Skills USA State Competition

A few weeks ago, I went to Skills USA.  I was actually the only girl going from our school.  Two guys were going in Computer Programming, like I was, one was going for Computer maintenance, three for electronics, and one for 3-D drafting, I think.  We left at 9am on Thursday.  I rode in a van with two of the three guys I actually knew and the professor who was the only other female going (she probably had to go because I was going).  One of the guys was doing programming and had gone a couple years before, so I wracked his brain a little bit to get an idea of what exactly it would be like.

When we arrived, we picked up the schedule and checked into our hotel.  It was very nice, and we each had a room to ourselves, which was even better.  We all had meetings starting at 5:30 that evening, so we went to Cheesecake factory to grab lunch/dinner (since by that time, it was already 3:00 in the afternoon).  We went dressed in our Skills USA uniforms, which consisted of a white polo with the Skills USA logo and black dress pants.  I looked slightly ridiculous because my polo was too big--they didn't have any smalls, I think because they had never sent any girls before.  I took a picture, but it was very blurry.  Turns out, eating lunch in white polo shirts is not the smartest idea.  Several of the guys got food on their shirts, but luckily the spots weren't too big.

I think the thing we spent the most time doing at Skills USA was waiting.  We got to the meeting about 45 minutes early.  Then, our meeting only took 15 minutes to half an hour because all we really had to do was get our name tags and then ask any questions we wanted to.  The rules and the professor back at SUU who had encouraged us to go made it seem like the competition would be very strict, but we were working with programmers, who tend to be pretty relaxed people.  They told us we could use the internet and pretty much any resources we wanted as long as we didn't copy and paste code.

After the meeting, we had to wait for all the other guys, some of whom had their competition that night.  I spent the time with the two programming guys, wandering around campus.  One of them had attended the school before coming to SUU, so he kind of showed us around.  I guess I should have taken some pictures then, so I would have some to post here.

I met up with my in-laws about 7:15 and went back with them to their new house.  They've gotten a lot of things unpacked and in place.  It was kind of funny to see all of the things that had been in their old house in the new space.

That evening I showered and tried to get everything as ready as possible for the next day because we were leaving the hotel at 6:30am and wouldn't be back.  I had a hard time getting to sleep, though, partially because I had no white noise--the air conditioner wouldn't stay on.  The other reason I had a hard time getting to sleep was because I had tried to call Peter and he didn't answer.  I tried to go to sleep without worrying about him, but I really couldn't sleep.  I finally called him again at like midnight, and he answered this time.  Turns out he had fallen asleep because he had nothing to do without me around ;)  We chatted for a bit, and after that, I was able to get to sleep.

We left just after 6:30 that morning, and once again, we got to wait around for an hour before our competition actually began.  The challenge for our competition was basically to program a hierarchical database, which might not be incredibly difficult, but is difficult to do in 5 hours or less.  They told us from the beginning, they didn't expect us to finish.  There were only four of us in the collegiate group (Skills USA has a lot of high school participants), and three of us were from SUU, so at least two of us were bound to place.  The guy from the other school left really early, claiming to be finished.  One of the guys from our group had to leave an hour early so he could get back for a ballroom competition, and the last two of us stayed the whole time.  We ended up chatting with the judge who had come up with our challenge after the competition was over, which was kind of cool.  He gave us two pieces of interview advice: 1) start with a fart joke to break the ice (I'm not sure how well that would work for a girl, though...)  and 2) unless you walk away laughing, you probably don't have the job.

After that, we got to, you guessed it, wait.  The awards ceremony wasn't until 6:00 that evening, and we were done by 2:30.  We sort of vegged it on the couch in the student center for a while, then wandered off to find some food.  We ended up eating Wendy's and got back just in time to head over to the award ceremony, which did not start right at 6:00.

The awards were not quite what I was expecting.  I was expecting something very formal and official, and this had elements of that, but there were so many people and so many different competitions, that they really couldn't be completely formal.  They were also not very organized or smooth as they presented the awards, with a lot of pauses and breaks.  They almost forgot to announce the winners for about four of the competitions, two of which guys from our school had competed in.  SUU swept two of the competitions.  I got second in computer programming and the two other SUU students got first and third.  We were told that our code was actually better than that of the winner the previous year, which was almost better to me than winning, since three out of the four of us had to place.  Because the guy who got first might not be able to go, I might get to go to nationals this summer, which would be a pretty big honor.

Two programming winners!

After the awards ceremony, we had to drive home, and we didn't get back until nearly two in the morning.  I actually had a pretty cool conversation with the guy in my van.  He's from Utah, but his mom isn't a Latter-day Saint, so neither is he [if you don't know what this means, click on the "I Believe" button at the top of the right column in this blog : ) ].  We didn't really talk religion, but it was interesting to learn about his family and background and to tell him about mine.

*****Update 4/21/2014******

Yesterday at church, one of the sisters asked me about being in Skills USA.  She told me she had read about it on SUU's website, so I looked today, and sure enough, I found it!.  Pretty cool.  Click the link here to see the article.

The (Mis)Adventures of Spring Break Part 2

We went to church with my brother and his family on Sunday, then spent the afternoon visiting and relaxing with them.

J wanted to show me how he makes N laugh :)

 Cute nephews in their pjs!

Monday, I went to Target and a few other stores with Vanessa (my sister-in-law) and her sister. We didn't really end up buying much, though.  We went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch (yum, yum!) and brought some back for Peter.  We stayed home most of the afternoon, taking naps and visiting with family.  We did our best to spend time with my brother's family because we don't get to see them very often.  

