Kindergarten

Today I registered Tommy for kindergarten.

Remember not so long ago when you all rejoiced with me because I was finally pregnant? Remember how then you cried with me because his heart wasn't beating in there and Dr. Man thought maybe there was no baby at all (but I made a deal with T-man and Dr. Man was wrong)? Remember when my ankles were bigger than your waist? When I barfed in all the public restrooms in the state of Utah? When my belly got all abusive at church and started smackin' people? When I thought I peed my pants, but really my water broke? And when he was born and we all fell in love with his beautiful beautiful self?

Well that baby is so big now that the people want to teach him things, so in the fall he'll start kindergarten.

He's so big that when we walked into the Dr.'s office to pick up his immunization records he didn't even cry.

He's so big that he likes to read some words to me when we have snuggles and stories. But mostly he doesn't like taking tests - which is clearly what reading words is all about...

He's so big that his feelings are hurt by his friends, his body no longer heals at the freakish wolverine rate of a newborn and he can tell when he has hurt someone else.

He's so big that prefers showers over baths and draws smiley faces on the fogged up glass when I ask him if he's ok in there.

And oddly he's still so small. So small that he still loves that "lovey bear" someone gave us when he was born.

He's so small that he still snuggles when we read stories.

He's so small that his backpack is bigger than he is.

He's so small that I really can't imagine sending him off into that big bad school all by himself.

He's so small that when I pick him up, he still snuggles into my lap and giggles when I tell him that he used to be so small that he didn't even have to bend his knees to snuggle on my lap.

School

Somehow 3 years have passed since Little John was born and he should be going to preschool in the fall!

With no other babies on the horizon, and Tommy in Kindergarten and John in preschool my mind is exploding a little bit.

My work is a bit up in the air which makes planning hard, but I think we've found a place for John to go to preschool, and Tommy will either get in with a charter school nearby *fingers crossed* or just go to the public school in the neighborhood.

Either way it's time to get them all registered and make commitments about where they'll spend a significant portion of their time in the fall! It's crazy to me to think that we're at the phase of life where we've left behind all the poop buckets, and our kids are in school! Both of them!

Seriously! School! For all the babies.

Been Thinking

When I graduated from LDS Business College it was with "just an associates" and I knew it wasn't as far as I wanted to take my college education. I knew I wanted to get at least a bachelor's degree, but I had no idea in what.

Well, sortof. I had some ideas.

Like maybe I wanted an accounting degree. I could be a CPA. (insert hysterical laughter here, I honestly thought that might be an acceptable career path for me! Let 2015 Amy tell 2005 Amy, it isn't.)
Or probably something in business. But not really marketing or entrepreneurship (requires too much creativity and risk). But something about running a business is good. I just didn't know what. And I had a job I loved. So I simply put it off.

[insert really fabulous graduation picture here - hey mom, do you have any pictures of my graduation? cuz I don't!]

Then I went around getting married all the time. Because Josh.

Then Josh finished his pre-reqs for nursing. 

And I still didn't know what I wanted to do and I had a job I loved. 

Then Josh graduated from the cool school. (Institute of Healing Arts)

And I still didn't know what I wanted to do and I had a job I loved. 

Then Josh did the massage therapy thing.

And I still didn't know what I wanted to do (except have babies of course...) and I had a job I loved. 

Then Josh's waiting period was up and he got his RN. 

And I had babies and had a job that let me stay home and we didn't have time or money for things like school - and though I didn't know it, I still didn't know what I wanted to do.

Then we moved a buncha times and I mostly felt unsettled and stressed out and overwhelmed. And I still didn't know what I wanted to do. 

But now I think I know what I want to do. Because my friend Aundrea got her MBA and I was jealous of that piece of paper. And I started working for my friend Jacy who founded The Togetherness Project (a non-profit) and I love doing that. And my boss started a non-profit for business incubators. And sometime last fall I realized that what I really really want to do is get an MBA and be the queen of a non-profit business that I really really believe in. 

So I made an appointment to talk to an academic advisor at UVU because my assumption is that it will be the least expensive option to get a bachelor's in business management. I'm planning to go REALLY slowly, very part time, because I still need to work in order to get into most MBA programs - and something about paying our bills..... I don't have a ton of spare time right now anyway. So, slow is good for me right now, and if it takes 10 years, then the party at the end of it will be 10 years big. :) 

Anyway, I went to UVU to see about some options. And I hope that I just started my "back to school" journey. There are about a million issues to work out, but I have high hopes that working toward this degree can start soon. Because look at these possibilities!

