this week, and it feels so comfortable to wear a coat. I don't think this cold spell is the start of winter yet. It'll get warm again, at least for a little while. But we're starting our first fall together. And it's lovely.

A Fine Frenzy Radio

2009-09-28T11:20:00.002-06:00

Right now I'm working on some writing prompts for my job at the English Language Center, and listening to A Fine Frenzy Radio on Pandora. If you've never used Pandora, it's a website that streams music that is related to music that you like. So, when the group A Fine Frenzy was recommended to me, I put it in and created a new station. This brings up songs from A Fine Frenzy, as well as similar artists like Regina Spektor, Natalie Walker, Kate Nash, Postal Service, Norah Jones, Holly Brooke, Missy Higgins, and lots more. One of my favorites on this station is Ingrid Michelson. Anyway, you should check it out. It's great work/study music!

Adventures

2009-09-23T09:15:00.000-06:00

Dave and I have had quite a few adventures since getting married. One of the most recent ones was an "I'm going to miss the bus" kind of adventure! I was coming to campus yesterday to do some work and observe a reading class. I also had a lot of studying to do, and I needed the time on the bus to get that studying done. Well, Dave and I were late getting to the TRAX station, and I was running to the bus when it pulled away. Dave was determined that I would get on that bus, though, and he put himself into "race" mode. We chased after the bus in our car, got ahead of it, and Dave let me out at a stop ahead of the bus so I could get on. Isn't he a sweetheart!?

Thoughts on New Year's Resolutions From Dave

2009-09-21T15:03:00.007-06:00

I personally think that New Year's Resolutions should be more like the fiscal year. Corporations and other entities can establish their fiscal year at any point they want to, and although I'm not sure, I think they can change it without a whole lot of trouble (cue all the CPA readers with correcting comments) as long as it consists of 365 days.

In the interest of my self-esteem I will now be making fiscal year resolutions instead of New Year's Resolutions: I will run at least once a week, and since the fiscal year starting last Saturday I am 100% in compliance with that goal. Whoo-hoo!

Resolutions no longer induce a cringe for me, it's all about Fiscal Year Resolutions from here on out

For those of you who cringe every time you think New Years, I recommend the new improved, fiscal year resolution. For the low price of $59.99 plus shipping I will send you a copy of my best selling book (really, it's the best selling book I've ever written) Fiscal Year Resolutions Done Right: How to Make the System work for You. Lest there be any doubt about the scholarly quality of my work, please take note of the colon in the book's title.

New Year's Check Up

2009-09-17T14:31:00.002-06:00

I read a post by my friend Camille today checking back to her New Year's resolutions. In it, she had a status update on her goals, and whether some of them needed to be put off until 2010. I was impressed with her idea to go back and review, to make sure that she was accomplishing what she wanted. I decided to go back and read what I wrote for New Year's, so I could do the same. This is what I wrote.

As you can see, the only goal I talked about was my one new-ish goal, to exercise regularly. This was because I was just going to continue with some older goals for the year. Well, here's my update.

--I think I've gone running about twice this whole year. I haven't exercised in any other form, except for the various hiking, snow shoeing activities I've done with Dave.
--I don't remember any of my other goals! I must have been working on them last year, and probably kept working on them for a while after the new year started. But whatever they were, they are long gone now.

What I can take from this: Even if I'm not going to add any new goals for the year, maybe it would still be a good idea to write down what I am working on, as a reminder and a way to track progress.

In the spirit of this lesson, I'm going to write a post soon stating my goals for the new school year. Hopefully I'll be able to keep looking back at that, and accomplish what I want to by the end of April. That's 4 months less than a normal calendar year, but I think it'll be something fun for me to focus on outside of school and work.

Our Wedding Pictures

2009-09-16T13:50:00.003-06:00

Okay, so this is kind of a picture overload! But here are quite a few of our favorite pictures, taken a couple days before we got married. Not all of them have captions, but keep scrolling down if you want to see what I had to say.

