HE DID IT!

We received great news yesterday: Spencer was accepted to be an intelligence officer for the navy! We have been waiting for over a year for him to find a job that he would be happy with, and finally that day has come. I know a lot of you have already asked what will happen next, and this is what we know so far. First he will go to OCS (Officer Candidacy School) in Rhode Island for 13 weeks. Since he gets to choose when he reports, we think he'll go sometime around April or May. I will not be able to go with him there :( After that we will both move to Virginia Beach (we think) where he will go to school for about 9 months. I'm pretty excited about that part, because we should be getting there right after Rebecca has her little baby boy. After that, they will station us somewhere. Could be anywhere. How EXCITING! Spencer has worked so hard to get where he is now, and I want him to know that I am behind him 100% on this journey he is taking us on. I am somewhat sad though, because we have definitely become close with a lot of poeple in Georgia, and we will miss them dearly. Just know that when we get stationed in Hawaii, you'll have a free place to stay ;)

Models in the Making

I went and hung out at the Christian household the other day, and came in to find that my niece, Teryn, was getting a makeover from Rachel. I figured since I had my camera with me, I'd take a few shots of her for fun. She's a natural in front of the camera! I got a few cute ones of Jones as well. If you are family and want me to email any of these(and more) to you, please let me know.

Across the country and back

If you haven't heard already, Brooke and I finally made it out of the dreaded state of Wyoming. After planning our trip across the country, we decided to give ourselves 3 days to do it. It ended up taking 3 days just to get across Wyoming, and 6 days to get across the country. Anyways, my visit to Utah was great. I got to see old roommates and family that I don't get to see very often. Again, KC, thanks for letting me crash at your place, and for everything else you did for me while I was there. Can't wait to see you again, hopefully in May, when maybe a certain somebody is gettin' hitched.

I flew home on the 12th, then had all day of the 13th to get unpacked, do laundry, and repack for our trip to D.C. It also happened to be my birthday that day. We didn't do too much, just went out to dinner and had hot fudge brownies with my family. Thanks to all who took the time to give birthday wishes. They were much appreciated.

Thursday we flew out to D.C. to visit some friends. Spencer surprised me by having a dozen red roses on the bedside table of the room we were staying in for Valentine's Day. It was so sweet! It was great seeing our friends and spending time with them. Friday we got to go to lunch with one of Spencer's old mission companions (pictured below). We also got to visit with Jason and Rebecca on Saturday and tour D.C. with them. Spencer and I were able to get a lot of rest and enjoy the company of good friends and family. What more could you ask for in a vacation? So now we are back to real life. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

WHITE OUT

Today was officially the scariest day of my life. Before it was a day in seminary when we were laying on our teacher's living room floor under warm blankets and drinking hot chocolate. That was the routine on Fridays. We would lay down and rest while the teacher read to us. Well this particular day we were reading about the life of Joseph Smith and the mobs that would attack his home. Right as a few of us were dozing off, we hear gun shots, and 3 men storm in the house with guns, running around wildly. I guess we all went in shock, because none of us moved. We all froze. I was laying by my friend Chelsey, and all we could do was pull the blanket over our heads. Once we looked up, we saw her DAD, dressed in overalls and a fake beard, smiling at us. Yes, it was joke pulled on us, but I seriously thought we were gonna die.

Today was different. Right as we were checking out of our hotel in Laramie, we looked out the window and saw that they opened the interstate. I can't tell you how excited we were to get back on the road. Oh - and a special shout out to Logan Roberts who was kind enough to find us a place to stay if we had to stay overnight again. THANKS! Okay, so we start driving, and there were definitely bad winds that were pretty intense. We get past the part where the road had been closed, and we felt like it would all be downhill from then on. Oh boy were we ever wrong. We started having white outs like you wouldn't believe. If you don't know what a white out is, it's when the wind is blowing the snow that is already on the ground up in the air. It's kinda like fog, except much, MUCH thicker. There were times when we literally couldn't see anything ahead of us except pure whiteness, hoping that we were staying on the road. For the most part we tried to stay close behind big trucks so we could at least see them. Well, there was a time when it was really bad, I was of course freaking out, but then Brooke started freaking out. Like really, really freaking out. As I was wondering why she had that reaction, I looked in the rear view mirror, and there is a semi RIGHT on our butt, swerving off the road because they almost hit us. Holy moly. It was crazy. It seemed like the white out lasted forever. It was miserable. I NEVER could have imagined driving conditions being that bad. I am amazed that we made it out safe. We decided that the next big city we would stay for the night and give our nerves a break. The forecast says that tomorrow should be better. We're only 3 hours away from Salt Lake, but we have a big canyon to drive through. I am so ready to be there to see everyone.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. It has been very apparent this entire trip that we have had someone watching over us. One more day. One more day.

