Project update

Finals week is finally over and I lived through another semester.
I will admit that this has been the hardest semester for me so far due to a combination of several things. First, my class schedule, second, extracurricular things I am involved in such as student government and research, and third my house is a disaster...literally. Our home improvement project is still not finished, every time we seem to make a little progress we either find something else that needs to be done or we decide to add on to the project. What started out as remodeling the living room (wood floor, new lights, paint) has now grown into a major renovation. We have replaced our ancient furnace with a hot water system, added a water softener, repaired sagging floor joists, poured cement in part of our crawl space for support, moved a couple of doors, re-plumbed the kitchen, updated some electrical, and removed a closet, and we are now tearing out a wall to expand our kitchen. That will of course require more sheet rock work and more wood flooring. We are also intending to replace the cabinets and counter tops and paint the kitchen. This is all of course taking a very long time because we are doing most of it ourselves, I'm sure glad my husband knows how to do all of this because it would be very expensive if we had to hire someone else. I can't wait to get it finished because I know it is going to be beautiful when its done.
Here are a few pictures of the project:

This is a picture of a wall in my kitchen right before we tore it out, by removing this I am gaining 4 1/2 feet more across the length of my kitchen. I am losing a pantry which was not a very efficient use of the space, we will be adding pantry cabinets later.
You can see that we have already taken out some of the kitchen cabinets in order to work on the plumbing

When you look at this last picture you may see a mess, but try to look past it and see that there is maple flooring that is ready to be sanded and finished. This is proof that we are making slow progress.

The end is in sight!

The end is in sight...and I mean that in more than one way.
I have only one more day of regular classes followed by 3 finals next week and one 5 page paper. This means that 8 days from today I will be breathing a big sigh of relief.
Not only can I see the end of the semester, BUT...
Then there are only 16 credits between me and a diploma.
Fortunately, I have registered for spring semester classes and I was able to get everything I need. This means that I will be driving to Logan 5 days a week, but at least I will not be there all day everyday and I will be home most days within an hour of when my kids get home.
Of course that diploma will only be the end of my bachelors degree, hopefully next fall I will be starting on a masters in school counseling!

Then and now

Here's a blast from the past...
The other day me were looking for my sons social security card so he could go and get his learner's permit and look what we found!
This is my Hubby's student ID from USU back in the late 1970's. I took this picture of his old one and my new one just to compare. The cards have changed quite a bit over the years (so has my hubby, I didn't know he ever had hair that long!) At least I can say they, the cards and my hubby, have both improved with age.

Snow

Oh, it snowed last night,
It snowed last night.
The sky bears had a pillow fight,
They tore up all the clouds in sight,
and dropped down all the feathers white.
Oh, it snowed last night,
It snowed last night!

I don't remember very many specific things that I leaned in kindergarten (it was 35 years ago!) but I remember that song and I think of it every year when I wake up, look out my window and see snow.
These pictures were taken Thursday on campus and this morning in my backyard.

Spider

Saturday our neighbor came over to show us something that had wandered into his backyard. His kids didn't like it and wanted him to get rid of it but mine liked it and wanted to keep it. I understand that a generation ago, tarantulas were seen fairly often crossing highway 38 as they migrated down from the mountains in the fall. We caught one on our patio about 10 years ago that was bigger than this one. This little guy was lucky, I didn't let the kids keep him. We passed him around for a little bit and took pictures of him before releasing it in our forest at the back of our yard.

T-shirts

I have accidentally started a collection. It all began in a very simple way. My freshman year I was taking a class called Career and Life Planning. Our instructor said she would give us some extra credit if we would come to a fair at the Brigham campus where we could talk to people from different departments and get ideas for our major. I couldn't resist so I showed up and while I was there I entered and won my first Utah State T-shirt. Little did I know that one shirt would turn into a collection of USU shirts. That one shirt was lonely until I was appointed as the Student Government President for the Brigham campus. The Provost's office gave me my second shirt with the RCDE logo on it. I then bought game day shirts for my family when we went to the Homecoming game. I acquired a USU Brigham hoodie when we had a corn maze activity and it was too cold outside to wear a t-shirt. Since then I have visited several of the regional campuses and moved on to be the Regional Campus Rep. I work with ASUSU and they seem to love t-shirts. If there is something big going on at the Logan campus I am likely to end up with a t-shirt to commemorate the event. I have one for Homecoming, one for Ag week, one for donating blood during the blood battle, and many others. Not only do I have lots of USU shirts, but my hubby and kids do also. I collected some of the shirts today while I was doing laundry and here are just some of the USU shirts in my house.

