The Graduate

Well, after ten semesters and just over three years, Marianne has graduated from the University of Utah in Exercise & Sport Science. We came to Seattle for Christmas and she had but one assignment remaining: a paper discussing renal (kidney) disease which she banged out in just a couple days. I am so proud of her. She's never taken a semester off (she went during all the summer semesters) and she has almost always given her all to learn the material (everybody does just enough to get by sometimes). She even got a 4.0 once. Here's a picture of the graduate:Now she will be transferring to Weber State University to finish up the prerequisites for Dental Hygiene school and then get that professional license. Such dedication. I, however, still have one semester remaining.

Stupid Templates

I used to consider myself up-to-date when it came to technology, but I have discovered that my knowledge stops at html coding, or any kind of computer coding for that matter. Here is the most recent example: I changed my template to a more wintery theme. Even though I followed the instructions of the template blog I lost my blog list, which apparently is what they meant when they said "widget". So, I had to find and re-add all my favorite blogs! stupid. (So if I forgot you please leave me a comment so I have your address.) Why did this happen? How can I make it not happen again? Also, I like this template, but why does it have 3 columns? I wish I could make it only have 2 columns so there isn't empty wasted space over there.

Late Twenties

Chris chose this pose for his birthday post. Chris entered the world of the "late twenties" yesterday at 3:42 pm. Surprisingly, he was still as lively and energetic as always, but I'm sure he'll start needing to take more frequent naps soon.

November almost gone.

Yes, it is true. Mom and Erica both broke their fingers. Erica broke hers Monday playing football (the same way she broke her clavicle) and my mother broke hers running up the stairs. SAD, but awesome at the same time.

This is Abby and I after our last performance of the Nutcracker this year. She was my snooty little daughter and was wonderful. Yes, the makeup is excessive. It is how I make up for not wearing makeup the rest of the year.

The Dickson girls and me! This was taken at Brooke's wedding, it was so fun and she was beautiful.

A snapshot of the Bride and Groom.

The entire Dickson Fam-i-lie! "Precious"

Happy Thanksgiving.

Weightlifting

For those of you who did not know, I am planning on competing in weightlifting in the Utah Summer Games in June. I made a little video in case you were curious what that is. Weightlifting consists of 2 lifts: the snatch and the clean & jerk. In the snatch you bring the weight from the floor to overhead in one move (the first clip in the video is a snatch). In the clean & jerk, the clean is when you bring the weight from the ground to the shoulders and the jerk is taking it from the shoulders to overhead (the second and third clips are a clean and a jerk, respectively). My technique isn't great and I'm not an extremely strong person but I love it and it gives me something to train for and work toward. I may post another video when I get some really good clips, probably closer to the competition. Hopefully I'll be much better by then. The other clips are some different ancillary lifts and some misses as well. The song is by Emery and it’s called Walls. You probably won’t like the screaming. Enjoy.

"That's what I said, carrots!"

For Joni Dickson Kennedy and her little fetus.
"That's what I said, carrots!"

Makayla Video

Chris made this video of our film from Denver.

Starring Makayla Wilkes.