I'm Done! Not Completely, but Getting Closer.

Hooray! Yippeeee! YAHOOOOOOO!!! YES! YES! YES! YES! SO GOOD! What other exclamations can I share? Awesome! I did it! I did it! I did it! I DIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ITTTTTTTTTTTTT!

I finished another semester of grad school. Only three more to go and I will be the MASTER in the house. ;)

In my studies this semester I came across this: "All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man has taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

My first step has been enhanced. I would love to be able to re-teach my students from the first year. I would have so much more to offer them now than just love, and some laughs.

Thank you Ralph. I will continue stepping.

Pheww! I have two weeks of free time. Whatever that means.

That feels good. Grades should be in soon. I am hoping for double aces again. We'll see. One class challenged for sure...

I feel great! With the exception of having a severe cold. (Anyone else notice how at the end of doing something really stressful your body always decides it was time to be sick?)

Kim- Congrats on finishing another semester too! Scott- I will help you study while we are in town next week. ;)

The other night J and I were enjoying some quiet and talking about our busy lives. We started talking about when I would be done with grad school. I told him that I wanted to do something big, like have a huge party with all our friends. OR go on a nice long vacation just he and I. OR a lovely piece of jewelry to commemorate my efforts. He laughed and then said, "Whatever Kam. When you are done all I am getting you is a t-shirt. It's going to say: 'I successfully ran a small tutoring business, started a new photography business, raised a child, birthed another one, served at church, took care of my family, and earned a masters degree and all I got was this damn t-shirt.'"

I am a little afraid he was serious. If that is the case Jaren, would you please add in a subscription to Us Weekly and People Magazine. I intend to read a lot of that when I am done with all this scholarly stuff.

Until then...one more down...

We are headed to Colorado for a few days. I will try and post while we are away...I might take a break completely for a week! :)

Some Funnies...

Just a few quick Gunnar anecdotes.

The other day Gunnie and I were having a heart to heart about his diapers. I told him that pretty soon they would be all gone and it would be time to wear his big-boy pants all the time.
He said, "Mom, I am going to wear diapers like my little sister."

Oh really?


Gunnar thinks "sitting on the couch and watching a show" is wrestle time. We have had to remind him a lot lately to not "crush the baby", because he will land on me just right and kind of knock his sister around a bit.

Yesterday, Gunnar felt the baby moving.

This morning I was changing his diaper, and he said, like most kids do, "Mom, see my baby in my tummy?" Then he took my hand and put it on his stomach. I lightly put my hand there and he said, "MOM, don't crush her."

Gunnar has been "helping" Jaren with the backyard. It feels like J has been digging forever. We now have concrete, three gorgeous trees and the dirt is sloped for sprinklers, and sod. Before the concrete poured Gunnar got out there to help his dad. He was actually hunting for treasure.



It's the giraffe boots that make him the fiercest pirate on the block.



And the Lightening McQueen wheels that make him the most threatening.



To the sweetest pirate I know- We love you. Thanks for all the love and laughs you give to our family

Rockin' Rollies

As a child I loved it when it rained. Mostly because we got to stay in at recess and play heads up 7-up. I also loved it because it brought out the snails. I used to collect them and make little houses for them out of shoe boxes. I know. More weird details about me. I have never really been bugged by bugs (Pun intended. ;)). That's a good thing because I encountered several a species in Ecuador. I had a small adversion for fleas at one time though, I'll admit. Only because they were in my bed and wouldn't go away. That's another story. I think most children go through a phase were they are interested in bugs. It is almost a rite of childhood passage to have an affinity for pill bugs, or as Gunnar calls them rockin' rollies, or as other children have lovingly named them rollie pollies.



Wednesday is park day. Gunnar and I head to the park to meet up with friends, of mine, and his. The play equipment is usually enchanting, and occupies them for at least an hour. Yesterday, however, they were much more interested in catching and playing with some rockin' rollies. They caught big ones, small ones, fast ones, slow ones.



There was one point in their "play" when Gunnar wanted to show me how "fast" his could go. Soon, we created a small pollie huddle to watch the bugs "race". There little pincher fingers could barely pick up the bugs. In fact it was hard for the hunters to keep track of their own bug. They would try and pick them up and then they would slip from their grip.




At one point Cole, head pollie racer and most sagacious pre-schooler, said, "We should have brought a magic marker to write our names on their backs so when they fall we would know whose is whose."

I nodded my head adamantly. "Yes. That would solve this problem immediately. Wouldn't it?"

"Do you have a magic marker?"

Diaper. Check. Snacks. Check. Water bottle. Check. Magic Marker. I will remember to bring that to the park next time.

Gunnar, Cole, Payton, Caden, Ethan, and the toughest bug-hunting girl I know to run with all those stinky boys, Ella-
May you always find something in life that fascinates you as much as those rollie pollies did yesterday.
May it be a bit more sanitary.

Thanks for including me in your discoveries and fun.

I am sure we left a lot of dead pill bugs at the park yesterday.