Fall semester

Merry (nearly) Christmas!

We have had a good fall and seem to finally be getting into the groove of Adam being in grad school now that this semester is ending. Here are some updates:

School and Work
Adam's last day of finals is tomorrow and I'm sure he is counting down the hours until freedom. He has enjoyed his classes immensely and has got a better idea of what he can do in this field and what he wants to do after graduation. Today was his last day of his class that he teaches as well! He has loved teaching and is very excited for next semester now that he has a foundation to work off of and an idea of what works and what doesn't. He is also finishing up the BYU Online class he TAs for. He had an exciting moment last week when he got to give a presentation about the BYU Online class to the whole Humanities department at BYU. He has been with the course for 4 out of the 5 semesters so he was able to give a lot of insight about the benefits of BYU Online and what they are looking to improve on. He hopes that this will lead to a Master's project for him. The Humanities department has 7 GE courses that they offer so he is offering himself as an Instructional Designer to get more online classes available. They were all extremely interested in his ideas which is great because this would be the ultimate job experience!

I am very ready for Adam to have a break from school and luckily next semester should be a little bit lighter. I still work at Wasatch Mental Health and I love it! I especially love my coworkers and any time we get to do a clinic party. They definitely have turned into a second family for me :) I have been trying to keep busy since Adam is unavailable so often so I have been doing lots of reading and made a blanket!

I had a fun time doing it and will probably do more. I will have lots of other projects in the future that I'm excited about and will give updates later.

Holidays
We had a low key but fun Halloween this year. We went to a corn maze with my sister and her family which was lots of fun! My nephew Anders led all of us through the maze while running wild. He quite enjoyed it :)

We also actually dressed up for our Halloween ward party! We were Charlie Brown and Snoopy :)

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year even though we didn't travel. I of course forgot to take any pictures though xP. My sister Stephanie and I did the meal together and just divided up the dishes. She got to make the turkey and I did most of the side dishes which included making stuffing for the first time! We accidentally made a TON but Adam didn't mind because he loved it so much :) We also got to Facetime with my family which was great. Then on Friday, we decorated for Christmas and Adam's brother Seth and his new wife Sabrina came to stay with us for the weekend! It was so much fun having them here since this was the first time us being with them since they got married. We got to play lots of games, go to the temple together, and on Sunday we got to go up to  the house of Adam's other brother and sister-in-law up in Lehi to have sundaes. We were so grateful to spend that time with them.

We are very excited for Christmas as my sister Jessica will be flying in from Washington! This will be the first Christmas I've spent with both of my sisters since we got married. We are looking forward to it :)

We love you all and hope you are having a great Christmas season!

<3 Ashley

Summer and Fall Updates

Hey everyone!

I apologize for it being so long since we last posted. I can officially say that this year has been the craziest we've ever had. It'll be interesting ending 2014 and looking back on this roller coaster. But for now, we'll just try to enjoy the ride without falling off haha. So here is an overview of the last five months as brief as I could make it:

June
Adam continued his job working in the testing department at BYU Independent Study which was working out pretty great :) Then his former boss from when he was a TA for BYU Online came to him and asked if he'd like to come back to his old job! It turned out that the demand was super high for the IHum 202 class that he used to help run and that they were looking to up the registration cap this fall semester, and therefore were looking for another TA to help with the work load! They offered to let him start as soon as spring term ended (mid-end of June) which actually worked out great because IS was going to reduce his hours anyways. The TA job pays a LOT better than the IS job which was a huge blessing for us.
I, on the other hand, was still looking for work. I got quite a few interviews but was struggling to find something in my field, especially because I didn't have a very good experience when I worked at the group home back in March. I knew I didn't want to try to do residential treatment again so I mostly applied to secretary positions and caseworker jobs. Finally, I got an offer for a part-time secretary job with Wasatch Mental Health (a mental health clinic for those on Medicaid) and one for a full-time caseworker job for a care center for the intellectually/physically disabled. Initially, I took the caseworker position but right after I did, I did not feel right about it. Also, at this time I was struggling with some severe anxiety issues. In the end, we decided that it would be best for me to take the job at Wasatch Mental Health. Again, I felt that Heavenly Father was leading me to a much different direction than I planned but I know that he will take care of me.
Also at the end of June, we had the pleasure to travel to Colorado to see Adam's brother Seth get married! We had met his girlfriend (now wife) a few months earlier and absolutely adored her. We both were so happy to see Seth find someone who was so utterly perfect for him. All of Adam's siblings and their kids came out for the occasion which was incredible because some we hadn't seen since before Adam and I had even gotten engaged! It was wonderful to spend time with all of them :)

