Saturday, March 3, 2018

Long time no blog

My poor abandoned blog. Life has gotten away from me in the past year and blogging just hasn’t been a priority. I miss it. I loved having this outlet to write down my thoughts and I love all the people who followed along with me.

So for those of you who still check in, here’s an update.

I’m now a senior in college! A few years ago the idea of going back to college seemed terrifying and impossible. And I’ll be honest, some days it still feels terrifying and impossible, lol. But I’m rocking it! I took 41 credits last year, and I have gotten an A in every single class I’ve taken since I went back to college. I’ve never been a straight student in my entire life. If I had realized how good it feels, maybe I would have tried a little harder in high school, lol. I’m working my behind off, and it’s hard and it’s stressful, and there are so many days that I want to quit, but I’ve also never been more proud of myself in my whole life. I’m doing the thing I always dreamed of doing.

I’ve been taking a heavy full time class load for the past year and a half or so, but now that I’m doing to my last few classes, I’m slowing it down this year. I’ve hit the really heavy senior level classes and they are kicking my behind. And I’m also working and juggling three kids with very busy schedules, so I decided it was best to take these last classes a little slower. So I’m only taking two classes right now, but they’re both hugely time consuming and stressful. I’m taking a psychology research methods class and we’re actually working on writing a research proposal all semester. It’s fun and hard and stressful and interesting and complicated all at the same time. I had to write a huge section of it yesterday and last night as I was reviewing it,  I had a moment of “I WROTE that?!”. I’m doing things I never thought I could do. Two years ago even reading a research proposal would felt over my head. Now I’m writing one.

So I’m going to drag my last classes out over the rest of this year, and then I’m planning to start grad school next fall. I can’t believe I’m even talking about grad school. I’m nervous and excited!!

I’m also still working a few hours a day at two different high schools and I love my job!! I love working with teenagers. This job has taught me that I think I’d really like to focus on tenagers when I start looking for a therapist job after I graduate. I don’t know exactly what direction my future career will take yet, but this job is helping me to see where my skills are, and I’m grateful for that.

One thing keeping me busy lately has been helping Josh with college applications. He graduates in a couple of months. I think I’m still in denial. When I started this blog, he was eight! Now he’s getting ready to pack up and leave home soon. He’s doing amazing, it would take me all day to list all the awesome things he’s been doing. He’s the senior class president, president of the National History Day Club, he’s headed to state for Academic Decathalon in a few weeks, he’s in the National Honor Society, he was selected this year as a student ambassador for the National WWII museum...the list goes on. He has been giving community presentations on honoring or veterans, and was on a local news program a few weeks ago talking about the student Ambassador program he’s involved with. On Monday he’s going to be the guest speaker at the state Capitol and will be speaking in front of the governor. He also just found out that he won the Billy Michal leadership award from the National WWII museum, and they’re flying us to New Orleans in June for the awards ceremony. I’m so proud of that kid.

So he’s been applying to college, and it’s been a long process. He’s been accepted to every college he has applied to, but he’s likely going to go where the money is. Scholarships are coming in, and it looks like Utah State is probably going to be the winner. He’s already got scholarships from Utah State, but we’re waiting to hear on a great big one that will send him full ride for four years. You just can’t beat free college. If he gets it, and his chances are good, I think that will seal the deal for Utah State. I’m having a really hard time with this whole leaving home thing. I’m trying not to think about it too much.

In a few weeks we’re taking him on a graduation trip to New York City, which we’re really excited about. He has wanted to go for years and this will be a fun opportunity to spend a week with him, making some memories before he heads off to college. I’m also excited because I’m finally going to be meeeting my college mentor in person, which we have been trying to make happen for a while! That’s going to be a big deal for me, so I’m looking forward to that.

In Matthew news, he’s still playing the piano, and he’s amazing! I could listen to him play all day. He’s started high school this year at the same school Josh is at, so that’s been really fun for them. He’s the freshman class president this year and is getting ready to campaign for sophomore president in the spring. He’s also in Academic Decathalon, and he and Josh have been working in a National History Project documentary together. If it wins, they’ll be headed to Washington DC together this summer. Josh had made it to nationals the last two years in a row and he’s really hoping that they make it together this year.

In Clarissa news, can you believe she’s NINE?! Time has flown by way too quickly. She’s doing amazing. I still feel so lucky to be her mom. She’s sweet and creative and artistic and funny and awesome. She loves to create things. Anything artistic or creative is her happy place. She loves to draw, she likes to decorate things, she loves clothes. She tells me that she wants to be an artist or a baker or a clothing designer when she grows up. I love watching her talents develop. She’s such a sweet, loving, easy going kid. She’s a joy to raise. She’s a constant ray of sunshine in our house. Whenever any one is sad, she’s there with a hug. I love that kid so much. I love looking back on our adoption journey. It turned out better than I could have even imagined. I’m grateful for her every day.   Her big project right now is memorizing her times tables. She struggles a bit in math, so it’s our family project to help her pass off all her times tables at school. She’s on 7’s now, and when she passes off her 12’s we’e going to take her to get her ears pierced to celebrate. She REALLY wants her ears pierced, so that’s motivating her to keep working on it!

In the midst of all this craziness with school and my job and the kids, we’re also in the middle of a kitchen remodel. We had a water leak last year and insurance is replacing the floors. We thought we’d just put in new flooring and call it good, but we couldn’t find flooring that matched the cabinets, and we really don’t even like the cabinets, so we didn’t want to match flooring to cabinets we don’t like. So that led to painting the cabinets, which led to needing new appliances, which started a whole change reaction, and long story short, we’re remodeling the kitchen. So my house is currently torn up and it’s chaos around here right now, but I’m starting to see a light at the end of tunnel. We’re getting close to being done, and it’s looking amazing. I’ll try to remember to come back and post before and afters when we finish. There are a bunch of random photos I’d like to share to catch up my blog, so I’ll try to get back and do that.

So there’s our update! Life is insanely busy right now and school is kicking my behind, but I’m doing awesome, Shawn and the kids are great and life is good around here. I’ll try to come back with an update in photos soon!




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