You Know You're Exhausted When...

When people are utterly exhausted, sometimes even the littlest things will crack them up. I remember one such incident years ago...

I had just taken some NyQuil and was sitting at the table with my siblings enjoying dessert. One of my siblings had brought a little stuffed animal (a puppy, if I recall) to the table, and this puppy had one eye missing. I thought this was the most hilarious thing the world had ever known, and laughed and cried for several minutes. I finally had to excuse myself and go to bed.

Last night, Travis had an episode of pure exhaustion as we got ready to go to bed. He's been working so hard on homework and projects, that it's taken a toll on his sleep. We had just finished scriptures and were about to turn out the lights, when Travis suddenly said, "You know how some people go by their initials? I should go by mine..."

"T.A.?" I asked. (His full initials are T.V.A.)

"No, T.V.! Ha, ha, ha!!" and off he goes into another world where laughter abounds. He then reached over and put my hand on his chest. "Look, Wife! You're on T.V.!" And he's dying of laughter.

"Husband, you are sooo tired..."

"What? No way! If I was tired, would I be able to do this?" he jumps out of bed and does a little dance.

"Husband..."

"T.V.! Ha, ha, ha...!"

It was kind of cute. :) I sure hope he catches up on his sleep soon!

Happy New Year

We had a great Christmas and New Years, but alas, there are no pictures to show for it. But that's okay. If we did take pictures, it would just be us sitting, talking, and eating with family. That's pretty much what we did over the last two weeks. But, hey, what are the holidays for, anyway?

Travis and I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family. My sister put together a wonderful program in which everyone participated. Growing up, our Christmas Eve programs were always full of food and were very musical since we all play at least one musical instrument. My sisters played their violins, my brothers and I played the piano (or flute, once I learned). Sometimes we'd put on a play like The Nativity or The Nutcracker (since we also have dancers in the family). We'd also sing "Feliz Navidad" and dance around like crazy. This year, we kept to our musical instruments and singing, but lost the play and "Feliz Navidad". But I'm sure we'll make up for it in years to come.

This was also the first Christmas without my brother, who is currently on a mission in Mexico. It was a little sad and different without him, but my sister was so sweet and thoughtful to write him earlier and ask him to send a recording of him bearing his testimony of the true meaning of Christmas. It was SO wonderful to hear his voice again; my mom was in tears! He had also, surprisingly, sent us his part in "The 12 Days of Christmas"! His part was always "four calling birds", whenever we'd get to his part, we'd just play his short recording on the computer. It felt like he was right there with us. The best part of Christmas, though, was actually being able to talk to Bridger on the phone. I can't believe he's been gone since July! He is doing a wonderful job in Mexico, and is learning so much.

The next week, we spent time with Travis's family. His brother, Devin, and his family were visiting from Texas, and it was so much fun spending time with them. I had the time of my life playing with their 3 year old, Katelyn- all their kids are so sweet and adorable. We also spent New Years Eve with the Andersons, and played games and ate tons of food. We stayed the night and then drove back down to my family's the next day for more food and games.

See, even if we had taken pictures, they would just be pictures of us stuffing our faces! It's probably for the best there's no physical evidence of that...

Auto Hammer and Drill

This last semester I took a product development class. The first week of class, we were divided into design teams and given the task to design an improved model of a Hitachi impact driver (see below) such that it would fill some unmet market needs.

My design team decided to create a new cordless hand power tool capable of drilling holes, driving screws, and hammering nails, all with a single device. The operating function is changed simply by changing from a drill or screw bit to a specially designed hammer bit. After creating our design, we had to manufacture a functional prototype. Here's a movie of our finished, functional prototype in action! It actually works surprisingly well!



The technology we developed is pretty cool (if I do say so myself.. :) ). It changes from a rotational motion to a back-and-forth hammering impact just by changing the bit. The Technology Transfer Office at BYU has started the process of filing for a provisional patent and then they will present our design to manufacturers. If any of them bite, we'll work out a licensing deal for them to lease our technology.

It has been a really fun project to work on! I learned a lot, and am really excited and happy about our results!

Christmas Vacation

Christmas vacation has officially started. We get two weeks off! Unfortunately, it got off to a sad start with the burning of the Provo Tabernacle. It's still too early to say how it started, but it's looking like an electrical malfunction. Yesterday morning as Travis and I left for school, we were dumbfounded with the sight of this beautiful building in flames. It's a sad loss to Utah history, but we're hoping that it will be rebuilt. Until then, I wonder where we'll have our stake conferences? No Stake Center around here is big enough for our student stake!

