2nd Grade Music Program

The end of Andrew's 2nd grade music program. He's in the blue shirt on the right side, first on in the top row.

Now watch closely as Andrew disappears when the camer pans right. He actually lost his balance & fell off the stand. It was pretty funny to see. I wish that Norm hadn't moved the camera so quickly.

What up?!

Ok, I know it's been a long time since my last post (about 1month to be exact). I know that there has been lots of activity, but since I'm trying to get something up tonigth, I'm going to have to look through my latest pics tomorrow. I promise to put some up soon.

Regarding grad school, I wound up getting in to six of the seven school I applied to. Unfortunately, only one offered me a scholarship, but there's a chance I could still get one from my other top choices. After reviewing all of our options once again, we narrowed the field down to our top 4 (in no particular order): U of Utah, UC Boulder, ASU, & U of Arizona. As of last Monday, I have visited all of the schools. Utah back in January, ASU when I interview there 3 weeks ago, Arizona well, I did attend school there, and Colorado last weekend with Norm. All appear to have great programs with 2 of them having newer facilities than the others. Arizona offered me a practically full tuition scholarship (very tempting). They all want to know if I'm going to attend their program by the 15th of this month (actually, Colorado's deadline was last Friday). Because of our situation, I'm going to have to lead a few schools on. I don't really like having to do it, but there's no other way. I've talked with each of them and they're all very adimate about wanting to know by this month and not giving me any sort of extension (except for ASU, who has given me an additional month) Norm is pursuing job opportunites at this time and hopefully within the month, we will have a much better idea of where we're going to end up. Currently, Colorado looks to be the likely favorite due to location (we think it would be fun to live there) but the first year of tuition may kill us unless some financial aid appears (fingers crossed, I'm 3rd on the wait list for $ from the department otherwise it'll be a student loan). I'll keep you all posted - as I told a friend of mine, come August I'll know where I'll be going to school. Keep us in your prayers as we make this decision.

As I mention before, Norm & I traveled up to Boulder, CO last weekend so that I could visit their program. We left the kids with Grandma Fran (many, many, many thanks) and they had a fun time. We drove all day on Saturday. It's about a 13 hr drive, but we made it in 12 (it really didn't seem that long to me), thanks to packing our own lunch & eating in the car. It's also amazing how long 2 grown-ups can go without have to take a potty stop (thanks again Fran for keeping the kids, I couldn't imagine the drive with them). We were able to explore the area on Sunday. The area reminded me of Seattle with the amount of trees and green around. The trees were just forming their new leaves & I spotted some tulips & daffodils in peoples yards. We did get a dusting of snow on two of the nights were were there, just an inch or two. The clouds were low, so we didn't see much of the Rockies, but Tuesday it cleared out and we got a nice view. Monday I visited the Speech, Language, & Hearing Department. They had an Open House for everyone considering their SLP & AuD programs. It turned out that in a group of about 30 people there were only 2 of us future audiologists that came out (5 had RSVP'd). It made it nice to get to know the professors, clinical instructors, & current students. Lots of one-on-one time. We drove home Tuesday and the drive seemed to last a very long time. Usually going home seems faster to me (so maybe Colorado is supposed to be our home ;-)

Let's see, what's the latest on the kids? Rachel is enjoying school as always. She's learning new words each day and is excited to read books to anyone who'll listen. Andrew is keeping us all on our toes. He earned his Bobcat at last months cub scout pack meeting and will get his first bead at this one. He's looking forward to his 2nd grade music program because he has a speaking part. Cory is on the middle school track & field team. He has practices every day and is really excited about it all. He had his first meet last Thursday and he did the long jump, shot put, & 440. This Saturday is a big meet for all the area schools and he's been invited to do the long jump & shot put. He's been training with Norm to improve his shot put skills. He wants to lift weights so that he can get buff like the 8th graders.

Love to all!

