What have we been up to?

Jason has been reading, coding, studying, learning, babysitting, and making applesauce. Every once in a while he has a little time to play.

Julie has been reading, writing, teaching, programming, cleaning, cooking, and grocery shopping. Every once in a while she has a little time to play. If you want to see what she's been programming you can go HERE.

Jason's good news for the week is that he did well on his test today and that he's doing awesome in his tennis class. Not to mention playing a little basketball and football when he gets the chance.

Julie's good news for the week is that she passed her Prospectus Defense and can now officially start working on her development project. Anyone wanting to know more about what she's doing for her project is welcome to read her 20 page paper!

In celebration we went to a corn maze and got lost! I highly recommend it.

The end of September

It hasn’t been a really exciting week, but a good week. My classes and project are going pretty well, although slower than I would like. I really enjoy teaching the Educational Psychology class for the most part and spend many hours planning and teaching. I assigned a fairly large assignment on assessment that was due on Friday, and it’s so interesting to see the differences among students in how they approach and value school. Thursday I arranged a meeting with a student that I was concerned about. She pretty much hadn’t cracked the textbook in spite of the weekly reading assignments for the past three weeks, and when I asked about the assessment assignment, she hadn’t done a thing for it and just told me she didn’t understand it. I spent almost an hour re-explaining what we had gone over in class (that she had missed) and walking her through it so she would feel capable of doing the assignment.
In contrast I talked to another one of my students after class on Friday who is a native Brazilian and still struggles with the language. She was on the verge of tears for most of our conversation as she explained how difficult the assignment was for her and how many hours she had spent trying to do it “just right.” I suggested a couple of ways she could improve it before she turned it in later that day and I’m sure spent a lot more time trying to implement what I said. I have two other native Spanish speakers as well and my heart just goes out to them in their struggles to do well in school and in taking tests, and yet they seem to be some of the most conscientious students.
Friday afternoon I was reminded of an important lesson. I walked to the library after class. On the way home from the library, I passed the McKay Building and remembered that I had left my jacket there this morning in the graduate lab. It was so hot though, so I decided I could get by without it for the weekend. Well, as I was mostly past the building I thought about it again, but again I rationally pushed the thought aside. I was so hot and tired by the time I arrived home and as I walked up the stairs, I reached for my apartment keys in my backpack. They weren’t there. It was then that I realized I had left them in my jacket pocket which was now still up on campus. As I walked all the way back up to campus and back again I was clearly reminded that I need to listen to the promptings of the spirit and that even though I may not know why at the time that I’m being prompted, I still need to listen for the blessing and benefit not only of others, but also for myself.
Friday night Jason and I picked up some dinner at Costa Vida and drove up to the look out point of Squaw Peak. We enjoyed eating dinner while overlooking the valley and then walked along the trails for a little bit until the sun set. It was so gorgeous, definitely one of the benefits of living so close to the mountains! Unfortunately our camera batteries were dead and we didn’t get a single picture.
Saturday I went to a great enrichment (now called a RS meeting ☺ ) on provident living. We had great classes on managing money and saving money on food and decorating. Later that afternoon we babysat a 9 mo. old baby while his parents went to the football game. I tried cutting Jason’s hair while we watched the BYU football game and tried to keep the 9 mo. old out of the cut hair. It was kind of funny.
Jason took our bikes in to get fixed and tried to get some homework done on Saturday. I don’t know how much he managed to get done, but he’ll have a busy week this next week. Fortunately, we did manage to play a few games of Lost Cities in which I have been the champion in recent history. ☺

Labor Day

Jason and I had a good week. It was nice to have Labor Day off from school, but we really spent the day laboring. We spent the morning rearranging the furniture in our apartment so we could have the desk out in the front room where the new internet connection is located. It looked like deceptively simple job--one of those jobs that looks like it will take an hour and then takes three more. Needless to say, a lot of places got vacuumed, dusted, and cleaned that hadn’t been in more than a year. We actually moved almost every piece of furniture in the apartment before we finally found a way that we liked, and that way required us to take the top of the desk off so it wouldn’t block the kitchen. The top of the desk has now become a wobbly shelf in our room and to conserve space we stacked two bed tables on top of each other. You can look at the pictures to see what I’m talking about. The rest of the day was dedicated to laundry, work, and homework, with FHE to finish off the day.Stacked tablesComputer desk in front room

Classes are going well so far, but Jason and I often feel overwhelmed with the responsibilities we have with school and work and feeling behind. It can be discouraging at times, but we both try to make a little time to spend together every day which is nice.

