family letter 5/31

Missionaries Family and Friends

There where several things that happened this week. First, as many of you know Monday was Memorial Day. Devin and I had work off so we got to play all day long. Playing would probably be a gross misstatement for what we did. The day started out with me cleaning the bathrooms and sweeping and moping the kitchen. I also went shopping for a few items we needed for the day. Devin went shopping with me but she did not do any of the other things. Devin did interesting things like learning how to become a nurse and sitting on the couch. We were excited because Devin's family was coming over that afternoon to do more interesting things. My favorite thing was after Melissa and Shannon got here we went and saw the new “Star Trek” movie. I had wanted to see the movie since it came out but was forced to wait until this last Monday. It was worth the wait. After the movie we came back here and had hamburgers and homemade ice cream. Thanks Karen, my aunt, for the recipe. The rest of the day was fun and ended up with a walk around the ward to pass out fliers for pack meeting the next day.

Did I mention that this week was pack meeting? Devin was excited on Sunday because a new Committee Chair was called and the week before a new Cub Master was called. They are very good and are excited to help the boys have a good time in scouts. Sunday there was a meeting to plan the pack meeting, all Devin had to do was go to the scout store and get the awards. Devin had been running the whole Cub Scout program until about 2 weeks ago so only having one responsibility was a great relief to her. This pack meeting was one of the funnest ones in a long time. The awards were buried in a big tub filled with dirt and the boys had to dig through the box to find their awards. They thought this was lots of fun. After the awards Bro. Anderson gave a 15 minute presentation on honey bees and how you order them in the mail, as well as what you do to take care of them. The kids where piled around him and the equipment. After that the kids played a few games. One of my favorite games was the egg toss. Some of the kids got about 50 feet apart before the egg broke. I watched one egg break and just splatter all over one of the scouts uniform. He then chased down his partner to try and smash an egg on him. It really was lots of fun. Following that there was a 3 legged race. The leader in charge of this event brought yarn to tie the kids legs together. I knew this was going to be a catastrophe before it started. I saw 2 pairings who had already broken the yarn and where lining up for the race. I tried to catch this on video with my phone but messed up. The kids were to go about 50 feet and back. By the time the kids got to the turn around point ¾ of them had broken the yarn and were attempting to stay next to their partner. About ½ way back it became apparent that staying close to your partner was not going to win the race and from there it became a sprint to the finish line. Half the kids claimed to have won the race and the adults did not try and spoil it by crowning a winner. Also when the kids crossed the finish line not a single piece of yarn survived the race and no one crossed with their partner. The scouts had a great time and the pack meeting was fun for everyone including the adults. I also want to point out that the leaders had about 2 or 3 other things planned but ran out of time. Devin and I are very grateful for the new cub scout leadership.

Saturday was not a good day for me. I had been sick for the last few days of the work week. Nothing real serious, mainly a cough and I felt a little ache. Saturday morning was not very good though. I finally fell asleep around 1 a.m. and woke up at 5:30 a.m. I spent the rest of the day in a daze. I was asleep for most of the day but I had the following weird dream. I was sick and not feeling well and this short little blond girl kept talking to me and telling me things like we need to get out of the house and buy a new dishwasher. I told her I needed a subscription to a magazine in order to purchase a dishwasher this was a reasonable request so the girl relented and I got the magazine. The rest of the dream was very frustrating. The blond girl drove me to the store where we looked at dishwashers. We were about to purchase one when I realized that I did not have my magazine, so we went home for the magazine. After going back home the blond girl found the dishwasher she wanted and I texted the model number to myself. We then went back to the store and got the dishwasher the blond girl wanted. Then something strange happened. he dishwasher would not fit into our little Honda civic. This brought about some frustration so we borrowed a truck from the store and brought the dishwasher home. The little blond girl then insisted that I needed to install the dishwasher so it would not be in middle of the living room. As I was trying to install the dishwasher I needed a few parts so we drove around town looking for the parts we needed this took an abnormal amount of time. Eventually I got all the parts and returned home. The blond girl then stood over me and insisted on me getting the thing installed immediately. Finally when I got the stupid thing installed the blond girl gave me a big hug squeeze kiss and took me out for ice cream. It was a very frustrating dream because I did not have all the parts and kept going back and forth. I am sure that when you are sick and have weird dreams you get annoyed to. A weird thing happened this morning though. I got up, feeling much better than the day before, and went down stairs and for some reason I have a subscription to Consumer Reports and we have a new dishwasher. I like Consumer Reports and Devin, my cute little blond wife, likes the dishwasher because you can put odd sized things in it like plates, so I am going to be happy that this particular dream came true. Here is to you having a fun week like we did