July
We celebrated Adam's birthday again by having a BBQ and watching the fireworks. I also surprised him by making a homemade cheesecake (his favorite dessert) which I had never made before! We also had kind of a topping bar to go with it. He loved it and was very surprised :)

The rest of the month was pretty uneventful except for just getting into the swing of new jobs. Adam got back into the groove with his TA job and continued to prepare for the class he was going to teach in the fall. I got used to working at WMH and absolutely loved it! The work wasn't too stressful, the people were great, and I was so glad to still be helping people in my field of emphasis.

August
We continued on with our jobs and loved it. I definitely continued to feel confirmation that I had chosen the right job to do and I felt even closer to Heavenly Father as I let him lead me to what my true purpose is. We also got the chance to go on a weekend away to Manti! We hadn't traveled anywhere as a married couple that didn't involve visiting family. Non-family traveling funds just seem to be nonexistent when you have half your family in Colorado and the other half in Washington, so normally we just reserve any traveling for seeing family. We decided to take an opportunity to just stay at a bed and breakfast for a night before school started and it was amazing! The place we stayed in was called the Yardley Inn. It was a beautiful old house that was run by the sweetest older couple.

We also got to do a session in the Manti Temple which neither of us had done before.

It was such a relaxing and enjoyable time! We know we definitely want to go back there again :)

September and October
Time for Adam to go back to school! He started graduate school at the beginning of September and it has been an up and down experience so far. He likes his program and finds it very interesting but at times feels a bit out of his element. Eight months is a long time to not be in school and then have to start up again. Also, this field is quite a bit different than his undergraduate as it is more in the scientific area of academia. It has also been difficult adjusting to him being in school and me not being busy at all. Lots of reading, movies, TV shows, and knitting for me. I have to admit that it has been depressing to not be in school when Adam and so many of my friends are as I haven't felt much purpose currently. But I'm trying hard to stay positive and find productive things to do. We still try to find time to be together but it is quite a bit less than expected. I hope that as time goes by we'll get used to this new routine and find more joy in the journey. It is slowly getting easier :) I know that times have been rough over the last year but I truly believe that Heavenly Father has a reason for everything that happened. I know that the plan, even though it is not what I expected, will be even better than I could have imagined :)

Graduation and family visiting

Hi guys!

So I am officially graduated! I finished off well with an A and an A- for my last two classes ending college with a 3.61 :) I officially have a BS in Psychology! The diploma arrived in the mail yesterday so it feels even more officially official.

For graduation, my sister Jessica flew in on 19th and stayed until the 29th! I hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving of 2012 so it had been way too long. She stayed with us and we had SO much fun :) We got to spend Easter with both of my sisters and we spent the day going to as many temples as we could.

We saw six temples that day: Provo, Mt. Timpanogas, Draper, Oquirrh Mountain, Jordan River, and Provo City Center (not pictured)

Oquirrh Mountain temple

Draper temple

Jordan River temple

We went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake on that Monday which we all enjoyed :) Then on Tuesday, my parents came to town and on Wednesday, Adam's parents came. We went to a bunch of places while everyone was here including the aquarium, the Natural History Museum up at University of Utah which had a exhibit on the history of chocolate (the exhibit smelt really good haha), and lots of different restaurants!

Thursday was commencement! Adam and I went out early with my dad to take photos around campus in our caps and gowns. We went out at a good time because there weren't really other people taking pictures.

