Proud Sister

Proud sister moment...This last Sunday, my brother and sister had their missionary farewell talks (most know that we are members of the LDS church or Mormons). Both talks were so beautiful, thought-out, and very well-written. Emily spoke about faith and related it to stories in the scriptures and to her own process of finding herself. It took a lot of controlled breathing to keep it together. In....out....in....out. Thankfully I made it through with only shedding a couple of tears. By the time Hunter started talking, I lost it. Between me and my older brother, Niagra Falls was going on in our pew. Hunter spoke about repentance and the important "tool" it is in our lives. He related it to his own journey of choosing to serve a mission. He shared a beautiful scripture that I'm sure all of us can relate to;

"Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust."

I'm so proud of the choices that these two have made to go serve a mission. I can't believe that they are both leaving so soon. Emily will be on a plane to New Zealand in 6 days! It's amazing how fast time goes by. I'm excited to see how they grow and who they are serving. I think that is definitely something to be proud of. May the Lord bless them and their efforts and keep them safe for the next 2 years.

2013 Update So Far...

Okay, it's official. I'm awful at remembering to update my blog. Oh well...we are all human right? This year has just been one big whirlwind of awesome! So much has happened and it's really amazing how fast the time has gone by.

Shelby and I have really settled into our new life together. It's amazing how much you don't know a person until you are married. I've known Shelby since we were six years old but now I feel like I'm really getting to know him; his habits, personality, moods, etc. They say that the first year of marriage is always the hardest and I can see why.  This isn't the same as living with roommates in college, where you can share but really what's yours is yours. This is learning that nothing is yours, everything is OURS; our things, our cars, our money, our house. There have been some bumps but I feel like we have truly embraced OUR life. I also can't believe that it has almost been a year since we were married! One month away from our first anniversary, which I am stoked for! One year down, an eternity of happiness to go.

 As many know, I went to school at BYU-Idaho for about 4 semesters a few years ago, but I never finished any degree. I decided earlier this year that that needed to change. Of course, I couldn't move to Idaho again because our jobs are here and the military is here (Shelby is in the National Guard), but I could take my remaining 8 credits online to finish up my Associate's Degree. So I did. It was probably the hardest semester of my life but I'm glad that I suffered through it to accomplish this. Now I can continue to work towards my history degree at UVU. Not only am I proud of myself, but I am so proud of Shelby for getting into school. This is his first year of college and I am so happy for him. He has so many goals that he wants to reach. Couple that with his strong determination and I'd say that is a recipe for success! On top of going to school full-time, he is also working full-time. He is so busy but I know that he will do some great things.

More things to mention...

1. My brother got his mission call to Ghana, Africa! He is leaving in exactly one month from today.
2. My sister also got her mission call to Auckland, New Zealand. She leaves a week before my brother!
3. My oldest brother just got married a couple of weeks ago! I'm so excited for them. His wife is just the cutest and funniest girl!
4. The Brown Family Reunion! This year we took an eventful road trip to Indiana to go stay at some lake-side condos at Raccoon Lake. That is a very long drive (24 hours) and I can now say that I've had a cop point a gun at me (that's a story for another time). Boats, tubes, wake boards, card games, multiple games of Settlers of Catan...could it get better than that? I don't think so! It was a good thing that we went to this reunion because it was the last time that I would see my grandpa. He just passed the other day and we are very sad about it. However, we are grateful and happy to know that he is no longer suffering from his illnesses and is with our Father in Heaven. We will see him again. The Brown's are coming here for his funeral this Saturday.

This year has been such a happy year so far. I can't wait to see what is to come.