Aggie Mom

A picture is worth a thousand words so here's a great story!

2010-04-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

Graduation

2010-04-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

*OOPS* I thought I had posted this entry over a week ago but I guess I just saved it instead. So, today I got into my blog to add a new post and discovered what I had done, but I now have a picture to add to it so I guess it works out OK in the end anyway!

Yes, this is me...in 1986. This was also the last time I wore a cap and gown and participated in a graduation ceremony. This week I went to the Grad fair here in Logan and purchased my cap and gown and tassel for graduation. I will be walking in the commencement exercise at the Brigham City Campus on April 16, 2010. Can you tell I'm excited? (FYI, I found it amusing that the care instructions in my graduation gown say 'do not dry clean. Do not wash." I guess they were only intended to be worn once)

Exams

2010-04-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

I had two exams last week and I have two more this week and since I have exams on my mind I thought I would share some of my exam taking strategies with you.
1. Don't cram! It is better to study 15 minutes a day for the week before the test than to spend 3 straight hours studying the night or morning before the exam. I try to start reviewing my notes a week before the exam even if only for a few minutes at a time. If I have more than one exam to study for I alternate, half an hour on one subject and then half an hour on another, and then back to the first subject again.
2. Find a study strategy that works for you. I like to rewrite my notes in my own words. I also like to explain what I am studying to someone else. My hubby gets a lot of psych lectures late at night when I review things in my head before falling asleep. If I can't talk to someone else I pretend I am and talk out loud to myself. Sometimes I read my notes to a voice recorder and then listen to them while I'm driving to and from school. It helps if I can make the information personal or relevant to me also.
3. Don't over-think. when I take a multiple choice exam I like to go fast. I make sure that I am reading each question carefully so that I understand what is being asked and if I have an answer pop into my head I look for that specific word or phrase in the choices. I go with my first thought and don't second guess my gut instinct. I have found with multiple choice exams if have studied I either know the info or I don't. I just go with my gut, because if I know it I will be right, and if I don't I have a 1in 4 (or whatever) chance of guessing it right. If I think about it too much I will probably get it wrong.
4. If I have no idea on a question I may leave it blank and come back to it later, but I never reread my answers once I've marked an answer. If I change an answer I am usually changing from a right answer to a wrong one. When I am finished I just recheck to make sure that I have answered every question; I don't change anything.
These strategies have worked pretty well for me so far. I have a good track record and haven't failed an exam yet :) Only six more exams to go until the end of the semester. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Look what I've got!

2010-03-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

4 SOFT, FLUFFY BUNNIES!

We have a mama rabbit; her name is Usagi which is Japanese for rabbit. She is a mini Holland lop. She lives in a pen in our backyard. Our friends have a mini Rex but they didn't have a very good pen to keep him in for the winter so we invited him to keep company with Usagi for the winter.

About six weeks ago we were pretty sure that the happy couple had babies because Usagi was pulling fur off her sides and belly which meant that she was making a nest for babies. But the parents dug a grand burrow in the rabbit pen and put the babies underground so we couldn't see them...

That is until Tuesday when the mama decided the weather was good enough and the bunnies were big enough that she brought them up and filled in the entrance to the burrow. Now they live in a small dog house in the rabbit yard, except of course when we bring them in the house to hold them.

What a wonderful way to usher in spring and what a wonderful surprise for me to enjoy during spring break!

My favorite professor

2010-03-09T20:29:00.001-08:00

Do you have a favorite professor, or are you someones favorite professor...why?!
(Perhaps I should say instructor instead of professor because some of my favorites have actually been grad students.)
You know the ones I'm talking about, the one that makes you want to take another class just because they teach it. Now, I'm not talking about the one who is really good looking or the one that is so easy on you that you can get an "A" without ever showing up for class although they are out there. I mean the ones who get you excited about the subject they teach, make you want to show up for class and help you really learn the subject matter.
Let me tell you about what makes a great instructor in my opinion. Keep in mind that most of the classes I am taking are in the social sciences area and this might not be realistic for all classes.
I like an instructor who does not just lecture every class period. I like variety. Lectures are fine some of the time but I also like classes with guest speakers. I have watched youtube videos and movie clips that demonstrate what we are talking about. I also have had classes where we got into small groups to discuss an assigned question, classes where students have an assignment to give part of the lecture, and classes where we do a poster presentation and walk around to ask questions of our classmates.
I also like creative assignments. I write a lot of short (3-5 pages) research papers. I like instructors who ask something different of me, such as a poster or a presentation or power point to demonstrate what I have learned.
I enjoy classes that help me see how what I am learning fits in my life. I know the class instruction is sinking into my brain when I start noticing people and things around me that remind me of something that I learned, and when I can see how real life fits with what I am studying.
Of course it never hurts to have an instructor who is entertaining to listen to and makes you laugh occasionally. The perfect instructor will show an interest in me personally. By this I mean they will remember my name when I see them on campus and make me feel like my success in their class matters.
I know this sounds like a tall order but guess what, I have had many instructors who have managed to live up to this. In fact I always have at least one every semester, and this semester I have several.

Appreciation

2010-03-06T20:24:00.000-08:00

Before (June 2009)
and After (Feb 2010)

There is nothing like going without something for a while to make you appreciate it more when you have it again. This is why I have to talk about my living room again. Living in a constant construction project is not fun but is worth it in the end. We are enjoying our new room so much and it isn't even entirely finished yet.When the room was all torn up the kids usually went to their bedrooms when they were home. Now the whole family just hangs out in there and it's so nice to have everyone together. I can't wait to finish the rest of our projects!

He did it!

2010-03-05T19:53:00.000-08:00

The other night I hugged my son before bed and it seemed that her was taller... again!
So, I had him stand up to the wall where I mark my kid's heights. He is now officially taller than his Dad. He passed me over a year ago. Judging by the way he eats I don't think he is done growing yet. Perhaps one of these days his upward trend will slow down a bit and let the rest of him catch up. I am having a hard time finding pants for him because his legs keep getting longer but his waist stays the same. I have mixed emotions about this. Of course as a parent you want your kids to grow up but it's also hard to see it happening so fast. It seems like yesterday he was just a little pipsqueak. Sometimes I miss my cute little boy.

Are we there yet?

2010-02-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

I think the semester is about halfway done.
I am ready; I want to be on the downhill end of my last semester.
I am ready to graduate.
I am ready to spend a summer enjoying my kids without anticipating registering for fall semester.
I am ready to be done taking exams, but mostly I am ready to be finished with the hardest class I have taken yet in my educational career. The class is scientific thinking and methods in psychology. Now, if you are a psych major I don't want to scare you. It is not actually the entire class I am having a hard time with... it's just one big project that I have to do in this class. The teacher is very good. I would recommend him. We do some great in class activities to help us learn concepts we are studying.I feel like I understand things I read in the text and during lectures and class discussions. I even got 96% on the first exam, but my brain seems to shut off every time I try to work on my research proposal project. I have spent many hours, actually many days researching and still my mind is blank. I am reaching the point where I don't care if I get an "A" in the class, I only care that I don't fail so I can graduate and I won't have to take this class again. So I'm counting the days until May 6, the day of my last final!
(According to my count tonight, I have 40 days of classes before finals week.)

Project update

2010-02-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

I finally have a living room. The floor is done and we finished painting Tuesday morning. Well actually it's not entirely finished, but it is livable. I still need molding, curtains, lights, and I need to hang pictures and stuff, but at least I no longer have sawdust on my floor, and I do have furniture. It feels good to have a room again.
Of course you remember that my project expanded into the kitchen and it is not done yet, but having this much done feels wonderful.We had fun picking the colors for the paint. We had a collection of paint samples spread out on the floor along with upholstery samples and laminate samples for the kitchen counter tops so that we could coordinate everything. In the end we ended up with paint colors that are all named for foods. The main neutral color in the living room is called snicker doodle. That color will be in most of the kitchen also. The dark red wall in the living room is called cherry chocolate, and we will be painting one wall in the kitchen a green called hint of olive.
Last night my whole family sat in the living room until way later than we should have because it was so nice to have our room back again.

Psychology of Gender

2010-02-10T20:55:00.000-08:00

I LOVE THIS CLASS!
This is my one elective this semester. After registering for all of the classes I needed to graduate, I still needed 3 more credits. Psychology of gender looked kind of interesting and it fit in my schedule so I decided to give it a try. I look forward to Tuesdays and Thursdays because I get to go to this class.
Let me tell you why:

For one thing, I never know for sure what the class will be like. I like the instructor... it is taught by Camille Odell. (I tried to add a picture, but it didn't work, maybe I'll add one later) There are some lectures, we watch videos, have class discussions, watch interesting stuff from youtube, and have guest speakers and panels. Mixing it up like that makes class more interesting.

Next, the topic is fascinating. I don't think there is anyone over the age of 6 who has never thought, "why do guys (or girls) do that, or think like that." There is always an ongoing debate about the differences between men and women, and what causes the differences. This class is a place to explore those questions. I find myself thinking about the material covered in this class frequently as I go about normal life, or in my other classes. The stuff we talk about in this class seems to apply to everything else, because no matter where you go, you interact with people and gender comes into play.

One other thing I like about the class is that we explore questions that we don't know the answers to, and questions that may not have a right answer, but just opinions. We have writing assignments where we get credit for expressing our thoughts on a given subject instead of having to come up with the right answer. I have to admit that I like getting credit for giving my opinion on things. Sometimes I feel like I have run out of intelligent thoughts, my classes have used them all up, but I never seem to run out of opinions :)

Mediterranean food

2010-01-31T20:05:00.000-08:00

What do you do for fun?
At my house we eat.
We love to try new restaurants, but my hubby loves to cook, so we also try making a lot of different stuff. Last week my youngest daughter was involved in a world's fair at her school and she did a display about Greece. I think this got us thinking about our favorite Greek foods, so we decided to cook a feast of Mediterranean/ Middle Eastern foods. Here is a list of what we had for dinner today.
Hummus -Lebanese national dish made from garbanzo beans, tahini, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice.
Ful - an Egyptian breakfast food made from fava beans, onions, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice.
(both of these are pureed and eaten with pita bread)
Pilafi- Greek lemon rice
Couscous- a tiny round pasta eaten in several Mediterranean countries.
Dolmathes- Greek- grape leaves stuffed with a mixture of meat and rice.
Pastitsio- a Greek baked pasta dish with layers (like lasagna) topped with a bechamel sauce and cheese.
Spanakopita- Greek spinach pie.
Tabouleh- a middle eastern salad made mainly of parsley
Tzatziki sauce- made from yogurt and cucumber- this can be eaten on pita bread or as a sauce for other foods.
Calamata olives and feta cheese.

