University of Nevada School of Medicine

This post is belated, but we [finally] made a decision.

Taylor is an MS1 at the UNR School of Medicine, and we couldn't be more excited.

I don't know if I care to remember the details of the last year of deliberation and decision making.  Turns out, making decisions is hard!  We were blessed with good options of where to attend school, but because we went crazy agonizing and over-analyzing every aspect of the decision, we felt like we were cursed with too good of options.  We started to be a little bitter, and we became disgusted with ourselves and our discontent. We have learned a lot about gratitude, humility, faith, and courage.

 In a nutshell, we spent everyday since October 2013 agonizing as to where we should attend medical school.  It seemed like such a big decision, but we will probably laugh about it in 20 years....the truth is it probably didn't matter.  We will be happy wherever we go - we have each other, we have the Gospel, and we are happy people.

Our top choices were University of Virginia in Charlottesville and University of Nevada in Reno.  We felt that one option would give us incredible experience, be an opportunity to live in a part of the country we might not otherwise be able to, and strengthen us as a family.  We felt that the other option would provide good experiences and familiar relationships for our little Emmeline, allow me to continue in my professional goals, and allow us to graduate with minimal debt.  

We probably made the mistake of asking too many people their advice, and considering each in-depth.  We probably made the mistake of thinking there was one correct option.  We have prayed that our Heavenly Father would bless us and bless Taylor's goals.  He blessed us with many good opportunities.  It is now up to us to move forward with faith and excitement.  God has touched every step of our journey - I expect and hope He will continue to do so.

So I still hope that one day our journey will take us to Charlottesville.  But for now, we are thrilled to be Nevadans.  Each day we feel confirmations that this was an excellent choice.  Taylor received a full-ride scholarship.  I got an excellent job.  Emmeline will get to know both sets of grandparents and great-grandparents.  Taylor has good classmates and good mentors.  We are grateful.

GO PACK!

Successes and Failures

Oh hello, August...how did you come so soon?

It appears as though I fail as a blogger and as a journalist.  I have tens of stories to tell and memories to remember.

Master's graduation, medical school choice, Memorial Day, Europe trip, nomadic life, major move to Reno, start of school, life as a mother.

And of course, every day of my talking, laughing, moving, flirting Emmeline.

But, according to the pics on my iphone, it appears as though we have also had major successes.  We are a very happy family.  We have a beautiful, curious, happy baby.  Taylor and I love each other more every day.  We have real moments and real happy moments.  Success.

This is what Emmeline is doing right now:

The Aunties who Saved the Semester

Many days people congratulate me on finishing a Master's Degree....with a job, and a newborn!?

But all the praise should go to a good husband, and EXCELLENT aunties.

Emmeline spent one long day a week with her Aunt Jane, and 3-5 days a week with her Auntie Morgie.  She went over to Morgan's apartment in the morning, would snuggle and sleep, then walk up to campus in the snuggly.  She was beloved by the Chatham Towne roommates, and became the mascot of the BYU Bookstore.  Emmeline was Employee of the Month the entire semester.  

Jane would sing and tell stories and teach Emmeline (yay for El Ed training!), and make headbands and bounce and play.  Even with full time school and work, Jane was so generous with her time.

Thank you for helping me finish, Aunties.  And thank you for loving my babe.  There is a special bond between a girl and her aunt.

Flipbook

Our lives are rushing by.  Looking at the photos on my phone make me feel like I am looking at a flipbook.  I want to just grab a day and hold it, and hold my two babes, and savor God's goodness.  But the days don't want to be held.  

A taste of my flipbook.

3rd Day of Retirement

Boy, do I have a lot to catch up on!

Now that I am retired, I hope to catch up on all my journaling.  But lets be real...I am good at finding lots of things to fill my time.  So the Sparknotes version will have to do for now.

