Grad School Update

I have successfully made it through another term. While my policy class was definitely not a favorite, I ended up doing quite well in the class, in spite of the fact that I wrote the paper that accounted for a majority of the score in two days. I gained an appreciation for the policy process, and while I don’t think I have a career in policy making, I think it is important to understand the process to have a greater amount of patients for those who are involved in the policy process.

My next class is Professional Relationships in Advanced Roles, so far the curriculum seems to consist of material to helps us decide what we want to be when we grow up, as well as how we want to perform that role. There are two papers involved; one where I interview someone who is acting in the role I hope to go in and the other is about my goals and where I see myself in ten years. In some ways this sounds easy, but in other ways it is hard to write a personal scholarly paper. 

This is also my last class before I start the nurse educator specific classes. While the generals have been frustrating at times (not as much as generals at BYU sometimes were), I have learned a lot that I believe I can apply to my future role as a nurse educator. However, I am excited to start the nurse educator specific classes, especially advanced pathophysiology. I loved my patho class at BYU, and I am assuming that this class will spark similar emotions. I will keep you updated.

New Frontiers in Fish

Last Saturday (May 4), rather than devote my entire day to homework, Kevin and I decided to go on the Utah reef tour, which is basically an event held by the Wasatch Marine Aquatic Society where you can go into people’s houses and see their salt water fish tanks. We first went to see a tank in Murray. It was about a 300 gallon tank, stocked full of coral and beautiful fish. It was quite impressive and beautiful. They also had some awesome shih tzus (Kevin now wants one for our next dog.) and Swedish Fish (awesome delicousness). When I wasn’t looking at the tank, I was sneaking Swedish fish one at a time. The host even got a picture of me eying the Swedish fish bowl.

Picture from http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=64189&PN=3&title=2013-reef-tour-blog-lets-get-this-party-started

We went to two other houses in West Jordan after the house in Murray. One had a tank that seemed small (it was actually over a hundred gallons, but after seeing the previous tank, it wasn’t as impressive) and the corals were in the early stages of growth, but the tank was a bit bigger and the corals more established.

I’ve always enjoyed salt water tanks, and we figured at some point we would get our own, but we thought it would be a ways down the road. I worked the day after the reef tour. On my way home, Kevin kept telling me that he had a surprise for me. He wouldn’t give me any clues, so I didn’t know what to expect, and I really did not expect a salt-water tank to be sitting on my kitchen table. That is about as far as we have gotten so far, but at some point in the future I will have pictures of salt water fish to share with you.

Here is a link to pictures of some of tanks on the tour if you would like to look. These are in Weber and Davis County. I couldn’t find any, other than the one above, of the tanks we saw.

http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=64219&title=our-reef-tour-recap-with-pictures

How to Read a Calendar

Despite the fact that I am in grad school, apparently I need to go back to Elementary School and learn how to read a calendar. I am currently in a policy class, and it is definitely not a favorite. However, the more I learn, the more I tolerate it.

Anyways, as mentioned in the previous post, we had planned to spend some time together for our anniversary. I had gotten up before Kevin Saturday morning, so I went downstairs and started working on my homework. As I was listening to the teacher’s audio recording, I suddenly got a horrible feeling as it dawned on me that the paper which I thought was due the following Sunday, was actually due the next day. While I had spent time looking for resources and had started some aspects of the paper through my discussion board posts, I really had nothing to show that I had really been working on this paper. I didn’t even have all of my resources.

After my brief moment of panic and reassurance from Kevin that everything really would be okay, I got to work. Over the course of 12 and a quarter hours I was able to hash out a paper with an hour to spare. I usually don’t operate like that. I like to take my time to research, write the paper, and edit in separate steps. On this paper, I did all three steps simultaneously. Most impressively, I even maintained my sanity.

This morning I received my score back. I received the full possible points. Apparently I write exceptionally well under intense pressure. This paper was a large majority of my grade, so I am a bit giddy that I did so well. However, I think I will try to avoid further experiences such as this in the future. I’m really not that big of an adrenaline junkie, and if I were, I would rather get my buzz from doing something much more enjoyable than writing a paper.

3 Years

Kevin and I have made it another year. I won’t say that it has always been easy, but the last year (and the previous two) has been enjoyable and I have enjoyed the opportunity to grow together with Kevin. He really is quite the patient man to put up with me and all of my issues.

