GOOD NEWS!

I just found out this week that I was accepted into UC Davis' Music Program for this coming Fall 2010! I am so thrilled at this opportunity to finish up my BA in music. When Chris and I found out we were pregnant with Bailey, we were thrilled, but I had to hurry and make plans for the rest of my education. I was about 3 years into classes at BYU-Idaho and so I quickly finished up an AS in General Studies so that I could easily transfer to another college when we moved for Chris' PhD. We left that summer after I had Bailey and I received my AS; we then moved to Davis and Chris began his PhD and I started taking a class or two at a local Community College in Sacramento. I've been taking just introductory music classes and basic theory to refresh my memory of all the piano lessons over the years and I also started teaching piano lessons to children from our apartment (thanks to a beautiful piano given to me by my very generous grandparents). And now after a long road, I made it into UC Davis' Music Program and will be taking placement exams this summer to try and pass out of as many basic music classes as possible. Bailey will be attending the on-campus preschool (child development lab) on campus each morning so that I can go full-time and the plan is to finish up by next summer (if I pass out of enough classes and go full-time each quarter this next year).

And to top it off, I found out I got a $10,000 scholarship as well! This was wonderful news and such a blessing because I had been a little worried about the tuition costs...it's not like BYU-I! The fees are around $13,000 a year to attend and so between this scholarship and pell grants, I will have enough to cover me the whole year without paying out of pocket or taking out more student loans :) Now I am guilt-free and super excited to start this fall! I want to get a BA in music education and then get my teaching credentials so I can teach elementary school music--I think I will continue giving lessons as well. My two instrumental emphases will be in piano and violin. I also hope to minor in art if there's enough time.

Chris has 3 years of his PhD left and his research is going great! It has been a great month for good news. He got a very prestigious grant from NSF (the National Science Foundation) which has an extremely low acceptance rate. This was a big honor for him (and will look fantastic on a resume) as well as the school and Graduate Neuroscience Program here at UC Davis. I'm so proud of him and he truly loves the research he is doing (the pay raise from the grant will be nice for us as well:)

We love living here in Davis. The weather, college town atmosphere, and being so close to Sacramento, SF, and Tahoe as well as to lots of outdoor fun has been awesome. We will be sad to go when the time comes, but we have 3 fun years ahead :) The married student ward is awesome and most of them all live on campus with us in the Graduate Student Housing. It's fun to all be here together with the big park and community center in the complex and it'll be nice to be able to walk or ride my bike to classes since we already live on campus! We feel so blessed and are so grateful for supportive families and friends and for the gospel in our lives.

p.s. oh! and we just planted our garden yesterday (we're a little late, but it's planted!) and I'll post pics soon of our little plot in the campus community gardens. loves! I'll also post pics of some new decorating in the apartment (I finally got family pics up...and we moved to this apartment last July!) lol