Glen's Graduation

I know this is three months late, but it doesn’t mean I’m not proud of my husband! Glen worked sooo hard for his diploma and we are both so happy he’s done! I’m going to backtrack a little. Glen took a semester at Northland Pioneer College in Show Low before his mission and then after his mission, in New Zealand, he attended ASU in the fall of 2004. We got married in April of 2005 and moved close to ASU. Glen went to school full time and worked part time. Over the years he has worked at ASU, he drove school buses for Tempe, did Pest Control in the summer, and then worked at AZ Back Institute. School finally became too hectic and busy that he finally decided to quit his job at the Back Institute and just focus on his last year at school! Glen was so dedicated that at least a few times a week he would wake up at 2am to study, then go to his classes, fulfill his callings in the church and still find time to be with his little family. He is such a hard worker! Needless to say we were so excited for his graduation day! Tim and Cara treated Glen and I, and also Tim’s brother Bryan and his wife Jen, to dinner and a show, “Man With The Pointed Toes”, at Hale’s Theatre for his graduation present on Thursday, May 8. It was so much fun and so nice and generous of them! Then the next day, Friday, May 9, at 8am was Glen’s graduation! I can’t believe they have graduations that early. Traffic was crazy and needless to say I was late to the graduation, but it was probably a good thing because it was sooo long! After they called Glen’s name and we all yelled and cheered, then Tim and Dave took some of the kids outside to play in the grass! After graduation, Glen’s family came over and we had lunch and swam all afternoon, and then that night we had a dinner for him at a ward building nearby. It was nice to have a big area for the kids to run around. A big thanks to my family and Glen’s family for pitching in and helping out with everything. We tried to do a Costa Vida dinner with the salad in the tortillas with beans and meat and rice, etc. It was great! My dad also presented Glen with the “Lewis Mafia” ring. He’s kind of made it a tradition. My dad received one when he graduated, and now when each son has graduated my dad has presented them with a ring. So my brothers joked that Glen was now part of the mafia. I’m so proud of this big accomplishment he’s made. He graduated with Cum Laude Honors, but if they would have taken his 3.62 GPA at the end of the Spring semester he would have been Magna Cum Laude. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology. His intent was to take it into Physical Therapy, however, he has received a job, through a guy in our ward, with Martin Worth Medical which is a section of Biomet Orthapedics and has a lot of potential. So the whole Physical Therapy thing is on hold right now. I love my husband and I hope he knows how much I appreciate all his hard work and dedication to his family! He’s the BEST!

Spring Break and Ice Fishing

I know this is really ridiculous that I'm barely writing about Spring Break, but we had such a good time I had to back track. Glen and I had a great Spring Break! We were both off school and Glen wasn’t working, so we took full advantage of it. We first went to Ajo. I believe we got down there on Sunday, March 9, 2008, after church. We pretty much just hung out, relaxed, played games, and had fun. We also wanted to spend time with Jewls before she left to China, and it was fun to have Janae there too, home from EAC for the week. Monday or Tuesday night, even though it was early, my mom was so nice to have a cake and everything to celebrate my birthday, just like the good old days. I always love going back “home.” We left Wednesday morning, March 12, so Glen could work on Lacey’s house in Mesa. On Thursday, March 13, my birthday, Glen was so nice to bring me breakfast in bed. I have to be honest though, I did hear him cooking, but I was going to soak up every bit of this. Haha. I stayed in bed until he brought it to me. I had already received my present; he gave me permission to go buy some new pants. He’s so funny. He decided he didn’t like any of the jeans I had so he said I could go buy new ones, which is fine by me because my jeans were so old and nasty. Of course, with the pants came a few shirts as well. My excuse was that I found pants at Sears for only $5 and then another pair at Aeropostale for $10 which I paid with a gift card. I was so excited, and Glen approved.haha. Anyways, so we got back from Ajo on Wednesday, and then on my birthday, Thursday, we headed up to Clay Springs. On our way, I think a little past Payson, we got a nice little present from a police officer telling us our tint in the two front windows were too dark. I knew they were dark, but I couldn’t believe he actually pulled us over in the middle of no where for that, he had to of been bored. I think our tint was around 30% and the legal tint is 10%. So as soon as we got back the next week we had to fork out over $100 to fix it. Oh well. In Clay Springs, Lacey and the fam had a nice birthday dinner for me. Lacey also made these cute recipe cards and homemade perfume for me! She’s so creative! That Saturday, 3/15/08, on our way home, we went to Willow Springs to ice fish! Dad Jackson followed us in his car so he could join us. Just to let you know, ice fishing is so much fun! I guess any fishing is fun when you can’t get your poles back in the water fast enough. Glen and I both have two pole stamps and we were only able to keep up with one pole each. The fish were biting so fast. We ended fishing out of a hole that was already there in the ice, and caught all our fish, 12, from that hole. Then the next weekend we went again and caught our 12 in the same hole. Dad had tried a couple other holes and only caught a few, something was just special I guess with that one hole. I don’t know. We had gone up Friday evening, 3/21/08, hoping to fish, but we got there too late and didn’t catch anything. We watched a movie in our car and just slept there. The next morning we went out and caught our limit within a few hours. As we were heading out we were happy to see Dad Jackson, Grandpa Jackson, Aunt Margaret and the kids. So Glen and I decided to stay and help them catch some fish. We had a lot of fun. They caught several more fish. Aunt Margaret was prepared and shared lunch with us. Thank you. While there, we also found out that as long as Kade is holding the pole we can catch a few more fish and it counts as his. Ha. Anyways, this is a long blog, but it’s more for us than you. But just to let you know, we are definitely going ice fishing this winter if anyone wants to go. Hopefully I’ll keep up with the blog and let you know when.