And as a disclaimer, I want to apologize to my future self, who is looking back on these entries to remember how simple life used to be and is finding poor documentation.  I wish I had a better camera, created a more lovely blog, and wrote with more wit.  I don't, but don't let the ihpone pics fool you.  We live a cheery life.

Life flew by the last several weeks.  I graduated (more on that later), Emmeline got huge and brilliant and beautiful (stop growing baby!) and we still have made no medical school decisions (WHAT?)

Taylor and I have been looking forward to retirement - the end of school - so he could actually have a wife and Emmeline could have a mother.  Truthfully, though, I was really nervous.  I think I escaped a lot of the difficult post-partum stuff because I had to jump back into school and work and life so quickly.  I worried that if I had such a drastic change of being busy and social and productive and feeling important, to staying at home with a babe all day, I would get a little...restless.  Well, so far it is Day 3 of retirement and I have not felt like that.  I am having SO much fun with Emmeline, and I am bursting with things I want to do to fill my time!  I have so many goals, and not enough time to accomplish them all!

Days 1, 2, and 3 I spent working at American Heritage (wrapping up a few last things), cooking, working on Uncle John's resume, and learning how to do Family History.  I am a novice, but I LOVE it!  Emmeline and I spent hours today at the Family History Library at BYU.  She was perfect...until at the every end, when she told me she was ready to go.  Loudly.

Here is a visual representation of retirement, according to my iPhone:

 

 Turns out our little Emmeline is good at sleeping in.  We do a lot of snuggling...she is a sleepysleepy head.

 

We went to the Sacred Gifts Exhibit at BYU to see the life of Christ depicted - beautiful.  And we get lots of ice cream.

Hanging with Great Grandpa Hardy.  We did family history, went to the museum, and listened to Rush.

Learning to do Family History at the BYU Library.  SO FUN!

Emmeline's Four Months

When I look at my big babe with beautiful chunky rolls and a budding personality, I wonder - how has the time gone so fast?

When I think of this semester and all the work I have done, and all the work I still have to do, I think - wow, four months is a long time.

Its crazy how time is so relative.  But life is wonderful and we are happy.  I love my babe, I love my husband, I love my classes, I love work, I love my family.  I am grateful.  

Here are a couple updates:

Emmeline turned four months on Sunday!  Happy Birthday, now stop growing! 

- Emmeline is a dream baby - Heavenly Father's gift for a full time student.  She is pleasant and happy and shares smiles with everyone.  

- She wears lots of cute clothes (thanks grandma) which are now all stained green - she is a great pooper.  

- She sleeps all night long (so long as she is wrapped tight in the straightjacket). 

- Emmeline is a good eater; she eats her hands, anything within distance of her hands, me, my hair, her dad's arm, her feet...oh, and bottles and binkies.  

- Emmeline still has no hair and clams up in front of the camera.  

- She loves to SING and TALK and and LAUGH.  

- She likes to stand and has great leg muscles.  

-She hates to be put down, sit by herself, or be otherwise ignored

- Emmeline loves to be with her Auntie Morgan and Auntie Jane, an anyone else who will give her loves.

I graduate this month!  Yay!  If I can finish all my assignments before then, that is.  I am grateful for my sister and sisters-in-law and coworkers and team mates and every other person who has helped me balance school and baby.  Poor Taylor has worked hard to help me graduate.  He helps with my assignments, takes care of the babe, works on projects alongside me, and puts up with microwave burritos for lunch and nachos for dinner.  I love my MPA friends and am learning so much in my classes.  I have daily meltdowns of how I can balance motherhood with my career goals, but that is a good dilemma to have.

Taylor works full-time in a BYU immunology lab - the perfect job for this year.  We are so grateful for the experience, the paycheck, and the faculty parking...though Taylor jokes that he gets a little lonely in his "cubicle within a cubicle."  He played four intermural sports this semester and is training for a marathon. He is still trying to decide where to go to medical school...we may just never decide.  Again, a good dilemma to have.

I am in love with my husband and my babe.  Learning everyday.