It was pretty amazing! My sister Erin took them. If you like her photography skills and would like to check out some of her other work, see her blog here. Not all of the photos are edited yet, so I will be updating them as she sends me more of the pictures edited! Yay!

Isn't he handsome?!? I just can't get enough of this man!

I love this playful one! Dave makes me smile and laugh everyday!

We tried so many winking pictures earlier, and none of them worked out, so I was so glad that this one did!

This is one of my FAVORITES!

I love the buttons down the back of this dress! So beautiful! I am so glad that I bought it!

This is Dave when we told him that he had to stand around in a tux for hours and hours on end over the course of several days.

But this is Dave when we told him that after he did all that standing in a tux, he could get married!

We're so happy to be married!!

Counter

2009-09-16T11:55:00.000-06:00

So, I kind of want to put up a counter to count UP from our wedding...to show how long we've been married. It's a good thing that I haven't been able to find one, because I have the feeling that once the cheesiness of being newly married wears off, I will no longer want that on my blog.

So, it's been a long time...

2009-09-14T17:12:00.002-06:00

Excuse #1: But I keep waiting until I can upload pictures before I blog about the last month.

Excuse #2: But I have been so busy with school.

Excuse #3: But I have been so busy with work.

Excuse #4: But I have been having so much fun with Dave that I don't ever think about blogging.

I think that all of these are valid excuses. But I am going to start blogging more, now that things are getting more into a routine and I am starting to really want to blog. My month's hiatus was refreshing, and now I'm going to get back into it!

Update from Arizona

2009-08-12T09:23:00.002-06:00

I am in AZ, and am just 3 days away from being married! Awesome, right?

I drove down two downs ago, and Dave drove down yesterday. We have a number of things to do to prepare, but the most important one is getting the marriage license. Then if nothing else happens, at least we can get married! :D

Yeah, I can't think of anything else to write about. I am too caught up in what's going on for the wedding. But I will get better at posting after the honeymoon, I'm sure.

Cool new things

2009-08-06T16:51:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to share some cool websites that I found out about today. I think that they're pretty snazzy right now, and we'll see if I continue to like them as I use them.

The first one is readthescriptures.com. It is a service that emails you your reading for your daily scripture study, or your weekly reading for your Sunday School or Relief Society/Priesthood meetings. You can chart your progress in completing a goal. And you can turn it off easily if you decide that you don't want the emails anymore.

The second site is ldsjournal.com. It's a site that archives your journal entries, backs them up, and emails you a reminder when you haven't been back to journal in a while. I think that I'll mostly use this one for the reminders, since I will probably still want to write on a paper journal, now that I'm back into that.

Check them out, and report back what you think about them!

I know I'm a nerd. But I can't wait for school to start!

2009-08-05T13:01:00.003-06:00

My number one reason that I can't wait for school to start is that by then I'll be married! I'm getting married 11 days before Dave's semester starts, and 16 days before my semester starts. I'm hoping to use those extra days after I get married and before school starts to get all of the necessary stuff done to change my name. I'd like all of that process to be finished by the time I start school again.

My number two reason that I can't wait for school to start is that I love learning! I have always found my Linguistics and TESOL classes to be very interesting, and now I'm going to be studying those topics or working in that area pretty much all day long! This month the lesson just for all of the women in my church was about life-long learning, and it got me so excited to go back to school!

My number three reason that I can't wait for school to start is that I'll start new. I like starting new things, and I really love it when I can change up my activities after a while. I've been working for 8 months, and it's definitely time that I started something new. And not only will I be in a new semester in a new program. I'll be starting a new job!

My number four reason that I can't wait for school to start is my new job! I've been hired to work at the English Language Center on BYU campus. I'll be working as an intern/assistant to a director at the ELC, and I'll be working on some language assessment materials. This is very different from my current job at the NMELRC, and it will give me some very valuable experience in my professional field.

My number five reason that I can't wait for school to start is that it just makes me happy!

