The breather that's long overdue...

I did it. I actually did it.

Do you know that feeling of impending doom that you feel at the beginning of every semester? You know, the one where you look at your syllabi and your never-ending list of assignments and say to yourself, "Oh geez. I'm dead." Multiply that by 100 and you have my graduate program.

I am here today, breathing, to extend to each of you a feeling of hope. This past week I finished my seemingly endless project for my ComD 610 class: a diagnostic evaluation on a speech and/or language client from start to finish. Holy Moses... that project was a time sucker. This project is the END of my projects/assignments for that class. You heard me right... one class is completely finished! That makes Christmas feel just that much closer. I never thought this day would come, but for the first time (in years, it seems) I can relax. I'm sighing as I type this, just because I can.

This is what I subjected myself (and occasionally my husband) to for the past month:
- NO zumba. Absolutely none.
- NO homemade meals. We were all about cereal, spaghetti and good 'ole mac and cheese.
- NO house cleaning. I think my laundry pile was starting to grow fangs.
- NO socializing besides at school and church.
- NO sleep. This is nearly literal. I went to bed no earlier than 2 (sometimes 3) every night and woke up at 6.
- NO normally working bodily functions... don't ask for details. Just trust me.
- NO weekly television shows (which wasn't a huge sacrifice... since they've all blown lately).
- NO reading assignments for other classes were completed (but I'm all caught up now, don't worry!).
- NO relaxing piano breaks (because heaven knows I'd keep playing for hours).
- NO Halloween costumes (or trick-or-treaters... but because none ever came, not because they weren't welcome... sad face).
- NO blogging (duh)
- NO fun

I almost don't know what to do with myself now that I'm able to breathe again. I went to zumba last night for the first time in several weeks and my legs are ON FIRE. I checked facebook and half my friends had babies. I made dinner and went into shock because I forgot what "leftovers" were. I watched a part of Glee... and all but swore it off for the rest of time. I had time to prep for my session with my 3-year old client this morning and it went amazingly well. I played Christmas songs on the piano till my fingers hurt and didn't look at the clock once. I went to bed at 11:00. I woke up at 8:00. I appreciated the snow for the first time in my ENTIRE LIFE.

This just goes to show that my mom's (and now my) mantra, "This too shall pass" is a true and eternal principle. Before I know it, it'll be Thanksgiving break. And then Christmas. And then I'll be done with classes. And then I'll be working as an intern. And then I'll have my M.S. And then I'll be a certified clinician. And then Spencer will be a successful (fill in occupation here)-er/man. And somewhere in all of that we'll have lots of adorable babies.

And I want to enjoy every minute of it. So whenever you have hard times, just think, "this will be over soon," work harder, and you'll be breathing a sigh of relief in no time.

And of course, never forget to pray. Sometimes it may seem like the only thing you can do but it's always enough.

Till next time...

Imagine my joy when...

...our wedding song came on last night and the hubs came up behind me and asked me to dance in the kitchen?

*sigh*

And the dinner turned out pretty well, too.


P.S... I finally deleted this video clip because it was covering up all my blogs. One day I'll figure out how to change the size of the video screen. That day is not today.

Back from the Dead... well, almost.

Hey all,

I've been a little bit "preoccupied" with this little thing called "Graduate School" and regretfully admit that my blog has been neglected more than pretty much anything else in my life. Luckily, I have treated some things with greater respect than I have my blog (i.e., husband, clients at the clinic, homework, personal hygiene, etc.) I'm not sure that my nutrition would be on that list, however... Spencer and I have gotten used to eating baked potatoes or spaghetti for dinner. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some (more).

Although we've been unbelievably busy, we've still managed to remain unbelievably happy. Spencer's life may be a little bit more fun than mine right now: he's going to school part-time, working part-time, friends with half the BYU Football team (his fantasy bromance coming to life) and still has time to watch ESPN whenever he feels like it. Then there's me: exercise classes at 6:00 am, school from 8:00-5:00, three jobs, cooking dinner, homework until the wee hours of the morning, and maybe if I'm lucky I'll have time to read something besides a textbook before calling it a night (or morning).

Oh, to be an undergrad...

Here are some things that have happened since I posted last (and not in chronological order):
- Tuck got married (woohoo!)
- Fall semester started and with it, two new jobs (teaching assistant and research assistant)
- I got two new clients at the clinic
- I read a gajillion more books (most of them before school started up again, but still several since. And yes, gajillion is a real number)
- Chase lived on our couch for about a month
- I convinced Spencer to join the ward choir - and he recruited about half the ward to follow suit
- I had the stomach flu and passed out during a session with one of my clients
- Spencer and I did sealings at the Provo Temple
- General Conference!
- In-laws from both sides came to spend some quality time in Provo
- I joined the BYU Aerobic Fitness Program and have kicked my own butt doing Yoga/Zumba/Pilates/Step Aerobics every day. Almost every day. Yowza.
- We discovered the Big Bang Theory (thanks, JaiCi!)
- We've attended all the BYU football home games so far (it's a sensitive subject, okay?)
- Spencer quit his second job at BioGuard and the happiness in our home increased dramatically
- Jeff, Becca & Paige moved to England
- I sold a car
- I ate an entire carton of ice cream on my own (don't worry, it took me a little over a week and it was a QUART, not a GALLON)
- Paul turned 3
- Hugh turned 25
- Lilly is turning 1 this week!
- Raylyn turned 31
- Becca turned 22
- Dad turned... older
- Mom and Dad are currently on their first cruise ever and I am, once again, jealous of all those who have ever been on a cruise
- AND... I forgot about my blog for a significant amount of time (oops!)

