5 years ago!

Tomorrow is April 26th! On April 26th, 2004 Mark proposed to me at Yosemite National Park in California. It was like one of the best weekends ever. I graduated from BYU Idaho and then Mark and I drove out to California together and he proposed!

Mark and I had been dating since the beginning of fall semester 2003 and "exclusively" dating since November 2003. We actually met at the beginning of fall semester 2002 but were just good friends. Mark had just gotten back from his mission in Brazil and was busy going on blind dates every week and I was actually engaged to another guy. All my roommates kept talking about this great guy named Mark and I just kept asking who the heck is Mark? Eventually we met and became great friends. We would often drive home together from school to California and 13 hours in car is a great way to get to know someone.

Mark and I had talked about marriage before so I knew we were headed that way and was just waiting for him to ask. The last month I was in school was sort of annoying because everyone and their brother kept asking me when Mark was going to propose. I kept telling them to ask Mark not me! Finally graduation came and my parents came out to watch. The day I graduated Mark asked my dad if he could marry me and my Dad consented happily. (My family really likes Mark, they were not that anxiousto marry me off.) That same day Mark and I took off and drove to California. We were planning on visiting his family in Turlock first and then going to Yuba City for a few days then driving back to school. Well, we got to Turlock and Mark said that the next day we would go to Yosemtite which is about 2 hours away from his house.

The next morning we headed out. Once we got there we went on a couple of hikes and explored the park. I had never been before and really enjoyed how pretty it was. After we had walked around we went back to the car and when he opened the trunk there were flowers and a surprise picnic lunch in the basket that Kristi (Mark's sister) had given Mark for Christmas and that Mark had used for our first kiss! (It was pictured back in January on our first kiss post) As you can see this basket is rather important in our lives. We will have to take it to the hospital with us in October when we meet Lydia or Jared!

Anywho, we sat down in a meadow by a stream and ate our lunch. Then after we had eaten Mark said that there was something for me inside the basket. As soon as I saw the basket in the trunk I knew that Mark was going to propose and was so excited. In the basket there was a little white box with a silver bow around it. I got really excited and then he proposed and I said Of course! Making sure to hug and kiss him before I looked at the ring, which by the way was the exact one that I wanted!. So 5 years later we are still happily in love and having great adventures togetther, we can't wait to begin the next part of our lives together come this October!

At the top of the "Hill" we hiked up.



The happily engaged couple! Just moments after Mark proposed. Mark said that he really wasn't too nervous about asking, I guess he was pretty sure of himself before he asked.

Back at Mark's house after we cleaned up from the trip. This was the only picture I could find that show I now had the ring.

The Fall!

As most of you know I love love love the fall! It is my most favorite time of the year. One of my all time favorite movie quotes comes from "You've Got Mail" and has to do with the fall. Tom Hanks writes to Meg Ryan: " Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."

This year I am really looking forward to : (in no particular order)
1. The beautiful colors
2. Going camping
3. Carving pumpkins
4. Going to harvest festivals/corn mazes/pumpkin patches
5. Buying school supplies
6. Knowing that the holiday season is about to begin in full swing.
7. Sweater and jeans weather, you don't need a coat just a cute sweater.
8. Seeing Autumn Decorations everywhere
9. Just the feel in the air with the change from summer to fall
AND
10. Having our first baby October 16th!!

That's right! We are going to have a baby this fall. We are so incredibly excited (well and I am still paranoid but feeling less so each week).

This ultrasound was taken March 16th at 9 weeks. And this is me a few weeks before then.

I am now 14 weeks and just got back from the doctor today for my second appointment. I got to hear the heartbeat again which put my mind at rest, there is still a living baby inside of me. I cannot explain the relief I felt today hearing the heartbeat. There hasn't been anything in particular that has made me think I had miscarried thus far I am just super paranoid since I did miscarry in 2007. When I got back from the appointment I was telling Mark about it and we decided we would go ahead and let it be known because it is such good news and we are so excited! We had originally decided that we would wait until we knew what we were having but are just too excited. But still, if you need someone to keep a secret for you you can totally count on me, 10 weeks is along time to wait to tell really good news. We didn't even tell our families until we were 12 weeks along.

It appears that I have had a very mild pregnancy so far for which I am really grateful. From what I can gather my first trimester went really well. I never had to throw up! I felt nauseous on and off throughout the day, tired, and a little lightheaded but those were my main symptoms. For awhile there I really had a hard time eating, my appetite was totally gone because everything sounded disgusting and then smells started to really get to me. I am still super sensitive to strong smells but my appetite is better. Whenever there was a day that I didn't feel many symptoms I always worried and have been really grateful (I know it sounds weird) for days when I did feel sick. I didn't miss any work and think that working full time probably helped me because I had to go to work. I was pretty tired after school each day but it has worked out fine.

I am really looking forward to every appointment that will confirm that we are still pregnant. Last time when I went to the doctor she told me that since I had made it that far there was only a 2% chance of having a miscarriage. I really really hope that I am not in that 2%.

14 weeks! So not too much has changed...pretty much all of my clothes still fit fine but I am excited to have a little baby belly soon!

