Leaving on a jet plane

Well, in less than 3 hours I will (hopefully!) be in the air, on my way home for Christmas! There is a big s torm moving through the area right now, and it is snowing pretty good out there. I am leaving super early to get to the airport, and hopefully my flight won't be cancelled. I can handle being delayed, (to a certain extent), but not cancelled. My wonderful roommate is taking me to the airport, so I don't have to worry about leaving my car there. Now lets just hope we can make it out of the airport and into the air! I am definitely excited about going home. It will be a good break and it will be fun to have the whole family home. Whats even nicer will be that I don't have to do any school work while I'm there! Finals were a bit killer and I am so needing this break. It will be lovely! I hope everyone has a great holiday, travel safely and have a Merry Christmas!! I'm off!

Ahhhh...

It has been such a long time...sorry about that! In my defense, school has been quite busy this last little while. The big news today is this: I took my last final of my first semester of graduate school this morning! That means I am done until January! YAY! I get three wonderful weeks off, no homework, no projects, no tests. Wonderful! I get to go home on Friday and just relax. So exciting! My tests ranged in difficulty, with the most difficult definitely being this morning. This one took 2 hours and was all application based short answer. TONS of writing that definitely made my poor hand ache! Luckily I finished, and its done. I think I did pretty well on everything. Maybe not 100% on everything but enough to make it through okay. thats all I really care about! Overall, I have to say that this semester has been one of the hardest and challenging I have ever had. I've been frustrated, upset, happy, totally confused, and learned so much more than I did in all my 4 years at BYU. Crazy! It was good but went by so stinking fast! Its hard to believe its already over.
In other news...snow. I am pretty much done with it already, and yes, its only December 17th. We have had a few big storms pass by here in the last week and have dumped a ton on us! I think yesterday we got at least 5 inches. Another light storm is supposed to come tomorrow, and another big one on friday. Man oh man. Luckily all the roads and things have been okay when I have had to drive. Lets hope it stays that way. If its not snowing, its stinking COLD. Like I said, I am pretty much done with winter. Bring back the warm!!

Well, I am off to the airport on friday for a nice long break. Cross your fingers that the storm that is supposed to come that day allows me to take off and get back to Nevada!!!

Woohoo!!

Driving home today, i went by a gas station. Any guesses as to the price???

$1.99

I know. Pretty unbelievable to me too. I don't remember the last time it was under 2 dollars. Maybe while i was in high school? MAYBE? Makes me feel not so guilty now to drive my car to school everyday!

Snow is falling all around

I woke up this morning to...snow! Yep, it has begun. Yesterday it was really windy and rainy most of the day. It took turns going from rain to snow over the course of the day. Finally it stopped at around noon. I went to bed with clear sidewalks and a clear car. I woke up this morning to find that not only had it snowed during the night, but it was still snowing. Great... this first picture is what it looked like right before I went to class this morning.

After sitting in class for three hours, I went outside to get to my car. It was blowing freezing cold snow. Not only was it cold, but it was the really wet heavy snow that sticks to you and melts instantly but makes you wet. I was so freezing I could barely feel my toes by the time I got to my car. Out of control. I got home and it was still falling. In fact, it is now almost 3 in the afternoon and it is still falling. Showing no signs of letting up. The radio people said it was lake effect snow or something. Not sure really what that means, but I am not a fan of it. This picture is right outside my front door, a bout an hour after I got home. Still falling, yes. Still deep, yes.

This is a poor tree right outside my door. Notice the incredibly heavy amount of snow resting on its poor limbs? I think the news said we are getting between 3-6 inches today. I am betting that we probably have at least 4 right now. Thats a lot of snow.


Hopefully it will stop sometime soon. I can tell this is going to be a long winter!!! To make matters even more not fun, I have DirecTV which runs off of a satellite. Apparently when you have heavy rain, or really wet snow, or lots of snow, the receiver can't get the satellite beam. It is blocks. So tv doesn't work. How lame...

