Recap of our Trip

Our trip to California was a good one. David's interview went well. He had a lot of his questions answered, but his main concern is the price. LLU is a private school so it is quite pricey. After his interview a guy overheard David talking to some students about how they afford it. He approached him and invited us over to meet his family. He told David that he was LDS and could just tell by the way David was talking was too was LDS. He has been in to program and was interviewing for the Doctorat program there and wanted to share with us how him and his wife and 3 kids have made it work. We followed him to his house in Redlands, CA and talked with them while the kids played for four hours! We were going to write it off before we met Rulon and his sweet family. They answered a lot of our questions and we feel it was a huge blessing for us to have met them. One perk that we like about Loma Linda is that all of their MFT graduates land really good jobs that they love right out of college. So that's comforting.

Saturday we drove an hour to Newport Beach. The kids played for four hours and could've played for more. We saw dolphins and a sea lion and it was so exciting! We learned later from locals and friends that have lived in the area that it's actually quite rare to see sea life at that beach. We had a blast!

Our motel was funny. We had to switch rooms in the middle of the night the second night because the fan in our room wasn't working and we were all sweating. It was a huge pain to pack up and move all of our stuff and the kids. Luckily Truman's pack-and-play fit out the door so he slept on his ride down to the next room. It was so worth it. I can't sleep well in the heat. And we ended up getting that night for free, which was another plus. :)

Zip It Lady!

I have struggled this year with Carmen's 1st grade teacher. She's one of those that is way to short with the kids and has been teaching for years. She should've retired years ago, if you want my opinion. At the beginning of the school year I almost pulled Carmen out and put her in another class, but decided to stick with it. I volunteer once a week, which has helped a lot so that I can see how Carmen is doing and keep an eye on her teachers behavior.
I had to share what happened last week when I went in to help. We talked for a bit about how Carmen was sun kissed, and what beach we visited. She got really excited when she heard David went down for an interview at Loma Linda because she has family members who work there. She misunderstood me thinking David was interviewing for a job and not for a graduate program. "Oh...." she said, "I thought he was interviewing for a job. How old is he?" I replied, "He just turned 34." She then said something that burned in my brain, "Wow, it's about time to grow up."

Excuse me?? I was so offended, I don't even remember what I said, but I wish I would've said something about how proud I am of my husband who has worked really hard to get where he is and has taken really great care of me and the kids. I wish I would've said something about how hard it is to make hard decisions when it seems so easy to stay in our comfort zone, but know that we will grow if we move forward with faith.
It's not easy what David is doing. Being older than most applicants. I don't know where we will end up, or even if graduate school is in our near future. We are still waiting on some schools, but I have realized that it's really hard to get into a school. Especially his degree, where most of the schools take between 6 and 9 students for the program. Even with a husband who rocks with all credentials, it's tough. I just know that our Father in Heaven has a plan for our little family and we will always be taken care of.

Loma Linda

We are in Loma Linda, California today and will be until Sunday. David has his interview tomorrow for about 6 hours of the day. The kids and I decided to come with him and check out the area and hopefully get over to the beach while we are here too. The weather is perfect here. The temp is 70+ and the air smells sooo good. Here is a little video clip I filmed tonight. Truman discovered the kneenex tissue sticking out of the wall and decided to be a big helper. :) He was so busy working, he didn't even get distracted from the camera.

Save the Fly

It was beatiful yesterday! The temp was close to 60 and we enjoyed every minute of it. I am so looking forward to spring.

While hanging out on the deck yesterday, Carmen found a fly that must've been damaged in some way because he was sitting on her finger.

Our little bug lover exclaimed: "Look Mom! I've never been able to hold a fly before! They're too fast."

Me: Yeah! I bet he is sick because he can't fly.

Carmen and Morgan set out to find their new found friend something to eat to cure him. They tried grass and weeds. No luck. A few minutes later, I heard Carmen yell out in excitement:

"Poo! Flies eat poo!!"

Yeah, we have a few little piles left from Harvey in the back. And yes, we had a good session of hand washing afterwards.

Birthday Boy!

We got to celebrate Truman's first birthday today! And despite his first real owie (colliding with Carmen's skateboard on the driveway), we had a fun time. It was a given that we understood the birthday celebrations more than he did. It was first thing in the morning and he couldn't understand what the big bag with fun stuff in it was for:

After lunch, he had more fun playing with muffin liners than his new toys:
And after dinner, he picked at his birthday cake and took a few nibbles before throwing it to the floor for Harvey to lick up:

Even though the celebrating was simple, we all had a grand time. It was fun for me to reflect back on the special day last year when he was born. We are so happy to have him in our family. We love you little guy!

Limbo

Quick update to bring my friends and family and blog for journaling purposes up to speed with our situation.....