Friday we went to a Stake Barbeque and Saturday Jason babysat a little girl in our ward while I went to an aerobics class and then to a get-together with some friends. Jason is going to be a great dad with all the practice he gets babysitting. ☺ We also watched most of the BYU game which had some really great plays as well.

Today was busy with meetings, church, and visiting teaching. We went to the CES fireside given by Elaine Dalton, the YW General President at the Marriott Center. It was so powerful! A really great choir sang the opening and closing songs so powerfully and Sister Dalton gave a very motivating talk about our responsibility to lead the nations in a return to Virtue. I felt the Spirit so strongly almost the entire time, more strongly and for a longer period of time than I have for a while. I’m so glad that we went and that we saw it in the Marriott Center. It was a very memorable experience.

Go BYU!

Well, I definitely think the big news for the week is the BYU win over Oklahoma yesterday. I don’t ever remember BYU feeling so much like a “college town” as it did yesterday. We watched the game over at Jeff and Sally’s new home in North Provo after helping them do some cleaning and such. I didn’t think BYU would do very well and was possibly thinking about coming home early to get some things done at our apartment. Well, it turned out to be a very exciting game with a very happy ending and there was lots of cheering going on not only at the house, but all over Provo. We drove home shortly after the game and people were honking and yelling and cheering for hours afterwards. Almost every car we drove by would greet up with a honk and we would honk back, or we would honk at people walking around outside and they would cheer. Jason especially liked it and wasn’t afraid to do a lot of honking. ☺ It was fun!

Yesterday morning Jason also went riding dirt bikes with his dad in Santaquin. Fortunately Jason listened to me when I told him to be careful and not get hurt, and I think he only came home with a blister, so that’s good.

Friday night we went to the dollar theatre to see the movie Up. Neither one of us knew anything about it but we both liked it even though it was kind of sad. That was the second movie we’d ever seen in the theatres together which represents about ¼ of the movies we watched the rest of the year. For anyone who knows Jason, that’s about a 400% increase in watching movies just from being married. ☺ That’s how I know he loves me. ☺

We also just finished our first week of school, although with the number of classes Jason attended, I think he can count his as two weeks of school. ☺ Unfortunately that means he didn’t have time to do much homework, so Chelsey is definitely beating him in the number of hours spent doing homework so far, but if I had a backpacking and scuba diving class, I wouldn’t mind doing my homework either. ☺

I think Jason is finally settled on which classes to take for the semester, which can be a really stressful thing when you can’t predict the workload. In fact, he’s been trying to make a lot of big decisions regarding post graduation stuff so please keep him in your prayers as someone who needs a lot of guidance right now.

I’m only taking two classes this semester, a programming class, and a principles of learning class. Fortunately I know a lot about principles of learning, but I know practically nothing about programming, so maybe it will be a good balance. I’m also teaching the Educational Psychology class again and then spending as much time as I can writing my proposal so I can work on my project. Some days I wish I could just get a master’s degree without doing a big project or thesis paper!

Yummy Dinners

Today is the first day of Fall semester and all the cars parked on the streets and college students wandering around is reminding me that summer really is over. We had a lot of new couples move into our ward. It’s been kind of sparse during the spring and summer, but apparently there were 17 new couples in the new member meeting today, that’s literally 1/5 of the ward that came for the first time today, not the mention the many others couples that have moved in all summer long. I am especially happy that today was our last day on the 1:00-4:00 block of church meetings. Next week we get to meet at 10:30 with Sacrament Meeting as the first meeting. Hooray!

