Double Mission Call!

As most of you already know, Kyle and I both put our mission papers in. I received my call to the Florida Jacksonville mission in late July. Kyle received his mission call to the California Oakland Mission, Spanish speaking just this past week. I report to the MTC September 10th and Kyle October 29th. I am so excited to go, but also extremely anxious and scared. I feel ready but homesick and heartbroken. I miss Iowa and comfortability and Kyle already. How sad and pathetic is that? I know a mission is what I need to be doing right now, but the heart still aches. I could go on and on, blubbering like a baby but I won't. My life is changing fast. I leave in less than a month, and there seems to be a million and one things left to do. Wish me luck!

the summer after graduation

So this summer was a new and exciting adventure. Guy moved in with me in the end of May and made life interesting with his constant Good will stops on his bike. Amy came over most evenings and the three of us would just veg in front of the t.v. Then Kyle would get off work and the three of us would head to his much cooler apartment. There I would make dinner for the four of us and they would enjoy Mario kart and other fun games on the wii. I am not much of a video gamer, so I enjoyed my evenings cuddling with Ruby and reading a good book. (I read several books this summer, all of the Anne of Green Gables series.) This is how our lives went for a few weeks, then Guy got a job and amy was busy with work and I started my nanny job. From then on most evenings were just kyle and I. My job was fun. I nannied for a family with two children, a boy 11 and a girl 6. The family is from India, hence the picture of the Indian Hand art, henna. The grandma stayed for about a month and did the henna on my hand. It lasted for about 3 weeks. I taught "school" three times a week for an hour each, we did swimming lessons, weekly trips to the library for books and goods, Tuesday morning movies at the dollar theater, Friday afternoon movies at the Library and swimming and even bowling whenever we could fit it in.




Also, this summer, my brother Sam got married to his beautiful wife Amber. The first picture here is a picture Kyle and I took at the reception, obviously it was zoomed in too close, but I still really like it. The next picture is my cute family. Sam and Amber, Melissa and Morgan with son Eli, Emily and Pete, Gordon, Mom and Dad, Guy, Amy, me, Ginny and Beth. Such a nice little family.



After the reception, Kyle and I headed back up to Des Moines to go to Adventureland with the branch. I had so much fun. I loved all the rides and only wished the lines were shorter. We hung out with two of Kyle's friends from Boone, so it was nice to wait in line and chat with them. The next weekend Kyle and I met in Cedar Rapids to stay with some friends the Hansens. Kyle H and Jess met us down there too. Casey and Amber have a little pool behind their new home and we showed that pool more excitement then it will see all summer. The boys all took turns jumping off the small deck onto floatation devices. We have a lot of hilarious video of belly flops and leading with your butt. The six of us always have fun together and we have already scheduled a reunion party in November of 2010. Can't wait!

Graduation!

Well, as you can see, it has been a really long time since I blogged. I think after I graduated college, I decided that I really didn't need to do anything with my life. I surrendered to utter laziness for a few weeks.
So I graduated from Iowa State University on May 10, 2008. I am now a certified Special Education Elementary Teacher. Sounds pretty impressive, right? I didn't do anything for my graduation except have dinner with a few very special individuals (kyle, me, amy, mom, dad, pete and emily and kyle h, he took the pic). I didn't walk through with a gown and hat, I didn't care. I mean graduating from college is a big deal, but I was really just excited to be done. Done with student teaching, done with working at the Hawthorn and done with school work in general. Of course, I am a teacher, so the school work will never end. But I did want to blog just to commemorate the occasion.