Last week I celebrated my 20th anniversary of my graduation from BYU with my bachelor’s degree. This is a photo of my brother and me on commencement day. We got to graduate the same day, both from the college of biology and agriculture, he from the department of microbiology and I graduated from the department of zoology. What a happy and proud moment for my parents! They are both BYU grads as well. BYU has blessed my family’s life so much. At the end of this post I have compiled a list of BYU resources that anyone can access with the Internet. Scroll down if you want to skip my rambling.

Now my big brother has a PhD and is a professor at BYU. I have my PhD in stay at home mothering and homeschooling. I was sooooo happy to be done with college. I finally felt free! I could read and study whatever I wanted! No more jumping through hoops!  In talking with my TJED friend Amy Bowler about that I found out that that is the purpose of the self-directed scholar phase in TJED, for students to pick their course of study, their own “hoops” to jump through. I guess that’s the idea behind masters and PhDs. It is too bad the traditional educational system waits until people are over 20 to let them pick all their subjects of study. It is good to learn to submit to requirements as well though. That is why LEMI’s philsophy (Leadership Education Mentoring Institute, see http://thelemi.com) suggests that a well-rounded scholar phase go alternately through levels where initiative is more in the forefront, and then submission. The Savior Jesus Christ had the perfect balance of submission to assignments and initiative in creating his own assignments.

I celebrated my graduation anniversary by going to a moms’ retreat with some of my friends. First we went to the temple and I asked them to do temple work for some of my family file names. We had a beautiful time!

A few years ago for our wedding anniversary my dh and I took our kids to visit the BYU campus for a day so they could see the very spot where we first met, where we went to church (the BYU testing center, of all places!) and how cool the library and the different buildings on campus are. So that’s where the rest of these pictures came from.

To commemorate my graduation anniversary, I am posting this funny video by BYU’s Divine Comedy team, the precursor to Studio C. Not totally true, but funny nevertheless. I didn’t meet any girls that were this aggressive at BYU, and I certainly wasn’t, although I was the one who asked my husband out on our first date. I wonder what Helen Andelin would think about that. Ironically, I fulfilled his prophecy. He was so tired of dating he declared to his roommate, “The next time I date it will be because the girl asks me!”  I wasn’t afraid to ask him out, but I certainly didn’t chase him like the girls in the video. Even so, I did laugh out loud during the video.

you can find more BYU Divine Comedy videos on YouTube. I was disappointed in the signature piece, The Shoulder Angel. It is bent. It doesn’t show a negative consequence for being dishonest.

BYU has so many fabulous resources for lifelong learning, even for non-students and those who live far away. Here are some of my favorites:

You can watch archived sessions of BYU’s Women’s Conference here http://byutv.org/show/9964b7e3-e045-4b24-a124-e362db67fa19

This is me standing on the spot at the Wilkinson Centere where I happened to bump into my future husband, which gave him an opportunity to ask me out.

These are handouts from Education Week.

http://ce.byu.edu/edweek/handouts.cfm

This is the place to watch videos of devotionals and forums given at BYU.

http://www.byub.org/talks/

Here are the archived speeches (devotionals and forums) given at BYU, in different formats. http://speeches.byu.edu/

I enjoyed this one by Gandhi’s grandson. http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=browse&speaker=Gandhi%2C+Arun&topic=&type=&year=&x=10&y=6 We listened to it when my son was studying Gandhi for his Thomas Jefferson Youth Certificiation.

I love the TV shows BYU produces through BYUTV, especially The Food Nanny and American Ride. The Food Nanny features LDS moms Liz Edmunds, mom of 7 who wrote the book, The Food Nanny to the Rescue. It was fun to see photos in her book of FHE charts and familiar LDS sayings. When I go on vacation I watch her shows, since I don’t have cable TV at home, and get more inspired to fix dinner. http://byutv.org/show/4f383f98-6b31-4661-a832-e73a27a4d6ab

My TJED mom friend Shauna Bird Dunn got to be on the show here http://byutv.org/watch/3e272244-845b-40dd-932c-44c6763449d5

American Ride delves into American history, telling it in a way I’ve never heard before. http://byutv.org/show/06d93297-b6fa-49f5-8cce-6bd555b563af/american-ride

You can watch the BYUTV shows live through the magic of the Internet or watch the archived episodes. You can even get an app so you can watch on your iphone or ipad.  I don’t watch much TV, it’s usually been when I am postpartum and wanting to rest but not think so hard as to read a book.

I sometimes listen to BYU’s radio station’s show, Classical 89. Now you can listen wherever you are through the power of the Internet.  I like Classical 89’s show, Thinking Aloud, that always has fascinating interviews with scholars.http://classical89.org/thinkingaloud/

Today’s program had one of my professors, Roger Keller, on world religions and why we should respect all religions.

This is the Heber J. Grant Building, home of the Testing Center, where dh and first met at church of our BYU ward.

The BYU Honors program has a list of classics that guides you into diving deep into the world of the best of literature, philosophy, the arts, and more. Here is the list http://honors.fye.byu.edu/sites/default/files/student_files/GreatWorksRequirementPacket2-14-2012.pdf

This is the greatest treasure trove of all, http://scriptures.byu.edu/ It is a database of all the LDS scriptures, indexed according to what LDS Church leaders referenced what scripture and when. So you can study the scriptures and a footnote will tell you what LDS Church leader commented on that scripture and then you can read what he said! So cool!

For help with sewing, you can get online tutorials here by a BYU professor of family life, http://sewingvideos.byu.edu/

For added insight into your scripture study, you can listen to BYU professors discuss the Sunday School Gospel Doctrine readings. http://www.byub.org/podcasts/

Just scroll down and and on the left you will see the different listings of discussions of the different books of scriptures.