Graduation: Finally.

I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology in September of 2017.

And I could not ask for a better support system in my life, from my family who were solid for me the entire way, to my co-workers who cheered me on.

And I can't believe it's done.  

I have a college degree.

My College Degree at Work

The day I finished my last college class was surreal.

Surreal.

It's taken me months to grasp that I don't have homework.  That I don't have some looming project or deadline hanging in the back of my mind.

The day after I finished my classes, and became official done, finished, graduated, if you will, because I was not planning on walking so what else was there, I found myself in a back stairwell trying to pry the Mayor's stuck key out of a back entry door.

So let it be known that this is what a college degree gets you.

Pre-First Day Of School.

They day dawned gray and heavy with the promise of rain, but that didn't damped the spirits around our house.

Today Tayler and Sean headed to their first day of middle school.

And everyone in the house got up early with them.  Which I don't understand, if it were me not going to school yet, I would relish my last day of sleeping in.

Our middle school starts the 6th graders a day before anyone else with a half day of school to give them a shot at running through their schedule and using their lockers before they're swarmed by 7th and 8th graders.

More on the upcoming school year tomorrow, when the rest of them start and it's the "real" first day of school.

And also, moms go to school to.

Sadly I'm not at the University of Utah anymore.  Their schedule has absolutely no flexibility in it.  One of my pre-req's was held at 11:00 in the morning.  And only at 11:00 in the morning.  Being a working mom, flexibility is huge for me, so I've transferred to the University of Phoenix to finish my bachelor's degree online.  Today is my first day, and I'm excited to keep pushing forward with this.

Since we seem to live our lives on a school year schedule, here's to a new year!

Hay Nabur.

Have you ever noticed this particular billboard?

(The new grilled chicken is excellent, by the way)

"Hay" means "there is" in Spanish.  I know.  I took a whole semester of Spanish recently.  It was a vocab word.

Being the dutiful student that I am (OCD much?) when I saw this billboard I saw the word "hay" and thought, "I know that word!"  And I tried to figure out what "nabur" meant in Spanish as well.  What was Chick-fil-a trying to say?  There is... what? Is that a verb?  I didn't know of any verbs that ended in "ur."

Guys, I seriously contemplated this billboard for an entire week, trying to figure out what "hay nabur" meant in Spanish before I realized that it wasn't even Spanish but stupid cow spelling.

Speaking of cows, this recently happened.

Their tongues are about the same texture as sandpaper and it was at about this point that I was glad I had taken my wedding ring off before hand.  Otherwise I might have been having a conversation with Makenzie's cousin that went something like, "Call me in a few days when a sparkly thing shows up in a pile in this particular pen.  Thanks."

As it is, apparently "I can do hard things" is also equivalent to "I can do gross things under peer pressure."

More on that tomorrow.

Finals. Graduation. Mother's Day.

All the activity of the last few months built up to a final accumulation of what is called finals week.

As it turned out, my finals were scheduled 10 minutes apart.  On two different campuses.

Luckily my Spanish teacher let me join another of his classes on a different day to give me some slack, so I took my Spanish final a day early.  Which was good because as it was, after taking my math final I would have had exactly enough time to then drive to my Spanish final, but the stress of standing up from finishing one final just to sit down and take another would have been intense.  Also, there wouldn't have been time for one last glance at notes and flashcards.

Thankfully it all went well and I was able to pass both classes with A's and graduate.

Spanish final on Tuesday.  Check.
Tayler's orchestra concert on Tuesday.  Check. (More on that tomorrow).

Math final on Wednesday.  Check.
Graduation on Thursday.  Check.
Casidee's orthodontist appointment on Friday... well, four out of five isn't bad.  Though I did manage to make my appointment to donate platelets at Red Cross on Friday.  For the first time ever.

Saturday had Tayler's soccer game and was full of errands.  Grocery shopping, Barnes and Noble, Target, and Hobby Lobby.  One of our new friends that we've taken to riding with in Moab has been diagnosed with cancer.  The only thing I can think of to do for someone when I hear they have cancer is to make them a really soft, warm blanket.  I heard somewhere that you get really cold when going through chemo. Unfortunately this isn't the first blanket I've made for such an occasion.  Hopefully the gesture is enough to let them know they're not alone while facing it.  "It" being either cancer or chemo.  I think they both sound miserable.

