Memorial Day

Let's be honest, I should be putting clothes away and/or doing the dishes, but I am procrastinating both of those things by sitting here and blogging.

Lucky you! But the good news is I have a couple of things to blog about, so it will be worthwhile blogging.


Last weekend, of course, was Labor Day. I mean Memorial Day. I have a hard time with those days.... Anyway, since Kyle and I don't have too much going on right now, we decided to make our weekend a long(er) one than just three days. We hopped in our car and drove on down to Salt Lake on Friday morning. Oh! And if you didn't know, Kyle's parents moved back home to Utah last month, after the last 6 years of living in Oklahoma. We love having them back! But I digress.... We drove to their house in Midvale, and Kyle helped move some of their furniture in from the garage, and I got the grand tour of the house! We ate dinner with his parents, and Alan and Jess and Claire.

Saturday we drove down to Utah County, first stopping at the Team Katrina fundraiser in Orem. It was so busy, and so great to see my family, as well as see all the support for Justus and the kids. What a great community! We grabbed lunch, and drove to Trent and Nadia's to see them and for me to finally meet baby Savannah. What a cutie! I love that little (big!) gal. Then it was off for dinner with the bestie. Oh how I adore my Ayisha. We hung out for a few hours and then went to my mom's house to stay the night.
(Sad I didn't take any pictures of the fundraiser... But I did just get my shirt in the mail and will post a picture of that soon! As well as my Team Katrina decal on my car!)

Kyle, Savannah and I.
(Not sure about my weird head angle...)

Isha and me!

Sunday we got up bright and early, Kyle's parents picked us up, and we drove down to Price to visit Grandma Hanson. We visited the cemetery  went on a little drive, and had lunch at Jon and Gayla's before heading back up to eat dinner with Alan and Jess and Claire. We also skyped with Blaine and Brooke and the kids, those twin nephews of ours are getting so big! And Allie is a hoot, as always.

Monday was a day of hiking with the whole family (minus Blaine and Brooke's clan), cemetery visiting, playing with the kiddos, and a barbecue to finish off the day. After the rest of the family left, Kyle and I and his parents watched Captain America. Yes, it was a good day indeed.

(I was terrible at taking pictures on Memorial Day, but will have to get some from Melanie!)

Anniversary Numero 3

Kyle wrote a really awesome blog post on our anniversary, but I never followed up with one of  my own. We have now been married 3 years, 2 weeks, and 1 day. I remember when we first got married, people who had been married longer than 1.5 years were like the champions of marriage. Now, we're those people, and it makes me laugh.

Kyle is pretty great.
And by pretty great, I mean he's the BEST.

We had quite an adventure in getting together, and I am grateful every day that he didn't give up on me. I can't imagine what my life would be like without him in it. It blows my mind that we have known each other for almost 5 years, been together for almost 4, and have been married for 3. He is handsome and smart and is going to be an awesome dad when the time is right.

I love you, Kyle!

Thanks for sticking with me the last three years.... Here's to many more to come!

One of our engagements, taken October 2009.

Graduation 2013

Kyle did it!

He graduated on Saturday with a Master in Counseling degree. 

He has worked so hard the last two years, and I am extremely proud of him. 

All that being said, let's get to the pictures! We had an extremely busy week. Thursday Kyle's parents arrived in town, and we all went to Kyle's hooding ceremony. They had a nice dinner and program for the class of 2013 (M.Couns graduates and PhD candidates). So it was just the 21 or so students in Kyle's program that we have both (but especially he) been able to get to know over the past two years.

Kyle and our good friend, Sherri.

Kyle's Marriage and Family emphasis buddies.
Bob, Nicole, Kim, Sherri and Rosemary.

Saturday was Commencement. 

Since Kyle was getting his Master degree, he was one of the first to walk, so we left right after that. We didn't feel like hanging around waiting for the rest of the students to walk :)

Handsome man in his "regalia".

K with my sister.

K with my sister and mom.

The siblings in my family :)

Our family!

You see the two identical buildings in the background? The one on the left is Garrison Hall. The counseling department is located on the 7th floor, and that's where Kyle spent the majority of his time.

Go Bengals! :)

 After graduation we went and had a BBQ at the park. It was so nice outside, and we just enjoyed being together.

Kyle's adviser, Dr. K, stopped by and we snapped a picture.

 We're grateful to our families who have been supporting us in our adventure up here at Idaho State.

It's been a crazy couple of years, and we have loved it!

Now on to the next adventure!

Katrina

My beautiful cousin, Katrina Galbraith Lawrence, is now gone from this life.

I am still in shock that she is gone.

