first day of kindergarten

*this is an unfinished draft I decided to publish. I also added the picture today.

The kids started school today.

Katie had a great first day at kindergarten. Kindergarten! She was so ready and she loved her first day. In her words, "It was the perfect first day."  I don't remember having a hard time dropping my kids off at kindergarten. Today was no different. Katie was bright and happy but still calm. She is so ready for this new experience and I have always been excited for my kids to jump in, to start learning and growing. It hasn't been a sad experience for me at all.

getting off the bus

on being "good" at stuff

Let me tell you a story.

I began my college career as a music major. I auditioned for the woman's choir and started several music courses. Only I didn't make the choir and my first day of my Diction course scared the crap out of me. So I decided I wasn't good enough for music and dropped that class and picked up a political science class. I loved that class. (I actually loved my music theory class too, which I didn't drop.) But BYU-Idaho didn't have a PoliSci major at the time, so I changed my major to Social Sciences Education. And I loved my history classes that I took for that major. But I didn't really want to get an education degree. I had also taken a journalism class, which I loved, so I changed my major to Communications. I actually stayed at that major for a full 2 years. During that time I took a general human biology class and LOVED it.

Then I got married. Then I got pregnant.  Communications got boring and I had no interest in marketing or advertizing or broadcasting and got really really bored with my teachers telling me to network. So I started taking Health Sciences classes. Dave and I took Anatomy and Physiology together and I loved that class. Then Ana was born. And I really wanted to graduate but I was kind of all over the place.

The day before Ana turned 1, I graduated from BYU-Idaho with a Bachelor of Arts in University Studies, with an emphasis in Health Science and Communication. I was so happy! I cherish that piece of paper.

Graduation day 2007

Fast forward to now. I miss school. I want to go back so badly. I love sitting in class and writing notes and writing papers and taking tests. I know, I am a nerd. The cool thing is, our top two residency choices offer tuition reduction for residents' spouses.  Which means you can bet that I will be taking classes.

As you can tell from my prior college experience, I am interested in a lot of things. I didn't study much hard science or math in college, but I would really, really like to. I do math in my head all the time. I am always looking for patterns and analyzing statistics. One of my favorite classes in college was Epidemiology, which is very statistics based. I am always asking Dave science questions about things like water displacement or other nerdy subjects. So, randomly I go on websites and look up Master's Degree requirements. Today I was looking up getting a second bachelor's in Math. Reading the list of required classes made me nervous. What if Calculus is hard? Can I even do it? Am I smart enough to take classes like that?

And then I had an epiphany.

Why do we think we have to be "good" at something in order to enjoy it?

I am not "good" at running. When I was in the peak of my physical fitness, I ran a half marathon and barely managed 10 minute miles. That is twice as slow as those who run the Boston Marathon.  And they run twice as long. But I really enjoy doing it. It feels good. It makes me happy.

That first day of college I got scared because I was afraid I wasn't good at singing and I quit. It probably would have been hard. I would not have been the best singer in the group. But I enjoy singing and that might have been enough.

So many times I get down on myself about my mothering skills. Just this morning I was trying to get Ana to do something and was failing miserably. She refused. Dave walked in and within 2 minutes she was on the right track. Stuff like that happens a lot. I often get down on myself that I am not "good" at mothering. (This morning I decided to just be grateful for Dave instead.) But just because someone else is a more natural parent than I am doesn't mean I need to feel frustrated all the time. I can still enjoy myself.

I still don't know what I will study when I go back to school.  But I am not going to let my perceptions of what I am "good" at (a.k.a. what comes easily/naturally) determine what I aim for. I can enjoy things even if I have to work really really hard for them.

back to school

Despite my dragging my heels in the sand, the school year has come.  Yesterday was the first official day of school, but Jack's day was only an hour. So today was my first day with my kiddos off and me and Katie (and Zach) hanging around.


Ana is in 2nd grade. I can't believe it. She had a good first and second day and she loves her teacher this year. She doesn't tell me much about school and never really has. It comes out in little snippets. But I did hear her say that school has been really good so far.

And here is our little Kindergartener. Jack is especially excited to have his good friend from Church in his class.  (And we are too.) Jack loved his first full day.  I am excited for all this little guy is going to learn this year, but I will miss him. He's been my little buddy and it is strange not to have him around.

Monday night we had our traditional back to school fashion show along with a special family home evening. My kids really look forward to this FHE. After the fashion show and a lesson,  Dave gave the kids blessings.  Even Katie wanted one too and it was so cute to peek at her sitting so reverently in the chair.  It is such a special thing for our family. We can really feel the Spirit in our home.

And just for good measure, here is the little girl who gets to stay home with me.  I may just spoil her rotten.

