Fall!

It has been a great fall so far. I enjoyed the warm weather... but now I guess it is officially Winter. I guess our first update should be on my dear sweet friend Katie. I had the opportunity to go spend a week with Katie at the beginning of October. It was an incredible experience. I am amazed by her faith and courage. She is going through what I would consider one of the world's hardest trials and she is showing me what it means to endure. Physically she is getting better each day. She had a surgery a couple of weeks ago which made it so she doesn't have to wear her neck brace anymore. She walks faster each day and gains a little more strength. Emotionally she is grieving in many ways. Tracy, Ryan's mom just spend a week with Kate and I think that was really good for both of them. They are the two women closest to Ryan and they need each other to heal. I love to hear Katie talk about Ryan. She loves him so much. I love to see her eyes light up when she talks about her sweet husband. She mourns the loss of her husband, but she is happy too. I learned we can be and need to be happy amidst hardship and trial. I also learned from Katie that everything happens for a reason. the lord has a plan and we not understand now, but we may see the purposes later. Katie continually talked about the choices her and Ryan made that are now impacting her now and she has the faith to know that this happened for a reason too. She is now looking into graduate programs and exploring different career options. I love her so much. She is my example. She is my best friend. She is my sister. I am so grateful I was able to spend that time with her and cute little Cora. We were able to laugh and share thoughts and stories and a tear or two. I do ask that if you read this... please continue to pray for her. She has such a long road ahead of her.

Besides a week in Oregon, we have had quite a few other activities going on. Allen started his senior year of his undergrad at BYU. He is currently applying for graduate schools. It is frightening. 3 years ago right before I met Allen I was so ready to leave BYU. But then I met Allen and learned I was going to be here for a few more years and I now love Utah and Provo more than ever. This is where we began our family. This has become home. I have even learned to tolerate cinder blocks. When Allen and I got married, he had 10 more years of school left. Once he graduates in April we will only have 7 more. It is a big milestone. The schools we are applying for are Virginia Tech, University of Kentucky, Oklahoma State, University of Connecticut, and Auburn University. All very far away. My vote: Kentucky or Auburn because they are bordering states to my sister Julee. Allen's vote: Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State because they have great Ultimate Teams. :)

This is me after some days of teaching. During the summer I forget how draining teaching really is. I am really looking forward to Christmas Break and Thanksgiving Break. My old roommate Kaylene came into town from Texas so we had a fabulous breakfast at Kneaders. On the left is my roommate Jen and the middle is Kaylene.

In October I ran my 5th marathon... It was the hardest and slowest marathon. I cramped up around mile 10 and it never went away. I wanted to give up.... but this guy... Allen... ran with me the last 5 miles. Oh he helped me keep going. At one point I wanted to give up and these people looked at me and said, "You can do it... You can keep going." I felt so grateful for people to encourage me to finish. Running a marathon is such a spiritual experience. In our life we have people who encourage us to keep going and it is possible to endure. I am grateful for my husband and my family and my friends who help me "finish."

After the race I told Allen I don't need to run a marathon again. About 24 hours later, I was ready to run again. I foresee another marathon or two or three in my future... but I will never run one during the school year. I trail really well during the summer, but once I start teaching, my training goes down hill. Here is my support during the race.

This is my friend and co worker Camille Kingman... The coolest choir teacher. She kicked some trash in the marathon. She has now achieved my goal of a negative split (which is running the second half of the marathon faster than the first half.)

Allen has had quite a few Ultimate tournaments this fall. He had one at USU where they won every game. Too bad the actual tournament was on Sunday so they didn't get to take the trophy home. He also had a tourney in Grand Junction. Those two tournaments were with his BYU club team. He has also been playing intramurals and he has been playing in an Orem City League. He even made it onto BYU TV. Go to this link to see the Ultimate Super Star:

http://universe.byu.edu/node/4313 Below are some action shots from his tournament in Logan.

Fall wouldn't be fall without a little BYU football. I don't know what we are going to do next year when we can't go to the BYU football games. Allen was pretty excited that ESPN college game day took place at BYU. If you looked closely, you could see Allen's hat.

We took our annual fall walk in the Provo Canyon. In the last couple of years, I have really fallen in love with Utah. I think when I was in college I either took it for granted or I was too busy at the library to think about how truly beautiful Utah is and how much it has to offer. I really am going to miss this place.

We had a fun Halloween. We carved our second pumpkin... this is Billy... Marty's Cousin. Click here to see Marty. Allen and Billy look remarkably alike.

I made my first batch of sugar cookies ever thanks to my amazing sister Laurel and her fabulous recipe. They turned out pretty cute I think. But they are a lot of work.

And these lovely ladies are how I survive my days teaching Junior High. From the Left... Mrs. Petersen, Miss Belnap, Mrs. Sabey, and Miss Kingman and yes we all look like students. I couldn't survive without friends at OJHS. I need these women and they are incredible educators.

Allen and I dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big bad Wolf. I thought our costumes were fabulous. We were going to dress up as Ryan and Sharpe Evans from High school Musical, but I think this was a little more creative and funny.

Allen's Frisbee team had a game on Halloween so they dressed up as super heroes.

Lastly... last night we went camping... in our living room. We made tin foil dinners and roasted marshmallows and watched "star trek" under the "stars. It was a fabulous evening.