So, that's that. I promise my next post will come before January.

I love you all!

My books and their verdicts...

So I've been doing a bit of reading since Spring term ended. Okay, I've been doing a TON of reading since then. Anyways... I chose all of these books because they were highly recommended by people I know, and I'd love to recommend them all to others in return. I figured that this summer my reading list would consist entirely of recommendations, mainly because I figured they'd be exciting, fun and fast reads... which I don't have time to get engulfed in once grad school starts back up in the Fall. I'll leave the more "intellectual" books that require thinking and analyzing for those times when I'm actually IN school and can't devote hours a day to them. Ahh... I love myself a good book.

Fablehaven - by Brandon Mull
Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star - by Brandon Mull
Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague - by Brandon Mull
Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary - by Brandon Mull
Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison - by Brandon Mull
These books were ALL awesome - don't get them on CD... we listened to the last one on CD and the reader's voice was TORTUROUS. I absolutely devoured the first four and only gobbled the fifth one, mainly because the reader was so obnoxious. I'm positive I would have devoured that one if I had just read the book...

The Hourglass Door - by Lisa Mangum - another Mormon author recommended to me by a girl in my Graduate program. It was good--really cheesy at points, but cute. I was excited to get through it and it only took 2 days. It's a trilogy and the second in the series was just released a few months ago. I'm not a Twilight fan, but Twilight fans would probably love this stuff.

Digital Fortress - by Dan Brown - typical Dan Brown. Lots of adventure, tons of cliffhangers, a few bad words and good plot twists. Not my favorite Dan Brown book, but still really good. Maybe because my dad's a crytologist for the NSA like the main character. Hmm....

Sense and Sensibility - by Jane Austen - I'm a woman. Of COURSE I love this stuff.

The Lion's Game - by Nelson DeMille - be forewarned... the action is CRAZY but the dude has a vicious potty-mouth. More than his last book that I read... I chose this one because it was written ten years ago and just a few months ago the sequel was released (called "The Lion"). Both books were instant national bestsellers.

Dear John - by Nicholas Sparks - I hated the Notebook and was told that I needed to give Sparks another chance before throwing him out the window completely. This one was better, but still VERY sappy.

What I'm reading right now:

The Historian - by Elizabeth Kostova - recommended by JaiCi Razak

The Innovator's Prescription - by Clayton M. Christenson - recommended by Kelly Rees

Shattered Silence - by Melissa Moore - recommended by Grandma Spencer

Yes... I do read multiple books at the same time. I'm weird like that. I usually keep one upstairs, one downstairs, and one at school. I read the one that's closest :) Multitasking has reached new heights!

These are books that I have on hold at the library:

The Golden Spiral - by Lisa Mangum - sequel to The Hourglass Door. I'm pretty excited to read it.

The Hunger Games - by Suzanne Collins - this is probably the one I'm single-handedly most excited to read. I've heard nothing but good stuff about this book and practically everyone I know has read it.

The Lion - by Nelson DeMille - the sequel to The Lion's Game. Nelson DeMille's writing style is utterly captivating (and he's hilarious) but I still haven't decided if it's worth it to put up with all the bad words to get to the good stuff. I'm sensitive, okay?!

And since the library (my office and second home) only allows me to have three books on hold at one time, I have a VERY longs list of books that I'm waiting to put on hold so I can enjoy them as well. I have a feeling it's going to be tough getting through all these before school starts back up...

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and the Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - all by Stieg Larsson

Catching Fire - by Suzanne Collins (and Mockingjay, which I hear is coming out within the next month)

The Lost Symbol - by Dan Brown - which will mean that I've read ALL of his books. :)

The Help - by Kathryn Stockett - I think that every book club I've ever heard of is reading this book right now.

Three Cups of Tea - by Greg Mortenson

The Last Lecture - by Randy Pausch

Atonement - by Ian McEwan

AND IT GOES ON... I can't even tell you how long my wish list is. I've always been a list person..... I feed off of recommendations, so PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY FOR ME!

Oh, by the way... Spencer read the Fablehaven series as well and loved it. Right now he's reading the Eragon series and tells me that it's awesome and keeps getting better. FYI.

Happy reading :)

As of late...

... life is awesome!

In just about one week, Spencer and I will head up to Lake Chelan with his entire family for a FUN week of boating, swimming, wakeboarding, tubing, getting tan, and general frolicking. And we are VERY excited!

