I wasn't the only one

I just looked online to see how many students were enrolled in the class I convinced the EDPS department to open and there is already 3 students that have signed up for 5050. In fact, out of the 5050,6050,and 7050 that are all taught together, 5050 is the one with the most students signed up. So I did my duty, I convinced then and at least 2 other students are glad that I did. So there University of Utah. I am glad that you listened to a student for once! We are really just trying our hardest to graduate on our time schedules. I know you want to keep us here for the tuition, but it isn't nice. So it looks as if my class isn't going to get canceled at the last minute like my 5151 class did this last semester. Yay!

It is official

I have all of my classes squared away for summer semester. It is funny because I called a department saying that it was unfair that the equivalent graduate level class was being offered but not the undergraduate level class. They are taught in the same classroom, undergrads just do a little less intensive work. They always teach education classes like this. It really makes me mad sometimes, but because I was a squeaky wheel they opened up an undergraduate class :). So I am taking lifespan development with emphasis in adolescence and non-major digital photography. Lifespan development is a half semester class so I am done the 24th of June. Photography is a whole semester class but I don't mind that at all. If I had more money I would take more classes, but since I depend on financial aid and they don't do summer aid, I take 6 credits only. Last summer I took 8 so I am saving more money. I am 100% sure this summer will be 1000% better than last summer.

Another official thing is that I will be going to the Smith Family Reunion in Kansas. Even if people want to go to the candy store, I will go to the salt mine. That is just how it is. I will get directions and my parents will go with me. Or they won't but I will go. Candy isn't as interesting as geology to a geology major. Nothing against candy, salt is just cool. I might make Endrit take me home through South Dakota. I REALLY want to go to the badlands. There are just so many places to go! Endrit and I wouldn't be opposed to camping in our car to keep costs down. It is just fun. I am excited to go a little bit further than Utah or Idaho. Thank you Monday/Wednesday summer classes.

Follow-up questions on NFP

There have been a couple of questions asked about Natural Family Planning (NFP) since my post a week ago.

First off, your body can prepare to ovulate, most signs can say ovulation and not ovulate. It doesn't mean that you ovulated and you can go through a second or third preparation to ovulate before the egg actually releases.

When you ovulate, there is a small chance of a double ovulation, but that will be within the next 24 hours from the first ovulation. No scientific evidence is there for 2 ovulations further apart than 24 hours. This is because the second part of your cycle (luteal phase) is mainly consistent between 10-14 days. Once you have ovulated, you will have your period within that time unless you are pregnant. (That is why you can know you are pregnant without a test)

The book I recommended went over the Shettle's method of sex determination of conception. It is determined by the physical properties of the sperm. Male sperm are fast but die out quickly. Female sperm are the "slow and steady wins the race" kind of sperm. They can take a while to get to where the egg will be but they survive longer than the male sperm. So if you have relations within 24 hours of ovulation, Boy (usually). If you read your fertile times and have relations no closer than 3 days before ovulation, most likely it will be a girl. Of course, this isn't 100% but it is closer to 70's-80's. I don't have my book so I am unsure the exact numbers.

There are some "yucky" observations. It isn't too bad. Mostly it is just when going to the bathroom. One of those things that I won't go into because I am more than willing to answer this question in my comments section if posed...

So, those are the main things I thought I would explain.

Manti Pictures

I wanted to post some of the pictures that I took from our trip to Manti.

I always have to take a picture of the windmills at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon. They are just beautiful. I want one of these in my backyard. I am not kidding about that either.

Endrit only had to take 1 picture to be able to capture us and the temple. I have a wonderfully talented husband.

The front door. It is a really beautiful temple. I like the architecture here. And they keep the windows more open than Salt Lake. I love this temple.

Cool Endrit...I should find the wedding picture of just him. He always stands like this.

Me. Yeah, I wish I could say the shadows put on a couple pounds, but I think this might just be what I look like at that angle. The wind was blowing and that is why my suit looks like it is falling open.


I really do love this temple. I will go back again when Alex, Brydie and my parents are able to go.

Temples

This weekend Endrit and I went to Manti. It is the most beautiful temple that I have been able to go to. It was an interesting time for me because first off in the morning I couldn't for the life of me find my temple recommend. For those who don't know, this is something you need to go to the temple. We were planning on leaving at 7:00 am to make it to the 10:30 session. So I rake my mind to figure where I would have put it. I went to Salt Lake on St. Patrick's day so I knew I had it in the front room. It took an hour, but I found it.

The drive down was wonderful. I love just sitting and talking to Endrit. He is my best friend.

