I scanned over my google reader list today and saw "'Mormon-friendly' colleges planned for Nevada, Nauvoo" and my stomach lurched. "No way!", I thought, " Could it be?!". Why I was so incredulous is a mystery for I've heard the rumor straight from the horses mouth, so to speak, but the fact that it's actually going forward took me off guard.
For those who don't know, I went to the BYU Semester at Nauvoo in Winter of 2003. It was, at the time, the greatest experience of my life second only to my Mission. While there I took a basic computer science (CS) class from Evan L. Ivie who, the following semester, became the head of the BYU Nauvoo program. He was a helpful influence in my choice to pursue CS and in the summer of 2005 I returned to Nauvoo to work for him during which time I met Bonnie. While I already very much liked "Brother Ivie", as I know him, it didn't take me long during that summer to realize I was working for a great man, both in Spirit and in accomplishment. He tells stories of working with Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie who to many of you are the most random of names I could mention, but who are pioneers (to say the least) in the CS world, and that's just the start. He's a humble man who loves to lift and help others. Sorry for the tangent - this post isn't meant to be a tribute to Brother Ivie, but know that he's a man to be admired and that, needless to say, my gratitude for him is near infinite.
As the closing of the BYU Nauvoo program was threatening, Brother Ivie mentioned to me some of his vision for its future. Knowing that "the church is not currently interested in expanding into higher education beyond its existing campuses", he mentioned the possibility of other schools creating satelite locations here, or even having an independent college like the one in Virginia. It comes as no surprise to me that he is listed among the faculty as well as being on the board of trustees for Nauvoo University.
After my marvelous experineces in Nauvoo I have come to love that small area of the earth. The economy there is struggling and this will certainly bring a breath of help, not to mention how wonderful it will be for students who attend there. The Nauvoo University website is concise and easy to read through. I recommend taking a look and seeing what the plans are and what it's all about! This is simply a delightful development!
A couple links, which I may add to from time to time:
A short bio on Brother Ivie
A random blog post I found
Wednesday, July 23
Thursday, July 17
Let the Fun Begin!!!!
Yesterday I thought I would burst with excitement. I didn't, but I sure had a great time playing with my little family. It was the first day of many filled with fun. Here's the line up:
Last night we went to Park City to hang out with Matt's team from work. Free food, free concert, reimbursed gas, and lots of fun people to get to know and hang out with. I loved it!!! I had been so excited just to be going out on a family outing. We even snuck in a little shopping at the Carter's outlet store afterwards. I love shopping for baby clothes. That's amazing because I never would have thought I would say that I love shopping for anything. It's not my thing.
Today I went with my friends, Kristi and Kim, along with their daughters (and Amy of course) to a new-to-me park for playgroup. Matt told me about it and wouldn't stop raving about it, so I decided we'd better try it out. It was very fun! Amy had a good time climbing stairs and eating wood chips. I had a fun time playing with her and with the other cute girls, and of course talking to the other moms.
Then, off to Grammy's house. My parents and younger brother have been in Scotland for the last three weeks visiting my sister. I missed them tons. So today I hung out with my mom all afternoon, getting her house ready to be bombarded. An hour before I left to come home, my older brother and his family showed up. So I got to play with them. Tonight my other sister is arriving from Ohio with her family. So tomorrow we play all day. YAY!!!!!! I love playing with my fun family!!!!
Last night we went to Park City to hang out with Matt's team from work. Free food, free concert, reimbursed gas, and lots of fun people to get to know and hang out with. I loved it!!! I had been so excited just to be going out on a family outing. We even snuck in a little shopping at the Carter's outlet store afterwards. I love shopping for baby clothes. That's amazing because I never would have thought I would say that I love shopping for anything. It's not my thing.
Today I went with my friends, Kristi and Kim, along with their daughters (and Amy of course) to a new-to-me park for playgroup. Matt told me about it and wouldn't stop raving about it, so I decided we'd better try it out. It was very fun! Amy had a good time climbing stairs and eating wood chips. I had a fun time playing with her and with the other cute girls, and of course talking to the other moms.