Doing movements to the book V is reading

Talking to dad through the roof!

Peter was entertaining all the kids outside the ball pit.  They thought he was hilarious trying to juggle.

Monday night, I managed to catch a stomach bug, so I spent most of Tuesday on the couch.  Wednesday, Peter and I finally went out and about together.  First, we stopped at Bucky's gas station, which is HUGE!  It's definitely Texas-sized.  We then continued on to a little town called Gruene and did some window shopping, but my stomach was feeling very gassy and I never felt like eating.  Poor Peter was really hungry by the time we were on our way back.  So after we got back to Matt and Vanessa's house, we decided to go back to Gruene so that we could eat at the Grismill--one of my brother's favorite restaurants that Peter had never eaten at before.  We were glad that we did.

Pictures with Bucky!

N thought Uncle Peter was pretty cool.

At the Gristmill

Have to take selfies if we want a picture of both of us

Our view out the window of the Gristmill to the river.  

Thursday, we went downtown and ate on the Riverwalk, then went to see Wicked.  It was only Peter's second time seeing it, and we really enjoyed it.  We had to sit separately because we bought our tickets late, but we both ended up sitting in areas where we were allowed access to a private lounge area.  I was actually in a box seat!  Peter was sitting on the balcony towards the front middle.  We felt very fancy.

Theater where we saw Wicked

 The inside of the theater was so pretty!

Thursday night, we got to do what we had really wanted to do on this trip: spend a couple of hours just chatting with Matt and Vanessa.  We had visited a little the other evenings, but we hadn't planned our time very well and Matt has to get up early, so he goes to bed early.

Friday morning, I didn't really want to leave.  I think I dragged packing out longer than strictly necessary, but we finally left around noon.  Our trip back was much less adventurous than our journey out, but poor Peter finally got the stomach bug on Friday night/Saturday.

Playing around while getting the air out of the air mattress!

I also realized I had taken lots of pictures of Peter with his nephews, but had gotten none with them myself!  So, we took some before leaving Friday morning.

The (Mis)Adventures of Spring Break 2014 Part 1

I tell you what: Spring Break was an interesting experience this year.  First of all, it sort of snuck up on us.  We didn't officially decide what we were doing until like the week before, but we went to see my brother and his family in Texas.  We looked at plane tickets, but they were too expensive.  Looking back now, we might have flown.  It probably would have cost the same haha.

We actually got out of town more quickly I think than we ever have before.  I got done with class at 3 (normally I have a class at 3, but our professor pretty much told us on Wednesday that he didn't expect many of us to be there), and we were heading out of town by 4.  We had about 7 hours to drive to get to Gallup.  We took back roads, which was mostly fun.  However, this was the night our misadventures began.  Let's just say the speed limits on back roads through Arizona are rather slower than those on Utah freeways, and reservation cops don't like it when you surpass those limits...

Surprisingly, both of us were able to get past this one fairly quickly.  We were obviously a little irritated at ourselves, but at that point we couldn't change it, so life goes on.  We actually ended up talking most of the ride, which was really fun.  I think sometimes we both get caught up in life and forget to just visit with each other, so it was nice to take time to do that.

Saturday, we didn't get out as early as we planned (we overslept a little...oops).  Most of Saturday went by rather smoothly.  But Saturday night, we had another adventure, this one starring a kamikaze deer.  We had driven all over the back roads of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, and where do we run into a deer?  On the highway, surrounded by several other cars, about half an hour or forty minutes from our destination.  I had just looked up to talk to Peter, and I hear this loud thud tha-thud thud.

Me: What was that?
Peter: A deer. (He had caught a glimpse of it right before it hit us).
Me: (higher pitched) A deer?  We hit a deer?
Peter (calmly): It's okay.  Jess, it'll be fine.

I was seriously freaking out because I know deer can really bang up a car.  We pulled over to the side of the road several hundred yards past where we actually hit the deer.  Peter gets out first, while I stayed in the car, afraid of seeing pieces of deer still clinging to the outside of my door.  (We actually don't know what happened to the deer after we hit it.  It was dark, and we didn't see it when we got out.)  Peter tells me it's clear and asks for my help, so I get out to hold the light.  The front corner of the bumper and the front passenger wheel well (Peter gave the names or else I'd have just said the bumper lol) are pretty torn up.  The wheel well is sort of flapping, and we need to get it secured up so that it doesn't rub against the wheel or anything else on the car it might mess up.  Unfortunately, we have no duct tape in our car. (I know one thing that will be in any car I own now for the rest of my life).  Peter digs out the first aid kit, and we find this thing of skinny medical tape.  Since we have nothing else, we try it.  Peter has to use a lot, especially since it keeps tearing.  Not a good sign for something that needs to hold up for another 40 miles.  Peter eventually does get the pieces taped up out of the way, though.

We're a little worried because the tape seems weak, and there is a little bit of rain as we're getting into town. As we got back on the road, we said a prayer, thanking Heavenly Father that we were safe and that the car was still in good shape.  We also prayed that the tape would hold up until we got to my brother's house.   I'm pretty sure that tape was held together by prayers, especially since we made the left turn into their neighborhood and heard the wheel well scrape the wheel a bit, which it hadn't done up until that point.

It could have been much worse than it was.  I am so grateful that neither us nor the car were seriously hurt, and I know there is something we're supposed to learn from this experience.  If nothing else, I think facing this together brought us closer to each other and helped us learn to trust each other more.

Stay tuned for the next adventure!

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!