It's only 9 months away!

Did that title get any of you? No, I'm not preggos, but in nine months Jon and I will be in Europe! That's right...we finally got our Northwest miles we have accumulated to actually work and we will be sightseeing in grand Europa in nine months!

Jon and I have a slightly different idea when it comes to vacations sometimes. Although we both love to relax, Jon loves big cities and I prefer quaint, picturesque towns. We have built in both options on our three week trek which include Munich, Berlin, and Zurich for the big cities. However, we will be going to smaller towns in Germany such as Heidelburg and the "Romantic Road," Salzburg and Innsbruck in Austria, and the Swiss Alps.

It's hard to say what I am most excited about, but I have wanted to see the Matterhorn since I was about eight years old, and the pictures of Switzerland look gorgeous. However, Jon and I both have "German blood" in us, so I think it will also be fun go to Germany, especially since Jon speaks some German.


I have been planning the trip in my spare (hahaha) time. If any of you have been there, let me know some highlights of what we should see. Oh, and if you want to see a very sarcastic video of Salzburg from youtube check this out. Makes us laugh every time.

Let us not forget

Maybe it's just because this has felt like the longest, busiest, and one of the most stressful weeks of my life, but I just got this forward and, perhaps because of my current mood, I wanted to post it. It reminded me of the big picture and as Christ's servant what the real goal is...to be an example to others and love them like Christ loves me.

Example #1
During my second month of college, our professor
gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student
and had breezed through the questions until I read
the last one:

'What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?'
Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the
cleaning woman several times. She was tall,
dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question
blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if
the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

'Absolutely,' said the professor. 'In your careers,
you will meet many people. All are significant. They
deserve your attention and care, even if all you do
is smile and say 'hello.'

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her
name was Dorothy.

Example #2
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and
sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in
front of him.

'How much is an ice cream sundae?' he asked.

'Fifty cents,' replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and
studied the coins in it.

'Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?' he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the
wai tress was growing impatient.

'Thirty-five cents,' she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

'I'll have the plain ice cream,' he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on
the table and walked away The boy finished the ice
cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress
came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the
table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,
were two nickels and five pennies..

You see, he couldn't have the sun dae, because he had
to have enough left to leave her a tip.

Example #3
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a
hospita l , I got to know a little girl named Liz who
was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only
chance of recovery appeared to be a blood
transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had
miraculously survived the same disease and had
developed the antibodies needed to combat the
illness. The doctor explained the situation to her
little brother, and asked the little boy if he woul d
be willing to give his blood to his sister.

I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a
deep breath an d saying, 'Yes I'll do it if it will
save her.' As the transfusion progressed, he lay in
bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did,
seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his
face grew pale and his smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a
trembling voice, 'Will I start to die right away'.

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the
doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his
sister all of his blood in order to save her.

ASU Graduate College Update

Earlier this summer I posted an account of some recent experiences my family had encountered concerning ASU’s graduate programs. As you might recall, I was pleasantly surprised when Michael Crow responded to my requests and posted on that development. However, I am sorry to report there is much more to this story since July 07 as illustrated below.

Let’s begin with the good news.

I did get to have a nice chat with a woman in ASU’s graduate office about my initial concerns. She listened carefully to my frustrations and said that my complaints would be addressed in future discussions within the university. I thought that would be that, and I’d move on from the recent negative experiences I had.

But that wasn’t the case.

The first incident I’ll call the Readmission Follies.

As previously posted, I needed to pay a $50 fee to continue taking classes at ASU. I had already e-mailed numerous CoE staff over the summer trying to find out what classes were being offering in the fall since I had heard conflicting information about cohort programs and needed to make an informed decision before reregistering and paying the $50 fee. Due to events within the college of Education, students in the cohort graduate classes were not informed as to which classes were going to be offered for the Fall 2007 semester until Saturday, August 18th in an e-mail.

Upon viewing the courses I decided it would be worth it to pay the $50 reregistration fee and fill out a new application. I called up the graduate office to begin this process, and I was told the fee jumped up to $65.00 in the middle of July. So now I have to pay more money even though I couldn’t have made an educated decision earlier since the schedule came out so late. When I explained this to graduate admissions and the college of education I was told there was nothing they could do. I understand it’s just 15 extra bucks, but that’s not the point. I don’t feel like I should have had to pay anything in the first place, as stated in my previous post, and now this!

But that’s not all.

The second incident I’ll call the Residency Shenanigans.

After I was (surprise, surprise) readmitted into my program I was sent a “final notice” e-mail on August 29th by ASU’s registrar’s office. It stated:

Because you have not provided documentation to verify your lawful presence in the United States, the University Registrar’s Office has changed your residency status for tuition purposes to nonresident.


Whoa…slow down there.

1. When did I receive a first notice, let alone a final notice?
2. I attended ASU for undergraduate and just last fall as a graduate student. I have always been classified as a resident. Nothing has changed. I was born in Arizona and have always lived here. You can’t get much more native than that. How does ASU think I am now a nonresident?
3. The reapplication I filled out made me verify my driver’s license number, voter ID, length at current (Arizona) job, etc. These are all things that could and have been used in the past to verify my residency. Yet I have to jump through another hoop.

Even though I didn’t understand the need for this, I didn’t want to sit on this potential problem because the e-mail went on to say:

Your change in residency status is in effect for the fall 2007 semester and is reflected on your billing statement. If you have already paid your fall 2007 tuition you will be billed an additional amount to cover the non-resident portion of tuition.


