Welcome Little Max!

Jordan's sister Miranda and her husband Jared had their new little son Max blessed by this handsome crew today :)

Jordan's super classy/elegant grandma & Max

The little man of the hour

We love you already little Max-- welcome officially! :)

Nightmare of Death... aka Finals

Actually really it hasn't been that bad so far. As demonstrated by the fact that I am writing a blog post right now instead of studying Italiano.... managia, what is wrong with me?? Alas, I am not as diligent of a studying machine as my husband, who is currently enslaved in the other room creating his cheat sheet (the legal kind that the teacher lets you make) for Epidemiology. In good news, he got NINETY-EIGHT (98... i just wanted to write it twice) on his first exam today!! What a stud. Here's crossin our fingers for that kind of outcome the rest of the week! Everybody knows he deserves it :).

In other news... we're both pretty ready for Christmas break. Here's my list of priorities:

1. Spend a day laying on the floor and staring at the ceiling. So my brain can heal.

2. Spend a day in bed/laying around the house/watching tv/reading books/never going outside/watching our fire

*i don't know who this lady is, but she's the blonde version of Christmas-Break Kelsey*

3. Maybe spend another day or two like that.

4. Oh yea and grade all those tests and final papers from the class I co-teach (sweet huh? except for the grading after finals gig. which honestly doesn't even sound that bad compared to studying)

5. Read a book or two. Got my eye on A Thousand Sisters and The Forgotten Garden.

6. Learn how to use the suhweet new camera Jord and I got ourselves for Christmas, also compliments of the generous Christmas donation from my parents (thanks padres!)

*beautiful, no? props to Jord for finding a screeeeaaaming deal on it*

7. Play/snuggle/nap with this adorable English Springer Spaniel puppy our neighbor just bought:

*don't you just want to die???*

As for my silly husband, I imagine he wants to spend his time doing something absurd like this:

*or let's be honest, what he REALLY wants to be doing is this:*

Silly man. Well, you can find me laying on the floor next to our fire for the next two weeks :)

Happy-Almost-Freedom-Break-Christmas-Joy!!!

The Ease of Criticism

I loved this so much I just wanted to put it out there to the world:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

--Theodore Roosevelt

Ever been criticized while trying to do a good work? Not that I have done a lot of good works yet, but in my various attempts, I have noticed that others can be quick to criticize. This quote gave me heart!

Human Trafficking Conference at BYU

Hey all! Just wanted to put the word out about the Human Trafficking Conference at BYU this upcoming week, October 28 and 29. It is FREE which is amazing for a conference of this scale and with the quality of presenters/keynote speakers it is sponsoring. The conference is focusing on methods of assisting victims of human trafficking through research, policy, and practice. Kevin Bale, the President of Free the Slaves and author of several well known books about ending slavery, is the keynote speaker for the conference and I am SO excited! There are numerous other exceptional pioneers in the anti-trafficking field who will be presenting as well. I will also be presenting with a professor at BYU about the role of supply and demand in sex trafficking and different legal approaches of combating it.

This is something I would encourage everyone to take an interest in-- we applaud ourselves for ending slavery, but human slavery is worse than it has ever been. Every year 4.3 million people are trafficked into slavery, including 17,000 people into the U.S. Fifty-six percent are women and girls, and 1.4 million women and children are trafficked into sex slavery every year. The illegal sale of human slaves is the second most lucrative illegal market in the world, second only to the illegal sale of drugs (it recently surpassed the sale of illegal arms). The way these women and children are abused, violated, and treated is not unlike the description Moroni gives to Mormon in Moroni 9:9-10 of the Book of Mormon:

9 And notwithstanding this great ^aabomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum. For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after ^bdepriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is ^cchastity and ^dvirtue—

10 And after they had done this thing, they did murder them in a most ^acruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts, because of the hardness of their hearts;
and they do it for a token of bravery.

This is a violent, brutal, and vulgar practice that Satan has encouraged for all of time, and now more than ever with this escalating global market, we need to do what we can to combat it. The brutalization, abuse and exploitation of our brothers and sisters is an unbearable offense that we must make an effort to end. I would encourage everyone to take the time to attend at least some of this conference and reflect on what we can to do aid our brothers and sisters who are being thus exploited. You can register to attend any or all of the sessions at this website: http://swevents.byu.edu/.

