Scripture Power: Nephews and Nieces are the Cutest

Early this morning we went over to babysit our nephews and niece while their parents went to conference. We expected that they would still be sleeping since the excitement of the Easter Bunny came yesterday for them. But oh no, they were wide awake. We had fun playing with them and decided to sing some primary songs to get excited for conference. "Scripture Power" was suggested and not 5 words into the song my nephew Tanner says, "Wait! Let me get a Book of Mormon so I can raise it in the air!" Oh how wonderful is Primary. This video was made on my husband's iphone to send to my in-laws in Mexico. Yet another wonderful blessing of media. At the end is baby Anders with only a few seconds of about 20 minutes of laughter. He is the happiest, most well-mannered baby ever!

Letter to Cecil

For my letter assignment, I chose to write a letter to President Samuelson about inappropriate use of media in the library. Some of my group members will relate to this. It really ticked me off, so I figured I would have enough passion to write about it, as I truly feel strongly about it. So, without further ado (or as someone once said, blah blah blah) here is the letter:

Dear President Samuelson,

As an assignment for my Media, Family, and Human Development class we have been asked to write a letter to an authority in some area regarding an aspect of media that we wish to change. I contemplated what and who to write, and could not help but think back to a negative experience that I had with media here on BYU campus in the library.

I encountered the problem while trying to complete a group project for a class. There were five of us in the group and we needed to be in the “No Shh Zone” to talk and input statistics into SPSS for a content analysis research project. We were extremely frustrated when we got to the computers and counted at least 10 people on computers either browsing Facebook, watching Youtube videos, or playing computer games. They were by themselves, not talking, and enjoying their media. But while they enjoyed their wasted time, we waited for 20 minutes for a computer to open up in the only available space that we could complete our project (on campus because we needed SPSS and “No Shh Zone” because we needed to talk about it).

I was wondering if there were any regulations that could be placed on that area, as to allow availability for those who truly need those resources for school purposes. I do not in any way think that these things should be banned from campus, but maybe they should be given lower priority regarding the use of the computers. For example, we thought that it might be appropriate to place a sign with the following statement: “Employees or Students have the right to ask students to leave when browsing facebook, watching movies, playing games, etc. if there are other students waiting to use the computers for school-related assignments.” I hope you will consider this idea in hopes of improving the learning atmosphere at Brigham Young University. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Leah V. Jesperson

(Bloggers: Bless your heart if you read this entire letter:)

Me and Talk Radio: Who Woulda Thought?

I can't believe I haven't blogged about listening to talk radio. Yes, I know, it surprises me too. But I don't go a day without listening to at least a little talk radio to keep me informed. I usually listen to KSL (but NOT Sean Hannity, uggggghhh). For one of my jobs I drive to American Fork, Orem, and Spanish Fork every week, so I have a little driving time between courthouses. I started listening to it because I wanted to know what was going on (My husband is an avid reader of The Economist which I guess wet my appetite for the desire to know more. Love it by the way and highly recommend it. Much more informative than KSL, just more time consuming). I've never been one to be super into the news and politics, but I felt so uninformed that I had to do something. I realized today when I was visiting teaching and the topic of health care reform came up that I could explain to the other women what was going on, since they didn't know. So I guess my 20 or 30 minutes a day of talk radio is paying off:) Though I have to take the opinions of others on the radio as nothing but opinions, I feel like hearing what is going on helps me to be a better citizen of society and able to act accordingly.

Blogging About Blogging

So, a few of my friends and I always like sharing recipes and trying new things in the kitchen. So, instead of just emailing them we decided we would just start a blog that we can all contribute too. So, the other day A Healthy Three was created to share ideas. There isn't much there now, but we're excited to get going on it. Check it out if you would like some good healthy/healthier alternatives. I'm currently on a sugar-free kick and experimenting with Xagave (Agave) as a much better alternative. So I just made some sugar-free blackberry jam that was great. Give it a try!

Thank you Halie and Online Shopping

After BYU's loss I needed something to ease the pain. Then I remembered I had only done one post this week. I was reading some blogs of our class and saw Halie's post with some swimsuit websites. When I went to Divine ModesTee I found this adorable dress and bought it! I never do stuff like that! But I totally loved it and was thinking I wanted to get a graduation dress. So, I guess I can check that off the list. All from my living room I could feel much better about the loss and buy a graduation dress. Media has been good to me today.