Then, off to Grammy's house. My parents and younger brother have been in Scotland for the last three weeks visiting my sister. I missed them tons. So today I hung out with my mom all afternoon, getting her house ready to be bombarded. An hour before I left to come home, my older brother and his family showed up. So I got to play with them. Tonight my other sister is arriving from Ohio with her family. So tomorrow we play all day. YAY!!!!!! I love playing with my fun family!!!!
I Already Told You
Flashback like 2 1/2 years or something:
Matt and Bonnie walking across BYU campus. We're in front of the JFSB. Matt told me something - I don't remember what. Something about me (possible examples: you have brown hair, you like yellow, you are wearing flip-flops. Who knows really?) I said, "Who does?" I liked saying that just to be silly. Matt was used to it. He stopped in his tracks and looked at me and said, "I already told yooooou" in this very cute voice. I laughed soooooo hard. It was adorable. We've been saying, "I already told you" to each other ever since.
Now forward to like 2 1/2 days ago:
Matt's doing something in the kitchen, and I come in there to talk to him. (I hadn't told him every minute detail of my day yet so I needed to get to it.) I showed him that I had checked out one of the Work and the Glory books on CD from the library. I'm trying to get the first few right now. He looked excited as he came up with a brilliant idea: "That's what we should listen to on the way to California." (We're going to drive to California next month, and it is very important to us that we are prepared with good book entertainment. We discussed it in detail the other day.) Which brings me to my response, "I already told you."
We had decided just a few days before this that we should listen to The Work and The Glory on our trip because it was interesting enough to keep Matt awake while driving, but it was ok if either of us slept through part of it because we have both read the series before. All of these things are important to us. I am not one to like missing details of books if I don't already know all about what's happening. And Matt won't stay awake and riveted if he's read the book recently or lots of times. This was the perfect solution. Plus, it's a long series so we will have plenty to listen to on our trip.
I just thought it was hilarious that Matt forgot that we had decided what we were getting. He thought I had just been so smart to check the book out from the library when we had already agreed to do so. Silly Matt.
Matt and Bonnie walking across BYU campus. We're in front of the JFSB. Matt told me something - I don't remember what. Something about me (possible examples: you have brown hair, you like yellow, you are wearing flip-flops. Who knows really?) I said, "Who does?" I liked saying that just to be silly. Matt was used to it. He stopped in his tracks and looked at me and said, "I already told yooooou" in this very cute voice. I laughed soooooo hard. It was adorable. We've been saying, "I already told you" to each other ever since.
Now forward to like 2 1/2 days ago:
Matt's doing something in the kitchen, and I come in there to talk to him. (I hadn't told him every minute detail of my day yet so I needed to get to it.) I showed him that I had checked out one of the Work and the Glory books on CD from the library. I'm trying to get the first few right now. He looked excited as he came up with a brilliant idea: "That's what we should listen to on the way to California." (We're going to drive to California next month, and it is very important to us that we are prepared with good book entertainment. We discussed it in detail the other day.) Which brings me to my response, "I already told you."
We had decided just a few days before this that we should listen to The Work and The Glory on our trip because it was interesting enough to keep Matt awake while driving, but it was ok if either of us slept through part of it because we have both read the series before. All of these things are important to us. I am not one to like missing details of books if I don't already know all about what's happening. And Matt won't stay awake and riveted if he's read the book recently or lots of times. This was the perfect solution. Plus, it's a long series so we will have plenty to listen to on our trip.
I just thought it was hilarious that Matt forgot that we had decided what we were getting. He thought I had just been so smart to check the book out from the library when we had already agreed to do so. Silly Matt.
Sunday, July 13
My Fingernail
I've been meaning to write about this for a while but haven't gotten around to it. A few weeks ago my fingernail fell off. (For those who don't know, this is a good and expected thing.) It was slowly breaking away from the skin. I kept catching it on things, so I trimmed it a lot, even from the side and put bandaids on it. It was quite nice when the nail was finally gone. And it really didn't hurt! Yay! Now there is a big funny ridge, but it looks so much better. I tried to take a picture so we could have before and after, but I don't know if I'll be able to make the after picture work.
