Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are.

--Elder Jeffrey R. Holland--

I thought this quote fitting since 1) this weekend was the 180th semi-annual General Conference for my church 2)this weekend was also Easter and this quote happens to be Elder Holland's Easter message at General Conference from April 2009. Elder Holland is probably my most favorite speaker out of all the Apostles. He has such a powerful spirit when he speaks and his talks are just truly amazing! One of his most powerful messages ever was given last November where he bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon (http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=77ee56627ab94210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD). I know it was a lot of other people's favorite talks of his but I can't help but say it was mine as well. It's amazing to read but even more amazing to hear the actual audio clip from Conference.

Anywho, Conference this weekend was also amazing but I have to admit I was a bit more lax on actually listening this time cuz keeping track of an extremely wiggly, active child kinda ruins your focus/listening capabilities. :) Luckily she slept a good half of each session yesterday so I got to listen to a good bit of it.

Here's some pics of us "watching" conference....by the end sometimes it's just too hard not to fall asleep :)







Our Easter weekend actually kicked off on Friday though when my sister Annie and her kids and our friend Stephanie and her kids came over and dyed Easter eggs. It was fun to watch and help them and I even got to do some myself :)







Saturday we watched some of the morning session of Conference and then went up to our friends the McMains for a little Easter lunch and egg hunt for the kids. My best friend Sarah was home for the weekend and since I haven't seen her since Christmas I just had to go :) My friend Robin (she's married to Sarah's bro) was also there and I haven't seen her since even before Christmas so it was good to see her too and her adorable little girl, who was born on my birthday! :) Robin says I cursed her to have her baby on my b-day and had her at 11:45-ish pm after a very quick delivery.....oops! Sorry!

Anywho....Sunday went like this, Conference, lunch, Easter egg hunt, more Conference, more food, and then complete defeat of doing anything else cuz I was so full :) As always, the food was great. We skipped the usual ham and had BBQ'd half chickens that had been marinating for 24 hours in something delicious Annie did. It was deeeeeeeeeeelicous! Then there were cheesy potatoes, always a hit, rolls, my fav, and salads and jello and yummy peanut butter brownies and a yuuuummmmmy punch bowl cake my mom made. I tell ya, I'm sure gonna miss these Sunday Dinners when we leave!!!! I'll be back to phone duty on Sunday which definitely isn't the same!







The Easter egg hunt was pretty fun. The kids were bugging us through lunch to hurry up so they could go do it. We had 9 kids, with four big kid helpers, and 240 eggs, I counted them myself :) We got a bunch and then Mellisa brought some and then Annie brought some and then Emily brought some and we ended up with 240! That's a loooot of candy! So, anywho...the kids had fun and it was fun watching them and especially great to sit out on the porch and enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather we had. It's been so nice and warm and green, but also very very windy but I can handle that as long as it's warm. :)










That night was especially awesome cuz we had an AMAZING thunder/lightening storm pass through. It was one of the best I've seen in a LONG time and I loved it! Mark was laughing at me but I don't care. It was so cool. I even played around with my camera trying to get some shots and did somewhat decent for such a little thing. I'd love an awesome camera to take pics of lightening and other fun stuff. :) Or at least learn more...I keep saying that but never do anything but one day I'll learn more.





(This was all from the lightening, completely lit up the whole sky!)

So I think that's all I have for our Easter weekend! Enjoy ALL the pics! I love the kids matching outfits here!!! SOOOOO CUTE!

(This is absolutely, positively the CUTEST PICTURE ever!!!)

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long. If you're going my way, I wanna drive it all night long

One reason this week has been busy is because Mark and I have been car hunting. We knew before we left Utah that we would be getting a new car when Mark got back because of some issues with our Malibu and we didn't want to be driving it with all the traveling we're doing this summer. So we've been talking and talking about what to get for a long time now and we finally decided on something and bought it on Tuesday! So now we are owners of a 2010 Subaru Forester! I had never driven a Subaru before but knew Mark loved them so I gave it a try and totally converted. They are great!

I absolutely LOVE ours and am very excited about it. We were pretty darn anxious and nervous when we were finalizing everything cuz well one, it's a big deal buying your first car! And two, it was a brand new car! But don't worry, we've got everything taken care of and we've gotten over our anxiousness. It just felt like such a grown up thing to be doing! I am still in a state of limbo between college life and going off into the real world so it's kinda weird. It seems crazy that we're done with college life (I'm still going to finish!!! don't worry about that either), and are now moving on to a real job and everything that that brings. We're excited though, as I've said before and are glad to be moving on! I hate being in limbo. :) Anywho, here's our pretty new car!

(Old versus new...definitely a lot better now! I love being higher and in something bigger, but not too big. This is the perfect size for me!)

(One reason I've never been a big fan of Subaru is because they were too wagoney/boxy looking and I hate that type of look. But I just LOVE the 2010's they've come out with! They totally changed the look of the Forester and Outback, which we almost got the Outback but went with the Forester instead. I actually like the look of the Outback better but like the overall feel/etc of the Forester so we got that. We also felt better about our purchase after seeing that Jim and Pam (from the TV show, "The Office") had a Subaru too! I know most of you don't watch that but for those of you that do, you gotta admit they aren't a bad couple to copy :) :) :)



(I love how much room we have! We can even fold down the second row completely (or half of it and leave the other half up for Evelyn) to make more room! it's great!)

