finals roundup

My 4.0 was foiled this semester by Evil professor Jenniene Kauer. She made her tests WAAAAAAY to hard for the intro to education class, in my opinion. So I got a B+ in her class, A's in all the others. Even Dr. Dodd's English class! I didn't expect that one after I got a C on that first paper, but I got a 96 on the sleep essay and my final essay which made up for it :) I had a 98 in my math class before the final, and I got an 82 on my final, which pulled my grade down to a 92, which is still an A. Barely, but it is. :) Damien did NOT want to sleep the night of my final, and it was at 730 am. Blah. And I didn't study because I was feeling too lazy, so I'm not complaining too loud at all. Sorry, now I sound like I'm bragging. Not trying to, I'm just proud of myself. I get so overwhelmed during the semester that I kind of overemphasize positive outcomes at the end :P It FEELS like it is IMPOSSIBLE to do it all, and then BAM it's over, and everything worked out ok. I love that feeling, when things work out OK. Now if only I could skip the stress along the way. . . (note to self next semester, lol)

I did my sleep essay on the dangers of driving without enough sleep, a topic I feel is overlooked for how dangerous it really is. So I'm going to share some info with you, lol.

Drowsy driving is the second-most frequent cause of motor vehicle accidents unrelated to speed (“Drowsy Driving Prevention Week“ 1140), with over 100,000 accidents each year attributed to driving without enough sleep (Ince 512). According to the 2005 Sleep in America poll, 37% of respondents, over 100 million in all, reported that in the year before the poll they had fallen asleep behind the wheel (“Drowsy Driving Prevention Week“ 1140). 47.1% of truck drivers polled reported to have fallen asleep behind the wheel of their semi trucks at sometime during their lives (“Drowsy Driving Prevention Week“ 1140). 71,000 injuries and 15,000 deaths can be attributed to drowsy driving according to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration...Being awake for eighteen hours impairs a person the same as a blood alcohol content of .05, while an entire twenty-four hour period without sleep is like driving with a .1 blood alcohol level. Most states set the legal blood alcohol limit while driving at .08 (Turner).

According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, people who sleep six to seven hours a night rather than the recommended eight have doubled their chances of being involved in an accident.

People who sleep less than five hours a night are four to five times more likely to crash (Turner). On the top ten list of driver errors presented by AAA “drowsiness” made number two, above alcohol and second only to “distractions"

I'm on a mission to inform the public, so everyone who reads this should pass it on! :D

My final essay was on the roles women play around the house, and how much work they put into domestic life and how arguments between husbands and wives over who does what can negatively impact a marriage. Here is a quote I think all you mothers out there will appreciate:

“Given that one can hardly tell women that washing up saucepans is their divine mission, they are told that bringing up children is their divine mission. But the way things are in this world, bringing up children has a great deal to do with washing up saucepans" --Simone de Beauvior

The facts on the matter?

FACT: Married American women donate more than double the amount of time their husbands do to responsibilities around the house (even if they work outside the home as well)

FACT: Men spent a mere 2.6 hours a week with their kids in 1965 while modern fathers spend the upwards of 6.5

FACT: Married American women complete anywhere from 70-80% of the total household chores

Scary isn't it?

Well, while I'm here.

Here are some more pictures :) From thanksgiving. Adrea is wearing my shoes, :P

The cat.

So, Bill locked my brilliant cat in the movie cabinet, and we forgot about it. The stupid thing decided to try and escape out the tiny hole on the back for cords. It was STUCK! Bill had to cut the hole bigger, and even then it wasn't enough. We tried to force it through at that point, cause it was freaking out, and in the process of escape it hooked its claw clear through it's ear. Poor thing. It was quite the traumatic experience for both of us, but mostly the cat.

MIA

I really do not like to upload pics to this website anymore because it takes sooooo long and you can only do five at a time, and you cant have more than one window open. Hmph.

Regardless, here are some cute pics of my messy little man. :D

Late Night Laundry...

Sooo... guess I'll post more pictures while waiting to change loads. Damien is finally sleeping ALL night in his own bed in his own room :) OK, so it's only been one and a half nights, but thats an improvement right? :P I just barely got his room cleaned out enough to set up the crib. Actually was quite a productive day, but cost waaaay too much money to go to the dentist. :( Ok well, enjoy the pics and I'll quit babbling.....

shadow

Damien is so fascinated by the shadow of leaves blowing in the breeze.

peek a boo

we have the internet! killing a few minutes before 11 rolls around so i can do my laundry

Been awhile...

