A Pretty Great Day

Yesterday, Jonah had his first day of preschool. He'll only be going for the month of July so I guess that it could count as a summer camp. He seemed to like it. It's an old farm converted into a preschool so they get to go out to the barns and feed the horses, Ms. Piggy, the goats, and the chickens. Wyatt was a little confused when we got in the car without Jonah though. He got this worried look on his face like, "You forgot someone!" I was fighting back tears right then. I wasn't ready for that. I thought I would be so excited for Jonah and for the fact that I could spend some time just with Wyatt, but I felt really sad leaving Jonah at the preschool for a couple hours. Weird mommy emotions!

Yesterday we also got a special surprise from Grandpa--a Spiderman slip-n-slide! The boys loved it. They liked the spray--which comes out of Spiderman's wrist like a web, but when they didn't want water in the face, I just turned it off and let them run up and down the slippery slide. I think they were a little confused when I said it was a slide because at first they wanted me to put it up on the deck so that it would be on an incline like a slide. Max was studying, so he didn't get to join in the fun yet, otherwise I'm sure there would be some photos of Max sliding into Spiderman's arms as well.

White Coat Ceremony

Tonight was Max's White Coat Ceremony. He and all his classmates were given a white coat to mark their entrance into the healthcare world. After everyone got their coat, they all recited an oath that had to do with helping people, commitment to learning, and such. (I was mostly trying to keep the boys quiet.) Doesn't he look cute in his University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine coat.

Jonah and Wyatt were really glad when the speeches and ceremony were over and we got to go eat some cake. Jonah's words as he's licking thick white frosting off his fork: "I didn't like that class part. I felt just awful."

Class of 2010

Darn Stephenie Meyers Keeping Me Up till 2 AM!

So I just finished Stephenie Meyer's newest novel, The Host. I've never been much into sci-fi, and sometimes the editor in me wonders why no editor ever caught the fact that she tends to use some of the same words over and over (in this novel it is "hiss" and "rage"), but Stephenie Meyer sure has some interesting stories rolling around in her brain. I looked at the clock at 10:40 and thought, "Oh, I'll just read a little more." Then, I finished the book thinking it would probably be 12:30 or so since I read longer than I had planned. Nope! It was 2:10 AM!!! 

I enjoyed it--I like to think of it as book candy. I really get a thrill out of reading things like Don Quixote and 100 Years of Solitude and books that you only really love after you've taken a class or read several articles on them and really get what the author is doing. But sometimes, as a busy mother trying to run a business as well (and who just got called to be the RS secretary--ahhh!), I need book candy. So, my thanks go out to Stephenie Meyer. Not only was it a compelling story, but I also think she did a good job of looking at some of the weirdness of being human--how we can hate enough to kill members of our own species, but at the same time love someone enough to be willing to die for them. 

 

Jonah's First Swimming Lessons

Jonah started swimming lessons last Tuesday. I grew up doing group lessons and feel like I learned to swim well enough, but after looking into it I decided to try private lessons. Pete Kennedy started the Kennedy Swim School here in Iowa some 28 years ago and trains all his teachers. He is this cute older man who you can tell loves kids. Jonah will have 11 private lessons and hopefully he'll learn as much or more than several sessions of group lessons. That's my reasoning anyway. For his first lesson he mostly got to just cruise around the pool and squirt teachers with pool toys, so he was pretty happy.

 

Wyatt needed some water time after Jonah's lesson. (During it he kept trying to get me to take off his shirt.) So we headed out to the fountains afterward for some splashing.

Our first funnel clouds!

So we have crazy weather here just about everyday, but yesterdays storm brought our first sightings of funnel clouds (baby tornadoes). We were outside doing some yard work when the normal afternoon thunder and lightning started, but this time we also got some tornado sirens with it. This first picture was kind of the first funnel that we watched develop out of the cloud. the second two photos came after the storm had swirled around and came back towards us. It was pretty cool. Just a lot of wind, rain, and lightning for a while.

Segullah

Last year I became involved with Segullah, a LDS womens' literary journal that is published tri-annually. It has been a wonderful blessing to my life. I get to copy-edit the journal with a few other women and I also get to be a part of a fabulous online forum with the women who put the journal, the website, and the blog together. They are amazing ladies and love literature like I do. We are all over the country, but use the forum to keep in contact. Like I said, it is a wonderful thing in my life right now since I don't get to be in school and finding time to read and write is kind of difficult.

I wrote something for the Spring issue of Segullah and it is now available to read online. Click the cover to link to the Spring issue if you want to read it an all the other great essays and poems. There is also really beautiful artwork as well.  

Studio Photos

I've been playing around with taking studio photos in my basement. I have a great camera and a pretty basic lighting set up. I haven't really shared many photos because I haven't had a place to share them yet. Here are some of my favorites.