Tag Archives: Grad School

Graduation Day & Partayyyyyy!

I am constantly kicking myself for not taking more pictures. This day was definitely ones of those times.

This day seemed to be a mystic day somewhere off in the future that I couldn’t really grasp. But I really really wanted to. And it actually finally happened.

Words will never do justice to how I feel about what my hubby has done the last however many (a lot) years he has been in school. I am so proud of him. I am in awe of him and yet he is still so down to earth and genuine.

He is so excited about what he was able to research. He is excited that he actually gets to continue it now because of how promising it has become. Talk about successful schooling!

The celebration we had at my parents home was wonderful. Not only was the company and food perfect (thanks Mericar!!!) but it was the perfect time to tell our family and friends that we are expecting another baby.

Instead of 1,2,3 Cheese!! It was 1,2,3 Anna’s Pregnant! The reaction was priceless.

Again I wish I had taken more photos! Photos of the incredible food that my SIL pulled off without a sweat that I’m pretty sure everybody thought was catered…nope! Better! MERICAR!

Wish I had taken photos of the tables and people visiting, taken photos of the lip sync battle we had! I am so proud of everyone who participated! It turned out so great. And my silly brother who won singing one of Pat Benatar’s epic songs.

Congratulations honey! We’re done!  And what a wonderful memory of the celebration! SO grateful for my family and friends!

Pregnancy Announcement

The announcement at the Graduation party! Everyone just thought it was as group picture but we recorded it instead and instead of 1…2…3…cheese!!  Well you will see….It’s fun to watch it a few different times to look at each person’s reaction.

Just missing my stinking older brother! He disappeared right before we did this! Sorry Rob!!! Love you anyway!

Life Happens

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Wow. I am not very good at this blogging thing. Life happens and I stop. Obviously it’s not the biggest priority in my life….or maybe it’s just that life has been extra crazy? I will catch you up and you decide.

Hmmmmm ……

It might not seem like a big thing but the cold!!! Ah! It’s been so cold and so wet here! It really dampens my mood. Ugh. My face tells you how I feel about driving in snow in April.

I guess we will start with our living situation. One normal night we were in our beds sleeping with the window open letting fresh cool air in and all the sudden I hear this horrifyingly loud noise coming from outside. I was frozen. Was it an earthquake? Was it a car crash? Was it a car crashing into our apartment? Was it something I just couldn’t comprehend? All I knew was I frozen for about 20 seconds . David however spring out of bed quicker than a cat and was at the window frantically trying to see what was happening.

Then it was over. We still weren’t sure. He said he was going to go outside and look around. I called him back and said I had a yucky feeling and that I wanted him to stay here for a minute.

After a while of looking out windows and speculating we finally saw our neighbors (who happen to be the managers) outside talking with our other downstairs neighbor.

Longer story, shorter…a drunken, high physcho boyfriend of our downstairs neighbor had kicked in her window, (2 layers if thick glass!) crawled through it (without hurting himself) and strated to beat her.

He apparently took off because his story to the managers was that someone else broke in and he had to chase them off. Eventually the cops came and questioned everyone and then the search was on. They caught him which was great BUT the darn judge set his bail very very low and so he was released that very same day. Now she has a restraining order for him.

They day they brought a photo of him around to everyone and said “keep an eye out for him and if you see him on the premises call 911 right away”…was the end if it for me. We moved out that night.

Thankfully my parents were kind enough to let us bunk with them if only temporaryily.

My sweet neighbor is doing ok. I feel pretty guilt about leaving her there but I knew sleeping good would be over for me if we stayed.  She had a good bruise in the side of her head but she is tough.

So now we are on the hunt for our own place.

We were planning on moving out this summer anyway, so I guess this experience just hurried things a bit.

The next big news is that we are expecting baby #3!!!!

I am about 13 weeks right now. I am finally starting to feel a little bit better.

During this whole scary moving experience I was not feeling well at all…it was rough. And all new to me because with my first two babies I felt pretty darn great.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr. This is hard. I have so much more empathy for women who are sick during pregnancy.

But we are so excited.

Around this time we also had to plan David’s Graduation party. I had sent out invites already and it was happening! Don’t get me wrong I was so happy this was FINALLY happening but since I had become pregnant and not feeling great my motivation and umph to get this party going basically disappeared.