So, I am just getting so excited to get married!

2009-08-04T17:24:00.003-06:00

Today I went to get a practice hair do from my husband-to-be's sister-in-law, Leona (Could I get a few more hyphens in there?). She is doing my hair and make up for our wedding, and I LOVE how she does it. I wish that I'd thought of taking pictures. Dang!

But it looks so good, and I am so glad that she offered to do it for me. And Dave was there also, getting his hair cut so that he'd look good when we get married in 11 days! I just can't believe that we're this close. It almost doesn't seem real.

I am really excited about my dress and jewelry too. The dress is perfect. It's a mermaid style dress that is just lovely, and I feel so blessed to have found it. And my bridal jewelry is being made by my friend Tara. She is so talented at making jewelry, and beading. And she helped me pick out the perfect things for my necklace, earrings and bracelet.

I think that the entire effect will be wonderful. I really do think that I will look the loveliest I ever have on my wedding day. And it's probably the prettiest I'll ever look! I'm 25.5 and it's only downhill from here!

A cop pulled me over last Thursday...

2009-08-03T09:08:00.002-06:00

...because he ran my license plate and saw that I didn't have insurance.

WHAT!!?? Merry driving around without insurance? This doesn't sound like her, you say? That's because it's not like me! And I wasn't driving around without insurance. I don't know what went wrong, but somehow the cop thought I didn't have insurance when I really do. I even called my insurance agent the next day to make sure that I hadn't somehow accidentally missed a payment or canceled my coverage. No, I'm current on my insurance, just like I thought. What's up with that?

The System is so INVASIVE!!! I didn't get a ticket, but I was paused on my trip home from Isaac and Camber's house for about 10 minutes. I had to hand over my driver's license and insurance card to a complete stranger (albeit one who was in uniform and driving a cop car with its lights flashing). He came back and handed my stuff back, and said he believed that I had insurance even though it didn't show up.

He was about to let me go without even talking to me about what happened, until I said, "Wait!! Why doesn't the system show that I really have insurance?" I made him stand there for another 3 or 4 minutes answering my questions about what had just happened. It's the first time that I've ever had the courage to ask my questions to a cop, and it was kind of liberating. I'm still a little bugged, though, that I was pulled over for something that wasn't even a real problem, and then the cop wanted to get out of there without answering for it!

What kind of system have we set up for ourselves? Do any of you have a similar story, or an opinion about what happened to me? Craig, I'm sure you'll have something to say!

Guess What!!

2009-07-31T17:48:00.003-06:00

It's my second to last Friday in P-Town before I go to Arizona to get married!!!!

Recent Reading and Thinking

2009-07-29T10:46:00.002-06:00

I recently finished reading a book, Where Angels Fall. It's the second book in a series of books called The Great and Terrible. And I think that it IS pretty terrible. The author, Chris Stewart (http://deseretbook.com/auth/1877/Chris_Stewart), just isn't much of a writer. A lot of what he writes about is action - mostly intrigue and war involving the Middle East, but sometimes branching out into fist fights and nearly fatal falls. The characterization is pretty thin on the men, and even thinner on the women. This is probably to be expected, coming from a "world-record-setting Air Force pilot" who has a lot more experience with action than with writing. And I'm sure that his experience, and the reality to his action that is created by it, is very appealing to some people. The series was recommended to me by a friend (a guy) who LOVED the series, and thought that I would love it too. *I* even thought I would love it. Unfortunately, I need something besides action to keep me interested in a book.

Needless to say, I will not be going on to read the other books in the series, The Second Sun, Fury & Light, From the End of Heaven, and Clear as the Moon. I probably should have read the second book after reading the first one, Prologue: The Brothers. But I love having book recommendations, and I like reading, so I thought I would try the next book and see if the series got better. It didn't.

