Ricks/BYU Idaho thoughts

I know a girl who will be attending college at BYU Idaho, in Rexburg, Idaho. I went to this school when it was Ricks back in 1999. To put it simply, I had the most wonderful time there. Every time I hear of someone attending this college, I smile and pray that they will have as much fun as I did. I wanted to write so much more on her FB status, so I thought I’d write my thoughts here. There’s so much more to write, but it’s getting late.

Please forgive me, I know this is kind of a long one. This post is for those headed towards that wonderful college, and it may cause some giggles for those who have been there.

Here is the playground!

See the marks on the snow to the right of the stairs? Great sledding area:)

Oh, how do we begin? There’s so much I want to say. Let’s do the bullets, so its easier to read:)

• Well, let’s start with the lovely climate of the winters there. Think the North Pole. A tiny, tissue paper jacket is not going to cut it. At night, and in the early morning, the air can get down to single digit temperature. Owning a North Face down jacket is not a bad idea. A good scarf is a must to wrap around your neck and mouth at night. Oh, it’s cold air to breathe! You get excited when it’s an cloudy night, because the air gets insulated, and the temperature warms up about 10 degrees:)
• The first day it snows is a glorious one. The snow has a universal effect of making everyone on campus giddy and happy. Snow ball fights erupt, mass laughter abounds, and it’s great fun. The next 6 months of snow afterwards tends to make people a tad grumpy, he hee!
• If you have a good view of the road from your apartment living room, sit back and watch all the Texas, CA, and other students from warm climates attempt to drive on the snow for the first time. Eat popcorn.
• When going to the Sand Dunes in the winter for some awesome sledding, do tell the driver to slow down and not hit the brakes so hard, because the icy roads will indeed make your car spin. Also, consider yourself blessed to have a guy friend who has full control over his car on the icy roads. He may take you and roomates out to the empty parking lot and do donughts. Try not to giggle at your roommates who get freaked out.
• Learn to play guitar. Then, when cute guys come over who know how to play, they will serenade you and your roommates. Applaud and feed them. It will make them feel like rockstars:)
• Hardly any amount of actual studying can be done on the first floor of the library. It is a carnival of ‘quiet’ socializing, meetups, and a constant flow of traffic where people sit, read and check out all the pretty students walking past them. True. You must go up on the higher floors and hide in a cubicle to actually ‘study’.
• Enroll in College Choir, the choir class that involves no audition. A truly, wonderful experience. This isn’t ward choir. Be prepared for hard music to learn that will stretch and uplift you. The teachers are highly educated in their music field, and make the choir class an amazing 50 minutes of your day. You will hear lots of ‘Watch your consonants. Don’t breathe there. All eyes on me while you’re singing. Drop your jaw, round tones. Hold your folder up and look over it at me." If it fills up online, which it always did, you can show up first day and usually can add the class. Don’t give up.
• If you are so blessed to not have a class during the class time of the Collegiate Singers, go to their class, sit up in the back row of chairs, bring some homework to do, and listen to the beautiful sounds that choir produces. It requires an audition to be in that choir, and it’s the best of the best singers on campus. Sit still and listen while they sing and rehearse, and you’ll hear a small glimpse of what the choirs in heaven sound like.
• The Snow building is wonderful place, the music building. As you walk down the halls of piano practice rooms, you’re hear a plethora of sounds ranging from Mozart, Bach, and more, all swirling around your ears. Music majors are a delight, as they will constantly break into song spontaneously, and they have great voices. So fun. Theater majors are good times, too. The ‘fishbowl’ area is a neat place to crash. Sometimes, I would study there, and there would be little music groups practicing in that area. Fun to watch. Seriously, you will be inspired by the amazing amount of talent from students there.
• Enjoy the fabulous blessing of ‘student price’ for concert tickets. There will be a wide variety of great concerts through out the semester. Jon Schmidt, accapella groups, and sometimes a highly entertaining group of senior barbershop men.
• If you stay during the summer semester, you will experience a whole level of fun that students who attend the regular semesters don’t know about. Bridge jumping. Small amount of classes to take, thus giving you more time to play. The college has these great summer weekend trips that include river rafting, trips to Jackson Hole, and more outdoor bliss all for your handy ‘student price’ of a ticket to attend. Oh, these are such treats! If you see the opportunity to attend Bar J, go! You get the ultimate cowboy/ranch experience of a tin plate dinner of ranch food. After dinner, 4 old musician cowboys give you a hilarious and entertaining show. So much fun.
• Living in the dorms is fun. You’ll be out of sugar, go knock on someone’s door to borrow some, stay for an hour getting to know them, because everyone there is just so gosh darn friendly!
• Being the roommate with a TV instantly bumps your cool factor up a few notches.
• You will love your roommate who was taught by her mom to bake bread and cook actual food other than top ramen!
• Two things that will help maintain peace and harmony in your apartment with your roommates: Have apartment prayer, and do your dishes. So very true.
• There may still be the group of girls that bake cookies every Sunday to bring to the boys to have a delightful flirt fest. Just smile, and offer help in making the cookies.
• Sometimes, there’s nothing more fun than on a weekend watching movies with a big pack of guys and girls, and a Fiesta pack from Taco Bell. When the curfew came at 10 for guys to get out, the guys promptly used their muscles to lift and carry the couches out the front door, I busted out my down comforters, (remember, COLD air at night in Rexburg!) and we hooked the TV up to an extension cord, placed it in the doorway, and finished our show.
• There’s a guy named Jeff who owns the Rexburg Drive in, (if its still open, I hope). He and his kids would work the food area, making great shakes and burgers. Take a part of that.
• Saturday mornings are fun to move the couches in the kitchen, and eat breakfast on the couches. Random, yes.
• When September 11th happened, there was a news story of the New Yorkers taking the time to smile at people when they passed them on the streets, being humbled from the tragedy. That happens everyday on campus on a regular basis. You will make more friends than you can imagine.
• The terms DTR, Preemie, ‘going to the gardens’, and NICMO will probably still have their significant meanings up there.
• Idaho Falls had the best fireworks ever for 4th of July!
• Every Tuesday at 2pm, the world holds still for an hour as everything stops for the weekly devotional address. Huge migration of students to the Hart auditorium. A nice moment to bring your scriptures, and get fed spiritually with music and an enlightened speaker.
• You will meet some of the most kind hearted teachers there who love to teach and care about the students.

