01/31/06
Bethe finally got her diploma in the mail... UAF only has one graduation ceremony a year, in the spring. So Bethe will not actually walk until May, even though she graduated in December. I'm going to use this space to complain about three little words on the diploma, "magna cum laude". First, I want to point out that Bethe graduated with a 4.0 in all course work. In fact, she has a perfect 4.0 for all the classes that qualified her for graduation. But UAF assigns honors based on all college level work ever attempted. In 1993 while we were stationed in Southern California, Bethe took a career aptitude course at Irving Valley College. The course consisted of a number of tests to help you determine what career fields you had an aptitude for. Well Bethe openly disagreed with the results of her tests, and the instructor took offense to that, and gave Bethe a B for the course.

Now my need to vent comes from the fact that UAF failed to award Bethe a much deserved "summa cum laude" distinction, because of a non-academic community college course that they didn't even allow transfer credits for. Oops, that would be transfer "credit", since it was only a 1 credit course. In my book, Bethe is "summa cum laude"... she completed 150 credit hours in 5 years while still fulfilling all the responsibilities of a wife, mother, and volunteer in the community. While she was at it, she spent 2 years as the president of the student accounting club. Under her guidance the club swept the awards given to student organizations, and held the most successful raffle in UAF history. She worked as the accounting lab tutor and substituted for several of the professors when they had other obligations. Even though she was an accounting major her biology professor offered her a position on his research staff. Granted I'm biased, but I don't know anybody who would say that what Bethe has accomplished is anything short of spectacular.

Please take a moment and send Bethe a congratulations, she deserves it. Contact Page


