A quick school update

I am officially graduating, but not until December due to a certain spouse being out of town for the Spring graduation. I guess the December graduation is the "official" graduation of the summer term anyway, so it all turns out well...

The graduation date is the 16th or 17th of December-- I can't remember off the top of my head. There aren't tickets required because it is held in the stadium I believe. Consider this an invite...the days are quite lovely here at that time of year! I am sure real invitations will get into the mail sometime much closer, but now you can plan for the visit :)

I still haven't figured out what I am doing next semester/year, that is the big project I am squeaking in during the frantic end of the semester push...one day of class this week and two next and then it is finals time!

Gotta run and change some laundry and then head off to class. Hugs to everyone!

Rocket Pictures

As Michelle wrote we launched some model rockets this last weekend. Some of you might be interested in my history with Rocketry, both model and real.



I built my first model rocket when I was around 9 years old. As a kid I built a dozen or so rockets from kits and loved to get the Estes catalog and dream of owning all the rockets. When I became a teenager I stopped building and flying rockets and kinda forgot how fun they were. Ultimately my education led me to be involved with NASA and sounding rockets when I was at USU and helped me get a job at Orbital Sciences building real rockets. Then Michelle and I attended a model rocket derby for Orbital, and I decided that it would be fun to build some model rockets. I built a bunch of rockets, and attended a few launches at a local rocketry club and had a great time. Then the hobby kinda went on the back burner when me moved, until this last weekend when we again went to a launch. I am excited again to build the rocket kits I have and buy some more :).


Here are some of the pictures I took this last weekend. As Michelle indicated most of them are just rockets, but I did get a few people in some of them.


Here is a Baby Bertha we built with Jeff and Darla's family. You can't tell from the picture, but each fin is a different color. Each of the four oldest kids picked a color so we ended up with a blue, a purple, a red, and a green fin!

Here is the Baby Bertha being launched.

Here is my dollar rocket (there is a dollar bill in the payload section) being launched.

Here is my Legacy rocket being launched. It was just a little fast for my camera!

And here is our friend Jeff after he ran to retrieve the Legacy rocket.

The drama I call my life :)

Well! Seems like I should tell you all that I will be graduating sooner rather than later. Sunday afternoon I was working on my fall schedule when I found out something that royally messed up my plans...I couldn't take all three classes I needed to graduate in the fall semester. One of them was only taught in the Spring. I know it seems like I should have known that before--but I REALLY thought that they were all offered in the fall. I knew that they were all offered in the summer, but I wanted to be able to do some fun things, so I thought to myself--at this point, what is one more semester??? Turns out it will be too much :)

SO! I am officially enrolled in summer classes which means I miss the Robertson reunion (on Jeff's side) and the three week trip to Utah I was hoping to take when he goes for work. Good thing I haven't talked to Janine and Nick about it yet--then they would be as crushed as I am! Instead, my booty will be taking at least 9, but maybe 12 credits this summer. The only upside I can see to this right now is that ASU has air conditioning and the house doesn't...I can at least study without sweating now I guess.

When I figured this all out I had a panic attack because I don't have a plan for this next year. I thought I wouldn't be able to graduate until after the fall, so I didn't apply to graduate school. After pondering lots of solutions, I thought "Hey! This might be a good opportunity to get a teaching certificate. That way, if I don't get in to graduate school, I will be in doubly good shape searching for a job." So yesterday I hiked all over campus in 96 degree weather...in jeans (what was I thinking!)...only to find out that this won't work out very well either. I would be considered a post-bac (silly since I am only getting my BA this summer) so I would have to get my masters in education. I'm not opposed to getting a masters, but in order to complete the coursework and student teaching in a year, I'd have to take summer courses. Unfortunately, I already am...I am going to a meeting next week to see if I really, really can't get this done, so we will see. My current plan is to try to get a job instead...we'll see how that goes.

In other news, those of you who have been hounding me about my knees can rest easy, or at least easier. I have officially made a doctor's appointment! It isn't for a week and a half though, so there isn't any exciting news. I know that a few of you aren't aware of my ongoing knee issues, here is a short version. When I was 12 I dislocated my right knee...that REALLY hurts, I don't recommend it :) Over the years it has slipped out of place several more times. In more recent years it has started to grind and has just been painful. When I was about17 I tore the cartilage in my other knee. It sometimes aches when the weather changes, but hasn't given me too many problems until more recently. It too has started to ache more consistently and is starting to grind when straightened. I have been walking for the past month or so with a friend in the mornings and ever since then, those stinky knees of mine have been hurting more and more often. In fact, some mornings I have to shuffle around the house until the Ibuprofen kicks in. I have known I need to call a doctor for a while now, but I hate calling on the phone--especially unknown peoples. Last night I promised my mom (for like the 3rd time!) to call, so I did. Hopefully this guy is good....

Last weekend we went and launched some rockets. We haven't done that in a long time, so it was extra fun. We took some friends, Jeff and Darla and their kids. My Jeff loves to have kids around and to show them how it all works. The Hansen kids were very interested in all parts of it--even chasing down the rocket as it drifted back down to earth--good kids! We took a couple of pictures of rockets, but not as many with people. Jeff was in charge of the camera, so I take no responsibility :) I don't currently know where the camera is, so I can't post any of the pictures. I'll have Jeff do that a little later.

Here is hoping that you are all healthy and happy. By the way, I am so excited that some of my old roomies have found our blog from other friends! It is SO fun to see and hear what you are all up to. Hugs!

Youth is gone....

...In a puff of smoke. I forgot to stick this picture in the other post, so it gets its own little thing :) I was trying to get a picture of Jeff blowing out the candles, but the flash was having issues. In the end, I was ok with it because the resulting smoky picture was even better!

An overdue update

So, it seems like I should be really on top of keeping our blog updated, I have no good excuses for how bad I am at posting things. I often think about doing it, but then I don't :) I am going to try to do better!

We finally had a little birthday party for Jeff on Easter weekend. We sure enjoyed having some old friends over, as well as getting to know some new friends a little better. One of my favorite parts of the evening was the birthday cake. Jeff had asked for a DQ birthday cake, and I was happy to oblige. I hadn't left myself enough time to make a cake, especially after our car trouble...So Brenda and I ran into the DQ and debated which cake to get and finally decided on the one with blue icing. It was a pretty fun cake:

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of Jeff looking at me--he is looking at someone else here. The nerve of that guy looking at someone else :) The best part of this cake was that it stained everything blue. Everyone had some, which was good, since we all had blue mouths at the very least. Some of us were blue in a few more places...

These little girls were hilarious--blue everywhere! There were little blue hand prints all over the place. The next morning I was walking into the bathroom and there was one on the wall outside the bathroom. Maybe next time I will try to find one with only white icing :)

Brenda, Aaron and Kayla also came and spent Easter day with us. Kayla always keeps us entertained :) Brenda and I were chatting in the kitchen while I worked on some dinner/dessert things and Kayla was checking out all of the cabinets. She found this little purple colander that I have and it was immediately commandeered for fun!

We also got to color eggs together:

I was going to post a picture with Kayla in it, but she is stripped down to a diaper in a hope to save her cloths! Just know she was here and having lots of fun :)

We did have car trouble that weekend, so we are super grateful that the Hardin's were here to help us with that. Our cars should be warned that I am boycotting future car trouble, it is expensive and causes lots of trouble.