Brianna and Katelyn Come for a Visit

In July, Josh and I picked up Nana and Katie and played host for a week. It was a lovely week. We went to the library and the park, the pool, the mall, and the farm. We celebrated Katie's birthday with a giant Costco cake that she selected, we went shopping and Nana got new shoes while Katie picked out a birthday present. We went to the pool twice where Josh and I burned but the girls just got browner (Vegas skin). We naturally put sunscreen on the girls and the baby but were dumb enough to not use any ourselves. Here are some photos of our adventures in no particular order:

All ready for church on Sunday

I got to play with their hair and it was so much fun! Nana is sporting a lovely sock bun and Katie has 1" curls cascading down her back. They are both so gorgeous.

Wheeler Farm let us milk a cow. Katie was too shy to try it, but I did it, Josh did it, and Nana did it. You can actually see the stream of milk coming down!

She's a natural!

They played in the creek at one of the parks we visited.

Katie was amazing with Scarlet. She could just hold her and the baby would fall asleep. It was the sweetest thing.

Native Las Vegans will understand this: we had a freak rainstorm and the girls ran out so they could use umbrellas and splash around in the parking lot.

Feeding the ducks and geese and Wheeler Farm.

We found some turkeys at the farm.

Wagon ride.

Wagon ride.

 

Cows have a very pungent scent. The girls did not appreciate it.

They played with that horse forever.

Seriously. If they could have adopted that horse, they would have.  I finally made them leave it because I got bored waiting around.

Waaaay too much cake for two girls.

That's Nana diving.

And Katie diving with Josh overseeing.

Scarlet was just pooped.

We had amazing adventures and I wish they would come back so we could do it all over again.

Today

It's my birthday today! And what a great day it's been. I logged in to work and played with Scarlet and went out for lunch with my mother-in-law. I got a million texts, calls, and IMs wishing me a happy day, and all that good energy really helped to make the day positive (I don't know--I like to think it improved the day. It made me feel happy, in any case). After work my sister arrived for an out-of-state visit and we went grocery shopping and made a vegetable-heavy healthy dinner. Then we rewarded ourselves with Sub-Zero ice cream, although I didn't actually have any since Josh and I had plans. We went home, I fed my baby, and my sister babysat while Josh and I went out to the Melting Pot for some chocolate fondue.

What a great day. And tomorrow I have the call with my mentor in which I get to brag about completing my entire class. Life is just too sweet right now.

Weekend Schoolwork Blitz Report

I finished working on school yesterday at 11:00 p.m. I wrapped things up by producing the lamest powerpoint I think I've ever made. It won't matter--it has all the elements required to make the evaluators happy. I just don't put any effort into explaining my slides since I do extensive presenter notes on the side. It's also very plain. My sister would be very disappointed with me.

But I did it. Twelve hours on Saturday, a break for the Holy Sabbath, and fifteen more hours on Monday. Poor Josh had baby duty almost exclusively on both of those days and he was in charge of meals (fast food hamburgers and pizza, respectively), but we both made it through. I seriously could not have gotten through so much work without his help. I think he was surprised by how much statistics that class had. We both agree it was significantly more difficult than Financial Analysis, which is supposedly the math-crazed demon class of the whole program. I didn't think Financial Analysis was very hard and it didn't take me very long to complete it, but Decision Analysis really took me down. One highlight of the course was my text to Josh after he had gone to work this morning: "Oy. You're going to have to help with the least squares method. I found the information in the textbook but somehow I projected next quarter's sales to be over 2 million dollars when the last nine quarters were around $100,000. Cannot for the life of me figure out how I screwed up." That happened. I still don't know what I did wrong.

 But I'm pleased to announce that with the addition of a couple of hours this morning, I have completed my entire Decision Analysis class. In two and a half days. It was hard to miss out on my family, but I am so so glad I chose to stay in and work this weekend. It truly was "labor" day weekend for me (har), but now I can sit back and enjoy my birthday knowing I accomplished something worth doing.

Summer School: Update

So it's 1:10 a.m. on Sunday the first of September. I have officially finished the first day of my crazy-lots-of-schoolwork weekend blitz. I'm not even tired because it's just so surreal that I got through it all.