Jared working hard on installing our dishwasher. Yeah, I just stood back, watched, and had fun while he did all the work.



Proud owners of a working dishwasher!

cub scouts

So... i just have to blog about my excitement. As many of you may know, I am one of two den leaders in our ward. Each of us have an assistant and then the committee. We have been without a cub master and committee chair for a few months now. The other leader ... doesn't like to take the lead, so I've been the one calling the committee meetings (kind of have to plan the pack meeting), leading the committee meeting, and all that other good stuff that a committee chair does. The most wonderful things have happened. We FINALLY have a cub master AND a committee chair. They called the cub master last week and the committee chair was called yesterday. I think these two are going to be awesome! Anyway~ I just had to tell everyone how excited I am to finally have some of the stress of scouts off of my shoulders!

Family Letter May 24, 2009

Missionaries Family and Friends

Did you know that I am a slob? I know some of you may not know this but I assure you that if you call my mom, she will tell you what a slob I am. If you know Devin, you will also know that Devin is a neat freak. Everything has a place and it goes in its place. For example, I frequently place my phone 6 inches from where it belongs and I wait to see how long it can be in the wrong place before Devin casually walks by the phone and subconsciously moves it 6 inches. I want to tell you that this week Devin did something that has not been done since we have been married; about 2 ½ years. Devin did not make the bed. I want it known that I frequently do not make the bed. I do not see the point of straightening up the sheets. They do not move anywhere. They start roughly where they ended up, on the bed. Why not just let it be messy? Devin sees things different. The sheets are not put away unless they are lined up with lots of magic lines and all the sheets tucked in the correct way and the bed spread centered on the bed. Remember that everything has a place and needs to be there. I want to point out that the bed has not been made many times during our marriage. Devin works early in the morning and when I am in the bed sleeping Devin does not kick me out and make the bed. Devin leans over and gives me a kiss and says she loves me instead. In those cases I am responsible for making the bed. I usually do this when Devin calls at 6:30 pm and tells me she is on her way home. If I can not sleep up stars because it is too hot, when Devin gets up the bed is always made. Also if both of us are home and I get up last Devin rushes upstairs and makes the bed before I have time to walk out of the bathroom. Tuesday was not a work day for Devin so when I got home and noticed that something seemed different I was a little disoriented. It took me a little while to figure out that the bed was not made. I needed documentation that Devin did not make the bed and I asked where the camera was. Devin asked why I needed the camera. I insisted that I needed to take a picture. Devin knew something was up but I relented and got the camera. I then darted to the bedroom before she could catch me and took a picture of the first time in our marriage that Devin did not make the bed. Yes I know this is a big event. Many of you think that Devin is a perfect home maker and always has things put in its place. You now know that even Devin does not live up to that standard all the time either.


