Soon-to-be-Washingtonians

So we just officially received the great news! Clay got offered a job with the same company he did his internship with! We will be moving to the Tacoma, Washington area where Clay will be a Field Engineer for Mortenson Construction Company in the Federal Contracting Group. He'll be back with the same project he was working on at the Fort Lewis Military base. I can't say enough how blessed we are to have this job, especially in our economic times. Luckily, it's with the Federal group, so they are always going to have jobs, working for the government (military bases, etc.). We will be leaving Rexburg for good, other than visiting his family, at the end of July; Clay has to start his first day August 3rd! This is all just so crazy to at least me, starting a whole new life again almost. I'll be staying home for a while because we only have one car now, but I'd love to try to get my fitness instructor certification or at least substitute teach which they pay $120 a day-that's twice than Idaho! ha ha Anyway, I'm so excited for this new journey and I know that there was a reason that we were apart for those 3 months while we were both doing our internships in different states. It's all just been a blessing and a miracle from the beginning of even getting the internship with this company. It's an excellent company and will treat us well! I will miss all my friends here, but excited for the move. Good thing for blogs ;)

May: A Month of Mayhem

Holy moly! Ok, so I'm going to get better with catching up. So much has happened since we've been back in Rexburg. April 22nd my Grandpa Bing passed away with all his children by his side. It's been I believe 7 or so years that he's been chuggin' along without Grandma and he was just ready. I bawled when I heard the news, but I was ok a few days later. Am I ever grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that families are eternal. I know that he'll be watching over me and all of us. The funeral was just amazing. I played a violin duet with Dad and Janelle accompanied us. We played "Be Still, My Soul" and I just about lost it. The memories were just great. I really felt like him and grandma were sitting in the front row next to the casket in the chapel and just felt a calming, peaceful feeling. This picture is of the contraption that he made of the M&M dispenser that I will make a patent for.

Mother's day was great, Clay got me the perfect card, flowers, and the perfect husband :) ha ha We got to talk to Quinn that's in England and can I just say I LOVE his Englist accent!!! He's past the hump mark so Christmas will be the last time we get to talk to him before we see him in April of 2010!
Now to start the hectic last 3 weeks! My littlest brother, Jared, had his graduation so we took a real quick trip to Burley and cheered for him! I didn't realize what a smarty pants he was! He got to wear a gold cord which I sure never got to. He also sat on the stand because he was the class Secretary. It was great seeing a lot of people from high school even though I didn't talk to many. I think I'm content with just seeing people but I need to get out there and catch up with them, so 'tis a problem for me! ha ha Memorial weekend went like this: I had that Friday off from work but Clay still had school so I cleaned the house and we headed for Burley that evening. We got there just in time to go to dinner and a movie (Night at the Museum 2 which was awesome!) with Janelle and Tom!!! I LOVE spending time with my seester :) I don't get to see them much and I absolutely adore their baby Shay so I played with her as well! Saturday morning, Jake was going to the Temple to get his endowments. BY the WAY, quick update: he got his mission call!!! He's going to the New York, New York South Spanish speaking mission! So they had to all leave early in the morning for him to go through everything else. Anyway, Janelle and Tom were going to be leaving from Twin from there so we had to pack all their stuff. Time was cutting close to making it to the session. Clay and I rushed in only for them to say that everyone just went into the room and we wouldn't be able to make the session. :( BUMMER. So we decided to just do some other ordinance work and meet up with him after the session. Just seeing another brother go through the temple was one of the sweetest things. It was so great to be able to talk about the temple to him while in there! What a perfect setting! Here's pictures of us outside the Twin Falls Temple!