Then, before you know it, it will be over. Your time will come to close the college chapter, and move ahead in life. You’ll cry a tear, and thank Heavenly Father for the amazing experience you had, the education you gained, for the people you met, and the friends you made for life. Enjoy every minute up there. Try to find the balance of getting your homework done, and having a blast with friends doing all the fun activities the college provides. You’ll feel spoiled to be there. I remember thinking when I was there, “I wish my friends in Vegas and Kooskia could experience this with me.”

Isn’t that like life? Before we know it, we will be done with this life, and move on to the next. I’m trying to enjoy every minute of it, so I can thank Him for the experience, the people I’ve met, everything. So symbolic. Ok, must go to bed!

Cloth diapers!

Thanks to the encouragement of a good friend, we made the switch to cloth diapers for Brooke. Money is tight right now, and I got tired of throwing money out the window on diapers. I love the cloth diapers. All I can say is ‘Why the heck did I not do this sooner?"’

Everyone seems to have mixed opinions on them. I get a lot of ‘You’re brave!’ comments. I think the poop issue is something that was worried about. Apparently, it’s not a big deal at all. You just dump it in the toilet, swish the diaper around to get rid of smell, and throw it in its own hamper. I think I can handle that. I do laundry every day already, so not a problem there. Bottom line, just don’t have extra money for diapers each month, so we thought we’d give this a shot.

We got a big box of diapers, pins, and covers. Let me know if you want the link, and I’ll gladly email it to you! At first, we had no idea how to put them on Brooke. She was so cute laying on the bed, waiting patiently while we fumbled about. Looked up some videos on youtube, and that did the trick! A super friend gave me her clips that work a ton better than pins, and that made life wonderful.

Here’s our cutie, almost 5 months! She’s starting to find her little voice, and sounds like a little bird cooing all the time. She gets hugs from the boys all the time.

I got my haircut recently, and my friend wanted to straighten my hair. I told her go for it, because it takes a long time to do. Hadn’t done it since college, so I knew it would be fun for Shaun to see. It has a Cinderella effect, because when I wash it, the straightness disappears and goes back to wavy, but it’s fun, huh?

Boys. Mud. Outdoors. Dirt. This is my life, ha ha!