I've officially finished my first term of graduate school and am now working full time at the BYU Library. Meanwhile, Spencer's been working his tail off at his two jobs. I've also learned that the best way to wake him up in the morning is NOT shaking him repeatedly, but by announcing that it's 5:30 a.m. and the word cup is on downstairs. I've never seen anyone fly out of bed so quickly! Never again can he use the "it's too early" excuse. :)

Here's a rundown of some fun stuff that's happened:

1. Paige Brianne Tucker was born!
2. Father's Day was on Sunday and I got to talk to my dad about golf
3. Spencer and I made S'mores on the Bell Tower lights at BYU
4. Spencer and I discovered the Fablehaven series and are LOVING those books
5. We faithfully cheered for France in the World Cup and are glad that the U.S. has been playing hard to compensate for Les Bleus
6. Spencer got called as an Elders Quorum teacher
7. We played with JaiCi, Ifraz, and their cute kids TWICE last week (and I got to swim with Mana!)
8. We bought a brand new black leather sectional... it's AWESOME
9. I found out about a secret scholarship that I'm getting so we won't have to pay for ANY of my first year of grad school (HUZZAH!)
10. I'm still working at the temple every Wednesday... but it's closed for the next 5 weeks for cleaning :(
11. We saw the new Karate Kid movie and I got totally mission trunky with all that Chinese
12. The weather has been nice enough that Spencer and I can go on walks (or jogs) several times a week
13. Mom and Tuck are coming to play with me OH so soon!

So yah... we have nothing to complain about! Love you all...

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

I am so OCD. I have discovered that my reliance on schedules, clocks, and calendars is borderline neurotic. At this very moment, I rely on four calendars, two daily planners, two watches, eight clocks and a cell phone (which does is all, anyways). And yet with all of these planners, I never find the time to update my danged blog.

What have I been up to lately? Oh, not much... just Graduate School. I (being young and naive) began this Spring term expecting to be able to work about 30 hours per week in addition to my six graduate credits. The first week of my classes, I discovered that 10 hours of work a week is an optimistic goal and that a one credit class does not in any way translate to one hour of work (more like six in class and two to three outside of class). And this is just with ONE client! Come Fall and Winter I'll have three clients and I will still be getting a grand total of only one credit for the entire experience. Masters Degrees take WORK! However, I'm loving every second of my classes and working in the clinic is SUCH a rewarding opportunity. After so many years of schooling, I'm finally to the point where I feel like everything in my life, in my classes, in my free time, in my family... is all meshing together to form a bigger picture. I love this stuff :)

Here's a quick rundown of some of the eventful things that have happened since I updated this blog (in no order of occurrence or importance)
1. My mom just had a birthday... and she's still looking fabulous
2. My parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary
3. Tuck got engaged... and then left for Italy for like 6 weeks (my heart goes out to ya, Hugh....)
4. Spencer and I went to Pendelton, Oregon and spent Memorial Day weekend with his fam
5. I lost 5 pounds for the Walker Biggest Loser Competition... but Spencer lost 15 and is looking FINE
6. On that note... Spencer and I decided to run a 10K on Pioneer Day
7. We moved into our new apartment and love it SO much :)
8. I aced my first graduate midterm
9. I managed to eat salmon, steak and pork ribs within a single weekend
10. I survived a 9-hour car ride with five full-grown adults and two dogs. Twice.

I'm pretty sad that I haven't been keeping track of all of this stuff more meticulously, seeing as I have NO problems planning out every single minute of every single day in all of my day planners/calendars. Spencer's been keeping busy getting skinnier (and even MORE handsome, if you can even imagine such a thing), working two jobs, and keeping me the world's happiest wife. I love him WAY too much for a little blog entry to do any justice.

The take-home message: We're busy, but we've never been happier. I love you, all :)

One down, Infinity to go

One year ago yesterday, Spencer and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Forgive me for not posting these pictures yesterday... I was busy celebrating with my cute husband. Here are some fun photos that I love from the best day of my life:

I love you, Spencer. :)

What's that? "How am I feeling right now?" I'll tell you...

I'm so happy I could just SQUEEZE you!

Yes, all of you.

Our contract was signed by an AWESOME couple at 1:00 this afternoon. Happy day!

All I want....

... is to sell my stinking contract for our cute little apartment already.

THEN, we can move into THIS place :)

Broken ends and broken toes...

So much happens in my life in a matter of days; it's a shame that I don't write more frequently. OH WELL!

To celebrate the imminent Spring season, I decided that I was sick and tired of my nasty, long, stringy hair. I was ready to kiss those split ends goodbye and get ready for a lower-maintenance and less time/shampoo consuming hairstyle. So Spencer and I called up Charlynn and we took my hair to the chopping block! Spencer's never seen my hair short (except for my school picture from kindergarten when mom cut my hair into an 80s-tastic A-line) so he was surely (but silently) apprehensive about my determination to come back with hair a foot shorter than before.

Luckily, I found this hot picture of Charlize Theron to use as a model of "what my hair's SUPPOSED to look like" and all of his fears and apprehensions were abated:

Unfortunately, reality soon set in and we both realized that I will NEVER look like Charlize Theron... but we were okay with settling on allowing me to imitate her awesome hairstyle.

Here's were I admit that my camera is not working properly - I will issue a blatant warning that the following photo is not being posted because I think it does my hair (or my ridiculous face) any justice, but rather because I promised a plethora of people pictures and I REFUSE to be known as a liar. Yes, I used a cell phone, and YES, I had to take it standing in front of a mirror. Don't even get me started on the stupid cat quilt that I made in 8th grade for a Laurel project. I know my bed's not made and I know the quilt is UGLY. Oh well, at least it's not on Facebook... so here's the aftermath:

My favorite part is when I put it back in a ponytail and it makes an inch-and-a-half long knub.