Look how much he has grown up!


Damien (kind of) sitting up with Roxy at work. Woo for working babies :)
He stole the spoon right out of my hand! He says mamma, I know how to do it let me, let me! if you give him a spoon he can actually get it into his mouth consistently.
He sure does loves him some food!
Our wood floor: pre-buffing, staining and varnish.

So, not having the internet anymore makes it really hard to keep up to date. Damien has started on solid foods (he was adament!) well, rice cereal anyways. He LOVES it! He will grab the spoon from me and try to feed himself, it is so cute. He doesn't like it watered down either, he likes it so its actual cereal. He can kind of sit up on his own, only when he is hunched forward however. He makes alot of the vowel sounds, don't think I have heard eeee at all but I have definately heard ahhhh, i (eye), ooooo makes all of those all the time. He is quite the little talker! He absolutely loves his little pig rattle that I think he got from his aunt Stacey I am pretty sure. And he has a little giraffe and stuffed monkey he loves as well. Well he loves both his monkeys, he has a blue striped one with a bell inside and his singing one with the red glowing cheeks. Ok, so he really loves ANY toys.

We have our wood floor in and completely finished. It looks AWESOME!!!!!!!!! We just need to touch up the paint and buy and hang some trim and we can FINALLY have a living room. Not gonna lie, very VERY excited to be done. If only we had enough time to do those last few things...


It snowed last night. OUT of CONTROl! Bill covered the tomatoes and peppers but I am really worried about everything else. :( I will be very sad if I lose my garden, I have already put lots of time and effort into it. Ok well I am going to spend my next few minutes I have uploading some pics from my cell phone. Enjoy :)

Joy

mamma i got it! i got it!but i'm just so tired

i think i like this toy toouh oh mamma, it broke

Ah, too precious for words. This is Damien hanging out in his high chair while mommy packed, and then hanging out in his carseat with mommy at work. We are moving into our house, slowly but surely. What few hours we have our spent throwing stuff in boxes and hauling it down. Tommorrow I am going to plant my garden. Well, the stuff that needs to go in now. :) Very, VERY excited. Life is good.

Uno de Mayo

First day of May? Maybe in ALASKA! This is not fair. Randi and I were going to start walking together today at 8 am... we were both up for the challenge... and then this. I still would have gone but Damien has to go to and well, I think snow is a little much for the wee one. AGGRAVATING. Oh, and in other news, I left my wallet in the diaper bag yesterday so I did not have my ID so the eskrow officer could not notarize our papers so they will not go through until this morning. :( So we ALMOST have our house. We are past the point of no return, but our realtor won't give us the keys until the title is turned over, first thing this morning. Talk about frusterating. I have class all morning and Bill has work, so nine o' clock tonight is the soonest we can get out there. Oh well, we aren't moving until this weekend anyways. Off to fight the snow some more... :(

Sad.

Little blind spider took the wheel...

...navigatin grass blades completely by feel.

Little dune buggy
in the sand
little blue dune buggy
in my hand.

Summer's so close!

Forgot to upload this picture yesterday, listening to The Presidents of the United States of America. :) Ready to head up to IF to grab a few groceries and look at flooring for the living room, oh yeah, and best of all... CLOSE ON OUR HOUSE!

So close...

My physics class was cancelled today. I was upset for about half a second because we could have signed today but the only time they had open was during class and I really, really want to pass this class with a c. Yes, its a horribly sad thing I will have a c on my transcripts. It will stand out like a sore thumb and I will say I thought I was invincible. (Plus the tests were hard :( the best score on one of them was an 86 but he still refused to "curve" it. Since I'm in my second stats class I know that a true curve is a bad thing. I'm talking the type where they make the highest score the points possible for the test. Speaking of taking stats twice, I took it in high school and did not take the test because I didn't think I would pass it. Apparently now all you have to do is take the class and you get credit, for ISU nonetheless. Sure wish it would have been like that for me. Anyways, I really don't have any excuse for this sad sad c. I wish I did but I don't. I will maybe take the class over? We will see. I am really excited for this fall. :) I think my classes should go pretty good.