Despite the fact that I'm not going to continue with the series, there's something interesting about them. They've made me think quite a bit. Yes, that's right, these books are not well written, and they're not enthralling, but they are thought provoking. They are a description (through the story of a few different people/families) of the war between good and evil. The first book (Prologue: The Brothers) is set in the pre-mortal world, where spirits interacted personally with Jesus Christ and Satan, and decided which one they wanted to follow. Then the rest of the books are about how the spirits that followed Satan were cast out and not given bodies, but they are here on the earth and trying to lead everyone else astray by influencing them through whispers of temptation.

It is these whispers of temptation (and the kind of events that they influence) that got me thinking about these books. Some of the times when Satan or his helpers are whispering in the ear of some unsuspecting mortal, it really is a horrible thing that they are trying to bring about. Some of it included influencing people to murder or hurt people. But one instance where Satan was trying to influence people seemed kind of silly. There were two boys rock climbing, and the whispers of temptation were to make the boys a little careless about what they were doing while rock climbing. One of the boys set up the equipment, and Satan tried to make him feel pride that he was capable and that he didn't have to have his work double checked. And the other boy was climbing and Satan tried to make him feel pride that he could do this really difficult climb. He almost died because of the incident.

I guess that I have mostly been thinking about how much Satan influences our lives. Does he really take interest in our everyday doings? Enough that he not only wants us to be sinful and hurt ourselves and others spiritually, but also wants us to put ourselves physically in danger? And are all of the problems that we cause through our mistakes under the influence of Satan? I don't think so. I think that we just have weaknesses, spiritually and physically, that sometimes motivate us to make mistakes. But does Satan play off of those weaknesses? How often are we miserable because we are giving in to the influences of a being that delights in making us miserable?

Reading these two books has made me realize again that I want to be the kind of person that has the spirit of the Lord with me. And through that spirit, I want to be able to discern what my weaknesses are leading me to do and what the temptations of the devil are leading me to do, and to avoid those pitfalls. I want to be sensitive to the spirit and what God is trying to lead me to do through it, so that I can also be making the kind of choices that we lead me closer to God. And while I thought these books were kind of out there, I'm glad that I had the opportunity to think about these kind of things.

One Year Anniversary

2009-07-28T15:59:00.002-06:00

Today is the one year anniversary of my very first ever Tag on my blog! I started my blog on July 4th, 2008, and my first tag was later that month, on the 28th.

To be honest, I wasn't sure that my blog would last this long. I liked it, and I thought that it was a fun way to get myself to journal again. But it also kind of seemed like a fad that I would get over. And in a way, my idea of blogging has really changed over the last year.

When I first started blogging, I was doing it mostly as a record-keeping endeavor. I had fun with it, and I would frequently think, "I should blog about that." I liked thinking that I had something to say about things, whether people read it or not.

Now when I blog, I think about what people will think about what I'm writing, and will anyone comment, blah blah blah. I have become a people pleaser on my blog!! And I also think way less about what I could blog about, and more,"I wonder who has posted today!"

THIS HAS GOT TO CHANGE!! I am going to try to go back to my blogging roots. I am going to try to think of things throughout the day that could be good material for a blog post. I'm going to be interested in blogging for me. And I'm going to start using my camera and posting pictures on my blog. It's been a long time since I thought about taking pictures to document my activities.

For a quick update: Dave and I ended up not hiking Baldy this last weekend, but we both still would like to go, so we're thinking of doing it this Saturday. If any of you would like to join us, let me know! It'll be tons of fun!

Of Profiling and Snails

2009-07-28T12:41:00.012-06:00

For those of you who haven't been paying attention there has been quite a bit of hubbub over the possibility that a white police officer was being racist when he arrested a black Harvard professor after he forced an entry into his own home (I know, weird huh?). The hubbub only increased when our dear president waded into the fray to offer his opinions on things.