Pets (part 2)

2010-01-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

Meet our cat Maui. Most of the time I would swear that there is absolutely nothing going on in his head, but he has some rather strange behaviors that I don't understand.
He likes to lick photographs.
He loves to eat honeydew and cantaloupe, and he goes nuts trying to get my make-up remover. If I sit the jar down without the lid on he will lick it.
He also tries very hard to get the lids off of prescription bottles. He once chewed his way into a pill container and we had to take a take a pill away from him. (Is he a druggy?)
He seems to have this innate ability to know who doesn't want him, and he will desperately try to sit on their lap.
He prefers to drink from a running faucet and will sit in the bathroom sink and wait for someone to turn it on.
His favorite place to sleep at night in on someones head.
He is so domesticated that he doesn't know how to eat anything that is not in "kibble" form. This means that if we give him a scrap of meat, or a piece of fish or melon, and it is too big, all he does is lick it. If we want him to eat it we have to cut it into very small pieces.
Maui is my 19 year old daughter's cat and he seems to know this. She is his favorite human. My daughter lives in Herriman but usually comes home on the weekend. I think Maui knows the routine...she is home for a couple of days and then packs her suitcase and leaves again. Maui has a small green beannie frog that he used to carry around when he was younger. He has not touched it for 6 years. Last week my daughter left in the morning and I left for an hour. When I got home I found Maui sitting in the middle of my bed next to his green frog and one of her beannie cats. He had carried them both up from the basement. What was he thinking? This was obviously a deliberate act...something of his, something of hers, both placed where I would see them with him sitting there claiming responsibility. This is one of the reasons why I would like a class on pet psychology!

Pets( part 1)

2010-01-18T18:29:00.000-08:00

I have taken lots of psychology classes over the last few years, and even though I am graduating this spring :] there are still more I wish I had the time to take. There is one class that I would like to take that just doesn't exist at USU. I would like a class on PET PSYCHOLOGY! There are many times I really wonder what in the heck(if anything) is going on in the head of my cat or dog.
I watched the movie "Up" with my daughter last weekend and laughed at the dogs on the movie that wear collars that speak what the dogs are thinking, and wished I had one of those collars for Lucy. I think it might be comical to find out what she is thinking. She still sings for us when we come home, and we have added a few more items to her bag of tricks. She now also "talks" on command. If I say "talk to me" or ask her "do you like popcorn?" She will say what sounds like "num, num, num." She will also stands up on her hind legs and turn in a circle (dancing.)
Lucy loves to play with toys. She has several small beannie animals that she carries around the house. She begs us to throw them so she can play fetch. Her favorite toy is a squeaky bear. She will play fetch with it also but she seems to have a ball carrying it around in her mouth squeaking it or rolling around on the floor with it. I think she might have a sense of humor because she can be a real tease. She will bring a toy to me and touch it to my hand and then pull it away before I can grab it. She will do this several times and then drop the toy at my feet so I can throw it for her. I would love to know what this pup is thinking!

Sundays

2010-01-18T09:22:00.000-08:00

I love Sundays! It's the only day of the week when I don't do any homework.
When my 12 year old was little she hated to take naps, especially on Sundays because everyone else in the family was home and she wanted to do what they were doing. I used to trick her into taking a nap by saying " I am really tired and I can't fall asleep by myself. Will you please come and lay down with me just until I fall asleep. You don't have to take a nap, I just want you to snuggle with me until I fall asleep and then you can get up." Of course she would always fall asleep before I did so she would get a nap also. I still like to take naps on Sunday afternoon and I still say the same thing to her. She giggles and says "noooo, Mom you know I will fall asleep too." But even though she is onto my tricks, she still gives in and curls up on my bed to snuggle with me. There is a certain amount of giggling that goes on before we fall asleep, but we both end up with a good nap in the end. Yesterday she was waiting for me to fall asleep first so she could sneak away and she would whisper " Are you still awake?" I said "Yes, I am, but I will tell you when I fall asleep so you can leave." That started a new round of giggles. As expected, she was the first to fall asleep.

Back to work

2010-01-16T11:46:00.000-08:00

Well one week down and fifteen to go. Although my infant lab does not start until next week, all of my other classes are well under way. I have my first short paper due on Tuesday and have already had one pop quiz. So far I really like all of my classes. I will admit that I am scared of one of my classes...Scientific Thinking and Methods in Psychology, but the instructor seems like he will be pretty good so hopefully I will make it through without completely bombing it. I was also nervous about my Abuse and Neglect class. I was afraid that it would be very upsetting and I would just want to cry through every class. So far so good, but we have mainly just covered historical info and theories so far and we haven't really got into it yet, so I'll let you know how it goes later. I am loving my infancy and early childhood class the instructor is very energetic and enthusiastic and quite entertaining to listen to.
One downside to this semester is that all of my classes are so short! I am used to taking classes at a regional campus where a class will meet once a week for 2 1/2 hours. I miss that. I have classes this semester that meet three times a week for less than an hour each time. It always feels to me like we just got started and the class is over. I feel like I spend as much time hiking across campus as I do sitting in classes.

Ready?

2010-01-04T19:37:00.001-08:00

The new semester is just around the corner and although I don't feel ready to dive into it I know it won't wait for me. I did do a few things to get ready. I have my text books and I submitted my application for grad school. I am not looking forward to driving to Logan 5 days a week in the winter, or walking around in freezing cold weather and maybe snow and slush but I am excited about some of my new classes.
This is what my schedule looks like for spring semester:

M-W-F:
Infancy and early childhood
Health Psychology
Scientific Thinking and Methods in psychology
Abuse and neglect in family context

T-Th:
Infant lab
Psychology of Gender

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

Well, as you can see, I took a break from blogging for a little while. Actually I took a break from everything while I was between semesters, that is everything except working on my house. No, it is still not done, but we have made progress. It all seems to go a lot slower than I would like. My kitchen has a new wall. The electrical in the kitchen is also finished and we have been designing our cabinets. We have also finished the mud in the living room and textured the walls and ceiling and primed them. Someday I will have furniture instead of sawdust in my living room!

Project update

2009-12-13T11:19:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-02T12:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-17T20:52:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-07T17:07:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

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@#$%&

2009-10-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-30T10:16:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-09-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

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.

Road trip...Tooele

2009-07-31T00:12:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned that I love my new position as the regional campus rep? I am just getting started gearing up for the new school year but already I get to do some really cool stuff. One thing I am doing is visiting the regional campuses. I wanted to get to know the student government officers and learn more about each campus and the communities they are located within.
I thought that as long as I got to visit them that I would share some pictures and little tidbits that I learned at each campus.

Today I visited the Tooele campus. It is a beautiful building that is literally growing both in size and enrollment!
You can tell there is plenty of Aggie spirit and pride at this campus. I knew I was in the right place when I turned the corner and saw this 6 foot "A" in front of the campus.
This is V.P. Randi Gamble (L) and President Rachel Anderson with me.
I was very impressed by both of them, they seemed very excited to get involved in student government and I think they will do a great job at the Tooele campus.

Rachel and Randi took me on a tour of the campus that is just nearing the end of a big addition that includes many new state of the art classrooms and new offices for faculty.
Not only is the campus itself growing, but the enrollment is currently increasing by about 20% each year. This campus is a great asset to its community where many working adults are furthering their education along with traditional students.

Check out this fabulous new biology lab!

This is Dean Gary Straquadine who is new to the Tooele campus this year. I enjoyed visiting with him about the campus, the students and community. In my opinion, he is a really nice guy who seems to be genuinely excited and enthusiastic about USU Tooele. I think he will do a great job as the new dean.

This is a tradition at the Tooele campus. Every year they repaint the rock and the students sign it, I think after a few years the paint on this rock will be so thick that the rock will actually grow larger.

So, at the risk of making a really corny pun I'll say this anyway...

USU Tooele rocks!

Summer update

2009-07-28T12:59:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted anything here of a couple of weeks so I thought I'd do an update on what I'm doing this summer.

As you can see, the garden has really taken off... we are now eating, peas, beans, zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers and in a couple more weeks we'll have corn. My son has taken this on as his pet project , he spends a lot of time making sure it is weeded and watered and he's doing a great job.

I realize that it doesn't look like we've made much progress on the living room yet but actually the fact that I'm putting down the sub-floor is a good sign. It means that we have finished working on things under the floor. We ran cable and electrical for more tv jacks and outlets. We also repaired some floor joists that were in sad shape and poored some cement for footings for a project in the future. Now that we have a sub-floor, we can start working on the maple flooring !

And finally...

this is what I've been anxiously checking the mail for every day for the last 10 days. It's the results for the Miller Analogies test that I took at the beginning of July. I've been waiting to see if I did well enough to get into the master's in school counseling program here at USU. I realize that you can't read the writing on this picture (that was actually my intent) but I will say that I am happy to report that my score was good enough to do the trick!!

Research

2009-07-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

This is a training meeting for the research project that I am getting involved with this summer. Emi Sumida is on my right. She is a psychology grad. student who is doing a study looking for a correlation between emotion regulation and depression. On my left is Sara Stevens, she is doing a study that looks at emotion regulation and eating disorders. Because they are both interested in emotion regulation they are working together and I get to be one of their research assistants. This summer we have been doing training meetings. When fall semester starts we will be looking for participants by having psychology students fill out questionnaires. We will then select the students who fit the criteria we need and interview them over the phone. I am so excited to be involved in this project, it's a great opportunity for me to spend my senior year learing more about psychological resaerch. Dr. Stein is overseeing this research and I can tell that everyone on the team is very committed and enthusiastic. I think it will not only be a great learning experience but also a lot of fun.

