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.