Home Again

The Trip:

For spring break we got to fly to North Carolina, rent a car, drive to Georgia, drive back to North Carolina, fly to Buffalo, rent a car, drive to Palmyra and Rochester, drive back to Buffalo and fly home. The purpose of the trip was for Collin to interview at graduate schools in NC, GA and NY. But a major perk was that we got to see family in NC and old friends and territory in NY. The whole trip was just the best. In NC we saw Brandon and Tiff's families. It was heaven being there in the perfect weather with all of us together. Tassi is a majorly talented photographer and she took some pictures of us while we were there. She did such an amazing job and we LOVE them. I've come up with a formula for trips: the amount of time you'll be gone x 3 = the amount of time the entire process takes. We were gone for just over a week and it took a good week  before hand to plan and get ready and it took me an entire week to get put back together. I promised myself I wouldn't update or blog about the trip til my house was totally in order. After a week of one or two loads of laundry a day (way too drawn out) and a full day of unpacking, folding and putting away clothes along with dishes, cleaning out the fridge (put that off way too long), cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming and everything else that took me forever I am finally whole again! Here are some of the pictures Tassi took (sorry for the overload of us).Thanks again so much Tass for the pictures and thanks to both of you for letting us stay with you. Thanks for dinner Todd and Tiff. We love you all.

Trip Results:

Collin interviewed at 4 grad. schools and we have heard from 3 of them with responses. So far, he's 3 for 3!! I'm so proud of him. It's not easy to get into 1 grad. school much less 3. He's been admitted to RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), ASU, and NCSU (North Carolina State). We are just waiting to hear from SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). Collin's so humble and tries to take little credit for getting accepted but he really is so amazing at what he does. His portfolio was breathtaking and I'm really excited about the upcoming events in our lives. I told Collin that I didn't care where we went as long as the school had a good sports team for me to follow. We're going to have trouble decided about grad. school so maybe we should just pick the mascot we like the best. What do you think?

Since We've Been Home:

Since we've been back the Ryan Smiths have come to town which has been so much fun. We finally got back in the swing of things at school. We have been blessed beyond belief. Coll and I have felt ready to start a family since the day we were married, but we've recently recieved some medical results that have humbled us a lot and have explained why after 1 1/2 years we're still not pregnant. I don't want the last sentence to be the focus of this post or our lives right now. The very most important thing is how our testimonies have grown. The Lord knows us, all of us. He loves us, all of us. He knows our desires, our intentions, our wills and our hearts and He takes all of those things into consideration and then blesses our lives while teaching us things along the way. We are grateful for the gospel, the knowledge we have of eternal families, modern technology that makes lots of things possible, and for friends and family with optimism that lights up our lives. Collin and I can't wait to be parents some day and we have full faith that the Lord will grant us that opportunity when the time is right. 

Heat:

It's starting to get SOOO hot! My flowers are getting so sad. Does anyone have any suggestions? Tassi has given me a few great ones and I'm totally open to even more! With the heat comes swimming!! I can't wait to go for my first dip. This time last year I had already been swimming for a month. I'm not so crazy this year. 

Here's the March-taken photo in all of my white glory to prove that I did indeed jump in.

All in all:

Life is incredibly great.