Mega Post 2

A few posts ago, (back in August), I mentioned a few things coming up on the horizon. We did all them and more, so much so that catching up on reading blogs, let alone posting to them, has fallen by the wayside. But fear not! I try to keep up on facebook, with mixed results.

I'd also at this time like to promise pictures to go with the following post at some latter date, but while my intentions are good, I don't see that happening any time soon. Still, if I don't post something, we're likely to forget what we did this year and then our end of the year letter will be lame. So...

AUGUST:
* I finished Team-teaching Psychology of Gender. It was certainly an experience and I'm going to continue to take a break from that one for awhile.
* Nicole and I flew to Connecticut and visited with family then drove up to Toronto for APA. Southwest mislaid my one suitcase with all my clothes in it. It didn't make it to Connecticut by the time we had to leave for Canada and they don't fly to Canada, so we make a detour at the Buffalo airport and picked it up! (Luckily we had already finished doubling back to get a forgotten passport and arrived in Toronto without further incidence).
* I got assigned to teach Psych 111 (Intro to Psych) at BYU and History of Psych at UVU. Fortunately, I've taught both before and have been learning what the minimum prep time needed is. Twice (once in each class) I've prepared for the wrong lesson (i.e. a chapter that I hadn't assigned my student's to read). I was able to teach what they had prepared for, however, so I'm feeling pretty comfortable in my role and ability as a university professor.
* I did end up applying to an internship in Salt Lake. It's with the LDS Church in their research information Division. I didn't even know that we had a Research Information Division until they recruited me! All the research is pretty proprietary, so I get to pull the whole secret agent schtick about not being able to talk about my work, but sometimes I really want to.

September
* Nicole finally got her official raise (with compensation) and began transitioning to replace the assistant director at her work. She gets an office, but she'll probably end up sharing it with someone.
* Nicole also began her monthly weekend travels to Denver/Phoenix for her leadership training (As well as Friday night classrooms).
* We sat in a Leadership class in the MBA program. Nicole found it very difficult to not participate.
* I began my last officially required course for my PhD program. After this, nothin' but Dissertation! (and "fun" classes).
* I began to think about my Dissertation topic. I think I've got one, but explaining it will have to wait for a longer post.
* We went to Logan where I ran the "Top of Utah" marathon. I had a great half time, then the pain overwhelmed me (apparently you need to train on pavement more than once a week, the treadmill won't cut it). I survived, but with such a time that I resolved to run another marathon in November to make up for it.
* We went camping with friends and caught what there is of Utah's autumn in the mountains (a better show than from the valley). I had to leave right from work and thus began the trip in a suit.

October
* I turned 28 and actually started to feel really old. On my bus commute to and from SLC, I'm finding it harder to read and study without becoming nauseous and running has become even more wearying. I also didn't have a big party. Mostly because most of my friends moved away :(
* In fact, although I had registered for the Mesquite marathon in November, I contacted the coordinator and got switched to the half-marathon. Fortunately, out of all our activities, running is the only one that has really suffered, and even that is still going moderately well.
* We also found out about a new TV show, that so far seems good, clean, and funny, it's "White Collar" on USA (we've just watched the first two episodes so far).

November
* The end is in sight! I'll be doing that half marathon on Saturday and then I have a week off from teaching and taking classes. I hope to get all prepped for the end of the semester. I should mention that in addition to 20 hours a week in SLC (plus 6 hours of commuting), teaching at two universities, and taking a few classes, I'm also doing research at BYU's Faculty Center, TAing for another professor, finishing off some qualitative research on health and religious community of immigrants, working with the editor on the next edition of "Taking Sides in Psychology," doing another research project on daily theistic experience, helping organize the division 24 midwinter meeting, and writing abstracts for several presentations for the next year. And some other stuff. Anyway, as I always say (and always get wrong), next semester should be easier.

Did you know she ran marathons?

For those of you who don't know this, Brent is training for a marathon. 26.2 blistering miles. In order to qualify to even run in the Boston marathon, you have to run this distance ridiculously fast, like in about 1/3 of the time it took me to run it in 2007. (I am and will always be proud of my 5 hour 51 minute time. That means I finished.)

But, Wow! Elaine Dalton qualified for Boston, huh? That's kind of cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIrGKB5nRKE

Bequest of wings

She ate and drank the precious words
Her spirit grew robust;
She knew no more that she was poor,
Nor that her frame was dust.
She danced along the dingy days,
And this bequest of wings
Was but a book.
What liberty a loosened spirit brings!

-Emily Dickinson

Mega Post - The Last Month

We've had a full month, rather than post all the events individually, I thought I'd use this post to catch up with everything:
* I got really sick (the flu) for almost two weeks. Sick enough that I didn't even update the blog :( Although I wasn't able to run for that time, I was still able to stay on track with my running goals. I did an 18-mile run last week and a 20 mile run this past Thursday, so I should be on track for the Marathon on 19 September :) (also National Talk Like a Pirate Day).
* Nicole finished all her work for her Bachelor's Degree. She can be seen here celebrating with the steam cleaner she picked as a reward for finishing all her classes. I call this picture "dualing vacuums." (She also got a bread maker, but we don't have any pictures of that).
* We found some great deals for trips to Ireland and ended up getting tickets! We're going next April with my Mom and Nicole's best friend, Marie.
* Another product that Nicole just had to have is called the defurminator (yeah, I know). It actually did work as advertised, as seen in the picture below. All that white stuff on the lawn is just some of the fur that was defirminated off Gabe. As you can see, it's totals more mass then Teddy (the little dog). Nicole also got Gabe a shock collar on account of the police visit in the middle of the night, but that's another story.

