It's [almost] over!

My freshman year I always seemed to get grades better than I deserved, and people were always jealous. Things such as a teacher emailing me to tell me that he thought I deserved an A, but my points added up to a B, and then a week later he told me he found out that he had done some math wrong (it was an English teacher) so I got an A. Then there were my math classes where the teacher just gave away A's, as long as you went to class. I just really lucked out.

Then when I started with the AME department I suddenly had to work a lot harder, and have teachers who didn't necessarily help my grades to my advantage, nor did they care to. A few grade on the "curve" so that even though the average is really low, people still have a decent GPA, so I guess that's good.

This semester I felt like they liked me again. In senior lab, I worked so hard and because I missed a point on one lab, I was sitting right at the cut-off for an A or a B. I went in to talk to the teacher to see what we could do about points, but who am I to disagree with his subjective grading? It's not like he could remember every single presentation by every student, so I figured I'd just take my B and be happy. I had an 89.42% in the class and he said the cutoff for an A was 89.5%. I got my grade up online, and he gave me an A! I am ecstatic!

I was really worried about heat transfer. My average on the quizzes was 2% below the average at a 52%, and I was worried that my grades would suffer, that I could possibly fail, and that I wouldn't be able to graduate until after I retook heat transfer over the summer! I studied really hard for the test, but I also had a pretty bad cold. Luckily after a blessing I was able to have a mostly clear mind, and now I'm all better, which is amazing for me and colds. So on the final I actually got a 58% with the average at a 43%, so that was 15% above the average, brought my total grade to a 64%, and I just got my grade and it's a B! I was about 4% above the total class average, so I knew I'd at least get a C. Now, do I know much about heat transfer? I know quite a bit. It's really the differential equations that held me back the most (that was the teacher where you literally had to go to class to get an A...an optional midterm and no homework assignments).

So, even though I couldn't raise my grade in thermodynamics to an A, I think I made out of the semester pretty well. Thermodynamics was by far the best class I have taken at the U of A, and I feel like I learned the most, and what I've learned I was able to use in other classes, so that's a B I'm happy about. And heat transfer I'm just amazed that I got a B!

Matthias made it through the semester just as well! He made it to the Dean's List, and I made Honorable Mention (he was taking more credits, so he qualified).

Only one more semester until graduation in May! Hooray!

Megan's Grades

Matthias's Grades

December Newsletter

November has been absolutely ridiculous, school wise. It seems that though Megan and I live together, we barely see each other. I'm really glad that we're married, because if we weren't, I doubt we'd see each other at all. But this just means that we really take advantage of time together, such as Sundays or holidays where we hide our books.

Our Critical Design Review for our Senior Design class really came to head this month. The Critical Design Review entailed putting everything together for every aspect of the design for the project along with analysis showing why this design will work better than other previous versions of the design. Then we had to make a fifteen minute presentation and turn in a large written report. Megan's group did really well, although they had to meet several times a week for several hours at a time, and when she wasn't meeting with her group, she was completing assignments for her next group meeting. My group is also a really good bunch of engineers-to-be, minus a little bit of drama. One girl in my group who struggles with her English language skills (she's from China) asked the course instructor if she could be switched into another group. She was feeling overwhelmed and felt that the subject matter of the project was way over her head. In the end, we gave her very specific, basic tasks to complete for the project which she was able to complete (for the most part). Another member of my group, though a genius in electronics, disappeared for two weeks before our CDR presentation. He didn't come to meetings, answer emails, or return phone calls. I even tried stalking him by looking at his schedule and waiting outside the door of one of his classes. But he wasn't attending that class either. Finally, after getting the class instructors involved, they sent him emails and left him phone messages to the tune of "If you don't respond, we'll have to file a missing person report with the police." Subsequently, he called us that evening to tell us he'd been having "personal" issues. Then when we gave him some last minutes assignments for the presentation, his inbox rejected all emails saying that it was full. Kind of strange. In the end, he did all of his assigned work for the presentation and the written report. He finished it all "just in time". But that's all over now. Next semester we begin the implementation of our designs.

Another assignment that had been stressing me out even more was a research paper I had to put together for my optical fabrication and testing class. I chose the topic (after first rejecting two other topics) White LEDs for Common Illumination. I had to gather together several (around 20) scholarly journal articles about studies and lab research to put together a scholarly article myself on the topic. The hardest part was getting it together in the format the professor wanted. She wanted the information presented with a thesis that we could back up with lab methods and experimental results. The problem with this was that we weren't performing any lab experiments and yielding any results. We were simply basing the assignment on other people's published articles, and then having to make it look like we'd done real research. In the end, it took a few late, late nights, then a huge revision session with Megan and her sister (two of the best writers I know) an hour before the paper was due. We got it turned in with 15 minutes to spare. Nice. For anyone who is interested, you may see a final copy of the report at this link.

But through all these assignments and stresses (as well as the rest of my class load) I was able to grow spiritually through it all. Last Saturday, Megan and I had the opportunity to go to the temple with a bunch of friends, two of which were taking out their endowment (they'll be sealed the day after Christmas in Washington DC, awwwww). While contemplating the stressful week that lay ahead of me (the CDR written report and the research paper), I pleaded with the Lord to know what I needed to do to receive His maximum help. During the session, I was impressed that though school was stressful and consuming much of my time, I couldn't let myself get distracted spiritually. I needed to continually focus on my obedience and obey with exactness, and I needed to see that I received my spiritual nourishment. Just like our bodies cannot survive healthily on a diet solely of peanut butter cups and M & M's, our spirit will waste away if all of our time is spent in worldly pursuits; including school work, work work, or nintendo. So while having such a stressful last week, I focused on my spiritual nourishment (despite a hectic schedule) and tried to be as exactly obedient as possible, and somehow, Heavenly Father helped me get it all done. And not just get it all done, I'm dang proud of the work too, and I'm sure I'll get good grades. Through the trials this semester, I've really strengthened my testimony of temple attendance, personal prayer mixed with personal revelation, and making sure I get a balanced spiritual diet.

In other, non-school news, Megan and I cooked our first turkey! A week before Thanksgiving, we had a Ward Christmas party, and I signed us up to bring a turkey! It turned out amazing, though I was a little disappointed that "cleaning the turkey" simply involved taking a little sealed baggie out of the bird containing giblets. Cleaning chickens back in Logandale was never that easy! I thought that cleaning the turkey would be just the same, minus the head chopping. Oh well. The turkey was moist, delicious, and easy! I thought cooking a turkey was a big deal. I also found out that while I've never really liked stuffing, I love cornbread stuffing. Mmmmm. Megan and I bought a few more boxes the last time we went back to the store.

For actual Thanksgiving Thanksgiving, we went to Sierra Vista to have dinner with Megan's family. Megan and I did real yams (with a very high marshmallow to yam ratio) and real mashed potatoes with turkey gravy. Then we taught Megan's family the game Hand and Foot (which Megan's sister had taught us the week before), which we played most of the afternoon while I ate pie. Then in the evening, we played the guitar and sang Christmas songs.