The test

When Josh and I were dating (7 years ago) he was doing the pre-reqs for nursing school.

That one day when we got stranded on the side of the road we joked that I helped him study anatomy all day long. The the truth was I really did help him study anatomy. The boring kind. Out of the book.

Somewhere between then and now I stopped helping him study and limited my involvement with his school to laying on the sofa while he checked my blood pressure for fun. 

When he asked the nurse at the hospital if he could put in the catheter when we were having John, I emphatically informed him (and the nurse who was probably caught off guard by such a weird request) that "NO YOU CAN NOT!!!!!" 

So to say I've been supportive and helpful over the last few years is probably generous. But at one time I was more helpful than I was today. 

Still, when Josh graduated, nobody knew better than me how much he had put into this degree. The year of pre reqs. The waiting period after acceptance and the LATE nights studying, preparing and writing papers nearly did us both in. The missed events, the working all hours of every day and the constant worrying about what he was missing nearly cost Josh his sanity. If I had any semblance of sanity mine would have been at risk too. But let's be honest. Mine was long gone. 

So graduation was a sweet sweet day, but we could only celebrate so much when THE TEST was still looming over our heads. 

Josh studied his guts out. Took a prep course and answered what must have been a million practice questions. 

Wednesday was the big day. To say Josh was nervous would be a gross understatement. 

The way the NCLEX runs you have to take at least 75 questions, then depending on how you're doing they'll keep giving you questions of different difficulty to see if you pass or not. You have to get a certain percentage of questions a certain difficulty or higher correct to pass. 

You could take 75 questions and do really great and be done. 

Or you could take 75 questions and bomb them all and be done. 

Or if you're Josh you could answer every single one of the 265 questions. 

Using nearly every second of the 6 hours time limit. (5 hours, 59 minutes.) 

And if you're Josh you might leave with 100% confidence that you failed. Not just a little nervous about it, but completely 100% positive that you failed.

Because by the end of the test any question over 2 lines long wasn't even worth reading because he was so cross-eyed it wouldn't make sense anyway. 

So on Friday when a fellow student texted Josh congratulating him on passing he had a tiny meltdown. He learned that the State of Utah had given him a license number. But still wasn't sure about it because sometimes people just push paper without validating stuff. 

On Monday evening he got online to pay the fee to find out the results of the test early and as I was walking out the door to go swimming he told me that he passed. I screamed and jumped on him not like that, get your head out of the gutter and and miraculously the boys didn't wake up.

When I got home at 10pm we broke my #1 phone rule: Don't call people between 9 & 9 unless you're giving birth or dying and got on the phone texting and calling everyone we dared. 

And that's why at approximately 10:02 on Monday night cheers erupted all over the state of Utah.

And NOW it's finally over. No studying. No tests. No assignments. No labs. No care plans. No "just one more report". Just working. Just 40 (or 55) hours a week. And coming home to swim and nap and play and cook dinner and watch a show and RE.LAX.

So my dear friends. It's over. 

About dang time isn't it?

So I Heard He Got Pinned

When Josh told me he had a "Pinning Ceremony" as a part of graduation, I immediately starting singing this song and haven't stopped since.

Fortunately Pinning was yesterday and I can now move on with my life.

Josh's sister was kind enough to watch out boys so I didn't have to wrestle them through the ceremony.

So we dropped off the boys and headed to the school for the happiest school-day EVER. We were early enough to sit in the car for a little while before the ceremony. I don't remember the last time we just sat in the car talking - definitely a pre-kid thing. Maybe even a pre-marriage thing....except we weren't kissing, we were talking. Maybe we've never done that? Hmmm....

There ceremony was a lot like a graduation ceremony. A dark crowded hot room filled with people who were still a little sleep-deprived and hung over from finals week.

And a lot of people told a lot of jokes about how they were nervous or excited or something - only they used the technical diagnosis showing off their new nursing knowledge. It was wildly funny the first few times, but I felt bad for the last speaker because by the time it was her turn the jokes were a bit stale. 

After a bunch of talks and a bunch of inside jokes that not even Josh got, they read the names and gave them their stuff. 

