Can I brag?

Alright, I spend about 90% of our blog bragging about Landen. And now, I'm going to brag about my husband in this post.

Today, the Ag Department had a reception for the students in his Senior Project class. He has been building a Methoxide Mixing Tank for his biodiesel processing for his project. He has spent many hours building it. During the reception, various people walked in and asked questions about it. (there was other students with their projects too) He was very good at answering questions and very enthusastic about it. He even had the mixer running!


P.S. For those of you (like me) have no idea what a methoxide mixer is.. it a container that mixes methonal and potassium hydroxide together. These chemicals are quite dangerous to mix together. They create a nasty gas that burns your lungs. (I don't know, I've only heard the complaints from Michael about it) This mixture goes into the oil to make biodiesel somehow... This presentation board had some additional info on it, but I'm not sure you can read it.


As I was getting ready to go to his presentation, I thought about how much he's done this semester and was really proud of him. He is going to graduate, and that alone is good enough to celebrate and be proud of him for. But he is also a good dad and husband.


This semester has been especially stressful for us all. It's our (hopefully) last semester and has been trying. I'm not trying to complain, it just has been. Especially for Michael! He has been taking 21 credits, and working 30-35 hours a week. Yes, that's right. And he manages to get home to give me a small break and put Landen to bed most nights. He gets up everyday at 6:00am to get to class by 7:30, and gets home from work at about 7-8pm. He does usually gets to stop by on his way to work and change and get something to eat. He is also looking for a job to support his family in an economy that is not conducive to a recent graduate. (Let's not even begin how many, "We'd like to hire you, but we've frozen our hiring, maybe in a few months," we've gotten from POSTED jobs. Hello? Don't advertise a job if you don't intend to hire!) .

He shoulders much of the stress quite well, but somedays are always harder than others. Yet, he is always willing to help the neighbors or a farmer friend when he can, serves in the Young Men's presidency and completes his home teaching. He's been very positive, for the most part anyway. It seems we've both had our days, but the best part of being married is being able to pull the other one up when they are down. We've been doing this more than we'd like to lately.

We're very proud of Michael. We love him VERY much.