Commencement was cool and we got to see President Uchtdorf pretty close up during the procession going into the Marriot center :) Then afterwards we got Hawaiian ice and went over to our place for spaghetti. Then on Friday, we had convocations. We decided to attend the convocations for my college and Adam would walk with me. This was actually a great idea because we found that the speaker was Adam's mission president, President Bullock!! So when Adam walked across the stage, he got a hug from his mission president which was so cool :) and just like that we were finished! For Adam it was kind of weird because technically he had finished in December but it was still awesome to have this experience together :)

Afterwards, we went to dinner at China Garden which both of our families love. On Sunday, both of our parents went back home to Washington and Colorado. Jessica stayed a couple more days and we got to go a few more places like Temple Square and Bridal Veil falls. We had so much fun having both of our families come and visit. It was kinda crazy but I'm so grateful that they took time out to come to our graduation. It is still surreal that I am done with school and may never go back. I am still hoping to get my master's but its still weird to think that I may never have to go to class again. I think it'll probably hit me more this fall when Adam starts grad school and everyone else will be coming back to BYU for the regular semester and I won't be going.

Oh the crazy changes in life! I am so grateful for my experience at BYU. I feel like a completely different person from when I first came to Utah. I have grown so much intellectually and spiritually. And I met Adam here which was a plus! ;) I am so glad that I pushed myself to come out here and now I am the first one in my immediate family with a bachelor's degree :)

Well that is all for now! Love you all and God bless!

<3 Ashley

Changes

Hi everyone!

Its Ashley this time. We have lots of updates since the last time we blogged but hopefully it won't be too long :)

Ashley:
At the end of March, I ended up getting a job with Utah Youth Village working in a group home for girls with behavior issues. I was really excited to get a job in my field of study and excited that it was full-time. However after a few weeks, I decided that it would be best if I left so that I could finish school first. They needed someone as soon as possible to work 40 hours a week and with finishing up the last weeks of school in addition to a new and intense job, the stress got a bit too much. I did not feel like it was right to ask them to wait a month for me to finish school before I could work, so I decided to leave. I was really disappointed that this opportunity did not work out because it had seemed so perfect. But I know that I needed this small experience to help lead me to where I need to be. God has a plan for everything so I know that even things that do not work out have a reason. So after graduation, I was able to work a couple more weeks as a secretary before I couldn't anymore because I wasn't a student. We had some fun last days and I will sincerely miss everyone I worked with. I have applied to a ton of jobs so hopefully I will get hired soon. I just interviewed for a job today doing Applied Behavior Analysis with a 4-5 year old child with autism. It is only part-time but pays really well and would provide good experience. Hopefully I get it, but we'll see :)

An Office of Digital Humanities selfie showing some of the awesome people I worked with :)

Adam:
He officially decided to get his master's in Instructional Psychology and Technology! We eventually heard back from WSU and he didn't get in which was totally fine with us since he had already committed to BYU. So, I realized we never explained what that program is about which I'm sure some of you may not know. This program studies course development and testing and how to apply technology to education. Some areas that this can be applied to is online learning (like Independent Study), normal classes of all levels, and new employee training for employers. This combines his desire for teaching but also the technology background he gained from his Digital Humanities minor. Since he would be attending BYU in the fall, he could start working on campus again after graduation. He had been working at Vivint for the last few months but was excited to try to get something a little closer. He ended up getting a job in Independent Study! This is a different area than he worked before but he still enjoys it. He helps with anything involved in testing done through IS. Also, he will be teaching a course at BYU in the fall!! He will be teaching Intro to Digital Humanities (DigHT 215). This course is pretty new so he will also be in charge of developing the class. This will be an awesome experience and he is so excited to be a real teacher! 

 Here is his name listed where people can register for classes

 So that's it for the updates :) next blog will fill you in about graduation!

<3 Ashley

Spring Update: Beginnings and Firsts

Hello all! This is Adam again to update you on all the adventures of our life this year.  It has been a very busy 2014 so far with a lot of new experiences to tell you about!

Grad Schools

In December of 2013, I graduated for BYU with my Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Humanities.  

