A New Ward

Annette:
Saturday night Charles and I attended the BYU Traditions Ball at the Hinckley Alumni Center. I had never been inside the building, but it is so gorgeous! The Ball was fun; there was a lot more than just dancing there. They had free photos, delicious hors d'oeuvres, comedians, a live band and other such things. It was a good, fun evening with our friends the Coombs who joined us.

As some of you have heard, our BYU Married Student Ward was getting too large, so they split the ward in half. We, of course, are part of the new ward which is the highest numbered BYU ward (until they split another ward), the BYU 248th ward! Because of this new change, we were automatically released from our prior callings. We have lost our Nursery Leader calling. It was a fun calling, but on to new things. I was sustained today as the Compassionate Service Coordinator. I am not really sure what I am supposed to do, but I do know that I am supposed to call a few people and make sure the people that have babies get meals. I am excited and absolutely thrilled! Charles is now waiting to see if he is called to anything. He has a daunting feeling that since he was the only person that showed up to choir practice regularly that he will be called as the Choir Director. Although our choir was extremely small as a LARGE ward, ALL members of the choir are in our ward. Our old ward will now be choirless until some people step up to the plate.

So the other day I got an email from "Blogger in Draft" which is a blog about new things you can do with your blog. I was able totally revamp our blog with all the neat features. To get to it, go to http://draft.blogger.com/ to log in to your blog with all of the new features and make sure you check the little box on your dashboard that you always want to use Blogger in Draft.


Charles:
My friend Deanna joked that it's time to have kids when you're blogging about your garden plants as though they're your children. And then she joked about how devastating it would be to have those plants die when they're transplanted. Well, she was right. Just about all of them have died. We don't know why; we have many theories, but we don't know why. We took them out for a day into the real sun just to get used to being outside before we really transplant them and it just about killed them. We would show photos, but they're just too gruesome.

REASONS CHARLES HATES LOOKING FOR SCHOLARSHIPS:
Have you ever heard people say that billions of dollars in scholarships go unclaimed each year? I had heard that from several credible sources and it used to blow my mind. Now I know why. I'm trying to fill the $47,000 deficit that we'll incur in the next two years.

REASON #1) Most scholarships are VERY particular as to who can get them. Example: The Charlie T. Thudpucker Scholarship Foundation is giving a $4 scholarship to someone who has 40 years of military combat experience, whose mother died in the September 11th attacks, who is a member of the Qxitzyw Tribe, and has 57,012,593,962 atoms in their right pinky fingernail. If you fit that description, please submit a dissertation on world peace and an invention that will soon cure all STDs and this $4 is all yours.

REASON #2) There are a couple of scholarships out there that everyone can apply for. Problem: 900,000 students are all jockeying for the SAME scholarship.

REASON #3) I alluded to this already, but most of the scholarships that everyone can apply for are worth $500 to $1,000. Don't get me wrong, I'd be grateful for any help, but that's 1% to 2% of my need. So to make a real difference I would have to get TONS of scholarships.

REASON #4) It takes a nice chunk of time to find and apply for scholarships. I could almost just go mow people's lawns in my spare time and make the same or more dollars per hour.

REASON #5) There's a fine line between what feels like a scholarship and what feels like a sweepstakes or a lottery. Some sites give scholarships, but there's an application fee which is turned into the scholarship. That doesn't feel like gambling! And some just give away the scholarship to the lucky person whose name gets drawn.

REASON #6) In order to apply for any scholarship, they need ALL of your personal information. This means that I get spammed like crazy and I get calls asking me if I've picked a school yet and if I have, would I consider transferring. GHAAAAAA!

Annette and I have enjoyed bike rides and walks lately. Annette uses our nice new bike and I use my rollerblades. We went a total of 11.9 miles last week. Fun!