I enjoyed hanging out with my crew for the week while The Man was away for the week, attending a training in Colorado for work.

Though we sure did miss him.

Sunday dawned on a very rainy Mother's Day but we got to have all six kids at home, and The Man was finally home, so we made good food, including strawberry shortcake, and watched a lot of TV.  I was determined to do as little as possible, enjoying my last day of "nothingness" until school resumed on Monday.  But this time at the U of U, which makes me smile a great a deal.

I want to express how thankful I am for the support and love that was shown to me on my graduation day.  And though receiving my associate's degree is not the final destination, it was a milestone that represents no more general classes and I was excited to celebrate that.

The support the surrounded me filled my soul with love and appreciation for the family and friends that surround my life.  Though The Man was in Colorado with work and wasn't able to be there, I certainly wasn't alone in my day.

The kids and I made a trip to Hobby Lobby (how did I survive before that store?) and found some sparkly letters for the top of my hat.  We wanted to make sure they'd be able to find me in the sea of black hats.

Turns out, it worked better than I could have hoped for.  The Circus spotted me the instant I walked in and had no problems keeping track of me in the crowd.

 

My dad, Brent.

My dad, Dick, West's dad, Mike, my mom, KC.

My brother, Bill.

 

I could not have asked for a better support system than my husband and our kids.  They have never complained once about my schedule or my need to do homework.  They've been excited for me the entire time.  And they've calmed my self-doubt with words like, "You can do it.  You always do."  Even though those words might have been accompanied with an eye roll as it was said.

Casidee, Jayme, and Brynn surprised me with some awesome glasses.

I sent a text to the man at one point while I was waiting to enter in the procession, telling him there was a guy that looked just like Big Hoss from that pawn show.

Some time passed, as The Man was busy in classes, but he eventually replied with, "Is your ceremony today?"

He was answered with this picture.  "You could say that.  Like, right this minute."

He then expressed some very kind words about how proud he was and how much he loved me.

Like I said, I couldn't have asked for a better support group.

A Creature of Habit I Am

I may or may not have rolled into my math class with a pillow crease still on my face this morning.

That's how I'm starting to roll now that we're past the halfway mark of the semester.

As it is, I'm a creature of habit and when I fall into a routine of doing something I like, I don't vary from it very much, if at all.  At least until I'm completely sick of it and find a new routine.

Every morning between math and work I stop at a particular Subway (there are three in the very near vicinity of the campus and my work, but this particular one is the only with a drive-thru and I'm lazy so it appeals to me) where I order a 6 inch egg and cheese on flatbread.  Pepperjack, spinach, tomatoes, and chipotle.

One point of variation is I may or may not then stop at the McD's, which is right next to the Subway, for a Coke.  Lately, though, I've skipped this.  I'm trying to drink more water.  Which is strangely hard for me to do.

And then I head to work.

On the days when I have my Spanish class after work I stop at Sonic for a Dirty Coke.  This could be before class, or after on my way home.  There's something about a 15 hour day that just screams "get some sugar laced with coconut!  Now!"

And I relish it.

Wait, was I trying to drink more water?

At least I've been skipping the morning Cokes.

I pulled into Subway for my egg sandwich this morning, numb from an hour of logarithms, and spoke my order into the intercom.  The pillow crease had faded from my face by this point and as I sat at the window waiting for my breakfast, the sun peaked over the top of the mountain behind me, suddenly blinding me through the reflection of my side view mirror.  I let the sun into my soul and I smiled.  And squinted.  I wish I could have captured that moment with a picture, but some moments don't transfer over with pictures very well.

The cute girl, who I noticed helps me every morning, opened the window and laughs.

"I help you here and I help you at Sonic," she says to me.

And I took a good look at her.  I knew she was the same person who helped me every morning at Subway.

And I knew the girl at Sonic was the same girl who helped me every time I go there.

But I hadn't connected that they were the same girl at both places.

I burst out laughing.

How random is that?

And now she totally knows that I'm a creature of habit.

