Temple!!

As mentioned earlier, I had planned to go to the family history library to do get names ready for the temple. Everything worked out so well, from the parking, to the children behaving so well throughout the whole hour I was there. I printed 4 cards for me to do, 3 sealing, and 3 male names. I still have to do a lot more, by the time I got all that done, the kids were antsy and started to fight, So I will have to go back and do about 15 more names, but I was feeling so great when I walked out of the family history library, so cool!
Then I went home and my cell phone alarm went off, today is the ward temple night, it said. I called the temple to make sure I didn't need an appointment to do my own family names, checked to see if I could have them do the male names for me (Doug let his temple recommend expire), and then called Doug to see if he would be OK watching the kids. He then informs me that he got his temple recommend last week, and would like to do my names in the temple. So, I arranged for carpooling, babysitting (Thanks Brigetta and Kayse!) and got ready to go!!!
Next we got to the Temple, walked the very long walk from the main entrance to the baptismal font (I needed to correct the cards I printed first), when we got there, there was a very large group doing baptisms. We asked about what we should do, and we were told we would likely have to wait until everyone else had gone through. Luckily, we were allowed to go through before them, since I had my own names. We went through, and it was so wonderful! When we were done, I had the distinct feeling that my grandma is happy now.
Awesome stuff!!!

More from the world of the mundane

Emma certainly amazes me every day. She just finished reading Stuart Little, and will soon start reading Charlotte's Web. Adela and Emma are both growing so fast that although Emma is 4 years older than her, Adela is wearing a dress that I just took out of Emma's drawer because it was too short. (that may have more to do with the fact that Emma is so thin that she still fits into size 4-5 T shirts). Adela is way too smart (like her siblings, but more street smart I guess...), and quite a model, look at her posing!
Logan is as always being a little rascal. We took all the kids to parent's night out, and when we got there to pick him up I was told about all the naughty things he did. I was furious! Not only is he being bad, but also, he is ruining the experience for all of us. In fact, if he continues that way, they won't watch them any more (gasp!!!). Let's hope he does better...
About me, I had quite a scare last week, when I was supposed to sign up for my classes in the spring and one of them was totally full. This ordinarily would not be a big issue, but it is an online class, and I need to be registered in order to be considered for the nursing program. Anyone who knows me just a little bit knows that I tend to panic easily... Well, I was in full blown panic mode, even so far as asking my visiting teachers and home teachers to pray for me so I could get in the class (I got chastised by Doug later over that). In any case, I was praying about it yesterday, as I had done for quite a while and remembered something from Sunday school class a few weeks ago. It was about family history work, and the instructor talked about turning your heart to your ancestors, and they will turn their hearts to you, and help you. I remembered how my dad and mom tell me that my grandmas are watching out for me. So, I decided to finally submit their names for temple ordinances, and I started planning a trip to the family history library to get that done right away. As soon as I did that, I got an email from the professor, telling me that the add codes will be sent in a couple of days.
I also talked to my mom and dad and asked them if they would give me permission to do their parent's temple work, and my mom agreed, but my dad not only agreed, he told me he has a feeling that it is what his Mom wants. Tears filled my eyes as I realized it was her wish all this time, and it is soon to be fulfilled.
Until next time...

Family night

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We were both so tired last Monday, we decided to go to red robin for dinner, it was great! granted, we played with our cell phones more than we should have, but both of us took some really cool pictures of the kids. The fun really started when we got shakes for all of them... boy, were they excited! I was glad we were at a restaurant and I didn't have to clean up after the mess! I especially like the fact that when I took the picture on the top, Logan was eating from the spoon, and by the time the phone took the picture he was licking the spoon!

Rock band!!!!

So, my wonderful brother Marco sent me a game he bought used from a store in Princeton, New Jersey. This game is the naked brothers band game. While the game itself was not that exciting to me (it is about the dumbest show that ever was after teletubies), the great thing about it was that it comes with a microphone. I already have rock band, and I am so excited that I will finally get to try out the track pack I bought a while back, but that somehow doesn't work with the guitar I bought. So, I tried it out with Rock Band 2, and sang "Today" by smashing pumpkins. It really is not that much of a challenge, since I know the song by heart (SP was my favorite band when I was growing up), but it was still strangely satisfying to get 100 % on the first try.
Well, here is a little video of Emma giving it a try. Enjoy!!!

