Monday, December 23, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Finals Miracles
Well it's finals week and I'm basically done with my finals without taking hardly any tests! It's a miracle!
First of all, two of my classes had final papers instead of tests. I finished the first one last week and the second one on Sunday and handed them both in yesterday. I knew that I needed to get them done early (plus they were both due on Monday) because I had a final on Monday and Wednesday, plus an online final that I wanted to get done as soon as I could. So I would need plenty of time to study.
Well the first miracle came last week. At the beginning of one of my classes the teacher called some of our names (mine included) and asked us to talk to him after class. He said it wasn't a bad thing, and I was thinking that my grade was pretty good in that class so it really wouldn't be a bad thing! After class he explained that we had done well enough that there was almost no way that we would get a grade worse than an A in the class, so he excused us from taking the final and posted our grades! So then I only had to study for two tests!
Yesterday, first day of finals, I go to my final test feeling a little anxious. I had studied but wasn't sure how well I would do. My teacher passed out the tests and from briefly glancing over it I knew that I was in trouble! The essay portion was hypothetical questions about historical figures, like "If they were here now what would they think?" And I had no idea what to answer! Well, my teacher started talking, saying that he doesn't like tests and they don't measure how you've done in class. So he would call us each up and show us our grade, if we were happy with it we didn't have to take the final and just accept the grade that we already had in the class! This made me sooo happy and relieved! When he called me up he showed me that I already had an A in the class, so I didn't take the final! Miracle number two!
Now today I only have one more final to take, my online final. This class has two parts to the final, if you do good on part one then you don't have to take part two. Well, yesterday I studied for and took part one and it did not go well! But luckily, I can still take part two today. And hopefully get an A or a B out of the class.
So excited that finals are almost over and that everything has gone so well this semester! Yay school!
First of all, two of my classes had final papers instead of tests. I finished the first one last week and the second one on Sunday and handed them both in yesterday. I knew that I needed to get them done early (plus they were both due on Monday) because I had a final on Monday and Wednesday, plus an online final that I wanted to get done as soon as I could. So I would need plenty of time to study.
Well the first miracle came last week. At the beginning of one of my classes the teacher called some of our names (mine included) and asked us to talk to him after class. He said it wasn't a bad thing, and I was thinking that my grade was pretty good in that class so it really wouldn't be a bad thing! After class he explained that we had done well enough that there was almost no way that we would get a grade worse than an A in the class, so he excused us from taking the final and posted our grades! So then I only had to study for two tests!
Yesterday, first day of finals, I go to my final test feeling a little anxious. I had studied but wasn't sure how well I would do. My teacher passed out the tests and from briefly glancing over it I knew that I was in trouble! The essay portion was hypothetical questions about historical figures, like "If they were here now what would they think?" And I had no idea what to answer! Well, my teacher started talking, saying that he doesn't like tests and they don't measure how you've done in class. So he would call us each up and show us our grade, if we were happy with it we didn't have to take the final and just accept the grade that we already had in the class! This made me sooo happy and relieved! When he called me up he showed me that I already had an A in the class, so I didn't take the final! Miracle number two!
Now today I only have one more final to take, my online final. This class has two parts to the final, if you do good on part one then you don't have to take part two. Well, yesterday I studied for and took part one and it did not go well! But luckily, I can still take part two today. And hopefully get an A or a B out of the class.
So excited that finals are almost over and that everything has gone so well this semester! Yay school!
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Trevor's Bday
For Trevor's birthday he had to work on a lab project almost all day! He didn't get home until 6pm! This is partially because he missed the last bus that would have taken him from campus to his car at the Space Dynamics lab and had to walk/jog almost the whole way! So sad :(
When he got home we ate dinner (homemade cafe rio-esque salad) and then went to vote! The mayor, city council members, and two tax-propositions were up for a vote. My mayoral candidate lost, Trevor's won. It was fun and close by, so we just walked over. When we got back Trevor's dad was at our apartment to drop off birthday cards on his way home from work. We chatted for a few minutes and then he left.
I had decorated a tiny bit (some blue streamers on the front door and on Trevor's nightstand and one pink balloon that I wrote "Happy Birthday" on) and had ordered presents from Walmart, which hadn't arrived yet (and still haven't by the way), so I gave Trevor the order confirmation paper that showed what he was getting: Pokemon Indigo League Part One (TV show on DVD) and a wooden bed desk thing.
We ate leftover Halloween candy and Trevor complained about not having a birthday cake (even though I asked him what he wanted and he said "Nothing").
Overall it was a kinda sad birthday, sorry honey! But Happy Birthday again! Hope it turned out okay and that you like your presents when they come.
When he got home we ate dinner (homemade cafe rio-esque salad) and then went to vote! The mayor, city council members, and two tax-propositions were up for a vote. My mayoral candidate lost, Trevor's won. It was fun and close by, so we just walked over. When we got back Trevor's dad was at our apartment to drop off birthday cards on his way home from work. We chatted for a few minutes and then he left.
