Guess what?

It really happened….I earned my associates degree through BYU Idaho!!!

The last day of the semester is officially on July 20th, but I worked ahead & finished today!

I am so excited to take a break from school & homework. We head out to Phoenix next week & I am so happy to go on a trip with never once worrying about schooling.

It was a long road for me to get to this point. I did the ugly cry many times- trust me. A long background: I went to school at NAU right out of high school. I got married after 1 semester in college. I continued going to school, but through GCC instead, until I had my first son Clayton. Then I took a long time off. At Clayton’s first birthday party, we announced that he would be having a younger sibling…I was prego & due in March. After our second son Porter was born, we took a break for a bit (Porter had some health issues for awhile). Three years later, we had our third baby boy Cooper. Cooper was taken early at 31 weeks, due to heart issues. I ended up having to have a c-section, otherwise the birth would have been too much on Coop. Cooper only lived for two weeks (that is a whole other story). Two months later I  had another surgery, but this time a total right hip replacement. Seven months later, Laun talked tome about going back to school. I attended UofA full time for one semester. Near the end of that semester, I became pregnant.  It was very crazy & felt like too much trying to be a wife, mom & full-time student. I took another break from school. We had our fourth baby, but this time we had a girl, Marlee.  Life just kept getting busier!  So here I am at 2 years ago. In 2010, I had a temple recommend interview with my stake President. He told me to go back to school & get my associates, so that I could lock in all the classes I had taken already. I cried. Laun was currently working on his Masters degree. Jonathan (Laun’s younger brother) was living with us because he was going to UofA. And I was babysitting twin boys around Marlee’s age- three one year olds (five days a week)! We had a full house. I was also recently called to be the Primary President & didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I was pretty busy already & I didn’t see how school would fit in. I went home & talked to Laun & then I started getting excited. It would be pretty cool to earn a degree. Then I heard about this program called Pathway through BYU Idaho that helps people get back into school. So, in September of 2010 I stated going to school, AGAIN! For the first year I started out lighter, at 5 credits per semester. I also had to attend class every Thursday night for a year. I miscarried during this time (I was only at 10 weeks), went to the ER several times, got pneumonia and valley fever. My body must have been worn out!  I only lasted a little over a semester with babysitting & schooling, so I stopped babysitting the twins. I took three semesters straight in a row that year. And Laun earned his second degree during this time- his Masters. The next year I decided to do three semesters in a row again. This time I took two semesters of 8 credits & then saved my lightest load of classes for my final semester & took only 4 credits. And finally, after over a decade (around 12 years actually) of off and on again school, I earned my associates degree. It was an emotional thing for me. It took a lot of work going to school for 2 years straight & 3 semesters each year. All the while Laun was going to school & my kids were growing fast. I couldn’t have done it without the help of God. I struggled for awhile & almost called it quits. Then I had the feeling to read my scriptures everyday & it helped. I had a lot of nights staying up late or mornings waking up early to fit in all my hw. Laun was a huge help. he made sure to be home on Thursday every week in time for me to go to class for that whole year. He took the kids out on countless days, so that I could have a quiet house to do homework in. My parents helped out, too. They helped pay for some of my schooling. Eventually, it all paid off & I achieved this milestone. I earned all A’s while attending BYU Idaho. Wow…that was a mouthful. There was just a lot of history to go through! I am grateful to all who helped me achieve this goal!

 

We went out as a family to celebrate tonight. I ordered my favorite- virgin pina colada, but they were out of coconut milk or something! So I had to get a virgin strawberry daiquiri instead. Marlee saw the pink drink & quickly handed me her soda & told me I could have it. I guess she wanted to trade:) The drink went round & round the table- we are really good at sharing in our family :)

 

We got nachos, hamburgers & sweet potato fries.

 

We went to Shooters- it was our first time there, good food.

Now I am excited to take a break from school (again, I seem to be good at that). I look forward to more sleep, more family time, more social time, and less stress & homework (my boys still have school, so there is always hw). Hopefully my house will be a lot cleaner, too.