House Guest

A couple of weeks ago the police dropped off Dave's brother at our house. He stayed with us for a few days. The first thing I asked him was if he was hungry, so I made him Kraft Mac & Cheese (Dave got it off Amazon for me). The next day he had to go to the police station and after they dropped him off again, sure enough I asked him if he was hungry.

What does that say about me? Is this really the right question I should be asking him first?

Dave's family thought we shouldn't be letting him stay with us after what he did, but from my perspective I would rather he stayed with us where he can actually learn morals and values and start to realize that he has potential in life. Instead of what his mother has allowed him to do and become. The MIL has given him every electronic gadget/device he has asked for, even when he breaks it she just replaces it without any consequences to his actions. She allows unrestricted access to tv/internet/phone and does not teach discipline. Dave and his sister were not raised like this, but for some reason it is ok to let him become part of the Entitlement Generation.

The Saturday night he was with us Dave and I went to a church meeting and while we were gone we told him that he could use Dave's laptop, but could not look up certain things. After we got back Dave checked the search history and sure enough he looked up the things we told him not to. So the next day I explained to him why Dave and I have chosen not to look at certain things on tv/internet. I hopefully did it in a way to make him understand our choices and to know that he disappointed us. The punishment was that he had to watch tv and look up the internet only when we were around. Last week I read an article on ksl.com about "The 5 words every teenager dreads hearing from their parents." I was hoping that my talk with him was equal to the "we are really disappointed in you" speech. I have also read in other articles that explaining to children why they are being punished can help them learn more from their mistakes than by just yelling and screaming at them when they do something wrong. I also let him know that he is always welcome in our home. I would rather he stay with us where I know I can teach him how not to be part of the Entitlement Generation.

This post might be in the over sharing department, but I never had to experience things like this growing up. I'm not sure if it is because the World has changed or because I'm not in Happy Valley Utah anymore, but now I know what to do if I am ever in this situation again.

How to find research?

"How do you know that?"

"Where did you find that?"

I get questions all the time like this.

So here is a post on how to find stuff.

When I am looking for info for my research or anything scientific in nature I always go to PubMed first. I'm sure everyone is familiar with Google Scholar by now, but the problem with Google Scholar is that you need to give it VERY specific words to search for what you are looking for or you will get thousands of hits to irrelevant stuff. One last thing about Google Scholar, it is good if you are looking for something from a non-traditional source. I found a great set of articles about DanceSport from the journal FACTA UNIVERSITATIS Physical Education and Sport, which is from Croatia.

PubMed looks at the good scientific journals that have the info you really need. I know some of my professors have snubbed PubMed for Medline, CINAHL, etc, but anyone can access PubMed and sometimes you can get free articles. (Another reason I like PubMed is that they list the articles chronologically.) With other databases you have to have a login access, which means you have to be student, staff, or faculty. The only database I use with login acces is Web of Knowledge/Science. I like it because you can look at a specific article's references and they link to other articles that have referenced that article you are looking at. Plus with PubMed and Web of Knowledge/Science you can click on any of the authors of an article and see what else they have written.

Yes, I do look things up on Wikipedia, but you really can't reference it, so I just use it as a jumping off point. I look for better key words or phrases or authors names (especially spelling).

One of the annoying things about the University of Wolverhampton is that you can't access everything at home using the University's Library website. At BYU you could be anywhere in the world, and if you were logged into the Library's website then you could access anything. When I was home in March-April for the wedding I would have to have my Mom log into BYU's Library with her staff id so I could get the articles I needed because the UofW Library website sucks! I complained about it and I found out I am not the only one who has complained, but nothing has happened. Bureaucracy!

BTW, my friend suggested signing up for Academia.edu when I first started my PhD. Since then people have been looking me up! I get a Google alert whenever someone searches my name or previous research. I still haven't had my Master's Thesis published (working on it now), but because BYU has it available on their library's website people can look it up and read it. (Dave looked it up when we were dating and didn't understand a word.)

Hope this helps for your future research!

another blog suggestion

Oh my goodness, if you want any kind of idea for anything, check out this blog "Older And Wisor"! Seriously Rebecca has the craft room of my dreams!

Check out her post on how she did it.

New Calling

I got released from Young Women's on Sunday. I am now the Gospel Principles Sunday School teacher. I am really bummed! Dave left to go to mutual tonight and I am at home alone. :'( My favorite callings are in Young Women's. I won't have to start teaching for two weeks because next week is Stake Conference. The Stake YM's President got called as the Bishop in his ward, so they should announce who is the new one next week. Hopefully it will be someone who is better at communicating. The last one never told Dave any information and he is the son of our Bishop.

It's just sad when you get moved from a calling you really like, but Heavenly Father wants me in this new calling for a reason.

You Owe Me!

I have been asking for a dryer since April when we got married. Dryer's are pretty rare here in England and they are usually tiny with a big price tag.

Dave has been asking for Tivo since July.

The V+ box died yesterday, so Dave called to have Virgin Media come fix it. While the cable guy was here this afternoon he said the V+ had to be replaced, so I asked if he could replace it with Tivo. He did and he changed the very old box in the 2nd bedroom to a brand new V+ box. I had called Dave to tell him and that he now owes me a dryer. The cable guy overheard me and said he had an extra dryer in his garage!

Dave said the cable guy must be Santa :)

Update 5 Dec 2011: Got the dryer!

pasta noodles

One of the sad parts of going to a grocery store here in England is that the pasta noodle isle is small. I have only seen fusilli, penne, tortiglioni, rigatoni, conchiglie, spaghetti, macaroni, tagliaelle, rigate, and a wannabe version of fettuccine. I would die for some real fettuccine, angel hair, gemelli, Bertolli's, or Kraft Mac&Cheese right now!