4 years, a baby, and $16,000 later

I did it!!! I graduated tonight from the University of Utah School of Medicine! Too bad I won't be making a doctor's salary (and no I am not a nurse either). I received my Masters of Public Health Degree tonight and can proudly say I am done with graduate school! The ceremony was held at the Rice Eccles Stadium. I decided to only drag my family to one graduation ceremony, so we went tonight to just the Division of Public Health celebration. Plus I figured I could get my School of Medicine ceremony experience when my bro-in-law finishes med school someday. It's been a LONG journey and when Pearl ran up to me after my "hooding" and several classmates asked if she was my daughter, I replied, yep and the reason it took four years to finish (she was worth it though). The "hooding" part of the ceremony. And for posterity's sake, well really for my sake when I'm old, my program's colors were salmon, hence the salmon hood and tassel.
The best part of the whole night was hearing a little voice yell "Mommy" and run into my arms after the ceremony! And the congratulations kiss from Jeff wasn't too bad either!You can tell who had the camera all night with this shot. But we still bleed Aggie Blue!!!

I did most of my blubbering in an earlier post but couldn't let this occasion pass by without announcing it to the rest of the blogging world. I am so glad to be done. Even though I only knew one other graduate at the ceremony tonight - everyone I started the program with graduated long ago - I finally made it. My sister told me that I should be really proud (and that my siblings are slackers) because I have graduated twice from college before any of them have even finished once! What a feeling... mostly relief that any late nights are now because I want to stay up, not because I have to stay up studying, and that I don't have to fork out thousands of dollars every four months to the University. Oh and let's not forget finally not having to retake biostatistics ever again! Three times was plenty (I just want to clarify that I got an A in this class, even after having to drop out twice because of a pregnancy and then new baby the next year). My family all came down for the ceremony and surprisingly, Pearl was really good during the whole thing. I only saw her run across the front of the room once. After a lot of hugs, congratulations, and a few pictures we skeedaddled out of there for some yummy Italian food at Marcellos.
Pearl thought the floor to ceiling windows were pretty cool. At least it kept her happy after a long day at Discover Gateway (will post pictures later) and no nap.L to R: Nick, Kurtis, Kimmy, Me, Mom, DadGrandma and Grandpa "Ally" as Pearl says. L to R: Wally, Gwen, Pearl, Me, JeffThank you Jeff for sticking this out with me, letting me get crazy ideas to go back to school just because I was "bored" (remember this was before Pearl came along), taking care of everything when I took my comp exam and pretty much disappeared for 5 days straight, forking over tuition, and reminding me that I would finish whether I wanted to or not!!! Oh and for the occasion bookworm and nerd joke.
And in honor of one of the speeches tonight, here's my own "Top 5 List of Reactions I get When I Tell People I Graduated in Public Health."

#5. What's public health? I really have no good answer for this one - just watch this video. While public health is a beast to try and explain to someone, I was always surprised when I heard Jeff describing what I did when I worked in the Genomics Program at the health department. After four years of listening to me babble on and on about genetics' influence on chronic disease and family health history, he actually got it. And most of the time, explained it better than I could!
#4. Geno...what? Ok, so I only got this reaction when I worked in the Genomics Program. Sigh....I miss genomics terribly. I think genomics is my passion in public health and someday I'll bring it back to Utah. Now I get more reactions like what car seat should I buy my kid (which BTW I am not a certified car seat technician, so if you need your car seat installed or checked, call your local health department of Safe Kids Utah).
#3. Oh, that's interesting. I think this is code for either what in the world is public health or I could care less what you do.
#2. Do you do restaurant inspections? No. But I do have a funny story about that. I had only been working at the health department for a few months when I had to go to Jordan High School for a meeting. I walked into the office and told the secretary who I was and that I needed to talk to Mr. so-and-so. She freaked out and immediately told me the mouse problem had been taken care of. I burst out laughing, much to her dismay. I guess she figured I was going to shut them down for some health code violation.
#1. So... you're a nurse? No. I'm a health educator. Right, that means you're a nurse. No, I'm a health educator. What do you do then? I sit at a computer all day and when I'm not at my computer, I'm sitting in meetings. (That's not all health educators do! We like to remind people how to be safe and live healthy lives... but most of the time, no one seems to listen!)

