Homecoming

We had a really good time with BYU homecoming last weekend. 

We had Emma, Nicole and Jen-Jen (sp?) over Friday night. We took them to the playground at Kiwanis park. It's probably my favorite playground ever. Then we ate ice cream, and played farkle. They slept on camping cots in our living room. Saturday we got up pretty early to go to College Gameday, here in Provo! woot.

Nicole and Emma came with us. We took Jen to where Heather and Doug were staying. Before we left our apartment, Matthew or one of the girls had the brilliant idea to make some Y balloon hats for them to make to wear at College Gameday.

There were a lot of people there.

Then, we took the girls to their races, and watched Jen, Grant, Emma and Nicole race. It was great.

At this point, Matthew and I went to play flag football (ok, only Matthew played) with the ward. The Hogges all went to the Homecoming Parade, and I was excited to hear that everyone loved their balloon hats.

That afternoon we all went to this one restaurant called PizzaPie, that had a pizza and pasta buffet. Fact: not very expensive, and so good. They had cookie dough dessert pizza! Oddly enough, I think this restaurant even showed up in my dream last night...

We persuaded Mike to let us come help him at Sconecutter's at the football game. This was great! We helped him for half the game (they ran out of food at halftime), we got into the stadium for free, and then got to watch the rest of the game wandering from portal to portal. Too bad the game was pretty depressing to watch. But we still had a really good time.

Advocacy for the Profession

Today in one of my dietetics classes we talked about how lots of people don't know exactly what a dietitian is, or what the credentials are, or anything like that. As a future dietitian, I am taking it upon myself to spread the word.

An RD is a registered dietitian. Hopefully in the near future you will see something like this:
Stephanie ..., RD.
That will be such a happy day.

A dietitian is a food and nutrition expert that works to treat and prevent disease.

Here are some areas where dietitians work (provided from the BYU Dietetic program website):

Management dietitians work in healthcare institutions, schools, universities, and industry. They are responsible for personnel management, menu planning, budgeting, and purchasing. Management dietitians increasingly play a key role wherever food is served.

Clinical dietitians are a vital part of the medical team in hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, health maintenance organizations, and other health-care facilities. They provide medical nutrition therapy to help speed patients' recovery and lay the groundwork for long-term health. Some dietitians choose a particular area of practice, such as diabetes, pediatrics, or nutrition support.

Community dietitians work in public and home health agencies, and in government-funded programs that feed and counsel families, the elderly, pregnant women, children and disabled individuals. Wherever proper nutrition can help improve quality of life, they reach out to the public to teach, monitor and advise.

Educator dietitians work in colleges, universities, and community or technical schools, teaching future doctors, nurses, dietitians, and dietetic technicians the sophisticated science of foods, nutrition, and dietetics.

Research dietitians work in government agencies, food and pharmaceutical companies, and in major universities and medical centers. They conduct or direct experiments to answer critical nutrition questions, and make dietary recommendations for the public.

Consultants work full or part-time as management, clinical, or community dietitians, usually under contract with a healthcare facility or in their own private practice. They perform nutrition screening, assessment, and counseling. They consult regarding disease management, weight loss, sports nutrition, wellness, and foodservice management.

Business dietitians work in food and nutrition related industries. They work in product development, sales, marketing, advertising, public relations, purchasing, and in many other capacities that enable companies to satisfy consumers' growing interest in nutrition.

This is who we are. This is what we do. Tell your friends!

Thanks, Kate

One of my best friends, Kate, wrote this on her blog the other day, and I found it so amusing, I'm reposting:

If for no other reason than the following, walking to school is highly recommended. The other day, on my way home from a long day of school, my iPod died. Broken Heart. Fortunately, I was able to be inspired! Listening to other people's passing conversations is equally as entertaining as listening to my favorite tunes. Here is what I learned:



Humans get cataracts and have to have surgery to remedy this malfunction of the human body. Nothing new there. The conversation--remember I was not actually invited to this conversation so some of the details might be fuzzy--continued in a direction I was not expecting. Eagles, with the same structure of the eye as humans, ALSO get cataracts. For humans, it is an inconvenience that makes us get surgery or glasses or contacts (Contacts are still a mystery to me). For Eagles, their eyes are their main resource for life. Without clear vision, they can't see the prey they are chasing. Bushes and squirrels start looking the same and that only leads to damaged bushes, starving eagles, and an overpopulation of squirrels. In comes technology! We are now, in an effort to save our eagle population, giving eagles the same surgery that humans have been getting for years on their cataracts. Survival of the fittest my eye! (eye...get it?) Darwin did not see this one coming!!

One of the best police beats I've read to date

Police Beat for October 21 (in the Daily Universe)

Tue, 10/20/2009 - 20:11

Explosives
Oct. 15 A fire alarm in Helaman Halls was tripped. Firecrackers had been ignited in the 2200 hall of the building. Heat from the firecrackers scorched the carpets and set off the alarms. Students were questioned but the perpetrator was not identified.

Oct. 16 A resident of Heritage Halls called the police claiming she heard gunshots outside her apartment. Officers arrived and found remnants of two dry ice bombs.

Oct. 16 Dry ice bomb remnants were found in the Marriott pedestrian tunnel. Police say this has become a recurring problem that usually takes place on Thursday nights. Police warn that the penalty for this offense is a second-degree felony.

