Random thoughts of an Eternal Student

Well i have survived a week and a half of the first semester. it has been very crazy, yet amidst the emotional meltdowns, trying to find someone to watch Hunter and going to several dr appointments between Hunter, Mildred and Me, i love my classes and the learning experiences i am surrounded by.
I always thought that those who were taking child and family studies courses were just taking classes while waiting to get married. These are the most rewarding classes i am taking. i just want to share some wonderful perspectives, insights and A-HA! moments i have experienced in just this short amount of time.
I am taking a Parenting Education class. i know, sounds like a frivolous class right? it has made me really step back and examine our home, and what really matters. We read a great Article by Bruce K. Satterfield from an education week here and it was a powerful talk about having children. here are some of my favorite quotes. they are my favorite because they really opened my eyes.

-"young married couples who postpone parenthood until their degrees are attained might be shocked if their expressed preference were labeled idolatry. "Pres. Kimball

-"ultimately, it is through righteous parenthood that men and women can prove themselves worthy of godhood, for i believe that the ultimate test of godhood is parenthood!" Brigham young.

there are a bunch more insights that were comforting. just when i start thinking of how much school we have left and how are we going to do this etc. i am so comforted to know that by following the promptings of the spirit to be parents we arent crazy!! Brad and i have testimonies of how when you follow the promptings to be parents or anything for your family, blessings and miracles follow. Living with Mildred is a huge one of many. Please share some of your own. it really is good to hear how we all receive blessings when we are obedient, and it is a good reminder and comforting.

I am also taking a language and literacy class and i have learned:

-keep books separate from toys so that the kiddos learn books arent toys.

-dont teach the ABC's, that doesnt mean anything to the child, teach them the letters in their name, your name, dad, brothers and sisters. that means more to them. H-U-N-T-E-R, that spells hunter etc.

-go to new places for the child to learn NEW langauge, Hardware stores, Home Depot EVERYWHERE!

and believe it or not, i am even enjoying math! that's because it is NOT statistics!

Anyway, for those who actualy read this, please leave your experiences and thoughts. Why just talk about me, let's learn from eachother.

hunter's birthday party

Pictures

Here is a photo album. click on the picture and click on SLide ShoW

Hunter "throwing" a ball

My Handsome boys! this is an outfit Gramma bought for him. one of the girls in our primary class told me "hunter looks handsome!" He sure does!

I love this picture. Look at those teeth!

For Grammie

Here is your HUnter boy dressed in the african outfit you had made for him. Too bad it isnt warm enough for the shorts outside. he looks so cute!

Spring

Spring has finally come. Well some days more than others. On sunday it was 60 degrees so we had a picnic dinner in our back yard. I was impressed for how long Hunter stayed on the blanket, but eventually he took off. Hunter has always loved to be outside and i think he is more excited now because he can move on his own. If only we could get him walking some more. Every time we stand him up he has dead legs! So at our little picnic, brad and hunter laid in the hammock which eventually tore and now is flapping in the breeze.

Yesterday hunter and i got to watch Stella. The last time she came over hunter was not sure what to make of her. Yesterday he did great!! they played and he talked to her. when she was crying he put a toy in her mouth. He looked so concerned when she would cry. i ended up putting her in the swing and she was happy and so was hunter because he could stand up and he would push the swing.

Today is the last day of my break before the weekend. the semester starts on monday. Brad has a new boy he will be working with this summer out in the community. brad met with the mom and it sounds like they will be doing alot of bowling, golfing and working on our garden we still need to get started on.

Last night we went out to dinner with Nick and Nattie. that was fun. They are so excited for their little boy to be born, she is due august 14th. so much fun.

Hip, Hip

HUrray! we are back in busines everyone! we bought a nice HUGE computer for me at home. Thanks to Geek Squad they put every virus blocker and pop up blocker on this, i am very relieved. so i will be talking to you all soon.

hello

So here i am on our super slow virus infected computer. I turn it on every once in a while just so i can email mom and pappy in africa and hear a little hello from them. We did and go and check some computers out, but we didnt buy anything. we are such computer dummies that we dont know anything and what is a good deal etc.
Thank you for your comments still, that is fun to read.
Last night brad had some friends over to play halo. so hunter and i went shopping, mostly just got out and looked around. tonight brad is going hunting for rabbits so i got girly movies for tonight. he leaves pretty late and gets home pretty late, but he wanted to go and that is fine. doesnt sound fun to me at all.
we are so lost with every one gone for the week, not that the semester is over. i got some crafts to work on for next week and there is always cleaning and laundry to keep me busy. also jocey gave me a book to read so i should be just fine. i am happy to spend the whole day with hunter boy, oh he is soo funny.

goodbye for a while

Well our computer has a horrible virus and so the blog will be out of commision for a while. booo.. i know. what am i going to do in my spare time now? well time for my last final. see ya

Weirdest thing ever!

