My 22nd birthday and a Missionary Homecoming

Sorry for the long delay between posts.  After August ends, the months seem to fly by.  Let's go back in time shall we?

On July 27th, Brandon and I celebrated my 22nd birthday.  Needless to say, I was singing Taylor Swift's song "22" for most of the morning (it's quite catchy). If you haven't heard it, here it is:

It was a calm celebration.  Most of the day we spent packing to go on vacation the next day.  However, Brandon and I did go out to lunch to Wingers (we had some coupons) and ate some of the most delicious restaurant food I've tasted in awhile.  As we were getting ready to leave Wingers, the rain had decided to fall- fast and hard.  It was like a mini-monsoon and Brandon and I had to pretty much yell at each other in the truck to be heard over the rain.  I haven't seen Rexburg have that kind of rainstorm in the time that I've been down here for school.

Later that evening, a few of our married friends and two of our single friends came over to celebrate with us.  We sat and talked about different things for a little bit and then we played some games.  It was quite fun and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The next day, Brandon and I headed out of town northwest bound.  Yes, we were headed to our hometown- Lewiston, ID.  We were blessed that both of our jobs gave us the week off so we could go visit his family.  The reason why we went the last week in July was because..*drumroll*...CAMERON WAS COMING HOME! Yes, Brandon's kid brother was coming home from his 2 year mission in Northern California on July 31st.  Brandon was excited and I was a little nervous.  Why was I nervous? Well, let me put it this way- the last time I saw Cameron was at my high school graduation in 2009 (he was a junior) and now I show up as his sister-in-law.  I had different scenarios running through my head of how the greeting between the two of us would go.

We made really good time getting to Lewiston.  We showed up at the house before the family got home from church.  We hid in the garage and tried to "scare" them...yeah...that didn't work.  I was laughing before they even looked our way.  Later that evening, we had a big family dinner- BBQ'd meat and some vegetable kabobs.  It was delicious.  After dinner, the family headed into the front room to visit.  Suddenly, Marilyn told me to sit in the "seat of honor" (the piano bench) and then they preceded to sing "Happy Birthday" to me.  It was a pleasant surprise :)

That was Sunday.  For the next two days, we could feel the built up excitement of Cameron's homecoming.  Wednesday morning, we were all helping to get the house ready for him.  All too soon, we were piling in the vehicles and headed over to the airport.  Marilyn, Alyssa, and I were trying to hold back tears as we waited in anticipation.  We watched out the windows as the airlines landed.  Finally, Cameron's plane was pulling into the air field.  We saw him walking towards the doors into the airport and the tears flowed freely.  We all greeted him one at a time and I was surprised that he pulled me into a big hug.  After the hugs were done (for the most part), we had some family pics taken.

*side note* Some of you may ask- why were you crying? Here's my answer- I get emotional at any missionary homecoming, especially when the missionary embraces his mother.  It totally tugs at my heartstrings.  But this missionary homecoming was different for me.  As I saw my brother-in-law walk through the doors and bear-hugged his mother and siblings, I thought of my own brother's missionary homecoming that will happen in about a year and a half.  I never really understood how difficult it is to not see or talk to your brother regularly for 2 years, but now I'm starting to.  I can't wait for my own brother to walk through the airport doors with a huge smile on his face knowing that he changed countless people's lives, but also glad that he is now home with his family. *end side note*

Anyways, we all headed home and Cameron got reintroduced to the house.  We had another big family dinner that evening and all of us kids (minus Emma) watched The Avengers-Cameron's pick as his first movie in 2 years.  

The rest of the week flew by and on the last night on our visit, Cameron had a joint homecoming open house with one of his friends from church.  It was nice being able to see and visit with some families that I hadn't seen for a couple years.

The next day (Sunday August 4th) Brandon and I packed the truck and headed back to Rexburg.  I was to call my job and let them know that I was back in town so I could start training and Brandon was needed at Subway.  We got back to Rexburg safely and we took it slow the rest of the day in preparation for the hectic week ahead.

More to come: Utah trip, our 1 year anniversary, and the big move!

Where has the time gone?!

As the saying goes- "Time flies when you're having fun!"  Well....maybe "fun" isn't the most accurate term but we'll go with it.  Since our last post (way back in December 2012), so many things have taken place- good, bad, sad, and everything in between.  With that being said- "Let me explain- no it's too much- let me sum up."

Brandon and I completed our first married year at school.  We started in January and ended in July with a nice little 7 day break in the middle of April.  In case you forgot, Brandon is majoring in Political Science, emphasis American Government, and he is minoring Economics.  I'm majoring in History, emphasis EVERYTHING (well....as much as I can get my hands on while I'm still in school) and don't have a minor.  

This was Brandon's second year working on his Bachelor's degree and with that- he has completed all of his under level (100 and 200) political science classes.  So now he's down to his 300 level classes, a couple more religion classes, a foundations capstone class, and a political science internship.  All of which are required for graduation.

This last year was my second to last year in college. I have completed all but 10-12 classes for my Bachelor's degree, which I will graduate with in July 2014.  One of my accomplishments from this last semester (Spring) was completing my Senior Seminar class. Let me tell ya- that was a BEAST of a class.  I believe part of that beastliness was because I took it from the same professor I took Research and Writing in History from which means- same topic.  I can honestly say that I have studied a single event in history for 7 months consecutively. My brain is beginning to feel fried just thinking about it.  I learned a lot, but I definitely need a breather from that event.

I'm also proud to say that both Brandon and I have completed the requirements for an Associates Degree in General Studies. I received mine at the end of Winter Semester (April) and Brandon still needs to apply for getting that piece of paper.  He should be receiving it soon.  Although, we do need to factor in the MST (Mormon Standard Time) AND seeing that it's a University with about 15,000 students, "soon" may be translated into a couple months...possibly into next year.

After the semester ended (July 24th), Brandon and I took a big breath and pretty much sat around the house enjoying the "no-homework-in-relation-to-school" bit.  Although, our relaxation didn't last long.  That same week, we started packing up the apartment, celebrated my birthday, and then headed up north to visit our family in Lewiston, which I will tell all about the last 3 events I mentioned in respective posts.

After our week long trip to Lewiston, we came back to Rexburg and I started a new job. I'm one of the newest members of the local Kmart team! I've been working there for about 2 1/2 weeks and I love it! Probably one of my favorite jobs so far.  Brandon is still working at Subway and enjoying that job.  It shows that the managers enjoy and appreciate his hard work ethic because he's been averaging about 25-30 hours a week recently.

That same week we got back, I headed down to Utah to visit my sisters, nieces, and my mom.  It was the first time I had driven to Utah solo, in our manual shift truck nonetheless. I felt very accomplished.  However, I was homesick during my short visit.  It was the very first time Brandon and I had been apart overnight since we got married.  So, it was a little hard and yet, it was nice to spend quality girl time with my mom, sisters, and nieces.  I think the last time we had that much quality time together was way back in 2006, before Savannah graduated high school. So it was super fun. More about that trip in another post as well.

I believe that catches up to currently- Brandon and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary and are working our respective jobs in and outside the house along with moving to a new place within Rexburg city limits.  More about our "summer" to come soon!