We're a sneaky bunch!

This was a great FHE (family Home Evening: a night we set aside for family time where there are two songs and prayers, a spiritual thought and a fun activity) After singing our Christmas song we decided to deliver the goodies we made...in the dead of night, as sneaky as we could...really we giggled like school kids the whole time...and we were wearing brighter colors then we should, but it's the thought that counts...right?



We delivered to our new friends that we get to visit at least once a month plus others. This picture is funny because as I put the goodies down I heard the song that was coming from the movie that was playing inside, "No life...without wife" Start to sing it if you know it (pause) I was singing it too. Yep I heard Bride and Prejudice, fully Bollywood, playing loud and clear. I had to take a picture!!







Here is Nick and his handsome sneaky self...he really did the better job out of the two of us...I guess I'm a giggler-who knew. All in all it was a fun night-addresses were a nightmare to figure out (that is an understatement!), but we loved it!!

Hello there everyone!! We just sent out Christmas Cards!! And we know that we did not have enough for all the people we wanted to wish a Merry Christmas to, so we hope that if you have not recieved one, know it is not because we do not love or miss you, but that we did not plan ahead and time, money and stamps ran out. We even had to hold on the tradition of sending a Christmas picture. We had three attempts that ended in failure, so it was not to be this year. But we want you to have a copy of the year summary-in the form of the newsletter, and to hear us wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year-so enjoy!!!

THE ROMRIELL

CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER January through December of 2008

Here we are again closing another year, thankful for our health, faith and family. We hope this year, though trying at times, has been good for everyone. This year has had a lot of ups and downs, from senior projects, to graduation, real jobs to no jobs to jobs again. We are thankful we made it!!

The year started off with Jennifer’s senior project, directing “A Doll House”. With ambition to direct the show in a fresh and original style, her show received acclaim, and recognition, not to mention an A+. She also got involved in the community by organizing a week long event, with workshops and talk backs that discussed issues from the play. Nick headed up his student government with full force, and pushed for the first Monty the Mountaineer Mascot. This has been a failed attempt in the past, but with Nick’s talent of collaboration, he worked with the feuding sides, and soon there was a dancing Mascot at the basketball games. The rest of the year had the same intense involvement with committees, clubs, callings, and our last theatre performance together, “Spring into Broadway”, a fundraiser for scholarships at Eastern Oregon University (EOU). Jen sang while Nick played drums.

Then our EOU career came to an end, as we sang a duet, “Hail Eastern Oregon” at out graduation in June! Jen graduated in Theatre with a focus in directing and an ESL minor. Nick graduated in Business Administration with a focus in management and a minor in music. Nick received a few awards in business and leadership and Jen received a few theatre awards. Nick also ended the year with, according to the Dean of Students, one of the highest functioning and most productive student government in the past 30 years, him being one of three of the best student body presidents EOU has ever seen. In the summer, Nick finished his 40 page research paper for his senior project (receiving an A) while Jen directed the Youth Theatre program, “HONK!” Good-Bye EOU and on to Salt Lake City Utah.

Nick was hired at American General, down in Utah. We had a weeks notice. Through miracles, family and friends, we packed up everything we owned, found an apartment, moved in, and celebrated Labor Day. With Old Faithful (our ’87 Buick) we’ve learned our way around the compass grid, gotten involved in church (ward missionary and primary counselor), community (SABU Help - an organization started by one of Nick’s co-workers from student government that helps African families financially) and Jen got a job - not in theatre - but as a Kindergarten Teacher at a Greek Orthodox private school. She’s also the music director and put together OXI Night (a celebration about the independence of Greece and the best version they’ve ever seen according to a few sources) and the Christmas program. Troubles soon hit when the parent company of American General - AIG got into some financial struggles (a big understatement). After only two months of working he was let go. The recession struck hard in our little home, but when you get knocked down-you get up again. He studied for the GMAT, and turned his sights toward grad-school. The Lord is good, for he gave us another miracle - Nick was offered his job back at the same pay and at the highest performing branch in Utah - just five minutes away from home. So this year ends on a high note. We thank you all for your support, prayers and love. We are so blessed because of it!! We love you all!!! Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

