Spencer's 25th

Well, this past Saturday was Spencer's birthday! I love Spencer's birthday. :) Probably more than my own. While he was in Michigan I decided that I wanted to throw him a surprise party this year. His work compadres were supposed to be having a get together and they were gonna celebrate his and someone else's birthday at it. They never ended up planning the party, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun planning and setting up the party. I made a piniata last weekend with Kyrie. And it was awesome. I usually spend Fridays at a school observing, and then I go to work for a couple of hours at the end of the day. This week, I went to a school in the morning, then came home to finish the cake and decorate! Now, up to this point, Spencer was completely unaware of all my planning. We were gonna go out to eat and get home around 7:00 and everyone would be home to surprise him! Well, he decided to eat like a pound of cheesy pasta bake for lunch (that's how much was in the tupperware, after all!) and he got a stomach ache. When I told me he didn't feel good enough to go out to eat, I was a little flustered. I couldn't bring him home until 7! So, he was suspicious, but he pretended not to be. That might be because I told him to just go along with whatever I had planned. haha. So here's how it went down.

I got the party all ready, Katy dropped by to pick up my key, and I went to campus to pick up Spencer.
I had packed some snacks, bread, and a thermos of hot water. We went to a duck pond to feed the ducks and sip some hot apple cider. :) It was really nice. (I forgot to upload those pictures, so check back for them a little later.) There were so many ducks it was kind of gross. But they ate right out of our hands. We stayed there and watched some other people feed ducks, then we decided to run to Walmart to get some things. And to kill time.

The piniata.

 And the cake before frosting and decorating. It's like a giant ice cream sandwich.

 The house, cleaned and decorated for the party!

Spencer enjoying some hot cider at the duck pond. It was a beautiful day.

 Plus, we saw this afro duck. Could life get any better?

Finally we came home and... SURPRISE! Spencer's just like, "oh, hey guys." haha

We chatted and played a little bit of Balderdash.

Kelly and Eryn

 And we watched Carrina run around.

James and Miranda

Sydney and Ben. Obviously, they're our cool friends.  ;)

Spencer and I

Josh and Katy

 Then we decided to do the piniata.

Carrina kept trying to pick the whole thing up and carry it down the driveway. She managed to pick it up, but she kept tripping and falling on top of it.

 Everyone except James got a couple swings at it, I think. James was taking pictures. :) Spencer went first, but the camera wasn't quite set to take pictures yet.

 Then we had cake! It's an ice cream cake. :) Everyone liked it.

We sang Spencer happy birthday, which he hates, and he blew out all of his candles.

Carrina loved the cake and was sad when she couldn't have any more.

I would have given her more. Just look at that little face!

So, hooray for Spencer's birthday! Every time his birthday comes around I feel so lucky to be the one making his cake. :) I can hardly believe that I've made him 4 now! Oh, and for his birthday he got a new suit from Mom and Dad! He wore the suit to his interview in Detroit and I got him new shoes to go with his new suit. I hate not having a surprise present though, so I got him Jurassic Park! It's probably one of his all-time favorite movies. However, I didn't get to the post office in time to pick it up on Friday, so he didn't get that until Monday. I never even wrapped it. I just drew a bow on the package with a sharpie. Oh, well. Hopefully we'll find some time to watch it together one of these days. 

Wayne State Interview

Spencer left on Friday afternoon for his interview at Wayne State. He stayed with his family for the weekend, and it sounds like he had a good time. They put him to work raking the yard and tearing out their pool and deck, but he said he got to use a sledge hammer, so I think he had fun. I was happy for him to have a little time at home, but not so happy about my Spencer-less weekend. I did get a lot of things done around the apartment while he was gone, though, so that's good. It looks better than it has all semester! On Saturday Kyrie had me over to stay the night and on Monday I went over to visit with Josh, Katy, and Carrina. She's a lot of fun. Oh, and I even started working out this week (two days in a row!!). It's hard to get up early when someone just tells you how nice getting another hour of sleep would be. Hopefully I'll keep it up.