“Honor killings, sexual slavery, and genital cutting may seem to Western readers to be tragic but inevitable in a world far, far away. In much the same way, slavery was once widely viewed by many decent Europeans and Americans as a regrettable but ineluctable feature of human life. It was just one more horror that had existed for thousands of years. But then in the 1780s a few indignant Britons led by William Wilberforce, decided that slavery was so offensive that they had to abolish it. And they did. Today we see the seed of something similar:
a global movement to emancipate women and girls.”
-- Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl Wudonn, Half the Sky

If you haven't seen the film Amazing Grace before, I recommend seeing it. It's probably my favorite movie of all time. It's impossible to not be moved by the work, passion, and commitment of William Wilberforce in ending the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. We need that kind of commitment and compassion more than ever now, as the enslavement of the world's most vulnerable encroaches on becoming the most lucrative industry in the whole world.

my husband is an animal

Yep, it's true that Jordan ran the St. George Marathon last weekend. And with only FIVE weeks training, he:

--PRed at 2 hours and 34 minutes
--(That's 5:53 averages per mile, for 26.2 miles....)
--Placed 8th overall with nearly 7,000 runners
--Placed 2nd in his age group
--Is a champion

He also sacrificed a toe on his left foot. What?! Haha sorry, I meant toe nail. But yea his toe is like a giant blood blister with the toe nail falling off. Ouch!!! Takin one for the team.

Here's the documentation:






What a hunk of man meat! :)

Tagged

So I didn't officially get tagged for this game, but I've been doing homework for 8 hours straight on a Saturday, so I'm down for about any distraction right now:

1. What is your most embarrassing moment?
Probably when I was on my first date with my high school boyfriend. Everything was going soooo well, and then we got in a really fun pillowfight (we had just watched a movie at his house and his mom had a lot of those couch pillows) and I went to hit him with one but it flipped in my hand and instead I clocked him in the face. Ha! Can you believe it, he still liked me anyway and we dated for another year and a half :).

2. What is your greatest accomplishment, to date?
Probably getting Jordan to fall in love with me by writing him clever and entertaining letters for 5 years. But coming in second would be the very generous FLAS (foreign language and area studies) scholarship I just received to study Italian with my graduate school classes!

3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Realistic: San Luis Obisbo, CA.

Dreaming: Geneva, Switzerland or Cinque Terre, Italy

Wouldn't you want to live here too?

4. If you could only take 3 belongings with you on a mass exodus to somewhere else, what would you take and why?
My computer (let's be real, it's like an appendage at this point anyway), my bike (my pride and joy), and a good book :).

5. What is your dream date like?
Probably exploring a small town somewhere in Europe all day, conveniently located near an ocean where we can eat dinner overlooking the shore and sunset, and then sit in the sand and chat :).

6. What is your earliest memory?
I'm not totally sure which is earliest, but I do remember sitting in the little chair-contraption on the back of my mom's bike as we rounded a corner to the park we'd always go to. I think Trent was on my dad's bike, so maybe I was two? I also have some memories of going to Joy School, watching my mom make me macc n cheese, watching Fantasia for the first time, and some others. :)

7. If you could have anything to eat right this moment, what would it be?
Thai Mangoes and Sticky Rice, the yummiest dessert eeeeeeever.

8. If you had unlimited funds to start your own foundation, what would it do and what causes would it advocate?
Funny you should ask, I think about this all the time! I would create a foundation that advocates for girls' education and other methods of preventing and eliminating sex trafficking. Check out this website for a pithy video sum up: http://girleffect.org/question.

Maybe I'll get to an actual update on our life some day soon, but in a quick nutshell:

Jordan is being a rockstar as always :). He's taking a full load in school, continues to work with Capricia doing physical therapy, and was just called as the Elders' Quorum President in our ward (leader of the men's group). He will also be running the St. George marathon next week, which I am sure he will be amazing in!

I just started my Masters of Public Health (MPH) program at BYU, which is amazing! There are 11 other students in the program with me, and they are too much fun. I don't think I've ever enjoyed class this much! I also was fortunate enough to receive a FLAS scholarship, which promotes the study of European areas and studies. So I'm taking Italian and Western European Politics courses on top of my MPH load, totaling for 19 credits of school! WOW it's pretty busy, I feel like Jordan because now I study all the time (he's a great example ;). I'm also TAing/co-instructing the Refugee and Immigrant health class again, and that's just about enough to keep me busy!

