The Tipton days

 After I graduated, Heather had graduated from Ricks College herself. She studied Interior Design.  I eventually got a job in Tipton, Indiana, working for the Tipton Tribune. (I passed by on the job that would involve me editing some sort of papers - it paid like $7 an hour, with my fancy communications degree and a psychology minor, I just knew I could not do it). So like a miracle, this job popped up. 

I worked for Neil, the Quaker. Yep, he was a Quaker and could do the 'thee's' and 'thou's." 

Heather got a job 30 minutes away at a Kitchen and Bath shop where she used her talents to measure people's kitchen remodels. We were roommates with the slum lord. We found an apartment in Tipton (sort of a suburb community of Kokomo and Indianapolis). Heather worked in Kokomo. 

At the slum apartment, we each had our own bedroom, but no bed. Here is the tithing miracle. We had no money and no beds. But we were driving to our house and there on the corner were - TWO beds!! Headboard, mattress, the whole 9 yards. We went and asked the lady of the house and she said we were welcome to them. One was the taco-bed - you got in and it folded up on you. (that was my bed) and then Heather had some sort of bed. 

We went to church in Kokomo. An exciting Sunday was when we would get up, make orange cinnamon rolls, a big cup of cocoa and head off to church.

We went to church and no one really seemed to know what to make of us. So we finally got callings - nursery. We went to check it out. According to Heather - someone held out a baby to her and asked if she liked children - to which Heather replied - No." We were released from that calling and called to be in charge of ....the Frisky Friends (OK, it was really the young adults). We had AWESOME activities, Like one time, we had this FF (Frisky Friend... it sounds way better than Young Adult), how to use some sort of carving tools and we had cut out ducks or something. LOTS of people came. We did that until we left.

Anyway, I worked every single beat there was: county news, city news, police blotter, community events (this is where the famous phrase came from - "And a good time was had by all." This was written in every single Homemakers club meeting.) (Homemakers would meet, have a meeting, maybe lunch and sometimes an activity and .."A good time was had by all.") I wrote up those handwritten minutes every week. 

One time I was hanging out with the fire department guys (I am big on social contact) and they offered me a chance to take part of the fireman tests, one thing was to wear   a dark helmet and follow a hose around the ground. I think (looking back) they  just wanted to see me crawl around on the floor. Another time, they offered to let me be "Sparky to Fire Dog" for a parade. I sat in the fire truck with the Sparky head on and waved. It was very very hot.

One time every single story on the front page was written by me! It was like 6 stories. It was a daily paper, but not on Sundays? Or we wrote in advance for Sundays?

I remember once (we had moved out of the slum lord's apartment), Heather woke me up..."There is a fire truck outside." Sure enough, our neighbor's house was on fire. So I got a camera and took pictures and ta da! (You got an extra $5 per story if you took a picture).

Also in that house we had a 'dressing' room (with literally pink 4-inch deep carpet). With two big closets. So we lived there and had adventures. One time the pipes froze and Beth's (neighbor and photographer for the paper) and that other neighbor (the one with a pool in their yard they invited us to swim in once) tried to de=thaw the pipes. Once time our fridge completely stopped working. I think he did eventually replace it.

It was at this time that we met Ron. Ron Browning worked at the sister paper in Elwood. We started chatting on our OLD computer terminals (I think we were still pasting up stories at this point). We got to be friends and then one day he kissed me. He was so cute. 

In our second - not- slum apartment, we shared the front of a house with a little old lady at the front. I was looking for extra money to go to Europe/Portugal with cousin Beth. So I started teaching piano lessons (the piano came from Heather's boss. It was pretty old/out of shape). Then I started cleaning houses (it was super nice to be able to place free classified ads!).

Then I was thinking it would be nice to talk to someone in French, so I placed an ad looking for someone to speak French or Arabic with (which I had studied in Jerusalem). This awesome white hair little lady replied and I started going over to her house to 'conversate in French' but we really just talked. She first said to me "Your blue eyes remind me of the German soldiers when they came.' She was French and ended up a World War II  bride. 

