Provo Tabernacle Fire

So as many of you may (or may not) know, the Provo Tabernacle burned down over the course of the last two days. I went out to see it yesterday (Friday) and to take some pictures. The fire was still burning 12 hours after it started, and continued to burn for about 24 hours. The reason for this was because when the roof collapsed, it trapped all the debris underneath and since the firefighters couldn't go inside, they were only able to poor water on top of everything, which never could get to the underneath debris. Last night on the news I was watching the clips and footage that they got of the fire, and I noticed in one of the clips that, in the doorway, you could see a picture of Christ. The weird thing was that the whole picture was burned, except for Christ. I kind of thought I was just seeing things, until I came across this blog post: http://www.eat5hams.com/2010/12/fire-and-ice.html

And then I realized I really had seen something! It saddened me though because I figured the picture would be gone by the time I got there the next day. I went over today and I knew which door I needed to go to to see if by some miracle the picture was still there. Pretty much everything inside the tabernacle had been burned and fallen down by this morning, and the wall that the picture had been on was no longer there. I figured the painting had perished, but it was still neat to think about. Tonight, I was looking at more articles on the fire and noticed that one of the articles had new pictures. I opened up the pictures and you will never believe what they were of. The firefighters had saved that painting! They went in and got it and truly everything in the painting was burned except for Christ. You can see them here: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13709985 I really could not believe that. I don't know when they rescued the painting, but I hope it gets preserved. To me, that was a testament that the Lord's hand really was in all of this. For the painting to have been sparred in the way that it was is just incredible. It is literally a perfect circle around Christ. Amazing.

End of the Semester!!

Well the semester is over, well, it will be completely when I finish my last two finals. It wasn't a horrible semester though. I enjoyed my classes for the most part, and I really enjoyed all of my professors; they were wonderful! I already too my Doctrine and Covenants final and my chemistry final, so tomorrow is going to be humanities and maybe statistics, but if not, I will take statistics first thing Friday morning! And then I will be done! Well, for two weeks. But I am excited for next semester...though I am always excited for the next semester =]

Nothing exciting is going on other than school though. I am looking forward to Christmas break, especially because I am doing three, over night nanny jobs for three different families. It will be a lot of fun! And I'm excited to have a break from working at the library. I'm not working there over break because of all the nannying, so it will be nice to come back in the new year ready to work again =]

Well, that was short and sweet and to the point. Pretty much I'm sick of studying and just needed something else to occupy my time. And I'm also working on creating a photography website (that's something else I've recently become really interested in, again!) So when I get that up I will post for people to see =]

What's new?

Not much =]

It snowed today on the ground for the first time this season! I was pretty excited!! It didn't last a whole long time, but it was still great.

I've been figuring out whether I'll be taking Chinese again next semester. I was going to, no question, but as the semester has gone on, I've stopped enjoying Chinese. I don't enjoy doing the work, I don't enjoy learning the language, and I think its time to stop. Its becoming more of a chore than something I really enjoyed and loved. So sadly I won't be taking Chinese anymore (or at least not next semester). This left me with a need for another class (since Chinese was a 4 credit class and i was at 13 credits). So I've picked up Physics for next semester. So I will have 4 classes and two labs: Molecular Biology, the second half of the chemistry class I'm in now (plus a lab), first half of the introductory physics class (and a lab), and mission prep. My roommate thinks I'm pretty crazy to be taking all of that, but I think I'll be ok. Chem is just building off of what we've learned this semester, which I've pretty much understood all of, and molecular biology is mostly proteins and nucleic acids which is what I love learning about! And then there is physics, which I've never taken, so I'm thinking that will be the hardest class, but I'm really excited =] And mission prep is just to (hopefully) help me decide whether I want to serve a mission or not...since, scarily, if I do, it will most likely be within the coming year! But who knows!

This semester is going well. As I said, Chinese is no longer fun, so I'm struggling through it. Chemistry is great, I'm enjoying what we are learning about, Humanities is also really enjoyable (I saw my first opera, The Magic Flute by Mozart on campus last week: Amazing!) and I'm starting to really enjoy classical music, Doctrine and Covenants is great as always and stats isn't too bad!

