Sharon and Aaron Olesen do everything together.

When they lived in small towns in northern Wisconsin, they were 4-H summer camp counselors together.

When Aaron decided to come to Marquette, Sharon, his high school sweetheart, also decided to attend to study nursing on a Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship.

As a freshman, Aaron could often be seen walking with Sharon between classes.

And eight months ago, while still students, the inseparable couple embarked on yet another journey together — raising a child.

Pulling up to their off-campus apartment in a new minivan, the Olesen family, now made up of Sharon, Aaron and baby Samantha, arrive home after an eventful day.

Sharon carries an overtired Samantha upstairs while Aaron, a College of Business Administration senior, carries up the groceries, a task that takes several trips.

As she settles into a comfortable sofa in the cozy, if cluttered, living room, Sharon takes a well-deserved moment to relax.

A second semester junior in the College of Nursing (she took last semester off to give birth), Sharon is currently balancing a full course load, ROTC and a part-time job at Student Safety Services.

Not to mention eight-month-old Samantha.

Many of Sharon's friends and fellow students say they don't know how she manages to do it all.

"I really don't know either," she says with a shrug. She points to a large, two-month dry erase calendar board hanging on the back of a closet door. She and Aaron use it to coordinate every detail of their schedules.

Because Samantha is still on the waiting list for day care at Marquette, they depend on expert planning and a slew of babysitters to make sure there's someone around to watch her.

"That's where our friends come in," she says. "They're really great about helping us out."

As she speaks, faint rustling noises resonated from behind the apartment door.

"I think that's Dad," Sharon says to Samantha in a baby voice. "Do you want to get the door for Dad?"

With Samantha in her arms, Sharon carefully steps around the TV remotes and mini Tigger slippers on the floor to open the door for Aaron, who lugs in grocery bags.

Sharon and Aaron often work together this way, leaning on each other for support, according to Rebecca Zika, a senior in the College of Nursing.

"They try to make it as easy as possible for each other," Zika, Samantha's godmother, says.

So when Sharon found out she was pregnant just before her junior year, she didn't panic.

"It wasn't an 'Oh my gosh,'" she says. "It was, 'Now what are we going to have to schedule around and change differently.'"

Aaron agrees.

"I was a little worried," he admits, "but excited."

As a nursing major, Sharon wasn't worried about the nine-month pregnancy or the indefinitely long labor. It was the parenting part that caused concern.

"It was scary to think I'd have this human life to take care of," she says, especially due to her already rigorous schedule.

"A big concern was how I was going to find time for everything," she says, "especially ROTC," a commitment that includes 30 hours of class per week, physical training and weekend training exercises.

Sharon decided to stick with ROTC, despite her changed priorities.

"I want to spend time with Samantha," she says. "And I also have a husband I want to see every now and then."

(She and Aaron married in September 2004.)

Her lifestyle has shifted from a college student's to that of a wife and mother.

"We don't get to go out drinking and partying every Thursday night," she says. "And we don't get to go out to eat a lot."

Sharon and Aaron are lucky just to get a full night's sleep now. Samantha typically wakes up two or three times during the night.

And, living on their two part-time jobs and Sharon's army stipend, the Olesens have to stick to a strict budget.

"We buy diapers in the big bulk box" from Sam's Club, Sharon said.

Expensive electronics and microwave meals are out. And Samantha gets a lot of hand-me-downs from older cousins.

After putting away the last of the canned goods, Aaron chases after a crawling Samantha. He catches her and makes a face.

"Has she got a full diaper?" Sharon asks.

"Yeah, just for you," Aaron says, handing the wiggling baby to her mother, who immediately begins to change her.

In addition to her new diaper changing routine, Sharon's outlook on life has also changed.

"The future is so much more important because it's not yours, it's your child's," Sharon says.

Before motherhood, Sharon wouldn't have though twice about being stationed in Spain after graduation. But now she wants to stay closer to home.

"I want Samantha to know her grandma, aunts and cousins," she says as she hands Samantha, with a fresh diaper, back to her dad. "Family's more important."

And the inseparable Sharon and Aaron have truly become partners as parents.

"He's very supportive," Sharon said about Aaron. "I've learned a whole new aspect of him — how he is as a father."