Our school for the day: Putting numbers on their mat, and having them drive to the numbers. Gotta make it fun:)

Love this pic. The boys were laying down still in our bed one night. They only do that if they are sick, but this night, they just were simmering down in a nice way. We all got together and snuggled for a bit. Loved it! Wish that would happen more, but I just try to enjoy those moments better. Love these kids. Trying every day to figure out the parenting/disciplining crap, but above all, I just love them. Love that I have bunkbeds and cribs for them, warm cotton sheets, a backyard for them to run in, and bikes.

By the way, made this homemade chocolate pudding yesterday. SO, so good!!

My little getaway

**Been meaning to post this awhile ago. Sometimes, life gets so darn busy to blog! :D**

Last week was amazing, and super busy. Once a year, 25,000 photographers flock here from all over the world to attend WPPI, a conference full of 2 hour classes from pro photographers, a huge trade show of vendors, and more. I was very, very lucky to go for three days with some of my oh-so-cool mommy photog friends:)

Shaun was a saint, and took care of the kids so I could fly down the freeway and enter the land of cameras for some great knowledge. One day, Shaun watched my friend’s kids and ours so we could both go to our class. Six kids, all very young. I was praying for him while I was in my classes that day. Supremely awesome husband!!

The blessing of living in the city of this conference was that I didn’t need to stay in a hotel or buy food. Each day, I packed sandwiches, granola bars, water, wore comfy shoes, and took tons of notes. I loved talking with people, seeing where they were from, and hearing about their businesses. At lunch, I sat on the grass outside the buildings, and listened to all the different accents spoken. I saw lots and lots of jeans and boots. I guess boots on women are the rage right now.

I met some of the superstars of photography land. (I really didn’t know how big they were until someone told me, ha ha!) One of them was an incredibly gracious and kind woman named MeRa Ko. She taught some wonderful tips on family photography and photographing little ones. She is a natural light photographer, and her work is beautiful.

I bought her inspiring little book. As I was attempting to win an Ipad, I sat and read through it, looking at the beautiful images of babies. It was right then that I felt such peaceful, inspirational feeling, (amazing that I felt this in the trade show, an huge room of vendors and tons of noise) a reminder of why I started going gung ho on taking pictures in the first place. My kiddos. They were my first and main models, and I loved learning my camera on them. I loved getting beautiful shots of them growing up. I decided when I got home that I would do better and take more pics of them.

Here’s a few for now:)

Kevin, doing airplanes with his hands. He is my blanket boy.

Rare calm moment with my rambunctious Ethan.

Beautiful Brooke. Love the catch lights in her eyes!

Love my kids. Today has been a good day so far. (Chaos hour hasn’t begun yet, at 4pm:) Hardly any tv, had some friends over for a playdate, and my boys played so nice with them. Practiced their manners. Made me feel like I’m doing something right. Mickey nuggets for lunch, and bike riding out front. Yup, its been good.

Love day

This week was Valentine’s day. I wanted the boys to wake up to a surprise. The night before, Shaun and I hid about 30 winne the pooh valentines all over the house, sticking them to walls and such. We left some red mailboxes on the table for them with goodies inside. Went to bed giggling:)

I apologize that I don’t have pics to show, but it was 6:30am when the boys were up having a great time finding their surprises. I wasn’t quite awake to document, but it was nice to hear their little voices, “Kevin, here’s one! Look at this!” with the little Kevin’s “Oh, yes” replies. I just wanted to make it fun for them.

I went to the store to get stuff to make the awesome chocolate Bundt cake for Shaun’s gift. Who knew that 2 cups of sour cream could make this recipe SO good? As I was leaving, I heard the bag girl ask the clerk what she was doing for Valentine’s day. The clerk said “Oh, I’m married. It’s just another day”.

I totally disagree! It just made me think of my long waiting time to find Shaun. When I was 20 going off to Ricks college in Idaho, I sure thought I knew my plans. I was going to have a great time at college, (which I did, and that deserves a blog post of its own!) and marry my friend when he got home from serving a mission for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, two years later. Many of my friends and roommates got engaged left and right. I had the thought of ‘maybe my darling husband is up here at school’, as everyone seemed to be finding their soul mate on campus. Not for me, but oh Ricks, (now BYU-Idaho), what a wonderful school experience.

In the meantime, I made a ton of friends at school, learned a lot, grew up a little, (yeah right) dated and fell in love with another friend the summer before my missionary was to return. This was back in 2001, ah, the heartache summer, ha ha!