Click on the picture to see it better. At least you can tell that it is better than this:
Click on the picture to see it better. At least you can tell that it is better than this:
What a Day This Has Been
I know that I am far from alone in finding church and nap time to often be in conflict with each other. Today I learned a lesson from it. I know my child well enough to know that if I put enough effort and focus into helping her fall asleep in an environment with few distractions, if she's tired enough she'll fall asleep. So from now on, we are going to do just that. Even if it means missing a little bit more of church meetings. Once she's really asleep, I can bring her into a meeting, and she'll stay that way. But if I try to just coast through church trying to keep her happy and not help her fall asleep, I've ruined much of the day for both of us, and I still didn't get much out of meetings. Most of you moms are thinking, "Duh, Bonnie." But as Amy has grown, her needs have changed; sometimes it takes a bit for me to catch on how I need to change to help her.
So what happened? Sacrament Meeting was ok. She did crawl under the pew in front of us; that's pretty normal. Heavens, last week I had to stop her from crawling up the steps onto the stand about 4 times, so today she was relatively tame. She just wanted a little more mobility though, so we went to the hall. After a while I thought she could handle going back in. Wrong. She didn't like that idea. So we went out again.
Sunday School was good too. I was excited that Matt could come sit by us...until I ended up sitting on the floor in the back the whole time. Still, glad he made it. There was another mom and baby playing with toys in the back. It really was the best solution. But I did hear parts of the lesson and even made a comment - I'm always really proud when I can be with it enough to have a comment about the lesson. We were joined in the back by a dad and his baby. We all read board books and played with toys - quietly. Pretty good.
Relief Society. What's that?
We made it through opening. Amy was crawling around getting into other people's diaper bags and playing on their chairs. That doesn't bother me as long as she doesn't bother others. Distract - fine. Annoy - problem. She really didn't seem to be annoying anyone. Then she started getting fussy. We went into the hall with just her bottle. Sometimes it's too difficult to clean everything up and take the diaper bag. We hung out in the Mother's Lounge for a while. Amy decided to nurse. She even mostly fell asleep nursing. This is where I should have just stayed put and let her fall asleep all the way. I didn't. I was selfishly kind of hoping that she would just wait and nap as soon as we got home so that I had some hope of nap time. We spent the rest of RS in the foyer with Amy crawling around.
After church. I set up the pac n play in my room, gave Amy a bottle and a snuggle then put her down. She cried a little, but she was so tired I assumed she'd soon be sleeping. (We were having choir practice at our house so I needed to leave her room available for toddler play. She would never get a nap with Hannah in and out of her room.) The thing I didn't account for was the fact that Amy would be able to reach the books on the bookcase from in the pac n play. After a few minutes of quiet I peaked in to make sure she was sleeping. She didn't see me, but she was standing up playing with the books. And many more books were in the pac n play. Yikes!
She finally took her first nap of the day about 1:30 which was after choir. Slept for about an hour and then was cranky the rest of the night except when we went home teaching. I think she liked the change of scenery.
I was struggling to come up with what to do to help her - none of the usual things made her happy. And I was having a hard time taking it anymore. I suggested that she might like to watch a little Veggie Tales. Matt loved the idea and decided he wanted to watch with her. She was so excited! I snuck out of the room and had a little time to myself - so needed and enjoyed. When I came back when the movie was ending, I couldn't see Amy at first. I was surprised she wasn't right in front of the computer watching the movie. She was in her crib fast asleep. Matt said she fell asleep on him - she was so tired! That was about 6:30. She woke up again about 8:30 and nursed and fell asleep. Haven't heard a sound since. It was very nice for Matt and me to get a little time together too before it was very late. I told Matt I feel like myself again now. Yay for sleeping!
So what happened? Sacrament Meeting was ok. She did crawl under the pew in front of us; that's pretty normal. Heavens, last week I had to stop her from crawling up the steps onto the stand about 4 times, so today she was relatively tame. She just wanted a little more mobility though, so we went to the hall. After a while I thought she could handle going back in. Wrong. She didn't like that idea. So we went out again.
