These are only my impressions because Matt isn't home from work yet. I'll let you know what he thinks of his classes later (since I can't get him to write on his own yet.. on here that is. He *is* literate). Anyway - here's an overview of my classes thus far and my first impressions of them. (First impressions because out of five classes, I've only had one of them twice).

MWF - Intro to Individual Psychotherapy
Instructor - Matt Draper

Oh laws! I seriously think this is going to be one of my favorite classes! (This happens to be the one I've had twice so far.) Matt is a bit of a nut - but he's so amazing! Today we talked about how pretty much none of the theories we're going to use really speak to the human soul like poetry does. We also talked about how important it is for a therapist to connect to their client in order to help them. It seemed to be the general consensus from like 5 people in my class who've been through therapy, not to mention Matt - who's been on both sides of the coin. I left today feeling so happy! I even had to write a journal entry after it, while sitting in my car :)

W evenings - Intro to Group Psychotherapy
Instructor - Jack Jensen

You must be thinking that I needed therapy, right? Well perhaps I do! Anyway, this is a one night a week class. I think it's going to be fun. It is supposed to run for 2.5 hours, so the first 1.5 hours, we're going to have group. Jack believes that the best way to learn how to conduct group therapy is to be in group therapy - so we will be! He seems likeable - and Danny took it from him and LOVED it (that's why I just had to take it!). After group, we'll get a break and then come back and talk about the book and stuff. (side note - I ordered 3 classes worth of books from half.com - and the one for this class came today! It was the first one!)

TR - Social Psychology
Instructor - Brett Breton

First impression was - "Hey Tyrel!" K, that's not of the class, but I was so excited to see him in this class. We had English and PoliSci together our first semester, kept in touch a little, exchanged wedding invites, and lost touch. I was so happy to know he's still around!
Anyway, Brett seems nice. I'm reserved as to just how well we'll get along though. He can be funny, but long winded, and his accent ... bugs? I dunno.. it's just weird. It's not like I can't understand him or anything. (He was born in Cali but grew up in Mexico City.) I left wondering if anything I might be reserved about is coming from the difference in cultures. We'll just have to see how it goes.
As for the class - we have to do some papers that sound entertaining. The first is about breaking a social norm - we have to pick a social norm (ie. personal space) and write about how people react to it. I think it sounds fun. The second one is similar, but a little more involved. An interesting thing is he doesn't care if we work individually or in groups. We can seriously work in a small group and turn in one paper with all our names on it!

TR - Personality Theory
Instructor - Cameron John

I wasn't stoked about this class. It's not my fav. subject. I really wanted to take Clinical Interviewing, but McKenna (my academic advisor) wouldn't overwrite it to let me take it since I hadn't taken Social Work 1010. I took Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology! Isn't that good enough? So anyway, I decided on Personality Theory because I had Dr. John in high school through distance education (the first time I took Psych 1010 :) ) I didn't get a great grade, but I was a junior in her first college course, what do you expect? I did remember, however, that I liked the teacher, so I figured I could handle this class.
Oh laws! Dr. John is better in person! We started with a lis of emotion words and talked about emotions for awhile. It was fun. Try describing what "tired" feels like! We had a great discussion, and I actually think this will be another favorite class. As much as I hate papers, we're like one of three classes on campus utilizing the Writing Scholars program from the writing center, so I should be fine. It sounds cool too. Plus! we have a presentation in front of the class, and he gave us options with it. It sounds way fun. I'm actually excited for it.

TR - Physiological Psychology
Instructor - Dr. Yells

Last, but not least, I have Phys. Psych. I'm kind of excited for it because I haven't taken a hard science in awhile, and I actually enjoyed my biology courses. It'll be fun to combine the two (bio and psych). Dr. Yells through me for a loop though - we just jumped into lecture on the first day! After awhile, we took a break and passed out the syllabus, then lectured some more. I think I'll enjoy it though, however, it probably won't be a fav. We'll have to see though. Apparently the beginning is like the stupid Chem chapter that prefaces any intro bio course. We have to get the basics of neurology out of the way so we can talk about how it affects/creates psychology. (ie. what is the biological process of emotion/sleep/etc.)
I'll admit, it was nice to be back in the science building too.

So there are my first impressions of my classes this semester. Hopefully I can survive! :)

So this particular post doesn't really have a focus. Mostly I just wanted to add more posts. I'm sure there'll be a post in a few days, once we get back into school. School starts this Wednesday. I'm excited, but I'm also nervous. It's been awhile since I've taken a full semester, and now I'm jumping into 15 credits! I'm excited though because I only have 3 more semesters until I'm done with my bachelor's! Wahoo! I can't wait... Ok, I have to wait, but I'll get over it.

Let's see, what else is going on? Band and branch stuff seem to be going well. The band just implemented band leadership councils. Hopefully some of the tensions can be worked out now. However, I have vowed to just keep my mouth shut ('cept to Matt and Shawn obviously, but it's ok, cuz they're IN the band ;) ). The band also just hosted the most recent quarterly meeting of the Great Basin branch of The Western United States Pipe Band Association (WUSPBA - http://www.wuspba.org/ - a prime example of things pertaining to pipe bands having WAY too long of names). Aside from the slight talking in circles at the end, I'd say it was pretty productive. I think I'm going to attend more of them. I really enjoyed it because I got to find out more what is on the docket for the branch AGM (annual general meeting). I'm way excited for it because after the 2 hours of actual AGMness - they're holding a clinic! I have recently become a huge fan of clinics. :) I must like learning or something.