Over the last month or so I have had a song going through my head and it has motivated me to do something. The song is “The Prophet Said to Plan a Garden”. Now this is not very easy for us to do because we do not have any space to plant a garden. We live in a town home and enjoy a decently large shared yard. This means we do not have any place for individuals to grow stuff. So I decided to grow some vegetables in planter boxes. We are starting out with some simple stuff, like peas and beans. We also wanted some other things like strawberries so we have a box of those. Finally I wanted something that I am not sure we can grow but wanted to try, cucumbers. I am hoping to at least get a few vegetables out of this experiment. I was thinking that if we are in the same place next year I might try some hydroponics. Since we only have 4 planter boxes that are 2 feet long our garden is small and hydroponics may be a way to get more out of our limited space. Devin does not seem very excited about planting a few vegetables but I am. Here is hoping that we get something out of this.

Friday night we learned something sad. Owen Burnham died this week. Owen is Grandma Hurst's Brother In Law. Saturday we went up to Ogden to attend the funeral with Grandma and Granddad Hurst. Shannon and Melissa went up with us. The service was nice and it was fun seeing the family, even though it was a somber event. We wish the best for the family and hope that everyone has a great week.

Jared & Devin Payne

Family Letter M ay 17, 2009

Missionaries Family and Friends

What a full week we have had. Devin said that I had to tell a story from when she was out of town last week. I dropped Devin off at the air port and then headed to Brigham City to hang out with my sister for the weekend. I got a few extra dollars to spend because Devin was away and I decided how I wanted to spend the cash. Being an engineer I wanted to do a scientific experiment. I had heard that kids get wild when you load them up with sugar and crashed afterward. My theory states that if you give a kid enough sugar they will crash quickly and fall asleep before they get hyper. Just so you know I need to find these things out before I have children so that I can be the lovable dad but still get the kids to bed. I took my niece Jessi and nephew Brian out to the store to get some stuff for a party. Both of the kids picked out an ice cream, Jessi picked strawberry, Brian picked chocolate. Their favorite candy bars, Jessi peanut butter cups, Brian chocolate bar. They saw a bin of salt watter taffy and got a bunch of that. I picked angel food cake, strawberries, and whip cream. The kids also got to pick out their favorite soda; Brian sprite, and Jessi picked pink. From what I have learned for 6 year old girls pink is a flavor, the lemon aid is just there to support the pink. When we got back the kids wanted to start the party but I told them that the party could not start until Mom and Dad went out on a date. I think that Bart was a little disappointed not to be included in the sugar fest. We got the adults out the door and had a great time watching “Bob the Builder”. After about 30 minutes I believe Brian hit his sugar limit and fell asleep. He had chocolate all over his face so I cleaned him up and put him in bed. I was not brave enough to sugar up the 6 month old Chelsea, but I think the other kids sugar high rubbed off on her and she fell asleep soon after that. Jessi and I watched another movie before Mom and Dad got home. I was hoping for my experiment to work 100% but only had a 66% success rate. This may seem like a success but I need something that works better. I guess that I will need to keep looking for better ways to get kids into bed.

I will say that one of the highlights of my week came last Sunday. I got to talk to my brother Jacob for a few minutes. Jacob is serving a mission in Boston. I have not gotten to talk to him since I dropped him off at the MTC in November '07. Since he could not call everyone Jacob called Mom, Mom called me and they put both phones on speaker phone and I got to talk to him that way. I know I only talked for a few minutes but Jacob sound good and I hope you enjoy the rest of your mission.

Devin is not very good at telling me what she did in Arizona this past week so I will tell you what she did and fill in any blank spots with what I think happened. Devin had a few reasons to head to Arizona for a few days. Devin will claim that it is because she had a long stressful school semester and wanted a little break between semesters. Devin will also tell you that Anna just happened to have her birthday during this visit. I want every one of you to know that those reasons by themselves were not even close to the reason Devin wanted to go to Arizona. A few months back Anna brought a bouncing baby boy into the world named, Nicklaus, and Devin is baby hungry. I do not mean to say that Devin wants to eat babies, just that she wants one of her own. I told her to pick one up on the way home but she did not take my advice. Devin did take the advice of my Grandpa Payne when it comes to going on vacation which is “Take half as many cloths and twice as much money”. Devin did expand on the advice and brought back twice as many cloths that where needed. From what I can tell for a 4 day trip Devin needed