I feel like I should give her a thank you card or a big tip or something.

Not on my habitual routine... ever... I joined a bracket for... I don't even know what it is.  A tournament for college... basketball?  The whole point being if we get a better score from our picks than our math teacher then we get some extra credit.

So why not?

I used to do NFL picks in Jr. High with my math class and whoever had the most right from the week's games got a 2 liter of pop.  What is is with math teachers and sports picks?  I chose all those based on mascot vs. mascot.  I won a lot by doing it that way, actually.

I don't know what the mascots are for these college teams so we'll just have to see how my random clicking pans out for me.

Reality.

I've been accepted to the University of Utah.

Again.

Third time's a charm?

Except this time I'm not
1. there to find a husband.
2. freshly remarried for a second time and trying to blend a family (because let's be honest, that first year of figuring out your groove is hard.  Plus six kids).

I had to go visit with the University Student College adviser and he says, "Looks like you're doing great at SLCC.  But then I look at how you've done at the U...?"

And he looks at me like, what the heck lady?

And I sheepishly grin and say, "See, those two tries... really it was a coincidence with life.  The first time I got married... and the second time I got divorced."

And he comes back with, "So you're good now?"

"Yes, I'm good now."

The Man interjects as I told him that story, "Unless your husband makes you move to St. George."

Well, yes, there's always that.

But not right now.

So this time I'm super excited.  I walk onto that U of U campus and my heart becomes full of elation.

Which leads me to conclude that perhaps my road should lead me to being a college teacher and then I can spend all my days on campus talking about the one subject I love more than any other.

English.

Yesterday I had an appointment to meet with my department adviser.

That would be the English department.  I'm a part of that now.

*Squeal!*

So I meet with her, hoping for some guidance on classes and what I need to graduate and, you know, what do I do to get that degree and get a career in English?

1.  She was not nearly as excited that I was studying English at the U as I was.
2.  I ask about editing classes and she looks at me like I'm one of those dreamers who needs a reality check but can she really tell me that?  No.  So she mentions that there are no big publishing houses in Utah so unless I want to move to New York or Boston or Chicago, I should look at newspapers or some type of marketing.  

But she doesn't know what I know.  That I'm going to make it into editing.

I just tell her, "I'm not ruling anything out."

3. I sign up for the English department newsletter and she tells me it will tell me about things like when there will be symposiums like how to land a government job.

And I blurt out, but I already have one of those.

And she just looks at me for a second.

And then says, well there will be other kinds as well.

I retell this to The Man and he's laughing. He feels bad for her, the poor lady who has to deal with people like me who are so excited and perky and planning for a future, and she just has to sit there and deal with us.

She was really nice and helpful though.  I have a game plan, I know what's required of me to get my degree now, and I should probably find a minor which I feel was good advice for filling in the required hours.

Then I went home and, after trying out the Waffle Love truck for the first time (it was set up at my friend's salon right down the road from us),

I put on my pajamas and pulled out my first manuscript.

I don't care if that lady thinks I need a reality check.  The fact is, getting paid to proof read manuscripts (in my pajamas no less) has just become my reality.

Somebody pinch me.

Or better yet, don't.  I want to see how this plays out.

Random. And Twerking.

I'm interested in having guest posts written on other people's experiences in life.

In other words, I want your stories.  And life lessons that came from them.

I'm so fascinated by other people's stories.

And I think it's nice that we can relate to each other's stories.

If you have one you'd like to share, please email me at swithers6 at gmail dot com.  You don't have to be blogger.  And I'm willing to post them anonymously.

As it is, yesterday was kind of a draining day.

I feel constantly exhausted right now and I thought, this semester is only two weeks in, if I'm already this exhausted from it how am I ever going to survive it?

But then I remembered that last semester started out the same way, with utter exhaustion, but by the end of the semester I was just fine.  I think it's more of a matter of I just need to get used to it again, rather than it's already kicking my butt.

On top of that I went to a funeral yesterday.  My cousin lost her 4 month old baby to SIDS.  The hard part about that is you listen to the words that are said about being a parent and you begin to relate, and then it hits you how hard it must be to lose a child.  For someone like me who's never experienced it, that is.  And it began to feel emotionally heavy.

