Helping Hand!

Throughout I have put in pictures that the girls took when they stole the camera one day. I only found them when I uploaded pictures yesterday. Funny girls!!!!

With the semester coming to a close we are seeing our patience and faith tested. 

However the  blessing are far outweighing the trials.

•  Like I said earlier I am fighting the school about a one credit lab. Yesterday my bff sent me a text just to let me know she had prayed for me since she knows I was stressed. About twenty minutes later I went up to meet with a dean on campus. After a few minutes of explaining my situation he asked "Why didn't you take a bio lab when you took the course?" I felt confident with this one in replying, "We have to children at home and I only take classes for 3 hours a week so I am a full-time stay at home mom. My husband's education is most important. I didn't want to be away from home and get a babysitter so i put it off until the next semester. Then they changed the requirements before I could take the lab." He smiled printed off a sheet and said, "okay I understand I will waive the lab so you can graduate."

--- My little miracle that helped me know I did things right by putting FAMILY FIRST!!!! 

• Bio Chem test- Brian has terribly hard classes this semester in which the goal is to get through. He had two important test last week that determine if we stay another semester or really go. He studied for Bio Chem and got a 35% not so good seeing he HAD TO HAVE a 50%. He gets to retake it once so prepped and then needed to take O Chem. He normally would skip class to study since it is merely review but he felt he had to go "all he could do" before asking the Lord for help. Well it payed off because he found people to help him study and on the retake he got 100%.
  

 --Miracle #2 for the week!

• All good stories come with the moment when you say SERIOUSLY!!!! So here are two of mine. I have laundry that is piled up in every corner of the room. we are down to the last of our clothes and I finally got a moment to tackle it and..... our washing machine is toast. i don't just mean needs some work but after flooding my kitchen a dozen times and a repair man who laughed at it, we are taking it to the dump! Of course 2 weeks before i move my washing machine would die leaving me going to the laundry mat! 
  

• Last night was my night to write my paper. I got all my sources out and was in the mood to write. I took a minute break to assure the kids were asleep and then POW the power went out. No power all night on MY NIGHT TO WRITE. I had it all worked out for our schedules and planned everything perfect. Of course I need another glitch in my life just so I don't feel too special right?!

• 
  

• Last blessing of the week thus far.... Brian like I said had an O Chem test, final actually. His teacher said if he gets in the 70Th national percentile no matter what his grade he will pass him with a C. This sounded great seeing tons of people are flunking this class right now. So since he went to class instead of studying more he was HOURS short of prep time he really needed. But we prayed about every 10 minutes for him and then headed straight to the temple after he was done. Yesterday he was suppose to hear back and of course he was forced to wait. This morning he wakes up to power FINALLY and the score of 93rd percentile!!!!!!

-- Miracle 3

For all those out there that make excuses to not attend the temple know you are missing out on SO MUCH HELP. This semester we promised to go every week and get family history done. As we have lived up to this we have seen miracle after miracle in our lives. So here is my religious plug for the day....

"If you do all you can and put the Lord in his proper place in your life, blessing will pour out to you more than you ever felt possible!" 

Yeah for Temples SO CLOSE... what are we going to do in a few weeks?

 Julianne it seems we may be coming your way A LOT!!!!

Graduation you're almost here!

Here are our two cute girls all ready for graduation!!!

Brian is one final down and 12 tests left to go. I feel like we might just implode before we are done. However I am almost finished with one class and one to go so the end is in sight. I am thinking I might just crap out the rest of my class since I have a 99% and if I do nothing else i will finish with a 94%. I don't care the number I just like the A. As for my English class I still am working on the paper. Tonight is the big night. I signed up to go over it with my teacher tomorrow just to MAKE me write it. 

But the girls are enjoying the freedom of running around like crazy playing while mom and dad study, study, study! Thank goodness for Grandma or they just might not ever get a structured day! 

Oh and in case we aren't busy my washer broke yesterday and left me with 10 loads of wash that NEEDS to be done because I am wearing the same shirt 3 days in a row!

Gotta love life! Anyways here are the real graduates pre-crazy semester looking sane.

