I'm so Excited!

I feel like jumping out of my skin right now! I think I may have finally found a way to finish my Bachelor's degree! Hooray!

Just a bit of background....I started college as a music major(vocal performance) and studied that for a few years(I was actually only about 3 semesters from graduating). Then I went and got married and started having babies and college just got put on the back burner, the very back burner.
About a year after Jonah was born I started taking some evening and internet classes in Family Studies at Weber State and decided to make that my major. I find the dynamics of family relationships and development really interesting. Anyway, I did those classes for two semesters, maybe three before taking another hiatus due to moving and marriage and kiddos, blah, blah, blah.
That was about 5 years ago. I've wanted so badly to finish my Bachelor's degree ever since. But being a stay at home mom with a wonderfully devoted and hardworking husband doesn't really give me many options for continuing my education except for online classes.
I've been searching and searching different online degrees, but I couldn't find a family studies degree offered completely online.....until today! I don't know why I didn't find it before, but Utah State University offers an online Bachelor of Science degree in Family Life Studies.
Nothing is set in stone yet, but I've already filled out my admissions application and started my financial aid applications. I really feel that now is the time and this is the way!

Anyhoo, just wanted to share my joy!

Today is Nate's dad, David's birthday! David is a great father, father-in-law, and a fabulous grandfather! We're so grateful for the blessing he is in all of our lives. We just wish we lived closer(Nate's parents live in Las Vegas) so we would help celebrate.
So, Happy Birthday Dad and Grandpa! We love you oh so much and hope your day is full of joy!

I couldn't find a picture of just Grandpa, so here he is cuddling our little clan.

Welcome Home Amanda!

Last Friday, Nate's sister Amanda returned from serving an 18 month LDS mission in Vancouver, Canada. Nate actually had the weekend off, so we decided it would be fun to drive down to Las Vegas and welcome her home.

We drove down early on Friday, and by early I mean before the dawn has even thought of cracking. Nate took Jayne and went with his parents and sister, Emily to pick up Amanda from the airport. Jonah, Lilly, and I would have gone, but that would have required taking two vehicles and I wasn't feeling well. So we stayed home and waited. The kids were so excited to see their Aunt Amanda again. Jayne was born after Amanda left, so she'd never seen her except in a few pictures. The joyous reunion was full of hugs and tears and lots of happy faces.

We stayed until Sunday evening. It was so fun to see how much Amanda has blossomed while on her mission. She's so confident and happy.

Among the highlights of our short weekend were a trip to the temple, taking Amanda and Emily out for ice cream, and hearing Amanda speak in church. The weather was nice and the kids spent most of their time in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard.

Grandpa, Grandma, and Emily at the airport. Can you sense the excitement?

Amanda's Triumphant Return, with broken glasses of course. She said they had just broken a day or two before courtesy of an elder who was a bit too clumsy with a basketball. Thank goodness for tape, right?

Lilly, Jonah, and Jayne all dressed up for church

Giving their best "cheese" smiles. Well, all except Jayne who is giving her "you all look ridiculous, please get me outta here" face

So we just want to say....Welcome Home Amanda! We are so proud of you and we love you!

One more thing....

that I didn't tell you about Nate is that he has always had trouble with his sinuses and every winter he gets so sick. He's pretty much sick all the time during the cold weather and still quite a bit during the warm weather. You wouldn't know it because he just works on through everything, but then he collapses when he gets home.

Anyway, I finally made him go to an ear, nose, and throat specialist a few weeks ago. He had a bad infection. He went for his follow up today and they did a CT scan of his sinuses. They found that his tonsils are abnormally large, with one being even bigger than the other and he has some cysts forming in there as well. The doc also said he should probably remove his adenoids. So, I guess this means surgery for Nate. We're still working on scheduling it. It will probably be towards the end of April, right after Nate's classes end for the semester.

Thank goodness Nate has over two weeks of paid vacation time saved up at work. He's going to need it for his recovery.

I'm just glad that we finally found a doctor to diagnose the real problem instead of just fixing the immediate sinus infection or swollen, sore throat. Hopefully this surgery will lessen the amount of time poor Nate spends feeling under the weather.

