Grandma Vera

A little over 3 months ago Nate's grandpa passed away and today brought with it news that grandma also passed away. She was really sick with pneumonia and really missed grandpa. They were married for 69 years! He was almost 94 and she was 86. This is the picture that was outside their room at the assisted living home in Cut Bank. I wish I knew them like Nate knew them. He has so many memories of them and they sound like they were awesome grandparents! We trust they are with the Lord...
This year continues to present some tough times and at times I look back at all the things that have gone on even in the past month and I wonder how it is I am still functioning... but I know there is a purpose for everything and perseverance builds character... I am going to stop rambling now and just say that I miss Virgil and Vera even though I didn't know them that much. They are such a huge part of Nate and I am sad that he doesn't have his grandparents any more.

I wish I was laying on one of those empty beach chairs right now... I miss Maui today.
And I am only posting because I have zero motivation to do the thing I should be motivated to do, which is my homework. I have less than 50 days, less than 20 assignments to do and am on the home stretch and I can't get myself to work. Please pray for me or the next 7 ish weeks are going to be horrible!!
Anyway... I haven't put anymore pics up because I believe, but don't take my word for it, that Nate is making something cool with the pics and when he is done we will post that... but I am not sure... If I have time this June to post some more, then I will...
Also pray for my job situation. I have a job next year, but it's not the position I have now and I am attempting to 'transfer' into an elementary classroom... we'll see what happens the next few weeks... I just pray it's the position God wants for me and that I can be used wisely in the position... whatever it may be. Alrighty... must sign off and get some work done... I am going to tackle my dumb homework... ;)

Pics will come...

So... we went to Hawaii for over a week, didn't watch TV, hardly used the Internet and had a blast! It was wonderful. Here are just a couple pics. There are over 6,000 more and we are going through them, Nate's gonna touch them up, and possible make a really cool video with the stills so we can have more than just a folder with our pics in it. Those 6,000 files include video also... we have a great time and miss the temperature and weather. So beautiful!
Plumeria is now my favorite flower! This bloom is the best smelling anything I have ever smelled in my life!! It was awesome! It was from a tree in Hana on Maui. None of the other plumeria I found on the island smelled nearly as good as the ones that come from that tree... I don't think I took a pic of the tree, just a few blossoms that had fallen.
Our little red convertible. It was a good car. A Sebring, just like Michael Scott from The Office.

One of our biggest adventures was to the Hana airport to meet Armin for Power Hang Gliding 'lessons'. This was a blast!!!
We hope to post more soon...
While we were in Maui, my sister had her first baby! His name is Walter Quinn and I am excited to meet him soon!!

It never ends...

The homework never ends, but I sure can't seem to do it... again! I am a week ahead right now, but if I don't get going on this stuff... i won't stay ahead and be prepared for our planned vacation to this place.
Soooo excited!
Anyway... just had to post something since I hadn't for a while. Back to my discussion board about my thoughts on the role of computers in elementary education. :) So much fun. no... not really...

A quick side note... I like the Olympics. I thought it was funny that 2 of the American snowboard cross competitors are named Seth and Nate... my Nate and his best friend Seth love snowboarding... just a fun coincidence.

Can't Concentrate...

What I wish I was doing!!

This masters degree thing is driving me crazy! It's all I do anymore. I want to vacuum. I want to blog... (shouldn't be blogging right now). I want to watch stuff on Hulu or whatever is on CMT because they have fun shows as I recall from Christmas break. I want to go for a walk with Nate and Shadow. I want to go buy groceries and not feel rushed. I want to go to church instead of sitting at home finding scholarly articles on Instructional Technology and e-learning authoring systems. I want to do anything but read all this stuff and write a profound paper on my thoughts about the subject. BUT... I can't. I have to get this done. I am working ahead so I can enjoy myself on our vacation over spring break. As of today, I only have 15 more weeks to deal with this. I have picked up some great information for teaching and have absorbed a lot of general information about education, but I am tired and really looking forward to May 30th!! I just needed to vent a bit... maybe now I can focus better becuase I have been getting nowhere with this stuff today.
Mom took Nate and I to lunch though, so that was nice! Thanks mom!!
On to the research and paper writing...