She had spent the last month or so on bed rest in the hospital, due to complications of placenta previa and accreta during her sixth pregnancy. Yesterday was the day they had planned to deliver the baby via c-section, and then take Katrina straight into surgery to do a hysterectomy and monitor what other actions needed to be taken, depending on how invasive the placenta had become. They delivered the baby, who was 34 1/2 weeks along, and took her into surgery. I don't know all the the details, but from what I understand, her heart gave out. They were able to restart it at least once during the surgical process, and she fought hard, but in the end, it was her time to go.

She leaves behind a beautiful family - her husband Justus, and their six children, Kai, Te, Maya, Dax, Koa, and baby Jet.
She also leaves behind a beautiful legacy. One of love, faith, sincerity, kindness. Katrina could light up a room by walking in. She was friendly and kind and beautiful. You can go to her facebook page, and see just how many people she touched in her 36 short years. Her smile was infectious. She was the kind of person that leaves their mark on your heart, just by being around her.

Katrina always made me feel welcome. She always made me feel loved and important. She made our beautiful wedding announcements, as her gift to us.

Baby Jet is doing fine. He was born, like I said, at 34 1/2 weeks, and was just shy of 5 pounds. He is in the NICU and is getting help with his breathing.

My heart breaks for Justus and their little family, especially little Jet who will never know his mother in this life. She truly gave the ultimate sacrifice - she gave her life for her little one to be brought into this life. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be related to this beautiful woman, as she was truly beautiful inside and out. I am grateful for the knowledge I have that families are forever. I know that right now Katrina is having a most joyous reunion with her two grandmother's and that she will be watching over all of us.

Happy Anniversary Britt

Today is our anniversary! I can't sleep so I figured I'd write a blog post about my awesome wife!

Britt is the best thing that ever happened to me. I'm so grateful for her. This past year has been pretty crazy with school and getting laid off etc. We have no idea where we will be even in just a month from now, but I sure am excited to find out and I know that as long as Britt goes with me things will be just fine :)

It's hard to believe that we have been married for 3 years already. Time sure does fly by quickly and things change so fast. I can't believe that I'm graduating with my Master's in Counseling this week. In the next year we will go through a lot of changes and I look forward to them.

Honestly, I feel like each year of our marriage has been better than the previous year. Now I know that is only three years but we've got a nice little streak going and I'm going to work hard to make it continue for at least another 55-60 years or so. Marriage is hard work, but it's definitely worth it. I'm not the greatest husband but I'm learning and I'll get better at it.

So to end I just want to share a few of the reasons that I love my pooky bear

1. Britt loves people more than anyone I know. Seriously she really loves you. If you are ever in a tough place and need I friend I definitely recommend Britt.

2. Britt is a good listener. She loves to know what is going on in other people's lives and not in a gossipy kind of way either. She knows an awful lot of people and she really cares about all of them. She loves to read about and stay up to date with what people have going on in their lives. Even those friends she met in elementary school, or whatever school, or through whatever place on the internet. So obviously she is a big fan of facebook and blogs.

3. Britt loves to read and she is good at it. I wish I could read as fast as she does. She loves to read just about everything. Fiction mostly. I'm more of a non-fiction guy myself, but I love that Britt loves to read.

4. Britt likes to go new places and do new things. We love to travel and see new places. We have been on lots of fun vacations and camping trips in the last three years. We have had many fun adventures and I am excited to go on more of them. She is even brave enough to go tent camping :) I think our Bed Bath and Beyond tent from one of her bridal showers is about ready to be replaced but it has been great.

5. Britt will be the best mom ever. She LOVES kids. She is so patient and caring. Our kids will be so lucky to have her. Hopefully she won't have to wait too much longer to be a mom.

6. Britt loves me. She is so supportive and she makes me want to be a better person. Thanks for all you do.

I love you!

PS Oh one more that I forgot. 7. She is super hot! I done good.

Child Sexual Abuse

As you all know (ok you probably didn't) child abuse prevention month just ended. Today, however there is a fundraiser called Idaho gives that non-profits can participate in and each donation will be matched along with each donation serving as an entry to win a lot of money. Since I'm an intern at a child advocacy center you should find out more about us and donate (Seriously ten bucks will go a long ways).

Bright Tomorrows Idaho Gives

Did you know that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused by the time they turn 18? Did you know that there are an estimated 39,000,000 survivors of child sexual abuse in our country?

Recently Bright Tomorrows paid for me to become a facilitator of a child sexual abuse prevention program called Stewards of Children: Darkness to Light. If you would like to learn what you can do to protect your kids and help other children please go to their website to learn more. Stewards of Children  Or you can invite me to come do a training for your organization. I'll do it for free, it just costs $10 for the workbook.

I'm grateful that I've been able to be an intern at Bright Tomorrows. It has been an awesome experience and they are a great group of people. Being a counselor for kids who have been sexually abused is really hard work (trust me you hear some really messed up things) and I don't plan on doing it for the rest of my life, but I will always be an advocate for protecting our kids!!!