Sicky Stressors

There is nothing worse than being sick a week and a half before the end of the school year.  While I like to believe that I have a good enough handle on all my classes to finish strong, my past test scores have proved otherwise.  Thankfully, I have several papers due that factor in a large percent of my final grade, so I'm hoping those will bump up my final averages.  My English classes have always been good to me - which is good, considering it's my major.  My minor classes, ie Medical Sociology and Criminology, have not been as nice.  Something about crime theories and strange healing methods doesn't click as well in my brain.  On top of that, I've missed work as well, something that is becoming a major stressor, considering we have about $500 worth of student fees due in the next couple weeks... and that doesn't even include books for the Spring 2013 semester.  Yikes!

But on a more positive notes, Christmas is just 27 days away!  This holiday season is my absolute favorite.  I love walking into every store and hearing Christmas music... especially when December starts and it just feels that much more REAL that Christmas is near!  I'm hoping we have a white winter as well.  It always seems strange when Christmas-which is often portrayed on TV as being wintery and white on the sunshiny morning-is actually all dead and brown.  That's been the case the last couple of years back in Nebraska - which is where we go for Christmas and my birthday.  Granted, Christmas isn't about the snow.  But it's still beautiful :) Plus, my dog thinks it's the greatest thing ever.    

Home Sweet Home

It came to my attention recently that I "apparently" talk badly about Utah on my Facebook page.  This was news to me, considering I've never posted anything negative about my living conditions here - except for maybe in the winter when it's freezing or in the summer when I'm melting.  Even though Utah is not my "home," I have grown to really enjoy being here.  I love being surrounded by the mountains, especially in the winter when they are snow-capped.  While I couldn't stay here forever, I love being in Logan.  It's perfect for what my husband and I need right now.  We're only a couple miles from the school, we're right in the middle of town, so everything is close, and we're surrounded by great people.  I love USU, and will always be part-Aggie.  The professors are awesome; I have loved all my classes so far; and I love my job on campus.  Okay, I may not love my job, but I love the people I work with.  They make the boring hours totally worth it and I wouldn't survive without them.

I guess what I'm saying it, I apologize if people believe my previous posts have made me look like a Utah-hater.  I will be honest and say that I was very prejudiced against Utah before I moved out here.  Okay, a lot of those rumors have been debunked, but there remain I few I'll stand by.  But regardless, my opinion of the state has definitely changed.  No, I don't want to live here forever, because it's not my home.  I think part of me has remain unattached because I know it's only a temporary stay.  Or at least, that's what I'm planning.  I suppose if we lived here permanently, I would be more willing to let myself become more 'attached' to the area.  I also understand that people are very attached to this place because it is their home.  I'm sure someone would feel the same way if they were temporarily transplanted in Nebraska.  And I know I'd be offended if they made it out to be a terrible place.  So I apologize if it's come across that way.  We each have our 'home.'  We each have places we love and will always love.  For me, my heart just still lies in Nebraska.    

Christmas Cheer

Thanksgiving has come and gone another year.  It's crazy to think that we now only have two weeks left of the semester before finals.  Before we know it, Christmas is going to be here.  To be specific, it is a month and two days away from today.  

I love Christmas music.  Who doesn't?  What's a little crazy is when they start playing the Christmas music before Thanksgiving has even happened...

This isn't new though.  I grew up with that, so it's not unusual.  The particular radio station my dad and I always listened to when he'd drive me to school liked to start the Christmas carols on the first of November.

Three weeks ago, during the first week of the month, I rode up to the school on a bus playing Christmas music.  In Utah.  One more random thing they have in common.

While I love it, after the first 5 weeks, it gets old... 

So enjoy it while it lasts. Before it starts driving you insane. :)

Bless Me?

I got to spend the last few days in Nebraska for my sister's All-State choir performance.  Just to pat her on the back a little, I'll explain.  To be a member of All-State Music is one of the most prestigious honors one can achieve in the state.  Students are only allowed to try out from 10-12th grade.  Of 3,000 people that auditioned for the choir, 440 made it.  My sister has been one of those students for the last three years.  She was one of only 14 three-peats in the choir.  Basically, she's amazing.

Since I've been in Utah all the years she's made it, I've never been able to attend.  So my parents decided I needed to be there for her final concert, since it's her senior year.  I hardly complained.  