Yes, the point; I only have one more of each of my classes and then the finals next week. So two more times total. And we close on our house TOMMORROW at four o clock. Apparently month end is very busy for signing and we barely got squeezed in, hence my above dissapointment. Damien was talking very loudly during class today while the teacher was talking about grades. He made an "ahh" sound really loud and the teacher said that yes, he could have an a. I'm excited to have yet another math class with her next semester, and I won't slack off as much as I did this semester, or leave my quiz till midnight the night before. (Yes, one procrastinative quiz is my downfall). Life is crazy busy and I cannot wait until Saturday, which I have completely no work scheduled on, when we can start moving into our humble abode. WOOOOOOOOO.

Scarlett made a mess in her crate. :S I am very upset. She was doing so good for the past month or so we were even leaving her out when we were gone but then the last week or two she has been shredding the newspaper (an OLD habit) and making messes. I'm not sure what triggered it but it sure was nice when she was behaving. Anyways, love to all, hope spring has finally sprung for everyone!

Closing time...

We should close on MONDAY. YAYYAYAYYAYAYAYYAYYAYAYAY. (does a happy little dance across the room)
YAYAYAAYAYAYYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAAYYAYAYAYAYYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAAYAYAY


With that excitement out of the way, I shall leave you to your own devices.

sNOw

Did I say sun? No, I must have meant snow. Lots and lots of horribly bad terrible no good snow. WHY? The day started off windy and the afternoon brought snow. I was not prepared and wore flip flops to class today. On my way to the parking lot I slipped and fell. :( Got my jeans all muddy. Guess I'll have to put Damiens snow cover back on his car seat. Where is May and it's flowers?

Damien has a little bald spot where his hair has rubbed off but not too bad. He is just as big as roxy now and she is a whole month older! Damien came cleaning with me yesterday and he and roxy just stared at each other during their tummy time on the floor. It was cute. I just barely put clean sheets on the bed and while I was getting him ready this morning he managed to pee and spit up two huge spots. I can't wait until we have our house and I don't have to get him ready on our bed. :)

His little outfit has a little bit of chocolate on it from the drumstick I had today. Oops. I'm getting pretty good at multi tasking that's for sure.

Still no word on the repairs we asked the seller to make. Financing will be done here any day so we're just waiting on them.

Quick pointless update. Just hopped online real quick before work to see if a) Jackie had emailed me about the sellers or b) if my stats teacher had posted the quiz scores. As neither event has occured I guess I am off to get ready for work. WOOOOOO!

here comes the sun

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

and I say

it's all right

I am so ready for some sunshine I could cry. We are all done transplanting at the greenhouse, my grandpa did not plant very many plants at all this year. Damien ate and ate and ate last night and has been continuing the trend this morning. Must be going through a growth spurt or something. He is already so big! Did I mention his stats from the last doctor visit yet? I don't think I did. He was 23 3/4 inches long which is in the 77th percentile for his age. He is so long! He weighed 12 lbs 5 oz and his head is 15 3/4 inches now. His height and head size are still in the 50th percentile, but he is already tall. He keeps getting thrush really bad in his mouth. :( Everyone always looks so curious at his purple lips. If I ever find my camera I have so many pictures I want to share! This one of him eating his monkey is while I was working in the greenhouses yesterday. (took it on my phone) He sure does love his singing monkey. He has got ooo down pretty good and everyone once in awhile he will make an "eye" sound. Well, I have a dirty diaper and a pile of dishes and laundry waiting for me. Hope everyone gets some sun here soon!

