Chapter 41: Time Warps

Last night around 5:30pm I called my wife and told her I was coming home early from school. I gathered my things and proceeded downstairs to the main floor of the law school. Upon seeing outside, I had a moment of utter confusion. I hadn't checked my phone, and was sure that it was around 3:30pm. I felt like I had entered a time warp which catapulted me ahead two hours. I guess the same could be said about the last seven months. There is so much that needs to be said and so little time in which to say, so again I will just try to cover the highlights, hopefully in some semblance of chronolgy.

• I graduated from the College of Business Magna Cum Laude


• Our softball teams got first place for both men's and co-ed this summer.


• I started law school in august. It has been a CRAZY semester and I am currently getting prepared to take finals.


• We went to General Conference on my birthday


• I played flag football, we lost in the tournament.


• We played co-ed volleyball with me, PJ, Kevin, and Cassidee. We did ok, we won about half our games.


• I sang with LDSSA for the homecoming sing.


• I got the highest grade on a paper in my writing class!


• Christin and her kids came to visit Laramie


• Calvin Sanford Shumway was born October 24th, 2011 at 8:41am. The kid is as cute a baby as any I have ever seen. He was very alert immediately after being born, and had more hair than you could imagine. He makes my life so much more meaningful, and is a HUGE deterant for me getting any work done in law school. He still sleeps mostly during the day and keeps Heather up all night. He is now a little over a month old and is getting bigger by the minute. He struggled at first to breastfeed, and now that is pretty much all he does when he is not sleeping or diarehha farting. I can't really tell who he looks like yet, but he definitely has his mom's eyes. I am the head diaper changer. Heather deals with imports and I deal with exports. He loves to be held and will snuggle with just about anyone (as long as he has been fed). One of my favorite things is getting him out of his crib around 5:00am and bringing him to our bed and having him sleep with us. A couple weeks ago, Heather laid Cal on the bed while I was still sleeping. She laid him about a foot away from me, and over the course of about 15 minutes, he wiggled his way over to me and snuggled up to me. Snuggling with him is one of my favorite things in the world. Heather is an amazing mom. She was back in school the week after Cal was born, and back running after about three weeks. She started insanity this week, so I hope she can keep it up with Cal's constant need for attention. A lot of people asked me how I felt after having a baby. I didn't really feel all that different. It was a little strange that in a way, Calvin was a complete stranger to me, and yet I still loved him so much. The love of a parent for a child is beyond my writing abilities. He makes my life so much better, and he doesn't even do anything.

Well, I guess most of the events since Calvin's birth revolve around him, but the last thing I'll mention is although I feel like I entered a time warp, the memories I have are good ones.

Chaper 39: Almost there!

Two more weeks of school and I will have finished my four year undergraduate degree. It'll feel really good, but it is only the beginning of my professional career. I am starting Law school in the Fall at the university of Wyoming, so I have another three years to go. I really enjoyed my time getting an education in business. I think it'll really help me looking into the future. One way I think it'll really help is this summer. I am getting started in Melaleuca this summer and I am hoping that I can get to the point where we are making a substantial supplimental income. My long term goal is to make that my primary income, but I think that will take a while. I am excited to get started though. I recently won the "Most Likely to Succeed in Business Administration" award, so hopefully I can live up to that award. The next two weeks are going to be filled with group meetings and presentations, but then summer will arrive. It's going to be a really busy summer, but one that I am looking forward to. Heather has felt better over the last couple weeks so that's good. I have been feeling great too. Ever since I started taking Enbrel, I have felt like a whole new person, like the person I was before my pain started, but with a new-found appreciation for how nice not being in constant pain is. Well, that's about all right now. Certainly not a comprehensive update, but at least a start.

Wow, a lot happens in five months

I didn't keep up so I'll have to do a bullet point of what has happened over the last few months

• Thanksgiving at the Shumways
• Finals (sucked)
• Missing the LSAT to make the family vacation
• Switching the cruise to Norwegian since Carnival burned up
• Fun fun fun in the caribbian
• Christmas at the Mullers (A Blast!!)
• Anniversary on the road (Heather getting a big surprise)
• Christmas break on the road
• Going to Arizona and seeing Wicked
• Finding out that I have Ankylosing Spondylitis
• Being prescribed EnBrel
• Having EnBrel work and end a year and a half of constant pain
• School starting again
• Getting my Law School applications finished
• Fun Valentines (I got a banana!)
• HEATHER IS PREGNANT!!! We are so so excited! We found out on valentines day

That's far from comprehensive but at least I am kind of caught up. Oh and Tangled was AMAZING too :)

