Protest!

For those of you who don't know, the dean of the Family, Home, and Social Sciences college at BYU recently cancelled my program, the Bachelor's of Social Work degree. He did it without any consultation with the students, faculty, or community agencies. He also decided to cut the program the day before applications were due for the next pool of potential BSW's. Although he thinks his reasoning makes sense, he really has not provided sources for his claims and has changed his reason for cutting the program multiple times. It is clear that there is a hidden agenda behind his motives. He probably thought that we as students and community members would just roll over and take it, but boy was he wrong. Amongst other things, a petition has gone around, letters have been sent to President Samuelson, and community agencies who rely on BSW interns have contacted to school looking for answers. Next semester, I will be part of a group of students who will do an extensive research project on the impact that the BSW interns have on the surrounding community (In order to graduate, each must put in 480 hours in the community in a related agency). Yesterday there was a silent protest to show that we would like to have our voices heard. I was not in attendance because I was at my internship, but I was so happy to see that multiple news stations covered the event. There have also been many articles in all three major papers. I will try to post the link to one of the news casts, because I think it is pretty good. The girl that is intervied is named Mallory. I know her pretty well because we are committee members of the BSW student association together. Also, for a brief second, one of my favorite professors (who is actually not a full time professor, he just usually teaches one class per semester, his full time career is at Wasatch Mental Health) is interviewed as well- Marty Matheson. See what you think!
http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5075477&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.2.1

How To....

...Make a good smoothie. I am having a smoothie at this very moment and I remembered that I had promised Shawna that I would blog about how to make one. Here is a very simple way to make a fantastic smoothie:

*Start by buying a bag of frozen mixed fruit from the grocery store. I prefer bags that contain pineapple, mango, and strawberries.
*Get out your blender
*Put in Mixed fruit (not defrosted), 100% Orange Juice (Pre-made works well, but if you make it from the can I think that would work just as nicely), and one 8 oz. yogurt (any flavor works, try different ones to see what you like best). Portion sizes depend on how much smoothie you want and how thick you want it. You can play around with that too. Usually we just stick with one yogurt though and it is plenty.
*Blend away. We don't use any ice since the frozen fruit serves the same purpose.
*Sometimes we will add a banana if they are on hand.

And WAH-LAH! (How do you spell that?) You have a deliciously easy (and healthy) treat!

Griswold family Thanksgiving

Well, we are back from Thanksgiving break. All I can say about that is that it was absolutely fabulous to have a break and even better to see everyone in my family and catch up with them. I of course failed to take good pictures of the event, but I did manage to get pictures of our family's redneck adventure on Thanksgiving day.

I have some cousins who are all about the "shock value" in life. So Colby, my 18 year old cousin, decided to buy a huge 15 passenger van solely for that purpose. He swears it is the best $600 he ever spent. Well, the first thing Colby did with his new van is spray paint it black and the next thing he did was drive it to high school and take 60 of his classmates to lunch in it (I am sure he would have taken more, but that is all they could possibly cram in there). Oh dear. Good thing there is only one cop in St. Anthony, otherwise he would have been in trouble.

Of course, the topic of Thanksgiving dinner was Colby's van. So after the meal, we decided that we needed to see this legendary van. Colby ran home to get it, then we decided that nothing could be more fun than a ride in the beast! So everyone who desired to go jumps in the van ready for the adventure. Little did we know that Colby would take us to the dirt roads outside of town and that he was not timid in his crazy, way-too-fast, flyin'-over hills style of driving. I'm not even lying when I say that we were on two wheels at times. I am sure it would have been worse had my Grandma not been in the car. Poor woman! She was sitting in the passenger seat and my uncle who was sitting behind her literally had to hold her in place. She was screaming so loud that it took all her energy and she couldn't even sit straight in the seat! Everyone else was laughing so hard we couldn't breathe. Luckily, we all made it back safely and my grandma didn't have a heart attack.

So here are a few shots of the van and the ride for a visual. Gotta love the shock value!

Tag-a-bag-lag

Megan tagged me, so here goes my 6 fantastically fascinating facts about myself!

1) I still sleep with a baby blanket. Yep, for those of you who have known me for many moons, it is the same one that I am slept with since the day I was born. This blanket I named "pinky" when I was little since it is a pink blanket (well, not anymore, but what can you expect after 22 years?). Then once, when I was probably 5 or 6, my blanket got lost and I cried for days and days and days. My dad thought he would help me out and replace my blanket, so he got me an identical one, except this one was blue. Well, a few days later, I found pinky in the inside of a sleeping bag. I refused to give up bluey, so then I had pinky and bluey. My dad *lovingly* nicknamed them stinky and pooey instead of pinky and bluey. Well, who knows where bluey is, but I still have pinky! That is probably far too many details...so moving on.

2) I once played hide and seek in a funeral home. That was the weirdest and most disturbing thing I think I have ever done. In high school we had some friends whose dad owned the local funeral home, so they invited us to play and my friend and I were chosen to hide first. We hid in a coffin. Creepy.

3) I hate milk, grapejuice, rootbeer, mayonnaise, and barbecue sauce.

4) I met my husband at Jamba Juice, where he worked. One of my best friends, Kylee, worked there with him right after we graduated high school. She felt bad for him since he was not from the area, so we started to invite him along when we went places. He didn't talk to me for a solid two months, even though we hung out nearly every day. He was just shy and Kylee and I are definitely a loud and obnoxious combination. However, one day the three of us were driving down the street, and out of the blue he announced, "I watched a man on ESPN today eat 90 hotdogs in 8 minutes." That broke the ice and we were married nearly 3 years later.

