final fall update :)

Keep reading for another segment of "How Ashley Knows She is Old"...

I recently came to the realization that, by the time I graduate in the spring, I will have been out of high school for seven years...been through six years of college, with a year break in between undergrad and graduate school.  Wow.  Just does not seem right.

beautiful fall colors

Also, (and my college friends will appreciate this the most) I went out for dinner with some of my friends a few weeks ago.  We were there for quite awhile -- probably about three hours!  I had three beers during this time.  3.2 strength.  Along with a full dinner while these beers were being consumed.  Wanna know where I ended up sleeping most of the night?! My freaking bathroom floor!  No, I didn't get sick, but I definitely felt like it.  And the cold tile felt so goooood! As April said when I told her...we've come a long way from the days when we each drank an entire bottle of wine to "pregame" before going out to the bars! Then the girls were talking about throwing me a bachelorette party in the spring...oh man, I don't know how much of a "traditional" bachelorette party I will be able to handle.  That will be interesting.

the first big snow in SLC

This semester has just flown by.  Tomorrow is the end of my second to last finals week ever! (Well, at least for a long time, anyway). I can't believe I will only be here for six more months.  So sad. We got together for a class Christmas partaaaay that doubled as a "going away" party for one of the girls.  Her husband is in law school at Arizona State so she is moving down to Phoenix to be with him.  These are the times it actually aches to think about leaving.  Seriously, once again, I could not have asked for a better group.

the group i keep talking about (minus Anna & Jess) :)

Today, I should be studying. Obviously.  But I'm just lacking the motivation. As always.  I've gotten way too excited about Christmas -- it's snowing a bit here but Minnesota just got a freakin' blizzard. Yay!! White Christmas, maybe?!  Better make up for last year's extreme disappointment...I will be flying home on Thursday evening and fly back to Utah on January 6 -- home for over three weeks!  It seems like such a long time, but so much has been planned already.  Dusty and I have a double date set with his parents to see A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie next week.  Definitely something I look forward to most every year.  Best. Story. Ever. Seriously.  Christmas Eve with my mom's family, driving down Christmas morning to spend the day with Dusty's family.  Girls reunion with Chels, April, and Jackie on the 26th!  And Dusty and I may be driving down to Dallas to see his brother and sister-in-law and Maggie over New Years!  All while I attempt to get a jump start on my crazy spring semester.

view from campus a couple days ago

Wedding planning has been going well, although I don't feel like we've done much at all!  Big decisions that have been made:

• Date is set for September 28, 2013 :) Woohoo!!  
• Ceremony will be at the First Church of God in Grand Rapids.  The reception at the Timberlake.  
• We chose our photographer -- that was definitely a tough decision as we have family friends and personal friends who are photographers and didn't want to have to choose one over another.  So, we decided to go with someone completely neutral.  We're having engagement pictures taken at CSB|SJU next Wednesday!  I am very excited.  This snow better stick around!!
• Dress shopping is happening over break. This actually terrifies me.  

I'm certainly starting to feel the pressures of planning, though. Picking out bridesmaid dresses? Trying to decide where to register?  Deciding whether it's necessary to spend $500+ on guest favors that may or may not be remembered or to rather donate that money somewhere it will be sure to be used? Even choosing our colors is surprisingly stressing me out way more than I anticipated! And way more stressful than it should be, I think.   The worst part is realizing I don't have a "job" for everyone I want involved in the wedding day.  I just have to keep reminding myself that trying to please everyone just isn't going to happen and that not every single person is going to agree with decisions we make.   Everyone has their own opinions, but it's not their wedding. Right?  Right.


All I want to do right now is watch Christmas movies. The Santa Clause is on tonight and I cannot wait!! Until then, study away...

goin' to the chapel...

May as well get the big news over with first, even though you all know anyway.

Dusty and I are getting MARRIED!!

