Thanksgiving

My plans changed at the last minute, and I was able to go home to Colorado for Thanksgiving. It was nice to get away and see my family. My brother, my Uncle David, and I left for Windsor on Wednesday morning and we returned to Provo Friday night. While in Windsor, I played games with my family, went shopping, and ate a lot. Our Thanksgiving meal was wonderful. We had all the traditional food. We ate turkey, dressing, veggies, mashed potatoes, cranberries, candied yams, and rolls. It is nice to have a real meal once in a while. The trip was short but well worth it. I am back in Provo now frantically working on homework and grading tests. I didn't do any school work when I was home. I spent about four hours grading Stat 221 tests this morning. Grading is my least favorite thing about being a TA. I am starting to study for my next Actuarial Exam, exam FM. It should be a lot of work, but I find the material interesting so it should be ok.

MTC

Yesterday, my little brother entered the MTC. I was able to go pick him up from the airport to take him over there. It was pretty cool since I haven't seen him in about three months and I have no idea where I will be able in two years. He will be in the MTC for about two months before heading off to Guayaquil Ecuador. Before I dropped him off at the MTC, we tried to visit some of his old friends. He spent his freshmen year out here last year and he wanted to see some of them before he left. We tried a lot of different people, but we only ended up seeing one person. We then went to Wendy's for lunch. My older brother Jonathan went with us. I am really happy for my brother and I am so proud that he made the decision to go on a mission. It will be a great, and hard, experience for him.

Baby Shower

Today I went to a baby shower for one of my old roommates Alicia. It was the first baby shower that I have gone to where the person having the baby is one of my friends and not one of my mom's friends. Alicia is seven and a half months pregnant and she looks great! She is one on-the-ball girl and she will be a fantastic mom. I got her a little fleece winter outfit. It is really cute. It was good to see some of my old roommates from a couple years ago. Everyone is growing up! Some are married and some are graduated. They even have real jobs.
We played a couple of cute games, and there was only one game where I refused to play. I am a "germaphobe" and they have a baby food tasting game where you had to guess what kind of baby food was in the jar. Once I saw someone double-dip, I was out. I couldn't do it. haha. It was fun and I am glad I went. I am very happy for Alicia and I wish her the best with the next couple months.

Statistics

I am taking my last statistics class this semester. It is called life contingencies. We are learning about expected insurance payouts as well as reserves and the probability of actually having to payout the money you expect to. It is super interesting for me, but it is also very difficult. We have a test coming up on Wednesday next week, and I am super stressed about it. I plan on studying the entire weekend for it. No Friday or Saturday night plans will be allowed. I am going to lock myself into the library and study really hard. All the rest of my classes are going well. My family finance class is super easy. It is so easy to the point that I never go to class. I have never done that before. I have always felt that it is so important to attend all your classes. In this class, however, I am not learning anything. I can get so many more things done when I am not in class.