Anyway, today was the big day! He said the interview was pretty much a classic medical school interview. It lasted for about an hour, and he feels pretty good about it. They will let us know one way or the other on November 27th. It's nice that we at least know when we'll know. We're still hoping for a couple more interview offers in the meantime, but it's exciting to have one done. Spencer's flying home today, so I'll go pick him up at the airport later tonight. I'm so excited to see him!

Spencer said on facebook, "Wayne State interview went really well. I think... The interviewer was a cool guy and he said that my previous life experiences match their Mission Statement very well. The campus was great and everything seemed like a pretty good fit. We'll find out on November 27!"

Mammalogy Field Trip

I never wrote about my field trip, so here it goes. I could just give you my field notes, but I'll summarize since you probably don't care about the precise temperatures and GPS coordinates of our traps.

The field trip was Thursday through Saturday. We got to our campsite at Huntington State Park and set up our tents. I shared my tent with my friend Kyrie and another girl who rode in the same truck as us and needed somewhere to sleep. It's a big enough tent that we weren't too squished together, even with all of our stuff everywhere inside. We got our tent set up and were unpacking some stuff when someone outside yelled "we're gonna leave without you!" Apparently we missed a first announcement, which I was a little annoyed at. Our professor needs a whistle or something. We ran over to listen to directions then got some stuff together really fast. We went about 15 minutes down the road to set some traps. 40 traps per pair. Kyrie and I were a pair and we were in a group of 4 with another pair. We got our traps set up in about an hour and got back to camp before dark. The other groups were a lot slower than us so they showed up just after dark. We had dinner (my professor made chili), and went into our tents to try to warm up. It was in the low 40s all afternoon and the overnight low was a chilly 34. I did not sleep well. My face got so cold, and it's not all that comfortable to sleep in so many layers of clothes. My sleeping bag was pretty warm though. (Thank Mom and Dad!)

Friday morning we didn't have to get up until about 8:00, but I was awake by 6:45 and I was tired of trying to sleep. I just sat in my sleeping bag snacking on rice cakes that I had brought. I finally got out of the tent a little before we were supposed to get up to go use the bathroom the sinks got busy. Thankfully, the sinks had nice, warm water. The site actually had showers, too, but we were planning to stay at a different site (it was closed for the winter) that didn't have showers so I didn't have shower stuff. I was feeling pretty nasty by Saturday. Anyway, they had oatmeal and hot chocolate and bagels and fruit for breakfast, so that was nice. Then we went back to check our trapline. 9 of our 40 traps had little mice and things in them. The first one that I checked that was full kinda freaked me out. I picked it up, but it felt too light to have anything in it so I thought maybe the trap just went off so I started opening the trap door and it hit the mouse inside. I screamed. Then I felt ridiculous. The group we were paired with heard me from their trap line and asked us about it when we met up later. :)

After all the groups had gathered their full traps, we met up as a big group and Dr. Rogers told us what we caught. If any of you care, we caught 7 deer mice, a long-tailed vole, and a harvest mouse. We went back to camp while Dr. Rogers euthanized the little critters and then he showed us how he prepares them to be a museum specimen (skinning and stuffing them, and explaining how they prepare the skeleton). It was interesting, but watching that stuff makes me a little queasy. We had quite a bit of free time during the day, so we had lunch and studied for an exam and took a nap in my tent for a while. It was nice and warm in there when the sun was out.

That evening we went out to reset the traps that we had gathered in the morning. We had left the empty traps out there. We also set some larger traps to try to catch some carnivorous mammals. Then we went back to camp and helped prepare stuff for dinner while the other groups finished their lines. Dinner was tinfoil dinners, so we had some little fires to hang out around that night. It was fun to get to know some of the people in the class. My like 8:30, I was ready for bed. It gets dark so early now. I thought it was at least 10:30. So, I crawled all the way into my sleeping bag, including my head, and tried to stay warm. I slept better that night. Maybe because I actually kept my face in my sleeping bag, but maybe it was just because I was so tired.