Afterwards, we went to the best pizza place, Gertie's! For those of you who have never heard of it, it's better than Craigo's :) Let's just say I beat everyone in eating the most pizzas! HA (even Clay!!) We went shopping for a little bit and then headed home. Clay and I left for Idaho Falls and met up with Nicole and Nathan and played Frisbee Golf! Much fun!!! Sunday we headed up to the hills where everyone was camping and had dinner with them under the tarp with the pouring rain! Monday morning, we got up early to head off to the Palisades to go fishing with our friends Curtis and Justina and Clay's brother Justin. Let's just say there was too much water in the creeks/rivers and too fast that we didn't catch anything. Curtis usually catches a lot and he's a big fisher hence the reason why we chose that place. So we left and went clear across Rexburg to Burch Creek on the way to Salmon and Nathan and Nicole met us there. We got rained out for a little bit, had hot dogs, and caught a total of 3 fish I believe. Not a successful day. We went back home and had a pizza party and watched the Lakers game. I hate the Lakers. They better lose the Finals. :) Just had to put that in here. SO, that was our Memorial Day weekend! Here's a sweet picture Clay took of the Palisades.

Burch Creek where it was beginning to rain so as you can see I'm in the car :) ha ha

Bug-eyed Clay with Curtis' fishing reel case

The next weekend we went down to Utah for Tyler's birthday (Clay's brother). He got us tickets to the Bees game which was AWESOME!!! Here's some pictures of the stadium and Tyler's friends. They also had a firework show afterwards and I would have to say that their finale was probably better than Idaho Falls. They had these fireworks that went off like little flowers and then bloomed and covered the whole sky! It was definitely spectacular!



The next day we went Clay pigeon shooting. We went clear past Saratoga Springs but had a blast. Clay won the men's division and Mamasita won the women's division. Caeli came in second and me in dead last. :( ha ha But I did pretty good hitting maybe 40% which might be pushing it. HA We went back to Tyler's and had a huge dinner for him with his roommates and friends with dutch oven and everything else!

We left Salt Lake, saw a bad accident, and made it back to Poky where we left our car and then drove back to Burley. Jake's farewell talk was Sunday and boy, was I ever impressed and so proud of him!

Mom and Dad dropped him off this morning at the MTC and because of the stupid swine flu, they literally dropped him off at the curb and said good-bye for 2 years. (There were 3 missionaries who had the flu in the MTC and around 11 were being quarrantined so no one was allowed in). I hope he was fine with that but I already sent him a letter so hopefully that will help him out a bit. Wow, so I think I am all caught up. I will try my best to not fall back on anything. Not much else should be going on this summer until July-ish so stay tuned!

Back in I-Dee-Ho

Other than my last post, it's been quite some time since I've recorded anything and boy, have a lot of things happened! Where to start now... First off, student teaching finally ended! It was a great experience, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I were with Clay, not that I didn't enjoy it. Luckily, I had friends and family around so I spent time with them. So now I am no longer a student!!!!!!! It is weird being graduated from college but it feels great! Clay and I will walk together in July so pictures coming then. I also took a last minute road trip with my bro-in-law to Vegas for General Conference weekend. That was oh so great basking in the hot sun, even though I'm never pleased with the weather...I'm either too cold or too hot which was the case but I didn't care...it was better than Idaho.

I quickly caught on to this contraption, whatever it's called, I forgot but some type of long board. It was pretty fun! But it was nice just relaxing in Vegas :)
Well, the time FINALLY came to be reunited with my long lost love, Clay :) I packed basically everything at my place in Utah which was a pain in the butt. I drove to Burley, left my car there for my brother Jared to have now for college, celebrated my other brother's birthday, Jake, then my dad drove me to Boise to fly out on Thursday. The anticipation was killing me waiting in the airport and the flight itself. Luckily, it was shorter obviously than flying from Salt Lake. Once I finally flew into Seattle, Clay was just about there so I waited outside for him. Well, I was on the upper level and he was on the lower waiting for me so the suspense was even worse because he had to drive out of the airport and back in again, grrr. Ha ha Anyway, we finally met up and it was so weird! I hadn't seen him for 2 months but it felt like an eternity and was weird getting into the car-feeling like I didn't even know or recognize him! Ha Oh it was an absolutely wonderful reunion! We each had a night of planning and mine was the next night. But we went out to this awesome Brewery that afternoon overlooking part of Puget Sound.

