It is a great time of year. School is almost over, work is very slow, and Christmas is coming. Emily came home, and she’s the same as always. It was nice to actually have my whole family together for the first time ever. Joe finally met my lost missionary sister. The weather has still unfortunately been very mild. I’m hoping for snow storms so that I can go snowshoeing. I’ve got to try out the new snow boots I bought.

Finals this week should be fun. Joe is studying almost as much as he can. I’m not too worried, but I do want to get as good as grades as possible, so I have been studying. Also spend my time getting mad at computers that never seem to work, and reading a little. Lately I’ve been planning out my days, and trying to stick to the plan. I’m actually getting a lot done. Highly recommend it.

I’m almost done with Christmas shopping. Only have 1.5 presents left. Kinda fun to spend money without worrying if what you bought was really worth it. I’m also excited for a three week break: not sure what I’m going to do with it, but it will be nice between hectic school semesters. Any ideas, feel free to comment.

And for your viewing pleasure, random pictures:

I am in a landscape management company. For an assignment, we did a bid on a landscape. The landscape was on a nice home, with lots of flower and shrub beds. I did the numbers, and the cost of maintaining that landscape came to around $40,000. That is why people do it themselves.

The lawn care was only around $6,000. Cleaning the paved areas was $900-but mostly because this house had a parking lot. The most expensive aspect of this were the annual beds, a lot because you have to buy annual flowers. That was over $15,000. Perennials were another large expense–$8,000–maintenance only, no new plants. Another large expense was mulch. So my gardening tip of the day–

Lawn is cheap and not hard to maintain with the right equipment. Perennial and annual beds are pretty but expensive. Paved area is the easiest to maintain.

That is why we are drowning in lawn. Although for real low maintenance switch to patios, and vigorous groundcovers.

One more thing–I have the hardest time spelling ‘perennial’ and ‘varieties.’ I’m constantly using them too. I’m glad I have good spellcheckers, but someday I hope to actually learn how to spell.

Okay. It is about 9:00 and I am thinking of going to bed. I do not believe it is normal behavior for college students to go to be that early, even if they are married. But I love going to bed at a decent hour, and I love getting up and what most people consider and undecent hour. I have been going to bed consistently before 10:00 my entire life. That even counts the year spent in college dorms, and the year dating Joe.

Most of you wonder why I would like to get up at 5:30. Some of you might wonder how I actually do it–I never use the snooze button. First I will say–read Power Sleep by JB Maas. Great pointers of sleep in there. And now for my tips and thoughts of early to bed and early to rise:

1)Do it consistently. This means don’t sleep in too long on the weekends. Set an alarm for the same time every morning. And actually wake up with it. Snooze buttons should not need to exisit. I find the more consistent I am the less I actually need the alarm.

2)By waking up early I am able to accomplish more. If I stayed up I would probably watch movies, work really slow on homework, and do nothing of significance. By waking up early I am able to read scriptures, exercise, eat a good breakfast, and do a little homework all before I have to go somewhere.

3)Naps are still good, but actually sleeping 8 hrs each night is the best–so set a bed time. Don’t plan stuff past the bedtime. Getting tired is not an inconvenience to whatever you are doing–it is a sign you need to sleep.

4)If you can’t do it, don’t stress it. But do establish good sleeping habits if you can. Occasionally a late night is fun–but it will be a lot less tiring if you’ve been sleeping consistently normally.

5)If it’s habit, it’s easy.

There. I don’t think there is a lot of point to this post–most people are pretty set on their sleeping habits, or are Mom’s of small children, or like my husband working at the wee hours of the night.

I turned in my graduation pack to the Dean’s office today. Strange that I am going to be done with school. Registration for next semester was this week. I signed up again for yet another 18 credit hour semester–I just can’t say no to classes. I love to learn and go to school, and so I end up taking more than I actually need to graduated. The semester next year is–Plant Physiology, Soil Nutrient Availability, Residential Design, Plant Pathology, Urban Forestry and Yoga. I only need the first two classes to graduate, but I’m excited for the rest.

Joe and I went down to the U to visit the Physical Therapy Department. Very informative, and makes me feel better about admittance. It’s more like a job application than a school application in a lot of ways. It would be fun to go there–be close to family. We’ll see next year–I’m just hoping to get in somewhere right now. Though I really like the career my husband has chosen.