My heart goes out to my cousin right now.

And then I donated blood.  Which kind of sealed the deal on my exhaustion and I went down for a nap at 7:00 and never really recovered.

Except I've been getting a lot of extremely intense and painful cramps in my foot and that situation kept getting me up last night.  I have to get up and try to walk them off, which sometimes takes a  long time.  And the pain... holy Moses.  I think I have a high pain tolerance but those cramps send me through the roof.

Maybe I need to look into a potassium supplement.

I blame them on Casidee because they started when I was pregnant with her and I've been getting them ever since.  Though lately they've just been so frequently.

Hallelujah weekend.

My weekends plan include, but are not limited to:
Painting a bunkbed.  Still.
Date night.  Maybe we'll shake it up a bit and go swimming in the crater.  Maybe we won't and we'll just hit dinner and a movie.  Either way I'm perfectly content just being with The Man.
Math homework.
Naps.

And maybe if the man's lucky I'll even get around to taking the Christmas lights down.

But I'm not holding my breath on that one.

And also this weekend I'm going to write a blog post on the story of Samson from the Old Testament.

It's been requested of me that I start going over scripture stories on my blog the way I do in church and at Girl's Camp, so I'm going to start doing that.

If that interests you.

Not that I'm a scriptorian or anything, I just like to try and make them come alive so you can really get the feeling of them into your head.  And your heart.

So Samson will be coming at you "live" on Sunday.

Oh, and one more random thing. Filmed right here in Salt Lake no less.  Watch to the end.  I laughed so hard.  But maybe that's just my inner geek.  Also, can you tell they're not all men in those suits?  I wonder if any of them are.

My Car Got Broken Into. And the Reassurance of Kindness I'm Taking From It.

Last night I took my three older girls up to our church for our weekly Young Women's activity.  We made care packages for the missionaries who are out serving from our ward.

One of those missionaries has a form of autism and is living at home while serving locally in the Bishop's storehouse, so while we packaged the others in boxes for mailing, we put his in a gift bag to deliver on our way home from the church.

As we walked out of the church into the dark, cold evening, the girls were running and screaming in every which direction, as only young teenage girls can do, and we leaders were trying to shepherd them into cars to make sure we didn't leave anyone behind.

As a rush of girls ran to my car I clicked the unlock button on my key ring and they piled in before I even got there.  As I climbed into my seat I noticed that my middle consul was wide open and with a little irritation I closed it remarked, "quit playing with things, guys."

As I pulled out of my parking spot I noticed the car next to me had the back hatch wide open and I absently wondered what activity they were doing to have the back of a car open.

We drove a few streets over and delivered our package.

  And played a few rounds of hands up stands up in a light rain, and I then we began taking girls home.

I dropped off two extras and took my three home with me.

When we pulled into the driveway I went to grab my backpack off the floor of the passenger seat and noticed it wasn't there.

And I got grumpy.  "How could you guys not notice that it fell out?  It's big and heavy, I don't understand.  You guys really need to pay attention, I need that stuff."

So we retraced our steps, looking at the places we had stopped to see if my backpack was on the ground.

We made it all the way back to the church with no luck, but a group of people were standing around the car with the open hatch in the parking lot.  One being my friend and fellow Young Women leader.  She walked over to my car and my first thought was maybe one of them picked it up and she's coming over to tell me.

Instead, "Did your car get broken into too?"

"My backpack is just missing.  I wondered if it fell out."

"Your car probably got broken into, ours did."  I learned that the car with the open hatch had thousands of dollars of tools stolen from it. It began to sink in.

My middle consul had been wide open.  I opened it.  All of our gadgets (two GPS's) and CD's and movies were gone.

I began to look around the car.

Cali's scriptures, gone.

And my over full backpack.

I'm sorry I got upset with you, girls.

Who would do this?

And of all the things that were taken from my car, I wanted my backpack back.  There was nothing of worth to anyone else in that bag.  Except maybe the $200 textbook.  But the notes, the flashcards, the cheap calculator.  What frustrates me the most is my final is in three weeks.  They took an entire semester of math notes.  And I know they're just going to throw it all away while I now have to work double time to recover the information to study.

