No More School or Books!

Yesterday was the last day of Dave's Spring Term. If you didn't know, he has been taking online classes through Utah Valley University's Aviation Administration program since we moved here.

He's doing great in his classes and learning a lot. It's not always easy to get on the computer and do homework when you're distracted by a new iPod, sunny beaches, a cute baby and a fun, awesome, really cool, fantastic, amazing wife.

Dave is going to take the next short summer term off so he can relax (when he's not at work) and help me get back into the swing of full time work on campus.

So now there's going to be a lot less of this:


And a lot MORE of this:

If you're still interested in our life, continue reading for a little funny story about school.

So there was this Aviation Business class that required the writing and submission of a Business Plan.

I admit that I help Dave with some of his essays because as an English language teacher I can say, "Hey, you need a topic sentence right here." Or I can say, "You forgot to italicize the title of the source in the references page." etc. Or I can even correct the all-too-common their, there and they're mistakes.

But when it came to the Business Plan, I was no use!

So a few days before Business Plan is due, Mr. Dave starts working on it. It was frustrating for me to watch him write it because he didn't know what he was doing and I couldn't help this time. I even had to leave the house a couple time cuz it was frustrating even me.

Dave figured that all he needed to pass the class was a 50% on the Plan. Usually he sets his standards a little higher than that... but this was a special case. I told him that as long as he submitted ANYTHING he'd probably get at least 50%! (I know how these online teacher work.) He wasn't so sure though!

So the due date comes along and he's got 4 pages of BS. The requirement is for a minimum of 8 pages. Even I'm started to get worried about if he's got even a 50% quality of BS!!

And then our friend, Neha, showed up and helped Dave "beef it up" just a little bit. Dave didn't even care by this point and ended up submitting it like 45 minutes before the deadline.

My favorite part is that he got his grades back today and the teacher gave him like an 87% on the Business Plan!! And all he was hoping for was 50%!! He got an A overall in the class when he was thinking he'd have to retake the class!

And maybe, just maybe, I've been a little more lenient today as I've been grading my own Internet students' quizzes. I think it's called Karma :o)

Recently

Aloha everyone (who still reads our blog)!
Here's a few things we've been up to lately:

1. Baby J rolls over (front to back)
2. Dave works afternoons 4 days a week and enjoys his new job.
3. Wendy still teaches a Distance Ed class and is trying to find time to finish the development of another Distance Ed class.
4. We play Glass Tower and Sudoku on our new iPods.
5. Feels like we're BOTH taking Aviation classes some days.
6. We take our multivitamins every evening before we go to bed.
7. Our laundry situation hasn't changed since Baby J arrived: it still gets washed and then sits in a pile on our bedroom floor until we pick it up to wear it.
8. We're gettin' the hang of the parenting thing... for now.
9. Feels like we're BOTH serving in the Young Women's program some days.
10. Contrary to popular belief, we have NOT been to the beach since March.
11. We learned that Costco has to be closed on Memorial Day and after 6pm on Saturdays.


Cute, smiling boy in his new pack'n'play bed from Aunty Britney and Uncle Richard. His Lion shirt matches the lions on the thing.



Found this Aloha shirt in a bag of used baby clothes that someone mysteriously left on our doorstep.

Daddy gives Baby J a bath ONCE and we take pictures. I give him a bath every other day and it's just another daily chore to be done.

Our Growing Boy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Jacen August Larson

Here is Jacen about two hours after he was born. The Nurse was concerned with his little whimper he was doing, so they had him in the warmer but it turned out to be just the noise he likes to make!!



Same time just no flash



Obviously this is Wendy!! it is about 7 the next morning!! isn't she beautiful!!



This is ME!!! holding MY Son!!!! (as if you couldn't tell through the bags under my eyes)



Here we are everyone is home safe and sound!!
Thanks All For the Gifts and Cards and thoughts and Prayers. They truly paid off!!

Tsunami Saturday

I guess when you live on an island, 20 ft above sea level, sometimes you're at risk for certain natural disasters. Last Saturday we got to see actually how prepared we were for emergency situations.

Friday, February 26, 2010

11:30pm- Noticed a tsunami advisory for the Hawaiian Island on the Internet thanks to the earthquake in Chile and went to bed. Thought nothing of it. (When the big earthquake it American Samoa the other month we were also under tsunami advisory and I didn't even know about it.... In other words, advisory=no big deal.)

