Dear Family & Friends,
This year has been an eventful one. Here’s an attempt to get everyone up to speed
on what has been happening in our lives. A few days after Christmas last year, Keith
was offered an Actuary position at Humana for the De Pere, Wisconsin location
and started the beginning of February. He does projections for Small Business
medical insurance. We were very excited
and ended up living with my parents for the month of January. We really enjoyed spending that time with
them and having them there to help us pack (my dad is a master packer, I don’t
think anything moved). The move was
quite the experience, between Wyoming not clearing their roads and a lot of blowing
snow it made the move very stressful. We
eventually made it to Wisconsin and settled into our cute little
apartment. Our apartment has a garage,
dishwasher, and a washer and dryer. We
are in heaven compared to our former apartments. Keith started work and has loved his job, he
loves his boss and the people he works with.
We live in De Pere, Wisconsin which is a suburb south of Green Bay—ever
heard of it? I expected the Packers to
be big, but I did not anticipate this large of an obsession. Really, the obsessions here are the Packers
and alcohol—very different from Utah.
We attend a LDS branch that is located on the Oneida Reservation. Our branch is pretty small and our building
is tiny. Keith and I were called to be
Primary teachers for the 4-8 year olds, but somehow our Primary is large for a
Branch, and about 75% of the kids are in our class. We have a lot of fun and our kids are very
cute (our class is full of girls with two boys). Being in a branch and not having many people
to fill callings got us both second calling, Keith as Branch Clerk and I as
Stake Young Women Secretary. In June we
had Elder Bednar visit for Stake Conference and it was a wonderful experience.
I was able to find some ladies to play doubles with during the winter
months at a local tennis club. It was a
lot of fun but it hasn’t been set up this year so I am in danger of not playing
until it warms up again. This past
summer I taught some girls from the Branch tennis and it was so much fun. Keith has a basketball league he plays in
during the winter with his co-workers, they aren’t very good but he still has
fun.
Even though Keith graduated in December we decided to make a trip back
to Utah in April for him to walk. It was
a short trip but a lot of fun. Keith’s
graduation was really nice and he got to meet up with college friends and
former professors. We were excited to
see family, Gus (the dog), and play with the new baby horses.
Before my new job started I wanted to take advantage of my free time so
I went and visited Linda’s cute family in Virginia, which was a lot of fun and
her boys were adorable. Keith and I also
went and spent a couple of weekends with Mark’s family in the Wisconsin Dells
(if you don’t know what it is, look it up), it is the Las Vegas of water parks.
I started my job in June as an Underwriting Specialist in Humana’s
Specialty benefits; I help quote dental and vision insurance for
companies. I love my job and my
department is so much fun! I was able to
be released from training in 5 months which is faster than normal and I’m able
to work from home two days a week.
In August we had the Richins’ Reunion and went on a week-long trip to
Disney World. We were able to go to
several different parks and spend a lot of time with family. I think our favorite was Animal Kingdom;
Keith was our expert on getting fast passes and knowing which places had the
shortest lines.
We joined a BYU alumni chapter and are the Young alumni Representatives;
we are working on planning some activities for that this upcoming year. It has been a great way to meet more people
and make friends.
In October Keith’s best friend from high school (Levi) and his youngest
brother (Adam) came and visited, we had a lot of fun showing them around. Then for Thanksgiving Keith’s mom and Adam
came and visited and we put on our first Thanksgiving dinner. It was stressful but we did it and it was
pretty yummy!
We do have an online blog for people to follow so they can stay updated on
our lives if they like. I am not very
good at updating it; one of my New Year’s goals is to update it at least once a
month. It is www.ckstoddardfam.blogspot.com.
We hope you have had a wonderful and safe year! We love you and hope you have a merry
Christmas and a happy New Year!
Love,
Crystal & Keith
Here are some pictures from the past year, in no particular order.
Levi and Adam's visit |
Wisc Dells trip |
Packer Preseason Game |
Keith's Graduation |
Visiting Virginia |
Kate feeding Keith on a Dells trip |
New Car |
Disney World Trip |
Another Dells Trip |
At the GB Botanical Gardens |
1 comment:
Crystal! I just saw this link to your blog from Facebook! YAY! I've been wondering what you've been up to. I need to call you! We need to catch up! It sounds like you are doing so well! I miss you!
-Lisa Holmgren
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