The spirit that was in the temple was amazing. I always love to go to the temple. There was a day I needed spiritual guidence and Salt Lake was closed. Endrit and I just walked around temple square, sat down on a bench and got the answer to our prayers.

I think that Manti is now my favorite temple. It is awesome. I think that everyone should be able to go to Salt Lake and Manti at least once in their life. Even though the same words are spoken and the same spirit is there, it is the history that comes with them that makes it truly amazing.

I truly have a testimony of the temple. I love going to the temple at least once a month. I love that my husband loves to go to the temple. I love how close I am to the lord right when I enter the doors of the temple. I know that the temple teaches truths. I love that I feel at peace when I am in the temple no matter how disorganized the rest of my life is. I never want to be at a point that my temple recommend expires. I always want to be able to go to the temple whenever I feel that I need the extra boost of peace in my life.

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Heather is hosting this week. If you would like to join, write a blog about the church and post the link in her blog post HERE.

Manti

Endrit and I are heading to Manti tomorrow. It will be nice. We will be relaxing on the road for 4 hours driving. I am excited to get out of the Valley. I always like to go to the temple. I also like to go to different temples even though it is the same message. Hopefully we won't get lost. It is a tiny little town. I think that the hardest part will be finding the entrance. It took a little bit of searching to find Vernal's front door. I will take a picture of my own this time. I am getting to bed to wake up early now.

Natural Family Planning

I know that I posted about a study that Endrit and I are participating like a month and a half ago. Well, it is finally time that we are officially starting the study. I have always liked new things so it is nice to "change things up a bit". I got a fertility monitor and another message board to write on. I know that Natural Family Planning isn't a well known thing to the general public. Even when I told my doctor she had no clue what I was talking about. People hear that you are charting your fertility and they automatically assume that you are trying to get pregnant. This isn't the case. You can do either...I promise it works. I decided that I would be one person that uses this to tell people about it. Hormonal birth control isn't for everyone. This includes me. I have learned most of this from Catholics because this is the only "morally acceptable" form of pregnancy avoidance in their church.

So, here are some things I have learned while learning about Natural Family Planning (NFP)

Most women don't ovulate on day 14.
You don't have to have a regular cycle length to use NFP. (i.e. my cycles range from 27-45 days)
There are multiple fertility signs that a woman can easily look for through her cycle.
It isn't hard to figure if you are fertile or not.
It is an easy detector of some major problems. Hyper or Hypothyroidism, progesterone deficiencies, irregular bleeding, no ovulation, etc.
It helps "infertile" people conceive without medical assistance.
You can confirm pregnancy without needing a pregnancy test
You can know when your period should start. I usually know the exact day I will start.

There are other things that I have learned, but I think that they go a little too far to post online. I know that just like hormonal birth control, NFP isn't for everyone, but I think that it should be portrayed as a viable alternative that more people know exists and works. I remember sitting with my mom learning about puberty in 5th grade. I would have loved to have learned this then. It would have been something I would have loved to learn about then. Sorry if this is a little bit personal or something you don't care about. It is something that I feel very strongly should be known to all women. Taking Charge of Your Fertility is a wonderful book to read.

Snuggle time

Dexter thinks that starting at 7:00 pm my lap is his bed and it is snuggle time. I think that it is cute so I got a couple of pictures of us. Of course he gets mad when the lap goes to the laptop instead of him. This is why he is always reserved a spot on the left.
I put the camera on a setting and Endrit changed it. Needless to say, I didn't put that picture on here because it was blurry. I took this picture to prove to Endrit that my setting really works in this lighting. He He. He was laughing at me.

FAFSA "verification"

They call it verification, I call it audit. Because the University of Utah is a "quality control" University it verifies a certain number of students for FAFSA correctness. There is nothing wrong with this. I was audited this year. So, they said I needed it corrected. I found out that they corrected it for 1 dollar. oops. It didn't change anything with the determination of student aid. Now I am just waiting for the first part of April to find out what money I will have to pay for school. I hope that I get a scholarship from my department as well. Here is to waiting...

Website for Clas

I had to make a "WebQuest" for my educational technology class and if I say so myself, I did quite well on it. It doesn't look as good as it does on my computer because Google Sites doesn't support some of the software that was used to create the website. Oh well. It is what you have to do to conform to a free html site host. So here is the LINK. It was fun to make anyway. I worked with another person on it. Now here is to hoping that I got a good grade on it.