* This month saw a lot of activity on various DYI and home improvement projects. We decided if we keep going to Home Depot, we'll need a bigger car; you can only fit so much into a Corolla. We'll post some before and after pictures later, but we've 1) had a new roof put on the garage 2) new window put in the living room and bedrooms 3) initial painting done in the future "super-office" 3) Nicole repaired the sprinklers and 4) the swamp cooler 5) We're planning a new granite counter-top for the bathroom 6) actually, that's it, but isn't that enough for one month?
* We have continued to eat. I've continued to cook and try and be creative. Here's "Love with a side of meatballs":

* Nicole's also regularly been attending a weekly seminar in Salt Lake.

* In the midst of the defending of the thesis and the finishing of degrees and working full time jobs and home projects and running and eating, we also took the chance to take a long weekend in Cedar. We went camping in the mountains and hiked the beautiful Zion's narrows. Here's the pictures:

Pretty beautiful, huh? We also finished reading a book together (it only took about 8 months) so it was a nice break.

*Oh and we bought a car:

We're thinking of names. Here are the top contenters, place your vote or suggest a new one: Magnum, Prometheus, Remington (Steele), Craigen.

So anyway, that's our been our month. Up next: I'll wrap up teaching the Gender class and start teaching History at UVU and some other class at BYU. Nicole starts a Leadership training seminar. We go to Canada, New York and Connecticut and register our new car. Oh and I might apply for an internship in Salt Lake.

(Sore) Green Thumb

We finally got around to buying AND planting some roses for our front yard. We have two "Golden Unicorns" (GU) Three "Kings Randsoms" (KR) a mystery red rose bush (MRR) and a white climber (WC).

We named them:
Dreamweaver (GU)
Moonshadow (GU)
Oberon (KR)
d'Artagnan (WC)
Randor (KR)
Kyrie Eleison (MRR)

Théoden (KR)

We have another white climber in the back, but we don't have a name yet, feel free to post suggestions.

Weighter Matters

I've posted about reaching my weight goal (215 lbs for a month), but in the month or so since then, the lbs. have started inching up again (and my waist has begun to centimeter out again). Partly this was because of a sever foot injury (requiring my first X-rays!) preventing me from running for awhile, but mostly it was just not having a goal.



It was hard thinking of another sufficiently motivating goal, the Wii was a really good one (even if I never have time to play) and I struggled to come up with something else that would entice me to drop another 20-25 lbs or so (5-10 of those being ones I had already lost this year). Then I had it. I'm going to run a marathon!



I know, suffering both mind and body for 4-6 hours doesn't sound like much of a reward for getting in shape, especially when compared to a Wii (note how there's no "Wii Marathon" game), but I know myself and a little reverse psychology* is just what I need right now. The other thing I need is support. I have my eye on the Logan Marathon in September which does give much time for dilly-dallying as they say. If I tell a lot of people, especially in writing, like now, then that'll help motivate me, because you all can keep me honest. So if you chat with me before September, ask how the training's going. The first two weeks have been impressive, although my 10 mile run yesterday was more of a shuffle, still I'm getting faster and more consistent in my running.



*I'm also using some regular old psychology to buy myself some books on Amazon a certain running sub-goals.

Surprised by surprise

There's one thing you should know about my dear sweet wonderful wife. She cannot, for the life of her, pull of a surprise. She's horrible at being sneaky and inevitably drops hints and teases that give things away. Contrast this with my family growing up. One summer day my mom and aunt tell me and my brothers "Let's go to the beach." We all piled in the car, but two hours later we were still on the highway... "Oh, we're going to a different beach than usual," they said (we could reach the beach in an hour and a half from our house normally).



About halfway down the New Jersey Turnpike, they put in a tape that had been put together by a DJ my Aunt knew. It played songs specially dedicated to the family (like "Put Me in Coach" for Seth) and announced the weather plan for Florida... we were going to Disney for two weeks.*



Anyway... Back to Nicole. While I delight in surprising her, she's really more of a "open the presents when you get them and sneak a peak into the kitchen when I'm making a special meal" kind of girl.



So when she surprised me on Wednesday... I was really surprised. Without me suspecting a single thing, she organized a large (and well attended) party to celebrate my thesis defense. We had planned on spending a few hours together that night since she would be out of town for the next four days and I let her plan the date. She brought me to BYU's Museum of Art, but after 10 minutes it closed (there were some really interesting pieces on display too, including the I-Spy guy's stuff). Nicole was believably disappointed that her plan was cut short and we went home to regroup. That's when over a dozen of my friends shouted surprise. In the 15 minutes or so that we had been gone, they had put up decorations, got a stack of pizzas, and set up a chocolate fondue.



So props to Nicole, for a great party and an amazingly successful surprise. While this was a real accomplishment for her (keeping a secret), I don't think it's let to a permanent change. As she put it later, "Lying is hard!"



*Now mine is also a family of planning, another trip we took had weekly family planning meetings for a year with us kids managing the "Vacation Fund" and having a vote as to hotels and destinations.

Masters of the University

Unfortunately, this post is not about He-Man and his Masters of the Universe. However, I did recently hear a fantastic orchestral version of the He-Man and She-Ra themes on youtube that no 80's child should go without watching: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFM95w4CXT0

No, this post is to announce the completion of my first two years of Grad school through the successful defense of my thesis. My mentor said "That was the least scathed I've ever seen anyone get through the defense." This despite one of the committee members threatening to bring barbecue sauce to roast me...

If it weren't for Matthew 10:10* I bet M.S.'s would insist on being called Master like PhD's insist on being called Doctor.

*My birthday's actually on 10/10... I'm sure there's a message in there for me somewhere, but who knows what it could be...

Nicole's Prom

Moving away from home at 16 Nicole never got the opportunity to goto Prom. Hearing her talk about the kinds of kids in her high school, that was probably a good thing. Anyway, when the opportunity to attend a Charity Dinner Gala thing came up, she went all out. She had her nails done, colored her hair, bought a dress, and got "all gussied up." We had a good time and even got some pictures:

Wii Weight!

