Abby's Baptism

So this happened in April but, you know, posting two months later is all the rage now.
My baby girl chose to be baptized. She chose to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

   In our church we believe that age 8 is when a child is ready to be held accountable for their actions. When she makes a mistake she needs to repent and ask for forgiveness from not only the person she wronged but from the Lord as well. This is something we have been teaching and practicing with Abby since she was very little. One day, while putting her to bed, she looked up at me and began to cry and said "Mom I don't know if I want to be 8 yet. It's going to be so hard." Of coarse I cried too but I reassured her that It won't be any different except she will have someone very special there to help her. When she was baptized she received the gift of the Holy Ghost which will be a companion to help her make right choices. I know that she will make the right choices to govern her life and that having the Holy Ghost will guide her towards the decisions that Heavenly father wants her to make too. She still has the choice to make her own decisions but has a little extra help to guide her to the correct ones. 

She is such a special little (Big) girl and I love her so much. She truly has a purpose in this life, even if that purpose is just to make people happy, which she does every day.

 I can't imagine my life without my sweet Abby.  Sometimes I just need to step back and realize that she is a little girl. Not a baby anymore and she has all kinds of thoughts and ideas floating around in her head. She wants to do the best. And she tries her hardest. 

We had a  lot of fun picking out her dress on ebay and when we got it we went out on a beautiful sunny day and took lots of pictures of her in it with the Book of Mormon.

She is so beautiful and I am one proud proud Mommy!

AS Graduation

Okay so here it is...graduation. Yeah so it was a month ago but hey it has taken me that long to get my brain back.
Let me just say that school is one of my favorite things. Although... it has been one of the hardest things I have ever been through. I know I still have a long way to go but with this small hurdle out of the way I feel that it may be possible.
This last semester was...well...different. 4 of my classes were no problem but my math 1050 another story.
After being out of school for 15 years i was really nervous to get back to math. but, over the last year and a half I have really grown to like math and had some really great instructors. I was able to understand the material and aced all my classes.Within the first two days of math 1050 I felt like I was in another world; I was terrified. I started with an instructor who barreled into class just as it started, never asked questions, just went through problems on the board to himself with looking at the students, then as soon as the class was over he was out the door. He was Extremely annoying and kept saying "Yeah?" or "Yes?" but never waiting for a students reaction. I couldn't take it. I checked his grade stats from the previous semester and found out that all but 2 students had failed the class. NOT going to happen. I quickly found another instructor and begged him and the math department to let me switch classes.
The new instructor was great but the material was still the same. I really wondered if I had signed up for the wrong class. My new instructor was funny and wanted his students to achieve. He gave every possible type of extra credit to help boost your scores. It was great. I worked hard. I took 4 past finals to prepare for my final. I went into the final confident that I would do well.
When the test was handed to me I looked down and realized I had two hours and I didn't know anything on this test. I panicked. I had to have at least 60% it pass the class. And if I did.t pass I did,t graduate and I was scheduled to walk 3 days later. UGH!
2 hours and 5 minutes later I handed my test to the instructor and let him know that I was indeed terrified. I walked to my car choking back tears. When I got to my car I cried. I cried for two days. I couldn't function. It was terrible.
I emailed my instructor begging for him to email me the result of my final as soon as he had it.
How could I go through graduation with family there to witness me, the first in our family to go to college and graduate, without knowing if I truly had?
Wednesday 3:17pm, 24 hours before graduation I got an email...74%. WOOHOO! I screamed so loud and jumped up and down I am sure the neighbors thought something strange was going on at my house. Normally i would be devastated by a 74%, but if I passed I was happy!
I ended up with a B+ in the class and an overall 3.78 GPA. The graduation ceremony was...well...boring, and not really necessary. I mean I didn't receive my degree certificate just a lovely piece of paper that said...

 

 Yeah!
My Dad and Val took Gabe, Abby, Colby, and I out to dinner at my favorite place, Johnny Carinos, and We had fun laughing and talking about whatever.

I am taking the summer off. Why? I don't know. We have no plans and no money. I should have at least taken one class. But, whatever. Fall semester here I come...