1st place

I entered a social justice and ethics paper contest this semester based on my experiences at the prison, and I was pleasantly surprised to win first place! I was awarded $400.00 and invited to a luncheon with the MSW faculty and Gene Shumway, who co-founded the BYU MSW program back in the 70s. I was given the opportunity to talk about my paper and hear Dr. Shumway's ideas about it. Interestingly enough, Dr. Shumway worked at Discovery Acadamy for 4 years and he knows my dad really well, and told everyone at the lunch how much he loves my father! It was a fun experience!

The Many Faces of Fi

Many of you know that Fiora is a unique and interesting individual. She is what you might call "a character." I never know what to expect from her next. She is hilarious.

Announcing at last

(This is for announcing purposes only. You are under no obligation to attend.)

Pictures and announcement created by Holly Barrett Nielson

Zelda and Zoe

We picked up two female gerbils Saturday from a private seller. None of the pet stores had any gerbils to sell on Friday. We wanted to get some females about the same age or younger than Fred but none were to be had. These gerbils are twice the size of Fred. So maybe they wont be his mates, but at least Savanna and Fiora have pets again. Savanna named her black one Zoe Zebra and Fiora named her brown one Zelda Bella. Weston thought his should have a middle name too so his is now Fred Ned.

Back to life

You may be wondering, "if Skippy died of poisoning, then how did Fred survive?" Well, Fred got really sick the very next day and we all thought he was going to die too. He just sat there with his eyes closed and didn't respond and was barely breathing. When I picked him up he was stiff. So I left for school telling the kids to put him in a plastic container when he stopped breathing. I felt awful that we had poisoned our little gerbils.
When I got home I expected Fred to be dead, but he was not. He was still breathing and twitching. I left him for another hour or two thinking he would be gone any moment. He did not go. He kept breathing. I had a moment of introspection, remembering how Lillian fought to survive so hard despite her many open heart surgeries and dysfunctional heart, and how we almost gave her up one night but the surgeon asked us to give her one more chance because she was still fighting. I thought, "This gerbil is fighting, there must be something I can do to help him." So I picked up that gerbil and I took him upstairs where it was warmer. Then I had a brilliant inspiration to put him in the oven. (My great grandmother was a preemie and the doctor put a cloth over her and told her father to just let her die. He took her home, put her in a shoe box, and put her in the oven until she responded. And she lived and had a numerous posterity.) I put Fred in a container on a hot pad in a warm oven and I sat by the oven and watched him. His ears started to twitch, and his tail moved. After a few minutes his breathing started regulating. I could tell the little gerbil blood in his veins was circulating. I started trying to give him drops of water. He wouldn't drink but he responded to the water on his face. After 30 minutes of watching him in the oven he started stirring. Another ten minutes or so and he was trying to get out of the container. I knew this would happen if he "came to" and I didn't save him to lose him to the oven burners! I grabbed his little foot and saved him just as he was plunging to a firey death. I was shaking as I held him.
We brought up his cage and put it on the oven door and kept him warm. After an hour or so he started drinking! What a miracle! I felt so happy that this little rodent came back to life. Its now been 24 hours and he seems fully recovered and trying to escape from his cage again. We are going to get him a mate so he can have a posterity.

Bye Bye Skippy

We lost another gerbil today. Strange. We can't figure out what happened this time. I suspect it might have been our fault this time. Savanna made a ladder out of glue and popsicle sticks and we put it in their cage, they chewed it all up and maybe Skippy ingested some glue or something. It was kind of out of the blue again. The kids were much less traumatized, even despite the fact that Skippy looked like he had been knawed on by Fred a little. Ick. We had another funeral, but our camera is broken so no pictures. Now we are considering getting a female and seeing the baby gerbil process.

Seth Snow gave a nice talk today "prior to going on a mission" to Mexico. He leaves for the MTC and Shawana Schauers' baby is due and I'm graduating all within the same week. Crazy for the Schauers family. March is just about over and I'm still alive, so maybe March madness won't do me in after all. I was honored to win a Shumway social justic paper contest this week. I was invited to a lunch with faculty and was awarded $400.00. It was a nice end to a busy week.

Here is a picture from pirate island I thought was cute of Jared:

March Madness

We celebrated Karli's birthday on March 7th, she is 21 now!!! We made her breakfast in the morning and then I got a babysitter after school so she could have the afternoon off. We went to pirate island for dinner later and had fun eating pizza and watching her open her treasure chest of presents. ASIDE: Savanna is cute in this picture, I haven't given a Savanna update for a while. She is trying to overcome a bad habit of biting her nails lately. She has a tendency to forget homework assignments on the day they are due, and without mom to remind her she has learned to come home, grab the homework, and take it right back to school. She is a good girl, she has a fun sense of humor, and she loves to listen to music. She even takes the MP3 player to bed to help her fall asleep. She has to have noise coming out of her mouth at all times and seems to like noise to cope with things. Interesting! She has a playlist with 100 songs. She likes to sit in the hot tub more than the other kids, even by herself, and responsibly showers after. She is getting tall too! We love our Savanna.


Weston has been showing a strong interest in basketball lately. I've never thought to put him in basketball but he goes out and dribbles every day and because we have no hoop he throws it at the tree. He wants a basketball for his birthday.


Jared took the kids down to Gunnison to visit Grandpa Neil this weekend while I went up to Salt Lake for a two day ASWB exam prep course. Jared took this picture of him and I think its a pretty good one! The kids had fun swimming, feeding the chickens, and watching movies.

I on the other hand was having fun in downtown Salt Lake studying. My friends Shannon Young and Kim Brimhall went with me. We had 3 hours of class Friday and then we had a nice dinner in an Italian Restaurant and stayed the night in the Marriot. We didn't just play we studied until 10 and woke up at 5 and studied again. Kim and I took advantage of the work out room though. Before class we found a great local bakery and had quiche and crescent rolls with ham and hot chocolate. It was a lot of fun despite the 7 hours of class we had all day Saturday. I am so ready to graduate but I will miss my association with my classmates.

Shannon and Kim



March madness includes:
- Preparing for the national ASWB exam I have to pass in order to be a certified social worker, which is taking many more hours than I have in my week. I am sceduled to take it April 7th.
- 12 credits of classes I study for and attend, 3 credits of which is a group class where I am experiencing being a client and trying to face many of my flaws and receive feedback in attempt to be more self aware.
- 20 draining hours of internship at the prison.
- Alumni liaison for the committee of "March is Social Work month" lecture series which takes place March 17th, arranging speakers and preparing for a large scale service project.
- Making sure reading and homework gets done, kids are fed, and childcare is provided which did get tricky on Monday when the kids were out of school all day for "snow make up day."
- Debriefing with Jared whenever I can and finding time for dates
- Sunday callings, musical number prep, choir practice leading, and Sunday dinner guests
- Soccer practices for Wes and Sav that have already begun
- Trying to rest enough so I don't retain any permanent mental damage

37 days til Graduation