Too much going on!

We have been busy, and I have been trying to adjust my schedule, trying to find what works best for me to get school work done, take care of the house, and still have time for Corey and animal kids. At the beginning of the semester, I was sleep deprived many nights because I would just wake up, and then not be able to go back to sleep. It was frustrating, and my eyes hurt so bad! Finally, I was able to get used to school and driving, therefore I don't have problems anymore. I still get up early because of the dogs, but usually I have been able to get a good solid nights sleep.

School has been interesting. I am a T.A., but for my fellow students. It is unique for sure! Because of an internship over the summer, I waived a class, and since they have a hard time finding seniors to be a T.A. for a senior class, I was personally asked to be one. Now, I don't ever have my own time in the studio, because I am always there, and when students have a question, they don't mind asking. There are about 25 students in the class. I get along great with the new professor. We see some things eye to eye, and other things slightly different, but that is good for this class, as there are many successful ways to do the many different projects we have the students do.

There is a lot of change in the program this year. We had the department head, Liz Brabec, and her husband, Peter, leave us at the end of last year (after a successful trip to Italy too!) to go teach at UMass. Our college at USU cares very little for our small department, and Liz had such a hard time getting any funding, and then they cut some funding for our department, which this year has more students in the Freshman and Sophomore classes than ever before, with not enough teachers, and they won't let us hire more! She struggled with funding issues for so long, and then her parents and Peter's parents' health is suffering with age, and they live on the east coast, so they moved. I still email them, and they are such wonderful people I hope to keep in contact with them. Liz has been encouraging me to get my master's degree, which I plan on doing after Corey gets his.

We have a teacher on the brink of retirement. He was going to retire completely this year, but when my class was in his Sophomore class, he took such a liking to us that he decided he needed to teach us his Senior Winter class, so he is fishing in Minnesota this semester and will teach one last semester, and then be done. He has taught for 40 years, all at USU, has two Masters degrees, one in Landscape Architecture and the other from South Dakota University in Science Fisheries and Wildlife Biology. He is renowned in the academic field for many things, and is just an incredible person. I am lucky to have had his influence!

There is a new teacher from California that is fun and energetic. His name is Rick LaBrasseur, and he is so fun to talk to. Friday, the senior class had to participate in Park(ing) Day, and my group designed a beach in our parking stall (the idea is to encourage people to walk more and drive less, so we took over a metered parking stall with open space and sat around all day visiting with people). He came and sat for quite some time, and we just had so much fun. I got my first tan in my life, and it's pretty dark! I might be a T.A. for his class next semester. The junior class has been asking me to be their T.A. next semester almost since this one began. We'll see!

Corey and I have been designing our remodel of the house. It is coming along. Because it takes one person to devote much of the evening to watch the doggies outside, we have had to structure our schedule to accommodate them. I leave for school at 7 every morning, and leave campus around 5 every evening, hoping that the extra time I put in after and between classes will allow me to get everything done at school, and leave the evenings to watch the doggies or work on the house. I have only tried it for two days, so I'll keep you posted on how it is working!

Corey has been busy at work getting prepared to install Robots at the Museum. It opens on the 29th of September, so he has been very busy. He is thinking of beginning his Master's degree from the school of the gods, BYU, next fall. I am nervous about being the one to pull in the full-time salaried income, but am looking forward to using my degree in the working field! We hope to be done remodeling the house by then, and can move further south, closer to BYU, but we'll see. I hope that we can purchase something that doesn't need this much work. I am done remodeling, and it's just in the beginning!

We still don't have any callings. Our ward is very unique, and it's hard to get to know people because there is another ward that we combine with for Relief Society/Priesthood, and Sunday School. Supposedly is it because the Primary would be so small, but we had the Primary Program last week, and it was huge because of combining them. I am baffled, but continue to go and support the ward. We have been gone a lot this summer which is unusual for us, so maybe that is why we don't have callings yet.

Well, this has been long enough! I wanted to let you all know what we have been doing, especially since I haven't been posting much lately. Hopefully, I will post yet another blessed day of my Italy trip later today! Also, more pictures of Mallory, Kurt and Carson's trip to come.