Easter Joy!

A family picture on Easter...



Dying Easter Eggs for Family Home Evening the Monday before...



Family Easter Basket...

Flowers from a friend...
Easter Egg Hunt with Friends...













Graduation (I graduated last Dec, but Spring commencement was that day, so we likewise celebrated)...





Happy Spring!!

At Long Last...

Thanks to an incredible outpouring of support from heaven and earth over the past 5 years (much of it in the past 6 months), I have finally graduated!!

Photos from undergrad graduation

I've been waiting to share the news, because it finally became official on my student record last night, as I saw this when I logged in this morning to check my status:

DEGREES AWARDED - BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY           
--------------------------------------------------------------
DEGREE             :  BS                    
DATE RECEIVED      :  Aug 2005              
SCHOOL             :  Family Life           
MAJOR              :  Marriage, Family, & Human
                  Development
HONORS             :  Magna Cum Laude             
HONORS             :  University Honors with Thesis
GPA                :  3.92           
--------------------------------------------------------------
DEGREE             :  MS                    
DATE RECEIVED      :  Dec 2010              
SCHOOL             :  Family Life           
MAJOR              :  Marriage & Family Therapy
GPA                :  3.80            
THESIS             :  The Relation of the Expression of
                  Offense to Forgiving

HOORAY!!! I have finished the race! It has been a long, arduous process. We have moved 7 times since I started my degree, Brian earned 2 Masters degrees himself, and I've had 2 babies. I've had to navigate way too many sticky situations to list here, situations that had me in tears and almost throwing in the towel. Although it has been a character-building, enriching experience overall, if anyone were to ask my advice I'd have to strongly encourage them to finish up the student phase of their life before moving on.

I am deeply appreciative of the privilege of gaining an education; of the opportunity to develop new skills, work ethic, and endurance; of learning to rely on my family and friends for support (especially with childcare); and of working with my amazingly gifted and charitable professor, Dr. Mark Butler.

To sum up my appreciation, I'd like to share with you the Acknowledgments page of my thesis:

I owe my deepest gratitude to numerous associates, friends, and family members who have supported me during my journey as a graduate student. To friends who have cheered me on, prayed for me, and helped with childcare, I thank you for the integral role you have played in my completion of this degree.

To the faculty and secretary of the department of Marriage and Family Therapy, for the forbearance and generosity you have shown me as student on a non-traditional trajectory. I thank you for continually extending the opportunity to complete my work.

To Dr. Mark Butler, for ceaseless support and encouragement over the past eight years as I have worked as your teaching assistant and graduate student. The absolute positive regard and faith that you have always conveyed to me as a scholar, clinician, and associate have been central to my progress. I am humbled and forever changed as a person because of the privilege of working under your guidance.

I also express my profound appreciation to my family for their understanding and zealous support. To my loving mother and father whose enthusiasm for my education has been inspiring and contagious. To my dear eternal companion Brian, for your confidence in my abilities and tolerance for the imbalance in our lives over the past few months, and to my precious sons Felix and Ezra for your sweet temperaments and unconditional love. You, family, are my deepest source of joy, and the inspiration for my efforts to meaningfully contribute to this field.

Finally, I am everlastingly indebted to my Father in Heaven for the opportunity He has given me to grow in light and truth, and for the privilege of taking part in a small portion of His work by strengthening marriages and families.

:)

Literary Indulgence

I turned in a draft of my thesis proposal. (HOORAY!)

To make a December graduation (and therefore not have to petition loosing coursework credit), I need defend both my prospectus and thesis this Fall semester. Which means having the whole thing basically written by the end of this month. I've been working my tail off, and have now turned my second draft in to my adviser.

I haven't really loved the experience of writing a thesis (no, seriously? I'm four years older than when I started the thing, if that's an indication of my enthusiasm), and I don't know that I've ever had to really edit a paper before. (My usual method is to scrawl out a solid outline, hack out a pretty decent first draft, and then if I have time, read it over once to make sure it makes sense before printing it off and accepting my 94%A. Hey, an A is an A--and you think people really read what you turn in anyhow?)

But this behemoth of a paper is different, and I actually have been culling through the paper and changing things. Rewording sentences, moving ideas around, and even (cringe) deleting whole paragraphs. (That part is tough--so I have a document where I put the extracted paragraphs, called Thesis Stuff I Can't Just Delete. I'll delete the whole document later, but now the pain is too fresh.)

