A New Year - a new beginning

Ya know, these new years are coming more frequently all the time. If I'm not careful, I'm going to wake up any day now and realize that all my children have grown and left me.

First a little update, and then I have something exciting to tell you.

I have one more assignment left to finish my current class. I should be done with it in the next few days. I won't have time to fit in another class before the term ends at the end of January, so I will have a couple of weeks to myself. I will have completed the equivalent of 27 credit hours this term. I love the fact that WGU lets me test out of some of these classes. Unfortunately my current classes have projects so I have to do them, I can't simply pass the test and move on. I can, at least, simply review the information and do the projects, so I am still catching up relatively well.

During my holiday break, instead of staying away from the computer like I intended, I ended up starting a new project. I made my own website. It ended up being more than 15 pages. I thought I was done and then I had an epiphany. A friend asked me if I had such-and-such a book and if she could borrow it. It occurred to me that I could add a list of books on my site that I would be willing to lend out. I put together a quick list of 30 titles; that wasn't even any curriculum, just the how-to home educate books and seminar CD's. - I have a lot more.

So I thought, what if I start a home education curriculum lending library? I think there could be a real market. The economy is tough, money is tight. I would love to be able to check something out for a short time and look it over, or even longer and use it for several months. To try before you buy. Potential home schoolers are easily intimidated by the cost of materials. The more I think about it, the more excited I get. The public libraries sometimes have things, but not very much and you can't keep it for very long. The post office has a library mail rate that is very reasonable. I could solicit donations of used materials. I just need to figure out the lending terms. Should I charge a rental fee? A deposit? Run it more like a membership club? I'm not sure. I need to find that balance between making too easy and it being abused, and making it so hard that I miss my intended market.

You want to know the most amazing thing? Throughout our marriage, I have come up with crazy ideas. Jonny is my sense of reason. If the timing is wrong, or it would put my energies in the wrong direction, he seems to know it and shuts me down. When it is good, he supports it. I have learned to trust his wisdom and insight. Well, Jonny is supporting this one. That is my biggest confirmation that this could be good. But yes, Crazy!

Week 2

So we managed to get his weight back up. Big relief! But in the process of supplementing, my milk supply went way down. The doc said that as he nurses, my milk will increase. Tuesday night I came to conclusion it wasn't happening. I needed my milk up so that he could learn to latch on, but I needed him to latch on in order for my milk to go up. AARRGGHH!!!

Wednesday morning I called Le Leche League. May I just say, I LOVE LE LECHE LEAGUE!!! Julie made a two hour drive (1 hour each way) to get me an awesome real double pump. She came to my home, set me up, and did her best to assess Joshua. She said, "If they aren't nursing, it is because they cannot nurse. All instincts are pointing them towards that end so if it isn't happening, something is in the way. She noticed a few things that may be causing the problem. His tongue isn't doing a wave action like it is suppose to, but is bunched up in the middle. Consequentially, he is trying to compensate by using his entire mouth muscles to do the job. But this is fatiguing. He tries but tires and lets go, tries and lets go. She noticed that his lower jaw is receded. She admits that she does not know if it is enough to cause problems but she suspects that it is. It is called mandibular hypoplasia. This could have affected the development of his tongue. She recommended a breastfeeding specialist in Seattle. I set up an appointment for next Thursday. Julie's help was spread over the course of the day. She came, left, and returned with more information and pointers. She left me with a finger feeder. This little device will syphon the milk through a flexible tube I place on my finger, he then sucks on my finger instead of plastic nipples. This will help reduce nipple confusion. She showed me a different position that would help him latch on better with his jaw. I was SO grateful for her help.

But wow, what a lot of work this is going to take. I am already tired and overly emotional. Do I call the Relief Society for more help, dinners and child care? Do I put my other children second for the foreseeable future? If so, I have no right to return to college classes in July. Is all of this worth it? Is it necessary? I'll have to figure it out. I will continue down this path for as long as I feel impressed to do so. I just hope I quickly learn the lessons of this trial so that it won't be long.

And then to top it off, he now has thrush; just one more thing to make this difficult.

Well tomorrow will be an important day. Isaac is going to be baptised and confirmed, and then Joshua will receive his baby blessing. We are doing it at the same time so that family will not have to make extra trips. Jonny's Dad is here from Arizona for the events, so this is the time. I'll try to get in a shower before then.

Happy Birthday Daniel / Welcome Joshua

So the revised the due date (12th) came and went. Since he wasn't coming and he wasn't coming, we started to wonder if the original due date was more accurate after all. I was really hoping to have Daniel's birthday and the new baby's birthday at least a week apart. I finally began to think that I was forever going to be that big and live with sciatica.