Welcome to winter!

Halloween

Last week at school was quite tough. I had a test on Wednesday and another one on Thursday. Not so bad, right? Well it kind of was. I was really stressed out about both tests, especially the one on Thursday. I feel like all I did was study the entire week and even then I did not feel prepared for the tests. The one on wednesday went pretty good I think. It felt alright at least. The one on Thursday was tough. It took me two hours, which is a long test! I am not sure really how I feel about it. It could be good it could be terrible. I just don't know. The people who finished the test all stood outside the room and talked to each other afterwords and we were able to watch as more people came out of the testing room, each with the same look that I had on my face. It was good to find out that I wasn't the only one who wasn't excited about that test. At least it is over with, that is the good news!!! I guess I really ran myself down because friday I slept in pretty late and took a 45 minute nap on top of that. That is very unlike me. I don't take naps. For some reason I was feeling really strange on Friday afternoon. Weak, dizzy, very hot. Very strange. Luckily it subsided and had an okay night. I went to Carolyn's and we played around. Costco was supposed to be having a huge BYU sale, so we went over to go check it out only to find they had three different kinds of sweatshirts. That was it. Bummer. BUT we did come to the realization that the best time to go to Costco is Halloween night. Noone there!! Saturday we drove to Coalville and helped Kris and Craig take two loads to their storage shed in Park City. I think that next weekend I am going to go up again and help clean and finish moving out of their house. Hopefully it goes well!!!

Last saturday Carolyn, Paul, Scotty (paul's friend), and I carved pumpkins for halloween. It was pretty fun! I did Minney Mouse, Paul did some cartoon character, Carolyn did Mario, and Scotty did three wolves howling at the moon. They were fun to make and fun to look at! Spooky??

Back to the real world

My fall break was two weeks ago. Man where does time go?? I flew home on sunday afternoon and spent the week there. It was fun being at home just relaxing. I read a few books, watched some lazy tv, went to school with my mom, went to the pumpkin patch with my mom and her class, had lunch with a friend, visited old co-workers, stayed up late, tried to make mom stay up late, and had a great time.

During my fall break, mom and dad took me up to Lake Tahoe for a night. Mom took off school on Friday and we drove up to Lake Tahoe on Thursday night after she got home from school. It was pretty fun! We stayed in a hotel at Stateline. We were on the 11th floor, but our room looked out onto the pool (which was a pretty cool sight, the shape was very awesome) instead of the mountains or the lake. But it was still fun. The hotel had a buffet we had dinner at. The food was...so so. The Atlantis in Reno is much better in my opinion! We all had a bit of a rough night sleeping but made it through the night. The next day, Friday, we drove almost to Placerville, CA to Apple Hill. Basically it is a bunch of craft vendors and little food stands all over the hills that sell everything apple. Apple orchards are everywhere, as are vineyards. It made for some really pretty scenery! We stopped at about three different vendor places to look at the crafts and have apple goodies. At the first place, Mom and I split an apple fritter (delish!), dad had an apple turnover. The second place we had apple cider (which was awesome, I loved it!) and did the craft fair thing. Somehow we ended up without buying a single craft type thing from apple hill. Hmm... The third place we went to we got some lunch (d- hamburger e&m- hot dog) and bought an apple pie. A MILE HIGHT apple pie to be exact! It was huge!! Mom and Dad with the HUGE pie.
Just snacking a little on the mile high pie

Luckily we were able to take the rest of the pie (about 3/4 of the pie) home with us. It was really yummy though. I got a carmel apple for the road, and we bought some apple juice. Everything apple! I think I am pretty done with apple stuff for a while. It definitely was a fun trip, even though the ride home took 4 hours and was seriously the longest drive ever.

This was a pumpkin that was at one of the booths at Apple Hill. HUGE.

I had a really fun time being home, it was good to be able to relax and just be home again. I flew back to Utah on Sunday morning and started class again the next day. Ugh. Guess that means its time to get going again.

