Welcome Home!

After 3 years, 3 marriages, 2 grand-babies, and 3 upcoming college graduations, my parents are home from their mission! We have been anxiously anticipating their arrival and it has been so fun to have them finally home. We drove up to the airport last Friday, July 3rd in the evening, and it has been a party ever since.

The kids drove up together and went out to dinner together. Then we waited and waited at the Park and Wait, but we enjoyed it :)



I made an awesome sign to welcome my parents off the plane. It was so fun and exciting. Kenna was excited to meet her Grandma and Grandpa for the first time!

We decided that this has not been much of a "reunion" because we've never all been together because of the 5 new additions to our family.

My parents have been presiding over the Spain, Madrid Mission for the past 3 years, and we have all be so blessed for this great sacrifice. It has not been easy, there have been some really hard days with my parents half way across the world, but we survived. Now, once they get phones, I will be able to actually call them on speed dial, and call them at anytime of the day I want, instead of the 8 hour time difference.

It was such a happy moment, and we will continue to make the best of their arrival. I love you mom and dad!

My Girls

There are few people I know that can say that they loved high school, and there are even fewer people that can say that they loved junior high school, but I'm one of the few, but proud people that loved them both. And as cheesy as this may sound, it was because I had the greatest friends in the world. A few of my best friends are on a mission, or doing an internship, but every so often we try to get together and catch up. This time I told everyone to bring their special someone. Cute CeLisa came with Scott; Lindsey Swan and her husband James with their cute little one, Bailey; Brooke and Lonnie Keith came brought their little Ruby; Shannel and Tyler Tingey with little baby girl Tingey coming in September!

We only got a picture with all the girls, but it was a party. We had a yummy BBQ, and dutch oven peach cobbler. It was such a fun night, I can't wait for our next little get together. What's carzy, is that 9 out of the 10 people there all went to Timpview together. What can we say, we love our Timpview boys! What can I say it doesn't get much better than some good food, and great friends.

Happy Birthday Jen!

Last Friday was my little sisters birthday. She always seemed to get the short end of the stick when it came to her birthday: always during girls camp, my brothers wedding, my parents in the MTC, and the list goes on. So we tried to make the big 2-0 as special as we could. My parents asked me to take her some beautiful daisies to her at work. Just lovely.

Jen at her finest.

I wanted to get something I knew Jen would love. And I know she loves all of her pictures of her family and friends, so I was creative. I have seen these cute memo boards all over the place, and so I decided to try and make one myself. I was so impressed with myself! I love it! Now I want to make one for myself!

The fam took her out to dinner to Winger's, her restaurant of choice.

Then all of her friends came over for some good laughs and cake! We hope you had a fabulous birthday Jen! We love you!

The life without homework

I wake up after an extra hour of sleep, go to the gym and work out a little longer than I used to, have a nice breakfast, go to work for a few hours, come home and ... that's where I get creative. Before I would come home to make dinner, knowing that as soon as dinner was over I was going straight to the books until it was time for bed. But now, the only books I'm hitting are those that I want to! I finished all 7 Harry Potter books in the last 8 weeks, yesterday I read "Tuesdays with Morrie", and I started reading "The Screwtape Letters" this afternoon.

I need suggestions of what to read next!

I am finding things to fill my time, right now I'm in SLC waiting for Ry to get out of his class. He has to come up here twice a week for a class not offered in Provo at a time he can attend, so I decided to come up with him (mainly to talk with him, and also to take advantage of the carpool lane, haha).
We are also playing on a coed softball team this summer. Our team name is "I Heart Softball", cool, I know. We won our first game last night 23-13, cool eh? (Pictures courtesy of Brittany Perdue, thanks chica!)



There are many more exciting things to come in the next few weeks! I love my life!

Done, done, and done

Yesterday I took my very last final. I am completely finished with my degree in business management with an emphasis in marketing. It has been a very difficult 4 years, and the many late nights, the tremendous amount of stress, the worry of meeting a deadline, the early mornings, the boring class periods, the testing center, and all that jazz is no more part of my life. Really, I'm finished, it's so surreal. I think it'll take a few weeks to really settle in. Ry and I have been doing year round for almost 2 years straight, and in those 2 years I have had 4 weeks of the two Christmas breaks to rest from school. It's such a strange feeling knowing that I'm not going back. I have been looking forward to this day for so long, and all that hard work couldn't be more worth it.

The biggest thing that I learned, wasn't cost-benefit analysis, it wasn't differentiating a forward, future, an option or a swap, and it wasn't Porter's 5 forces....but it was that no matter how discouraged or overwhelmed I may be, I can do it. I learned that all I can do is my best, and my best will be good enough. I learned never to give up, to keep giving it your all, and never stop just because you think it will be too hard or will be too much work. I learned to find the best in others, and to let them do what they're best at, and learn from what they can do. Lastly, I learned how lucky and blessed I am to have a wonderful husband who will stay by me no matter what, and I have other family members and friends that love me for who I am.

Class of 2009 BABY!!!

My Idol

I love Kelly Clarkson. This has been known to those who are closest to me for quite some time. Basically she has been there for me through all of the hard times, and has also made me appreciate all of the good things in life. I also love her because she is just herself, she doesn't feel like she has to be this skinny blond to be famous and have people love her. I have been counting done the days to see her, can you tell I was a little excited!?



When my sister and I heard that she was coming to Utah, we jumped right on that band wagon and bought tickets, $15 each was very hard to turn down. But buying them 3 months early we definitely were guaranteeing our presence. Last week I realized that the forecast was rain all week long, and I was so distraught thinking that they would cancel my chance to see Kelly. But sure enough, the show went on, and we enjoyed sitting in the warm rain. We picked up my sister from the airport, yes she did come from Arizona with the concert being her main purpose in coming, and we went straight to the ballpark. We found a nice little corner where we could sit and enjoy the show, not having to stand for hours, and enjoying the fact that no one was in front of us and in our way.



Kelly's 90 minutes on stage went by too fast. I already can't wait to see her again!
After the concert Ryan asked me if the concert had changed my life, and I said, "No, it just solidified the fact that my life is awesome."

No t-shirt for me

The most coveted t-shirt on BYU campus is the Intramural Champion T-shirt. Last night my coed soccer team was playing in the semi-finals. We played the first and second half with the scoreboard still indicating a big fat 0-0. We went into a 5 minute overtime, still 0-0. So we got to a shoot out. Two lame calls by the referree that our goalie had moved too soon, and the game was over. I wasn't the best player on my team by any means, but I take full credit for getting an awesome team together! This was my last chance to play intramural soccer at BYU and the shot at being a champion barely slipped through my fingers. Well, I am playing softball this summer with intramurals, we'll see what we can do!

It's also my Dad's birthday today! I have the best dad in the world. He has been such a great example to me in my life in all that he did at work, in the church and with our family. He has always been such a great supporter in everything that I did. There are now hundreds of young missionaries, church leaders, members and many others who are now better because they have known him. I love you daddy! I'll make you a birthday cake in 3 weeks!