Forth of July Weekend

I haven't been good the last month on keeping up on my blog, but July is a good month to repent because we have a lot of fun activities planned. This first picture shows the inside of the hot air balloon basket -- it's pretty small.I really enjoy Independence Day. I think it's one of my favorite holidays and I love the renewed patriotism I often feel around this time. I must have been feeling pretty enthusiastic because I convinced Jason to wake up really early with me to see the traditional balloon festival. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, so we woke up at 6:00am and rode our bike over by the hospital to see the hot air balloons. Unfortunately, we picked the wrong day. It was a little too breezy so it made it difficult for the balloons to be filled with air and get of the ground. As a result, we never saw any balloons get off the ground. I was a little sad about that.
In the afternoon we went to Jason's parents house to hang out with Tim and Lisa and their family that had just flown in from Texas. For dinner we all went over to Jeff and Sally's and had a delicious barbecue on their nice shady patio. Then we all headed over to the Stadium of Fire. Traffic was a mess and we got parked and walked in just as it was starting. It featured some great musicians such as Jenny Oaks Baker, the 5 Browns, and music star Carrie Underwood. I enjoyed the show and only wished we could be in more of a concert hall type setting since the sound quality wasn't the best. The fireworks were spectacular which helped make up for the traffic jam that we had to deal with afterward. :)

How much does your husband love you?

Even though it is late, and I should probably go to bed, I decided to sacrifice a little sleep to record this funny moment.

Yesterday I decided I wanted to get up earlier than I usually do, just for the sake of gaining a little more self-control over my desire to sleep all the time. Anyway, I hit snooze a couple of times and then peeled myself off the bed and went into the bathroom to take a shower. After a couple of minutes of standing up, I realized I was still really tired and just kept thinking about going back to bed. Well, the natural woman in me won over that morning, but the logical side of me didn't. In my tired state I decided that I would just take a quick nap on the floor next to the bed with a pillow and blanket. I convinced myself that it would be so uncomfortable, that I would only sleep a little longer.

Well, Jason had gotten out of bed when I did, and when he came back into the bedroom and saw me laying of the floor he asked, "What are you doing?" I replied that I was taking a little nap, and before I knew it . . . he was on the floor next to me. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Well," he said, "if my wife's going back to bed, then I want to go back to bed with her."

The funniness of the situation did not keep me awake more than a couple of minutes. And my little nap turned into another hour of sleep. Apparently the uncomfortable floor wasn't enough to make me get up. It's times like these that I realize how much my husband loves me. :)

Motherhood 101

So I spent 3 1/2 days last week taking care of my two adorable nieces, ages 4 and 1, while my brother and sister-in-law took a cruise to the Bahamas. They needed a break from being parents, and I'm very willing to practice the art of motherhood. After three-and-a-half days, I don't know who learned more, my nieces or me. Here are a few of the lessons we learned:

Kira learned

• she'll survive if her parents are gone for a week
• how to wrap her aunt around her little finger with her adorable smile
  

Talisa learned

• that her aunt and uncle can be really gullible
• a few new places to hide for Hide-n-Seek
• the phrase "ready or not, ye shall be caught"
  
• that when her aunt says 'no,' she means no, even if the result is a 20-min. tantrum

I learned

• that it's nearly impossible to get "work" done when being a mother
• that it's common for mothers to not eat much during meal times, or have delayed meal times when feeding children
• that nap times and an early bed time are a must
• that although TV shouldn't be used as a babysitter, it sure does help have a few minutes to get myself ready for the day
• a new way to warm up milk
• which battles are worth fighting a 4-yr-old for
• when two little girls are bathing at the same time, there's a good possibility you'll end up wet
• the importance of fathers taking the kids for a while at night when they get home so the mother gets some personal time
• how nice it is to live close to family while being a mother!
  

