Graduation, Virginia, and a New Job!!!

There has been quite a lot that has happened since I last wrote.  In April we went back to Utah for Keith to walk in his graduation.  It was a short trip, we arrived late Wednesday and left Sunday.  It was a good trip and we were able to visit with family and friends.  Keith really enjoyed getting to see some of his classmates and professors one more time and get to share his experiences he's had at work.  After Keith's graduation I went with my parents to City Creek and it is one of the most beautiful shopping areas you'll ever see, we only walked around and it was amazing.  We also were able to go walk around Temple Square and see all of the beautiful spring flowers.  I really enjoyed seeing Gus and the baby horses.  One of the baby horses, Annie, was only a few weeks old when we visited and the night after she was born her mom died from internal bleeding that was caused from the delivery.  It was really sad, but it was so fun to feed her and play with her-- we became pretty good pals.  We also were able to see my Grandma and Grandpa Richins and they are doing well, my Grandpa R played his accordion which is always a treat.  And we were able to see my Grandpa Gary which was really fun, we played some games with him and enjoyed the visit.  It was really nice to be back at home and be able to relax and have some home-cooked food, my Mom is a pretty good cook!  Overall the trip was a success and we really enjoyed spending time with family and friends, we even got to see Linda for a little bit because she happened to be in town the same time we were.

Keith's Graduation

This is Annie

Grandpa Gary and me playing the golf game

This is Nilla (the other baby) and her mom

Nilla

Our poor bball hoop broke recently so we decided to have some fun

Our BFFs, Emily and Nathan Summers

Grandpa Richins and the accordion

About a month ago I received a job offer to work for Humana, the same company Keith works for.  I won't be working at the same building as him because I am working in the Specialty Insurance and he works with Health.  I will be an Underwriting Specialist and will be giving insurance quotes to businesses regarding dental/vision/disability insurance plans.  It will be challenging but I am excited that it is a real job and can be a career for me.  I start next week, I am a little nervous but anxious at the same time.

Since I realized that my time of not working was coming to an end I decided I needed to take advantage of this time and decided to go visit Linda and Davis and their family in VA.  I was there a Tues-Sun and had so much fun!  They moved into a new home in Carrollton, VA and it is a beautiful home.  I had never met her youngest boy, Hayden and hadn't seen Gavin since we got married.  It was really fun to spend time with them.  We were able to go strawberry picking, go to their community pool, feed ducks/fish, and go to a children's museum.  They were really cute little boys and it was fun to spend time with Linda.

Fun at the pool

Gavin and Hayden

This coming weekend we are going to the Wisconsin Dells with Mark and Janeen and their family.  I wish I have taken more advantage of living close to them while I could have because in September they are moving to Boise.  It'll be a fun weekend that we're looking forward to.

This past weekend we were lucky enough to have Elder Bednar come to our Stake Conference.  I was able to go to the Youth Session Saturday morning and he did a Q and A with the youth.  It was really cool and I learned a lot.  The youth asked a lot of good questions and I was able to learn a lot.  Some of the themes that I got from the three sessions I attended were how important it is to let the Spirit be the teacher rather then the actual speaker (he discouraged us to take notes about his talk because then we aren't able to be taught by the spirit, he encouraged us to write after about what feelings and impressions we got during the talks).  He also talked about how important it is that in our agency that we are agents rather then objects being acted upon.  He described many stories that were incredible and I really enjoyed hearing what he had to say.  The other speaker that was with him was from the seventy and I really enjoyed his talks and what he had to say.  He said that he felt like a Dixie cup and Elder Bednar's teachings were like a 500-gallon drum that was getting poured into it.

This apron is what I got for Mother's Day!

 Looking at most of these pics I realized I am wearing t-shirts in most of them, I promise I have cute clothes, I'll try and make sure I'm wearing them when I am getting my picture taken in the future :)

The Move

We made it to Wisconsin about two months ago and have been enjoying it so far. However, we do not recommend moving in the winter. We live about 10 miles south of Green Bay in a town called De Pere. Where we actually live is really unique, we have two old barns next to our apartment complex and west of us are fields and more cute, old barns and then about 5 min east of us is Walmart. I think the cute barns are my favorite thing about Wisconsin, my least favorite is its flatness. I'm going to try and update anyone that reads this about what our lives have been like so far while living here.

First, by moving to this part of the country it is required to be (or claim to be) a Packers fan, which will be easier for me because I'm not really invested in the NFL, but for Keith it'll be a bit harder since he is a Cowboys fan (shhh). Everyone talks about the Packers, there is a hotel down the road that has a sign that reads, "Welcome to Mr. Rogers neighborhood" (for those who don't know who that is referring to, it is the Packers QB). Even the ladies I play tennis with asked me if I'm a Packer fan. It's cute, but it's also the off-season, we'll see how it is when the season actually starts.

Speaking of things people have asked since arriving here, there have been a few that I want to remember.....

• Do you celebrate Easter?
• How many kids are in your family?
• Are you a Mormon? (that was directed to Keith by a guy on his bball team that he'd never spoken a word to ever before)

I guess that's what comes when you tell people you moved from Utah :)

When we moved here we ended up moving into a Branch instead of a Ward. I was afraid I wouldn't like it, but so far it has been great! We meet in a little church that's on the Oneida Indian Reservation that's about a 10-15 min drive, there are no benches in the chapel, chairs are set up and taken down each week. Keith and I were called into the Primary and teach CTR 4-7, if everyone came to class we would have 17 kids, but we usually range somewhere between 7-12 kids. It's funny because we have a tiny, tiny room we meet in and it gets pretty cramped when there are a lot of kiddos and us in there.

Keith is loving his job so far, he works as an Actuary Analyst for Humana. His work is about 5 min from our apartment which is nice for him because that means he doesn't have to wake up until 7:35 (his work is at 8). I'm still looking for a job, so we'll keep our fingers crossed I find something I like soon.

About a month ago we were able to go and visit Mark, Janeen, Molly, and Kate, they live in Rochester, MN, which is about 4.5 hours from where we live. We had a lot of fun with them! Here are a couple of pictures from that trip.

Janeen brought Molly this fan from her trip

Molly and Kate

Kate fell asleep on me so Keith decided to take her up to bed for me (soon after we realized we had forgotten to put her pull-up on her and ended up getting the leotard off and the pull-up on without her waking up...yikes)

 We had a lot of fun with those two girls, hopefully we can spend more time with them before they move!

Here is a picture I took out our porch window during a snow storm, you can kind of get a feel of what our view is like.

 Anyways, I have finally been able to finish this post after it taking me FOREVER to figure out how to change my url, email, getting pics uploaded, and a new template.  Since moving one of my goals was to be a better blogger so I can update friends and family about our activities, which also means I need to be better at taking pictures of things we are doing.  Anyways, this is a start! :)