Singing Time

I’ve decided that my Primary singing leaders must have had little faith in our abilities to do advance hand motions to the songs. We were singing the “Wise Man and the Foolish Man” today in Primary and the hand motions are so much more complicated than I remember them. I think when I was in Primary we had three or four hand motions for the whole song, now there are like ten. I guess it just goes to show that we were either dumb or children today are just that much smarter.

Random Musings

Nothing too exciting has been going on in our lives lately, but I still feel like I want to write. So I’m just going to share some of my thoughts, I always enjoy reading those blog posts on others’ blogs, so here goes…

A few weeks ago, I was doing some back reading on my blog. When I first started blogging, many of my posts revolved around work. (This is also true of many of my journal entries during this time.) While I think this may have been because most of the interesting things in my life revolved around work, I also believe that I found true joy in my job. Every positive interaction made my day, and I loved what I did. While I do still love my job, I don’t think I find the same amount of joy in it as I used to. I’m not sure really why this is the case, but it could be due to the decreased newness of it, burnout, or just because I’m tired of working. In some ways I think it might be the latter. While I enjoy being at work with my friends, and I enjoy hanging out with the babies (other than when they are all born at the same time or are cranky), plus the paycheck is nice, there are so many more things I would rather be doing at home, like exercise, family history work, general vegetation, and now homework. I know most people don’t find joy in homework, but I honestly love it. I’m so happy that I made the decision to go back to school, even though it will be one of the harder things I have tackled (I calculated today that I have spent more than 93 hours on homework so far this semester, and I am only three weeks into my second class.), but I know the end result will be worth it. 

However, one of the things I semi-worry about is my future as a mother. Graduate school is a huge investment, so I don’t think I will ever be able to fully stop working until I reach retirement age. (Money always messes things up.) My whole life I’ve been told that a successful mother should be at home with their children. Not only that, but there are 2-3 days a week where we won’t have anyone to watch our kids (unless I work every Saturday and Sunday, then it is just 1 day a week, but Megan gets really grumpy when she doesn’t get to see Kevin or go to church). I know all things will work out in the end, but it is kind of scary to think about. It just seems like all of my friends and cousins are having kids, so it feels like I am falling behind, but I really don’t know what my real feelings on the whole situations are.

Well, our Alias episode is now over, and it is bedtime, so I guess it is time to end this jumble. Until next time…

My New Endeavor

Most probably know by now, but I started grad school in August. I am attending Gonzaga University, participating in their online Masters of Science program, with an emphasis on nurse education. My goal is to be a nursing professor. I take one class each block, so I am enrolled in six credits each semester. So far I have really enjoyed it. I particularly like that I only have to concentrate on one class at a time. I feel like I learn a lot more that way.

My first class was ethics, which I finished last Friday. I definitely learned a lot, and it helped get me back in the swing of things. I have forgot a lot, especially when it comes to APA format, which is sad because I used to be pretty good at it. Supposedly, ethics is the easiest class of the program (I have a coworker who is in her last semester of the program who I get my info from.), but I found it quite manageable. I am definitely not getting all of the things I would like to done around the house, but I do a fairly decent job. 

I will be done in August of 2015, so I have lots of time to perfect my time management skills. I will hopefully share tidbits as I go.

Sting Ray Update

Here is a stingray update from Kevin’s fish forum posting:

Well, I started looking around a little and was going to hold off in a Leo till next year, then I came across this ray. Interesting story. Went with another ray keeper to the local fish auction. I was interested in a royal pleco (sucker fish/plecostamus) they were going to sell and then I saw a gold nugget (also a sucker fish/plecostamus) which I really was interested in. 

