Day of celebration

Wait, you want an update? Oh, right because I'm so NOT busy that I should have had time to post at least once a day over the past month!

Well, I suppose I could update you on a few things...actually not much but Kory starting grad school in March is something, isn't it?

A couple weeks ago we met Steve; he's Kory's academic advisor at the University of Phoenix in Pleasant Grove. He and Kory had so much in common it was scary. But, he got Kory all squared away and a few days ago Kory got an email saying he was eligible to register for his very first grad school class! When we left our meeting with Steve, I felt good and Kory felt good. He said he is excited, which brings peace to my heart. Those who know Kory well, know that he's not a huge fan of school. Ironic! He wants to be a school counselor. Every time I think about it now, I get excited, almost giddy. I think most of that excitement is coming from him being excited.

Some people early on in our relationship and marriage said that Kory shouldn't take a break from school because the longer he was out the harder it would be to get back in. Truly, for some people, that may be the case. For Kory, an almost 3 year break from school is just what he needed. He was burned out from school. I'll admit I was one of those who thought he should just go right back to school, but I have since learned to just be patient. That has been hard to do. There have been many nights when I have lain awake thinking of how best to encourage him toward the path of Grad School without being the nagging wife. I don't think I ever found that answer.

But, March 23 will be a day of celebration. Kory will being attending class once a week for about 2.5 years, including an internship at a school somewhere in Utah! He can still work his regular hours and still spend time with his family. That will be nice. At first I thought moving out of state and going to college in Oregon or Arizona would be a fun adventure. It still might be, but I see how perfect this situation is right now. Kory can still work, as can I. We won't have to job hunt in a new place and we won't have to move or pay the expense of moving.

Blessings are in abundance right now. What more could we ask for?

Ornaments

Kory came home from Christmas shopping on Saturday and a little bit later said to me: "Sweetheart, I bought you a present that you have to open right now." I was surprised and excited. Though I knew it wasn't a kitty, I asked if it was. He said no. But he did hand me a hallmark bag and inside was this:

A keepsake ornament. Isn't it SO cute?!! Every year since we have been married, Kory has gotten me a teacher ornament from hallmark. The first year it was this cute little denim bag with a little pencil and scissors and a ruler inside. Last year it was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" ornament (I believe I blogged about that one, so if you want to see it, look for Dec. 2008). I wasn't expecting this one at all because we had gone to hallmark at the beginning of December to get our collector series ornament and we didn't find any teacher ornaments. So when Kory came home with this gift, I truly was surprised. I absolutely love this one. Every time I walk by it's box on the coffee table, I grin. And I like to look at it on the tree. Can't wait to see what I get next year.

THE UNVEILING

It's done. Finally! It's finished. There are a few touch ups I need to do, but the quilt is complete. Wow!! That was quite a job. I would say total, with all of the problems included, the quilt took about 30 hours to complete. Without all my troubles, it probably would have been between 20-25 hours. Here are the pictures (which certainly don't do it justice):

The whole thing

A section of the quilt

The corner.

Thanks to Janet Peer for showing me how to do the binding. For a first timer, I think the binding looks great...Just don't look too close, please.

Total Time on quilt: 20-30 hours.

I know I know...it's been a while! SORRY! The quilt still isn't finished due to some attitude problems from my sewing machine. While the two of us have worked out our differences (I think), the quilt has yet to get finished. *sigh* This is taking much longer than I anticipated!

Things in my life are good. I am learning new things about myself and others. Some of those things have been hard to learn and some things are still in the process of being learned! That's the part I hate the most--the process of learning a lesson that doesn't want to be learned! Okay, I'll quit using the word learn...maybe.

Our dearest first grade colleague, Peggy, has "retired", somewhat against her will. Her health has become too much for her to manage while being a teacher so she (and her doctors) decided that Tuesday was her last day. The rest of us are curious about what the substitutes will bring and when we will be getting a new teacher for the rest of the year.

That's about it for my quick update. Sorry it's so short!