So our computer has been down and out. i took it into a place to get in looked at and fixed. our computer is dying but only needs to last one more month, before we get a laptop.
SO i take it in and this lady, Michelle, is helping me. She is checking out the computer and she has the sniffles and tells me her allergies are really bad. SO she is helping and there is another guy out there, MAson, and he is just kind of working on other comps. SO Michelle starts getting droopy eyed, her hands start shaking and she is falling asleep while working on my computer. i look over at mason and he looks at michelle and then just walks into the back!!! doesnt even try to help. so i am thinking, maybe she has something wrong with her.hmm.
So then it is me and michelle, asleep for 3 minutes!!! i finally call out, "Excuse me?!? MASON!! she is sleeping!!" he comes out and just says, "oh she is tired!" and pretty much blows it off, leaving me with this sleeping woman who is supposed to be helping me!! 5 minutes later another guy comes out and says "hey michelle, i am going to my lunch okay?" and she says "oh no thank you, i already had mine" and we look at eachother and i said, i think she has taken something!" and she says slurred, "yes i had......something......for allergies... ben...." and i said "BENADRYL!!?!?!?!??!?! poor thing took a freaking benadryl and literally fell apart in front of me. it knocked her out! so this guy, mark, was trying to convince her to go and lay down but she wanted to stay and help me! she even walked me out to the truck, and this mark guy stayed by her side. it was so weird! i am very upset with mason though, he just left her there sleeping! thank goodness mark was there to take care of her.
poor michelle. i have taken benadryl but only before bed and it takes only 8 minutes before i am out! i feel so bad for her.
maybe it was just a ploy for me to feel bad so that i would buy a laptop from them.

First steps!

We had a most delicious conference breakfast this morning with all our friends. it was a neat experience to stand and sustain the prophet and apostles. i did feel weird though being in my green pirate pants. So while watching conference Hunter took his first steps from Berret to Tanya!! it is so exciting! we have been doing it over and over so i have been able to get some on camera!! But after 2-3 times he poops out and just falls to his knees.

Summer Semester

This is my summer schedule for classes. i am crazy, but the more i take now the less i have to take my last semester. We may have found a babysitter, thank you for your prayers. She is double checking her schedule and is someone we trust. It is always a testimony builder

FA	100	1	PER VIS ART LB	.0	ARR	ARR	ARR
	CHILD	330	1	PARENT ED	3.0	_T_T	11:30- 1:00 PM
	CHILD	340	1	LANG & LIT	2.0	M W	11:30-12:30 PM
	GEOL	102	3	INTRO/GEOL LAB	1.0	Tues.	10:15-11:15 AM
	CHILD	310	2	EARLY CHLD DEV	3.0	M W F	10:15-11:15 AM
	MATH	108	15	MATH REAL WRLD	3.0	M W F	9:00-10:00 AM

how things fall into place when you follow the promptings of the spirit.

Poor Baby

So HUnter has had this fever since Sunday. Yesterday when he woke up from his nap he was so hot and his cheeks were all red. we would be sweating just holding him. he was miserable and would lay on our chests and cuddle. he wasnt breathing that great either and he has had this cough since the weekend too. so we went took him to the community care and he has an ear affection and they tested him for RSV which was negative. he was given some antibiotics and if that doesnt help in 48 hours they want to do a chest x-ray for pneumonia. poor little guy! he is such a trooper! if it wasnt for the fever we wouldnt have known. today he has been clingy, brad said, while i was in class. so when i got home i gave him tylenol, the motrin brad gave him kicked in and he is taking a good nap. which he needs because last night was miserable.
I just have 2 more finals to take! my projects are done and now it is just studying time. whew. i get a week break and then it is summer semester. is there anyone who can watch our hunter boy? please pray we can find something that will work out.

Whirlwind Weekend

We left friday afternoon to Utah where we stayed the night with Brent and Nina. We also went to Tucanos, brad's favorite place to eat. then saturday morning we met at Mitch's house and we went with mitch and kristen in their car to vancouver for brandon's homecoming. we got there saturday night. i cant believe how old all of keri's kids are and how beautiful and handsome they all are. they were all very good to hunter. We were just exhausted. Sunday was church and we left after sacrament meeting to try and visit brad's great gramma but we couldnt get the directions right and didnt have alot of time so we didnt get to see her. then we had dinner and then brandon had a fireside he did. i didnt get to really hear that because hunter was very tired and had a bit of a fever so i had to step out. then the next day we left, drove back to utah and then unloaded from mitch's car to our car, took a 30 minute break and then drove back home. it took 17 hours to get home but it was worth it to see brandon. Hunter was such an angel baby and did GREAT in the car. i am even more ready for spring after being in utah when it was really warm! here are pictures of everyone, click on the picture and then on slideshow to see the pictures better