Luckily I know a guy in my class and he let me borrow his notes to copy over the weekend.

I posted on yard sale sites on Facebook that I was searching for a textbook and why.  A stranger offered me his old textbook free of charge.  The lesson I'm taking from this is this: yes, there are bad people around who want to make life miserable.  But there are also very good people around who will do what they can to help someone out, even if they don't know that person.

Today I'm very thankful for a kind stranger.

The rest is just whatever.

Weekend Plans. Link to a Give Away.

Sometimes when you don't have to get up early and go to your math class on a Friday, it calls for a celebration and you stop and pick up a caramel white hot chocolate from the local Beans & Brews.

And frankly, you deserve when that happens because Tuesday night you crammed for your math test that would be on Wednesday morning, and stressed about it so much that you had a reacurring nightmare that your alarm wasn't going to go off and wake you up unless you could figure out the cube root of the time you wanted to wake up.

And of course you couldn't figure it out so you were worried sick that your alarm wasn't going to wake you up.

So you slept restlessly and woke up several times to check the time and your alarm because you felt your alarm hadn't gone off and you had possibly overslept and missed your test.

I think math is getting to me.

Weekend plans?

Boot shopping with The Circus.
Math homework.  Ahem.
Pizza Buffet with Grandma Julie and Grandpa Brent.
Reading my new book.

Oh, and I might make The Man happy and paint over the nail holes in the crown molding we put up last Christmas.  He's only been asking me to finish that up since... well, last Christmas.

Also, get in on a give away HERE.  Cute stuff.  And right now you get to vote on what they give away.

Which would you want to win?

Happy weekend ya'll.  It's a three day one for me, holla.  Even though I still have to get up Monday and go to... math class.

Over The Weekend.

Over the weekend I forgot to take a political science quiz which actually frustrates me because I read the chapter for it and everything.

We purchased a TV table and then canceled it, realized it looked exactly like the extra desk piece we have in the office so why don't we just use that instead?

And by moving the extra desk piece out of the office and into the TV room the office now has more room to create it into a type of reading room, or library per se, and to my utter surprise, The Man agreed.  He'll still have his work space in there but we'll now set up so that people who want to chill and read (at least half our family, thank you very much) will have a place to do it without camping out in the TV room.  It's going to be my favorite room when it's finished, I can tell already.  Also this is the room that we've painted gray, so that helps abundantly in it being my favorite room.

Although I was told recently that gray isn't a color, it's a shade.  So in that sense I guess I don't have a favorite color.

I have a favorite shade.

Except right now our entire TV room has been crammed into our office because some of the wood floor we put in shifted and now it needs to be fixed.  But we're on our way to being done with the details of that TV room and it will feel good to have one of our project rooms completely finished.

Especially since I've started tearing Tay Cali's room apart to start redecorating that place for them.

It never ends.

I faced the dreaded grocery shopping and our house now has food in it again.  Which is good since I forgot to send Cas with lunch money so she had to make a lunch this morning.  Having food in the house is generally a good thing.

We took the youth to do baptisms at the Draper Temple.  But instead of sit in the baptistery chapel and wait for them, we snuck out and did initiatories instead, which happened to put me on cloud nine for the rest of the day.

I finally got to listen to my Brad Wilcox talk on CD as I drove to halfway to Vernal to retrieve my girls.  I love how that man puts things and I hope to one day be able understand and teach as he does.

And I stopped at Strawberry Reservoir to take this picture.

And Tayler and Sean got their student council shirts on Friday.

You know, the ones where Tayler earned her money in two days flat and where Sean said, no thank you I have better things to spend my money on.  But then Sean was told it wasn't optional.

Which turns out to be okay because now that he has it, he hasn't taken it off since.

3 Things I'm Loving Right Now. And A Lot Of Talk About Them.

One.

I put off taking my math classes until the very end.  

Like, the very end.  I graduate after I finish this semester with political science and math and next semester after a second math class.  The end.  

So pretty much, math stands between me and graduation.

(Strictly speaking about the community college and my associate's here, I won't be done as I'll go up to U of U to finish my bachelor's).

The last time I took a math class was... 17 years ago when I was a junior in high school.

