Two big events have happened since I last posted. BIG EVENT NUMBER 1: Alyssa returned to Utah from England with her family on February 27th. We were soooo excited!!! It had been 3 years 8 months since they left the states and a lot had changed.
Sierra had gone from a 4 month old to an almost 4 year old.
Cosette wasn't even part of our family when they left, but she came home a one year old.
We've had two fun weekends to spend with them so far and we look forward to seeing them more often. They are living with Kelan's parents right now down in Ephraim as they get their bearings and determine where they are going & what they are doing.
It looks like they may be staying down that way, even though we had hoped they would eventually be more up north. Both Alyssa and Kelan have gotten jobs. Kelan is working at a troubled youth center. I doubt it is a life time career move for him, but it is afternoon/evening hours so hopefully it might help him to be able to get some schooling done in the morning if he decides to go that route. Alyssa has gotten hired at a medical records facility. She starts April 8th and will be working morning/afternoon hours. She is still not sure what her job entails, but it will be accessing medical records for different parties. They hope to only need to have Sierra & Cosette in daycare a few hours each day, which will be provided by their sister-in-law. We would love to have Alyssa remain a stay at home mom, but with finances so uncertain for them right now, it doesn't look like that will be the case.
BIG EVENT NUMBER 2: Darci Rhoades, Dave's oldest daughter, was married March 30!!! It was an exciting day since Darci would probably be labeled an old maid by many and the man she married was a confirmed batchelor as well. I think both sides of the family were so happy and relieved that each had found such a compatible match. Not an easy task, thus the delay in life for the happy nuptials to occur.
Probably the best way to back up that argument would be to show you their wedding announcement. I tried to cut and paste it but couldn't make it happen, so go to this web link and view it. It will allow you to open it up and see the whole shibang. http://www.darciandericconquertheworld.com/announcement/
After viewing that announcement, I think you would have to agree that both Darci and her new husband Eric are highly unique and rare personalities so we are very pleased, along with all members of both parties, that they have found one another.
The wedding was in the Mt. Timpanogos temple at 9 am. After group photos at the temple, we did a wedding luncheon at Thanksgiving Point of chinese food. No surprise there as Darci is big on anything Asian. We had a chance to meet a lot of Eric's family and get to know Eric better, which was fun. We were very impressed with his parents and family. We feel Darci has married into a very good family. Dave had to give a toast and as part of his toast he used the Dr. Seuss quote below. Very appropo.
She held a ring ceremony and reception at the high school where she teaches physics, American Fork High in the commons area. We had to work like madmen to get it all set up between the luncheon and the reception. Dave had been visiting every DI in the area for months trying to collect enough greenery to make a huge common area look spring-like and outdoorsy. I think it was a success. She had students from choir come sing a musical number, and other students were playing stringed instruments in the background. She had 4 trumpeters with the long trumpets play her entry march. Here is where their uniqueness is obvious. Instead of the wedding march, they played a Star Wars number. When presenting the rings, he used a robot to bring in her ring and she used a remote controlled helicopter to bring in his. The wedding cake had the western hemisphere decorated on one layer and the topper was a man and woman in combat gear inside a fortress turret aiming a crossbow and rifle at attackers (to go along with the world domination theme, in case you were lazy and didn't check out the web link for the announcement).
As soon as we have some photos we will post. Her colors were olive green, gold & black. Her wedding dress was quite unique but very pretty. Her sisters catered the reception. It helped that Emily has catering experience from her job at UVU. Emily also made the bridesmaid dresses, which were patterned after a dress Darci had brought back from her Thailand trip about 5-6 years ago.
OTHER NOT SO EXCITING NEWS BUT INTERESTING NONETHELESS (at least to us):
1. Jenni has started working a new job at Mylar Disability. She is liking it very much. She is helping individuals apply and get accepted onto Social Security Disability. After her trial period where she worked the initial calls, she has been assigned to work in the department that handles the last phase of the process. She likes it because she feels like she is helping people. That is a big part of who Jenni is. She has a very giving heart and loves to serve and help others. We wish her well.
2. Dave's green jeep, which he is so attached to and was totalled in a snowstorm accident, has been resurrected and has remained in the family. Jenni is now the proud owner. It is nice that Dave will get to visit his John Deere green jeep from time to time.
3. We traveled down to Nephi on March 24th for a family birthday party for Sierra's 4th birthday. The first birthday we have been able to celebrate with her. She is into My Little Pony big time and Alyssa had made a beautiful My Little Pony cake. Many of her gifts were related to My Little Pony and she got a lot of clothes. But I think Sierra was the most excited when she blew out her candles and exclaimed - "Now I'm 4!" and went around to everyone and told each personally that she was 4.
4. Helped Kayla, my niece start her seeds for her own personal garden this year at her new home. Started mine as well. My peas are ready to be transplanted outside, now just to find the time. Lettuce, carrots, spinach, broccoli & endless summer tomatoes are doing well also. I need to start the next round of seeds, more tomatoes, carrotts and not sure what else.
5. Got to see Allison, Kayla's sister, and my sister-in-law, Ann as well. They came out for a visit before putting Allison in the MTC for her Germany Frankfuter mission! So proud of all the youth going out on missions!! Today in our ward, we had one sister missionary give her farewell talk before heading out to South Korea, two others announced they had gotten their call, one a guy going to Milan, Italy and one sister going to Ecuador, Guayaquil and her twin sister has already announced her call to Rosario Argentina and another brother has announced his call to Australia. All from just our ward! How great to see the youth stand for truth and righteousness and be willing to do the Lord's work.
6. Spencer has taken on another job delivering pizzas for Dominos in the evenings. He is still working at Subway as well. Dave talked Spencer into trying his hand at buying items on auction and then flipping them. Spencer made a killing getting a ton of office furniture, cubicles, etc. for dirt cheap. He hasn't had much success selling anything yet. Hopefully, it will work out because he stands to make thousands of dollars for a very small output of capital. Who knows, maybe he will become the next generation Donald Trump!
7. Dave and I have begun educating ourselves about the steps for his retirement. Dave has settled on the end of September as his timeframe for retirement. We now have gotten the green light to access the church's website to work on completing our paperwork. It took awhile because of a change in bishop that occurred in February. The new bishop needed time to get his feet under him, but I got word today that he has authorized our access. Yeah! So much to take care of and plan for. Much more work than when I was 21 heading out on a mission.
We are soooo excited to be done with winter and into the warmer months with longer days & more sunshine and blue skies. We look forward to gardening, outdoor activities, vacations, bbq's and all the other fun things spring and summer bring.