 

photo credit: Ana

mixed emotions

 1.) Even though it means summer is ending, and I was slightly panicky when I saw them on display at our local (crappy) Wal-Mart, I love buying school supplies. Seriously. My kids' school provides all school supplies except a backpack and lunch box and I still buy loads of crayons, glue, markers and notebooks. I mean, come on, crayons are only 50 cents a box. Notebooks are 17 cents. I love stocking my house full of school supplies.

2.) While we were out running errands the other day, Jack and I picked out some school clothes for him. He is so excited for Kindergarten and asks me almost daily how many weeks until it starts. I can't believe he is starting kindergarten! He and I have always been little buddies and it will be so strange to not have him home. I get weepy just thinking about it.

3.) On the other hand, Jack is so ready to go to Kindergarten. He has always been my little "routine" kid and my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants style doesn't sit well with him. When he knows his expectations and what comes next he thrives! I am so excited for him to grow and learn. 

4.) Summer is wonderful and beautiful here, and I am not ready for it to be over. I feel frantic about it, quite frankly. I had goals and plans and ideas of how I was going to be the worlds best mommy this summer and I feel like time has slipped through my fingers like sand at the beach. I'm not ready for structure. I'm not ready to send the kids back. I'm not ready for cold weather. I want time to screech to a halt.

5.) On the other hand, maybe a routine is just what I need to kick myself into gear and to finally feel like I have a handle on things.When I get up and get going in the morning I get so much accomplished. I am a much better mother when I am productive. When things have order I am calmer and more likely to sit down and play or read or snuggle my kids.



Time marches on, doesn't it. Excuse me while I go have a panic attack.

end of summer

The last day of August. I find myself wishing I could push on the brakes and keep summer here. This summer has been so perfect that I am sad to see it go. And though the fall here is beautiful and wonderful, the summer has been divine.

Last weekend I was itching to do one more summer outing, so we loaded up the kids in search of a swimming hole. Vermont is full of them, and the one we found a great one less than an hour away.



Jack taught Katie the art of throwing rocks.



The day before school started we held our 2nd annual school fashion show and back to school night. The kids really looked forward to it and it was a really great night.




Now we are back into a routine, which is great. And the whining in the house has significantly reduced, which is awesome. I am still not sure if I am ready for cooler weather, or for my boy to start preschool, but I'm sure I will get used to it.

pre-school activities

The week leading up to Ana starting Kindergarten was a busy one. For one thing...


Grandma and Grandpa came!!! Hooray! We had a wonderful time with them. We mostly just hung around the house, partly due to the weather, and partly due to the fact that Dave was studying his brains out for a test all day last Friday and Saturday.

(Grandma played a lot of cars...)

Monday we went to the Champlain Valley Fair with them. We walked around mostly, but Ana got to ride the Ferris Wheel with Dave and both kids got to go on the Carousel, which was fun. And of course, we watched the pig racing. Yes, they race pigs at the fair. They even choose someone for the audience to cheer for each pig. Last year they picked Ana. And she won! (And I didn't even blog about it, I realized.) They picked Ana again this year, but we didn't win.

Last year's pig racing prize.

(Ana on the Ferris Wheel with Dave.)

Tuesday night we had a special back-to-school-night in the house. We ate a "fancy" dinner - we used a tablecloth, matching silverware and lit candles - of Ana's favorite noodles and spinach salad. Then we did a back-to-school fashion show...





Jack didn't want to be left out either. ...


We finished the night with a special back-to-school blessing from Dad. It was awesome!


Wednesday was the first official day of school, but for kindergarteners, that meant that Mom brings you for an hour, you get to see your classroom, find your cubby, eat a snack, and meet some classmates. Ana was so excited.

(With her new teacher, in front of her cubby)

Thursday, about an hour after Ana left for school, Grandma and Grandpa left too. We will miss them so much and are so glad they got to come!

Now it is down to just our little family, and time to get into a good routine. August was a busy month!

return and report

How was your first day? "Good."
Do you like your teacher? "Yes."
What was your favorite part? "We went outside for recess 3 times."
What did you do first thing? "We talked about all the stuff we'll do every day."


Other tidbits:
"Tomorrow can I have a hot lunch because all the other kids did and I felt kinda left out."

"I didn't really learn anything. ... Wait, I learned that you shouldn't jump off the slide because people can get hurt."

She seemed to have a good day. Boy was she tired!

Last test

I took my very last test here at BYU-I at 2:00pm today. I was so nervous too, it was for Biochem. My grade just got posted online and I got a 94 on the final and an A in the class overall. Whew...

Now I will just have to wait a week or so to see what I get for my overall grades in my other classes. I think it will all be pretty good.

Erin is on her way to the redbox right now to pick up a movie for us to watch tonight. It will be nice. No homework hanging over my head, just a whole apartment to pack...

