Merry Christmas!

I know this is a few days late, but I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope you had as wonderful a day as we had. My cute sister-in-law left me a message suggesting that a do a new post now that I've decided to go private, so this is for you Jesse. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my Mom and Dad's 31st wedding anniversary. I just wanted to wish them a Happy Anniversary and I hope they have many, many more wonderful years together. Thanks Mom and Dad for all you have done for me. I appreciate your examples. You mean so much to me and I miss you so much. I love you so much and hope you enjoy spending time together today. Dad, I hope you get feeling better soon. Love you!

A Christmas Carol

Friday evening, Dec. 5th, Jon and I went on our Christmas date. We decided that instead of giving each other a bunch of presents this year, we would go on a fun date. A sister in our stake told me how much fun it is to see the play A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, so we decided we'd do that for our date. We headed up to the cities around 3:30, so we could go out to dinner before the show. We stopped at PF Changs for dinner and we had an excellent meal. Don't you just love their lettuce wraps? Anyway, I went to use the restroom after dinner and when I came back, Jon informed me that he didn't have his wallet. He went out to the car to see if it had fallen out of his pocket, but unfortunately, it wasn't there. The only thing we could think, is that he was so busy getting other things, most importantly our tickets, that he forgot to grab his wallet. I didn't have my purse with me, because I had asked him before we left if I needed to take it with me and he said "No". Here we were sitting in PF Changs having enjoyed a wonderful meal and no way to pay for it. I've seen this happen in the movies, but I wasn't sure what would happen in real life. I finally decided to call my dad and ask him if he wanted to pay for our dinner. Luckily the manager was okay with that and thanks to my dad, we didn't have to spend our evening doing dishes. Thanks Dad! I had to chuckle, I thought it was quite hilarious. Jon didn't find it as funny, until we got home and he saw his wallet safe where he had left it. Anyway, we went to the play and again realized we didn't have any money to pay for parking. We figured we could park on the street, but of course they only have metered parking and they meter until 10pm. We didn't have any change or any other options, so we parked at a meter and took our chances. Lucky for us, it snowed all evening and no one was out metering, so we didn't get a ticket. Someone was looking out for us that night. On the way home, we laughed about our fun adventure, saying it will be a date we will always remember and always be able to laugh about. We need those kind of moments in our lives to remind us to laugh. We had a very enjoyable evening together. Thanks for the fun date, babe!

Merry Christmas

Usually I am very good about making sure we get our picture taken for our Christmas cards each year, but this year has been a little crazy. Between school, work, trips and illness, we just didn't get around to getting our pictures taken. I planned to have someone take pictures of us in the fall when the leaves were all different colors, but the few times I thought we could do it, it was too windy. We just had our first snow fall that has stayed and I am sick with a cold, so the last thing I want to do is go outside in the 16 degree weather and have someone take pictures of us for a Christmas card. Anyway, my family had pictures taken this summer and I didn't like any of the pictures of just Jon and I, so I decided to post a picture of my whole family. I hope you will all forgive me for not sending out Christmas cards this year, but know that we are thinking of each of you this holiday season.

We have had a pretty good year. Jon finished one full year of teaching here at Minnesota State University and is almost done with the fall semester of his second year. He is really enjoying teaching, though it can be frustrating at times. I decided I didn't have enough excitement in my life, so I thought it would be fun to take some classes. I loved school during the first few weeks of class, and then the assignments started. It has been a decent semester, not quite what I was hoping for, but it never is when you still have to take Gen. Ed. classes. I would like to try and get my bachelors degree in Psychology. No, I'm not planning on a career change, I've always enjoyed Psych classes and thought this would be a great time to take advantage of taking classes with free tuition. Jon and I have really enjoyed our first year in Mankato. It is a beautiful place to live, but way too cold for me in the winter. I told Jon, after last winter, when we move again, because we aren't planning to stay here forever, we are moving somewhere warmer. He told me the only place colder than here would be Alaska. I told him if he ever gets a job in Alaska I'm moving to Utah, to be close to family, without him. I hate the cold and here in Mankato it gets really windy, and it blows right through you. I just hate it! Even though I don't like the winters here, there are many positive aspects to living in Mankato. We have made many wonderful friends and we have a great ward. I am primary worker and Jon is the 1st or 2nd counselor in the Elder's Quorum presidency. We really enjoyed our first spring and summer here. The weather was beautiful and almost made up for the cold winter. We are happy and enjoying our time together. We are anxious to start our family, but we are taking advantage of the time we have together. We are hopeful that 2009 will be a promising year for us. We haven't made any decisions about what we are going to do next, but we know we will be guided by the Lord. We appreciate all of your prayers on our behalf, they mean so much to us. We know most of you are as hopeful for us as we are for ourselves. We love and appreciate all of you and all that you do for us. We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love, Jon and Tara