happy marriage

Yesterday was "Child Appreciation Day" in my Parenting and Child Guidance class. Part of the lesson was to draw something that we are "experiencing."

I am experiencing a happy marriage. :)

first day(s) of school

In college there are technically two first days of school. Monday, with M-W-F classes, and Tuesday, with T-Th classes. Both went great for Ben & me.

We only took a picture on the first first day - Ben is about to head off to his first class and I am getting ready to leave for the first day of my internship.

Here's the run-down.

Karin

SFL 240 - Parenting and Child Guidance. This is so I can learn about everything my parents did wrong. Haha - JOKE! I think this is going to be a great class. My teacher is a young and bubbly Marriage & Family Therapy grad student, but I can tell that she really knows what she's talking about. She is going to make class really fun, interesting, and applicable. I'm excited.

SFL 354 - Cross-Cultural Family and Human Development. Basically this class is about different families and different cultures - could be very interesting, but so far the teacher has been a little boring. Still, I think it will be okay.

SFL 399 - Academic Internship. I am interning this semester at The Courtyard at Jamestown Assisted Living. I have had two days so far and I really love it. Monday mornings I will work in the Enhanced Care Alzheimers Unit and Tuesday and Thursday afternoons I will work with the main activities for a total of 10-11 hours per week. When I describe what I do to Ben, he calls it a "Labor of Love." In the Alzheimers Unit, I brush hair, clean and paint nails, push wheelchairs outside, help people eat and drink their snacks, etc. With the main activities, I run activities like Bingo, Family Feud, "Quotes, Jokes, & Root Beer Floats," etc. It is a lot of work and I am always really tired when I come home, but I think I am going to learn and grow a lot, and from what I can tell, absolutely love it! It is such a sweet place to be.

HLTH 436 - Human Sexuality in the Curriculum. This class is for people who will be teaching health and sexuality education - I am taking it for my Family Life Educators Certification. My teacher's name is Parley Cougar Hall - hilarious, right? He seems totally awesome, though. I think I'll learn a lot in this class, and it seems to all be worthwhile and interesting. Even though this class is at 8 AM, I think I'll enjoy it.

JAZZ - Again! Yay! I loved my jazz class last semester and I am hoping for another great experience!

With all of these classes, I will complete the requirements for my major and my Family Life Educators Certification and be ready to graduate in just a few short months!

Ben

(Descriptions in the words of Ben, mind you.)

ACC 241 - Business Law. Something about business and the law.

CHIN 325 - Structure of Chinese. Something about the grammatical structure of Chinese.

REL C 324 - The Doctrine and Covenants. D&C Sections 1 - 76 according to the gospel of Brother Bott.

BUS M 430 - Intro to International Business. Something about doing business internationally.

MUSIC 160 - Voice. Hopefully learning to sing a hymn without only mouthing half of it.

And there you have it, folks. Our largest goal this semester is to ENJOY BYU! We love it here.

Oh, and

Whoo! :)

back in provo.

Whooo-hooo we are back in Provo!! Oh, how we have missed it, and oh, how happy we are to be back! We drove from Merced to SLC on Monday and listened to Dreams of Joy by Lisa See the whole way. A book on tape makes a long drive very short. We spent the night with the Pattersons and then came to Provo and moved in on Tuesday. Our very same apartment as last year happened to still be available so we claimed it! That made our move-in way easy because we know where to put everything! We only had a couple of funny/scary moments.

We borrowed a real big truck to move our bed back in - watching Ben drive it was worth a little chuckle and a little worry. We were worried that it might fall out. I took a picture of him in my side mirror.

We had been back in our apartment for about 30 minutes when a giant bee appeared on our living room window.

Karin: "Ben-there's-a-giant-bee-on-the-window-ahhhh!"

Ben: "Get it, honey!"

Karin: grabs the broom and swings it like a baseball bat at the bee.

"I am . . . such . . . an . . . idiot."

I missed the bee, but killed our window!

Honestly, all we could do was laugh! And now I have an excuse for Ben to always be the bug-killer in our home.