So, last year, despite diet attempts, my weight was topping out at 250-260. I have pictures, but I won't post them. You're welcome. After Thanksgiving I decided to set a goal and get a big prize if I obtained it. The conditions were that I had to get to 215 lbs and stay there for at least a month. Long story short, I did it! Here's a picture of me, sucking it in to symbolically show how much I'd lost, about to open my prize... what could it be???

My sweetie made a big deal of my accomplishment and threw a party with all of my balloon friends shown above (it was an inpromptu party and my real live friends weren't able to make it, so we named the balloons after them, see if you can identify yours!). Nicole even got me candles and put them on (low-fat) ice-cream (see below). For those of you who are terribly observant, you might ask if they ran out of 2's at the store. The answer's "no" we just usually only pay attention to the last two digits of my weight and Nicole's used to her own weight range being in the hundreds... Bless her heart.

Look! It's a Wii! My next goal is to finish my thesis so I can have time to actually play it!

Safe and Smart Family!

Seth's back from Ghana! He brought us a cool statue that wel'll have to post soon. We had fun the day he got back, despite him being really really really really sick still (and over a week later, he's still real sick). But sick or not, we got him back and he's still alive, although given that someone in Africa suggested he should go intern in Iraq, we'll see how true that is at the end of the summer. With that possible (him going to Iraq) and his twin brother wanting to buy a (real) sports car, my Mom called me and said I was the family's last hope to be safe and smart and to just stay in school and work on my degree. For that I have to say "Mission Accomplished" in the same sense as the former administration used the term: I have, just this weekend, finished the substantive work on my thesis!!! Now's it just off to my chair and my committee and all get a (nother) degree! I've allready done my course work for both my MS and PhD so the next two years of school should be must less intense.

Nicole's Mother's Day

Nicole had to work on Mother's Day, so she got her Breakfast in bed the next day. Out of respect for her we are displaying a picture that does not include a head shot at 5 am.

Note the heart-shaped toast... that's love!

Inspiration-- What about now

Don't bother with feeling guilty. Let this inspire you to make a difference for someone today. I am inspired by someone who I know (I won't mention names. She tends to get embarassed.) who wants to "adopt" my sister and my best friend as nieces so she can be a contribution and make a difference in thier lives. What a way to reach out! I love it!! 

What about now?

Dueling Dogs, J-Dawgs, and Seth

My father came up last weekend and brought his little black lab. I say little because she's less than half the size of Gabe. I had always considered her a bigger dog, especially compared to mutts like Teddy (I'm sure there's a picture of him in some older post, but he's smaller than our cat). I guess I'll need to redefine "big dog." They got along great and here's a shot of them sharing a chew toy. We tried to video tape it, but only got 10 minutes of four adults trying to encourage them to play, which, of course, they did, as soon as we turned off the recorder.

Nicole and I also took our father's to J-dawg's -- a must see for anyone passing through Provo. Just a few feet off campus (that's a faculty parking lot behind them), they sell the yummiest Polish hot dogs. For a witness, this shot shows a wrap around line of dozens of people standing in line for to get a hot dog from a shack. There's several other (less crowded) restaurants right outside this shot...

These are grins of anticipation...

With stomachs full, we were ready to send off my brother, Seth. Seth is going to Ghana for two weeks to do some kind of thing with his Public Managment Major. This is him leaving our house. It was the last I've seen of him... *

*He has since emailed and said that he's loving it.

Still Alive

I recently ran the Provo City Half-marathon.

It was less than 30 degrees the entire time.

It snowed.

It's suppose to be Spring. The two days before were balmy, shorts wheather, but for the first time in my life, I ran without taking off my windbreaker/warm-up thingie (thus concealing the Awesome number I was assigned (123).

I hadn't really gone more than 4 or 5 miles in any of my preps, and that was in the basement, on my treadmill, watching TV shows.

It (nearly) killed me, but I tried to but on a good show for the camera. It almost looks like I'm having a good time in this shot. It almost looks like I'm running too, but niether was strictly true...

Just one Lollipop...

Well, a blowpop.

I figure if you only lick it, you don't gain the calories...

I also have one that makes your tongue turn red, but, I mean, what's the point.

What to post about this week?

So, sometimes we think our life is kindof boring... I think part of the problem is that we can't find the camera, and we hate to post without pictures, but for now, this is some of what we've been up to:

1. Of course, Gabriel keeps us busy. He figured out he is big enough to get over the fence into the neighbor's yard... Haven't quite solved that problem, although he stopped doing it for now at least.

2. I have beautiful mystery color tulips popping up all over the yard. Some open up to reveal ruby red, some orange, and the newest one is different stripes of brilliant yellow. The poor ones in the back yard are pretty beat up by the Gabe traffic, but they are surviving so far. At least he doesn't eat them.

(Side note--things Gabe has eaten: water hose, PVC pipe, firewood, water pump for the backyard waterfall, his name tags, dad's bicycle electronic flashing light (with batteries), the foot-cushion for our inversion table, cardboard boxes, comic books, a screen from the basement window including the frame, several plastic bins, a frisbee, the cat's scratching pad, and recently my black flats--his first ingested shoe. Yes, we do feed him, and he now has at least 5 surviving doggie chew toys available to him at all times.)  

3. Also in the gardening venue, we were lucky enough to buy a house with an apple tree (see The TMM blog about thier newly planted fruit trees to really appreciate this.) We also have 'choke cherries' in the back yard, and our first fall, we figured the puny little green apples looked about as appetizing as "choke cherries" sound. Very late last fall, I decided to try one. Brent yelled "EW!! That's been on the GROUND!!!" When I picked it up, wiped it off and took my first bite of the most sugary, delicious apples I have ever tasted. Since then I had aspirations to prune the tree and 'dig about it' (we'll let Gabe do the dunging), and hopefully have a healthier harvest this year. Dad finally helped me trim it down to size several weeks ago, and I'm hopeful that it will be much healthier this year.  