Saturday morning we got up at 6:30, ate breakfast, and were ready to leave camp by 7:45 to check our lines and gather all the traps. 10 of our 40 traps were full this time, but none of the larger traps had anything in them. I was kinda happy that they didn't. The whole group met up and we looked at what everyone got again. Then we went back to camp, packed up our tents and hit the road. We were back in Provo by 1:00, and I was so happy to see Spencer. I was also happy to finally take a shower and be warm again. I hate being cold. I spent the rest of the weekend catching up on homework and studying for exams. The trip was actually more fun than I had expected it to be. That was partly because I had low expectations going in, and partly because it didn't rain like the forecast said it would and my group was fast and fun to be around.

The beginning of our trapline

We had a beautiful view at the end of it though!

Me on Thursday. Looks so nice and warm, doesn't it?

Checking traps. There's one in that bush. It was full.

Huntington Creek

Me and Kyrie with our full traps. 

Dr. Rogers telling the class about that little mouse.

More of our trapline.

Me and Kyrie again

I really was beautiful there, and on Saturday it was a little warmer. 

Oh, and we saw this guy (he has a crow in his claws) in parking lot of the campground! 

Sorry I haven't blogged.

This is why:

Besides an insane amount of schoolwork, I've done a couple nice things. A few weeks ago Miranda came over for a girl's night and we made some fun Halloween sugar cookies. :) I couldn't resist buying the cookie cutters at the store. Miranda and I had a nice time chatting while we cut out the cookies and baked them. Spencer helped us decorate them. I love Mom's sugar cookie recipe. This last Sunday Josh and Katy dropped by unexpectedly with Carrina. Our apartment was a complete disaster (midterms = me not doing anything useful around the house), but it was so nice to see them. Carrina is hilarious. Spencer was great and pitched in to help out with dinners and things that needed to be done. He always does, but I'm better at noticing and appreciating it when I'm being less helpful.

Now midterms are over. This semester I actually had all of my midterms during the same couple weeks and now I don't have any more tests for a while! So that's nice, now that all the craziness is done. Today I dropped Spencer off at the airport. He's spending the weekend with his family and Tuesday is the big interview day at Wayne State. He did have a phone interview with Western Michigan last week, but other than that we haven't heard anything new from schools. We're a little disappointed at the lack of additional interview offers, but at least there haven't been any more rejection letters. I'm sure he'll do great in his interview, but I'm going to miss him this weekend. I have some things planned to keep me busy though.

Counting My Blessings

This week has been busy. I think I always say that, but even compared to my normal semester schedule, this week was busy. I had so much on my mind Sunday night as I was laying in bed, thinking of the seemingly impossible week I had ahead of me. For the first time in my life, I had an anxiety attack. I started hyperventilating and my the my hands started shaking. The vibrating sensation moved up my arms and even into my face. Obviously this tells you something about how ridiculous I am when it comes to schoolwork. I'm really trying to work on it, but that's hard for me. Anyway, Spencer took care of me and calmed me down and on Monday morning he gave me a priesthood blessing. Somehow, miraculously, I'm at the end of my week (the busy part, at least). I have been so blessed, and these are just a few of the ways:

1. Spencer is the best. He is so kind and patient and understanding. He is always prepared to give me a blessing when I need or ask for one. He loves me, even when I go crazy. :)

2. Someone thinks about us. Spencer went to answer the door on Monday and someone left us a plate of cupcakes and Reese's peanut butter pumpkins. I don't know who "boo-ed" us, but I am grateful for them. The simple gesture almost brought tears to my eyes because nobody could have known how much that would mean to me this week.