It's such an odd feeling.  I seriously never really felt OLD (okay, okay, like an adult, is probably a better way to put it) until this happened.  My mom said something to Dusty about me being his wife at this time next year and I think that's when it just dawned on me that I'm an actual adult.  And everyone keeps asking about wedding details, and it's just...weird. You picture everything in your head and start to plan, but can never really start to imagine to actually being able to legitimately put it all together! In less than a year (likely) I will have a different name. I think one of the strangest things is going to be changing the address on my drivers' license and officially having a different "home" than my parents house.  And having to split holidays between families.

an alright picture of the ring

There's not much to the engagement story--which, of course, is not to say it wasn't absolutely perfect, though! I am home right now for my week-long fall break.  I wanted to spend the day at CSB/SJU on Saturday, to watch his sister Val's soccer game and just hang out at my other home. We walked down to the lake at SJU and, after a few minutes, he pulls out a letter/poem he wrote for me.  And afterward, he gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him.  Sigh.  And I responded with "I suppose".  Really.  The funny thing...he asked me later if I knew what he was going to do while he was reading me the letter.  And, honestly, I had a feeling, but I wasn't 100% sure. Because he is freaking amazing and does stuff like that for me all.the.time.  And I also wouldn't be surprised if he would completely make me think he was proposing and then just not.

The details we have right now, since I know you'll ask anyway :)
- We will get married in Grand Rapids.
- Late September or October of 2013.
- We will party 'til the cows come home.

I can already tell planning from Utah is going to be a bit difficult.  Staying on track with school is probably going to be the bigger challenge, though!  The rest of my semester from here on out is going to be incredibly busy (although not as busy as the first month, which i shall get to in a bit) and I really needed to be productive during this week break.  Ha. DID NOT HAPPEN!! I am sitting here on Friday morning, writing a blog post instead of planning the class I need to teach on Monday and writing the paper for my project proposal that is technically due on Monday as well. And with no plans of actually being productive anytime in the next two days.  Too much on my mind!  Honestly, though, this break has been wonderful -- I am dreading the catching up I will have to do next week (and just about every week after that!) but right now I am just enjoying the time with my FIANCE, my family, my future in-laws, and of course, my best friends.

Dusty and I have appointments to check out possible reception venues today. I have a feeling there will be a big decision to be made right away. This also makes me feel old. Like I have to be responsible or something?

Oh yeah, and I turned 25 just over a week ago. I'M ALMOST 50!! (right, Samantha Lea?!)  I had an awesome day.  Helped teach a class how to can tomatoes, went to class, and then went out for the best sushi ever with a the best bunch of friends. And drank some wine. It was grand. Once again, I am just so thankful for the wonderful people I have met out here.

Schoooooooool...
The first six weeks of the semester were definitely a challenge, although that was not unexpected in the slightest.  Lots of hours for my capstone experience internship hours and my faculty assistance on top of a load of full time classes. In a nutshell: planned and taught  a few nutrition clinics.  Talked with a couple youth soccer teams about nutrition. (And was so impressed with how much they already knew! I guess they're actually teaching nutrition in middle school and high school now?! Who woulda thunk?!) Taught a class/led a discussion on basic and sports nutrition with the freshmen in the Modern Dance program at the U.  Lots of hours in the clinic doing body composition and RMR testing.  Took a test on lipid metabolism that just about made me quit school. The usual.

My capstone hours should slow down a bit the rest of the semester. I have three more classes to teach and an "Eating for Your Age" talk planned with a group on campus scheduled right now.  I have really enjoyed teaching these classes and giving these talks, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else comes up in the next couple months.  I really need to work on my project that has been completely put on the back burner because of all of the more short-term projects I've been working on!!

The good news: Next semester should be waaaaay more relaxed. I cannot wait.

Hmm, what else has been going on?!

Auntie Candy and Chels came out to visit a couple weekends ago!  I had so much fun. Chels got in on Saturday morning and we went out for lunch and got caught up on so many things. Then Aunt Vicki flew in on Saturday evening.  We spent Sunday hiking around the Uintas.  In the breathtaking fall colors. The crazy winding, narrow, barely-enough-room-for-one-car road with long dropoffs, psychotic drivers who think driving this road in their gigantic Hummer is okay, and idiots walking on the road was soooo worth it. Unfortunately, I dropped my camera in the middle of a hike, and it finally died on me.  I haven't yet gotten anywhere to get the pictures off said dead camera, so I don't have many to share.