Grandpa Virgil

Friday brought some sad news. Nate's grandpa passed away a little after 7am. We are going to the funeral this week. I only met Virgil 2 times, but Nate spent many summers with his grandparents in Cutbank, they would visit Casper at least twice a year, and Nate went on a few road trips with them when he was young. He has so many memories of them and the things they did together. Here's a picture of Nate and grandpa last summer when we visited them. He was 93 years old; only 2 months away from 94!! The sad thing is we have been weighed down by other things going on (work mostly), it's like we haven't really let the news sink in. It will be good to spend the week with family and hope that things will settle down.

Unfortunately, my grad degree work doesn't go away. I got done with last week's stuff early, and need to work hard today to get half of this week's work done before we go. So I better make this blog short. I also hope I get ahead on that work so I can go to my sister's baby shower on Saturday and get in the habit of being ahead so I can enjoy our spring break trip to Hawaii... how sad would it be if I had to finish a paper or two while I was there!? Horrible thought... :)

So far this year we have been going to Sunday morning services regularily and have really enjoyed them. God's word has been comforting and encouraging to me even though I feel like all I do is work and homework. It will end soon. There is a season for everything...

I need to let Nate take more pics of me and him and us with our friends. We had a few people over a couple weeks ago and then went to Amanda's for book club last Sunday and it was fun... I'll try to remember pics next time...

Long night...

First off... returning to work this week was rough. I really enjoyed vacation and now I am feeling overwhelmed by work and homework. It's a lot each week. I survived the first half of my degree and am praying that I can do so for the last half also. I am praying my headaches don't return, that I can find the time to read everything, understand my assignments well and formulate my thoughts well enough to remember what it is I am doing as a Masters degree student. As my current professors says, "You are masters of your education. Prove it!". And I must do all of this while working with all my kids at school... planning and preparing for them so that they too can be successful at what they are attempting. It's overwhelming, but I'll get there... :)

So last night after I began one of my assignments and had a pretty good grasp on things, we decided to watch a movie before going to sleep. It was after 1 by the time the movie was over. I let the dog out one last time, shut off lights, and was crawling into bed when I hear a knock or tap 3 times on one of our windows... it freaked me out. Shadow barked his vicious bark and it stopped. Nate was already buried in pillows and said he thought it was just the dog making noises, but I know it was a knock on a window near us and obviously Shadow knew it was something more than himself making noises. Then... not 2 minutes later we hear a bbgun or a paintball gun sound about 4 times hitting our fence or our neighbors fence and then all the dogs outside begin barking... and many of them rarely bark! We get up, hear more 'gun' shots and decide it could actually be a gun from pretty far away and not just some kids paintballing random stuff in our neighborhood, which has never happened to us. We've never had anything like this happen in our neighborhood. I decide to call the police just to get someone to patrol. We hear more shots, all of our neighbors are now awake and turning their lights on too. The cops wandered around our houses for like 20 minutes and we didn't hear or see anything more and then we finally go to bed at around 2:30... it was weird. This morning... no evidence of anything. No footprints in the snow near our windows, no paintball splatters or bullet holes (thank goodness!) and it doesn't seem like our neighbors had anything happen either. It made for a disturbing night and if it was just some stupid people messing around then oh well, but it would have been fun to watch the cops chase them or something... :) I always try to find the positive side to everything. And as Nate says, don't worry. You know how to use a gun too if it ever came down to it. I pray nothing ever happens where I would have to use a gun to defend myself!

So that was our long night... maybe I overreacted by calling the cops (which Nate thinks I did) but i don't care. If someone is going to harrass me and my neighbors like that, I want them to know I don't mess around and I use my tax money by calling the authorities. That's what they are there for.

Alright... enough recall of events. Must get back to my paper of the ADDIE model of instructional design. I know... so much more interesting huh? I love homework...