The ceremony was lovely and nice and boring and I was even more grateful for my ceremony-hating penny-pinching husband who opted not to walk in a cap and gown in an even longer ceremony earlier in the week.

Of course when you go to a pinning ceremony you expect to get a pin, but Josh didn't want to pay for a pin he didn't care about, so instead of a fancy-pants cool-kid pin, he got this.

I can't count the dollars this man has spent on his education. But it's all worth it now that he got this awesome penny pin. 

In real life I'm terribly proud of Josh. These two years have been tough in more ways than I can count. And he has somehow managed to do it all. Plus all the things he did in preparation for this program and while he was waiting for it to begin.

The "it's over!" aspect hasn't really set in yet since he still has to pass the NCLEX which is the biggest baddest horriblest test of his education so far. Which means he's still spending all of his time studying and worrying. But at least clinic and class and careplans are over. That's a HUGE step int he right direction.

School

School has started. Totally 100% in full swing.

Know how I can tell?

• Josh has started whining about weird things. Like "so then they put in the catheter and did a probe and I didn't get to help at all." and "at 4:30 in the morning the lights downtown are on timers instead of sensors." and "they used to let you practice IVs on yourself, but now it's illegal so I've never done it on a real person. Stupid laws." 
• There are more facebook posts about football than that thing about your bra or cravings or some other obscure weird thing about breast cancer.
• I hear the kids at recess since the Elementary School playground is so close. I just can't wait until I have all the windows in the house open and can really hear the kids at recess. That's the best. Because the windows are open. Not because the kids are noisy.
• The average age of kids at the park during the day dropped by at least 10 years overnight. Tommy suddenly seems so large. So very, very large.
• My house smells like Office Max. I've never been happier.

I really really love fall. I love school starting. I love the smells and the colors and the clothes and the tv shows that come with fall. I love that fall means the end of this pregnancy. I love that Tommy is so much fun right now and I really love the change in weather (which hasn't come yet). 

And in the same breath I'm terrified. Because I might never see my husband again. Because Friday nights mean absolutely nothing to me. Because one of these days Josh is actually going to poke a real person with a needle and tell me all about it. Because Tommy is growing up so fast that before I know it he'll be replacing Josh on the front porch with his backpack on looking sortof adorable all ready for school.

An Affair To Remember

Remember back when you were in Elementary School? ....Jr. High? ..... High School? College?

Remember when you fell in love with someone and practiced writing your name with their last name all over your notebook? Because it was fun. And you wanted to see what it would look like at the bottom of your checks from your joint bank account? Whoa, flashback! Remember checks? 


It's been a while since I did that now that I'm all married and stuff, but yesterday we got a piece of mail that made me fall in school-girl-love all over again. With a very unlikely candidate.

The HOA.

I'm not even lying. I am not generally a HOA lover. In fact often I'm downright annoyed by the HOA and in the interest of full disclosure I think I'll never live in an HOA controlled area again.

But this. This extension of the pool season has me all sorts of whooped again.

Daddy & Tommy have a routine when Daddy comes home from work.

Tommy hears the door open downstairs and his makes his fake-surprised face with his lips all O-shaped while he gasps and I say "who could it be?" Then he gets down on his hands and knees and crawls over to the top of the stairs to peek around the corner.

Daddy thumps and bumps and drops his shoes and keys and other noisy things, then starts to stomp up the stairs while Tommy waits anxiously to see if it really is Daddy coming up here. It always is.


Daddy crawls up the last few stairs so he's already on his hands and knees when he reaches Tommy and says "Hi my fam-i-leeeee!!!!" and Tommy gives him hugs and kisses. By now my heart is mush and I've breathed my sigh of relief signifying that we might survive the rest of the night now that Daddy is home.

After a bit of post-work wrestling Tommy drags Daddy to his bathroom to find his "simma-suit up high!!!" (because we store his swimsuit draped over the shower curtain rod where it dries) and begins to demand that they go to the "poo! poo! poooooool!!!!!!"

The boys swim for a couple of hours and come home water-logged, exhausted and hungry. Tommy walks straight to the bathroom to splash in the tub for a second before jammies, dinner and bed. He initiates all of these activities, pointing to the next step in the process and dragging the adults around by their pointer fingers.

This is why I knew my life would be over after Labor Day when the pool closed and Josh entered full-blown over-worked, under-paid, exhausted, unavailable student/bread-winner mode.

