An Update

My younger brother, Kaleb, received his mission call and will be going to the Mexico City West mission. He reports to the MTC February 3rd. He’s quite excited—I know mom wanted him to go to China since all of the other cousins have had at least one child go to China, but maybe Austin will.

We had our first snow of the year yesterday (yes, on October 10th). Pretty ridiculous, right? That’s what happens when you live in Nebraska—I just hope that we really do get a fall and the leaves on the trees change colors. And winter can’t come until they’ve completed the ice skating rink (yes, they’re building an ice skating rink on campus. A private donor donated the money for this specific purpose, which is why they’re building it. It’s supposed to be done by Thanksgiving and I’m really looking forward to it.)

General Conference was uplifting and taught me a lot about all of those things I need to change about myself in order to become a better person and better disciple of Christ. I am so grateful for the restored gospel and for prophets and apostles to lead us and guide us. The more I associate with my classmates (none of whom share my faith), the more I am filled with gratitude to know who I am, where I'm going, and how to become closer to my Savior.

All of my classes thus far are going pretty well. I still haven’t yet learned how to balance everything because I feel like I spend most of my time catching up since exams are so close together and I have to commit more time in test prep for one class, leaving the others undone. I’m worried about anatomy because I haven’t been studying for that class as much as I should (I have five other tests in before the anatomy exam and the subject is head and neck--the hardest one of the year).

On Thursday we sawed the head in half. I didn’t personally do it—it had to be manually done (meaning with a regular saw you use to cut down larger branches or a Christmas tree) and really it’s quite painful to watch, knowing how much that would hurt. Now we’ve got a great view of the inside of the nose and the throat. We also cut off the cheekbone and jawbone last week. I love anatomy—not the cadaver smell part, but the application to medicine and how foundational it is to everything I will be doing. It draws me in (unfortunately, I have many other subjects to study too). I can’t describe the pull and power it has, I’m just a nerd who likes the body.

Jeff is really busy (when is he not?) and only has two more weeks left in Omaha before he leaves for a rotation in North Platte for two months! I'm trying to squeeze in as much time with him as possible since we'll be apart for so long!


A little tidbit that you could impress others with (well, if you can find it, that is):
In your throat you have a very small bone called your hyoid bone (picture is above). It’s a small circular strip of bone right above your thyroid cartilage (we call it the Adam’s apple in guys). If you feel above your thyroid cartilage with your thumb and index finger in a wide pinching motion, you can feel the larger front part and move it (gently!) back and forth. That’s your hyoid bone. When someone is strangled this bone will fracture, but it will not fracture by hanging. So for those criminals who strangle someone and then try to make it look like a suicide hanging, CSI will figure it out by examining the integrity of the hyoid bone (among other things).