In Hawaii, we would always listen to Kory's iPod in the car. That was when I heard a song by the band Colors called "Hey Girl" and was instantly hooked. Then just recently I remember that a dear friend of mine burned some Colors CD's for me WAAAYYYYYYY back before my mission, I believe. I went on a hunt tonight for those CD's and found them. I decided to take advantage of Kory being gone to a YM activity and listen to Colors while occupying myself with unfinished projects. It was nice to sit and contemplate and enjoy more songs by Colors.

I love the holidays, and love that they are so near. I am so thankful that the radio stations didn't play Christmas music the day after Halloween. I LOVE Christmas, but honestly people, let's stop and remember to be thankful for all of our many blessings before jumping right into Christmas. Thanks!

Recently I've been thinking about a dear family friend in my parent's ward back home. She just found out about a week ago that she has a Stage 4 brain tumor that is fast growing, inoperable and radiation won't help. Dear Sister Wilson has only a short time left in her life and it breaks my heart that her family has to go through this. Her oldest daughter is giving up her education for now to go home and spend time with her mom. The youngest child is 7 years old, and will lose his mommy before he's had a chance to really enjoy life with her, as will all of her other children. This experience has made me contemplate and wonder, in some ways, how this family can be completely at peace with the whole situation. I understand and know the gospel and have a testimony of the plan of salvation, but I can't imagine going through this experience and just being at peace with it. I suppose I would kind of be forced to come to terms with it, especially knowing that I was going to die. It just goes to show how well Heavenly Father knows each of us and knows what we can handle. My mom says Heavenly Father must have something special planned for Sister Wilson in the next life. For now, we can just pray for her and her family and peace comes to my heart knowing that Sister Wilson can accept this trial in her life.

Belated Halloween

Here's a little test for you: What's different in this picture?

I was seriously leaning toward being a witch, because it's pretty easy. Instead I went for total comfort and bought scrubs and a fake stethoscope (which I forgot to wear in the picture). Wouldn't that have been GREAT if all the first grade teachers had shown up at school as witches without even planning it that way? I told Amy (the purple witch) that I should have gotten a witch hat and been a witch doctor. :)

Pictures of Jase dressed as Spiderman are on Kory's camera. I'll add them later. Happy Halloween!

Many happenings

This is my sweetheart studying on the computer. SHHHHH!
I've promised Kory I will be quick writing this entry. He takes the GRE on Saturday and he has been practicing tests on the computer. All my sympathies go out to him, especially on Saturday. Prayers, please!

Much of the talk around our apartment lately has obviously been about Grad school. It's making me excited, and Kory...well, nervous. He was counting on BYU to be his school of choice, but they no longer offer the program he wants: School counseling, NOT school psychology. There's a difference. So, we're looking into other options, but I'm kind of leaving it up to him to decide on places he wants to apply.

My first graders had their first field trip as first graders yesterday. We went to the Vineyard Gardens, which becomes Pumpkinland in the fall. I had two parents helping me, which was nice. It was great to watch my kids have so much fun and I didn't mind letting them run around lost in the corn maze! :) They were so good about staying with me or with the parent that was in charge of them that I let them go slightly crazy and run ahead to read all of the jokes and riddles that were planted on the path of the maze. They were doing great reading those. Yes, our field trip was educational!! I took pictures with a school camera because I forgot mine :( Hopefully I can post a couple pics here. If not, I'll post my school website address and you can see pics there.

Quilt update: It's almost done! I have sewn all the rows; just finished tonight. Now I have to just sew all the rows together (which might get done VERY soon because I try to stay quiet so Kory can study) and then take the quilt to The Cotton Shop so they can show me how to sew the binding.

Ever since Kory and I cleaned and organized our 2nd bedroom, I've been loving all the space in there and this is one of the reasons why. I laid out all the rows I sewed just to get an idea of where to start sewing the rows together. All nine rows (with ten squares each) took me around 3 hours total. It should have been less, but my thread kept getting tangled on nearly every square so I had to keep untangling it. Never figured out what was causing the tangling.


That's my quick update. More later, as always.

Total quilt hours so far: about 7.0