A Sucessful Defense

Well, I’m happy to report that I passed the oral defense of my master’s development project. I was a little nervous about it, but it went really well, and I passed with very minor revisions. Jason, Kristilyn, Anne Makin, and my supervisor Larry Seawright were all there to support me. At first I was a little nervous to have people there, but now that it’s over, I was actually really glad that they came to support me. It’s kind of hard to believe that it’s almost over. These last two years have gone by very quickly, and I’m not sure if I’m ready to let go of being a BYU student permanently. Even when I was teaching 3rd grade, I still lived in Provo, and when people would ask if I was a student at BYU, I would actually tell them yes half the time before I remembered that I really wasn’t anymore. Anyway, I’ve identified myself with BYU for so many years now that it’s hard to imagine it any other way. I have a feeling that it’s going to be hard for me to let go of that and try to find something else by which to define myself.

Reflecting back on the last two years I must admit that I have grown a lot in how I view education, the world, and myself. I feel that I have conquered a mountain of sorts. A few years ago, a master’s degree seemed so far out of my reach, and yet although the journey has not been easy, I suddenly find myself nearing the top of the climb. The unexpected part comes in that while I am enjoying the view from the top of this most recent mountain, I find myself still dissatisfied and looking around for another mountain to climb. Perhaps it is in the climbing that I feel that I am progressing, or perhaps without a mountain I lose my sense of purpose. I don’t really know, but before I start another mountain climbing adventure, I want to gratefully recognize the influence of many professors, friends, and family members—and also ultimately the Lord for blessing me with the gifts and talents that make this accomplishment possible. My only hope now, is that I will be blessed with eyes to see how I can use what I have gained to bless the lives of others. For in being a teacher, I recognize there is little value in knowledge and skill unless it is shared.

Happy Memorial Day!

I love to see all the American Flags in front of the houses and stores this time of year. Since I got to kind of take American Heritage at BYU for the second time, I must say that I feel very patriotic and love to see people showing respect for the many people who have died to help us have what we have today, referring to both the freedoms we have as a nation, and also family legacies of faith, righteous gospel patterns, and knowledge that we receive as an inheritance from the generations before us.

Jason and I spent some time at Jason's parents' home this last week and enjoyed taking a little break from homework and work. Jason's parents weren't actually there at the time, but we managed to have fun anyway. :) Friday I made Jason take a "vacation day" and not do any homework for the day. We went to the Provo Temple in the morning and then played ping pong, basketball, air hockey, and Foosball with Chelsey in the afternoon. Jason smoked me in basketball, and Chelsey helped me be at least competitive in Foosball, but I pulled out a win in ping pong and air hockey. :) You can tell I'm not competitive at all. :) That night Jason took me to Costa Vida for dinner and then we drove all around Lehi trying to find the right road to get on that would take us to the junior high Jason will be teaching at in the Fall. After crossing the freeway several times, we finally got on the road we're looking for.

Saturday we went to my niece Kira's first birthday celebration for lunch, birthday cake and ice cream. Jason wanted a rematch in Ping Pong, so we stayed a little bit later and played Ping Pong at Keith and Kim's. Later that night we also went rock climbing with some friends in ward. They love to rock climb and have all gear, so we went to Rock Canyon Park and did a couple good climbs before the sun went down. I don't really consider myself a super adventurous person, but for whatever reason, I really enjoy rock climbing. Today, for Memorial Day, we drove to Salt Lake to eat breakfast with Grandpa Richards and most of the cousins in the area. Grandpa Richard's ward puts on a delicious breakfast at their church building every Memorial Day which has become a Richards tradition. After breakfast, we road up to the Farmington Cemetery to visit the Richards’ family graves. This was my first time, so it was nice to have Grandpa Richards there to explain who the names on the grave were and their stories. We even ran into Grandpa Richard’s brother Stanley and some of his family at the grave site as well. Before we left Farmington, we stopped by the Richard's homestead that was lived in most recently by Aunt Clara before she passed away. The home is now an official historic site although it is still lived in by people we don't know now. After visiting the graves, Jason and I went to my parents' house for the afternoon. I helped my mom edit and restore old family pictures in Photoshop for a while. They fed us a delicious spaghetti lunch and we played games all afternoon. I'm glad we live so close to family.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel!