4. Brent is now on facebook, and he LOVES it! I never figured him for a facebook junkie. He takes quizzes all the time and made up his own the other day, "The Ontology Quiz." Wow. Soooo Brent! He is also fairly addicted to "Bejeweled Blitz." Apparently all his buddies in the Master's Program compete on facebook. He was the champ until the semester ended, but now he has some competition. 

5. Nicole's internet game of choice is sudoku. Actually it's the only internet game I've ever been really into. I started out with a book--a gift from my in-laws, but now I will hardly play it except online. I like being able to check and see if I've messed up anything. My favorite website has all kinds of great features, including pages that teach you expert sudoku moves, and if you get stuck in a puzzle, it will offer you hints to help you solve the next number. I can solve most puzzles in 10 minutes, plus 10 more if I enter the initial options myself (I usually have the site do it automatically). It really gets my mind off of anything I'm worried about, and helps me relax.

We will post pictures soon! 

Susan Boyle, Britain's Got Talent

WOW!!! She is an inspiration to all of us that need to just stand up and go for our dreams! 

Go Susan, GO!!! (Click here to see the video that shocked the world.)

Thanks for Voting!!

As many of you know, my incredible mother-in-law won an opportunity to compete on a filmed cook-off in New York, thanks to votes from viewers like you. :)
Here is the link to the video of the competition.

Check out this bit of sunshine :)

It's about Love

Brent and I are searching for a miracle, the miracle of adoption. 

Visit www.itsaboutlove.org to learn more about adoption & lds adoption services.

A Tribute to Mother-in-Laws

Mother-in-laws generally get a bad rap, especially when the husband is a momma's boy. Brent is a Momma's boy. He and his mom are VERY tight. Before we got married I'm pretty sure they spoke on the phone at least daily, which is, let's just say, a little more frequent than I call my family.

At first, I didn't quite know what to make of it. It seemed that Brent's mom had a lot of sway in his decisions, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that... mostly because I'm headstrong and independent and just naturally expected everyone else to be the same way. But, Brent is different. He listens and considers. He seeks advice from people who are wise. He surrounds himself with people who are good and allows them to influence him.

Alas, not only did I find my mother-in-law gave good advice, but she practically always gave MY advice. More than once when Brent and I were together and he was on the phone with her, she and I would say the same thing at the same time, then he would respond, then we would respond... I mean for a whole conversation! Sometimes it was just a little creepy just HOW on the same wavelength we were.

She does have more experience and wisdom to offer than I do on many subjects. She is frank and unabashed and like I am, opinionated but open and not easily offended. To have her as my mother has been one of the most (there are many) wonderful things about my marriage. My Dad always said, choose your inlaws, then choose your spouse (He has great respect for my maternal grandparents). I did not know Lori when I fell in love with Brent, but I feel like I've known her as long as I've known myself.

AND there is more! My husband came from a house full of mothers. Auntie Karen and Meme (Grandma) were also like mothers to him, and then there is Auntie Lisa, who supported Brent by letting him live with her all through college, and Tammy. Tammy especially has been a wonderful friend and mom to us. She is so generous to us in every way, sometimes I don't know how to take it. Most of the furniture in our home came from Dad and Tammy. She is absolutely talented at picking out just the right gift for someone. She has opened up thier home to us, so we feel like we can go home for a break whenever we can get away.

I just have to give a little extra shout out here to AK (Auntie Karen). She put a TON of work into helping make our wedding reception the most incredible I have ever attended. She sent us home after Christmas with a huge box of toys for our kids (which, most of you know, we are still waiting for). And, my favorite AK story, she planned weeks ahead to take me shopping one day, for the whole day, so I got off work, and was ready at 7 AM when she picked me up so we could drive up to this "new dollar store west of Salt Lake." She drove right to the airport and announced that we were flying to Las Angeles for the day to go shopping and Disney Pin trading! It was one of the biggest surprises of my life! It was awesome! These are just a few examples...

Basically, I am totally sold on the idea of mother-in-laws. I am tremendously grateful for mine!

Creative Cookin'

Now that my Mom's Meatballs won her a trip to NYC (and a thanks to all who voted!) I thought I was entitled to show that the food magic does not skip a generation:

(We made the meatballs, but I didn't get to take a picture before they were all eaten

Here's a very yummy 5 layer dip that I don't remember how I made:

But more importantly, last week I made, for the very first time, Mulligatawny!

A bit of history: The British conquered the world. India didn't have soup. On of the ruling British Rajs though that this was too bad and made them add one to the menu. The result was Mulligatawny, an Anglization of the Indian words for "Pepper Water" - sounds good already! I'm not sure if this makes it a UK dish or an Indian dish, but I've seen it from both. (I think it's similar to chop suey in this regard)

Anyway, never having made it, I scoured the internet for recipes. There's not much consistency, although almost all of them had potatoes and cumin. So here's what I did:

Ingredients:

A Large Mixing Bowl Filled with Potatoes (peeled, and cut up)An Apple, prepared the same way as the potatoes

3 Small Onions and One big one

A few Green Onions

A few short stocks of celery sliced finely

3 thingies of garlic (you know the big things with all the little pod things on them) finely chopped)

Half a stick of butter, melted

Some Sesame Oil

Can of tomato soup

Bunch of cumin

Bunch of curry powder
Lots and Lots of Pepper (I used freshly ground black, white, pink and green as well as not-so-fresh crushed red pepper)

Some chicken bullion

2 cans evaporated milk

Most of the spices in your cupboard (see photo)

Nuts (crushed)

Diced green peppers

Some carrots

Directions:

Take the chopped oninons, chopped white parts of the green onions, diced green peppers, chopped garlic and finely sliced celery and sautate in some pans using the melted butter and/or sesame see oil. Throw some of the spices in as you sautate, like the cloves. I recommend watching youtube videoes while chopping, it can take a while...