I had decorated a tiny bit (some blue streamers on the front door and on Trevor's nightstand and one pink balloon that I wrote "Happy Birthday" on) and had ordered presents from Walmart, which hadn't arrived yet (and still haven't by the way), so I gave Trevor the order confirmation paper that showed what he was getting: Pokemon Indigo League Part One (TV show on DVD) and a wooden bed desk thing.
We ate leftover Halloween candy and Trevor complained about not having a birthday cake (even though I asked him what he wanted and he said "Nothing").
Overall it was a kinda sad birthday, sorry honey! But Happy Birthday again! Hope it turned out okay and that you like your presents when they come.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Family History Miracle
This semester I'm taking a Beginner's Family History Class in Institute. It's pretty fun because our teacher will share an easy tip and then set us loose to do whatever family history work we want. I was able to do a few things, but then was stuck. I've been looking at Mom's side because Dad's is almost totally done (though I did find a whole line of Pidds that hadn't had their work done) and I can't really find my way back further than what was already in there.
Well, when I went to Idaho Falls for Labor Day I snagged my pedigree chart and a few stories that were in my mission stuff. The mission list said I needed to bring some family history stories and I never used them, but hung on to them. So I've had these few things the whole month of September, kept in my school folder with my syllabuses etc in case I needed them for my family history class.
Last Tuesday when I was almost done with work I was looking through my folder and started reading one of the stories. It's a news article about George Hicks (mom's great-great-grandfather) and how he helped settle a place in Illinois. If you can believe it, this article has the names of his wife, all of his children, who his children married, some of the names of their children, where they lived, it has the name of his second wife who he married after his first wife died, who was also widowed and has the name of her first spouse and kids. All together it has the names of at least 35 people. And MOST of those are not already in family search.
It's a miracle! So I've been going crazy the past few days, in a family history frenzy, just trying to add all of these people and trying to find their kids' kids, locating the censuses and marriage documents in family search, finding their headstones in findagrave.com (my new favorite website). It has been really cool! And it's a lot easier to find information coming forward from George Hicks than it was trying to go backwards. So much to do!
Well, when I went to Idaho Falls for Labor Day I snagged my pedigree chart and a few stories that were in my mission stuff. The mission list said I needed to bring some family history stories and I never used them, but hung on to them. So I've had these few things the whole month of September, kept in my school folder with my syllabuses etc in case I needed them for my family history class.
Last Tuesday when I was almost done with work I was looking through my folder and started reading one of the stories. It's a news article about George Hicks (mom's great-great-grandfather) and how he helped settle a place in Illinois. If you can believe it, this article has the names of his wife, all of his children, who his children married, some of the names of their children, where they lived, it has the name of his second wife who he married after his first wife died, who was also widowed and has the name of her first spouse and kids. All together it has the names of at least 35 people. And MOST of those are not already in family search.
It's a miracle! So I've been going crazy the past few days, in a family history frenzy, just trying to add all of these people and trying to find their kids' kids, locating the censuses and marriage documents in family search, finding their headstones in findagrave.com (my new favorite website). It has been really cool! And it's a lot easier to find information coming forward from George Hicks than it was trying to go backwards. So much to do!
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Neighborhood Council Meeting
Trevor and I went to a neighborhood council meeting a few weeks ago. Basically I had been thinking about local politics because the teacher for my Intro to Political Science class has been talking about how uninformed and ignorant most* Americans are. And I thought to myself, I don't know who the mayor of Logan is. I don't vote in non-presidential elections. Thinking about this, on some Sunday our Bishopric made an announcement encouraging people to participate in politics and in fact there was a neighborhood meeting that Tuesday at the elementary school. So I told Trevor, I want to go to that.
At work the day of the meeting I did some research and found who my state House representative is, who Utah's Senators are, the mayor of Logan and all of that. (I felt like I really needed to look up the Mayor because I would feel really stupid at the meeting if he was talking and I didn't know who he was.) And I felt all ready to go to the meeting.
We went and at first it was fantastic! They gave everybody some green dot stickers and there was a line of posters that we could put a sticker on and share our opinion on Property Maintenance standards (which was the topic of the meeting). It was a lot of fun and I felt politically empowered! Then we all sat down in the gym and they opened the meeting up to discussion. This is where it got disappointing. Everybody was complaining about their sidewalks and their neighbors' yards. Everybody wanted the City people to fix it. They wanted to know why the extra money from the water budget was being put into the general City budget because it was indirect taxation. Lalala.
This experience made me realize why nobody wants to participate in government! The meeting was over an hour long, Trevor and I couldn't find a good point to make our exit until we had been bored for at least half an hour, and there wasn't even good discussion on the topic of the meeting. It was just a bunch of (generalization) old people who wanted to complain and it ended up being very frustrating.
Will we go to another meeting? Probably. I feel a little obligated since I'm majoring in political science and it is a good thing to participate in local politics. I hope that future meetings will be a better experience!
*Which is an opinion. It could only be half of Americans are uninformed, etc.