Until my camera regains consciousness, you'll have to settle with this. Trust me, it looks better in person. Plus, Spencer always makes fun of me for putting pictures on my blog of everything except us. EAT THAT!

Much to my surprise, Spencer informed me that I'm never allowed to wait an entire year before cutting my hair ever again. He prefers it shorter... imagine that! (Thanks, Charlize...)

MOVING RIGHT ALONG...

The laundry monster attacked our apartment this weekend and Spencer and I fought back with full-force. We eyed our has-to-be-shared-with-8-other-couples washer and dryer like hawks and moved in for the kill when we noticed the same batch of wet laundry didn't move for 24 hours. We moved some other poor, unfortunate peoples' clothes into an empty laundry bin and plead the "you snooze, you lose" argument as justification for our deeds. However, justice is a vengeful, cruel mistress and my karma caught up with me while I went to switch our clothes three loads later in the evening.

Our laundry room is a floor beneath us. Unfortunately, the hallway lighting burned out a couple weeks ago. As I was walking down the stairs with a big laundry basket, blinded by the darkness, I biffed it on the stairs and plummeted onto the cold, ill-carpeted floor. I thought I was going to escape this fiasco with only a bruised and skinned up knee, but as I stood up to regain my composure and sanity I noticed a much more intense pain throbbing in my left foot. You know, the kind where you can feel your pulse in your injured limb? I took it like a man for the next couple of minutes and successfully switched the laundry over, but as soon as I made it back upstairs I curled up on the couch and complained of the pain to my oh-so-patient husband who fetched me an ice pack and some ibuprofin.

I decided I'd sleep on it to see if it felt any better.

And the verdict is....

Nope.

I'm pretty sure I broke (at least one of) my toes. I'm walking like a gimp (with very cute hair, mind you...) and have a purplish/reddish hue to my now-oversized middle toe. It's very attractive. My biggest concern: how in the heck am I supposed to exercise with broken toes?! I suppose I can use the exercise bikes at the gym... but I'm afraid I might have to miss out on Zumba. Stupid toes.... I figured that there were ten in case some of them decided to stop working for a little while. Apparently not. I always have the lamest bone-breaking stories, which is sad since I have about 15+ stories to tell. Some laundry, eh?

BUT... life is still good. Spencer and I are looking at newer, BIGGER apartments to move into this Spring and I already had a call today from a girl who might want to move into OUR apartment. HUZZAH!

AND... General Conference is this weekend, which I'm stoked for. Kent and DeRue will be in town, and thanks to my cute parents the four of us have tickets for the Sunday Afternoon session!

Life is grand, 8 toes and all.

Getting My Butt Kicked... and other stuff I've been up to lately

So working out isn't supposed to be easy, right? Let me just say, I'm glad that the first two weeks of my new workout routine are over and I'm still going strong. Whenever I put on those neon green/yellow running shoes and sinfully-bright-blue running shorts my body starts to clench and seize up in retaliation, but alas... I am the task master! I'm whippin' myself into (better) shape, dang it... and no aches or pains or charlie-horses are going to keep me away from my goal. I'm not trying to lose weight, I just want to be better about exercising regularly. And so far, I'm off to a pretty good start... even if I'm kicking my own butt in order to do it.

I am in love with Zumba! There's a cute girl in our Relief Society who is now teaching a class on Saturdays at 10:00. I went for the first time last week and sweated my REAR off... but had a BLAST at the same time. I'm definitely planning on going every Saturday that I can. It beats going for a run all by yourself.

Moving On...

Last week was absolutely AMAZING! My sister is the bomb-diggety. My mom came into town and she, my Grandma Spencer, and I drove up to Rexburg for the weekend to hear Tuck knock our socks off in her Opera Scenes. I'm not a huge opera fan... but I could listen to my little sister ANY time. She was phenomenal. AND, she looked really cute... well, that's before they made her put on a potato sack, trash her hair, and cover her face and teeth in enough black makeup to look like a demented zombie for the Macbeth number. She played one of several witches and she looked demonic, that's for sure. BUT, she was AWESOME once again. I wish I had pictures, but I'm lame. So I don't. So sue me.

We got to meet Tuck's boyfriend, Hugh... and the two of them together get two thumbs WAY up and an enthusiastic sisterly nod-of-approval. "Momma says he's bona fide!"... cool points to all who can name that quote. Hugh got her some awesome roses for her performance... my only complaint was that they made the tulips from mom, grandma and me look pretty second-rate. Oh well, I guess I'll let him win the prettiest flower competition.

Mom and grandma shared a hotel room for the weekend (which meant that Tuck and I reaped the rewards of a fully-loaded continental breakfast), and Tuck and I SHARED her twin size bed. You may laugh, but we were comfortable and I'm not complaining! She's got memory foam, ooh la la! Plus, neither one of us move a muscle in our sleep so we just slept soundly (and snugly) through the night.