In a big pot, boil the apple and potatoes that are already cubed and diced up in just enough water to cover them. Add some carrots also sliced and diced finely. Add a few more of the spices at this time (good time for chili powder and some cumin). Combine with the sautated mixture from the last step and continue to simmer. Add most of the rest of the spices (most especially the pepper and curry). Get a potato masher and use it to stir. When the potatoes are soft enough, start mashing them a little bit as you stir. (Most online recipies called for blening or pureeing but that sounded a lot harder...). The mixture should be kinda green at this point. Go ahead and add the tomato soup now and continue the simmer and mash...

OK, the hard part is crushing some peanuts. I used a garlic smasher and my fists, but I hear there's an easier way. By now the mixture should be mashed enough that you don't have any definative chunks that can be identified (i.e. a piece of potato). Add the milk which turns the green mixture into a much prettier, whiter green/yellow (see picture). Add the nuts, probably a little more cumin and the chicken bullion cubes. Continue to stir/mash, becasue this is such a thick soup, be careful that the bottom isn't burning...

Add anything else that was on the ingrediant list or that you think would be good... a little parsley, some Italian seasonings or oregeno, but not too much. Oh and cinnamon. That's important, a good bit of cinnamon.

If you've reduced it too much, you can add some more water too. The end result should be one of the thickest soups you've ever had, but still more running then really running mashed potatoes.

Finally, serve in some nice oriental bowls your mom got you and sprikle the green part of the chopped green onions on top. It goes well with fragrent yellow rice. I also cut up a grinder (sub) into a circle as back up (see picture below).

Viola! It was so good that Randy (torso, left) said "I don't like curry or potato soups, but this is great, I want the recipe!" (and then he had seconds). And so, here it is. Bon Apetite.

My best desktop ever

This is a thumbnail of my new desktop background. I love it to death (that's me in the bottom right and Nicole in the tower).

It was specially made by the incomperable Heather Dixon, shown in the picture below on the left (the person, not the cat). Nicole (on the right) comissioned it for a present and it's the bestest ever!

MMMM Mother's Meatballs

Really, who wouldn't want someone as nice as my mother to win a trip to NYC to show off her mad cullinary skills.

http://quickfire.bravotv.com/quickfire/viewall.php

Hers are the cranberry meatballs. Pass it on (especially those of you with big email lists).

To quote Al Capone, "Vote Early, Vote Often"

(you can vote once per day, per email address and browser cookie)

My Bachelor's Degree

A most embarassing fact about me: I started college in 1998. I have been a full time student most of the time since then, taking only a few semester's off. I am still technically working on my Bacchelor's Degree.
I majored in Elementary Education (for a brief time dual majored with Special Ed) at Utah State University for 3 year, then for 2 1/2 years at BYU. I felt inspired to get my Associate of Nursing, Registered Nurse when Brent and I decided to get married in 2005, and finished that degree at the end of 2007.
I like school, and don't regret any of my educational opportunities and experiences. I love nursing much more than I expected I would, and I find it a rewarding career, spiritually, relationally and financially. I work at a high school/ residential treatment center, and have many opportunities for teaching and mentoring through my work.

Still, since my days at USU, I have always been interested in national educational policies, and educational philosophies-- specifically figuring out and applying educational ideas that actually work. With this interest in mind, and inspired by my hero in the educational community and mentor at BYU, Buddy Richards, I am considering a new graduate program through BYU in Educational Reasearch, Measurement and Evaluation. You can't apply to a graduate program unless you have a Bachelor's Degree.

After evaluating a number of options, I felt that the BYU Bachelor of General Studies Program would provide the flexibility I needed to complete my Bachelor's degree with a Psychology Emphasis. That is what I'm working on now. I finished my first couple of classes in a couple of months. But, then I dove into statistics. OUCH!! I knew that statistics online would be hard, but I still got bogged down in some issues, not the least of which was the professor's refusal to give any feedback or help me to understand what I did wrong on the second exam....

Anyway, I am now, after about 3 months, finally about to take the final exam and finish the course. I only have 4 more classes after this to graduate. I had planned on April, but I'm now aiming for August.

I don't know exactly what is next for me in my education after I finish this degree. I feel that I'll have a lot of options. I definitely see a lot of potential with my current employer, provided Brent's career options after graduation keep us in Utah. They have been more than good to me, and I feel like I can make a difference there.

Of course, we don't know how starting our family will impact our future. Certainly our goal is for us to be the full time parents of our children. Due to Brent's encouragement, I'm no longer convinced that that will mean that one of us doesn't make outside of the home contributions to the world, but certainly it will mean that our family will be our first priority and that we will raise our kids-- not daycare or someone else.*

So, hopefully in August, you will all be seeing graduation pictures for me and for Brent! Yipeee!!!!

* This is not meant to offend anyone, but to express our own commitment to a personal value-- what it means to us to be parents. To us it is a complete commitment, and obligation that cannot be passed on to anyone else.

TV 2: Shows

Last post I blogged about TV sets. Least any of you are worried that Nicole and I are falling too far behind the popular culture trend and therefore won't invite us over for pizza and a movie, I want to emphasize that we do watch TV shows and movies. We just don't watch them on TV. And, perhaps more to the point, we never sit in front of a TV set and click through the channels to see if there's something on.* All our TV show watching is pre-planned.** There are several shows that we enjoy and might even recommend, and in that spirit, I present



Our Top Ten TV shows***:

Monk: One of the shows we watched when we were dating. It's on USA network, Fridays at 9 but we just watch the DVDs. It is also avaiable at http://hulu.com/ which is a great service all around. We've got most of the rest of my family hooked on this one, it's a keeper. The show will start its 8th and final season this summer, (the title character likes things to be even).
>Premise: Monk is a former homicide dective whose OCD and multiple phobic personality symtoms increased to the point of incapacitation after his wife's death. Somewhat recovered he now serves as an "eccentric" consultant to the San Fransico police as he tries to find his wife's killer and hopefully become re-instated as a cop.
>Genre: Police procedural/Comedy
>Family Friendliness: Very Family Friendly. Monk is extremely straight-laced (although ostensibly because of mental health issues not morality). He doesn't smoke or drink or look at naked people (he even puts his hand in front of his face if someone's immodestly dressed). Each show, however, begins with a murder, and that can be a little violent and gory (although it's usually not too bad). For a show about murderers it's surprisingly light and amusing. Occasional "mild" profanity (the ones in the Bible somewhere). Occasional "adult" themes (i.e. ADULTery and murder often go together).

