Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Home for the Holidays



Chance and I had the BEST Christmas this past week home in Lodi. We enjoyed beautiful weather and were able to run in the mornings, go on bike rides, play tennis, and even play a round of golf. Spending time with family is so wonderful, we are so grateful for the support we have from our parents and siblings. We were able to meet our niece Lily for the first time and she is perfect. I loved holding her and listening to her baby noises. Jana and Joe are such cute parents, we wish they lived closer to us! It was hard for us to say goodbye, I can't even count how many times we said "I don't want to leave!" A big thanks to my family for the amazing week at home, we love you so much.

Jana, Joe, and Lily

My amazing parents

Emma's Christmas classic

Christmas Eve

Our first Christmas!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Christmas time is here...

Christmas time is here and we couldn't be more excited! We have finals this week and then we are headed off to California on Saturday. We can't wait to relax and spend time with our family and I am so excited to finally meet my niece Lily and hold her forever.

View from our window, I like looking at the snow from the inside.

Megan came over and made cookies with us, soooo yummy!

Our Stake had a Christmas musical program at the Provo Tabernacle, it was wonderful.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Police Beat: Best of the last decade



Police Beat in The Daily Universe is probably one of my favorite sections of BYU's newspaper. Today they published Police Beat: Best of the last decade and I had some pretty good laughs, so I thought I would share. Unfortunately, they didn't mention the police beat from summer term 2006, when Sutton, Emily, and I were reported for being too loud outside of Helaman Halls. Haha, good times.

Enjoy!

Disorderly Conduct
June 29, 2006: A man was found bathing in the fountain of the Joseph F. Smith Building and praying to a rock.
September 6, 2009: Two male subjects were knocking doors in the female area of Wyview Park.  They identified themselves as missionaries.  When the police arrived the two male students said they thought it was a novel way to meet girls.
Sept. 19, 2006: An individual reported male students singing to female students outside of Hinckley Hall in Helaman Halls. PoThe males were advised to leave due to complaints.

Theft
March 26, 2008: The mother of a BYU student called police when she suspected that her daughter’s roommate stole her butter knife. The mother later called to drop the charges.

Animal Problem
Sept. 6, 2000: A BYU employee was walking near the Harris Fine Arts Center when she heard the cries of a kitten. As she picked up the small kitten, the animal attacked, scratching and biting her. When the police arrived they were unable to locate the offending feline.
July 4, 2009: An owl was found in the former president’s home. An officer communicated with the owl and it left.

Property Damage
Oct. 2001: A glass panel of a telephone booth at Helaman Halls shattered in an attempt to fit eight people into the booth. As a third person entered the phone booth, the pressure caused the panel to break.
Nov. 25, 2005: An unknown person used a washable wipe marker to write obscenities such as “poo-poo” and “poo” on a black Denali parked in Heritage Halls.
Sept. 22, 2006: A female BYU student fell through the ceiling of the Thomas L. Martin Building while playing a game of hide and seek. The student was in an area of the building being remodeled where ceiling tiles had been removed for electrical work. Friends boosted the student into the opening where she fell through other ceiling tiles upon crawling around. She was not hurt.
Nov. 21, 2006: A female student attempted to get the attention of two male students passing by Fox Hall in Heritage Halls by tapping on the glass window of the lobby. The female student shattered the glass window with her tapping.

Domestic Violence
Oct. 23, 2006: An assault was reported in R Hall of Deseret Towers. One male student threw a bug on another male student, who retaliated by spraying shaving cream on the male who threw the bug. Shaving cream got in the eyes of the first student and the argument quickly escalated and became a physical confrontation.
Nov. 9, 2009: Domestic violence was reported at Wyview Park. Two male roommates were arguing over the temperature control setting of the thermostat when things got too heated and one roommate began assaulting the other. The males were separated and one was issued a citation. The cited individual left the apartment and stayed somewhere else for the evening.
Suspicious Behavior
Jan. 22, 2002: A man was reported leaving the bookstore carrying a gun. When the officer located the male they found he was carrying a chrome toy pistol. When the officer asked the 22-year-old male student why he was carrying the gun, he said his roommate told him it would get chicks. The officers cautioned the male on carrying or simulating a weapon before he was released.
Feb. 2, 2007: A student reported a suspicious individual with long gray hair and a beard inside a restricted lab in the Clyde building. Upon arrival, the officer found a mannequin in the reported location.
July 4, 2007: A man was reported making a suspicious phone call to a female in Helaman Halls in which he claimed he was doing a psychology project and then proceeded to hypnotize the female student on the other end of the line. The roommate of the female came home to find her asleep on the floor. The female was reported reacting strangely when certain words are spoken.
Incidents of a similar nature have occurred about two dozen times in the past. There are no suspects, but the incident is still under investigation.
Sept. 12, 2008: A custodian reported screaming near the MCKB at 4 a.m. The screams were later discovered to have come from a female student sprayed by a sidewalk sprinkler.
March 21, 2008: BYU police received a call reporting a male dressed in a bright yellow suit looking for duck eggs near the duck pond. When police arrived at the scene the man was nowhere to be found.
Feb. 16, 2009: A Wymount tenant alerted police of a suspicious man in a suspicious vehicle driving between Wymount laundry facilities. The man turned out to be a Wymount tenant who was looking for an open washer and dryer.

Suspicious Package
Oct. 2001: A female BYU student living in Deseret Towers received a suspicious looking brown paper package in the mail. The student did not recognize the return address and called the police. After investigating, police concluded that a friend had purchased a Beanie Baby on E-Bay and the Beanie Baby has been sent directly to the BYU student.
March 5, 2002: A strange letter was received by KBYU. The letter had a lump in it, so the recipient put the letter in the microwave hoping to neutralize the substance if it was anthrax. The letter started on fire and by the time the recipient could put out the flames, the only readable part of the letter was the return address which read, “Shadows of things to come.” Police are unsure about the substance contained in the letter.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Faces of Diabetes





I have an internship at the state health department right now and am really enjoying my experience so far. I haven't done much, but I have definitely learned a lot. I am the graduate student intern on the diabetes media campaign Grant Sunada is currently working on called the Faces of Diabetes. We are collecting stories of people who either have diabetes or have been affected by diabetes in some way. We hope that these stories empower others to make healthy lifestyle choices as well as provide a location where people can share their own stories and comments about the disease. My masters project that I will begin working on this spring will involve evaluating the effectiveness of this campaign through focus groups, surveys, and other methods that I will be learning about next semester in my classes! I'm excited.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Thanksgiving!


Chance and I had the best Thanksgiving in Idaho Falls. Here were some of the highlights:
*A delicious Thanksgiving feast
*Tangi and Scott announcing that they are having another baby in May
*Playing games (I finally learned how to play Rook)
*Watching BYU beat the U on the BIG screen (Thanks Brad for ordering the channel!)
*Taking family pictures
*Eating Thanksgiving leftovers and yummy treats
*Bowling on Saturday night
*Chance's mint M&M blizzards
*I was able to start and finish A Thousand Splendid Suns, which I absolutely loved

It was so good to be together with family. We have put up a few Christmas decorations in our apartment and have loaded the cd player with our favorite Christmas albums (NSYNC and Josh Grobin are numbers 1 & 2). We love this time of year and we hope you are enjoying it as well!