This is why the pool staying open through the month of September gives me a new kind of hope that I simply can't explain.

Maybe my life isn't over.

Besides, Amy Lavina HOA doesn't sound so bad. Does it?

Josh Found Out

Written on March 8, 2011:

Josh has been taking an OB class this semester and it makes him extraordinarily nosy.

A few days ago he asked when my last cycle was. I told him it was a while ago and to mind his own business.

Yesterday he said "I had a dream that we had a new baby last night." I told him that was interesting.

Today he said "I think you might be pregnant." I nodded and grunted noncommittally.
He asked "Do you think you're pregnant?"
I hesitated and then looked up from my book and said "yeah....I kinda do."
"Have you taken a test?"
"Yeah....I have....."
"Was it positive?"
"A little bit....."
"Are you kidding me? Where did you hide it? We're gonna have a baby?!?!?!?!"

It probably wasn't very nice of me not to tell him, but I just couldn't figure out what to say and I didn't want him to freak out and panic and once I had waited a day to tell him I wasn't sure how to bring up the fact that I was telling him now but I wasn't telling him before. You know?

He was excited. And then he freaked out and panicked.

Then after a day or two he got excited again.

Back to School

Josh does not love school.

You'd think so, but you'd be wrong. He doesn't. It's hard for him. He doesn't get high on supplies and syllabuses. He doesn't have a "cracking of the spine" ceremony for his new books. He hates the tests and homework and teachers. But he's willing to do school anyway, because he likes learning and he really likes the idea that he'll have a marketable skill at the end of it.

But last night the kid came home with 3 new 3" binders, dividers, sticky notes, highlighters and a couple reams of paper. He spent 3 solid hours printing off the material he'll need to follow along in class this week. He organized it all and put it where it goes and told me all about the stuff he'll be doing this semester. He read his textbook (because he thought it was interesting) and studied WAY past his normal bedtime. This semester? He's excited. He's motivated. He's high on school. He's like....me!

It's going to be a rough semester, but his sudden burst of motivation and interest just might carry all of us through it. It's only day 3, but I today have high hopes.

Meanwhile....back at camp

Josh and I have been trying to party all week long so that he could enjoy the last few days of freedom before school begins again.

The first two weeks of school are looking exceptionally ugly. Classes, tests, orientations and papers (written in the testing center) from 8am - 7pm every day of the week. (With an hour break for lunch.) Plus school is 45 minutes away, and he'll be working, and doing homework after that. So.....yeah.

We finished the puzzle, went to the zoo, saw Harry Potter, sat around, played Wii, played the new board games and somehow managed to leave 4-5 things left undone.

There were more things we wanted to do during the break, but with Little Smurf's disease-ridden body, we've done as much stay at home stuff as possible.

Let's all take a deep cleansing breath and hope nobody dies over the next 4 months.

Leaping in Faith

At the beginning of this semester we had no idea how we were going to pay for school. We had been denied any financial aid from the government, we had a bit of money locked in savings that we didn't feel like we could use and tuition was due within the first week of school.

Money had been tight since I stopped working and Tommy started eating and pooping cold hard cash. Josh had books, supplies, fees and tuition to pay for all of which would cost us a significant sum.

He was going to continue working through the semester, which meant a lot of long days and not being the best at anything.

But, we felt like he needed to be in school, so he registered and figured that some way, some how we'd be able to pay for it. So, we paid our tithing and moved on.

2 days before school started we still had no idea how we were going to pay for it, but we had faith and 7 days to make it happen.

The day before classes he got a large sum of money from an anonymous donor who wanted to help out. Then he got a notice from the financial aid office that said they were going to give him a grant and a loan for another large sum of money. Then he had a few people schedule massages and he was able to earn a bit more money.

Seriously.

Money just started showing up in our mailbox. Faster than we could deposit it.

And suddenly tuition and fees were paid, books and supplies were purchased, and we were going to survive the semester.

If you don't believe in it, I know this will sound crazy, but because we paid our tithing all these things worked out and we were also able to pay for school.

Having leaped in faith before, I know that although Josh won't be working this semester, and I won't be leaving the home to work, and we'll have nowhere near enough money coming in, we'll be OK. Because I've leaped before.

Dear Josh,

You should be tired. Very tired. Please come home so we can both get some sleep tonight, OK?