THANK HEAVENS FOR MY SIL MERICAR!

She took over and saved me.

She is an amazing party planner and cook and the party was more than I could have imagined! I may have to save that for another post altogether.  What a great day !

This is where I announced I was pregnant to all the family and friends that were there. It was fun.

So anyway you can see now maybe why I have MIA from my blog.

The only stress I feel now is finding our own place which is not an easy thing to do in cache valley right now. The competition is fierce.

Wish us luck, send a prayer or two. I don’t know but hopefully things work out…I know they always do the way they are supposed to.

Epicness

David came home yesterday and told me that he is on track to be done with school in 6 weeks.

Hold the phone, are you serious?! Is this moment finally happening or are you pulling my leg? I can’t believe it. Where is the word that describes how happy I am? I can’t find it…BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ONE SUFFICIENT.

We kind of halfheartedly estimated it the other day (because whole heartedly would take too much effort) that he’s been in school for 25 years! Isn’t that the most disgusting thing you’ve ever heard?

Haha OK that’s harsh. I’m nothing but proud over here. But there IS a chance that he is dangerously over-educated and he wouldn’t disagree with you. 25 years? Wow, I mean…Wow!

It’s OK though, don’t worry. I’ve got the rest of his life to help dumb him down. This summer I’m going to make him read a NOVEL. Ya. Try and picture it. I am.

But first our super awesome graduation party!!!!! Hey-Ho people!!!! I better start planning. It has to be epic.

Like him.

 

 

 

 

 

Lately

Eating Lately : This isn’t all too new or exciting.  I am not doing any sort of clean eating challenge or follow any specific dietary guidelines and don’t suffer from any limitations (except of course the stomach ache that most naturally occurs when you eat too much chocolate).  We eat real good food here and love it.  The other day I ran into an old friend and the subject turned to nutrition and eating as it usually does with people who know that I’m a ‘nutrition fanatic’ and she was absolutely shocked that I eat bacon….shocked.  I told her we eat it several times a week some months and she almost fell over.  What can you do?…I believe in natural, fresh foods and there’s nothing wrong with fat as long as it’s the natural kind and it’s not the only thing you eat.  Easy peesy.

Watching Lately : David and I have become couch potatoes.  Seriously, it’s bad and we’re about to make a change because we realize how pathetic we are and how many other things there are to do in the world besides sit on the couch and watch other people’s make believe lives.  This is just how we’ve spent our time together in the evenings.  We eat dinner, put the kids down and meet on the couch for a night of cuddling.  It’s nice and though it’s not gonna last we’ve enjoyed 2 shows in particular.  The first being Heartland.  Innocent, beautiful show about a horse ranch in Canada…it’s my horse fix and we watch it when we feel like dreaming about our future horse ranch.  The next one is Grey’s Anatomy.  I know I know.  It’s pretty risque and I probably wouldn’t let my little ones watch it when they’re older but man it’s fascinating.  The blood and guts used to bother me but it doesn’t anymore which is cool and I secretly love to imagine my brother and his beautiful wife experiencing things like we see on the TV in real life.  They are in their first year of medical school so they have a few years but it’s a weird connection I now have with the show.  Plus let’s be honest, it’s addicting…you just have to know what’s going to happen!!

Doing Lately :  This one’s pretty sad.  I’m a mom.  That’s what I do.  No it’s not boring and yes it’s fulfilling but man is it HARD!!  When mom’s used to say that for example over the pulpit I would wonder why it was so hard…why?  I just didn’t understand.  Well I do now and I guess it’s just one of those things.  But boy do I love those boys.  My days consist mostly of directing and guiding them to make the right choices, to learn how to be nice to each other and to others…how to go poo and pee on the potty (hehe) and how to eat their veggies.  I cook, I clean, I cook and I clean some more.  It’s exhausting but it’s right.  I know that it’s what I’m supposed to be doing right now.  When David has free time we enjoy going on walks together, going to the park or the zoo or any other free activity we can think of.

