The Jacob & Shayla Bentley Family: Open to Change and New Direction + Lots of Photos

Sunday, March 3^rd, 2013

My Dearest Brother,

I hope that you are doing well and that your back is feeling better now. Did any of the exercises I sent you help you out? I am always happy to send you some more ideas if you need them. I am excited to see your 6 pack progress soon!

Things have been a bit unusual around our house this week. Well, unusual and then not so unusual. Nathan is sick again. What a surprise, right? He hasn’t had much of an appetite for several days and then he woke up yesterday with gooby, swollen red eyes. We took him to the doctor and they gave him some special eye drops – bacterial conjunctivitis. That is just a fancy way of saying that he has pink eye. I don’t know where he got pink eye but this kid seems to pick up absolutely anything that is on the wind somehow. His eyes look much better after just one day though and I am optimistic that he will be feeling better in no time.

He is a major giddinsky. (sp? I have never tried to spell that out before!) He goes from one thing to the next to the next pulling things apart and examining them. He is very curious and loves tools. He has to be involved in everything and you can guarantee that he will attempt to put away the dishes in the dishwasher (clean or dirty) wherever we go.

Abrielle is doing well. It is still hard for me to believe that she is four years old. She has recently discovered that she likes to watchAladdin. She still says some pretty funny things. For example, yesterday when we were at the doctor she was looking at the fish in the aquarium and talking to them. She would say things like, “Yellow fish go get the black fish! I need to talk to him!” I love how her little mind works and it is great to rediscover the world through the eyes of a child and notice things that I continually take for granted.

Jake had to spend a good deal of time this week going through the WGU online orientation. Technically his 6 month term started on the 1^st of the month but he has until the 15^th as a new student to get signed up for his classes. Most likely what we will need to do is spend 1 – 1 ½ hours each night working on homework. It doesn’t bother me so much when I have homework to do as well so it is a good thing that we are both in school although it makes us both very busy. I hope that he will enjoy his school work as much as I am enjoying mine.

Speaking of school…. there have been some pretty significant developments with my school this week. On Wednesday I was feeling very anxious and like I wasn’t doing everything that I should be in order to prepare myself for my future career in fitness. This was really confusing to me because I feel like I am doing quite a bit right now and I didn’t know what more I could possibly be doing. The feeling persisted and so I prayed very hard that the Lord would give me guidance and direction. I have been reading in the Book of Mormon about the people of Nephi wandering through the wilderness and the direction that they received through their faith by the power of the Liahona. I felt like I was at the point where I was wandering lost in the wilderness. I got down on my knees and told the Lord that I was willing to follow the direction that he gave me on my personal Liahona.

The next day when I was at school I decided to talk a little bit to the TA in my Healthy Body Image/Weight Management class. He mentioned that he was in his last semester at SLCC and that he was graduating with an associate’s degree in Health and Wellness. This surprised me because I know that SLCC doesn’t offer a generic Health and Wellness degree so I pressed him on it. He told me that he talked to an academic counselor who pieced the program together for him. To top things off, our professor was gone on an unexpected emergency that day so I had the time and availability to go to the Student Center and talk with an academic counselor about this prospect.

Well, things didn’t turn out exactly the way that I imagined they would. The counselor had absolutely no idea what I was talking about; however, through a series of events that is too complicated and boring to go into detail about I found out that I am only 4 classes away from earning my Associates Degree in Chemistry. Those four classes plus one Biology class (Human Anatomy) would put me perfectly in line to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science. AND, if I take classes in the summer semesters which I kept feeling like I should do, I won’t graduate any later than I was originally planning on from SLCC.

I love those situations where it just is too coincidental to be coincidental. I know that the Lord has opened the doors for me to pursue this path and I feel confident moving forward knowing that I am doing the right thing. It won’t be easy by any means and I have no idea how I am going to pass Organic Chemistry 2 and Calculus 2 five years after I took the first segment of each course but, once again, I know that the Lord will provide the way and if I study very hard and do my part that he will make up for what I am lacking.

So… that is my plan! I will continue to do my Fitness Technician AAS and will do my Chemistry AS at the same time. I will graduate with both in 2014 and then I will be able to go on to a University to finish up my Bachelor’s degree. The two programs that I am considering right now are the Exercise & Sports Science BS at the University of Utah and the Exercise & Wellness BS at BYU. If I were to pursue the degree at BYU it is very likely that we would have to move – we would still be in the Salt Lake Valley but closer to the Southern side instead of the Northern side. I don’t know if that is what the Lord has in mind for us but I do know that he will continue to guide our path. The good thing is that either path will open the door so that if I want to pursue a Master’s degree then that option is open to me.

Pretty crazy, right? I am excited and nervous but mostly just grateful that the Lord is aware of me, my desires, and the situation my family and me. He has given us so much and blessed us so abundantly.

One last funny story before I go: yesterday at Step class I really felt like I did a good job. The moves seem to be clicking now and I can definitely tell that I am catching on. One of the nice ladies in the class told me afterwards that she was really glad that I had stuck it out and that I was doing a great job. She said, “You can tell that you are a dancer because you’ve picked it up so quickly!” I graciously thanked her but I was busting up laughing on the inside. It is just a good thing she wasn’t at the class last week when I tripped over my own two feet and fell in front of the whole class!

I love you Jer and I hope that you are doing well. My friend Zac tells me that the weather should be getting better there soon and that things will start to thaw. I hope that that is the case. If not, though, I hope that the light of the Lord will sustain you and that you know how much we love you!

Love always, Shayla

Playing with the awesome wall puzzle, waiting for the doctor. Unfortunately this scene is all too familiar lately. Poor baby!

Grandma and Grandpa Bentley gave Abrielle a basketball for her birthday. Nathan died and went to heaven. He was sooo excited about it and immediately took it for himself.