I am now graduated! See ya BYU! April 20th I walked the line, I actually went to commencement and convocation. It was alright, I don't think I regret 'walking' but it wasn't a big deal. My mother and David went to commencement at the big Marriott center where Elder Oaks spoke at. I sat with my good friend from student teaching which was fun and I was very glad that I didn't have to sit alone. I borrowed my cap and gown from an old friend from my cohorts/ student teaching, and so all I needed was my hassle to be all set for graduation fashion. I was studying for one and only final, so David went to buy the tassel, and what do you know, they ran out of the yellow tassels... You would think that they would realize that more than half of the colleges at BYU require a yellow Tass. Well I guess some people are not as smart Asa they want to be. All they could offer me was a PhD Tass. Cool, whatever. So during all the graduation stuff I felt silly not to have what EVERYOENE else had, I had the short stumpy one... My Mother, Bill, and David went to my college convocation. And then we went out to a great Chinese place for lunch. After commencement my mother took David and I out to Red Lobster! So good. Thank you, Mom! We moved out of our apartment the next day, my mother was so nice and brought down their big truck to help us move all the big stuff, and most of the rest of the boxes. Side note, or maybe it should be the main topic, I have the best mother in the world. I don't know what I would do without her. We even moved our bed with the help of a random distant cousin of my mothers who lives in Provo near my mother's aunt. So we got our table and chairs, couches, coffe table, desk, bed and night stands, and all our clothes and a TON of boxes. I knew we had a lot of stuff, but I think everyone is amazed at how much they have when they have to box it all up and move it! Woof, thankfully my mother helped, and David's friend Aaron helped. And three of our other couple friends offered to help us, you know you have good friends when they offer to help you move. Thank you for beings great friends. A couple weeks later... (last night) John and Chelsie came over and helped us unpack and organize and hang up stuff, they are so nice, thank you, John and Chelsie! I got my new work schedule for the rest of the summer and amazingly enough, I have every Friday off! Yahoo. I am so grateful for that. Now I don't have to get a ton of Fridays off whenever I want to go party or take a trip. I love summer and I should work, but it's summer and I like my freedom. Twenty-seven hours a week, and Fridays off. Just the right amount of work! David..... Got an internship! He applied to many many internships, was interviewed at a few places, and went through 4 or 5 different interviews at qualtrics and was hired! Amazing, we are so grateful and David is very excited. The position is software engineering, 40 hours a week, 20 hours when he starts school in the fall for his last semester, and if they like him probably an offer when he graduates. Oh, I forgot to mention he gets paid twice as much as I do, go David! We are going on tour to Nauvoo with my ballroom team the first two weeks or June, my last ballroom adventure. David is coming as a tech and it will be super hot and I think we will be doing 16 shows in 14 days. It is a service tour so our food and housing is covered by the church and we are performing on their outdoor stage every night. David's parents are flying from texas to Chicago and grabbing his aunt and maybe uncle and grandparents and his brother Ben might be coming from Virginia and they are seeing my last two shows! His parents have never seen me dance and this is the last time so I am very grateful that they want to come and are traveling so far. Instead of flying home to Utah with the rest of our team, David and I are driving back to Chicago with his parents and visiting his grandparents for a day and a half and then flying out of Chicago back to slc. We only had to pay $123 extra each. We are so grateful to be able to see his grandparents again.

Bountiful Basket

Well I am sure that many people know about Bountiful Basket CO OP. I ordered it for the first time this week. I was anxiously awaiting all week, and Saturday came and I was cursing have to pick it up at 7:45... but I got there and loaded the fruit and veggies in my basket and was SO GLAD! I love fresh fruits and veggies and this made my day! For $15 I got a bunch of asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, romain lettuce, a container of grape tomatoes, 5 yams 10 bananas, a pineapple, tangerines, grapefruits, and a bag of pears. WOW, you cannot beat that.

Search for google images and you can go to bountifulbaskets.org

Chapstick

I have accomlished something noteworthy (hence a post). I have finally completely finished a chaptsick before losing it or sending it through the dryer! That, my friends, is a huge accomplishment.

I had 5 flavors and about every 2 months I would locate all and have them stashed in various convenient locations, and then after a while I would know where 1 or 2 of the five were. This is the cycle of my chapstick. Now my goal is to keep better track of them so I can finish more and not waste as many.

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT. Thanks Benjamin Franklin.

The Day After Valentines

WHELP, Its that time of year again, Valentines day, and so lovely. I bought roses yesterday for myself (I was at costco and figured it would be considerate not to make david make an extra trip when I was already there) and I picked up some beautiful steaks for tonight or tomorrow night. I got daivd his favorite oatmeal breakfasts and a chocolate milk and a HUGE KitKat, and in January he got an early present (a couple board games).

David was so thoughtful and went out and waited in the LONG SEE'S candy line and got my favorite: Key Lime Pie Truffles, SO DELICOUS, a whole box, such a surprise! and he wrote me a beautiful card that was just perfect and sweet. He bought me a pair of earrings that were beautiful, and when I walked in the door from work, he had cleaned the apartment and did all the dishes! I was so surpised and greatful!

