Christmas Letter 2012

December 20, 2012

Greetings Family and Friends,

It’s that time of year again for the Prause family Christmas newsletter. Unfortunately due to procrastination and business, this probably won’t make it to you until New Years, but such is life.

Anyways, the past year has treated us well. I (Megan) started attended (online) Grad School at Gonzaga University in August. I am working towards a master’s degree in Nurse Education, and I am on track to graduate in August of 2015. In a lot of ways it has been fun to be back in school, as I love learning, but there are definitely times I question my sanity in undertaking this endeavor. I am still working at Jordan Valley Hospital in the NICU and nursery, and I still love it. 

Kevin is still at Discover Card. He has been busy this year finishing our basement, expanding our kitchen, and filling our house with marine life. Since last Christmas we have gone from one 125 gallon tank to three tanks, the largest measuring 600 gallons (10 long x4 wide x2 deep). Over Labor Day weekend we drove to Moses Lake, Washington and picked up six freshwater stingrays. Since then we have sold one and bought three more, so we are the proud owners of eight stingrays, plus all of the other fish. It is fun to show people our tank because they are mesmerized by all of our strange creatures. We are accepting tour groups at this time. :)

We had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas in May. It was actually kind of fun, even though it involved lots of walking and not enough relaxing. Kevin wants to move there because he likes palm trees and cacti, plus he could most likely have an outdoor pond for his fish.

We are still enjoying Luna. She has been a great motivator to go on walks, although she doesn’t do so well on long walks as she ends up lying down every five seconds to cool down. I’m not quite sure how much cardio benefit I am getting, but it is enjoyable.

We hope you had a fantastic Christmas and are able to have a fantastic holiday season.

Love, Kevin & Megan

First Semester of Grad School

I have survived my first semester of nursing school, and I even did it with flying colors as I received a 4.0. The last couple of weeks were a little rough, as I was sick the week after Thanksgiving, which put me behind for the remainder of the semester. However, despite finishing my final paper at 10 pm (which is significant because I worked the next morning) and missing a friend’s wedding, scouts, and a Relief Society activity (and I think a few other commitments I had that night), and running out of time to actually read through it and proofread it well, I still received an A on the paper. Such success makes me feel good, and not in a prideful way. In a lot of ways, I am in my element now. I think school Is my “special talent.” While it is hard, I am enjoying it so much. I may not be saying that come 2014 or 2015, but right now, I love it. I am looking forward to the rest of my classes. However, I am also enjoying the month off school, although I’ve still been pretty busy, but at least I don’t have any pressing commitments.

Thanksgiving

It was my year to have Thanksgiving off this year. We spent it with my parents and my aunt’s family out in Talmage. Due to dog care issues, we drove up to my parent’s house on Thursday and came back that night, so it was a really quick trip. It was fun to see our family members that we don’t get to see as often anymore, plus the food was really yummy.

Singing Time

I’ve decided that my Primary singing leaders must have had little faith in our abilities to do advance hand motions to the songs. We were singing the “Wise Man and the Foolish Man” today in Primary and the hand motions are so much more complicated than I remember them. I think when I was in Primary we had three or four hand motions for the whole song, now there are like ten. I guess it just goes to show that we were either dumb or children today are just that much smarter.

Random Musings

Nothing too exciting has been going on in our lives lately, but I still feel like I want to write. So I’m just going to share some of my thoughts, I always enjoy reading those blog posts on others’ blogs, so here goes…

A few weeks ago, I was doing some back reading on my blog. When I first started blogging, many of my posts revolved around work. (This is also true of many of my journal entries during this time.) While I think this may have been because most of the interesting things in my life revolved around work, I also believe that I found true joy in my job. Every positive interaction made my day, and I loved what I did. While I do still love my job, I don’t think I find the same amount of joy in it as I used to. I’m not sure really why this is the case, but it could be due to the decreased newness of it, burnout, or just because I’m tired of working. In some ways I think it might be the latter. While I enjoy being at work with my friends, and I enjoy hanging out with the babies (other than when they are all born at the same time or are cranky), plus the paycheck is nice, there are so many more things I would rather be doing at home, like exercise, family history work, general vegetation, and now homework. I know most people don’t find joy in homework, but I honestly love it. I’m so happy that I made the decision to go back to school, even though it will be one of the harder things I have tackled (I calculated today that I have spent more than 93 hours on homework so far this semester, and I am only three weeks into my second class.), but I know the end result will be worth it. 

However, one of the things I semi-worry about is my future as a mother. Graduate school is a huge investment, so I don’t think I will ever be able to fully stop working until I reach retirement age. (Money always messes things up.) My whole life I’ve been told that a successful mother should be at home with their children. Not only that, but there are 2-3 days a week where we won’t have anyone to watch our kids (unless I work every Saturday and Sunday, then it is just 1 day a week, but Megan gets really grumpy when she doesn’t get to see Kevin or go to church). I know all things will work out in the end, but it is kind of scary to think about. It just seems like all of my friends and cousins are having kids, so it feels like I am falling behind, but I really don’t know what my real feelings on the whole situations are.

Well, our Alias episode is now over, and it is bedtime, so I guess it is time to end this jumble. Until next time…

My New Endeavor

Most probably know by now, but I started grad school in August. I am attending Gonzaga University, participating in their online Masters of Science program, with an emphasis on nurse education. My goal is to be a nursing professor. I take one class each block, so I am enrolled in six credits each semester. So far I have really enjoyed it. I particularly like that I only have to concentrate on one class at a time. I feel like I learn a lot more that way.

My first class was ethics, which I finished last Friday. I definitely learned a lot, and it helped get me back in the swing of things. I have forgot a lot, especially when it comes to APA format, which is sad because I used to be pretty good at it. Supposedly, ethics is the easiest class of the program (I have a coworker who is in her last semester of the program who I get my info from.), but I found it quite manageable. I am definitely not getting all of the things I would like to done around the house, but I do a fairly decent job. 

I will be done in August of 2015, so I have lots of time to perfect my time management skills. I will hopefully share tidbits as I go.