At work the day of the meeting I did some research and found who my state House representative is, who Utah's Senators are, the mayor of Logan and all of that. (I felt like I really needed to look up the Mayor because I would feel really stupid at the meeting if he was talking and I didn't know who he was.) And I felt all ready to go to the meeting.
We went and at first it was fantastic! They gave everybody some green dot stickers and there was a line of posters that we could put a sticker on and share our opinion on Property Maintenance standards (which was the topic of the meeting). It was a lot of fun and I felt politically empowered! Then we all sat down in the gym and they opened the meeting up to discussion. This is where it got disappointing. Everybody was complaining about their sidewalks and their neighbors' yards. Everybody wanted the City people to fix it. They wanted to know why the extra money from the water budget was being put into the general City budget because it was indirect taxation. Lalala.
This experience made me realize why nobody wants to participate in government! The meeting was over an hour long, Trevor and I couldn't find a good point to make our exit until we had been bored for at least half an hour, and there wasn't even good discussion on the topic of the meeting. It was just a bunch of (generalization) old people who wanted to complain and it ended up being very frustrating.
Will we go to another meeting? Probably. I feel a little obligated since I'm majoring in political science and it is a good thing to participate in local politics. I hope that future meetings will be a better experience!
*Which is an opinion. It could only be half of Americans are uninformed, etc.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
School Update
My first week of school was really scary -- I got so overwhelmed with the teachers explaining the syllabus and the amount of reading we were going to have to do! But now that we've been going a few weeks I'm okay! I've gotten into the groove of keeping up with the readings, participating in classes, my assignments so far haven't been too hard. So I'm doing good! Here are my classes:
History of Mexico: At first I thought this was going to be my worst class, but it's been good. We just finished reading a book about the Spanish conquering Mexico and I learned some things I had never been taught before.
History of Modern Europe: We started out reading this book called The Rhine, which is about the river in Europe that goes through/by Switzerland, Germany, France, Netherlands etc. My teacher is taking an environmentalist point of view for the class, so we'll be learning more about the interaction between people and their environment as we talk about the big events of European history.
Introduction to Political Science: Also a good class -- it's the biggest by far since it's a Freshman-level course. The teacher is really funny, he makes jokes about the NSA watching everything we do and lets people ask questions about current events and things. It will be an overview of how American politics work.
Intro to Political Philosophy: Pretty boring class. I probably don't like it because it's once a week, Friday afternoons. And it's two hours long. If it was a different time I'd probably be okay. I'm not exactly sure what the class is about since I've only been a few times. We're reading The Republic by Plato right now.
Political Research: This class is about learning how to do political research, it's really good so far. One reason I like it is the textbook isn't difficult to understand, unlike some of the other classes' books. The teacher said the first day that it was going to be a really hard class - so far it's been okay!
So that is school for me right now! I'm glad to be back at it, am enjoying it, and hope that I do okay!
History of Mexico: At first I thought this was going to be my worst class, but it's been good. We just finished reading a book about the Spanish conquering Mexico and I learned some things I had never been taught before.
History of Modern Europe: We started out reading this book called The Rhine, which is about the river in Europe that goes through/by Switzerland, Germany, France, Netherlands etc. My teacher is taking an environmentalist point of view for the class, so we'll be learning more about the interaction between people and their environment as we talk about the big events of European history.
Introduction to Political Science: Also a good class -- it's the biggest by far since it's a Freshman-level course. The teacher is really funny, he makes jokes about the NSA watching everything we do and lets people ask questions about current events and things. It will be an overview of how American politics work.
Intro to Political Philosophy: Pretty boring class. I probably don't like it because it's once a week, Friday afternoons. And it's two hours long. If it was a different time I'd probably be okay. I'm not exactly sure what the class is about since I've only been a few times. We're reading The Republic by Plato right now.
Political Research: This class is about learning how to do political research, it's really good so far. One reason I like it is the textbook isn't difficult to understand, unlike some of the other classes' books. The teacher said the first day that it was going to be a really hard class - so far it's been okay!
So that is school for me right now! I'm glad to be back at it, am enjoying it, and hope that I do okay!
Monday, May 27, 2013
Year In Review
Me and Trevor have been married a whole year now! This post is to catch up on everything we've done in our first year of marriage:
Coming home from our honeymoon:
I thought this was the funnest idea!
Our first apartment:
We started at the low-end of the totem pole so we could work our way up to a nicer apartment. Sadly, about a month after we moved in we found out the City of Logan bought the house and were going to kick us out at the end of the year to tear it down! We move out in December, but the house wasn't torn down until May! Here it is after demolition started:
Right away we got called to be primary teachers. It was the best calling. We taught the 4-5 year olds and usually had 5 girls in class (occasionally 1 boy would come too). Any church activities we went to our girls found us and sat by us. They were so sweet!
What we remember from our first Summer: Our apartment didn't have air conditioning so we had two fans going constantly. Trevor worked over 100 hours some pay periods because the golf course was so busy, so I spent a lot of Saturdays and evenings at home alone and he spent a lot of mornings alone while I was at work. I potted some flowers.
