Contacts, It Is

...and pony tails too (once it's long enough, at least).

About a month ago, Miriam started to become very agile with her hands. She mastered putting in and taking out her pacifier (but she only does this when she wants to -- try to get her to put it in at bedtime when she's playing around or take it out when it's time to eat...forget it...she's definitely got a mind of her own), grabbing and holding onto her toys and, you guessed it, pulling my hair and my glasses off my face. Nice, huh? I know, I know. I'm sure every mom has throughout all creation has experienced this, but now it's my turn. So, I've resorted to wearing my contacts and I'm growing my hair out so I can put it in a pony tail. The end.

All is Well, All is Well

I had a graduation scare earlier this week. Ya know, one of those moments of panic where the power to the light at the end of the tunnel suddenly goes out, leaving you with a black out. It was stressful and frustrating. Here's the run down of events.

Registration for fall semester opened last Monday...and I forgot about it. My mom told me it must have been another case of Mommy Brain, and honestly, she's probably right. So, this most recent Monday while I'm sitting on campus hurriedly trying to finish my assignments for class, Owen was kind enough to remind me that registration opened last week.

What?! Last week!! Oh boy, this could be bad. Um, why didn't you tell me last week?! About two seconds later I was logged on to my student account and frantically searching through my course codes to register for my last three classes (excluding my student teaching). Hot diggity dog, math methods is still available!...click...class successfully added.! On to assessments...phew, a couple openings there too...click...class successfully added. Two down, one to go. Senior practicum...FULL!! Ahh!! It can't be full...I need this class! What am I going to do?!

It was bad. I can't remember the last time I was this worried about school. All this work, two semesters to go and I might not finish because the class is full! Grr...I was ready to write a letter to the editor, one to President Clark and another to whomever would listen to me whine, gripe and complain. I ended up not writing a letter to anybody, but rather complaining to my sister-in-law, Gina, because it just so happens that she is a great listener reader (we communicate through google chat). I went to bed Monday night worried, but not quite as frustrated after venting to her.

I woke up Tuesday morning a little happier about the situation. All along I knew it would all work out, but I didn't know how, and the faith aspect was not working so well for me at the time. I emailed the professor of the section that would work best with my schedule. He said I had to sign up on a waiting list for the class. Are you kidding me?! A class that has to be taken the semester before student teaching doesn't have enough room and even has a waiting list?! This is crazy!! Shouldn't the school already know how many students will be student teaching during the winter and therefore know how many placements they need for the senior practicum?!

Then it dawned on me...(don't you love those light bulb moments?)...my science teacher is the Education Department Chair!! And he's a super nice guy!! And I'm one of his more favorite students (there are advantages to being a participating and overachieving student...other than the learning and good grade, of course). I suddenly felt loads better, even though I knew he was only allowed to do so much squishing students in and bending of policies, I knew he'd somehow get me in. I just knew it was going to be okay.

Today I went and talked to said teacher about the practicum class and how there weren't enough spots...a fact that he was already well aware of. He had even opened up a new section for it and students from the waiting list were already added to it...if they requested the Monday, Wednesday class, that is. I, of course, always seem to make things difficult and need the Tuesday, Thursday class. Luckily, I, and one other student, are the only two on the waiting list who need the class these days (there were fourteen students who needed the other class days). So, he said he'd squeeze us in!! And there you have it! All is well, all is well.

Seriously?!

This is what we woke up to this morning...
































It is June, right?! That's what I thought, but around here it keeps acting like January! At least it's supposed to be super nice this weekend. I could use a little sunshine about this time of year. Hopefully it will be nice on the Fourth of July too (my favorite holiday) even though it has snowed on this day before...even in my lifetime...I remember it (I think I was six)! And our little tomato plants appear to be alive still (we're still crossing our fingers) so all is not lost yet.

Oh, and I saw this on a couple of my friends' blogs recently and we thought it was pretty funny, and true. I didn't know that a day or two later it would hit so close to reality...in June.

• If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you live in Idaho.
• If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you live in Idaho.
• If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in Idaho.
• If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you live in Idaho.
• If 'Vacation' means going anywhere south of Salt Lake City for the weekend, you live in Idaho.
• If you measure distance in hours, you live in Idaho.
• If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you live in Idaho.
• If you have switched from 'heat' to 'A/C' in the same day and back again, you live in Idaho.
• If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you live in Idaho.
• If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you live in Idaho.
• If you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you live in Idaho.
• If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you live in Idaho.
• If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and everybody is passing you, you live in Idaho.
• If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you live in Idaho.
• If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you live in Idaho.
• If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you live in Idaho.
• If you find 10 degrees 'a little chilly', you live in Idaho.

My Thirsty Girl

Now that Miriam is getting a little older, Owen and I have started introducing her to new objects and foods just to see what she'll do with them. When we put new foods to her mouth, she usually gives us a look like, "you people are so weird" or "um, I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be eating this yet" and the foods never move beyond her lips. When we give her a new object, sometimes she'll hold on to it for a second and maybe put it in her mouth to test it out, but usually she just throws it across the room. This is what happened when we tried out the sippy cup too.

So yesterday, when I handed her my camelbak water bottle to see what she'd do with it, I figured it'd get tossed like everything else. Boy, was I wrong! She immediately latched on and started sucking. When water started coming out, she stopped, gave a surprised look for a second, but then kept sucking. I was amazed. I let her continue for a minute or two, then took it away, and she held her little arms out to grab it back and never took her eyes off it. Well, wha'd'ya'know, she just might like a food source other than Mom! I gave it back later and she was so excited. She sucked away on that bottle and drank an ounce or two of water.



















