Baltimore Harbor

Baltimore Harbor behind us

Aboard the USS Torsk 

Aboard the Lightship Chesapeake 

(A lot more room then the Submarine) 

Aboard the USS Constellation 

Overall was a very nice day in Baltimore. The ships were my highlight of the day. 

Ocean City

Dane's car made it from coast to coast.

Boardwalk

 The new world behind me.

Good Ol' Land of Mary

 Last week in lab we had to catch chickens, walk horses around and catch sheep. I didn't think it was as fun as the week before. I discovered that I'm kind of scared of chickens that was my first time needing to catch one. Chickens are so weird how they look, behave and their anatomy. I grew up in an urban area so you would see your typical house pets;  dogs, cats etc. In the past few years there has been a trend for our neighbors to get chickens. Apparently chickens are good for yards because they stir the dirt. And my neighbors used them for eggs. I thought it was neat. (A little annoying that we already had a dog, a Poodle which is a "bird hunter"). But I wanted to try it out sometime when I got older. Now I am not so sure...  Leading the horses around was fun to be with the horses but felt like I didn't learn anything new. And the sheep were okay. My first test will be this Wednesday.
  Winter is coming. It is getting cold! And my body does not make very much heat. Below is a picture of Dane and I at the National History Museum in Dallas, Texas. In January 2011. We really liked that museum it had a lot of neat things. One part of the museum had all these flip boards that had a creature and asked how much of their DNA was the same as in Humans. Dane got them all right except one. I was surprised I didn't know any of them.

 I worked outside for a major part of my shift last Saturday at the Football game. Thankfully I was under heated lamps.  Dane works outside all of his shifts.  I don't think my circulation being so poor helps me in anyway. I wonder why that genetic trait persisted. All sides of my family came from pretty cold places. Maybe some are not that cold but still; France, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. To try to prepare for the cold Dane and I went to a sporting good store that sold Under Armor. We bought some thermals. I wish I had gotten thermals earlier. However, I really don't know how helpful they will be since my body doesn't seem to produce very much heat. (except for at night where my feet are on fire) For my sheep class I got coveralls and I loved them! I wish I could wear them everywhere. I guess I could I would just be embarrassed. They kept me warm.
  I was told before I came to the East that people here aren't as nice as the West. I'm starting to really discover that that is true. So much honking! And just straight out rudeness from folks. There are really nice people here but it seems that the rude ones out number them.
  There are so many people everywhere. Shopping is a nightmare. I hate shopping to begin with but the amount of people here make it ten times worse. It seems when I need things things there is not nearly enough employees to help. I've always hated driving and the driving here is a lot busier.  My nurse told me today that Maryland was voted number one for the worst traffic in the Country. Hopefully I'll come out of this a better driver :)

Becoming a Terp

On August 22 I had Orientation for the University of Maryland. I had a lot of extra time to explore the campus. The campus is the biggest campus I have ever seen! It is very beautiful. I will be happy when I know where everything is. The food court was also really big and nice. 

 I really liked Utah State and Logan it had its own more small town ways. University of Maryland will be exciting for the bigness I think. I also think it is more of a big deal to attend here than Utah State. It is harder to get into and is a much higher ranked school.  I have been happy with my decision to come here. Really happy in fact all until it was time to register for classes. I went to register and saw that UMD accepted barley any of my generals at Utah State. At Utah State I finished all my generals and was moving on to the pre-vet stuff. Here they are basically saying I have to start all my Core classes over again! Which I cannot do. I sent all my course descriptions to be reevaluated but we shall see. If they end up not taking my generals I may have to come back to Utah State. Which I would be sad about. This feels like a new chapter in my life. 

  One thing I must say was nice about Utah State is that they did not have all the papers I have had to fill our here. I have had to do all these health insurance and immunization records Utah State didn't ask for any of that. Thanks Utah State for that :) Dane's diploma is in our living room every time I see it I am filled with pride. I feel like getting a diploma is no easy thing. 

So far I have had two days being a Terp Host. Both times I was an usher for the event "The Global Prayer Summit". I like is so far. It was neat being at the global prayers summit there were so many people so happy. The religion that held it was called "The Shadow of the Almighty Prayer and Deliverance Church."  Everybody there was of color and most were from Africa. There was a lot of fun music which I enjoyed. There was also a lot of yelling most of which I couldn't understand just caught parts like if you pray you will be raised. A lot of the people had brooms and oil. One guy came up to my section and was singing and dancing to the music. He said his mom set up this event and he was proud of her. It was a really neat experience.
  It is weird for me to greet people. Normally I don't ever approach people. And now I need too.

At our wedding one really neat gift we got were these glasses. It was a very non-original gift. We were sad there wasn't an Avenger cup with Thor. Thor is both our favorite. Thor has only recently became  my favorite. I have just learned a lot about Vikings and Vikings gods from Dane and have grown a fondness for them.  Lol we even have Thor hammer necklaces made from Dane's Grandma. We were both very excited for them. Not many people around the US have Thor hammer necklaces that we know about.  I think it is neat that both are names are Scandinavian. Mine means Ever Powerful and Dane's mean Person from Denmark :)

Since I'm going on about neat gifts I really like things with names in them.

