The Beginning of the End

It is the beginning of the end.

That sounds like a negative thing, but it's really the best thing ever.

Tomorrow I start (what I believe is) my last semester on campus at BYU. Hallelujah. After that, I will still have close to 20 credits (about 6 classes) to have 120 for graduation, but I can do the rest through Independent Study. You have no idea how done I am. Mentally, I have already graduated basically because there is really no point to getting a degree anyway when I want nothing more than to stay home with lots of little Gunnell children, but at least I'll have done it. And be the first one in my family. And maybe someday, though probably not for a while, I will fall back on that thing and use it. But in all honesty, I don't really care about graduation or getting a degree other than to make my family proud of me. Everyone acts like it's this super remarkable milestone and I guess it is if you struggle in school, but I never have so I probably take my education for granted because to me, it's just four+ years I spent paying thousands of dollars to get A's and B+'s with very little effort so I can say I have a Bachelor's degree in English, which (as much as I love it because I love to read and write) is kind of useless compared to being a doctor or something. I mean, clearly I can read and write just fine already.

I know I sounded really negative just then and I promise I wasn't trying to be, but I just don't care anymore. I know what I want from our life--Dalin's and mine--and a degree in English is not exactly essential to that goal. I can still be a writer without it. I can still read without a degree. If I were studying to become something that helps people maybe I would have a little more motivation but I want to help my family. They are my priority.

Don't worry, I'm going to finish because my family is counting on me...just realize that it is not the most important thing.

I have enjoyed my last three days off from school (now that spring semester is over!) for the most part--sadly, summer semester has arrived all too soon and I'm still stressing about not having definite plans for sitters for Tenley on Mondays and Wednesdays. Thankfully I have some awesome friends and cousins in the area who will be helping me out as often as they can. I really can't express how appreciative I am. It's already really hard for me to leave Tenley and even more so with so many different people but I trust everyone who has offered to help me and am so thankful for their willingness! Somehow I will get through July and then I only have the first week and a half of August to finish up. And then we have our New Hampshire trip to look forward to! I know I bring that up a lot, but you have no idea how beach/ocean/lake ready I am. I'm not saying I'm a mermaid or anything, but I am saying that living in the desert does not suit me at all. (I was going to say I'm a fish out of water but that sounded lame.) Anyway, I miss the water! Gah, I'm so excited. Plus, the lobster there is fresh off the boat and that makes all the difference.

But back to my current life--it was so nice having time to read and write and just watch movies on ABC these last few days. I even got to talk to my best friend on the phone for two hours today! That never happens. It was so...refreshing. Anyway, the last three days I read Austenland, Midnight in Austenland, and started The Fault in Our Stars at Dalin's suggestion (just the last one haha). I loved Austenland. I like romances like that. Anyway, Midnight in Austenland was very disappointing to me by comparison. But that could be because I found the new protagonist far less interesting in the second book. She was middle-aged, divorced with two kids, and everything she did annoyed me. Maybe if I was 40...But anyway, I would at least read Austenland, (but if I were you, I'd just skip the second--it disappointed me that badly). I haven't gotten far enough into The Fault in Our Stars to give it a rating, but it seems like one of those books that I don't want to read but will end up liking because simply everyone likes it. I am a pretty easy to please reader. And movie watcher. So maybe that means you can't trust my opinion unless you too are easily pleased.

And now, since I've started talking about books, I guess I'll add some other books that I have read that stand out in my mind as noteworthy.

Books I liked (besides Harry Potter and The Hunger Games which are both obvious and I loved them), include:
The Twilight series (yes, I didn't mind it. I mostly liked the first book but I am one of those people who didn't love the series, but didn't hate it)
The Host (I really liked this book on the other hand. Like I said, I'm not picky. I'm totally fine with Stephenie Meyers' writing and I think this book is really cute)
Divergent (This is the first book of three. I have not finished Allegiant (the third one) but I did like the first book far more than Insurgent)
Enclave (This is another set of three. This was just okay...it's a zombie apocalypse-type book and not even a great one but I did like the first much more than Outpost and Horde. They seem to get progressively worse but I got hooked enough by the first to read on. I'm still trudging through Horde)
The Maze Runner series. (Again, the first book is very good. From what I recall, I did not like the others at all)

I had some others in mind, but now I feel like I want to read in bed before Tenley wakes up so I guess that's all for now.

But hey, if you have any book series suggestions, please let me hear them!

Happy Sunday,

Oh, and because everyone always wants a picture of Tenley, here's one from today. This was not an hour after she put her hand in the fricking toilet. I obviously washed her hands immediately (while trying not to throw up) and would have felt worse about not stopping her in time, except she seriously ran her little self in the darkened bathroom after pushing the door open and thrust her hand in there in under fifteen seconds. So, there was really no helping the situation. I will probably tell her about this day when she's a teenager and drops something in the toilet before I make her get it out herself. 

But you can see why I couldn't stay upset for very long;)