On Wednesday we bought our books, picked up a few things at Target, and visited Ashley, Jon, Zach, & April - we are so excited to be in Utah together!

Cousin Call got married on Thursday - it was beautiful and happy and wonderful. We are so glad that we were able to be there and so happy for Call and his beautiful bride, Whitney. I didn't take any pictures all day - bummer!

Dad and Scott flew in for the wedding and on Friday we helped Scott move in to his new dorm room. He had an awesome summer as a freshman and is way excited to be back for the school year. And Ben and I are way excited to be here with him!!

Our day Friday was packed - we bought Scott's textbooks and saw a lot of people on campus, including Dad's mentor, Dr. Braithwaite - picture below. Then we got lunch, went to see Harry Potter, got dinner, went to the women's soccer game, and then got ice cream at the Creamery.

On Saturday we all went out to breakfast at Kneader's - Ben's all-time favorite, hung out a bit at Wal-Mart getting some things for Scott's dorms, and then we said good-bye to Scott & Dad. Scott is back in the dorms - having fun, we are so sure - but we cannot wait to hang out with him!

It was nice to be back in our Wymount ward today - although next week Church switches from a 12:30 PM start time to an 8:00 AM start time . . . maybe we should have moved back into a different ward. Haha.

We are excited to begin our last semester at BYU tomorrow! News on classes to come soon. :)

last week

Our last week of summer vacation and time in California . . .

Monterey Bay Aquarium!

"It's hard to see the fish because they are hiding in the leaves . . . wait, they are the leaves!"

Leafy sea horses.

The only picture we took together - when the guy was taking the picture, he asked me a question, hence the weird face.

Other activities included getting our teeth cleaned, going to the Fresno Temple, Emily pulling out her tooth, and a Fresno Grizzlies Game.

Ben & I are driving back to Utah tomorrow and we are excited to start our last semester at BYU!

holy mammoth!

A weekend at Mammoth Lakes, CA entails . . .

CLIFF JUMPING

scott.

doug.

dad catching a football.

ben coming out of a front flip.

even mom!

tommy, emily, & i waited down below. eek - too scary for us!

DEVILS POSTPILE

this lava cracked into hexagons. nature is pretty cool if you ask me!

HIKES

ben jokes that hanging out in sf has made us tree huggers.

ben is the best "brother-in-low" emily could ask for.

rainbow falls.

ROCK-WALL CLIMBING

MOUNTAIN BIKING

my husband is so tough!

SCENIC GONDOLA RIDES

OBSIDIAN DOME

a giant pile of rocks.

PLUS, lots of good eats, funny laughs, jacuzzi time, relaxation, and family fun!! :)

impossible? possible.

I think we can all agree that this is how Independent Study classes feel. Until they are done! And you get an A! Hooray!

We will also soon be celebrating the end of Ben's summer with Ernst & Young. He has worked very hard, done a fabulous job, and had a great time. We are excited to be seeing EY again in January!

play-by-play: birthday

Birthday Tea Party with cupcakes and lemonade with Mom and Emily. Emily's cupcake had candles on it, too, because she also wanted to make a wish. Haha.

Birthday Lunch at String's with Mom, Emily, and Annie. Next weekend is Annie's birthday so we get to do it again!

Back in San Francisco with Ben, a trip to Alcatraz Island.

We rode the ferry over in style with a delicious lunch from Boudine's. Mmmm. A bread bowl of chili and a turkey and avocado sandwich on a croissant. And we saw a dolphin!

The tour was AWESOME! It was totally creepy, informative, and entertaining.

Olive Garden for a delicious birthday dinner.

Ben shot his straw wrapper at me and I caught it between my fingers. Must be because I'm 22. Or because we sat at the handicapped table.

Ben cooked Sunday dinner - a delicious Baked Penne with Chicken, Broccoli, and Mozzarella. He found the recipe by logging in to my Pinterest account and choosing something I'd pinned. How cute is that.

Freshly made no-bake cookies out of bowls while watching Escape From Alcatraz which was totally awesome and creepy having been there!

Here's to a fabulous 22nd birthday with my family and my husband! :)