I have been feeling very stressed, depressed and exhausted the past week or two. Between Joseph giving up naps and Annabelle becoming more mobile, the amount of time that I have to accomplish various tasks has decreased. However, my homework, laundry and dish piles keep growing. So now I am trying to figure out how to accommodate all of this extra work with no extra time. So far it is not going very well...
It's time for me to go to bed now. I will try to report my progress relatively soon.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Busy, busy, busy
I am so busy right now! I haven't been this busy in so long, and it's really tiring sometimes. It's good, though, know that I am able to be busy and all of the things that I am blessed with.
Back in January, I signed up for an Independent Study class, American Heritage. When you sign up, you get one year to complete the class, with no deadlines or anything except that one. I didn't give it enough attention at the beginning of the year, so now I am working on it almost constantly. There are 23 lessons in the course and I'm just about finished with Lesson 6. That shows how very far behind I am. I think the first lessons are a little more intense than the later ones, though, because the first ones deal with the Revolution and the Constitution and all important stuff.
My other classes are just great, and easy so far. My Book of Mormon class is awesome, mostly because we are required to report on our reading as well as answer study guide questions. It really helps me make sure that I am studying regularly, and I am learning a lot more about the scriptures. My teacher did his graduate studies in Hebrew and he spend time in Israel, so he knows a lot of cool stuff. He LOVES showing us external evidences that prove that "the Book of Mormon is an ancient Near Eastern text" ( I think he says that phrase at least once per class). My other class is awesome, too. My teacher used to be in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! And he's Australian, so he has an awesome accent. He's really funny, too. I always enjoy the time that I spend in that class.
Mitchell is super busy, too. He's working on a lot of different projects for all his classes. Currently, he redesigning Pinocchio with a Lovecraftian theme, creating a space-age clown, and drawing lots of hands and feet. He spends a lot of time researching and looking up images on Google to get ideas for all the things he is drawing. It's pretty awesome; I have to try not to brag about him whenever we are around people just because the stuff he does is so cool!
Joseph is almost potty-trained. He's gone several days without an accident during the day (although he sometimes forgets to pull his underwear and pants ALL the way down, so they get wet anyways) and he's got half-and-half as far as the nights go. At first he didn't want to wear underwear all the time, but when he realized that all of his friends wear underwear it helped a lot. And we bought him some Star Wars underwear last week and now he loves wearing underwear.
Annabelle will be a year old next month! I can't believe it. She is growing so fast. She is already wearing 12 month clothes; I think she is around 21 or 22 pounds now. She is amazing at crawling and she is practicing walking using different toys. She can say Mama, Dada (sometimes), and Baby; usually it's just baby-talk, but on occasion she uses them in reference to the things they are, with Mama being the most used.
I'm so excited for Fall and Halloween and all the other wonderful things that are coming! Life is so great right now!
Back in January, I signed up for an Independent Study class, American Heritage. When you sign up, you get one year to complete the class, with no deadlines or anything except that one. I didn't give it enough attention at the beginning of the year, so now I am working on it almost constantly. There are 23 lessons in the course and I'm just about finished with Lesson 6. That shows how very far behind I am. I think the first lessons are a little more intense than the later ones, though, because the first ones deal with the Revolution and the Constitution and all important stuff.
My other classes are just great, and easy so far. My Book of Mormon class is awesome, mostly because we are required to report on our reading as well as answer study guide questions. It really helps me make sure that I am studying regularly, and I am learning a lot more about the scriptures. My teacher did his graduate studies in Hebrew and he spend time in Israel, so he knows a lot of cool stuff. He LOVES showing us external evidences that prove that "the Book of Mormon is an ancient Near Eastern text" ( I think he says that phrase at least once per class). My other class is awesome, too. My teacher used to be in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! And he's Australian, so he has an awesome accent. He's really funny, too. I always enjoy the time that I spend in that class.
Mitchell is super busy, too. He's working on a lot of different projects for all his classes. Currently, he redesigning Pinocchio with a Lovecraftian theme, creating a space-age clown, and drawing lots of hands and feet. He spends a lot of time researching and looking up images on Google to get ideas for all the things he is drawing. It's pretty awesome; I have to try not to brag about him whenever we are around people just because the stuff he does is so cool!