Psych: The show Psych is like the younger, hipper, funnier version of Monk, without the mental health issues. It is quickly becoming close to my complete favorite show. It's on the hour after Monk on USA. Again, we have the DVDs and it's on Hulu. They have just finished their third season and will return for a fourth this summer.
>Premise: Shawn Spencer is a skilled slacker who was trained by his police father to be a crack detective, but rebelled and became a bit of a goof-off. He made up a story about being a psychic when the cops wouldn't believe that he could call in a case-solving tip without being an inside man in the crime. Since then he and his best friend Gus opened up a private [fake] psychic detective agency. Humor ensues
>Genre: Comedy/Buddy Show/Police Procedural
>Family Friendliness: No quite as clean as Monk in that Sean is more than comfortable with flirting innuendo, however, they don't always show the murder so it can be less violent.

Burn Notice: Renewed for a 3rd season starting this summer, this is also a USA original series, airing on Thurdays nights, and again on Hulu. I'm impressed at USA coming out with so many good series, but their last effort "In Plain Sight" restored my usual low expectations for the network.
>Premise: Michael Weston was a spy who got fired ("burned"). Now he's restricted to Miami and uses his special skill set to help out people in desperate need as he tries to unravel the mystery of why he was burned, what a clandestine group wants with him, and who are the people trying to kill him. He's aided by his "ex"-girlfriend, Fiona, and old special ops buddy, Sam.
>Genre: Mostly Action with a little bit of wry, tongue-in-cheek humor, buddiness and romace
>Family Friendliness: Very little sex (just two off-scene implications across two seasons) although Fiona dresses, as Nicole put it "very skankily," and there are regular "establishing shots" of Miami bikinis. There is abundant action violence: explosions, fisty-cuffs, high-speed car chases and guns. There is not much strong language, although there is one in the title sequence. I wouldn't recommend it for children, but I certainly enjoy it. It's great to run to because of the high-adrenaline action and entertaining humor.

Lie To Me*<-This * is not a footnote, it's part of the shows title): This is a brand-new show from FOX that irregularly shows on Wednesdays. We were unsure at first, but both Nicole and I both really enjoy it. It too is on Hulu. >Premise: Dr. Cal Lightman is a psychologist who studies micro-expressions and lying. He and his team/company serve in D.C. as consultants to various agencies typically in criminal investigations.
>Genre: Psychological Fiction/Police Procedural/Subdued Comedy
>Family Friendliness: As a broadcast show, it meets certain standards, but the situations are regularly more "adult," again lying and Adultery seem to go together a lot. There's only been 4 episodes so far, so we'll see.

Eureka: We discovered this on Hulu. It's an original show from the Sci-fi channel. I don't know it's broadcasting info, but it's going strong in its third season.
>Premise: U.S. Marshal Jack Carter gets transfered to be the sheriff of small-town-with-a-secret, Eureka, supported by the DoD.. Eureka is a town of geniuses too smart for their own good. Jack, while still not understanding nuclear physics, is intuitively gifted and frequently has to reign in an experiment or experimentor gone awry.
>Genre: Fun and light Sci-fi/some drama
>Family Friendliness: Extremely family friendly.

NCIS: Highly popular show in its 6th season on CBS. Broadcasts on Tuesday nights. Not on Hulu, although Hulu links to CBS's website which shows recent episodes. It was recommended to me by a friend, although I can't remember who. I have the first three seasons on DVD, but I usually just watch it online now.
>Premise: NCIS is a show about the agency of the same name. It focuses on a team of investigators including a forensics expert, computer hacker, M.E., and others.
>Genre: Police Procedural/Ensamble drama
>Family Friendliness: While it is a broadcast show and therefore avoids language and nudity, it's about murderers and contains adult themes. Nicole is mostly turned off by occasional excessive gore, including autopsies.

Chuck: I saw the second season premire on a free Amazon.com unbox preview and fell in love with it. I bought the first season on DVD and enjoyed it and have stridently avoided watching on Hulu, so I can enjoy the second season DVDs (it's good enough to own). It aires on NBC on Mondays, I believe
>Premise: Chuck Bartowski, is a nerd working computer support at a "Best Buy" type store when his old college buddy (who became a spy) emails him all of the government's secrects embedded in images (non-conscious). Now lots of people (including our government) are interested in Chuck. He is assigned a NSA and CIA agent to keep an eye on him and to respond to threats when he "flashes" on some bad guy (when the info in his head reconizes something). He maintains his old life as a cover identity. His best-friend and worst-nerd Morgan doesn't know his secret, and neither does his sister, with whom Chuck lives. Sister's fiancee also lives with them and is called Captain Awesome by Chuck.
> Genre: Action Comedy
>Family Friendliness: The show's hilarious and on a broadcast station, but it's a bit more adult themed. There are frequent plays on "femme fatale" stereotypes and frequent innuendo. Not recommended for children.


Honourable Mentions (Things we have DVDs of, but are not actual TV shows - they're from the 80's):

He-Man and She-Ra: 'nuff said

Remington Steele: We enjoy detective shows, and I like Pierce Brosnan, largely because he's Irish. It's a fun show and also interesting as a snap shot of 80's gender roles. If I teach psychology of gender this summer, we'll have to watch a clip or two of it.

