Proud of My Boys

This post is dedicated to bragging about the two men in my life. I am so lucky to call them mine and wanted to share some of their recent accomplishments.

Brandt. Spring is graduation season and lately I've seen several congratulatory messages going out around Blog Land and the Facebook Empire regarding high school/college graduation. It has reminded me that I never mentioned anything about Brandt's graduation back in December. So here we go: Brandt graduated in December!!! All of 2010 and 2011 were filled with Brandt busily working towards his Master's Degree in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho, emphasizing in Rangeland Ecology and receiving a certificate in Restoration Ecology (kind of a mouthful, right?). He has, thankfully, been able to complete his degree online and was even able to give his final presentation via video conference at the U of I campus here in Idaho Falls, so he never had to make the long trek to Moscow. I'm so proud of him for reaching this goal. Deciding what he wanted to be when he grew up was one of the hardest decisions for him, one that he has struggled with for a very long time. Once he came across this program, he knew this was what he needed to do, and he stuck with it, going to school year-round to complete his degree as fast as possible. 

Now it's on with the job hunt! Hopefully, with his degree, more doors will be opened in the direction he wants to head with his career. His seasonal job started up in April and he has been enjoying working with his friends at the BLM. Because of his degree, he got a promotion that we weren't planning on. He was also made a team lead for a special project to remove noxious weeds from the occupied habitat of Ute Ladies Tresses (an endangered orchid) around the South Fork of the Snake River (basically, that means they have to come up with a way to get rid of the weeds without harming the threatened/endangered species that live/grow along the banks of the river; and apparently, this is a huge deal in the BLM World, because it rarely gets approved to do this sort of thing). We would love for this to become a full-time gig, but sadly full-time openings with the BLM are hard to come by. And competition is pretty fierce. However, Brandt was offered a full-time job with a different agency, but that is still in the works. More info on that to come later.

Jack. Jackers is continuing to grow and learn so quickly we can barely keep up. He started daycare about a month ago. The first couple of weeks were not so great. It was a combination of being in a new place with new people, on top of being sick and teething (you can read more about that fun here). His first day there he refused to eat, which really worried this momma. One reason we chose this daycare is that it is close to my office, so if I have an opening in my schedule, I can go over and hang out with Jack, which has been nice. Since those first couple of weeks, he has adjusted really well. The other day when I picked him up, the girls were impressed with how well he is sitting up and said Jack and another little boy sat on the floor facing each other and played really well together for a long time with a bunch of toys between them. I think he enjoys playing with kids his size - anytime I've seen him around the other kids he seems so interested in them. He is such a good boy and so much fun!

It seems that over night Jack has mastered sitting up. Seriously, a week ago he could barely sit up for ten seconds before toppling over; now he's got it down pat (except for at church; for some reason he always topples over and bonks his head really good during Relief Society - makes me look like Mother of the Year). He doesn't seem to have any interest in crawling yet (if he wants to get anywhere, he'll still lay down and roll to wherever it is he wants to be). Yesterday, we went to Winco and figured he was ready to try sitting up like a big boy in the seat of the cart.

He loved it! His face just lit up as he stared from one thing to the next. He couldn't get enough, he was so excited (I don't blame him - Winco is a pretty happenin' place). Mom had issues with him sucking on the cart handle, but other than that it was a good time.

I sure love these boys, and I'm so proud of them. They are my world and I'm so grateful that I get to be with them every day. They bring me so much joy. How did I get so lucky?!