This was by the Brewery/Restaurant but I wish I would have taken a picture from the place so you could see it all! The next day was Clay's last day at work. I drove him to work, went to Wal-Mart to change the oil, did some shopping for my night that I had planned, and did it all with the great invention of the GPS! I would have absolutely gotten lost had it not been for that. Clay got it for his birthday before he moved to Washington so it saved his life too :) I later went to pick Clay back up, met all the people he worked with, and drove back and just relaxed. I won't go into details of what my night plans consisted of, but here's a picture of the candles on the counter after we blew them out....I think it's cool because you can see the smoke from it.

Well I had made a little picnic on the living room floor with shrimp and cocktail sauce, kiwi, cucumbers, sparkling cider-a MUST, little cinnamon swirl breads, and whatever else. Later that night we went to get some pizza at this bar which was FABULOUS! Clay has gotten me into eating Jalapenos and hotter stuff and so we got cheese and Jalapenos on the pizza and was it ever good! We went for a walk around the glass museum and by the boat docks.

Clay had taken this picture a while back ago when he was by the Glass Museum but they have this bridge that have these structures above and all around you, it's amazing!

Well enough of that...Saturday morning we packed and left Washington. We stopped in Othello to visit Clay's Aunt which was fun! I was getting way motion sick so I drove the rest of the way until Boise. We stayed there that night but we had a short little family reunion. Half of the kids now live there so my parents came up and the rest and we had a picnic in the park, took a family picture and had a nice time chatting. My older brother Jeremy had gotten back from Iraq a little back ago but I hadn't seem him since he got back and I didn't see him leave so it has been years since I've seen him so it was great for that, although his wife couldn't be there. They had just gotten back from vacation in Mexico...luckily they didn't bring the Swine Flu back with them, although my sis-in-law's sister has been really sick and has had to be quarantined (sp?). So anyway, we stopped in Burley for Easter, then finally to Utah, packed up, and drove home the next day.

This doesn't look too bad but it was a pain to pack everything as I'm sure many of you know. It was pouring rain too so that didn't make it any better. Well, back to Idaho. Good bye U-tard territory! I have come to accept the fact that there really are U-tard drivers. They simply are retarded, at least the majority. And just to let you know, I was and am not a U-tard driver.

Grandpa Bing

Delmer "Bing" Byington passed away on April 22, 2009 in Pocatello, Idaho. He was struggling with many complications basically due to Parkinson's Disease.
As far as I can remember, I have the most fondest memories of my grandpa from St. George to Downey, to Pocatello. He and his wife, Georgia Belle, served a mission on St. George Temple grounds and our families would go there every Thanksgiving. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about him and remembering all my great times with him. I can remember him always walking on the Dixie college track in the early mornings and I went with him once. He had the coolest invention or whatever with dispensing peanut M&M's ever since I can remember and he'd always make us get some whenever we'd come visit. I can remember him sitting in the stands at my basketball games. One summer there were too many Jessica's and my coach out of no where said he was going to call me Bing. He knew grandpa somewhat and I decided that was a good nickname for me. My teammates know me by that and I have never forgotten it. I always tried to play my hardest, especially for him when he was there...I wanted to do my nickname justice for him :) Just simple little memories are the best that I have of him and the list would go on forever. I will never forget one time at the home in Downey, for some reason that I don't quite remember, all I remember is that he had a Josh Groban CD and he mentioned this song, "To Where You Are" and said something about it for grandma. Ever since then, I have never forgotten this song and think of grandma and think of grandpa listening to it thinking of his dear sweetheart that he would someday be able to join by her side again. The day has come. I know without a shadow of a doubt that he and grandma are finally together again and are now watching over all of us. This song depicts this perfectly. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMxgOcuMVjo
I know that grandma was watching over grandpa and he could feel her presence and knew that she was there by his side helping him get through everything, despite him not wanting to be here much longer and be reunited with her. He did great in his life. I wish I were closer to him than I was, but that's the lesson we seem to learn when it's too late. So, never take for granted the times when you are with your loved ones. Take every advantage of visiting them, don't make up any excuses, especially if you are in the area but "don't have time". I know that grandpa and grandma are now watching over me and I can't wait to see them once again. This gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect! I love the Temple and being able to give the opportunity of those who have already passed on the chance to accept the gospel in the spirit world. I cannot imagine my life without this gospel and the knowledge and testimony that I have. It is my life and I am eternally grateful of being able to be sealed with a wonderful husband who loves the Lord and that we can be together forever. FAMILIES ARE FOREVER!!!