Anyway, there's my update. I graduate tomorrow, we will pack all day Friday and Saturday, clean Monday, move our stuff to Rupert on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday we will take off to Wyoming to visit Erin's sister for a few days before starting work. That's pretty quick but since I never got a job this semester it was important to start working as soon as I could after graduation.

I guess I haven't had any cash lately...

So, I got this today:


Since when did it sound like a good idea to ANYBODY to put a huge purple five on the back of the five dollar bill? Erin said I would get arrested and sentanced to 3 years in jail with no probation for putting this scan on my blog. I didn't agree with her as you can see. I say that's why they put the purple five on there, obviosly it will keep people from making a fake. Maybe it will only work because everyone sees the purple and they THINK it is a fake so they spend some extra time looking at the rest to make sure...

On another note - I took three tests today. It's good to have them out of the way. Now I have all day tomorrow to study for my last three tests on Wednesday. Then it's all over, and I will be back to full speed here.

Sleep...

After a crazy busy week last week and the last couple of days I am ready to sleep. A lot. I just got done with all my major papers, projects, and tests, except for finals which are in a couple weeks.

In honor of my newfound time for sleep:

Can't Focus

oh wow. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is BLINDING ME!! All this figuring out what we are doing after graduation is messing with my studies. I have a ton of stuff to do this week but I just can't focus on it. It's horrible. As a side note check out this video. It is about 8 minutes long but the main part I liked was at 2 minutes into it. Hillary talking about how to get big oil companies to listen. So, at least check out that part of the video.



Well, I think I got a little out of my system. I am going to go memorize all the reactions, intermediates, and enzymes in glycolysis now.

I AM A GIANT

It is just me or does this picture make me look like a giant??

You can go online to check the testing center line conditions here. One day I called Erin when I was on my way to take a test and told her to look. I was waving to her if you can't tell. I was trying to not make it too obvious to everyone else there, especially the very small boy in front of me. He looked kind of shifty.

Our Town

So, I created something. I could do pretty much anything I wanted for my final project in my theatre appreciation class; I chose to make a poster for the play "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder. The set in that play basically consists of a few old chairs, two tables, and a couple of ladders. It's very simple. That's why I wanted to make this poster simple. I made it to be 11x17 inches, the regulation size if you want to hang anything on campus here. Now that I look at it again, I would kind of like to see the main "Our Town" text block moved up just a little bit. Oh well, I am done and I am sure it will be good enough.

Here it is:

Let me know what you think of it (Looks like you will have to click on it to get a good look). Of course it's nothing professional but I am pretty proud of it. I actually took that picture of the chair today.

If you are interested in seeing the play, you can get it on DVD. The version we saw was from 2003 starring Paul Newman. Bro. Hansen says it's a great version.

I guess I should still be doing homework...

It has been a little while since I posted. Things have been pretty busy this last week. This weekend is going to be pretty bad, and I guess pretty much all of next week will be crazy too, but AFTER THAT I will have a wonderful holiday vacation.

We don't have finals week anymore, we are just supposed to take our finals on the last day we attend each class. I have a couple finals to take on the 14th, my birthday, which is OK because I will be done with that by 2:00pm and will be able to go to a movie or something like that with Erin. So, we will have from the 14th through January 5 ... or 8 ... or some other day in January that is far away. I am not sure what we will do with all that time. Maybe we will get back to the plans we had over Thanksgiving break which were partially thwarted by Erin having the stomach flu on top of morning sickness. That was a bad day, but she is just great now. Promise.

It will be pretty fun not working at Melaleuca over the Christmas break, worrying about time off and all that. I might work as a student secretary for the psych department on campus next semester. I put in my application today and I have a pretty good chance of getting the shift I want. I'll let you know how that goes.

I am going to write my last lab report of my undergraduate experience right after finishing this post. My chemistry lab goggles now officially belong to Ana. She likes them more than I ever did.

Well, I ran out of things to say for right now. I think tomorrow I will put up a slightly different version of the last mystery photo to see if it inspires anyone.

One last thing. Sometimes when Ana is near me and there is music playing I grab her hands and help her pretend like she is playing the drums for the songs. Now, every once in a while, when she hears music she kind of slaps her legs and says "pff, ksh, pff, ksh" (I just realized I have no idea how to effectively write those sounds. If any of you know, educate me, please)

93%

I only missed one question on the multiple choice section of my O-Chem test I took today. I guessed on at least 3 questions so 66% guessing is ok with me. Probably Monday or Tuesday I will get the results back on the write-on portion. I will probably end up with an A or A- on the test. That feels pretty good after the last test.

The things I learn in O-Chem

Today in O-Chem my teacher played this video at the first of class.



What else can I say after that? Nothing I could type now would ever seem funny after what you just witnessed.