Avoiding finals

Okay, so today was my last day of class at BYU. It's just strange that this experience is coming to an end. I started at BYU in 2002. That was 7 years ago! I think BYU is a fantastic institution*; I learned a lot here, and I'm glad that I was able to attend here. Obviously, my beliefs and morals are important, and I don't think I would have gotten an academic opportunity to examine those kinds of things anywhere else. It will be sad to leave.

*If you have any positive affiliation with a certain red institution north of Provo, you are not welcome to comment on this assertion. ;)

I'm trying to find a job for the summer. It's not the most enjoyable experience. So if anybody knows of any place that is hiring that will pay me a lot to do something that I'm really good at, let me know.

In grad school news, we finally decided on George Washington University. We have both felt like it was a good decision, and we have lots of reasons to go for it. It's going to be great! We'll definitely miss Utah...especially all of our awesome family here. But I think it will be a great move for us as a family and for me as a professional. So we've sent rejection letters to BYU and ASU (nice to be on the other side of those letters for once), and we sent our acceptance to GW (along with a $100, non-refundable deposit, so there's no turning back now!).

Highs and lows

So the past week has included some great highs and some rotten lows. Let me explain...mostly with pictures.

Washington, D.C.

So I got admitted to The George Washington Univeristy (not Georgetown...they are different, and GW is better ;). They had what's called "Accepted Student Days" last week, where they had a tour of the campus, presentations on the school, my specific program (MPA), the faculty, the career services, etc. It was awesome!

My dad works for the airlines, so that's how I got there. And he actually came with me, so that was fun too. Here are some pictures:

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This is a statue of George Washington, right at the campus gates.

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I'm standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial; the Washington Memorial is behind me. This, by the way, was a 10 minute walk from GW campus.
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This is the HQ for my program--the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Administration.
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The Trachtenberg School. This is where we had my meetings. I think that the program at this school will be unparalleled in terms of what it can do for me professionally as well as for us as a family. Both Heather and I think it will be such a neat experience to be here.
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Girls Night

So Heather decided to make the best of having me out of the picture. She decided to call a girls night! She invited my sister Katie, as well as my soon-to-be-sister-in-law Virginia, who got engaged to my brother Todd a couple of weeks ago (Congratulations to them!). Then we found out that my mom would be in town visiting her parents, so Heather invited her too!

They started with some Calzones--yummy, from what I hear--and then they watched Penelope. It was probably a pretty girly movie, which is fine by me. I was watching a Sean Connery action movie in my D.C. hotel, so I didn't miss anything. Then, they made some sort of strawberry face masks (see below).
You gotta admit, my wife is a cutie! Then, my mom left, and the 3 Haskin daughters had a sleepover on the floor of our super-tiny basement apartment.

Jazz and Ice Cream

The next day, Heather got to go to a Utah Jazz game with her family........and then out to some ice cream. It was Heather's sister Lauren's birthday, and she's not just got a sweet-tooth--I think she's got a sweet-skeletal-system! Well, Larney loves Coldstone, so they did that too.

p.s. Steve forgot to mention how much fun Lauren and I had curling our hair on Sunday morning (cute birthday dress, Lauren!). I NEVER do my hair so it was a nice change. Sorry to the rest of my family for not taking any pictures of them!

The Low

It's a good thing we had a fun weekend, because Heather got in a car accident today. I won't go into the details, but Heather is fine and was not hurt, the car is driveable, and it was not her fault. But it was definitely a scary and confusing thing for everybody. Here is a picture of the damage (click on the picture to enlarge it).

Luckily, even though there was a language barrier (the other guy was a Spanish speaker, with little English, so his ten-yr-old daugther had to be interpreter), things seem to be working out okay. Of course it will be hairy to arrange insurance payments for repairs, etc., but the other people were nice, Heather was nice (so no regrets there), and nobody was hurt. So really, things could have been a lot worse. But it still stunk. Really bad.

Sorry about the ginormous post. I'm definitely a huge-post hater, but it's been a while, and there's been lots of excitement (good and bad). Enjoy.

It's official

It's official, Steve's been accepted to BYU and GWU. Unfortunately neither offered him financial aid. However, there is a chance he can still get aid at BYU if he fills out some more paperwork and writes an essay. Also, he's an alternate for assistantships/fellowships at GWU and will find out for sure if he gets anything after April 15th.

Steve will be headed to the capital with his dad this weekend (they both fly for free or I'd definitely be coming along :)) and then hopefully we'll have a better idea of where we're going to be next year, which will really take a load off our backs!

GWU is ranked a lot higher (#7) than BYU (#51) for MPA programs and obviously has more choices for internships, however, it also has a lot more up front costs than BYU (moving across the country, more expensive tuition, more expensive housing, etc.). Despite these costs we still think it'd be a great adventure for our little family and an opportunity to see a different part of the country. If we stay at BYU we can be closer to my immediate and Steve's extended family and get the BYU slant on public administration. Even if it's ranked lower it's still a respected school and has a history of sending students to work for NASA, an organization Steve would love to end up at. Anyway, those are the basic pros and cons.

I'm totally going to copy a good friend who just put a poll on her blog concerning grad schools, but it would be great to see what our friends and family think: highly respected institution, higher cost adventure OR lower cost, closer to family, BYU education. Feel free to leave your comments as well! (I put ASU on there even though it was really a backup choice)