As excited as I was to be done with my bachelors degree, I had to make a lot of adjustments.  First off, I had to work hard in January to get all of my graduate school applications off in time.  I ended up applying to only three schools, but I was applying to three different programs!  I applied to BYU's MS program in Instructional Psychology and Technology, University of Utah's MA program in History and Washington State University's PhD program in American Studies.  After I got the three applications, I just had to wait for weeks to get a response from each school.  In late January, I heard back from BYU that I had been accepted to the IP&T program!  I was really excited, but I wanted to hear back from the other schools before making a decision.  In communicating with some of the staff at Washington State, I was expecting to hear back from them the second week of February.  At that time, I was not thinking much about my application to Utah, since I didn't think I had done a good job on my statement of intent.  However, the second week of February came and passed and no answer came from Washington State University.

By the end of the third week of February, I finally had another response from one of the schools, but it was Utah, not Washington State.  One morning, I pulled up my e-mail to find this letter in my inbox:

"Dear Mr. Lloyd,

I am pleased to inform you that the graduate admissions committee has unanimously agreed to admit you to the PhD program and to offer you an appointment as a Teaching Assistant in our department, pending final approval of admission from the Graduate School.  You will receive a stipend of $13,500 per year and a full tuition benefit, and you will have the option to purchase health insurance through the University.  You must be a full-time student during the term of the award."

Of course, I was blown away by the offer, especially since I hadn't even applied to the PhD of History program!  However, a few minutes later, the statement was corrected to the MS program.  That calmed me down a bit, but I was still amazed by how good an offer I received!  That meant I had some deciding to do!

I still was waiting to hear back from Washington State, so I e-mailed them again and was told that I should hear back from them the end of the first week of March.  Then, I started looking at the advantages between the BYU program and the program at Utah.  In order to help me make the decision, I met with a couple of people at BYU.  By the end of last week, I learned that BYU would offer me the chance to teach two classes with the potential of enough money earned to compete with Utah's offer.  Ashley and I went to the temple to pray about this decision and I felt good about the IP&T program, so, coupled with the offer of teaching in two classes, I made my final decision.  For the next two years, I will be attending BYU to study Instructional Psychology and Technology!  As for Washington State, I am still waiting to hear back from them...

Job Searching

Another challenge that comes from graduating from BYU was the fact that I lost my cushy jobs that both paid well and were useful for my future career plans.  As such, I started looking for potential jobs throughout January with very few results.  As January was ending, I had only had one job interview and that was for a food position and I hadn't heard back from them.  As discouraging as that was, I did get another interview at the beginning of February and was subsequently hired by Vivint to work as a customer care professional.  After three weeks of training, I have now been working on the call floor for three weeks now.  I help with answering questions, troubleshooting issues with the technology, and resolving other customer issues.  It is a fast paced job, but I am grateful to have the experience of learning to help out customers and represent the company well.  As good of an experience Vivint has been, I will be excited to be working again in the educational field when I start my masters program.

Ashley's Car Crash

The other adventure that we have had this year was Ashley's first car crash she experienced while a driver.  Thankfully, it was not her fault, but the consequences of the crash are still affecting us.

Since I work in Lindon, about 8 miles away from home, and since Ashley works at BYU, and we only have one car, we have to work hard to get each of us to and from work and school.  So, on February 13th, I had gotten off work early and asked Ashley to come pick me up.  As she was driving from BYU to my work, she got into a car crash.  She was going straight through an intersection with a green light when a car in the opposite direction tried to turn left.  The other car hit our car right by the front left wheel. (I am incredibly grateful that it was not further down the car, or Ashley's injuries could have been very serious!)

Although the car was damaged enough that we couldn't drive it, it was not so damaged that it would have to be totaled, which was a relief to us.  Of course, the car crash meant that Ashley and I had a low key Valentine's Day, but we hope to make it up at some point.  After a tense couple of weeks, we learned that the other driver's insurance company would accept liability.  We were convinced that they would, but it was a little worrisome for a while there.  After the delay in determining liability, the car repair place only started work about two weeks after the accident.  In fact, we only got our car back yesterday, so we have been without the car for a month!  During that time, we had a rental car that was quite nice, but we were glad to have our car back again.