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

As you know, I live in a small town. I love some of the unique things about living in a small town. Life is just different than in a big city. Our town has several traditions for the 4th of July, and my family and I look forward to the community activities. First, the local scout troup has a fundraiser and cooks breakfast at the park. They make pancakes, bacon, eggs and hash browns. The entire town comes to the pavilion to eat together. Next, at 10:oo the sheriff comes and closes the main road through town and we have a parade. You will never see a parade like this anywhere but a small town. The parade begins at the church in the middle of town and goes north about 1/4 mile where it turns around in front of my house and goes all the way back to the church... so you get to see the entire thing twice. The parade consists of first the cub scouts presenting the flag, followed by the grand marshall ( usually the oldest person or couple in town who hasn't been the grand marshall in the past.) The rest of the parade is made up of anyone in town who wants to be in the parade. There are kids on decorated bikes, four wheelers pulling trailers, kids on horses, tractors, motorcycles, hay wagons loaded with grandchildren and anything else you can imagine. There is always an old fashioned band on a trailer with people playing accordions, a wash board, banjo, etc. It's a small town so there is no regulation against throwing candy so there is always a lot of salt water taffy and tootsie rolls. The funny thing about the parade is that most of the kids in town are in the parade, so the audience in made up almost entirely of adults. The entire thing lasts maybe 15 minutes.

MAT

2009-07-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

This week my youngest daughter is out of town visiting my sister, and my son went to scout camp so my house was pretty quiet. I took advantage of that to get some stuff done for school. On Thursday I took the MAT (Miller Analogy Test.) It was one thing I needed to get done as part of my application for grad school. The test wasn't too terrible. I had one hour to answer 120 questions. the questions are all phrased as analogies. I had been told that it was pretty much impossible to study for this test, but that it was good to do a couple of practice tests to get a feel for how much time you have and familiarize yourself with the diffferent types of analogies that would be on the test. I think that was good advise.
The program I am applying to is the master's of school counseling program here a USU. They require that I get a score of at least the 41st percintile on the test. That unfortunately doesn't mean that I need to get a score of better than 40%. It means that for every hundred people who take the test I must have a better score than 40 of them. From what I understand, scores on standardized tests like this or the ACT or SAT are fairly stable over your lifetime. That means that even though I took the ACT back in 1985, my score on the MAT should be fairly similar to what I got on the ACT. I now have to wait 2-4 weeks before I get my score in the mail.

Zucchini

2009-07-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday we picked and ate the first thing from our gardern this year. (Well, other than strawberries, we've been picking them for a few weeks now.) It was a zucchini of course. By the end of the summer we will be really sick of eating them but at this point in the season we were excited about it. This is our favorite way to eat it. We slice it about 1/4 inch thick, dip the slices in egg and then cracker crumbs and fry them. My kids all love these!

Redneck

2009-06-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

A friend told me yesterday that I'm now officially a redneck. He said that according to Jeff Foxworthy, if any of your furniture came out of a vehicle you are a redneck.

So...there is actually a story behind this. When we started our living room project, we took all of the furniture out of the room. I needed to use my suburban to go and pick up some wood so I took the back seat out. Because it was raining I just sat it in my house intending to put it back in the vehicle after I unloaded the wood. When I came home my kids had put the seat to good use.
Oh, I also decided that I wanted my kitchen and Living room to be more open so I'm opening the doorway between them to about 5 or 6 feet. My son had a lot of fun with the demolition on this wall. I think I'm going to like it, Both rooms already feel bigger and more spacious even with the 2x4's still in place. I'm waiting for my hubby to have time to help me frame up the new opening so that it will actually be done right.
I had to take a break from the project this morning to take a test in my online class. I am having so much fun with my project that I have to remind myself to pay attention to my my schoolwork.

Do you ever get so tired of studying that you just want to do this?

2009-06-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

Just kidding!
I actually only have one class this summer and I am enjoying it.
This is the beginning of another project. I may have mentioned in the past that I live in an old house that needs a lot of work. We decided to tackle the living room this summer. We are really not doing anything major, mostly just cosmetic stuff. In this picture I am tearing out an old flue that is no longer needed. We are planning to texture the ceiling, paint, put up new molding and lights, add a wood burning stove and a glass door into the entry way, and replace the really hideous old carpet with wood flooring.
Here are a couple of "before" pictures and I will follow up this summer with more pictures as the project progresses.

Lucy Sings

2009-06-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

Lucy Lu has a funny trick that we all love. When we come home she greets us by "singing." We are trying to train her to sing on command instead of just when we get home. She hasn't quite caught on yet but we love her songs so much that we'll keep working with her until she gets it. As you can see she has her summer haircut, its not as cute as the usual schnauzer cut but it is much cooler for her and easier for us to keep the burrs out of it

Memorial Day

2009-05-31T16:34:00.000-07:00

We've been working on our projects in my yard and before I started planting I wanted to get a centerpiece for my flower garden but we couldn't decide what it should be. We considered a bird bath, a dwarf ornamental tree, and a few other things. We finally settled on an idea on Memorial day and we planted a flagpole. Well, we transplanted it actually; some friends were taking one out of their yard so we got my hubby's jeep, pulled it out of their yard cement and all, and moved it to my flower bed. I think it is the perfect centerpiece for my flower garden and my front yard. Now I just need to get a flag the right size for it and get my flowers planted!

Vacation

2009-05-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

My hubby and I went on a little vacation with my parents this week. We went to Colorado to take a historic train ride. This old steam engine goes from Durango to Silverton and back through some really beautiful scenery. We rode on the "Silver Vista" train car that has open sides and a glass domed top so that you have a great view in every direction. For part of the trip, you could reach out of one side of the train car and touch the rock face and on the other side you were looking down a steep cliff at the Animas river waaayyyy below.

This vacation included a lot of driving because we took the scenic route all the way there but it was well worth it. The snow is melting and there were numerous waterfalls coming down the sides of the mountains. We made lots of stops along the way to take pictures and admire the beauty. I would highly recommend this trip to anyone old enough to appreciate scenery and not ask "are we there yet?"because this is the kind of trip where the fun is in the travel not in the destination.

Remembering

2009-05-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

Eenie Meenie Maggie Mo
"Maggie"
Nov. 5, 2002 - May 21, 2009

My son's beloved companion for the last 6 1/2 years died last night. We buried her under a mulberry tree in our forest next to her daughter, our beloved Lilly . My son woke up on Christmas morning 2002 to find Maggie sleeping next to him. She has been his devoted friend ever since then, sleeping not on the foot of his bed, but burrowing her way under the covers and snuggling with him. She brought much happiness into our lives. She was a good mommy who didn't mind us holding her pups from the minute they were born, and we enjoyed raising a couple of litters of mini-schnauzers pups with her. She loved to "GO" for walks on the mountain, camping trips, rides in the car, or anywhere her boy was going. She was friends with the cat and the rabbit, and even tolerated the antics of our new puppy. She spent her afternoons watching out the front window for her boy to come home from school and take her for a walk. There will always be an empty place in our window without her at her post.

Summer semester

2009-05-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

This summer I am taking one online class. I am planning to graduate next spring, and with 32 credits remaining I thought it would be good if I took a class this summer to help relieve some of the class load for next year so I am taking psych 5100, history and systems. .
I have enjoyed the little break I had between the end of spring semester and the start of my summer class. After 8 months of classes, reading, writing and exams, I have been enjoying working in my yard.

Last weekend, we cut down 4 trees in our backyard. They were Chinese Elms which are pretty much junk trees that try to populate the area around themselves with more Chinese Elms and also send out suckers around the base of their trunks. We still have 3 or 4 more that we intend to remove. We have some Sycamores and Maples that we will be planting to replacing the elms.
This picture is a doe that has visited our backyard a couple of times this week to munch on the branches we stacked in the back of our yard.

We also planted our garden on Saturday. It doesn't look like much right now, but hopefully later this summer it will be full of corn, peas, beans, tomatoes, beets, carrots, squash, etc.

This is the project that I am starting next, or at least the "before" picture. It is going to be a flower garden in my front yard. I think I have my work cut out for me. Fortunately I have a teenage son who loves working outside with me and is excited to make some improvements to our yard. I'll post more pictures as the project progresses.

My Dancer

2009-05-06T18:21:00.000-07:00

Is this a really cool picture or what?!
This is my 11 year old daughter at a dance competition about two weeks ago. I had been trying to zoom in and get a picture of just her instead of the entire group and as luck would have it, this is what I ended up with.
She dances with Vadels in Tremonton, and they won the sweepstakes trophy for overall best dance studio at this competition. They were awesome that day, and I know they worked hard for it. These girls have put in many, many extra hours practicing over the last couple of months getting ready for the competitions they competed in this year.

I made it!

2009-05-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

Can you hear me sigh with relief?
I took my last final exam of the semester yesterday morning.
This week I had 4 exams and one paper due. That was pretty much all I did this week. When I pulled in my driveway yesterday afternoon, it hit me...relief.
I can't wait to mow my lawn, and clean my house really good, and paint my living room, and maybe be caught up on laundry for a minute, and plant a garden, and read a book (one that's not a text book) and a hundred other things I have planned for the summer.
Over the course of spring semester I figured that I took 12 quizzes, 14 exams, wrote 4 papers, and spent more than 150 hours sitting in classes taking notes, and now I'm ready for a break.