Work is just work. We get a new supervisor on Monday. It will be sad to say goodbye to the one we have now, but we're hoping the new one will be just as great!

Funny, yet sad story: Last Friday, my chemistry professor was doing demonstrations with pressure. One of them was to heat water in a large can and then roll it in ice to see it implode. After it was heated up, he put it on the floor and proceeded to jump on it to show us that it wouldn't collapse under his weight. I'd seen him do this experiment before, so I knew it wouldn't. Unfortunately, he fell right off that can while jumping on it. He is tall and thin and he landed right on his shoulder. He got up and said he thought he dislocated his shoulder. He finished the experiment (shows how dedicated he is as a professor) and then went to sit down. You could tell he was in a lot of pain and his face was draining of color. Turns out, he broke his arm, right at the base of the ball at the top of your humerus (upper arm bone) that goes into your shoulder. So sadly, he now has his arm in a cast (or sling, not sure, since he hides it in his shirt, and then his hand comes out the bottom of his button up shirt, its actually quite hilarious to see). The other sad part is normally, he has a Halloween magic show in class right around Halloween. But because his arm is broken, he can't do it =[ So I'm pretty bummed since I've been looking forward to it since, no joke, the first day of class when I realized that Halloween would occur during this class (I had him last fall semester for another Chemistry class, so I knew =] )

Well other than that, there isn't a whole lot going on. I've taught Sunday School once and it went well! I'm teaching again this Sunday so hopefully it will go well!

2 posts in one month?!

Oh wait. Its October...I forgot! But I'm glad its October!

I woke up this morning to a glorious sight! Snow on Timp Mountain!! I was so excited to see that! I wore my rainboots today, and a sweatshirt...though the sweatshirt was a bit much...not quite cold enough to consistently wear one.

School is going good. Definitely much better, except for last week, when I had three tests and a bajillion homework assignments. But that week is done, and this week is much better =] So far at least.

I joined a dinner group! We eat together Mon-Thurs and only have to cook every other week (there are 8 of us). We also all happen to be in the same FHE group, which is a lot of fun! I was a bit bummed at first, but then I realized that its actually great, because I really like everyone in the group and it makes going to both activities fun because I already have friends in both places! Tomorrow is my night to cook, so I am making Chicken Ziti with garlic bread and a salad. Hopefully it will turn out good!

Work is work. We hired a bunch of new people, and they are all really great! It can be a lot of fun! One sad thing though is one of my bosses is being transfered to another area, and we will be getting a new boss. This could be a good thing, but it could be a bad thing. I'll let you know =]

Not much else is going on. I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I am a Sunday School teacher now, specifically the Marriage and Family Relations teacher. And Sunday is my first time teaching...thankfully (or maybe not, we'll see) I team teach, so I'm hoping that will be good.

BYU football isn't going so good...we have our homecoming game Saturday...and I am going, but we'll see for how long (I do have to work as well). And the parade is Saturday morning, and I'm planning on going to that (and then I get to take a test).

Anyways. Thats about it!

-Andrea

School!

So school started this week, and boy am I in for a fun semester (not really...). I have Chemistry 105 every morning at 8 AM, Statistics 121 (formerly 221, and I've already taken...) at 9 on M-W-TH-F, Chinese 201 every day at noon, Humanities 202 MWF at 3 and Doctrine and Covenants (the second half) TTh at 10. It's a lot...especially Chinese, but once I get into a routine things will shape up. I really enjoy all of my professors except for Chinese. She is a westerner and I don't like her, especially her attitude and her tone of voice when she answers students questions; its almost like she makes us feel dumb. I only have her twice a week, the other three days is with a TA, whom I do enjoy. Hopefully I'll get used to her...

Work is going good. I don't work Monday's or Wednesdays which is really nice, but I do work Saturdays, which is fine, most of the time.

Yesterday was the first football game of the season, and so I went! I bought an all sports pass this year, which is something I haven't done before, and it looks like it might have been a waste because yesterday's game is the only full game I think I will be able to go to. Every other home game I will either be late to or have to leave early from because of work. Oh well. I did get bored after about half the game anyway, so I guess it will be ok =]

Anyways. I'm looking forward to this semester. It's going to take a while to get adjusted to all the course work, but once I've got it all down, it will all be good!

