University of Wisconsin-Madison Open House

Two weeks ago Ryan and I flew to Madison, Wisconsin for an open house at the University there. The day of the open house Ryan headed out and enjoyed an entire day at the university. That morning I had a meeting with a biotech company there. After that my day was wide open so I took a nap! It was nice to recover from the long day of traveling. After I was well rested I went exploring. Our hotel was right by the Capitol so I walked that block. I observed the many protesters, tons of hole in the wall pubs and those cool building that on the corner of a diagonal street. That night Ryan and I tried a new restaurant called the Old Fashioned. It centers around food from Madison. Me being the picky eater that I am went with a normal burger and Ryan tried the homemade Mac and Cheese. The next day we headed back to the University to tour WEMPEC (I can't remember what it stands for but this lab is dedicated to power electronics and machines). It was so great to get to see what Madison and the university are like. After visiting we feel like this is where we should be so we are going to be moving to Madison this Fall. It is crazy to think we will be living in the Midwest. The funnest part about it is my mom has said that she wants to live close to her kids so she wants to move around the country with us. Well my mom not only moved close to where we are but she moved there first. She knew where we were going to be before we did!

Joseph Smith Memorial Fireside

Last Sunday was the Joseph Smith Memorial Fireside that was put on by the Logan Institute. I sang in the choir and it was such an amazing experience. I never thought I would like singing in a choir but I actually enjoy it. We sang "On a Golden Springtime," "High on a Mountain Top," and a new song called "We Saw Him." Also, Elder Ballard was the speaker. It was so cool to sit so close to an apostle (since the choir sat right behind him) and he gave an amazing talk about the events that happened before the restoration and the sacrifices that it took. I am so grateful to be apart of this Church and for all the work that others have done so that I can have the gospel today.

As you can see I sat right behind the speaker so I was on film the entire night.

Valentine's Day

This year for Valentine's Day I made Ryan and nice dinner and decorated our kitchen on Saturday. On Valentine's Day we both had school and work and then had dinner at home. After dinner we went to a fondue party that our neighbor's were having. That was a ton of fun and so delicious. They had peanut butter white chocolate fondue that was incredible on apples and bananas. Thank you to our friends the Carlson's for inviting us! This year Ryan made me the sweetest gift ever. It had pictures of all of the special places to us in Logan (where we met, our first date, proposal, etc.). He also typed up the story behind each place. I am so happy to have that especially since we might not be in Logan next year. Then he also got me a larger rice cooker since the small one I have doesn't quite work if we have company over. Overall it was a great day!

Mission Call

After a couple weeks of waiting my brother's mission call finally came yesterday. It was so great to see him walk into institute holding the envelope up just dying to open it. However, due to the great number of family members that wanted to be apart of it he had to wait until 7. At that time we had my mom, sister, grandma, and aunt on skype from the house in St. George. My dad, grandpa, grandma, aunts, and uncles on a conference call from Indiana, Kansas, and the Salt Lake area. Ryan and I had it the best though because he came to our house to open his call. He wanted me to be apart of it so I got to open in the envelope. He pulled out his call and started to read. However, I was dying to know where he was going so I cheated and glanced down to read the good part and I was shocked! Michael heard me gasp so he glanced down too and then tried to finish reading in udder excitement. He finally read where he was going out loud and my whole family was shocked/excited. My little brother is going to the Moscow, Russia mission where he will speak Russian. He leaves on June 29th. I am just so proud of him and all the choices that have made it possible for him to serve a mission. I know that he is going to do a great job and I can't wait to see everything he learns from this experience!

Publication

I have had some big news this week. One of the manuscripts that I am a coauthor on was just accepted to the Journal of Hazardous Materials. I AM OFFICIALLY PUBLISHED!!! The research is on some work that I participated in last year on the effect of silver nanoparticles on beneficial soil bacteria. I'm pretty stoked. Also, Ryan was invited to the Wisconsin-Madison open house so we will be heading out to Wisconsin during the first part of March. I'm excited to see what Wisconsin is like and I'm glad that Ryan has this opportunity to meet with some of the professors there.