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)

Haircut

Before (This was on Valentine's Day with the book my sweet husband made for me)


and After

I cut off 4 inches but you can hardly tell. Oh well, it just feels good to get a haircut.

Tag

My friend, Kyla, tagged me probably over a week ago and I am finally remembering to do it! Here's what I did:

1) Choose the fourth folder from wherever you store your pictures on your computer.2) Choose the fourth picture in that folder.3) Explain the picture.4) Tag four people to do the same.5) No cheating (cropping etc.)

Steve: "Why are you taking this picture?"
I'm sure Steve will not appreciate this picture, but I still think he's cute :) It was taken during the summer of 2007. He was helping his dad paint the garage at their house in Minnesota. Steve spent most of his growing up years in this house. Next month he'll fly "home" for the last time since his family is moving to Georgia.

Reading and writing

I just gotta get on here to make a plug for reading novels...and writing them.

So, I'm taking this writing class from Brandon Sanderson, who is the author of Elantris, the Mistborn Trilogy, the author of the final book of The Wheel of Time series, and author of my personal favorite, Warbreaker (it's not out yet, but you can read the full book online here). I now officially consider writing one of my hobbies, and hope to continue to pursue it for life.

It's been quite the experience. Seriously...when have you actually looked forward to doing homework? As part of the class, I am writing a novel, which I completely conceptualized and began writing this semester. I am writing 2,000 words weekly, or about 8-10 double-spaced pages per week. It's really great, and a lot of fun. Of course, it's very hard as well, but I definitely enjoy it.

So I'm reading a novel that we're going to discuss in class, a book called Sabriel. It's a very popular YA book (YA = Young Adult = Twilight, Harry Potter, etc.), and it's awesome.

More importantly, it's a lot of fun. So to anybody who used to like reading but because of employment, school, children, laziness, etc. does not read anymore, my challenge to you: pick up a book and read it. It's a lot of fun, and an excellent way to relax, keep your mind sharp, and be exposed to lots of creativity.