Then this past weekend, Tuck and her choir (The Collegiate Singers...(?)) came down here to Salt Lake Cizzle to sing with MoTab for the Music and the Spoken Word Broadcast. Unfortunately, they start dressing young girls in MoTabesque smocks at a young age... but if anyone can look fancy in black velvet, bell-sleeves and paisley-patterned glitter, it's my sister. She got to sing with a sextet of girls and she hit all the high notes. I'm going to post this video and you have to watch her! She's the cute little one, second from the left.

ARGH! I can't get the link to work. Just trust me... she was cute. Maybe you can google it or something.

It was SO neat to see everyone in my entire family that day... minus my dad :( And I mean practically EVERYONE! Both grandmas, aunts, uncles & cousins from both sides, family friends from Hawaii, and ALL my siblings, their spouses, and their cute kids... both living and in embryo. :) It was hard to leave them all, but it was great to spend a little bit of time with them to celebrate Tuck's pure awesomeness. Plus it was pi-day, which necessitated further festivities.

I celebrated pi-day by baking a DELICIOUS cherry pie. I'd show you a picture, but the only one I took was on my phone and the picture's fuzzy. OH, WELL! Imagine Martha Stewart-like aesthetic perfection, with a delicious cherry filling.

Plus I made a Quiche. AND a really yummy soup.

Can I tell you how awesome my husband is, too?! Okay, thanks for the permission. He's the greatest! He's come to the gym a couple of times with me and I got to watch him haul TRASH at an intramural basketball game. His team won by about a jillion points. AND... he's handsome to boot. The other day, I mentioned that I like the "Choose to Give" shirts that people are wearing on campus and he came home from work last night with an extra one just for me. :) Plus, he thinks I'm pretty much the greatest cook ever (I guess I tricked him REALLY well). Finally, he let's me be the big spoon sometimes when we cuddle and I LIKE it! I love me some Spencer, mhmm.

I got accepted to the University of Utah this week. It'll be nice to send THEM a rejection letter (much to my dad's chagrin). The commute and an extra several thousand dollars of tuition every semester don't sound that favorable to me. Besides, I just found out that BYU's going to give me a pretty hefty scholarship for my first year. That means less time at work and more time with my hubby!... oh, and my textbooks. And so BYU it is. HUZZAH!

So life is pretty darn awesome! I love love love my life :)

P.S. I got a 100% on my ComD 421 test. BUT I forgot to wear green for St. Patrick's day... I guess blue must be the new green when it comes to luck... hmm...

The Results are In...

I'VE BEEN ACCEPTED INTO BYU'S GRADUATE COMMUNICATION DISORDERS DEPARTMENT!

This calls for a celebration!

Outsmarting the System...

I've been playing this little waiting game with graduate schools lately and I'll be honest... I'm about ready to rip my hair out. Most people turned in their applications around January, seeing as the the darned things were due on February 1st, but I turned mine in in NOVEMBER! I feel like I've been waiting for eleven years. But anyways...

I only applied to BYU and the University of Utah (assuming that the U will let a doorpost into their program) with the hopes that BYU would select me as one of their lucky fifteen newbies out of a gajillion applicants. Spencer won't be done with his undergrad for a few years so I figured my options are kind of limited. Luckily both schools have really good programs! I still haven't heard back from the U (I hear they'll let everyone know around April), but I've had some good news from BYU.

I had my interview with the Graduate Committee on February 18th and I feel as though it went really well. REALLY well. As in, I actually enjoyed myself. And after I stuffed my face with free cookies from the department, I had to do a writing sample... which, although torturous, also went pretty well (I think).

And so, I've been waiting for a yay or nay from both schools ever since. Today, I think I had a breakthrough. (You're probably asking yourself "think? How can you THINK you heard good news?") Well, I'll tell you. I was looking at the Graduate Catalog online to see which courses I would be taking this spring. I'm trying to figure out how much I'll be paying for books because we are POOR and I AM, afterall, an uptight money-pinching tightwad. The good news is: I should only be buying two textbooks. The BETTER than good news is: BYU has my status listed online as "New Graduate Student."

Of course, this got my attention, so I continued to investigate further into my Route Y account. As it turns out, they've also updated my progress report online so that I have a "Graduate Progress Report." And do you know what that progress report says?

It says: ADMITTED FOR SPRING 2010

So yah. I might be in? I think I'm in. I haven't heard anything from BYU officially... but I can read. That's all I have to say.

Yeah!

What I'm looking forward to...

This is my sister, and yes... she's a total babe. This weekend, I get to hear her sing up in Rexburg because my mom (who also happens to be total babe, and who is pictured here with my handsome papa) is leaving the land of snowpocalypse to come and see us and hear Tuck. I'm going to miss this guy a lot (he's pretty easy on the eyes, huh?):
But I'm pretty sure he'll be content with his brother and a couple of hot 'n ready pizzas while I'm gone.


One other thing to be excited about: Pi Day. Even if you don't think math is cool, pie is. So eat a lot of it on March 14th. At 1:59 if you want to be REALLY precise, but whatever.

P.S... I facebook stalked all three of you to get your pictures. Hope you don't mind :)

Just in case you were wondering...

I love my husband. I thought you'd want to know.

Birthdizzle

So... I'm 24 now. Weird, huh? But still rather exciting.

