2009 Highlights

Not all of these happenings are going to be that interesting to read about, but here are some of the things that Dave and I experienced during 2009:

January: Dave and I met on January 3rd at Jason (a mutual friend)'s party. We were both smitten pretty quickly with each other. Dave had 1 extra week of vacation before he started school, a lot of which he spent hanging out with me. Then he kept commuting down to Provo to see me during the next two weeks. We started dating exclusively at the end of the month. Dave was starting his 2nd semester of law school. I was still working for an office on BYU campus where I had worked as a student, but I started new responsibilities because I was no longer in school and could take on extra work.

February: Dave and I went on a road trip to Preston, Idaho. We saw some of the places where the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" was filmed. And we discovered that we liked to spend even long amounts of time with each other! Dave started living at his parents' house in Provo during the weekends, and I bought a car from my grandma so that I could drive up and see Dave in Salt Lake during the week.

March: Dave and I experienced our first real trauma. My mother had a heart attack and I drove to Arizona to see her. I was there for a week, waiting to see how she would recover. Dave called and texted me every day, and we came out of the experience much more attached to each other. I found out that I was admitted into the TESOL certificate program at BYU.

April: Dave and I talked a lot about marriage this month. We discussed what it would mean for us to be attending different schools 40 miles apart. And we continued our courtship. I moved into a house in Provo and continued to enjoy work. And I replaced the alternator in my car.

May: Dave took his finals. Then he proposed! And he had appendicitis. This was a busy month for him. I took care of him, had to replace the fuel pump on my car, and continued working.

June: Dave and I kept preparing for our marriage. Dave took classes during the summer time and worked. And I drove to New York with my friend Emily. Also, Dave and I floated the Provo River and did all kinds of summery things. I'm looking forward to doing that again next year!

July: Dave and I celebrated the 4th of July, hiked, swam, and generally had fun. We sent out our wedding invitations. We read a lot of "Dandelion Wine" together (I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy, pleasant read). And we started moving some of our belongings into our new home.

August: Dave and I got married! We spent about 4 days in Arizona before we got married, then spent our honeymoon in the White Mountains in eastern Arizona. The last night of our honeymoon we camped at Goblin Valley in Utah (I can't believe that no one commented on my post about Goblin Valley, since Dave and I were trying to trick people into thinking that we'd spent our whole honeymoon there). And then at the end of the month I started school!

September: Dave and I started our commuting life style, Dave taking the train to school and me taking the bus to school. And we started to get more settled into married life.

October: I set some goals for the school year. Dave and I babysat my niece and nephews, and decided that it's going to be several years before we have any kids. We fell more in love!

November: Dave and I continued on with school and work. Dave got hired to work at the attorney general's office. And we went to Arizona for our first Thanksgiving together. It was a fun trip.

December: I finished my first semester of grad school! I have one semester left in my certificate program, and I am applying in January to BYU's MA program. Dave and I celebrated our first Christmas together! And we are excited to celebrate our first year of knowing each other on January 3rd, 2010!

Our Christmas Cactus Bloomed!

I didn't take any pictures, though, because I was trying not to take too much time blogging during finals. And now all of the blossoms are gone.

However, I really enjoyed the blossoms while we had them. I've had the plant for 3 years, and this was the first time it bloomed. They were gorgeous flowers. I've taken the liberty to lift a few pictures from this blog post because I want you to see how pretty the plant was.

Each blossom was attached to the end of a little "leaf" on the cactus, like this.


It was amazing to see how beautiful these blossoms were! The petals of the flower would turn up while the flower hung down from the cactus leaf. So this blossom is actually upside down, and you can see the petals turning up (down in this picture).


I didn't have this many blossoms. I had about 12 little buds come on at the beginning of November, but because I kept picking up the pot to have a closer look and fiddling with the plant, I caused most of those to fall off before they could bloom! Only about 4 or 5 of them actually bloomed.


I am excited to keep my cactus growing, and maybe I'll post some blossom pictures next year!

When I'm a teacher...

I'm going to give my students review sheets with some direction for their finals preparation. I'm studying for my last final, and I feel so lost! I'm wondering if it's just too much effort to try to organize my notes and figure out what's important and what's REALLY important (i.e. on the final). But life goes on. By this time tomorrow, I'll have at least started my final, and maybe even finished it. So I guess I just need to get back to studying!

Feeling Stupid

Last week I helped host a Graduate Student Society meeting for grad students in the Linguistics/English Language department on BYU campus. We asked some professors to participate, and requested that they tell us what they wished someone would tell their graduate students. This could have anything to do with their thesis/project work; their interactions with their advisor and committee, teachers, and other faculty members; or anything else they thought was important.

One teacher said, "Don't let yourself feel so stupid that you decide to quit." She said that she had felt stupid when she started her program, and that some students feel like they're the only ones and that they don't belong there. I thought that this was an interesting insight, and one that I think will be beneficial for me, as I hope to start my master's next year.

Today, for our assigned reading, my syntax teacher had us read an article which didn't have to do with syntax. It was about feeling stupid. I thought it was a well-written article, and I would recommend anyone to read it. I don't think that it only applies to graduate students. It applies to anyone who is trying to grow to become something beyond what they are.

The concept is that, if we didn't feel stupid, we wouldn't feel pushed to discover. If we felt smart all of the time, that would mean that we hadn't even approached our limits, and that we would never push or expand them. So go out and feel stupid today!! But don't let that feeling make you quit. Let it make you work harder!

Thoughts on Golf

So apparently Tiger Woods's wife tried to bludgeon him with a golf club. This brings two thoughts to mind: 1) he got married? huh, who knew, and 2) I really doubt that all those light weight titanium/carbon fiber alloy clubs are actually heavy enough to do any damage. It's not like Tiger's swinging a $1.50 DI special 5 iron.

The real issue for me however is how all the pundits are saying, "He may be the greatest athlete ever, but that's no reason to expect him to be perfect." It's a sad day when the worlds' greatest athlete is a golfer. I mean, it's cool that some guy can put a little ball in a little hole 500 yards away, but I'm not sure he should be called the greatest athlete ever. What's next, Pierre Zimmerman (world bridge champion) or Nigel Richards (former world Scrabble champion) as the world's greatest athlete? The world's greatest athlete should at least break a sweat while being said greatest athlete.

The pundits are also saying that they love watching Tiger play golf, but that doesn't mean he has to have a perfect family life. Really, who actually watches golf except for little kids looking for more Saturday morning cartoons? The real athlete is the person who can sit through watching the entire 18 holes of a golf tournament. I tried once, but didn't quite have enough endurance.

Nigel Richards, 2008 world Scrabble Champion and future world's greatest athlete. Nike is already working out the ad campaign, "I am Nigel Richards" has nice ring to it.

Thanksgiving

We had a WONDERFUL time in Arizona for Thanksgiving. There was lots of food, lots of playing games, and lots of kids! All of my siblings were there, with their spouses and kids. At one point we were all there, except for one of my brothers-in-law. I think that's the first time we've all been together like that in a LONG time.

I loved eating all of the Thanksgiving food! Dave and I both felt like we ate too much, but it was so good! Especially the green olives! :D

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with family or friends, and that you're getting into the Christmas spirit!