Dusty came out over Labor Day weekend. He was given Friday off as well as Monday, so he was out here from Wednesday night all the way through Tuesday morning.  We ended up driving 12+ hours up to Glacier National Park, picking my friend Lindsay up in Bozeman on the way through.  While it was a great trip -- beautiful drive, breathtaking park, hiking and camping -- I don't think we would EVER do that again.  It was just too far to drive to stay in the park for about 36 hours.  Glacier is definitely a park you need to stay in for like a week anyway! (I don't think my constant panicking about school was helping either!)

Oh, and my weekend trip home in August was fantastic.

Good news:
I wasn't sure if I was going to come home for Thanksgiving or not (plane tickets are so freaking expensive right now!!), but I think one of my classmates convinced me that I should just skip class ;)  I have one class on Tuesday that I really don't care if I go to or not and then a class on Wednesday afternoon, which it sounds like at least three other people are skipping out on.  Soooo, I think I will be home for a full week for Thanksgiving!!

Yay :)

back to school!

I am now officially done with summer rotations.  Unreal.  While there have definitely been days (or weeks) I thought would never end, this summer has just flown by overall.  We start classes next week, so no real break for me.  In the words of a true Minnesotan: Oofda. 

After I was done with the clinical portion of my rotations at Primary Children's Medical Center in June, I just moved down to their food service department for my Management/Food Service rotation.  I essentially followed the three administrative dietitians and their executive chef around for four weeks.  The first couple weeks were pretty frustrating, honestly.  Seemed as though one of the dietitians wasn't cooperating -- "too busy" for a student, which was absolutely ridiculous as during the whole 30 minutes I spent with her she told (and showed!) me that part of her official job description is to act as a preceptor and mentor to students.  She then proceeded to tell me that was one of her favorite parts of her job and that she does "whatever [she] can" to make it a worthwhile experience for the student. Ha. What a joke. Because of that, I ended up spending two full weeks (when I should have only spent about 4 days) with my primary preceptor who is the "Safety and Sanitation" manager and dishroom supervisor -- she doesn't actually do much with dietetics!  It was definitely necessary and interesting for the first week, but by the second week I was feeling like I was wasting my time (and money, since we have to pay up the wazooooo to do these rotations!!).  BUT my third and fourth weeks were great -- I worked with one of our new grads, who is their new administrative dietitian in charge of the retail side of things, and the new executive chef.  I worked on putting recipes into the food management program, did an allergy audit of the menu, and made general suggestions for the menu, developed a patient-satisfaction survey, etc.  In the end it turned out alright.

For the past three weeks I've been in my community nutrition rotation at a WIC clinic in a suburb southwest of Salt Lake City.  For those of you not familiar with WIC, it stands for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/WIC-Fact-Sheet.pdf).  It's a federal grant program that "provides nutritious foods, nutrition education (including breastfeeding promotion and support), and referrals to health and other social services to participants at no charge. WIC serves low-income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, and infants and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk."  I have really enjoyed my hours there -- I have done a lot of counseling, researching of other nutrition-related support programs, teaching classes, and creating bulletin boards and nutrition education handouts.  The population is great -- I love the moms and the little kids.  It was definitely an eye-opener as well -- the differing of attitudes of clients are just crazy.  It seems like most are so incredibly thankful for the program and the help given to them, while you can just tell others simply feel entitled and don't want to hear anything we have to say, but rather just get their food vouchers and get out.

Dusty came out at the end of July for a visit -- we spent the weekend around SLC, finally going up into the Uinta Mountains just southeast of the city. We went hiking and just drove for awhile.  Just incredible.  Except when we locked the keys in my car and Ranger Awkward of Mt. Timpanogos Cave National Monument had to break in.  First time I've locked my keys in my car in probably four years.  Oops.

The Olympics definitely got in the way of my productivity the last few weeks -- I'm sure Dusty is glad they're done as I think I have been very distracted during our Skype dates, ha.  I think this is the first Summer Olympics I have truly paid significant attention to since Atlanta in 1996. It was fun to think back on that -- Nise and I stayed up late as we possibly could watching the gymnastics (because everything else was boring then!!) at Uncle Steve and Auntie Sandi's.

Because of my lack of productivity, I'm definitely a bit nervous to start the fall semester. A friend and I were talking to one of our professors today and she just kept reassuring us that this semester is going to be easy compared to last year.  I am thinking NOT.

