Once Upon a Marigold

Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris is my most recent read. It's a fun book about a boy and a princess, a troll, and a wickedly horrible mother/Queen. I had started this book awhile ago, and though the story was entertaining, I had a hard time finishing it. I was never bored, I just kept finding other things I wanted to do or read. With that said, I would have to give it 3 stars. Once I really started reading it, I enjoyed it and I have to say that the ending doesn't disappoint. Would I recommend it? Sure. Did I LOVE it. Not really.

My New Favorite

These are some of the reasons I love being a mom. I love walking in the room and seeing....

Back to the Books

So, it's been awhile since I was a student. I taught students for a bit, but actually being a student...well, that's another story. I had always planned on going on to get my masters and/or PhD, but that is still down the road. And quite frankly, after Samantha was born, my priorities greatly changed. Greatly. One thing that I most definitely want to do though, is keep my teaching certificate current. No problem. Except there is a problem. I recently discovered, upon stumbling over my certificate which is hidden in the depths of our storage closet, that my blessed license expires June 30, 2008. Yep. That's pretty soon. You need 100 points to renew the license and I have 59 points from teaching. How to make up the difference?

There is a workshop at BYU in June for Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers that I am planning on attending. (I started a book last summer and plan on finishing it. I decided that attending this workshop would not only give me the motivation to finish it, but it would give me a ton of good, practical information about publishing, finding a good editor, etc. And since we are in Provo for only a few months longer, I wanted to take advantage of the amazing opportunity to meet with authors, publishers, etc. Now, finding babysitters...) I found out that the workshop will give me an additional 17.5 points. Yippee. But, still not enough.

I have tried to claim some old points from when I was working...2 years ago...but Alpine District wasn't willing to go back through shredded papers so I could get 5 points here and 10 points there. Sheesh. So, here it is folks. I have enrolled in on Independent Study class through BYU which will give me all the points I need, and some. That's great. But I have to finish it in about 3 weeks. I thought, "No sweat. I'm an intelligent person." Well, intelligence mattereth not when you have kids. It is taking a long time to read through 20 pages of fact filled academic writing. So far I've made it through one lesson a day. But I still have assignments and a final to make it through. THEN it has to appear on my transcript in time. Prayers would be useful at this point. So, what's the class I am taking? Sec Ed 515: Writing Instruction (Academic and Professional Writing: Content and Mechanics). It should be fairly easy for me. And really, the class isn't that demanding, it's just the time. Shoot, I don't even have to write a paper to demonstrate my knowledge of writing quality content with perfected mechanics. Pllllease. You would NEVER see me teaching my students writing without having to write. Nevertheless, I am so grateful for this course so I can possibly get my license renewed without penalty. I'll let you know how it goes. Until then...I'm on to lesson 3.

He-Man Sings on YouTube

I'm sorry, but this is just so funny. Marcus showed this to me awhile ago and I laughed so hard the first time I saw it. It's not just that He-Man is singing 4 Non Blonds, but the dance moves are incredible! I can't seem to post the actual video on our blog, but here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Nc8RCLy1s

*** Marcus adds "Although we vaguely suspect this may be referencing something 'inappropriate' we remain blissfully unaware of any improprieties."

Anonymous Response

We just got back from a wonderful weekend in California where we had the joy of attending the sealing, as well as all the other festivities associated with a wedding, of Scotty and Annie. (Scotty, my brother-in-law) It was so much fun -- pictures to come. Annie looked gorgeous, Scotty looked dapper, and Samantha and Callie, incredibly cute! Once again, pictures to come, hopefully soon. Speaking of our girls, in the post just before this one, I received a comment from an anonymous reader. They asked if we were planning on adopting again, and if so, would it be a boy. Well...I am dedicating an entire entry to respond to that inquiry.

Yes. We do plan to adopt again. I have shared this with some of you, but now you who frequent our site, will all know. Before we adopted Callie, I was filled with exciting anticipation to meet our new child, whoever he/she would be. But I also was sad because I wanted to be pregnant and have that experience again. I would check in with Marcus periodically, "We'll have natural born children again, right?" (Or "homemade" as I heard it referred to this weekend by a woman who had both adopted and given birth to her children, which I thought was kind of cute) Marcus reassured me we would. I felt this need to go through that process again. My heart changed when we met Callie and as I have gotten to know who she is. I no longer feel like I need that experience. Sure I would love it, but the adoption process has been so wonderful and every bit as spiritual as pregnancy and childbirth was for me. What a blessing. I truly believe that the right child gets to the right home, no matter how that happens, and as parents, you have the privilege of knowing that child was sent to you specifically. Amazing. So yes, we plan to adopt again. And perhaps we will adopt the rest of our children; though I can't deny I'm really curious to see what a non-microcephalic child of mine and Marcus' would look like, but it's not all that important. Besides, there's no garuntee that would happen anyway.

As for a boy. We love our sweet Sammy, but I sheepishly admit we both wanted a boy first. That has since changed of course. And having Callie has been so much fun. Marcus, who once thought (long long ago) being surrounded by little girls would be a nightmare, adores his babies. He wouldn't mind having more girls, but yes, he needs his boy sometime. And so do I. I always said I wanted all boys and a girl. I did marry into a family that had that situation, so that's as close as I'll get now that I have 2 girls, but boy do I love those girls. I would love to have more girls. Girls are so much fun to dress! Come on. It's true. And Samantha and Callie both have great hair, which makes it double the fun! But I do want a few little boys, maybe we'll have a boy next! :)

As we adopt, we aren't looking for gender specific babies. That's not how it works for us. We truly believe that the baby that is supposed to come to our home will...perhaps that's another girl. Maybe not. We'll just have to see.

Walking

Lately, Marcus and I have been doing a lot of walking. We enjoy our evening walks as it is a time when the kids aren't fussying and we get a chance to talk, and get in some exercise. But I'm sure many of you like going on walks. So is this post-worthy? No. But I'll tell you what is. Samantha is walking. Yes, that's right. You read correctly. I frequently get the question, "Is she walking?" And my response has always been, "Not yet, but she's starting to take steps." Well folks, my response will now change to something like, "Yep. She looks a little drunk as she sways and stumbles, but she gets to where she wants go." Samantha isn't walking all over the place, and she'll never walk when we want her to, but when she has decided it's worth it to try, she pops up to standing (Samantha style), and will walk across the room, or half way across the room, to whatever it is she wants to play with. She doesn't fall down anymore along the way. Now, it's not exactly smooth steps...she kind of staggers to the side, takes a few steps backwards, then a few forward...but she gets there. We couldn't be more proud of our little Sammy.