Dear Flower Mound High School

The following is a letter, and a few pictures I am sending to Flower Mound High School - the high school Chris went to.  I think this is something they need to hear:

Dear Flower Mound High School,

Please find included with this letter 2 pictures.  One is of Christopher Nield holding his diploma cover, and the other is a picture of his diploma.   Christopher Nield was a student who went to Flower Mound High.  While attending school there a counselor told him that he should never go to college, that he was not college material.

If you cannot tell by the pictures, this degree he has earned is a Master’s Degree.  Not only did he complete all the requirements for the degree but he earned a 3.6 grade point average.  To get into a graduate program he had get a bachelor’s degree, and take the GRE exam. 

Let this be a lesson to your school and your counselors.  Your job is NOT to tell your students what kind of material they are.  It is NOT your job to tell your students something is above or below them.  Your job is to support them in whatever their dreams may be.  Your job is to inspire them and help them see the unlimited potential they have.

Luckily this student was not held back by what your counselors said.  He chose instead to be inspired by his family and friends who supported and believed that he could accomplish what he set out to accomplish and more.  Hopefully your counselors ended the practice of telling students what kind of material they are, and instead help them become what they dream to be. 

Solar Eclispe

Yesterday my younger brother Jake had the most awesome idea to use a welding mask so we could watch the eclipse.  It was pretty awesome.  Every 10/15 minutes or so we would go out and look at it.  For a while it was behind the clouds (sad), but then it came back.  It was pretty cool to watch!

Happy Birthday "Master" Chris!

Today was a most exciting day in our lives!  Not only was it Daddy's Birthday, but he also graduated!  Chris earned his Masters Degree in Occupation Health - Industrial Hygiene/ Hazardous Substance, I know super long name right?

 Chris is a big fan of the Muppets - we pretty much have all the movies.  So today I surprised him with the first 3 seasons of the Muppet Show (the only 3 that are out on DVD).  Guess what we will be watching for a while?!

The pictures in the place where he walked came out bad, so we are just going to order the professional ones that they take, but I did get some good pictures right after outside, here they are!

Even Cort was excited about his graduation!  She gave Daddy a big hug!

 Happy Family Today!

 This is all the people from his major that graduated today - not much but it is actually one of the largest programs in the nation.

 Cortney loved playing with his tassel

 This is him shaking hands with Dr Larson .  He was the professor who threatened to hold Chris back and not let him graduate because he wanted more of my banana bread and danishes...I made them all the time and had Chris bring them to school to share.

 Dr Pahler (AKA Leon) with Chris

 This is a picture of Justin and Chris.  These guys have studied so much together the last two years...they also knew each other a little when they were in classes together at BYU Idaho.

 Chris with his mom and dad

 Another shot of Dr Larson and Master Chris

 This is his sister Kim and her Husband Derrick (not 100% sure if that is the right spelling for his name)

 And here is all of us, my Mom and Ryan were able to come too, so that was pretty cool!

 

Afterwards we went to Red Robin for lunch and got mud pies for dessert in honor of his birthday and graduation!  All in all it was a pretty awesome day!  I know the next big question is what next?  Well when we figure that out we will be sure to let you know where we decided to go!

New Favorite Thing!

Every once in a while I stumble upon something I love - just found another one today - and I am excited to share it!  For a while I had stopped running and as of late - especially the last 2 weeks I have picked it up again.  The problem I ran into was shin splints.  So much so that I was just in pain constantly, I knew it wasn't good.  I didn't want to stop running again just when I got into it so I did some research online, and I have to say I am amazed!  Here is what my new favorite thing is!

A foam roller! Like I said before I am amazed.  I did two different stretches, one where I stretched the the calf muscle then where I would roll it on my shin.  It hurt something awful, but it worked awesomely.  And you only have to do it for about a minute!  Before I did this I could not squat, it was just too painful, right after I did this I could squat and it only hurt a little!  The article I found said to wait 24 hours then do it again if it still hurts and the pain will be all the way gone, if not already gone.  Like I said before love it!  Many articles say it is faster, much cheaper and just as effective as deep tissue massage for many different parts of your body.  And the best part - it isn't expensive at all! 