On black Friday, Megan and I went shopping with her sister to help her pick out her birthday gift. In the end, we purchased polarized sunglasses, and hand soap. What a haul this year! Luckily, Megan's sister found some more creative things as birthday presents.

After shopping, we spent the rest of Friday in St. David with Becca's fam, Martha's fam, and Mom and Dad. After eating our fill of chocolate finger pie and lots of Becca's thanksgiving leftovers, we went out to dinner (I'm not sure how we were able to fit in so much eating) then spent the evening teaching MY family Hand and Foot! It was a blast. And while I thought people weren't really enjoying the game due to a large number of quirky rules that we play with, Mom called me the next day saying that they'd gone out to buy 5 decks of cards so they could play some more! It was an amazing vacation.

Monday after Thanksgiving, Megan and I went out to buy a Christmas tree. We got the cutest ~5 foot tree with a fat base. We then decorated it with lights and popcorn strings! Then the week was so busy and hectic, we didn't get to finish decorating it until last Saturday, but finally it is complete and awesome! We've also been trying to tape up Christmas lights to our outside window, with only some of the tape sticking. We plan on trying some kind of fishing line tie up configuration. But we'll play with the idea more tomorrow during family home evening.

One more fun thing, last Friday, Megan and I attended a dance at the Institute. It was the Semi-Formal, Semi-Winter, Semi-Catered ball! It was great fun and really good food too. We dressed up nice and then danced like complete fools all night! Our favorite was waltzing to the song Iris by Goo Goo Dolls, except when the song changed meter to 4/4, at which point, we head banged. Being on the other side of the dating scene is really quite nice. We can act like complete weirdos and not really care what anyone else thinks, because we're married and it doesn't matter. We get to have the fun, without the drama associated with dating and the Singles Ward. Of course, we've probably been tagged as either "that cute married couple" or "that annoying married couple". But once again, it doesn't matter how we've been "tagged" by others, because we're already married! We just get to have fun.

Hope Santa treats you well!

Con amor,

Megan and Matthias

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Carving up our first turkey

Hey! Where's the guts!

More pictures of the Mesa temple lights

Christmas sweaters in front of the Christmas tree

Thanksgiving!

This year was the first time since I've met Matthias that we've spent Thanksgiving Day at my parent's house.

In 2006 we were dating (just over a month!) and we went to Logandale for Thanksgiving, even though we turned right back around to make it to celebrate Derek and Kathleen's birthdays (they were both born on Thanksgiving, just not on the same date).

Last year (2007), we were married, and there was a huge Whitney Family Semi-Reunion (Minus Melanie and McKay) in St. David, so we were there for Thursday and most of Friday (well, and Tombstone and Bisbee on Friday) until we went to Sierra Vista for the rest of the weekend (and to celebrate birthdays).

So this year I made sure that we would go to my family's Thanksgiving. Mmm....we made the yams, potatoes, and gravy (from scratch instead of canned/instant). I ate WAY too many rolls, and because Kristi made so many pies that Matthias just had to try, we all ate WAY too much pie. I would definitely call it a good Thanksgiving! I also loved that we spent the afternoon playing cards (Hand-in-Foot). That evening, after feeling fat and all stuffed up in the house, Matthias took me on a walk. During the summer, when he was living in SV and I was here in Tucson, he would go on walks while we talked on the phone. So he showed me his regular route, and it was so much fun! With so much school in the way, it sure was nice to just be able to talk about everything BUT school! The whole weekend was amazing!

On Friday we hit up the Black Friday shopping to go to Target and buy some handsoap refills and sunglasses. Matthias's sunglasses broke, so he was in need of new ones. We brought Kathleen along with us and helped her pick out her birthday presents too.

After a whole morning of shopping (about 45 minutes, late enough that the rush was gone but the sales were on), we headed to SD to visit with Becca, Martha, and Ken and Linda....and of course all of the nephews and nieces! We made Chocolate Finger Pie, ate lots of other good food, taught the family Hand-in-Foot, and then went out for dinner in full-family fashion! The food was great, and even though there was some rib confusion (who runs out of ribs?!), it was tons of fun! Then we went back to the homestead and played Hand-in-Foot until it was far too late, and Matthias and I still had to drive home to Tucson because we had a big day ahead of us on Saturday.

A couple that have been in our ward for over a year now (and Matthias has known Joe since he's been in Tucson) went through the Temple on Saturday, and invited us to be there. It was an amazing experience and reminded me of all of the feelings and confusions and happiness of being there the first time. They were so happy and glowing, and I was so glad that we were able to go, especially with the crazy week we'd just been through. One thing I love about the Temple is how much I get reminded that I am not alone, that I always have help and I just need to ask and then obey.

When we got outside we were so happy to see that the Mesa Temple Christmas lights were up! I love the Christmas lights - they are so beautiful!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend!

And now for pictures!

It rained on our drive to SV on Thanksgiving! I just had to take pictures! It was on the beautiful part of the drive too! :)

The Temple was definitely the shining light! :)
Matthias' Classic Isaiah pose
Us! (minus the red-eye...so that's why our eyes look a little weird. Maybe I should learn how to use Photoshop for pictures....

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin (June 11, 1917 - December 1, 2008) died last night at the age of 91. The past few years I've really grown in appreciation of his kind heart and loving spirit.

His last three talks really stick out to me.

I remember when he gave his talk last October, The Great Commandment, he was shaking so badly and having such a hard time giving his talk. Some people found him hard to understand, but that made me want to understand him more. His message was so pure, and his eyes looked so worried that he wouldn't be able to convey the whole beautiful message about love and charity. Then Elder Russel M. Nelson got up and helped steady Elder Wirthlin, so that he could finish his talk and not be in danger of falling. During a beautiful talk of love, given with so much apparent love for the recipients, his dear friend got up and showed us a beautiful message of love. I linked the talk above, and here are some of my favorite quotes from this talk, since I felt bad copying the whole thing. If you have the chance, watch it again while reading the transcript, and it is truly a beautiful message from every angle.

Love is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the pathway of discipleship. It comforts, counsels, cures, and consoles. It leads us through valleys of darkness and through the veil of death. In the end love leads us to the glory and grandeur of eternal life.

***

Sometimes the greatest love is not found in the dramatic scenes that poets and writers immortalize. Often, the greatest manifestations of love are the simple acts of kindness and caring we extend to those we meet along the path of life.

***

True love lasts forever. It is eternally patient and forgiving. It believes, hopes, and endures all things. That is the love our Heavenly Father bears for us.

We all yearn to experience love like this. Even when we make mistakes, we hope others will love us in spite of our shortcomings—even if we don’t deserve it.

Oh, it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves us—even with all our flaws! His love is such that even should we give up on ourselves, He never will.

We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although we might settle for less, Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of becoming.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It takes us as men and women of the earth and refines us into men and women for the eternities.

The means of this refinement is our Christlike love. There is no pain it cannot soften, no bitterness it cannot remove, no hatred it cannot alter. The Greek playwright Sophocles wrote: “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”

***

If we wish to learn truly how to love, all we need to do is reflect on the life of our Savior. When we partake of the sacramental emblems, we are reminded of the greatest example of love in all the world’s history. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.”²¹

The Savior’s love for us was so great that it caused “even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore.”²²

Because the Savior laid down His life for us,²³ we have a brightness of hope, a confidence and security that when we pass from this worldly existence, we will live again with Him. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be cleansed of sin and stand as partakers of the gift of our Almighty Father. Then we will know the glory that God “hath prepared for them that love him.”²⁴

This is the transforming power of charity.

When Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment to “love one another; as I have loved you,”²⁵ He gave to them the grand key to happiness in this life and glory in the next.

Love is the greatest of all the commandments—all others hang upon it. It is our focus as followers of the living Christ. It is the one trait that, if developed, will most improve our lives.

I have a theory about life that is summed up best by the Beatles' line "All You Need is Love". Some people misunderstand me when I say that and instantly hear "All you need is love...bum bum bum diddy bum..." Read Elder Wirthlin's talk and he pretty much wrote out my definition. The best part is that he embodied it!

I even thought of this talk last conference when he gave his talk Come What May, and Love It. That's what his mother told him after his team lost a football game. He has so many words of encouragement for any tough situation.

The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable.

Last weekend while Matthias and I were looking at the black Friday ads, he kept looking at those GPS systems. I definitely think that they are amazing technology, but I'm kind of afraid to get one. I love getting lost! Some of my favorite memories come from being lost, and I love helping navigate the map and figuring things out on the way. I just think a GPS would take away all of the fun in traveling! Granted, it would be nice to have in situations where we need food and don't know where to find the good stuff, and I can see other useful uses. Technically travelling is a useful use, but I guess I just love the risk in driving with a map! Because I've learned to love such situations, they have become awesome experiences! I pretty much just assume I'll get lost, because it makes the ride so much more fun! I have travelled with people who get angry at how lost we got, or how much longer it takes to reach a destination. If you are like that, I highly recommend Elder Wirthlin's suggestion to laugh instead. You will find many good memories along the way.

Learning to endure times of disappointment, suffering, and sorrow is part of our on-the-job training. These experiences, while often difficult to bear at the time, are precisely the kinds of experiences that stretch our understanding, build our character, and increase our compassion for others.

Because Jesus Christ suffered greatly, He understands our suffering. He understands our grief. We experience hard things so that we too may have increased compassion and understanding for others.

Remember the sublime words of the Savior to the Prophet Joseph Smith when he suffered with his companions in the smothering darkness of Liberty Jail: “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

“And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.”¹

With that eternal perspective, Joseph took comfort from these words, and so can we. Sometimes the very moments that seem to overcome us with suffering are those that will ultimately suffer us to overcome.

***

The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude.What a wonderful blessing!

***

“God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.”² The Lord Jesus Christ is our partner, helper, and advocate. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to be successful. If we do our part, He will step in.

He who descended below all things will come to our aid. He will comfort and uphold us. He will strengthen us in our weakness and fortify us in our distress. He will make weak things become strong.³

***

The simple secret is this: put your trust in the Lord, do your best, then leave the rest to Him.

I'm so grateful to have living prophets and apostles today, who receive revelation for our day, and our time, and even more specifically, for you and for me individually. Our home teachers came by on Sunday and Elder Wirthlin's talk has given our home teacher strength to deal with live, and find himself happy. How fitting to teach us this amazing message just before the death of such an amazing person. I'm so grateful for Elder Wirthlin's loving example to all of us. I really found it apparent in his April talk, Concern for the One. I'll spare you quotes from this one, but read it when you have a chance! Especially if you are feeling lost, or lonely, or just in need of a good pick-me-up. After reading it I just feel so loved and grateful for who I am as an individual.

I'm grateful to know that with his passing, Elder Wirthlin is reunited with his sweet wife whom he has surely missed. I'm also grateful to know that whomever the Lord calls to fill the vacancy in the 12 will give talks just as inspired as Elder Wirthlin's, just with a different personality. I will miss Elder Wirthlin, as I miss President Hinckley, Elder Maxwell, and all of the others who have died in the past few years. I am grateful for their words, and I am grateful that the Lord called them because I have learned a lot through them. Thank you.

Magic Eye

Magic eye works like a stereo viewer, the same way that our brains can perceive depth. By taking two images of slightly different views and overlaying them at the appropriate distance, you can see that image in 3D. Then if you hide them in clever pictures, you can call them magic eye! Click on the above text (it's really an image) for a cool example.

Note that after I taught Megan what they were and how they work, she taught me how to see them!

Twilight trailer. Better than the other ones people have posted. To see the full thing, go to this link.

Reasonable Gas Prices

I've been so lost in the dark abyss of studying and school that I haven't posted in awhile! I had some really good news to post on Sunday, but I didn't want to supersede Matthias's Sunday Morning Sermon so soon.

Anyway, onto the good news! So when gas prices were getting ridiculous (like at about $4 a gallon here) we were ALL complaining. Anyway, I decided that there needed to be a definition of reasonable gas prices so that the complaining would officially be over. I decided that with inflation and the higher demand for gas that $2.25 would be a reasonable price and I could stop complaining about high gas prices.

After a few weeks of watching gas fall about 2 cents a day (seriously...it would almost always be 2 cents less on my way home from work!) for quite some time, on Sunday we finally saw it! $2.25 at Fry's! I yelped for joy and get so happy whenever I see one of the reasonably priced gas stations. I even saw one for $2.17 today! Hooray! Maybe this is a sign of good things to come concerning the economy...

School for me will be mostly done by Thanksgiving! I still have 2 hard classes to finish up after that, but it all just seems so much more manageable! Until then I may seem like a school-zombie, but that's just because I want to be able to enjoy my break all the more! :)

Onto Scrap-booky goodness! My good friend Megan (pronounced Meeeegan) had a little challenge on her blog awhile back to try to go hybrid! A hybrid scrapbooking project is where you use your fun digital supplies, print them out, and use them on a tangible project. Back then I had a lack of supplies, but I tried my hardest and came up with a wonderful little cd frame! (click the picture for credits)

I think it's fabulous! :) AND I even won her contest! Yes, another random number generator loved me! I got the best box of hybrid goodness that I can't wait to play with, and I even have a few ideas up my sleeves! AND I even won the monthly gallery contest at GGdigitaldesigns.com! I love that picture of us, and had such an easy time scrapping this page. I find that my pages that just come together are the ones I like the best. At other times, my mojo isn't so good.

These next two have pictures from the Christmas when Matthias and I were dating (December 2006). I love them! :)This picture was taken when we were at Apple Annie's, and a wonderful Scrap friend from the Netherlands was able to fix my corrupted picture for me! You would never believe that there was a big grey line right through my face, would you?!


And lastly the cute boo buckets I made for our trunk or treat!



On a disjointed note, I'm so grateful for my faith, that I know who I am and what my purpose is here on earth. I can't imagine how hard it must be to not know these things, and to not even know that you don't know these things! I've been having some conversations with a coworker lately that really make me so grateful for the knowledge that I have, especially defining the family as a fundamental unit of society. Even though there is really no perfect family, and every family has their struggles and even fights, the world would be so lost without the family. For all of those people out there who feel unloved, know that you have a Heavenly Father who loves you, and it's His approval that matters most. Allow yourself to become your best self through his Son, Jesus Christ. Life is hard, struggles come, people can be harsh, but you always have a Heavenly Father who loves you and wants you to succeed, and gives you so many opportunities to succeed!