This morning I woke up around 7:00 a.m. to feed Scarlet, after which Josh took her into the living room and they played together while I slept in. At the glorious and surprisingly late hour of 10:30, I arose officially and came into the living room to join them. Josh was playing a video game and Scarlet was ready for another meal and a nap. After she went to sleep, I had a late bowl of breakfast cereal and goofed off online for a couple of hours, procrastinating the hour I would begin my crazy-lots-of-schoolwork weekend blitz marathon. Scarlet woke up from her nap and needed to be fed again before I finally got down to work around 1 p.m. With the exceptions of meal breaks and Scarlet-feedings, I worked diligently through my Decision Analysis course, swearing to Josh I would not rest until I had completed not one, but two tasks. This class is by far the most difficult class I have taken in the MBA program. Josh has had to help teach me the Greek alphabet and explain the mathematical equations so I can answer some of the task prompts. By 7:30 p.m. I had completed the first task. By 1:00 a.m. I had finished the second one.

Now I get to sleep and enjoy a schoolwork-free Sabbath before knuckling down again on Monday. With VERY good luck, I will get through the next two tasks and put this nightmare class behind me. I took a peek at the next two tasks: the third one doesn't look like it'll take too terribly long but then the fourth one is in a class all its own. I'm not going to lie--I'm quite nervous over the fourth task.

But then it will all be over, and I'll have one more class knocked off of my dwindling list. Missing out on my family this weekend was a tough decision to make, but I'm determined to make it worth it. Hooray for three-day weekends and crazy-lots-of-schoolwork weekend blitzes!

This Morning's Cuddlefest

I am in love with my baby. Like, so desperately in love with her. She's sweet and playful and silly and smiley and wonderful. This morning I fed her at 6:30 and then Josh took her out to play on the floor while I snoozed for a couple of minutes before getting up. I kept hearing Josh laughing out loud in the living room and pretty soon he brought Scarlet back in because he couldn't help sharing her playfulness. Apparently she kept wriggling around on the floor in the living room and looking back at Josh to give him a big smile. Every time I looked at her, she'd smile and cover her face with her little arms. Josh handed her over to me and I tickled her and she giggled and we played for a little bit before I wrapped my arms around her and gave her the pacifier. The playfulness changed into a tranquil stillness as we just lay together on the bed while I pulled up my work laptop and signed into work. In a couple of minutes, Scarlet had fallen blissfully asleep and we snuggled like that for the next half hour.

How can anyone resist such sweetness? She is the best thing to happen to me.

Summer School

Do you know how hard it is to concentrate on schoolwork when the sun is shining and it's beautiful outside? I have some serious schoolwork to get done this weekend because I've been avoiding my mentor's calls and trying to hide from the fact that I have assignments to work on. It's just been so lovely these past two months, spending time with friends and having family come visit. I've just had the busiest summer this year and my last focus has been on completing my school. Well, I shamed myself into answering my mentor's call this morning and in order to make use of the three months I have left in my term, I have assigned myself the biggest blitz of schoolwork to accomplish this weekend. I *was* going to visit my family in Las Vegas for the long weekend but now I'm going to stay in my smelly old apartment, hiding from the sunshine, and working on a ton of school instead. Boo.

But there's an end to this punishment. If I can get it all done, I'll be a month early finishing up my term, and then I can dedicate all of the month of November to NANOWRIMO!! I am so looking forward to it, I can hardly wait.

Birthday Shoes

I turn 26 in a week! I must admit, it makes me feel old since I'll no longer be in the "prime" of my youth. I'll be closer to 30 than 20 for the first time in my life. It's left me a bit introspective. What have I done with my life so far? Am I happy? I look back on my new year's resolutions and wonder if I'm on track for finishing my book list this year and for completing my schoolwork. Overall I'd say I'm pretty satisfied with what I've done so far and with what I'm hoping to do in the future. It's a good year to turn 26.

So I told Josh where I'd like to eat out for my birthday and let him know what I wanted for my birthday present. I usually pick out my present for Christmas and birthdays so that I like what I get from him. It's a bit controlling, sure, but then I've never not loved one of Josh's gifts.

When Josh came home from work yesterday, I showed him two shoe boxes. "There was a sale so you got me two pairs for my birthday," I explained.

He nodded nonchalantly. "How generous of me." It was. He gives the best presents.