Camping at Coon Bluff

I’m finally updating again! It’s hard to get the courage to write when I know I have so much to catch up on, so I end up waiting longer, which doesn’t make any sense because then it becomes more to update. Anyways, I’m going back to February 29 and March 1, 2008. Glen and I had been craving to go camping for a long time, so we decided just to go. Amy and Dayson were the only ones able to join us and we’re so grateful they did, they are great company! All five of us fit very comfortably in our tent. We tried to make things pretty simple for food and still were able to have yummy hot chocolate and fresh popcorn! I don’t know about you, but that was my first time ever having popcorn while camping. We have a popcorn maker for the stove, so we were able to use it on our little camping stove. I loved it and it tasted great with the hot chocolate around the campfire. The weather and everything was perfect. It was actually really green and beautiful. Saturday, we walked down the river a little bit. There was hardly any water in it, but enough for Dayson, Kade, and I to sit in the raft for a little while. Glen then took the raft by himself down further and tried to fish a little, no luck though, there seemed to just be a ton of sucking fish. Well, that was pretty much our quick trip. We love it.

Jackson Family Day

Well, after this post our blog will finally be updated. On Tuesday, February 12, it was one year since Mom Jackson had passed away. We miss her so much and think about her all the time. Some times it's hard because then I start thinking of all the "what if's" and "I wish or should've done's." But gratefully we have the gospel and know she is so happy right now and that we will see her again. On that Tuesday, Amy and Cara met Glen and I at Cracker Barrel for lunch, that was mom's favorite restaurant. It was so nice to be with them and visit with NO kids! Then on Saturday, Feb 16, Lacey and her family and Dad Jackson came down from Clay Springs so we could all be together. We missed Kamery and Jace, they are both in a play and had practice. A little while ago Dad had bought a big Zoo package so that he could take his whole family to the zoo together, so that Saturday we all went to the zoo for the day. It was so fun to be together. It was also fun to have Zola join us about 1:30pm for a the rest of the day. She is so sweet and so easy to talk to. Thanks for joining us, Zola! After the zoo, we all went to Cara's home for a very nice dinner. I'm embarrassed to say though, I had the easiest dish to bring, fresh green beans with almonds, and we were so late. Sorry guys. I used a recipe Cara gave, and I have to say they turned out pretty darn good. Anyways, when Glen and I got there, they had the table all set nicely and we had a full out meal. It was sooo good! The BEST part of the whole day was after dinner. We are so grateful for Tim. He put a ton of hours in to make of video of Mom Jackson! We cried and laughed and cried some more! Thank you, Thank you, Tim! This is going to be the best thing especially for the kids to remember their grandma! We each got a copy! It was so nice and such a special evening for us all! I am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful family!

New Year's Weekend!

New Year's weekend was our "Christmas" with my family to exchange gifts and have fun! Glen and I got to Ajo late Friday night. Saturday some of the guys went hunting and us girls took the kids to the church to play, and Janae and Julianne taught us sisters a dance they learned from cousins Rachel and Emma. I can't remember any of it now, but it was so fun! Also, Saturday morning Colleen and I announced to my family that we are both pregnant! I did the same thing as Christmas, showing them the Tshirt with Kade's picture on it! It was really exciting especially since Colleen is pregnant too. She's about a week or two behind me. On Monday morning, New Year's Eve, we did the whole gift exchange. Malin and Sarah had our name and they also way over did it. They gave all three of us a gift plus a gift card to Bass Pro Shop. We just used it to help buy Glen and I fishing licenses. Thank you guys! My parents gave the grandkids a Noah's ark toy, and then each of us kids got a stove popcorn popper. I love it! Then Mom and Dad opened their gift from all the kids! I got the idea from my sisterinlaw, Cara. She cropped and printed out all the pictures! Thank you Cara! The blanket has pictures of my parents as babies, when they're around high school age, their wedding picture, each family picture with a new child, and then a family picture of all the kids now. It turned out so nice I thought. They seemed to love it. New Year's night we all stayed up playing Acquire and other games. Most of the kids left Tuesday, so the party was breaking up. We hate to have it all end! Now it's time to plan the next family activity!

