Quick Update

I'd like to give a bit of an update with what I've been up to without getting too personal about my downs. Since I don't have much time to update my blog often, I didn't realize that I hadn't shared much about my educational plans, but some of my blogger friends have asked me about it. I am back in school and if I'm not doing something with my children, I'm studying most of the time. I attended BYU right out of high school thinking I'd go to medical school and be a doctor. But plans changed. I got married my sophomore year and wasn't sure what to do with school. I chose a major, continued in school, finished up my coursework for a degree in Spanish. I had my first baby at the end of all of my classes and just went to school for another semester after he was born. But as I was finishing up, I felt that I shouldn't graduate even though I was done. My thinking was that there wasn't much I could do with a degree in Spanish (I know I should have thought of that before) and I really wanted to do something in science, but in the future because I felt I was supposed to be at home with my children.

So years went by while I dedicated my time to my family and church. I went back occasionally, taking a class or two a semester of biology classes. Now my situation is different and thankfully my children are older and all in school and I am back in school full-time. I was accepted back to BYU so I wanted to switch my major to molecular biology, but I found out I have too many credits there to switch majors according to their policy. I could have gone to University of Utah but it’s far away and it would take time away from being with and helping my children so I chose to go to Utah Valley University. They don’t have a molecular biology degree so my major is biotechnology (biology with extra laboratory hours and required lab internships). When I’m finished I can either get a job doing research in a lab or I’d love to be able to go to gradate school (someday at least)—either a master’s to be a genetic counselor or a PhD in molecular biology. Or maybe even medical school once my children are older and out of the house, which will be in the blink of an eye, unfortunately. Maybe a pediatric neurologist. Yep, science geek!

But for now, I need to get through my classes one semester at a time! And since I didn’t graduate all those years ago, I can apply for federal financial aid and scholarships, that you aren’t eligible for if you have a bachelor’s degree already. I register for the next semester’s classes on Monday. I’ll be taking (among others) physics and microbiology. Even though I will enjoy microbiology more than physics, I’m more afraid of the microbiology class. Yesterday I overheard two people talking about microbiology and one of them took 3 hours to take the midterm and the other person took 4 ½ hours. Crazy! Who has that much time to take one test???

This week I got to finally meet Ann Marie from An Old Fashioned Girl . We’ve been blogger friends for a while and it was so nice of her to let me go visit her in her home. She is a beautiful person on the inside and the outside and so generous too!

She let me choose a gift and then gave me two. See these two pretty glass pieces?

Love ‘em! I can't get enough serving stuff. And even more, I enjoyed the time getting to know her in person.  I know that she is one of my friends who Heavenly Father put in my path as a blessing.

I was grateful for a very quick trip down to Bryce Canyon with my children during our fall break (we all had the same days off). It was our first time there and it’s so very pretty. I enjoyed every minute with my children there. And we had a fun visit with our friends, the Teran family, in St. George while we were down that way. But I’m a bad friend and didn’t take a single photo of our visit with them! I never do that. I did, however, take 350 photos at Bryce. I won't subject you to that many, although if you're my Facebook friend, you've already seen that I posted tons there.  

My only other news is that I made the difficult decision to leave the Spanish ward I’ve been in for 5 years and go to the English ward where I live, where I used to attend when I lived in this house before. Sunday was our first time back. It was nice to see quite a few familiar faces of wonderful people, but it’s not an easy change. I love many people in our Spanish ward.

Many people have asked about how my children are doing. Without getting personal, they are doing well. They are all doing great at school and spending as much time outside with friends as possible before it gets too cold. (It’s supposed to snow next week so that might not be much longer.)

So that’s us now. I really hope you are doing well and hope I can find time to visit all my blogger friends’ blogs soon! But I have a test on Monday to study for so I can’t today. Soon.