A Brief and Relatively Thorough Update

Here's a brief and relatively thorough update in five parts.


I'm loving my last semester. I'm taking Senior Writing Seminar (which isn't a seminar at all. Serious misnomer there.), American Literature, Digital Imaging, World Religions, and College Algebra. Quick summary of all of them. Ready go.
Senior Writing: The whole class consists of three elaborate book reports and two portfolios. We read a book, create a PowerPoint/video trailer for it, create a visual representation, give a 20 minute presentation, and write a study guide. And we create two professional portfolios. Pretty fun class. Super, super, super glad I don't have to write a paper. And yes, I recognize the irony of that. It doesn't sound too rigorous, but the quality expectations are super high (prize for using "super" more than three times!) and it's a competitive class. But I'm really enjoying it.
American Literature: Also really enjoying this class. We're studying literature from 1865-1945, and I love it. It's the Realist and Modern periods, and I definitely enjoy that more than Romantic or Victorian literature. (Every time I read Emerson, I say Well yeah, but that's not how it really works in the world. Can't stand that man. Dang idealist.) It's a relatively heavy workload, but not bad.
Digital Imaging: It's a photography class, so I'm learning how to use my new DSLR and Photoshop. I'm trying really hard to overcome my genetic disinclination for picture taking. It's hard. I feel really inexperienced, but it's also been really, really fun. Tomorrow we're going on a field trip to a ghost town to take pictures all day. Super excited.
World Religions: Also an interesting class. I'm taking it from Brother Huff, which is fun. I took my very first religion class from him. We've studied Hinduism, Buddism, and we're just starting Judaism. It's not a lot of work and pretty interesting. It's also really interesting to study other religions in the context of a religious school. It's really different from other religion classes.
College Algebra: I'm taking this class because I'm tired of being/thinking I'm bad at math and I refuse to function under an assumption based on foolish childhood decisions. I'm actually really, really liking the class. My teacher is great, and I'm grasping concepts. So yeah, that's kind of a big deal. Literally the only time in my life I can remember enjoying math.

Jake is working at a manufacturing shop in Rigby. He's doing CAD design and loves it. He's designed parts for a cement truck, humidifier, filtration system, and lots of other things. The man was born to be an engineer. He can take any idea and make it more efficient and easier to use.

Jake works 4 ten hour days a week, which means he works 6 am to 5 pm. Which means that we get up at 5 am. I'm actually liking it. I get up with Jake and then stay up and work on homework. I get about 2 or 3 hours done every morning. I still do about 12-16 hours of homework a day, but the few hours in the morning really help cut down on my load the rest of the day. I can't wait to graduate. I'll be kind of sad because I have extreme nostalgia issues, but I'm a better wife when I'm not in school. True fact.

Everything else is just great. Nothing else really to report (except that I learned how to ride my bike with no handlebars!). We're just living the dream.