Today I scheduled my ultrasound appointment to find out what we are having. We have so many things to look forward to this May! May is when we should find out where Mark will be working (inshallah) this coming fall so therefore if we are moving away from Greeley or not, and on May 26th we find out if Jared Hyrum or Lydia Grace will be joining us in October.

For as long as I can remember I have always said that I personally wanted to try really hard to not have any kids between November 20th and January 15th. There is just so much going on with my birthday and Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years it just seems like it would be easier at a different time, you gotta spread out those family gatherings and presents. So it appears that this baby is a good listener and 16 is my favorite number and October is my favorite month so that is fun too, although I am sure that I would be okay with it coming before the 16th! The other fun thing about this pregnancy is that my sister Susanna who is just 14 months older than me is also pregnant and she is due September 24th! So we are only like three weeks apart. Although her first baby came like 2 weeks early.

Anyway, in summary, we are so excited that we are having a baby this fall! Again,

I LOVE LOVE LOVE THE FALL!!

Spring Break 2009!

We went on a long road trip for spring break this year. We started off for Utah on Friday afternoon only to get stopped just outside of Evanston, WY in a crazy snowstorm. All the cars were stopped on Interstate 80 waiting for the snowplows to get there. We waited for about 40 minutes and then when the snow plows came through we tried to start our car and our battery had died! So that was really unfortunate did I mention that it was 11:30 at night? So we asked this lady in front of us if she could jumpstart our car and she very kindly agreed. The only problem was that we had never actually used jumper cables before and we did not feel like blowing up our car or the very nice lady's so Mark went and asked the people in the car behind us if they could help us with the cables and a very nice man came out into the freezing snowstorm and helped us. So we finally get going and we get to my sister's temporary home in Ogden at 2:30 in the morning. Ogden is supposed to be about 55 minutes from Evanston and we didn't get there until much later! So we got off to a rough start but the rest of our trip was great!
We spent Saturday and Sunday in Utah with Mark's family in Orem and got to go to the Sunday afternoon session of conference. While there we saw Mark's nephew who is serving his mission in the Salt Lake Mission and his niece Kierstin. We also saw some good friends from my hometown and some friends from our BYU-Idaho days. I love conference weekend and am so glad that we got to go to Conference. We also had a really nice time visiting with Mark's brother Steve and his wife Molly. They are really great people!

After the Sunday afternoon session with the conference center behind us.

Salt Lake Temple

Kierstin, Elder Clayton (Mark's niece and nephew) Aprillee and Mark. Do you notice the height difference here? Yes I am still the shortest and am standing on like a 8 inch ledge!

Monday we left Utah and headed over to Boise, Idaho. Mark had two job interviews there and we wanted to sort of check out the area and see what it was like. The interviews went pretty well and he will now be entered into the list of applicants if jobs come up in the area. He interviewed with the Boise and Meridian School districts. The Boise interview was just really strange and Mark is not so sure if he would even like working for them but the interview with the Meridian school district went really well and Mark seemed to like their district policies more. We actually really liked the Boise area and wouldn't mind moving there at all. Mark was super excited because there is a Tucano's there which is his all time favorite restaurant. It is Brazilian and really good. So we went and ate a ton! I was really excited because it rained while we there!

After boise we took off for good old Rexburg. We got there Wednesday afternoon and had fun visting with Susanna and Ryan. We always enjoy visiting Rexburg. It seems that BYU Idaho is changing so much! Each time we go there something has changed on campus. While there we hoped to meet with the Idaho Falls School Districts and then go to my brother in law Ryan's graduation. We got there and it turned out that BYU-Idaho was having a job fair so Mark and Ryan went together and Mark got to interview with the Idaho Falls districts, lots of school districts in Utah and Evanston Wyoming. We were so lucky that the job fair was while we were there so Mark got to meet with lots of schools. We really hope that some good comes from it. The most interesting interview was with Evanston, WY. I have never once thought in my life that I would want to live in Wyoming but am not so against the idea now. A teachers starting salary is $41,500! That is at least $10,000 more than Idaho and Colorado. We were aware that Wyoming paid its teachers more (they pretty much have to to get people to come there) and at this point that is really appealing to us. If Mark got a job there (there is a Middle School and High School Social Studies opening) we could save a lot of money and get some good experience in a strong school district. Evanston is not at all pretty, we took a quick tour of the town on our drive back to Colorado but after checking it out we could totally live there for awhile and who knows maybe we would end up really liking it. We ended up just fine in Egypt so we are totally open to new places. It is just an hour away from bigger cities like Salt Lake and Ogden Utah, 4 hours from Yellowstone and right outside a canyon so you know I can get my fall fix there! I am not saying we are moving there but it is totally in the running and we would seriously consider it should they offer Mark a job. The 2 men interviewing showed some interest in Mark so we will see.
Going to Ryan's graduation brought back a lot of good memories. I loved loved loved my time at BYU Idaho! It will always be a special place to me. This April was the 5 year mark of my graduation and it was fun to go and see teachers and the campus. We are really excited for Sus and Ryan and hope that they get a teaching job near us!