So Daniel's birthday and due date came (Saturday the 22nd). We had a fun birthday for him. He received the watch he had been wanting so badly and all the neighborhood kids came over for cake (that way I'm not tempted to finish it).

Rebecca, Daniel, and his motorcycle cake

Steven accompanied "Happy Birthday" on his guitar

Then Sunday morning at about 2:00 I was woken up by "a real contraction." I had them rather consistently for a while at about 10 minutes apart. They eventually tapered off and I got some more sleep. But this was the day. Tawni (sis in law) and Sage (sister) came over with all sorts of food. (Tawni left us with 3-4 dinners. Bless that woman!!!) But I wasn't moving quite fast enough and she had to go and rescue Hyrum from his National Guard Drills. Sage stayed though and kept the kids occupied as my contractions became more intense. We called the midwife at about 6:00 and she headed over. Our baby was born at 9:26pm.

He weighed 9lb 4oz and 22 in long. Our biggest yet. With this and a few other indicators we figure he was over due after all. Daniel didn't get him for his birthday, but they are now birthday neighbors.

Steven had all the kids calling him Joshua and since Mom and Dad never really came up with anything else, he won. We finally decided to name him Joshua Moroni Johnson.

Naturally our camera decided to loose itself so we have only a few cell phone pictures. Rebecca has misplaced the phone and I don't want to wait any longer to post this. I'll have to add them later. sorry. Here is one to keep you going.

Yep, I'm out!

I have continued to ask questions just so that I will understand it enough to explain it. UoP should have told me when I first contacted them about moving that I could not complete the program in Washington. Somehow I slipped through the cracks. I should never have been allowed to take the last three classes.

I have tried to explain that we still have an Arizona home, bank account, registered cars, voters registration and driver's license in AZ; I can return to do my student teaching there and apply for an AZ teaching certificate. I could then apply to Washington with an out of state Certificate and get a Washington one. But apparently that won't cut it. Despite the fact that these classes are online and I am capable of completing the work, they can not allow me to continue in the program as long as "I rest my head at night" in Washington. Financial aid may become an issue and they are risking their accreditation by allowing me to continue in a program that is not recognized by the state in which I am residing.

One of the first things Jonny said was maybe it is OK; if we had known back in August that my school would be interrupted, we would likely have not moved. Maybe we were kept in the dark because we needed to make the move. I hate to sound negative (Allen seems to think that I should not have bad days and feel negative) but I cried most of yesterday. I just was not expecting this; it was not part of the plan.

Now I have to see if I can transfer to Western Washington (their campus is an hour away) or if the University of Washington has some extension programs here I can do. I have made calls and left messages; now I need to wait for the answers. I don't know if I can manage an April 1 deadline for applying to one of these schools or not. I sure hope I can make it work somehow. My biggest fear at this point is that life or school requirements would get in the way and I not finish. I have plenty of loans to worry about too which just are not justified without that piece of paper.

A change of plans is in order

Oh, my goodness. I am in shock.

When we were debating whether or not to take this Washington job, one of the big considerations was if Washington would recognize the University of Phoenix Education degree program. I was assured that it would.

This morning I received a call from my education counselor at University of Phoenix. Yes, Washington does recognize the Masters Education program but not the Bachelors Education program. I can either switch to a major other than education, move back to Arizona for the next 15 months, or transfer my credits to a Washington school. A different degree major makes no sense at this point; it sure wouldn't save me any time. I do not like the idea of leaving my family for a year. So I will have to transfer to a Washington school. Either way I am done for now.

I will try to appeal, but I am told there is no one to appeal to. I do want to make sure of all of this though before I just accept it. Though I am not holding out a lot of hope.

I just received a hefty financial aid check and paid off our moving expenses on the credit card. I'll have to figure out how to get that back. That will be a huge headache. Maybe our tax refund will cover that.

Now What?!?

A Little Announcement

Well, I am not quite ready to announce this yet, but as it is starting to leak, I probably should. It appears that we will be having a new baby sometime mid May (I am hoping for the 12th-my sister's birthday). I honestly did not expect this one to last, which is one reason we haven't said anything for so long. After miscarrying twice as many children as we have kept the odds were not in our favor to begin with. Last time I lost the baby at 16 weeks, but there had been signs that something was not quite right all along. I have reached the 17 week mark with this one, and all seems to be going well.



With my, and my children's education as such a big focus right now, I really did not think that this would be asked of me until I finished my degree. Maybe I am a stronger person than I thought I was. But I do know that a way will be provided and that I will receive the help I need. The knowledge that I desperately need that help, and the assurance that it will be provided, has humbled me more than I care to admit. I am awed that the Lord trusts me this much to give me so many responsibilities.