Looking at this picture I think that it might be fun to sew them all together and make an Aggie quilt. I think that I need to buy just one more...for the dog!

Brigham City

Last summer I spotlighted a couple of the regional campuses here on my blog. It was pointed out to me recently that I had not done a post on my favorite regional campus...BRIGHAM! I am a bit biased in my opinion because I attended the Brigham Campus for three years. But, because I am familiar with Brigham, I did not tour their facilities during the summer. I would not want them to feel left out though, so I took the opportunity when I was in Brigham the other day to take some pictures to share on my blog.

This is Dr. Shinkle, the Executive Director for the Brigham City Campus. He has done a fantastic job as enrollment has grown and the buildings have been remodeled to accommodate the growing number of students.
This is Lauri Merrill, one of the outstanding academic advisers. I have personally pestered every one of the advisers on more than one occasion when I need help or had questions about a variety of school related subjects, and they are all knowledgeable and happy to help students.


This is the Charles and Rae Perkins Lounge in the Milton P. Miller Building (my home away from home) I have spent many hours studying here or just sitting by the fireplace to get warm between classes.

The next two pictures are of a couple of the new labs that were just completed last spring. One is the anatomey lab and the other is the engineering lab. One of the great things about the Brigham Campus is that all of the rooms have been remodeled recently and are not only beautiful, but have state-0f-the-art technology.


The next few pictures are of the Center for Early Education. This is one unique feature of the Brigham campus. They have an outstanding child care and preschool program for students with young children ( birth to 8 yrs.) Parents are able to take their kids to campus with them, and they are given a "buzzer" that they take to class with them so that they can call the parent if their child needs them. There is also a camera in the childcare that broadcasts to the classrooms so that you can see what you child is doing while you are in class. This makes attending much easier for students who have little ones.


This is one of my favorite place on campus, the play garden. It is located outside of the childcare and was built largely by volunteers and donations from the community. The kids love it, and many of the adults find it irresistible also.

I know I have already listed many things I like about this campus, but one of my favorites is the small class sizes. I actually have professors who remember my name. I have had many classes with fewer than 10 students. I know that this has made a big difference for me because of the amount of personal attention I get, and the opportunity to get to know and work with other students on projects. As you can see there are many good reasons to attend USU in Brigham City!

Project Update

Our living room is still not finished. Projects on old houses are always filled with lots of unknowns. This one is no exception. But, we are getting closer. We have spent many hours preparing the wood for our floors. The wood we are using is a piece of Deweyville history. Several years ago (about 8 or 9 I think) our town burned down the old school. Before they did this my husband went into the school and pulled out all of the old maple flooring and stored it so we could use it. I am sure it is going to be beautiful when it is finished.


This is how we are spending our weekends lately...sitting in our living room scraping about 70 years of accumulated gunk, dirt, floor wax, etc., off the sides of the floor boards. We are creating a stack of wood in our house that needs to sit and acclimate for a couple of weeks before we start installing it. Hopefully we will have enough prepared that we can get started at the beginning of November. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I will at least have a floor and paint by December so that I have somewhere to set up a Christmas tree!

Corn Maze

Friday night I took my Aggie Scarecrow to stand guard at the entrance of a local corn maze where the Brigham campus was having an activity. It was fun to see and talk to some of my friends who are students there and also some of my favorite faculty members as we passed out donuts and hot chocolate. They had a pretty good turn out that included students with their spouses, children, or dates. My scarecrow seemed to be a hit and we took lots of photos of students with him. I was glad that I had saved him after the pumpkin walk last weekend.My kids and I have been attending this activity every year for the past three years while I have been a student and we always have a lot of fun.

AAARRRGGG@#$%&

I spent this afternoon doing something that you would think would I would enjoy...shopping, for clothes, for me. Let me just say...I HATE SHOPPING!!! (Well actually its fun if I 'm shopping for gifts for my kids, or things for my house, it's just trying to find clothes for myself that I hate.)
I'm afraid that for most of my life I've lived in "comfortable mommy clothes." You know the kind, jeans and t-shirts. Well this semester I am involved in a few things that actually require me to be dressed in business attire. So, I have been shopping several times mostly unsuccessfully. I have had my suspicions confirmed... I was built by a committee and they don't make clothes to fit me. Today I tried on 18 pair of pants that all appeared (according to the size on the tag) to be my size and none of them fit me. Waist too big or too small, butt too tight or too loose, too short, too long waisted, or just entirely all together wrong. It was very discouraging. On my way home I wished that the fashion industry had a complaint department that I could call or email and vent my frustrations. Since there isn't one, I guess I'll just post my complaints here and show up at my next meeting wearing jeans and my favorite Aggie game day shirt!