new phone

For those of you who don't know, I am happy to inform you that I have replaced my old phone (LG chocolate) with the Droid from Motorola. I am so happy with it, it does everything I wanted in a phone and more! With this phone, I can go online and see just about anything, and can even download homework assignments from webCT, I can check and send email, I can take pictures (5 Megapixels) and take videos, it has a built in querty and touch screen keyboard, GPS, bluetooth, music player (plays all my mp4 songs), voice command and WiFi!!! Oh, and now I have unlimited texting (I have never had a texting plan) and I am trying to learn the "texting ropes".
Anyway, the most awesome thing about it, which helps me out so much is the fact that with the phone, I can get turn by turn directions (like a TomTom would do) to just about anywhere, and I only have to talk into the phone and tell it where I want to go! Today I tried it out just for fun, to go to the family history library, it was awesome!!!
While it is not an iphone, I actually think in many ways it is better, and I might never think about getting an iphone again! This is my Christmas gift, and I am completely satisfied. best gift ever!!!

Halloween

Bride in the ER

Today was such a fun day. Not only was work easy, but I had loads of fun just seeing what people dressed up as in the hospital. My favorite was a nurse in the ER that dressed up as a bride. For a moment there, I actually thought there was a real bride in the hospital. That was a first, LOL!
Kristin, from work was kind enough to come in early for me so that I could take my kids trick-or-treating, and we went to my in-laws to do so. The only problem was that Logan had a bad case of diarrhea, so trick or treating didn't last very long :( But, they got plenty of candy, and they were so cute! Adela was snow white, Emma was a rabbit, and Logan was Iron man.
Overall, a great day, but I am exhausted... Sometime soon I will post some pictures, but for now, I am spent!
Until next time.

Blessing in disguise

Life sucks sometimes... or does it?

This is going to be a really long winded story, so bear with me, especially those of you who have heard parts of it :)
I am taking an easy class, with a teacher that has not been understanding of my situation (mother of three, full time student, wife and working part time), and was quite rude when I asked him if being called in to work would be an excused absence. So, I asked my coworkers to please help me out in case I was called in on Fridays.
For all of the semester so far, I have not been called in, and this is the first week that it has happened, but the person I counted on to work for me during class time is going to be out of town, so I sent an email to everyone else at work and just waited. This was after I was informed that I will be working Christmas day and new years day. Although I knew that it was a possibility, I was very sad about missing Christmas with my family. Well, as it turns out, working on those days works well because they are holidays, which means I don't need anyone to watch the kids because Doug will not work. Since Celeste will be out of town for the holidays, this works perfectly. The days that I wanted to work instead are not holidays, so I would have had to find a babysitter, in December, when everyone is out of town. It may be a good learning experience to work on a holiday, there will be lots of accidents, rare cases, etc, and I may even watch a few Christmas movies... And, since those two days fall on a friday, I will not have to work unscheduled holidays as well as my on calls, because they fall on the same day!
So, I got an email a few hours ago from a coworker, telling me she will cover the first 3 hrs of my shift, and I have pretty much done all the homework I will need to turn in that day. All the things that were supposedly wrong are actually better than what I had planned, and I can breathe again. My father in heaven takes good care of me...

Learning continues

Sunday is great!

I have learned a lot about myself today. As I was participating in class and giving my opinion on the little knowledge I have gathered in my own life, I realized that I have lost so much of myself. What I have read in the scriptures about losing the wisdom that you were given when you fall, is absolutely true. As I regain some of the knowledge and wisdom in the gospel that I have lost merely because of inaction, I am humbled and amazed. It is wonderful to know that I am so blessed, to have my children, my husband, health and life that I enjoy. They are all gifts.
Today, I will be with my family (The Nielsen clan, as I call them), and we will eat Tacos for dinner.
Also, I got the funding I needed from the ASUU, and I am elated!!! Thank you to everyone that has helped me with this, it is absolutely wonderful of you all to have supported me in what I do!!
I am such a lucky girl!

The end of the week

Can't wait!!!

Doug is currently out on the deer hunt, and I can't wait til it's over and I have my husband back!!! I regret to say that he didn't get a deer during this hunt, but he can't complaint because he did get a deer in the black powder hunt. I am glad for him and the kids that we went on the deer hunt, it is just exhausting for me, since I have to juggle that plus everything else as well.

There is also something else I can't wait for, NEW CELL PHONE!!! I really want a new cell phone. Nothing fancy (I would love an iphone, but will not get one until they offer it through something other than ATT) I will settle for just something that works. I have been such a brat lately, I am so glad that my wonderful husband has been really patient with me and my daydreaming about an iphone. I love my apple products though, so I guess I am allowed to daydream once in a while :).

I will post again about that later...

Oct 22, 2009

Wow, life is not without those little bumps on the road...

