What the Heck Happened This Spring?

So, the spring semester is finally over! Almost straight A's again, except for a B+ in Curriculum. Nuts! It was a great semester; I just hope I remember all the creative lessons to use when I'm a teacher.

Going through my 1st and 2nd trimester in school while working 30 hours on the phones & more hours teaching piano was pretty difficult. But now that school's over, I'm not sure what to do with myself. I'm picking up extra hours at work, recruiting more piano students, brushing up on my piano, and doing pregnancy workouts.

I often go walking, but love to swim. I used to swim laps to help my back from the car accident I was in five years ago. (Wow, I can't believe it's been five years!) The past year, though, my back got so much better, and I've been off meds for a long time now. But the past few weeks, my back and neck have started hurting more, so being in zero-gravity has been my saving grace.

I've also been going to a prenatal yoga class the past month. I didn't think I would enjoy it so much, but at the risk of sounding cliche, it's helped me get in touch with my feminine side. I feel a lot more nurturing when I'm there. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of people in the class, so I'm trying to spread the word. You'd think I'd recruit an entire class myself; there are over 20 pregnant women in my ward! But I can't seem to find anyone that wants to do it, too. Maybe it's me...

So last Saturday I volunteered at the Special Olympics. I signed up to be the staging supervisor. What was I thinking? I had to coordinate the other volunteers to put the right contestants in the right lane. This had to be done a couple heats ahead of time.

It was pretty hard since the contestants often didn't answer to their name, and didn't know where to go themselves, and the volunteers I was in charge of didn't know either because I had the only copy of the forms. Luckily I had training in thinking outside the box from my elementary education program.

Things were pretty unorganized though. We were in so much disarray & there was no one there to help us. A lady eventually came up to me in a huff about how everyone's waiting on us, and what are we doing? I fought the urge to throw the papers in her face and remind her that I was only a volunteer! I swallowed my pride in the nick of time and got help without hurting anybody.

Sadly, I was so busy organizing, I only got glances of the actual races. When I did I was pretty inspired. I'll definitely help next year. I'm doing this for them and not some ticked-off lady.

So I volunteered for a couple of hours, then trained a replacement & left to go to work. Then I took Jared out for his 28th birthday to see Iron Man 2 with his friends. Yeah!

I'm so glad to have him in my life, and I can't believe it will be ten years this July 24th since we first met. It seems like we've known each other much longer than that.

Jared, as you may know, lost his job a few weeks ago. He's getting certified in A+ and a couple other computer-techie things. It's been stressful for both of us, with things up in the air financially, losing health insurance, and a baby on the way. But it's actually been a real blessing for us.

Working at Jared's previous employer made his digestive problems so much worse. He had an ulcer just from work. Now he looks so much healthier. Before, we only saw each other a few minutes each day. Now we have had so much more time to be together. I feel like I have my husband back, now that he's not getting the life sucked out of him. We laugh all the time. It's almost like a second honeymoon.

And can I just tell you how glad we are to have set aside food storage? We even have medical insurance worked out for now. So we know things are going to be okay, and our relationship has been closer than ever. Weaker men would have given in to fear and despair, but Jared has been working so hard and making use of every minute. He's just brimming with confidence, ambition, and ingenuity. So here's to you, Jared, my own Iron Man. Happy birthday!

Sunday was my first Mothers' Day, by the way. It wasn't much different, because Jared has always celebrated me on Mothers' Day, as the mother of his future children. Isn't that sweet? He took me to Park Discovery (a big playground). I loved crawling around the maze of twists and turns and activity spots. I got a wake-up call to all the things I can't do anymore, or can't do as easily, now that I'm 6 months pregnant. Some examples include bending over a lot, hanging from a bar, and swinging on a tire swing. But I enjoyed what we could do, and despite the weather, it was a beautiful Mothers' Day!