I wish that I had pictures.

I ran into some kittens yesterday living under a bush next to the Jesse Knight Building.
They were quite young, old enough to be away from Mom without issue, but only by a few weeks.


I couldn't get close to them, but I had hoped to come back later and get them adopted. However, (perhaps luckily) another girl who had also been looking at them got there first. She has a relative in the area who has agreed to take them.

Conclusion of this story: Caroline called a whole bunch of people for the purpose of looking into this problem. I'm looking into the possibility of instituting a catch-and release program here at the "Y" (getting the cats fixed so that they don't "multiply and replenish" our campus). My current dilemma: where would I release them?

Anyone have any ideas or helpful hints for me? (or a humane trap- I know dad has one)

love,
Caroline

Homework or Cats? Cats.

We have feral cats on campus. I have seen them before. Usually you don't get a very good look at them. Poor BYU students- we all live in BYU-Contracted housing where there are no pets allowed. Freshmen especially tend to miss their animals back home.Grace and I always talk about how much we miss our cats.

So today I met up with one of these feral cats and it made my day about 10,000,000 times better. Not that I was having a bad day. Cats just make things that much better all the time.

When I came to meet with him (dubbed a "him" because a bunch of boys found him- but we went back and forth for a while)there was one boy watching, but not coming very close. I came in and started petting him. He purred very quietly and rubbed his face into my hand. Friends of the first guy brought some bologna from the creamery and we fed it to the cat.




They named the cat Akon because he was from "the ghetto". I have decided to name him Zeezrom- because, as the LDS people will know, Zeezrom was a bad guy in the Book of Mormon, made clean through repentance and went on to be a great missionary. Perhaps, like Zeezrom, this cat will be "made clean" and find a new life.

So, despite the paper that I need to finish by Monday- I came back to play with Zeezrom and take some pictures.





He's a Manx, as you can see in this picture. The boys maintain that his tail was bitten off by a Coyote.

We played with the string on my keys and the light reflected off of my camera.



This guy scared him off with his roll-ey backpack.



He looks just like Charlemange:

Switching Majors?

My opinion on this changes every day.

I am (right now) majoring in History Teaching. My adviser suggested that I think about switching to Teaching Social Sciences. I am now thinking about it every day. I can't escape it.

In the grand scheme of things, I understand that this will not significantly effect my life as a whole- especially since it is such a subtle change. I admit that I am a bit afraid to switch. Though everyone says not to be.

Mom says that I shouldn't switch- because she feels that I should stick to what I care most about. But really what I care most about (when it comes to my career) is teaching at all. I love the social sciences (though out of them, history is my favorite). Mom also says that being specific to teaching will make me more impressive and better qualified. Teachers that I have talked to say that I am more hire-able if I can teach a variety of subjects. With my English teaching minor and Teaching Social Sciences I can teach:

any High School English class
US History
World History
World Geography
Human Geography
Psychology
Sociology
Government
and Economics.


Right now I want to switch. Though if I do, there is the matter of a senior thesis, which for history majors (like me right now) is certain. I understand it a little, and we all take part in a similar project. If I switch what shall become of me four years from now? I guess I can take whatever they throw at me.

What do you think?

Snow on the Mountains!

I should have posted before now, but with midterms and term papers I do what I can.

So last week we got an intense storm. The mountains disappeared!



When the clouds departed, there was snow!



There has been snow since then- but in different places every day.


It feels like December here. I keep thinking that I should be preparing for Christmas, then I realize that it is October.

Yesterday, for Family Home Evening, my "family" and I decorated cookies for Halloween. I stole a tradition from back home and made the cookies into Jack-O-Lanterns. I had to use a mix and pre-made frosting. Mom was right. They were a little gross. I learned a very important lesson.

Repeat after me:

I will ALWAYS Make my own frosting.

Good job. I'm glad that we've agreed.

I will post about Halloween soon. It's pretty intense.

Promised Pictures of the Promised Land

Some Halloween Decorations:













Today in the rain:

Welcome to Zion!

I'll start with a nod to Miranda, who inspired me to do this. Admittedly, Provo Utah is not as cool as Rennes, France. It is, however a different world. Here I am in the heartland of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and at BYU no less. We're not in Kansas anymore.

I'll catch you up on what's going on.

For those who are not LDS, I'll explain. Not everyone in Provo, or even at BYU is a Mormon; however, there are more of us than you can shake a stick at. ;) There are meetinghouses everywhere. There is a Temple in almost every town, in fact, just last Sunday, it was announced that the old (burnt down) Provo Tabernacle will be fixed up and dedicated as the SECOND PROVO TEMPLE!!!!! It's a far cry from Arizona, which I still consider to be thoroughly saturated with Mormons.

Apart from the overwhelming influence of Mormon culture, there are other diiferences between Provo, Utah and Phoenix, Arizona. The weather here is fantastic, and we get cool things like fall colors, Creamery ice cream and BYU's poetry reading series- where cool poets come and read their work to us.



This last month has been overwhelming, but manageable. Everyone here is really considerate and I've made new friends in my classes, my residence hall, at church, and in my Family Home Evening group.Schoolwork has been challenging but not impossible, I have more reading but also more time. I signed up to tutor in an Adult literacy program called project READ. I do not have a student yet.

I started seeing Fall Colors last week!







The mountains become more orange every day. On Monday my Family Home Evening group played capture the flag in the rain (our group lost). Today it rained again and there is snow on some of the mountains.

Halloween is right around the corner. I put up decorations yesterday. I've heard that it's a big deal here.

I'll add more pictures that I just took in a while.