Well then.

What a surprise! It's been over two months since I posted! And seeing as the last thing I posted was sad news, lets post happy news.

Well, I don't really have any.

But. School starts in less than a month!!! I'm really excited about that. And I get to move into my new apartment on the 25th, and that is really exciting too!

Summer has been great. I got to go to California for 10 days with the family and that was a lot of fun. Other than that, I've just been working at the library and as a nanny 1-2 times a week, which of course I love.

I did a 9 day nanny stint while the parents went to Honduras. That was fun! But a long time, but none the less, I very much enjoyed it.

Not much else is going on. I am taking Chemistry, Chinese, Humanities, Statistics (again) and the second half of doctrine and covenants. That's 16 credits...we'll see how that goes!

Oh and I changed my background if you didn't notice =]

Hope everyone else is doing well!


-andrea

Barbara Jean Whaley

My Aunt Barbara died today. She was only 61 years old. We found out 6 weeks ago that she had stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which had spread to her liver, spine and bones. She did a week of radiation and a round of chemotherapy. The radiation helped shrink the tumor in her knee to allow her to walk for a few more weeks. The chemo made her weak and only prolonged the inevitable. We were able to celebrate her 61st birthday with her on May 8th. It was great to be able to have one more gathering with her. She was in good spirits at that time. At the beginning of last week (the week of May 23), she went down hill and we thought we were going to loose her then. She had been in a rehabilitation place, but had to be transferred back to the hospital. We found out she had an infection and so she was put on antibiotics and given a blood transfusion and everything turned around! I got to see her on Thursday (May 27th) and she seemed pretty coherent (or at least while we were there she was). We got to visit with her for a good 2 hours. We helped to decorate her new room (she had been moved to a hospice center) and just get to visit with her (unbeknown to us kids, for the last time). On Friday, she started to go down hill. She was getting another infection. From Friday on, she only continued to go downhill. She was in and out of consciousness and she didn't remember things. Last night was not good for her. She had a fever of 104 and her oxygen level had dropped from 86 to 64. Her pupils were fixed and dilated; she was unresponsive. We were surprised to wake up this morning and find she had made it through the night, but we knew it would only be a matter of a few hours now. I went to nanny, and I got the call that she had passed away. She left this mortal life to continue on her journey around 12:30 PM on Tuesday, June 1st. What is interesting is that she died right around the same time that my Auntie Janice did, almost 7 years ago.

We are hoping to have her funeral this Friday, June 4th, but we will know for sure tomorrow if that is going to be possible.

Crazy people in the library

So we get some interesting folks come through the library (or who call/chat us). I thought I'd share two of them with you.

1) I got a call, and on the caller ID it said Ut St Govt. Ok. Interesting. I answer, and the first thing out of the guys mouth was "Are you in front of a terminal?". I was confused about what he was asking, so I asked him to repeat the question. He did, and I still didn't know what a "terminal" was. So I said I was sitting in front of a computer, and he was like, yeah, a terminal. Ok, so now a computer is called a terminal, good to know. He the proceeded to ask me to look up books and call numbers, though he didn't have a specific book he wanted. He asked me to go to an online translator and translate a word (forgot what it was) into Chinese (he didn't know I spoke a bit of Chinese) and then put it into the library catalog. By this time, I have a few people waiting for me. I tell him that if he isn't looking for a specific book that I can help him find, I need to go help other patrons (it had been about 7-8 mins). He tells me just to do it so I do it quick and he asks me to read through the results. And this is when he asked me if I spoke Chinese. How random. So I read him the pin yin and he asks me to click on one of them. I do, and then he wants to speak to someone about this book. I tell him the librarian isn't in right now, but I'd be happy to give him their number. He says no, he wants me to call them, leave a message with the call number of the book and his phone number. He rattles off a different phone number from the one he was calling from, but I didn't catch it before he said "Ciao" and hung up.

