Here We Go Again

Well, tomorrow is the start of a new semester for Jon and I! He is excited...me? not so much. I've never been a lover of school. But tomorrow I will start my Social Work Classes and Jon will be starting his Pre-Law/Law classes. I'm excited to start learning about what I am going to be doing in the future. That will be really fun!

This Christmas Break has been one heck of a break! We have been working hard for most of it, was sick for a part of it, and didn't even relax on Christmas because of all the family stuff we had to do! Starting next year Jon and I have decided that we are not going to go to everyone on Christmas Day, since this next year we will have our little one with us. I don't think it would be very fair for him/her to open a present, get excited about it and then have to put it away for us to trek him/her off to the next family. So starting this next year we will do one family Christmas Eve, one family Christmas Day and one family on Boxing Day and then alternate. Christmas day this year was so stressful for me I got physically sick and I was annoyed all day, which isn't fun for a day that is supposed to be happy. Jon was fine because he's done this his whole life, but for me: having had a military family where it was just us for most of the holidays we just have each other. And even though we were in Utah for all of my life and we do have family so close we always just spent it with each other. There was no way for us to see my mom's side as they were half way around the world. I don't like this whole having to spend time with three different families in one day. It's stressful and I feel like we were offending someone the whole day, so this next Christmas we won't do that.

The next thing is the house! Jon and I are going to be moving into my parents other house that my brother just moved out of. We went in and we ripped up carpet and padding, patched walls, repainted, took nasty crayon marks off the wall, bought new doors, painted the doors and new carpet is coming in tomorrow! We also cleaned out vents and just overall cleaned everything. Jon and I made our first big purchase as man and wife! We bought new couches! And we got them for a brilliant deal. We were very excited with the purchase as they had everything that Jon and I were looking for. He wanted a couch that had pillow backing so you can move them to be comfortable on and the ones I had seen I didn't like very much, but this couch it worked so nicely and it didn't look stupid. It's a very classy couch that both of us agreed on and we are very glad it worked out! After the carpet is in tomorrow, we will start moving what possessions we do have and start moving into our new home. For the past couple of weeks we have been going to church in the Snow Creek Ward, and we sure do love it! This was my very first ward when I moved back to the states and there are many wonderful people in this ward of whom I used to be very good friends. I feel like I'm coming home to this ward, and Jon felt so welcome by the wonderful members of the ward. There are definitely not a lot of wards that are quite that welcoming but this is most certainly one of them! Jon and I are very excited to start moving into our new little home! One thing that I must say is how incredibly grateful I am to my fabulous father, there really are not many men like him and I truly feel sorry for the people who have not had a dad as truly awe inspiring as him. He is honestly one of the best men that I can even think of, and as much as I love Jon already he has very huge shoes to fill, but that's why I chose him! Cause I know he can! But my daddy really is the best man that I know! He is always so supportive of anything that I have ever done, he has never told me that I am stupid for deciding to do something and he has never shown any judgement for a mistake that I've made. He has always wanted to help me and he has always been there for me, no matter what! And he is like this with all of my siblings and with our spouses. My dad just wants us to be happy and he wants us to succeed and he is willing to do ANYTHING to make that happen! He is so proud of Jon especially for going to school and even when Jon changes his mind because we've decided a different course, my father always shows excitement for whatever Jon chooses to do and he is always willing to help Jon achieve success. My dad has been a huge leader in this project, he has been a wonderful boss in the renovating of this house and he has never been brooding over anything, he tells us or shows us how to do it, and then he trusts us to do it on our own. It's been wonderful working with my daddy. The other people that I need to mention are my wonderful brother Timy and his fantastic fiancee Meagan! The amount of abounding love I have felt from them has been overwhelming in this renovation project. Meagan is here for her break and she has been such a hard worker for all of this! And Tim... wow... that really is all I can say. Tim has such initiative to know what needs to get done, come up with a plan and follow thru. Even though he's several years older than me, Timy is closest in age to me and I have just looked up to him my entire life. A lot of plans I made when I was younger was because of Timy. And I am so happy that he has found happiness in Meagan, she truly is his other half! And we all LOVE her to death! I am so excited for their upcoming wedding, even though it's still a little ways off, they just complement each other so well and it's really fun to see them together. I love them so much!

Jon and I were wanting to do institute for school but with us being at different campuses we would have to be in separate classes and I was so sad! Because I wanted to take institute with him. And then there was this wonderful alternative! A young married adults class every other Friday at the WSU-Davis campus! And what's better? Nothing, most would say, but for us, yes... it does indeed get better! It is taught by my cousin Scott Read and Jon's old seminary teacher who I wanted to take a class from all through high school but never got to Bro. Derek Crimin! To say I am excited would be an understatement! We had a wonderful lesson from Alma on Friday by Bro. Read and it was definitely a VERY fun date night! I am so excited to take this class with my husband! And it's for married peeps! So we aren't the weird married couple in the class like last semester... which was awkward...

One last thing that I got to do about a week ago, was sing for Video Games Live! It was such a fun, fun opportunity to sing for that!! I got to sing with my old Cadence group and so I was able to see so many old friends of mine from that choir!! We had so much fun together again! And I got to see my old choir director Dr. Steve Meredith, who I believe is probably one of the most AMAZING directors I've ever had the chance to work with! He really is amazing! We sang so many songs from lots of different video games. Such as Tetris, God of War, World of Warcraft, Advent Rising, Sonic, and lots of others but there really were just so many! The crowd was WILD!!! I don't think I've ever performed for a group quite like that one! It was seriously one of the funnest performances I've ever done! Jon and I made a night out of it too! We went to Tucano's (our favourite restaurant) and then we checked into a hotel for the night and then we went to the show, and afterward ordered pizza from The Pie which while eating I could feel my arteries clogging but I didn't care, after the show I was famished!! We also ended up spending $15 on a jug that had their fresh brewed root beer. And after Jon told me how much it was I told him it better be good for that price! And it actually really was, and we got to drink it well into the next day! We really did have a very fun time. But when we are together we always manage to do so anyway.

The sign showing us the way in Abravanel Hall (which was extremely confusing!!)

Video Games Live Choir (There are girls kneeling on the front row, then a blonde in the second row in their window and then I am right above her)

On stage with the full orchestra for our rehearsal. If you could see I am on the front row four people in from the right of the picture. During the performance the camera panned over me and 2600 people saw me singing! Jon told me that he couldn't find me and then when that happened he knew where I was!

And one last thing I should mention is the fact that even though I am SO NOT a gamer, I do enjoy vintage video games on my super nintendo, and I can, in fact, whoop anybody in Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. And Jon convinced me to play Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and so I did and we beat it in three days. It would have only been two but we were working on one of those days so I only played for about an hour... yeah... I'm a closet nerd, but that's why we love each other!