One more thing!

I defended my thesis last Friday. It was totally awesome!!!!!!! Thanks to everyone who came and participated in the great discussion. I wasn't expecting so many people and it made me more nervous than I was to begin with. I passed with minor revisions. Phew! So now I only have a few changes to make and it will be sent off to the library to be bound. Christmas presents for everyone. :-) Then it will be off to a journal for publication. Yeah!

Jasmine Nutter, M.S. :-) I don't think I'll ever be including those letters on anything. So I had to do it here.

Curiosity

I stole this from a friends blog who stole it from a friend, who probably stole it from somewhere else. I've been laughing so hard I have tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Pocket Taser Stun Gun, a great gift for the wife." This was submitted by a guy who purchased his lovely wife a "pocket Taser" for their anniversary.

Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 22nd anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Toni. What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were suppose to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety.... WAY TOO COOL! Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded two triple-a batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arch of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs. Awesome!!! Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Toni what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave.Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two triple-a batteries,. right?!!! There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong? So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries. All the while I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5" long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-a batteries) thinking to myself, "no possible way!" What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best.....I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, "don't do it master," reasoning that a one-second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad.. I decided to give myself a one-second burst just for the heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION !%@*#&!@*!!! I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs. The cat was standing over me making meowing sounds I had never heard before, licking my face, undoubtedly thinking to herself, "do it again, do it again!" A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. How did they up get there??? My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I'm still looking for my testicles. I'm offering a significant reward for their safe return. Note: If you ever feel compelled to "mug" yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap yourself. You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst would be considered conservative. SON-OF-A-.. that hurt like hades!!!

Moral of the story. . . .Don't let your curiosity get the best of you.

More Lake Powell Pics

I just got some more pictures from my roommate Jenn. Thought I'd post them. When I first moved to Utah all I heard about was how great Lake Powell was: Lake Powell this, Lake Powell that. Blah blah blah. I thought it was over-rated. After all, growing up in Southern California provided me the beach within 30 minutes. So I didn't really understand. Then I actually went to there for the first time in 2006 and I was humbled. Now, I'm hooked. Too bad I don't have a boat. But if you get enough people together, like 15 or 20, a houseboat isn't that expensive. Anyways....

Jeff and I swimming. Jenn's camera is super high tech and can take pictures underwater. This is seriously one of the coolest pictures ever.

Here we are on the boat jsut crusin' around. I think we were actually looking for a suitable campsite. We found the best one ever. We practically had our own little island for 2 days. It took us forever to get there because we went almost all the way down the Escalante Arm. But it was worth it.

It's finally done!!!

It feels really good to say that I am completely done with my thesis. It hit me today, while I was at the gym of all places, how much work I have put into this thing. Especially since the beginning of this semester. In September, I sat down to figure out what I needed to do to finish. I looked at my deadlines and realized that I needed to be done with the whole thing by Halloween. This seemed totally do-able......til I realized that I needed to do an emergency 2nd data collection. For anyone who doesn't know what that means...I basically had to get as many families at Heritage to take my survey because I didn't have enough in my study to find anything significant. Sounds easy, but remember, this is a residential treatment center. So the kids are here in Provo, convenient, but the parents are spread out all over the country....mostly in California and Alaska. I honestly don't know how it happened....it's all a blur of no sleep and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But I ended up with 181 participants in my study. Yeah!!!

So I did the fastest data analysis in the history of......well, something, I'm sure. And for the past 2 weeks I have been in the grad office til 1:30 am or so....almost every night....writing, writing, writing. I turned it in on Halloween (YEAH!!!) and scheduled my defense for Novemeber 14. The defense is where I get up in front of my committee, professors, fellow grad students, and anyone else who comes, and give a 20 minute powerpoint presentation about my study. At the end, anyone can ask me questions or make comments. After that, I sit with my committee and they tell me whether or not I passed, and what revisions, if any, I need to make. I'm not too worried about the defense. It'll be pretty easy. And everyone is super supportive as they rip apart my study....haha....just kidding.

Anyways, here are a few pics of the recent happenings in my life.

Andy was in town for a few days in September. He came to a BYU football game with me and Jeff. Figures that he would ruin picture. Think his face will stay that way permanently?

This is one of the many football games I went to with Jeff this semester. BYU vs. UCLA Score was like 59-0 or something. Go Cougs!!!!!

In September, my friends and I went to Lake Powell for a few days. I learned to wakeboard. I love it!!!! You might be thinking....All she does is play!!! While that may seem true seeing as how I was jet skiing or biking or something almost everyday this summer, that was all for work. This trip was purely for fun with friends.

One friend had the boat, another had the suburban. You get enough people together and it's a relatively cheap trip. From left to right in this picture, Me, Jeff, Bryce, Jeremy, Amber, Jordan, Jenn, and Reuben. Good people! Good times!