3. Dad. We video chatted for a while on Monday. That was great. Love you, Dad!

4. Emails from missionaries. Mikayla and Benjamin emailed us this week, and last week we got a letter from Mikayla. They inspire me to put important things first, and Benjamin's simple advice to "go do something fun" was probably inspired as well.

5. General Conference. I just need it. It was amazing.

6. A fantastic group for my presentation. This morning (Thursday), my group presented in my mammalogy class. We had to give a 45 minute presentation on the bat family Phyllostomidae. The girls in my group, Kyrie and Kimberli, are fantastic. They didn't stress over it and we managed to get together for 5 successful hours of organizing, planning, and prepping our presentation. I am really happy with how it went. Last night I had crazy dreams about our powerpoint disappearing and all sorts of things going wrong. Everything went fine and the class even got involved in the discussions. We were the first group to use all the time we were allotted. Plus, that's one big check off my list of projects for the semester.

I felt a little bit like Calvin. (And Michael, you'll be proud to know that this went into the powerpoint.)



7. By some miracle, I passed my mammalogy lab quiz. This was the hardest one so far and I had the least amount of time to work on it. I missed like 3 of the bats, but overall, I did alright. Probably better than I deserved.

8. On Tuesday my mammalogy professor moved a writing assignment's due date back 4 days. (I didn't even have it on my radar and it was supposed to be due on Tuesday.) My philosophy of biology professor moved the midterm exam AND book review back by a week each. The midterm was supposed to start on Tuesday, and I have 250 pages to read for the book review still. Now I have 2 weeks to get it done instead of just one.

9. I'm not sick.

10. Michael. He always chats with me on gmail, telling me stupid jokes and stuff. Sometimes I have to tell him to leave me alone so I can focus on my work, but he always makes me laugh. :)

11. James. He's always willing to help me out. He's lending me a GPS and a mess kit for my mammalogy field trip that starts today.

12. I finished ALL of my homework assignments that will be due between now and Saturday when I get home from my field trip.

13. The weather doesn't look like it'll be as cold and rainy on our field trip as it looked on Tuesday. I'm hopeful about not freezing now.

14. The Internet. How on earth would I have gotten that presentation together if I had to look through real books and journals in the library to find stuff??

15. Blogs. Blog posts and pictures (on the blog or on Facebook) of all the kids make me happy. :) Thanks for blogging AnnaMarie and Caroline. And Marianne when she does. haha

16. AnnaMarie. For talking with me on the phone even though it's obvious she has other things going on around her.

17. Friends who try to keep in touch with me. I know I'm a lame-o friend sometimes, but every time I get a text from an old friend it makes my day.

Basically, this week has been full of divine intervention through all sorts of people around me. Thanks everyone. :) In about an hour I'll be off on my field trip, which will be a welcome change of pace. Hopefully it'll be fun, but it will at least be fun(ny?) to see my classmates get into it. They are more excited about mammals than I am.

Medical School Update

This probably isn't new news for most of you, but I figured I should keep up with it on the blog anyway. The application process for medical school is long, expensive, and nerve-wracking. Spencer started working on his applications in June and submitted them to AMCAS, which is a program that processes primary applications for most MD schools. We waited for like 8 weeks for AMCAS to verify his application and finally send it on to the medical schools. They got them the first week of August, I believe. For the rest of August he had secondary application offers trickling in. He was invited to complete a secondary application for all 10 schools, which he did. We heard back from Mayo clinic first, and then University of Minnesota, both of whom said no. Finally, last week Spencer got his first interview offer!! Wayne State in Detroit invited him to go and interview there at the end of October. So, this weekend we bought his plane ticket, and we are both relieved to have something to look forward to. We are now anxiously awaiting news from the remaining 7 schools, and are hoping that his interview at Wayne State goes well.

