A Looooo...ooong Update

It’s been a while!  I’ll tell you right off the bat that this is going to be a VERY long post so I’ll do my best to break it up into sections so you can pick and choose what you want to read about in case you don’t have the time or patience to get through the entire thing.  Jeff and I have been VERY busy lately, mostly with school.  And for that and a couple of other reasons, I haven’t gotten the chance to blog about any of our recent activities.  Well tomorrow is the last day of classes and all I have left to do as far as school goes this semester is a three page paper and one final.  I finally have time to give you all an update so here it goes…

First off, I’d like to do a little bragging about my practically perfect in every way husband (my mom calls him “Mr. Poppins” for this reason – he LOVES it haha).  Lately he’s been very busy with several big projects for his engineering classes.  He’s finally getting toward the end of it all and he has worked SO hard.  That guy is a machine!  He’s up at school every morning at 6am (he rides his bike almost 2 miles in the dark) to work for two hours (he does research for a professor named Dr. Blotter at BYU) and then he spends every minute of his day working his but off on homework and projects that I can rarely comprehend until he comes home no earlier than 5:30 and lately it’s been a lot later. 

One of the biggest projects that he’s been working on all semester is his capstone project.  He is in a team of four, including one of his best friends, Matt Maxfield.  Sadly, Matt is really the only other one in the group that Jeff can really depend on.  The two of them have had to work extra hard all year to pick up the slack for their group mates.  Last semester, they set to work designing a machine to make the process of dipping catheters (for heart surgery) more efficient.  They did an excellent job and this semester when they actually built the machine, they well exceeded expectations.  I was able to attend their presentation recently and be reminded once again of how brilliant my husband really is.  He is an excellent presenter (today, he and Matt won the award for best presenters out of all the capstone presentations) and it helps that he really knows what he’s talking about.  I remember being so impressed at what a great gospel doctrine teacher he was in the ward where we met.  Anyway, he really sounds (and looks) good up there and he did a fantastic job answering all the tough questions afterward.  He and his group got a lot of recognition for what a great job they did on their project from all the sponsors that attended the presentations and they really deserved it (well at least a couple of them did).  They even got their pictures and an article posted on the front page of the BYU website, but apparently the company for whom they were building the machine had a problem with something that was said in the article and it was removed within hours of being posted.  Luckily, Jeff’s mom Renita had already downloaded a pdf of it so we have a copy.  Bottom line: I am very proud of my wonderful, brilliant, hard-working husband. J

Jeff working hard very early in the morning and looking a little tired

The catheters in the clamp, ready to go into the machine

The beautiful finished project

This is a video that Matt put together for the presentation.  It was put to different (and perhaps a little more appropriate) music when they presented it, but Back in Black is much better.

Here are a couple of pictures that Jeff and Matt skillfully created on a special program on the computer of another of his recent projects.  It’s a pogo stick for his Compliant Mechanisms class.  He and Matt are working together on this project as well along with one other guy who is surprise, surprise, not very reliable.  They’ve done a great job though and they were finishing up the report this afternoon.  Jeff even made a fancy logo, which can be seen on the report and the pogo stick itself via a magic etching laser.

The fancy logo Jeff designed

School has been going pretty well for me this semester as well.  I’m hoping to come out with A’s in all six of my classes.  I’m a little concerned about my English 313 class, however.  I was riding on the edge last I checked so it’s all pretty much going to come down to the big research paper I was so happy to finally turn in last Monday.  I had been SO busy with papers, tests, and homework for all of my other classes in the weeks previous, that I rarely found time to work on it and ended up writing just about all 15 pages over conference weekend before it was due that Monday!  That weekend was another testament to how wonderful Jeff is.  He was so understanding and supportive.  I had very little time to spend with him and he got pretty bored, but he rarely complained.  I think I remember one little outburst: “Why do you have to have homework!”  But mostly he just tried to entertain himself with computer games and often came and sat next to me on the couch while I typed and fell asleep on my lap.  NOTE: We’ve been getting free internet since we moved in here and apparently this has been going on for years, but early in the week before my paper was due, it just decided to shut off and we haven’t had access to the internet at home since!   This limited Jeff’s forms of entertainment that weekend, but also ended up being a blessing in disguise since I am easily distracted and this limited my means for distraction as I tried to focus on my paper for hours on end.  Jeff and I were still able to “watch” all four sessions of conference that weekend (we don’t have cable and most of our channels come in very fuzzy so we really just listened to it).  It was wonderful and uplifting during a sad weekend of research paper writing.  I sure do love hearing those wonderful men speak. 

