I know what you're thinking. The title of this post sounds like a Taylor Swift song.
Life has been going well for us here on 6th Street. While we technically have our long couch covered in 4 loads of unfolded laundry and a living room floor with some throw pillows, books, a couple of children-sized coats, a Nerf sword, and a Snow White dress scattered about, life is still great.
Dustin applied to several schools over the past two months and got in everywhere he applied. Plus, thanks to an excellent GPA from his undergrad, he never needed to take the GMAT or GRE or whatever it was suppose to be. Each school is requiring some prerequisite courses prior to starting. And because our children are getting older and we want to be as stable as possible, Dustin turned down BYU and Boise State and is still choosing between UofI (Idaho Falls campus) and Idaho State University. He's getting his Master's in civil engineering focusing on structural engineering. It totally fits him. The timing seems almost too perfect, actually.
Dust is still on the Ucon Volunteer Fire Department. He hopes he can be a volunteer firefighter for his entire working life. And for serious. It's pretty awesome having a husband who is a firefighter. Like, a real certified one that drives the big trucks and wears the red suspenders and knows all the codes on the radios. He has some pretty roudy friends there and gets a whole bunch of Pepsi everytime he goes to the firehouse.
Dustin's company just made their maintenance division a separate company called Mr. Maintenance. So, Dustin is now Mr. Manager and has a small crew of blue-collored men and a new office/shop and even drives a 2011 creepy white van without windows. He's on his last week of inspections (900+ units) and stays busy. I don't think he has worked less than 10 hours a day in three months. My favorite quote from him lately is, "You see? If you take care of a paint brush, it will take care of you."
On top of THAT, Dustin is currently outside in the 26 degree temperatures sanding our new dining room table. I'm sure you all can remember our old one... it was 20$ from the RC Willeyscratch and dent room in Las Vegas. That thing is crap and was probably a hazard to the safety and well-being of our children. It was so wobbley that sometimes if I pushed in a chair too hard I quickly took a couple steps back just in case that was the time it finally collapsed. And really, after moving it roughly 7 times or so, it's done suprizingly well. In the end, it will become doll furniture. Dustin picked up an old maple wood table in his parent's back garage that was being used as a shelf for bird seed and is just finishing sanding all the scratches out of it. It's my Christmas present.
Lillie and Jack are the highlight of our days here. I taught Lillie the word "diaphragm" a few weeks ago and everytime she gets the hiccups she's been annoucing "My diaphragm is going crazy!" Which is always good for a laugh. Today when my mom told her on the phone that she was coming to visit, Lillie said, "That's fantastic, Grandma!" then proceded to tell her how much Jack bugs her.
Jack calls the microwave the "Microphone" and frosted flakes "snowflakes." He's in a very egocentric phase and often runs past me mischeiviously covering his eyes with his somewhat chubby hands thinking I can't see him because he can't see me. He's also up every morning before the sun rises and runs into our room and jumps on us saying, "Get up, Mommy and Daddy! Time for cereal!"
And unfortunatly, I have nothing new to report on. Same-ol for this full-time voice student and mother of 2. Thankfully I have only 4 weeks left of school for this semester. I actually enjoy all my classes (besides one of them) but just wish there could be 5 more hours everyday to complete all of the assignments and spend time with my family. I found out last week that I am only 11 credits away to double majoring with a BS of Music and a BS of Social Work. I am also only 9 credits away from a BA in Vocal Performance. My minor could also either be Marriage Studies or Science Foundations (I have 20+ credits for both). I had no idea how much I would enjoy my science courses and I even registered for a robotics class next semester just for the heck of it. I'll graduate this Spring with a BS of Music and a minor in Marriage Studies. I hopefully can go back as a non-matriculating student to finish the last 3 classes for the BS of Social Work and maybe even take more composition classes.
So, life is dramatic and busy and frugal and really, really fun. We even found a fool-proof recipe for homemade bread and have made four loaves in the past week or so. When I went grocery shopping, I splurged and bought the 6$ peppered bacon and ingrediants to make a cheese ball... just because. Today Jack and I played Candyland and I won every time and Jack didn't even care. And on Friday I'm going out with a friend to see Edward and Bella's vampire child on the big screen.
Hectic and insane? No doubt about it.
Wonderful and fabulous? Definitely.