Marriage can be challenging: one of my challenges came when Trevor wanted me to amputate a strange skin flab on his back. We tied it off with floss so the circulation to it would stop and it would die. Then it got kinda gross and pussy, so we knew it was time to cut it off. Problem was, Trevor thought the scissors on his pocket knife would do the trick, but they were super dull! So I was hacking away, trying not to freak out, it started to bleed, it was hurting Trevor! We switched scissors and cut it off in a jiff. Yuck! Worst ever!
In the fall we went to a lot of football games and then later on to some basketball games at Utah State. We bought a spouse pass for me so that we could go to as many games as we wanted. I got into it and even listened to some games on the radio when Trevor wasn't home! Our football team had a great season and it was a lot of fun to support them.
In our first apartment we celebrated these holidays:
Independence Day: We bought a few fireworks and some sparklers. Trevor had to work that day, so I went into work so I could pick a different day in the month to have off. When Trevor came home that night we made hamburgers and set off some fireworks.
Halloween: We carved pumpkins!
We also bought candy to pass out, but we had Institute so we weren't at home until after it was dark and everyone had gone home. Sometime around Halloween we got tickets to go see Dracula (performed by the Cache Valley Ballet) through my work. We went to Ellen Eccles Theater (my first time there) and got to sit in the top section. It was really fun!
Trevor's Birthday: Trevor had a test that day in Physics so he couldn't miss classes. I went to work as usual. When I got home, we went out to dinner with Trevor's family at Chili's and then went to our house for cake and ice-cream.
Conservice Anniversary: So this isn't really a holiday, but I had my one-year at Conservice mid-November! This meant I got a 1-Year Plaque to go with my name plaque on my desk and I got to pick out a gift. I picked a tote that has the Conservice logo on it. I'm pretty sure this is the first job that I've ever worked at for a year straight.
Thanksgiving: We went to Idaho Falls for Thanksgiving to spend it with Mom and Dad laws. We had delicious food and lots of fun!
Summer turned to Winter and we started to freeze. Firstly, because we quickly discovered that the car heater didn't work! Before we got it fixed it got a little scary a couple of times driving in snow with super ultra foggy windows. It wasn't very safe, but we survived. The water pump had to be fixed ($$$) and then everything worked great again.
At the beginning of December we went to Sacramento for a friend's temple sealing. Kristy was my mission companion when me and Trevor started writing and is a close friend for both of us. We enjoyed our weekend with her and her family and Conservice reimbursed my plane tickets so the whole trip was almost totally free! I am so glad that we could be there for their family's special day!
Trevor finished his Fall 2012 semester with flying colors: 3 A's and 2 B's from Physics, Physics Lab, Electrical Circuits, Calculus, and Linear Algebra. For Fall semester we also took a "Evidences of the Book of Mormon" Institute class together. It was really good, we learned so much about the Book of Mormon.
We moved to our new apartment mid-December and we liked it so much that we spent the first couple of nights there sleeping on the floor, since we couldn't move the bed right away. In this apartment we don't pay for gas, so the heating could be cranked up and keep us nice and toasty. With our new apartment we also got a Logan Parking Pass so we could park on the street during the winter. Right in time, too, because it snowed hard the first night after we got it and we avoided a ticket.
Sometime in December or January we got tickets from work again, this time to go to Drumline Live! also at Ellen Eccles Theater. This was a performance inspired by the movie Drumline, with band players from the South, displaying their musical talents. They rocked it!
We've celebrated these holidays in our new apartment:
Christmas: It was a great holiday season, we enjoyed shopping for each other and for our family gift exchanges. At Trevor's work party they had a nice dinner and then white elephant gift exchange, I got a bag of golf tees :/ At the war party we sat with our primary girls again (even though we had moved we went to our old ward through the end of December) and enjoyed the program. We skipped my work party since it was the same night as our ward party and because there wasn't going to be dinner and there would be mingling games :/ We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas at Mom and Dad Brown's house.We got to see Trevor's brothers on skype, calling in from their missions in Germany. Unfortunately, Trevor was sick on Christmas and he slept the whole day! Here are my Christmas flowers:
Keshia's Birthday: We went to Idaho Falls for the weekend to spend the day with Michael and Laura. mom and Dad were out of town, but we stayed at their house. We had birthday dinner at Michael and Laura's - delicious fondue - and played games. We also saw Wreck it Ralph that weekend.
Valentine's Day: I had to work of course, but when I got home Trevor had some roses and chocolates waiting for me!
Mother's Day: Trevor had to open at the golf course, so he missed church and he missed his brothers' calls from their missions. I had a good time at church, our Relief Society brought food for us to snack on and let us sit and visit for half of the hour - we had strawberries, pretzels, and other fruit to dip in chocolate, as well as muffins and juice.
