KSU SWEET 16 and ELITE 8!

I got to see my Wildcats play in the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8 in Salt Lake City last week! Before this year, I haven't had a huge appreciation for basketball, but now that I'm at Utah State and I've been to a few games, I've gotten really into it. I'm SO GLAD because otherwise I would have missed one of the best sports events of my life! Kstate played Xavier in the Sweet 16 game. They came out on top really early, then decided to fall asleep for the rest of the first half and were one point behind at halftime. It was neck and neck the rest of the game. SO stressful! There were still two minutes left in the game and I turned to my friend and told him there was absolutely no way I could take it any longer. I was a nervous wreck! I really wanted kstate to win, other than for obvious reasons, so that I could watch them again on Saturday for the elite 8 game. Well, to completely destroy my nerves, the game ended up getting tied with 3 free throws at the last second, so they went into over time. Five whole more minutes! I thought I was going to die! Then, right at the last second...again...Xavier made a ridiculous 3 point shot to tie the game...AGAIN! That's right....DOUBLE overtime. CRAZY! After another insanely intense five minutes, kstate finally sealed the deal and came out on top. It was AWESOME! I have never been so proud to wear my purple and to say I'M A WILDCAT!

Saturday was a bit more rough. For the elite 8 game, Kstate played Butler (buttheads is more like it). It was a good game, but really frustrating. You could tell Kstate was still worn down from their super late, double overtime game just two nights before. They struggled, and finally took the lead toward the end of the second half, but they just couldn't hold it together. I was disappointed, but still proud as ever to be a wildcat. I can't believe they made it this far! Kstate is a football school, for crying out loud. I'm used to our basketball team being a joke! Not anymore! The joke is now on the Jayhawks, who didn't even make it past the second round of the tournament. Never thought I'd see the day...

Pictures above are of the sweet 16 game. The pictures below are the only two I could manage to take of the eilte 8 game. The best part was I got to go with Kasie, Kirsten and Ryan, all kstate alum that wandered out to the Mormon motherland. It was like a Manhattan University Branch reunion. I miss that branch.... I miss Manhattan and Kstate SO much! It felt great to be in a sea of purple again for those games.

Gone Fishin'!

This year is just packed with firsts for me. I went fishing for the first time yesterday. At least, it's the first time I remember. My dad may tell me otherwise if he reads this. Anyway, I went fishing with my friend, Aaron, at third dam up Logan Canyon. It was really beautiful and the weather was great, aside from a bit of a chilly breeze. Aaron taught me the basics and then let me have at it. The first time I baited my own hook and cast on my own, I caught a fish! What can I say? I'm a natural! Actually, it was pretty hard NOT to catch that guy. I was worried I wouldn't know what it felt like, but that fish just chomped down! He was a brown trout. I even held him bare-handed to get a picture and then let him go swim away.

After catching that first fish, things slowed down for a while. We moved a few times, but no fish. I even resorted to calling them: "here fishy, fishy, fishy!" No luck. So, we decided to trek back and go to a different spot across the river. Keep in mind, Aaron had yet to catch a single thing...not even a spare tire! I had a good feeling about this new spot, though.

Sure enough, in no time I had caught another three fish! It was just one bite after another. I'm pretty sure I caught 3 fish in 4 consecutive casts. These guys were rainbow trout. Apparently rainbow trout aren't as resilient as brown trout and they didn't last through the picture-taking, so we had to keep them for dinner. I felt kind of bad, especially since I don't eat fish...yucky!

Aaron did finally catch a fish. Acutally, he caught two. I was getting nervous that he might catch up, but it was about time to leave and I ended up catching another fish on my last cast.

Final count: Becky 5. Aaron 2.

And he's been fishing since he was a kid! Go me. The most amazing part of the whole experience was that we brought them home, cooked them and ate them. I can't believe I actually ate fish...I ate fish that I caught! CRAZY! It wasn't even that bad. I kind of liked it. Mind-boggling.