Apart from being a mom I have also been busy doing things for the business.  I volunteered to do the Quickbooks far before there was ever anything to enter into QB so it’s definitely been a learning process but thanks to our new CPA I feel in control now and am excited to make it the most perfect QB account ever! HA!  I also am the one who enters in and purchases the shipping labels for each days orders.  It’s a bit tedious and most days I really really don’t want to do it but there is not really anyone else to do it at this point and hey the bunny lovers need their food!  Onward!

Freaking Out About Lately :  Last I knew, David was supposed to be done with school in December.  This isn’t the case anymore.  I should have know though right?  This is just the way PhD’s are!  And btw I am totally fine with it.  NO disappointed wifey here.  I actually like it better that he’ll graduate in the spring.  Who wants to come to a Graduation Party in Logan in December?!!  Not me!  I guess the part I’m freaking out about is his research and whether or not he’ll be at the point he wants to be at in the Spring.  This consists of boring material that I’m not going to bore you about but it’s what I’m freaking out about.  Flu season.  Yup.  Freaking out.  I am so scared of my little babies catching anything nasty.  Stay away bugs!!  Last but not least I’m freaking out about how little we’ve seen Lucie lately.  It’s not OK and I wish beyond words that she didn’t live so far away, that being said we still need to make it work.  We miss that girl!!

Well there you have it.  Feels good to write sometimes doesn’t it?  You know I just read an article that says writing has a direct link to health…it can actually make you healthier!  So go grab a pen and paper or your computer!  Go!

The Tunnel

Life is crazy.  But life is good crazy.  David has handed in his research proposal.  It’s everything he’s learned in the past 3 1/2 years written down and perfected.  Yesterday his 5 committee members met with him, read it and signed off on it.

I am no expert when it comes to PhD protocol and/or lingo.  I have no idea what’s going on… but I can tell you that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Since his proposal was approved  and his null hypotheses stated he can now schedule his comprehensive exams.  He has 5 of them…both written and oral.  And whilst doing these exams he will be testing said hypotheses in the lab to see if he’s right.  To see if these little ideas and thoughts that have popped in his head the past 3 years about this ‘holy grail of agriculture’ were inspired or something else.

It’s a weird place to be in.  And I’m just the onlooker.  The wife who pretends to understand what he’s talking about when he gets excited about something new he discovered today  (don’t worry, he  knows I don’t understand…but I still pretend…to be the most supportive….and he still shares with me…it’s a little fantasy we have going on).

Nevertheless I read or scanned his highly impressive proposal and though I didn’t understand it  I could still undeniably feel the importance and the excitement of it’s implications oozing from the pages.

It’s very hard not to think about what it could mean if things in the lab turn out right.  But I really try not to because it’s one of those things that would be life-changing….world changing and more….and we’re just, well, us.  The likelihood is slim.

 But the likelihood that he discovers a major stepping stone is pretty big and that’s awesome.

I am so proud of him.  And so no matter what the results are in that lab up on the hill he GRADUATES in December.  We’re done.  No more school.  Whew.   He did it.  He is doing it.  He’s doing it well.  Especially when you add in the fact that he’s growing a business as well.  Ya, no big deal.

In case you were wondering, I’m married to Superman…and he doesn’t even know it.

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May Flowers

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It’s when this time of year comes around that I love living in Logan.  I could stay forever if it stayed like this.  Forever.  But alas it doesn’t and unfortunately it gets about 8 months of winter…bummer.  Anyway we are definitely enjoying our time and our yard right now.  The smells, the flowers, the sky, the breeze, the cool nights with the windows open to clean out the house out of the winter must.  We are missing my mom since she flew south but know that her warmer weather down there is doing her good.  I’m afraid she’d find this blessed weather a little too cold still.

David finished classes and we had a partial celebration (we can’t fully celebrate till he’s REALLY done).  I am so proud of him.  He works so hard and has more on his plate than maybe most doctoral students (ie: business, needy wife) yet he still managed to pull of A’s and a B+.  He’s amazing.  He’s been taking a well deserved breather this week and the boys and I have seriously savored it.  This summer is going to shed a lot of light on where our life is going to take us.  It’s kind of fun thinking of the possibilities! Right now we just tell people we don’t know because we don’t and there are too many possibilities to name!