On the bed was layed out a cute outfit he picked out himself from my closet for the night. It was absolutely perfect! I have always heard men picking out the wives clothes and thought it was so sweet. After some pictures and kisses we went to dinner at the Indian Palace on center street. It was very crowded and they don't take small group reservations, and niether of us liked what we ordered but that is ok, oh well.

We picked up some Sub Zero Ice Cream and went home and snuggled to a movie. (Poor david is sick and wanted to go to bed early).

So David's grade this Valentines Day: A+++

Now heres the after-math of valentines day....

I have early morning rehearsal, 7:30 AM, and david has not slept well all night and right before I leave he starts throwing up. :( poor guy, so I stay and help him with a couple things, and I text my director to let him know I will be late. I finally get out the door to find our car (last night we let our friends borrow one of our cars, I think one of their was being fixed) so I go to find the one that is on the side street, and I cannot find it (I don't know exactly where david parked it because he drove it last) so I walk around the entire townhome complex, and go back to ask david where he parked it, "up at the top of the hill." GREAT ok I woll go look again, nope not there, it must have been TOWED, I about burst into tears, went back inside to get my coat and gloves and the large full face helmet and drive the scooter to school, only 20 minutes late.

My director was nice and asked about David and I told him my car wsa probably towed and then started crying, infront of my friends too. After practice I had to go to class, I called the towing company and asked if they had our car, they said it was impeding traffic, WHAT!!! are you kidding. So I guess David had parked it with its nose sticking out, well I just hung up on the guy before I cursed at him and started crying. So I almost made it to my class by decided I needed to go home and cry some more, I just could not handle it.

$225 later.... sad. (its only the second time David has been responsible for our car being towed...)

Not a good day. Later I went got a Jamba Juice (with a coupon) and some Salt and Vinegar chips and went to work and my manager, Craig, listened to me kindly and then made me laugh, and made me laugh more with some adorable photos of cute fuzzy animals with funny captions. Thank you, Craig.

Wonderful Weekend in St. George

David In The Bus (So Happy)

This weekend we had two shows in St. George, at Snow College's Cox Theater. We got on the bus at 8:30 AM!!! stopped in Beaver, UT and made it there by 1ish. It was a great show, and when I finally did get to take a good look out into the audience, there were so many white-haired couples I could not believe it. It must be all those, "Snow Birds" that love the warmth that St. George provides. I went back to the dressing room after the finale, but was caught at the elevator right next to the dressing room by many many audience members wanted to greet me and tell me how much they enjoyed the show, they were so impressed with our show and talents, thank you, was all I was able to say because of all the wonderful warm compliment

After the show we went home with our host family, we were in a double couple night, with Shane and Shannon Jensen, they are always great to be paired with. Shane and Shannon are so fun, talented, and easy going and easy to talk with. Evan and Rhea Racker opened their lovely home it us. We got to know them and about their family that they love so much, they fed us great food, and shared with us the St. Clara River flood that took out 16 homes in their ward because of undercutting. None of the home owners had flood insurance and a group put together a book and raised money to help cover some of the cost for many families. The city really came together to help so many families pack up their houses in time so they would not lose any prized possessions in addition to their homes.

The next morning, after a great breakfast, Rhea dropped us off at the show site and most of our team went to the St. George temple and were able to do a session or do baptisms. It was great to be able to attend the temple with david, feel of the spirit, and serve others. We took some pictures with our friends Christina and Jeremy Pendleton and headed back to the show site for some boxed lunched and free time before getting back together with the team. David and I enjoyed our Jimmy John lunched and I took a pretty good nap on the floor in the women's dressing room. Thank goodness for pillows!

Show notes, watched some of our show, went to dinner at their "Cannon Center" Red Rock Cafe and got ready for the show. After the show we packed up and arrived in Provo about 3 AM, Awesome!

Life

I am in my last semester at BYU. I am only taking 6 credits, YAHOO! and working more at the Eye Clinic. I am still on the BYU Ballroom team, and I still love dacing. David will graduate next December in BioInformatics and he hasn't decided if he wants to head straight to a Masters program or find whats out there in the job market for him. We will see. David hopes to find an internship in something related to Bioinformatics this summer and is spending a lot of his free time researching and applying to summer programs. I hope he finds a great one!

David has volunteered to be a technician for my team as we are traveling and doing shows and gets to be the back stage manager. Because he is doing this, he came with me on the mid-semester tour to Southern California in October for 10 days, and he will be coming with the team on our weekend shows this Winter semester. This weekend we are headed for St. George and have two shows there. I am so grateful to be able to have David involved with what I am doing and that he is so selfless to give up so much of his time to be with me.

This summer the team will be in Nauvoo, Illinois for two weeks and David is coming as well. It will be so nice because last year the team toured Thailand and Vietnam for 3 weeks and David wasn't able to come. It was a long, hard 3 weeks, but it made me appreciate being able to be with him everyday.

Last semester I completed my student teaching at two elementary school in Provo School District; Spring Creek and Amelia Earhart. The first half of the semester was in 1st grade and the kids were wonderful, so eager to learn and please you. It was fun to experience such a young age. The second half of the semester was in 6th grade, what a difference! 11 and 12 year olds, some super smart and eager to learn, some that are not as eager and need a little extra help and encouragement. Both my mentor teachers were extremely supportive and helpful and I made it through feeling confident in my teaching.