But that's not the point of this.  I have a bad habit of beginning my posts with unrelated stories.  Anywho, while I was there I noticed something.  I'd known it was the case for sometime, but when I really started to pay attention, it was more apparent than I realized:

People don't say "BLESS YOU" in UTAH!

Of course, there are exceptions.  For example, I found that people in my smaller, more intimate English classes are more likely to say "bless you" than those in my large lecture classes.

But nothing compares to the Nebraska-way.  Everywhere you go, complete strangers "bless you" whenever you sneeze.  In the airport, the airplane, the zoo, a restaurant.  No matter where you go, people are constantly polite enough to offer a blessing when you sneeze.  I don't know why it's such a big deal to me, but I like it when people respond to my shooting-of-snot. Not because I need to be blessed.  I just like the common courtesy   

Thanksgiving Thankfulness

In lieu of a normal post, I wanted to jot down a couple things I am grateful for.  'Tis the season!

- I am thankful for the opportunity to further my education in something I love.  Writing has always been an outlet for me, and I look forward to all the years filled with more of it.

- I am thankful for my job and the awesome people I work with.  They make the boring work worth it.

- I am thankful for my amazing husband and all he does to support us.  He's one of the hardest working people I know.

- I am thankful for my amazing family and thank the Lord every day for them.  I would be nothing without them. 

- I am thankful for my clothes, my house, my food, water and other necessities that come so readily.

- I am thankful I woke up this morning. I am thankful every day for this.

- I am thankful I am surrounded by amazing people.  They fill my life with so much happiness.  

- I am thankful for my faith and the comfort it brings me.

- I am thankful for this season of Thanksgiving, so we can be reminded of all the things we are blessed with.  Even if it's something small, like shampoo or milk for cereal, remember to be thankful for it.

Random-e-Roo

School suddenly just became super stressful.  Maybe it's because, today in class, my professor put it into perspective.  We aren't meeting on Friday in that class, and we only meet once during Thanksgiving week (since we have Wed. and Fri. off).  Then, after that, we have two weeks left.  TWO.  I about fell out of my chair.

I guess I should be pretty grateful that I only have 2 finals out of 5 classes.  One requires a term paper, another a packet of revised essays from the semester, and the last a packet of poems from the semester.  The other two have normal tests.  

Then this morning at 12am, I registered for my spring 2013 classes - also a little stressful.  I didn't get one of the classes I wanted, and the DSC/QI class options aren't working out either; so far I have 3 classes for sure.  It's sort of crazy that I have 4 (maybe 3) semesters left.  Can I really already be half way done?  And how is this semester almost over?  The next few weeks are going to go by really fast.  They always do when you're writing and studying and writing some more every day.

While I don't get to see my family for Thanksgiving, I DO get to go back to Nebraska and see them for Christmas.  We always spend Thanksgiving with Roger's parents, since the break is only 5 days (and since it takes a whole day to drive to Nebraska, it would mean we'd only get to spend 3 days there).  So we wait until Christmas when we can stay longer.  I also like spending Christmas with my family because my birthday is December 26th.  Roger's family never really made birthdays a big deal.  Just this past year, they forgot to get him a present.  My family has always done the breakfast-in-bed, pick-your-favorite-restaurant-for-dinner type thing.  I was blessed enough to be born into a family that didn't screw me over on presents since my birthday was after the biggest present-giving day of the year. 

Next semester is going to be hard.  The semester after that is going to be even harder, as I start taking 4000-level classes.  Yikes.  I hope I really love English.      

Random Writings

Man, I've really been struggling coming up with topics to blog about.  When you're required to post three times a week, you run out of ideas fast.  

I finally got to watch a Husker football game this weekend.  Since we're way out here, and they're way out there, we hardly ever get game coverage in Utah.  But Nebraska played Penn State yesterday, so the game was aired on ABC.  I watched the whole thing whilst doing homework.  I should probably go back and read through what I did, since there's a good chance there'll be some errors in there.  Husker games get me fired up and sometimes I don't pay real good attention to what I is writing. :)

Anyway, the Huskers won, so it's all good.  The commentators mentioned how classy the Husker crowd is; that we're very respectful of the opposing team and have good sportsmanship.  That made me smile.  And miss home a little more.  Because as I've written before, Nebraska does have some really nice people.  Not saying that Utah doesn't.  There's exceptions for both sides.  I just feel like Utah isn't as genuinely kind as the Midwest.  But I won't get into that right now.