12 shirts

2 skirts with matching tops, not included in shirts

1 dress

3 pair of shoes

1 pair of pants

That is more cloths than I was expecting but Devin and Anna found some good deals and came out spending less than what I expected. Last Sunday night Devin had a family gathering to celebrate the wonderful mothers that are in the family. Devin claims the evening was fun with everyone talking and enjoying being together. For some reason in my imagination I saw Devin feeling like a failure taking Nicklaus to a corner in a back room and holding him and cried about wanting to be a mommy. Since Arizona is such a warm place I also think they spent most of the rest of the time hanging out at the pool drinking raspberry sherbet smoothies while laughing. Tuesday Devin's play time in Arizona ended and she came home to me, which makes me very happy. I do not sleep well without Devin close and with Devin back I had a great night's sleep.

I only got one good nights sleep before several horrid nights of pain. Wednesday I went to physical therapy for my ankle. In the past they put me on a shallow incline and made me do go up on my tip toes and down 40 or so times. I told them this week that I can do that on the stairs with out to much effort so they put me on a machine where I do the same thing but with some extra weight on my shoulders. For some unexplained reason the loaded me up with an extra 50 pounds plus the weight of the bar. I got through that exercise feeling a little tired. At the time I did not know was going to happen for the next three days. My calves decided to rebel from the abuse and refused to do simple things like letting me stand, or sit, or even lay down without complaining about what I did to them. One morning around 3:00 I was soaking them in a hot bath trying to pamper them but they were not getting any quieter so I drained the bath and after that I talked to them for another hour before I could convince them to let me get out of the bath and go back to bed. Devin claims that I should not have gone out earlier that day and run, but my legs felt better after the run my feet felt worse because I did not change my sandals and I know have a blister on my feet. This has not been a good week for my legs and feet I am hoping that next week will do better. For the first time since physical therapy I woke up and was able to walk across the room without leaning on stuff. I also got some new running shoes and hope that they will help with the ankle as well. I know that many of you may be wondering why I am mentioning my new shoes but I think they are very cool. They are very light and are made by a company that makes shoes for climbing cliffs. Devin claims that having a pair of shoes designed not to wear socks and has individual toes is just to strange, she also thinks that I should not have picked the bright red ones. I like them and it is almost like not wearing shoes and that is all that matters.

Saturday was a very fun day for Devin and I. Most of the day was spent driving in the car but that was all right. We drove to St George to attend the wedding of Devin's cousin Krischelle. The sealing was nice and we had a good time talking to family at such a joyous event. Mom and Dad Zobrist came along with most of the Zobrist families. It was fun to see family gathering and celebrating. Thanks to everyone who put together such a fun event and we wish everyone the best and hope that you have a great week.