Valentine's Day was fun... Spencer bought me Gerber Daisies and Godiva chocolate (good husband award) and I made a three course French meal for him that turned out AWESOME, if I do say so myself. We celebrated on Friday because we wanted to have more time to spend with his family while they were in town over the weekend. It was nice to start off our wonderful weekend with some good food and an entertaining Opening Ceremonies for the Vancouver Olympics.

Kent and DeRue took us out for several wonderful meals, so we had good company and didn't have to splurge on groceries this week (huzzah!). They took me out birthday shopping and I got some awesome black boots and a cute new outfit for church/clinicals/work. Spencer earned MAJOR points by picking out the CUTEST outfit ever without my help. AND, my parents bought me a temple dress because I work there on Wednesday nights. The temple is awesome.... but I digress...

My birthday was Kent and DeRue's last day in town so we went out for a FANTASTIC lunch (and we got portions large enough to feed us for at least two meals... so once again, dinner was set). After they took off, Kirstin, James, Chase, Spencer and I went out to see Valentine's Day the movie. Chase is awesome and bought Spencer's and my tickets for my birthday present. The movie had some highly unsettling plot twists until the end... but luckily everything was resolved and it turned out quite cute. Plus, I love Jennifer Garner. And Julia Roberts.

THEN, we went back to K and James' and they watched the Bachelor. I'd never seen it. It was really fun to make fun of, but it made me want to barf and I have no desire to ever see it EVER again. I mean, come on! Since when is it okay to have MULTIPLE girlfriends at the same time? I'm really glad I'm married and never have to go through an awkward first date ever again, but THAT show is NOTHING like dating in real life. Not a fan.

But other than that, I had a really awesome birthday/Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend.

P.S... My house is spotless and it looks BOMB. Come over and play.

You smell that?... Yah... It smells like Grad School...

Because I have an interview for BYU's Communication Disorders Department NEXT THURSDAY!

Party on.

Worst Joke... EVER

This is a true story... one that I encountered personally, just yesterday afternoon.

I was in my ComD 421 class, AKA "Speech Science" and my teacher was talking about harmonics and formants and all that exciting stuff that only weird people in my major think is interesting. He showed us two spectrograms on the projector screen and the following happened:

Dr. Dromey: "This spectrogram on the top here depicts a healthy person pronouncing the vowel /a/. Now take a look at the spectrogram underneath it. This person had been sick and we had them repeat the same vowel sound with a hoarse voice. Now compare the normal /a/ and the hoarse /a/."

Pathetic student: (raises hand...) "Dr. Dromey? I was just curious... how did you manage to get the horse to talk?"

*Insert MOST AWKWARD SILENCE EVER here.*

Pathetic student: "Hardy har har!"

Dr. Dromey: "Wow. That was a joke."

*And then the other 149 students hung their heads in shame and shifted uncomfortably in their seats until Dr. Dromey covered up the awkwardness beautifully and proceeded with the lecture.*

Nine and a Half Fingers...

We had a tickety-tight week over here at the Cornett residence. I'll start from where I left off...

WELL... Saturday was productive. Spencer and I finished all our errands and then went over to his friend Robbie's house for some hard-core home-cooking. Spencer informed me the night before that he had volunteered me to make Frog-eye salad a week earlier. I guess he forgot to tell me about that... hmm. Either way, I made a MEAN batch of frog-eye, large enough to fill a bathtub (well, at least that's what it seemed like). At Robbie's, we ate meat. LOTS of meat. And frog-eye salad to "cleanse the palate." AND... the Colts won. Go Austin Collie.

Sunday, we went to church and got our Spirit on - which is never a bad thing. I went to play piano for choir practice and was presented with some lovely cookies, thanks to Elise. She's cute - she's our chorister and always makes TONS of food to entice people to come to choir. Unfortunately, she doesn't witness much fruit from her labor, and the six of us who usually show up normally end up with our arms OVERFLOWING with goodies. Darn... The week before we had cinnamon rolls. mmmm.

That night, we headed over to Mount Pleasant with Kirstin and James for a fun weekend away from all the noise (AND CABLE TELEVISION). 'Twas glorious. We relaxed, played games, and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. OH, and we watched Signs. At night. And I got scurred, even though I've seen it before. There's just something about the part when Mel Gibson sticks a knife under the door.... it gives me the heebie-jeebies. asdfklajsdf;klaj

We played a LOT of Giza. James and Spencer were bent on making the game HORRIBLE for the rest of us, so there was some serious backstabbing and spouse-sabotage going on. I won a round. I'm just going to get that out there.

I read another book... and started yet another one. At the request of the elderly stranger I met at the gym, I read:


Despite the guy's potty mouth... I enjoyed it. But not as much as Dan Brown's stuff. Right now I'm reading The Second World War by Winston Churchill. That man was the bomb.com. And Hitler was a BAD bad little man... AND he tried to get into the Vienna School of Art but was rejected. mmhmm. I know, right?!

Monday... HOLIDAY. We stayed in Mount Pleasant.

Tuesday... back to school. Except... what's that? Oh wait, my class was cancelled. Who had a five-day weekend? That's right. I did. But I still went to work for SEVEN long hours.

