Master in the making...

Well the day has finally come for Ben to spread his wings again and fly. After 10 months of boredom due to unemployment he will finally have a reason to get out of the house! And I'm sure in about 2 months he'll be wishing for the long boring days spent at home watching Golden Girls re-runs with me. After what seemed like the longest summer in history, he is finally joining the student ranks.

He enjoyed orientation last Thursday all day, and so far really likes the people he'll be in the program with. He is the only boy that was accepted this year, the other three are girls, and one happens to share the name of Kirsten with me...weird. So for two years I'll be hearing Kirsten this and Kirsten that, but it won't have a thing to do with me! I'm not worried though, Ben said "I only need one Kirsten in my life..." which should definitely be true, as I'm quite a handful. I hope he can handle all the estrogen, at least he's getting a son this year and not a daughter. It'll help balance things out a bit.

After orientation I got to meet everyone at a BBQ in the backyard of the Burch Mann house, where Ben will be taking most of his classes. He said there are rumors that the late Mrs. Burch Mann still wanders the halls of the home she donated to the University...so although he was given a key and can use the house at any time, I doubt we'll be making any trips there after dark!

Ben found out it's going to be a VERY busy two years! He will have his graduate classes, as well as a paid assistantship AND a projects class. It all sounded very overwhelming but very exciting at the same time! All the first and second year students had to do a group interview and present their resumes and qualifications and talk about which assistantship they wanted to be chosen for. Afterward all the supervisors hashed out where everyone would work best. Ben was grilled and questioned the most due to his vast experience, and when all was said and done was chosen to work in the Marketing department for Utah Shakespearean Festival! SUCH an irony, as they have passed over him twice for jobs! Ben really had a grudge against USF, but now that they have picked him I think he'll have to get over it and enjoy the ride. It's exactly what he really wanted to do-and he hopes to use his graphic design experience as well as his previous marketing experience with Opera Pacific. It'll sorta be like starting back where he left off in November.

I am so proud of Ben for getting into such an awesome program, and for his patience waiting for school to start. He will be one of the programs strongest assets, and I think it will be fun to follow his adventures for the next two years! He's multi-talented and the more they see of that, the busier he'll be I'm sure!

In other news, when Ben bought his laptop for school it came with a Wii, and I'm going to stay busy as I can with that thing. I love it, and think everyone should have one! :) The baby is growing well, and we have yet another ultrasound tomorrow to follow up on the last one that had a weird little thing show up by his heart. Probably nothing, but to be safe we're doing another one, and why would I ever resist more pictures of our sweet baby boy?!

Stay tuned for more episodes...

Kirsten