2 weeks!!

Okay, well it's actually 2 weeks and 2 days.

Fine.

It's 2 weeks and six days. But two weeks sounds better.

This insane, crazy, stressful chapter of my life will be over! I can NOT wait until graduation. I will have completed 101 credits since Fall 2011 and because I applied to the FastGrad program, the longest break I ever had was 2 1/2 weeks off between Fall and Winter semesters 2012. Usually I'm lucky if I can get a full week off between semesters. So umm... I'm not feeling pretty creative right now, but if someone could brainstorm a more effective, appropriate phrase other than burnt out ... that would pretty much sum up how I've been feeling lately. Actually, apathetic is also a good adjective. It's not like I need to keep up my scholarships anymore. And I sort of just don't care.

Here's my most frequent conversation lately:

So, Erika, what are you planning to do after you graduate?
What do I plan to do? I plan to stay home and be a full-time mother.
Oh... well good for you for still finishing school. (or something like that)

The average income for a female who graduated in Music, or who plans to teach music, is pretty much what you'd expect it to be.
Almost nothing.
But I didn't go to school with any career objectives. I studied things that I wanted to and that I was interested in and I learned many skills and a whole new knowledge base of information. I didn't just study "singing" as some people might assume (including my husband when I first started!), and actually, my voice lessons took up a total of 8 credits out of my 120. The rest were theory, composition, pedagogy, education, history, and social science classes.... and of course, 60 credits of generals.

I loved going back to school. There was never one day of school that I didn't feel was worthwhile.
But now it's over, and I am more than ready to finally be able to devote all my time to my family.
I love the short talk here from President Hinckley in 1996 when he said that it's nearly impossible to be a full-time mother and a full-time employee (or student, probably). I've also been really thinking about this short 2 minute clip lately, also.

So those are my plans. And I can't wait.

My Senior Recital!

It's in exactly 4 weeks and thankfully I only have 3 songs left to memorize! Putting together a recital is like the stress of juries x's 100, but it's commemorative for me and will be a great way to end this chapter. My theme is "Songs My Mother Taught Me" (one of the songs I'm singing) and is sung through my children's perspective over the last two years. My sweet children also have memorized about 80% of my songs over the last six semesters and sound really cute when they sing in German or French. I am even singing an art song titled "Old Mother Hubbard" in the style of Handel and Lillie and I are singing a little duet I arranged near the end of the program.
So yes, everyone over age 6 is invited! Plus I'm having some pretty awesome refreshments afterward. It's formal and it's free, and we'll see if I can really pull off singing some high B's with my sixth-month belly and extreme issue of keeping my freaking diaphragm expanded.
Epigastrial-Diaphragmatic-Abdominal-Costal Breathing these days.
(Thank you, Brother Lindford.)

Balance

I'm not one for figuring out how to balance my life when I have a million things to do. You would think that after 22 months of full-time school that I would be able to figure it out by now. You would think.

So, I'm a list maker. It's the only way I can give proper attention to what's most important without filling my time with things with little meaning. I at one point in the last year had to make myself an adult chore-chart of sorts, except it included the most basic of things, like brushing my teeth, saying my prayers, reading 3 books a day to my kids, and making dinner for my family. Super embarrassing, but that's basically sums up my frazzled brain.

The plus thing about being overwhelmingly busy: I can go grocery shopping for an entire month at a time. Because really, who has time to bustle around Winco every single week? I make up a list of about 25 meals and buy all the ingredients for them. Vegetables will last at least a month in my fridge, but of course, a couple times a month Dustin comes home with more bananas and milk. Anyway, it saves a butt-load of money and has helped me become super creative. I would rather eat hot dogs on our BBQ with a suddenly salad mix.... again.... instead of drive the 2 miles to Winco and buy stuff more often. And by the way, recently I decided to start buying the good hot dogs (about 3$ a package) instead of the 79 cent package of BAR-S who-the-crap-knows-what's-in-there hot dogs, and it has changed my life.

I also have enlisted my children into folding laundry, even Jack can fold towels and rags good enough that I don't care to refold them. And to save another small ounce of time daily, Dustin has installed a real drinking fountain in our garage so I don't have to get the kids cups of water all day long.

But don't get me wrong, I still waste time sometimes. Last week on Wednesday I got so much homework done and it was so flipping hot upstairs and Dustin wasn't going to be home for another 2 1/2 hours and the only thing to do was to go down to the cool basement to watch Mrs. Doubtfire. What a waste. In a lot of ways.

So, tomorrow when you wake up, grab some paper and a pen and make a list of everything you want to do that day. Write down everything. It feels wonderful to cross off several things just from peeing, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed and making our bed. I bet you'll be more productive! Or at least you will feel more productive. And that is what is most important.

Photo Dump Family Update

I had to post the last picture because our refrigerator plays a major role in my life these days.

I am SO DONE with school. Dustin brought me home an orange creamsicle snow cone to break up my eight hour online school session today.

I also love driving home and seeing the front of our house. We have green grass, mature trees (about ten less than when we bought it!) hanging baskets, an American flag, and even a statue we named "Rosy" to greet us. Our garden has been a therapeutic adventure for us and a huge dream come true for me. I've always wanted to do this. Our corn is coming up nicely and we've already been able to pick strawberries, a rare advantage in this devil climate. It's like a science experiment every day for these tikes learning how to plant, water, and weed. They've taken a huge ownership in the garden. For Mother's Day Dustin made me a big planter box for all my herbs and the kids got me some rose bushes and a lilac tree. I feel like I've aged 25 years since buying this house because now I enjoy conversations relating to our yard. I've even become one of those people who gives tours of their plants to every visitor.