Sunday Morning Sermon

About a week ago, I wrote a blog post about how hard school is and how much I don't like it. I find these days that I'm kinda whiny about school, because it is hard. Whenever anyone asks the idle conversation starter, "So how's school going?" my only positive reply is, "Well, Megan and I sure look forward to next May!"

There must certainly be more positive things about life then that I'm going to graduate in 7 months. I want to be able to look back on our years as poor married college students and be happy about all the goofy stuff we do and how much fun we have. For example, on Friday night, I wanted to take Megan out to a fancy dinner date. However, I realized that the day before we'd just gone grocery shopping with a big bill, and the week before, we'd gone to Sam's Club with an even bigger grocery bill. I thought to myself, "Certainly there must be something to eat in our own house after spending $200 on groceries in the past week!" So Megan and I spent about an hour going through our cook books and dreaming about fancy things to cook and eat. It was so much fun to just sit with her on the couch going through those cook books. Then she went to a seminar with her sister Kathleen, and I got ready to make stuffed french toast (totally awesome recipe by the way, they taste like cheese danishes!). When she and her sister came back, we enjoyed a relaxed fun evening of eating yummy stuffed french toast and playing cards for three hours. Then last night (after spending the day at school doing homework) we enjoyed each others company by cooking dinner together, then Megan gave me a haircut while I watched the Simpsons, and we played Mario Kart.

See, so there are good things going on currently in my life, even though school is hard. President Monson's talk from general conference kind of embodies that spirit. It's called Finding Joy in the Journey. Among many other good one liners, he says, "You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays." He also states that "Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances." So no matter what, I'm going to have lots of stresses and things to do that I don't want to. However, he says that we shouldn't neglect the most important things, "--and what is most important almost always involves the people around us."

I'm reminded of a Book of Mormon institute class I took once. When studying Lehi's family traveling through the wilderness, the instructor pointed out how difficult and hard the trip through the wilderness was. Their purpose in leaving Jerusalem was to go to the promised land. So why didn't God make the journey pass more easily? Why did they have to suffer through hunger, thirst, family fueds, being tied up and beaten (well, Nephi anyway), etc? Because there is purpose in the journey. In that journey, Lehi received the vision of the Tree of Life. In the journey, Nephi also received many visions which could be likened to his calling to be a prophet. After that journey, he was no longer Nephi, one of the sons of Lehi, but Nephi, the capable leader and prophet, ready to begin a nation in the promised land. Without the journey, they wouldn't have reached their destination. Okay, that sounds ridiculous. Rephrased, without their journey, they would not have been prepared to receive their destination.

In that institute class, we also likened their journey from Jerusalem to the promised land to our journey through life back to Heavenly Father's presence in the Celestial Kingdom. If God loves us so much, why did He make us leave his presence in the first place? Why doesn't he make our journey through life easier so that we can be sure and return to Him when we die? Why is there so much dang homework I have to do for my classes? Why do I always have so much to do period. Why doesn't he just use his almighty powers to just zap away all the bad and whisk us away to our promised land, aka, back to His presence in heaven? Because the journey is important. Our struggles through this life are important for our salvation. Living life isn't simply about just enduring hardships, but learning and growing and struggling through trials and coming out triumphant on the other side, so that we can say, "HA! See Dr. Burge? I know how to write technical reports for your opto-mechanics class now!" or . And in the end we will have achieved so much, and we'll be ready and prepared to be in our Heavenly Father's presence once again.

Moral of the story: school is still hard, but life is good. I know that life can be difficult, but that's okay. I still have joy in being with Megan and doing goofy things with her. Plus I have a beard now. How couldn't life be more awesome?

November Newsletter

Here is our November submission for the Kenneth C. Whitney newsletter:

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The semester is over halfway done, and Megan and I are working our way through. The classes we are in have offered tons of challenge, but we've got some good ones that are focusing in on the fact that we're almost done. For example, in the first class session for my senior lab, the professor taught us all about something called a Mueller Matrix Polarimeter. He said that inventing it was the best idea he's ever had and it made him alot of money. He cited the company that fabricates the machine was founded by one of his graduate students, and now he makes lots of money. He then said that industry wants people who can operate the machine and understand the principles behind it, so he was teaching it to us so we too could go out and make lots of money. I guess that's a good indication that I'm closer to the end.

One day, Megan came home from her thermodynamics class and informed me that she learned in class why she sweats more when she rides her bike in the morning then in the afternoon. She then said that when we get our dream home, we can have a decorative water fountain in the yard that can double as a super efficient way to make an evaporative cooler. Plus it would be pretty! So I guess she's learning some good stuff too.

We're also doing our engineering capstone this year which is a interdisciplinary design project. Interdisciplinary means that we're in teams with people from other engineering majors with the end goal to design something for a company in industry. Megan is on a project for a company here in Tucson called Raytheon. Her project is a surveillance system the size of a shoe box that can take audio/video data out in the wilderness (for example, at the Mexican border). My project is creating a optical signal recovery system that will employ a phenomenon called stochastic resonance. This involves taking a dirty corrupted signal and making it better by adding noise. It's kind of difficult to wrap our brains around it and our sponsor doesn't really seem to understand how it works, but we're at least making it through our preliminary design phases so far. With these projects, as well as our homeworks, exams, quizzes, and presentations for other classes, we don't see the outside world too much, but we look forward to graduation in May.

One Saturday day last month, we did manage to escape in the morning to visit with Becca's family and go to Apple Annie's farm in Wilcox to pick apples, go through a corn maze, and explore the pumpkin patch. It was a blast. On the trip, we taught Becca's kids a new song, Living On a Prayer by Bon Jovi. We didn't realize that we'd made such an effect until the next day when Jonathon called my cell phone four times asking me how to find it on the computer. Then Becca called to tell me that since they'd been home, even Lissy was singing it!

On top of school, Megan is still working 12-15 hours a week for M3 Engineering. About a month ago, they wanted to take Megan to Carlotta mine, just outside Globe, AZ to see the pipes and pumps she's been designing. It was a fun day trip for her and she even got to wear a hard hat! Attached is a photo of Megan next to a big fire water tank! I've also been trying to work part time for the company that I interned with over the Summer. They've sent me some work to do remotely, but so far I've only been able to put in less than 10 hours for the whole semester. They understand that I'm busy with school and they told me the work isn't urgent, but it just helps me to realize how awesome my wife is to be able to have put in 15 hours of week on top of a full engineering school load for the past year and a half.

Megan also continues to be big into her digital scrapbooking, as time permits. With her designs, she's won several contests (some random draw, some for having such awesome designs). With one printing site, she won a free book, so she sent in her first 20 layouts since she started last May, and they sent us a nice hard bound book! Think of the possibilities if we can cheaply get our own books professionally printed full of scrapped pictures! To see Megan's latest work, check out our blog.