 We were so excited to get to try out our new rollerblades between sessions in the beautiful sunny weather on Sunday afternoon!  Jeff started talking about getting rollerblades a couple weeks before conference and at first, I was a little unsure about the idea.  Rollerblades are SO 90’s!  Nobody rollerblades anymore so I really don’t even know where the idea came from.  I wasn’t really worried about being a dorky rollerblader (if I ever had anyone fooled into thinking I’m cool, they’ve probably figured me out by now).  I was more worried about the cost, but being the fantastic bargain shopper that he is, Jeff did his research and found us some great deals.  He convinced me, “It’s just an upfront cost, but think about it, free dates from now on!”  He was right.  We’ve already been on three such dates and they’ve been way more fun than a lot of the dates we’d have to pay for.  I’m pretty much a pro these days (that may be an exaggeration), but the first run that Sunday was a little rough –for me.  Jeff, of course, was spinning around in circles after about two minutes.  I am not blessed with his ridiculous natural athleticism.  In fact, I’m a little clumsy, so having wheels on my feet was a little disconcerting for me.  I’m afraid to use the brake, which is just a little piece of rubber on ONE skate, for fear of throwing my self off balance and diving face first into the asphalt.  The fact that we live up on top of a big hill didn’t help matters, whatever direction we chose, we were facing a big hill.  Another side note: A few weeks ago, Jeff and I went on a long bike ride and discovered a long paved trail that follows Provo river for several miles.  We’ve been back several times when the weather is nice and absolutely LOVE it!  We decided to go try out the trail on our rollerblades, but we couldn’t get down there without going down the giant hill down the street from our house.  I convinced myself that I would be fine –even though I had only been back on rollerblades for about two minutes after a 12-year hiatus –because there is a chain link fence along the sidewalk all the way down the hill that I could use for support.  It didn’t bode well for me that from a full stop on flat ground at the top of the hill, I managed to lose my balance and fall hard in the street.  On the way down the hill, I alternated between trying to keep a hand on the fence while rolling and then getting scared after a couple feet as I started to pick up speed and grabbing the fence and swinging hard (and loudly) into it, and trying to side step and walk down the hill.  It was slow going and periodically, Jeff would gracefully spin around to laugh at me.  Finally, toward the end of the hill, as it became less steep, I decided to be brave and let go of the fence.  BAD IDEA.  I quickly picked up speed and was going too fast to grab the fence.  I was too scared to use the brake and the hill ends at a T with a busy street, which I was heading straight for.  I had no choice.  I used the only form of stopping suggested by the manual that I was comfortable with –I rolled into the grass.  “Rolled” is an understatement.  I flew into that grass at about mach 1.  I stayed on my feet for about 2 ½ quick steps before I went down HARD.  Zero injuries, but as a result of my skidding across the grass, I was covered in mud and grass stains for the rest of our adventure, which I am proud to say went much smoother.  I didn’t fall again the entire time!  I’ll be unstoppable by the end of the summer!

Mine are already a little scuffed up from my grass dive

On the trail

This semester, I’ve been in a Theater 101 class, which I took because I thought it would be a fun way to fulfill my required Arts credits.  However, when I arrived to class on the first day, my professor George promptly informed us that “in this class, we do not study theater, we DO theater!”  I am one of the few in the class who has virtually no experience in theater, but it’s been fun.  We were assigned to groups of about 10 early on and one of our first assignments was to write a seven-minute play.  Within our groups, we chose the best one and our midterm was to present our plans to put on the entire production as if we had an unlimited budget (props, costumes, lighting, set design, everything).  Then for the final, we were to put on our production with what limited resources we had.  My group’s play takes place in a very artsy restaurant run by out of work actors and artists in New York and is about a man breaking up with his wife in the restaurant.  I was prop master and dramaturge (I did all the necessary research about restaurants, artists, etc.) in our group, but I also played the painter in the play.  I didn’t have any lines, but I got to pantomime speaking with diners and painting their portraits, as well as react to the dramatic scene that builds up between the couple.  It was a lot of fun and our professor was very impressed with our performance.  He told us we “really set the standard” since we went first (last Monday) and thanked us for putting in the effort that was clearly visible (we used real food and everything! J ). 

