May Update

Since I am a First year and none of us know what we are doing we often go to Second years for wisdom. They told us that the 2nd quarter would be the worst, and that the current quarter (3rd) wouldn't be so bad.

Well, 2nd quarter was horrible, but it didn't beat this one by much. I have often felt like some of the teachers are trying to fail me and I have wanted to go and tell them exactly what I thought about there teaching and testing methods. When I saw this comic the other day I thought "Dang!" And just decided that I need to work harder. It might not be as satisfying as telling off some of the professors, but it will work out better in the long run.

-Andrew

Mommy's Little Helper

Andrew and I have been working very hard on our yard this spring. I want to plant strawberries in the front yard, and Andrew is removing some of the bushes from the back yard. Over spring break we spent a day in the back yard, as you will remember from an earlier post, and this week we've put in a few more hours. While Andrew's parents were here we got a start on clearing the rocks out of the soon-to-be strawberry bed, but there was a lot of work to be done. Today, with some help from both Andrew and Lily, I got the rocks cleared out of the bed! Hooray! And I'm not exaggerating about Lily's help!!!

This was actually the first rock in the bucket of the day! Lily just picked it up and decided to put it into the bucket without any prompting! She put about 10 rocks in before she got board. And you can see that eventually she started tasting things, and got a little messy. But a little dirt doesn't hurt.

Isn't she cute, muddy face and all? She has been so anxious to be outside the past few days. Yesterday she crawled to the door and started crying and patting the door. "I want out!" was communicated very well, we thought. Today, again, she crawled to the door. I was outside already, but she was taking a nap when I went out, so she didn't know that. Andrew brought her outside to say "hi" to me, and when he took her in she threw a fit. So outside with mommy she came! And she had a ball... for about the first 2 hours! Then she needed a nap. So Andrew, who had been hacking up bushes in the back, took her in and put her to bed, because he was in need of a friend with a truck to finish up the really big bush, and I was "almost done". (...30 or 45 minutes later...) This is the unfinished bush. Two down, one to go.

We are going to replace this bush with either a rose bush or a raspberry or blackberry bush. I can't decide! I love berries, but the roses would be SO pretty. Any input would be appreciated. The wheelbarrow in the picture is a permanent fixture. It's broken down and antiqueish, and oh so cute! Besides, we'd practically have to dig it out if we wanted to remove it. But we don't, so it's all good. I can plant something in the planter in the wheelbarrow, but I don't know what yet. We have 2 of these planters, the other is not in any special place in the yard, but I could try to make it cute. Also, Andrew and I are talking about buying a few window-type-boxes to plant tomatoes and maybe some sugar peas in. I've never been so excited about yard work in my whole life!!! It has been so fun though! and It feels good. Just to see the box empty of rocks, still sitting without any plants in it is rewarding. I can hardly wait until our first strawberries ripen!!!

My Wonderful Man

Try not to fall out of your chair, yes, this is Amanda posting for probably the first time this year! I just wanted to publicly praise my wonderful husband for being the best candidate for Husband of the Year! Working hard in medical school and keeping his GPA high, Andrew still found time to do 2 loads of laundry on Wednesday as I went to Young Womens and then to a pregnant friends house to make sure she wasn't (was, actually) in labor, and help her to get the house ready for the realtor who was coming in the morning before she (and I) went to the hospital. (I was on call for the hospital that night so since my friend was going in, I was needed on the floor). He also did a load of dishes and the next morning he took Lily to the babysitter and picked her up and put her down for a nap so I could sleep a little longer. He also recently bought me a beautiful boquet of spring flowers, and promises to buy me strawberry plants to plant in our front yard when the weather warms up. (We were going to plant them 2 weekends ago, but it snowed, then last weekend the garden expert at Home Depot suggested we wait another week and see what the weather is going to be like. Guess what! Snow is in the forecast again this weekend. Oh well). Anyway, back to my point, Andrew works so hard everyday to provide for the comfort and future of our family. He spoils me every chance he gets, and is so cute playing peek-a-boo and hide-and-seek with Lily! Their favorite game is for Lily to chase him (both of them on hands and knees) around a table or chair with a blanket or pillow over it so she can't see him through the object, she just follows him. And every now and then he will get far enough ahead of her and grab her foot from behind. She squeals with delight, and they both laugh for a moment before she turns around and starts chasing him again! He also makes funny faces at her as he plays peek-a-boo around a pillow or blanket, and she laughs so hard and throws her little body as she kicks her feet and throws her hands in the air. He is always there when I get a little too frustrated with her clinginess, to take her away and give me a little break. He cooks dinner as often as I do, and makes my lunch for work more often than I do. He comes home for lunch with me every day except on rare occasions when he has a lunch meeting for his society. He takes care of our finances, pays the bills, keeps up our blog, teaches a primary class, finds time to go to the gym, and he even listens to me at night when I want to talk to him and he really just wants to go to sleep. All this and he's a worthy priesthood holder in our church! He is so good to Lily and me and I just wanted to say a very big THANK YOU!!!
I love you so much Andrew! You are my superhero, my help meet, my (not so secret) lover, my inspiration, my confidant, and my best friend. I am so grateful we have eternity together because life just isn't long enough.