Jared & Devin

family letter

Dear missionaries, families, and friends,

Happy Mother's day to all the mothers! Hopefully you all had a good one. Life has definitely had a different twist this week, but in a good way! Monday was our normal work day. Nothing to exciting at all! Tues. and Wed. was not the norm. though. I took my finals for the semester. I have to stay, they didn't go bad at all. I don't think I can tell you how glad, and relieved, we both are that they're done. I finished and passed first semester of nursing school! YAY! My husband has been absolutely amazing this whole semester. I feel bad... I know I've had to unfortunately not pay as much attention to him as I would have liked to (as one of the past family letters would confess). Also, starting Wed. afternoon, I can't count how many times Jared has made the comment “I'm so happy to have happy Devin back! No more stressed Devin”. Totally heartstrings jerker. I must say I'm glad to be not nearly as stressed too. I have to tell the sweet thing that my Jared did. So, Tuesday night he made sure I was asleep then at one in the morning, he went and got me chocolates and flowers! He left the chocolates on my front seat so I would get them when I left for me last final. Then when I talked to him right after I finished my final, he told me to look in the trunk of my car. When I did, he had flowers back there! Isn't he the sweetest? Thank you so much to all for you love, support, and prayers during this time too! They were definitely felt! Thursday, unfortunately, was a work day again. Friday was a BLAST though. I got to spend the whole entire day with my amazing husband, doing WHATEVER we wanted. It was way over due, and so much fun. We ended up being in the car, traveling lots, but it was totally worth it. Gave us time to talk! We went up to Jeni's and had lunch. We also went shopping to find some new clothes for me (we'll get into that later) and went out to dinner with Shannon and Mel. Oh, I think I forgot to mention that my sister, the one who just graduated college, moved up to Salt Lake on Monday. Anyway~ so after dinner with them we just went home, got ready for bed, put on a movie. We both ended up falling asleep early in the movie. Sat. Was a busy, but fun day. In the morning Jared and I got somethings done. He then took me to the airport and I left to come to AZ to see Anna, my sister who had a baby at the end of March. Let's go with what Jared did yesterday and today, then me. Jared left the airport then went up to Jeni's again. He sent the parents on a date and can you guess what he did with the kids? This is so unlike Jared (in a sarcastic voice). He sugared up the two kids! He got them reeses peanut butter cups, angel food cake with strawberries. He got them... I can't even remember all of it. I think ice cream, salt water taffy was in there. You get the pic though. I'll have him write about it next time. I know he also spent time fixing Jeni's computer. Now onto my time in AZ so far. My sis. Picked me at the airport and we went clothes shopping. So, as most of you know, I am the type that hates to spend money AND I hate shopping. Hence, I don't get new clothes often. Well~ lately I've been saying how I need new clothes. Jared decided the way to get me to go is to send me to AZ with no extra shirts and no church dress! He also called Anna on me and asked her to do this. Those of you who know Anna knows she gladly accepted! So we went shopping. I must admit, the spending part wasn't as bad as I thought. We went to Ross and got really good deals. Still don't like shopping though. I have already decided on my way to thank Jared. Jared has much of my attitude on shopping, if not worse. I think most of his clothes are older than mine. I decided that he is going to have to go shopping to get himself new clothes too. Only, we won't be lucky to have someone helping him. Back to my stay here in AZ, after Anna and I went shopping we went to her in-laws and spent the evening there. We had a great time swimming, eating, and talking. Today we went to church then went to our aunts house to have a family dinner. It was so much fun seeing everyone, talking, and enjoying delicious food. I think that about covers this week. Like I said, definitely a different twist. Great one though. Sorry this isn't as exciting as Jared's. Hope everyone had a great week too!

(Jared) I just want to add that I have really enjoyed being with Devin more than usual after her last exam on Wednesday. Devin has been stressed with school, work, and scouts. Not having school, the biggest stress, has really relived Devin. I want to say thanks to any one who has said a prayer or given her words of encouragement. As many of you know we have started a blog. I think the purpose of the blog is to allow potential birth parents get to know us. That is the reason that I populated the blog with 6 months of family letters. Devin seems to really like blogging and even took 40 pictures of me at physical therapy this week. I have a more modest goal of having 2 pictures to go with the family letter each week . This week I wanted a picture of happy Devin and stressed Devin. Saturday morning I was trying to get Devin to pose for a few pictures. Notice that Devin is happy with a great big smile and very little stress in her eyes. I then tried to get Devin to put on a stressed look while pretending to study her school book. I kept trying to take pictures of her studying and being stressed, but unfortunately for the picture and fortunate for me happy Devin shines through much brighter than stressed Devin. If you look at the stressed picture Devin is covering her mouth because she can not stop smiling. You can even see the smile extending past her hand. I tried and tried to get a stressed look from my extremely happy and beautiful wife but I was unable to do so. It is really nice to have such a happy loving wife in my life. I can not tell you how much joy she brings into my life, even when she is stressed. I love you Devin and hope you have a great time in Arizona.




