I know.....

I know we're boring and haven't posted for awhile, but we haven't had anything "post worthy" happening around here. Don't get me wrong, we've been so busy I've wanted to pull my hair out, but who wants to blog about that? :)

I've been finishing up this school year (tomorrow is the last day!!!! :), and I just shake my head and wonder where the year went? It seriously feels like March, so I haven't been getting too excited about the last day of school. It didn't hit me until today when we were taking things off the walls and packing everything up. We also don't have any crazy plans this summer, so it's weird to feel so relaxed about the coming months (I might be able to go to Ireland/England in September, so there is that to look forward to :) I always hate ending a school year, though. Some teachers might disagree with me, but it's hard to start over with a new class. I swear, I just get them trained and I just figure out all their little personalities, and they move on to 4th grade, ripping your heart out. Go figure.

Adam has been madly studying for his Clinical Exam that he has tomorrow, which pretty much determines when he can start his job. I have loads of confidence in him, but we're still praying like crazy that he'll do well (you have to cover all bases, right?) It's wicked hard and expensive, so we'll be glad to have that behind us.

Besides work, studying, church activities, family time, friend time, and doctor's appointments, it's pretty calm around here :) Anybody else think May is ridiculously busy?

Hallelujah!!!!

GRADUATION!!!! When we were married 4 1/2 years ago, this day seemed like it would never happen. Getting through our Bachelor's degrees and then a subsequent Master's degree was not within reach. I don't think I have an imagination large enough to think of our lives without semesters or all-nighters finishing homework... BUT I don't have to try and imagine now! It will be our lives, so now I can find out day-by-day :) The day was beautiful and I couldn't stop watching Adam during the ceremony.... It just seemed surreal and I was SO proud. I am incredibly grateful for all his hard work and patience. Oh, I love him....







AND we recently found out that Adam was able to get a fantastic job!!!!!!!!! Yup, he will enter the work force within his field of study. Pretty excited about that! It's with a company that has offices all over northern Utah, so we will be here for a couple more years. We want to settle down further south, but the economy needs to even out a bit.....

Let There be Fish

There's been an inside joke between Adam and I about our ability to keep things alive. We always have good intentions, but every plant that has entered this house alive, has left in a trash can. We've often laughed that maybe THAT'S why we don't have kids yet; They wouldn't make it a week :) But we decided we needed to 'dig a little deeper' and see if we could keep an animal alive. So, we got fish. Easy, right? The experts at Petsmart gave us a HUGE list of things that needed to be done before we could even get our hands on a scaly little friend. We followed everything to the letter. And the first night we had a casualty.... We relied on their 2 week guarantee and had to exchange one little body. I felt like such a criminal when I went into the store for the exchange! But since this little hiccup, we've been able keep all our little ones alive (We had a little scare yesterday involving too much sunlight, but everyone made it through the night :) Phew!


We bought this side table for the tank, and I LOVE it!

Moments

Do you ever have those moments where everything just feels wonderful? You feel so content and life just feels great.... NOTHING in life is perfect and I think we would get spoiled if everything did fall into place. But every once in awhile, there are those moments where I sit back and I think to myself "This is happiness. This moment right here." You might be surprised to find that NONE of it involves money or extravagance, but it always involves my sweetheart and our family and friends.... Those sweet moments make everything worthwhile. Even when work is crazy or I have 10 meetings in a week, I think to those simple moments when the world was "okay" and I realize I might survive :)

Learning

Our topic this month is "Learning" and it was my turn to do the Newsletter. I thought I might as well put my thoughts on the blog too :)

I remember as a little girl, watching my mom read. I still remember being amazed at the fact that she could stare at those squiggly lines in the book, and have a story unfold for her. Books were such a miracle to me that opened a whole new world of possibilities. Using these books for my continual learning, and consequentially my Education, has always been an important part of my life. My parents put such an emphasis on our schooling, that there never was a question about its importance. For this, I will forever be grateful. To learn new things and be open to new possibilities is a gift without value.

“Reduced to its simplest definition, education is the training of the mind and the body. Education is the great conversion process under which abstract knowledge becomes useful and productive activity. It is the something that need never stop. No matter how old we become, we can acquire knowledge and use it. We can gather wisdom and profit from it. We can grow and progress and improve,” President Gordon B Hinckley.

Our education is a progression and can be improved throughout our lives. The resources we have available now are incredible. Almost any questions our brains come up with can be answered with a short search on the internet. Using these tools appropriately, we would be able to understand more than any other previous generation. This is a great gift from our Heavenly Father, which is another example of His endless love. “There is only one Source whence men obtain wisdom, and that is God, the Fountain of all wisdom,” Brigham Young.


May we all keep learning :)

Crochet and Cake Decorating

Lately I've had this huge curiosity to try a bunch of new things. Maybe I'm realizing I haven't tried a ton of new things, because I knew I wouldn't be immediately amazing at them ;) That is definitely one of my faults. When I play sports or do projects I feel like I have to have perfect results. I've always struggled with that. I honestly think I'm too lazy to work on something and not come out satisfied with whatever I was working on. Go figure.

So, I decided to try my hand at crochet. I've actually learned quite a few stitches and it's not as hard as I thought it would be. EVEN better! However, to read a pattern is still a struggle.... I'm working on making anything harder than a pot holder ;)

Also, when we were down in Albuquerque, I was pretty immobile with my back. My Step-Mother In-law introduced me to the world of Cake Decorating. I never knew what was out there! The possibilities of beautiful flowers and designs, just boggles my mind. I'm pretty excited to be able to explore these techniques. I'm not very good, but it is fun to create things with sugary goodness ;)

Birthday Surprise

My Birthday was on Saturday this year, so Adam planned a "big-secret surprise" that required a Friday off of school. Darn it. ;) The only hint he gave me was that it was in Ogden..... So we arrived HERE!!!! I was REALLY excited!!! He kept asking me if I was nervous, but I honestly didn't have any reservations. I just jumped right in and floated around ;) The only worry I had was if I would be able to breathe in the wind tunnel. No problems with that all! For some reason the wind doesn't affect your breathing. It was a surreal experience and I LOVED every minute of it!

















I LOVED the surprise and I thought it was a great start to my "Birthday Weekend" ;) The next day was my 29th birthday..... Gulp! I wasn't looking forward to this step towards the big 3 0..... But it started out great and events later in the afternoon made me forget all about my concerns with aging.... It all started with an Easter egg. My family has a tradition that involves a mad dash to Easter eggs and the potential prizes they can get for you ;) It was the adult egg hunt, and we were all acting like crazy 2 year olds. The very first egg I bent down for, caused me to start gasping for air! In some crazy alignment of the stars, I had sprained my 'stabilizer muscles'. I had never been in so much pain in my life! The pain was shooting everywhere in my body, but was originating from my low back. After tons of help from amazing family, friends and chiropractors, I now want to live ;) It will take 4-6 weeks for me to feel 100%, but I have improved to the point that I can walk on my own now and even shower myself again. I couldn't stabilize myself which meant I couldn't sit up or stand up without those muscles going beserk.... Did I mention it was painful? ;) Needless to say, I was no longer worried about what age I was. I did think it was ironic that my body wanted to rub it in that I was getting older ;) Here's to wishing for many more (less painful) birthdays!!!