These are the pictures we are putting in our announcements so for those we are sad not to get one off to don't worry you can see the pictures here and get all the details!

If I was a pot I would be boiling over!!!!

Okay I have heard horror stories about graduating from BYU-I and now I can add the the list. Apparently my physical science class taken at BYU is not acceptable to BYU-I because it is not four credits including the SEPARATE LAB. Even though I went to lab for every section and completed the experiments it WILL NOT COUNT because they decided to change the requirement for Biology and are no longer making me take that lab. I discussed the need to take the lab with a counselor who said it wasn't needed unless I changed my major. After weeks of battling I am officially pissed off. Times like these I remember how prideful I can be and want to just say screw it and graduate from the better school of BYU. But since I have become the humble woman I am I will continue to work hard to get this fixed and bite my lip when need be. 

Must everything be difficult when you try to do the right thing for your family. I know that the Lord has a sense of humor because along with every 10 blessing there is a ridiculous stumbling block that keeps us from moving on with life. I guess that is where the saying, "I never said it would be easy I only said it would be worth it," kicks in!

AHHHHHH I HATE THE DRAMA CAN I JUST BE DONE!!!!!

Working on Paper

Okay so I have been working on my research paper for about 3 hours and this is all I have... 

Ninety percent of people within the United States believe they will marry sometime in their life.  They also believe those marriages will succeed.  Statics show that many of these people will face disappointment.  Marriages within the United States currently hold a divorce rate of fifty percent.  Researchers believe some factors that contribute to this shocking statistic include financial challenges, infidelity, sexual dissatisfaction, and loss of love between couples.  The foremost of these problems tend to be the loss of love between marital partners.  Couples with great amount of conflict tend to lose the love for one another.  Some therapists believe that the lack of proper communication skills leads to most conflict within marriage.  The vast number of self-help book available will teach proper communication skills would lead one to believe that obtaining the latest techniques can prevent conflict and thus limit divorce.  Everyone from Oprah and Dr. Phil to well respected scholars in the field of marriage such as Gottman will agree that positive communication must be present for conflicts to resolve.  However not all experts believe that communication will prevent the disagreements from arising. 

Communication between partners who hold harsh feelings for one another will have trouble moving past conflict even when applying the proper techniques.  The strong negative feelings flood out any kind words spoken between one another.  Couples must weed out the destructive thoughts that most often trigger the contention.  

I don't even have the intro done and I want to call it quits. Anyways I thought I would share what I am doing today! One day when I complete the whole paper I will post it onto my other blog for you all to read and enjoy. (You know after this amazing intro to and intro you are dying to read it!)

Waiting for Isa to doze off and bored so I am blogging and wasting time!

You Belong in 1988

Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day.

What Year Do You Belong In?

Free Music

Okay so every day Brian and I go shopping at Amazon for free music. It is so stinking fun to get good stuff for free. I don't know what all of your music taste is but you can usually find at least a song or two you like. today I got a whole album that is pretty good. Anyways here is the link to the FREE MP3S. Check it out every day there are new songs. Also they have 1.99 albums every day. Usually they are stuff you don't know but we have gotten Jack Johnson and others of the like there.  It is officially my favorite way to purchase music. Anyways enjoy! Also if anyone has iTunes you can be on a share account and get access to your friends music as long as you are both logged on to iTunes. This is the best if you have an iPhone because you can access all your friends music ALL THE TIME. Anyways there is my 5 minute plug!

C's get degrees

This is my motto for the month. I am writing papers all night long and finding crease marks on my face from falling asleep with book but you know it will all be worth it to have that lovely piece of paper that said I am an edimicated woman. Just so you know I have learned everything I know from my mom!!! Love you Mom!

Brian and I have decided that we want to look good in our cap and gown so we are diving into exercise and eating for the crazy this month. I think I chewed a piece of gum for 4 hours just to keep myself from biting my nails from hunger pains. It isn't like we are starving ourselves or anything we just eat 10 times more than anyone needs when we are stressed. And in case you didn't get the memo we are totally stressing. 

