Takin' a dip

Sonoran Beauty

Happy Birthday Billy!

Billy celebrated his 28th birthday today! Today was pretty busy because Billy had his last class for the semester for his masters' program tonight and a big research paper due tonight too. Because of this, we opted to celebrate his birthday this past weekend. Billy and I have always decided that instead of presents every year for anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, Valentine's, etc. we would save for a big present that we both wanted. Since it's been a long time since we did an actual present for either other, we decided that this year we were allowed to buy each other a present. Billy loves to go camping and hiking, but doesn't have a lot of good gear. He has been wanting a backpack for a long time. Well...my brother is big into camping too so I enlisted his help. He pretty much did the research and found what would be good. Thanks for your help Brandon! I knew that buying a present wouldn't come along too often so I tried to make the most of it. I sent Billy on a mini scavenger hunt. One of the places included the bike shop where I got Billy's mountain bike tuned up for him. The last place was our bedroom where his backpack was waiting. He was excited to get it and I was excited to see his reaction. The scavenger hunt was followed by dinner at "Famous Dave's," a BBQ place that Billy loves. We ended the night by going to see the movie, "Iron Man." We both really liked it. It was a great evening and we loved spening time together!

Happy Birthday Billy! I love you!

Yesterday a bunch of family got together to have dinner. Every month we do an "Iron Chef" where we decide on an ingredient and each make part of the meal that has that ingredient in it. For dessert my sister surprised Billy and Darrin with chessecake, one of Billy's favorites. It was delicious. They both celebrate their birthdays this week. Happy Birthday boys!

Moving Forward: Miscarriage

I know it has been about a month since we posted anything. Billy and I have been meaning to update everyone, but things have been just a tad bit crazy and filled with lots of mixed emotions. Our long anticipated family expansion will have to wait a little bit longer. For those who have not yet heard, I had a miscarriage a few weeks ago. We had a little bit of a warning and luckily I wasn't far enough along that it required a d&c. It happened quickly which helped with the anxiety that came with it too. But through it all, I have learned a lot. I have learned that miscarriage is something that is common and that most go on to have successful pregnancies next time around. This is very comforting to me. There have been many individuals who have told me that they have gone through the same thing. It was very hard at first, but Billy and I are looking to the future and knowing that everything is in the Lord's hands. We feel confident that next time will be successful.
You know I like to end with good news, well we do have some of that too. Billy finished his last week of physical therapy this week and things have been looking good. The doctors told him he could start playing basketball again. Billy is anxious to start working out again and getting his knee back to where it was before. He hasn't done any sports for over 8 weeks and hopes that as he starts to work out again, his knee will build strength that has been lost. He didn't have any problems in physical therapy so we are confident everything has been healing like it should. He plans on participating in the mud run with his brothers in San Diego and going on his super activity with his YM....both are in June...we'll see how it goes!
I finished my long-term sub. job teaching 1st grade. I am back substituting in different classrooms. Noah Webster did offer me a job next year and I look forward to returning and having my own classroom. It's nice not having to hassle with resumes and interviewing. Until then, I have about 3 more weeks substituting and then plan to take the summer off. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with all my time, but I plan to enjoy every minute of it.
Billy is also almost done with another school year. This summer he has an area conference, in-service trainings, content mastery, etc. that will keep him busy. We do plan to take some vacations as well. We will be down to visit family in California the first week of June. We are enjoying Arizona and yet another summer. We look forward to seeing some of you in about a month.