I think I'm more like a 2 cow wife

I've been thinking a lot lately about being a wife and mother. Most days I'm not very good at either. Take Saturday for example. After helping Jeff to "curb appeal" our front yard, and later finding him asleep and sore on the floor, I decided to make dinner. Jeff was going to grill hamburgers but we left the sprinklers on and the grill was soaked. So I turned to my usual backup plan and starting making a pizza. Normally, I think I make a pretty good pizza but today when I pulled it out of the oven, something seemed to be missing. It honestly took me a good minute before I finally realized what had happened. I totally forgot to put the cheese on it! I was frantic, embarrassed, somewhat amused at myself, and almost in tears all at the same time. Jeff didn't (and won't until he reads this) know I had done this but after telling Pearl to go wake up daddy, I hurried and threw some cheese on top and stuck it back in the oven. Thankfully cheese just has to melt on a pizza and no one let on that they noticed anything out of the ordinary, except me.

Sunday rolled around and in my attempt to redeem my hatred of cooking (remember this incident or this one, yes I hate cooking and cooking seems to hate me), I decided to make some lime bars. What I secretly hope will happen when I make treats is that Jeff will be so enchanted by them that he will gobble them up, all while smacking his lips, and saying yummmmm until I can't stand the compliments anymore. It never happens. I knew I had some sweet & condensed milk that the recipe called for but what I hadn't realized was that it was years past the best used by date. Urghhh. But we had squeezed every single lime in the house, baked the graham cracker crust, and were one ingredient away from complete commitment to finish. I was terrified I'd poison us all by using it but decided after some online research to just go for it. Did you know that most cooking websites say that stuff lasts forever but it turns into what looks like caramel after a few years? I didn't think the lime bars turned out that bad, and I haven't gotten sick, but then again I'm the only one eating them. I guess it's a sign that I'm more of a 2, maybe a 3 cow wife on a really good day. If you have no idea what I'm referring to, you have to take a half hour out of your day and watch Johnny Lingo (Yes, you can watch it on Youtube, how cool is that?!).

Now, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't consider myself a total ugo like everyone thought poor Mahana was. Although this morning's hair incident might contradict this. After spending 20 minutes trying to do my hair, I simply gave up and washed it in the kitchen sink then started over. Yes, I'm that crazy but when your job entails meetings and possible media interviews everyday, you can't have a totally horrible hair day because those are the days you "get" to be on TV. Anyway, when it comes to most wifely duties, I stink at them. I can't cook, sew, bake bread or birthday cakes (apparently this comes with the territory of being a good mom), keep my house clutter free or even dusted for that matter, stick to a budget, and let's not even start with my gardening skills! I constantly tell Pearl no or don't do this or pick this up or come here. I forget to say prayers with her before bed and most days she could probably pass as an orphan. Well, this isn't entirely my fault... I do comb Pearl's wild hair everyday but she always pulls it out. I constantly wonder if I'm teaching Pearl anything that she will need to make good decisions in her life, if she will be nice to people, and if I do enough to help her learn language skills. I'm sure that half the time she's bored out of her mind with me. The list could go on and on and on. When I stop and think about having another baby someday (no this is NOT an announcement), I almost freak out with the thought of possibly quitting my job and staying home. I know this is totally selfish to think but when you suck at mom/wife responsibilities as it is, what kind of disaster am I looking at if I stayed home all the time? I'm good at my job, which is why I guess I still work (not to mention I have to help pay for Jeff's NCAA Tournament lottery tickets he won today :)), and why I went back to school. But being a mom and wife, not so good most days. I really don't know how my friends do it... all while getting their exercise in each day, learning how to do all these crafty and wifely things, and keeping their kids happy and healthy. Really, how do you do it?

Sorry to sound like I'm wanting a pity party. I guess I am just disappointed in myself lately and feeling like I'll never become the mom and wife I always imagined myself being someday. It's just a lot harder than I thought and the older, slower, and fatter I get the harder it is to reach down deep inside and become that person I know I should be.