Jeff and I had a fantastic Easter yesterday!  On Saturday we went shopping to get each other a few Easter surprises for each other.  Most of the good candy and toys were gone since we went so last minute, but we managed.  We each got a little Easter bucket and then had a $5 limit to spend on each other.  As you’ll see in the pictures, Jeff’s bucket looks a tad less jam packed than mine, but don’t let that fool you into feeling sorry for him.  I actually spent more than a dollar extra on him.  He tried to tell me not to, but his bucket would’ve just been too sad otherwise!  Jeff go me some bubbles and fancy bubble blowers, one of those awesome giant balloons attached to a big rubber band that you punch, some delicious cookies, skittles and a Reese’s egg.  I got Jeff Some little airplanes that you shoot from a slingshot contraption, some cap gun caps for his blowgun (check out the video demonstration), some egg-shaped whoppers, and the very last caramel-filled Cadbury Egg at Walgreens.  And then later that morning, my Aunt Brenda stopped by “on behalf of the Easter Bunny” with an exciting Easter package from my wonderful mom!  She had sent it back with Brenda from a little family trip to Arizona last week, which I couldn’t go on.  I took a picture of its contents, but accidentally left out the two $20 bills.  It was a very exciting package indeed!  My favorite part was probably Bolt on DVD.  Jeff and I watched it later that day.  I love it!  Jeff was excited about the Quantum of Solace DVD and the large package of Peeps he can make joust with toothpicks in the microwave later.  The rest of Easter Sunday consisted of a rollerblading run around the neighborhood before church in beautiful weather, a great day at church with some beautiful music and great lessons, Jeff and I working together to make dinner with a new chicken recipe, a bike ride on the Provo river trail, watching Bolt, and talking to our families on the phone (a Sunday night tradition – although I always end up talking to my mom so long that she just passes the information along to everyone else).  It was an awesome day!

My Easter "basket"

Jeff's Easter "basket"

This is a video of Jeff using the caps with his blowgun.  As you might have guessed from my enthusiastic reaction, the cap made a much louder sound in person, but the camera just didn't pick it up very well.

The exciting surprise package from the Mama

Dinner

While Jeff and I were watching Bolt, he used a computer program and his awesome skills to create this.  He had to trace all the way around us to do this!  He wrote a note that said, "When you're around you're the only one I see.  I love you.  Happy Easter."  Did I tell you my husband was practically perfect or what??

Overall, things are going really well for Jeff and I.  We’re happy.  We’ll be staying here in Provo for the summer.  Jeff will be taking 6 credits worth of classes and continuing to work for Dr. Blotter and I am currently on a job hunt.  Unfortunately, I’ve been looking for this past week or so and my search has yet to be successful.  I’m still looking and we’re hoping for the best.  We’re also stoked about the Fisher family reunion this summer in Colorado and the rafting we’ll do with Jeff’s immediate family either just before or after the reunion.  It’ll be my first time and I can’t wait!  Jeff and I were also hoping to go on a little cruise this summer as sort of a second honeymoon since our first one was so short, but we’re not sure weather or not we’re going to be able to get off enough work to do both that and the reunion or if we’ll be able to find a good enough deal.  If we don’t go on the cruise and we can get the time off, we may go down to California for a few days to camp at Carlsbad Beach with my family (we do it every year for a week), which would be SO fun!  I LOVE Carlsbad and having Jeff there would make it that much more incredible!  So we’ve got a fun and busy summer ahead of us and we can’t wait for the sunny weather so we can spend tons of time outside!

 I don’t know the people in this picture, but man, I can’t wait to do this! J

Wow, this is almost as long as my research paper!