Jeff and I swimming. This was actually in this sweet place called Cathedral in the Desert. When the sun light hits the water just right, it lights up all the walls and turns the water bright green. It was pretty cool. That's an understatement, but I'm really tired right now.

Yeah!!!! Shells came to visit me in August all the way from Texas. I will be visiting her in Houston in December, as she is getting married!!!!! Yeah!!!! Can't wait to be there for it.

Finally some pictures!!

Here are some pictures of my adventurous summer at the National Ability Center. This is Kristen, the other intern. She came from the University of New Hampshire. This is at a free concert at Deer Valley Resort. Local bands and stuff.


Here's me working on the ropes course with a girl who is blind. This cool contraption is called the 4 to 1. It allows someone to pull themselves up to the top without using much effort. If you weight 100 pounds, it feels like you are only lifting 25 pounds (hence the name 4 to 1).

Yeah!!! Little E!!!! One of the coolest kids I got to hang out with. Tons of fun!

This is at the 4th of July parade. The young boy is on a hand cycle. I'm walking with a guy on a recumbent bike...all adaptive equipment.

This is Kristen and Tracy, our intern supervisor. I took them rappelling in Pleasant Grove on our last day. Good fun!!!

More 4th of July pics. These are a few of our COOL horses that we use in our Equine program. The big one with the mohawk mane is called a Norwegian Fjord. Beautiful, powerful horses. This ones name is Ayla. The mini horse is Hercules. :-)


After spending the whole summer at the NAC, I'm kind of sad to be done. I won't miss the drive to Park City every day. But I will miss all the cool people I worked with. I guess it won't be too bad, though. They hired me to teach horseback riding lessons in the barn. Sweet!!! I'll get to spend the whole day with the horses. I even have some advanced riders. They make my job easier. I have a good life.

The other days of the week I spend working on my thesis. Trying to get it finished so that I can graduate in December. I'm still planning on IU in January. I'm not overly excited about it yet because I have lots of things to get done in order to go (THESIS). But I'm guessing some time around Thanksgiving it'll hit me.

BYU football rocks!!! I'm going to the game this weekend against UCLA. Go Cougs!

Good to be back...but so close to leaving!

School started at BYU yesterday! I'm done with all the required classes for my masters degree, so this semester is going to be pretty chill. I am hoping to defend my thesis sometime in October. With that, I will be completely finished with my masters degree. It's a bittersweet feeling, being thisclose to the end of my time here. I've really come to LOVE BYU and have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences. I have had (still have, will always have) the best professors, colleagues, and mentors any graduate student could ask for. So here's my shout out to the RMYL department at BYU....a little early since I'm here till Decemeber, but very much overdue.

Endless thanks go to Ramon Zabriskie, my committee chair, mentor, boss, chocolate provider, life saver, friend, and many other things. Thanks for always have more energy than is humanly possible at all hours of the day....it's contagious. Thanks for keeping me on track with the thesis, helping me just enough so that I don't drown, but not so much that I don't know how to do it for myself. Thanks for making me say NO when all I really want to do is say YES anytime someone asks me to TA yet another class or work on this study or that project. I know that I can not do everything I want to. That was a hard lesson learned the very hardest way. Thanks for going on sabbatical and letting me pretend I was a real professor for 6 months. I love your office and got quite comfortable in there. Thanks for all the opportunities to work on studies and get published at such an early point in my academic career. Thanks for inspiring me to achieve great things and preparing me for my doctoral program by using and abusing me (as Casey puts it). Indiana University has it coming!

Thanks go to Neil Lundberg for being a great mentor. Thanks for introducing me to the world of adaptive sports/recreation research. It all started with wheelchair rugby and it has changed my perspective on what I thought I wanted to do. Again, presenting at conferences and getting published this early was a huge reason I got into IU. I've learned so much from these experiences!!!! Thanks for letting me first author these studies when you need the publications more than I do. Your endless knowledge and humility are inspiring.

Thanks go to Brian Hill for being a great mentor and friend. Thank you for accepting me to this program. It has absolutely changed my life in ways I never saw coming. Thanks for being such an adventurous professor and taking me along on those adventures every summer. They became mental health months that I wouldn't have survived without. Lake Powell has quickly moved to the top of my list of favorite places to go. I've come to love Southern and Southeastern Utah in new ways. I'm hooked! Thanks for bringing important insights to my thesis, ensuring that I do quality work. I am truly grateful that the Lord blessed you this summer and kept you in our lives. The world would be a boring place without Bri-Ahnnnn!

Thanks go to Mark Widmer and Stacy Taniguichi for being great mentors. I will always appreciate the opportunity to be the director at Camp WILD. I learned more about myself, program developent, implementation, and administratively duties in 4 short months than I thought possible. Thanks for asking me the tough questions and trying to poke holes in my research. It keeps me on my toes and makes me work harder.