Love,
Amy


Dear Blog Friends,

He's tired because he stayed up until 3am doing homework. Then woke up at 5am to do a 12 hour clinical shift at the care center. That's when he started his work day. It's currently 8pm and he is still running (without a break) on 2 hours of sleep.

Seriously.

Remind me one more time how important school is?

Love,
Amy

Some random notes about this day.

I've done 3 (and a half) batches of hand-wash and there are still dirty dishes in the sink.

But that's OK because I made bread AND pumpkin cinnamon rolls. And dinner. All in one day. Then  I started making Josh's lunch for tomorrow.

Seriously.

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Also we drove to Heber, because....you know. Snow.

And the drive down Parley's canyon was very nearly ..... eventful ....... more than once. But we all made it home in one piece. Note to self: Josh is right, AWD is not the same as 4WD. That's why it starts with an "A" instead of a "4".

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When I picked Tommy up so he could "help" me make bread, I realized that he's heavy. And large. And not soft. Or cuddly. Or tiny. So I made Josh weigh him.

That's how I know we'll be having the Turning of the Carseat Ceremony tomorrow.

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Now that Josh has clinic on Monday mornings and has to leave here by quarter-after-five, I don't go running in the morning. Wanna guess if I'll be setting my alarm clock or not?

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Tommy only cried for 15 minutes tonight after I put him down to bed. Until about 2 weeks ago that wouldn't have been blog-worthy. After the last 2 weeks though, it's not only blog worthy - it's eat one more pumpkin cinnamon roll worthy.

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I turned the dining room table for yesterday's Gerber House Party, I haven't turned it back yet and I feel like I redecorated my whole house.

I really love that feeling.

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The general session of Stake Conference today was lovely. But it didn't even come close to being as good as last night's session. Poor Josh had to settle for my pathetic recap of last night's meeting since he was school-ing during it.

Do you think....

Do you think that if I filled all the forbidden cupboards with toys Tommy would stay out of them?

Do you think that if I put confidential information in the diaper pail instead of the shredder it's more effective?

Do you think that babies ever adjust to the time change?

Do you think that if Josh quits work to go to school they'll let us quit paying the mortgage and start paying tuition?

Do you think men get baby hungry before women after the first?

Do you think that people who are not naturally meek and humble can learn to become so?

Do you think that you like Tommy more than he does?

Probably not.

Thankful for

'Tis the season to be thankful. Here's the short list today: 

rain (I wish you could smell this video...)

my handsome boys

trees the color of fall

honey-nut cheerios

a job

all of the enormous miracles that made it possible for Josh to go to school (many many miracles if you're ever in the mood to hear a "pay your tithing" story, call me....)

blood and guts

Josh is on a medication that he's sure is killing him.

He gets headaches (and he never used to).

Last week he woke up 4 different times with bloody noses in the middle of the night and in the morning.

Last night he was coughing up blood. Which was only one of the reasons he woke up 3 times and only slept for 3 hours.

He blames the drugs.

I blame the schedule. He's up at 5:30 every day, and he works until 8 or 9 when he comes home to study until he falls asleep at his desk. Unless of course he had the foresight to study in bed.

Also he doesn't have time to eat so his "I just got married and gained 20 pounds" gut is MIA.

Did you know?

Did you know that windows after dark freak me out so bad that I refuse to get close enough to them to close the blinds? True story. yes, I know I'm a chicken, but I just know that if I get close enough I'll see something I don't wanna see.

Did you know that it's already 8:15am and I haven't showered OR gone to a meeting yet today? Weird.

Did you know that every time I sit down to eat, Tommy crawls over to me, stands up on my knees and begs for food? By "begs for food" I mean slaps my knees over and over with his mouth open while making "uh uh uh!" sounds. Of all the people I've shared meals with, he's my 2nd favorite.

Did you know that I forced Josh to let me buy Dr. Pepper last night? We don't drink carbonation around here because Josh's guts would explode if he did, and it's not good for you so since he doesn't I don't either. Until my head is pounding and I've had more than one "hangover" morning in the week. And my guts are trying to crawl out of my insides. Then I buy a 12 pack and drink 3 cans before bed.

Did you know that a can of Spam is opened every 4 seconds? I can count on one hand the number of times I've eaten Spam or seen other people eat Spam. So I just wanna know, who is it that's opening all these cans? Is it you?

Did you know that Tommy giggles at me when I make the elephant sound? Josh does ALL of the other animal sounds, but only I do the elephant sound. And not at church.