stressed Devin



Happy Devin

Jared's ankle

Jared's ankle has/had been really bothering him. He went to the doctor, which in turn sent him to a physical therapist. The outcome was Jared probably has tendonitis. Here are some of the exercises they have him doing




He's throwing a ball at a trampoline while balancing on his right leg, the one with the hurt ankle



exercising the ankle



another ankle exercise



the physical therapist is putting cocoa butter on Jared's leg. The plastic thing the physical therapist is using is suppose to massage Jared's leg. What about his ankle?



Living the life with a slushy while soaking his legs in a 100 degree whirlpool!

First semester of nursing school!

We have just completed the first semester of nursing school! What a semester it has been. I am just so relieved to be done for about a week and a half. Let me just say my husband is amazing!! I would not have made it through without Jared. I can't even tell you the number of times he's had to just hold me because I was so stressed and crying, he had to take on the laundry and dinner quite a bit (and even the cleaning of the house!!), and help me with my scouting calling A TON! He is definitely my hero. I definitely know why they say "we made it through" now. This morning (the morning of my last final) he surprised me with flowers and chocolate! He's so sweet. I just wanted to let even know how wonderful Jared is and also to let you all know we did survive first semester and Jared still loves me... I think ;0) I love him!

family letter May 3, 2009

Missionaries Family and Friends 

Here is a fact you probably do not know about me. I grind my teeth at night. This is a small fact that normally is not worth mentioning, but this week it has special significance. Two months ago I got a night guard at Wal-Mart to prevent me from grinding my teeth. This worked well for a little while. The guard was made of silicone which made it easy to mold. The soft silicone made a very good seal so it was easy to create a vacuum in my mouth. This created a point where there was lots of friction and a sore formed on the top of my mouth. Three weeks ago I went to the dentist he took a mold of my mouth and had a custom night guard made special just for me. Tuesday I went to the Dentist to pick it up. Here is where the story gets interesting. They where trying to make the final adjustments to the night guard and asked how it felt. I calmly pointed out that one of the wires that holds the guard in place was digging into my gums. I pointed out the blood on the wire and said it really hurt. The dentist insisted that my teeth would adjust and it would be fine. He then sent me home. I hope that none of your dentists send you home with a device that goes in your mouth that makes your mouth bleed. After a few days I called to get the thing adjusted. They just cut off the wire and sent me on my way. I was very disappointed because the guard was made wrong the wire that poked in my gums was a lot longer than the ones that did not. They should have had the guard remade. Needless to say I am getting a new dentist. Even though I was very frustrated the guard works and I think it is a funny story even if you do not.

This weekend has been a very cool. Devin and I headed down to Cedar City for the graduation of Melissa, Devin's sister. I believe Melissa received her degree in Physical Education. When we got to Cedar we headed directly to an award meeting. Melissa had been nominated as the outstanding student for her degree, I think she should have won but I was not one of the judged. Later that night we attended Melissa's the seminary graduation. That was more fun afterward because we had the opportunity to meet her Bishop and other friends and leaders. Melissa has been very active in her ward and seems to have pulled many people together. The next day Devin, Shannon, Mom Z, and Melissa went to commencement. President Thomas S. Monson spoke. Because of that there where limited tickets and I did not go. Just so you know I HATE graduation ceremonies and was happy to be left out. I ended up taking care of my nephew Taylor at the hotel. We went swimming at the pool and had a great time watching “Sponge Bob Square Pants”. After the swim I had to get Taylor ready for the Education Commencement ceremony. As I was trying to get Taylor ready I noticed that there was a major problem. Taylor did not have any cloths. Taylor did not pick up his back pack with cloths and someone accidentally placed his cloths back into Mom's truck. With no keys or any thing I had to bring Taylor in his swimsuit and a wet t-shirt because he jumped in the pool with it on. I felt sorry for him he was was freezing when we went outside. Commencement was boring as expected I think everyone fell asleep at some point. Even Melissa said she dozed off during the meeting. After commencement we had a little more fun. Melissa got some pictures with her teachers and friends. I always like to watch and see the relationships that form over time. It was an exciting time to be graduating but it is also a little sad to say goodbye to so many friends.

