2008 Family Newsletter Post

For all those who only hear from us once a year, (and to have a record so that our children and family and our future selves will believe just how busy we were) we have put together this little year-end letter/blog post/chronology.

The year started with Nicole finally being out of school with her RN (and a raise!). She enjoyed that for a few months before enrolling in BYU's Bachelor's of General Studies program which she's now just a few credits from completing. I was in the middle of my first year of grad school taking 16 credits, doing double TA duty and working nights. At the end of that semester I reduced my TA load and also quit my night job. My health immeadiately improved. I also got approved to teach and have been teaching classes at both BYU and UVU.



In February I was able to attend my first Academic conference in Miami, sponsored by APA's division for theoretical and philosophical psychology. I presented a paper there that would probably have gone a little better if traffic and a tight plane schedule hadn't made me a late to my own presentation. Still, it was fun overall. I learned what "hob-nobbing" is. A skill which came in handy when I attended the national APA convention in Boston in August.

With our schedules (briefly) relaxed, we took the opportunity to make use of the free trip to Disneyland that I won the previous year. It was Princess Nicole's first time at any of the Disney parks and she was suitibly impressed... So much so that we ended up visiting Disney World in August with more family.

Nicole also had the opportunity to visit her sister and assist (for the third time) with one of her new arrivals, this time, a Man Child! But the girls will always be her favorites.

(And who can blame her?)

We also were able to attend the sealing ceremony of Nicole's brother as he finalized the adoption of his fourth child. Almost all her family came to Georgia and we were able to witness a baptism and two baby blessings to boot! As you can see from the picture on the right, every one had a good, if somewhat discomboberated, time. I was even able to sneak in a quick trip to check out the University of West Georgia and their Psych department, nice place.

In other news, we saw a house we liked and ended up buying it. We were pretty surprised that we did so, but it's been great and we feel like we've been here for years. I was about to say we couldn't be happier, but apparently there's always something that needs fixing or replacing in a home. But we've repainted the major rooms and have definately added our own mark on the place. (Note the sun on the garage was not our mark, but we're keeping it for the time being.) Nicole's father and brother have taken us residence in our basement apartment.

In other big news for us, we've completed the intital processes of adoption. Now we're in the finding stages, but there are plenty more people willing to adopt then children who need adopting, so if you hear of any leads, let us know!

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary and Nicole's unmentionable birthday (let's call it "26," Now she's finally younger than me! ;) I lost all of the weight I gained on our summer trips and then some (but got some of it back over the holidays, stay tuned for more updates!)

We also took a quick trip to Connecticut last month which let Nicole see the sights she missed when I went to Boston. While there we caught the musical "Legally Blonde" at the Bushenell which definately exceeded expectations. We met our finacial goal to pay off the remainders of the outstanding student loans and other debts we've been working off for the last few years! It feels good to be "debt-free" again, although we weren't quite left with enough to celebrate much. We did, however, enjoy our holidays in Cedar with some breif visits to St George (and even to a Ghost Town)