This week I started actually going in the therapy room in clinic. Up until now I have just been in the observation room, but the supervisor said that it was time to get me in there. So, thursday was my first day in there, today was the second. I feel very awkward in there, not really knowing what I am supposed to be doing and just weird. Today was definitely a little easier and more comfortable and I can only hope that it continues to get more comfortable. Next week I have to actually take the lead in an activity for the girl we are working with. Nervous? Yes. I'll get through it though. The other thing this week is that I have two tests. YUCK. VERY nervous about the one on thursday. We only have one midterm and a final in that class, so this one test is worth 40% of our grade. Plus, noone in that class is really sure how we are going to be tested. The info in that class is a little disorganized and so its just very...not as structured and concrete as I would like it. I have been studying like no other and hopefully it pays off. One test on wednesday and the other on thursday. Great. Just need to get through thursday and I will be flying high!!

Let It Snow

Last night was the start of the white season. It started hailing around 11 last night and went on for quite a while. I woke up this morning to about three inches of white- white hail that it. It seriously looked like snow. I am SO not ready for white season!! Its melting off pretty good but still there is white. The mountains will be white from now until April. How depressing. AND the beautiful fall leaves that had started turning in the mountains are probably down. Let winter being I suppose, and its only the beginning of October. Good thing I am going home for a week to (hopefully) no snow! This is how much the hail built up on the stairs. Crazy!



This picture is not as impressive, but you can see the white build up on the car.

Busy Busy Bee

Just outside of my door there is a flowering bush. I am not sure what type of flower it is (my floral teacher would probably fail me for that) but it is really pretty! Just a few days ago it started to flower. I love them! The blossoms are so pretty! This picture makes it look more pink, but really the flowers are a dark red and orange color. Very fall-ish. They are a happy sight when I go home.



Car and I were looking at shoes a while ago and found these way cute ones. We both decided we loved them but they were really expensive. So we waited until Payless had Buy One Get One half off, and then took advantage of the great sale. I love these shoes! They are so cute and go really well with jeans and khakis. I wore them the other night only to discover that the size I got was too big... :( No fair! I tried them on at the store but I guess my feet were bigger that day or something because they obviously slip off my feet. So I needed to exchange them for a smaller size. But they are cute!!

This week has been a little stressful for me. Monday night I had to give a language test to a child (which just happened to be Paul's nephew Micah. Thanks micah!). I couldn't give him the test till after 9 because he had a party or something. So that took a while and we didn't end up leaving their house till about 10:30. Pretty tired!!! So I went home and started studying a little bit more, not really feeling prepared for my test. I had a test on Tuesday, the next morning, in Fluency (aka stuttering). I had studied for it all last week and still didn't feel very prepared. I read through stuff and then went to bed. I got up an hour early on tuesday to go through stuff again and then went to class and took the test. It went alright, better than I thought actually. I always think a test went okay and then it turns out I did terribly....I hope thats not the case here! But I took the test, and felt very releaved to be done. I really didn't do much else tuesday after class. Just relaxed. I had two projects due this week also, but they are pretty much done and just need to be turned in. I will be glad when this week is over thats for sure! I have come to the realization that I do not handle test stress very well. I get very nervous, very stressed out. Even when I study tons, for some reason I just cant help it. Once or twice I have actually made myself sick over it. Out of control and something that I need to work on for sure!

After class today at noon, I decided to go do errands and be productive. I went to the bank to cash a check only to find that the bank was not in the spot Mapquest said it was. Grrr...so that is put on hold till I can find another bank that really exists. Then I went to Payless to exchange my shoes. Got there....didn't have the shoes in the size I needed. Grrr...not really sure where another Payless is so I just took my shoes and decided to do it later. Then I went to go find a Dollar Store to buy some wrapping paper for a present I have to wrap. Went up and down the stree (which is completly congested because of dumb construction) only to find that once again, the store does not exist where mapquest said it did! Man, struck out three times in a row. After that I just kind of gave up and came home. How pathetic. But I guess sometimes you just have to deal, right?