Hurray for Spring Break

Finals Week was killer. So much so that I apparently couldn't write about it till now. During the week people were only getting 3 to 5 hours of sleep each night, and you would hear people say all sorts of loopy, crazy things. (Hence the comic above. The last panel is exactly the sort of stuff you would hear.)

So after the last test the Cluff's were good enough to invite all the members of our impromptu study group over to their house for homemade Costa Vida burros. (I personally have never been there, but their version was great.)

After that it was time to relax and play a little Guitar Hero.

Even Mom Bitter got in on the act...




All in all spring break went way too fast. And personally I was way to apathetic and wiped out to get any of my major home improvement errands done. But Friday & Saturday the weather was great, so we got outside to do a little yard clean up.


We set Lily on some blankets so she could be near us, but she hated being by herself. She also was terrified of the grass, and had to crawl backwards to feel sort of comfortable.

Once she got onto something else she was off and running (crawling).

Lily Maye 1 - Parents 0

So it's Sunday afternoon and we just tried to lay Lily down & she would have none of it. For some reason it reminded me that I owe all the people back home some Lily Mae pic's. So here they are:

Lily demands to eat like an adult. (ie. Give her finger foods so she can 'feed' herself.) Here is her first try at a biscuit.

She also has had a go at makeup.




We recently spent alot of time teaching Lily to climb stairs. Any guesses why?



I often wake up to subtle reminders of who is in charge here. Hint: It's not me.

-Andrew

Just when I was about to build an ark....

Last week we really had a couple of nice days here. Highs in the low 60's, you could walk around with out the normal 5 coats and actually enjoy the day. Then it started raining. For a while it was a nice change, then we had thunderstorm warnings for 5 days straight & even a tornado watch south of us. So what do we get for putting up with all the suffering (in addition to finals week, which I have already beat into the ground). Highs around 26 degrees (without counting the 15-20 mph winds).

I really do enjoy Kirksville for the people and the slow paced lifestyle... but the weather stinks.

Andrew

Maybe you have spent too much time in Histo lab...

Recently we had a big Histology Image exam at school and I think I spent probably 8 hours looking through a microscope (on top of regular study) just to get ready for it (and the minor quiz that led up to it). Towords the end you probably could have pointed out anything and I would have been "yeah, I see that." (Much like cloud watching I imagine). A few days later I came upon this cartoon and it made me smile.

School is in "Do or Die" mode right now as we are coming to the final week of this quarter. One of my classmates called it our own version of "Hell Week" like the Navy Seals go through. Only with less physical trials and more mental games. ("What's that? You want me to prep for 7 tests in one week covering everything I've learned in the last 3 months. Oh, and the last one has probably 300 pages of lecture 'notes'? Sure, Why not?"

Other than school life is pretty good here. Amanda's work is going well, Her mom was kind enough to fly out here and take care of us (read: Lily) while I go insane, and Lily is systematically taking over our home. No matter how we try to stop her, she finds away to get around our plans. She is like the dang Energizer Bunny incarnate. More on that next time.

Till Then,

Andrew