Stranded

As many of you know, Brooke and I are on our trek to Utah. It's been an interesting few days. The first day we drove to St. Louis. Everything went great until about 30 miles outside the city, and I got pulled over. Luckily I used my charm to get out of it. I mean, come on, are you surprised? Anyways, if you have been following the path of the big storm that just hit the southeast, that was the same storm that was hitting St. Louis the night we stayed there. I think we might have been just north of it, because all we got was some rain. We were very blessed. Day 2 we drove up to South Dakota to meet Brooke's boyfriend's family. I spent the entire day with a knot in my stomach because it was either POURING down rain, or snowing with icy roads. We made it though, somehow. We were very blessed. Justin's family was wonderful and made us a fantastic lasagna dinner. It was even better considering the fact that we've been living off of granola bars, trail mix, oranges, fruit snacks, carrots, m&ms, celery, starbursts, and peanut butter and bread. Real healthy. Today our plan was to leave at a decent time and make it to Salt Lake late tonight. Everything started out great. The sky was clear, roads were dry, and we were cruising. Then we hit Wyoming. Can we say wind?? Wow. Then we notice a sign that said I-80 was closed ahead. WHAT? We drive all the way up to the very last exit before they had it blocked off, just to make sure. Sure enough, the interstate is closed and there are lines and lines of semis on the side of the road. We found out from a trucker that there was an accident where 5 people died, and they have to close the road to do investigations. There was also an accident on the other detour road. So here we are in Laramie, Wyoming, waiting for the roads to open. We got a hotel and are planning on getting a good rest tonight and leave early tomorrow(assuming the road opens). I know some of you have been praying for us, and we definitely appreciate it. We have been watched over this entire trip. Esp. on day 2 - if you could have seen what we were driving on, you'd think we were crazy. What makes things a little worse for me now is that Spencer is home really sick and throwing up like crazy. Poor guy. He could use a few prayers too.

UPDATE: We are still stuck as of 10:00 am Thursday morning. To give you a better idea as to what the road looks like, I found these pictures online from the road cameras. This is what the roads are supposed to look like:









Okay, now this is what the road currently looks like:

Superbowl Thoughts

Well, I've been thinking and analyzing what happened on Sunday. See, I was cheering for the Patriots. I'm a mild New England fan since Curtis Martin was there and since they had such a great defense during their second Superbowl win. I wanted to see them go undefeated to A. Shut the Miami Dolphins of 72 up and B. to shut all of New York up. See, I hate NY and the idea that it (and its people) are the greatest thing since unleavened bread. So naturally I'm cheering the Patriots on.

All week I had this gut feeling that an upset was in the brewing. I don't know why. After all, the Patriots are a much better team. But let's face it, they did not show up to play on Sunday. It really seems like they did not want it bad enough. Other moments it seemed like they felt they were good enough to turn it up whenever they felt the need... and they were, and they did. Brady marched them down the field for what could have been an historic drive. But Eli followed with his own. Remember kids, never wait til the end to "turn up the heat". Do it from the start. Patriots should have won by 20. but let's face the real issue.

The Giants front four simply outplayed New England's offensive line. They did it all game with the exception of the fianl drive. Had Brady got some protection, he would have hit Moss on those 2 deep bombs during 2nd and 4th quarter for touchdowns and then some. With no time, rushed/bad throws. The real MVP is that front line. Manning did fine on the last drive. But it was because of his defense that he only need a touchdown as opposed to 4 of them in the last 2 minutes.

Final thoughts and predictions: Patriots never talked before the game and yet are being called class-less. I don't get it. Patriots are still the best team in the NFL and probably best ever. Best does not always equal champion. Look at the Final Four most years, it's the hottest team. And the Giants were hot. It seems the Giants are more satisfied with preventing the 19-0 than with winning the title. Another "huh?". Patriots will be back next year and will be the favorites. Most likely winning it but not going undefeated. Giants will be over hyped for the next 20 years. Brady will still be in the Greatest QB of all time talk. He needs to win that 4th and then 5th to seal the deal. Strahan will never fix his gapped teeth despite being a millionaire. (See above image)