Chapter 37: The Last 12 Months

This month I turned 25 and I am convinced that it will be the last year I spend on this earth. Ok probably not but it feels like that sometimes. Last night was another of a series of nights where I went to bed at 11 and woke up at 2 and couldn't get back to sleep after that. The reason? Severe pain in my knees, back, chest, neck and foot. It seriously sucks. I am on medication right now but it really only takes the edge off. I am going to get my knee xrayed today so I can continue through the diagnosis process because I can't keep this up. I work and go to school full time and it is just exhausting when compounded with the pain. On a more positive note I had a good birthday. Heather's dad and sister came into town and we went out to eat on Saturday. I got to listen to Wyoming win a football game and found out that Heather's dad got me tickets to an upcoming Bronco's game. That will be really fun and I've never been to an NFL game. Heather got fired from the ARK last week for the stupidest thing ever. They told her because she wrote on a form that she worked til 8 and clocked out at 7:30 that she was fired and they couldn't tolerate that kind of dishonest behavior. GIVE ME A BREAK!!! I do the same thing every week and so does everyone else. We were even trained to do it that way. It's ok, she hated the job anyway and the ARK is not going to get away with it. We performed "From Cummorah's Hill" on Sunday night and I got to fulfil one of my long time dreams of singing a solo in it. It was really awesome! Sam and his family and John came down to watch so we got to see the new baby. She is a DOLL!! The day before the fireside I took the LSAT. I felt pretty good about it which means I probably did horrible. I find out in November so time will tell. Well I think that is about all that has happened thus far this month. Now I just need to get rid of this stupid pain!!!

Chapter 36: Football and Workahol

I am actually posting in the middle of the month that I am writing about. I haven't done that in a while and that is saying something since I am busier now than I have ben in forever. School's in full swing. I am taking 5 classes, working 32 hours at the ARK, and teaching a class. The reason I am working so much at the ARK is because two weeks ago they informed us that for some brilliant reason that I now believe I'll never understand, everyone in supported living has to work split shifts, meaning 6-8 am and 4-8 pm. So basically my day starts between 5-5:30 am and finally winds down around 11-11:30pm, with no breaks in the middle. Heather has the same schedule so we are both going nuts. I'll be glad when it's all over, but for now it kinda sucks. I'm still in a lot of pain and this morning I went into student health to see if they could figure out what was wrong with me. Right now they are thinking Rhemetoid Arthretis (I probably spelled that wrong) so they did some blood work in hopes that they will track down why I hurt all the time. The one good thing about school starting is getting to watch football again. Wyoming is 1-1 right now. They won their opener against SUU and the next week lost to Texas. Texas was ranked #4 and they sure didn't look like it. Except for two big plays, Wyoming stuck right with them. It was a lot closer than the score showed, and Wyoming was even up at one point. Laramie football sucks so nothing new there. Also BYU lost to Airforce this last weekend. They looked awful so maybe Wyoming will beat them in one of the last chances they will have to play them (BYU went independant for football). Well that's about it. I am already looking toward the end of the sememester and I have a whole heck of a lot to do before then. Off I go.

Chapter 35: Homeward Bound

Another month comes and goes and again, I am trying to catch up and remember everything that happened this month. The most significant thing that happened is Kevin getting home from England. He got home the 19th of August and will be leaving for Idado in Sept. It was cool to see him again. He's pretty much just like I remember him, just a little bit more spiritual. School started the week after Kevin came back and has been SO busy! I seriously am wondering if I am going to make it through this semester. The other thing that is going to make this semester extra busy is the fact that I need to get ready to apply to law schools. The biggest time consumer with that is studying for the LSAT. I take it October 9th and I am already really nervous about it. I hope that I do well enough to get into where I want to go, and possibly scholarships. BYU is my first choice if I don't get any money though. I just want to get away from the cold, like forever. I have no problem coming and visiting the frozen wasteland every once and a while but I am so fed up with the 9 month winters I could scream. It doesn't help that I have major back problems right now and the cold only makes it worse. Since school started I have been going back to the gym. I am doing mostly legs though so I can rehab my knees and foot. It is really painful but I want to think that it is helping. I am going to try to work the upper body too though. Other than that life is just super duper busy again. What's new . . .

Chapter 33: SUMMER!!!!!!!

Well, another month of summer comes and goes. July wasn't all that eventful, of maybe I just don't remember why it was eventful. In any event, I am loving summer. I never want it to end. If Football was played and Christmas celebrated in the summer there would be no need for any other season. This 4th of July, Heather and I took a trip up to Evanston. The fireworks there are insane! The city allows people to shoot fireworks in town so there was the constant noise of fireworks going off for the entire weekend. We also got the chance to see the worst movie ever made. "The Last Airbender" looked really cool in trailer form, but there was nothing good about it. It was just plain awful. Well, the fireworks made up for it. Other eventful happenings in July include me dropping my toothbrush in the toilet. Don't ask me how, all I can say is that I was not, in fact, peeing and brushing my teeth at the same time. Heather's brother Kevin also came home this month which was pretty cool. It was fun to meet him and get to know him better. Other than that we have just been doing a lot of relaxing and movie watching at home. Netflix instant movies has been a real boredom killer. We'll probably unsubscribe once school starts though.