Wednesday, I had my one class of THIS week. I got a 100% on my project, which pleases me.

Thursday - I had a field trip to the Utah Disability Center in Salt Lake. That place was AMAZING. We saw all sorts of Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) devices. There was one called "iTobii" that blew my mind. It was basically a computer... that reads your eyes. No mouse, no keyboard, it calibrates to your EYES. Wherever you look, the icon on the screen follows. AMAZING. Too bad it's $21,000... (we don't need cars, right?) Then we went out to lunch at Paradise Cafe. I'd never heard of it, but DANG. It was good stuff. Get the chicken artichoke panini, I beg you. You'll thank me later, and you're welcome.

THEN... comes Thursday night. It's around 11:00 and I'm like... "Hey Spencer, do you want a sandwich? I can make you a sandwich." Don't ask me WHY I offered to make my husband food at 11:00. I do crazy things. Anyways, there I was minding my own business cutting tomatoes and slicing mozzerella cheese when the STUPID cheese slicer went out of control and pretty much removed a part of my thumb. I was holding the cheese a little weird, but I'm glad that I was because I took a chunk out of the BOTTOM of my finger instead of the top, which would have resulted in the loss-of-fingernail. Gross, I know. Luckily, Spencer is awesome and he forced me to put pressure on it and elevate the darned thing. So we watched some cool show on Discovery about explosives and the Secret Service while I could feel my heartbeat in my thumb and went through several blood-soaked paper towels. Yucky.

THEN, being the genius that I am, I had Spencer bandage said appendage and I went to sleep. I woke up in the morning because it HURT LIKE HECKFIRE. I took one look at my thumb and was like... "I think I should call my mom." The last thing I wanted was an infected, gangrenous thumb, thank-you-very-much. She told me exactly what I DIDN'T want to hear: clean it out with hydrogen peroxide.

Why, for the love of PETE... did I not do that the night before?! Instead, I let my little opposable friend rest over night and now it had started already closing itself back off again. SO, I had to soak my stupid thumb for a while, go to the store to buy hydrogen peroxide, and then spend the entire morning (2 and 1/2 hours to be exact), harassing and abusing the thing until I could open it all back up again, bleed out half the blood in my body, scream bloody murder a couple times, and THEN bandage it up again. Oh, what fun! But mom's right... I'm glad it's clean. (grumble, grumble...)

The good news: I don't use my left thumb when I type.

The bad news: I DO use my left thumb to play the piano (and our choir is performing on Sunday. All six of us, chorister and pianist included). AND... as I discovered this morning, I tend to use my left thumb to button my pants. Ouch.

So here's the moral of the story... use caution when cutting the cheese... HAH!

Blast from the Past...

This week has been REALLY good! Shoot, I'm getting spoiled by only having 2 classes. I have so much more time to do the things that need to get done around the house and run errands that have been on the backburner for a LONG time.

My house is spotless, my homework is completely up-to-speed, I finished my backlog at work, and we had some fun dinner dates! I went running at 8 o'clock in the morning on FOUR different days this week, which is an awesome improvement. Yes, I made it longer than 1 mile, but NO, Spencer didn't come with me. He decided that his sleep was more valuable. Maybe I'll get him to come this next week. Maybe.

Last night was awesome - Jeff and Becca came over and they made us dinner. Jeff made crab-stuffed mushrooms and some awesome Vietnamese dish that I can't even begin to pronounce the name of. I was in heaven, even if our apartment smelled faintly of rotten fish oil... that's what Febreeze is for! We played some games together , then Spencer and I were going to make homemade ice cream with mixed berries for dessert. However, our freezer (which is the size of a peanut) is a little bit on the... NOT quite cold enough side. We didn't have enough room to put our ice-cream bowl in the freezer until two days before Jeff and Becca came over (which I incorrectly assumed to be an adequate amount of time for a bowl to freeze). Since our freezer is LAME and doesn't circulate cold air very well, the bowl never froze all the way - which means, our vanilla ice cream was more like a melted vanilla milkshake. Yah. It didn't work. At all. Next time, we'll be sure to stick the bowl in the freezer like FIVE days before our appointment instead of two days before.

I finished two books this week. I read Rocket Boys... and cried like a baby during the last thirty pages or so. I don't care if you've heard the story, I don't care if you've seen the movie, you HAVE to read this book! Holy cow, it's good. I also read The Lovely Bones. The movie came out this weekend and I thought it looked like an interesting concept, so rather than spend 10 dollars to see the movie I figured I'd read the book for free. It was interesting all right... I've never been so creeped out in my life. I won't give anything away for anyone who wants to see the movie, but I'm not so sure I'd recommend the book. A little weird for me, and it had a lot of morals that I'm adamantly opposed to.

Oh, before I forget, I killed our plant. I kept it watered and happy while it was at work, but when I went to carry it home this week, the thing leaked water and dirt all over me and I gave it up for adoption. I have to walk home for 20 minutes, and when my hands are dirty and covered in water from holding a plant (which is also very heavy, mind you), all I can envision in my future is frostbite. SO... I bailed. I left it on top of a trash can on the south side of campus (and watched someone else pick it up as I walked off). We must not be ready for kids, as per my observation last post. Ha.

