Headless Chickens

I have been a major slacker about posting, so I may end up writing a lot. Steve and I are still here in Provo working on getting our bachelor's degrees. The good new is we finish in April!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We really can't wait to get out of Provo. We've decided that for our graduation gift to ourselves we're going to go on a backpacking trip. We don't know where yet, but we're going. In preparation for this I've been taking several classes with the Recreation department. The first class I took was a canyoneering class. For those of you who don't know what canyoneering is, it's basically hiking through a slot canyon. Canyons can range in difficulty from a simple hike, up to swimming in potholes and rappelling off large cliffs. The potholes are really cold so there is a risk of drowning. We learned enough to do canyons with some water and rappelling. The highest cliff I rappelled off of was about 90 ft. It was a bit scary, but so much fun. I really want to do some canyoneering again.
This semester I took basic backpacking and wilderness trek. The backpacking class was fun. We went up north to the Uintas on a three day trip. We stayed at a lake called Hell Hole. My teacher picked that particular location because she wanted an excuse to say hell as much as possible. The first day we hiked to the lake. The second day a few of us hiked up a ridge. It was steep and really tiring, but well worth the effort. We saw a mountain goat and the view was gorgeous. The trees in the area were all changing colors and you could see a few lakes in the area. The trip down was hard on the toes and now one of mine is purple.
My wilderness trek class was more of a survival class. We learned how to make a fire by friction ( i haven't gotten that to work yet), build traps, build a shelter, and start a fire by flint and steel. We had our trip for that class this last weekend. We went to Little Sahara. We didn't even get there until 9:30 Thursday night. We were told to get out of the cars with nothing but a coat, water, a pocket knife. We were going to hike a ranger mile. A ranger mile can be any distance long or short. Ours happened to be 8 miles. Luckily our group went pretty fast. Most of Friday was spent demonstrating our projects. We barely had any food the whole day so it was quite tiring. For dinner we were informed that we would have to kill a chicken. If we didn't want to help kill it that was fine, but we couldn't eat it. We were in groups of three. One person had to hold the feet, another had to hold the head down, and another had to cut the head off. I got to hold down the head. Chickens do run around a bit after their heads are chopped off. Actually they flop over and get back up on their feet a few times until they've bled out. It's really weird to see. Sorry if I grossed any of you out. After that we got to clean the chicken and I thought that was pretty interesting to where all the parts go. After dinner we spent 24 hours on our own. That evening I just built my shelter and went to bed. The next morning I woke up to snow. Luckily my sleeping bag was rather warm. It warmed up later on and I fixed up my shelter. I must say, it was a sweet shelter.
So those are my exciting outdoor classes. Steve and I have done a bit on our own. We hiked around Bryce Canyon at the end of April and hiked overnight on Mt. Nebo over the 4th of July weekend. That was about all the fun we had over the summer. We both took classes and worked. We did get to visit my family in Michigan during the month of August. We all stayed in a house on Lake Michigan for a few days. It was pretty fun.
Aside from school and work, I'm getting ready for GRE's and grad school applications while Steve looks for jobs. Were somehow trying to find a way for me to get into a school somewhere where Steve can get a job. We'll see how well that works out.
That's about all for me. Sorry the post is so long. I will try to be more consistent in writing so that future posts will be shorter.

~Laura

Grey's Anatomy Convert!!!

Hey, it's Dr. Lis here. I haven't had access to the internet for quite some time, so it's been a while since I've been able to check the Academy! So here is the update on my life: Things are just dandy here at home. My little bro gets home from his mission tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!! (can you tell that I'm excited?) I'm just working this semester (yes I'm STILL at Allen's... Somebody sedate me!) I've applied for the Nursing program again at UVU and I will find out anytime between now and December 4th. So keep your fingers crossed! And that's pretty much it. Unfortunately there is no McSteamy in my life, but don't you worry, there will be one someday. I'm a pretty boring person. The coolest thing thats happened is that I converted my little sister to Grey's Anatomy. Yes, that's right, she's converted. She won't publicly admit it.... but she's completely obsessed. She watched almost the entire second season in two days just to see Dr. McSteamy!!! My mission in life is complete! Well, that's all for me! I will update you on the nursing program status, and I think we all need to put forth an effort to write on here at LEAST once a month.... I love you all fellow Doctors at Seattle Grace Hospital :)

Lot's of love,

Dr. Lis

You're not the only one.