On to the last hurdle

Anyone who knows Endrit and I even just a little bit knows the hoops that we have had to jump through (as every bi-country marriage does) to get him citizenship. Well, the end is finally in sight. I didn't think that I would be writing this blog entry for a long time, but alas, the time has come for me to announce that Endrit got the letter telling him the date and time of his citizenship interview. WHOOT! So, he goes into the interview on April 29. It is much sooner than Endrit and I had ever imagined. It has taken so long for everything else, we thought this would also take a long time. We sent in the application of citizenship February 10. Barely more than a month ago. 2 weeks ago we got news of his fingerprinting appointment. Now we have his interview. It is just so fast this time! He knows most of the civics questions. I am not too worried about that exam.

This means that he could go into the interview on April 29th an Albanian and come out of the interview an American. Please don't wake me up from this dream of everything in our lives going right!

Half Over

So at the start of this part of the semester after spring break I realized that this semester is officially half over. It is kind of surreal. With how horrible last semester was and how nice this semester has been it doesn't seem like it should be half over. I have enjoyed everything. I think that now I am done with Physics, I am enjoying myself again. Not that Physics is bad, but taking them in the manner that I did was most likely not the best of ways to get through it and enjoy it at the same time.

So, it is a good semester. I have homework that I have to catch up with after the break, but all is well.

Joseph Smith Movie

On Saturday, I got to go and see the Joseph Smith movie on Temple Square. It was nice to be able to sit through the movie and learn a little bit more about the first prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in this dispensation. From humble beginnings. It is a reminder to me that he was a man. He couldn't have organized this church in the manner of the Lord without the imput of the Lord and His heavenly messengers.

It took me back to my trip to Nauvoo. I stood in the room that he was killed in. I saw where he was jailed. It makes me humble to know that such a great man was so vilified. Then I think, the Lord will give you trials that you can bear. Nothing more. Joseph was an amazing man for being able to bear the burdens that were placed upon him during the infancy of the Church.

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Kimberlee is hosting this week. If you want to write a blog about the Church, you can add the link to your blog in the comments here.

Finally Sleeping

For the last 2 nights I have finally been being able to fall to sleep better.  There was a good 3 days that I couldn't sleep without sleeping pills.  Yeah.  Not so much fun.  So I think that the aromatherapy works. I wanted it to work.  I didn't think it would work like this, but it does. I like it.  It didn't work the first night, but it has worked the other two nights that I have used it.  We also bought a sound machine and I have a favorite sound and it also helps relax me.  It is just nice to say that I was able to sleep.  I have been having CRAZY dreams, but I have been sleeping so I will take it.  They aren't scary dreams.  They are weird.  Yeah.  So I am all rested.  I even have enough energy to clean the house and do the laundry today. 

Other than that, allergy season is coming in full force.  I have to take my Flonase and Zyrtec every day just to not sneeze every 2 seconds!  Yay for modern medicine.  This is the worst year so far.

I did all of my administrative work yesterday to secure financial aid for my last year of school.  I also officially changed and declared my major.  It is an awesome feeling I get when I see my official major on my student information systems on the web.  It is so surreal.  I also am still trying to get some classes transferred over from ISU that are needed to graduate. These are like astronomy, meteorology, general geology, general chemistry, historical geology.  Pretty much my first 2 years of school needed to graduate.  I am only worried about 1 class, but I am hopeful that I have a great department that will transfer it anyway; I hope.

So now I just have to look forward to applying for graduation right near my birthday.  I love finalizing things.  Now I just realized that I need to put in a petition for a couple of other classes...oh well.  I am sure that it will be okay.  I will do that this next week.

Go Vote

NASA is letting the public help name the new node to the space station. I think this is fun. I won't tell you what I voted other than it was a suggested name in the top 10. So, go HERE to vote.

I do have a job

It is finding money to go through school. For the last few hours I have been doing administrative work to try to find funding, apply for scholarships and repeat the process of petitioning class transfers to apply to my classes needed for graduation. I am REALLY hoping that everything will be good with that. There is a department scholarship that I am really hoping to get. I was also audited to prove my income and you know what, it wasn't too bad. I just had to give them a W-2, tax return, and an application. The guy was surprised it was my first audit because he had an audit every year he was in school. I am pretty happy with everything. Now only time will tell. I also officially changed my major to Earth Science Composite Teaching. Finally! Geology gave me lots of scholarships so it was MORE than worth the wait to change it. So now I am hoping for some education scholarships for my student teaching year.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

A day for the love of GREEN! What isn't to love about it. I am pretty darn sure that this is my favorite holiday in the year.

