Marissa at Home

 I'm in Provo!

It's been an interesting trip. I came to help Mom with the day-to-day stuff, she had surgery last week. Her recovery was going uncannily well, she had major surgery and didn't even need pain meds! They contemplated not having me come at all, but everything was already arranged. I arrived last Saturday and Dad left Sunday afternoon. Then all hell broke loose.

Saturday afternoon mom got really sick, really fast. By midnight, we were in the ER. After four hours, they got her mostly fixed and sent her home. She did alright for the few hours left of the night, but we were at the doctor's office by mid-morning. She was admitted to the hospital that evening.

We couldn't find anyone in the hospital to give mom a priesthood blessing. DEAR UTAH COUNTY HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? Despite the snow that had been falling for hours, the bishop and home teacher trekked out to give her a blessing. We were so grateful for them (and the visitors that followed).

 

Tuesday was the worst, Mom was so miserable. The doctor ordered medication that took two hours to arrive and several more hours to kick in. She was so weak, she slept literally all day. She hadn't eaten since Sunday.

Then Wednesday came, and the sun starting coming out both literally and figuratively! Mom was discharged that evening and has been doing better ever since.

Needless to say, this week hasn't gone the way anyone thought it would. I'm so glad I was here, I can't even imagine how this would have gone if my 14-year-old sister were the only other person at home!  I've extended my stay for another six days just in case. It's great to spend time with my family, in our house, and in my hometown! I haven't done much, so I'm looking forward to getting out a little bit. But I miss my husband! And surprisingly, as much as I love Provo, being here makes me miss Charlottesville.

 

Though he's very cuddly, I still prefer Todd to my current bed buddy.

Waddell Education Gap

Todd and I have a favorite game to play, Talk About Where We Might Go Next. Recruiting hasn't really started up yet (the spring semester begins in a week), so at this point our where could still be anywhere.

Last night the subject turned to schools. We are very concerned about the quality of education our one-day children will receive. We plan to breed geniuses but will not home-school because we also want them to be socially well-adjusted. The schools discussion is a doubly pointless conversation, since we don't know where we're going AND we don't have kids. So we started talking about our own public educations and looked up rankings for the schools we attended growing up.

Todd attended pretty great schools across the board, but the Utah portion of my education was a #fail. Case in point: my dad had to drop me off at Farrer Middle School (for the 4 months I attended) because my mom sometimes couldn't bring herself let me out of the car. Though I was surprised to see Timpview ranked only a six-- whaaaat? Living a real life "High School Musical" doesn't count as a good education? I still loved it, and it was exactly where I needed to be.

I think the only reason I was every academically inclined or advanced is because my parents taught us at home. Mom always had us reading and doing math exercises and art projects and science experiments and music classes outside of school. Dad wrote up practical math and science problems for me to solve and explained anything I asked. I didn't need the school to teach me to read or add or think, so a few crappy schools didn't have much effect. Todd and I plan to do the same for our children! And not ever send them to Farrer.

New Year's Weekend

Friday was my favorite day of our whole winter break. I didn't have to work, so we did a few chores, watched BYU football, went to the store, and took a long drive and a short walk in the country.

Doesn't that sound like the best day in the world?! It is to us.

I made an experiment for dinner, veggie burgers. Todd choked them down, but whoever said it was the best veggie burger recipe of 100 they've tried has clearly not eaten real food recently. I took pity on him and we did a 10 pm run to get chicken wings. 

We drove past the UVa Main Grounds on our way, where the Christmas lights were on. But Todd was starving, so I didn't say anything. Luckily he read my mind and pulled the car over on our way home. 

 

We had the entire big beautiful lawn to ourselves, and we ran all the way up and down to see the lights. At 10:30 pm, in December, without coats.

I LOVE THIS PLACE.

We spent New Year's with cousins Nikki and David and baby Clara in DC. We watched David shoot off some cool fireworks (not legal, naturally) and tried out the XBox Kinect, a video game that uses your whole body as the control. It took pictures of us while we were playing/being total spazzes. I'll draw your attention to the picture on the far left, as it is my favorite.

Happy 2012!