Well, I just passed a huge mile marker on my way to graduating. I turned in my Masters Thesis for my committee to review so I can orally defend it in two weeks. Let’s just say that that little 50-page paper represents a lot of work!!!

For my project I designed and developed a simulation prototype to be used in an educational psychology course at BYU specifically on the principles of Behaviorism—one of the theories of learning. Considering the fact that I didn’t have any programming skills a year ago, I’d say I’ve come a long way. The platform that I built it in doesn’t really fit the design, so my committee chair, who is also over the educational psychology course, is paying a “real” programmer to build my simulation in a better platform so it will work even better and also allow other simulations to be built for the other units in the class. And who is going to design those other units? Well, I am, at least until I graduate.

If you want to see the prototype I built, it’s at http://jburningham.net/BehaviorismPro5-19.swf.

Or you can allow look at the new version being built by another programmer at http://301.benmcmurry.com.

I just hope with all these new skills and experiences, I can find a job after I graduate!

An Interesting Week!

This has been kind of an interesting week, at least, more than most.

Monday I started an aerobics class and this time invited a friend in the ward. She’s really gung-ho about this aerobics things so we went three days in a row and Thursday I played ultimate Frisbee for an hour. Maybe with her help I’ll actually get in shape. J

I also suggested that Jason take a public speaking class Spring term. I was serious enough that he went to the class that night and then after talking it over, he decided to change his schedule, drop his modern Hebrew class, and take public speaking instead. He now has a lighter load this term with a religious class, and a work credit, in addition to his public speaking class. We both hope it proves to be a helpful skill when he teaches seminary in the Fall.

Tuesday was the add/drop deadline for Spring Term classes. I found out that I have to have 3 cr. for Spring or Summer terms in order to work as a student since I’m graduating in August. I signed up for 2 credits of Master’s Project credit over a week ago, but today I tried to add one more credit of Master’s Project so I would have 3 credits, which is the required amount. I tried to just add 1 credit, but it wouldn’t let me since I was already signed up for the credit. So I dropped the two credits I had so I could re-sign up for 3 cr. and then it wouldn’t let me use my permission code anymore because it said it had already been redeemed. So I went from taking 2 credits Spring Term to 0 Credits Spring Term. It was kind of a mess and filling out the petition form is a mess, so for the time being I signed up for three credits project in the Summer even though I’ll be pretty much done with my project after Spring. Hopefully it all works out and they let me graduate!

Thursday Jason and I played an intramural ultimate Frisbee game with our ward. Unfortunately it was really windy that day, and it’s hard to throw a Frisbee into the wind. We lost the game pretty badly, but not before Jason got hit in the nose really hard by someone’s hand as they were releasing the Frisbee. I was worried at first that his nose was broken because it swelled up really big. After some pain reliever and ice, Jason’s has a smaller nose, but two black eyes as the bruising moved down his nose and under his eyes. Four days later it doesn’t look too terrible and so most people don’t notice or ask about it.

Friday we took dinner over to a sister in the ward that just had a baby and then to a play at the Scera Theatre called, “Once Upon a Mattress . . .” It’s a fractured fairy tale of the Princess and the Pea story. I mostly wanted to go because I played the clarinet in the pit orchestra when my high school performed that play my senior year. It has some pretty fun music that brought back a lot of memories. The acting was actually pretty good too with a hilarious actress doing Princess Winnifred. In high school I mostly only heard the play and never actually saw it.

For Mother’s Day, the ward gave all the women red roses and a chocolate bar. We had a delicious dinner at my mom’s house and talked for quite a while. Also, I have been wanting a new camera since my birthday. The flash on my old camera stopped working a while ago and it’s been hard to take pictures with at times. Mark was more than happy to shop for my camera for me and he was able to order this week so I could pick it up yesterday. I really like it so far. It’s a Canon PowerShot 12.1 megapixal, 4x optical zoom for anyone who’s curious. It’s nice and small and has some helpful features on it. Hopefully a new camera will encourage me to take more pictures. :)