I'm still alive... I bet you were wondering.

Oi.

I bet you thought I dropped off the face of the planet, didn't you?

Nope. Still here.

So much has been happening in life, where do I start to bring you back up to speed?

Logical timelines are boring, and I'm sure to leave some important stuff out, so I will just hodge-podge my way through this post, much like I do with life. I'm sure to forget lots of important details and we can only hope that I'll remember to bring stuff up in some later post.

I'm back, baby! And I'll try to stay for a while, though in a moment you will learn why sticking around and visiting with you will amount to an herculean task for me.

Current events of my life in a nutshell:

• About a year and a half ago, I was approached over the course of several months by a couple of BYU professors who were supposed to be monitoring and evaluating their student teacher in my care. Rather than watching her, however, they were recruiting me for their Master's of Art in Art Education program. I said "thanks, but no thanks... I can't afford it." Their response was to assure me that they had a grant that would cover the cost of tuition! That was the impetus I needed to make a huge life decision. I jumped into the deep end with both feet and began my Master's. Of course, life is never so neat and tidy. The "full tuition" grant turned out to be only partial tuition and has left me scrambling to come up with the rest of the funding for my education; but I believe it will be worth it in the end. I will get a significant pay raise once I earn the degree, and I'm working with BYU on adding a secondary teaching certificate to my degree so that I can expand my teaching range up into the middle and high schools.

• The Master's program is in full swing and I am treading water. I'm coming up on the end of my second semester and still have my head above the foam, so to speak. I have written more words in the past few months that I have written since... well, since I last visited with you, to be honest. This program is thesis driven, so I will be writing a great many more words before all is said and done. I seem to be holding my own, and I think I have a lifetime of journal writing to thank for that.

• In the process of jumping into my Master's, I've also started pushing myself to grow as an artist. I set up my studio in my classroom and have produced more artwork in the past year than I have in a long time. I attended the UAEA (Utah Art Education Association) conference and as a result I'm now enrolled to take a three day seminar called the DaVinci Initiative this summer. It is a crash course in atelier training. That's old school artistic training. This will be on top of my summer course load at BYU, of course. I also met some other artists at the conference who have invited me to studio sessions with them. I am now meeting up with a group of artists every Saturday morning to work on figure drawing from a live model. THAT is really pushing me! I rely on photo reference so I can work slowly and precisely. Having to do quick live sketches forces me to be more speedy in my observational skills.

Yawn. Am I putting you to sleep, yet? I'm putting myself to sleep, so let's move this thing along:

• We have a new principal at Harvest who is not convinced that art is all that important. He sees it as "icing" to be enjoyed after the meatier subjects are consumed. We've had some intellectual discussions as I have labored to persuade him otherwise. I feel like I am making some progress. 

• Another BYU professor, is approaching me with a proposal to give me the opportunity to work full time at my school by converting my job with the Beverley Taylor Sorensen grant. I won't go on and on about it, because details are killing this post. If it happens, it will mean more money for me, and a full time job on top of full time school next Fall. Stress, stress, stress, stress. But exciting, nonetheless. More on that later.

• One HUGE development is that HELENA IS GETTING MARRIED! Her fiance, Jayce Morgan, proposed on Christmas Eve in front of all of us and they are getting married on Monday, May 16th. Wedding plans are in full swing and I'll probably write some dedicated posts just about all things wedding in the near future.

• Another huge upcoming event is that MATT IS ALSO GETTING MARRIED! He and his fiancee, Kara, were supposed to be getting married this month, but they have pushed the wedding back to September 24th. They haven't discussed many wedding details with us, besides the fact that she has her dress and their colors will be red, black, and silver.

• To round out my updates on my kids, Will is currently working as a "grease monkey" as a local Grease and Go. It's an oil and lube kind of place. He is covered in black, sooty greasiness more often than not, and is very happy. He bought a Civic, paid it off, and has now bought a little Mazda Miata convertible that is his "project car". He's stripping it down and leaving tiny bits and pieces of it strewn all about my driveway. He's still serving in the Army Reserves one weekend a month and has been promoted to Specialist. He turned in the paperwork to go active duty, but since that has to travel through 9 levels of command structure without getting lost or rejected somewhere along the chain, I'm not going to give it a lot of thought or energy until something comes of it.

There is still lots of life to be told, but this post is already much too long. I will try to write again tomorrow.