Benefits

2009-04-30T19:54:00.001-07:00

Pretty awesome grades, right?!
Well, I'm not bragging, they're not mine.
This is my sons most recent report card.
When I returned to school I had concerns that my school schedule and homework might have an adverse affect on my kids school performance.
I have been so happy to see that the opposite is actually true. I think that my kids see the importance I place on getting an education and they are learning to do the same. Some nights we sit at the kitchen table and do homework together. My children have grown more responsible. My son who used to require prodding from me now keeps track of his own school work, he does projects ahead of time instead of the night before they are due, and he works very hard to do a good job. He has goals for his future and wants to go to college.
I'm so proud of him and happy that what I am doing is having such a positive influence on my kids!

Goofing around Saturday morning

2009-04-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

I think my kids might have been bored this morning. When I got out of the shower and came into my bedroom this is what I found. My kids assured me that I don't really look anything like this pencil drawing that is wearing my clothes.I hope the clothes fit me better than this too!

Graduation and Earth Fest

2009-04-23T19:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, time flies when you are having fun!
The semester is almost at an end already. Next week is finals week. I have one more class this Friday and then 4 finals and 1 paper due next week to finish things up.
Things have been busy here at the Brigham Campus.
Our Graduation ceremony was held April 17 at Box Elder Middle School. Dean Hubbard was the commencement speaker and the student speakers were Jeremy Barber, our VP, and Morgan Christensen. Vice Provost Ronda Menlove presented the graduates with their diplomas. I've never been to a graduation ceremony before, except when I graduated from high school of course. I was very impressed. I gave me something to look forward to one year from now.
This week the Brigham campus along with the Box Elder News Journal hosted Earth Fest on Wednesday April 21st. We had a fair where families could come and try out an electricity powered bike or scooter, plant some seeds, take home a blue spruce tree seedling, learn about ways to reuse, reduce and recycle, tour the new play garden here on campus, or many other activities. Alpine Gardens presented a couple of workshops on landscaping and water wise gardening. There was even a drawing where we gave away a lot of cool things including a lawn mower, stepping stones, t-shirts, and gift certificates for Alpine Gardens plus a lot of other things other things. We had a pretty good turn out and I think it was a success.

Peacocks

2009-04-11T10:52:00.001-07:00

Look what we found in our backyard this morning...
5 PEACOCKS!
Actually some of them might be peahens, but we don't know how to tell the difference between a young male who doesn't have his fancy tail feathers yet and a female. They have been visiting our yard occasionally for the last week, but they have usually stayed towards the back of our yard in the trees where we can't see them very well. This morning they ventured down right next to our patio and I was able to take these pictures from my kitchen window. I don't have any idea where they came from or who they belong to but we are enjoying watching them when they visit our yard. This morning one of them even spread his tail feathers and strutted around showing off. They spent a couple of hours walking around eating bugs and then stretched out on the lawn in the sun. They seem to be enjoying the spring weather just like I am!

Wednesday

2009-04-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I did an entry on what a day in my life looks like but I thought you'd have to be pretty bored to sit and read that whole thing. So I thought I'd do another "day in my life "entry, but make this one a little easier to follow. I just gave my camera to my kids and told them to take pictures of everything I did all day.

Congratulations!

2009-04-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

I was on the committee that interviewed applicants for the Student Government President and Vice President for next year. We held the interviews on Wednesday and had some really excellent candidates to choose from. I am happy to report our decision...next years president will be Clair Hawkins and the Vice president will be his wife Mckinzie Hawkins. I know that they will do a great job, they are full of enthusiasm and love the Brigham City Campus. So, if you see them at school tell them congratulations! I would say that I am sad to be leaving, but I'm not really leaving. I still have at least another year until I graduate so I will continue to be here on the Brigham Campus as a student, and I am also just moving to another position. Next year I will be the Regional Campus Appointed Representative for the Associated Students at Utah State University. If that title just left you confused then to rephrase in simple English, I will be the person who represents non-traditional and distance education students at the Main campus in Logan. I will be working with ASUSU and the Student Government officers at all of the Regional Campuses. I just found out this week that I had been elected to this position and I am very excited about it. I will enjoy working with Clair, McKinzie, and all of the new Student Government Officers.

Charlie Perkins

2009-03-31T15:47:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday we had a really cool event at the Brigham Campus but I waited until today when I got the pictures back to talk about it on my blog. We had a luncheon to honor a couple of people who have been very great supporters of Utah State University Brigham City. This picture is of me talking to Charlie Perkins. He and his late wife Rae have set up a significant trust fund to establish scholarships for students here. This will provide scholarships for many students for many years to come. I spent some time talking to Mr Perkins who spoke very fondly about his wife and gave me some marriage advise. As a recipient of scholarships that have helped me immensely, I know how much his generosity will be appreciated and how much of a difference it will make in the lives of many.
The other benefactors that were honored at this luncheon were Selma and her late husband Milton P Miller from New York. They have given the old Kmart building to the Utah State University Brigham Campus. Mrs. Miller was not able to travel to the event, but we watched a video tape of a speech where she told the story about how she decided to donate the building. An amazing gesture considering that they were not even from Utah.
In honor of their generosity, one of the buildings on the Brigham Campus has been named the Milton P. Miller Classroom Center and the student lounge has been named the Charles and Rae Perkins lounge.

Best and Worst

2009-03-31T06:50:00.000-07:00

(This is our cat Maui, he has nothing to do with what I am posting on this entry, I just wanted to add a picture and I liked this one.)

The idea for this entry came to me while driving home from school last night at 10:30. I was thinking about what I love about school, but to be fair and balanced I will also tell you what I don't love.
So, the WORST for me is-
Forgetting stuff.
Maybe it's because I am taking 16 credits, or maybe I would have this problem with only 3 credits, who knows. I feel like I am continually trying to cram so much stuff into my head that no matter how hard I try and how much I am interested in what I am learning, a lot of it must be leaking out somewhere. Instead of remember every cool little detail of what I learned, I often feel like I am only left with general ideas...the moral to the story so to speak.
And the BEST part is-
Having a class that I love so much that even at 10:30 at night when I've been sitting in lectures for over 5 hours, I don't want it to end.
I love it when the lecture or discussion is on a topic that fascinates me and gets the wheels turning. I start making connections in my mind with things from this lecture, from other classes, and from my life and it's EXCITING! I have been so impressed with this instructor that I would take another class just because he was teaching it. (don't worry I'm not trying to influence my grade, I'm pretty sure he doesn't follow my blog) I have to admit that I have honestly enjoyed most of the classes that I've taken in the last 3 years, in fact I can only think of one class that I have really, truly, hated. This semester I look forward to Monday nights.

Movie Day

2009-03-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had a movie day at a local theater for a student government sponsored activity. Students had to pick up a ticket on campus in advance and then come to the theater between 4:00 and 5:00 on Saturday. Jeremy, our vice president, and I were at Walker Cinemas to greet students. Because our student body includes both traditional students who would like a date night and non-traditional students with families, we couldn't decide on one movie that we thought everyone would enjoy so we just let them pick any movie that started during that hour and we paid for their tickets. Walker cinemas was great and even gave our students a half price deal on a popcorn and drink combo. We asked students to show their school spirit by wearing their Aggie Blue and it was a lot of fun to see entire families coming in all wearing Aggie T-shirts! We combined our activity with a service project by having our students bring donations of canned food for the local food pantry. We ended up with just over a hundred people attending, and I think the activity was a success.

Spring Break

2009-03-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

You've heard tales of how much fun spring break can be...you go to Florida, Mexico, or even Las Vegas. So, where did I spend my spring break?
In my attic.

No this was not a punishment for some misdeed. I live in a perpetual remodeling project. Our home is old and needs a lot of work, but it was my husband's grandparents' home and it has a great yard and a lot of potential. Unfortunately it doesn't have a lot of storage space, and we have a lot of stuff. So we decided to create storage space in our attic. We installed a drop down ladder, added insulation to the attic and did a little building. We are not done yet, but here are a couple of pictures of the project.

This picture is what the attic looked like before we got started and the next is a part that is almost done.

Crime spree

2009-03-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

Remember that old excuse,"the dog ate my homework?"
well, I have proof...
I've been trying to get ahead on my reading over spring break. Yesterday I had a textbook out, I was sitting on the couch reading and put it down for a few minutes to fold some laundry and look what happened.

The evidence:

The criminal:
BEWARE!
I know she looks sweet and innocent, but she's actually a repeat offender. She has been caught red-handed eating slippers, shoes, a bottle of lotion, a roll of toilet paper, and numerous other items. She has also been convicted of completely destroying two plastic dog food bowls and a small stuffed monkey.

It's downhill from here!

2009-03-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well, we've passed the half-way point in the semester. I have taken 6 exams so far, only 9 more to go. Considering that I have 4 psychology classes I was amazed and pleased to find out that I don't have to write a single research paper this semester. I did have one presentation; it was for my cognitive psychology class. It was due last Wednesday and I am happy to have it over with, but mainly because now I don't have to work on preparing for it any more. I actually kind of like doing presentations...that is, IF I feel like I know the material I need to present.
The timing of spring break is great, right in the middle of the semester. I think it gives everyone a much needed break and time to get caught up if you're behind on anything. I have a million things I want to do during spring break. I have kids with doctor and dentist appointments and I hope to get some work done on my house, get ahead on the reading for my classes, and maybe even get together with some of my friends.

Before and After

2009-02-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

This week I decided that the whole family was looking pretty hairy so I set up a few appointments to see what I could do about it. Several of us ended up looking pretty different from before. Here are some of the results

Before

After

Before

After

And finally, Lucy...Before

After

Club Fair

2009-02-27T19:35:00.000-08:00

This week student government sponsored a club fair.
We scheduled the fair for Tuesday and Wednesday evenings between the two evening classes.
All of the clubs at the Brigham city campus participated. We set up tables in the student lounge of the classroom center and the clubs each had posters to publicize what they are all about and sign up sheets for anyone interested in joining. They were also just there to let our students know about the clubs and answer any questions. I made a poster complete with pictures from past activities to let our students know what student government is all about.
Our campus is growing and changing and I thought that a lot of our students didn't know about the clubs so I hope the fair got the word out to everyone. We currently have the following clubs at the Brigham City campus:
FATE (for engineering students)
IDEA (for parents with children)
LDSSA (for Latter-day Saint students)
and we are in the process of organizing a club for re-entry students.
We had a little bit of a competition between the clubs to see which one could sign up the most new members and the FATE club was the winner.
I'll try and add some pictures later.

