Back to Normal?

Wow that was quick. I just posted about how crazy life has been and for the last two days I haven't had anything! It feels great for a little while, until I start to go crazy with boredom again : ) Unfortunately, Richard's life went just the opposite. This is just a sample of a normal semester for him and this is what it was like for us today: (also I apologize that this is such a LONG post, but I haven't blogged in a while so it makes up for it, right?)

8:00 am:
Richard goes on campus to finish his reading that he couldn't do last night even though he was up super late trying to get it done
Kelli goes to work

9:00 am:
Richard goes to buy airplane tickets and tries to talk BYU into paying for the conference he was recently accepted to present at in FL
Kelli is still at work

10:00 am:
Richard starts oral exams for the two classes he teaches
Kelli is still at work

11:00 am:
Richard runs to his 1st class of the day
Kelli is still at work

12:00 pm:
Richard runs back to the building he was in before to teach his 1st class
Kelli is still at work

1:00 & 2:00 pm:
Richard does 2 more hrs of oral exams and starts to get a headache from listening to half-decent Spanish
Kelli takes a break for lunch but is still at work

3:00 pm:
Richard teaches his 2nd class of the day
Kelli has just about had it at work

4:00 pm:
Richard runs to his last class of the day and tries not to think about how hungry he is since he didn't get to stop for lunch today
Kelli is counting down the minutes until work is done

5:30 pm:
Richard watches a movie with his class mates that is required for his class tomorrow
Kelli celebrates being home and pops in some easy microwave food for dinner

7:00 pm:
Richard is still watching his movie and eats a banana and some popcorn for his lunch and partial dinner
Kelli turns on the TV to catch her favorite show- American Idol

8:30 pm:
Richard runs home from campus and grabs a few quick bites before heading off to do Bishopric interviews at some of the apartments in the ward
Kelli tries to clean up the baby's room but decides her stomach hurts too much and gets on the computer to waste some time

9:30 pm:
Richard is still at Bishopric interviews but will soon come home to at LEAST 3 more hrs of homework
Kelli decides she is hungry and has a snack while she reads a book

Man, it's hard to tell who's life is harder!!!! Really though, I feel so bad for Richard and I wish I could make things easier on him. It's easy to see why he's been losing weight (and probably some of his hair) lately. Oh the life of a grad student!

Busy Busy Busy

I thought things were supposed to calm down after the holidays. You know, Richard goes back to school and I go back to my boring life. So how is it possible that things have been just as crazy if not MORE crazy after all the holidays were done with? Someone please explain this to me...

Reaping the Rewards

Richard finally has a little bit of extra time and so I got the dinner he promised me when I won our bet about the gender of the baby. And he did a GREAT job. This was my favorite part:

In case I ever forgot that I was right, he made a cute sign to remind me. Richard had the table set with our nice plates and glasses and had music going in the background and he made me a very tasty meal of steak, mashed potatoes, corn, salad, and rolls. I love when Richard cooks any time but this probably tasted even better because I knew I got it from being right :) I highly recommend this for any bet you might be making in the future!

S.O.S.

PLEASE tell me that every soon-to-be mom has days when they say, "what am I thinking? I can't be a mom!?!" You know, those days when you realize that you can't even decide what color to make the crib sheets, so how could you possibly make decisions that will affect the life of an otherwise helpless human being? Please tell me everyone thinks that, because I just had a day like that. A really bad day like that. My wonderful mom and sisters came down to Provo to take me baby shopping. And I freaked out. Walking up and down those aisles with SO many things staring back at me that I alone will be responsible for knowing how they work, why they are necessary, and when to use them was just a little too much for me I think. I didn't even know what fun things to register for, let alone which things the baby will actually need. And I'm not going to lie, I was more interested in looking at all the fun toys than remembering which car seats had the highest safety rating....does that make me a bad mom already? I'm sure tomorrow will be a better day and I will realize that nobody knows everything they are supposed to be doing before the baby actually comes and I will calm down. In the meantime I think I'll go watch a movie and try to ignore the butterflies in my tummy that come when I realize that I am just over 3 months away from this little one coming whether I am ready or not!

More than 400 hours,

7000 pages, 21 Spanish books, and 16 weeks later here we are (not including about 300 pages of articles he had to read on top of all these books!). And yes, those are the actual books he read this semester. Can I just say my husband is amazing?! One semester down, 5 1/2 years left to go. Can we survive it? We will see...

Tuki Tuki Tuki Tuki

Last night I went to support Richard and his students in a singing competition. Not a serious singing competition where the best singer actually wins, but a competition between all of the Spanish classes. All of the professors had to pick a Spanish Christmas song and teach it to their students and then on the last day of class they all came together to sing them for each other. Richard's song was "El Burrito Sabanero" which has a really catchy tune and tends to get stuck in your head ALL the time. Richard was the only teacher who taught his students a little dance to go along with the song and because of that he won a prize! He got a certificate for the most original song and then he also won for being 1 of the top 3 favorite songs that the judges picked. I was actually really surprised, I thought all the students were going to be embarassed to be up there and only singing half-heartedly because they have to be there, but they all got really into it and it was super fun to watch. I also got a couple of good blackmail videos of Richard dancing. Here's one of them for your enjoyment as well as mine :)

Enemy #1

I have a new enemy. No, it's not an angry Christmas shopper or someone stuck in traffic. It's the squeaky floorboards above my bed. I wake up every morning about 6:00 am to the guy who lives above us walking around upstairs. And I kid you not, we have the squeakiest house in the whole world. Not only can you NOT tune that out but by the time he leaves, there's not even enough time for me to get back to sleep before my own alarm goes off. Last night was the last straw for me. This time he was up until 3:00 am doing who knows what, rocking back and forth on that same squeaky board. I swear he must be doing it on purpose because he instinctively knows that I'm lying awake being annoyed by it. He finally went to bed at 3:00 but was up again at 6:00 doing that same who knows what on that same squeaky floorboard. Next time, I seriously think I'm going to have to go at it with my hammer. Hopefully Richard will be able to keep me from going completely insane.