We got these for our wedding from a lady in my old home ward and really liked them.

Our Home in Maryland/ Math transfer difficulties

 We still do not have much furniture but here are some pictures of what we have so far. 

This is our bed :) The bed spread was made my Grandma June a few years ago. I love it and was really happy to have a queen again to use it. The pillow cases were made my little sister Alyssa. The Dinosaur blanket is Dane's I believe he got it from his parents when he was little. The bear is Blue Bear it has been Dane's prized possession since he was one. Eeyor I got a few years ago. When I was little he was always my favorite character on Winnie the Pooh. 

 Below is Dane's computer and where he put all his posters. Those posters include maps from his favorite video games, pictures he has drawn, the galaxy, and genealogy charts.

 This is our guest Bathroom. Dane chose everything. We got it at Bed Bath and Beyond where we had a lot of money from our wedding. Thanks again everybody for the wedding gifts!

 I wanted a doormat with a C with swirls. But Dane wanted this one a lot more. Our house seems to have a critter theme.

 Dane put this up in our kitchen without me knowing and was really excited for me to see it. It is  kind of a fuzzy picture it reads:

"Cattle did, kindred die, Every man is mortal: 

But I know one thing that never dies,

the fame of a dead man's deeds."

-- The havamal

 I got these at my bridal shower from Dane's Grandma Dallyne. I thought they were so beautiful!

 This is our bathroom. Again Dane chose everything.  I think he would rather have had a whale but there  were none available.

 Dane got this towel as a Graduation gift. I can't remember who gave it to him :( I thought it was a good gift though.

 Our kitchen table for now :D It was originally planned for out TV.

 Our very low chandelier. Which Dane despises.

 Backyard

I was very excited to get a new home we had a few obstacles in our way. The main one being Internet. The Internet got installed last Wednesday! We technically could move into this house on August 8th but we did not officially move into it until the evening of August 20th. Only reason we moved out of Gary's apartment was that there was no more room. It was actually sad moving away we had a lot of fun there. I especially liked the first week we got to Maryland. Dane's mom and dad and Quinn were the only ones at the apartment at that time. I really like Dane's parents. Gary at that time had a little bit more open schedule so he was able to be around more.  After Maren left Gary had to stay at the Dorms at school. So both the parents were gone. Mikauli then moved in. I  like both Quinn and Mikauli but having them both there made a lot more fights.
  Dane then started working full time as a Construction worker. I am thankful he has a decent job now with good hours. It's just a really hard on his body. When Dane was at work from 6am till about 6pm I was basically home all day alone. Mikauli and Quinn had athletics to attend to. I  worked on my sheep paper, caught up on reading and kind of prepared for the math placement exam.
  Speaking of that Math placement exam, Math has been so frustrating for me through college. In high school I was pretty decent at math I could do it and for the most part I enjoyed Algebra. I then took geo/trig honors. That was a mistake in every way possible one taking geometry and trigenometry at the same time and taking an honors course. I did really poorly in that class. That was my Junior year and so decided not to take math my senior year. I really regret that decision. Math  is a lot harder in college. In my high school the next math course to take was pre-calculus it is a whole year class. In College it is only a semester. Anyways when I got to College I was way behind in Math mainly because I had not taken it in a year and just needed a review. But did not have the materials I needed to review so started from the very beginning Math900 (beginning Algebra) Then in the Summer I took Math1010  (Basically what algebra 2 was in high school)  Then I took Math 1050 (College Algebra or pre-calculus). I did not do very well in that class I of course have a million excuses why :) My schedule was too full, the teacher was bad. I studied so hard for those tests and never came out with a good grade :(  All my finals were at the first two days of the week one after the other. I passed with a C though and was able to move onto Calculus. Calculus I worked at really hard too but did not do well I ended up with a D. For my major the reason I needed to take Calculus was to take a physics class. To move on to physics I needed anything better than a D. So I knew I would need to retake it.
  In the summer I decided to apply to the University of Maryland. I knew I would need to retake Calculus there too because a D was still not passing. I assumed because I had just recently taken all those math classes they would accept them all except for Calculus. Nope they didn't accept any and wanted me to take a math placement exam. I took it not having anytime to prepare and the want me to start all over again! I can't continue taking on classes without those maths. I will try to prepare this semester. But jeez it is so frustrating.

   That was a really big tangent. Math has given me and is giving me a huge headache.

So Dane and I lived at Gary's till Saturday when he came home from the dorms then the next Tuesday or Wednesday the rest of the family came up so Maren, Macloud and Torriana. It has been nice having them here. I like them all a lot. Having Maren means I actually do stuff again. Dane and I only have one car so I am still just left at home. School will start on Wednesday and then the Dairy should start soon. Terp host is usually just on the weekends for events.