Thanks go to Paula Curtis, the greatest office manager and friend the RMYL department has and will ever have. Thanks for dealing with my paycheck issues from the first day I walked into your office. BYU payroll hates me and I hope that they get my first paycheck as a professor right. If not, I'm calling you first. :-) Thanks for being a great workout buddy and inspiring me to do pilates. I wish you all the best in your new life with Kevin. Glad I was witness to the love story. :-)

Last but not least, much thanks go to Casey and Beate Schenk (and Lukas too!). Casey: Thanks for being such a great partner in crime for the last 2 years. Thanks for throwing me into the deep end with camp and then leaving to go to Norway. I learned it all the hard way and that was probably for the best. Thanks for the great conversations about research. I hope that I provided as much insight into your research as you provided for mine. Thanks for all the advice on life in general. I feel like I've inherited another brother, one who stinks up the office just as much as my real one stunk up my car in high school. :-) Beate: Thanks for being so cool with me spending so much time with your husband. You are awesome and I wish that I could have spent as much time getting to know you as I was able to with Casey. But I feel like I got to know you through Casey, and I think you are amazing!!!! Your family is beautiful and I wish you guys the best in all that you do. Thanks.

Wow....my eyes are little moistened right now. Be strong!!! I still have 4 months till I move to Indiana. I'm sure that I will have just as many adventures there and make just as many great friends as I did here. And it may be equally as hard to leave. I'm going to make the next 4 months the greatest that I've had since I've been in Provo. That way I will always remember what I'm striving to come back to. Who would've thought? 10 years ago we moved from Southern California to Spanish Fork and I hated it!!! These past few years, I've realized that Utah has really grown on me. Maybe not so much Logan (who loves a high of 8 degrees in the winter?), but definitely BYU and Southern Utah. Ahh....good times, good times! Too many great things to write about right now.

Next post I'll upload pictures from my fantastic summer.

Looking to have a great summer!

So I went water skiing at Jordanelle Resevior this weekend. It was great! The water was a little chilly, and at exceptionally high levels, which brought out lots of people. But it was great fun. I've never actually been successful at water skiing when I've tried in the past. All I really remember from those lovely experiences is drinking half the lake. This time was different. I didn't miraculously learn how to water ski or anything. This little excursion was with work, which means I was skiing on an adaptive water ski. We had 2 models; one with outriggers, and one without. The outriggers are attached to the ski and keep it pretty stable. The person just sits in a little basket type thing that is attached to the ski and holds on to the tow rope. Almost anyone with weaker core strength, quadreplegia or paraplegia (or any disability) can water ski thanks to this contraption. The other model of adaptive water ski doesn't have the outriggers attached, so it takes more core strength and balancing capability to stay upright. Here's a picture of a ski with the outriggers. We are practicing doing a transfer of someone who might not be able to walk or swim without assistance. It looks quite difficult, but in the water it was actually much easier. Ahh....buoyancy.

I got a new camera this week, to replace the one that went swimming in Lake Powell. These are the first pictures from it!! I've included a picture of my chaco tan. Thanks to never having to sit at a desk and helping with the water skiing and jet skiing sessions at work, this year's tan is looking like it will be the best one I've ever had. Don't click on the picture. Since this is a new camera, I don't really know how to size the pictures when I post. It will likely blow up HUGE and you will get a very close inspection of my feet. I think it's time for a new pedicure.

I set a New Year's Resolution this year, which is kind of weird. I've never really decided on one and tried to keep it. I resolved to get back into competition, whether it is running, biking, or whatever. I just want to be a part of that again. It's been 6 years since my NCAA eligibility ended and I couldn't compete in cross country and track any longer. At first, I was kind of glad. I'd been competing non-stop since I was 14; so at 23 I figured I deserved a break. But that break turned into a lot longer of a hiatus that I really planned. I've kept running (sporadically) and have incorporated some new activities into my life (canyoneering, mountain biking, rock climbing, etc....) to replace that sense of belonging I had with my team. But I have yet to race again. Until now. In April, I registered for the St. George Marathon. I was hopeful that I would get selected in the lottery. But I didn't. Bummer. There are so many other racing opportunities in Utah Valley, that I can literally just open a calendar to any day and probably be able to find a race somewhere. So for now I am planning on running the 10k at the Freedom Festival on the 4th of July. I've run this course before; it should be fun. My biggest goal for this summer is to compete in a couple of triathlons. The Utah Half Ironman Trialthon is August 9th. A few friends from the NAC are interested in racing it. I think we are going to try to put together a team. I'll do the running leg, which is a half-marathon (13.2 miles). I'm actually super excited about it. It feels nice to have something to train for. I spent so many years training for some race that I never really understood what working out to stay in shape was all about. But now I have definitely learned about the other side of the exercise spectrum. I don't think it will be too difficult for me to jump back on the racing bandwagon. I can already feel the butterflies!! Welcome back. :-)