We Have a Little Announcement!!!

Life at the Gravett casa keeps changing. It's funny how sometimes things come up when you least expect them to.

The other day, Merry decided to go and get a hair cut and she never looked back (or better, whoo whoo!)

Pictures below, let us know what'cha think about the new do.

I was accepted!

Sorry for not updating about this earlier. I found out on Thursday that I was accepted into BYU's TESOL MA program! I'm so, so, so excited! I'll start taking classes in the fall.

Thanks for all of the support that all of you have given me while I've been working on my graduate certificate, and while I've been preparing for the MA. :D

TESOL MA at BYU

I'm supposed to find out today if I made it into the TESOL MA at BYU.

And the anticipation is killing me!!!!!

I Will Give You a Dollar to Be Quiet Ms. Palin

The former governor of Alaska, Mrs. Sarah Palin does not like it when people say "retarded." I do not like it when she says...well basically anything at all.

So here's the deal...Ms. Palin, you stop talking and I'll stop saying "retarded," i.e. the R word.

Until then...I'm reading an article right now about chemotherapy. It's called, "Sulforaphane retards the growth of human PC-3 xenografts and inhibits HDAC activity in human subjects," found in Experimental Biological Medicine. It deals with how certain chemicals are showing progress in slowing the growth of colon tumors.

I'm also reading an article about SSRI (Selective Seretonin Reuptake Inhibitors), "Do SSRIs Retard Growth in Adolescents?" published in The Journal of Psychiatry and dealing with whether anti-depressents stunt the growth of adolescents.

Anyway...it's all up to you Ms. Palin: continue talking and retarding the progress of intelligent conservatism or do us all a favor and go home.

Another Giveaway!!

Here's another giveaway that's being hosted on the Grosgrain blog. It's such a cute dress!

In other news, Dave and I had a great weekend. First of all, on Friday we went and stayed at a friend's cabin up Provo Canyon. Then on Saturday we stayed in Provo and worked on schoolwork. We stayed in Provo so that I could go watch my brother-in-law's basketball game. Mark's team won! Way to go, Mark!

Then on Sunday we celebrated Valentine's Day. This year, it was my turn to plan our Valentine's day. So I cooked a little bit and we went for a little walk/adventure to find a hidden treasure. It was a very relaxing day in between our two work days (We worked a lot on Monday again, with just a little bit of play).

And I think that this weekend I fell in love with my husband!

Relationships with Lawyers

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, some tips (courtesy of www.avvo.com) on how to get into/survive a relationship with a lawyer. The sad thing is, I actually agreed a little bit with some of the tips...

Birthday!

Dave is such a trickster. He and I are both really busy during the week, and he has a brief that is due next week that is keeping him extra busy working on it. So we decided that we would celebrate my birthday on the weekend instead of on the actual day.

Well, despite our plans, on my birthday he made me breakfast in bed, gave me my present anyway (even though he told me it wouldn't be ready until the weekend), had lots of his friends text me happy birthday, and surprised me with a quick ice cream break with some family and friends! He is also such a sweet heart!

Merry Gravett

I think that I've finally taken care of all of the things I need to do to officially be Merry Gravett. I've changed my name on my license, social security card, bank account, car insurance, credit card, school records, and health insurance. The last one that I did (just this week) was sending a copy of our marriage license to my credit card company. And I just have to say, I love being Mrs. Gravett! :D

The Truth

Actually, we operate a ponzi scheme out of our home and so we use the budgeting software to help ensure we've brought in enough new customers to pay out the old ones, the math was getting a little too difficult.

Btw-let us know if any of you peeps are interested in the investment opportunity of a lifetime, investment in Greek off-shore assets, 25% annual returns on your investment, guaranteed success, a no-brainer. Call me now! This isn't a get rich quick scheme, it's a get-really-rich-really-quick-plan! It changed my life!

"I made more money than you can shake a stick at, even if it's a very large stick!"
-Charles Ponzi, satisfied customer, San Quentin, California

Budgeting

I recently started following a new blog called Frugal Wife = Wealthy Life. This blog is all about how a wife (or the financially responsible person in a marriage, whether it be husband, wife, or both) can really help a family by living and managing money frugally. Some of their tips deal with spending, some with saving, and some with budgeting.

The blog is written by two sisters and their mother, and they offer suggestions that they personally use to manage their families' finances. I think that it's a very useful blog, and if you're trying to get your finances in order I would recommend that you check it out.

Right now Dave and I are trying to start budgeting again. We started out last semester with a budget, and I would say that we've done a very good job spending money only on things that we can afford. But we've stopped looking at our budget regularly and consciously thinking about it. We've decided (at the recommendation of the Frugal Wife blog) to try out the budgeting tool mint.com. The website keeps track of the different categories that you spend in, and helps you know if you've overspent on your budget. I'll let you know how it goes!

Choir

I've been meaning to go to ward choir for the last 6 months. But last semester we had 9:00 am church, and choir practice was after church. It was just way too easy to come home from church, eat lunch, and then take a nap, effectively cutting off the opportunity to sing with the choir. I even really wanted to sing with the choir in the ward Christmas program because I love Christmas music. I think that it's one of the best things that ward choirs do. But that idea wasn't even enough to motivate me out of those Sunday afternoon naps.