Saturday, February 27, 2010

4:30am-Dave gets phone call from his dad (Thanks Dad) and confirms the now Tsunami Warning for Hawaii with the Internet

5:00am-Dave wakes me up, I want to stay in my pajamas like I had been planning on doing.

5:05am-I wander around uselessly while Dave pulls out our "under construction" 72 hr kit to see what we're lacking

6:00am- First tsunami warning sirens go off

6:07am-We get to Foodland (along with half of Laie) to grab the things we were missing (We needed water... of all the stupid things to NOT put in a 72 hr kit!)

7:00am- Second tsunami warning sirens go off, we hear it while we wait in line at Foodland (the store if very crowded)

8:30am- Car is packed, picked up our friend, Elise, and head for higher ground

9:00am- Meet our neighbors up by the Water Tank in the jungle behind BYUH campus. Set up "camp" and eat an entire loaf of French bread



10:15am- Talk about what would get us first--a white polar bear or the smoke monster

11:20am- Take a short walk to where we could see the ocean and the pending danger



11:23am- Sit on a very steep, cement road in the sun, listen to the radio



11:35am- Tsunami arrival prediction time for Oahu comes and goes... no tsunami

11:39am- Hear reports of water receding in the bays on the Big Island from the tsunami, no reports of massive waves of destruction... yeah!

11:40am- National news broadcasters disappointed that it wasn't going to make a bigger story

12:04pm- Hear reports of water receding in Pearl Harbor. Could see absolutely nothing from our vantage point. Try to take a nap on the steep, cement road.

12:30pm- Head back to our "camp" and wait until we were given clearance to head home (thought it could be up to 6-10 hours)

12:46pm- Thought crosses my mind, "Am I really going to break open one of those cans of green beans and eat them cold for lunch?" The answer came quickly, "No, Wendy, not yet... that is why you picked up Ritz crackers and easy cheese at Foodland this morning."

12:47pm- Take a hike into the jungle to find a nice "bush"

1:00pm- Settle back into a camp chair and put my feet up to wait out the rest of the day. I'm not even going to say how swollen my legs and feet were at this point.


1:05pm-Friendly chatter with the neighbors and friends. Felt just like we were all on a picnic having a great ol' time, not on an evacuation.

1:30pm- Listen to the radio for the All Clear. Yes, these little emergency radios are useful. We have 2 and we used them both. (Both were gifts from our parents from the last couple Christmases.)


1:42pm- All Clear given on radio, pack up our camp

3:00pm- Arrive back home safe and sound. No damage done.

Lesson's Learned:

It was easier to evacuate being 8.5 months pregnant than it would have been with a newborn.

If the earthquake would have been on the Big Island, not in Chili, and we would have had 30 minutes, not hours to prepare, well, we would have been very thirsty and without a change of clothes.

Stick with your friends and family and look out for each other during times of great stress. If you're patient, the whole situation will go a lot smoother.

Don't live on the beach.

I'm DEAD!!!

Ok So if no one hears from me in a week, and Wendy puts pictures up of a fishing trip she just went on, you can all assume that she killed me and used me for bait!!!
but this is so everyone can see how cute she looks everyday!!! This picture is a little blurry but you can see just how big she was 3 weeks ago.
Sorry Honey I love you, but the world needs to see how cute you are!!!

Makapu'u Lighthouse

Last Saturday we woke up super early and set out to do some site seeing that we'd been wanting to do for many weekends. Homework always got in the way! There's a lighthouse on a short hike at the opposite side of the island (the point between Kaneohe and Honolulu).
It's also whale season and this point is particularly good for spotting Humpbacks because you are able to get a view looking down on the ocean. Dave was able to see a few really good breaches. I thought it was hard to stare out at the bright ocean for more than 3 seconds, being distracted by the weeds and rocks that were closer up in my field of vision. I mostly saw only blows.

The vegetation is very different over here from Windward side where we live. I thought it was strange that there was so much cactus growing here. It felt more like Arizona than Hawaii... well, except for that big, blue, wet thing!

On our way over there we searched for the plane from LOST. As you can, we didn't really get a good look. But they say it's under that tarp! Raise your hand if you think Dave should be an Productions Assistant for LOST for his new job!

And on our way home from the hike, we went to 3D IMAX Avatar. It only cost $10 for both of us courtesy of BYUH's HR office and our completion of another health challenge. We couldn't leave without getting this awesome picture!

This post is dedicated to Heather who got mad at me for not updating the blog since December. If you read this much of the post, please post a comment so I will know that blogging is back in style!