Of course, there was more that we had to deal with than just the car and the insurance company.  While Ashley didn't have any serious injuries, she has been dealing with a lot of neck and back pain.  The day after the accident, Ashley went to the Chiropractor's Office (in fact, the owners of that office are our landlords, so we already knew them!) to get checked up.  She has continued to go in about 2-3 times a week and is feeling much better, but still experiences some soreness now and then.

(Ashley's note on the accident: Yes this was quite a terrifying experience as I've never personally been involved in a car accident. I also struggle with anxiety and panic attacks so right after I was hit, I was pretty incoherent. Thankfully, there were a couple of really nice police officers who showed up and a passerby stayed [although he didn't even witness the accident]. Luckily, the person that was behind me at the time gave her name and number before she left. That was the determining factor with liability, since the girl that hit me wasn't admitting fault. I was surprised that she was the only witness that gave me information and no witnesses stayed. It was pretty awkward to sit next to the girl that hit me until the police officer told her she could go. Funny thing though: while we were sitting there, the police officer came over with two bags of cookies that he said a person at the stoplight wanted to give us. They had names on them so I suspect they were gifts for visiting teaching. Only in Provo haha! The nice policeman eventually drove me to my sister Stephanie's house since I didn't want to be home alone. I then had my first experience riding in the back of a cop car haha. Another stroke of luck, my brother-in-law Matt was home and was able to pick up Adam who had started to walk home from work. It has been extremely frustrating dealing with the insurance companies and I eventually just decided to get the police report myself because it was taking so long for them to get it. That sped things up quite a bit. I'm so glad we are at least done with the car part of the insurance and I can't wait to be done with the injury part. The chiropractor has helped a lot with the pain but it is time consuming to go there about 3 hours a week. They say that they are seeing improvement and they just want to make sure I'm stabilized and the pain doesn't come back. During this whole ordeal, Adam has been amazing with helping around the house and taking care of me :). )

Overall, we are both very grateful that the accident was not worse than it was and didn't total our car or seriously injure Ashley.  It has been a busy month, but we are starting to get back to normal (as normal as life gets right now with all of the transitions).

Well, that is it for now, but look back in a month as Ashley wraps up her undergraduate degree!
 

2 years of marriage and a happy new year!

Hi everyone!

It's Ashley again, just updating you about post-Christmas festivities!

First of all, Adam and I celebrated our second anniversary on the 29th! We decided to celebrate it on the 28th because our anniversary landed on a Sunday this year. We had the whole day planned out and...everything went wrong! We wanted to go to the Mt. Timpanogas temple (the Provo temple is closed for renovations) but it was SUPER busy! There were brides everywhere and they said that they were only doing certain ordinances and those that they were doing were really full. So we decided that we would have to delay our temple trip. We also had planned to go up to Salt Lake City to go around downtown and then eat at the Melting Pot. When we got there, traffic and parking were terrible but we finally found a spot. Then we walked four blocks to the restaurant but they said that the next table they could get us was at 9:30 pm!! So we tried another restaurant nearby and it had a line out the door. So we gave up and went back to Provo. We called Olive Garden but they were pretty busy, so we decided to go to Brick Oven which actually turned out well! Too bad we had to waste the gas to travel to SLC but at least we were able to have dinner together at a place a bit nicer than Taco Bell haha :) On our actual anniversary, we spent the evening looking at videos and slideshows from our wedding and then skyping with Adam's sister Sharon and her family which was great :) Although our anniversary had a very rough start, at least it ended well :)

So for New Year's, we had a sleepover and Harry Potter marathon with our friends Steven and Kayla. It has been awesome living right by them which allows for more fun stuff like this. We got lots of junk food and played games and watched Harry Potter all night! A few of us dropped off to sleep (I was the first...) but then we continued watching the rest during New Year's Day :) We made it through all but Deathly Hallows Part 2 which we watched last night. So close! But we just got too tired. It was fun though :)

Yesterday we decided to take some pictures with Steven and Kayla at a park just for fun :) Here are some of the results:

Also, today was Adam's last day working as a teaching assistant for BYU Online :( It is too bad that he won't be able to stay on but hopefully he'll be able to find another job soon. He has already applied to quite a few places and plans to apply to more until he finds something. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers so that he may find a job soon! I will be starting school next week and taking only two classes. I will be taking Clinical Psychology and Stress Psychobiology. Then, I graduate! Hooray!!!