Christmas w/ the Jacksons

Christmas break was so much fun! We were able to stay in Clay Springs for about a week! It was awesome just relaxing, playing games, watching movies, visiting, some went tubing. Christmas Eve we got ready for the traditional Jackson party that night. The pictures kind of explain everything. Glen's sisters did such a nice job planning it. Everything turned out great. After all the activities were over they started having competitions, starting out with limbo and then all the guys tried to see how high they could jump over the pole without touching it. It was so fun to watch. After everything ended so late, everyone put their kids to bed and then we stuffed everyone's stockings and laid them out. They had some great goodies, good thing Kade is only 1 and doesn't know when his stuff is missing. haha. Christmas morning everyone opened their stockings first and then we all went downstairs around the Christmas tree and opened gifts. Kade's gift from Santa was Legos! He stacks them together really well, but he also dumps them everywhere too. ha. Tim and Cara had our name this year and they went way over the budget. They are always so good to us! Thank you, Thank you! So for Glen's Christmas gift this year I made him another blanket (last year Amy helped me with the jean blanket). But Glen has been begging me to make him this Tshirt blanket of all his football shirts from high school. So I went down to Ajo for a couple of days and told him I was working on a blanket for my parents, but I was really working on his. And then on Christmas Eve we sent him into ShowLow, and Amy and Cara helped me finish it. It is so big, heavy, but really soft and cuddly. He seemed like he really liked it, and he told me he had no idea I was making it. So it turned out to be a nice surprise! For me, I always jump the gun and end up finding something I want and buy it, and then give it to Glen to give me. That's kind of bad, but he hates shopping anyways. I picked out a bunch of fresh water pearl jewelry from China that my sister was selling, and then Glen did surprise me and bought both of us new cell phones which we needed really badly. Then, Glen had bought me a nice shirt. All by himself, he picked it out, and it fit perfectly. I thought that was the best because I know he hates shopping and he found something I really liked and actually fit me. As we went around opening gifts, Dad Jackson had a gift for each of us daughters. It was the most special moment of that morning. We all opened it at the same time, nobody said anything, and we all just started crying. He had given each of us a lockit necklace that said "I Love You" on the front and then on the inside was a picture of Mom and Dad Jackson. We miss mom so much but are so grateful for eternal families. Another exciting moment that morning was a gift we gave to Kade, as you saw in the picture. A shirt with his picture saying "I'm gonna be a big brother!" Since it's February right now, most of you already know, but #2 IS ON THE WAY! We are so excited! We had been holding it in for about 3 weeks so we could tell the family at Christmas, and then I told my family New Year's weekend! The rest of Christmas day was very lazy. Then on Wednesday we went to visit Aunt Kay in her new home out past Blue Ridge. Glen and I returned home Friday evening around 6pm, we activated our new phones, I finished my parents blanket and then decided just to go down to Ajo that night, instead of the next morning, to be on vacation again! Those two weeks were so fun, but you can't have vacations without money, so back to work we go.

Thanksgiving Weekend!

Well, it's February and I'm barely writing about Thanksgiving. Oh well. We had a great Thanksgiving with my side of the family. Seth's brother, Bryce, and his wife were out of town and so they were so nice to let us ALL be in their home, while they are gone, and even stay the night. They have the biggest backyard I have ever seen; pool, full tennis court w/ basketball hoop, enough grass area to have a Turkey bowl, trampoline, sand box, playground equipment, plus the basement in their home is their toy room. It was so nice!!! It kept the kids completely occupied so the adults could play games of tennis, Turkey bowl, visit, etc. It was a blast and the weather was perfect! Each family brought an assigned part of the Thanksgiving feast! I brought the sweet potatoes. Everything was so yummy, like always! Kade especially loved it!ha. Everyone was making fun of him because he always "makes his rounds." Whenever we're with other people he won't eat from Glen and I, he just goes from one person to the next with his mouth open. So cute! Carolyn was so creative and made each kid their own bag with different T-Day things. One of things were feathers and wire so they could be the little Indians. It was so cute. Later, we had Thanksgiving program. Two years ago Glen and I dressed up like the pilgrims and told the story. This year Seth was a good sport to dress up and tell the Thanksgiving story. Nickie also recited a really long poem she had memorized. I was so impressed, and then she did another with Malaya. We also had Grandma Lewis with us that day! It was so nice, we haven't been with her for a holiday in a long time. She is so funny and sweet. She spoke to us for a little bit and then we did the traditional "what are you thankful for?" I love being with family! Even though the home was in Gilbert, several of us still stayed in their home that night. The next day of course was "Black Friday." This was my first time ever to do the whole early morning shopping thing. Colleen, Esther, Janae, Julianne, and I all went about 4am to go shopping. It was so much to have a fun girl bonding time, but I'm not sure if I'll do that again!ha. We ended shopping about 8am and then all the couples went to the temple to do a session. Janae, Julianne, and Jacob are always so good to babysit for all of us. It was a wonderful weekend with the fam. Always hate for it to end, but at least we had Christmas to look forward to.