Update Extravaganza

Or, How We Graduated, Moved Across the Country, and Became Real People 

So I've been a Slacker Blogger lately, but that doesn't mean our lives are boring. Actually, we've been doing some particularly interesting things in the last few weeks.

Greg earned his undergrad degree in Finance from BYU. Which means we are both Educated People now. Weird.

Ain't he handsome though? 

I tried to think of a clever way to segue into these other graduation pictures but I couldn't do it, so here is a dump: 

I call this one "Some Guy's Head" 

Family was in town: 

Graduation Selfie. Look how cool I am that I just used that word.

Graduation feels good. For all 3 and 1/2 years of our marriage we've been in school. Come to think of it, I'm still in school, but not "real" school, ya know? Anyway, over these years we've had long nights studying and tests and projects and papers and two internships where we've moved cross country and lots of part time jobs and some full time jobs and some budgeting and lots of praying and a couple of miracles and some experiences that have made me hurt so much I thought I would just break. As difficult as these years have been, they have also been good years. I will look back at them and remember how in Provo I met the best man I know and one night I kissed him as I sat on a red bench in the snow and things from there got harder and harder but better and better. After three and a half years of being married and in school, we have aged so much but we are still just trying to do our best. I am so proud of my husband and I am so glad we have had these years together. They have been the hardest years of my life, but I don't think I would change them, and I mean that.

I only cried a little bit at graduation. Just a little. 

Things don't end after graduation. As the student speaker patiently reminded us in her rather trite remarks, commencement means "beginning." So a few days after Greg's graduation, the moving company arrived. 

I didn't touch one thing during moving day. Not a dang thing (I walked to the Provo Library and worked on my last master's class paper). One perk of working for Johnson and Johnson is that they paid for some dudes to pack us up and ship us out. We flew to Florida the next morning. 

Here is us after our cleaning check, locked out of our apartment: 

Goodbye, apartment. We love you, but we won't miss you. 

So the last little while Greg and I have been hanging out in our empty apartment in Jacksonville waiting for our stuff to arrive DOING NOTHING. Greg's job starts soon but in the meantime we have been doing a whole lot of laying around. The lack of important things to do was blissful for a while, but in all honesty, I've been starting to get a tad bit bored. Mostly we watch HGTV and go to Dick's and Costco. 

Seriously. We went to Costco twice yesterday. 

After our stuff gets here (tomorrow!) we should have a little more freedom to do some funner things. We'll see what kind of mischief we can get into. 

As of right now, this is the view outside my apartment: 

I will never get used to how green it is here. So lovely. I was meant to live in a green tangle right on the ocean, I think. 

The hardest thing about leaving Provo: I have two children buried there. I hope people continue to visit them. I have seen these little boys do miracles. If you live close to Utah Valley and you need to feel some peace, stop by. I have felt so calm about everything since we left. It's a blessing. Life is short and eternity is real. I'm a mom no matter where I go. 

The best thing about leaving Provo: New adventures.