17 years ago.

And all I recall about math is that I hated it.  I did it because I had to, but I really hated it.  And whether it's true or not, I remember that I felt I wasn't very good at it (though that may just be because it didn't come as easily to me as English did, since I still got good grades in math, I just had to work really hard for it Or so I felt).

So the trepidation of having math stand between me and my May graduation, my milestone of no more generals, was there in the back of my mind.

My sister-in-law, Sheri, told me that math as an adult was much different than math as a 17 year old and I needed to relax.  

It will be good, she said.

I've been waking up and dragging myself to campus every morning before work for math class for a month and a half now and all I can say about it is... Sheri was right.

I get it.

And more than that, I kind of even really like it.

I really didn't see this coming.

Two.

Over the weekend The Man and I went to Buckle to exchange an item of The Man's.  Brynn tagged along and while we were waiting for him to find what he was exchanging for we started smelling all the bottles of perfume they had sitting on the counter.

I picked up a pretty, sparkly bottle and smelled it.

Guys I can't even tell you how happy the smell of that perfume made me.

I was almost giddy over it.

I'd been wanting to find a good, every day perfume but after a trip to Sephora I was discouraged and quit looking.  They all smelt like alcohol I thought.

But this perfume... this perfume was made for me.  

I turned the bottle over in my hand to see the name of it and burst out laughing.

I'm neither here nor there when it comes to Taylor Swift.  I like some of her songs, I don't like some of her songs.

Whatever.

But guys, that lady can do perfume.  

My man loves me and bought it for me.

Now here's the kick in the pants.

Last night while we were at Target looking for coats for the kids (insert small tantrum here for the fact that it's getting cold enough to be thinking about coats) Brynn noticed that Target also carried my wonderful Wonderstruck perfume... for a whole $20 cheaper than we had bought it for at Buckle.

Two things:

I'm disgruntled that we paid $20 extra for it at Buckle.  I had no idea it was sold elsewhere.  Buckle was the first place I had seen it so in my mind I kind of thought maybe it was exclusive?  I'm no perfume connoisseur so I don't much about how these things work.  

Obviously.

But to know that I can buy it cheaper at Target (here if you're interested) makes me even more happy that I can afford to wear it as an everyday perfume and not feel too badly about it.

Three.

And one final shot from this ramble:

Have you had a Sonic Dirty Coke yet?

Watch out McDonald's, there's a new love in my life.

Also, there's a recipe for them on pinterest here and this weekend while I'm out shopping you know I'm going to be tracking down coconut syrup.

I die.

Set me on a beach with a good book and a dirty Coke and I will have found perfection in life. 

Blogger Idol 2013. And The Monster Truck.

I auditioned for Blogger Idol 2013 because, why not?

This will be cool for me because it will:
Give me the chance to win prizes.  Who doesn't  like to win prizes?
Give my blog exposure which would be awesome sauce since I like validation.
Help me with blogging networking.
And then there's all that constructive criticism that will be going on.

And so for those reasons, along with the fact that it's fun to achieve the things you go after, I'm asking my loyal reader or two (hi Mom!) to hit up Blogger Idol and slather my name and my blog all over the place to them.

Sounds like fun, yeah?

I'd owe you.

You can find them on facebook here, and on twitter here.  They want to know if the public would like me.  I'm pretty sure you qualify as public, so if you'd help me out that would be beyond what I should ask of you, but I'm asking anyway.  Also, if you will, please repin THIS pin from Blogger Idol's pinterest board.

Plus, also, I finally got my camera memory card to Costco last night (my laptop is still giving me the silent treatment and not turning on) so I get to finally catch up on things.

Weekend plans:

My first math test (in, dare I say, 16-17 years!) is on Monday.  I think my weekend plans are to have my nose in my notes and textbook to make sure I can match up the lingo with the process.  I know how to do it, I just don't always know that's what the problem is asking for.

Graduation in May.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

And ending with this picture:

As The Man always says, "Go big or go home."

A better example of why I call it the monster truck.

Insta Friday (Introducing The Gnome). Friday Brain dump (We're Spur of the Moment People). And Weekend Plans (Learning How to Lip Sync).

