The Reality of 2017

It's the end of 2017 and it has been a year worthy for a journal post! It's definitely been a year of clarity, testimony, and soul searching. It is a year of homecomings and happiness, and one of sadness and faith. 2017 is a year of learning for me, a year of lessons to help be a better person.

Going back to get a PhD has been one of the biggest challenges of my adult life. Losing an entire income, exploring research rather than teaching, and being validated by a grade has been a huge mind shift and very difficult. The year started with me doing my very first research study as a grad student. It was difficult, time consuming, and frustrating. But like I said before, it was a year of learning. I learned a lot about my academic abilities and where my passion in my career lies. The Davis study taught me that the work, rather than the grade, is what is meaningful. The research has to get to the classroom, and the teachers are what make that happen. I love teaching, it is my passion. I want to help kids, all kids. Kids deserve it!

February was the month Kelsie came home from her mission! We had been anticipating this day with so much excitement. Home just doesn't feel like home without all the kids home. On February 17, 2017 Kelsie came home from Calgary. She served with great humbleness and gratitude of heart. She loved the mission so much and had a hard time coming home. She came home on Friday night, reported her mission on Sunday to a HUGE group of friends and family, and we took off for a family vacation to Disneyland on Tuesday. We had such a fun trip with the Bean Family, Kelsie was excited to go to our happy place and we just loved being together!

     
Spring was a busy, happy time. Kelsie found 2 jobs, at Mika Rose and the Marriott. She worked tons of hours all spring and summer long. The boys worked hard in school and in the UVCC choir. Zack had a really tough 9th grade year, he had a couple of IE
P team members that really seemed to be working against his educational goals. It was the first time that I had to pull the special-education card and work to support my child's rights and needs. Todd had a really busy spring, it seems he always does, but busy is better than slow so we are very grateful for busy. I survived statistics and learned that doing your very best is good enough. I didn't get straight A's, but I got through it with my sanity and my family in tact.

Summer was CRAZY!! We did a lot of traveling and were constantly on the go. It started with a little trip to Disneyland with Veronica's family and Kristen, Aric, and Strider. It was the first time Aric had ever been to Disneyland and the first for Kristen in a very long time. It was a blast, but a lot of work for me. I really played babysitter and tour guide. It was so much fun though. It is always fun to share my tips of my favorite place with newbies. Then I headed to Chicago for a school national conference. I am working as a graduate assistant on a huge federal grant. I presented a poster session there and one night, I went exploring; it was so fun. I can't wait to go back. Then the boys went on UVCC tour to Washington DC for 3 whole weeks. While they were gone and I was in Chicago, Todd went to his family reunion in Baker. Then on Tuesday July 5th, Todd, Kelsie, and I went to Calgary to explore Kelsie's mission. That day I got a phone call letting me know that Grandma Rigby passed away. We cut our trip short and headed home Sunday night for the funeral and the boys flew in from DC. It was a good thing we came back, we took the last family picture with all my brothers and sisters. The boys headed out on Pioneer Trek, Clark loved it and Zack said he's glad he went, but would never go again.  July 31st Clark and I headed to NYC for his senior trip. It was the trip of a lifetime for sure. In August Adam passed away and we tried our best to support his family and mourn his loss. Just one week later the boys and I started back to school and then later that week we moved Kelsie to Logan to start at Utah State. That's a quick one paragraph summary of the summer. 

Then we moved into fall and school and school and work and school!

Pretty soon it was time to get ready for the holidays. We decided that we needed a break, so we took the kids to Disneyland for Thanksgiving. It was such a great decision! We had the best Thanksgiving ever. We ate at the Blue Bayou for Thanksgiving dinner and then on the way home we did tons of Black Friday shopping! It was so fun. Then we prepared for Christmas and decided it was going to be memorable one. If things go as planned (which they never do) we won't have all three kids home for Christmas for at least 2 - 4 years. So I wanted to do a traditional Christmas and we did it!

Now it is the day after Christmas 2017 and I am pondering the many lessons learned this year. And as I said in my Christmas email... Memories are more important than "things" and the most important of all is the people you love. Cheers to 2017 and bring on 2018 with lots of people and lots of memories and not a lot of things.