The most important things that has happened since I last wrote is that I'm now officially done with my college education. Finally! Last Fall was my 11th and final semester, as I took 9 credits and institute classes. I'm glad that the Masters of Accounting program is spread out over a spring, summer, and fall semester, because it would have been much harder cramming everything into just two semesters. I must say that it was strange when I turned in my very last exam during finals week, knowing that I'll never have another school assignment, test, or project to do ever again. It makes you think about all the things and people it took to get here, and I'll share those thoughts in another post.
My last semesters did have a lot of highlights. Here are just a few of them:
Our ward had a cardboard regatta to close out the summer, as each FHE group made their own boats made completely out of cardboard and duct tape. We raced them at 1st Dam to see which one was the best, and even though ours didn't win, it was a fun activity.
As you know, I was involved with the IMA during this semester and the big event we plan for is the Turkey Bowl, played the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We had about 14 teams come to play, despite the cold and wet conditions. Once we crowned a champion, all of us headed back to the institute to have a yummy Thanksgiving meal. Earlier in the semester, we had the IMA Volleyball tournament night, which was also a huge success with over 20 teams participating.
With my apologies to my aunts, uncles, and cousins that are BYU fans, the best sporting event of the semester was when Utah State beat BYU at Romney Stadium. I was fortunate to get into that game and I'm glad that we finally ended a 17-year drought by winning 31-16. Apparently, there is a wagon wheel that the schools play for every meeting, but nobody probably knew that since it's been in Provo for 17 years. To be fair, the Cougars did have a better season and won their bowl game. But it's always great to beat your in-state rivals.
As most of my immediate family will still tell you, I'm still very involved in the church's indexing program on the FamilySearch.org website. I'm still in the family history center indexing a few hours before the church block starts and last month, I was able to index 15,000 names. I'm now close to 93,000 names and I'm going to keep on indexing in my free time while looking for a job. It's only a few hours every day and it's amazing what you can do when you get familiar with it.
Thanksgiving is always fun with the family. We had a nice time together and it was nice to take a break before the end of the semester crunch. This is my favorite picture, as grandpa tried his luck in stacking the napkin holders after our meal. I believe that one stayed, but the stack toppled over on the next one.
The big gift for the family this Christmas was a Nintendo Wii, along with the games Rockband 3, and Super Mario Bros. Wii game. The last game has revealed to all of us what mom's favorite words are when she's scared while playing multi-player: "Oh! Oh! Oh!" Fortunately, this game has also provided us with a saying that we now tease her with: "Get in the bubble." In multi-player, you can get into a "bubble" and float past hard spots if you don't want to try them and others do. Mom used this option quite often, so whenever she doesn't want to do anything, we just say to her, "Get in the bubble."
That's about all I have for now. Currently, I'm just looking for a job and trying to remain upbeat despite a down economy. I know something will come up and that the Lord will watch out for me if I'm doing my part. Hopefully something will come soon. See ya later!
