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. :)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to the two greatest moms ever! Jason and I are both so grateful to have such amazing parents. They are both great examples to us and we hope be can be just as great when it's our turn to be parents too.

A Weekend Getaway--the long version

So I am flying home from a visit to Katrina and Neal’s house in Olean, New York. Last Wednesday I flew in with Kristilyn. It was quite the adventure even getting to the airport because of a large rainstorm. Jason agreed to take me to the airport and I was very grateful because it poured the whole way there. At times the windshield wipers couldn’t even keep up with it and it was hard to see through the windshield. We also drove through about an inch of water and hail on the roads. I was tense for most of the drive there, but it was the worst when a truck would drive by and literally wash our car with a wave of water so that we couldn’t see at all for a few seconds, and a few seconds can see like a long time when you’re going 50 mph on the freeway.

Because of the storm our plane was delayed an hour because of the lightning danger. Our first flight was a quick one to Las Vegas, but we didn’t arrive there until the time that our second flight was scheduled to leave. Fortunately they held the second plane for us so we didn’t miss our connecting flight. We arrived in Buffalo close to 11:30pm and Melody met us there about 30 minutes later. We decided to meet her at her gate instead of at the luggage claim area and almost got our luggage locked up because we didn’t pick it up fast enough. Fortunately Katrina heard them call for our names and saved our luggage from being locked up overnight. Kristilyn and I were starving since we hadn’t eaten anything substantial since noon so after the four of us got loaded up in Katrina’s new Kia mini-van we made a quick stop at McDonald’s to hold us over for the 90 minute drive to her house. We really enjoyed talking to each other the whole way and I’m sure Katrina enjoyed the trip without Daniel and Anna for once. Anna (14 months) needs a lot of attention with all of her special needs. She has a feeding tube in her stomach and Katrina has to hook her up about every 4 hours. She also has a lot of other seizure medications that have to be taken at certain times as well. Anna has little seizures throughout the day and at least a couple bigger ones even with the medication. Even though she is 14 months, she looks like she’s about 6-7 months old and has the developmental level between 2-4 months. She has an occupational therapist, a vision therapist, and another therapist that come in the mornings once a week and Katrina is working on getting some respite care so she can have time to get other things done like grocery shopping, cooking, etc. Anna can’t sit up by herself, but she can kind of support her head and turn it somewhat. She has the most beautiful brown eyes, cute button nose, and curly hair. She feels good to hold and doesn’t cry very often anymore.

Daniel (almost 4) is just as bouncy and energetic as ever, and just as adorable. He loves to be outside, so we spent a lot of time walking around the block or following him on his big wheel around the block when it was both sunny and rainy. He likes to tease and say, “Come on.” He’s also being potty trained right now and trying to have “perfect days” so he can go to McDonalds. He was really pretty good the whole time we were there. His favorite movies are “Mr. Kruger’s Christmas” and “The Restoration.” He has a lot of other cartoon movies, but doesn’t want to watch them. He likes to dance to music, play basketball in the back yard, and play kid computer games. He’s very social and doesn’t like to be alone. He would prefer to do everything with a buddy, and we took turns being that buddy for the whole weekend!

Thursday and Friday were beautiful days and we spent our time grocery shopping, cleaning her house, doing laundry, cooking, and helping outside with some yard work while trying to keep Daniel entertained and Anna cared for. We played games and ate cookies at night when Neal got home from work. It may not sound like a lot, but it took all day to do those things.

Saturday afternoon Melody and Neal took Daniel to the park while Kristilyn and I gave Anna a bath, and all I can say is that it’s a good thing there’s two of us, because it’s hard to get a good position and babies are really slippery when they’re wet! We got some Little Caesar’s Pizza for dinner, made some lasagna for the next day, put Daniel to bed, and then watched The Princess Bride. Melody took some allergy medicine that knocked her out for the night, but Kristilyn and I talked to Katrina and Neal for a little while when they got home that night.

Sunday after church we ate a quick snack in the car and then drove back home for a delicious lasagna dinner and an afternoon of relaxing, talking, and game playing—City and Knights, Lost Cities, Dominion, and Blockus.

Today we straightened up the house again, did one last load of laundry, made homemade pot stickers, ate lunch, and packed our bags before we all got into the mini-van and made the long drive back to the airport (all except Neal since he had to go to work today). Daniel was able to say good-bye happily since his mom told him they were going to McDonald’s afterwards. We all hugged each other good-bye and headed through the security gates to return home.

It’s been a good trip and I’m glad we had the chance to come out and visit Katrina and help out with some of the basic things to make her life a little easier. They've been in survival mode for several months now, and the lack of sleep and personal time are taking their toll on both Katrina and Neal. Kristilyn, Melody, and I had a good time together and we were able to get a lot more done with all of us so we could switch off between working and taking care of kids. It’s nice to know we’ll all be together again in July!

Brother Burningham, Here we come!

So after waiting months, and months, AND MONTHS to know what we are doing in the Fall and where we will live, etc. The decision has come and the waiting is over, at least temporarily. We got the call Saturday night that Jason has been invited to student teach 9th Grade Seminary classes at Lehi Junior High. We are both surprised, since it was very unlikely, but happy for the news. I think Jason is just as happy to teach seminary as he is that he doesn't have to worry about what to do if he weren't teaching seminary. He's going teach two classes in the afternoon everyday and will be contracted for about 20 hrs a week. After teaching for one semester, he will be re-evaluated to see if he can teach a second semester and then be up for hire. He will have training meetings and such over the summer to help him get ready, and we'll find out more details in the coming weeks.

What does that mean for me? It means that I get to look for a job and now I know what part of the country and state to look for one. Since both Jason and I will graduate in August, we'll be off of student insurance and have to enter the "real" world. There are still a lot of questions and details to be worked out, but it's nice to see at least a few more months into the future. As of the last few days, we're think about moving to the Lehi area, but that will largely depend on where I find work. Onward and Upward!

Grandpa Burningham's 90th Birthday

Today is Grandpa Burningham's 90th Birthday. There was a family and friend celebration for him that we attended on Saturday in Midvale. The Church was decorated with a cowboy theme with gorgeous flower bouquets arranged in cowboy boots as the centerpieces on the tables. It was fun to look through the photo albums set on the display table, and we ate yummy barbecue sandwiches and strawberry shortcake. There were at least 70 people that came and wished Grandpa B a happy birthday. Jason's dad also recorded an interview with Grandpa B about his life that included pictures of his childhood. That recording was playing during part of the celebration.

I'm grateful for Grandpa's good life and the good family he raised. He is such a hard worker and takes really good care of his beautiful home and garden. He always greets me with a smile and a hug, and with all his posterity, I'm impressed that he remembers my name so easily after being part of the family for such a short time. I'm glad that so many friends and family would come and honor him and his good life.