After we got our tax return in January we bought a bike for me! I was starting to hate the bus since it takes so long to get to my stop and we only live a mile away from my job. I couldn't start riding the bike right away, but with the warmer weather I'm riding it all the time! We also got Trevor the tablet he's been wanting since before Christmas.
Early February we got two additions to our extended family - two new nieces born only two days apart. Addie Elle and Makiyah Josie!
In March we started on a whirlwind adventure of doctor visits and health insurance education when my doctor-lady found a 1-inch lump in my right breast. I was at the hospital about once a week while we were determining if it was cancer and if surgery was needed. It wasn't cancer, yay! But I did have to have surgery at the end of March to have it removed. The scariest part of this was definitely the biopsy - it didn't hurt and recovery was basically nothing, but it was scary to be awake while they were poking a giant needle into me! The official diagnosis is that it was a fibroadenoma, which is genetic, and not at all cancerous.
In our new ward Trevor has been called as the Home Teaching Supervisor Helper Guy. He collects all the home teaching numbers from the district supervisors and does the month-end report on it. I don't have a calling yet, but do have a visiting teaching assignment that I'm enjoying.
Just recently we had to get our car fixed again, this time the alternator busted. First, Trevor noticed that the battery had dropped down in volts even though he had replaced the battery when he first bought the car. Then, one day he picked me up from work and said the battery had dropped to 0 volts as he was driving. We barely made it home and then to O'Reilly's Auto parts before the battery was totally dead and we couldn't even restart the car. They explained it was probably the alternator and sold us one. After they jumped us we literally BARELY made it to the Carsmart a couple of blocks from our house, we were literally creeping along in the car with no batterly life. They fixed it up ($$) and the car is working once again.
Trevor finished his Spring 2013 semester with even more flying colors! Two A's, two A-'s, and one B+. his classes included Differential Equations, Numerical Methods, Electrical Circuits II, English, and Biology. For Spring semester we also took an Institute class together, World Religions. It was a fun class.
I started another garden, including my first-ever tomato plant. I hope it survives!
That's us all caught up! Today is the last day of a four-day weekend of our anniversary celebrations. We started off on Friday by taking the car to Les Schwab to check the brakes - metal on metal! Luckily we borrowed one of Trevor's parents' cars, because Les Schwab didn't have the parts to fix the stupid Audi, they have to order them in. For lunch we went to Trevor's golf course, Eagle Mountain in Brigham City, and had some of their delicious french fries. They were the best french fries I've ever had! Then we went to his brother's golf course, Mulligan's, and played mini golf.
It was a nice sunny day and lots of fun. We had 3 hole-in-ones between us. When we were done we went shopping for a bit and then over to Kelsey's. We played with the kids, had dinner, and watched The Lorax in their home theater room! Once it was dark we went outside and got to look through their telescope. We saw Saturn with it's rings and everything! So cool!
We spent the night there and on Saturday morning went shopping again. We were in search for a Real Salt Lake shirt for me to wear to the game that night, but couldn't find one that was cheap. Then we went to Star Trek: Into Darkness. It was such an intense movie! Spock rocks! Afterwards we checked into our hotel and went to their swimming pool. It was a little cold so we didn't swim very long. We went to the Gateway mall to go shopping some more and had dinner there at Applebee's. Then we headed to the Real Salt Lake game!
The game ended in a tie, which was a little disappointing. But it was lots of fun and we had good seats.
Sunday morning, our Anniversary!, we slept in and then went for a walk on Temple Square since our hotel was right across the street from it. Then we headed home! After relaxing for a bit we to a party at Trevor's parents' house for his brother's going away, his family is moving to Texas so they had all the family and extended family come over for dinner. We sat and chatted, but ended the night playing ping-pong downstairs.
And that's everything! Overall, it has been a great year! We're looking forward to spending lots of more years together!
Coming home from our honeymoon:
I thought this was the funnest idea!
Our first apartment:
We started at the low-end of the totem pole so we could work our way up to a nicer apartment. Sadly, about a month after we moved in we found out the City of Logan bought the house and were going to kick us out at the end of the year to tear it down! We move out in December, but the house wasn't torn down until May! Here it is after demolition started:
Right away we got called to be primary teachers. It was the best calling. We taught the 4-5 year olds and usually had 5 girls in class (occasionally 1 boy would come too). Any church activities we went to our girls found us and sat by us. They were so sweet!
What we remember from our first Summer: Our apartment didn't have air conditioning so we had two fans going constantly. Trevor worked over 100 hours some pay periods because the golf course was so busy, so I spent a lot of Saturdays and evenings at home alone and he spent a lot of mornings alone while I was at work. I potted some flowers.
Marriage can be challenging: one of my challenges came when Trevor wanted me to amputate a strange skin flab on his back. We tied it off with floss so the circulation to it would stop and it would die. Then it got kinda gross and pussy, so we knew it was time to cut it off. Problem was, Trevor thought the scissors on his pocket knife would do the trick, but they were super dull! So I was hacking away, trying not to freak out, it started to bleed, it was hurting Trevor! We switched scissors and cut it off in a jiff. Yuck! Worst ever!