Snow Day

2009-02-19T09:23:00.000-08:00

Sunday when I was posting the last entry on my blog I was thinking about how unpredictable the weather can be at this time of the year.
It proved my point on Tuesday.
Because Monday was Presidents Day, all of the Monday classes were moved to Tuesday, which could mess you up if you are not paying attention. I had a meeting at the Brigham City campus at 12:30 on Tuesday so I drove down at noon and then just stayed until my classes which started at 5:15. By the time my last class ended at 10:30 I had about 9 inches of snow on top of my car. With the weather behaving that way I think there may have been at least a few people who looked out their window and said "no, way am I driving to school in this." So the end result for me was that I was the only student who was there in one of my classes . It is actually a fairly small class anyway. (That is one of the things I like about the Brigham City Campus, with small classes you get a lot more personal attention.) So, my favorite teacher this week is Dr. Christopher Johnson who still went ahead and held a class just for me although he could have just gone home at a sane hour and told me to read the chapter in the text book! I actually have two psychology classes this semester with Dr. Johnson who teaches distance education classes from the Snow College Campus. The class of one was really fun, it seemed as much like a conversation as it did a lecture. Thanks, Dr. Johnson!
On the downside, I got home to find that the snowplow had blasted my Suburban so hard that it broke two windows and filled one side of it with snow and glass. I didn't think we were parked too close to the road; we measured it and the plow had to throw the snow 33 feet to hit my Suburban. My Hubby called the County the next morning and I think they are going to pay for the damage.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-15T17:51:00.000-08:00

OK, so I realize that it is not spring yet, but I'm tired of winter so I'm hoping. The weather this time of year is always so strange and unpredictable. I took the following two pictures on Valentines Day, The first in my front yard, the second in my backyard.

These are hyacinths, they are my favorite flowers coming up already. I can't wait until they bloom. They are near my front door and I can smell them from my front porch.

So, I was not a very good Mom for Valentines Day. I didn't get up and make heart shaped pancakes with strawberry syrup for my family for breakfast. I just slept in until 9:00. When I did get up here is what I spent my Valentines day doing:
I watched a movie and tied a baby quilt with my Mom in the morning.
I took my girls and my Mom to see a play at our local high school. It was "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown," and they did a great job of it. I love going to plays, and we had a lot of fun.
For dinner, my hubby made pork chops with a port wine reduction and apple chutney which was really good. He had tried it in a restaurant while on a business trip and recreated it at home for us. At my oldest daughters request we did something we have never done before. We ate on my good china with my nice silver. Up until now they have always been either in storage, or on display in my china cabinet.
I told my hubby I didn't want him to buy me anything for Valentines day so instead he surprised me and while we were at the play he fixed an outlet in my bathroom and ran a new waterline to the ice maker in our freezer so it would work again. I was very pleased and impressed. It was a great Valentines Day gift. He gave me one of his most precious things, he gave up his spare time to do something for me.

I'm back

2009-02-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a while since I added to my blog and if you have been on the edge of your seat watching for news, I'm sorry to keep you waiting (also you really should get a hobby!) My computer got INFECTED! So I haven't had the use of it while it was at the computer doctor being cured. Actually I still don't have it back, which means I can't post any pictures (I'll get it on Monday) but I thought I should add something to my blog so I'm using another computer.

So the semester really feels well under way. In fact I had my first two exams last week and I have another next week. The worst part of taking an exam is after...waiting to get your score back to see how you did. Although honestly I usually have a pretty good feel for how I did. My favorite instructor this week is Heather Chapman who teaches my cognitive psych class because I took my exam on Friday and I had my grade for it on Saturday morning; it made my weekend much more pleasant to not wonder about it.

One day in my life

2009-01-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

Someone asked me to a post about what a typical day for me looks like. They are all pretty different, so I may do this once a month or so just to give you an idea what I do all of the time but here is the first one...Yesterday Wednesday January 21.
6:25 My alarm goes off...I ignored it until 6:40 and then moved from my bed to across the hall where I crawled in with my 11 yr old daughter and snuggled with her for 5 minutes to wake her up. While she got dressed and did her hair I made waffles for her for breakfast and then we ate together.
7:35 Se leaves on the school bus and I have some time before I have to wake my son...he has late start...so I sit down to read a text book and instead I fall asleep.
8:30 I wake my son, feed him waffles and straighten the kitchen while he gets ready for school.
9:30 He leaves on the bus. I try to wake my 18 yr old then sit down at the computer to check my email and see if there is anything I need to do on blackboard then I get my cognitive psych textbook and finish my reading for tonight's class.
10:30 I take a magazine and get in the bathtub.
11:30 I'm out of the tub, semi-dressed, hair done etc and I realize I haven't heard my 18 year old come upstairs yet so I go and wake her again...I guess she didn't sleep any better than I did the night before. I post a discussion question on Blackboard about the reading assignment for my cognitive psych class...that is the assignment for the day and then I talk to my daughter while she does the breakfast dishes. Next I get my business ethics book and sit down to try and finish the reading for that class tonight.
12:45 My friend calls and invites me to come and have lunch at her house so I go across the street. (This is a rare treat that doesn't happen very often, we try and get together but we're both pretty busy and it doesn't work out near as often as we'd like it to.) I go and try the yummy salad she made and then hang out with her talking until our girls get home from school and she has to leave.
3:30 I go home, say Hi to my son who just got home, get my stuff ready for school and head out. I have to go by way of Tremonton to drop something off for a friend and take my daughter and her friend to their dance lessons. My oldest daughter goes to USU with me on Wednesday nights, she has an English class, so I have company for the ride down.
4:45 Student Government meeting.
5:15 Business ethics class... the teacher gets done early and I'm glad because I'm starving so I grab my daughter and we go to Wendy's to get a bite to eat.
8:00 Cognitive psychology...my kids text me to tell me good night during this class, they'll be asleep when I get home (if they do what they were told)
This is what I text to them .. see if you know what it means, they do! "GNSTDLTBBBILU"
9:45 My 11 yr old texts me to say she hurt her pinky finger really bad in dance and she can't sleep because it hurts...Dad can't help because he's asleep. I think she sprained it and text her back telling her to take a Tylenol and put an ice pack on it.
11:00 We finally get home. I sneak into my kids room and kiss them, put the ice pack back in the freezer and get ready for bed.
11:25 I'm finally getting in bed, although I can't fall asleep for over an hour, I'm too wired from my classes...it will be hard to get up at 6:25 in the am.

So, to fill in the missing pieces of how this all works, my Mom picked my daughter up from dance and fed her dinner. My hubby picks her up from my Mom's house when he gets off work. My son feeds himself dinner and then walks to scouts at 7:00 and his scout leader brings him home later. I didn't get to see my hubby today because he left for work at 4:30 before I was up and therefore was out cold when I got home. He will leave early again in the morning so I will not get to see him until Thursday night. I count on the fact that my children are responsible and will do their jobs, take care of the pig and chickens and keep track of the puppy.

Survey Results

2009-01-22T10:09:00.000-08:00

Well,we finally have the survey results counted and here's what our students said:
With 87 people responding, most wanted activities to be on either Friday night or Saturday.
46 people wanted family activities with 37 wanting to get to know other students and 31 wanting to bring a date. ( I know that adds up to more than 87...people could circle more than one if they wanted)
A great majority (73) said they would like to have a movie night at a local theater.
Some other activities that got a lot of interest included bowling and a picnic or cookout.
We also had at least a third of the students respond that they would like to watch a basketball game from the Brigham Campus, have a dance, a blood drive or a community service activity.
So now that we've got some input to work with we'll be planning our activities for this semester.
If you missed out on the survey or would like to help us plan we would love to have you join us at our next student government meeting. We meet every Wednesday in the lounge of the classroom center at 4:45. See you there!

Welcome Week

2009-01-11T17:53:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are at the start of a new semester. I made up a survey to hand out during welcome week to help us plan activities that our students would like. So, we handed out the surveys each night as we welcomed students, directed them to their classes and gave away candy bars. We did get alot of the surveys back and I will be looking at the results this week.
My schedule has changed twice since I originally registered, and I hope it is done changing now because I really like all of my classes. I'm not quite so enthusiastic about the way my classes fit into my week. I am away from home 3 nights a week, Monday Wednesday, and Friday which is hard on my family, but it was the only way I could get all of the classes I needed. So, here is what I'm taking:
Psychometrics
Personality theory
Business ethics
Cognitive psychology
and Adolescent psychology

So, here is something funny that happened to me this week.
Wednesday was my birthday (# 41 if you're wondering) and I spent the whole evening at school. I had two classes, plus I was welcoming students between my classes. I didn't mind, we just celebrated my birthday on Tuesday night instead. My parents came over to my house and brought dinner and gifts, and my hubby even brought me roses. But, back to my story, in between my classes I was talking to another student who said she didn't want to be in class that night and wondered if the instructor would take up the entire class time or would finish early because it was her birthday.I laughed and said "me too!" I think she almost didn't believe me at first. I thought that was a pretty weird coincidence. I mean what are the chances that I meet someone who has the same birthday as I do , and on my birthday too?

New Year

2009-01-11T17:37:00.000-08:00

I started the new year with a huge project...and I don't mean the new semester. My husband had a friend ask him if he had a use for a lot of apples that had been frozen (they knew we had a pig.) He said "you bet"and we became the proud owners of 2500 lbs of apples from a wrecked semi. He called another friend who had a press for making apple juice to see if he wanted to get in on the deal and we spent several days making apple juice. As we were sorting apples and washing them I selected all of the apples that had not frozen and set them aside. Once we were finished with the juice (we got 101 gallons) I began work on the rest of the apples. I had about 4-5 bushel of good apples. Fortunately I have a mud room that isn't heated so in the winter it is about 40 degrees all the time which is perfect for storing apples. My kids and Mom have been helping me and we have been bottling apple pie filling and applesauce. So that is not how I intended to spend my break between semesters but I know we'll enjoy a year of yummy juice, applesauce, and pies, and I am glad we had this opportunity when I did have time to handle it instead of when I'm busy at school and wouldn't have been able to do it.