We love Swetha Sada!! This is just news and miracles that have to be shared! Our dear friend has finally been able to be baptized. You can see Nick and I taking our old missionary poses...I just about laughed right out loud!! Old habits die hard. We were so happy for her, and it was a hard battle, but what a sweet spirit that was there that night! For those that are unfamiliar with baptism, it a commitment, or we call it covenant, a promise to God to take the Lord's name upon you, to always remember Him and to keep His commandments. And when we promise this, the Lord promises the gift of the Holy Ghost, as a constant companion. We, as it states in Romans 6, bury our old life, ways and habits and rise out of the water new, fresh, clean, and pure. We have, as Nephi described, entered into the gate that leads to eternal life. This is what Swetha, a new believer in Christ wanted more than anything in the world.


This was a story that involved a lot of faith, prayers, fasting and miracles. I won't go into details, for blessings and miracles from the Lord should not be paraded about, but I will say that everyone involved had their own testimonies, or faith strengthen. God answers prayers! We prayed and fasted as one stumbling block after another seemed to stand in the way, but miracles would come, that could only be done by a God that is involved in every detail of our lives. This I know to be absolute truth.


We have a dear friend for life now, and she has even invited us to visit her Hindu family in India! How exciting!!! We are willing and ready for that adventure!! But I just had to share the overwhelming joy and gratitude that I, and I am sure many others have felt from this event. The Lord lives, and those that seek Him and His truth will find it. We and many more have and stand as a witness to it. We know that the hard part is not over, there are many more stumbling blocks to come, but as Swetha's journey to Christ showed-With God NOTHING is impossible!

Thanksgiving!!!

Okay, so it's been five weeks and I have not posted as of late. So I thought now-during my two week break of boredom, restlessness and no kinders(tear)-I would update this blog! Here is Nick and I ready to feast at the Thanksgiving Dinner spread we all worked so hard on. We are hungry! For my family, note the crab dip right in front of me and the pickles and cheese on the far left! Yes I was keeping the tradition alive. And then I made my first attempt of potatoes-mashed!! It was a hit!!! We were so blessed to eat over at our dear friends, the Tibbs!! We adore them! It was so fun to cook...a lot of the items on our own for the first time-Catherine and I had a
blast!!! So this is Matt, taking pictures of our handy work...we had pretty busy hands...yep we made enough to feed an army!!! All this food for four...just four. We were so stuffed!!!!! At such a time we were so thankful for the blessings, friends and seconds we had!! We lived off this food for almost a week. Just looking at it makes me hungry again!







Here is beautifully pregnant Catherine, preparing everything. This is her first time she has gotten to use her china...we felt so special! We even used the tea cups and Wiesel (I think that;s how you spell it) in it...first time I have ever had that, but I hope it won't be the last! So all in all Thanksgiving was so much fun. And even though we missed our families, it was such a nice blessing to have such good friends, excited and new to this whole "Thanksgiving thing on your own" as we were.

Kindergarten fun!

Okay, as I was talking to my sister, two more stories came to mind that I wanted to share. My kids are cute...they are, but at times it seem like they become more like sheep that smrt little ones. If one student does something, then they all do the same thing. For example, they were all swinging form vines the other day. Indiana Jones seems to be the hot topic of this week, and one of the students claimed to be a huge fan of the movie and showed the class his favorite part...swinging from a vine. I've not seen the movie myself, but according to the kids reactions and the magic of pretend, he did the movie justice. One thing, however, was really off...the theme music. Picture this kid swinging from a pretend vine singing at the top of his lungs the most off key, up and down, slightly familiar theme song. I laughed right out loud. Then comes the sheep. I think I need to see the movie now...he sure peaked my interest. Then another time I was teaching and I noticed something about one of the kids. You see, it is a constant struggle to keep things out of kid's mouths at times and at this time, I looked at the student and his lips were blue, more so in the center-deep blue. And instead of asking him not to chew on markers-as I should have-I asked, "Bill...have you been chewing on markers?" He said, "No". I caught him red-handed, or blue lipped I should say. I laughed right out loud. How could you not laugh? I guess these stories are ones that you have to see, but I love these kids so much! Blues lips and swinging vines, there is never a dull moment.