Free Pizzas

The other day a few friends and I got together to catch up and went to California Pizza Kitchen (isn't it funny that when girls want to get together they go out to eat, and when guys get together they play sports? Topic for another day...). Love their food by the way. I had ordered a pear and gorgonzola pizza and when the waitress brought it out she told me it was kind of like my "appetizer pizza" because they messed up and put cilantro on it when it isn't supposed to come with it on. She said that another one, the right one, was in the oven and would be out shortly. I was fine with it because I say "bring on the cilantro, who cares", but about 10 minutes later she brought out another pizza. I was excited because then I could bring home a ton of pizza to my husband too and only pay for one pizza. When the waitress brought out the checks she told me mine was all free for the "inconvenience". What inconvenience? I got 2 pizzas and it was great!

So my question is: Is amazing customer service a form of media? Because I have now been acting as the medium and telling everyone how great CPK is like it's my job. All because of a few free pizzas. I know I am always telling people where I find great deals or who treated me well as a customer. I also rely on others' opinions and ideas to find great places or products, probably more so than commercials or billboards. And it's free! No wonder so many places value good customer service. It pays off!

Super SENIORITIS

Umm so pretty much I am about one month from graduating and going crazy! I just want to be done right now. It is like pulling my own teeth to get myself to do the homework I need to. During class my new favorite pastime is looking at craft blogs to get ideas for home decor projects I can do at home. Yesterday, instead of spending the afternoon working on a paper and studying for a test like I should have, I dragged my husband (ok this is an exaggeration, he went willingly) to Home Depot to buy wood and a few other things for some projects. When we got home I got right to work and before I knew it, my "homework" time had passed. Well, if it weren't for the internet and wonderful ideas at the click of a mouse I might just be a little more diligent. So the bottom line of this post is that I blame the media (specifically the internet right now) for my severe case of Senioritis. Talk about excuses. I'm ridiculous. But don't worry, that previously empty wall in our home looks great! Pictures to come.

House, 24, and American Idol: Sexual Content Assignment

For the sexual content assignment I watched my usual shows and found that there was very little if any in American Idol and 24, but House surprised me when I really was focusing on it. Nothing was shown, but it was talked about all over the place. This episode was especially bad because House and Wilson were having a little war about House's porno videos. It was totally awkward and I wish that it wasn't there. Sometimes sex comes up with patients when they are trying to figure out what is wrong with them. Really, House always seems to make some kind of comment about it. 24 seems to have a little bit of sexual content, either situations with rape or relationships among characters. In this case it was President Hassan's Daughter and his Head of Security. They showed them in bed (implying afterward). So I guess 24 sometimes does have sexual content, but mostly just crazy violence. American Idol is clean and I appreciate that. I think they should have clearplay for TV shows as well, then everyone can set what "setting" they want to watch their shows at.

The Spirit of Elijah goes to Hollywood...

Ok, so my brother-in-law introduced us to a new show on NBC called Who Do You Think You Are and it is basically famous people doing genealogy to find out about their ancestors. Tonight we were introduced to the first episode of the new series. Sarah Jessica Parker was looking to find out about her ancestors and found that one of them followed the gold rush out to California as a minor in 1850 and another one was accused in the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. She was kind of dramatic about it all but the show featured ancestry.com and got us excited about our geneology.

After watching it, we went to new.familysearch.org and spent probably an hour looking at our ancestors. It was great! I learned that some of my great great grandparents were from Sweden and Denmark and only a few generations back! I knew that I had Swedish and Danish ancestors, but not that recently. My ancestors also came from Holland (which is where my maiden name is from) and England. We even traced some back to 700 A.D. to Counts and Dutchesses in England. We even found some names we can take to the temple, all from sitting on my laptop in the living room. Gotta love it!

What did we do before google docs?

I've been thinking about the media I've consumed lately and totally skipped over something that consumes my life for a few days before every test: Google docs. I don't know what we did before...oh wait...yes I do. We would still do them, but someone would have to compile all the results and send them out to everyone who contributed, and if changes were made they would have to do it again and again. Now we can all edit the google doc at the same time (even if we are adding the same info during a review session, haha:) I so appreciate this wonderful form of media that makes studying for tests so much easier. I not only use them for tests, but for recipe sharing among friends, or planning with my parents. We loved using a google doc to coordinate wedding plans when I got married. So wonderful and much easier than before!