The 2 rascals are doing great.  William is almost 10 months (I don’t know how it happened) and still wearing 6 month old clothes.  Don’t worry we’re still watching him.  The only reason I don’t worry is because he is just progressing everywhere else.  He is so talkative and happy and SMART! He throws temper tantrums, he plays cars with Ben with the car noises included and he is seriously thinking about taking his first step.  He’s mastered the whole standing stationary thing (without holding onto anything) and thinks he’s pretty cool.  He loves big boy food and will often eat food that Ben wont, which helps with Ben.  If he’s full and rested he could play by himself for hours.  He’s pretty awesome.  I kinda love him.

Ben is definitely 2.  I have to remind myself of that now and then.  He is quite the talker and shocks me sometimes with the words he knows.  Ie: this morning while playing the bowling game on the ground and missed said, ‘dane it!’ (Dang it!)  Whoops!  Gotta work on that.  Sorry bud, I know I confuse you when you hear me say that and then tell you not to.  Then there are things that just make me laugh like crazy.  Like when he asks for apple pie and I am just confused because he’s never been exposed to apple pie or has any idea what pie is, especially apple.  But then I realize that he’s referring to the PINEAPPLE that we enjoyed the night before.  HA! That’s funny right? !  Almost buddy!  Just a little switcheroo and insert an N and you got it!

He knows most of his alphabet, not necessarily in order yet (isn’t that nonsense anyway?) and lots of his numbers.  It’s wild.  He knows I am a Child of God and Oh My Father WORD FOR WORD and sings along.   Proof that if you want your child to know something just repeat it over and over from the time they are an infant.  Voila!  Pretty sweet.  I mean really sweet.  It just melts my heart to hear him sing those songs in his lyspy way.

Anyway that’s my boys.  They love each other.  I love them.  We’re a happy family.  Barney?  hehe

Right now we are awaiting the arrival of daddy and papa as they’ve been in San Francisco on rabbit business.  Currently they are stuck in the SLC airport because they lost their luggage Grrrrrrr!  Ben has missed his daddy.  He keeps saying, ‘dada home?’ Dada awake?’ It will be a fun reunion.  Oh the fun!  We are blessed.

 

Blessings

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It’s been raining for days here.  Except for a few hours here and there.  It nice too because it always seems to be when we decide to go for a walk to the park or something.  Then when we get home it starts back up again.  It’s a working miracle as we see it.  We NEEDED moisture, we fast, and we receive.  Awesome.

And when I say we, I mean the saints as a whole.  My family was not apart of this miracle unfortunately.  Fasting is  a practice we need to reacquire.  After 2 pregnancies and months of nursing afterwards we have kind of gotten out of the habit….and I guess more than that since sometimes we just simply choose not to fast even when we remember.  It’ll happen again.  We don’t plan on getting pregnant for a while so I feel like we’ll get back to normal in some ways.  Boy do babies seem to really throw me off.  Is that normal?  Is it also normal to picture yourself with just the amount of kids you currently have?  I’m 97% sure I want more kids but 3% sure that I don’t, at least and especially right now.  I wonder how I would be viewed as the Mormon mom who chose to have only 2 kids (not that I view moms with 2 kids any differently).  Weird.  But not relevant to think about at this point.  Like I said, I’m sure I’ll get the baby bug several years down the road and bam it’ll happen again and I’ll love it.

I love watching my boys interact with each other.  William is only 8 months old so he’s not really ‘playing’ per se but they interact and follow each other around, make each other laugh and are just very aware of each-other.  I know as time passes they will fight more, that’s inevitable but my goal is to teach them how to forgive each other and think of eachother’s needs instead of their own and most importantly how to have fun together and love being with each other.  Lofty goal?  Maybe…but an important one.  My chances are pretty high though I must say simply because of who they have as a father.  He’s a pretty amazing guy, one of a kind, genuine person so how could they not turn out great?  They love him SO much.  I feel so blessed.

The other day I told David that when he graduates, it’s my turn to go get a job and be out of the house so that they get sick of him and love me when I walk in the door. hehe

Do you know what freedom tastes like?  We do.  We are so close to being free from classes and then school altogether that we can taste it.  It’s torture.  But that’s how it goes.  It’s fun to dream and plan and dream some more.  It will be fun to see where we actually end up.  Who knows??!!