One day down and 21 to go. HOLY COW we graduate in 21 days. I think that means I should move back to writing my paper and leave blogging for another midday break! 

P.S. Remind me in a week when I feel like I don't mind being 200 pounds at graduation that I CAN do this and should just exercise the stress away. The oreos haunt me in my sleep and I really don't want them to get the best of me!

The good old days!!!

Jan- You are HOTTTTT there is no doubt about that. As for the dancing I would never trade it for the style commonly found on TV dancing shows because yours in truly one of a kind!

Mary- Sorry for the endless chat about my LOVE but don't worry you just missed a whole lot of heartache and tears. The drama of high school love. And seriously I forgot about the white rocks. And now all I can think about is the fish with the fishy fishy and man were we weird. I LOVE IT! I think in my dreams I thought not only would I be a singer but I would be TLC with my fellow soul full ladies.

The Surfing USA video will be posted when we make it back to KC and are able to load it on the computer. And the Respect encore is a must!

P.S. I also had a dream last night of Simpson pants and peeping toms but you know dreams are crazy things so who knows!

Song Memories

You ever hear a song and instantly feel like you are somewhere else in time. 

This happens to me often. Here are a few songs and memories.

Gangsters Paradise- I am sitting on the floor in my room with my best friend Mary stopping and starting the tape as we write down EVERY WORD so we can rap in style. Oh love the 90's!

Fields of Gold- When I was 16 I dated my high school sweetheart and later to me my missionary. (sad to say it wasn't Brian but that's okay it all worked out in the end!) Anyways this guys was amazing he was SO ROMANTIC. For our first Valentines day he send me on a scavenger hunt of sorts to a place we went walking once. it was a nature park in town call burr oak woods. i went down the trial for about a half mile before I came to this huge open field. A little weary I went walking for a while until I could hear soft music playing somewhere. I came to a small open patch to find the song playing was by Sting and I was standing by a picnic in the middle of a field of golden grass. It spoiled me rotten and from then on had high hopes for romance! 

Surfing USA- Anyone involved with this memory is probably already laughing! When I was like 14 or so we had a tri-ward talent show. So my best friends and their older sisters helped me put together a lip sync routine to the famous beach boys song. It was so fun but seriously my sweet friend who I love dearly was rhythmically challenged! She cracked us up during practice and when it came to the performance we all thought we were great. Re watching the video has to be done with an empty bladder because it is way too funny! LOVE YOU JAN!!!!

One Last Kiss- Okay so this is totally a great song from the musical Bye Bye Birdie thanks to my older brother. he had a crush on my friends sister. One day Mary and I caught him singing this while one the diving board dancing and when he jumped off he yelled his crushes name. it was hilarious and he will never hear the end of it. got to love embarrassing older siblings!

I will Remember You- Oh the drama of young love. i remember sitting on the floor of my room on the phone with Brian listening to this song on repeat as we fell asleep talking. it was the night before he moved and i was the saddest person alive. i felt that my heart would just die. i think I cried for about 4 hours listening to this song before i drifted off asleep listened to Brian hum along! Who would of thought years later he would be mine for all eternity!

I Want it That Way- This is the song that was playing on the bus when I saw Brian at youth conference. Oh the song that started it all. He was so hot and I fell instantly in love as only 14 year olds can. Totally cheesy song with such a wonderful beginning for my life!

Whatta Man- Okay so it is on wonder i have diva children because i am one myself. When I was in 4th grade I did yet another lip sync to this song for choir class. it wasn't just for my class but for the 5th grade class of my friends. i really thought then I would grow up to be a singer. Didn't work out so well but who know maybe i will try out for American idol next year! I will work now on my song choice!!!!!

Switch- Oh what a strange song to love but it envelopes my childhood into one memory. Sleep overs at my house with my best friend, watching golden girls, and listening to this song while making up a crazy game! Seriously Mary you were my childhood!

Lullabye- This song is by one of my favorite bands Ben Folds Five. This is my "special song" with my previously mentioned high school sweetheart. We used to sing this to each other all the time. it was great because we both sang and it was like magic. things might not have worked out as I imagined but this will always be a special song that reminds me of love, life, and lots of learning in between! 