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

This year for New Years Eve we decided to stay home and have fun with my parents and kids. We broke out the munchies and played some of our favorite games. After we had played Catch Phrase and Guesstures my youngest daughter was reading the names of some of the other games we had out and instead of "Balderdash" she said "Bladderdash." We all had a good laugh at her mistake and then had fun making suggestions about how that game would be played. Our favorite was " 4 desperate people compete in a 100 yard dash to one toilet...one winner and 3 disgraced and embarrassed."

What do you want to be when you grow up?

2008-12-31T11:54:00.000-08:00

When you were a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
Did your goals change as you grew up, or did they stay the same?
When I was in elementary school I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher.
When I was in my early teens I wanted to be a commercial artist.
Both of those ambitions were quickly and easily forgotten. One goal that I always kept was being a mom. That one I did follow through with, although I only have 3 children, not the large family I planned as a child.
When I was a teenager, I had a different ambition. As a looked at women I knew, my Mom, her friends, ladies in my church, I noticed that the ones who were the busiest were also the ones you could count on to get something done. They seemed to be able to do it all. I wanted to be that kind of a person when I grew up.
I'm not sure if I've accomplished that one yet, I'm note exactly sure that is even a realistic goal, but I do know that I like to be busy and involved and I do think that I function well when I'm under pressure. I hope that I've proven I am someone that can be counted on to get things done.
My new career goal, for when I grow up, is to be either #1 an academic adviser at the college level, or as a close 2nd, a high school counselor.
I am now 72 credits towards a bachelors degree in psychology, and then I intend to get a master's degree in school counseling which will lend itself well to either career.
So I guess life sometimes takes some turns we didn't expect, but sometimes a change of direction can be a good thing.

Pup-date

2008-12-31T10:38:00.000-08:00

Remember that sweet little black pup Lucy Lu? Well she has grown and right now I think she is mainly a furry food processor with teeth....LOTS OF TEETH!
I started referring to the little ankle biter as the devil dog, but the kids changed it and we now call her "Lucy-fer. " Her day consists of waking up, eating, chewing on toys, pooping outside,
chewing on dirty socks, pooping inside, chewing on clean socks, chewing on furniture, drinking, chewing on us, sleeping (because her chewing was driving us crazy so we put her in her kennel) chewing on papers she pulled out of the garbage, pooping, bothering the cat, attacking our ankles, trying to play tug-of-war with our pant legs, chewing on anything withing 18 inches of the floor, chewing on my kitchen chair legs, and....well you get the idea. It's a good thing she is so soft and cute or we would have killed her by now. It's actually a miracle that no one has tripped over her and fallen on her smashing her to death yet. I'm trying to be patient because I know, having raised two other schnauzer pups before her, that she will outgrow the chewing phase, and will also eventually be housebroken. Her most redeeming quality at this point is that fact that as her fur grows she is turning out to be curly and soft like our Lilly that we lost. I can't bring myself to have her groomed because her curls are so cute!

Christmas

2008-12-24T19:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my family Christmas party. My two brothers and I and my sister plus spouses and children for a total of 17 people at my parents home for the day. We have a couple of traditions that we all look forward to every year. The first one is not all that unusual but the second is a bit unconventional.
#1 We start our party in the morning and the first activity involves eating Aebelskivers. My Dad's ancestors came from Denmark and this is a bit of a tribute to his heritage. Aebelskivers are a little round cake similar to a donut and traditionally they have a little piece of apple or an almond in the center. When my mom makes them she puts apples in all of them except one and that one has an almond. The person who gets the almond gets to open the first gift.

#2 The second tradition revolves around this old bra box and started about 30 years ago when I was a child. One Christmas my Grandma wrapped a gift for one of her sons-in-law in this box without realizing what the box said. It proved to be a bit embarrassing and funny when they opened it and read the box. Now every year my mom wraps a gift for someone in the bra box. She usually picks an adult and often a man because it seems to be funnier that way. We all look forward to seeing who will get the bra box and what will be in it. Even though we know it will happen every year, we still all clap and cheer and laugh when someone gets it. This year my 14 year old son got the box and it contained a Hollister shirt. I think this may have been some kind of initiation into the adult world of our family.

Well, so far the best money I spent on a Christmas gift this year was the $5. I spent on my lttle 1 yr old nephew Caleb. I got him a little car that looks like the race car on the Disney Cars movie. When you shake the car it makes a noise like an engine starting and revving up. Then when you put it on the floor it drives forward. The car made a noise while he was opening it and his eyes got big. Then when he got the car open and saw what it did he squealed with delight and played with it over and over again, and appeared to be amazed every time it did its thing. I'm glad I have little nieces and nephews because my kids aren't that small any more and there is something fun about having little ones around on Christmas.

Confessions

2008-12-18T23:10:00.000-08:00

Confession #1
I bombed one of my finals...Okay not entirely, I got the lowest grade on any exam so far in my college career. In my defense, I did study, but I also found out the night before the test that someone I'm close to has cancer so I was a bit distracted. (I thankfully did well enough on the rest of the stuff in that class to balance it out though and still meet my goal for the grade I wanted.)
Confession #2
I haven't actually seen my husband since... I'm not sure, I think it was maybe Tuesday night. It's crunch time at Angels for Christmas so I'm spending a lot of time there. When I get home at night he's already asleep, and when I get up in the morning he's already left for work. I do talk to him on the phone once in a while, but I'm starting to miss him. Thanks honey for being supportive and understanding! Only a couple more days!!
Confession #3
I haven't wrapped any gifts for my kids and put them under the tree yet. Yes I have bought some of them, but I still need to finish my shopping and start my wrapping. I usually like to get my Christmas shopping done early, that hasn't happened this year.
Confession #4
I like to go skinny dipping in my hot tub. It's outside in our back yard. It's nice and peaceful late at night when it's dark. If I'm careful, and lucky my neighbors won't see me and laugh!

Well, I feel much better now that I have all of that off my chest, I think I'll go to bed.

Let it snow!

2008-12-17T07:19:00.000-08:00

My son has been watching the morning news while he gets ready for school. He lives to ski in the winter and wants to see the weather report to see if we're going to get more snow. Actually he wants to know if The Canyons is getting any snow.
I on the other hand live in the wrong part of the world. I don't ski. I don't like cold. I only like to look at snow from the inside of a window, and not a car window either. I don't like to spend any amount of time out in it. But, in the right circumstances even I will admit that it is beautiful, and I know that we do need it for the water. Yesterday was one of the snow days I didn't mind. I went up to the main campus for a Christmas luncheon for regional campus and distance education people.
The lunch was held at the Alumni House which is right on campus but from inside you would never know it. It snowed lightly during the event, and looking out the windows, you would swear you were out in the middle of the woods. All you could see was trees and snow.

And, let me give my compliments to the chef!
The food was wonderful. I have had several opportunities to attend events where campus catering provided the food, and I am impressed. Everything was both beautiful and delicious.

The End

2008-12-16T07:37:00.000-08:00

Finals may be over (sigh of relief) but if you're like me the semester doesn't really feel like it's over until you see your final grades.
The waiting part is worse than the studying part of taking finals.
I am still anxiously awaiting one grade.
But, so far so good. I met my goal in my other classes.
Life has not slowed down much though. I am happy to be finished with classes because there is so much to be doing for Angels for Christmas. This Saturday and next Monday are the days that the families will be coming to pick up their gifts so we are very busy shopping, sorting, and wrapping. I have been so impressed with the generosity of this community. It is amazing to see the gifts come flooding in, from clothes shoes and coats, to scooters, mp3 players, bikes, dolls, and even car seats and cribs for babies that need them. I love being involved in this project, seeing all of the gifts pile up on tables, watching youth groups come in and wrap, and knowing that all of the kids in my area will have gifts this Christmas even if their family is going through a tough time.

Finals time

2008-12-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

Contrary to how it might seem, if I haven't posted for a few days, its not because there is nothing going on and I don't have anything to say, its the exact opposite. (You should know that I never run out of things to say!) It actually means that I'm so busy I haven't had time to get on the computer and write it all down. So, here is a quick run-down of what The last few days in my life have been like.
FRIDAY- I went to the main campus for a regional campus representative meeting and while I was in Logan I ran a few errands. I got home about 4:00, changed clothes and checked in with my kids before leaving for the Brigham campus with my Hubby for the staff and faculty Christmas party. The food was done by USU's catering so of course it was wonderful. After the party I had a class at 8:00 and I had to do my final presentation. I actually don't mind doing presentations, I think they are kind of fun, but since I had been running all day I hadn't had time to go over it right before the class so I didn't feel like it was as good as it could have been, but I'm happy it is over with.
SATURDAY: I tried to get a few things done in my house before going to a baby shower for my niece and then leaving for the game in Salt Lake. The game was great even though we didn't win. I was very impressed (and proud) when I saw how many USU fans were in the crowd. We definitely outnumbered and out cheered the BYU fans. I think I'm getting old though. I found that sitting in the student section was a little loud for my liking, my ears were ringing, and I had a headache by the time the game was over.
MONDAY: Finally a day to stay home (mostly) I did laundry and studied for finals all day. Monday night my parents came to my house for a turkey dinner and then we all went shopping together to but gifts for the Angels for Christmas family we adopted. It was great to get all of my kids involved. My 10 yr old especially enjoyed picking things out for the 2 yr old girl in the family. She insisted on being the one to pick out the cute clothes for her and debated for a long time about what kind of toy to get. (the girl had not requested a specific item, just a toy). My daughter ended up deciding that for a little girl, you can't go wrong with a baby doll with blankets and bottles and other accessories.
So for the rest of this week I'll be studying a lot and taking tests, much like everyone else on many campuses. Good luck everyone!!