Joseph is almost potty-trained. He's gone several days without an accident during the day (although he sometimes forgets to pull his underwear and pants ALL the way down, so they get wet anyways) and he's got half-and-half as far as the nights go. At first he didn't want to wear underwear all the time, but when he realized that all of his friends wear underwear it helped a lot. And we bought him some Star Wars underwear last week and now he loves wearing underwear.
Annabelle will be a year old next month! I can't believe it. She is growing so fast. She is already wearing 12 month clothes; I think she is around 21 or 22 pounds now. She is amazing at crawling and she is practicing walking using different toys. She can say Mama, Dada (sometimes), and Baby; usually it's just baby-talk, but on occasion she uses them in reference to the things they are, with Mama being the most used.
I'm so excited for Fall and Halloween and all the other wonderful things that are coming! Life is so great right now!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
The Illustration Program
It has been almost a month since I last posted! I'm just as bad at this whole blogging thing as I was afraid I'd be.
August was a crazy month for us. We had a whole lot going on. Especially with me finishing classes at the same time Mitchell applied to the Illustration program.
I finished up my classes and took exams the first week and a half of the month. I got A's in both my classes! It was a great first term of school.
Mitchell turned in his application for the Illustration program on the 1st and the review was on the 8th. This was his last chance to apply to the program, so there was a lot of stress. He had to repaint almost all of the paintings that he applied with the first time. We found out on the 10th that he had gotten into Illustration program and also into the Concept Art focus track. It's really exciting! The Concept Art track is very exclusive, with only 5 students in it at a time. With a degree in Concept Art, he has the ability to get jobs at places like Disney, Dreamworks, or Blizzard.
Once we found out that Mitchell was in the program, a month long class shuffle began. He learned that he needed to change a few of the classes he was in, but some of the classes he needed were full, so he was constantly checking for new openings. My classes were finally settled the Saturday before classes started. Mitchell's weren't final until the Wednesday after classes started. We are both loving the classes that we are in and are excited for the rest of the semester.
August was a crazy month for us. We had a whole lot going on. Especially with me finishing classes at the same time Mitchell applied to the Illustration program.
I finished up my classes and took exams the first week and a half of the month. I got A's in both my classes! It was a great first term of school.
Mitchell turned in his application for the Illustration program on the 1st and the review was on the 8th. This was his last chance to apply to the program, so there was a lot of stress. He had to repaint almost all of the paintings that he applied with the first time. We found out on the 10th that he had gotten into Illustration program and also into the Concept Art focus track. It's really exciting! The Concept Art track is very exclusive, with only 5 students in it at a time. With a degree in Concept Art, he has the ability to get jobs at places like Disney, Dreamworks, or Blizzard.
Once we found out that Mitchell was in the program, a month long class shuffle began. He learned that he needed to change a few of the classes he was in, but some of the classes he needed were full, so he was constantly checking for new openings. My classes were finally settled the Saturday before classes started. Mitchell's weren't final until the Wednesday after classes started. We are both loving the classes that we are in and are excited for the rest of the semester.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
The End is Near
Right now I am rocking a very cranky baby to sleep and thinking about how I only have 2 more days of this term left and 3 more days until we leave for Virginia.
This has been one of the busiest times that I have had in a long time. I'm doing very well in my classes, though. I have A's in both of them! My writing teacher likes my papers so much that she asked to use them as in-class examples for later classes.
I'm so excited to go to Virginia and spend time with Mitchell's family. It will be cool to see Ross again. Joseph is so excited to see everyone, too. It will be an interesting experience with both kids on the airplane, but I'm sure that Joseph will love it.
I'm going that Fall will be easier since I'm not going full-time. Maybe then I will have more time for blogging. I'm not taking early classes either, so I will also have a bit more time for sleeping.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Update on Us
Life at our house is SUPER busy right now. There are times that I have contemplated blogging, but I would prefer to get some sleep right now. Luckily, I am at a slow point in my classes right now, so I have a little bit of time. I even folded some laundry today!
I'm doing really well in my classes right now. I have an A in both of them. After today's lecture in Stats, I've realized that it's going to start getting harder. It didn't help that I could NOT stay awake during the first half of the lecture. We are about to start our 8-10 page Issues paper in Writing 150. I am going to be writing about profanity on television. We'll be required to do a lot of research for this class, but I'm hoping that I can get a lot done during library class days rather than toting my kids to the library.