In the fall we went to a lot of football games and then later on to some basketball games at Utah State. We bought a spouse pass for me so that we could go to as many games as we wanted. I got into it and even listened to some games on the radio when Trevor wasn't home! Our football team had a great season and it was a lot of fun to support them.
In our first apartment we celebrated these holidays:
Independence Day: We bought a few fireworks and some sparklers. Trevor had to work that day, so I went into work so I could pick a different day in the month to have off. When Trevor came home that night we made hamburgers and set off some fireworks.
Halloween: We carved pumpkins!
We also bought candy to pass out, but we had Institute so we weren't at home until after it was dark and everyone had gone home. Sometime around Halloween we got tickets to go see Dracula (performed by the Cache Valley Ballet) through my work. We went to Ellen Eccles Theater (my first time there) and got to sit in the top section. It was really fun!
Trevor's Birthday: Trevor had a test that day in Physics so he couldn't miss classes. I went to work as usual. When I got home, we went out to dinner with Trevor's family at Chili's and then went to our house for cake and ice-cream.
Conservice Anniversary: So this isn't really a holiday, but I had my one-year at Conservice mid-November! This meant I got a 1-Year Plaque to go with my name plaque on my desk and I got to pick out a gift. I picked a tote that has the Conservice logo on it. I'm pretty sure this is the first job that I've ever worked at for a year straight.
Thanksgiving: We went to Idaho Falls for Thanksgiving to spend it with Mom and Dad laws. We had delicious food and lots of fun!
Summer turned to Winter and we started to freeze. Firstly, because we quickly discovered that the car heater didn't work! Before we got it fixed it got a little scary a couple of times driving in snow with super ultra foggy windows. It wasn't very safe, but we survived. The water pump had to be fixed ($$$) and then everything worked great again.
At the beginning of December we went to Sacramento for a friend's temple sealing. Kristy was my mission companion when me and Trevor started writing and is a close friend for both of us. We enjoyed our weekend with her and her family and Conservice reimbursed my plane tickets so the whole trip was almost totally free! I am so glad that we could be there for their family's special day!
Trevor finished his Fall 2012 semester with flying colors: 3 A's and 2 B's from Physics, Physics Lab, Electrical Circuits, Calculus, and Linear Algebra. For Fall semester we also took a "Evidences of the Book of Mormon" Institute class together. It was really good, we learned so much about the Book of Mormon.
We moved to our new apartment mid-December and we liked it so much that we spent the first couple of nights there sleeping on the floor, since we couldn't move the bed right away. In this apartment we don't pay for gas, so the heating could be cranked up and keep us nice and toasty. With our new apartment we also got a Logan Parking Pass so we could park on the street during the winter. Right in time, too, because it snowed hard the first night after we got it and we avoided a ticket.
Sometime in December or January we got tickets from work again, this time to go to Drumline Live! also at Ellen Eccles Theater. This was a performance inspired by the movie Drumline, with band players from the South, displaying their musical talents. They rocked it!
We've celebrated these holidays in our new apartment:
Christmas: It was a great holiday season, we enjoyed shopping for each other and for our family gift exchanges. At Trevor's work party they had a nice dinner and then white elephant gift exchange, I got a bag of golf tees :/ At the war party we sat with our primary girls again (even though we had moved we went to our old ward through the end of December) and enjoyed the program. We skipped my work party since it was the same night as our ward party and because there wasn't going to be dinner and there would be mingling games :/ We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas at Mom and Dad Brown's house.We got to see Trevor's brothers on skype, calling in from their missions in Germany. Unfortunately, Trevor was sick on Christmas and he slept the whole day! Here are my Christmas flowers:
Keshia's Birthday: We went to Idaho Falls for the weekend to spend the day with Michael and Laura. mom and Dad were out of town, but we stayed at their house. We had birthday dinner at Michael and Laura's - delicious fondue - and played games. We also saw Wreck it Ralph that weekend.
Valentine's Day: I had to work of course, but when I got home Trevor had some roses and chocolates waiting for me!
Mother's Day: Trevor had to open at the golf course, so he missed church and he missed his brothers' calls from their missions. I had a good time at church, our Relief Society brought food for us to snack on and let us sit and visit for half of the hour - we had strawberries, pretzels, and other fruit to dip in chocolate, as well as muffins and juice.
After we got our tax return in January we bought a bike for me! I was starting to hate the bus since it takes so long to get to my stop and we only live a mile away from my job. I couldn't start riding the bike right away, but with the warmer weather I'm riding it all the time! We also got Trevor the tablet he's been wanting since before Christmas.
Early February we got two additions to our extended family - two new nieces born only two days apart. Addie Elle and Makiyah Josie!
In March we started on a whirlwind adventure of doctor visits and health insurance education when my doctor-lady found a 1-inch lump in my right breast. I was at the hospital about once a week while we were determining if it was cancer and if surgery was needed. It wasn't cancer, yay! But I did have to have surgery at the end of March to have it removed. The scariest part of this was definitely the biopsy - it didn't hurt and recovery was basically nothing, but it was scary to be awake while they were poking a giant needle into me! The official diagnosis is that it was a fibroadenoma, which is genetic, and not at all cancerous.