My class schedule won't be too horrible, but it's my Masters project, internship, and graduate assistant hours that will really get me.  We have 320 more internship hours to complete.  Typically those hours are done in the second summer of the program (as in Summer 2013), but I have mine scheduled for the school year.  I will be working at PEAK Health & Fitness, (http://www.health.utah.edu/PEAK/) which is essentially a workplace wellness clinic run through the Department of Exercise and Sport Science. Clients are employees of the University of Utah, as well as the University Hospital and Primary Children's, which are just up the "hill" from school. I'll be doing a variety of work for them -- a few hours each week of body composition testing and blood work (cholesterol, blood glucose testing), counseling a couple hours each week, nutrition clinics twice a month, random nutrition talks when groups ask for them, blog posts, creating nutrition handouts, and essentially anything else that they ask me to do.  Right now I'm a bit overwhelmed -- I've got a  heck of a lot scheduled in the first month of school.  I hope I can handle it.  Overall, though, I'm excited for everything.

I've decide on a topic for and got a small start on my big project that is required for graduation.  Without going into too many details, I'm adding some modules/curriculum to our graduate-level Pediatric & Adolescent Nutrition course to help better prepare students in our program for rotations at PCMC and other pediatric-focused rotations, such as WIC.  I'll be designing the curriculum -- adding a couple lectures, creating case studies and other assignments, etc -- and then will help to teach lab sessions when the class is offered in the spring.  It's going to be a lot of work, but it should be a good experience, especially since I am keeping my mind open to one day teaching at the college level.  I had another project lined up that I was so much more excited about -- I was going to design and teach nutrition education classes to a group of low-income teens working on a community gardening project -- but the timing was just so terrible.  I wouldn't have been able to graduate until probably December of next year.  The way things are set up now, I'll be heading home in May! So hard to believe. 

It amazes me how I can be so torn between these two places. Every day I look around -- at the mountains, my neighborhood, the university, everywhere -- and am just amazed that this past year has gone by so quickly.  Sometimes I get somewhat frustrated with the fact that I don't really have much of a choice as to whether I stay out here or move back to Minnesota after I graduate.  Definitely not frustrated with any certain individuals--Dusty has told me many times he'd move out here in a heartbeat if I really wanted to stay--but just with the situation, if that makes sense.  All of the people I love the most (well, except the couple best friends who are in places like, say, Texas and Arizona) are back home.  And home is where I want to end up anyway, so I feel like it might not make sense to get a job out here that I don't plan on staying at for the long-term.  Not to mention Dusty would also need to leave his job. 

But then I have nights like last night -- we had a welcome potluck for the new students -- and I get so sad about leaving these amazing people.  I just need to make sure I make the most of it.


Anyway: I'll be home for the weekend on Friday!! I'm so excited.  I wasn't going to go home at all until October because of timing and money issues, but I couldn't wait that long. I've only been home twice in the last eight months and I haven't seen Dusty's family in literally six months.  Not fun.

Mom and Dad are throwing me a BBQ on Sunday (August 26), so if you're around, free to stop on by!! ;-)  So excited to see everyone in the same place again!

update on the past 6+ months

Well, I guess this calls for an update on an entire semester and nearly half of my summer. And a WEDDING!  I apologize.

A brief summary of the Spring semester: It went pretty well.  The workload was a bit different than the fall, mostly just because of the classes I was assigned to TA for.  Between classes, TA office hours, lab testing, and shopping for and helping with labs, I felt like I was on campus all.the.time. Definitely a lesson in time management.  I was fortunate enough to be excused from one of our required classes -- Food Service Management -- because I had taken the classes at CSB and had quite a bit of work experience (camp, the hospital) in that area already. I was the TA for that class, and I became more and more thankful that I didn't have to take it as the semester went on.  Lots of busy work involved, to say the least.  I also took the chance to take an elective -- Pediatric Nutrition -- which I enjoyed thoroughly. It was nice to have a class focused on one specific population.

I was also a TA for NUTR 4440, a senior level undergraduate class on Advanced Human Nutrition.  The students in this class were the most entertaining (and also frustrating) part of my semester.  I was constantly amazed at the excuses they came up with week to week.  So many of them seemed to think we owed them something; like they were entitled to a good grade without doing the work necessary.  Some were so irresponsible and pulled crap that I would have never, ever gotten away with in undergrad.  It's like, you're in a freaking senior level class in college and you're expecting me to give you allow you to re-do an assignment for full credit after you turned in a sloppy, incorrectly done assignment five minutes before the deadline without ever emailing me with questions regarding the (very clearly written) directions and seemingly ignoring the five explanation/reminder emails sent out the week of the due date?  That's the kind of crap I was dealing with all semester long.  Really makes you wonder just how easy it is to get a bachelors degree these days.