Wow, even with the honorable mentions, we still don't have ten...*** maybe I should have added The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. A Cowboy/Comedy/Action/Buddy/Romance/Sci-fi show from the mid nineties that started Bruce Campbell, who now plays Sam on Burn Notice. It was only one season, but it was a good long one. We did watch Heroes for the first season, but couldn't really get into it after. We also will occasional laugh at The Office, but it's not something with watch with any regularity.

*Unless we're at a hotel on vacation at which point Nicole tells me to just pick one channel or turn it off ;)

**This is a really good thing because Nicole has a hard time noticing anything else while visual media is on. Even if she hates the show and is bored to tears.

***I doubt there'll be ten, but nobody wants to read the top 8 of something.

TV 1: TV sets

We don't have a TV set* or at least we've never bought one unless you count the VCR that came with a built in TV screen that we picked up at the thrift store for 5 bucks. The thing is, if you don't have one, people pity you and give you free old sets (see footnote - none of them are plugged in). I remember working in the slums of Dublin. The towers of Ballymun were housing projects that were established in the 70's to temporarily answer a housing crisis (not enough houses) several 13-storied towers were assembled from pre-constructed concrete apartments like Lego building blocks. They were only meant to last 7 years. There were still up when I was there in 2002.** They were decrepit, dirty, smelly and one of the most unpleasant places I've ever visited. Graffiti, broken glass and garbage were the general decor on the grounds and in the halls. We would take the stairs to avoid the urine-stench of the sometimes working elevators. Anyway, the point was, even in this area, the poorest I've ever lived or worked in, it was not uncommon to see several satellite TV dishes on the sides of the towers. I don't understand that.

Growing up we didn't have cable (although we sometimes watched it at my grandmother's and aunt's houses. We certainly didn't have satellite, and we didn't even watch our broadcast stations very much (occasionally Jeopardy and "family shows" like "Doogie Howser, M.D."). Because of the Utah mountains, we don't get any broadcast stations (and we don't have one of those switch it to digital boxes anyway). We don't feel deprived without cable and aren't envious of my Dad's 1000 satellite stations. We do use our laptops to watch DVDs and the internet to keep up with our favorites shows (like Monk and Psych) but more on that next post.

*not true, we have three in the basement
**Thankfully they have finally since been demolished
After that sad story about Ballymun, enjoy this more inspiring story about poverty.

Mormons Taking Over Youtube?

In a surprisingly great idea, short inspirational and powerfully touching videos are on youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/MormonMessages

Enjoy.

Sick Days

I've been sick the past few days. I could feel it comming on Wednesday Night but it really hit Friday, leading me to cancel one of my meetings (it probably didn't help much that I went to our Waterpolo game at 9 pm Thursday night, but it was worth it, (even if we lost)).

Besides feeling physically unconfortable, congested, dizzy when I stood up, feverish and so forth, I've really enjoyed being confined to my bed the last few days. I've got so much done (caught up on a bunch of reading, worked on some writing projects, made this blog entry). The best part is taking a break from running and STILL loosing weight.

I don't think I want to do this every week, but it's certainly been helpful now!

Still Awesome

Nicole made it to our second water-polo game so we had a full team this go-round. Also, I came up with a battle plan-I mean game strategy. I'll post it here, but I'll wait until after this season so you're not too tempted to accept bribes to share it with anyone who might play against us. Yeah, It's that awesome. Needless to say, it worked perfectly and we handily beat our opponent.* Here's a picture of the team. Several of us are attempted to fashion some sort of "A" (for Awesomeness) but as you can see, it didn't translate too well.

*We really did beat our opponent this week, but not as bad as they got beat the time before. Apparently their last match-up beat them 40-2 which is a little wider of a margin then our 19-12. But still... A win is a win. Plus I checked the schedule and we don't have to play the team that scored 40 points!

Home repairs

<--- With buying our own place, especially one of the older, non-cookie-cutter variety, there comes some special challanges. For instance, when your friends are over helping you clean and paint before moving in, one of the more helpful lads might volunteer, "Do you want me to take off your kitchen cupboard doors? They'll be a lot easier to paint that way." You might think this is a bad idea, but your wife might really be enamoured at the idea of newly painted cupboard doors. You would, of course, give in to this desire, and probably wouldn't say "I told you so" when you do not have cupboard doors for the next 9 months. You'd probably even hire your brother to take a drill to them on a January holiday at which point you would discover that each of the doors is custom build. While you may enjoy solving puzzles, and your wife might have recently gotten addicted to Sudoku, you might also have planned to use your day off to take care of the approximate 7 trillion projects you have going. You might also get most of the way through before discovering that you don't have enough screws, but still, you'd be glad to at least have half your cupboard doors up. Oh, and another friend might give you a new fridge free too! (leading to your blog post picture of the cupboard dooring event to showcase some of the extra food as it was transitioned from one fridge to another).

ZOO 3

We're not ready to be called "Noah" yet, but we do have another permenant resident in our house. (And for those who missed it, Nicole posted a picture of our cat and fish kissing in the orginal Zoo post). The new guy is the yellow lab mentioned in the second zoo post. Here's an updated picture. You can see the puppy friendliness just oozing from this shot, can't you. And yes, that's one of my slippers in his mouth.

His new name is "Gaberiel."

In other pet news, Ms. Mittens is now happily reunited with her family where she is the only pet in the house. (Technically the only pet in the apartment where there's no pets allowed, but we're pretty sure our friend's landlord doesn't read this blog, so shhhh! keep it on the DL). Much like our dog, Ms. Mittens found her new owners on the street and sometimes you just have to let them follow you home.

InnerTube Awesomeness

Being a philosophical/theoretical emphasis in my PhD program, words do not often fail me. However, I am completely at a loss for words when it comes to describing the awesomeness that is innertube waterpolo.

A friend invited me to his team last year and it was great then too. Today was the first game of the first season and we slided to an easy victory.* It was as good as I remember and better. I'm playing on a ward team so the first order of business was to change our name from "BYU 103rd Ward" to "Team Awesomeness." And we are.