Mayo Medical School (Rochester, MN) - rejected
University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN) - rejected
Wayne State (Detroit, MI) - Interview!
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) - waiting and hopeful
Michigan State University (Lansing or Grand Rapids, MI) - waiting and hopeful
Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, MI) - waiting and hopeful
Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI) - waiting and hopeful
Medical College of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI) - waiting and hopeful
University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI) - waiting and hopeful
Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX) - waiting and hopeful

Dad and Tyler's Visit and School

We'll start with the good stuff. Earlier this month Dad and Tyler flew out here to visit! Okay, they mostly came out for the BYU-Texas football game, but they got to visit us, too! It was so nice to see them, and especially nice to spend some time with Dad. They flew in Thursday night, so we went over to the condo to visit him. I don't have classes on Fridays this semester so I got to spend Friday morning with him, just the two of us! We went to Village Inn for breakfast and it was so fun for me to just talk with Dad. I was so glad to see him for a couple days. After breakfast I think we went to the bookstore for a while. Spencer had an hour between classes while we were there so we went to Jamba Juice. Just as we were getting ready to leave campus James got done with work and joined us. I'm having a hard time remembering the details of the rest of the weekend, but there was a lot of eating out. :) I only took one picture while Dad was here, so there you go. We went to get sushi at Kyoto and Spencer's dream of sitting at the asian table came true. You can't really tell in the picture, but it's a low table with a hole underneath to put your feet in. Tyler was out with his brothers this night. BYU ended up winning the game against Texas, so that was really exciting! Dad flew out the next morning, so we all said goodbye before the game.

This last month has been crazy. It has absolutely flown by and school is keeping me really busy. Too busy to blog, even. Okay, I probably could find time to blog, but I have been very busy. My classes are more homework heavy this semester so even though I'm only taking 16 credits (as opposed to the 19 I took the past two semesters), I feel like schools keeps me busier than ever. I probably have between 50 and 100 pages of reading for classes each week and then there are weekly writing assignments, quizzes, and lesson planning to do. My education classes are each requiring me to prepare a unit worth of lesson plans (8 to 10 class periods' worth), and there's a lot that is required to go into that. My Mammalogy class has a lab attached that requires me to memorize the order, family, genus, and species of about 15 mammals each week with their geographic distributions and related vocabulary terms. Of course, we study by related orders so it's hard to tell things apart by their pelt or just a skull. This week, for example, we have 8 species of shrew to learn. I'm not complaining, just trying to explain how busy I am. My workload is pretty stressful, and I'm trying really hard to not let it overwhelm me. These next three weeks will be the craziest of the semester though, so hopefully I'll survive and get some time to breathe.

Last night I was listening to the general Relief Society broadcast and their beautiful messages touched my heart. I am so grateful that general conference is this coming weekend because my spirit needs it. :) Anyway, they talked a lot about keeping our covenants, and a big part of keeping our covenant is to serve others. Mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort. I realized that I need to make a larger effort to be available to those who could use my service. School is really important to me, and I'm kind of a perfectionist about it to the point that it causes me a lot of stress. This semester I am going to try my best to let some of that stress go. I will do my best, but there are some things that are more important than getting all A's. (And to be honest, I think Mammalogy is going to kick my trash anyway.) I want to make the most of my last year here at BYU. Josh and Katy will probably be moving in January, so I want to spend time with them and with sweet little Carrina. I want to spend time with James and Miranda before we move all the way across the country from them. I want to be a better visiting teacher and relief society sister. I want to be in a mindset where I am not too busy and too stressed with my own things, even important things, to hear the quiet promptings from the Lord telling me to befriend someone who is lonely or to bring some dinner to a relief society sister who is having a hard week or just had a baby. I think I sometimes miss those kinds of opportunities and this semester I want step outside of myself and allow those to be more important.

Okay, James and Miranda are on their way over for a game night, so I'm gonna sign off! :-) Spencer's making us an orange, strawberry, banana, and other random fruits smoothie!! He's the best.