Mitchell has dropped both of his classes. He was under the impression that he could use the art the he made in his Illustration 2 class to apply to the Illustration program. A couple weeks ago, he found out that he has to submit the art from his Illustration 1 class that didn't get him in the program when he applied in April. He was told that he needed to redo the art pieces to make them presentable. So he dropped Illustration 2 so that he didn't have to work on those art projects, too. Today, he decided to drop his Greek Mythology class because he needs to focus all of his energy on his paintings. He has been working and stressing a lot the past couple of weeks, but he has finally starting making some headway. He is starting to flesh out the ideas he has for each of the projects and even got some initial painting done on one of them. It's going to be a lot of work, but I know he can do it.
Joseph has finally started cooperating with Mitchell's potty-training efforts. He has realized that if he uses the potty, he will get a piece of candy. He has managed to go at least once a day on the potty. He has also recently developed a lot of fears and spends a lot of time hiding between my feet underneath my desk; he's actually there right now because his "room is too scary."
Annabelle crawls all over the house and she is putting everything in her mouth. She loves being able to go where she wants and follows Joseph everywhere. She just got over her first ear infection.
People have been asking how we both go to school while having kids. I tell them that we don't do the dishes or the laundry and we don't vacuum the house. We also survive on much less sleep and very simple meals (cereal, hot dogs, & PBJs are our standard fare). We are so grateful to be students here at BYU and for all of the things we are learning.
I'm doing really well in my classes right now. I have an A in both of them. After today's lecture in Stats, I've realized that it's going to start getting harder. It didn't help that I could NOT stay awake during the first half of the lecture. We are about to start our 8-10 page Issues paper in Writing 150. I am going to be writing about profanity on television. We'll be required to do a lot of research for this class, but I'm hoping that I can get a lot done during library class days rather than toting my kids to the library.
Mitchell has dropped both of his classes. He was under the impression that he could use the art the he made in his Illustration 2 class to apply to the Illustration program. A couple weeks ago, he found out that he has to submit the art from his Illustration 1 class that didn't get him in the program when he applied in April. He was told that he needed to redo the art pieces to make them presentable. So he dropped Illustration 2 so that he didn't have to work on those art projects, too. Today, he decided to drop his Greek Mythology class because he needs to focus all of his energy on his paintings. He has been working and stressing a lot the past couple of weeks, but he has finally starting making some headway. He is starting to flesh out the ideas he has for each of the projects and even got some initial painting done on one of them. It's going to be a lot of work, but I know he can do it.
Joseph has finally started cooperating with Mitchell's potty-training efforts. He has realized that if he uses the potty, he will get a piece of candy. He has managed to go at least once a day on the potty. He has also recently developed a lot of fears and spends a lot of time hiding between my feet underneath my desk; he's actually there right now because his "room is too scary."
Annabelle crawls all over the house and she is putting everything in her mouth. She loves being able to go where she wants and follows Joseph everywhere. She just got over her first ear infection.
People have been asking how we both go to school while having kids. I tell them that we don't do the dishes or the laundry and we don't vacuum the house. We also survive on much less sleep and very simple meals (cereal, hot dogs, & PBJs are our standard fare). We are so grateful to be students here at BYU and for all of the things we are learning.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
4th of July Weekend
We really had such an awesome 4th of July weekend.
On Friday, I was pretty stressed from school and everything and I was feeling a little disappointed that we didn't have any plans to celebrate, but Mitchell let me know that he had made plans to have dinner with some friends on Sunday night.
Then, on Saturday, Aunt Marianne called and invited us over for 4th of July! And I remembered that Dane's baby blessing was going to be on Sunday. We spent most of Saturday getting homework done so that we would be able to have fun the rest of the weekend. We heard from some friends in the ward that the best place to watch the fireworks was in the stadium's parking lot. We walked down there with the kids. It was so amazing! Mitchell and I covered the kids' ears to protect them from the noise. The explosions were so powerful that we could sometimes feel them! It was just so beautiful. Joseph was totally amazed by it all. Annabelle liked watching it, but then ended up falling asleep.
On Sunday, we drove up to Sandy for the blessing. It was so wonderful to see so much family all together at once. We had a really good time visiting with everyone after sacrament meeting. Joseph really loved playing with all of his cousins and Annabelle had fun, too. We drove straight from Sandy to our friends', the Winwards. We ate dinner and played games and just had a nice visit.