Sunday School was good too. I was excited that Matt could come sit by us...until I ended up sitting on the floor in the back the whole time. Still, glad he made it. There was another mom and baby playing with toys in the back. It really was the best solution. But I did hear parts of the lesson and even made a comment - I'm always really proud when I can be with it enough to have a comment about the lesson. We were joined in the back by a dad and his baby. We all read board books and played with toys - quietly. Pretty good.
Relief Society. What's that?
We made it through opening. Amy was crawling around getting into other people's diaper bags and playing on their chairs. That doesn't bother me as long as she doesn't bother others. Distract - fine. Annoy - problem. She really didn't seem to be annoying anyone. Then she started getting fussy. We went into the hall with just her bottle. Sometimes it's too difficult to clean everything up and take the diaper bag. We hung out in the Mother's Lounge for a while. Amy decided to nurse. She even mostly fell asleep nursing. This is where I should have just stayed put and let her fall asleep all the way. I didn't. I was selfishly kind of hoping that she would just wait and nap as soon as we got home so that I had some hope of nap time. We spent the rest of RS in the foyer with Amy crawling around.
After church. I set up the pac n play in my room, gave Amy a bottle and a snuggle then put her down. She cried a little, but she was so tired I assumed she'd soon be sleeping. (We were having choir practice at our house so I needed to leave her room available for toddler play. She would never get a nap with Hannah in and out of her room.) The thing I didn't account for was the fact that Amy would be able to reach the books on the bookcase from in the pac n play. After a few minutes of quiet I peaked in to make sure she was sleeping. She didn't see me, but she was standing up playing with the books. And many more books were in the pac n play. Yikes!
She finally took her first nap of the day about 1:30 which was after choir. Slept for about an hour and then was cranky the rest of the night except when we went home teaching. I think she liked the change of scenery.
I was struggling to come up with what to do to help her - none of the usual things made her happy. And I was having a hard time taking it anymore. I suggested that she might like to watch a little Veggie Tales. Matt loved the idea and decided he wanted to watch with her. She was so excited! I snuck out of the room and had a little time to myself - so needed and enjoyed. When I came back when the movie was ending, I couldn't see Amy at first. I was surprised she wasn't right in front of the computer watching the movie. She was in her crib fast asleep. Matt said she fell asleep on him - she was so tired! That was about 6:30. She woke up again about 8:30 and nursed and fell asleep. Haven't heard a sound since. It was very nice for Matt and me to get a little time together too before it was very late. I told Matt I feel like myself again now. Yay for sleeping!
Wednesday, July 9
Does anyone else do this?
As you all know, I am a sporadic blogger. And when I blog, I post quite a few posts and make slide shows and upload all kinds of pictures and videos to "catch up" because I'm behind in blogging. It's pretty ridiculous. Today is no exception.
So I was curious. Do any of you ever ignore your child(ren) in order to blog about them. You go on and on about how wonderful and adorable they are while they are just trying to get a little attention out of you?
Today I did better at this, (probably because I had in mind that I would write this post) but I have found myself ignoring Amy to blog. (Right now I am ignoring her on purpose - she is supposed to be going to sleep.)
Anyway, am I the only guilty one?
So I was curious. Do any of you ever ignore your child(ren) in order to blog about them. You go on and on about how wonderful and adorable they are while they are just trying to get a little attention out of you?
Today I did better at this, (probably because I had in mind that I would write this post) but I have found myself ignoring Amy to blog. (Right now I am ignoring her on purpose - she is supposed to be going to sleep.)
Anyway, am I the only guilty one?
Vegetables and Snakes
Here's Amy watching her favorite characters. (I think Bob the Tomato is her favorite. In the opening sequence there is this little part where Bob becomes bigger and has really big eyes. That part makes Amy laugh sometimes.):
This is a little taste of a trick that Amy has been doing for a while. I often try to get it on film, but this is the best I've gotten so far. My mom calls it the snake. Look at that tongue go!
This is a little taste of a trick that Amy has been doing for a while. I often try to get it on film, but this is the best I've gotten so far. My mom calls it the snake. Look at that tongue go!
