Spring Break!

I haven't really mentioned much about my schooling on this blog except to say that it keeps me really busy and stressed out. However, in the spirit of documenting things I want to remember, I will go into a little more detail.

I am currently working on my Associate Degree. I will finish after I complete this semester and a math class over the summer (whew! almost done!). It has taken me quite a long time to complete this task, but for good reasons. I have already discussed them in this post, so I won't go into details here; just know that I'm so glad that I'm finally reaching one of my goals when it comes to education. It has been a long road, and I am appreciating every step.

The classes I am enrolled in right now are my electives that I needed to finish up. I am taking World History (1300 AD to the present), and Intro. to Acting. I needed a Creative Arts credit, and acting sounded fun. Theatre has always fascinated me, but I've always been too scared to participate. Denise has been in several community plays and I would love to do that someday as well. I was talking with my little sister, Kaylee about what classes I was taking and she got so excited about taking acting as well. We decided it wouldn't be as scary if we took it together. She is 15 years younger than I am, and we haven't spent much time in the same house. She was two when I moved away to college and was four when I got married. She is only six years older than Katie!! So, when we had the opportunity to take a class together, we took it. It has been fun hanging out with her at Weber, working on our assignments together, and texting each other about what is due for class. The class is fun and we have even done a two person scene together. I think my fear of getting in front of people is lessening a bit, and I'm so glad to have her in there with me!

My History class is quite the experience. I have it once a week for almost three hours on Thursday nights. When I come home, I always have great stories to tell Ryan, and most of them don't have anything to do with World History. My professor is hilarious, but not necessarily in a good way.

I have described him to people as a cross between the teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", Napoleon Dynamite, and the dad on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Quite the combo, huh? Let me explain each one. Ben Stein plays the teacher in "Ferris" and is hilarious with his monotone voice..."Bueller? Bueller?" My professor only has one tone as well, and quite frankly, it's hard to listen to him for almost three hours at a time!!

He reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite because he has glasses, curly hair (though not as long and wild) and he sounds like him when he talks about how smart he is: "I could pretty much be teaching anywhere I want because I know so much about Ancient Greece. I'm the only one who has written a book on this particular aspect of Ancient Greece and all of the Universities think I'm pretty great." It is so funny to listen to him brag about himself.

He is just like the dad in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" because he is always explaining how great Greece was in the days of Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. He firmly believes that everything that has happened in modern history can be traced back to these three geniuses. He may be right to a point, but he is so obsessed with anything ancient Greek, that it gets a little extreme and annoying.

I hope I haven't painted too bad of picture of him. He is really smart and nice, but just a little socially challenged maybe. One class, toward the beginning of the course, he dismissed us all an hour early because the clock on the wall was wrong. No one corrected him (can you blame us?) and later he sent us an email about how he "was erroneously under the impression that it was 8:15 instead of 7:15". Hilarious!

Another incident this last week was classic as well. It was time for our midterm, and he discussed in class what would be on the test. We had been studying the Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the rise in industrialization and its effects on the world economy, etc. He explained that he wanted dates, names, and facts on these topics and we would also have to write an essay. I studied really hard and felt like I really knew my stuff. However, when I went into take the written test, it was all about ancient Greece. What!?! I know he's obsessed with Greece, but that's not what our class is focused on. Where does he get off on forcing Greek stuff down our throats? I kept checking to see if I was taking the wrong test, but couldn't see anything wrong except the questions. I came out of the test very angry and frustrated. I went home and drafted an email to him explaining that frustration. Thankfully, Ryan toned it down a bit and "sweetened it up". I sent if off and didn't sleep well that night. I received a reply from him the next morning asking me if I might have taken the wrong test. He also teaches an Ancient History class that I wasn't aware of (he made it sound, in his Napoleon way, like he only taught classes at BYU except for this one). I then felt desperately stupid! How could I have not figured out that it was the wrong midterm? How could I think he would do that to us? Was I the only one this happened to, or did others take the wrong test too? I was feeling very frustrated with myself the whole day. When I got to class that night, he asked how everyone felt about the midterm. Several people felt that they had studied the wrong stuff and didn't know we had to know anything about ancient civilizations. My professor realized that several of us had taken the wrong midterm, yet I was the only who had questioned it! My professor apologized profusely and gave us another week to retake the right test. Ugh! Two midterms in a week. He's quite the teacher!! On a side note, we jokingly asked him to grade our first midterm because we guessed our way through the whole thing...he didn't grade it all the way, but said our answers were quite funny. Just for the record, I did get an A on the REAL midterm!

So, after all that, I REALLY needed Spring Break to come! Hallelujah! It was so nice to just concentrate on being a mom for the week. I took each kid out for their own special lunch during the week, caught up on some sleep, and I cleaned my office, and I mean CLEANED: I bought all new file folders and went through all my files and paperwork, and cleaned out my desk and office closet...it was so wonderful to be able to take the time to do all of that! For the last half of the week, we went down to St. George for a law conference. Ryan booked us a huge four bedroom condo and we played all weekend long. We left on Thursday night, so Katie stayed behind with my Mom Janis so she could go to school on Friday. It was end of term, and she is so focused on her grades, so how could we say no? My dad, sister and brother were going to come down on Saturday morning, so she would just come down with them (we certainly had plenty of room for all of them).

Mom Nancy was spending the weekend in Cali, so we didn't get to see her, but she is coming up next weekend, so we occupied ourselves in other ways.  We spent a lot of time swimming.  We did this while Ryan was in his meetings.  I have mentioned this before, but my kids LOVE swimming and they always get along the whole time.  Maybe that's where the term "they got along just swimmingly" came from!  It makes me want to build a pool in my backyard and send them out there whenever there is contention.

When Ry was finished with his meetings, we would head out on various adventures.  Friday, we drove up Snow Canyon.  The closest we've ever been was to Tuacahn theater, but there is much more out there.  It was a beautiful drive and we enjoyed a couple of small hikes.  The weather was gorgeous (especially compared to home), just a little breezy, so we took advantage of it.  We love being outdoors and being together.  I'm so glad that my kids love to go hiking and experience nature!

Here are the kids at the Petrified Sand Dunes...

Oh no! It looks like Lauren and Braiden almost fell in the pond...

On Saturday, we were disappointed to learn that none of my family was going to come down as originally planned.  We were really missing Katie, but she had a great time with Grandma and I think they needed and appreciated their one-on-one time together.  So, just the five of us headed to Zion National Park for the afternoon.  What a beautiful place!! 

We hiked up to Emerald Ponds.  It was one we hadn't hiked before and it was beautiful.  It took us about two hours round trip, but it was worth it.  There are several waterfalls and we also saw many deer, some just a few feet away.  Pretty neat.  By the way, as a fair warning to all of you...in the following pictures you will see my very white legs that haven't seen sunlight in months!

Cute Quote:

Ethan: Dad, take a picture of me being silly

Cute Quote

Braiden: What's over here? Oh, it looks like that way leads to certain death

Cute Quote

Braiden: I think I am about done with nature for the day!

Cute Quote

Ethan: Mom, let me wear your sunglasses...whoa! Everyone looks so brown!

After we were "done with nature", we headed to Pirate Island for pizza with some of our friends from the firm. The kids had a blast and the adults got to visit. Good times. So, it turned out to be a very fun and relaxing trip.  A much needed Spring Break.  Now, I just need to survive the rest of the semester!