For Halloween, we had a host of activities planned. First of all, for school, I took Megan's hard hat and reflective vest and wore them to class. At first, people just thought that some random construction worker had sat down in the classroom for a break, then they recognized me. Someone told afterwords that they thought that I'd received a new internship that required the use of a hardhat. It wasn't until after class that he remembered it was Halloween. After school, we decorated our trunk and drove to our ward's Trunk Or Treat activity. We had our trunk lit up with Megan's disco ball through misty haze created by buckets of water and dry ice. Megan also made some cute crafty buckets that she decorated with digital scrapbooking designs. We dressed pretty normal with tin foil masks. But these tin foil masks made it convenient for our next activity where we wrapped ourselves up in additional tin foil to get free burritos at Chipotle! The deal is dress up as a boo-rito, get a free boo-rito. I highly recommend it for next Halloween. Then finally, we ended up back at our apartment with some friends and watched a marathon of Simpson's Halloween episodes. The only Halloween let down was that someone had stolen our pumpkin that we got at Apple Annies right off of our doorstep before we had a chance to carve it! I was even planning on carving it with something nerdy, like a the greek letter "pi" of maybe the lens design of a Cooke Triplet.. Maybe next year when we're graduated and don't live in the ghetto part of town next to the University.

Speaking of not living next to the University, I've been applying for all kinds of exiting jobs around the country, post graduation. So far, the two most promising ones are a company called Edmond Optics in New Jersey and another one called Insight Technologies in New Hampshire. Both companies seem super exciting and both interviewed me on campus and seemed promising. I've also applied to some other places, but we'll just have to see what hashes out. Thinking about being done with school and working for full-time for a cool optics company makes it tough sometimes to focus on the hours of school work, but we've gotta make it through school before we can reap the benefits.

Con Amor,

Megan and Matthias

Halloweenie

Trunk or Treat with a trunk full of dry ice smoke, free chipotle, Simpsons marathon, and we still had lots of left over candy. We HAD lots of left over candy.

Motivation

For Halloween this year, Megan and I are going Trunk-or-Treating with our ward, then wrapping ourselves in tin foil to get free $6 burritos at Chipotle, then we're going back to the apartment to have a Simpsons "Tree House of Horrors" marathon! While searching for all of the Simpsons Halloween episodes, I remembered one my favorite episodes and watched it last night with Megan. It's in season 6, called "And Maggie Makes Three." The episode is a flashback episode with Homer telling the story of why there are no baby pictures of Maggie in the photo album. It goes back to Homer being able to quit his job at the power plant because he is out of debt, and being able to pursue his dream job of working at the bowling alley. But then the dream crashes down on him when he realizes that Marge is pregnant with their third child and Homer has to quit his dream job and humble himself to Mr. Burns and take back that his job at the plant. As a final spirit breaker, Mr. Burns mounts a plaque at Homer's desk that says "Don't Forget, You're Here Forever." Homer loses hope and is depressed, until he sees and holds Maggie for the first time in the hospital. Then finally comes the explanation of why there are no pictures of Maggie in the photo album:


We see that Homer has modified his plaque with pictures of his little girl to read, "Do it for her."

You know, The Simpsons have gotten a bad rap over the 20 years they've been on the air as "America's favorite dysfunctional family." But in reality, they are more functional than many families in the way that they have two loving parents (a man and a woman mind you), they are married and have been 100% faithful to each other, while Homer is made out to be idiotic most of the time, he authentically loves his wife and his children, while Marge obviously has many talents and could be successfull in the work force, she is a stay at home mom (there are a few episodes where she seeks employment, but those are in the minority). I guess what I'm getting at is there is something this episode paints that makes it one of my favorites.

School is hard, and I often don't like it. This stems from difficult lectures to sit through, painstaking exams to study for, massive homework sets to work at, and mondo projects that flatten my spirits. And while I do enjoy the difficult math and physics I'm studying in optics, I often find myself so swamped and dispirited that I just don't want to continue. Sometimes when I go see a musical performance or see a movie like "August Rush," I'm reminded at how talented I used to be at the Trombone and how trained my voice used to be. I've often told myself that if I were girl and didn't have to worry about being successful, I would have been a music major with focus in Trombone performance. I also sometimes think about how much I love live performance and how much I love performing on stage. Also, especially after watching shows like American Gladiators, I think about how fit I could be and how trained and strong I could make my body if I just had the time. But instead I spend my days waking up early to finish homework, go to school around 7 or 8 to go to classes, eat every meal on the run, spend all my in between time at my laptop doing more homework, and finally leaving the school sometimes as late as midnight (or later) because I was working on more homework. It's just not pleasant!

However, this Simpsons episode helps me put things in perspective. I don't do it because it's fun, though optics can be fun when it's not overwhelming, nor do I do it for self gratification, though successfully accomplishing projects and seeing how much I've learned is gratifying. I "do it for her."


And not just for Megan, I do it for all the babies we'll have and the great family we hope to raise. I haven't given up my dreams. I've just modified them to include more people. While my talents in music and in performance may be untapped, I'll be able to enjoy them all my life, just in different ways then I ever thought. This is my motivation to get me through this difficult and final year of school and on to the other side of next May.

Digi!

Matthias keeps encouraging me to post my scrap pages on here, and since I'm procrastinating working on my lab, I figured I would post a few. I've been loving digital scrapbooking more and more each time I make a page!

This first one I finished over the summer for the ggdigitaldesigns color contest. I ended up being the random winner of a $30 gift card! I loved this page because it just came together for me!

I think this page is currently my favorite! I just love the blue polka dot paper with the brown and pink...

These are some of Matthias' favorite pictures! :)

This one was for Miss Mint's Template Contest, of which I was the random winner! I got a full year subscription to the Digital Artist Magazine (which is pretty amazing!) This is also the first time I did a little bit of extraction on a photo. You can't tell the background was super busy because I blurred it. It's still pretty busy...I'm no expert yet!

Anyway, we just made flan and it's ready to be eaten! Flanstastic!

So what do you do on the weekends?

Yesterday evening, Megan and I went to the temple. I feel like this single Friday night trip has four or five stories to tell in itself, but I'll start with the one Megan and I really wanted to remember. After our temple session, we called up our friends, Andy and Michelle Bates with their newborn baby (born on Monday). We thought on the way we wanted to pick up some ice cream to eat with them. So we stopped in at a local Food City near their apartment and we grabbed a half gallon of goobery peanut butter ice cream and various packs of cookies to munch on for the ride home. Note that it was about 10:30 at night by now. The guy at the register, surveying our attire and the time of night, asked us, "So is this what you guys do on the weekends? Dress up and eat junk food?"

We Thank Thee, Oh God!

What a wonderful General Conference weekend it's been so far! EXACTLY what I've been needing!

Some thoughts from getting the laundry from the dryer:

Today we got the "Yes! for Prop 102" pamphlets in the mail. Proposition 102 is for an amendment to the Arizona Constitution that will define marriage as between one man and one woman. (If you want to understand why I believe this way, click here). I was so excited that I put the pamphlet up in our window.

The last song in General Conference today was "We Thank Thee, Oh God, For a Prophet". This song has gained some meaning for me as we've been singing our good friend's arrangement of it in Chorale. The message isn't necessarily "We Thank Thee, Oh God, For a Prophet", it's so much more than just that!

