Saturday, April 9, 2011

March Madness

About a week and a half ago, at Michael's 6 week appointment (for his surgery) I realized that my last post was about his surgery and although our life has been very repetitive and it seems like nothing very exciting has happened, I guess there are a few things worth mentioning. To save every one from a long, boring post I will just highlight the exciting things that have happened to us in the last 2ish months.

1. Michael got accepted into the Mechanical Engineering program! I'm so proud of him and we're really happy that he can start to take some of the professional program courses. Also, I got accepted into the Elementary Education program! We're excited that we finally are sure about what we are pursuing, about time.. But we are both taking spring and summer courses to get some classes out of the way. Hopefully we'll be able to do it..

I actually wanted to explain why I decided to change because it was a pretty scary decision and process. Hopefully I can make this short. So my whole life I've loved kids and loved teaching and I've had quite a few good elementary teachers that really inspired me and made me want to teach. But I had this problem of my pride and thinking that that wasn't a very impressive major. So when I came to BYU I wanted to do something with all the math that I'd taken. And because I really liked math and I'm pretty good at it too but I ended up hating all the math classes that I've taken in college. That is why I initially decided on ME because it was applied math instead of just math.. And I still really love my engineering classes. At least in the ones that I've taken, I've done pretty well and basically enjoyed everything I've learned. But anyways.. (I realized this will be a long explanation, bear with me) back in October I talked to Mike about possibly switching my major but ultimately decided to stay with Engineering. Then at the end of January the thought came to me again. I think all those other times it had to do with my pride. I just didn't want to have to tell people that I was studying Elem. Ed. and especially since I changed from something like ME. But I weighed out the pros and cons of switching and this is what I decided. First of all, I didn't ever want to get a job with ME because I just didn't really feel like it would be right for me. I was basically just getting my degree for the degree. Seeing as how I would still have 2-3 years of straight school (spring summer included) I didn't really think that would be worth it. Plus, it would make it really hard to start a family if both Mike and I were in school constantly, especially if we were in the same classes. Second, I love teaching. I can totally see myself teaching and loving it. And I think teaching is such a great job for a mom to have because I can always do subbing if I need to help put Mike through school and then if I need to or want to I can go back to teaching once my kids are in school and have the same schedule as them. It's also be good for teaching my own kids before the go to school because I'll learn a lot about how kids learn and develop. Third, I have a few new friends who are teachers and they love their jobs and every time they tell me stories I get jealous haha.

Ok so this conversation happened on Tuesday Jan. 25. Tuesday Feb. 1st was the day that the ME application was due, Friday Jan. 28th was the day we were leaving to Vegas for Mike's barbershop competition. So basically I had to decide right at that moment. After talking to my mom, my husband and Heavenly Father, I made the decision. The next day I went to talk to the EE people. The application for fall was already due on Jan. 15. But they were going to call for me and see if the program director guy would allow me to turn in a late application. They said to just go ahead and turn it in anyways but that it wasn't just a paper. There were a few things I would have to do. One of them was that I had to take 4 computer proficiency tests. They suggested doing the practice ones online before taking the real ones. So I planned on coming in on Thursday to take them. But since we were leaving all weekend to Vegas, I had so much work to get done so I was caught up in all my classes and decided that I would take them on Monday when I had more time. Well, Monday just happened to be the day that Michael got hit. I was kinda stressed because I didn't want to leave him but I didn't want to wait too long to turn in the application but needless to say, I got it turned in and I got accepted. I start in the fall and I'm really excited!! Wow.. so much for making a long story short.. Anyways, I still get a reaction of "wow. That's a big switch. Why'd you decide that?" when I tell people of my major change but oh well. I have my reasons :)

One more thing, I decided that it was blessing that I initially decided on ME and that I stayed in as long as I did. Although Michael and I didn't meet in our ME classes, our first semester that we had all our classes together is when we grew so close and changed our relationship from best friends to being in love. Also, since I decided a month into the semester we're still in all the same classes which turned out to be a blessing because it was really hard for Mike to get to class after he got hit and again after his surgery. So I went and took notes and helped him catch up and study for the tests. If not for that, it would have been a lot more difficult. Ok, enough of that.

2. Another exciting thing that recently happened (these are in no order at all..) is that Mike got a job! He'll be working at the MTC doing maintenance and whatever stuff like that they need done. He starts this next week!! We are so excited. Once spring semester starts, he'll be able to work 40 hours a week for the most part. I'm so happy for him.

3. Two things that Michael is most excited about is getting rid of his crutches and then, a few weeks later, no longer having to wear his brace! He wasn't allowed to bear any weight at all on his left leg until 2 weeks after surgery and you better believe that the day the doctor told him he could try walking on it he almost just handed me his crutches and walked right out the door. But seeing as he'd been on crutches for over a month, it needed to be a little more gradual than that. He started out walking with his crutches still supporting him since his leg was pretty weak and I think the first place that he went without crutches was church on Sunday. And a loooong month later he was allowed to no longer wear his brace. He hated having to wear his brace but his mean ol' wife made him. But since that doctor's appointment it has never went back onto his leg. He is walking pretty normal now with little to no limp for the most part (unless he's been sitting still for a long time) but he's just pretty slow still. That's ok though :) Oh yeah, one thing that has been totally awesome was our handicap pass. It made it so that I could basically drive Mike to the door of every building that he had class in and then park somewhere nearby. It also gave us pretty prime parking wherever we went :) But unfortunately, it expired on Sunday. We have a huge hill between our house and campus so we've had to leave a little earlier to get to school on time but I'm kinda glad we get to walk again because after the first day of that hill again, I was sore. Michael was even more sore, even his little toesies :)

4. On March 2, one of my best friends left on her mission. She's going to Kennewick, WA! She is doing amazingly well and she loves the MTC. I miss her a lot though.

5. We got to go to the Carl Block exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art. It is amazing. If you haven't had a chance to go, I highly recommend it. A lot of the paintings there are ones that we've seen in our church buildings our whole lives but at the museum there are explanations of the paintings that helped me to appreciate them more and to notice more detail. It was a testimony strengthener of the miracles that Jesus performed and the Atonement.

6. We made brackets with some of our friends so we ended up watching a lot of basketball. Until all our teams were out.. haha. But the most exciting of course were the BYU games. Although the last one did have a pretty sad ending.

7. Michael's mission president, President Waddell got called to the first quorum of the seventy! We were pretty excited. It was kind of funny because last April at the mission reunion, he didn't say anything and the next day at conference he got called to be an area seventy. So this April at the reunion he got and was like "I am so excited that I finally get to tell you all about my new calling!" And then he told us some stories and experiences he's had since being called to the area seventy. And the next day he got released and called to the seventy! haha the little sneak :)

8. We got to go to the Sunday morning session of conference and it was awesome. We loved it.



9. Michael's little sister, Kayla, got accepted to BYU and she's going to be coming here in the fall! Yay :)

10. My mom is coming to visit in ten days. I'm pretty excited to see her. I wish I could go home to be with my family but I guess this is the next best thing. Although I do wish that my dad was coming too.. Oh well. I'll see him in June when I go to Seattle for Whitney's wedding :)

11. Three more days of class. Almost there...

Well, I guess this did turn out to be a lot longer than I wanted.. I apologize. Hopefully I will get better about blogging when exciting things happen to us so you don't have to read a super long post every time!