Isn't she cute?! I haven't decided yet whether it's the water or the drinking through a straw that she likes. Maybe it's a combination of the two. Either way, she loves it!

Disasters...Naturally

Owen is currently taking a natural disaster geology class. It seems to be pretty fun for him. And yesterday, as part of the class, he got to take a field trip to some of the nearby natural disaster sites. He went to...

The Teton Dam Site (which failed and resulted in a ginormous flood on June 5, 1976 -- my Dad helped place sandbags along the banks of the Snake River when this happened...if I remember correctly)

This is what is left of the Teton Dam













The area it first washed through before flooding Rexburg and surrounding South East Idaho areas















Madison Slide Site (a massive landslide of 80 million tons of earth killing 28 people in 1959 caused by the 7.5 magnitude Hebgen Earthquake)















Cabin Creek Fault Scarp (also caused by the Hebgen earthquake, resulting in a 18 foot displacement across a normal fault)

It's hard to tell from the picture, but this is really 18 feet















and Upper Mesa Falls (which was caused by one of the biggest volcanic explosion in the United States -- 1.3 million years ago)

It's not Niagara, but it is 112 feet tall



















He got to see many others, but these were the highlights to him. And he even saw snow in June...Idaho has crazy weather!

A Rough Ending to a Rough Week

Yesterday was the culmination of a crazy busy and tiring week at our house. Here's a Reader's Digest play-by-play:

The week actually didn't start too bad (I count Sunday as the beginning of a week) because Sunday's usually go pretty well around our house. We were late for church though, which always seems to make me cranky. I will admit that it was my fault though. I was still prepping the lasagna for dinner and I got a little behind schedule. We made it though and all was well.

Monday and Wednesday always seem to be somewhat lousy days because we are at school all day. Miriam doesn't sleep well outside her crib and so we get home with a tired, whiny baby. Not to mention the fact that she was already being slightly cranky from her new tooth. Then to add pain to misery, it was midterms...grumble, grumble. Again, we survived. And, I'm happy to say, Summer semester is now officially halfway over! Six weeks to go!!

Tuesdays seem to go right along with Mondays and Wednesdays because they are smashed right in the middle and end up being super busy. I find that Tuesday is my recover/catch-up day. I do laundry and dishes and try to get as many things ready for Wednesday as possible. It wears me out, for sure!

Thursday was our out-of-ordinary day this week. One of my thoughtful teachers scheduled our class midterm in the Testing Center for Thursday through Saturday. Not such a big deal for in-towners or people who have school every day of the week...but for me, this was inconvenient, to say the least. So, to save on gas (which is $4.00/gallon, by the way...it makes me nauseated every time we fill up...sad, sad) I went with Owen in the morning for his 8 a.m. class. This means 5:30 wake up in order to be out the door by 6:50 (and also, major road construction has now slowed down our commute to Rexburg by at least 15 minutes -- in normal conditions it takes 40 minutes...with construction and random stand still traffic, we're now up to an hour most days...lovely). So, I studied and played with Miriam while Owen was in class, then I took my super long, half essay exam. By the time we got home, over half the day was gone, and I was exhausted.

Friday turned in to a double-duty day due to my wasted Thursday. I went grocery shopping, did dishes, washed five loads of laundry and cleaned the kitchen sink, counters and floor and made a cake for the ward party that night (which was a really fun date for Owen and me -- my niece Amber is such a great babysitter). This left me with the bathrooms, sheets, towels, vacuuming and dusting for Saturday. "I can handle this," I thought! And I did. Saturday went fine and I got lots accomplished. Unfortunately, Owen was gone all day (from 5:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m) because he had a school project and a field trip, so we were lonely and didn't have his help with chores all day! (I seriously don't know how single moms function...I would be a wreck!) He got back just in time to help me clean up puke...that's right, puke. As I was getting Miriam ready for bed, she must have decided her tummy hurt because she threw up right after her bath. I thought everything was fine after that episode, so we went to her room and continued with the rest of the bedtime routine (nursing, rocking and singing primary songs). And it happened again. But this time was much worse. I didn't now a little baby girl could even have that much food to lose in the first place! I was soaked, she was soaked and I was ready to crawl in a corner and die (okay, so it wasn't really that bad...but it was gross!) But, Owen came home and saved the day. We got Miriam down to bed and had the rest of the night to clean up the mess and relax.

Now it's Sunday again!! A new day, a new week and a new beginning. Thank goodness! Today has been so refreshing. We were early to church, and everything is set to go for this week. I'm looking forward to a fantastic and fun routine week...just how I like them! :)

She's Got a Tooth!

Either that or she's sprouted a razor. Man is that little bugger sharp! But she's been drooling like a faucet for a couple months now and for the past couple days has been CRANKY!! So, today while I was bored in Sunday School I decided to shove my finger in to see if she'd made any progress. What I found was a jagged little stump that just about poked a hole in my finger! I was pretty excited. This means that my baby is not just cranky and not sleeping well for no reason...now I can blame it on the tooth!

Sorry, no pictures yet! It's still really small and it would be hard to see clearly in a photograph. Not to mention, it's nearly impossible to get a five-month old baby to open her mouth long enough for a picture without sticking a finger in to get sucked or chomped on first. Hopefully I'll get one soon though.