Catch-up

Wow, it's already been a long time but yet, there's still more to catch up on.

August:

This was a BUSY month for our little family. James started classes in the athletic training program, and boy oh boy is he a new MAN! He loves school! It's great to see him excited to read his textbooks, and go to class on time, and talk about everything he learns. He started a clinical assignment at Mountain View High school in Orem working with all their athletes. The high school boys seem to love him and make up nicknames for him. (It's probably because he gives such good massages!) I started another year of hall advisor and kicked off a big week of RA training. Despite being gone all day, James played MR. MOM and canned peaches and homemade salsa. Even though his mom wasn't around as much, Jackson started walking! It took only like 2 days of holding his hands high above his head, but he mastered it fast. Some people say it's hard when they start walking, but honestly, Jackson was so much happier! August also brings about BYU football season and Jackson actually made it to all the games this year. With books, toys, and LOTS of fruit snacks and juice boxes, he was a happy boy! He would even clap along with the fight song and stare at the ball. James couldn't be more proud.

September:

One of my highlights was taking Jackson up to the petting ZOO at thanksgiving point. He started being able to make LOTS of different animal sounds, and ran around the place pointing and grunting at the animals. SO many people stopped to comment and after 2 hours, I decided I'd had enough. James played on an intramural football team (of course). They played hard every week and practiced for hours. They didn't make it as champion, but James was definitely the star quarterback. I blame their losing on the fact the made James NOT play quarterback for awhile.

October:

My parents made nice trip up to visit. We enjoyed a football game and of course, the homecoming week festivities. My dad is always so good at supporting BYU and doing all the "different" activities. Yet, those are always my favorite parts of his visit! We ended the weekend off with a good visit to the OC-TUBA fest where some world famous tuba players sang into their tubas. (literal singing). It was great! October is also my birthday month and James surprised me with a gym membership to 24 hour fitness. I couldn't have asked for a better present. Jackson gets to go play int he kids' club and I've definitely become more fascinating with Zumba, cycling, and body-pump classes. Jackson loves the little playgrounds, and the worker girls are nice BYU girls that he loves. Thanks James, for giving us something to do each day!

James and I also went to our first haunted house to celebrate halloween. It was raining pretty bad on halloween, so we took a raincheck for another night. However, it was SO freaky, the people actually touched you and I kind of just froze. James had to pull me through the whole entire thing, saying "Shawnne, you have to walk.... shawnne, MOVE, etc.". When it was over, I even started crying! Now, I realize why we will never do something like that again.

NOVEMBER:

Living with the freshmen...is well...crazy sometimes. We had some lovely young men decide to vandalize a car int he parking lot (and well, it was our van...). They picked it up, moved it, cracked the window, and pooped on it! The police officer sure was mad and it took weeks to get it all figured out. Drama came when one of the boys' uncles got involved (tried to persuade my decision, guess that's called witness tampering...). Anyways, right around that same time, I had a girl try and stab herself on the balcony during the ward party, 2 girls that had anxiety attacks (rolling on ground screaming), a boy with a pretty severe eating disorder, and another attempted suicide (drug overdose). It pretty much wore me out trying to deal with it and Thanksgiving was a much needed break. My mom watched Jackson and we left with Brad and Julie over to Disneyland. Despite getting the stomach flu, I had so much fun! Normally I love Indiana Jones, but seeing as my stomach hurt, my favorite was the Buzz Lightyear shooting game. Brad spent lots of hours making a Disneyland trivia book which provided lots of entertainment in the car. We visited Huntington beach and of course, brad was the only who got in. We also ran the turkey trot...together. WOW! James wasn't feeling good and so, he didn't even try and pass me, just ran with me. It was great! Ok, so we jogged. But, still beat the sister missionaries my dad invited! The Bob and Marlene Anderson's got together and for the first time, James met some of my dad's sisters. We then went over to Nate and Andrea's new house in Gilbert for a few hours.

December:

Well, that brings us to now...the crazy time of year with freshmen checking out and James taking finals. So far, it's looking like it will be his best semester grade-wise...which is definitely exciting! We spent the past weekend going up to Salt lake city. We went to the BYU basketball game at energy solutions arena. Jackson was mesmerized by all the lights, sounds, and people. Halfway through the game, when he finally snapped out of his staring, he started yelling "basketball hoop" at the top of his lungs. James and I got a good laugh realizing he must think that's what everyone is yelling. We went to the temple square lights, and went up to visit my mom who was in town. Sunday was Grandma and Grandpa Matthew's homecoming talk form their Ogden mission. I spent most of the time outside with Jackson but it was fun to see all the family. We had a big luncheon afterward and I met a lot of their investigators. I'm always continually amazed at what good missionaries my grandparents are. My mom took Jackson home on the plane with her. They are so good to help us through our busy times. I know Jackson's having LOTS more fun than he would here, and even though I hate going without him, it's been very helpful to get caught up on lots of things. Sometimes I really wonder how long I can keep up a more than 40 hour work week and stay on top of the house stuff and be a good mom. Luckily, peak weeks like this (where I work 80 hours) only happen about 3 times a year. But, we'll leave for Arizona this coming Tuesday. We're already counting the days....