(photo from KSL.com)

But the day got better, because Travis came to school with me and talked to my Spanish students about holidays in South America. He did a great job, and it was lots of fun having him there with me. As we were walking to my classroom, holding hands, one of my students looked at us and shouted above the crowds, "No way! He's good looking!" Yeah, I know. :) He was also very good with the students...

Turkey Day

This year we spent our Thanksgiving feast at the Anderson's, and boy was it a feast! I even tried my hand at making a cornucopia. I saw it online and figured it couldn't be too hard to make. (It's made from my bread stick recipe.)

I also brought my Reeses Peanut Butter Pie for my in-laws to try. It was a hit! (I've had people ask me for the recipe, so I left it as a comment in my first post this month.)

On Tuesday, the National Weather Service issued a severe blizzard warning for all of Utah. This was to be the biggest blizzard Utah had seen in years! People left work early to try to beat the storm, and universities canceled classes after 3:00 pm. This was a big deal! But we managed to stay warm inside our home surrounded by friends as we celebrated our annual Friends' Thanksgiving breakfast (for dinner).

Sometimes we would get up and look out the window to see this so-called "blizzard". The result: half an inch of snow. Really? But what we did notice were the FREEZING arctic temperatures. It was -15 Thanksgiving morning! We better gear up for another cold winter! But I will say this, the snow on the mountains is absolutely breath-taking. Sometimes, that makes the cold worth it. :)

My "Teacher Roots"

I presented at a conference last Saturday in South Jordan, and after my presentation we decided to make a special trip to my "teacher roots" in West Jordan. It had been so long since I'd seen my previous schools; it felt very nostalgic being there again. For posterity's sake, I might as well dedicate this post to my early teaching experience in Salt Lake.

For those of you who don't know, BYU-Idaho does their student-teaching a little differently than most universities. Since Rexburg (and the surrounding towns) are some-what rural areas, the only student-teachers who get to do their actual student-teaching in and around Rexburg (i.e. Idaho Falls) are married students! There was no room for the rest of us, so we had to go elsewhere. BYU-I has teamed up with different school districts in the western states that took us in. I had the option of going to Salt Lake, Arizona, Nevada, or Washington. Since I was madly in love with a boy named Travis, who was ever-so patiently waiting for me back home, I decided to student-teach in Salt Lake. (I'm still madly in love with him...)

But it wasn't easy moving away from BYU-I. The scariest part about graduation day was waking up in a cold sweat that night in my hotel room in Idaho Falls! I was going to be separated from so many wonderful teachers and friends! I was on my own! I never had my professors visit my classroom. Instead, it was a lady who worked for the local district. She was super nice, but...not the same. Even today, I get a little sad when I'm at a conference and my friend, Danielle, stops to chat with previous classmates from her days at BYU-Provo. Lucky, her. I don't know where my classmates ended up!

But it wasn't so scary after all. I was assigned to teach U.S. Government and Spanish at Copper Hills High School from August-December of that year. Both cooperating teachers were fantastic, and taught me so much! Copper Hills even offered me an internship there for the rest of the school year, but when the administration asked permission from BYU-I, they were denied. (BYU-I doesn't offer internships for teachers; strictly student-teaching.)

As my semester of student teaching was nearing its close, I started looking around for other teaching jobs. Not so easy in December! But I was very blessed to have one open up nearby. My government cooperating teacher was so kind and offered to take over a class period so I could drive down the street for an interview. I received a call later that day and was hired! I finished my last week at Copper Hills and the very next week started my new (paid!) job at Joel P. Jensen Middle School, also in West Jordan, where I taught geography and Utah History.

Of course, when I got married that next summer, I really had to move closer to home. And that's where I've been since. But I think about my Salt Lake days often, and am so grateful for the things that I learned, the people I met, and experiences I had there.

Placed Again!

Remember how I won first place in my school's bake off last year? Well, I couldn't pull that off again, but I did manage to squeeze by and get third place! I decided to dazzle the judges' taste buds with a bit of a new recipe of mine, Reese's Peanut Butter Pie.

I made this pie (in the picture) the week before in preparation for the bake off. I had never made it before, so I wanted to try it out on my brave husband before releasing it to the public. It was a hit! I made the actual entry last night. I was nervous when I first handed my pie over to the faculty because when I took off the pie cover, a lot of the stripes stuck to it and came off, and it looked awful! But I guess the taste won out, and I won a gift card to Target! My department chair asked if he could take what was left of the pie home, so I let him. Sorry, husband. I guess I'll just have to make it again sometime. Shucks. :)