We thank thee, oh God, for a prophet
to guide us in these latter-days.
We thank thee for sending the gospel
to lighten our minds with its rays.
We thank thee for every blessing
bestowed by thy bounteous hand.
We feel it a pleasure to serve thee,
and love to obey thy command.

When dark clouds of trouble hang o'er us
and threaten our peace to destroy
There is hope smiling brightly before us
and we know that deliverance is nigh.
We doubt not the Lord nor his goodness,
We've proved him in days that are past,
The wicked who fight against Zion
Will surely be smitten at last.

We'll sing of his goodness and mercy
we'll praise him by day and by night
Rejoice in his glorious gospel
and bask in its life-giving light
Thus onto eternal perfection
The honest and faithful with go
While they who reject this glad message
Shall never such happiness know.

Lyrics by William Fowler
LDS Hymn book #19

As I was walking out to get the laundry, and saw that sign in our window, I wanted to add something to it. Something like "A happily married couple lives here"...but that doesn't cover it. "An Eternally married couple lives here"...but that doesn't cover it either. The fact is, to quote the song "they who reject this glad message shall never such happiness know".

Matthias and I are so happy! We've never been so happy, and the joy seems greater every day! When I'm with him, my stresses in school aren't as bad anymore. They all disappear because I love him, and know he loves me, and that we are on the road to eternity together! Our family will never have to split...there is no fear in being married so young!

I was talking to a coworker the other day to find out that his political beliefs are pretty much opposite of mine. He feels that not allowing gays the rights of marriage is the same as the discrimination when black people and white people were not allowed to marry, or the same as the discrimination that did not allow women to vote. Sadly, I didn't have an answer for him. I sent him The Family: A Proclamation to the World , and I hope that the Spirit can tell him what I couldn't find words for.

What I do know, is that "those who reject this glad message shall never such happiness know". I know I am happy. Life isn't perfect! I get discouraged and scared like everyone else. What I do know, is that when I turn to He who knows more than me, that things will work out. I am able to be calmed and trust in His care. Through His plan, Matthias and I are a forever family, sealed to our respective families, and we will join our families throughout eternity. Because of Christ's Atonement, we can all be forgiven of our shortcomings, and be perfected through Him.

That message, is truly happiness.

Google Whacking!

Something Megan and I used to do when we were dating and engaged was an internet "sport" called google whacking! A "Google Whack" is a search of two words contained in the google dictionary (meaning that they are blue links on the upper right-hand corner of the search page) that return only a single result in a Google search. Megan and I have never successfully come up with a valid whack, but last night we came up with some good ones involving the word "hangnail." When you finally get some good searches with two totally silly, odd, mismatched words, it's fun also to see what kind of websites contain such silly words together. Last night, in our Google-whacking session, my favorite result was the image search that came up for "hangnail philanthropic." Enjoy, and happy whacking!

Going on Eternity

One of our goals is to stay constant at going to the temple. What better way to celebrate anniversaries than to go to the temple right around that time? Here is our 1 year anniversary photo:

Click the link for credits.

August Newsletter

Here is the newsletter article I wrote for the Kenneth C. Whitney (my dad) August family newsletter:

Megan and I have enjoyed this summer as it has thoroughly done its job on us and helped us prepare for one last year of school before graduation. We still work all week long and play all weekend long too. But Megan commented that in one meeting she had at work, she was able to pay attention the whole time and take notes, just like she'll have to do often in classes for the upcoming semester. Also we're looking forward to being able to talk to each other every evening in person, instead of only on the phone during the week. This has definitely been one of the Summer's main drawbacks, even if we have had weekend's of fun together.

One week, our friends that we house sit for called us and we got to spend a long weekend together there and had a swimming party with a rack of ribs we grilled ourselves. Yum! Another weekend, we went out on an evening hike with a group of friends enjoying the night monsoon air (which really isn't that much cooler than the day monsoon air, but it was still a neat hike). We also celebrated Cow Appreciation day! This entailed taping spots all over our black and brown clothes, making cow masks, and having free lunch at Chik-fil-a! Then this most recent weekend, we had an Eegee's and Dance Dance Revolution double date with another couple who are good friends of ours and just moved out of the ward. It seems they just graduated and bought a house! How exciting to think that we will soon be in such a position. I mean the position to be graduated and buying a house, not the Eegee's-Dance Dance Revolution position. We are quite often in that position. Another evening we got to enjoy the Tucson monsoons was at the drive-in movies. We went to go see the new Batman movie. And while I'm afraid I can't recommend the movie itself, watching the lightning flash around us during the exciting parts of the movie was a pretty awesome experience.

For my birthday, Megan sure had my number and made a Reese's peanut butter cup cake! It was chocolate "wacky" cake covered in PB frosting, rounded with mini Reese's cups, and topped with pieces of large Reese's cups. Oh man. It was really good, even though the richness of it didn't allow for eating very much cake at a time! She also got a handsome looking watch and nacho cheese. Yay!

One more thing to note is the Megan and I celebrated our one year anniversary last month on 07/06/08! How exciting that it's been a year, and it's only been getting better the whole time. We were in Sierra Vista at the time because it was 4th of July weekend, and Megan's mom made us a special steak dinner with Strawberry cake for dessert (the same recipe we had at our reception). Then later that week, we went to Mesa for a good temple trip, to remember what we did there a year previous. It was the best anniversary we've ever had!

Con Amor,

Megan and Matthias

---

Chipotle

Life is like a Chipotle burrito: every bite tastes different, but it's one burrito.

haha! I thought of that today as I was eating a burrito. Some bites were spicy, some were limey, some were creamy goodness (I love sour cream...this could be bad!).

It was just a thought.

In news:

Matthias' sister gave him a hibiscus plant when she moved, that has stayed with him. It has amazingly beautiful blooms, not like the typical 5 petal hibiscus, but beautiful, vibrant, multi-petaled red blooms. Despite the many times it has been sad because we haven't taken such good care of it, it thrives on! The blooms are special in that each bloom only lasts one day. It blooms at sunrise, and starts withering at sundown. We rarely get more than one bloom at a time.

Thats why it's so amazing that on Sunday we had 4 blooms!! Yesterday there weren't any, but today there were 2! They are so beautiful!
Wouldn't you agree?

In other news, we signed up to get this free camera, and it doesn't have great resolution (as you may be able to see in that picture), but we're hoping it's better than the camera we do have so that Matthias can post better videos!

Our new managers think we get so many packages as we got the camera last week and then I got another package today! I've been in love with this pair of shoes at Kohl's for the past few weeks, but they were so expensive that I just kept waiting and waiting and checking back. Anyway, there was a problem with the price tag because the brown version kept going on sale, but not the black version. Luckily Matthias loves me and found them for me online when they were on sale! Now I have black shoes that won't hurt my feet! And I love that they button!

Anyway, that's all for now folks!

Learning Curve

I have a problem with the U of A. I've had it as long as I've been in the AME Department.

The problem isn't necessarily the teachers or the students, but both.

At first, I just thought the teachers couldn't teach, and then trying to not place blame, I decided that I must just not be able to learn in that manner and I needed to learn how soon.