Pool Party
Last Thursday for play group we had a pool party in the field in the middle of our complex. It was so fun! At least for me. We read some stories and blew bubbles and had a parade before hopping in the pool. The kids didn't understand the concept that it was America's birthday, but they had fun anyway. Here's a picture of Amy in her swimming suit, sun dress, and hat on her way out to the field:
Amy Amy Amy
Yeah, well I can play the piano with my tongue sticking out. Beat that.
I love these faces!
I love these faces!
Our Fourth of July Celebration
Here are some pictures (mostly of Amy) at the Hot Air Balloon show at 6:30 am on Friday. We are glad we went. It was great! And Amy looked so cute, I must add. After this we ate a free pancake breakfast at Macey's then watched the parade. That afternoon we got to see my brother, Andy and his family for a while before we went our seperate ways to celebrate. We headed to Layton for the BBQ which was fantastic and fun. I already posted about our night of not so much sleep. So that is our Fourth of July. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed getting to spend time together!
Saturday, July 5
Our Night Away
Yesterday we went to Matt's sister, Robin's house for a barbecue and Fourth of July fun. She had invited her married kids over as well, so we got to play with an assortment of nieces and nephews and two great nephews.
After the barbecue we were going to go watch the fireworks. Like us, Ty and Abby were unsure how their baby would do staying up past bedtime and watching fireworks. In the end, they decided to go, and we stayed because Amy fell asleep around 8:30. Normal bedtime. Good girl. I wondered why we would want to ruin a good thing by keeping Amy up late (which makes her cranky) and take her to something that would likely scare her (which makes her scream her head off.) We decided letting her sleep was better. So Matt was going to stay and I was going to go watch the fireworks. Until I realized my shoes were in the room where Amy was sleeping. She wasn't asleep enough yet that I could sneak in unnoticed. I was unwilling to go in there and make her cry just for shoes, so I skipped fireworks too. I had a headache anyway.
It turned out really fun. Matt and I played Robin's wii for a while and then went on the back deck to watch what we could see of the fireworks. The ones that made it higher we could see fine. So we got out own private fireworks show. Very romantic.
After everyone got home, we were talking when we heard loud noises outside. We realized people were playing with fireworks in the street. So we went outside to watch. Before long, Matt heard Amy crying and went to help her calm down. He ended up bringing her outside where she decided she wanted to snuggle me. We are pretty sure the loud noises woke her and scared her. I got her to sleep again and then carefully carried her back to her bed.
When I put her down she woke up. :(
It was about midnight by this time. We let her cry for a few minutes before we realized it was getting worse, not better. When I went to get her up and help her fall asleep, I started thinking she was scared of the fireworks and how dark and unfamiliar the room was. She calmed down with me and her bottle eventually - it took a while.
Again, I couldn't put her down without her waking up. It was one of those times where you knew if you put her down before she was asleep enough to be ok with being put down, she would scream herself wide awake again quickly. So you'd have to start over.
It was after 1:00 now. This time, I decided to just nurse her so that she would be comforted. It worked - kind of. She calmed down. But after all that fuss, she was too awake. So she decided it was time to play.
Matt and I discussed what to do with her. We are both firm believers in only one of us needing to stay up with her at times like these - at least someone should get some sleep. The problem was we were both a lot more tired than Amy was, and we weren't sure how well we would stay awake taking care of her if we went to the front room. Since that room isn't babyproof, this could be bad. Plus, if we fell asleep, there would be nothing to stop Amy from going to the stairs and falling down them. So we let her crawl around all over us and the bed we were on.
She was giggling and having a great time ... for 2 hours. We had to move the bed against the wall to make it safer. Then we had to get things off the wall that were hanging down so that Amy didn't pull them down. We both dozed a bit, but we made our legs a blockade so that Amy would have to crawl over us if she wanted to get to the edge of the bed in any direction.
Finally at 3:15, Amy was winding down. I got up and danced with her and hummed some songs until she was really asleep. I put her down.
She cried.
I pinned her arms to her sides - that often helps her.
She slept.
I finally walked away...
She kept sleeping. I climbed into bed very relieved.
Until...
5:15 Amy starts to scream. At this point, I have no ability to do anything but nurse her. So I did. We both fell asleep.
Around 6:15 I woke up and realized that either Amy had to move, or I had to sleep on my side the whole night (what was left of it) because there wasn't room to roll over. So I got Matt to put her back in bed. (I could barely move without waking her up.)