I have no interest in the incident particularly but it started me thinking, am I discriminatory in the way I view others, namely in making a vertebrate/non-vertebrate distinction? On Saturday Merry and I were at a BBQ to celebrate Pioneer Day (I should note that we were not celebrating the Donners at this BBQ) and I tripped over a cinder block, which caused me to lose the hot dog I was so eager to eat. As I picked up the hot dog off the ground and started to eat it I noticed that I had unwittingly exposed an entire city of snails to examination by the kids (it made me think of Godzilla poking around in a trailer park).

It kind of makes me wonder why they would have a "Godzilla v. Mothra" but not "Godzilla v. Snailtron", yet another one of life's persistent questions

After looking at the snails for a while and talking about how gross they were, the kids did what naturally follows and picked up the snails and started playing with them; much as Godzilla would play with a Japanese businessman before eating him. Needless to say this was distressing to Merry and several of the other women who repeatedly enjoined the children to leave the poor snails alone.

At the time I thought all the angst over the snails was a bit overblown, I mean, if the French children can eat them for lunch, shouldn't the American children be able to play with them after dinner? Of course this line of reasoning has its problems which returns me to my initial point about not celebrating the Donners as a part of our BBQ. After a great deal of thinking about snails and my own prejudices I realized that I harbor a very strongly held prejudice against things without back bones.

When it comes to the invertebrates I am kind of a jerk, I let children terrorize snails with impunity, I eat lobster and crab without a thought of remorse, and I kill house flies and mosquitos with a gusto; in fact I seek out opportunities to smash them. All of this pondering leads me to realize that although my prejudices will probably never raise the ire of our president, they will probably raise the ire of Merry when I let our children enjoy ravaging colonies of snails and rolly pollys.

Hiking

2009-07-22T09:11:00.003-06:00

This last weekend, Dave and I hiked Squaw Peak. I've wanted to hike it for a while now, so in one way it was the fulfillment of a dream! But it was also hot, and very buggy! I think that there were so many bugs because of the wet spring that we've had this year.

Despite the bugs and heat, Dave and I enjoyed the hike together, and we've planned another hike for ourselves this holiday weekend. I love that I get the day off of work for Pioneer Day! And the time spent with Dave is the best part! :D

This is what we'll be hiking this Friday: Baldy. I've never hiked it before, and it should be pretty fun. It will likely be hot again, but it will be a good hike, with some new views that I haven't experienced before. Also, I think that I'll bring my camera this time, and get some shots of Dave and I hiking. It's been a while since we've taken pictures!

Update on East of Eden

2009-07-16T14:35:00.004-06:00

I finished East of Eden today. Having finished the book, I am surprised by the feelings of power that it gave me. One theme of the book (and I would say the main theme) is that people are able to choose who and what they are in this life. And they do that by either accepting themselves and the people around them, or by not accepting. Accepting or not accepting both have consequences, some good, some bad. But by choosing, people are powerful and god-like. Those that believe they act in a certain way because that is just how they are, feel and are powerless. It is really in choosing that we give ourselves power in our lives.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the power to choose happiness. And I really feel that I am capable of choosing happiness in a lot of different situations. And if that's the case, why wouldn't I choose to be happy? I think that sometimes I decline happiness because I want to have it given to me instead of creating it. Sometimes I decline it because it isn't easy to choose happiness. It takes work. And sometimes I decline it because for a little while I enjoy misery. But eventually, you have to realize that these reasons aren't good enough and that happiness is worth so much more.

These are some of my thoughts from reading East of Eden. Have any of you read it? And what did you think?

Two weird things

2009-07-14T13:44:00.001-06:00

Okay, so this isn't the most interesting post ever. But in the moment these things were interesting to me, and it was fun to write about them.

Weird Thing Number One: I read this post by my friend Ashley. She's been living in Iceland for the last little while, and she posted some pictures recently. If you scroll down, the second-to-last picture is of a starfish that they found. Here's what she had to say about it:

"We strangely found a starfish stranded in the middle of no where about 30 feet above water. No idea how it got there. We picked it up to find that it was still barely alive. We threw it back into the ocean to give it a fighting chance. Hope it made it!"