This semester we have church at 11:00 am, and the ward choir practices at 9:00 am. I thought that it would be easy to get myself to go to choir practice with that change, because I'd already been getting myself off to church by 9:00 am. However, I did not take into account how much I LOVE sleeping in whenever I get the chance. I really do love sleeping in, even more than I love naps. And it is even more appealing to sleep late during the winter. It's so dark outside, and it feels so much warmer in bed. And because I don't have class before 10:00 am any day of the week, I've started sleeping in a little bit during the week instead of getting up at the usual 6:45 am from last semester. So before today, I hadn't been successful at all at getting myself to ward choir.

But today I got myself up! I set my alarm for 8:00 am, only stayed in bed about 15 minutes longer, and then I got up and got ready. I think that I really surprised Dave that I was doing this, since he doesn't have a very optimistic view of my abilities to get myself up. And, to be honest, Dave kept talking to me and helping me wake up this morning. Otherwise, I very well may have just gone back to sleep. But I didn't! And I was feeling pretty good as I left the house this morning.

I got in the car and drove around the block to the seminary building where they hold choir practice (I should have just walked, but I really hadn't given myself very much time to get to choir practice with the extra 15 minutes in bed and all of my dawdling getting ready). On the way, I brushed my hair because it was still wet and tangled. I also struggled to get my clothes straightened and tucked in correctly. But by the time I got there I was looking good, if I say so myself. And I was ready to sing!

I walked up to the door of the seminary building.

It was locked.

Apparently they don't hold choir practice on fast Sundays.

Oh well! It was worth a try. We'll see how well I do next Sunday.

Princess Leia is Ukranian?

Pictures prove it, the princess and diplomat from Alderan has settled down in Ukraine and is trying to save the free world from there. Apparently she got her hair dyed, weird:

It would be sooo cool to do that with my hair...

Another Weekend

I always feel SO happy when it is Friday. It means that I can go home, relax for a couple of days, take several uninterrupted hours to work on homework, see a lot of Dave, and not ride the bus for at least 48 hours...And sometimes Dave and I even go out on a date! Oh, and one more thing, either Dave or I gets paid every Friday, so it's always payday!

This weekend, we are hanging out with some friends. Isaac and Camber are coming over tonight, and we've been invited to Stacy and Mikey's house on Saturday. On Saturday I'll be doing quite a bit of planning for my last week teaching my TTTC class. Today Chan and I planned out our lesson plans and decided on what we were going to do for the test, so now I need to prepare my parts of the lessons and test. And I think this week I'll go to ward choir on Sunday morning. I won't have a primary lesson to prepare since my co-teacher will be teaching this Sunday, and I have really been missing being in a choir. So, all in all, I think it will be a great weekend!

Only the Best of Etsy Sample Packages GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Only the Best of Etsy Sample Packages GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Another giveaway! I've never used Etsy, but it would be fun to get a free package.

A New Idea

Last night I attended a stake fireside given by Dr. John Lund, a marriage and family counselor and educator. One of the wedding presents that Dave and I got were some CDs of some lectures that he gave, and we've really enjoyed them. So I thought that I would also enjoy this fireside, and I was not disappointed.

One concept that he talked about was our purpose in our family relationships. Even if someone is really far off of the gospel path, making bad decisions, and making themselves miserable, it is not our duty to force them back. Our calling as family members is to love them, not to judge them. And they won't listen to us or be able to realize that we love them if all we do is criticize them.

Dr. Lund suggested that family members take their love to their loved ones, and then take their frustrations to the Lord. This doesn't mean ignoring things that need to change in a relationship. This doesn't mean putting up with abuse. But it does mean that because you can't force someone to change, you need to put your faith into prayer to the Lord and then just love that person anyway.

He also talked about how to approach someone with a critical thought, which he also talked about in his recorded lectures. He said that each spouse needs to tell the other person how they want to hear about their own faults. So I might say to Dave that I always want him to approach me with criticism right after I've eaten, or right after I've woken up, so that I'm physically ready to receive criticism. (I'll tell you what, I hate talking about important things right before bed because I'm usually tired and thus cranky, and the important talk usually puts off bedtime too.) And then Dave should respect that wish, and only approach me with criticisms at the times that I've told him it would be okay. This prevents him from just telling me his opinion whenever he's feeling frustrated, and it helps me be in a good frame of mind to receive his opinion well.

There is so much more that I could say about Dr. Lund's talk. I would highly recommend that you buy his CDs or take an opportunity to hear him speak if you get the chance. But my take home lesson from last night is that the Atonement is so real that we really don't need to force our family members to heaven. They will get there one way or the other, regardless of our nagging. So we might as well get rid of the negative criticism and just love each other.

Change

I have been teaching a community ESL class at BYU's English Language Center (ELC). The class is called TTTC. It started about 4 weeks ago, and I have about 1 week of instruction left. The students are adults who are seeking English skills to improve their daily life living in an English speaking country.

After my last week, I will move into teaching another class, which will be a regular class offered to ELC students. These students will be focusing on passing the TOEFL and entering an English speaking university.

There will be a lot of change. The setting will be different. The amount of time that I teach will be different. The teacher that I work with will be different. The students' ages, goals, and maturity will all be different. Some of these changes might be hard to get used to. However, I think that the change will be good for me.

New Look!

A friend of mine edited the html on her blog so that she could have 3 columns, and I rather liked it! So I did the same thing.

I have often wanted to make my list of things on my side bar shorter so that it wasn't so far to the bottom of the page. Mission accomplished!

If you want to do the same thing, check out this tutorial. It is a little confusing, and if you've never edited html before you might want to ask someone to help you with it. Or just be sure that you save the existing html before you go tweaking your blog.