I worked there, earned extra money and eventually went to Portugal with cousin Beth. Her roommate's dad was the new mission president. We took her mom pickles. We went to the World's Fair and it was a miracle we ever met up, because we had no way to get in contact, other than a pre-meet up phone call. 

So I was still sort of dating Ron, and I got a new job at a bigger paper - The Carmel something (they had the Indianapolis temple now!). I was a county reporter, went to county council meetings (in which I did fall asleep a few times -allergies I later realized). Ron also worked at this paper now. I didn't do a very good job (see napping above) and got demoted to working on the Sheridan News - this tiny city north of us. Eventually Ron and I broke up, and he started dating Michelle, another reporter.

During this time I moved to Indianapolis, and Heather moved to Utah. I was going to the single adult branch in Indy and it was AWESOME!! So many interesting people, mainly young working people. There was even a member of the  Indianpolis Pacers! My next friend boy Allen, took me to see a game.

So I had new roommates, who paid rent but did not seem to be there very often. I hung out all the time with the YSA people and worked the job (which I did not like after a while, I was sucky at and I didn't like going to work).

So Allen was just home from a mission and was set to go to Ricks College! So I said "I will go with you!" So I got a job at the Pocatello Idaho State Journal I was the education reporter. I covered things like school board meetings (bored is right, this is where I learned to take note paper and write your grandma because it looks like you are taking notes!) I mean there are only so many times you can listen to a 30 minutes discussion about who is going to mow the football field for the summer. I also covered butterfly releases, so it was not all bad. Then I moved up to covering crime. That was generally way more interesting. 

Allen was in Idaho (we loaded up the van with David and some of his friends and motored out from Indiana to Idaho). I got an apartment 2 hours after we arrived (a mother in law apartment in the back - it was cute) and the boys went up to drop off Allen. He invited me up to Ricks for the inaguration of a new president - Elder Bednar, I convinced my boss that lots of local kids when up there and it would be good to have in the paper. Allen bought me a corsage. I sat by lady from the Church News during the event and it was there I learned that they pass out copies of the pre-worked on speech and her job was to follow along and it there was one word skipped or added, to write it in and turn that in.

After a while, Allen started talking about marriage and said he prayed about it and felt like it was right. I KNEW IN MY SOUL it was not right for me. Breaking up with him was one of the hardest things in my life. Also he was really skinny and I knew I was not going to stay that skinny forever). Anyway we broke up.

Part of my life plan was to teach at journalism at a two year school, so I started looking around for grad schools. I applied to Utah State University, because they would take me in January, give me a T.A. ship that paid my tuition and was semi-close to where I was. So I went there and worked in both places for a few weeks. I moved to Logan and started school in enerast.

After the mission

 I came home in April and was not scheduled to go back to school until August. I had applied to BYU Jerusalem on my mission and had been accepted. I used my inheritance from Grandma Sandberg to pay for it. I figured she would approve since she and Auntie Kathleen had gone and loved it.

I went to campus for one day for orientation and then we flew out. That semester was AMAZING!!! I LOVE the Holy Land and the Old Testament. Do this day it is my favorite Sunday School to teach (like this year! - but I did sort of ask to be released since I am teaching 3/4 Sundays a month).

There is a scrapbook. (Which one day I may convert into a blog book, but not today). 

I came home and went back to Purdue for a semester. It was sort of  "Hey, I wanted something to come back to" sort of plan.  Then I graduated from Purdue and looked for a real job!

The mission

 I was called to serve in the Porto, Portugal mission. My president was Brother and Sister Brown. She was                   from the Mexico colonies and knew my Aunt Michelle. I had like 7 different companions in like 5 different areas. It is all in the mission scrapbook. There were some good experiences, some bad and lots of blah. I did not love my mission, I went and did it. I came home with a strong testimony, a LOVE of studying the scriptures and a gratefulness I could go home.

Purdue years

 So I graduated from Ricks College. I loved it a lot. I think an important thing about college is to find a nook . Oh yah, I was on the speech/debate team for my freshman year before I had to decided newspaper/speech team.