Big Blue

Deweyville Town (where I live) had a pumpkin walk this weekend to raise funds for new playground equipment for the town park. I thought it was a great opportunity to show my Aggie pride so I made this scarecrow for the event.

Governor Herbert

Friday I had the opportunity to go to the Brigham City campus and meet Governor Herbert. He was there for a meeting with people from the community. He spoke for about an hour and then took the time to answer questions. I will say that I was impressed with what he said. I didn't really know a lot about him before, but I think he is going to do a good job. He seemed to be a very genuine, honest person who knows of the people of Utah and will look out for our best interests.

Autumn is here

It is really starting to feel like fall to me. Last weekend we took our kids to Lagoon for Frightmares. My kids love Halloween and this has become somewhat of a tradition for us. My kids are all roller coaster fanatics (I've taught them well!) I regret to say that I am not as young as I used to be. I can no longer keep up with my kids the way I used to. We started the day by being at Lagoon before they opened so that we could ride "Wicked" before the line got long. Once was not enough. I made it through THREE CONSECUTIVE rides on wicked before my head threatened to explode and I was afraid I might see my breakfast again and then I sat out a couple while my kids went on Colossus.
My son and two of his friends took a ride on the "sky coaster." For this ride they strap you into a kind of full body harness, hook you to a cable, pull you way up into outer space and then drop you and let you swing back and forth before they stop you and put you back on solid ground. Now, I love roller coasters, and I like to go fast, and even go upside down but I like to be able to see what is holding me up, so this looked like some sort of insanity to me but he loved it and wants to do it again next year.
We always make a point of going to see a hypnotist act they have that is hilarious. This year my oldest daughter decided (without warning us in advance) that she would be a participant in the show. So, this is how the show works...The hypnotist asks for volunteers who sit on chairs on the stage. He hypnotizes them and then has them do silly things to entertain the audience. This show is usually pretty funny, but this year we really laughed our heads off at my daughter. The hypnotist told her she had just won the MR. America contest and had her strut her stuff on the stage ( pretty funny because she is 5'2" and weighs about 100 lbs.) He also had the entire group of hypnotized participants perform as the "Village People," and then as the famous "butt drummers," and also do an assortment of other funny things.
My favorite ride at Lagoon is the rocket, and I like the "blast-off" side. It is especially fun to do in the dark so you can see all the lights of the park when you get to the top so at the end of the day we rode it one more time and then finished day the way it started...by riding wicked one more time, and I guess you can tell we had a pretty fun day.

Student Advisory Council

One thing that I have learned during the time that I have been involved with student government is how much the people at USU really care about students and their success. These pictures are from a student advisory council that I am participating in. We meet once a month with various administrators to discuss what students like or have concerns about so that they will know best what needs to be changed, improved, continued, etc. It is another way for them to check the pulse of the student population so to speak.

In this picture from l-r, Tiffany Evans (Director of Student Involvement & Leadership Center) Krista Bustamante (Campus Diversity V.P. with ASUSU) James Morales (V.P. of Student Services) and Tyler Haws (Student Advocate V.P. with ASUSU)

This is James Morales who just joined USU as the new V.P. of Student Services this summer. I have spoken with him several times and I am very impressed! I can tell that he genuinely cares about the students here and wants to make a difference for us. He keeps me updated about things going on at the regional campuses that I may not have known about and always has an open door. I have found that he is more than happy to talk to me anytime about anything that is on my mind. Even though he is here in Logan, he is very interested in the other campuses and what he can do for them. I can tell he is already a great addition to USU!

I am definitely not in danger of getting bored this semester. I've been so busy that I haven't had time to post what I've been up to. So here are a couple of pictures showing what I've been doing lately.

Last Friday I took my family with me to the opening social for Psi Chi and the psychology club. As part of this we went and helped with a project that many organizations at USU have been helping with. We helped with the building of a playground at the Whittier Center in Logan. This playground has been built in one week by community volunteers and is unique because it was designed to be accessible and fun for children of all abilities. We had fun participating in this project, and it was neat to see how many people there were wearing their Aggie shirts!

