Happy Early Birthday Daniel

So Dan has been getting all his birthday presents early this year. His parents had the bow for his violin rehaired! Now he can actually practice!
From me he got a map of the world. That may sound like an odd gift but he loves being able to see where things are in the world with news and such. It also spawns a lot of interesting conversations around dinner since it is hung by the kitchen table.
Anyways, I knew he as going to be very excited about a map and I was trying to keep it a secret. It came on Tuesday when we were both home and there was no way I could have this long tube without giving it away so I just let him open it early! He was soo excited to get the map! It was fun to watch him open it and then have us stick it up on the wall!
Happy birthday Daniel! I love you!

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.)

Easter!

This year we went to my parents for Easter!  (We usually do!)  And it was a blast!  We had a wonderful time!  Yesterday we went to the Twin Falls Temple and it was amazing!  I learn new things all the time when I go!  We also got to go to Shoshone Falls (which I posted about yesterday!)  It was really awesome!

Afterward, we went home and had dinner and Ash and Slade came over!  We got to hang out with them for most of the night!  We also got to color eggs!  Dan and I had fun with them.  You can see them below!

So every year for Easter, we have an egg hunt!  But it's only two dozen eggs that we dyed and they are only hidden in the living room of the house.  (This started a few years ago between me and Cole but now its between Dan and I.)  Last year Dan one, but this year I was determined to win!  It was intense, but I hit the jackpot!  (Plus my dad hid 3 in his bedroom to make it more interesting but it didn't work like he planned haha oh well.)  I won 13 to 8.  We are now 1-1, maybe next year we'll see who really is the best.

We also got our baskets when we came home from church.  We got some tomato plants!  And we each got our very own golf set!  We were really excited about that!  You can see our video of our adventures below as well!  We're excited to set up a mini golf course in our apartment this summer!

The grandmas also came out for a delicious dinner that my mom made!  We had cornish game hens and they were fantastic!  We also had some fun with some bubbles.  If I get a hold of those clips I'll add them too.  Overall it was a fantastic weekend!  I'm so glad we got to go home and spend some time with my parents.  We haven't been there since Christmas!

(Well maybe I'll get the video on here.. its not working right now but here is the link if you wanna watch it.)

All of our Easter eggs, plus my favorites sticking out!  (I like the dino!)

Wendy's Easter Basket!

Dan's Easter Basket

Everyone's baskets

Shoshone Falls

We went to my parents for Easter and while we were there we went to Shoshone Falls! It's the Niagra Falls of the West! It was cool!
Here are some pictures from our adventure!

Busy Busy Busy

I feel like I have lots of posts that say this.  We are crazy busy!  But sometimes it's so true.  Since I haven't blogged since last month I can do an update of everything that has happened.

-We went to Vegas for the first time (well me for the first time that I remember)
-Had a fantastic party with my Bullen girls and their respective men!  (And Jon of course who counts as all of our respective men!  We love Jon!)
-Dan's brother came home from his mission!  I got to meet him for the first time.  He had the fun adventure of meeting not one, but two new sister-in-laws.  Dan realized afterward that Amy and I should have switched places but it was too late then haha.
-General Conference (Which is always good!)
-Dan took the FE (Which I'm sure he slaughtered!  He's just cool like that.)
-Dan's cousin got married!
-We got to spend some time with Cole, Brandi and Sadie (only on night but its better than nothing!)
-We are tentatively moving in August (technically we signed the paper but we could cancel up to July 11th.)

We also have a busy month ahead as well.
-Easter!  I'm so excited for Easter!  We are going to my parents and I'm happy!  Plus I'm going to win the egg hunt!
-Another one of Dan's cousin is getting married and we get to go to the sealing!
-THE SEMESTER ENDS!!!!!

That's all for now!

Spring Break!!!

This is an awesome spring break already.  Not that it can beat last years... I mean seriously, the cruise was awesome!  But this year, Dan and I got to have spring break together!  We started it off at SWE conference.  We had the fun privilege of riding "le bus" for 14ish hours to BEAUTIFUL PALM SPRINGS CALIFORNIA!!!!  Oh it was amazing!  (Well the bus ride wasn't...)  But I love SWE conference.  It is one of the things I look forward to every year!  There are awesome people there and you get to learn such cool things and honestly, I just love the fact that I am surrounded by hundreds of other women in engineering!  What made this year even better was I got to share that with other people.  Dan came, and one of our friends Evan came.  (Yes they are both guys, and yes they knew it was a women in engineering conference.) 
Thursday we got on the bus at 5:00 am!  But when we finally got to Palm Springs, we went to dinner at this awesome 50's diner! 
On Friday, we started the day out with a hike at the Coachella Valley Preserve.  It was really cool and quite beautiful!  We were right on the San Andreas Fault the whole time!  How cool is that? 
Saturday was the conference it was FANTASTIC!!! Oh my goodness, the breakfast keynote speaker was amazing!  The lunch was really good as well, it was all about changing the way people (mainly kids) think about engineers and help paving the way for a future in engineering.  And the dinner keynote was from one of the first members of SWE, Pat Brown.  She joined SWE in 1951, SWE started in 1950.  And not only that, she was a past president of SWE, in our own region!!!!  It was soo cool!  I even won a lava lamp from annual conference lava lounge!  :-)  It is currently going in our living room. 

Anyways I'm pretty sure Dan had a fun time.  I know I did!  And hopefully I'll get to go to many more conferences!  (Especially region next year, its in HAWAII!!!!)  When I get some pictures from conference, I'll be sure to add them on.  Until then, stay tuned for our awesome vegas trip this weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

I can't believe how lucky we are.  A year and a few days ago Dan and I told each other "I love you."  Well it wasn't quite like that, it was more like, "I'm going to tell you something that might freak you out.  I think I love you."  "That does freak me out, but I think I love you too."  But either way, it was love, hard and fast.  After that day, Dan decided that he needed to move out of the e-floor so we could actually date.  We started officially dating the day he moved.  Now, a year later, we are still in love, married, and having a fantastic time being so. 
For Valentine's day, we ended up going to Papa Murphy's and buying a pizza, running to A&W and buying rootbeer and going home to eat.  We had a lot of fun.  We set the table with our awesome fancy glasses and had fresh flowers, and a panda.  That's right, we had dinner with a panda! 

Dan got me a pillow pet panda for Valentine's day!  They are just so cute.  (I don't care if you make fun of me I think they are awesome!)  Dan got a love note written on engineering paper and some candy.  (I tried to think of something good but that was all I could come up with.  I'm pretty sure he liked it though!) 
We spent most of the rest of the evening doing homework like good little engineers do.  But we did get to go visit some of our Moen friends before we got dinner!  I miss hanging out with all of them!