SO... I'm reading the Old Testament for Sunday School this year. I'm reading four pages a day and I figured that I'll finish around the beginning of November (what with me starting late and all). AND, it's awesome. The Old Testament is the bomb-diggety and I recommend EVERYONE read it. Period. We can compare cool Bible stories.

So last night after Jeff and Becca left, Spencer and I weren't tired. So you know what we did? We built a fort. Yup. A fort. Right in our living room. We set up our bedding and everything and slept there and it was FUN. Spencer was a good sport because he doesn't do well sleeping on the floor, but I slept like a baby once I finally closed my eyes. I love my bed, but my fort is pretty dang cool.

AND... BYU just slaughtered CSU in basketball. Is life good? Yup. It's real good. Till next time...

Things are looking up...

There's something really refreshing about welcoming in a new year. Of course, I hate that it's still really cold (and getting colder), and I feel like the Grinch because I have to take down all my Christmas decorations - but the new year is also the mark of new changes and new goals. If you ask me, the pros outweigh the cons.

This year I have LOTS of goals. And I'm excited, because for the first time I don't have to set them by myself - I HAVE SPENCER! Of course, he probably has no idea what I'm dragging him into, but I'm sure he'll thank me when it's over. My mission taught me a lot about how to set goals, but I think that being home has taught me even more about why they're so important. If I don't write something down, IT WILL NOT HAPPEN. Period. Next to Spencer, my day planner is probably my best friend.

I won't share ALL my goals, since some of them are personal, but I think some of them need that little added "oomph" that comes with me having them in writing... twice.

First things first:
No matter how organized I am in my life, nothing is in place until I have my spiritual priorities straight. I wake up every morning, scrunch my legs up until I'm in the fetal position, and say my prayers. It gets the job done, yes... but really? Is that the best I can do? When I think of the phrase "with full purpose of heart" I think that a college student who only has 6 credits and the privilege of sleeping in until 8:00 in the morning can do a little better than that. From now on I want to wait until I've gotten up, eaten breakfast and gotten ready before I say my prayers so I can at least be coherent, for goodness sake.

Next:
Let's be honest here...school has always managed to usurp almost complete control of my time. This semester marks the first time I've had a chance to sit back and breathe at any point during the week since I was in the sixth grade. School's only been going on for a week but I've already learned that I need to have a plan for my time every day, or I will fill that time with nothing of value. Monday and Tuesday, I came home from work and school, and did just that. Wednesday, I finally realized I was going to go crazy if I didn't get cracking on something besides "relaxing". That's when the goals started swimming around in my head...

-Read books that are NOT for school. I absolutely love to read. Yesterday I went to the Library (convenient... since I work there) and checked out two books. One is Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam, and the other is Plum Island, by Nelson DeMille. I was at the gym over Christmas break and had my nose buried in a Dan Brown book - a complete stranger came up to me and told me that if I liked Dan Brown, I absolutely HAD to read a book by Nelson DeMille, and that Plum Island is his best. I'll let you know what I think of it, but I'm only about 50 pages into Rocket Boys, first. P.S... I love suggestions, so if you know a good book, I wanna hear it.

-Go running more often. I also love running, but last semester I had no time for it with 15 credits, grad school applications, studying for the GRE, and work. I was pretty good over the summer, but NOT good the semester before that because... oh wait, I was planning MY WEDDING. I went with Spencer the other day and we made it a measly mile before the dry air caused us to stop and take a breath without our throats freezing. Lame, I know. This is the woman who once ran a half-marathon and would go for "fun runs" on the weekends and come back two hours later.

-Spend more time with friends and family. Last semester, I hardly ever saw Jeff and Becca and WE ALL WORK IN THE SAME BUILDING for crying out loud. Unacceptable. I also never went out and played with my friends. This semester, things are going to be different. I had breakfast with JaiCi and Nelli on Wednesday, we're going to Kirstin and James' tonight, we're doing dinner with Jeff and Becca next Friday, and next Saturday is going to be a triple date with two couples that Spencer works with. Seriously, if you want to play... call us. I WILL be social, dangit.

-Become the homemaker I know I'm going to be someday... in the far distant future. So Spencer wants puppies. I want babies. I'm trying convince him that we're not ready for either right now. I'm not going to be capable of taking care of THREE living things until I can sufficiently care for TWO. Don't get me wrong, we don't live in a rathole, but we could do laundry more often and make our bed and such. My boss recently gave me his poinsettia plant because he's tired of taking care of it. That will mean that (technically) we WILL have three living things in our home, but SHH... don't tell. If I kill it, it's a further sign that we're just not ready.

Finally, I will be a better blogger. I used to keep a journal, and then that was kind of replaced when I came home from my mission to Hong Kong - I would email my mission trainee every week and keep those emails as my pseudo-journal. Then she came home, and now I have nothing. That's where this blog comes in. So besides the fact that it helps me stay in touch with family and friends and GREATLY relieves the stresses of daily life, this blog is going to be the "Cornett Family Archive" of events and exciting occurences. I hope you all enjoy it. =)

Oh... the list could go on. In fact, the list DOES go on, seeing as the list is a real thing and all. I've barely scratched the surface. For now, I just have to figure out which things on the list are the most important and tackle them all in stride.

Till next time...