:)

Nope, I didn't die, but it seems like this blog might have...

Hi all. What do you know but it's been months and months again since a post from yours truly! I'm sure you've all been hanging on the edges of your seats waiting for more, so here's another summed up recap of our Spring/Summer:

JORDAN ran his marathon in TWO hours and THIRTY-SIX minutes. For those of you who aren't hip on marathon times (like me, for example), those are sub-six minute miles for the ENTIRE 26 miles. Wowza, did I marry a rockstar or what?!?! He placed first in his age group, what a stud, and qualified for the Boston Marathon again. Amazing.

I took two art classes during Spring which I both thoroughly enjoyed and sort of detested in the same breath. I love to learn and I kind of need to be forced to paint if I'm ever going to actually finish anything, but I also really hate to have my work critiqued, mainly because I feel like art critique is so totally bogus/objective. Like, I'd get an 8 out of 10 points, but without any kind of explanation for why. Now if that happened on an essay, wouldn't everyone be frustrated? I for one, would not be satisfied with the response "I just didn't like it" or "It was missing that thing" (???). NO idea. Art.... I love and I hate it, what can a girl do.

Then, my sister Katie arrived for Summer term and we (Jordan, me, and her) had a blast hanging out at least one night a week partying. And it was a riot having my parents and Elise in town to drop her off. We always love having company,

especially such good-looking, fun, entertaining and hilarious company! ;)

Katie and I also took a bookbinding class together during Summer term, which was too much fun. We loved hanging out, not to mention I can't say enough about the art of bookbinding. Our teacher was a complete doll, and given the fact that we're both obsessed with

books, we were pretty much in heaven. Here's some of the fruits of my labor:

Thanks-Helping-Me-Graduate-Book for my Dad :)

Thanks-Helping-Me-Graduate-Book for my Mom :)

And a Baby Notebook for my friend and old roommate Jill who just had a beautiful baby girl!

Too much fun. Oh and as you may have deduced from the books for my mom and dad, I GRADUATED!!! Pretty awesome. And my awesome hubby decided to get me the entire Adobe Suite for graduation! It was a huge surprise to me.... he's much better at pulling those off than I am :). So here's my first attempt at monkeying around with photoshop:

Well, that's plenty for now I think... but stay tuned for a post about our trip to DC, Jord's birthday, and bunches of more fun. Or something like it :).

Hiatus

Well, I don't know if you noticed (probably not) but this blog pretty much dropped off the face of the earth this semester. Yep. Sorry blog. Ironically, though this is my last semester and you'd think it would fly by as a breeze, it has actually been my most difficult/crammed one yet!
Here's a few reasons why:
--I took the GRE and didn't fail
--I applied to grad schools
--I applied to fellowships
--I had a 150-hour internship working for the Grow Learn Give program
--I TAed for two (2!) classes
--I had 17 credits (aka a fullllll load)
--I got into grad schools
--I had to make a decision about grad schools (sorry U, hello Y)
--I applied to more fellowships
--I applied for scholarships
--I presented at BYU's Religious Symposium and won some dinero (we love dinero at our house)
--I took some midterms
--I graded everyone else's midterms
--I worked on my internship ALL the time
--During that time I made these suhweet booklets to help girls in Africa stay in school: Hygiene & Menstruation
--I thought "maybe I should do some homework"
--Sometimes I did homework
--Mostly I applied for scholarships though
--I graded some more people's tests and briefs
--I helped teach a college class (fun!)
--I borrowed young adult novels from the library and read them until 2 in the morning on a regular basis.
--I presented in 2 poster contests and won some more dinero (yessss!)
--I applied for a couple more scholarships
--I applied for graduation WOOT
--I thought "Maybe I should study for finals"
--I decided to write a post on this neglected blog instead.


FEWF! Well. That about sums up my hiatus from the blog world. So you're all caught up. As for hubby, his list probably goes something like this:
--He studies for Chemistry 24/7
--He hates chemistry
--He runs for about an hour a day, WOW
--He studies some more for Chemistry
--He makes me happy all the time
--He goes to work doing physical therapy
--He goes to meetings for Church
--He's getting ready to kick trash on his marathon (June 12)
--He gets more likable every day
--He studies for Chemistry

That's about how it goes for him. He rocks. And he's almost done with Chem for life (we hope).

