Valentine's Day and Other Events

(This was supposed to be posted last week.  Oops...)

Well, I was right about one thing.  I do have more to write about this week.

For Valentine’s Day, Peter got me this extremely lovely bouquet and the second book in a series I’ve started reading.

We got all dolled up, went out to eat, and went to our stake’s Sweetheart’s Dance.  You can't really see it in this picture, but this is my Senior Prom dress, which I love.  I feel so pretty and elegant when I wear it. If truth be told, though, it was feeling a little tight.  Oh, no! 

I love getting dressed up, and eating out with our fancy clothes on was fun.  We had high expectations for the dance, though, and were somewhat disappointed.  Last year we had a ton of fun at the dance, but this year, not so much.  We came home kind of bummed, so in the morning, Peter decided to make up for it.  He had planned on making me breakfast in bed Friday morning, but forgot to get up early enough (lol), so he made it for me Saturday! 

(He used our heart-shaped waffle maker—aww!)

Then we went up north to see Peter’s parents.  They had just bought a new house and were very excited to show it to us.  It’s very nice.  They were still trying to sell their old house while we were there, but they sold it the afternoon after we left. 

We also got to visit Peter’s Grandma who went into the hospital with a stroke a few weeks ago.  She’s doing well.   She is in rehab, and she walked all the way to dinner while we were there!  We left the in-laws’ place on Monday (it was President’s Day, and we didn’t have school), stopping by Target for a little shopping and Café Zupa’s for lunch before heading back down here.

This week has been a little crazy.  I guess weeks where you have Mondays off tend to be a little on the crazy side.  Amazing what one day does, huh?
Thursday, Grandpa came to town, so we met him as well as my cousin and her fiancé at my Great Uncle's house and went to dinner with all of them.  We hadn't been to see my aunt and uncle probably in nearly a year, despite the fact that we've been back in town since August.  Terrible, I know.  We really enjoyed our visit, though.  I had a really good conversation with my aunt about family history work.
Friday, we went with our friends Adam and Carly to see the Lego Movie.  It was pretty cute, although I think the others enjoyed it more than I did.  We came back to our house and played games, visited, and had dinner.  Peter made an Indian curry that was very good.

A Month of the Journey in 10 Minutes or Less

So, at the beginning of the semester, I had big plans about writing a blog post every single week! Yeah… we all see how well that's worked out thus far. I haven't really had a whole lot to write about. Peter and I have gotten back into the routine of school, and not a whole lot changes for us. I still don't have a ton of homework, which in turn decreases motivation to do any of it--terrible, I know. (Don't worry, mom, I am getting it done :P).  I have really enjoyed using the tablet I got through the CSIS department. It's so much lighter than carrying around my laptop. That thing seriously doubles the weight of my book bag.

I guess I can talk about school a little bit. Three of my classes seem to play off of each other some: Computer Organization and Architecture, Microprocessors, and Operating Systems.  Architecture is fairly interesting, if a little slow-moving.  I'm learning a fair number of Linux commands in Operating Systems, which is good since I don't have a whole lot of experience with Linux. Microprocessors, let's just say that the only reason I understand anything in that class is because I'm sitting next to James. We are building a tankbot, and I think it could be a kind of fun class. The problem is that the teacher explains everything at once, and/or explains the next step like 1-2 weeks before most of the class is ready for it, and then expects us to remember it all and just do it.  Plus, I think he assumes we have more background knowledge than we actually do. So, I just plug along, and when I get to the next step and have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing, I turn to James and he explains it to me. What's nice is that he doesn't do it for me, but explains every little piece I have a question about, so I actually do end up with at least a semi-complete understanding. We'll see how well  I truly understand it during the midterm, I guess.

Mobile Apps is one of my favorite classes because we're doing what I actually love about computer science: programming.  The only drawback is that since we're learning Objective C (the language used for programming iPod and iPad devices), I can only use a Mac because the best program for writing Objective C is Xcode-- which is really good, but the only version is for Macs.  And seeing as I don't own a Mac this becomes a problem (anybody want to lend me one? Haha, just kidding). I really would like to practice Objective C and work on my homework assignments at home, but I haven't found a way to make that possible.  So I guess I'll start scheduling more time to be at the school so I can work in the Mac lab!

Finally, I'm taking a forensic science class.  This one is basically an in-depth review of other classes I've taken.  However, the teacher has told me that in replacement of the final paper, I can give a presentation in class on Computer Forensics during that section of the semester!  Truth be told, I'm kind of excited for it.

Peter and I are both taking the Doctrines of the Gospel institute class, albeit at different times.  The teacher is Sister Cox and I love her.  The class is great!  I've really been enjoying it.  It is the highlight of my Tuesday/Thursdays.  Plus, it counts as a scripture-based class, which I need to graduate.  Win-win!

I can't tell you much about Peter's classes, but his schedule is lighter this semester, too.  He is enjoying the Master's level class he is taking, which is good because it is down in St George, and I think it would be really hard to make that trip each week if he didn't like the class.

Also, the company he'll be working for after he graduates (Café Zupas) came to the career fair this week, and while they were here his recruiter and the COO (Chief Operating Officer, for those not too savvy with business terms) took him and their other hire-ees here in Cedar out to dinner to make sure they knew they weren't forgotten.  :D   The COO was also the speaker for the Business department lecture series today, and Peter went to all of that.  I came for the tail-end (I had work for the first part) and got to go with Peter to the luncheon afterwards, where he officially introduced me to the COO.

In non-school related news, last month our stake did it's annual Marriage Symposium.  The symposium has been fantastic both years we've gone.  They have speakers come in and talk to us about how to build happy marriages.  One of this year's speakers was John Bytheway!  He was really funny, and gave some really good tips.  The second speaker is a family life professor at BYU, Mike

Goodman, and he actually spoke to us about marital intimacy--not about the mechanics (of course) but about the spiritual aspect of it and how men and women think about it differently.  It was an awesome talk, especially since it's not a topic we usually talk about in church but one we as young married couples need to understand better.  Another cool thing they've done at both the marriage symposiums we've gone to is a text message survey.  They ask questions about things we're doing or our opinion on different things, and you text your response in.  The niftiest part is that the results show up live through the website that hosts it, and we get to see the answers from all the other married couples immediately!  They had questions geared toward the brethren as well as questions geared towards the sisters, such as, "What does your spouse spend too much time doing?"  For the sisters to answer, the choices were like watch sports, play video games, homework, etc.  For the brethren to answer, the choices were things like social media (Facebook, pinterest and the like), talk on the phone, and homework.  I really enjoyed both the marriage symposiums I've been to; and to any married couples living in Cedar next year, I would highly recommend going.

Well, I think I've covered a month worth of stuff fairly well with this little post.  I will try to be better.  I should have something more to say during the next week, what with Valentine's Day being tomorrow.  Love y'all!