Oct. 18 At 12:30 a.m. an officer heard fireworks in the vicinity of Helaman Halls. Witnesses reported a white Honda driving through the parking lot, and fireworks being thrown out of its windows. The officer was unable to locate the vehicle.

Suspicious Behaviour
Oct. 10 A man was riding a bike near the WSC late at night while wearing sunglasses. Students found it suspicious that the man was wearing glasses at night and called the police. Officers could not locate the suspect.

Oct. 13 A suspicious man was reported outside Heritage Halls. A male was standing outside Young Hall at 2 a.m. when officers arrived. The male turned out to be a resident of Young Hall who said he was “just enjoying the night.”

Oct. 17 A suspicious man was sighted by the Tanner building at 8 p.m. The caller reported the man suspicious because he was dressed in all black. Officers were unable to find the black-clothed man.

Trespassing
Oct. 11 Several female students left their apartment for 30 minutes to attend ward prayer. When they returned to their apartment, they found a severed elk head on their kitchen table. The suspects could not be identified and the elk was disposed of at the materials handling building.

Riddle me this

Twice in two days I have been sitting somewhere on campus, not doing anything but waiting and people watching and thinking, and some passerby asks me if I'm ok....hmm...

Elder Thibaudeau

My brother goes into the MTC three weeks from today. CRAZY!

He's going to serve in the Utah Salt Lake City mission, Spanish speaking.

I'm so proud of him for going, and so excited for him. He's going to be stellar.

It's a good thing we thought ahead

Our water is out. This really impacts a lot of things: teeth brushing, face washing, showering, bathroom going, water drinking, dish doing, juice making...

Although, we did make some juice last night, which is good, or we'd be really be in trouble.

Look at us!

I'm a die hard facebook stalker when it comes to looking at people's wedding and engagement pictures. I love them, and I will go to great lengths to find random people with such pictures posted. So, in light of that, I am including a link to all of MY wedding photos in this post. This is different from the link to the photographer's blog that had about 20 pictures on it. This link has LOTS, and I mean LOTS.

http://johnsharpephotography.instaproofs.com/collection.php?event=158001

Grading delights

I really get a kick out of reading what students write on assignments. Some of my favorites include "I'm not sure I trust the nutrition information on government websites like the FDA because there are rumors of government conspiracy," or "I need to eat less calories, because I get a lot of mine from the sun" or "I ate 3 adult carrots last night."

Here's why

I'm soooo stoked for next week. I'm feeling energized just thinking about it. Here's why:

The dietetics faculty and many students are going to a big food and nutrition conference in denver, and they'll be gone until Wednesday night. (I decided not to go because it was going to cost me quite a bit of money)Which means, no dietetic classes for three days! That's the bulk of my schedule, and all my morning classes.

My first test of the semester is this week, its open note and on blackboard.

Next week, my French professor will be out of town, so, in addition to no dietetics classes the first part of the week, no French classes at all!

I seriously go to the doctor way too much

So, let's just say that this week has been just a bit frustrating. Let's start with today. Today Matthew went with me to the doctor, and the doctor ordered an EEG for me. An EEG, or electroencephalography, measures brain waves and activity. It's going to be an interesting test, I think. It's on Tuesday at 8:40am, and I have to go in sleep deprived. So they told me that Monday night I should go to bed at midnight and wake up at 4am, and stay awake until after the test is over. yikes.

Why am I getting an EEG? Well about 2 weeks ago, while I would be trying to fall asleep, my body would twitch every so often. More than just the random leg spasm things that happen sometimes. It wasn't too bad.

But then it started getting more frequent, many times a night, and getting more intense, where it felt like my body was spasming or convulsing for a second. But it usually just lasted a second.

It's just been getting worse. I'm at the point now where a couple times a night I full out shake and convulse and hyperventilate for 30-45 seconds sometimes, and I can't control it, and I spasm very frequently. My body feels all on edge, and tense. I try to breathe slowly and relax, let my body settle down, but it only helps for a few minutes. Then I spasm or convulse or whatever you want to call it again.

This usually just happens at night, when we're going to bed, or lying down watching a movie. But lately its started to happen occasionally during the day. There has been several nights when the only way I've been able to fall asleep is after Matthew has given me a priesthood blessing. Which can I say, it is so nice to that I have Matthew, and don't have to deal with this with roommates. Roommates aren't so prone to hold you and take care of you and wake up in the middle of the night to calm you when it happens and help you get anything you need.

So, uh yeah. It's been making me get less sleep this week, and I can't really control what's going on. So it's a little frustrating. Kinda crazy eh? So, we'll see what happens on Tuesday...

charge!

We got our first bill for utilities today. Thank goodness we only have to pay for electricity, so it really wasn't a horrible bill. Pretty reasonable, actually. However, we noticed that our final bill was a bit higher than the charge for the actual electricity used. huh?

Turns out, we have to pay a $3 "Customer Service Charge." What?!? Since when is customer service something we pay a fee for? Isn't that something that should be inherent in every American company?

I'm also rather confused about when this supposed customer service took place. Maybe when we called them to ask how to switch the bill to our name? I guess that was a $3 question...

However, no matter how the bill was accrued, I would say it's more along the lines of a Customer Disservice Charge.