Umm.. oh, the other day, like last week, Bhuvan broke a blood feather. It was kind of scary because I've read how dangerous that can be. (Birds can bleed to death very easily.) I think we got lucky with it though. There was no blood in the cage, and he wasn't really bleeding all over when we found out. We called up Dr. Ipsen in Payson, and paid a pretty lovely emergency fee. ($59 for the emergency fee alone, total - $95! Granted, it was like 9pm.) It made me feel better though since he's avian trained.

We found out Bhuvan currently weighs 83 grams. Even though he's been sneezy - the doc says Bhuvan appears to be quite healthy. He estimated Bhuvan's age to be about 8 months. (We had no idea we were supposed to ask how old the bird was when we got him.)

Anyway, Dr. Ipsen and his nurse restrained Bhuvan and plucked the broken feather. He said it looked like it had broken before and sort of scabbed over, and Bhuvan must've broke it again while preening. (Makes sense since I actually noticed blood on the tip of his beak before we found where he was bleeding from.) We think he might have broken it while flying around the house. His wings are clipped, so he doesn't really get height, causing him some funky, crash-like landings. However, Bhuvan recovered very well and is a spoiled little bird. Poor thing is going to have a shock when we're both in school AND work.

On August 16th we had the Jackson Scottish Festival. The band did very well, taking first in both quick march medley and timed medley. We took first in piping both times. And second and third in ensemble and drumming (don't ask me which we took what in, cuz I dont' know).

Matt took second in 2/4 and 6/8 March, behind Dusty Gunn. It was expected, but Matt is most definitely improving. (Thanks Andrew!) Shawn only competed in MSR (march, strathspey, reel), and took second behind Justin Howland. Also expected. He opted out of Hornipe, Jig since he was having drone reed issues.

This year, we started a new tradition with having a clinic with the judges on Sunday. It didn't go quite as planned, but I still really enjoyed it. We got to have an open forum with the judges (Jimmy Bell, Patrick Reagan, and Ed Best). After a few hours of going over EVERYONE's score sheets (it was ok, we all have a lot of the same problems, and they did well to generalize their comments), we broke into pipers and drummers. I have no idea what the drummers did, since I'm a piper. However, Jimmy went over a few people's pipes and helped them be set up a little better. Then Patrick taught us a simple piobaireachd (pronounced kinda like pee-brock). For my first introduction to piobaireachd, it was actually not too bad!

Since nothing really went according to plan, we didn't get fed lunch. We finished at 2:30, filled up the cars, and stopped at Wendy's before heading home. Overall, the weekend was quite nice, especially compared to last year, which was quite cold and rainy.

So today was new phone day! Huzzah! Long process though. It took about 70 minutes to get everything settled. Matt got a titanium Blackberry Pearl. He seems to like it quite a bit. He especially likes the scrolling wheel. :)

It really has a

Yesterday was our first year anniversary. :) We didn't really do anything that special. Initially, Matt had the weekend off, but then he got promoted and no longer had it off :( We were also supposed to have band practice last night (Jackson is this weekend), but a lot of people couldn't make it. So after going to work all day, we went to the mall and had dinner and watched Hancock. Matt wasn't impressed with the effects (mostly flying), but I still thought it was a cute show. Short too, especially by today's standards. So that was pretty much all we did - but it was really nice to spend time together. Ocassionally I'd think back one year ago to everything that happened the day we got married. I guess it was a good disruptive ceremony (take an anthropology class at UVU from Ed Andrus), because even one year later, I still remember quite a bit of it. It was kind of funny because we were sort of acting like newly-weds again. It was nice though :)

We didn't do any actual presents. Instead, tomorrow (Wednesday), we are getting new phones and our own family plan. My contract expires Wednesday, and my phone is broken, so I'm using an older phone . . but its wall charger died, so I have to charge it in the car. It seems like a good time to take another step to independence... and debt if you think about it. lol I currently don't pay for my line, and Matt only pays the $10 for his, plus any overages. Fortunately, Matt got a raise :) However, with this raise, he thinks he needs to move to Orem. We're kind of looking into it. I'm fine where we are at though, for the moment. We'll probably move out of state once Matt graduates in about 2.5 years, so why not stay with cheap rent and either a) pay off debt, b) buy toys we won't be able to afford later, or c) save for a house/increased rent OR a baby... lol

Anyway, point is, we had a good anniversary, even though we didn't really do anything "special." (Maybe one year I'll get to go to Hawaii or something.) Even though being married isn't always easy - I wouldn't have it any other way. I couldn't live without Matt if I had the choice. We're still a pretty happy couple :) They say like the first 7 to 10 (I can't remember which it is) years are the hardest. That's a long time! But at least we got the first one out of the way ;)