Starting a New Adventure

It isn't every week that you graduate, move, and start a new job.

Jason and I both graduated from BYU on August 12th and 13th--Jason with a Bachelors of Science in Marriage, Family, and Human Development, and me with a Masters of Science in Instructional Psychology and Technology. It was much more fun to graduate together and sit by each during the graduation ceremonies, but let me tell you, August is the month to graduate! It was not nearly as crowded as the April ceremonies are which translates into shorter ceremonies. Elder Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy spoke to us in the Commencement Exercises and Andrew Gibbons, the Chair of my department, was the key note speaker at my convocations. Jason walked with me at both commencement and convocations, so he got to sit in softer seats! The funniest part of graduation was the fact that I was wearing the wrong colors on my hood and tassel. Apparently you can graduate with any degree you want if you just check the right box when renting the gowns. :) And so, I graduated with a Masters of Education! :)

Julie and Jason behind the Smith Fieldhouse

Nicky Burgoyne Smith and Jana Chapman and two great friends that went through the program with me.

My parents, Julie, Jason, Jason's parents

Jason standing in front of the Coding Lab where he worked.

After the commencement exercises, Jason and I went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with my parents and Jason's parents. Boy was it LOUD, but the food was delicious--the best steak I've ever eaten!

Graduation activities were mixed with packing up all our belongings and moving to a beautiful 2 bedroom apartment in Sandy, which was a long process stretching from the first load last Thursday to the last load on Tuesday. Where did we get so much stuff anyway? :) We live above the garage of an older LDS couple that we found after looking through TONS of listings on the KSL classifieds. We actually spent a long time looking for an apartment over the course of about five days, but things just worked out really well with this Sandy place. The owners were apparently impressed after we first met them to look at their apartment and they called us about four hours later to see "what they could do to get us there." It turned out that they lowered the rent $100 a month for us, which was a very generous offer. We really appreciate them and they are great landlords doing everything they can to help us out . . . including buying an extra internet booster to make sure we have the best internet access, getting us a couple new lightbulbs the same day we asked, giving us fresh tomatoes and other vegetables from their garden, teaching their German Shepherd dog Estrella to like us, and helping us get into our apartment most of the four times we've locked ourselves out in the last week. :)

We have really appreciated the many, many people that have helped us pack, move, unpack, and donated furniture to us for our apartment. We left our last apartment with just a small bookcase and have now acquired a bed, couch, love-seat, coffee table, end table, nightstand, chest of drawers, desk, TV, TV stand, lamp, and vacuum. Truly people have been so kind!!! I just hope that I too can practice such generosity as I am in a position to do so. The last several days I have felt full of gratitude several times each day.

The last adventure I'll mention is that fact that I've started my new job at Allen Communications. I'll save the detail for another post, but I can tell already that it is a good and generous company that treats their employees well. Case in point: On my first day there, Jason accidentally locked himself out of the apartment at 10:00 in the morning and no one was home to let him back in. I didn't find out until noon and didn't think I could do anything about it. When I mentioned it to my boss around 1:00, she said, "Why don't you just take all this paperwork home and we'll see you tomorrow." What a kind thing to do! She was really too busy herself to train me anyway that day, so I was so grateful she let me come home to rescue Jason. Otherwise, he would have been locked out at least another three hours.

It's much easier to endure life's trials when your eyes are so acutely fixed on all the blessings!