Bet your bottom dollar...

Last night we went to see my little cousin Kristi in her elementary school play. They were doing the show Annie, but called it Annie Jr. because it was the "mini" version of it. I had pretty low expectations of an elementary school play, but these little kids completely blew my mind. The play was AMAZING! First of all, they were able to use the Junior High set of Canyon View that had been used when they did the play. Daddy Warbucks' house was amazing! I was blown away by how professional everything was. Second of all, those little kids were great! They remembered their lines and were great little actors and singers. Of course, my favorite was my little cousin Kristi. She was cast as the orphan Molly (the little one who is small and scared) and in my completely biased, yet realistic opinion, she totally stole the show. She was so cute! Here is a picture of me with Kristi after the play. The sun will come out tomorrow...:)

American Idol Ridiculousness

Ok, so American Idol totally ruined my life this week. Two hours on Tuesday, two hours Wednesday and an hour Thursday. Seriously? Can I really take 5 hours to watch a reality TV show? I'm so mad at myself, yet...addicted. Luckily we recorded them and so I could fast forward through all the commercials and about half of the judges comments and whatever else I found boring. Let me just say that the one kid that looks like Zac Efron CANNOT sing and needs to be kicked off ASAP and I loved the little Munoz kid that got kicked off. Sad day...I'm over it. I was not very impressed with a lot of them, mainly the girls. (This coming from someone who can hardly carry a tune. But that is why I am sitting on my couch watching other people, because I will be the first to acknowledge my lack of talent:) I also think that Haley Vaughn, the one who played the guitar to a Beatle's song (I don't remember which one) needs to get kicked off too. I'm sorry, she is cute and all, but lisps and pitchiness just is not a good combination. Isn't there a way to text or call in to vote for people you don't like, instead of like? I think dislike calls should be added that would erase votes.

Olympics at the Bright White Halfpipe

I have loved watching the Olympics this year, especially skiing and snowboarding. I have to admit I have been a super fan of the halfpipe competition ever since the Salt Lake City Olympics. We got tickets to the men's half pipe and pairs figure skating and both events have since been some of my favorites. Of course, Shaun White definitely makes it worth watching. I couldn't believe how amazing he is. But then, hearing about the LDS Australian Torah Bright winning gold in the halfpipe as well just added to my excitement of the halfpipe. I think that is awesome that her parents came and surprised her, and I think it is amazing that as incredible as winning a gold medal at the Olympics is, she said in interviews that she would rather have had them come to her temple sealing in June (since they can only make it here once). It makes me so happy to see successful athletes with gospel priorities.

Texas Roadhouse Bliss

So a few years ago when I was in high school, I saw an advertisement for Texas Roadhouse when it was opening. This was when I was living in Idaho. My family decided to check it out and fell in love with the delicious hot rolls and honey butter. I am not a big fan of steak, but I think that is because once you have tasted deliciousness, nothing short of tender, juicy, and flavorful will suffice. That is definitely what Texas Roadhouse has to offer. Every time I go, I get a house salad with bleu cheese dressing, a loaded baked potato, and some juicy and delicious slab of meat (usually sirloin or Dallas filet). Mmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

When I found out that a Texas Roadhouse had opened in Lehi, we were all over it. But it wasn't until the other day that we took advantage of the amazing benefits of call ahead seating. The other night we went there, but called about an hour before we got there, when the wait was only 40 minutes. There were so many people waiting, but we told them our code and went straight to the top of the waiting list. We were seated within 10 minutes of arrival, and as we left after eating there were people STILL waiting that were waiting when we got there! I don't know why anyone doesn't call ahead! Either way, the point of this post is to do a little word of mouth advertising of my own. 1) If you have never eaten at Texas Roadhouse, you are missing out and you should definitely check it out ASAP. It will be your new favorite steakhouse. 2) If you have eaten there and have never taken advantage of call ahead seating (it's not a reservation, but pretty close!) then don't waste time waiting there for an hour and a half like everyone else. Call ahead!