Then I found out that students have all sorts of "resources" including old tests that are almost exactly the same as the tests that we then walk into. I already knew about solutions for homework, and I'm all right with those as long as the teacher is (and most are) because I take the time to learn what I'm doing instead of just blindly copying.

So really, students are able to perform really well on tests once they've worked similar problems that are nothing like the homework assignments. Some teachers try to get you to think outside the box during a test, and throw something at you that you haven't seen yet, to see if you know how to apply engineering skills to use what you've learned to solve a new problem. Then they grade the tests on curves so that it doesn't matter so much if the students don't score well, but they get the experience in thinking like an engineer.

The problem comes when the students have previous access to similar problems, and some are walking in blindly. The curve is then shot and there is usually a clear designation between those with resources and those without.

I've had this inner struggle with myself and what is honest. I would like to earn my degree because I've been learning for 5 years, not just copying and mimicking. However, because classes are graded on curves, honest people who could actually give the teacher more honest feedback on how he is teaching, look like the ones who are failing, even though we may be working the hardest and learning the most.

So now that I am working at an engineering firm, I'm starting to see how these practices have transferred to the working field.

My "trainer" never officially got his degree in mechanical engineering, but has almost 20 if not more years of experience, working with the genius engineers that are from the baby-boomer age. So, even without a degree, he knows a lot, even if he just knows who to go to because they would know better than he.'

The guy that I've been working with has been out of college for about 5 years, maybe less. My trainer says I already know more than him because I know how to work.

Currently my trainer is working in another office in another city because that's where he's needed. He travels back every weekend to see his girlfriend and actually stay at his house, but that's what he's doing now.

As I've been working with this other guy, I've been repremanded for pulling files from the "Standard Files" folder that we are supposed to pull from. He tells me to pull them from other projects. As we are issuing specs, sometimes he even forgets to change the job number as he is merely pulling from another project. Almost everything he does is from someone else, and it's almost like he doesn't even know how to do it himself. Sometimes I think he hands stuff to me because he literally doesn't know what to do and knows that I will at least ask questions and be able to learn how to do it.

So I've been doing some pump calcs with this other guy, and noticed that on his calc sheets the Static Head is negative. I remember giving some calcs like that to my trainer and having to figure out where I went wrong on the pump calc. That other guy just blows it off like it doesn't matter. So I called my trainer to see who was right and what it was all about, and he said that there is definitely something wrong. I just hope that the calcs we sent out for quote won't be too bad.

I guess I just feel like I'm regressing into one of those other kids who just does something and assumes it's right because it works. We'll just see how well the plant works! The sad thing is that I know I have forgotten how to do a lot that I knew how to do at one point. My trainer wishes he could be back, since he's supposed to be on our project anyway, but he can't do anything about it. They pulled him onto a project he never wanted to be a part of.

The good news is that I've been taught by him, and at one point knew how to do the calcs by hand, and that's why a red flag shot up when I saw that negative number. I'm just afraid that I'm forgetting so much right now that he won't be able to appreciate me as much as he once did. You see, I know I won't be working here forever because we are going to have kids, and who knows if we will even be in the same town after we graduate! I really liked working with that trainer because he fully intended on me being smarter than him when he was done with me because of my schooling. Thus he was training me and telling me who to talk to and introducing me to all sorts of people because he wants me to get my P.E. by the time I'm 27. I know I won't go that far (I haven't told him that though), but I like getting that reaction to my work, and it encourages me to work harder and learn more.

I just hope that this summer of regression won't require too long of a comeback to reach that point I was at on the learning curve. The good news is that now that I'll have been doing it the way kids do it in school, I should have such an easy time in school, not worrying about how well I learn and understand what is being taught.

I had a teacher once say "They call it cheating in school, but networking in the real world"
I think that there's only so much networking that can be done before engineers are going to find themselves in a situation that no one knows the answer to, and even worse, no one even knows how to start finding the answer because all they have ever done is networked.

[/cynical rant]

It's Thursday!

As Matthias works 75 miles away and stays with my parents Mon-Thur, I obviously look forward to Thursday all week, and dread Mondays. Some funny reactions that I wouldn't guess that I would have this summer are:

-I can't seem to fall asleep at a normal hour without Matthias. In fact, last night I was so tired that I forced myself to go to bed at 10, turned the lights out and just laid down and was so full of energy even though I'd been so tired all day....so I finally was able to get to sleep at like 11:30, but when the optimal time for me to wake up in the morning is 5:45...yeah.

-Because of the sleep issues, Thursdays are really funny! First of all because I know Matthias is coming home. I look so forward to work being over that I just keep watching the clock. Secondly, it's after 3 nights of not sleeping a full nights sleep, that I can't work linearly on any project, thus when I'm asking people questions at work it's like every 5 minutes I have a question on a different project. Luckily I had so many today that I was productive, because if I only have one project I end up getting distracted and having to check my email a lot during the day to regain focus. Today I hardly checked it at all.

-Lastly, I can't seem to form sentences very well. I have thoughts in my head, but they leave me as I am speaking. Thus I sound very silly, especially as I am talking to more people on Thursdays than other days because we usually issue drawings and specs on Friday.

Anyway, he should be home in about 15 minutes (or so), so I'd better do my 15 minute pick-up. I hope I can focus!

The bad news is that on Thursdays I'm ready to go to bed at 8, but it's like Friday night for Matthias, so I usually end up crashing while he's having fun and catching up on things.

I sure do love him!

Dancing in the Rain

I love the monsoon season. The smell of rain, the thunder and lightening, the sound of storms pounding on the roof and listening to the runoff fall, even after the rain is gone. Then I love the smell of the world after it has rained...that it's been washed and is all fresh.

This morning I woke up to a cloudy sky, and all morning as I was heading to and from different meetings it was raining such that I remembered how much I loved the rain in Seattle!

By the afternoon it cleared up and everyone was so excited that the sun came out. I was sad to see the clouds go, but the whole world was glistening...yes, even in the parking lot.

And to think that it's monsoon season, so storms happen all the time! I love it!

Thoughts of the Day:

Summer has done it's job!
Today I was at an hour and a half meeting at work, and I wasn't bored and actually kind of enjoyed it. I guess that means I'm ready for school to be back in session.

Mostly I think it's because then I'll get to see Matthias every day. Nine hour days are hard enough, but to know I'm going home to no Matthias makes them even harder. I think I have ADD when he's not home.

Secondly, I don't have to feel as bad when I take breaks during the school year. I guess that's one way I'm like my mom: I like to take breaks. The theory is that once I've lost focus, I really won't lose time in taking a break to regain focus. However, it's hard to take breaks at work and not feel guilty that for every 15 minutes I'm not working I'm wasting the company's money.

And finally, once school is in session that means it's officially our last year of school, and who knows where life will take us afterward! It'll be the first time in our lives that school won't be the answer (unless grad school comes into the picture, which we are hoping to avoid, but it's still an option). Either way, it'll be the beginning of a new chapter of life, and that's always exciting!