Gotta Love 'Em

This week was quite busy for me with family coming to visit and all. My brother came Tuesday night and we went out for an early birthday dinner. He came down because his little girl had to go to the hospital to get checked to see if she had to have surgery because of kidney problems. Wednesday, my birthday, Clay sent a huge bouquet of flowers to school! My cooperating teacher brought it in to class before class and so all my student sang happy birthday to me! The flowers were absolutely gorgeous!!! There was an assortment of pink and purple roses, carnations, tulips, and orchids! I think my favorite flower is now an orchid! :) So I went to the hospital to meet up with my niece and brother for a minute. Turns out she was fine and didn't have to have surgery! Good! So my brother and I just walked around the Gateway for a while then I headed home. I had a couple of visitors who came and brought me presents :) This lady in the Relief Society presidency came and brought me something out of no where. I was completely surprised and feel so grateful for people like that that I hardly know, but yet we have the bond of sisterhood! Another friend of mine, Kelsie, was so great to cook a cake for me and some other fun stuff! I wasn't feeling well later on in the night so I stayed home and watched the Jazz game and unfortunately they lost and ended their winning streak. Anyway, good birthday! Thursday, my brother Jared and Dad came and stayed with me. We went out to the Mayan for dinner. They left for Provo Friday and went to the Draper Temple Open House and then went on the BYU campus because Jared is going there this summer semester. I hitched a ride with my friend Jacobie and met up with them. We shopped the rest of the afternoon and headed to the Hotel. Saturday we looked for housing for Jared and did some more shopping! It was so great to just be able to hang with them! Too bad the Jazz lost again to the Heat in 3 OT's :( Boo. Anyway, I had a great week though! I feel bad because Clay doesn't have family or anyone in Tacoma to really go see but I get to fly back up there in less than a month! I can't wait to finish student teaching, although it's been a positive experience, I'm ready for it to be done. Those of you in Rexburg . . . see you in a month!

YEAH for Melissa!!!

WHAT A COMEBACK!!! So I just changed the channel to watch Dancing With the Stars and had no idea Melissa was taking Nancy O'Dell's spot! What's so cool is that they didn't even start training until just this last Saturday and the score they got was a 23 out of 30 - better than half them there! Anyway, I'm super excited that Melissa has pulled through the whole heart break-up from The Bachelor, Jason, and is going to have great cardiovascular workouts, creating lots of endorphins, making her twice as happy as she was with Jason :) There's my health input for ya! I was just excited for this so I thought I'd post it. Tell me what you all think about it!

Survivor!

To most of you, this might just be a lame post. Ha ha but this is my life currently! I had to do Parent-Teacher Conferences these last two days at the High School. I was freaking out afraid of saying the wrong thing, having furious parents, and all of everything else that could go wrong. Well for the first day of conferences, my cooperating teacher was going to be about an hour late so I had to start it all on my own - AHHH! I suppose to make this a short post, it really wasn't all that bad as I had thought it to be! I'm surprised that I have learned all my students' names and called them by it when they came to my table - which did impress some of their parents :) yay! There were no mad parents, just concerned that their student was failing Health class - of ALL classes! I don't want to see anyone fail in there so I'm basically pretty easy going. Anyway, it actually was very nice talking to the parents and seeing how the students interact with their parents. Some of them were quiet like in class, others it brought out their personality more, and some were just disrespectful to their parents which shows me they are the same at home as they are in class. SO . . . overall, I would have to say that I enjoyed Parent-Teacher Conference! I only have 3 more weeks of teaching and then 1 more week to go back to observing! I'm almost there! I'm super excited to be back with Clay and can't wait for that time!!! Sorry if I bored you with that post, but just lettin' ya know the updates :) Chow!