Valentine's Day: Can too many stars spoil a movie?

So my husband and I celebrated Valentine's Day like every other couple this weekend, but our 6 month anniversary falls on the 15th so we decided we just wanted to celebrate the whole weekend as our Valentine's/Anniversary extravaganza and make a weekend out of it. We unfortunately couldn't get out of work during the weekend so a getaway wasn't an option. But we definitely made the most of it anyway.

On Friday night we went and saw the new movie Valentine's Day and thought that it would be worth seeing since there were so many stars in one movie. But we left and it wasn't that we hated it, but we didn't love it or even like it for that matter. I almost felt like there were too many stars all over the place with their love stories that there was no main focus. I see that the point was to have a lot of relationship stories and what not, but you kind of get lost in it, even though some connect. One review said it nicely when they said that it seemed like they all got together for 3 weeks to shoot some footage, and decided to make a movie out of it, or something like that. It definitely had some funny moments, but it wasn't a must see. I maybe would have waited until the dollar theater or rented it, then it may be worth it. Either way it had funny moments and the Julia Roberts moment with her son sent a tear dripping down my face. When did I get so sentimental? I definitely liked it a little more than my husband did, but my advice is wait to get it on DVD to see it.

Childhood Favorites

As a child I had a favorite series of books. I was really into the American Girl Dolls and each girl had a series of books about her. Samantha was my favorite because she looked the most like me. I remember her book called Samantha Saves the Day was one of my favorites. There were different girls from different time periods of American history, and each one had a serious of five or six books about them. I loved reading about their adventures. Now that I am older, my taste in books has changed, but I still cherish the American Girl books.

My childhood favorites from the American Girl series really helped me feel like I had a place in the world, even though I was just a young girl. These girls from the books were helpful in many ways, and always had adventurous lives. I wanted to be and feel like they did as they went on their many adventures. It also taught me a lot about the time periods that they were living in. It was a great way to learn through their fictitious, yet realistic experiences.

MTC Media

So we sometimes talk about the negative effects of the media and how destructive it can be. This week I was thinking about some of the positive effects, namely with what the church can do with media. General Conference broadcasts throughout the world, pass-a-long cards, mormon and lds.org, LDS commercials promoting the family, and family history websites that are amazing like new.familysearch.org are just a few awesome ways the church uses the media.

Another way that I have appreciated media is at the MTC. I teach spanish speaking missionaries and even being isolated in the MTC bubble they are surrounded by it. On Sunday nights the missionaries look forward to watching a church movie (i.e. The Testaments, Legacy, the new Joseph Smith movie, or other church movies). Their spanish learning is assisted by the TALL lab (Technology Assisted Language Learning) and we as teachers have access to a library of previous devotionals and church movies that we can show the missionaries, as well as missionary training videos like The District and other Preach My Gospel Videos. I have been teaching for a while now and I think I have shown every single district a devotional by Elder Holland called "The Miracle of a Mission". I just showed my missionaries recently this devo and they always say it changes their perspective of the mission for the better. It is such an inspiring devotional that he gave way back in 2000. But the missionaries can still enjoy it and learn from his powerful testimony and wonderful advice. It makes me so grateful that the media can have such a positive impact on the strength and growth of the church.

Confessions of An Aspiring Chef

Ok, I have a confession to make: during some point in almost all my classes (except for Dr. Coyne's of course!) I find myself with my laptop looking up some new recipe I want to try during the week for dinner. I remember the days when you had to purchase a cookbook in order to get a good recipe, but now all you have to do is google what you want to make, or go to a recipe website for good ideas. I have discovered recently that I am addicted to allrecipes.com and will shamelessly admit it. Last week I found this amazing recipe for white chicken and spinach cheesy lasagna and it was DELICIOUS. I can't even take credit because I just followed the recipe exactly. We've also recently tried carrot rice, broiled tomatoes, honey balsamic chicken (copycat recipe from macaroni grill) and tonight we experimented with paninis and sweet potato fries (the best part is our version of Guru's fry sauce. The secrets: BBQ sauce and cumin!) I don't know that I will ever buy a cookbook again. My husband loves it of course because he gets to eat the food and let his mouth water at work as I email him recipes we can try. I definitely recommend it for all those looking for a specific recipe or who just want to try something new. Bon appetit!