Monday begins Fall break for me! So excited!! A week of no school. Lovely! I have decided to go spend time at home since I have nothing really here in Salt Lake. So Sunday night I am leaving to go back home for a while. I think the trip will be good and I will have a nice relaxing time. It will be good to see my mom and dad too. Always fun! I am just waiting for Thursday at 5:30 when my classes end and my fall break officially starts!!

This is me, post test. Very relaxed and very happy! (wow, my hair really is getting long...!)

Good Times

This last weekend, Carolyn's niece got married and had Car make her wedding cake. So, she enlisted my help in making the cake. The bottom two layers were styrofoam and the top layer was real cake. We covered all three layers in white fondant, cut out circles in red and yellow, and put red ribbon around the bottom of all the layers. It wasn't very difficult but took awhile to complete. It was fun to get to practice and make the cake. We had a good time!


Covering the top layer of cake in fondant

The bottom two fake layers, almost complete

The completed cake at the reception. It turned out really cute!!




Three weeks ago the Utah State Fair was in Salt Lake. Carolyn, Paul, and I ended up going one night. It was HUGE! I knew it would be big, but I had never been to a state fair before so I really didn't have much idea of what it would be like. They had a huge carnival games and rides area, tons of little booths with things to buy, 4-H projects, vegetable growing, animals, food, a rodeo, a concert, you name it they had it! They had a ton of animals to look at and see. It was pretty fun to see them all. They had a little kids area where kids could walk through and see all the workings of a farm and how it benefits their lives. It pretty much reminded me of the farm festival back home. We walked through it, even though it was directed for MUCH younger kids, it was still fun. Here I am, being the chicken.

They had a ton of 4-H animals that were being shown. They had all the prize winners and all the not-prize winners too. They were all pretty impressive to me.
We all agreed that the pigs stunk the most. Gross. We each decided to take a picture of us by one animal we saw at the fair.
Paul with the beef cows

Me with a cute white sheep


Carolyn and a black/pink pig


Car got a crepe maker for her birthday, so we decided to try it out again. We had dinner crepes, filled with meat, cheese, lettuce, olives, sprouts. They were yummy! (we were basically trying to re-create the ones we get at European Connection which are SO good!) Then for desert we made Crepe Suzzette (not so yummy orange sauce), and then had to end with wonderful peaches and ice cream crepes. They were delish and I love making them!! So easy!!


My first test of Grad school was one week ago from today. I was really nervous, not quite knowing what to expect. I went in, took the test in about an hour. It was 4 essay questions. Thats it. Not really just read the material and spit it out memorized, but more of an application test. I think it went alright, I am relieved it is over with! I have mixed feelings over which type of test I like better. I like just knowing terms and definitions and stuf,f either you know it or you don't. But application tests....I guess its good to kind of think PAST the rouge memorization, but it is a little more difficult to apply everything. So I guess I like clear cut tests better. Who knew! I have another test tomorrow in my Aphasia class. This one I am sure will be more clear cut know the terms and definitions. I am worried, of course, but in a way I feel it might be a bit easier. Who knows!

Last night Carolyn, Paul, and I went to a new exhibit in Salt Lake that is a world-renoun exhibit. It is called Body Worlds. Basically there is a guy who gets cadavers and takes out different systems, organs, etc. in the bodies and "plasticizes" them, puts them in wax. Then all the different organs, systems, muscles, bones, everything, is put on display. It was really cool to go see! They had just complete bodies, all the different systems taken out and displayed, the brain, all the different bones and muscles, nerves, arteries and veins, EVERYTHING! They also had full cadavers placed in different poses so that you can see the different muscles used to achieve that pose. They had one skiing, one doing a back summersault on a balance beam, one hurdling, one shooting a bow, one holding his own internal organs (it sounds gross but really it was cool), just everything! They had a ton of specimens to look at, it took us about 2 hours to walk through the entire exhibit. It really was cool to see all that stuff and not have to smell or touch anything as you would in a cadaver lab. It was a fun night!!!