So then I went home for the summer and probably lifeguarded. I did work at the little, little newspaper in Bicknell for one summer in college. It was the same, write the story, print it out on the VRC (I think that is what the machine was called), wax it, lay it out on the paper, etc. Well, my very first story  I coved a county council or something. The story I wrote was HORRIBLE!! Like all over the place and very confusing. Anyway, I really messed up when I messed up the obituary of the grandma of the best advertiser of the newspaper, I think the editor almost fired me, but I was the only reporter and I worked cheap. 

It was also working in Bicknell when I had a real inspiration story. I was driving home one dark night on the twisty roads in the dark. When all of a sudden the gas pedal got stuck 'on' I could not get it up.  I was going to fast, I was totally scared. When I tried to put the brakes on, I was going so fast that it could smell them burning. Then I said a little prayer and the thought came to me, VERY clearly, that something was stuck and I needed to reach down and pull UP the pedal. There was even a little picture. So I did, the van slowed down, and  I pulled over and cried. It was very scary, but an important lesson.

OK, so then I was going to Purdue University!! It was HUGE!! I mean, it had its own airport! It had a vet school, (where I worked one semester, more on that later), the first two years of a med school (where my friend went) and the seventh best engineering school in the world.

I went as a communications major. I had a MARVELOUS academic advisor, She worked it to that EVERY one of my Ricks credits transferred to Purdue. Even all my religion credits!  So I started out as a second semester junior. There were four main credits to have to had to get admitted into the communications department and I think I had at least two (I did have to do some paperwork to get the syllabus approved, but it worked). So I only had to take a few of the required classes to get into the major. I even got my French credits transferred by going to their office and reading some old French document, which apparently, proved I could read at least a little French.

So being so 'experienced' with communications and newspapers, when I saw an ad for being the editor of the newspaper (the Exponent), I applied! I got invited to an interview in the big room of 'grown-ups.' I wore my suit.

So I did not get that job, but I was offered one as the assistance city/world editor. I just remember my boss was this short guy and we still used those VRC machines to write stories. BUT!! I had 1/2 a desk and 1/2 a telephone!! This was a big deal. My biggest story was when I wrote about a bar fight in which one guy hit another right behind his ear and killed him instantly by ripping his artery out. Or something. Anyway, it won attention in staff meeting. I also served on the editorial board of the newspaper and occasionally got to write an editoral, which we all had to agree on. I think I was definately the conservative voice. I remember one guy chewed tobacco and would also spit in a cup and how GROSS I thought it was. 

Anyway, that might have been my first semester. Another job I had  was a work/study deal (I think I had that first), where I worked in the art department of the vet school. They would call down "We have an eyeball in room 7" or whatever and then a photographer would go take a picture of the eyeball of a dog to show to the vet students. My job was to cut out the pictures of the vet and med students to that those like student picture pictures. I SUCKED at this job because the T-angle they gave me was NOT tight, so all my lines were uneven. I also think they wanted to fire me. Sometimes they would send me on errands to get something I would just drive and drive around, trying to figure out where I was, where the store was, and how to get back. Since all the mileage was counted, I think they figured I was out joyriding around. They just never gave me a map!! (In my defence).  It was there that I saw my first animation work - another student was working on drawing/animating how a dog swallowed something and the food particles digested. I thought it was cool. Little did I know!

So those were my two jobs when I spent a year at Purdue. I have to mention my roommates, Valorie and Coreen. They were AWESOME! My first semester I didn't have a car and we lived away from campus and they would drive me around. I met them at the Institute building by putting up a sign looking for a roommate. They were both returned missionaries and in grad school - such a good example for me. We hung out, watched 'Babes Behind Bars', ate cookie dough and were cool. Eventually we moved to another house and I got my own bedroom. They were awesome girls.

OK, so after a year at Purdue I decided to go on a mission! I remember my call came in a big white envelope and the whole family drove up three hours to deliver it. It was to Porto, Portugal. I knew where Portugal was, so I ran over to the big map (I am big on maps) and there it was, in the north. We all went out (including the roommates) to dinner to celebrate. 

So that ends my Purdue time.