Come to find out, this wasn't his first (or last) time calling. He called a total of about 4 times before one of my coworkers kind of told him off. Another coworker and I did some research and found out he was calling from the mental hospital in Provo. Great. So that was exciting.

2) So I work till midnight 4 nights a week. On Tuesday night, I was sitting at a desk where I can't see out to the foyer. I by chance look that way, and see three police officers coming. Interesting, this could get good. One stays around the corner while the other two approach a man who is sitting in the chairs. One of the officers asks the man if he has a weapon on him! The man gets a bit confused and goes to check. The officer says woah, put your hands up. The man does, and the other officer asks him to stand up. He stands and the officer checks his belt loop. It looked like he might have had on an empty gun holster, and maybe another holster for like a phone or something. I think the determined that he did not have a weapon on him, but asked for his ID and questioned him about why he was there. The cops left without him, and a few minutes later he was gone. He was kind of scary looking. He was super tall (like 6'5) and had a super long, black beard, and a wide rimmed black hat.


Oh the joys of the library =]

Aunt Barbara

I know some of you already know this, but some of you don't. Most of you do know my Aunt Barbara though. She was diagnosed with cancer about a week and a half ago. We are slowing finding where it is, and right now it is in her pancreas, liver, spine and bones. Every time she goes to the doctors they are finding it in more places. She was admitted to the hospital last night because she was in such pain (because it is in her bones) and the pain medicine she was being given was not doing enough. An oncologist has seen some of her scans, and she had a biopsy of her liver today, and an oncologist will review everything on Thursday. Things are not looking good as it is. From some of the research I've done about it, by the time someone is in pain like she is, its almost too late, so we are really praying that things will work out, but know they may not. So if you all would be praying for her, and for my family, that would be wonderful. I'll keep you all updated on how she is doing.

Oh the joys of school

So school is almost over!!!!! Only this week, next week, two days of the following week and then FINALS! And then no school till September! Can't wait!!

I won't be going to school over spring/summer, just working in the library and doing some babysitting twice a week for a family who is related to a family I babysat for in China (and now here since they moved back). The parents are going to Honduras for 9 days in June, so I'll be watching their kids while they are gone. They have a girl, Aubrey, who will almost be 4 when they leave (and she has Down Syndrome but is the cutest thing ever!) and Michael who will be 18 months old when they leave. It will be great!

Not much else is going on. Haven't officially declared a major, but I pretty sure I am doing Biology with a Chinese minor. I was going to do Biology Education/Chinese teaching minor, but I'm going to just do straight biology because if I want to later on, I can go do an accelerated nursing program. And with Chinese, the straight Chinese minor is less classes than the teaching. So I'm pretty excited. For now though the plan is to get my teaching credentials after I get my degree.

I also got to see the family I used to nanny for this past weekend which was great! I didn't know when I was going to get to see them again since I'm not going to be able to go out to California this summer. So that was great!

I'm moving home for spring/summer as well, but will come up to Provo to work/go to church and then babysitting in Springville. I was moving out of my ward because my bishop was getting released, but then they called the 1st counselor, whom I love, as the bishop, so I decided I didn't want to move out anymore! Originally I was moving into an apartment with Lily (from China), but now I'm moving one building over to live with my other roommate Michelle and I'm really excited to live with her! She is great and I think we will have a lot of fun together! And I'm excited to NOT move out of the ward!

Thats about all thats going on with me =]

Snowmobiling and more

I feel bad that this has been sitting waiting to be seen. Here are pictures from snowmobiling almost 2 months ago =]

So my family went with my dad's sister's family (The Algers) to West Yellowstone, MT at the beginning of February so we could all go snowmobiling! It was so much fun! I had such a great time! I actually got to drive my own snowmobile, which was awesome. The not awesome part: I crashed my snowmobile into Noelle's. That was fantastic. Some damage to my mobile, but no one was hurt =] Lots of us got stuck in the snow, which was awesome too!

Johnson Family

Really neat trees covered in snow

My poor stuck snow mobile..or maybe it was Moms...or Noelles

Sam and Julie

Same snow mobile stuck

Maybe I'll post more pictures...some day. Blogger is annoying and doesn't put the pictures where you want them...