“The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.” --Abraham Lincoln--

Here is the down low on what we are doing after Missouri. Mark right now is doing what they call OHARP, which is where he's basically just hanging out here and reports to his district everyday and if they need him to do something he does it and if not then he's free to do stuff with me. He's doing this so he doesn't have to take any leave time.

In the middle of April he is going to go down to Mississippi for a couple weeks, also so he doesn't have to do leave time, which sucks but is good cuz he can check things out down there for when we move there and look around for housing and stuff. Then the very beginning of May he'll come back up here, pick us up and then we're heading out to California, via Utah so we can pick up stuff and also see some people (Whit, Maria, Amy & Calvin....I'm so excited to see you all!!!) We have to be in CA by May 10th and we'll be in Port Hueneme, somewhat near LA. We'll be there til the end of July.

So then the very first week of August we'll be headed back to Mississippi, once again via Utah so we can pick up the rest of our stuff from storage and we have to be there before the 15th-ish and right now I think our orders are to be there for 18 months! SO a LOOOT of traveling is ahead of us but we'll get to see a lot of family and friends and I'm excited about that! It'll be a great opportunity for us though and we're excited for what lays ahead!

"The hours separate us, but they bring us together again."

And now we are together again! Well we have been for a week now but I have been terrible and haven't updated this yet...I've been meaning to for days but this week has been soooo busy! So here is my update for last weekend and this week although I'm going to have to do more than one blog to cover it all :) Hope you don't mind!

So last Wednesday we flew in to Rhode Island and got to see Mark for a few hours. He picked us up from the airport and we went out to dinner and it was just wonderful to be with him! Of course he looked very handsome in his dress blues too, which he had to wear since he was off base.

Thursday morning me and Evelyn just chilled at the hotel until after lunch when we went up to the base to go to the "Pass and Review" of Mark's class. It was in the tradition of when battalions would pass before their commander or captain or whoever and be inspected before they went off to battle. So that's kinda what they did here. It was also where they were relieved of their duties as Officer Candidates at OCS. Which meant that Mark was free until he had to report to the base on Friday for graduation, which meant he got to spend the entire rest of the day with me! :) We walked around the base for a bit and finished up some paper work that Mark had to do.







In the late afternoon we went up to the Officer's Club for something they call "Hi Mom", which is basically just a meet and greet thing for the family and friends and the Candidate officers. They had food and a band and it was all really really nice and very yummy! By this time Mark's parents had gotten there so it was nice to see them again. We hadn't seen them since the end of December. Anyway, not too much else to say about the Hi Mom, we just sat and talked and ate.

Friday morning was the graduation so we went out to breakfast and headed over to the base for that. Mark was chosen as the guy to ring the bell during the opening part of the ceremony but I forgot what all that was for, I think it was to announce the coming of the captain/chief officer/etc. but I'm not too sure on that. My memory is a bit wacky and Mark isn't here at the moment for me to ask :)

(Mark by the bell)

(Again by the bell)

(I ALMOST got his first salute! I was just a second too quick!)

(More saluting)

(And almost there....)

Anywho...after that there were some speakers, which luckily kept it short and sweet cuz then there were 83 Candidate Officers who had to go up to the stage, give their first salute to their Class Team (the Marine and Chief Petty Officer who were in charge of them for drills and classes and such), then go salute the guest speaker and get their "diploma" and then go salute another guy who was part of their class team but I forgot his title...So yeah, it took a looong time to get everyone through but luckily this was all in the morning so we had the entire rest of the day to ourselves cuz Mark was DONE! It was very very very exciting to be there with him for this and to get to bring him home with me when it was over! :)

(Mark and his company, his class was split into two companies, the Gulf company and Hotel company, Mark was in Hotel.)

(Mark and his parents)

(Mark, Evelyn, and me! She was a bit tired by this time so she wouldn't cooperate for a pic)

(Me and Mark!)

(Mark and his Chief Petty Officer and the Marine guy who was in charge of them. The lady was nicknamed red light, green light cuz she could change her entire attitude that quick. Oh, I didn't mention this before but everyone in the company had nicknames which they put on their shirts they got. Mark's was Silent Service cuz he's so quiet...my favorite though he told me about was a guy nicknamed Banana Sparkles. One of the Officers or somebody was making fun of the guys shoes which were apparently bright yellow and so he called him Banana Sparkles and it stuck, I'm glad Mark got a somewhat decent name! :)

So we got done with graduation and left the base and went to the hotel to rest a bit before going out to a late lunch. We went over to downtown Newport and ate at this tavern/restaurant place that the hotel desk recommended and boy was it yummy! Then we walked around a bit (not too long though cuz Newport is WINDY!!!) and then went back to the hotel and watched some basketball. So overall we didn't really do too much but that was alright with me cuz I still got to spend it all with Mark :) If we had spent more time there we probably would have went over to Boston to do stuff but we didn't so we'll have to do that another time. We all left Saturday to fly home (which overall Evelyn was an excellent flyer! I was pretty worried about her but she was so great!) and that's pretty much the sum of my trip out there! I'll just leave you with some pics of Evelyn cuz you know I took a bunch! She's just tooooo cute!