But for right now we enjoy the simplicity of our life.  I get to stay home with the boys while David wears himself out at school.  We enjoy simple evenings together and then it starts all over again the next day.  It’d be easy to call it monotonous and boring but I don’t.  At least most days I don’t.  I have a strong feeling that we’ll look back on this phase of our life and long for it in ways.  It’s simple and slow but the beauty of this life is we can learn to enjoy every phase of our lives by being grateful and keeping perspective.   The Gospel gives us all the tools we need to be happy, no matter what.  How wonderful.  Dontcha think?

January update

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William is sleeping thru the night!!!  Seriously he turned 6 months and something clicked.  He always did it randomly up until this point but at 6 months it was like clockwork.  So weird.  So lovely.  I can’t believe how hard these 6 months have been!  I won’t bore you with the deets but just saying I’m soooo glad that phase of my life is over.  That sounds bad.  Don’t judge.  They’re so cute!!  That fact and my amazing husband and family and naps got me through it.  And really I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

I’ve crossed many hurdles and my next one is a big one.  At least for me.  Some may gawk but the hurdle I speak of is the grocery store.  Till now I’ve avoided taking both kids to the store, alone.  We’ve taken them together David and I or I’ve gone when I have a willing babysitter or I go at night when they are sleeping. ..but never alone…with them.  It scares me.  I don’t think I can do it.  But I must.  I’m going to face my fears, buck up and just do it.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  p.s. this may be why my kids are always in their jammies…I never take them anywhere!  And I hate laundry.

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I love my kids so much.  That’s so cliched and believable but it’s also true to the core.  I also love my husband more than anything in the world.  He is seriously my hero and my boys feel the exact same way.  Right now he feels like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders (in some ways he does) and he handles it with such grace and agility.  I’m grateful he puts up with me, his frequently incompetent and cranky wife.  I don’t know what I’d do or be without him!

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Right now we are bunkered down and getting through this last semeseter of CLASSES.  I emphazise classes because it doesn’t mean he is done with his degree.  Grrrr.  It’s ok though.  Once classes are done he can fully focus on the research and have the burden of scheduled classes lifted.   Research and lap work is what he enjoys.  In the past year our ‘plans’ have changed a lot.  We’ve gone from graduating and being done in May  to being done with classes in May and graduating in December to what the plan is now which is done with classes in May and graduate next Spring.  Maybe we should learn our lesson and stop making plans.  Oh doctoral degree why do you have to be so mysterious and unpredictable!  The silver lining is that it’s a pathway worth going down, as hard and long as it may be.  Right?  ?? hehe

Sherwood Forest is growing!  The business I mean…that was NOT an announcment.  Nope! That’s not happening for a while!!

Cache Valley in our View

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(This pic was taken on a hike where my mom first met David..we’d only been dating several weeks)

David is nearing the end of his second to last semester of grad school.  Or in otherwords he is nearing the beginning of his LAST semester of grad school.  How crazy is that?! It’s really not that far away.

I have a friend whose husband is just starting his PhD, they have 4 years left here!  I am excited for them and the adventure they are starting and I am sure they don’t look at their life as dreaded but man I certainly can say that if I was going to be in Logan for another 4 years all I would feel is dread!

OK OK, it’s not that bad…if I really think about it Logan isn’t THAT bad.  It would be much more tolerable though if David wasn’t in school.  I think I’ll always kinda love Logan actually because it’s where we met and had our two boys.  It’s where our life together started.  It’s all in your perspective right?

Truth is, we are so ready for him to be done with school we can taste it.  We ache and long for it.  You know the advice we always hear about living in the moment? Ya well we aren’t doing a very good job of that right now in the Sherwood home.  One of our favorite pasttimes is to talk and dream about what we’ll do after we’re free from school.

We have no idea where we’ll be with the business by then (the hope is it be able to relocate it) and his school research could be at a point that would be just silly for us to leave it.  I wish I could talk about it more but it’s kind of hush hush…I couldn’t do it justice if I wanted to anyway.  It’s biology, genetics kinda stuff.  Way over my head.  All I know is it’s a big deal and he’s feeling confident!

We are in the middle of making a major business decision that will completely change the course of our lives either way and we’re not really sure what’s going to happen.  Extra prayers and thoughts our way are always welcomed.  And I guess we’ll keep everyone updated!

Here’s to the end of the second to last semester!  Happy November and December!