Time to Catch Up!

Its been a while, but I finally have time to update.

Christmas break was such a great time! It was so fun to be back in Arizona once again. It was a quick trip and we wish we could have visited more people, but we'll be back there before we know it once again.

Jason & I spent the night at my parents house Christmas Eve and so we spent Christmas morning with them.

Slush, Homemade Cinnamon Rolls, and the famous "Poppy McMuffins"

The Art & the Artist.

Beautiful job Kendal!

Nonny, Mom, Kendilyn and I.

Poppy & Nonny (my moms parents) and Jason & I.

After visiting with Poppy & Nonny, we made our way to the Ellsworths for the rest of Christmas day. We opened presents, ate a delicious meal and played lots of games.

Brennen, Tate & their new toy.

Look at Tate, just eye-ing those ponies of Lila.

Gina & Arianna.

Joshua

Josh turned 23 on Dec. 27th.

We hope you had an awesome birthday and this year will bring you lots of girls. haha.

Love you josh!

Phoenix Suns ornaments. Perfect for Josh.

Priceline.com

Jason and I have fallen in love with Priceline.com

We decided that it would fun to get a hotel room for a night so we put in a low amount as we checked out priceline.com.

& We got an incredible deal at this beautiful hotel!

Unfortunately it was the same night I got my hair done so we didn't get there until after 11pm. And then Jason started feeling really sick on our way up there, so instead of really relaxing, I drove around & searched for a Walgreens to fill Jason up with throat drops and cough medicine. Poor guy.

[For $60 {including tax} you cant beat this place! It was gorgeous. The room included a seating area, flat screen T.V's, a refrigerator and kitchen area, a separate bedroom including a T.V and a huge bathroom with a jetted tub.]

I got my Hair did..

Its true, after about 7 years I finally did something new to my hair.

I had been wanting a change for a while and so for Christmas Jason set up a hair appointment for me with one of our good friends Jenny Ross (who is amazingly talented). I had some ideas of what I liked, but basically put my trust in Jenny and had her do whatever she thought would look good. About 4 bleachings and 8 hours later, I was very happy with the results.

Thank you SO much Jenny for all your time and talent!

Holiday in AZ

I love Christmas Break. I love being around family & friends. I love the joy, the happiness, the laughter, the stories, the food, the decor.

We got to enjoy my great grandmothers sugars cookies, Arianna's dance concert, seeing how big our nephews & nieces are growing, a new niece-Paisley Clare, and seeing old friends.

Surprise!

Jason and I decided that since we wouldn't be home for a year, that we would use our accumulated miles from our credit card and put them toward a flight to come home for Christmas. Then we thought we should surprise our families. We got our 'tickets' in September and kept it from our families for months. --we ended up telling Jasons family so that someone could pick us up from the airport.

Our flight was Saturday December 13th. We drove down to the airport with the Holladays (Tara was on the same flight) & Trevor and Lauren. It was quite the trip. At one point the weather was so bad, raining so hard, we could barely see the road. Thankfully we got there safely and our flight was actually delayed an hour.

We got into Phoenix at 1:30am stayed up and chatted with Jasons family and finally went to bed. We went to Jasons parents ward in the morning then headed to my parents house to surprise them, my dad had apparently left for church just a few minutes before we got there (he had to be to church early). I knocked on my parents door and my mom answered it, she opened the door and just starred at Jason and I for about a minute. She was definitely shocked. Then gave us both a huge hug. It was a joyous reunion.

We went to church with her. The meeting hadn't started yet. My dad was walking around with his back to us, shaking everyones hand. I went up to him and tapped him on the shoulder, he turned around, "You got to be kidding me!"

A few of our family members weren't here in AZ this Christmas (Nikki, Trevor & Lauren, Eric & Kristin & Family) we have missed them, but it has been great to home and be with family and our friends here in Arizona for this Christmas Break.

Happy Graduation!

Several of the friends that we have made here in Hawaii have worked very hard and recently received their degrees from Brigham Young University-Hawaii. Congratulations to all of them!!

President Eyring was the honored guest at Decembers graduation. He gave some beautiful words of inspiration for the graduates and the rest of us in the crowd. Reminding us all to:

1. Choose our Teachers-We need to search for the light of Christ and as we do so to pay attention of the influences between right and wrong.

2. Choose what to Learn.

3. Choose to Work Hard. Stay motivated. Read, Prepare & think consistently with determination. "You've loved learning....Keep some of the books you have loved learning from...Be a teacher, they always seem to learn more than the student." Be optimistic & determine to learn more from the Savior. He Knows you.

Tyler Hall. We'll miss this guy. He was our entertainer (with those great stories, "assume the position"), our study partner and a friend. Best of luck in Utah.

The Ryans, Troy & Tammy. Always active and happy.

Tegshee {our neighbor & my visiting teaching companion} will be heading back home to Mongolia.

The Wilburs.

Hayleys Parents.

Joshs Parents.

Beautiful Hayley.

Congratulations to all of the December 2008 Graduates!

Shambles!

This how we left our house.

Everything is in our bathroom and in our kitchen. Even with how much the crew (that was hired) is working, it probably will still be like this when we return home from the holidays. =(

"The Flood of 12/11/08"

Jason and I had planned on sleeping in a little on Thursday, as it was finals week and we didn't have anything super earlier to wake up to & worry about. But I woke up to a frantic phone call from Trevor at 7:30am. "WAKE UP! Get out of bed, look outside, get your stuff off the floor!!" I shot out of bed, looked out our back window and my heart raced. There was practically a lake out there. I ran out to our front room/kitchen and looked out the window, another lake. The water level was so high that it was nearly an inch before it was about to sneak in through the front door.

I hadn't slept well that night; I was restless with the thunder and the never ending rain. I remember thinking that this rain was going to ruin my plans for the following day. My plans of finally going to the beach, soaking up some sun and relaxing for the first time in months as I was done with all my exams and practically done with assignments. Boy was that wishful thinking.

Jason and I worked quickly. The adrenaline pumped in and we quickly moved our bed away from the window, threw everything that was hiding beneath it on top of it, we moved everything that was in our front room to our room and put it on top of desks, the bed and a table, we moved everything away from the walls, threw our couch on top of some chairs, and stuffed towels in front of the door to prevent the water from coming in. We were not very successful with that. The water slowly found its way in our apartment, within an hour we had 3 inches of rain covering every inch of our place. Thankfully we had got everything up and off the floor. The only thing that was ruined was a desk and a bookshelf.

Sandbags finally arrived and everyone in our complex and the community worked quickly to prevent any more water from entering people's apartments. With the help of 3 others, we were finally able to contain the flood in our apartment and get the water out. By 2:30pm (7 hours later), although still raining, the problem had been contained.

Everyone that lived on the bottom floors of 3 buildings in our apartment complex had been affected. Our homes had been destroyed. We were homeless.

For the next few nights we spent the night at random upstairs apartments that had been open, we were given free meals at "The Club" (the schools cafeteria), and we tried to find "joy in the journey".

As of now, all of our carpet has been ripped out, as it is going to be replaced & the dry wall 2 feet and below will be replaced. Everything we have has been moved to the tile-the little area of our kitchen and our bathroom.

The crew that was hired is working non-stop, Monday-Sunday and late into the nights to get our apartments back to normal. Hopefully they will be done soon and that our lives can go on as normal once again.

Through out this all it was so wonderful to see so many volunteers helping; people within the community, students from the community, other people from our complex, most of them strangers giving their time and service to those of us in need. To them, we cannot thank you enough.

Once the water had been removed & what its like now....