Friday, March 13, 2009

Birthday's, Running, Denver, and CHRISTIE!!!

So there have been some awesome developments since I last wrote. We're getting ready for Avery's birthday and we're planning on inviting her 3 closest friends over for a little party. (We don't want to overwhelm her with too many people). We're having fun planning the little games and getting the little party favors. I think she and the other kids are going to like it. :) I can't believe she's going to be two years old. It blows my mind. Her birthday is on Erik's and my 3rd anniversary. It's so awesome to think that we've been married for 3 years! I can honestly say that they've been the best 3 years of my life. I'm so fortunate to have such a wonderful man.

I went running this morning with my friend Sandra. It kicked my butt.

Erik's getting ready to have an awesome adventure. He's going to the national TESOL conference in Denver in a couple of weeks. He leaves on the 23rd and gets back on the 29th (I believe - I'm having a hard time thinking ... and lifting a water bottle for that matter. Running really kicked my butt.) I'm going to miss him so much but I'm excited that he gets to be there.

We have another important development. Christie is coming to Hawaii for her spring break!!! I never really thought I would get a visitor while living in Hawaii. I always tease (and probably annoy) my family by asking, "When are you coming to visit?" or talking about, "Well when you come to Hawaii ..." but I never thought it would actually happen! She's going to be here the 22nd - April 2nd. Oh my gosh, I am so excited! I get to see my sister and she gets to see Hawaii!! And she gets to be here for Avery's birthday! I am so excited. My life is awesome.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Behind in classes

I have to play some serious catch up in my classes today and tomorrow. I have one paper in my Early Modern European class that was due on Friday and I have at least 3 pages of book notes to write on a book I haven't even started yet. The book notes are due tomorrow afternoon. So I'd better get to reading. But first I just wanted to write a quick update. A pipe or something broke in the apartment above ours so our ceiling, wall, and carpet got all wet and mildewy. Thankfully we found the leak before it ruined too much of our stuff. We had to move everything away from the area so now we have all our luggage and boxes of stuff being stored in our living room. :/ It makes for a very cluttered room, especially after Avery's toys get scattered too. Maintenance fixed the pipe for now but all they did for us was give us fans to dry the mildewy carpet. It's dry, but it smells disgusting still and I'm worried it's going to get us sick. I'm going to complain on Monday. Avery is doing so well with potty training. She wears Sesame Street panties during the day and only wears a diaper when she takes a nap and overnight. She's so good.
Last night was foodfest. We didn't want to spend a ton of money there so I made chicken enchiladas. We ate those for dinner then went to foodfest and had dessert. It was fun. Avery really liked jumping in the Elmo's World bouncy room. Erik and the TESOL Society did really well selling cotton candy. They used up and sold 30 lbs of sugar in one night. Crazy. :)
Oh, Avery can open our front door now. And she loves her friends. She talks about Corban, Lilia, and Breea all the time. Yesterday she was pretending to talk on my cell phone and I asked her who she was talking to. She the phone away from her mouth long enough to tell me, "I talking Nana." (Nana is my mom). She's such a sweet, smart, wonderful girl. If she feels that she's suffered an injustice she will tell me and Erik, "Mommy, Daddy, timeout." She did that on Friday because we accidentally forgot her shoes at home so we wouldn't let her walk around Ala Moana Mall barefoot. She wasn't too upset about us carrying her, but when we got into the car she pointed her little finger at us and said, "Mommy, Daddy, timeout. No Avery walking. Timeout." She's so smart. Well, I'd better get to reading. :)

Monday, February 2, 2009

Happy

I was walking home from class this afternoon when I saw Avery bolt across the sidewalk with Erik playfully chasing her. When he caught her he lifted her up and she reached up and touched the leaves in the trees above them. I made a mental recording of it and commanded my brain, "Remember this." They were so cute.
So in one of my classes we're studying the Vietnam War and we've been watching this documentary from National Geographic - emphasis on the graphic. Parts of it are really disturbing. I've noticed more and more this semester that a huge portion of history is made up of horrible events of cruelty and carnage. I learned about a city, Munster, Germany, that was taken over by a group called Anabaptists (a group that believed that babies and children should not be baptized, but wait until they are adults when they can understand the importance of their decision) during the Reformation. The Holy Roman Emperor deployed forces and the 20 leaders that took over the town were forced into a cage that was hung from the town cathedral, where they slowly starved to death in front of the townspeople. It is believed that the cage and their bones hung from the cathedral until the time of the French Revolution, as a lesson to everyone else. Messed. Up.
It's times like these when I am so grateful that I and my loved ones do not have to live in constant fear of things like war or persecution. In terms of historical probability - living where we do in this time is like winning the lottery. We are very fortunate.

