Here is a quick news update from us a little more than half way through the semester.  Thursday morning we got the call that Heather's Grandaddy had passed away.  It is a sad time for her (complicated by tests on Thursday and Friday) but we know he is in a better place now.  She flew out early Saturday morning to be with her family and attend the funeral.  I am going to work hard while she is gone to try and write as much of my Master's thesis as I possibly can.

A few weeks ago I was accepted to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.  We are still waiting to hear from the other schools but I will be visiting Case Western later this month to check out the program.  Anyone who has helpful advice about a possible move to Cleveland please comment on this.

Today our nephew Matthew was blessed in church.  My Dad flew out for the occasion and stayed with me last night.  This morning on our way to the blessing we stopped at the cemetery in Brigham City and looked around for my great-grandfather's gravestone.  Dad found some Bywaters (his grandma's line) pretty quickly but it took us 20-30 minutes to find B.C. Call's.  It is a massive stone inscribed with his and his wife's names on the front and their kids names on the back.  

B.C. Call's gravestone at Brigham City cemetery

Obviously I never met B.C. Call but Dad remembers him quite clearly.  He was a tremendous man.  He was the first player-coach of the Brigham Young Academy (now BYU) football team.  Later in life he became a lawyer and was made an honorary Indian chief for the legal help he gave to a Native American tribe.  I think my favorite story about him is about his reputation in Brigham City during the great depression.  People knew to send any vagrants or drifters who came through town to B.C. Call's house because he would give them a place to stay, food to eat, and help them find work.  When asked why, he said that if any of his sons ever found themselves in that kind of situation he hoped somebody would do the same for them.

I'm on here again... Robert might worry he's created a monster. I just have to say I am sooo excited today.  I am a nutrition coach for an elementary school as part of a grant on of my professors is working with.  I don't get paid, I am strictly a student who volunteered to help.  I had grand dreams of transforming the children in the school to vegetable eating machines, who didn't just eat vegetables, but loved them.  After a year of working with it, and having many days of anger, frustration, fears, and tears, I have begun to feel that fulfilling feeling that can only come from success...even thought it is a small success.

I implemented a program I called the "Golden Apple" there that I based off of their "Golden Tennis Shoe" program already going at the school.  The idea is that the kids could gain points for doing food related activities or writing projects.  I had mentioned prizes at the beginning of the school year, but let's just say participation was very, very low.  It was low, that is until today.  About two weeks ago I had the PE teacher post a poster in the lobby next to my "Nutrition Corner" that showed pictures of the prizes and listed the leaderboard of those who had earned their small amount of points.  This week I went in to pick up any papers from my box and it had SO many pieces of papers with drawings of fruits or vegetables, recipes, and ABC's of fruits and vegetables.  I also have a place to do my parent classes that I have had in the works for months.  My first Tasty Table was even performed at the school last week and it feels SO good to have things actually going.  I feel like I'm doing what I was sent there to do.  I had abandoned my dream of starting a school garden there, but after 6 months of trying to push myself (and others) I realized it just wasn't the best time, but maybe the next nutrition coach can make it work.  Even though I let that go, now I feel like the other things being done are starting to succeed with more time to work on them.  

My biggest lesson learned: Even if you have a LOT of good ideas that can make a difference you really have to think about what is achievable with the people around you.  Also, sometimes a few really good and well executed projects are more easily achieved and successful than a lot of great ideas that you won't have time to do well or effectively.