Not good for a Rexburg resident

I'm usually not one to go to the doctor for anything. I'm always worried that they'll tell me that it's all in my head. I must get this from my mom. Anyway, I've had some concerns that I finally decided to have checked out, thanks to the encouragement of my mom and sister (who's a nurse).

I've always had cold hands and feet, but I never really thought that was a big deal. I've also had pretty low blood pressure, and in fact have passed out in some pretty embarrassing places (the post office and the temple). A few weeks ago, though, my feet started tingling and feeling numb. Then last week a few of my toes turned red with spots (broken blood vessels). Then a few days ago I was cleaning up from dinner and my whole hand turned yellow. There was no blood in it, and it tingled for about 10 minutes. Those were enough red flags to motivate me to actually visit someone.

My doctor today was really helpful, and didn't make me feel like it was all in my head. After doing a few tests, he's pretty sure that I have Raynaud's Disease. The blood vessels in my extremities have a hypersensitivity to cold, and the overconstrict, keeping all blood from going in or out.

Basically, I'm allergic to cold.

They are running some blood tests to rule out other, bigger problems, but if this is the problem I'll have to maybe take some blood pressure medication to keep my vessels from overconstricting, and I'll need to make sure my hands and feet stay warm.

And I live in Rexburg. . .

For My Mama

My mom bought this puzzle for Tyler last September while all of us girls were in Utah, and we finally put it together tonight. It was a lot of fun. Thanks Mom!

Whatever doesn't kill ya . . .

I should probably be posting more often, but I don't 50,000 pictures of cute little munchkins running around the house doing cute, funny things. I could post lots of pictures of Tyler...

My life has been an endless cycle lately. Teach, do homework, teach, go to class, teach, do homework. . . you get the idea. This has been my busiest semester as far as teaching and homework goes. My studio is filled to the brim, and we're talking about starting a waiting list. It's wonderful, but I definitely look forward to the weekends (although I do primary music on Sundays, so I never really get a break!). I'm also taking four doctoral classes, which is twice as many as I've ever taken before. Three classes is considered full time for my program. So I'm a full time student and a full time teacher. I know my mother is rolling her eyes and shaking her head as she's reading this, but I'm convinced that this will all be worth it at the end of next April when I finish all of my coursework two semesters earlier.

Here are my four classes (not that this will really interest anyone):

Practicum- This is practical experience course. I'm serving on the BYU-Idaho music department curriculum council for this. I attend the meeting once a week and do all the busy work they tell me to do. Trust me, it is plenty of busy work.

Quantitative Research- Part 2 of the research class I took last semester. It involves developing a mini-dissertation of sorts with a research problem, literature review, and research design. The final project will be the first three chapters of a hypothetical dissertation. I'm focusing mine on developing grading rubrics to improve the consistency and reliability of music juries for string majors.

Contemporary Issues- Basically we all get together and talk about what is wrong with universities today and try to come up with a solution. Oh yeah, and write plenty of papers.

Equity and Ethics- I'm doing this one independent study as well. I'll be doing a comprehensive research project on the unique challenges women faculty members have at a private religious university.

Okay, enough with the boring stuff. Here are a few other updates.

For Valentines Day, Tyler got me a beautiful bouquet of my favorite flowers, daisies. He also got a cute vase with Daisies painted on it. We made chocolate covered strawberries to go with our dinner that night.









Tyler and I have also been doing a few fun things. On Thursday nights Tyler has been playing basketball with the Elders Quorum, which is fun to watch.






For Family Home Evening last Monday we made bread using our Kitchen Aid wheat grinder. It was delicious!






Congratulations, you made it to the end of the eternal post. Have a great weekend!

I em smrt

I found a video of me playing a game with my dad from when I was little.


Aren't I cute??

Suzuki Prodigy

(I hope Tyler doesn't get mad at me for posting this!)

If Tyler ever decides to take up the violin, he'd be great at it. He already knows all of Suzuki Book 1 and 2! When I'm teaching downstairs he's often upstairs working on things, and he hears much of the goings on from the studio. After I finish teaching, we'll both be upstairs making dinner or working on the computer, and he'll start whistling or humming one of the pieces we were working on in lessons. Yesterday I wanted to see how many of them he knew, and as long as I got it started he could pretty much sing the whole song. I guess that's why the Suzuki method emphasizes listening to the recordings so much.

Way to go Tyler! Those Twinkle Variations are just calling your name!