Welcome to Insta Friday, where I'm linking up and telling the stories behind my instagram pics.

(I'm thecircus6 on instagram if you want to follow).

And then, just as a warning, you get a brain dump of the tidbits that I haven't blogged about yet.

Totally worth it.

On our bi-weekly grocery shopping trip we found the most awesome gnome.

We bought it for pranking purposes.

The first day of school happened.

In the middle of August.

I swear it gets earlier every year.  But this is so the kids can have more time off during the school year, which used to stress me out when I was a working mom of young children.  Like, stress me out.  But now that they're older it's just like, just keep the house clean, yo.  And don't leave Cali alone.  Word.

Speaking of getting older... I already shared these pics but I'm sharing them again because I love them.

You all can officially stop growing right now.  I didn't want to pause them as babies or toddlers, but right here would be a good place to pause them.

I hear a lot that Brynn is my mini-me.  I don't usually hear it with the other three.

But when I posted this picture of Casidee people thought it was me at first, which makes me happy because I kind of  wish my daughters did look like me.

That random plant growing in our yard that we didn't plant, but let grow out of curiosity sake, and I really wanted it to be a pumpkin in my front yard? (here)

So is. (Eek, shriek, and jumping for joy).

But it only has one pumpkin on the entire vine.

I ran to the store to get Brynn a specific notebook that her teacher was requesting.  The ones we'd already bought weren't the "right" kind.

The Man sent me a text to grab something for him while I was there, only to have my phone go off right next to him on the couch.

I'd forgotten it.

When I got home, my background was The Gnome.

We're getting our money's worth with it already.

A new semester started for me this week too.

If I have to get up and take a math class before work, at least I get to be greeted with a sunrise like this.

The first day of school is for moms too.

Here we go again.  But I graduate this spring from the community college and will head up to the U of U to finally work on the fun classes for my bachelor's.

My first day of school selfie.

Mornings wouldn't so bad if it weren't for the waking up part.

They were really pretty this week.

I was clearing of Pioneer Day photos from my phone to (finally) blog about it when I found this one that one of The Circus had taken.

My cutest friend Jen found this picture frame and bought it for me.

I printed off one of the pictures from our family photoshoot that just happened a couple of weeks ago and set it up on my desk.

I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures.  This was just one she sent me as a preview, to tease me and get me all excited for the rest.

It worked.

And, Jen, I love the frame, thank you!

Now for my friday brain dump:

I had Chick-fil-A for lunch because I received an email inviting me to apply to be on a panel of mom's for them.

Which I really want to do.

So if I eat Chick-fil-A right after filling out that application then it's like bonus karma points, right?

And also, the Chick-fil-A by my work serves breakfast.

Shut the front door!

Also, we are a very spur of the moment family, but it occurred to me why this week.  I've been making plans with friends to head up to the Fairy Forest and see all the wonders there, and in so doing have changed the day of our outing twice.  And now we have it set up for another day, except The Man just planned a camping/riding trip for that weekend and booked our spot and all so... I get to change my Fairy Forest day again.

We're spur of the moment people because even when we make plans, other things come up spur of the moment and I have to change plans.  I don't like planning, it's a lot of work to coordinate and be annoying and change the plans, again.  I don't even want to tell my friends that I need to change the Fairy Forest date, I feel slightly embarrassed.  I'd rather just send out texts a day in advance, or a couple hours, and say, hey, we're going, come if you can.  And then if they can, they can.

Because, you know, people should be waiting around for my spur of the moment invite...

Dear friends, I'm sorry.  I know I have issues.

Also, life just feels so full and so exciting right now.  It's like I'm walking on super charged cloud nine.  Everything is so beautiful and perfect and full of promise.

I don't know how I got on this ride, but I don't want to get off anytime soon.

Weekend plans:

Make a lip sync video with The Circus.  I want to learn how.  They're my guinea pigs.  Anyone have any tips?

Church carnival where I get to help with both the cake walk and the face painting.

Possibly the Fairy Forest?  But Jayme will be with her mom so probably not because we want her to go too.

And that's all I have.  I guess we'll have to make this weekend up as we go along, you know, spur of the moment.

What are your weekend plans?