Well, since Shenanny thinks she's all cool and can post what's happening in her life, I can too. Actually, I was thinking of posting today because I watched She's the Man while Jared was still at Priesthood session. It made me smile, but miss you all greatly when I had no one to do my impression to, ". . . when they turn out to be the exact opposite!" (the voice tremblings just don't translate to text). I also thought of you all when I looked in my purse (I hadn't used this one in a while) and I pulled out a paper. When I opened it up, it was a "how to check yourself" paper complete with pictures. Jared's brothers were over, but don't worry, I didn't corrupt them. You never know when you have to WOFYB, do you?
School's going good. Picture day was yesterday. I really like a lot of the teachers I work with. We've actually formed a secret group, RASTA, the Really Awesome Super Teachers Association. It consists of me, Melanie (a coach, she's our age), Brian (science teacher -- kind of reminds me of Oscar, and he's really sarcastic, which is awesome), Kevin (the history teacher), and of course Becca (my sister). It's fun to vent with funny people. Melanie and I are slowly converting everyone else to the Office. Speaking of the Office, what do you guys think of the new season? One of the janitors, Stu, loves the Office. We analyze all the time; it's fun.
So we're going to Italy! Becca's the leader of the Study Abroad Club and so Jared and I are going with this huge group that's going with Education First Tours. It'll be 9 days over Spring Break. We're so excited and for what we're getting, it's really cheap!
I love being an evil teacher. Last week I had 4 detentios, and I already have one for Monday. Two weeks ago I sent home Progress Reports (most of my kids literally had F's) and then last week I e-mailed all the parents who hadn't seen the Progress Reports. Needless to say, many of my students are now motivated. (Like a couple kids are banned from playing football until they bring their grade up). This one kid almost got a concussion in my class the other day (a desk fell on his head), but he was alright. Then, this girl got a concussion at her soccer practice, and the day after in school, I kept laughing to myself because I kept on thinking of Dwight: "Okay, Pan." "Dad?" There's this adorable 7th grade butterball who is so cute. His name is Collin and I'll have to show you pictures of him. He frequently gives me hugs. Oh, so many stories for you all.
So this'll be fun -- next week for Canadian Thanksgiving, my mom and Bryce will be in town. Guess who will also be in town? My dad and Darcy and their family. They're dropping Darcy's daughter off at a school here. So hopefully it will be an uneventful weekend.
So a temple in Calgary?!?!?!?!? Awesome!!!!!!!!!
I think of you ladies often and I miss you more than I miss candy. And I really miss candy. Please write on the blog. I too, along with I'm-not-going-to-tell-my-true-friends-anything-really-important-Shenanny, believe that we can still be keep in touch with WOFYB. We will always be connected though, together and apart. It would just be nice to talk with you guys. If I think of anything else amusing, exciting, dull, or BOOB related, I'll let you know.
Keep it real,
I love you so much and we REALLY need to have a reunion soon (hey, when does Manthighs get home?).
Love,
NOG

You are in big trouble missy!

So we've been texting today and not even any mention of this??? Plus, you didn't call me like the minute it happened? Not to mention the fact that you have a nickname for your roommate? I think I speak for all the other WOFYB-ites when I say WHAT THE HECK????? All I have to say is that you had better call me soon! You have 24 hours. If not, I may motion WOFYB to take a vote to officially shun you. Yes, even after all we have been through.
Discontent Nog