On the way home Devin was going to drive and I was going to ask her a questions about physiology and pharmacology. I did not sleep well the night before and being dyslexic in a moving car did not help I was having trouble even reading anything. I decided to take a quick nap and then I may be able to help Devin. 2 hours later I woke up and we where almost home. Devin was a champ I do not think she really wanted to study. She has been working very hard at school and deserves credit for all she has done. She also has exams this week so if you have room in your prayers through Wednesday Devin could use the help. We are excited to see everyones lives moving forward and wish you a very fun week.

Adoption

So as many of you know we are getting ready to adopt! We are currently in the middle of writing our birth parent letter then we are ready to be finalized! We thought it be fun to show at least one pic. that we are putting on there.




This is the pic. we used for our Christmas card. Jared just wasn't cooperating in attending a concert with me, so I had to do something about it. I think he'll do better next year.


We thought that some of you might be interested in some of the "getting to know you" questions we had to answer for the birth parents. So here ya go! These ones weren't nearly intense as the ones they asked for the adoption agency.

Question	Husband	Wife
A book I highly recommend is:	Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe	Believing Christ by Stephen R. Robinson
My favorite flower is:	Texas Wild flowers	I like all of them, but if I had to pick one it'd be tulips.
A game I like to play is:	soccer	the card game Rage
The music I listen to most is:	classical	country

A movie I watch over and over is:	The Quiet Man	Flicka
A T.V. show I watch regularly is:	Stargate, either SG-1 or Atlantis	7th Heaven

My favorite thing to buy is:	cooking gear	7th Heaven episodes
I drive a:	Honada Civic	Honada Civic too!

If I could afford anything at this moment I would buy:

motorcycle

house

A smell that makes me pause is:

lilac

Jared! not in a bad way though

My favorite restaurant is:	Bombay House	Thai Garden
A moment when I achieved absolute happiness was:	coming home to family after work	marrying Jared
My favorite meal is:	oooh, so many	ribs, with any kind of potato, and corn on the cob
A piece of music that makes me sentimental is:	anything by Louie Armstrong	"Bubbly" by Colbie Cailat
Someone or something that made me laugh this week was:	how ugly my cake turned out	my amazing husband
My earliest memory is:	being told I could't jump in the pool	my kindergarden teacher
My first paying job was:	dishwasher at Golden Corral	working for my parent's company cutting chicken

A smell that reminds me of my childhood is:

wild flowers

horses, or farms in general

My favorite dessert is:	cheesecake	peanut butter blossoms
When I exercise, I like to:	ride my bike	listen to my ipod when I go walking
My favorite thing to do on a date is:	kiss Devin	cuddle and be with Jared

The best thing about being married is:

going to bed early

early bedtime!

Graduation!

I wish it were my own, but it wasn't. My sister graduated college! She got her bachelor degree in exercise science. President Thomas S. Monson was the keynote speaker at the main commencement exercise. It was awesome to hear him speak. Anyway~ here are some pics. from the graduation. Oh! She also got her advance certificate from institute (she technically graduated institute last year). Some pics. are from there too. As well as she got nominated for outstanding student (I think, I can't remember exactly what the nomination was. Sorry Mel!)




Mom with Mel! I'm so happy to get a good pic. of my mom. She usually likes to make faces.



President Monson- the girl at the bottom was doing sign language interpretation



Mel realized there no actual diploma in the degree holder



Sisters! Although, we are sadly missing one. We did miss you Anna!



Mel with one of her professors holding her award nomination plaque


Congratulations Mel!!