My first thought was, "What if the starfish was trying to commit suicide?" As ridiculous as that sounds, after that thought I gave at least 5 minutes more to thinking about the possibility/likelihood that an animal (like a starfish) would/could commit suicide. I'll admit I haven't convinced myself yet that it's possible. But I've had an interesting conversation with myself about it!

Weird Thing Number Two: For about the last 15 minutes or so, when I would use the mouse on my computer, a left click would engage an item about a half inch to the right of where I was pointing the mouse. I hope that made sense. What I mean is, if I wanted to minimize a window, I had to put the mouse a half inch to the left of the minimize button in order for it to work. It took me a while to figure out what was happening, so I was getting pretty frustrated before that!

Friday Fiction

2009-07-10T12:56:00.003-06:00

I rediscovered a blog that we used for a few prompts at Two Good Things: The One-Minute Writer. And I've decided to start doing the Friday Fiction prompt each week. And while some of my writing may be inspired by real events or emotions, I will be keeping it fiction.

7/21/09 Edit: I realized that the author of The One-Minute Writer doesn't like people posting the original prompt on their blogs. So the prompt that I used for this piece of fiction is found here.

My hands caressed the dusty treadle sewing machine, and my heart swelled up with memories of my mother’s fondness for it. She had collected sewing machines from all over, had taught many people to sew (including me), and had sewn quilts for each of her children at their marriages and grandchildren at their births. But this machine had been special to her because she had inherited it from her mother. And now it was mine. Could I get it running again?

East of Eden

2009-07-10T11:18:00.002-06:00

At the recommendation of some good friends of mine (Dave, Isaac, and Camber), I am reading East of Eden. It's my third book by John Steinbeck that I've read (The other two are Cannery Row and The Grapes of Wrath.). And it is good! I have really enjoyed reading it, and I'm about half way through. Have any of you read it? What were your opinions?

I'd recommend East of Eden and the other two books of his that I've read. They are easy to read, and...they feel great! I don't know how to say it other than that!

July 4th

2009-07-07T10:48:00.003-06:00

My 4th of July was wonderful! I slept in, and then I got to hang out with Dave for a bit and work on our invitations (Yes, we're going to get those out soon.). Then he and I floated the Provo River again! It was a lot of fun. We went with Isaac this time, and his brother and sister-in-law, Sean and Kathryn. The other three were in a canoe and Dave and I were in our inflatable raft (pictured a few posts below) for the first part of the trip. Then Sean and Kathryn decided that they didn't want to go all the way down the river with us. The water was quite a bit choppier than it was last weekend, and the canoe was very tippy. So Dave got into the canoe to help Isaac steer it down the river, and I maneuvered our craft all by myself! While it wasn't as fun to go down without Dave, I still had a good time. It was a beautiful day, and we got lots of sunshine. A tan, finally!

After that, Dave and I went to a BBQ that his family was having. Dave had a lot of extended family from out of town that I got to meet. It was a little stressful, because I was trying to remember everyone's names. But on the other hand, I wasn't stressed out at all about making a good impression. I felt pretty confident that his family would like me, and I KNOW that Dave loves me, which is the important thing. So it was overall a pretty fun evening. There were lots of little fireworks that the family lit, and they were getting a little creative, setting up lines of fireworks that would ignite in a chain. We were also on the route that the fighter jets from Hill Air Force Base took to fly over the Stadium for the Stadium of Fire, so it was pretty cool to see them.

I feel so blessed. I didn't have to work on the 4th of July (or the day before), I have a comfortable place to live and plenty of food, I live in a gloriously beautiful place with mountains and rivers nearby, I have religious freedom that I appreciate, I'm starting school in the fall in an area that I love, and (MOST IMPORTANTLY) I have a wonderful fiance that I love and who loves me! He is the most important thing in my life, and he makes me so happy. I hope everyone else had a great 4th of July, although I know it couldn't have been as great as mine!