Then before the action started I heard another ray keeper talking about a Leo (type of sting ray) at a pet shop, so I tuned in to listen to what they were talking about. They said it had been at the shop for a good while and was up in a tank far in the back up high. Don't know why you would keep such a stellar ray out of view. So, I looked them up on the internet and gave them a call ASAP to see if it was really true. Owner said “Ya we have a Leo and motoro (type of sting ray) here leo is about 12" disk.” My thought was it's a hybrid or maybe a henlie (another type of sting ray) more likely. I was thinking holy crap I need to get out of here and check this ray out. I saw one Leo listed through local classifieds about a year ago. I really don't think any Leos exist anywhere here. 

So, I decided to stay for the pleco auction and then drive over to the pet shop ASAP. I didn't really need the plecos but thought they would be a good add to the tanks I have, but also money not spent on them was money to spend on the ray. Royal went for 20.00 and gold nugget went for 30.00 super good deals. But I had my mind set on checking out this Leo. 

So we left the auction and headed to the fish store. I had never ever been to this shop before and first opinion was good. Looked everywhere and we looked though the tanks and could not fund this Leo. So asked the owner and he was all the way in the back up on the top rack where you could never see him unless you had a ladder.

The owner went to get a ladder and my friend was jumping up to look at him. His first comment was that it was a good size. Then a ladder came and I was able to get up and take a look to do a fast check over. Flag tail check. Everything else fit Leo. Size about 9 inches. Which was great as my other rays are about that size. Kept looking him over and he was super happy to see someone and was looking right at me the whole time. 

Well, I heard he had been there a while so I asked the owner what the bottom $ was and it was great but still figured I could try for a better deal. I know sad right. But I'm not made of a huge amount of money and rays are super costy. But he gave me a bottom dollar amount and we agreed on it. More than anything the pet shop owner was super happy to see the ray go to a person that knew what they were doing and had the proper tank setup. Was nice to see a owner and his wife running the shop doing everything together. They were very nice. Well, they seemed a little lost on how to bag him, so I offered to do it, and they were super happy to let me did that. While up getting ready to bag him I saw a few Massivore pellets and tossed them in and he jumped all over them. Sweet. Great healthy ray. 

Well after a little work got him home and a 45 min drip later, I added him to the tank. He was in a bare bottom tank and still as of now he has never hid in the sand. Super active and does not startle easy at all. Perfect ray so far. and I am fully addicted to my black ray. Well let's get some pics.

This is what he does when he think he is going to get fed. He is worse than a Lunar hound.

That is not a friendly looking tail.

All of the sting rays (minus one) checking Kevin out.

Staycation

This past week (October 5-12), I had the opportunity to take a nice little break. Back in August, I was starting to feel a bit frustrated with work, so I knew I was starting to burn out and needed a break. I have become pretty good at hording my PTO (Although it wasn’t hard because for most of the year I have been in the NICU we seldom got home call.), so I took a couple of days off last week and just relaxed.

Luna and I went up to my parents’ house for conference weekend (Kevin had some tasks he wanted to accomplish plus some hours to make up at work, so he stayed home.). It was really nice to just hang out with my parents. Luna even behaved herself, at least mostly. She did discover that she finds Sissy’s food quite appetizing. I’m not really sure how much Sissy actually ate while we were there. However, other than the food theft, they got along quite well. It was also nice to sit and watch conference without the worry of a certain hound going missing like what happened in April. We also went to a family chicken fry up Weber Canyon. 

Monday, was unfortunately spent on writing a paper, which I had procrastinated, so that day was not very relaxing (other than the massage I got in the morning). However, I did get an A- on the paper, so that is always exciting. Fortunately, I quickly finished the rest of the reading for the class, so I was able to spend time doing other activities rather than just homework. I actually accomplished a fair amount of stuff on my to do list. It felt pretty good. I still would have loved to accomplish more, but that is always my sentiment. 

It was bittersweet to go back to work, but having a break does renew my energy, which was important because I’ve had a rough five days. I’ve worked 56+ hours in the past five days (It is sad how long it took me to calculate that. Fingers were used.). I don’t do stuff like that, but I do have six days off to recuperate. While it won’t be as cushy as my staycation (as I am just starting a class rather than finishing it), I am looking forward to it.