Kevin’s Graduation

I’m a sucker for ceremony. It’s very important to me to acknowledge life’s transitions. Kevin half-joked about not walking at his graduation from BYU but I shut that down in a hurry!

It was great having Kevin’s family here to support him in his graduation. Commencement was wonderful, I cried a lot.

I’m just so proud of Kevin. He worked soooo hard for 4 1/2 years to get to this point so that he can give our family the best life possible. I’m so grateful for everything he sacrificed and for diligence in finishing his degree.

My dad dropped by to see Kevin walk which was very appreciated. These two men mean so much to me.

Kevin, Tim and Kyle. These three went through it all together. I’m so grateful that Kevin had their support and friendship. These two are amazing guys.

And our little families. I have so much love for these amazing people. Kevin and I are truly blessed to have them in our lives.

The past two weeks since graduation have been absolutely insane. We packed up everything we own and moved across the country, and Kevin started a new job immediately. I still can’t believe our time at BYU is over and that we now live 1300 miles away. We will both always look back on our time as students with so much fondness and happy memories.

Our hike

There’s a place above the Y that we love to hike to, we call it “our rock.” It’s where Kevin kissed me for the first time, where we first said “I love you,” and where we got engaged. We made the time to go to our place last weekend, for what may be the last time while we are living in Utah. We felt very nostalgic as we reminisced on all the fun times we’ve had in the past 3 years that we’ve lived here together. We talked about all the hikes we went on, the big moments in our relationship, the camping trips and many other memories. We’ve loved living here and we’ve loved our time as students. We’re excited for this new adventure in Wisconsin but we are sad to say goodbye to the wonderful life we built here.

Starting Again

I’ve been going back and forth about this blog for a loooooong time. But I think we’ll give it another shot. I don’t have the heart to update from the last 9 months since I’ve blogged, so I’ll just pick up from where we are in our life right now.
I worked at Beehive as the Activities Director for almost a year before the stars aligned and I was able to quit earlier than we’d planned. I’ve spent the last few weeks taking it easy, exercising, taking care of our house, reading Gone With the Wind, getting ready to move, and growing a human.
Kevin has been a rock star in his senior year at BYU. He’s also been on the job hunt since September and last week we accepted a job in Wisconsin with Epic Systems, a company that does healthcare software. Kevin studied Chemical Engineering, and in this job he will be doing programming and IT, so we really did a lot of praying and pondering and were surprised when we felt good about accepting the job. So we made the leap and now we are planning to move right after Kevin graduates at the end of April.
The biggest news in our little family is that it is growing! We are having a baby in the middle of September and we couldn’t be happier.

Life is plowing forward so quickly, sometimes it is overwhelming! Every day Kevin and I marvel at how much the Lord is blessing us and watching out for us. We feel so lucky to have each other, this great job, and a baby on the way. We are very grateful!

beginning of the end

I'm the type of person that requires rituals when I change phases of life.
I need to recognize the "lasts" and the "firsts" and I love to do so.
Sunday I had my last ever back-to-school blessing (unless I end up doing grad school which is not in the plan right now). It's true that I'll always ask Kevin for a husbands blessing when he does back-to-school blessings for our kids, but this was the last one for me as a student.
Yesterday was my last first day of classes.
I chose out my last ever first day of school outfit.
I took my last back-to-school picture.
This will be the last semester of carrying an ugly backpack around for most of my time.
It will be the last semester of changing into my gym clothes in the bathroom in between classes so I can work out.
There will come a time when I write my last papers, and take my last finals.
Oh so many lasts are approaching.
No matter how excited I am to finish something, I always feel a little sad about all the "lasts."
I was SO excited to transfer to BYU and leave BYU-Idaho, but I still cried when I said goodbye.
Even though I really did not love my job making traffic sensors, there was still a sense of loss when I turned in my badge and left for the last time.
I feel the same way now, and I know this feeling will be magnified in four months when graduation day is here.
But I've learned that when something ends, something new immediately begins, and those beginnings are so exciting.
While there are so many lasts in my near future, there are also so many firsts.
First day at a new job,
First time in my life when school isn't the focus,
And so many more.
I'm so excited about the firsts.
And I'm excited about the lasts too.