5) One time at my job at LA Weightloss, where I have had many many many weird experiences, this lady told me that my voice reminds her of "Matilda's". Apparently I sound like a little girl?

6) I have been pulled over 8 times by the police, but have never been ticketed.

Now my turn to do the tagging. I tag Haylee, Stefani, and Shawna. Go to it!

Dedicated to my Dear Cousin Shawna

I sent this to Stacey, the director of the orphanage where "MF" lives now for an anniversary memory book that she was putting together:

My first night in Ecuador, I had a really eye-opening experience that taught me more than I can begin to describe on paper. I spent that first night, New Year’s Eve, in the hospital at a night shift with a child that I had never before met who had serious medical problems. I went into the night shift feeling quite sorry for myself because I was alone in a dirty, cockroach infested hospital in a foreign country with a baby that I did not know. To make matters worse, my fellow volunteers were out spending time getting to know one another and going to a traditional Ecuadorian New Year’s party. I sat staring at this baby for a few hours, really pitying myself and wondering what I had gotten myself into. Midway through the night, this precious little girl started to cry. I begrudgingly picked her up and started to rock her. Within minutes, my eyes were wet and my whole body shook as I held her. I realized how selfish I had been and realized at the same time how important I was to this child at this moment. She had no one to call her own family, she had no one to even care about her, and she had faced more in her short year of life than I had in my entire life. The only hope she had at that time was me; I had the opportunity to make a difference in her life and it was my decision how I was going to spend my three months in Ecuador.

My attitude changed after that day and I spent my time in Quito doing my best to make a small difference in the lives of the children that I served. MF, the baby that I spent the night with in the hospital, became very special and important to me. She was in and out of the hospital the entire time I was there and I volunteered to spend most hospital shifts with her. Near the end of my time in Quito, I had such strong feelings for this baby that every time I thought of leaving her, I could hardly contain my emotions. Her little spirit had taught me so much and I had seen vast improvements in her growth and in her health since I had been there. I felt that my experience in Quito was important for all the other children, but I really felt that I was there to help this little girl. In the orphanage, she had little care and was disliked by the staff because she was always sick.

Near the end of my three months, I began hearing rumors that MF was going to be moved to a special home that could better care for her needs. I was frightened that I would show up for a shift at the orphanage one day and that she would just be gone. However, she was there on my last day and I had the chance to say goodbye to her, thinking it would be the last time I would ever see this precious child that had come to mean so much to me. With my fellow volunteers, I spent three days in the jungle before we were scheduled to fly back to the states. When we arrived back in Quito after the jungle, I heard the news that MF had been moved while I was gone. I was also told by the site coordinator of our program that she had pulled some strings and found out where MF was and that she had arranged for me to be able to visit that afternoon before we flew out the next morning. I was ecstatic at the thought of being able to see MF again one more time and at the opportunity to see where she now lived.

When we arrived at her new home, I was greeted graciously by Stacey, the one who would be taking care of my little girl from then on. I was struck by how nice the home was where these children lived and by the obvious good care that they were receiving. I was so relieved to realize what a blessing it was that MF was brought to this home, where she would not only receive much better care, but where she would be loved, something she received little of in her old home. She would no longer be looked at as a burden, but as a precious child who was appreciated. Seeing MF in her new home was the closure that I needed before I left for home the next day. However, she has never left my thoughts and I think about her and pray for her and the other children daily. By the time I left Quito for the first time, I knew that I had made a difference in the life of MF, however small it may have been. That feeling is irreplaceable and incomparable to anything I have ever experienced. MF was the main reason I decided to go back and visit Quito for two weeks in August. The difference in the baby that I had known five months earlier was like night and day. MF was not only doing well, but she was thriving in her new environment. She smiled constantly, which is something she rarely did before! She was so much bigger and so much healthier. It was such a blessing for me to see her doing so well.

I returned home and have "sponsored" MF ever since. I get monthly updates about her and every few months I will get a picture. She is a huge part of my life still and I am grateful for that one little girl down in Quito, Ecuador because she has made a difference in my life.

Jazz Game

Our fun activity this weekend was the Jazz game vs. the Golden State Warriors. My mom got Devin tickets for his birthday...good little present for him since he is a HUGE basketball junkie. Devin's little sister Jana and her husband Karl were in town from St. George for the weekend, so we recruited them to come with us.



We were up in the nosebleeds, but it was still fun. The Jazz won 133-108 or something like that. I would have to say that the funniest part of the whole game though was during a time out...the Jazz bear was up on a 15 foot ladder holding a big sign to lead the crowd in some cheer and he must have gotten a little cocky in his abilities to stand on that little platform on top of the ladder. He started to rotate and fell HARD...he landed on the top of the ladder luckily, but the platform was in between his legs instead of him standing on it. The crowd collectively let out this hugh gasp, but luckily, he seemed okay.

By the way, when taking UTA Trax, you really should know that you have to pay with small bills and change because we did not know that and we had to send Karl running to the nearest gas station for change while the train was on its way! It was pretty intense, but luckily we made it.

Also a little FYI from the post game treats...Sonic's hot chocolate is really really horrible. The worst 99 cents we have ever spent, for sure.