I'd post pictures, but 1) my camera is not waterproof and 2) I haven't met my dieting goals well enough to post online pictures of me in a swimsuit. However, this shot of me right after the game should show off the awesomeness just by the size of my smile:

*Our schedule opponent did not have enough players show up, so we'd have won by default (we were down a player, but still have enough to play). However, since the other game that was scheduled simultaneously also had one of their teams no show, the refs put the two teams that had enough players together for an offical game. That one we lost. Like 27 to 11. But we got a lot better the second half!

Teaching with the Spirit?

I just got done with my second class of the semester (i.e. the second week of teaching Personality). I was struck by how great the students were. I taught at a state school last semester and it was an overall positive experience, but these students just bring a little extra something to class. Additionally it was good to have prayer in class again. Hearing students pray for you as a teacher really helps me put my duty to be a good teacher before God in perspective and I have to confess, that makes class go so much better.

Today we talked about categories of personality theory in general. I gave them all some modeling clay and some seeds and they discussed each as a metaphor for personality in their groups then shared some really profound stuff in our class discussion. They also made really cute figures with the clay! I guess even college students like to play with clay from time to time.

Guitar!

My little brother Ryan takes guitar lessons and taught Nicole a few things when we went down last weekend (and she broke one of his strings -- Sorry!) Today on her way home from work, she stopped by a local music store just to check things out. She came home with this:

I guess it was a really good deal and she had enough leftover birthday money. She says that she always wanted to play guitar, but this is the first I've heard of it ;) j/k

New Semester

Part of our new blog commitment was to post at least weekly. We gave ourselves a little lattitude because we wanted the annual newsletter to be near the top, but it's been long enough that I hear duty calling.

This new semester has started off well. After last term's focus on my thesis, I'm back in classes. I have three really interesting ones, or rather two really interesting ones and one that is excruciatingly brain numbing. That latter one is requiring me to memorize all the parts of the brain. It's more nuerological than when I memorized them for Anatomy and that was so long ago that it's not much help to me. However, because I participated in one of my buddy's research projects a little while ago, I'll get to use pictures of my own brain to study from!!! (I'll post them when I get them).

The other two classes are Qualitative Research where I'm doing a project on what helps people make moral decisions and Moral Psychology where we basically read and discuss what everyone else has said about morality.

I'm also teaching a section of personality which is fun, even though I regularly don't feel prepared enough to teach. Still, it's been going well.

2008 Family Newsletter Post

For all those who only hear from us once a year, (and to have a record so that our children and family and our future selves will believe just how busy we were) we have put together this little year-end letter/blog post/chronology.

The year started with Nicole finally being out of school with her RN (and a raise!). She enjoyed that for a few months before enrolling in BYU's Bachelor's of General Studies program which she's now just a few credits from completing. I was in the middle of my first year of grad school taking 16 credits, doing double TA duty and working nights. At the end of that semester I reduced my TA load and also quit my night job. My health immeadiately improved. I also got approved to teach and have been teaching classes at both BYU and UVU.



In February I was able to attend my first Academic conference in Miami, sponsored by APA's division for theoretical and philosophical psychology. I presented a paper there that would probably have gone a little better if traffic and a tight plane schedule hadn't made me a late to my own presentation. Still, it was fun overall. I learned what "hob-nobbing" is. A skill which came in handy when I attended the national APA convention in Boston in August.

With our schedules (briefly) relaxed, we took the opportunity to make use of the free trip to Disneyland that I won the previous year. It was Princess Nicole's first time at any of the Disney parks and she was suitibly impressed... So much so that we ended up visiting Disney World in August with more family.

Nicole also had the opportunity to visit her sister and assist (for the third time) with one of her new arrivals, this time, a Man Child! But the girls will always be her favorites.

(And who can blame her?)

We also were able to attend the sealing ceremony of Nicole's brother as he finalized the adoption of his fourth child. Almost all her family came to Georgia and we were able to witness a baptism and two baby blessings to boot! As you can see from the picture on the right, every one had a good, if somewhat discomboberated, time. I was even able to sneak in a quick trip to check out the University of West Georgia and their Psych department, nice place.

In other news, we saw a house we liked and ended up buying it. We were pretty surprised that we did so, but it's been great and we feel like we've been here for years. I was about to say we couldn't be happier, but apparently there's always something that needs fixing or replacing in a home. But we've repainted the major rooms and have definately added our own mark on the place. (Note the sun on the garage was not our mark, but we're keeping it for the time being.) Nicole's father and brother have taken us residence in our basement apartment.

In other big news for us, we've completed the intital processes of adoption. Now we're in the finding stages, but there are plenty more people willing to adopt then children who need adopting, so if you hear of any leads, let us know!

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary and Nicole's unmentionable birthday (let's call it "26," Now she's finally younger than me! ;) I lost all of the weight I gained on our summer trips and then some (but got some of it back over the holidays, stay tuned for more updates!)

We also took a quick trip to Connecticut last month which let Nicole see the sights she missed when I went to Boston. While there we caught the musical "Legally Blonde" at the Bushenell which definately exceeded expectations. We met our finacial goal to pay off the remainders of the outstanding student loans and other debts we've been working off for the last few years! It feels good to be "debt-free" again, although we weren't quite left with enough to celebrate much. We did, however, enjoy our holidays in Cedar with some breif visits to St George (and even to a Ghost Town)

ZOO 2

Nicole foster-adopted a yellow lab who was in need of rescue.

We're pretty sure he was someone's pet, so if you want him back, just let us know. (He's currently enjoying an all-expense paid vacation to our Garage). Nicole's flirtations with keeping him were damped a bit by how much he pooped when we took him for a walk, but I said that it was still better then Teddy pooping in our living room on our anniversary.

We're calling him "Buster Keaton" for now...