So anyhow, now that I have a bit of a break--before my adviser returns my draft--I've been checking something of my bucket list:


I'm really enjoying it so far. It's laced with so much silly emotion, unrequited affection, triviality, and... estrogen? It's a nice escape during naptime and in the evening. But between the descriptions of arrogant gentlemen, pretty-eyed sisters, impertinent behavior, and confusing family/social ties, the story line was becoming a bit muddled.

Then I came across this gem:

Illuminating.

Wikipedia, how did I ever used to get through a day without you?

Who needs a hospital?

OK, so I think I'll post the story of Felix's birth now, for anyone who might be interested. If you don't like birth stories or get squeamish at the thought of umbilical cords, you might want to skip this post. Otherwise, read on!!

Well, it all started 9 months ago... jk, I'll start 2 days before his birth. Tuesday, December 19 (which happens to be Mallory's birthday!), I took the Greyhound up to Provo one last time to finish up my last 5 client therapy hours (of 500). I had the same driver going up and coming back the next day, and he was a funny guy. I usually sat in or near the front seat (just so I could run off the bus fast if anyone creeps me out too much), but this time my seat choice kept me from getting much reading done in my "Husband Coached Childbirth" book (all about natural childbirth) because he just kept talking and talking. Everything that happened reminded him of a joke or a story, and after listening to him for a while I wasn't sure where one stopped and other started, cause he kept fading in and out of reality. Then he realized I was pregnant, and got super nervous that he was going to have to deliver the baby, which he supposedly had experience with. So he had some stories about that, but I don't think they were true.

Anyhow, I got into St. George at around 2:30 on Wed, but Brian was working alone and couldn't come pick me up until later that afternoon when one of his employees got in. So did I wait patiently? Yeah, right! It was only a mile and a half to Brian's work, uphill, so I figured I'd just walk as far as I felt comfortable and then stop. I was carrying quite a few bags of books, clothes, baby gifts, and stuff from my other life in Provo (oh yeah, and a baby and his luggage too), but I kept telling myself to go one block further, and pretty soon I was there. Looking back, I'm not too sure this didn't contribute to my early labor! But hey, it all worked out.

So all is well until I wake up the next morning (Dec 21st) at 7ish, and I think, hey these aren't Braxton-Hicks contractions... When I notify Brian he leaps out of bed, but I tell him not to worry, we still probably have a week or so. (See, I had a week's worth of work to do, so of course the baby will be polite and wait until I clear the shelves at Walmart, cook 60 meals ahead, wash every baby item I own three more times, and most importantly take three days to carefully and methodically pack my hospital bag.)

So we went about our usual business that day, except that during the afternoon I'm breathing through contractions while leaning over my shopping cart at Walmart. No big deal, he's still at least a couple of days off, right? So I stop at Brian's work on the way home to help with end-of-the-year inventory. Every once in a while I have to lie down on the floor and use some silly image of a beach to get through a contraction, since they're getting longer and closer together (abt. a min long, and 10 min apart). In between I'm fine though, so we finish up our work, close up shop and head home for the one BYU football game Brian will get to watch that year: the Bowl Game!

Then in between laundry, putting away groceries and Walmart goodies, some awesome plays by the Cougs, and a phone call from Brian's dad, we also breath and *relax* (HA) through some seriously intense contractions. They're coming one on top of eachother. Our birthing class is at 8:00, and at about 7:45 we call to let them know that we're thinking about going to the hospital. ("Oh, don't go too soon--it's the worst when you get sent home. Or if they keep you, they'll hook you up to a bunch of junk").

So all of a sudden I think that I've peed my pants REALLY bad somehow, but nope, we're in countdown mode!! Ahhh! So I run to the car with a bath towel, and as Brian's throwing everything under the sun into the diaper bag, I'm in the car thinking, OHMYGOODNESSI'M PUSHING!!! So Brian comes out and then runs back in and gets the baby seat, and then as we back out, I tell Brian that I'm pushing.

"Well, uh, stop pushing!! We're in the CAR!"

"I CAN'T!!! I HAVE TO!!"

"Well, don't push hard!!"

So after a 5 min drive we zoom into DRMC and run (well, I waddle and moan) inside. It's 8:00

Bri: "Can I get a wheelchair for my wife? She's in labor!"

Guy (who I'm pretty sure has been fired by now, thank you very much): [looks at me] "Oh, Labor and Delivery is just down the hall."