As you can see from this picture, even my hubby had fun.

A week ago we got to be in the Peach Days parade in Brigham City with my friends from the Utah State campus there. My kids love doing this and didn't want to miss out even though all of my classes are in Logan this semester.

This is Clair and McKinzie Hawkins, the student reps from Brigham.

Good cat, bad cat.

Well the bat didn't stay hidden for long. Monday evening we were all sitting at the kitchen table playing a game when we heard an unusual noise that we knew was the bat. We sat quietly to listen for where the sound came from and saw our fearless feline Maui emerge from the basement with the bat in his mouth (GOOD CAT, the bat is no longer loose in the house.) My kids all ran to the bats rescue. My son grabbed the cat; the cat dropped the bat and my son threw the cat into my bedroom and shut the door. Then he locked the the dog in another room to get her out of the way and I ran to grab a pair of gloves. The bat did not seem hurt and began flying in circles around my living room with all of us watching. We were hoping it would land so we could catch it but it didn't appear to have plans of landing anytime soon so we threw a light blanket over it and then carefully picked it up with gloves. It tried to escape and even bit the gloves but fortunately it's teeth were too small to be able to bite through the gloves. We took a couple of pictures, set it loose in our yard and watched it fly up into a tree. When we let the cat out of my bedroom he ran to where the bat had been and sniffed around for his treasure. I think he was mad at us for stealing his fun because when we went back to our game he went and left a puddle for us at the bottom of our stairs...BAD CAT!

Labor Day

A couple of weeks ago we had a pretty good wind storm in Deweyville. A tree in our back yard that had been mostly dead was knocked down but we hadn't had time to deal with it until Labor Day. When my husband was cutting it into logs he discovered that there was a bat sleeping behind a big piece of loose bark. My kids did what any normal kids would do. My son put on a pair of gloves, caught it and put it in an old bird cage. The poor critter was obviously upset to wake up to this predicament and so to calm him down, the kids covered the cage with a towel and put it in a closet in the basement where it was cool and dark. They were planning to look at him later when he calmed down and then release him on the mountain behind our house. After about an hour I decided to go down and take a picture of the bat to put on my blog but guess what...when I took the towel off the bat was gone! We searched the closet but without any luck, so now we have a small bat living IN our house.

First Week of School

This week I earned the right to wear this shirt.
I have actually been a "True Aggie" for a few years, and on Thursday I participated in the annual blood battle between USU and UofU. This is a competition between the two schools to see who could donate the most blood to the Red Cross. Anyone who donated at USU got a blood battle T-shirt. In case you can't read it in the picture, it says "True Aggies Bleed Blue." I must admit that I am not really much for being poked with needles so I was kind of nervous, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected. The girl who took care of me was great. I barely felt a little stick and I couldn't feel the needle at all while I was sitting there, and it only took 4 1/2 minutes to get the unit of blood. In fact from the start of paperwork to the point that they gave me snacks and a T-shirt was less than a half an hour! I won't hesitate to donate again! I haven't heard the results yet, but I think that historically, the Aggies usually win!

Other highlights from my first week of school...

I actually have one more class that I didn't mention yet because it doesn't start until Sept. 1, but it is water aerobics. (to hopefully help make up for all of the hours I spend sitting in class and sitting at home doing homework!)

I like all of my classes and I can tell that I have some pretty entertaining instructors. I think my classes are going to be fun!

A couple of differences between attending at the Brigham Campus and the Logan campus
1. The built in exercise plan, or in other words, long walks between classes (probably good for me now, but will be not so great when the weather gets bad.)
2. Bigger classes, definitely a plus if you like to sleep in class and not be noticed by the instructor, but I will admit that I miss the more personal attention you get in a small class.
3. Parking is not as convenient. I need to plan on 10-15 minutes from where I park to my first class, and it isn't free either, however, it is covered, a fact I know I'll appreciate this winter.
4. Just like USU BC, there are a lot of really nice people who care about me and the educational experience I am having here. Maybe I'll carry around my camera one of these days and introduce you to a few of them!
I think that once I get used to the differences this year will be a great experience for me and I'm ready to dive in and get going!

Camping

This weekend we went camping near Mink Creek Idaho with some of my husbands family. It was perfect weather and we had a lot of fun together.

We picked huckleberries Saturday afternoon and then tried making a pie in a dutch oven with them. The final product wouldn't have won any beauty contests because we didn't have a rolling pin so we used a glass bottle instead, but it was delicious!