Oh and I can't forget this:

Just a few weeks ago we celebrated our 2nd anniversary with a delicious dinner/dessert at the Cheesecake Factory! The food was ah-MAZING (we both got shrimp dishes, we're suckers for seafood), and the company was even better :). When you're engaged/first married I feel like everyone tells you how much hard work it's going to be, and ya I guess they're right it takes some work, but I feel like no one told me how much better it was going to get! That we would love each other even more two years later, that we'd get along SO much better, we would communicate lightyears better, and we'd have so much more FUN. Being married just gets better all the time :).

So.... now that it's finals weekend, I'm just about ready to not be in school anymore. Too bad I am graduating only to start an even harder version of school in the fall. Am I crazy!?! I think yes.

BUT.

I am really excited to be taking TWO art classes this Spring term. Yes, two. No essays, no research, just blissful painting classes for 12 hours a week. Delicious! I can't wait.

Also, probably the thing that is getting me through finals the most (besides the beautiful weather outside, the fact that my grades don't matter any more because I'm already in grad school, and looking forward to moving to a beautiful new house in 2 weeks) is looking forward to the trip Jordan and I are planning to this place later this summer:






Ah yes, we have decided to take an adventure to our nation's beloved Capital! And considering the fact that Jordan hasn't been east of Provo, UT, this is a very exciting prospect indeed. Oh except for Disney World (Florida). But that's just the happiest place on earth, directions are a bit pointless there really. Anyway. It's going to be amazing. No homework, no studying, just me and Jordan on a trip laughing and exploring and having a ball. Can't hardly wait!!!

Koins for Kenya Internship

Well, here's a sneak peak of what I've been working on for my current internship. I don't have a lot of time, but I thought I'd paste my internship description from my "Letters of Intent" below:

My commitment to literacy and prevention is currently manifested in my work as an intern for the non-profit organization Koins for Kenya. Working in partnership with LDS Humanitarian Services, we are developing female hygiene kits to aid girls in rural Kenya to overcome the challenges that adolescence poses to continuing education. Many young girls are forced to either miss school regularly during their menstrual cycle or withdraw altogether given their limited resources and the unsanitary conditions of their schools. Withdrawal from school is often followed by a variety of tragedies ranging from early marriage, to contraction of HIV, to obstructed labor and impending fistula. Research has demonstrated that by preventing withdrawal from school many of these painful outcomes can be prevented. Having personally learned from my research not only the cost of dropping out, but the increased potential of girls who complete their educations, I am delighted to become a part of the solution. As a complement to the re-useable menstrual pads and other products found in the hygiene kits, I am developing educational materials for the instruction of women and girls regarding their hygiene and the changes that occur during puberty. Though the project has just begun, I already eagerly anticipate the opportunity to pilot these materials in Kenya this summer with local women and girls. I am thrilled at the prospect of being engaged in this important work which will truly help eliminate disparities at the ground level; enabling young girls in rural Kenya to have a better chance of becoming educated, healthy members of their society.

Sorry, I'd write a paragraph just for the blog, but this one is great (maybe a bit out of context) and I'm busy :). lol. But so far it is going AMAZING and I love love love my work. We're planning to pilot the booklets in Africa, but the hope is that they can eventuallybe distributed worldwide. Hence the pictures of girls from different countries. The picture above is of a the mock-up I've made of the first page of the Hygiene & Sanitation Booklet I'm making (one of three, the others will be on puberty and menstruation). In this booklet we talk about germs, parasites, hygiene (from washing hands to preventing vaginal infections, which are a common and painful problem), methods of sanitizing water, how to make a tippy-tap (a basic device that helps water to flow over hands while washing them) and how to make a rehydration drink (dehydration is the #1 cause of death among children in developing countries). Awesome right? And I get to draw a lot of the illustrations, which is SO fun. It's the perfect blend of my two passions :).