In short, both guys didn’t work out, and I was an emotional, sobbing basket case for a few months or so. My poor roommates. After a bit, I said ‘Oh, bag it. Let’s get out of here.’ and served a mission for the church in Florida. Small break from guys, as missionaries do not date while serving. I didn’t mind that. (It was serving around stinking hot elders that was another fun trial, but again, that’s another good story for later:)

I came home, did a little more college, saw more roommates get engaged, tried to have faith that someone would like me enough to take me out on a date, had a blast living with 11 other roommates in one house, (two bathrooms, but only one with a shower. Now, that’s fun!) and finally got stable enough to not care about getting married.

See, that’s the thing. I realized that whining and moping about my single status did absolutely no good at all, and did not speed up the ‘meeting the sweetie’ process. Once I just let go of all the fear and worries, said in my prayers ‘Well, whatever goes. I’m just going to be happy’, and kept busy doing good things, that’s when Shaun appeared. Yet, I couldn’t just sit and wait for him to come. I had to go in the area where he would be, being a singles ward at church or Institute. (church study class during the week). See, that’s the thing. I needed to do something on my part to help me find him, and the Lord guided me along to him. Isn’t that neat how it all works out? 

And there he was, sitting near me at church, his arm in a cast due to a broken wrist.  My friend introduced him to me, to which I will be forever thankful! Had no idea that this was my eternal sweetie, and that it was finally my turn to experience that joy that all my friends had found.

I went to an activity at Red Rock and Scandia, and he was there. I remember hoping I had enough to pay for my Scandia entrance, and he slapped down some money at the cashier to pay for me. To which I thought “ Oh, wow. That was nice”. What I remembered most about the fun at Scandia with the group of friends was the sound of his laughter. It was so comforting. I just remembered thinking “I hope I can hear him laugh more”.

There was another time our group of friends went to dinner at a restaurant, and he was there. He told me “Get anything you want” for dinner. That’s really the best thing you can ever say to a girl you’re interested in. I was incredibly happy at the thought of being able to afford my pasta that night! I need to teach my boys to do that when they’re older.

That’s how we began, and now it’s been 6 years of laughter, and three kids, holy cow! (Wasn’t this fun to read, Sweetie? :) So when someone says ‘its just another day’, I beg to differ. I don’t ever want to forget the road that led to Shaun, and how blessed I am to have him. He makes me laugh so much, and is my gift from above. Happy Valentine’s day, indeed! 

Sundays

I dream of Sundays that are days of rest. I have not experienced those types of Sundays since college, when naps were a gift to have. With young kids, restful Sundays just don’t seem to happen that often. Ever. Yet, it makes me search for the good moments of that day, the moments when I can actually hear the speaker at church, and learn something wonderful. Shaun and I try every Sunday to make it a good day. Here’s our attempts:

• From this very good post HERE,  we started to build some Sunday bags to rotate each week. So far, I’ve only made two. Oh, well. I’m getting there:) It has helped tremendously to plan better and bring things for the kiddos to survive the 45 minutes of sacrament meeting.

We started taking better control of the TV, now watching only Sunday appropriate stuff. We’ve watched the scripture story cartoons, church DVDs, and occasionally and old movie here and there.

It sure takes a conscious effort to make Sunday different than all the rest of the days, but it does make the day better. Many parents have said to me that church gets easier as the kids get older. After a year or so, we are finally starting to see it. For the first time in awhile, I am finally starting to hear the speakers at church, and get spiritually fed. Oh, it feels so good. I need it so bad.

My sweet Ethan started having a hard time again going to his class at church. For some reason, he just would cry and struggle going. I prayed and prayed that yesterday he would be ok, and would not be scared. I thought about when I was young and going to kindergarten for the first time. Long ago, Mom told me I cried the whole time, and didn’t want to be left there. Thinking of this helped me have full empathy for my little boy. Some sweet angel teachers helped him calm down. I’m so thankful for them. We picked him up from class in better spirits. Snacks and crafts sure can help!

I just love these kids of ours. I don’t understand why they throw huge fits sometimes, and struggle with stuff. I just am feeling a renewed goal of seeking the Savior more in my parenting. Why haven’t I done this more? It would make everything so much easier if I just keep thinking ‘How would Jesus parent this child? What would he do on those really, doggone hard days?’ I know I sure have a long way to go, but I think just trying to think this way means I’m on an uphill climb.

The gorgeous sky yesterday, when I was leaving choir at church. Seeing this just makes me remember how good it is to be alive, to walk, and to see beauty like this.