Grad School Decision Time

I began receiving letters back from the schools (7 to be exact) that I applied to for graduate school. I applied to University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of Colorado- Boulder, University of Utah, University of Washington, Washington University- St. Louis, and Northeastern University.

Last Friday I received letters from Utah and Wash U. Utah accepted me into their program and I have to respond by April 15th (aka tax day). Wash U has placed me on a wait list and will let me know if a position becomes available. Today I heard back from Colorado and they have accepted me into their program. I need to respond by next Friday, March 14th. I also heard from ASU that I have been invited to interview with them. After the interview process they will make their decision.

So all that's left is Arizona, UW, and Northeastern. I already know that I'll hear back from Arizona & UW within the next two weeks, but don't know about NE. I'm getting pretty nervous about having to make a decision between them all, especially since I won't be able to tour some of the campuses. Also, I've been surprised that no one has offered any scholarships since I had a competative GPA & GRE score. Brenna, ask Ryan if he has any advice for me having gone through this before. All additional prayers in our behalf will be welcomed as we have a big decision to make as a family at this time.

I'll continue to keep you all posted on what I hear next.

Rosco: Our latest addition

Norm and I took the plunge this week and got a dog for the family. We've been thinking about it for a loooong time and most recently started thinking about it again about a month ago. We did a bit of research and decided that a beagle would be a good fit for our family. So last Thursday night we went and picked up our new pup and surprised our boys (and Rachel too). Grandma Fran and Uncle Dan even came over that night to meet him.

Things went really well that first night. He was mostly paper trained by the breeder and was already trained to sleep in a crate. He was thouroughly tuckered out by the kids and slept really well. We've only had a handfull of accidents and only in the kitchen. We'll eventually take out the carpet in our family room so that he can join us there as well.

And then there was the name. Wow! Much harder than choosing a baby name, more people to give input and please. Rachel loved Blacky, Andrew- Oscar, Cory & I-Nigel, & Norm-Barney. We took a vote and that didn't help any. Then Norm had everyone give their top 2 picks and Oscar was on everyone's list. (Janette, I eventually remembered that you had an Oscar, but we thought since the possibilites were slim that they'd meet it would be ok.) So for about a day his name was Oscar. But then last night, Norm & I were channel surfing and came upon Dukes of Hazard, heard Rosco P Coltrane and both said, "That's it!" We conviced the kids this morning that Rosco was a much better name than Oscar (surprizingly easier than I thought it would be) and so he will be known as Rosco for the rest of his days.

Cory & Rosco (A boy & his dog)

See Andrew's excitement

Rachel loves her new puppy!

Tug-o-war: Andrew vs. Rosco

Down & Derby!

Last Friday was Andrew's first Pinewood Derby. He has been looking forward to it for the last month. Starting two weeks before the derby, he began calling Norm at work almost daily to ask what they were going to work on that day so that his car would be done on time. He wanted his car to look line a lizard/alligator/elephant. I was proud of how much Norm has grown because he didn't try to talk Andrew into a more aerodynamic car like he had when Cory was eight. They had a lot of fun working on it together and we had a fun time watching all the cars. Andrew & his car

a fun song...

So I heard this on the radio today and it made me laugh because Norm has joked about doing something like this when Rachel starts to date. Janette you may have heard it before, but for everyone else, check out this link and listen to Cleaning This Gun.
http://www.bestnewcountry.com/rodney-atkins/#

Enjoy!

Snow Angels and Wiis

A couple of fun videos from Andrew's baptism & our ski trip.

The first is Andrew, my snow deprived, desert dwelling child, making a snow angel on his stomach, which I found very funny. This was at BYU while waiting with Estelle for Grant to get off work so that we could go out to dinner with them.

The second is Mom enjoying a game of tennis with Cory. I thought that the other Harward sibs might enjoy watching mom having some fun. Who knows maybe next time we visit her she'll have bought one ;-) (I think it would make her the coolest grandma ever if she did)