Leprechaun Magic

When I picked up Jonah from school today, all he could talk about were leprechauns. It being St. Patrick's Day, Jonah's fabulous kindergarten teacher made it a really fun day.
Jonah said that when they got back from recess, leprechauns had left green glitter and footprints all over their classroom! They had left clues for the kids to follow. Jonah was so excited to show me what they found when they had followed all the clues.....a pot of gold! He got to bring two pieces home. They were promptly eaten. Not to worry, they were chocolate gold coins.

Jonah also made a leprechaun mask. He was determined to find those little leprechauns that had been in their class room. He said that if he left the mask on, they would think he was one of them and he'd be able to find them. He's so funny!

Here's a picture of my little leprechaun.

As a side note, Jayne has developed a love for coloring. Look out walls, it's going to get creative I'm sure.

Happy Birthday to Nate!

Yesterday was Nate's 29th birthday. Yes, I know what you're thinking. He doesn't look 29!
Anyway.....in honor of the love of my life I am going to share with you...

29 things about Nate

1. Nate is an extremely hard worker. If you don't believe me, you can go over to Les Schwab and watch him for half an hour. Or you could have him help you move. You'll be thinking he's a crazy man.

2. Nate was born in St. George, but lived his entire life, right up until we got married and I dragged him off to the freezing cold of northern Utah, in Las Vegas.

3. Nate ran cross country in high school.

4. Nate has never ridden a horse. I'm working on remedying this situation this year. He's always wanted to, but the opportunity never arose.

5. Nate can play the cello. He played in orchestras all through junior high and high school.

6. Nate loves to go shooting, but doesn't get to very often. He's never been hunting, he just likes to go target shooting. Among his favorite things to use as targets are old televisions, spray paint cans, phone books, glass bottles, etc.

7. Nate is a sort of jack-of-all-trades. Some of the jobs he's had include working for the Nevada Water Authority(I think that's the name of it), mowing lawns and doing landscaping, flower delivery, bank teller, grocery stocker and dairy manager, door to door sales, a brief stint as a car salesman, janitor, apartment manager, school bus driver, and now tire sales and service.

8. Nate earned his Eagle Scout at the age of 14.

9. Nate loves movies! We have over 300 movies and we watch one together practically every night. His favorites are war movies or documentaries, action/adventure, and comedy. He's always so good to watch my romantic movies with me too.

10. Nate's favorite TV show of all time is M*A*S*H. We have all 11 seasons and watch them together all the time.

11. Nate would love to be a rancher and have horses and cows and the whole bit.

12. Nate loves the outdoors. He's really working hard to make me like camping so that we'll do it more often.

13. Nate's favorite author is Louis Lamour. He has almost all of his books and could read them over and over. We've even read a few of them together.

14. Nate is a fabulous father! All three of our kids are crazy about him and he's really good to play with them and make time for them, even when he's exhausted from that crazy working we talked about earlier.

15. Nate loves shoes. They are one of his favorite things to shop for.

16. Nate's fluent in Spanish.

17. Nate served an LDS mission in the Mexico Monterrey North mission. Hence the Spanish.

18. Nate used to spend summers in Oregon with his family. They have property up there and would go for a couple of months every year. He loves it up there.

19. Nate's favorite ice cream is pistachio. But it has to be the good stuff, i.e. Ben & Jerry's.

20. Nate has a great sense of humor. He makes me laugh every day.

21. Nate never actually proposed to me. Getting married was just kind of this mutual decision we came to one night. Then after he bought the ring he tried to just give me the wedding band for the engagement ring reasoning that I should wait until the 'big day' to get the 'big ring.' I did not find this amusing.

22. Nate is very generous.

23. Nate is very accepting of other people. Sometimes he has to remind me not to be too judgmental.

24. Nate is allergic to everything! I finally made him go to an allergist this year and they did the scratch test with at least 30 or 40 different allergens on there and every single one of them flared up. Poor guy.