We love you all and hope you all have a wonderful beginning to 2014!

<3 Ashley

Finally Christmas

Hello everyone! It is Adam this time here to give you an update about our crazy lives.  Well, to be fair, it was crazy.  Thanks to the holidays, we are now able to enjoy some spare time, even enough time to get a little bored!

Finals

As always, reporting on finals week is always so much easier after it is over with.  Overall, it was not too bad, but still stressful as always.  Ashley had five finals, plus two take home finals to complete.  She managed to get about one final done a day so that her workload was pretty balanced.  She did pretty well on all her finals and is expecting to get 3 As and 2 A-s which would be tied for her best full semester grade-wise.  She was also kept busy working in the secretary job and in the testing lab.

I also spent a lot of time in the testing lab, but I did not do too much with my other job as I was kept very busy with my own finals.  Overall my finals load was not too bad, I only had two finals and one final presentation, but what kept me really busy was trying to finish my final project in my programming class.  After spending nearly all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I still could not get it completely finished by the time it was due.  Unfortunately, that meant I ended up getting a B in that class when I know it could have easily been an A if I had more time to give.  However, I am okay with that as I really did not have much more time to give.  After finishing my last final the morning of Friday, December 20, I was officially done with undergraduate classes!  I am thinking I will be getting 2 As and 2 Bs this semester which will be enough to keep my GPA at a 3.8.

 Finishing Up

Although Ashley will be continuing to attend BYU, she will only be taking two classes so she will be working on campus and she hopes to be able to also work at a residential treatment center as well.  This means that right now she is enjoying her Christmas Break without worrying too much about other matters.

I, on the other hand, am still working on finalizing my ORCA project.  I have to write a final report by New Year's Eve and will need to submit my paper to the journal I would like it published in.  I am also finishing up with my graduate school applications.  Most of what I have left to do is wait for my letters of recommendation to go through but I still need to finish up my University of Utah application.  It, along with continuing to work on the transition for the new BYU Online class, will be keeping me busy this upcoming week.  Of course, I am also looking for a job for the next few months while I am out of school.  I am not terribly picky, but I am hoping to get good pay and maybe have something related to teaching.

Christmas

Christmas this year was a fairly quiet affair for Ashley and I since we decided to remain in Utah over the break.  I wanted to finish up working and training my replacement and I also needed to wrap up my project as expressed above.  We did still get to spend time with Ashley's sister and her family both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  The whole week was a lot of fun as Ashley got to spend her first official day of break making Christmas goodies with her close friends Kayla and Casey.

The fruits of the day: Caramel, Chex Mix, Scotchies, and Peppermint Oreo Truffles

 I was at work at the time, but there were plenty of treats when I got home.  My favorites were Ashley's Peppermint Oreo Truffles.  They were delicious!  On Christmas Eve, we took it kind of slow during the day until we left with Stephanie, Matt and Anders to visit the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  It was a little cold but a lot of fun and we got some fun pictures as well.

After that, we headed home for a late dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup and to skype with Ashley's parents for a while.

For Christmas, we started the day early as Ashley and I were both too excited to sleep.  Unlike times as a kid when I was so excited to see what I got, I was so excited to see Ashley open the presents I got her!

Us in front of our little Christmas tree on Christmas Eve

My family has a tradition of always taking a picture of each person with their presents they got at Christmas.  It has been very helpful to remember when I have gotten what gifts and to remind me of every Christmas.  I wanted to keep the tradition going, so we also took pictures of us with our gifts.

We then had an enjoyable evening Skyping family and then hosting Christmas Dinner with Stephanie, Matt, Anders, and Ashley's friend Casey.  It was a delicious meal and we enjoyed watching movies together.

Our Christmas fare

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season!