In our new ward Trevor has been called as the Home Teaching Supervisor Helper Guy. He collects all the home teaching numbers from the district supervisors and does the month-end report on it. I don't have a calling yet, but do have a visiting teaching assignment that I'm enjoying.
Just recently we had to get our car fixed again, this time the alternator busted. First, Trevor noticed that the battery had dropped down in volts even though he had replaced the battery when he first bought the car. Then, one day he picked me up from work and said the battery had dropped to 0 volts as he was driving. We barely made it home and then to O'Reilly's Auto parts before the battery was totally dead and we couldn't even restart the car. They explained it was probably the alternator and sold us one. After they jumped us we literally BARELY made it to the Carsmart a couple of blocks from our house, we were literally creeping along in the car with no batterly life. They fixed it up ($$) and the car is working once again.
Trevor finished his Spring 2013 semester with even more flying colors! Two A's, two A-'s, and one B+. his classes included Differential Equations, Numerical Methods, Electrical Circuits II, English, and Biology. For Spring semester we also took an Institute class together, World Religions. It was a fun class.
I started another garden, including my first-ever tomato plant. I hope it survives!
That's us all caught up! Today is the last day of a four-day weekend of our anniversary celebrations. We started off on Friday by taking the car to Les Schwab to check the brakes - metal on metal! Luckily we borrowed one of Trevor's parents' cars, because Les Schwab didn't have the parts to fix the stupid Audi, they have to order them in. For lunch we went to Trevor's golf course, Eagle Mountain in Brigham City, and had some of their delicious french fries. They were the best french fries I've ever had! Then we went to his brother's golf course, Mulligan's, and played mini golf.
It was a nice sunny day and lots of fun. We had 3 hole-in-ones between us. When we were done we went shopping for a bit and then over to Kelsey's. We played with the kids, had dinner, and watched The Lorax in their home theater room! Once it was dark we went outside and got to look through their telescope. We saw Saturn with it's rings and everything! So cool!
We spent the night there and on Saturday morning went shopping again. We were in search for a Real Salt Lake shirt for me to wear to the game that night, but couldn't find one that was cheap. Then we went to Star Trek: Into Darkness. It was such an intense movie! Spock rocks! Afterwards we checked into our hotel and went to their swimming pool. It was a little cold so we didn't swim very long. We went to the Gateway mall to go shopping some more and had dinner there at Applebee's. Then we headed to the Real Salt Lake game!
The game ended in a tie, which was a little disappointing. But it was lots of fun and we had good seats.
Sunday morning, our Anniversary!, we slept in and then went for a walk on Temple Square since our hotel was right across the street from it. Then we headed home! After relaxing for a bit we to a party at Trevor's parents' house for his brother's going away, his family is moving to Texas so they had all the family and extended family come over for dinner. We sat and chatted, but ended the night playing ping-pong downstairs.
And that's everything! Overall, it has been a great year! We're looking forward to spending lots of more years together!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
School
Soo I'm starting school this next fall! Well, going back to school. I'm excited and nervous. I'm worried about my classmates, because I have to take some lower-level classes that will probably have silly freshmen in it and I feel so old in comparison. Which is so funny because a lot of the time I feel young when comparing myself with the people I work with, my sisters, and people in the ward. There are a lot of life experiences that I haven't experienced yet which makes me young in comparison. Anyway, that was random, but something I've been thinking about.
The exciting news! I did get the scholarship I was hoping for. It's about half tuition for two years, which will help us a little, but soo much. Trevor got a scholarship for next year, too. He had a scholarship before, which was for four semesters, so it "expired" last semester. He got a nice big grant (because he didn't make much in 2011 and where was I almost the whole year not making any money?) which is how we paid for school the last two semesters. The scholarship he just got is a small one from the department and only for the next year. Not even half tuition, but every little bit helps. And that also means that he can reapply and hopefully get something better the following year.
USU finally put what times the classes would be offered for next semester so I've been trying to figure out what classes I'll be taking. There are three political science classes I have to take - which are all only offered at one time. Then I'll be doing a history minor, I decided, so I think I'll take a couple of history classes. If I get into all the classes I want then I'll have classes mostly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. One class on Tuesday and nothing on Thursday. Which will hopefully give me time to have a part-time job. Speaking of, there really won't be any way to keep working full-time because of the times of those classes that I have to take. Which will be a really weird change. I really do like my job. But also an exciting change. I'll really have to commit to school. And maybe, because my boss people like me so much, I'll be able to stay with Conservice and switch to a different department where I can work part-time. Hopefully my schedule will at least allow for that!
It will be so great to be in school again and even greater to graduate and finish up in a few years! Trevor and I will probably finish at the same time with our bachelors and then who knows where we'll end up?! Wherever the winds take us! So cool!