The good moments of Ethan being a big brother to Brooke. He loves her so much.

A quiet house

Do you ever have a moment at home when kids are napping, or one kid is gone with Daddy, and you just don’t know what to do with yourself? That’s what’s going on right now. Kevin is napping, Ethan went with Shaun to do errands, and Brooke it out. There are so many good things to choose to do when I have quiet time like that, and what did I do today? Browsed Pinterest and learned how to play ‘words with friends’ on my phone. I was having too much fun making a word, that I started about ten games with friends. I felt terribly guilty afterwards, thinking of how I am inconveniencing them with a game request when they are probably busy with kids, chores, etc. Yet, it was fun. Maybe one will play back and the madness will begin, ha ha!

Shaun decided to start going to the library for a few hours each day to job hunt and get things done on the laptop. As much as he loves the boys, he got a lot more done there without them jumping all over him and wanting to play.

This week, a friend of ours sold a Wii to us for dirt cheap. I was ecstatic. It felt like I was 13 again, when my mom got me a Sega Genesis for Christmas one year. Best mom ever! I guess even though I’m a grown up and a mom now, there still lies in me the dormant tomboy that I was, and I still love video games. There simply is no time to sit and play all day. Too much better things to do, but its fun to play a little at night here and there.

First night we had it, we put the kids to bed, and ran to the living room (Ok, I ran:) to play Boom Blox, the one game we bought for the wii a long time ago, even though we didn’t have the wii. It’s a super fun game like Jenga, knocking blocks over, pulling them out, accidentally hitting sheep, and getting points for it. Love it.

Other than that, not too much going on here. I made a yummy crockpot lasagna that turned out great! Recipe here. I also made Our Best Bites awesome chocolate mousse recipe. Oh, that mousse is easy and SO good. Go here for recipe.

I went to a church meeting and the topic was on getting organized. I went on a declutter crusade today, and got three bags of stuff out. Doesn’t it feel so wonderful to declutter and get organized? It’s like your home is saying “Oh, thank you” and everyone can breathe a little better.

That’s it for today:)

Saturday, we made it!

Isn’t it always a nice feeling to know you made it through the week? Saturdays can be so wonderful. Today, Shaun got up at 6:30, with Ethan up, too. He and Ethan got dressed and left to help a friend move into their new home. I hope some seeds of service will be planted into Ethan. You just want to teach the best stuff to your kids, you know?

Kevin and I have been under a comforter watching ‘Winnie the Pooh’ cartoons. Brooke slept all night till 6:30, fed her, and put her back down to keep her on her schedule. Angel baby!

This is our darling at 4 months old. She is is precious. The boys continue to love her, and give her big hugs. I am so thankful to have three kids. Yes, there have been a lot of moments of the boys struggling over the same toy, constant reminders to not yell at each other, and such. I’ve heard that’s quite normal for young boy brothers. Shaun and I keep trying to be peacemakers and maintain some sanity in the home, but there have been a lot of playing together moments with the boys. That’s always wonderful.

I had some days of slowing down to have mommy moments this week. Sometimes Kevin gets so very worked up over something, and gets in a screaming fit. Sounds something like a scary horror movie. It’s kind of funny because he will be in his room screaming, you crack open the door, toss a sippy cup in, cookie, or something to calm him down, and shut the door and run for your life before he turns his rage on you. Feeding the bear:)

Well, I was brave and went in the room with him, held him until he calmed down, sang to him, read him some books, fed him a ding dong, and he got better. Thankfully, Shaun was with the other kids. It was just nice to be a mommy and help a little one. I think that’s one of the best moments of being a parent. Its neat to think that is how our Heavenly Father is towards us. If we will come to him, he will hold us and help us feel all better. Prayer is a wonderful thing.

A blessing happened this week. Shaun got hired for a part time job doing paramedic work for conventions. The company is very friendly and it’s a flexible work schedule. We both felt that this could be a blessing to go with school, when we can start that. It’s a start. Still have to pinch pennies, and pay bills somehow, but it’s a blessing.

Today, I get to go play photographer at a fun shoot for the local photographers in Vegas. There’s going to be a lot of models there. I try to do my hair, throw on a necklace, and pretend to be all professional, (yeah right!) while having fun practicing some more and meeting other nice gals with cameras. I just love looking for the best light. It’s so addicting, and once you find it, you can create an amazing portrait. Oh, it’s fun!

Hope everyone has a super Saturday!