2 (well, almost 2) down......many many more to go

After tomorrow, I will have completed my first two weeks of grad school. Hard to believe! Overall, it has been alright. Starting out was pretty tough for me. I was REALLY nervous, not sure what to expect and how things were going to go and how hard it was going to be and just everything had me pretty worried. Somehow I made it through all the worrying and went to my first day of class last Tuesday. It was a class on Stuttering and Fluency. I think it was a good thing to have that class be the first in my grad school experience because my teacher was really nice and tried to ease us into grad school. Needless to say, after Tuesdays class I felt much more relieved and started to feel like maybe I actually can do this. I have 4 classes plus clinic time. Each class is 3 hours long....so awful! It is so hard to sit and try to concentrate for that long in one place. It is just hard! I haven't gotten used to it yet, and I don't think I ever will. Basically my schedule goes like this: T- 8:45-11:45 am Stuttering and Fluency, 12-1 Clinic Meeting, 2-3:30 Institute. W- 8:30- 11:30 Assessment of Childhood Language Disorders. Th- 8:00-11:00 am Aphasia (a type of lang. disorder) , 12:30-3:30 pm Articulation and Phonology. Somewhere in my week will be my clinic time, but we haven't been put into the clinic schedule yet so that is to come. Overall, its pretty nice having only 4 classes. The one thing that is hard already is all the reading. Seriously its like a TON everyday! I just need to try and stay on top of it so I don't fall behind. After two weeks, I can say that I am much more relaxed than I was the first day of class. Tests are already coming up, which just seems crazy to me. The sleep thing is also a little bothersome. I can't stay up late anymore, and thats sad to me. I have to be in bed by like 11 in order to be able to function in class the next morning. So sad! But, gotta do it. Well, thats school. Just keep chuggin!

Last weekend Kristin, Craig, and I went to Swiss Days in Midvale. It was pretty fun, basically just a HUGE craft fair that you walk around a buy stuff. Plus they had tons of food vendors too. We didn't buy anything, but we did try the food. They had knockwurst (sp?) and sourkraut (my favorite....not!) and I had a huge scone. Mine was delish! It was a fun afternoon even though it was reallly hot! This weekend is the Salt Lake County Faire (I think). Carolyn, Paul, and I (and hopefully kris and craig) are going to try and go to that. Should be fun, I've never been!

Oh and here is just a fun picture of me!

Changes

After getting home from Tahoe, I had about a week to get all my stuff together, help mom finish putting her room together, and then head back to Utah. It wasn't really a stressful week, just packing slowly, getting things here and there. Mom's classroom hadn't had her windows installed so there wasn't much we could do to put it together before I left. Sorry mom! But I got all my stuff packed and ready to go. Quickly, when we were in Tahoe, Carolyn went to a store called Del Sol that sells all kinds of stuff that changes color out in the light. So she bought fingernail polish that changes colors when you go outside. Needless to say, its really cool! This first picture is of the original colors of two of the polishes. The one on my toes is a bright pink, and my fingernails are clear.


This is right after going outside with the same nail polish. The bright pink toes turn to deep purple (NOT black like it appears in this picture) and the clear turns to bright pink! It is so fun to step outside and watch them change colors. Fun!!

On the 15th, mom, dad, and I drove up to Carolyn's house and stayed there for 4 days. Kristin and Craig met us and we all stayed at Carolyn's. We had fun shopping and moving me into my apartment and all that jazz. Kristin and Craig stayed till Sunday, and then went home. Carolyn had to start school on Monday (bummer dude!), Kristin had to start school on Tuesday (bummer too!) so Monday was just me, mom, and dad. We drove up to Salt Lake, helped me put a few things away and then they left. It was really sad to see them leave, but they had to get out of town before traffic got toooo bad. For some reason I got sick on monday and so after mom and dad left from my apartment in Salt Lake, Carolyn and Paul came and got me and I stayed at their apartment in Orem until Wednesday afternoon. Thanks guys, I feel a lot better now! So , now, I am moved in, furniture and all, into my apartment. I am living in a townhouse in the Millcreek area in Salt Lake. There are three girls living here, each with our own room. I have the entire basement to myself, with a private bathroom. It is really pretty great. Unfortunately, my camera could not take a picture of the entire room, so I had to split it up a bit.