25. Nate loves music. He's got all different genres on his i-pod and loves to listen to music before he falls asleep.

26. Nate has re-broken the same pinkie finger I don't know how many times. It is now permanently crooked.

27. Nate and I met at the Manti Pageant when we were teenagers. The first thing he said to me was "you have beautiful eyes". I'm still not sure if he meant it or it was just a line. =)

28. Nate is getting gray hair. He'll probably be mad that I mentioned that one, but I think it looks good on him. He just gets better as he gets older!

29. Nate is an amazing husband and friend to me. I couldn't ask for better.

I love you Nate! Happy Birthday!

Ear Trouble

For six years I kept hearing about how common and annoying ear infections are in children. During those six years, we had three kids and no ear infections. All of a sudden, we've had two in the last month.
It started with Jayne. She had a cough which turned into congestion and then added on some red and goopy eyes. That's when I decided this was more than the common cold and took her to the doctor. The diagnosis was sinus infection, eye infection, and the dreaded ear infection. We got her on antibiotics and all three cleared up pretty quick.

Then we went about our lives blissfully free of coughs or runny noses or red eyes for oh, about a week or so. Jayne got a cough again. Nothing else, no fever, no congestion, just a cough. Then Jonah got it. His, however, escalated a bit more than Jayne's. He had a slight fever and got congested. Then on Wednesday afternoon, Jonah just started crying. He said his ear hurt. My first reaction was to ask what on earth he had put in his ear or what he had done to his ear. But he hadn't done anything. I gave him some Tylenol and had him sit down.
It wasn't getting any better and I honestly had no idea what to do with an ear infection. So I took him to the doc and we got him some antibiotics.

So, now Lilly has been coughing and she's congested too. So far, she hasn't said anything about her ears. Cross your fingers for me that she doesn't get it too.

So, if any of you reading this have more experience with ear infections than I do, please please please leave me your wisdom on prevention and spotting them early and treatment because this stuff is no fun.

Saying Goodbye to Grandma Beth

My paternal grandmother, Beth Rowley Culbertson Conrad, passed away at the age of 86 on Monday, March 1st. We attended her funeral services last Saturday, March 6th. The funeral was held in Ogden, Utah at Myers Mortuary with a viewing right before. Grandma looked beautiful laid out in her temple clothes. My cousin Amanda put together a photo slide show on DVD that was shown during the viewing. She did an amazing job! Amanda does photography and you can check out her website here. She does great work. It was so neat to be able to look at all the photos and just let the memories flow as we sat waiting for the services to start.

I was asked to play piano in a duet with my cousin's daughter, Valerie on the violin. We played 'Somewhere My Love' from Dr. Zhivago. My Grandma Beth had requested that song. I also played for the great grandchildren to sing 'I am a Child of God' and 'Love One Another'. The services included a life sketch read by my Aunt Betsy, a talk by my Aunt Cathy, a tribute written by my dad read by his wife Kathy, and my cousin LeeAnn read a memory that each of the grandchildren had written about Grandma Beth.

My Grandma Beth had been in a nursing home for a lot of years and hadn't been herself for a long time. It was so wonderful to listen to all the speakers and remember her in all her glory!

After the funeral services we all drove up to Lewiston, Utah to the cemetery. It was a little over an hour drive. The cemetery was covered with snow and the roads were muddy. It was so cold up there and we had forgotten to bring coats for the kids, so Nate and the kids waited in the Jeep while I went to the dedication of the grave. My Uncle Gary did the honors.

After the internment, we had a family dinner at a church in Lewiston. It was so fun to visit with all of my cousins on my father's side of the family. It has been years since I've seen most of them. I'm so grateful that they were all able to be there.

The pallbearers carrying Grandma to her final resting place.

Each of the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were given a white carnation to place on Grandma's coffin. Here my cousins Wendy, Justin, and Brad are placing theirs.

Me and my brothers and sisters

We love you Grandma Beth! We look forward to the day we will see you again!

It's been a long couple of weeks for us, with the deaths of Nate's Grandma Barnum and my Grandma Beth. But this experience has helped me to realize the legacies of these two exceptional women and has inspired me to live better and to honor their memories.

Beautiful Grandma Beth

My Grandmother, Beth Conrad, passed away this morning. I love you Grandma. Thank you for all you taught me, for your example, and for being such a strong presence in my childhood. May you rest in peace.