Pocket Ninjas.... Attack!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!
Yesterday was Dan's 24th birthday!  I keep teasing him that he's getting old, but then he just reminds me that I'm older than he is.  Dan seemed to have a great birthday!  We woke up late, ate delicious food for breakfast, he took a nap during the day, we went out for dinner at Fire House, went to the ZOO (our FAVORITE PLACE!!!) and then finished the evening off at our apartment just having a relaxing evening!  Overall it was a fun day!

Here are a list of awesome things that Dan has done in the last year:
-Went on many fun trips to: Oregon, Craters of the Moon, Zion National Park, New Mexico, Arches, various trips to Lindon and Rupert and Alabama!
-Was the chief engineer for the USU Chimaera Rocket Team
-Celebrated our first anniversary!
-Celebrated our first Christmas with his family
-Graduated from Utah State with his BS degree
-Participated in the NASA USLI project and went to Alabama to present his team's rocket to big NASA people
-Won Best Vehicle Design in the NASA USLI rocket project
-Won FIRST PLACE in the NASA USLI rocket project
-Decided to continue on to graduate school at USU
-Played laser tag at the Fun Park after hours throughout the whole park
-Went on the 1st annual boys camp with my family down to Moab where he almost died on the four-wheeler (not really)
-Experimented with many different things while cooking

All in all, I think Daniel has had a pretty fantastic year!  And I look forward to spending the next one with him!  He's a fantastic man and husband.

Here are the things he is looking forward to in this next year:
-Beginning grad school and starting research
-Experimenting with cooking some more
-Spending time with family
-Going on adventures


Just a friendly note for our neighborhood pocket ninjas for Daniel's birthday.

Grad School Decision

I realized today that I didn't actually ever announce where Dan decided to go grad school at.  So here it is! 

We are staying at Utah State!

There were a lot of different things that played into this decision.  The main ones, however, were I'm not finished with my masters yet and there are a lot of great opportunities for Dan to do research in aerospace if he stays here! 

So there you have it!  We are going to continue to be Aggies for at least 2 more years!!!

Oh and have you seen the new athletic logos we have now? I'm not sure if I like them or not but they look good.  Definitely better than some of our older ones!

Uintah Basin Winter Ozone Study

For the last week and a half, and will end up being two weeks, I've been in the Uintah Basin, living out of a lovely hotel room and spending long days working.  I figured since most people don't know what it is I'm doing, I'll do a little post about it, and attach a video that another group who is out here made about what it is. 
The Uintah Basin has a really bad ozone problem.  Ozone is 3 oxygen molecules.  It is also extremely volatile and will attack your eyes, nose, throat, etc.  Generally, you see high ozone in areas with a lot of population and pollution.  Think LA smog.   Well, the Uintah Basin is very rural and has a lot of oil and gas fields running the economy. 
What I am doing is helping study where the ozone is coming from and what other compounds are out there that help form ozone.  I have been getting up really early in the mornings and staying until dusk taking samples of methane and flying a weather balloon that measures wind speed, wind direction, temperature and relative humidity.  I have also been helping with particulate samplers by changing their filters. 
It's been a great learning experience and I've got to see a lot of cool things, even if I've lacked on sleep and missed Dan a lot!  Anyways, here is the video that explains it!  Also, I'm in a picture on a blog post! :-)

You're an engineering... you must be smart!

So I normally don't do posts like this.. but this has really been on my mind for the last few months.  Maybe it's being in a new ward and having to introduce myself over and over again, maybe it's just people's reactions but either way, it's something that has really got me thinking a lot lately.

When I meet someone knew, people always seem to ask what I'm studying.  And I tell them engineering.  And then almost always I get some sort of reply of "WOW! You must be smart!" in any form.  But that's not true.

Now I'm not saying I'm not intelligent, because I would like to think I am.  But just because I'm an engineer doesn't mean I'm smart.  But there are all sorts of people in professions like that.  The teachers who think of new creative ways to instruct their students are smart people.  The way business professions can increase their revenue just by changing their business style are smart people.  The way anyone who can creatively express their ideas are smart people. And so many other things.

All that being an engineer means is that I had to dedicate myself to school a lot more than some people.

I'm not saying that I didn't play as an undergrad.  Trust me I did.  I'm also not saying I passed all my classes with flying colors, because I definitely didn't.  (Just look at my transcript.)  But I had to make school more of a priority.  I had to outline what homework was due next because otherwise none of it would get done.  I had to learn how to manage my time better.  I had to learn how to teach myself materials when I wasn't getting the instruction from my professors.  I had to learn to make myself get involved in other activities to make sure I wasn't only dealing with engineers.  I had to make sure that the other classes I wanted to take actually educated me and weren't just fulfilling some silly requirement. (Which I wish I would have done better.)  But just being an engineer isn't what has made me smart.

What's made me smart is taking the time to do those things.  Taking the time to educate myself in other areas besides engineering.  Throwing myself into conversations that I may not have a lot of background on but wanted to learn them for the sake of knowing them.  Listening to things on NPR and TED.  Reading books and searching the internet about random things that come into my mind.

Together, all those things are what make me smart.

But anyone can be an engineer...

(let me know what you think... I have another one I'm writing about engineering and math... and probably one in the future about why I personally chose to be an engineer.)