"Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier."

So Mark's interview went pretty well. He's got almost everything else done for his application except for a reference letter and the physical test, which he does on Monday. Unfortunately he's gotten some sniffles this week so hopefully he'll be fine on Monday! We have a good feeling about everything though and will be anxiously waiting an answer when he's done with all the application stuff, which will be a while...so annoying!

Other than waiting for that, we're doing pretty good. We're both reaping the consequences of procrastinating though but that's our own faults :) Teachers just seem to like having everything due at the same time and it's so awful! Especially for a huge procrastinator like me; I've never gotten over that one little fault of mine :) But it'll work out...I work better under pressure on papers anyway... It has been GORGEOUS this week though. It's pretty awesome here. The weather has been in the upper sixties, so it's been nice and warm and the trees are all changing and the leaves are falling off and it's so awesome! I just wish it could last all winter! OH and I got a letter from my old roomie Emma, who is on a mission in Chile so that was SO exciting to get. She's doing fabulous and I can't wait for her to come home in February! My other roomie, Maria, just left Tuesday from the MTC to go to Ukraine so hopefully she's doing good her first week there! I also got pics of the Rivas babies that same day so that was exciting and happy too...they are SO flipping CUTE! I can't get over it...

Some other good news for you...I talked to my grandma on Sunday who had just went to visit my "stepmom" Terrie for two weeks. She just went to help her out and help her though one of her chemo treatments. She updated me on her status and everything is going pretty well. She told me the facts about what's going on cuz I was still a little hazy. Terrie's been officially diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (I think I got that right) and has been going in for chemo treatments. In all she has to do 8 and she's just finished up her 4th. After her third they said that her tumor had gone done over 50% which is awesome. (It originally was 9inches long and hit her kidneys, lungs, and heart, now it's 4 inches or so).

So hopefully by the last round it'll all be gone! Grandma R. said that Terrie has a very positive attitude though which is so good! The only problem she was having was, of course, dealing the chemo, which makes her pretty sick, and she had trouble "visualizing" the chemo getting rid of the tumor, which the doctors told her she should do. Grandma R. gave her a nice visual to help- using Pac Man, so think Pac-Man Terrie! :) tehehe....

Her son Terrell is there keeping good care of her so we're pretty glad about that. Such a good kid watching his mom! He just graduated from a culinary school in San Francisco so apparently he's an awesome chef and treats his mama like a queen. Which is perfectly awesome I think! Moms are the best things ever. Anyway, I haven't met her kids yet (Terrie has two boys and a girl) but they all sound awesome! Just like their mom. She is seriously one of the sweetest, nicest people I've ever known and all I here is good things about her! Keep up the good work though Terrie...we're all praying for you! :) :) :)

Well, I'm about to close up shop here at work (don't you just love how I spend my time here? :) tehehehe, so productive!). So that's all for today...sorry no apartment pictures yet! I'm a slacker....but it runs in the family apparently...(Annie, Mellisa, Monie...I could go on.... :).

Oh! One more thing....(just cuz I have pictures :) One of my friends got married last week, which was exciting and I am very happy for them. So I went to the temple and watched them come out and took a few pics while I was there and at the reception which Mark and I went to. So here's some pics of that for you!