BYU and Utah Media-ness

Basketball games are chocked full of media. The BYU vs. Utah game was no exception to this. In fact, it seemed like there was even more going on than usual. Most are there to watch the game, (and it was a good one!) but lets not forget that at every time out there are advertisements galore (it almost seems like they try to get too many ads into such a small amount of time that they overlap). With every free second they play a few seconds of music to get the crowd pumped up as well. And lets not forget the free T-shirts that are thrown out and get everyone excited to get something free, yet no one ends up wearing the XXL T-shirts that they fight their neighbor for. At the beginning of the game they played a movie on massive sheets that made a screen from the top of the building to the floor. I have never heard that amazing sound system play anything so loud. Forget the basketball game, it was a media extravaganza! I cannot believe how much media and money surround all sporting events. But with the exciting atmosphere it brings, I am definitely not complaining.

Newsies on a treadmill...

Last week I remembered one of my favorite movies and I'm not exactly sure how. I think someone was singing it or someone talked about singing it but either way it made me want to watch the movie because it had been years! With so much going on it is hard to just sit down and watch a 90 minute movie during the week, so I decided to watch it while I was exercising in the mornings. I downloaded it to my phone and watched it while running on the treadmill! And let me just say that running to Seize the Day, Carryin the Banner or The World Will Know really makes running easier. I've run to music for a long time but not really gotten into watching movies, or better yet, movies with music. I think I'm going to do it more often. I'm thinking next week that Enchanted might be fun:) I just get lost in the movie and before I know it I'm done running. Who says you have to be a couch potato while enjoying the media? I definitely disagree.

American Idol

I have never watched American Idol from the beginning, I always jump in when they are in the top 10 or so, but for some reason this year my husband and I have started to like it. We watched last week's Chicago auditions and now we like picking favorites that we think are going to go far in the competition. I always do something while we watch like homework or fold laundry. But it has really captured by attention. From the horrible or eccentric auditions to the pant-splitting or handcuffing auditions, they all make for great entertainment. Then we of course love to be pleasantly surprised when someone can actually sing! Next week...Los Angeles!

24 mini-marathon!

On Monday night my husband and I invited some friends over for dinner and to watch the first episodes of 24 Season 8. We recorded both of the 2 hour premieres on Sunday and Monday and watched all four episodes straight through. It was so intense! Now we are dying for next week's episode to find out if they can get in with the Russians undercover. We decided that there need to be Jack Bower jokes because he is right up there with Chuck Norris. Anyone know if there are any?

It sucks me in and I don't know why...

Ok, so throughout my college years I have been in and out of following the TV show House. It first started with my freshman roommates, and now my husband has got me hooked on it. After every episode I wonder why I like it so much...every episode is the exact same story: They get some random patient and can't find out what is wrong with them....they try a bunch of tests, House is mean to every one and then at some random moment while he is doing something else, he comes up with the disease that the patient has and how to treat it. On the side there is a little drama between the other doctors in some way. Yet, even though I know exactly what is going to happen, we TEVO it every week and watch it when we get a chance.

Last night the episode that we watched was no exception. A posing drug dealer passed out while making a deal and then they struggled to find out what was wrong with him. On the side, the doctor's played a joke on Foreman and he thought he was getting paid less than all the other doctors. Come to find out the drug dealer was really an undercover cop and was about to do a huge drug bust. During the show House and Wilson like the same girl and she thinks they are gay because they are living together. Once again, it fit perfectly with the outline of every other episode. I have been thinking about this a lot and I still can't quite figure out why it sucks me in so bad and I have to watch it every week!

AVATAR 3-D

So last night for "family night" my husband and I went to see Avatar and I absolutely loved it. It had your occasional cheese like the love scene (doesn't show anything inappropriate) they included while you know they made from computer generated characters, but overall I left the theater with two thoughts: 1) I want to go to Pandora and live with them (which means I was inspired) and 2) That was an amazing adventure! I felt like I was in the movie living it the whole time. No lame 3-D "reach out and grab you" type stuff. It was amazing! I understand why this movie took so much money to make and why it is at the top of all-time movie sales behind Titanic. I must say that I was hesitant to see it after the previews, but then we kept hearing great reviews and decided to check it out and we definitely weren't disappointed.