Endrit tried to leave the house today without a speck of green on hi. I had to search through all of his shirts to find the ONE shirt he owned that had any speck of green on it. I need to go and get him some green! I didn't realize that he didn't have anything! The one shirt he did have was mostly red with a hint of dark blue-green that passes off as green.

Aromatherapy

I have had some horrible times falling to sleep this last week. I had a Bath and Body Works coupon and the aromatherapy was on sale so I got some "Sleep" pillow mist and bubble bath. Bubble bath just because I like a good bubble bath, and the lady in the store "swears by" the pillow mist. If I don't like it after a week, I can take it back and get different things. 100% money back guarantee. I really do hope that this will work. I also got a free signature collection of butterfly flower. It is a new scent and I really like it! So that is that.

Reasons for Church Callings

Reasons for Church Callings

I have gone over this in my mind for a little while and I truly have a testimony that people get the callings that they need.

Ever since Endrit and I have gotten married we have enjoyed being in teh Primary.  There were a few months that we weren't, and those were hard.  Around my 20th birthday Endrit and I were in the primary in Princeton Ward, Pocatello.  It was an amazing experience.  I was going through sickness that would last over a year.  Endrit ended up in the hospital with ulcers. It was rough. But because we had our weekly calling, it was easy to decide to just go to church because we didn't want to let anyone down.  

We love being in the primary. We love being able to stay together for all hours of church. He isn't a big fan of Priesthood.  I know that the day will come that we have to grow up and join the adults, but I hope it isn't for some time.  We love our callings and people tell us that we are good teachers for the little ones as well.

I don't have much experience with other callings, but I do know that they are inspired. We hope to be able to fulfil any future calling as much as we do in the primary.  It has finaly gotten us friends with the parents of various kids'.  

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This week Heather is the host.  If you want to make a post about the Church you can go to her blog and post the link in her comments section of the Sharing Time post.

Field Trip March 13, 2009

We went up little cottonwood to look at a pluton and some metamorphic contacts. It was a beautiful day.

This is a picture of the first outcrop that we went to. If you see the layers, it isn't sedimentary. This is just how the pluton (magma chamber) settled. It is a beautiful granodiorite.
Here is a sample of a rock within the usual rock. It has a lot less blacker materials than the usual rock. And it has no quartz.


This shows the whole rock where there are the square inclusions.

Here is an up close look at the differences between the whole rock and the inclusion.

Here is another inclusion of more of the black minerals.

Granite weathers pretty cool. The black minerals weather much faster than the silica minerals. This causes the whole rock face to turn into granules. It was rough to hike in.

This shows some of the metamorphosed rocks I understand the concepts, but it is really hard to explain. It shows compression stress. You see it with the Schist that is present.

This is a dike of Quartz that goes through the metamorphosed sandstone. It shows rapid cooling as the molten magma goes through the "country rock" or the rock that was there first.

This shows folding. If you see the dark wavy thing in the center of the picture, that is the country rock right next to the granite.

This also shows the country rock right next to the granite. If you look closely you can see dikes of granite going through the quartzite.

Here is a close up of the quartz dike. If you notice it doesn't have any black minerals. This is because the time that the dike was formed, all of the black minerals had solidified and only SiO2 was left in the solution. This creates quartz.


I hope that you enjoy the pictures. It was an awesome field trip. I like metamorphic and igneous rocks better.

Lasts....

Usually people like to talk about their "Firsts" but being married to a non citizen is making me appreciate "Lasts". For example in February we sent in our last application. Tomorrow Endrit will be going to his last fingerprinting (for immigration anyways. With his future job options, I am sure there will be more). I am in my last Geology class. I am in my last year of school.

All of these lasts are SO awesome! I am in absolute love with my life at this moment. I can't believe that I will be buying my graduation announcements and robes in a year! I can't believe that most likely this summer I will be married to a citizen! It seems like nothing can stop me at this point in time. It is all good. Even my homework isn't too bad. (Please remind me of that when I get my first paper back tomorrow *shudder*) It seems like I write less when I am happy. I am trying to fix that right now. I do have some homework to catch up on. Until next time :)

Sharing Time Sunday

Service.

In the meeting today there was a woman that talked about service. The thought is that happiness comes through service. It was nice to have this reaffirmed in my mind as I was a substitute mom for 2 families with multiple children and one that was sitting right next to me.

The thought is that through service you gain a love for the person. When you love, you are happy. This is a simple concept. It doesn't mean that you have to pay lots of money to buy supplies for victims of natural disasters (although I have been parts of these efforts and it is an amazing experience to put packs together). It is being there for someone. It is someone knowing that you are reliable. It is finding a need in the community that you would be able to complete and doing it. This brings us happiness.

