The Haggard Herald

Planning is such a great word. I'm reading an article about budgets and mistakes to avoid regarding budget planning and there are some true principles that can be likened to more than just money. Here are several true principles that are meaningful to me and hopefully will be meaningful to you too. 1. Having a budget doesn't mean not spending any money. This can also be likened to nutritional habits. A budget is a spending plan and a diet is an eating plan. (This is particularly meaningful to me because I studied nutrition and considered dietetics as a career. A diet is the sum of food consumed by an individual, not a restrictive list of dos and donts.) Having a plan enables a person to look at their habits and improve upon them. Having a plan isn't limiting, it's enabling. 2. Make goals. It makes sticking to any sort of plan easier when you have good reasons for why you will stick to it. 3. Build in fun to your plan. Great principle, don't you thin...

I'm beginning to think cabin fever is an unnecessary thing because there are lots of fun things you can do outside during the winter, even if it is very cold. Exhibit A: The first Saturday of every semester Dr. Nelson (I'm one of his teaching assistants for Biology) takes his class to the river to look at bugs underneath the rocks. We explore other places and things besides rocks and bugs and it is a pretty fun trip. Exhibit B: For MLKJ day I went snow shoeing. We went up to a spot past Vivian park and South Fork park but not quite to Big Springs. We followed a stream for a while and then went off the beaten path up a hill and to a meadow with deep snow and few tracks in it. Really fun. Ellen and Grover came with me.

Kimmy, Alicia, and I had a fun time together on the Kim's big 2-0 birthday. We went to pizza & noodles on Main Street in Park City for an early dinner. Afterwards they came with me down to Provo for a 50-minute class I had attend at 6. Then we went back to Heber and had a fun time playing games with the Johnsons and Harts (and Grandma Doris). I think my favorite person to watch was Uncle Richard, although when Grandma Doris played mafia that was pretty funny too. (She was one of the police and talked out loud when only the police were "awake"...not a sly move but really funny.) We also played a game where everyone starts with their own sheet of paper and they write a phrase or word at the top. Then you pass it on and the next person draws a picture of the word or phrase and folds down the word or phrase so that only the picture is showing and pass it on again. The next person has to describe the picture with a word or phrase and so the paper gets sent around t...

As you can tell, I focused my picture-taking primarily on the little ones. I will try to get a broader range of subjects next time! ;) (Isn't she so cute? Alicia, I love the applique onesie.) What can I say, I love heads. Isn't this "artistic" of me Sarah? I like having different focal points on the Nikon. Another head shot. Don't you just want to kiss his little peach-fuzz-covered head? Ethan and Dad. They're good friends. Thank you all for tuning in--coming up next will be insights into my classes and pictures of Alicia, Ben, and Sadie's trip to UT. :) And oh yeah, maybe something about Kimmy's birthday too.

I'm a seasonal person, meaning I pay attention to and enjoy watching the change of seasons. Autumn has always been my favorite season because I love watching the leaves change, particularly on my climbing tree in the front yard; I also loved anticipating the first cold front when I could put my shorts away and break out a sweater. It was fun to get the first fire in the fire place ready each year too. I still love autumn but since I've been at school I love anticipating the first snow fall and holiday time off of school. After Christmas though, there aren't many physical changes in the environment for several more months and there isn't another significant holiday break. Although its awfully cold during this part of the year in Utah, one thing I look forward to during winter semester is that the daylight lasts a few minutes longer every day. It's an encouraging thing to think about. Every day is a little bit brighter, so to speak. I've been thinking abou...