So Little Time...

So if you have ever had an anatomy class on the college level you know just like I do that it is just one heck of a course that involves most of your time.  I have lecture Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with lab on Thursday (that last from 1-4p.m.).  Each lecture session is one hour and requires a lot of reading during the week to stay up to beat with what is being taught.  On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I go back to the school right after work or later in the night around 9:00 p.m. for a thing called "open lab" where there are a lot of student teacher assistants and other students learning the same things you are.  I usually go until about midnight every session.  So if you take the lectures and add them up you get 3 hours.  If you add lab you get 3 hours. Finally if you add the open labs you get 9 hours.  Total with all three sessions you get 15 hours a week of structured studying a week.  I am not even counting the time I spend at home and work studying the structures and reading the chapters to know what is going to be taught for the next lecture and lab.  So figure at most 18 hours a week.  That is almost a full day of just anatomy!  Sounds like a mess I know, but it is helping me do better in the course.  I started out in the course failing everything for the first week or two and then started attending all the extra stuff and today I received an 80% on my lab quiz.  That is HUGE improvement.   I was pretty excited.  I just have to do it this semester and things should hopefully get better as it goes.  

I feel kind of guilty when I leave my wife and my daughter at home when I could be spending that time with them.  I do have to thank my wife for being such a huge support though for letting me do it.  She is a huge support for me to get it done.  If it were my choice, I would probably not go as much.  She is pushing me to do better and that is what I love about her.  The time we do spend together we cherish and love.  Needless to say we try to make the best of our time together.  Things will be better when this semester is over.  We have a Disney Cruise planned in May as soon as class gets out.  It will be a blast. We are totally stoked and can't wait.  It will make this semester come to an end with a huge relaxing trip.  We are doing it for our 3rd anniversary.  I can't believe it is already 3 years.  How crazy is that?  Time goes by fast when you are having fun eh?  Next month (in 2 1/2 weeks) Addi turns 1 years old.  I can't believe it.  It seems like just yesterday I took Amanda to the hospital to deliver her, that was a funny story, haha.  

Things are kind of crazy in the family right now.  Not my immediate family, but my extended relatives on the Gregory side.  It is kind of sad to say the most.  Certain family members fasted for "family unity" to come into the family again.  I chose to be the one in our little family to fast.  Amanda wanted to but, since she is still feeding, can't.  I haven't been able to fast now for about 4 years.  The last time I had fasted was on my mission and I ended up shortly after doing so in the hospital for bleeding ulcers.  So needless to say I was grateful for the Lord giving me the strength I needed to fast for such a broad cause.  If nothing comes of it, I will at least know that I was able to get closer to my Savior and my immediate family (Amanda and Addi) will be blessed because of doing so.  We already see the blessings everyday that the Lord bestows upon us.  We acknowledge Him in all he does and we are very grateful.  It is the times when we start to think it is because of us that something is coming our way or we forget to thank the Lord for what we have, that we lose everything.  That is something Amanda and I have engrained within each other the last 6 months or so pretty solidly.  We had in the past for a while, but I have to admit I lost focus some of those successful times.  The Lord is always watching us. I know that and I also know he has his hands in ours lives constantly. 

Sorry, this is more of a journal post and that's it.  I will try to post more in the upcoming moments I get, but as you can see, almost 24 hours of the week I am doing Anatomy (by the way, the skull landmarks SUCK! There are so many of them!). I do think this is important and that's why I am doing this post now.  That is all that is currently happening at the moment so tune in next time! Thanks!

So, New Year's is filled with plenty of new resolutions.  Mine consist of the same things it seems every year.  Committing to work out more so I can be hot for my wife to be around, eating healthy and doing well in school.  My wife and I decided we were going to do a couple of our own.  We decided that if we went to the temple once a month, then we would be closer as a couple.  I believe that and I hope to do it.  I love to be at the temple.  It helps me forget the world around me especially if times are difficult at work.  With all the new temples going in just up north of us, we could possibly go to those and check them out to see how they are.  I have a cousin getting married in the Draper temple at the end of the month in May.  I am totally stoke for him and his fiancee.  School is starting this week and I am totally not ready for it.  Two of the classes I am taking are retakes.  I have taken them before, so I know what to expect.  That's why I am not ready for them.  This is the first semester in a while that I have taken 12 credits.  I normally take anywhere from 8-10 credits.  School starts Wednesday and so does the headaches that follow.  On a lighter note,  it is awesome to be a dad.  My daughter is so much fun to be around now.  She has such a personality.  Last night we went to the BYU Mens Basketball game against Wake Forest and she just had a blast.  She lasts longer in the basketball games more so than the football games.  She likes to be inside for the games but outside all the rest of the time.  When music was playing when there was timeouts, she was dancing up a storm.   She is definitely a music lover.  Anytime she hears a song she likes, she dances to it.  She has the beat.  We will have to film her one of these days to show how she is.  The other night I came home from work and she was in the tub.  It was hilarious because Amanda was trying to keep her in there for as long as she would permit so when she got out it was bedtime, and she was splashing left and right just having a blast in there.  When she got out, Amanda was putting her diaper on and I went to entertain her and she was shivering up a storm smiling and reaching for me.  It was funny to watch but cute as well.  I will admit, having a girl first for a child, has softened me.  I am a softy.  On New Year's Day, we went and saw "Marley and Me."  I teared up in so many different parts.  Anything that involved the dog and the kids hit me.  My daughter has made me a softy.  I am not ashamed of it at all.  She is a lot of fun to be around.  She is just a little doll.  Just some information... I started a blog elsewhere and it didn't really work as well as this one, so I deleted it and now I am starting this one as kind of a journal insert.  I am terrible writing and I am faster typing.  So with that being said, this is my only blogging area.  Thanks for reading! I will be posting from time to time.