The exciting news! I did get the scholarship I was hoping for. It's about half tuition for two years, which will help us a little, but soo much. Trevor got a scholarship for next year, too. He had a scholarship before, which was for four semesters, so it "expired" last semester. He got a nice big grant (because he didn't make much in 2011 and where was I almost the whole year not making any money?) which is how we paid for school the last two semesters. The scholarship he just got is a small one from the department and only for the next year. Not even half tuition, but every little bit helps. And that also means that he can reapply and hopefully get something better the following year.
USU finally put what times the classes would be offered for next semester so I've been trying to figure out what classes I'll be taking. There are three political science classes I have to take - which are all only offered at one time. Then I'll be doing a history minor, I decided, so I think I'll take a couple of history classes. If I get into all the classes I want then I'll have classes mostly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. One class on Tuesday and nothing on Thursday. Which will hopefully give me time to have a part-time job. Speaking of, there really won't be any way to keep working full-time because of the times of those classes that I have to take. Which will be a really weird change. I really do like my job. But also an exciting change. I'll really have to commit to school. And maybe, because my boss people like me so much, I'll be able to stay with Conservice and switch to a different department where I can work part-time. Hopefully my schedule will at least allow for that!
It will be so great to be in school again and even greater to graduate and finish up in a few years! Trevor and I will probably finish at the same time with our bachelors and then who knows where we'll end up?! Wherever the winds take us! So cool!
Little Women
I'm reading the book Little Women right now. It is a fantastic book. It follows the movie or I should say the movie follows it pretty well for the first half. Then after Meg's wedding it still follows the main points but doesn't tell all the little stories that are in the book. Oh and the characters are younger in the book to start which makes it different. For example I like Laurie better in the book because he's really just friends with all the girls first and for some reason I don't like him/his character much in the movie. Anyway! I'm not quite finished with the book yet but am thinking about it.
What I really like is the way Marmee teaches the girls when they're young. She doesn't just leave them to become whatever they will but encourages them to be righteous, good, and overcome their weaknesses. Which isn't really the message we get in books anymore. A lot of characters these days seem to be without religion probably because the authors don't want to scare readers off with preachy characters. For me it was nice because popular parenting style now seems to be that you're a bad parent if you're trying to change or improve your children at all, you're just supposed to love them. Which is good, you should love them no matter what their weaknesses and strengths are, but it seems to me (not a parent yet, so my perspective probably isn't very good) that parents should guide their children like Marmee does in the book.
Another thing that was interesting to me, since I'm still a newlywed is a story about Meg and John after their married and have their first kids, which are twins. It talks about how Meg is obsessed with her children and has neglected John since they were born and so he starts to spend time with his friends more, which makes Meg feel neglected. I liked that Meg recognized that they were both unhappy, talked to her Mom about it for help, and then worked to make a change. Again, I think the worldly view now would be that if they fell out of love they should just get a divorce or if it wasn't working out then there was nothing they could do about it. Instead, Meg's example is to be aware of your marriage relationship and work to improve it and improve yourself and to think of your spouse and his/her needs, too.
So far the book is great. I recommend it. It's fun to read about the older traditions, like visits and calling cards and their dress. The author will describe their clothes and I'm like, "What is that?" because she's describing things I've never even heard of. I still don't know, I should have looked them up as I came upon them, but didn't and now there's now way I'd be able to find that part of the book. And the author also describes their character and their faults, which makes the people real and interesting.
Love it!
What I really like is the way Marmee teaches the girls when they're young. She doesn't just leave them to become whatever they will but encourages them to be righteous, good, and overcome their weaknesses. Which isn't really the message we get in books anymore. A lot of characters these days seem to be without religion probably because the authors don't want to scare readers off with preachy characters. For me it was nice because popular parenting style now seems to be that you're a bad parent if you're trying to change or improve your children at all, you're just supposed to love them. Which is good, you should love them no matter what their weaknesses and strengths are, but it seems to me (not a parent yet, so my perspective probably isn't very good) that parents should guide their children like Marmee does in the book.
Another thing that was interesting to me, since I'm still a newlywed is a story about Meg and John after their married and have their first kids, which are twins. It talks about how Meg is obsessed with her children and has neglected John since they were born and so he starts to spend time with his friends more, which makes Meg feel neglected. I liked that Meg recognized that they were both unhappy, talked to her Mom about it for help, and then worked to make a change. Again, I think the worldly view now would be that if they fell out of love they should just get a divorce or if it wasn't working out then there was nothing they could do about it. Instead, Meg's example is to be aware of your marriage relationship and work to improve it and improve yourself and to think of your spouse and his/her needs, too.
So far the book is great. I recommend it. It's fun to read about the older traditions, like visits and calling cards and their dress. The author will describe their clothes and I'm like, "What is that?" because she's describing things I've never even heard of. I still don't know, I should have looked them up as I came upon them, but didn't and now there's now way I'd be able to find that part of the book. And the author also describes their character and their faults, which makes the people real and interesting.
Love it!
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