David had both interviews for the two different programs at BYU. He felt like both went great. Like he couldn't have done any better. Last Saturday we waited in anticipation for what was going to be the outcome. By 11:30 we got an email from the PhD program saying that he was an alternate. They could only accept 6 out of the 25+ that they interviewed. Feeling quite bummed we headed out to get some grocery shopping and other errands done.
Fast forward a few hours. We got home. We checked the mail. There was a letter from the mft program. With mixed feelings and emotions we opened the letter. Only to find that they too had picked David as an alternate. This year they only took 9 out of the 28 interviewed, and will let him know.
They stated that they understand that it's a frustrating place to be in, but to be honored that he made it that far. And to wait and see if anyone decides to decline and we may have a chance from there to be picked.
So, David booked his flight to Texas for the interview this Friday. He has another interview in California on the 4th of March and we haven't heard anything at all from Utah State, which can be a good thing. We think that no news could be good news.
It's a strange feeling to feel like your life is really at the mercy of others making decisions. So we wait and see if and where we get accepted and make our decisions from there.
In the meantime, we're trying to keep busy. :)

Essay

Graham had his first essay contest. The topic: Honesty. We weren't allowed to help in any way. Here is what he came up with:


Someone who is honest never steals, never lies, and you can trust them. Have you ever lied? Look back. If you remember, you'll know that it is never worth it. Let's say for example; you stole a candy bar and you ate it. When your parents ask if you ate it and you liedthen when your parents figure it out, you not only have to talk about what you did, but that you lied about it. Little lies eventually grow from stealing a candy bar to robbing a bank! By then you will have no friends because no one trusts you. And that's my opinion about honesty.

Creating Memories

All the kids know and expect to see Granny for dinner and visiting every Sunday night. They love that she plays with them individually and together. She'll listen patiently as they each share news in detail. They laugh together. They love to hear her stories of her growing up on a farm in Pennsylvania with bees and bears and other animals. They love their Granny. And they are creating memories they will never forget.

Special Delivery

Morgan had her Valentine party today at preschool. Both Graham and Carmen have brought home his cute little special delivery gift from preschool and I love it every time. It never gets old.

Our Little Ham

Man, we love this guy. Can't believe that his first birthday is in a few weeks. Time has flown by. And even though it seems like it was yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital, we can't imagine how life was without him.
It's been so much fun watching the older kids give selfless service constantly to their little brother. Truman loves to get in and play with them all and he holds his own. Last night the kids were making up a play. I went to check on them and enjoy the moment of them all wanting to play and create together. I stood in the doorway and watched when I noticed little Truman was in the crowd walking in between his siblings. He was happy to be part of the group.

Carmen has been asking a lot lately to share stories from our past. She says, "Tell us a time when....your were my age or you were naughty or when I was a baby."

So, in honor of that, I feel I need to post a few of the little things Truman is doing now so I don't forget.

1) he loves cell phones, calculators, keyboards, remotes. Pretty much anything with buttons. He will carry any of those around if he can get his hands on them. A small friend at church brought a pez dispenser that looked like a wii remote. Truman had quite a grip on that one.

2)While putting the base to our magic bullet away, Truman saw it and started making grunting growling sounds over and over. After a few seconds I realized what he was doing. He was making the sound of the blender when it's on. :)

3)He has the cheesiest grin and only does it to humor people. My friend Jenn likes to call him a little ham.

4)When the phone rings he will go stand by it and look at it. Then walk over and look at me. Then back to the phone. If he ever gets ahold of a phone of any sort, he will place it on his shoulder and talk babble in a high pitched tone. Hope he's not mocking me??! ;)

5)He loves animals, especially dogs (Harvey). He will make a woof woof sound if he sees a dog. Real or stuffed.

6)He has always been very aware of what is going on with others. He finds a lot of things funny and picks up on things. The other day we were leaving the house. I had Truman on my hip and the other arm full. Needing to lock the front door, I put Truman's bottle in my mouth. The looked at me and the bottle and laughed and laughed. How funny that mom wanted his bottle.

7)There are a ton of kids Truman's age in our ward. We all hang out in a neighboring room off of the main room so we can still hear the lesson given. Truman noticed his friend Nate across the room, lit up with a smile and walked over to him and laid on him. He was giving him loves. That was a first.

Man, we love this little guy!

Another Interview

Heard from the BYU Counseling Psychology PhD program David applied to. He has an interview on the 18th!! Woot! Woot!

Pine Wood Derby!

When Graham got his derby car kit he had the perfect creation in his mind of how he wanted it to look. That was months ago. It's been sitting on his dresser waiting to be raced on the big day.
Well, last night was the big day and there is no question why he got the Most Creative Award. And good thing they have some kind of award for everyone racing because you can tell just by looking at it, that there is no way his car was going to be the fastest. I think your car needs to be a little aerodynamic. And yet, he still had a great time!

Busy Body

Yep. Truman is full on walking and getting into everything! Today he strolled into the kitchen with a fun new toy that he found under the bathroom sink and managed to unwrap it. Who knew a tampon could make a great teether toy? I had to take a picture. I couldn't resist.

Updates

David has applied to 5 Masters programs (Marriage and Family Therapy), 1 PhD program (Counseling Pychology). So far we have heard back from:

BYU: he interviews on the 7th of February!!

Texas Tech: he interviews on the 25th of February!!