Paisley Sue Noelle

This is the newest member of my family. Paisley Sue Noelle Crookston was born December 30, 2011 at 1:09 PM at the Riverton Hospital. She weighed in at 7 lbs 4 ounces and was 19.75 inches long. This little miracle has been greatly anticipated as the third niece/granddaughter and much anticipated sister. I was privileged enough to be able to spend an exceptional amount of time with this beautiful little girl (my mom, aka the grandma, would say that I got more than my fair share, but I'm ok with that). I loved begin able to simple hold this tiny piece of heaven and watch. Something that I have learned from this little one is that children really are precious. They are so pure and innocent, I think they even smell like heaven, but that's just my own opinion haha. Anyway I thought I would brag a little about how cute my family is :)

That's NOT Fair

This past week I have seen a lot of my niece and nephews. I love these kids. In the course of my time spent with them I have come to learn a lot about things needing to be fair. Like for instance it's not fair that Logan didn't go to school (even though the poor kid spent most of the time in the bathroom. I think he would have preferred school). It's also not fair for someone to get more or less than they deserve. This is usually quantified by ages. For instance Logan needs five of everything, lets say cookies, because he is five and that is fair. I can usually counter this argument by saying "Well, I'm 21 Log. Do I need 21 cookies because I'm 21? That would be all of the cookies!" I don't think this really does any good, cause the kids just say that it doesn't count because I'm old, but regardless I have learned something from these small cries of "That's NOT fair."

In my Multicultural Diversity in the Classroom course I learned a pretty good definition of what fair is. Fair means that everyone receives what they need, in the manner that they need it, at the appropriate time. This was given while speaking about students with special needs within the classroom and making a "considerable accommodations" for those students. I filed this piece of information away in my "This is something I'll use when I'm teaching, but for now won't think about it" part of the brain; however, I think it should be reexamined. I think this is a fairly accurate definition of what fair is for life. Heads up, gonna get a little churchy, but I think this is how Heavenly Father works. Now I'm not saying Heavenly Father is an angry God dangling us like spiders over the fire, saying "You'll get what is coming to you." Quite the opposite in fact.

Heavenly Father hears us loud and clear when we believe something in our life just isn't fair. It's not fair that my roommate is graduating and I still have one entire semester after that. It's not fair to have loved ones torn from their mortal existence. It's just not fair. He hears those, but He knows that everyone is getting what they need the most, in the manner that they can receive it the best, at the time they need it. We may not see it as fair, but Heavenly Father sees it as best. He knows everything.

I had an institute teacher once tell us that Heavenly Father did not send us to Earth hoping we would succeed in all that He sent before us. He sent us here having seen what we would do with those moments in life that we don't think are fair. He saw us succeed. Perhaps we just need to redefine fair.

Mindy Anne

In my series of visits, I was able to visit my sister Mindy. Even though she lives in Provo and goes to BYU and I live in Logan and attend USU I was still extremely excited to spend a night at her apartment. Aside from a couple awkward moments with roommates and old mission buddy parties, the weekend was a success. Plus I was reminded of a few things about Mindy. These things I will share in yet another list.

Mindy puts things in perspective, but at the same time helps keep the focus on what really matters.

She has the greatest laugh bar none. It just makes funny things funnier, and not funny things better. I'm not sure how else to describe it, but it's the greatest.

The only downside to the possibility of living with Mindy would be that I would have to compete with her all encompassing beauty every day, which would be exhausting and unrealistic.

She's gorgeous. I make a certain effort to look good when I come home to keep up with my sisters; however, it doesn't always work out. And on a daily basis would fail consistently.

Her roommates still lover her, even though those roommates may not be perfect (hehe).

She really is lovable. I think Gavin and I always make her sit in the middle when we watch a movie for a reason- we both can't get enough of her.

Kirena Dawn

So in the last couple weeks I've had friends come visit or I've had the opportunity to visit friends. Two weekends ago a Miss Kirena Dawn Allen came to Logan town. I don't think words can describe how excited I was to get to spend more than just a couple hours with Kirena. This is an amazing woman, and I will tell you why. Betcha didn't think this one was going to be a list did ya? Guess again.

Kirena makes everything beautiful. I do not have this talent, but Kirena can take sweats and a t-shirt and make it elegant.

She always smells great, her Kirena smell.

She makes it feel like life is happiness. It's like the opposite of a Dementor, instead of sucking all the happiness out of life, she seems to pour ten times more into it.

She always has the right thing to say, even if you don't want to hear it.

She's also usually right, probably 90% of the time.

She leaves adorable notes.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Today I have felt like I needed to get things done. There has been a lot of stuff on my mind lately, and the number one way I have been coping with those things is to simply ignore them; but no longer.

Today I decided to research just a couple things so as to prevent my head from exploding.

Student Teaching Next Fall: What's the deal? I had no idea how to even go about it. Bless the internet for helping me figure out what I want to do with the last semester of my bachelors degree. Come to find out that if I want to go student teach somewhere outside of Utah, USU literally makes you pay out the nose. So that definitely narrowed things down a bit. I've got a couple school districts in mind and I'm happy about those that are there. Until today I literally haven't even let myself think about it. I'll say this much about my list- they're all in Utah. I simply can't fathom being able to pay to go outside of Utah. If I could I would show you in dollar amounts why this is so true.

Job for Next Summer: I want to work at another Ropes Course, but sadly enough I think I am ready to be out of Logan, Ut. I have been researching other ropes courses in the surrounding areas. There are a few that have caught my attention and once again I am happy that they are in my head and that I looked into them.

Now neither of these really need to be addressed for a couple more months, but it was good to look into them, or even simply to think about it instead of ignoring them completely. This is me getting up and doing things, snaps for Megan.

Yeah, Music Says it Better

Once again a couple lines from a few songs have stuck out in my head today. Here's another list for you, my avid reader.

"Face down this carpet tastes like coffee grounds ground into my face now"

"I don't know if I'll make it, but watch how good I'll fake it"

"And still I feel I said too much
My silence is my self defense"

Those are the only ones I could think of at the moment.

Crappy, Crappy Week

This week has been extraordinarily crappy. I've wanted to vent about it on my blog. I want to tell everyone that having a right eye that isn't functioning correctly is really obnoxious. I've also wanted to rant about the fact that I'm 21 and I've thrown out my back, making me feel like a 45 year old man. However, with trying to be a little more positive, and keeping with the theme of November, I decided I would write a few things that I have been thankful for during this craptastic week. Listy list list list time.

I'm thankful for...

Eye drops.

Modern medicine in general. Even if they had to give me a shot in the "rear" (as the nurse put it) I am happy they could make the pain less. Also, ibuprofen- which I have been faithfully taking as often as I possibly can.

Icey-Hot. I've never used this little balm before, turns out it's fantastic.

T.V. and NOT doing homework. This might end up being a very bad thing in the coming weeks... but at this point in the semester I just don't care anyway, and so I'm grateful for T.V.

The couch. I've gotten to know the couch fairly well this week.

Showers.

Food. Especially when it is free.

Sleep.

Rice packs followed by Ice pads.

Doctors who write notes to get you out of work/school. Who knew that in real life a doctors note can literally get you out of everything. All they have to do is print off a piece of paper and sign it illegibly and you're set.


I'm sure there's more, but that's all my brain can think of at the moment. This is me grinding my teeth in an effort to stay positive.