7:30ish Amy woke up for the day.
I haven't gone back to sleep since besides falling asleep nursing this afternoon.
That is why Amy went to bed at 7:30 tonight, and I am going to get ready for bed as soon as I finish this post.
The sad part about it was that Robin and Dean were in the room directly across the hall and Chelsey was in her room nextdoor. I don't think anyone got a great night sleep. Sorry, Boltons!
Good night everyone.
After the barbecue we were going to go watch the fireworks. Like us, Ty and Abby were unsure how their baby would do staying up past bedtime and watching fireworks. In the end, they decided to go, and we stayed because Amy fell asleep around 8:30. Normal bedtime. Good girl. I wondered why we would want to ruin a good thing by keeping Amy up late (which makes her cranky) and take her to something that would likely scare her (which makes her scream her head off.) We decided letting her sleep was better. So Matt was going to stay and I was going to go watch the fireworks. Until I realized my shoes were in the room where Amy was sleeping. She wasn't asleep enough yet that I could sneak in unnoticed. I was unwilling to go in there and make her cry just for shoes, so I skipped fireworks too. I had a headache anyway.
It turned out really fun. Matt and I played Robin's wii for a while and then went on the back deck to watch what we could see of the fireworks. The ones that made it higher we could see fine. So we got out own private fireworks show. Very romantic.
After everyone got home, we were talking when we heard loud noises outside. We realized people were playing with fireworks in the street. So we went outside to watch. Before long, Matt heard Amy crying and went to help her calm down. He ended up bringing her outside where she decided she wanted to snuggle me. We are pretty sure the loud noises woke her and scared her. I got her to sleep again and then carefully carried her back to her bed.
When I put her down she woke up. :(
It was about midnight by this time. We let her cry for a few minutes before we realized it was getting worse, not better. When I went to get her up and help her fall asleep, I started thinking she was scared of the fireworks and how dark and unfamiliar the room was. She calmed down with me and her bottle eventually - it took a while.
Again, I couldn't put her down without her waking up. It was one of those times where you knew if you put her down before she was asleep enough to be ok with being put down, she would scream herself wide awake again quickly. So you'd have to start over.
It was after 1:00 now. This time, I decided to just nurse her so that she would be comforted. It worked - kind of. She calmed down. But after all that fuss, she was too awake. So she decided it was time to play.
Matt and I discussed what to do with her. We are both firm believers in only one of us needing to stay up with her at times like these - at least someone should get some sleep. The problem was we were both a lot more tired than Amy was, and we weren't sure how well we would stay awake taking care of her if we went to the front room. Since that room isn't babyproof, this could be bad. Plus, if we fell asleep, there would be nothing to stop Amy from going to the stairs and falling down them. So we let her crawl around all over us and the bed we were on.
She was giggling and having a great time ... for 2 hours. We had to move the bed against the wall to make it safer. Then we had to get things off the wall that were hanging down so that Amy didn't pull them down. We both dozed a bit, but we made our legs a blockade so that Amy would have to crawl over us if she wanted to get to the edge of the bed in any direction.
Finally at 3:15, Amy was winding down. I got up and danced with her and hummed some songs until she was really asleep. I put her down.
She cried.
I pinned her arms to her sides - that often helps her.
She slept.
I finally walked away...
She kept sleeping. I climbed into bed very relieved.
Until...
5:15 Amy starts to scream. At this point, I have no ability to do anything but nurse her. So I did. We both fell asleep.
Around 6:15 I woke up and realized that either Amy had to move, or I had to sleep on my side the whole night (what was left of it) because there wasn't room to roll over. So I got Matt to put her back in bed. (I could barely move without waking her up.)
7:30ish Amy woke up for the day.
I haven't gone back to sleep since besides falling asleep nursing this afternoon.
That is why Amy went to bed at 7:30 tonight, and I am going to get ready for bed as soon as I finish this post.
The sad part about it was that Robin and Dean were in the room directly across the hall and Chelsey was in her room nextdoor. I don't think anyone got a great night sleep. Sorry, Boltons!
Good night everyone.
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