I asked Ryan if he was excited about graduating and he said he was more excited about getting his diploma in 6 weeks when they mail them out so I made him take a picture looking sad holding the empty diploma cover they give out. He was a good sport.



April 2009! This April was the 5 year mark of when I graduated from BYU-Idaho and 4 years for Mark. This is not the same sign we took our graduation picture at but we wanted the Rexburg Temple so we opted for this sign.
As a side note I wore that same skirt when I graduated 5 years ago! I was looking at pictures before we left and decided I would wear it this past weekend. Yes, I am that silly as if you didn't already know that though.



Here we are in April 2005 when Mark graduated.



April 2005, The Spencer's and the Terry's. Mark and Susanna graduated the same day.



April 2004! April's graduation! We just love this sign! Mark proposed to me like 3 days later. It was like the best April ever! I am sure I will post that story soon like around the 26th of this month.

My least favorite day of the year

I am so glad that today is almost over. I can not stand the first of April. I don't even like the name for it and prefer to refer to it as April 01 or as above. I have never really had a bad joke played on me I just think it is a stupid day. Maybe I just have a boring sense of humor but why is it fun to try to trick people? I personally do not like being lied to or tricked and am not sure why people set aside a whole day to do that to people. I generally really like my name but today not at all.
The last 2 years were probably the worst first of Aprils I have ever had. At the school I worked at in Egypt the students called a majority of the teachers by their first names for some reason I never fully understood. So the last 2 years on this pointless day I was called Miss April Fool all day by obnoxious kids! Did they really think that was funny or even creative? I was incredibly annoyed and as I recall spent most of the day last year in my office doing mindless jobs and was so grateful for them. I remember asking my parents last year if they thought about what effect this name would have on me this day and my Dad just sort of chuckled and informed me that they just thought it was a good name. I agree for the most part but always look forward to April 02.
The "celebrations" for this day began when it was decided that countries should switch to the Gregorian calendar instead of the Julian calendar. (The late 16th century as the first time it was widely suggested) The old Julian calendar had the new year celebrated between March 25th-April 01. As we all know now, the Gregorian calendar that we use has the New Year being celebrated on January 01. Supposedly all the people who did not want to switch calendars and kept the old New Year were then made fun of and called fools. Thus this (insert sarcasm here) "wonderful" tradition began. These people were then mocked and had jokes played on them. Maybe people were just really bored then and needed something to do. (Just type where did April 01 come from on Google and you will get a number of websites)
I for one am not a fan and am so glad that today is almost over.

A blizzard and Free Internet!

The blizzard.
Yesterday Greeley was put under a Winter Storm Warning. Based on past expereinces with winter in Greeley I was not convinced. So many times snow was forecasted and nothing came. So when I went to bed last night I did not expect to see anything when I woke up. Every time there has been snow in the forecast I always get really excited and find myself looking out the window whenever I wake up through out the night, (which by the way has been way too often lately, anyone else not sleeping well this month?) Well, I woke up a lot last night and there was never any snow. Then when I got up at 6:30 it was snowing and it hasn't stopped since! There is at least 8 inches of snow on the ground. Its so pretty! I love it!
So since it had just started snowing we figured we still had school today and got ready. As I was driving to school I heard on the radio that pretty much all school districts from South of Denver up were closed except our district. But it gets better it turns out that our district was the only district with school in all of Weld County which is the biggest county in Colorado, and ours! By the time I got to school it was really coming down. So I get ready for my classes and then the dreaded happens. My name is called over the intercom. I end up having to sub in a 4th grade class. So I get to class and get the day started. Then at 10:50 its announced that school will be closing early, at 1:30. Hooray! I was so glad that I did not have to stay there all day. It seemed really silly to me that we even had school because the winter warning was in effect from last night until 6:00 am Friday. I personally think we will have school tomorrow but would love to be wrong.
Once I got home from school I decided to take some pictures of the snow and go play in it. It is so deep around our apartment! I love it! I had on my boots and snow pants and was off. I do not remember the last time I really played in snow. It was great!

The door to our apartment.



Aprillee in the very deep snow.



Making my snow angel, the snow is really deep and it was really hard to push the snow around.



It was so so so fun!



The tree out front. The branches were really sagging a lot because of the weight of the snow.



Mark loves it when the snow stays on the trees like this. He didn't come out and play because he didn't have boots. I had a lot of fun though. Having boots and snow pants makes all the difference.

The other fun news is that our free wireless Internet is back!! Since we got home from school early today I called the library to see if they were open so I could pick up some movies to watch. The library was already closed because of the blizzard so I was wondering what I was going to do with all this free time. I decided I would just call our managers to check to see if the Free Internet was really gone. So I called and she informed me that it was still available here and it was working in her apartment so it should be working in mine. This was such great news. She said to check our computer and if it wasn't working then call her back and her husband would go check. So I did and I called back because it was not available and he pushed a button and now our free Internet is back! YES!! She said that if it stops working again to please call so they can fix it. I am so happy. Its silly that we didn't call earlier this month when it first went out. Mark stopped by the office once but they were at lunch. I guess we were just lazy. Too bad for us. I love having free Internet. Its so hard to not have Internet in your house when you are so used to it. Hopefully it sticks around.