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	12/18/05 Bethe is a graduate! She finished her classes last week, and is now officially an accountant. She already has a job with a local firm, and will be starting there in February. In the mean time she is hard at work studying for her CPA exams. She has taken one already, and is scheduled to sit for 2 more in January. Gavin and Ann are both here for the holidays, and the Christmas tree is up and decorated, so we're in the full swing of the holidays now. The weather has finally cooled down again, it was over 40 degrees for several days there, and we lost a lot of the snow we had... that doesn't bode well for skiing, but it's only 20 today, so if we get lucky enough to get some fresh snow on top, perhaps our skiing plans can be salvaged. 09/26/05 Bethe has started her final semester at UAF... Gavin is back at MMA for his junior year... and Elora is in her last year at Weller Elementary. We all had a busy summer, but a lot was accomplished. Bethe knocked out a couple of classes so she would be ready to graduate in December. Mike got the radiant heat system installed in his workshop. And Gavin managed to break both his nose, and his hand! I think that at least Elora managed to enjoy a relaxing summer. The photo above is from the camping/fishing trip we took in August... other than the smoke, it was a wonderful time. 01/22/05 Yes Bethe did it again... finished another semester at UAF maintaining her 4.0 GPA! But this time we have another who has attained the straight A honor roll. I got a double dose of wonderful this month when both Bethe and Elora finished the term with straight A's. I tell you, it's tough being surrounded by intelligent, beautiful women! Really, it is. We've had quite a bit of snow this winter, which made our one skiing trip so far very nice. Gavin and Ann were here for Christmas, and a good time was had by all. Gavin was promoted to Lance Corporal upon his return to the Academy, and has made some of the best grades we've seen in years as well. I've stayed busy poking around in my shop... I finished the insulation so I can work in relative comfort now no matter the temperature outdoors. Everybody is getting back into the swing of things after the holidays, and I'm expecting another great performance by all. 06/03/04 Bethe did it again... finished another semester at UAF maintaining her 4.0 GPA! It's great never having to change that first line ;-) Bethe was the president of the schools accounting club last semester, and was elected again for the whole year this time. Under her guidence the club was voted as the top academic organization at the university! She was also awarded a Leadership award by the members of her club, and she received the Accounting Student of the Year for Financial and Government Accounting. Gavin just got home a couple of days ago from his first year at MMA. He has really grown a lot! And not just in height :-), although he is taller than his mother now, and not much shorter than I am. I'm still working at Poker Flat Research range, not much different there. I was elected to my R/C clubs board of directors this year even though I can only make 3 or 4 meetings a year because of my work schedule. Elora had another great year at school... she's in the 5th grade this fall. Just can't believe how fast the kids are growing up! Big plans for this summer. Ann is coming up with a friend for the first 3 weeks in July. We're going to spend 2 weeks in the camper driving all over the state seeing and doing fun stuff. With 6 people and 3 dogs in our little camper we're not sure if we're excited, or dreading it yet! 01/16/03 Bethe did it again... finished another semester at UAF maintaining her 4.0 GPA! It's great never having to change that first line ;-) Bethe has now completed the first semester of her junior year... but because of the requirements for an accounting degree, she probably still has 4 semesters to go. We had a great Christmas this year, Mike's mom Ann spent her Christmas with us again this year. The kids both had their usual haul (as can be seen by their inability to find their bedroom floors since Christmas morning!). Now that everyone is back to school or work, things are settling down again. We've finally gotten a decent amount of snow, so we've been able to do some skiing. The snow machines haven't made any trips yet this year, but I think the time is near. 06/07/02 Bethe did it again... finished another semester at UAF maintaining her 4.0 GPA! She is now into her summer crash course in Calculus. Something about learning Calculus in 8 weeks just makes me shudder! The excavator started the ground work for my new shop today, and I leave to pick up my airplane kit on July 11th. I should have it home and in my brand new shop on July 15th... then the fun really begins. The kids I think are both getting a little bored with summer already. With Bethe having class 4 days a week, and my work hours, they both have to keep themselves busy. Both are going to summer camp though, so that is something to look forward too (at least for me and Bethe!). Gavin is going to the leadership course at my alma mater... Missouri Military Academy, then visiting family in Illinois and Washington. Gavin will be gone from July 14th until August 14th! Preview to college for Bethe and I. Elora is only going to a 3 day (2 night) girl scout camp, but it's her first, and it's a start. As usual, there's 150 things to do, and only time to do 5 of them! Isn't summer great? 04/04/02 Well we're all settled back in from our trip to Lincoln. We sure stayed busy while we were there, I bet I didn't get to see half the people I intended to. My big news is that I bought a Quicksilver MX ultralight aircraft while I was there. I had a blast flying it the 40 miles or so from Macon back to Lincoln. I'm really looking forward to it arriving in Fairbanks. Bethe conquered yet another obstacle upon her return to Fairbanks. It seems that the biology midterm that she postponed for the trip tallied the impressive results of over half the class getting a D or less! There were a few tense moments as Bethe worked to get ready... and got an A of course. Elora has completed the second of her 3 eighth birthday parties (I still don't know how she managed that), and we're getting ready for the last (slumber party) this Friday night. Gavin is receiving an award soon for recognition of improving his grades! I do love it when that happens. 12/09/01 We're just about into the Christmas break. Bethe is working hard getting ready for her finals next week. The kids are just biding their time at school... and letting us know that every new toy seen on TV is the one that they want most of all! My mom is coming up to spend Christmas with us, and Bethe's mom is just down the street, so she'll be here too. For more entertaining news, check out our first annual Christmas Newsletter. 11/24/01 Happy Thanksgiving! I had to work Thursday and Friday night, so we're having our turkey day today. Had to get the extra refrigerator cleaned up and running in the basement Bethe made so much dessert! We're having several friends over, so the house will be full. We're also thinking about going down hill skiing today, but that will depend on how we feel after stuffing ourselves. The cross country ski club started 3 weeks ago and the weather has been just great. We've only had about 8 inches of snow so far, so most of the down hill ski places aren't open yet. We all got down hill equipment last week, so we are looking forward to doing some skiing. Another 4-6 inches of snow and we'll be able to start snow machining again too. 10/05/01 Wow! What a summer. We sure stayed busy all summer here... of course when you have 7 months of winter, you don't want to waste it. We had our first snow on 9/30 this year. Nothing stuck for more than a few minutes, but man did it come down! The kids and I were in town shopping for Bethe's birthday, and the flakes were the size of ping pong balls. What do you say about the tragedies in New York and Washington D.C.? I certainly hope the American people show the level of support to our military during the "War on Terrorism" that they showed while I was in Desert Storm. It's hard to describe how it felt to know that the "folks back home" were behind you 100%. It's very clear that the people of New York will rebuild, now it's up to the rest of us to support our President rid the world of known terrorist organizations... otherwise we will certainly be faced with future tragedies. 02/20/01 It's amazing how busy everyday life can be. It's been over 2 months since my last entry, and it hardly seems like I've had time to write anything. Bethe is enrolled at the University full time now, so she's busier than ever. I've been working a lot lately on moving this site and others to a new server. We've been having trouble with the old system, and I haven't been able to figure it out from 5000 miles away. Anyway, I've setup our old Wildcat system... if you ever used that system and remember some of the features it has, it's really nice. If you'd like access to the system drop me a line. 12/15/00 The holiday season is upon us, and everyone is ready for it. The Christmas decorations are up, and the presents are piling up underneath the tree. We've had an unusually warm winter so far... but I'm not complaining. It's only been below zero a couple of times. Still getting plenty of skiing and snow mobiling in. We hope all of our friends and family have a wonderful Christmas, we'll be thinking of you. 10/05/00 Winter is upon us... we had several inches of snow last week. The forecast predicts as much as a foot by this weekend. But we're looking forward to trying out our snow mobiles so that's OK. The temperatures still aren't to bad. It usually reaches into the 30's and occasionally into the 40's during the day, and we're just now getting down into the teens at night.


	Copyright (c) 2006 Michael A Davis Jr. All rights reserved.