"Utah accent"

Before I started living in Utah, I didn't really believe my dad when he said that people had a "Utah accent". I had visited before, and I hadn't noticed anything. But now that I've lived here for a few months, here are the slight differences I've picked up on:

Note: Similar-sounding words to the ones listed have the same mispronunciations...

both=bo(l)th

important=impor-an

peel=pill, and feel=fill

sale=sell

tour=tore

shouldn't=shou-nan(t)

false=faltze

across=acrosst

things=thingks

And from Matt, I found out that instead of saying "squeezed", it's a Utah thing to say "squoze" (like "froze").

I know don't pronounce every single word correctly, and not EVERYONE in Utah speaks like this. I've just heard the above pronunciations here way more than anywhere else. When I was having this conversation with Matt and Sarah, I found out that I (and one of Matt's mission-companions from the Midwest) both say "whenever" a lot of the time when we really mean "when". I wasn't sure I believed that at first, but since that conversation I've noticed that it's true. I'm not sure if that's a Midwestern thing or if it's just poor word-usage on my part...

Anyway, I've had a nice day so far, I think getting up a little early to make a nice breakfast helped. Also, I found my best friend from elementary school on facebook, which was really cool. She's getting ready to have a baby... I'll pray that all goes well for her. Off to do homework!

--Sannah

This year seems great so far...

For the most part, anyway. This past week has been nice especially, namely because I found a system for keeping my room clean that seems to work well. This past week was not so nice in the fact that I got the worst grade on a college exam I've ever had, and that it was completely unexpected.

Wednesday morning I had an accounting exam, and in the class immediately after I had to give a presentation to the class. In preparation for all that I stayed up till four in the morning working on the presentation, and then I took a short nap and woke up early to study for accounting.

When I was actually taking the test, I caught myself making stupid mistakes in problem after problem because I was so tired and unable to focus, but I felt like I figured everything out by the end of class and left thinking I had done ok. The fact that I didn't do well was made worse by my professor going on about how that was a "gimme" test, and how "if you didn't do well, you just didn't do the homework, and I as your professor have no control over that."

I did all of my homework, actually, and so I just felt really bad and stupid because I got such a bad grade after studying. Oh well, I now have motivation to work harder than ever in that class.

Other than that though, it's been fun. I watched silly movies with Eric, Sarah and Matt, (my sister and her boyfriend), and have felt far more organized and productive than usual. Right now I'm working on getting homework done today because a) it feels like I get more out of my Sundays when I can just focus on God instead of schoolwork, and b) I want to make sure Tuesday, February 1st is as free as can be, because that's my two-year anniversary with Eric! I think we might be going to Salt Lake city or something, we haven't quite decided what we're doing or where we'll be going... it'll be really fun!

I'll end with things I liked about this past week:

• I liked having my window curtains tied back every day to let the light in.
• I liked having my bed made and my room clean.
• I liked going to the fieldhouse.
• I liked Eric laughing at Mr. Bean episodes :)
• I liked one of the days it was snowy outside stopping by the greenhouses and looking in at all of the bright colorful flowers in bloom inside. It lifted my mood! 
• I like this cute cat that's been hanging around our house that Sarah and Matt have named "Duster".
• I liked picking out a ridiculous number and variety of movies out at the library (the best of which so far was a Tyler Perry movie, "Madea Goes to Jail". The parts with Madea were hilarious, I got a good laugh out of it! "Singing in the Rain" was fun too.)
• I liked the "buy one, get one free" coupons for Arby's Roast beef sandwiches.
• I liked going to "The Taste of Logan" thing downtown last night. Restaurants and stores were giving away free samples, which was really tasty and fun, Eric and I loved getting to see the different restaurants. The most fun thing about the night was annoying Eric by my goofy behavior in public. He gave in by the end of the night and just started acting crazy along with me! It was a great night.

Anyway, I need to get all of my homework done. If Eric and I get everything done soon enough tonight, we might check out the Creperie downtown tonight!

--Sannah

First Post

I'm betting that this blog will be pretty unorganized most of the time, but the worst of it will be in the first couple posts. I'm going to talk about memories and things that have happened, as well as my goals and plans for the future. There will probably also be lots of whining about my immediate tasks. For example, this week I have accounting homework and studying, economics, religious studies notes, signing up for an institute class, cleaning my room and finishing an application. Also shopping. I guess it's more about me not forgetting what I have to do than it is about actually complaining, but it's just boring lists. Also, I'm not too worried about having spot-on grammar or being entertaining. I hope as time goes on, my writing will get better. This is kind of a journal but better in some ways, since this takes less time than physically writing, plus my handwriting is awful. Anyway, welcome to the blog.

Today was a good day at church. The talks and lessons were about becoming more Christ-like and developing his attributes, which put me in a good frame of mind for the beginning of the week. I was feeling inspired to do a better job to not waste my time this week. These are what I consider worthwhile uses of time:

Every day, I will...

• Get up early (I haven't decided how early 'early' is, but I usually sleep in as late as possible)
• Read at least one chapter of scripture
• Keep my room clean
• Go to the Fieldhouse to work out
• Keep up with my homework and assigned readings
• Keep track of what I'm spending/how much money I have left

As I get these basics down, I'll add more things to my idea of a good week, but this is a rough list that I'll try out starting tomorrow.

Last night was sad because Eric was sick with some kind of headache/stomachache (food poisoning I think), and couldn't get to sleep for a long time because every time he laid down he felt like he was going to throw up. I sat up with him until until he was feeling ok enough to lay back down. I had been praying that he'd feel better, so I was really glad when he could go back to sleep. In other news, this past week I learned about a company called "Southwestern Company", which recruits college-aged students into going to a random city to sell educational books for $100 apiece as an "internship". I had a problem with that because these days if kids need extra help, they can use FREE resources like the internet, or books at the library. Apparently it's a pretty successful program for some students, but there are a few websites out there that exist to spread "the truth"about the company. Like most "anti" websites, they are full of misspellings and generalizations, but they are still pretty entertaining. Anyway, I have lots of neglected accounting homework, so until next time!