Today is also Veterans Day.  I'm so thankful for the men and women who serve our country, and who have served it over the last two hundred years.  I don't know how they do it.  Giving up the life you know to go fight overseas?  That takes some serious courage.  I know I couldn't do it.  I couldn't be away from my family.  But I am so grateful and have so much respect for the people who do put themselves in those situations.  Both of my grandfather's fall under that category.  They were both in the military.  That's how my mom was born in Germany and my dad in Hawaii (lucky ducks).  It's inspiring to be with people like that.  I am so grateful to know and love them, and to know they love me.  God Bless America.

Political Partiers

I'm not sure why I didn't think to write about this before, especially since it has been COMMANDING our t.v. time for the last, oh, year?  What else, but the election!

Both Utah and Nebraska are predominantly Republican states.  This made at least one change between states easier.  I grew up in a very conservative state, so if I'd have moved to a place that was very liberal, it might have been harder to adjust.  

I won't get into the actual politics of things, because honestly, it's not worth it.  A lot of people have been freaking out that there's a Mormon guy running for office.  My argument: Who cares what he believes.  I voted for him because I liked what he had to say, NOT because he happened to be of the same faith.  That's not a reason to vote for someone.  He could be Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist; whatever.  I try to look past things, that honestly, I think are minute and not worth fussing over.

Regardless of how the election ends tonight, I'm still thankful to be an American and to even HAVE the opportunity to vote.  

Family Time

I got all nostalgic and decided to post some pictures of my Nebraska life :)

Nebraska Huskers football game
L-R: me, Roger, Mom, Whitney, Dad, Chan

My sister and I at a Husker game.

Typical Nebraska winter

My amazing momma and I 

My family on my wedding day, August 13, 2010

Trick-or-Treat, Smell My Feet

Well, Halloween has come and gone, which means Thanksgiving (and CHRISTMAS) are right around the corner.

But for the time being, I just wanted to talk about Halloween.  Nebraska has Halloween, so no, that's not a new thing.  But from the time I was 12 to when I moved out at 18, we never got trick-or-treaters.  We would occasionally have a friend in the area stop by with their kids, only because they knew us and wanted candy.  But because we lived in a neighborhood that is mostly older couples, we never had kids stop by.  If fact, we had to go to other parts of Ponca Hills to trick-or-treat, or up to Fort Calhoun (where our high school was).

While this was fine, I missed the excitement behind passing out treats to cute little witches and cowboys.  When my husband and I moved to Mendon the first year of our marriage, we didn't have any luck with trick-or-treaters there either (since the house we rented out of was even more remote than my Nebraska home). 

So last year, I was so excited to finally live in town, so we could pass out candy! (by 'we' I mean me, because my husband doesn't get caught up in all that juvenile excitement).  Because we live in a basement apartment, I pulled my husband's truck right up to the side walk, and sat on the tailgate with a blankie, a container of candy, and my dog.  I was just giddy.  What I didn't realize is that about 95% of the kids in our neighborhood area go to our church, which hosts a trunk-or-treat every Halloween before it gets dark.  So, I didn't get as many trick-or-treaters as I'd hoped, since most of them had already gone to the church-hosted candy fest.  But I was happy with the two-dozen or so kids that did come by.

This year, I decided to go to the trunk-or-treat, since that was the best chance of handing out candy.  Due to unusual circumstances (friend never telling me if she arrived or not... but no hard feelings), I didn't end up going, and instead fell asleep.  By the time I got up, it was almost 8:00 and all the trick-or-treaters were done for the night.  I was heartbroken.  We even forgot to carve our pumpkin. And now, there's a big 'ol basket of candy sitting on our coffee table, just screaming at me to grab a piece every single time I walk by.  On top of having 3 pounds of candy sitting in the middle of our family room, I've also developed an unhealthy addiction for Candy Corn.  Let's just say, when I went to Smith's yesterday for broccoli and chicken, I went sort of bananas over the Brach's yumminess that were on sale for $1.