Little Update

I will call this blog post the little update because it is exciting that Chris has almost finished everything to graduate, but we are still waiting for the Big update that will be when we find out where we are moving to!  We have had a couple companies contact Chris, and one from Arizona even flew him out last week!  It is an exciting time and we are ready to get going with the next phase of our lives!  We are hoping to be able to buy a house soon, Cortney is very excited about having a backyard!  But for now it is a lot of waiting and praying.  I will keep you updated on what happens!

Dear Cortney

Dear Cortney,

Today we were at the park and there were some kids there that were being so rude to you.  There were these twins, a boy and a girl, who were about 1 year older than you who were being just awful.  At one point the girl was trying to push you under the slide, and being bigger than you she was succeeding until her mom finally stepped in.   Then later the girl was trying to hog this toy all to herself, that 3 kids can easily fit on.  Being the loving, friendly, happy girl that you are you tried to go play with her even though she was being rude earlier.  She wouldn't let you on, then yelled to her brother that you were being rude to her.  At which point her brother came over and started yelling at you, and their mom did nothing.

I felt so sad that you had to go through something like this, especially at such a young age.  I took you aside and we played by ourselves picking dandelions and had a talk about having nice friends and not so nice friends.  We talked about how you did nothing wrong, they just were not being very nice to you.  After a while we went back to the playground and you found some new friends to play with that were nice and you had so much fun that you didn't want to go home for lunch.

I just wanted to write this in hopes that one day you can read this.  You probably wont remember this experience, but looking back I want you to remember a couple things.  First I want you to remember that I love that you were so forgiving and tried to play with a girl who was rude to you - that was the right choice, sometimes even though you don't do anything wrong, people will be rude to you.  You are such a happy, loving, and kind person - I could not ask for a more wonderful daughter. Second, I want you to remember what happened after we stepped away from the situation, you went back and made different friends that were better for you.  If you ever find yourself in a situation that is headed in the wrong direction or making you unhappy, take a step back, think about what is best, and move forward.  Sometimes this means fixing what is broken, and in this case it means moving on to something better.

I love you so much.  Again I am so sad that you had to deal with something like being so young this but so proud of the way you handled the situation.  As your mom I could have stepped in and confronted the kids and their parents - but I am well pleased I didn't have to.  You didn't fight back, you didn't yell back, and you even tried to be nice to them again.  You handled the situation amazingly  by yourself.  I am pleased I am raising a child that is independent and can handle difficult situations.  You are growing up to be such a wonderful and loving person.  I love you Miss Cortney,

Love Mom

Funny Parenting Moment

I have known for a while today will be a stressful day.  Chris has his final defense for his thesis today - and even though he has done an amazing job and I am sure it will go well...still kind of nervous.  On top of that his parents just got into town, and they are coming up today, not to mention he will be graduating in about 5 weeks and we still have absolutely no idea where we will be moving to.  I am a serious planner and it is driving me up the wall that we have no idea where we are going to be.  I know it will all work out in the end, and I am trying to see this as a chance to learn patience, but at the moment I am finding that difficult to do.

So we have established it is a stressful day, now Cortney gets up and is just not herself today.  Her sleeping schedule has been way off, which I am sure is a big part of her acting this way, but she is just pushing buttons all over the place.  Today she has been playing twenty questions, except all twenty are exactly the same one I answered 10 seconds ago.   She isn't really listening to what I am saying, so I have to repeat myself a million times, and she is doing everything I ask her not to.  I know with a toddler these things are expected but today was way more than she normally does it, and she knows it too.

So I sat down with her and we talked about how we need to choose to be happy and listen to mom the first time.  And then I asked her

"Have you been nice to mom today?"

Cort - "no"

Mom - "Why?"

Cort - "Wait yes I have been nice"

Mom - just gave her a mom look

Cort - "no I have not been nice"

Mom - "What do you think you should say to mom?"

Cort - "Just be patient"

After this I laughed for about 2 minutes straight,  totally broke the tension and stress.  I love being a mom - it is amazing and it has taught me so much, and I continue to learn everyday.  I love how even though I am the one that is supposed to be teaching Cortney, she is usually the one teaching me.