Monday, January 26, 2009

I've already fallen off the wagon with my New Year's goals but today is the day to try again. It's been more than a week since my last posting and I've gotten behind in the reading for my classes. So on the agenda for today (beside's Avery's doctor's appointment at 4), are this quick post and a buttload of reading. :)
Avery learned this really cute thing from Joey where she will just exclaim, "I goh-ween!" (I'm growing!) Then she'll stretch her arms up high and smile big to illustrate the point. It melts my heart every time. She also counted all the way to ten last night! twice! She's so smart. She loves the little mermaid and all things "Pwincess!" related. I think for our home evening activity tonight we're going to make homemade playdough. (She loves cooking in the kitchen with me so I think this'll be a fun thing to do together.) Oh, speaking of cooking, the other morning we were making pancakes together (she was standing on a chair next to the counter) and I turned away for a minute to wash a dish. I turned back and she was using the wire wisk to mix black pepper into our pancake batter! She looked up with a big smile and exclaimed, "I cooookeen!" (I'm cooking!) I couldn't help but laugh as I mixed a different bowl of batter. She got to play cook with her batter and I made breakfast with the new, un-peppered batter.
Last Monday we went to Temple Beach to walk on the beach and play in the sand, but the waves scared Avery (they're a lot bigger this time of year). So we decided to go to Shark's Cove on Saturday because there are no waves inside the cove to scare her. We packed a picnic lunch (complete with SPAM Masubi - yummy), then played in the water for a little while. We had a good time. Avery kept yelling, "I sim-een!" (I'm swimming!) while I was helping her kick her way across the water.
Little Miss has had a cold since Thursday of last week but I think it's starting to get better. She wasn't sleeping very will those first few days of it, but last night she slept ALL NIGHT in her crib. That's the first time she's ever done that. I was stunned when I woke up in the morning because normally I'm up with her at least twice each night. I've been trying to teach her how to self soothe when she wakes up at night, but if she stands up in her crib and calls for me then I bring her into Erik's and my bed. I've very proud of her. Well, it's Avery's nap time and I have a lot to do, but I'll keep updating! :)
Oh, and School of Education applications are due by February, so I've got to get working on that too! Erik's already a good part of the way through his.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Sorry, no pictures yet

So school is going well so far. I love my classes and my teachers. I'm still caught up in my homework and my goal is to stay that way. This is Erik's last semester. He is also a student supervisor at the Reading and Writing Center so he has a lot of responsibility there. He's been working on their new schedule (he and another guy at work finally finished it last night.) They had to change everything around because of the new class schedules for everyone. BYUH went from a 16 week semester to a 13 week semester and added a 3rd term in order to push kids into getting their degrees faster. To compensate for the loss of 3 weeks in the semester, the powers that be changed the 50 minute classes to 60 minute classes. So, as an example, instead of starting class at 7am, getting out at 7:50, having a 10 minute break between classes and starting again at 8am; they've changed it to where the first class starts at 7am, lasts until 8am, and the next class goes from 8:10-9:10. So you have classes starting at 7, 8:10, 9:20, 10:30, 11:40, etc. So many people have been late to class and work because of the change in schedules. Not that I'm complaining. This is a big and difficult change that will not be benefiting most of us who are attending now. However, after the new system is in place and everyone starts getting used to it, the newer students will be able to graduate faster. It's just getting used to it, that's the key. I hope they don't lynch President Wheelwright before this plan can prove to be a success. A lot of people are really annoyed with this decision. Ah well.
Avery is doing great. She loves getting babysat because she gets to go play with her friends. We've changed to where I'm babysitting Lilia and Corban at 5pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays because the fitness center doesn't open back up until 5. :) Avery doesn't know yet. I'm going to just let her see them come over first before I tell her that they're coming to play. She's going to be so excited. She's talking so much now. She says "pweeze" (please) and "dane doo" (thank you) all the time and she starts her own little prayers all by herself now. "Heb-wee Faw-ber, dane doo ..." That's as far as she gets by herself. :) She just woke up so I think we'll start making breakfast now. :D

Saturday, January 10, 2009

New class, lots of homework

I just thought I would write a quick update. It turns out, in order to keep my scholarship, I have to take at least 14 credits each semester. It used to be just 12 credits. So I added an Early Modern European History class and I am really excited about it. I'm actually really excited about all of my classes. Well, except for SPED 200. It's not my favorite but it will be okay. I'll make the most out of it. I have a ton of homework already but after day 3 of school I'm still caught up. Haha. So far so good.
Avery is being babysat for at least an hour a day, Monday through Friday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays it's an hour and a half. It makes me kind of sad, but it could be so much worse and she loves going over to her friends' houses to play. I'm swapping babysitting services with two sisters in our ward. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm going to start watching Lilia and Corban for a while so their mom can go to the gym. (She watches Avery for an hour every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). I don't have a set time every week to watch Avery's other friend, Bria. It'll just be whenever her mom needs it. All of them are very sweet and they play nicely, so I'm excited. I'll be watching Bria in about twenty minutes so I should get my living room picked up and get Avery and I a little more presentable. :) Erik is at work until 1pm or 3pm today. (He had a meeting this morning that threw off his work schedule. Normally he works until 1. I don't know if he'll try to make up the hours or not.) He is such a sweet, wonderful man. I'm very fortunate to have him.
Amy

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

New Year, New Semester, New Developments

So I have a New Year's Resolution to update this blog at least once a week. If I slip up somebody chastise me through email, okay? :) The Christmas break was amazing. I can't believe I lived an entire year without seeing anyone in my family. It makes me sad. It was so great to be back in Snowflake. Avery had the best time. She learned so much from Joey and Brenna. She's forming sentences and phrases like crazy and now she wakes up in the middle of the night calling "Papa?! ... Nana?! ... JoJo?!" It makes me sad to explain that they are in Arizona and we are back in Hawaii. I need to get a web cam so they can see each other. She's calling for them right now as I'm typing this. :( And, every time she asks for something she tells me, "Peeezee. Nana?" That's it, everyone should just move to Hawaii. ... Or come visit. :)
Well, classes start today. Erik is already in his first class. This semester should go well. I'm trying to get motivated about it. I'm taking my Junior Tutorial in History (even though I'm a senior), American History since 1865, Principles in Microeconomics, and Education of Exceptional Students. They all seem like they'll be fun. I've heard horror stories about the Education class though. ... Oh well, I'll make the most of it.
Well, I'd post some pictures but I haven't unpacked the camera yet, so that will have to wait. But at least I've written. :)
Amy