Well, the last few weeks can be characterized by the meals we’ve shared with people.
Aug. 15 We went to Jason’s cousin Nick Janzen’s wedding luncheon in Bountiful with Mom B., and Dad B. The Luncheon was great and afterwards we went and did proxy sealings in the Salt Lake Temple while we waited for Nick to be sealed by Grandpa Richards. The live sealing was such a great reminder of own sealing especially since Grandpa Richards also sealed us and gave some similar counsel to Nick and Mandy.

Aug. 17 Kristilyn, James, and Grant came to visit us in Provo. We played at Kiwanis Park for a little while and then ate Jamba Juices for lunch. Yum!
Aug. 19 My high school friend Marilee and her boyfriend Devon came to our apartment for dinner while they were here visiting for Education Week. I hadn’t seen Marilee since Christmas, so it was fun to catch up with her before she starts teaching another semester at BYUI.

Aug. 22 Jason and I drove to Midway to have dinner with my MTC companion Tosha and her husband Lance and two daughters. We enjoyed catching up and seeing their nice home. On the drive out there I was asking Jason, “Why would anyone live in Midway?” I got my answer. It’s beautiful and friendly and more quiet than the nearby cities. After visiting I decided I wouldn’t mind living there myself. Tosha started making her own mineral make-up and gave me some free samples to try. It’s good stuff. I’m pretty impressed at how good it looks.

Aug. 23 We attended the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication that morning. What a blessing to have so many temples so close by and be reminded of their great power over evil and blessing to both the living and the dead. We had dinner that night with Jason’s former roommate Jeff Pickerd. He fed us a delicious Spaghetti and Meatball dinner and we were reminded that we are so glad we are married and not in the dating scene anymore!

Aug. 25 I drove up to Salt Lake and visited my parents. I taught my mom how to use the blog I set up for them and was able to get them a better external drive to save all their pictures and family picture files.

Aug. 27 We had my friend Sara Moulton over for dinner since she was roommate-less inbetween semesters. She is always welcome to eat dinner with us. Jason and I owe her big time for introducing us. ☺
Aug. 28 We ate smores roasted on a fire up Hobble Creek Canyon with our ward. We camped over night and had a tough time staking our tent in the rocky soil. Fortunately a couple people volunteered their hammers and our wonderful Home Teacher spent quite a while hammering away. It is soooooo nice to be in the mountains. It is one of my favorite places and even though we didn’t get to stay long, it was a nice way to end the summer.

Aug. 29 Saturday Keith, Kim, Talisa, and Kira came to visit us in Provo. We ate a yummy dinner and played a game of Dominion before they had to leave. It was fun to have them visit and see our apartment. Hopefully the traffic jam they were in won’t dissuade them from coming again. ☺

Aug. 30 Today Jason and I went to Mom and Dad B.’s house for dinner and a Father’s Blessing for Jason. We couldn’t stay very long, but dinner was very yummy and his dad gave Chelsey and Jason very nice blessings.

I’m grateful for email, phones, instant messaging, etc, but I’m very grateful to live close to family and friends so we can have face-to-face visits and sharing food, friendship, and stories.

Fun Weekend

This past Friday Jason took me to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat put on at the Scera Park Outdoor Theatre. We sat on a blanket outside and played card games and Frisbee while we waited for it to begin. I really like the original music, and they took some creative liberties in remixing some of the songs to be country style, rock style, Caribbean style, etc. It definitely wasn’t traditional, but it was still fun.

Saturday we went rock climbing with my friend April at Rock Canyon park. Jason and I both did two climbs of about 35 ft or so and my muscles definitely felt it the next few days. It was kind of a chilly morning, but it was so nice to be up out of the valley and have some time to catch up with April. Rock climbing helps me remember how often we are put in situations that seem almost impossible, and yet with a fair amount of encouragement from those around us and the security of being supported from “above,” we can accomplish much more and reach great heights than we ever could alone.

Mountain Climbing

So, my friend Sara and I found a new way to mountain climb today. Sara had major hip surgery in April and has been on crutches for the last three months. Since I know Sara loves to be active but hasn't been able to do much since her surgery, I decided to take her "mountain climbing" to celebrate her birthday. We went to Sundance and took a scenic lift ride up to the top of the mountain and back. They let us get off half way and walk around. The mountains are so beautiful! We had a great time and didn't have to do too much walking or climbing.