On Monday, we finished up a little bit of homework that we still had left. As we were deciding what to do for lunch, Samantha arrived. We all went out to In and Out Burger together. Joseph and Athena just loved being together. Then we went to Aunt Marianne's and a really fun time with everyone. We even rolled down a hill. Joseph didn't want to leave his cousins when it was finally time to go home and go to bed.
The weekend was so much fun that it was hard to get back into the groove of the school week. We've managed to get all of our stuff done okay, though. I got an 87% on my first Stats exam, but the written portion hasn't been graded and added to that, so I might have done even better. It feels good to be doing well in school. I've been having nightmares for years that I would go to school and be so far behind that they would kick me out. It's nice when the nightmares are proved wrong.
I have two very whiny, cranky children that I need to get to bed now, so I will have to be done. I hope that we can all get some sleep tonight.
On Friday, I was pretty stressed from school and everything and I was feeling a little disappointed that we didn't have any plans to celebrate, but Mitchell let me know that he had made plans to have dinner with some friends on Sunday night.
Then, on Saturday, Aunt Marianne called and invited us over for 4th of July! And I remembered that Dane's baby blessing was going to be on Sunday. We spent most of Saturday getting homework done so that we would be able to have fun the rest of the weekend. We heard from some friends in the ward that the best place to watch the fireworks was in the stadium's parking lot. We walked down there with the kids. It was so amazing! Mitchell and I covered the kids' ears to protect them from the noise. The explosions were so powerful that we could sometimes feel them! It was just so beautiful. Joseph was totally amazed by it all. Annabelle liked watching it, but then ended up falling asleep.
On Sunday, we drove up to Sandy for the blessing. It was so wonderful to see so much family all together at once. We had a really good time visiting with everyone after sacrament meeting. Joseph really loved playing with all of his cousins and Annabelle had fun, too. We drove straight from Sandy to our friends', the Winwards. We ate dinner and played games and just had a nice visit.
On Monday, we finished up a little bit of homework that we still had left. As we were deciding what to do for lunch, Samantha arrived. We all went out to In and Out Burger together. Joseph and Athena just loved being together. Then we went to Aunt Marianne's and a really fun time with everyone. We even rolled down a hill. Joseph didn't want to leave his cousins when it was finally time to go home and go to bed.
The weekend was so much fun that it was hard to get back into the groove of the school week. We've managed to get all of our stuff done okay, though. I got an 87% on my first Stats exam, but the written portion hasn't been graded and added to that, so I might have done even better. It feels good to be doing well in school. I've been having nightmares for years that I would go to school and be so far behind that they would kick me out. It's nice when the nightmares are proved wrong.
I have two very whiny, cranky children that I need to get to bed now, so I will have to be done. I hope that we can all get some sleep tonight.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Moving
No, we aren't moving, but I feel like everyone in our ward is. Almost all of Joseph's friends have moved and many of my friends have moved; this means that we are pretty lonely out on the playground right now. I am hoping that a family with children moves into the ward. I'm not used to being the one that stays while everyone else is moving, so it's really weird to me. I've just moved so much in my life that I've gotten used to it. The longest Mitchell and I have lived in one place since we got married was the year that we lived at his mom's house. It's going to feel really weird staying here in Provo for so long. I keep trying to rearrange the house because I just don't feel entirely at home yet. I don't feel like this is a very permanent place, but we are going to be living here longer than we've lived anywhere else. It's not very easy to decorate because we can't hang much on the walls and we don't have any shelves for setting pictures or knick-knacks on. It is slowly coming together, though. We just moved Mitchell's desk into the living room and the tv into the bedroom so that we can work on our homework in the same room. It's been nice so far, but the living room doesn't really feel like a living room anymore.
Most of our time is now consumed by school. I was up until 11 or 12 almost every night this week either working on projects or trying to get Annabelle to sleep. And I was waking up between 6 and 8 every morning as well. I've realized that I don't do well with less than 8 hours of sleep. I'm hoping to try to catch up on some sleep this weekend. We'll so how things really go.
I'm going to go to bed now so that I can start catching up on that sleep.
Most of our time is now consumed by school. I was up until 11 or 12 almost every night this week either working on projects or trying to get Annabelle to sleep. And I was waking up between 6 and 8 every morning as well. I've realized that I don't do well with less than 8 hours of sleep. I'm hoping to try to catch up on some sleep this weekend. We'll so how things really go.
I'm going to go to bed now so that I can start catching up on that sleep.
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