We've been busy and happy and love that it's June.

Save the Date: 11/12/13

Baby #3 will make his/her debut.

After 22 months of tears and prayers and miscarriages and a whole bunch of faith, the Lord has granted us a miracle and is sending us another family member. I am 15 weeks along today and am feeling great! The kids are already deciding on names and Jack is convinced that the baby will sleep in his bed with him. It was a hard secret to keep and it still seems surreal. We couldn't be more grateful and are greatly anticipating the joys that come with having a newborn in our arms again.

The Marshall Elementary Assembly Incident

So, I'm about sort of mostly, kind of over it now, but let's just say it was my worst moment of my mortal existence. I have learned that 11 year-olds are really smart, especially the fifth graders at Marshall Elementary. They have an incredible memory for detail, such a memory, in fact, that they continued to bring up this incident in full detail all the way through my senior year of high school. I even switched schools, but I was "lucky" enough to run into several past Marshall graduates at XC events or choir festivals or the mall. Really, really lucky.

Here's the deal about my middle childhood. I was not a bad kid. And I know bad kids usually preface everything with that, but really, I was a nice, friendly, outgoing, snarly-haired girl. I never hit anyone or cheated on tests or stole things. I did, however, never have a report card from k-12 that did not at least one time mention the automated, "Needs to socialize less." I was the student the teachers moved around to the different tables every few weeks. Joke was on them, because I could even get the boring nerdy kids who wore straight leg jeans to talk about something. (This was the 90's when kids either wore Jnco jeans or stretch pants) But in the end, joke was technically on me because I received several lunch detentions ...and just a handful of visits to the Principal's office (so many blog posts, so little time).

After bribing several student council members to vote for me, I was elected to be student body president (take that Jordan Smith.). This glorified title meant I attended 2, maybe even 3 after school meetings where we picked out what assemblies to have. But the real reason I coveted this title: I got to MC these said assemblies--cordless microphone and all.

That morning I put on my best stirrup stretch pants and wore my white T-shirt with a large dog on it that loudly proclaimed: "Old Navy." It didn't even matter that it didn't match super-all-the-way, just the proclamation of my clothes being purchased from this newly opened store at Vancouver Mall would instantly reinforce my self-conceived coolness. I was obvs. so excited that day, because I never stopped talking in class and earned myself another wretched lunch detention. It was like prison. No talking, no recess (chasing around my beloved Kevin Zimmerman), and no bathroom pass.

All I remember was downing my chocolate milk then heading straight for the gym to fulfill my Student Body President duties. It's all sort of a blur, but I remember sitting on the side of the stage having to pee real bad. The speaker was suddenly all done with his presentation, and all the teachers, including our principal, Mr. Loop, all stared at me to stand up and get the microphone from this guy and dismiss everyone back to class. It was awkward, so I had no choice. All I remember was standing up and feeling a wet stream of warmth and embarrassment running down those stretch pants. Then a Kindergartner right in front of me shouted to my dismay, "She's wetting her pants!!"
Then I replied, "I know!"

This left me no option but to run out of the gym, cross MacArthur Blvd and all the way home. We only lived a block away, but still. It was dramatic.

Turns out this memory not only was glued inside my amygdala, but also into the memory of hundreds of students in attendance.

Ummmm..... so.... yeah. Joke's on me.

Denim shorts.

You know when it can take people a few weeks to get used to writing "2013" instead of "2012" after New Year's Day? That's sort of how I've been feeling every single blasted month this year. I had to rewrite a check last week because I dated it in March. Apparently it is May. And now it's May 8th. So basically in a few days it'll already be June because the months are flying by and I can't keep up. And then it will basically be Christmas!!

Yesterday I realized that our annual Zoo pass I bought Spring 2012 was good until June 2013, so after eating my toaster strudel, I took the kids to the zoo. Then we went to Winco and bought a few ingredients, then I spent upwards of two hours chopping up stuff to unintentionally make a feast-sized amount of homemade potato salad, then after the Missionaries ate and left, we all went outside and did a little bit of yard work. The kids have been in charge of finding all the rocks on our freshly plotted garden and have been having a blast finding and picking up worms along the way for their twisted enjoyment. You know how they say that most people have the same fears as their parents, and that your fears will be passed to your children? I promise I try my hardest to not look disgusted when they bring me a hand full of worms. I want them to like nasty stuff like that and fit in with their Idaho heritage, I do.

Oh, and on Monday, Dustin went with me up to Rexburg while I was in my voice lesson and masterclass and decided to just ride his bike home from the Snow building. So yeah, I think I'm allowed to brag a tiny bit about that guy. 'Parrently he went through Archer and Ririe and arrived home just after 2 hours (just over 40 miles). I've decided I will think twice the next time I complain about that drive taking me 38-40 minutes. In a car. With Taylor Swift.

So that's why our year is flying by and that's why it's May and feels like it should still be March. On top of all that, I'm currently basking in the joy of a 19 credit-load semester. I read textbooks and articles on ilearn and sing French colouratura ditty's in my "free" time. Sometimes I get around to cleaning our kitchen, and sometimes, like really, sometimes, I fold our laundry.

Lillie keeps growing out of her shoes and Jack has holes in most of his jeans. I have no idea how it happened, or when it happened. Everybody told me that these kids will grow up fast. It's really, really annoying that they were right. But now it's basically Summer, and I better get over it and get busy turning all of those jeans into shorts.