Did you know that Tommy still spits and pukes? Not anything like it was, but he still does it. And now that he's fully mobile, it doesn't just stay on the blanket he was playing on. It's a bigger badder deal.

Did you know that for the first time ever in my life I'm terrified for winter to start? I love the snow and gray and cold and normally this where I can't wait for the flakes to fly. This year? I'll suddenly be housebound and what if Tommy doesn't like to be cold? And what if there is snow on the ground more often than not? And what if "They" don't plow my walking trail? What then?

Did you know that somehow Josh is managing his work/school schedule? I wouldn't have guessed it, but it looks like he'll be able to do it all (as usual).

Did you know that I still pray for "everybody struggling with infertility" on a regular basis? Because it still breaks my heart.

I know I'm not the only one....

I know I'm not the only one.......but this schedule just seems so incredibly unreasonable that I catch myself feeling like we are the only ones.

I remember thinking the same thing when Tommy was brand new and nobody in this house was sleeping. I'd get up in the middle of the night with him knowing that I was the only human being on the whole planet awake at that time.
And then I'd hear a car drive past. Who drives anywhere at 3am?
Or see someone else update their facebook status.
And then I'd see people around the neighborhood who have older children and I'd know that they did the same thing when their kids were newborns and I just couldn't understand how something so seemingly impossible was so common.

Only now we get up at 5:30 to start our days and I see other people pulling out of their garages already. And more than 1 light is on in the neighborhood. I KNOW there are other people who wake up earlier than us, but it just seems so impossibly unreasonable that it CAN'T be common.

Josh comes home, eats dinner with us and studies for the rest of the night and I think it's insane to imagine all of these people who come home and do more work/school/life once they're finished with whatever work/school/life they just came home from.

But then I have this image in my head of my older brother sitting at a desk in the basement of his little old house in Logan. It was dark, and the home was old so it had really low ceilings. He had a lamp on and his glasses (he normally wears contacts) and he had probably been sitting there pouring over his textbooks for more hours than I had even been alive. I bet his eyes were bleeding from having read so much.
I know we're not the only ones who have this stupid "study your brains out every day" schedule. And I know other people have lived through it. And I know a LOT of people who have degrees and clearly they're still alive.

I just start thinking that we have zero free time and I'll never see Josh again and "gee isn't it nice of that strange man to pay the mortgage for 2 humans he will barely know in a year?" when he stops what he's doing to read scriptures and have Family Home Evening with us.

So I know we're not the only ones doing work, school, church and family. But some things just seem so stupid that you convince yourself you're the only one dumb enough to sign up for it all.

I guess it's nice to know we're not alone and that people do survive the madness.

Did you know?

Did you know that I'm still using the first bottle of fabric softener I ever bought? I'm trying to use it more lately because it takes up entirely too much space on my laundry shelf and if I can just get it gone......

Did you know that Josh now has a big fatty "study desk" in our bedroom? That's so I don't kill him when he sits in the middle of the living room demanding silence while he studies.

Did you know that I'm developing a teeny tiny crush on George Washington? Watch out Dimitri (my current "not in real life" crush) and thank you Mary Higgins Clark.

Did you know that lemons have more sugar than strawberries?

Did you know that if you walk into Ikea you cannot walk back out the door less than 30 minutes later? It's simply not possible. I double-dog-dare you to try.

Did you know that with Tommy's birthday less than a month away I have no idea what kind of party to have? Other than "big" I mean. I know I'm supposed to do that much.

Did you know that Jessica is making me run with her BEFORE 6am these days? Kill me now. But then bring me back to life so I can be proud of me. OK?

Did you know that sometimes the people who you think are totally fine are really really struggling? And sometimes the people you think are really really struggling are better-off than you think.

Did you know that I smacked a kid in the head with a church door today? I was totally horrified. Josh told me he heard it echo through the cultural hall. Brave Kid didn't even cry, he just looked at me trying to figure out why I would do that with one hand on his forehead. After he was gone I cried. He probably didn't. Remember? Because he's brave.

Preparation

I knew that with the new semester starting I'd better figure out how to entertain myself without Josh's assistance. So I went to the library website and got to work.

Josh came home from the library yesterday with my holds.

Here's my reading list for the next 3 weeks (as if I can read that many books in that many days....I wish!).

And here's not even half of Josh's reading list.

Jealous much?