Angels For Christmas

2008-12-03T19:43:00.001-08:00

Last night I spent the evening at the old Kmart building in Brigham City where we had a group of young women wrapping gifts for Angels for Christmas. I can't wait to get finished with my classes and be able to devote more time to Angels, there is so much that I could be working on there right now and I'm looking forward to getting more involved. The gifts are, thankfully, starting to come in because I think we a pretty close to having 1000 kids to provide gifts for.

And the winner is...

2008-12-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

The little black girl pup!
My daughter finally has her long awaited little schnauzer puppy.
She was 5 weeks old on Monday and the mama dog is tired of feeding the babies so my sister-in-law brought her to us this morning and she's all ours.

My daughter has named this little cutie Lucy Lu and we already love her. She's so tiny and sweet and such a baby still that all she wants to do most of the time is snuggle in someones arms.

Unfortunately I have plenty to do right now other than playing with puppies. Like most students I'm up to my eyeballs in school work this week. I turned in one paper today and now I need to finish the paper and presentation that are due Friday night and immediately jump into studying for finals. One more week and the semester is over...time flies when you are having fun!

Festival Tree

2008-12-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

This afternoon Student Government donated and set up a tree to be sold to benefit the new hospital being built in Tremonton.
The event, which is similar to The Festival of Trees, will be held at the new Calls Country Nursery building in Elwood (9880 North 5300 West ... South of Crossroads)
You can go see the trees and enjoy the entertainment Dec 3- 5 (Wed- Fri) from 1:00 - 8:00.
The admission is $1.00 per person or $5.00 for a family.
There will be a silent auction for the trees that will end Friday at 8:00pm
We didn't have a lot of notice, so it was a fairly quick project to take on. If they do it again next year, it would be fun to plan ahead and get students involved in making some really cool ornaments. Despite only having two weeks notice, I think it turned out pretty good. We decorated it in Aggie Blue, and went with an Angel theme to represent our Angels for Christmas project that we're working on.
It was fun and I'm happy with how it turned out, so now back to working on my project that's due Friday night!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T11:58:00.000-08:00

How was Thanksgiving for everyone? Is the holiday a chance to relax or an opportunity to catch up on school work and study for finals?
For me it was a little bit of both.
We traveled to Twenty-nine Palms California to spend the weekend with my in-laws, but I did spend some time on the internet doing research for a project I'm working on. I also devoted Saturday afternoon to turning a rough draft into a final draft for my FCHD class.
Twenty -nine Palms is about 1 1/2 hours from Palm Springs. It is in the middle of the desert. As we were driving home we found this interesting sight and when I took a picture of it my kids said, "put this on your blog!" I have no idea why this "shoe tree" exists or who started it or why, but it is quite a sight to see out in the middle of no-where.

Angels For Christmas

2008-11-17T20:21:00.000-08:00

Our Angels for Christmas project is now in full swing.
This is what I did for our student government this week...set up the AngelTrees on campus so that our students and faculty can get involved in buying gifts for our angel children. Each angel on the tree represents one gift.
As of this week we have 188 families in our data base. There are probably another 20 or so to enter in, and there is still over a month before Christmas. That translates into about 580 children, or at 5 gifts for each child about 2800 gifts. These gifts will include four items the child needs such as clothing, coat, shoes, etc. The fifth item is the child's "wish."
As I sit and enter this information I feel so blessed that I am in a position to help and buy gifts for some of them, and that I have the means to provide not only the necessities, but so many luxuries of life for my kids. Sometimes reading these applications just about breaks your heart when you see children who need basic necessities of life.
I also appreciated all of the wonderful people who live in my community and are willing to help us. There are companies who buy and wrap gifts for dozens of children, others who donate money, put up an angel tree or a drop box to collect gifts for us. There are also many families and individuals who adopt a child or a family of children and provide the gifts for them. This reminds me what a great community I live in. This project would not be possible without so many generous people who are willing to help. If you would like to help your family get in the Christmas spirit, consider getting involved with "Angels." There are many ways that you could help, and there is a lot of need in our county this year.

New Pup

2008-11-17T19:56:00.000-08:00

As you know if you've been following my blog, my youngest daughter lost her beloved pet Lilly the mini schnauzer a couple of months ago. Well, although Lilly could not truly be replaced, we are getting a new puppy. I know there is a certain amount of insanity here. After all I'm very busy and puppies take a lot of time and attention. Needless to say, my children have all promised to help train the new pup and I have found that bringing a new member into your family just means more love. My wonderful sister in law has two litters of pure-bred mini schnauzers that are 3-4 weeks old right now and has very kindly offered one of them to my daughter, so we went to visit the pup on Sunday afternoon to try and pick one out. With 7 soft, snuggly little pups to pick from it's hard to pick one.

This little girl is my daughters first choice. She's solid black except for the white spot on her chest. I think the deal was sealed when the pup nuzzled her neck and licked her. The rest of the family was impressed with a little boy pup who is called a "phantom" because of his markings (he's the one with the light beard in the first picture above) so watch in December and see which pup we end up with!

I told my sis-in-law that I'd help her try to sell the other 6 pups, so if you know anyone who wants a pup just shoot me an email and I'll send you more pics. I'll even deliver the pup to you when it's old enough if you don't live too far away.

Registration

2008-11-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

From where I stand I can see the end of the semester.
My how time flies when you're having fun!
I have 4 more exams, one research paper and one project/presentation still to go.
I have been anticipating registration for a while now and the moment of truth came this week. I always get excited registering for the next semester but I often have some tricky decisions to make. The predicament I face is not only if I can get the classes I want but also how many evenings will they take me away from my family and can I rearrange my kids schedules to get it all to work? I'm very lucky because my parents live about 7 minutes from my house and are very helpful and supportive. It would either be a lot more difficult or I would have to take twice as long to get my degree if I didn't have the support of my parents, hubby, and kids. So, Ive ended up with 16 credits next semester. I will have classes 3 nights of the week that start at 8:00 and end at 10:30....its a good thing I'm a night person! I will also be going to the Main campus in Logan twice a week during the day.
FYI, I actually counted and the Brigham City Campus is offering over 300 classes next semester, and not only that, but we will have new classrooms, and labs finished for the new semester also. It's cool to see the campus growing and being able to offer more to the local students and the community

Still Having Fun

2008-11-10T06:48:00.001-08:00

Have I mentioned lately how much fun I'm having?
Do you know that feeling you get when you are really excited about something...it starts in your stomach and works its way up, it feels kind of like going down a big hill on a roller coaster except not quite as strong (and it happens when your feet are planted firmly on solid ground)
Think back to Christmas morning when you were a kid, or the day before you are leaving on a fabulous vacation.
Do you know the feeling I'm talking about?
Well, I keep getting that feeling and its because I love what I'm doing. I am excited every day to go to school, I love my classes, and I love all of the cool stuff I get to do with student government and all of the people I get to interact with.

Does anyone remember that game shop back in the 70's where they would put a person in a glass room with money blowing all over and they had a certain amount of time to grab all they could? Well I feel like I'm in that kind of situation. I'm here for a certain amount of time and I am trying to stuff all of the knowledge I can into my head. Sometimes I think I hurry so fast that some of it falls back out while I'm busy collecting more. I don't just mean my classes either, they're great, but also just the people I'm around. I love to watch people, ( sorry if that weirds you out or makes you nervous) I spend a lot of time thinking about why they do the things they do and act the way the do. I am learning ways to improve myself by watching others around me.
I think it is especially fascinating, and enlightening to watch people who are very different from me. If I have a particular weakness, I observe people who are strong in that area and try to learn from them.

As far as things go with my classes, the geology exam turned out great. Thanks to the wonderful world of extra credit I actually got higher than 100% even though I missed several questions...I love it when that happens. I'm happy with the outcomes of both of the exams I took this week also. AND....guess what?! I don't have any exams this week...YEA!!! This means I might have time to work on my research paper for my FCHD class.

Friday morning I went up to the Logan campus. I went to a lunch put on by Psi Chi which is the honor society for psych majors.
http://www.usu.edu/psychology/psichi/
They have agreed to let me be one of them. (I actually did apply to join.) I'd like to know what anyone else out there in cyber-world thinks about honor societies in general. Are they useful or just a waste of time and money? I had one (that will remain un-named) that pursued me so ambitiously that it felt more like I was being chased by a multi-level-marketing maniac. I figured that if they wanted me more than I wanted them that it was probably not worth my time, oh, and they also wanted $75. I joined Psi Chi because they did NOT actively recruit me and I heard membership looks nice on a resume. What do you think?

HOMECOMING

2008-10-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

GO AGGIES!!
I admit that I'm not really a big football fan and I've never been to a USU football game, that is until now. I went to the homecoming game with my family and actually had fun. It was perfect weather and even though the Aggies lost it was a close game. I think we just might go back next weekend and watch another game.
Saturday was also my 17th anniversary and the end of a very busy week. We celebrated homecoming week at the Brigham City Campus with an activity Friday night and a tailgate party before the game Saturday.
Our Friday night activity was at Nelson's Corn Maze in Perry. We had a pretty good turn out of students and their families who came to go through the maze and eat doughnuts and hot chocolate.
One of the highlights of the tailgate party was a man named Charlie Perkins who recently made a huge donation to our campus. It was a privilege to meet him and I noticed that the kids were all drawn to him; he was always surrounded by an assortment of children, especially little girls. I think that kids recognize goodness in a person without even thinking about it. Had I not known anything about Mr.Perkins, I would have known he was a good man by the way the kids were drawn to him.
We left for the game complete with painted faces, foam fingers, pom-poms, t-shirts, mugs stadium blankets, and all kinds of cool stuff donated by USU Community Credit Union who was our sponsor for the tailgate party, so my thanks go out to them for an awesome party! http://www.usuccu.org/
So, that description of my weekend only begins to tell you what my week was like. Besides getting ready for those events, we are already very busy with Angels For Christmas, I spent about 18 hours working on it, and I'm having so much fun with it that I'm probably neglecting other things I should be doing, like studying for the two exams I had this week. Fortunately my marriage and family relations class involves what for me is largely common sense and duplication of things I've learned in other classes, so I was able to get an A on it with only a minimal amount of review right before the class. I guess I'll find out later how I did on my geology exam. I did manage to squeeze in a one hour review session with some other students right before the exam so I hope it helped.