Tonight we had a delicious dinner. We are currently in need of going to the grocery store, so we had to improvise a little. We had pork chops and potatoes, which were cooked in the normal method (foreman and microwave). Then I had the beautiful idea to use some of the chokecherry syrup from my grandparents for the pork chops. I tried just a little–and found it to be the best pork chop I had ever eaten. A new recipe was created worthy of wins in cooking contests with only two ingredients: pork chop slowly grilled with a light coating of chokecherry syrup.

And now for your viewing delight are three random pictures. I hope you will now all desire madly to make my mom’s chocolate cookies (my mom’s can beat anyone’s. This batch was even made with whole wheat flour and still was the best cookie in the world.)

So, two weeks ago Joe and I were talking about his work. He did not like his work and wanted to be done with it. Knowing the state of our finances, and the state of Joe I agreed with him. He quit.

I started looking casually for jobs during his last weeks of work. He applied for one I found. Then Joe’s job ended. He spent one free day not working, and that night a guy called saying he had a job for him.

So Joe went less than a day without a job. I think we were blessed. And this job should be TONS better than his last one–he will be working with mentally disabled folks. Reminds me of the play/movie–if anyone can give me the name I would appreciate it–about a caregiver and a house of men he supervised. Doesn’t make as much, but it can actually be fun work.

Money is not worth hating a large portion of life. I always think you should have more than money motivating you to work. At my job, I learn tons, get to help people occasionally (except I felt bad today. I was supposed to go to a man’s house to help him with his trees but wrote down his address wrong and flaked out on him), and mostly enjoy what I’m doing. It’s not all about the money.

I just took the easiest midterm ever. I’m taking this class for general ed. requirement. The professor gave us 5 quizzes, told us the answers, and put the exact questions on the test. I didn’t even have to read the question all the way when I took the test.

Normally, I actually think it makes sense for teaches to require a lot out of their students. Otherwise they don’t learn a thing. But maybe they should also keep in mind the purpose of their class. For this class, I am taking it because I have to, and the university thinks I should have a well balanced education. I actually learn a lot by going to class and paying attention. But I’m glad I really don’t have to worry about the grade. I learn as much as I want to, and because it is something I really don’t need in my career, I am fine with it.

Also, how much do tests actually show what a student has learned? Essays make more sense, even skills tests, but multiple choice tests often measure how well you do on a multiple choice test, not how much you have learned in a class.

It snowed today. Combine that with the fact that it snowed several inches on May 1st, Logan has less than half a year without snow. The only snow is good for is sledding and snowshoeing, otherwise I could do with moderate temperatures year-round. At least more than half the year. But really, in someways it is fun. Joe and I went running this morning, and he turned around to wait for me to catch up (because I’m slow), and I noticed he had snow on his jacket that said ‘Snow’ on it (from Snow College). It was funny. And it isn’t as cold when it snows.

The first frost came two nights ago. I was out checking my strawberry patch, and noticed all the tomatoes, peppers and squash in one night turned from healthy plants to shriveled, blackish dead things. I had a lot of questions in the Extension office worried about the frost. It was nice we didn’t have too early a frost, since up here it was very cold up through the first part of June.

I also cooked a bundle for lunch–ham chowder, zucchini bread, berry smoothies (with free berries from the research farm), watermelon (from the garden), and brownies. We invited several friends over to share in my cooking spree. I’ve been wanting to cook all that for a while, and today I finally had time. Wasn’t fun in the fact I just barely got done with all the dishes. It was worth it though–I’m just not going to do it everyday. And consider disposable dishes next time.

 I am the busiest I have even been. I would never suggest to anyone to take 18 credit hours, work two jobs, and have family, friends, house and church too. Luckily it is all fitting in–but I don’t feel like I’m doing as well as I can at anything. For instance, I was at a Master Gardener meeting at work yesterday and the master gardeners were talking about how they really don’t have a lot of volunteer opportunities. I am sitting there thinking of things that have come up that they might have been able to do (and remembering one, past it off on someone), but most I had let slip by because I simply didn’t have time to check up on them. I keep thinking of how I really need to go over the numbers for my strawberry project, but it just hasn’t happened yet. And I studied a grand total of one hour for my genetics test, but somehow still managed to get an A on it.

I am just glad that I have the talent to go to school, not study a lot, and still learn tons and get good grades. I’m glad I also have bosses who aren’t barking at me to get things done, and let me do it on my own time. I’m also grateful for a husband who cooks breakfast, and helps clean, (and who is generally just wonderful). But with all I”m doing, I don’t think I would quit a thing. I doubt I will have these opportunities again, and I love working at everything. I am learning a lot, and still having lots of good times.