On Sunday, Molly got her first hair cut. Her hair was getting so long and scraggily. It was a hundred different lengths and hard to keep out of her eyes. So, on Sunday night, my mom said she would trim it. It's shorter now, but looks really cute. All of the curls are still there, but any chance at strawberry blonde/red is gone now. Oh well. No, I didn't keep the hair. I'm just not
that kind of mom. 
The last two weeks has officially been "baby season." James' cousin Stephanie had a new little baby boy named Tyler (#4 to their family). My cousin Melanie added a new baby girl named Kate (#2 to their family). And, James' sister Annie had a new little girl named Elizza Noelle (#4 to their family). We haven't met any of them, but we hope they and their moms are all healthy and doing well. Hopefully we will meet Elizza after Christmas and maybe the other two at some point in time. What did these three babies have in common besides being related to us? None of their parents chose to find out the babies' genders until they were born. Interesting.
James is trying to join the Air Force. He's not trying to get out of being deployed in June, but he's trying to get out of being deployed as a grunt mechanic on prison guard duty. There is absolutely no possibility for advancement as a nurse in the Utah National Guard at the moment, and that's what he'd like to do to finish out the next 6 years until his retirement. What are the benefits of being in the Air Force? He says they treat you better, deployments are only 6 months instead of 12, he gets to be an officer, would fly to Tacoma, WA for drill, and would not have to sleep in a tent ever again. There is a lot of paperwork to fill out and several fiery hoops to jump through, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.
I just finished another semester of my master's classes at USU. I am behind by 1 class, so even though next spring should be my last semester, I'll have 1 more class to do in the summer. Oh well.
Annie, Melinda, and I got all of my Grandma's Christmas presents wrapped in 1 afternoon and 1 night. That was a record!!! My grandma buys gifts (at least 2 or 3 things, if not more) for all 52 members of our family. That means that we wrapped at least 200 gifts or more. Crazy!! Christmas keeps Grandma going, though, so its a good thing.
My dad got a job!! Well actually, it's an internship, but it is still a job. He'll be doing some type of medical parts management something or other for Stryker Medical. It has been over a year since he stopped working for Ottowear and we are so proud of him for what he's done since. He's gone back to school and has re-emerged as our smart-intellectual-life-is-good-and-I-am-with-it dad again. He's just finished up a 6 month part-time job reorganizing the biology lab at SLCC and now will start this new adventure in January. Good luck!
I had each of my ESL History students do a project called "My Immigration Story." Oh my goodness! If you ever want to be humbled and meet some amazing kids with some amazing stories, I can introduce you to a few of my students. Our country may not be as strong or as perfect as it may seem to have been on greener pastures, but it is still good.