Mr. Darcy
When I am primarily drafting/designing at work, I have taken a new fondness to listening to books on my ipod. My good friend told me about this site librivox.org which has all of the books available to the public domain, many of which have been wiki recorded so that means free books!

Anyway, so I've been listening to Pride and Prejudice this week, and as I don't think I've read/watched the beloved story since I met Matthias, I just have a few thoughts.

One thing I always loved about Mr. Darcy is that when he fell in love, he fell in love and nothing could distract him but the pleasing of Miss Elizabeth Bennett, and that he just kept hoping to make her happy.

Matthias is always doing everything to make me happy. I'm so spoiled by it, but I love it, and it makes me want to do even better for him. I feel like I fail miserably most of the time, but he still loves me even though I'm nowhere near perfect. He gives me even greater images of the woman I will become, and I just have to try harder every day to be that strong, motivated woman, who will some day be as good to her husband as he is to her. Until then, just remember that I'm definitely grateful to be married to such an amazing man!

Growing Up
My sister and I just watched 13 Going on 30. My favorite part will always be the Thriller dance, but that's beside the point.

The premise of the movie is that on her 13th birthday she wishes to be "Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving" and wakes up to be 30 and have all of her greatest dreams come true, only to find out that she became a terrible person who nobody liked, but she got all her dreams, right? Turns out she gave up her best friend along the way, and she really regrets it. She goes home to her parents house (who she had also abandoned) and asks her mom if she had any regrets. Her mom says no and that all of her mistakes were just learning opportunities.

There are so many things I have done in my life that I am so embarrassed to remember ever acting that way. But I guess the whole point of life is to take things like that and learn from them, such that those situations will not have to happen again, or at least to my later embarrassment.

And for the Birthday Boy
Yesterday was Matthias' birthday, so we will be celebrating it tomorrow. I'm pretty excited as I think he'll really like his presents! The hardest part about shopping for him is that there are so many things that I can think of to get him, that it's hard to narrow it down to what I'll actually get him. The good news is, I'm pretty sure he'll love his presents!

I should probably go to bed so that I can sleep through some of the hours before his arrival! I sure do love Thursdays!

Harley is a Good Dog!

I suppose I shouldn't have let my first post here be a whiny one, but I really just wanted to remember that day. But here's something else that's kind of entertaining.

Like I mentioned, Megan and I are house sitting this week for some friends of ours. They have a great dog named Harley and a big hairy cat that has opposable thumbs named Romeo. On there fridge is a magnet that says, "My dog thinks he's human and my cat thinks he's God." That sums up their personalities pretty well, except that Harely more acts like an excitable little 5 year-old. Maybe 3 year-old, minus the crying when he's tired. He's very attached to his owner and gets easily scared by other people, though he took a fondness to Megan pretty quickly. Probably because she tries to baby talk to him in the same tone of voice as his owner. Thursday night when I got there from Sierra Vista, Harely didn't like me at first, but he got over that quickly because Megan was there and I gave him a cookie. But when Megan left for work and I went to fetch him from outside, he wouldn't get near me! He would just run about 20 ft away from me and bark while holding his tail in between his legs. I tried to coax him to come back inside, but to no avail. He was scared and wouldn't have anything to do with me. That is until I said the magic word: walk. I asked Harley if he didn't want to go on a walk with me. He stopped barking, pricked up his ears and peered curiously at me. Slowly he lowered his tail from between his legs, and he started to follow me towards the door. Then after I went inside, he bounded into the house straight to cupboard where he leash and harness are kept, nosing his way around. When I took then harness, he almost put it on himself he was so excited! He wouldn't even take a dog treat. So I went on a 20 min walk with him, my arm being pulled out of the socket the whole time, and we've been friends ever since!

One more anecdote. Megan and I rented Bridge to Teribithia last night and watched it on the big flat panel screen here at our friend's house. Harley just kind of curled up by the couch as we watched the movie. There's one part in the movie where the main character, like an 12 year-old boy, tells someone that he'd like to trade his four sisters for good dog. When he said "good dog," Harely stood up and pricked up his ears. Then about 10 seconds later, he laid back down. Yes Harley, you're a good dog!

Hum-dinger of a day

My schedule for this summer has been a long distance one and a little bit difficult. I've been commuting back and forth to Sierra Vista, working on post at the JITC in imagery standards. On a normal week, I'll ride a carpool van from Tucson to Sierra Vista, then work all week (staying with Megan's parents and riding with her dad) then take the carpool van back to Tucson Thursday afternoons. But how many weeks are normal ones? Maybe less than a third of them? More often than not, I'll stay in Sierra Vista for the weekend and Megan will be with me, then go back to Tucson Monday morning instead of me commuting, or I'll come on Tuesday, not Monday because of a vacation, or whatever. At any rate, I'm a very casual rider on the carpool van.

I was really excited to come home this weekend because I was coming home to house sitting at our friends' house on Ina and first. Megan's sister, Kathleen, was going to pick me up from the carpool drop off in South Tucson, and we were going to have a BBQ with baby back pork ribs (that we actually did on grill, oh so good) as just kind of a fun way to start the weekend. Well, wake up Thursday morning and I couldn't find my wallet. No sweat, I might've just left it at my work desk in a drawer or something. I go to work and it's not there. Oh well, I'll call Megan's mom when I take a break in a few hours and have her look for it. A few hours into work, I realize that I left my phone on in the secure lab that I work in (a big no no) where there is no reception anyway, so after diligently searching for a signal for those first few hours, its battery was shot, and the phone turned off. Hmm, now I really couldn't even call my mother-in-law to have her look for my wallet. I guess I still ended up calling her on an office phone, but I needed my cell phone in case anything went weird in arranging my ride home. The day went on and it was finally time to catch my ride to Tucson! I went and stood near the entrance of the JITC building, and waited, and waited, and waited. <> After 20 minutes had passed (about 15 minutes after the scheduled departure time of the shuttle) I had to admit that something was wrong. Either the shuttle was extremely early in leaving, it did not run that day and I was not aware (since I'm such a casual rider), or there was no one at JITC riding that day, so it passed without stopping and they didn't assume I was riding (since I'm such a casual rider). So I just sat in the rain, and cried. Well, not really. But it really was raining outside and I really did kinda feel like crying. For crying out loud, I couldn't even call Megan to let her know what had happened or Kathleen to tell her not to pick me up because my phone was dead!

I went to my father-in-law's desk and related to him my sad story. He wasn't planning on going home for another hour and a half, but he is always thinking about ways he can go out of his way to make things better for others. So he packed up his desk, said he needed to talk to someone and then he could take me back to his house. He arranged for a way to get to work on Friday, said he would figure out how to get a ride to everywhere he needed to be on Sunday, and then just let me take his truck to Tucson. Back at his house, I plugged my phone in to make some calls, searched my pants folded and put away in the dresser to find my wallet (I'd had some time to think about it), then took Steve's truck and I was back on my way to Tucson listening to conservative talk radio all the way home! Ahhh, what a relief. In the end I was only about 45 minutes delayed and we ate some of the best ribs I ever had, and by far the best ribs I've ever cooked! But I am extremely fortunate that Megan's parents have been so accommodating to me this Summer and that Steve let me take his truck for the weekend.