I think i will post more later but for now Enjoy the play list and go down my memory lane for a few minutes!

School is killing me!

Okay so I am happy that I am finishing up the semester and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But holy cow is there a couple huge boulders, beasts, and giant holes in the way of me and my goal. It seems like the whole world is in chaos as I try to finish up. 

The to-do list:

1. Keep up with basic needs of family: food, bathing, sleep, and a bit of sanity if possible.
2. 12 page research paper
3. 10 hour project
4. 3 essays
5. 8000 word portfolio completed and turned in
6. Keep up with basic needs in my calling... we are talking what has to be done with none of the wishful thinking i once had about fulling to the full extent!
7. Make sure there is clean undies for the family. I used to tackle 10 loads of laundry a week but now I am just making sure we have clean underwear and we will wear the same thing for the next 4 weeks if need be. As long as we smell nice and are stain free I am letting my children dress themselves in what THEY WANT because i could careless if they match!
8. FIND A JOB- this goes for both Brian and Me.... this really isn't the best time to find a job but we aren't picky so wish us luck!
9. Attend the temple once a week AT LEAST as well as finish up the 50 family names ready to go to the temple before we leave. I am really into family history right now so I am getting as much done as I can before the temple is a day's trip away.
10. STAY SANE!!! This consists of 20 minute Oprah breaks for every 3 hours of studying. Blogging while waiting for Isa to fall asleep to assure that she doesn't color on my school assignments again!

This is my life every day. I am really looking forward to the day one if not most of the things on the list are gone but like i said that seems impossible from my seat at the moment! 

***HAPPIER NOTE***

The girls have been crazy and not handling the stress in the house as well as i hoped but at time we have good moments. There are a few pictures from our high times the past couple weeks!

Layla got to bring George home for a couple days from school and she had a blast!

Layla had a field trip in which she rode the bus for the FIRST TIME!!!

Can you tell she is excited???

She went to G's dairy but since it was for school it was so much cooler than normal!

Isa tagged along too!

Baking with Mom!

What did we do today!

We watched cartoons old and new!!!

Yogi the bear!

Smurfs

The Jetsons

The Magic School Bus

Little Einsteins

Handy Manny

The Backyardigans!

I don't think that I have watched so much TV in years. It was nice to take a break but now it is time to attempt to get kids in bed!!!!

The games kids play!!!!

Isa has come up with her own game. She stands at the top of the stairs holding a box full of clips. 

She throws them downstairs and yells, "POW!!!" She will do this until she runs out of clips. Sometimes she stands there the whole time other times she sneaks around and then throws one when no one is looking. Once she is done she yells, "I GOT THEM!!!" 

I asked her the other day what she was doing. She replied, "killing monsters!" I asked her what she was throwing and we told me they are "killers!" 

I am not sure where or why she came up with this game but it is her favorite.

 She kills monsters at least every other day. 

I guess I am glad she is getting them but when she yells out... 

"THEY ARE DEAD READ DEAD!"  I kind of feel like I should change the game. 

Oh the things kids come up with!!!!

Not up to much!

This week I am thankful that my kids finally take their medicine and treatments well. Once upon a time when Layla was small and had RSV for the first time she hated the nebulizer. She would cry and scream every time we pulled it out. We would have to hold her down and force her to take her treatments. And the same went for medicine. It took two people pinning her down and forcing the medicine down her throat. Now look... she does it all on her own!

Every time I try to talk to her this is the look I get... "what do You want mom!"

Isa hates the nebulizer even more than Layla did. 

Last night she spent 3 hours crying every 5 minutes for me to hold her till she fell asleep. After a while I just put her to bed with me. Brian had a little room to sleep while I lay hanging off the edge of the bed with my arm resting on the side table. But at least she slept and for five hours I listened to her wheeze cough and then hug me to make sure I was still there. It might have been uncomfortable but nothing beats being needed!

Our girl all grown up giver herself a treatment... she must really want to breath!

So basically this is what we look like all day long.