Lightyears...

I'll never forget that day, staring at the college catalog and wondering how in the heck I'd ever manage to ever be able get that degree. It's gonna take lightyears!!!... I distinctly remember thinking that.

But I registered anyway...

That was in 2001... and my first class landed the day after 9/11. I truly didn't want to go, I just wanted to stay home and watch the news, but I was already registered and had already paid and everything. It was French class... And so I went and that night we pretty much put the curriculum aside and just talked... And I'll never forget my French professor... she was just awesome. One of the best I've ever had. So awesome, in fact, that if it hadn't been for her I'm really not sure I would have ever had the motivation to continue.

So I kept going... But I'm not gonna lie, it has been really, really tough.

But now, ten years later, I'm on my last class! My Science/Lab (The Science of Light) which, by no coincidence, I saved until the very, very end thinking that it would possibly give me some sort of momentum to... get through it! And it worked!

So here I am... So close to my goal and at the same time realizing how much I've learned in the meantime, because really...

The light-year is a measure of distance, not time. It is the total distance that a beam of light, moving in a straight line, travels in one year. To obtain an idea of the size of a light-year, take the circumference of the earth (24,900 miles), lay it out in a straight line, multiply the length of the line by 7.5 (the corresponding distance is one light-second), then place 31.6 million similar lines end to end. The resulting distance is almost 6 trillion (6,000,000,000,000) miles!

So I guess I was wrong because I haven't put anything close to that much mileage on my car in doing this...

Some fun stuff I'm learning...








Ugh...

Even though, surprisingly... some of it makes sense! lol!

In particular...





And it's been really interesting learning how to calculate my driving speed in the actual lightspeed scheme of things...



Not...

What's In A Name?...

I can't tell you how many times over the past week, when I've told people the names of my new grandsons, they've said... "Wow, super cool names... but where did their parents come up with them?"

Well, I'm really not sure... so I'm just taking a stab here. Whitney and Aaron, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Aaron Everest
Well, his first name is obvious, but his middle name not so much. Until you see this...


Grand Tetons


And while it's not exactly Mt. Everest, ya still get the gist, right?

Calder Reed
Even given his daddy's middle name as his middle name, his first one would still remain mysterious if it weren't for the fact that his daddy is a sculptor and his mommy grew up in Grand Rapids. Anyway, here's a pretty cool pic of both his mommy AND his namesake...


Calder Plaza Grand Rapids

Making a little more sense now?

And then there's Jade who was named after her mommy's middle name, which came by no other reason except that I loved it and it was also the name of the heroine in "Endless Love." And Rachel who I think was probably named by her parents, Daryn and Jon, to ensure that nobody would ever, EVER mistake her for a boy... and plus it's a really pretty name.

And Let's Not Forget About The "Big" Girls...

I am so thankful... and SO truly blessed.

A Couple of Early Valentines...

A couple of little miracles!



Aaron Everest - 5 lbs. 3 oz. - 17.75 in. - 4:56 pm



Calder Reed - 4 lbs. 3 oz. - 18 in. - 4:58 pm

They'll be in the NICU until they're strong and healthy enough to go home. With Mommy and Daddy's love along with all the good care they're getting at the hospital, hopefully it won't be too long.


Everest


Calder


Mommy and the Boys

Hope I got them right! They look identical to me. It's SO hard being 1,500 miles away!