I have been putting a lot of effort into making sure that Emma (7 yrs old) will do well in school. I have been talking with her teacher often and do everything I have been asked to do with her. Emma had not gone into her classroom on time after recess for some time. We had a meeting with her teacher and determined a plan of action to curve the behavior. I met with her last week, and she said that Emma is much improved and is even doing some great writing. Then this morning, I talk to Doug. He got a phone call from the principal, she made Emma explain to her dad that she didn't go into the classroom after she got off the bus, and came into the classroom 20 minutes late. She was sobbing, and he could not understand a word she said. Then Doug gets into a heated argument with the principal about the fact that he can't ensure Emma will go to her classroom when he isn't even there and can't possibly be there. The principal said she wanted to have us ensure that this doesn't happen again.
Well, apparently, this whole conversation was on speaker phone (I told Doug this is not good for the principal to be undermined by him, but no matter). I don't know what else I can do to make sure she is there ready for learning. I get her on that bus, and off she goes, and then, I had assumed, the school made sure she did what was required. The principal actually asked if we have told Emma how important it is to follow the school rules. "No, Mrs XXXXX, we are anarchists, we tell Emma not to listen or do what you say, that is just what we do..." *dripping with sarcasm*
I am at a loss. What more can I do? We don't think she is being rebellious, but if that is the case, then what is going on?
One thing we know for sure, in the school principal's view, we are the problem, no other children ever do this, and we must fix it.
Being a parent is definitely much harder as kids get older. The solutions are much harder to come by, and the behavior less easily changed. Everyone at the school makes it seem as if Emma is the only child that gets distracted like that. If this is true, I am not sure what I can do to help.
If anyone can give me some helpful suggestions or advise, it would be greatly appreciated!
Hopefully the next post will be on a much more positive note, if anything, I have learned that life is full of ups and downs, and by next week, this whole uncomfortable episode might be a distant memory.

Until next time.

Our first post

Welcome one, welcome all!!!!

Today was one of those days. The day didn't start very well, as I was simply too tired to get up and do anything, but I still had to get Emma off to school and get myself and the kids to class. When I started doing my schoolwork, however, I had an even harder time. I am taking a bioethics class, and the topic of study for this week is on abortion. Those of you who know me well, know that I hold some pretty strong opinions about that, ever since I watched a video of an abortion being performed while an ultrasound image captured the procedure, I cannot fathom how a mother could do such a thing. I have felt strongly that fetuses are more than a part of a woman's body, or an extension of it. They are human beings (if you would like to consider them potential human beings, I can agree with that assessment as well), and the arguments that I have often heard have gone in the face of logic. In one of my course assignments, there was a comparison of a pregnancy to kidnapping a woman and connecting her kidneys with a sick violinist so that he can remain alive. First of all, a fetus that is biologically related to a woman is not the same as a stranger. Second, and this, I assume would be true for most pregnancies, women are not kidnapped into a pregnancy. Most know there are risks when being sexually active, and one of those risks is a pregnancy. On this account, the same author compares this argument to this scenario: If children were like pollen, and could float into your house when the windows were open, and you knew there was a chance that if you left the windows open, the children could fly in and start growing in your house, you would put a mesh screen on your windows, but that would not guarantee that pollen would never get in. If a child got in even after all the necessary precautions, you wouldn't say to the woman that she can't get rid of the pollen, simply because she knew that there were risks to leaving the window open. Therefore, the argument that if women don't want children, they should not engage in sex is not fair.
I wonder if this writer in particular ever had children of their own. I get tired of hearing people comparing unborn fetuses to kidnappers, tumors, just human tissue, etc. Besides that, you don't get pregnant by engaging in everyday activities like opening your window, or walking around outside, yet all the attention of this particular writer seems to go away from individual responsibility, as if becoming pregnant was a spontaneous act that without one's consent, takes a body hostage for 9 months without provocation.
There was, however, another article that was far more convincing and logical in their argument titled Abortion from a feminist perspective (or something like that), which in effect detailed the reasons why abortion should be allowed, but did not go as far to dehumanize the fetus. I cannot go into every argument, but in essence, this author details the fact that in a male dominated society in which females have been taught to be submissive and care more about others than themselves, many times, sexuality (whether overtly or not) has been used to manipulate and control women. I guess I have a better idea as to why some women believe abortion should remain legal. I can understand it, and see very well that they are right on a number of levels. Of course, my religious and moral beliefs are not in agreement with abortion, and I still despise the practice, but I see why some support it. Because of this, I am having a bit of a crisis of sorts. I cannot come to terms with the fact that while abortion is morally wrong, it should still be allowed to prevent further subjugation of women in this culture. Should the cause of Women's liberation be worth the life of so many human beings, allowed to die before their time?