2008-10-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks I've been spending lots of time getting started with
**Angels For Christmas **
which is a huge undertaking, but I'm so excited to be on the committee and be involved with it. Can you think of a better way to get in the Christmas spirit than by spending a couple of months making sure that all of the children in your community will have a good Christmas? This is a great project and not only helps make Christmas a happy occasion for hundreds of kids, but also creates the opportunity for anyone in the community to get involved whether they want to adopt a family and shop for gifts, or buy a single gift for one child. Last year Angels For Christmas provided gifts for over 800 children in Box Elder County. There is something that anyone can do to help out. If I've inspired anyone to want to help now is the time to start thinking about it. We will have a website with more information in about a week, but if anyone has questions now, you can email me.

Vacation

2008-10-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

This week I did something that I usually go to great lengths to avoid doing.....missing classes.
I just had an opportunity I couldn't pass up, so I missed two classes in order to spend 4 days at Lake Powell with my family. To give credit where credit is due, my hubby works at Thompson & Son Cabinet and his boss took us and a couple of other families that work for him to his houseboat, he even provided the boat for water skiing, wave runners, and all of the food(which was wonderful.) We all had a fabulous time. The weather was perfect, 80's during the day and not too cold at night, and the water was 70 degrees

My kids played in the water, made sand castles and mud pies, and tried out the knee board.

I tried unsuccessfully to water ski. Here is the proof, that I tried ...and failed!

We slept up on the deck every night watching the stars and listening to the coyotes. This was one of the funnest vacations that we've had in a couple of years, and as mush as I don't like to miss classes, it was worth it. I even took a couple of pictures of the landscape that I thought would be good examples for my intro to geology class.

Student Appreciation & Mid-term exams

2008-09-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a student appreciation activity. Several of our instructors were sporting aprons and serving Arby-Q sandwiches, chips and drinks. When I saw this coming up on the calendar I asked my adviser what I needed to do to for this activity and she said "it is student appreciation, just show up and be appreciated," so that's what I did. It's kinda cool having your statistics teacher hand you a sandwich instead of an exam right? Plus, my favorite food is anything I didn't have to cook, so they definitely served my favorite.

This week I had my first two midterm exams, I can't believe how fast they snuck (is that a real word?) up on me. My first one was in my geology class, I haven't got my grade yet, but I felt like I did pretty well. My second was in my marriage and family relations class which is my favorite class that I have this semester. We graded the exams in class which was great because I walked out knowing how I did; no waiting and wondering. There are only 8 students in this class, I'm sure that wouldn't be possible with a huge class, but anyway, I'm happy with my grade. Now the next exam will be on Friday Oct 3 in my perception and psychophysics class, I'm a little bit more worried about that exam. I love the class and I'm learning a lot of cool stuff. The instructor is Heather Chapman who is great, you can tell she knows her stuff, and she's a good teacher, so the class is fun and interesting, but there is just sooo much new stuff to learn in so little time, I'm having a hard time getting it all to stay in my head.

Peach Days

2008-09-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

This is me and Jeremy (our VP)

Here are a couple of pictures from USU BC's entry in the annual Peach Days Parade!
Hansen Motors here in Brigham loaned us this really nice truck which we filled with salt water taffy and cute little pip-squeaks from the Little Aggie day care program. Jeremy and I, along with some other students and some of their older children walked along each side of the truck and handed out candy.

We all dressed appropriately in our USU BC shirts and decorated the truck to match. The weather cooperated perfectly and I had a lot of fun.

The best part was seeing how many people watching the parade were wearing USU shirts or hats, and hearing people yell "go Aggies!" as we walked by. I must admit that I was definitely influenced in my candy distribution by anyone who who did this.

Welcome Week

2008-08-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

Here's the best and worst from my first week of the new semester.
BEST:
1- Spending time hanging out at school, passing out calendars, meeting and welcoming students, helping them find their classes, and giving out free USU Brigham City window clings, which as you can see, look awesome in your car window!

2- I always love starting new classes, except for the part where I put all of my assignments for the semester on my calendar (it tends to look a little overwhelming from this end of the semester.) One of the things I love about the Brigham City campus is that the classes are small and I get to know the other students in my classes. This semester I am taking Intro to Geology, Marriage and Family Relationships, and Perception and Psychophysics.

3- As a recipient of a scholarship that I received through the Women's Center and Re-entry Student Center, I had the privilege of attending a reception on the Logan Campus. The reception was held in the Ballroom named for Evan Stevenson who was in attendance at the event. Evan and Jean Stevenson.

It was a really neat experience to hear from speakers who represented recipients, donors, and the people who read the many scholarship applications. According to Patricia Stevens, the Director of the Women's Center, this year there were 71 recipients who received a combined total of $150,000 in scholarships and $25,000 in tuition waivers. As a scholarship recipient it is so great to be able to shake the hands of some of the people who donate money to make the scholarships possible, thank them in person, and hear them tell about their lives. Patricia Stevens said, as a donor speaking to the recipients, "I hope you see yourself in us because we see ourselves in you." I know that this evening is an inspiration to me and I hope to someday be able to give back to the community that is helping me to gain an education and improve myself. http://www.usu.edu/womencenter/ http://www.usu.edu/reentrystudent/
and sadly, the
WORST- Thursday I missed my first student government meeting because of a sad thing that happened at home. While I was at school our two beloved mini-schnauzers got out of our yard and were hit by a car. Maggie came home from the vet after two days with a front leg that is paralyzed, but we lost our beloved Lilly. So here is a tribute in pictures to our silly Lilly the curly schnauzer who brought so much joy and happiness to our family in the last 3 years. She will be very missed by all of us, but especially by my ten year old daughter who loved her the most of all.

Training

2008-08-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

One of the first things I got to do as part of my new position was go to a two day training at the Logan campus for the Student Government Presidents from all of the regional campuses. http://distance.usu.edu/?campuses
This was not only very helpful, but I got to know some great people from the other regional campuses,and it was also lots of fun.
The first thing we did, was to spend the afternoon at the USU Ropes Course. http://ropes.usu.edu/ We had the opportunity to do a lot of fun and challenging activities that were all designed to teach us teamwork and leadership skills. So here are a few pictures...
This is my automatic reaction to looking down for the first time while standing on a log that is suspended about twenty feet in the air.
The objective here was for the two people on the log to hold onto the end of their ropes, meet in the middle, pass each other, trade ropes and continue on to the other end of the log, remember the log is swinging from cables and is suspended 20 ft in the air. (Just for the record, I am afraid of heights!!)
This is how you get down after completing the last objective.
This was a great exercise in cooperation and teamwork that involved two people climbing this swinging ladder made from boards that started about 3 feet apart and progressively got farther apart as you climbed higher. The only way to accomplish it was to work together and help each other. This is Sarah Anderson on the ladder with me.
This is a 40 ft climbing wall, by the smile on my face, I would guess that I am not very far off the ground yet. Here is proof that I actually made it to the top! This is the way down from the top...Totally fun once you convince yourself to jump off the platform.
I don't have any pictures of the scariest activity but it involved climbing a ladder and then a pole to 35 feet in the air where I would stand on a platform roughly the size of a bathroom scale (OK it was actually about 18"wide and 30" long) and then leap into the air and try to grab a trapeze bar that was swinging from a cable. Of course I was in a full body harness and there was no way I could fall, but that fact didn't register to the self-preservation part of my brain that is looking down at how far away the ground is.
So, I don't actually have any proof of this, but I think that one of the objectives in this rope course was to teach us that even when you are scared to death and doubt your own ability to do something, if you will just take the leap and give it your all, you'll find that you've got what it takes.

Background

2008-08-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

I though it would be good to tell you about how I ended up here (in life, at USU, and in Student Government)
First things first. I am considered a "non-traditional student." This means I am not young and fresh out of high school. I decided it was time to continue my education when I was 38 years old. When I was in high school my favorite class (actually, the only class I liked) was psychology, and I always had a goal back in the depths of my mind to return to school and study psychology. When I started here at USU Brigham City, I knew what I wanted to study, but unfortunately, not what I wanted to do with what I learned. Thanks to Susan Williams, an academic advisor, and her Career and Life Planning Class, I was able to explore and research options and do all kinds of fun evaluations that helped my sort out what type of career would work well with my interests, goals, values and job expectations. ( I highly recommend this class for anyone ) http://brighamcity.usu.edu/htm/students/advising
So, in my first two years here at USU Brigham City, I found that I not only loved going to school and learning all kinds of new stuff, but I also loved the school itself, the atmosphere and the people. I wanted to be more involved with the school and the students (probably a good indication that my career choice is a good match for me.) A friend suggested that I should get involved with Student Government and then this summer I was on the schools website and saw the application. The process I went through to get here involved filling out an application and then being interviewed by a committee. Less than a week after my interview I was standing at the front reception area at USU BC, and Jill Rasmussen the director of Student Services walked in and introduced me as this years Student Government President.
My Vice President is Jeremy Barber, who I am sure will be awesome. Plus, the icing on the cake is that this is a scholarship, so not only do I get to do all of this cool stuff, but I also get help paying for school. So I am very excited to dive in and get the school year under way!

Ready, Set, Go

2008-08-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to my life!
This is my first post in what will be a chronicle of my junior year at USU. I am the Student Government President for Utah State University's Brigham City Campus. As part of my responsibilities, I am supposed to keep a blog for the year. This means that if you are following this, you will hear and see a lot about what is going on at the USU Brigham campus, and a little bit about my life in general.