My boys love dutch oven cooking and so does my sister-in-law so the food was wonderful. I think I gained at least a couple of pounds over the weekend.

This was a fun end to my summer, but I have to admit that I am having a hard time being enthusiastic about returning to school this semester. I feel like I am missing out on the rest of summer. Not only do my kids not start school until Aug. 31, but the county fair is happening this week and I usually spend a lot of time at the fair with my family. I think that I will feel better about it next week when life begins to settle into the normal school year routine.

So, here is what my class schedule looks like this semester:
Monday- 12:30-1:20 Psy 4950 Undergrad apprenticeship
Tue & Thur - 10:30-11:45 Psy 3510 Social psychology
1:30-2:45 FCHD 2610 Child guidance
3:00-4:15 Geo 3100 Natural disasters
Besides the class schedule, I am involved in research as part of my undergrad apprenticeship class so I will be spending some time on campus working on that, and I have ASUSU meetings on Tuesdays at 5:oo.
I don't get much time at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I am hoping to keep my Wednesdays and Fridays clear so I can stay home and do homework, laundry, cook dinner for my family, etc.

New Student Reps.

This week all of the student reps from the regional campuses met on the Main campus in Logan for training before the new semester begins. I really enjoyed meeting the reps I didn't know already and getting to know each of them better. I am really optimistic and excited about this year. The regional campuses have some very enthusiastic new student reps who have a lot of ideas for their campuses and are really excited to make a difference for their students. I was very impressed with how well the new presidents and their VP's work together. I left the training feeling now only that it had been successful but that I had made a lot of new friends. I look forward to seeing what they accomplish over the next 9 months.

In this picture the student reps are setting up blogs just like this one. I am adding links to all of the new blogs so everyone can check out what is happening at all of the regional campuses.

Road Trip- Uintah Basin

This week I had the opportunity to visit the campuses in Uintah Basin and Salt Lake.
Here are some photos from my trip.

Meet Brian Greene the Student government president for the Uintah Basin campus.
Just kidding this was my favorite model of a dinosaur at the Natural history museum in Vernal,
but the next photo is really the new V.P. Brad Litton performing in a local talent competition that I got to watch while I was there visiting.

This is me with the real Brian Greene who was nice enough to take me on a grand tour of not only the campus but also the city and the new buildings that USU will be sharing with the local technical school.

This is the new Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center that is just being completed. It will be the new home of the Utah State University campus in Vernal and the Uintah Basin Applied Technology College.

This is Dean Wes Holley, I met up with him at his office at the Roosevelt campus.

Touring part of the Uintah Basin campus located in Roosevelt.

Meet Nicole Woodburn. She is the new student rep. for the Wasatch area. I met with her at the Salt Lake Center and judging by this picture, we had too much fun in our meeting!

Vacation

OMAHA NEBRASKA

Last weekend we went to Omaha to bring my youngest daughter home. She spent her summer vacation visiting my sister there. We made the trip into a little family vacation and took the opportunity to do some fun things with our kids in Omaha and along the road home. This picture is taken along the river front in Omaha, that is the Missouri river in the background.

The next few pictures were taken at the Henry Doorly Zoo. We had a lot of fun there especially because we went with my sisters family including her 3 year old daughter and a friends 1 year old. I think my "big" kids had as much fun with the little girls as they did looking at the animals.



This is the Archway museum which is near Kearney Nebraska. It is a history of travel and it appropriately reaches right over I-80 . It begins with the gold rush and the Mormon pioneers and then moves on to the pony express, building the transcontinental railroad, then the construction of the nations interstate system and all of the things that came with it including roadside diners and drive-in movies.

It isn't your typical museum. You wear headphones and as you walk through you hear sounds that make you feel like you are really back in time. Everything in the museum is life sized from replicas of covered wagons and a 49ers camp to a cabin with a screen behind it so that you can watch a Pony express exchange take place through the open doorway and a car with tail fins parked under a movie screen with clips from old movies being shown.

The museum tour ends in this 1950's era diner that has windows that overlook I-80 so you can watch the traffic go by below you. It is definitely worth the stop if you are traveling that way!


We made a couple of short stops to stretch our legs and see an original Pony Express station in Gothenburg, a museum about sod houses, and even the Lincoln memorial near Laramie Wyoming. This buffalo was a novelty we found that is is made entirely of barbed wire.