Missionaries in Romania

I don't know who of you have seen this news article, but 2 missionaries who were serving in Romania died this weekend. And sadly, I knew one of them. Elder McKay Burrows was in my ward freshman year. He was a great guy! One of my friends on Facebook had posted about this, and she said something like, Pray for the Burrows family, and the missionary in Romania had died. I was like...I know a missionary in Romania with the last name of Burrows. And sure enough, it was him. He and his companion died of natural gas asphyxiation. Its incredibly sad. I remember when he announced his mission call in sacrament meeting, and he was excited to be going to Romania, but nervous at the same time. Its so sad to see missionaries die on their missions, but you know that it is because the Lord had a more important mission for them.

Anyways. I just wanted to post that.

You can see the article here: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=9522925

-Andrea

Life.

So school is going well, which is good! I still need to get my major (biology education) officially declared, as well as my minor (chinese teaching). So hopefully that can get done sometime this semester =]

I'm really enjoying all my classes and all my professors. Stats is kind of boring, and so is my PDBio (Physiology and Developmental Biology) class because, at least for PDBio, its all stuff I've already learned. Stats is just boring because...it just is!

So I have to start trying to figure out where I am going to live next year...not sure. I'd like to stay on Condo Row where I currently am, but I want to get out of my ward. There are about 130 girls and 36 guys...and I'm not joking at all! I don't like a lot of the girls either; they seem too stuck up and too, like they are better than everyone else. There are a lot of really sweet girls too, but this definitely isn't my favorite ward people wise, though I do love my bishopric! They are fantastic! So we'll see where I end up, but I do really need to start figuring it out! February is the month where you pretty much have to decide.

Not much else is going on. I am taking pictures of my roommates this afternoon (hopefully!) and if they turn out like I am hoping they will, I'll post some! I really am getting back into wanting to take pictures, and so yea!!

Hope everyone is doing well!

RESULT!

I think I have finally found a Religion teacher I love at BYU!!

He is my new D&C teacher and his name is Scott Esplin. He is absolutely fantastic and I am very excited to learn about the Doctrine and Covenants this year!! We do have to write a paper, but I'm not worried because I'm just happy to have a religion professor that I am excited about on the first day of class!! Luckily he teaches the second half of D&C so I'll be taking it from him!

Just had to let everyone know that I'm really excited!!!

New Semester

So I started a new semester...already! Christmas break was way too short! I worked most of it, which was fine. Long, but fine.

I got my grades back too, and they were exactly what I was expecting. Nothing fantastic (except for Chinese) but at least they were not lower that what I was planning on them being. Believe it or not, my lowest grade was in New Testament.

This semester I am hoping my religion (D&C) professor is much better! I haven't had the class yet (I have it in 30 mins), so I'll have to report back, but I read great things about him.

I am currently in 4 classes and trying to get into another one. They are: Chinese 102, Humanities 201 (like from BC to 1500 AD), Stats 221 and D&C. I am trying to get into a PDBIO class...we'll see if it happens. I went to the class yesterday, and there were about 40 kids sitting on the floor...thats how many people want to get in. Hopefully though!! Otherwise I'll just be taking 12 credits. I was going to take an intro to public health class, but I'm pretty set on being a Biology Teacher that I didn't want to take the class and make my major decision any harder. And I haven't regretted dropping the class, so I figure that is good!

I also have my new work schedule, and sadly I work on Saturdays now. So I work Mon 8-12, Wed 8-12, Thrs 9-12, Fri 7-11 and Sat 4 hours (rotating). Oh well.

So I think it will be a good semester. I just really hope that I get into the PDBio class that I need. I'd really like to get it over with while I have PDBio stuff fresh in my head.

And I'm super excited to be in Chinese again with all my friends! The class is about 1/2 familiar people and 1/2 new people. And some of the new people are intimidating!!! They are much more advanced than us!!! Oh dear!

Well I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Years! I'll have to post about those two events (though I think I did post about Christmas). One of my resolutions (that I just made up) is to blog more. I managed to blog almost the whole month of December, so I'm sure I can blog once or twice a week!

-Andrea