New semester, new blog post!

Well, it's about that time. Things are a bit outdated from my last post!

We both had finals the week of April 8th-12th. I honestly have no idea how we survived...seriously, I'm glad a toddler can survive on cereal and oven pizzas for dinner while watching Thomas movies on mom's Kindle so mom and dad can get some work done! Nathan was SUCH a trooper, and we made sure to focus on HIM during break times to avoid meltdowns. He even got a new Thomas & Friends train or two during the week to keep HIS focus on playing and entertaining himself! Nothing prepares you for a sibling like having to play on your own, right? :o) 

In any case, we are so grateful for the blessings of great friends that live close enough to help us out as if they were family! (And the one cousin I have here...we need more FAMILY out here!) We are also so grateful for professors who met with us, worked overtime with us to make sure work we were turning in was up to par for them (they did NOT have to give us this extra time), and for a professor or two of mine that let me just VENT when I felt like I was just done with their class. Being 7 months pregnant + knowing it's your last semester of classes will do that to anyone, I tell myself!

So basically, here's how April has gone for us:

April 2-3rd: drop Camille off at the MTC (see my previous post)

April 8th-12th: finals week

April 13th-18th: trip to Gillette, WY to visit "GG & Papa Dooley" and Aunt Dani!

April 19th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th: New (ALL day) job training for me as a Peer Breastfeeding Counselor for our local WIC office

April 22nd: Also Mitch's first day of school, starting "IBC" (Integrated Business Curriculum), where you start up and run a business on campus with a group of 6-8 others, using real money and real stocks.

April 27th (today): our yard sale! After the first week of school and half a week of job training, we still had to go through the whole house and purge/sort/price things for this yard sale. It ended up being well worth it!

 May 1st-2nd: (this Wednesday) MOVING DAY(s) to our new apartment. A mid-week move is going to take everything poor Mitch has; he has at least 3 hours of homework every night and group meetings every, single day. I'm just hoping his group will let him have Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning to help us load a truck and move!

Whew. Anyway, I can't wait for April and the first few days of May to be over! April's almost gone, but it hasn't gone without a fight and a lot of stress!

The best part of this post? Miss Eliza Kay's surprise BABY SHOWER, thrown by her awesome Wyoming grandparents and her lovely auntie! 

I had no idea about this shower before we got to Gillette, but had I known I probably would have packed a bit lighter! :o) It was a shower thrown by Dani, Mitch's sister and my former roommate (whom I will forever give credit for Mitch and I meeting!). She is awesome, and we have missed them so much since she and her husband moved from Rexburg to Seattle a year ago. They are doing great out there and working hard at their grown-up full-time jobs, but we MISS THEM! She and I planned this trip in December and I'm so glad we did! We wish her husband could have been there as well, but we understand the need to, ya know, work a grown-up, full-time job!

I realized (again) how lucky I am to have married into Mitch's family. As far away as my Kansas family is, I think someone upstairs KNEW I'd need amazing in-laws to survive only seeing my Larson family once or twice a year. It's rough. I hate that they don't know Nathan. I could go on...but I'm also so grateful for how welcoming and loving these Dooleys have been! I feel a genuine love from them and I always feel cared about and looked after like one of their own children.

This shower was DARLING; Dani has the best taste and sense of style! 

She put together a pink, vintage-y shower that was absolutely adorable. The pinkness of it all threw me for a loop after 2 1/2 years of nothing but blue and Thomas the train! Yay for baby girls! :o) 

The whole staff at Marshall Jewelry, the jewelry store where Mitch's mom, Dani, and I have all worked, all came and brought amazing gifts. 

They were so generous and hospitable, and it really feels like we have friends around Gillette whenever we visit! I'm really only there a few times a year, but it's as if I still worked there, I feel so much love from everyone! It's great. Oh, and Dani and Mom Dooley even got my mom to send a gift; it was awesome! I had no idea, and my mom tends to NOT keep secrets from me very well :o)

One of the cutest parts of this shower were the paper lanterns: they were originally from Dollar Tree, and Dani had seen on Pinterest that you can cut long, skinny triangles and glue them row after row to cover the whole lantern! They look so much more tasteful than normal Chinese lanterns! I was thinking I could add some spray paint or something, like a glossy-type that is a bit more subtle, but if I just made that product up, at least I still love them white! I brought them home and they are going to hang over Eliza's crib :o) Here are some close-ups so you can see what an awesome job she did!

The cake was also amazing! Dani said it's not what she was picturing, that it's a bit brighter pink than she had in mind, but I LOVED it!!

Thank you SO much to Mom Dooley and Dani, who hopefully still read this blog (lol), to my mom for being oh-so-secretive and sending a gift to add to the surprise, and to my amazing co-workers from Marshall Jewelry! I may only work with you guys a few times a year, but it's so fun to be friends year round!

More later about Mitch's business program and my new work-at-home-job that I'm also hoping to get approved as my internship for this Fall (I won't actually start this job until August/September, because they are gracious enough to give me a maternity leave before it all even starts!). It will all be finalized in the final interview on Monday: wish me luck!