The Haggard Herald

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving Follow this link to a short film in regards to Thanksgiving. Said Dallan Oaks, "We should thank God for our adversities and pray for guidance in meeting them. It is all part of the plan." It can be so easy to ask ourselves, or God, why do we face the personal challenges and difficulties that we do. Lately I've wondered about this quite a bit. I understand that there is something to be learned in every situation and the hard ones in particular. Those lessons are not usually readily apparent though. Elder Oaks continued, "Let us give thanks for what we are and for the circumstances God has given us for our personal journey through mortality.... When we understand that God offers us opportunities for blessings and blesses us through our own adversities and the adversities of others we can understand why he has commanded us again and again to thank the Lord thy God in all things." Although I do not understand why some things happ...

I've got plans on Monday to watch Ethan while Michael and Sarah go for the closing on the house. You've got to celebrate the small victories, right? I don't have a plan for my long term future (which has been getting to me a lot lately). BUT, at least I know what I'm doing this next week! And let it be known that I am VERY excited to have plans with Ethan in a few days. :) Okay so here is one recent and funny dating story. A kid in my ward came over the other day and asked if I wanted to go to a concert on campus on Friday. He did it in a round about sort of way though and I was agreeing before realizing he was asking me to go. Anyways, I've got this date that I'm committed to go on now and I feel bad because I am so irked about it. I was asking my roommates how to be gracious and not let my irk show but the question came out as "how can you be civil to a person when you really don't want to be?" Civil isn't the most appropriate word...

So many funny things happen each day; the trick is to look for them and reap the enjoyment from it. I'm proud of Kimmy for her post about the smell of home depot and her anthropology teacher. College professors can be so quirky; you might as well be paying attention to enjoy the humor--if not for the sake of learning the information. Jamie and I often say our lives should be a TV show. It'd be the funniest one around because the most unusual and funny things happen in our lives, especially in regards to dating. I'll try to remember the funny things that I share with Jamie and my roommates and post some of them on here for your enjoyment too. Who needs TV for entertainment when you can just be attentive to living? Well, except for the Cosby show and I love Lucy which are close to being as funny as real life... Check out Kimmy's post if you haven't yet--it's a good taste of humor in a college student's day.

The leaves started falling off the trees at the temple a couple weeks ago and since then all I've done at work involves leaves. It is so nice to go to work at a beautiful place, especially now with brightly colored leaves all over the place. Autumn is a great time of year and it's a fun time to be working on the grounds crew. I've heard mixed reports about working during the winter. Some people love doing snow removal but on the other hand you run the risk of being called in to work very, very, very early in the morning. I'll try it out and see how much I actually have to go in before dawn. My bet is that it won't be all that often.

Today I'm going with my mentor to present on our research at the McKay School of Education's yearly meeting with President Samuelson. I'm looking forward to it! My part is 3 fold: 1. How am I funded? (through the Mentored Undergraduate Research program and ORCA) 2. What are my responsibilities? (I've searched for and read relevant articles to become familiar with the current literature; I've gathered data from the annual reports to congress on the implementation of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and I'm collaborating with my research team on an article for publication) 3. How has research benefited me? (I'm getting to practice the research skills I've learned in my writing classes; this research is putting me ahead in my major classes because I'm already familiar with some of the topics we're learning about; and it will be a asset to me in preparation for a Washington Seminar internship and/or grad school.) Hopefully I can reme...