Anyways, our anniversary was pretty low-key this year thanks to indecision and my inability to properly read a calendar (more on that in the next post). We both worked on the actual day of our anniversary (April 23), but we had planned to do something over the weekend. We were originally going to go south to St. George or Las Vegas, but never got around to making the reservations. Then Friday we had settled on spending the day at the zoo, but Saturday morning it was stormy (and I had discovered my calendar reading error), so we just went to eat lunch at Crowne Burger. Interestingly enough this is where we ate last year for our anniversary, so maybe we should make it a tradition. 

We also got sidetracked on the way home at an Asian Market in West Jordan, where we exercised self-control and only bought a cookie cooling rack. This place had everything you could think of. From knock-off purses to prom dresses to koi to statues of Buddha and arrowanas to kitchen wares. It was pretty dang amazing. We may have to go back some time.

We also went to Smiths (Exciting, I know.) where Kevin was excited to find that Cheerios and Lucky Charms were on sale. We have discovered that the two mixed together are quite tasty. You should try it some time.

While our anniversary wasn’t quite as exciting as the past two years, I still enjoyed spending a few hours with Kevin.

Fish Update

To avoid a novella like the previous fish post, I’m trying to update a bit sooner, rather than let months lapse.

Last Friday (April 19, 2013), our friends Dane & Alisha brought down four fish we bought from them, two peacock bass and two Oscars (although the Oscars kind of just got thrown in for free because Dane didn’t want them anymore). Another Utah fish forum member came over as well because Dane is fish-sitting for him while he tries to breed two of his really rare peacock bass. As Alisha said, it was a fish-geek get-together.

It amazes me how quickly I am getting sucked into this fish craziness. I honestly used to be terrified of fish because I had a traumatizing incident with a fish skeleton when I was younger (plus, those incidences with the dead fish on the floor at Walmart…), and I always thought I was scarred for life, although some it could be due to my highly dramatic nature. Then I met Kevin, and now I am almost as bad as he is. I am very attached to the fish, and I get rather upset when he sells anything other than the babies. So I guess I am almost as hopeless as Kevin, although I am okay not buying any more fish until they actually turn into a money making enterprise.

Anyways, without further ado, here are some pictures of our new fish. Unfortunately, I didn’t decide to take pictures until after dark, so they aren’t the greatest quality, but you get the general gist.

First the Oscars (they are kind of goofy): 

The bass (The dark was really not nice to them, they are actually much better looking in person.):

And finally, here are some pictures of Jack and the Texas hiding. Jack is slightly terrified of the bass, so he pretty much lives in this flower pot, at least until Kevin rearranged the tank a few days ago. Now the poor guy has to find a new hiding spot.

Roommate Get-together 2013

Last Wednesday (April 17, 2013), I had a get-together with my three of my roommates from Belmont Apartments, Shannon, Kristy, and Stormie. Stormie, who now lives in Texas, was in town for her sister’s wedding, so the four of us met at her parents’ house in Highland. I was there on time, but Shannon and Kristy were about half an hour late, so I only got to hang out with them for half an hour before I had to leave to get back to scouts. Despite the briefness of the visit, it was still very enjoyable. I haven’t seen Stormie for a  couple of years, so I was especially excited to see her. 

The only downfall was that I didn’t get a picture. In addition to the short time frame, I did not look my finest, and I did not want to preserve my scariness for posterity.

Refinance

A few weeks ago, I received a text from Kevin suggesting we look into refinancing our house through Discover Card. A coworker had recently refinanced her home and informed Kevin that Discover Card employees didn’t have to pay any closing costs. That was one of the things that was holding us back was the closing costs. So Kevin looked into it, and we started filling out the application. Last Monday (April 15), we closed on our loan. It was much different than when I originally bought the house as we had a traveling notary, so everything was done in our kitchen. It was a lot nicer than having to drive across the valley. 

One of the things that excited us about doing our home loan through Discover Card was the opportunity to pay our mortgage with our card and get 1% cash back. That would be a lot cash back added up over 30 years. Unfortunately, Discover Card sold our loan to Wells Fargo. I guess at least we did get a 1.75% interest decrease, and our payment is like $140 or so less each month, so I will try to not miss our many vacations I was planning to pay for with our cash back.