More to come later. For now, I'll leave you with these startling facts to ponder on:

"More girls were killed in the last 50 years, precisely because they were girls, than men killed in all the wars in the 20th century. More girls are killed in this routine gendercide in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century."

and

"The equivalent of 5 jumbo jets worth of women die in labor each day... the life time risk of maternal death is 1,000x higher in a poor country than in the west. That should be an international scandal."
--Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl Wudonn "Half the Sky"

Life, Internship, Books... the whole shpeal

Well I've been a bit negligent with this blog. In my defense, I've been submitting 1-2 fellowship/scholarship/essay contest/grad school applications every week for about the last month or so. Hope I see some fruits for my labors (fruits in this case being some serious green! :). I'll keep everyone posted.

Well actually, I have heard back from one entry. I submitted an essay last Fall to BYU's Annual Religious Student Symposium, and was selected to give a 15-minute presentation about my essay "Female Rights in Islam: The Contextual Qur'an" at the symposium! Pretty neat. And I've been informed that I'll be receiving some kind of award... which could be one of the cash prizes, or an honorable mention. I'm crossing my fingers for the former! But regardless, I'm actually excited to talk about this essay because I think it's both fascinating and important. Here's my abstract, to sum up what I'll be talking about:

This submission discusses the place of women in the religion of Islam. Discussion includes an examination of both the treatment of women culturally (in both the East and West), as well as the various cultural and literal interpretations of the Qur’an regarding the treatment of women and their rights within Islam. This discussion demonstrates the discrepancies between modern, contextual interpretations of Islamic scripture with the poor treatment of women “based” on Islamic scripture. It becomes clear that the original intention of the Prophet Muhammad and the Qur’an is often inconsistent with Islamic culture, and that women of Islam can assert their rights by becoming literate and understanding the true interpretations of their holy book, the Qur’an. The paper concludes with a celebration that true, unadulterated Islam is a safe place for women, and with time and education hopefully they can find a healthier and more gospel-appropriate culture of women as equals to men.

What else? Well, we're both pretty busy with school and work and what not. Jordan is taking a healthy load of classes, he continues to work doing physical therapy (PT) with Capricia 3 times a week, and is applying to be a volunteer PT assistant at the hospital here. The hope is that if he volunteers for the next couple months and they like him (which I'm sure they will, who doesn't?!) that they'll hire him to work for them this summer. It would be a great job, pays well, and would give him the hours he needs for his applications to PT school (in two year and counting). Fewf! He also was recently released from his position in the Bishopric in our ward, having fulfilled the year that they ask us to serve in a student ward. It was bittersweet for both us-- more time together, but we both enjoyed the extra service to the ward. But Bishop didn't let us off the hook for long... within like 2 days we were called as Temple Prep instructors, so we're working with 3 couples in the ward who are preparing to attend the Temple and be sealed! We feel so fortunate to have this wonderful opportunity, and love learning more together.

As for me, I'm busy busy busy with applying to grad school, full-load of credits, an internship, and 2 jobs. I'm working as the TA for both Environmental Health (which Jordan is taking, fun huh!? Lol we've been joking about he's seducing the TA for a good grade... I'm still waiting for chocolates and flowers though... ;) and for the Refugee and Immigrant Health class that I helped Dr. Cole develop. Keeps me plenty busy. And on the note of refugees, here's a shout out on behalf of Haiti: if you go to iTunes there's a wonderful cd available from last week's "Hope for Haiti" program, which costs $8 and all the proceeds go to really great, reputable charity organizations working in Haiti. So if you're thinking about donating to the cause, this is a way you can donate, and get some beautiful (mostly) music to listen to as well!


Well, I think that's plenty for now. I'll have to bore you with details of my internship next time (although I won't lie, I find it REALLY interesting :). I'll wrap up with this picture of me and the suh-weet book I bound! A girl in the ward taught a group of us how to bind books, and I'm a bit obsessed. I'm really hoping to get into the bookbinding class at BYU this spring...

The Sick-Stress Theory (kelsey style)

Soooo I remember learning/reading that we tend to get sick when we're stressed. Most of us have probably heard this. Sad news for all of us students-- that makes for a very sick finals week! But I seem to be following a different trend. About a day or two after arriving in California for Christmas, right after finals were complete, I found myself feeling mighty sick. Similarly, I found myself one sick puppy beginning the very afternoon after taking the GRE this week. Still recovering, it's been a doozy. Questionable though, right? I'm thinking my body is taking on a new version of "sick when you're stressed," and this new version might be called "body, you better dang not get sick while i'm so stressed..." followed by a total body collapse after the stress is over. lol. Just a thought. Any similar experiences?