The happiest I have been is when I am serving others. The happiest I was at church today was helping with a 3 week old baby while her mom was out tending an older child. The dad wasn't there because of military. I held that baby for 40 minutes of sacrament and I was happy. The mom was able to listen to the talks, as was I, the baby was young. Service.

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I am doing this with a couple of ladies. They have been doing this for a while and I have just started. They are Heather and Kimberlee. The Host this week is Kimberlee. If you would like to write a blog about the Church you can leave a comment on her blog here with the address to your blog.

Field Trip

We looked at sandstone today...like we have most of the time. These were pretty cool though.

Look at these BEAUTIFUL crossbeds. I am so sad that this is kinda blurry. They were so beautiful!

Migrating sand dunes. If you see that they are thin at the bottom and thick at the top it shows sand fall. It is migrating to the right ---->

This is evidence for a mini landslide within dunes. The shelf got too steep so it just fell. You can tell this by the thinning on both sides not thin on one and thick on the other. This is called a sand fall.

This is evidence for a huge sand-landslide. If you see the inclusions, I guess the way I can explain it is when you see sand after it has rained and it has a crust...this was the crust part that didn't break up into sand again with the landslide and is preserved in this.
I fell down a couple of times and I have a few nice bruises. I also cut my hand pretty good, but it was awesome. These were some pretty cool rocks. I hope that you enjoy the photos.

Change in the Change in Plans

This isn't a bad thing. Endrit and I like to hang out with family. Fred and the kids will be here and Endrit and I will be cruising around with them. It will be nice. Plus, Endrit and I will probably go the 21st. So, there are new plans. It is kinda on the seat of our pants if we go. I think that it is a good 75% chance that we will go. It is the weekend after spring break. Again, anyone who wants to join, if you can, we will definitely go.

A Change of Plans

Endrit and I have been planning on going to Manti the end of the semester. We have now decided that we are heading down there not this upcoming weekend, but the weekend after that. It is spring break and we don't have the time right now to go to St. George, so we are heading out of town to one of the temples that we have wanted to go to for the 2 years that we have lived here. So, sorry if people were wanting to go with us, we changed our mind. If you still can, we would love to have you there, but we are happy that we have at least a mini-roadtrip to look forward to.

Student Vs. Student Researcher

Endrit bought Deception Point and Angels and Demons about a week ago. He keeps on telling me that I need to read Angels and Demons because he has already finished the book. I know that it is a good book. I loved The Da Vinci Code. I just don't have time to read it. Endrit goes to "work" and comes home with no homework, but alas, I skip my much missed reading to do homework. It is all good. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and I will read books this summer that are not text books.

I am excited to read the books that Endrit bought and I am insanely jelous that he is being able to read them before me. It will be nice when both of us have no homework at the end of the day.

I <3 Facebook

I have been on Facebook for a while now.  It is nice to be able to keep in contact with people easier.  The best part about it is that I found 2 people from my previous ward that I seriously cried to think that I wouldn't see them very often.  It has made my day, week, month!  BUT, I have to tell you how I found them...Nan put up photos of the children's corus event in Pocatello.  I saw a picture of a girl from my old ward.  The director was in my old ward and on Facebook so Nan tagged her.  I knew that if one of the ladies I was looking for was going to be friends with anyone, it would be her.  I looked through the friends of her and there was the person I was looking for!!  Once I became friends with the first lady, I found the second lady in her friends.  Now I am friends with Michelle and Sally from Princeton.  Call me crazy, but I love those women!

More Luck

So, while Endrit and I were hanging out with Fred and the kiddos this weekend we went to the IMAX.  Cooper got scared at one of the movies that we saw.  It had some big booms.  Because of that, the theater gave Fred 4 free tickets to go back to the theater.  He gave them to Endrit and I for date night movies at the planetarium.  Fred is just an awesome brother!  It was really fun to see them this weekend.

Yum...popcorn

I think it was 2 christmases ago that my parents decided to get all of the kids old time popcorn poppers.  Well, popcorn is one of my favorite snacks and this thing makes it a whole lot healthier.  It really takes hardly any popcorn kernals at all to fill this tub.  I would say 3/4 cup would do it!  So what did Endrit and I do when we got this...buy a 20 lb. bag of popcorn kernals.  We still have 4 gallon bags of kernals after we have given a couple away.  Food storage?  Sure.