When I called the ASU’s registrar office that same day I was told I needed to scan or mail a picture of my license. Since I didn’t have a scanner, I told the representative I would need to mail the proof. However, she then informed me that the license might not get to them before the residency change went into effect. Since I didn’t want to risk it and pay an additional $1263 - more than double my original tuition amount - I figured I better find a way to scan the license. In fact, I was so diligent I made sure to get it accomplished that evening, and ASU had it sitting in their inbox the next day when the office opened.

But we’re not through yet.

I received a follow up e-mail the next day saying I now needed to fill out a proof of residency form and get it signed. So, I had to go out of my way to call the registrar’s office again for the second time in two days and wait for fifteen minutes to be told that to fax this new documentation. The representative couldn’t tell me why I wasn’t told this the first time I called.

Now my only concern is that the residency department is able to figure out the e-mailed license and the faxed residency verification goes together since they were sent on separate days. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Update: I have been told the reason for the extensive verification process is due to Prop. 300 which passed in November 2006. This makes every student prove (and in my case reprove) that they are US citizens.

Then in September came more news.

I’ll call the third incident the Case of the Missing Funds.

I received yet another e-mail on September 4th, this time from accounts receivable at ASU, that I had not paid my tuition for this semester. That was odd for the following reasons:
1. I paid for my full tuition for the semester
2. ASU interactive showed I had no fees due
3. I had a receipt and confirmation number of when I paid for my tuition in August.
4. ASU had already deducted the fees from my bank account.

So I find myself yet again wasting more of my time to wait on hold for ten minutes about why I received this erroneous message. The woman on the other end had no idea why this happened. When I told her I would like some kind of confirmation verifying I would not be placed on the tuition installment plan, she was told she could provide nothing. In fact, she never once apologized for ASU’s mistake or my time. In fact, she acted like I was a huge inconvenience in her day.

I never once had any issues like this for four years of undergraduate studies and a year as a graduate student. I don’t know why I have been having all these problems lately, but they certainly don’t reflect the image that ASU wants to be leaving with their current students or alumni.

My goal is that this open letter prompts an examination at the policies and service within the university. I fear too many working adult students don’t have the time or patience to put up with these kinds of problems, and with a competitive market to obtain higher education degrees, there are many other places students can and will choose to give their money and earn their diploma.

And for my own time and sanity, let’s hope this is my last negative run in with this re registration process.

Life and stuff

Things have been very busy since I started back at work. I am working a longer contracted day this year, so that means I have been arriving earlier and staying later than ever before. Subsequently my posts have become more infrequent.

Overall the year is going really well! I like my students and classes, and they always provide some sort of amusement during the day. Grad school has been thought provoking; I'm taking an lingustics class and it is very interesting.

Jon and I are doing really well. We started to attend a new church and so far we really feel the messages are strong, God centered, and thought provoking. We like the music-centered on God, not people,and we hope to start meeting some new couples our age. We started going to a new small group that just formed last Sunday, and hopefully that will lead to more interactions, although the age range of the group varies widely.

We have been trying to escape the Phoenix heat on the weekends by going up to Payson, and although that is sporadic at best it is so relaxing and calm while we are up there. For some reason when in town we always tend to get busy running errands and doing lots of "stuff."

A few weeks ago we saw "Becoming Jane," so if anyone is looking for a good chick flick I'd recommend it. Jon and I also got "Saint Ralph" on Netflix and it was actually pretty good minus a few questionable things in the beginning (we'll call it teenage angst). Much better than Sixteen Candles which we rented a few weeks earlier. Jon couldn't even finish it!

Although random, hopefully this serves somewhat as an update. Happy September!

The Three Hour "tour"

There’s not many things I am willing to wait 3 hours in line for.

Front row seats to Les Miserables, a free trip to Europe, a shopping spree at Fashion Square, a year of massages…sure!

But food? No way.

Or so I thought.

Jon and I were in the area around Pizzeria Bianco a few weeks ago on a Saturday night. We had heard great things. “The best pizza…ever,” “that place is delicious,” and, “they know how to cook pizza there” were just some of the samplings of positive feedback. In fact, a few years ago Oprah sent Gayle there to try the pizza, and in 2005 it was named the best pizza in the US. We had to find out for ourselves.

The restaurant opened for business at 5;00PM, and we arrived at 5:20 and were told it would be 2.5-3 hours before we’d be seated. We decided to suck it up and wait. After all, we weren’t in the area very often. We tried to use up the time by going next door and ordering some drinks and appetizers. We were starving so we ordered what appeared to be the largest on the menu, especially if price is a good indicator because it was the most expensive: a $10 cheese plate. When it arrived we wolfed it down and there wasn’t a bite left to be found except for the wax from one of the cheese samples. And we were still hungry. It was only 6;00 o’clock.

Then we sat in the crowded room as it started to clear out. Maybe we’d get a table earlier than we were told. Finally after sitting there for another 45 minutes we decided to walk around Heritage Square. Five minutes later, and feeling sweaty because of the heat, we parked our behinds on a park bench and tried to play games with the menu.

You’d be amazed how much fun you can have when you are bordering on nausea from lack of food, heat, and boredom. We walked around some more. We sat. We talked. We tried to make nice conversation, but we were both getting antsy. We moved to a closer bench to the front door, and every time it opened the smell from inside kept urging us to stay a bit longer. Finally, over 3 hours after we arrived, we were called to our table at 8:45.

Jon and I new exactly what to order since we had ample time to decide. The food came out quickly. I expected perfection. Heck, when you’re as hungry as I was anything should have tasted like the best pizza…ever.

But I was disappointed. Jon was disappointed. In fact one of the pizzas we ordered had such spicy sausage it started to make me sick to my stomach. Was the food hot? Yes. Was the service fast? Yes. Was the food worth the wait? Unfortunately, no.

So when is the next time I’ll be willing to wait 3 hours for food? When I’m being paid for waiting.