Other than my fishing trip, my spring break has been super lame. I have been psuedo sick. I have a sore throat and junk in my throat...ish. It's enough to make me feel yucky, but not enough that I feel the need not to do things...but I don't want to do things. Eh, I just feel lame. Even worse, I have a TON of homework this week. I have already done three lab write-ups and probably 8 hours of research. I did a couple hours the other day, but didn't know that if my session timed out it would clear everything I had saved in the folder. So, I spent today re-doing all of that and then trying to narrow down my search to about 7 articles. SO HARD. Research bites. Oh, and yesterday we found out that the huge project we did for program evaluation was only half done! I've also been helping write more of that. Oh joy. Now all I have to do is take those 7 articles, read them, develop a code sheet from them, redo my problem statement and write a literature review plan. Not to mention, read and study two chapters in my research design book (each chapter takes me a minimum of 4 hours). Spring break? Yeah right. At least the weather has been nice. I like studying on the deck in my backyard and goodness knows Riley loves to stay outside all afternoon.

I cannot write a short blog post. I'm sorry.

TPTWSUIAVABP

The Past Two Weeks Summed Up In A Very Awesome Blog Post
(If you guessed that's what the title stands for, you get a cookie...or a small parade.)

Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while! I know, you've been DYING to know what's going on in my life. I've been completely swamped lately. I'm still a bit swamped, but after a couple break downs this week, I've decided it was time to vent and give myself a little de-stress time. Why did I have a break down...or two? I don't really know. Midterms are next week. I really only have one (research design, go figure), so that shouldn't be it. I've been hanging out with great people, doing fun things. Well, here...while I'm on the subject, let me just give a quick synopsis of what I've been up to since my last post!

USA kicked major butt at the Olympics! AND Evan Lysecek won gold! (okay, I know that's not what I have been doing personally, but I watched the Olympics enough to feel like I was there! I may or may not have stayed up still ridiculous hours at night to watch the coverage I missed during primetime.)

I went to a couple more of those crazy Aggie basketball games.

I have had a taste of Aggie ice cream--it IS as good as they say!

I broke my printer (tip: when something gets jammed and you can't get the tray to come out, it's probably not supposed to). I called my mom, had a meltdown, she called my dad, dad called me, dad talked me through fixing my printer. (I love my parents!)

I had a major flare-up with my SI joint last weekend. IT SUCKED. If you don't have a clue what i'm talking about, in short it means I had a ridiculous pain in my hip joints. Fortunately, I pushed through it and I'm functioning again...and still working out. (though, I would like to see more significant results...)

For a couple days I thought I was going to Mexico for spring break with some friends, but I don't have a current passport. Turns out, it's hard to get one in less than two weeks. (This also contributed to the meltdown.)

I found out Ryan and Janae are having a GIRL! YAY! They aren't 100% sure it's a girl, but that's their best guess right now. I'm a very happy Aunt Becky. I would be if it were a boy too! I'm just excited to be Aunt Becky to the EIGHTH power!

I am the 2010 Magnet Madness Champion! Huh? you say. K, so I think the deal is that I'm not supposed to tell anyone exactly what Magnet Madness is. I can only say that it is a VERY big annual event in my ward and I now have some crazy awesome bragging rights. Plus, I've discovered a talent (no matter how pointless it may be) that I never knew I had. Oh, and I scored a gift card to Texas Roadhouse! All in all, it was awesome.

AND

Today I went to the HEAU (Health Educators Assoc. of Utah) conference in SLC. It was pretty darn awesome. Can I just say, I'm very pleased with my current career path? heh...if you can call it that. Seriously, though, I'm so excited about what I'll get to do and the people I'll get to work with. They are so passionate about their work. Who wouldn't be? They get to help people live happier, healthier, longer lives! I am really proud of myself for being in a graduate program, too. It is really going to take me places and push me to be so much better. Words cannot describe how grateful I am for this opportunity.

Well, that's the jist of it in a nutshell--a very large nutshell. And here's a few pics I took while messing around, trying to get a decent pic of my new haircut for you to enjoy!








Maybe I should work on a different angle....