I was also lucky enough to be given a TA position for this summer as well.  Definitely nice having the extra few dollars, although its obviously made my summer a bit busier.  I was assigned to a sophomore/junior-ish level class, a clinical nutrition class designed for pre-nursing majors.  It's almost been worse than the spring semester!  I was definitely a bit frustrated when their first assignment was due -- seriously half of the class didn't turn in one part of the assignment and I have no idea how they didn't know it was required. The professor and I each emailed them all and sent out multiple announcements in the two weeks leading up to the due date, not to mention it was very clearly stated in the assignment directions.

These classes certainly fulfill my need for drama in my life.  

I do have to say, though, that the majority of the students were not this way; it's just that those students do what they're supposed to do, when they're supposed to do it and therefore don't stick out the way the others do, ha. 




Dusty came out to visit during my week off at the beginning of May.  To have almost eleven full days to spend together with (almost) no commitments in Utah?! Amazing.  He got to come out early enough to come to our end-of-the-year banquet and met all of my wonderful classmates and most of my professors.  We went out to eat with Kellie (my roommate) and Sina (her boyfriend) and had a pizza/game night with my friend Brittney and her boyfriend.  The highlight, though, was the trip we took down to Zion National Park in southern Utah, about a five-hour drive away.  We spent a couple nights camping in the park and hiked during the day.  I may have a new favorite park.  

dinner!

I am "stuck" in SLC for the summer to do our "Supervised Practice" rotations -- 7 weeks of clinical, 4 weeks of management/food service, and 4 weeks of community.  It's so strange not being at camp. First time in three years.  Or within a two minute walk or drive of a lake to jump in when it's unbearably hot.  I actually just finished up my seven weeks of clinical last Friday at the children's hospital here -- Primary Children's Medical Center -- which is just up the hill from campus, a 10 minute train ride away from my apartment.  Before starting the program, I was absolutely convinced that I was not going to enjoy clinical dietetics.  My interests definitely lie more in the area of community, especially working with actual food (and gardening!) and doing food-based nutrition education with various populations.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed my internship at the hospital.  I liked working with the health care team as well as the critical thinking and calculations involved.  I learned a ton, too. My favorite floor was the ICS (immunocompromised service) unit, which was mostly kids with cancer.  I also enjoyed the two weeks I spent on the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) and saw lots of interesting cases there.  PCMC is the children's hospital for Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana so they get some of the most critically ill kids and lots of rare, unusual diseases and disorders.  I think I could definitely handle working at a children's hospital when I'm done with school.

Tomorrow I start my management/food service rotation with the food service administrative dietitians at PCMC.  I'll be there for four weeks and then I will spend four weeks at a WIC clinic for my community rotation.


I've only been able to get home twice since Christmas -- for my spring break back at the very beginning of March and just last weekend for Bud & Lacey Lou's WEDDING.  I went over three months without being home or seeing my parents or sister or brother, which is by far the longest I've ever gone.  Dusty also didn't get to come out as often as the fall because of busy season at work.  It's been tough to say the least, especially the week following a trip home.

The wedding last weekend was so nice.  Everything went off without a hitch, as far as I know.  So many people!  It was disappointing not getting to spend as much time with people as I would have liked, but amazing to see everyone in one trip. And not have to go anywhere.  Usually I go home and stress myself to no end trying to see everyone I possible can, running back and forth to the cities, St. Cloud, etc.  Essentially I just wear myself out to the point of not being able to enjoy what is supposed to be a relaxing vacation at home.

Pictures here, on the Mums Photography Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Mums.Photography



I have some pretty exciting news (at least for me) regarding the rest of my internship hours and my masters project.  But, honestly, I'm getting sick of writing and will just skip talking about that for now.  The biggest news is that I will almost surely be done in May of next spring rather than August as originally planned!!  (Although, it does make me a bit sad at the same time -- I really like SLC and would love to stay here if the most important people in my life weren't back home...blah)