Sooo.... the time has finally come where I can settle into a place and not have to worry about packing everything back up in six months. Yay! I can have a garden, and oodles of flowerbeds to play in! I'm excited that the kitchen is so bland... gives me the perfect opportunity to do it just the way I like it... tall counters for tall me :) In the living room there is a step in the middle of the floor... we are guessing from the addition... and a closet inside of a closet. Soooo.... first thing when we get the house we are going to tear down the outer closet and build up the floor so the room is one big square instead of an awkward two height thing with a big closet cut out of it. There is a root cellar big enough to store all my christmas decor, etc. the stuff you shove in closets, plus a second bedroom which won't be taken up very much by baby stuff. It will completely change the funtionability (is that a word?) of the front room. We have so many plans that we plan to slowly incorporate. Slowly of course because we do not plan on going deep into debt just for vanity, the house is completely functional as it is. TEN DAYS OR LESS!!!!!!!!!! I am so stoked I can hardly focus on anything else... especially not homework... blah.com Or work for that matter, I'm at the hotel right now. The weather is HORRIBLE! It's so windy :( Bill and I went swimming at Green Canyon with my brother and his family last night. It was so much fun! Damien absolutely loved it. It was so cute to see him kick his little legs in the water. My neice Adrea and I played on the diving board forever. She can jump on her own but can't get back to the edge without a little help so I would catch her, swim her to the edge, she would jump in again and the whole cycle would repeat itself. Well once I made the mistake of doing a flp off it first so after that I had to do a flip off it first everytime. Doing a flip, swimming us to the edge, getting out repeat repeat repeat. Oh man was it a good workout. Ha ha. Daddy and Damien played in the pool while this was going on until I finally convinced Adrea it was time to visit the baby. Then Bill went to the hot tubs and Damien and I got out because he was getting hungry. He started screaming the second I set him down so I hurried and got him changed and when I went to get dressed myself I discovered my extra shirt had not been packed and I had worn the one I wore to the pool into the pool so all I had was a dripping wet shirt. HORRIBLE! I thought I had just left my sweatshirt in the car so I fed Damien and waited for Bill to get out and then I sent him out to the car to get it... but it ws not out there either. So I had to wear my wet shirt home. Sniff sniff. We actually drove up to the cabin after we were done so we could get the fret for the guitar for the wii that we had accidently left up there and he Bill grabbed me a sweatshirt to borrow. thank goodness, it was mighty chilly last night after the wind started to pick up. I fed Damien again as soon as we got home and he fell asleep so I put him in the bassinet. He only slept for maybe ten minutes and then woke up. So he sat out by mommy while she played some guitar hero and stayed awake until 2 when he decided he was so tired he was going to pull out his high note scream and wake up daddy (who had been asleep since we got home) but fell right back asleep as soon as I cuddled him up in his warm jammies. (He spits up so much :( Anyways this has turned into a much bigger post then I intended I doubt anyone will read the whole thing. If you do congratulations, you have now discovered my ability to tell really long stories about only semi interesting things. Ha ha. You should read some of my hormonal posts from high school. (rolls eyes) Anywho thank goodness those days are gone, and I'm off to do some homework... err... work... err freecell? Ha ha. Love!

Blessing

The purple cabinets have gotta go, but the yard is AMAZING. :)

Damiens blessing is the day after tommorow and I don't have anything ready! Eee! I hope my mom remembers to pick up his blessing outfit today... Bill and I are using today to get caught up on our errands (when he gets off work that is). We still haven't even done our taxes! Scarlett is sleeping by my feet and Damien is asleep in his bassinett. If only I had enough time to nap too! I really really hope we get this house in Shelley. Talking to the loan officer today, Jackie will be back tommorow. Hopefully it doesn't sell like the last two! It has not been on the market very long so I doubt it...

I have a pell grant for over two thousand dollars for this fall. Amazing! That is practically the cost of tuition, plus I can finally get my benefits from the hotel before then so I won't have to buy the school insurance. We are doing pretty good at sticking to our budget so far this month... and we are already two weeks in so hopefully we can keep it up. Between the hotel, varsity and classic we can maybe finally afford to live on our own... for good.

Random ramblings real quick before I move onto my next set of chores.

Early addiction?

these are my newest pages
look at this smile :D
love.

And then there was more...

This video is off of our camera, the other one was off my phone. Yay for videos! Baby is still sleeping so gonna go get ready for the day and switch loads. ENJOY!

8 weeks old

our lovely little family




Not too long ago I was counting down the weeks until I would finally be able to hold my baby and here I am holding my handsome little boy and he is already 8 weeks old! Daddy is at work and Damien and I don't have very big plans for the day. Finish up some laundry perhaps do some scrapbooking. Damien is already bathed and dressed for the day, I'm not feeling quite as ambitious myself. If the weather is nice enough maybe we'll even go for a walk. We went for one on saturday (I think it was) and Damien slept through the whole thing (can't blame him for how many layers he had on) but Scarlett was overjoyed.



Work tommorow, then Wednesday we go and look at the house in Ammon. I really wish it had a garage and it wasn't so far away... but what a great deal! We will have to see.



Well, lucky me Damien fell asleep on the bed behind me, didn't think he was going to. Guess I'll try and post some pictures and the video of him smiling while I have the chance~\

Forgotten...

I forgot I had even started a blog on this website. Guess I should put it to good use.