Looking directly from the stairs into my room


My desk and very cool hutch that my dad made for me



Looking at the TV and wall from the desk


Just down from the TV wall, is my recliner


So my apartment is pretty nice. Its about 15 minutes away from school, and its really close to some good shopping. It is going to take a while for me to feel like this is home, but hopefully that comes sooner rather than later. Its a really nice place, and I am excited to have my own room!
School starts on Monday, with a informational meeting tomorrow (friday) to give us all the specifics of everything we need to know. The butterflies are definitely flying and going crazy in my stomach about school and what to expect. Hopefully it will all go just great!

Olympics at last!

Once again it is time for the olympics! I am super excited to watch anything that I can. The opening ceremony last night was a bit weird, but had some cool parts. I enjoyed the drums at the very beginning, the parade of nations ( mostly the US teams entrance), and the lighting of the torch. The next two weeks will be busy enough with packing up to move back to Utah, helping mom unpack her school room, and watching as many olympic games as I can! I am excited!!!

Yesterday we went up to Kings Beach and found a great beach to spend the day at. Not your typical Lake Tahoe beach either, it was not rocky, very big and had lots of room to play around in! We rented a 2-person kyack for 3 hours and were all able to take turns paddling up and down the shore. It was a really fun day! I totally got burned on my lower legs and lower arms....it wasn't from a lack of sunscreen though. I think my sunscreen was old and uneffective. Great! So I am having to work through that pain. But overall it was a really fun day! I am the kyack champion!

Mom and I in the kyack


Today we took another trip out to Kings Beach, the same place we went yesterday, and took a little parasailing trip. I really wanted to do it all week long and then Paul said he would go with me, and I was fine with it until it actually started looking like we were going to really parasail. Kristin, Craig, Paul, and I all decided to do it. I became a bit nervous the closer we got to takeoff. It turns out I was nervous for nothing. The ride was really fun, takeoff was a breeze and it was just a nice flight up! We got to about 450 feet above the lake, which is pretty high!! Paul and I rode together, and Kristin and Craig rode together. It was a really fun ride and I am really glad that I got to go!


Paul and I taking off



Way up high in the sky

Coming in for a smooth landing



Overall, the trip was a success and I had a really fun time going. I don't regret going at all and now I can say that I have parasailed!!

A week at Lake Tahoe

The whole family went to Lake Tahoe to spend a week. It is only day 3, but so far it has been very fun and relaxing. We rented a house in Tahoe City and gone to the lake every day, enjoyed shopping at the quaint little tourist shops, read, relaxed, enjoyed the mountain landscape, and had a blast. We still have till Sunday before we have to check out and we have lots more planned before then. Here are some pictures from the first three days of the trip so far.


Three cute sisters at Lake Tahoe


Paul and Car puzzling



Em and Dad at the Taylor Creek Visitors center



Em and Kristin, Rainbow Trail, being fish



Looking out at Emerald Bay


Boyd Family at Tahoe

The beach is in my bathroom!

For my mom's birthday, she got an entire set of bathroom decor from her sister's. She has decided to redecorate the guest bathroom (aka my bathroom) in beach/lighthouse paraphernalia. New wallpaper border, (supplied by her fabulous daughters), rug, towels, soap dish, garbage can, wall hangings were all brought in to create a peaceful ambiance.


HUGE 2x3 ft. wall mural


Hanging towel and sitting seagull


Floor mat and garbage can


Toothbrush accessory, soap dish, lotion dispenser


Towels