(Me:[DEATH STARE])

So when the nurses see me, I'm wheelchaired up immediately, and then pushed into the closest room. I'm hop up on the bed and I'm in delivery position (and attire--well minus the hospital robe and ID) in no time. Some Dr. guy runs in and listens to Brian shouting out our labor preferences (which are now becoming laughably obsolete: no drugs, no IV, no episiotomy, no continuous fetal monitoring, bla bla bla) and birth preferences (wait to cut cord, hold off on the baby bath, tell us what you're doing before you do it, etc), and tells me to stop pushing so hard (yeah, I wish I'd listened to him...) and Felix is born at 8:19!!!

Our sweet angel!

As an epilogue, Brian went out the next morning to get the car seat, and guess what? My door had been wide open all night!

"No birds, no bees
No flowers, no leaves
No wonder, November"

Ever year on the first day of this month since I can remember my Mom says that little poem, and writes it places where everyone can see it. I bet it was written on the dry erase board in our kitchen, that she uses to keep track of everyone's responsibilities that day, with a picture of a tree with colored leaves falling. :-) She also sent me an email with it in the body. Ahh... traditions.



This year I was in Provo on Halloween and when Brian called to read scriptures and say prayer with me he said "Happy almost November!" and I shared the poem with him. My mom has trained me well. I wonder if my great-grandchildren will know the poem, and I wonder when my Mom first heard it...

Well, I feel like my whole life is leading up to the momentous events of January. I don't even think I've thought about my life after that point in detail. Like, is there going to be a February, 2007? Whoah. We'll have a baby then. Ahhhh!

Laura at 27-weeks.
Oh boy, so I will finally try and catch up and start posting more regularly, because that's what a blog is for! A lot has been going on here in the Hall family!
I'm still commuting weekly to school in Provo. Six weeks down, eight to go. Man, that's not even half. The Greyhound smells funny, so the eight hours I spend on it each week aren't my favorite, but it's a means to an end. So overall I'm glad for it. Except for the week that the only seat left when I got on in St. George (at 1:30 am) was next to this really thick guy (like he wasn't really fat, just big), and he was taking up his seat plus 3/4 of the only open seat on the bus. And he was asleep. Wow. So I sat down on the empty corner and tried to move him over a little, but it's a little awkward, you know? So finally he sorta wakes up and notices me, but doesn't move. So I just try and sleep by leaning back on the seat with my back facing him and then I feel his head fall onto my shoulder. Whoah buddy, I'm married and not to you. So I move my arm so my shoulder blade kinda jabs his head. Yae for a bony back. That wakes him up good, and after shifting around and then moving to the aisle, he lays down on the floor and falls asleep. No way, a whole two seats to myself! So when in doubt, use a little shoulder blade action. It gets 'em every time.

I'm going to put up pregnancy pics here too, because I've grown a lot! Some people are silly enough to say I still don't look pregnant, but like I ate a big meal. Well, maybe a whole turkey without chewing, because I definately have the belly. You be the judge.
It's true that some clothes conceil the belly while others highlight it. Basically if I wear nonmaternity clothes I look frumpy but not obviously pregnant. It just looks like I have no figure and a little gut. Not attractive. Maternity clothes, on the other hand, highlight my waist (it's still there, I promise) and the belly separately. Much more flattering and feminine I think. That's when I get the, "You're finally looking pregnant!" reactions. I'm still waiting for the "Ma'am, have my seat" reaction on the bus though. We'll see. Brian says a little heavy breathing and, "Is there a hospital at the next stop??!!" should do the trick.
So, on Brian. He's working hard at Summerhays (the music store he is managing) and on his business school applications. He's applying round 1 to five schools. He just submitted his Harvard application last Thursday. His application looked awesome to me, and his essays great. I think his a gifted writer, and he has a patience for proofreading and refining that I don't. So if I were the admissions committee I would be impressed. But I'm a little biased. For that application we're waiting to hear if he'll get an interview, then we'll start looking for decently priced flights to Boston. I wonder when we'll find out.
Meanwhile, he's working on his Northwestern application. We already have the interview scheduled for that school, since they interview all applicants. We'll be flying into Chicago on the Monday before Thanksgiving and then driving to Cedar Rapids, IA that evening to spend the holiday with his mom and siblings. I am so, so excited to spend time with his family! Also, we will get to see Laura Jones while in Chicago, since she's living in Aurora now. I've missed Laura a ton--it will be awesome to see her.