Update on our lives

So I haven't blogged in a while because life has been keeping us pretty busy as I'm sure you can all relate to. As part of the honors program at BYU, I've been working on a thesis since fall of last year. The honors thesis requirement involves conducting original research and writing a thesis on your research. So my research was on businesses' uses of Facebook to reach their audiences and Facebook users' perceptions of businesses' Facebook Pages. I surveyed students at BYU and in New Zealand during our study abroad. Since we got back to BYU in April, I've been analyzing the data and writing up the thesis. I submitted my final thesis the first week of June and defended it on the 21st. Thankfully I passed my defense! So I'll walk in the August graduation ceremony, and my thesis is being published right now. I also might submit it to some professional communication journals and a conference. While working on my thesis, I was also working at my old job at the McKay School of Education's PR office. It was kind of stressful, but I was able to get everything done for the honors graduation requirements, have an income, and have the flexibility to interview for various jobs so it turned out to be a real blessing.

I am now working at The School Improvement Network. We create professional development software for school teachers. PD 360, an online professional development tool, is our flagship product that used in over 3,000 schools across the United States. It's a really great product for teachers, and everyone I work with is passionate about education which is great. I am a client implementation specialist, which is basically like an account manager so I am assigned to the Tennessee region and work with schools to create a professional development plan using our product to achieve their goals. I do a lot of tracking usage and trying to figure out ways to get people to use our product more effectively which involves strategic communications and messaging. This past week was my first week, but I am really enjoying it so far. It's exciting to have a real job where I get paid vacations, holidays and benefits. I feel like a real grownup! Now for a quick update on Darren. He took classes spring term and applied for dental schools for the fall of 2011. He should start interviewing in the fall and we should find out where he's been accepted in December. He is now getting paid for the research he does at BYU and is doing that as work for the summer. His research involves muscle dystrophy, type two diabetes and the protein AMPK. Fall semester is his last semester at BYU so he is almost finished with his undergraduate degree, but has four more years of dental school ahead of him.

We bought a national park pass for the year so in our free time, mostly on the weekends, we've been trying to get to as many national parks as possible and enjoy the outdoors. Most recently we backpacked in Bryce Canyon, which was beautiful. I'll post some pictures from that trip and some hiking we did in Zion National Park the next time I update.