Watch what you say.

So I am learning a lot of lessons while I teach these five-year-olds. Patience is the number one lesson, and is a daily test. This is something that happen today that I just have to write about. I have a form of punishment...lets say consequence, that sounds better, that I use in class. It's been around a long time and is a classic...the corner. The deal is, if they can not have respect for me, their classmates and themselves, they get two warnings and then on the third warning they have to separate themselves from the class. They can still listen, but they can not talk or participate. It works. So there was a couple of kids that would not stop talking...and I said this(names have been changed to protect the innocence), "Sue and Bill this is warning number three. You know better then to talk...I think I have to separate you...go to the corner." Well five minutes later, maybe ten, Bill starts calling my name, "Mrs. Jenn, Mrs. Jenn" and he sounded really worried and scared...I asked him what is the matter and with tears in his eyes he asked me form the corner, "Mrs. Jenn what does separate mean?" Oh it just broke my heart, and it was so funny to think about, because this poor boy had no idea what it meant, he thought it was something awful. I just assumed he knew what it was. So watch your words and make sure you're not just understood, but that you're not misunderstood.

Rise and shine!

This was funny...and so we thought we should share. Today was stake priesthood meeting, and Nick, as always, was excited. He called up others to remind them of the meeting and off he went at 6:45, pad and pen in hand, to gain some spiritual insight at 7:00...or so we thought. At around 7:18 Nick comes walking in the door, with a sheepish look on his face. No one was at the stake center...all was dark and locked up. So he calls a friend in the ward to see if he got the right day, place or time. Well he got the right day, and place but the time...he was 12 hours too late. That's right folk, down here in Utah they have early mornings, stake priesthood meeting was at 7:00 A.M. We're a long way from La Grande Toto.

BIRTHDAYS!!!

What a week!! Welcome November...did it sneak up on anyone else or was it just me? Now that it is November we are facing changes, not change promised by the President elect either. The season is getting colder and now I am a quarter of a century old, my mother is half a century old-with stating that the season is getting colder and we are getting older, I am not hinting to a similarity between the two- even though it feels about right. Thanks to all of you who wished me a happy birthday!! It meant so much. Nick and I celebrated with Dinner (at Mimi's cafe-which we absolutely loved, go-we send our recommendation) and then went shopping for socks. Yep it's back, my obession for warm, cool looking sock. Which will be much needed as I wait for my bus during the Utah winter. We also met up with our wonderful friends the Tibbs and they had dinner for us as well. That's us four!! I love them! Another highlight of my B-day was the party we had in my kindergarten class. They won a pie because of their hard work and then I brought donuts for my b-day, and then the parents brought candy because of Halloween-to say the least they had tons of sugar...and I thought to give it to them all at once, right before recces. Ten minutes is all it took, ten minutes and the class exploded and the sweet Greek children turned into crazy, jumping springs. They all at once ran everywhere, jumped up and down for no reason, laughed at everything and started to take their clothes off because it got so hot-then after our congo line and salsa instruction they started dropping...trash!! And then the room was silent. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen, I laughed so hard-funny, but I wont do that again, that is for sure. So all in all it was a great 25th b-day. And speaking of B-day, my beautiful mother had one as well. And I want to take this time to say how much we love her and how much she means to us!!! I think of her often, wondering how she is doing, what exciting event she is planning-or running, if she would think something was funny or not, what she would think of my life. She has always been there for me during my hardest and darkest moments...as well as my most dear and blessed ones. I love her and look up to her as an example. An example of how a mom should be, a wife and more importantly a righteous daughter of our Heavenly Father. She has lead and guided me and I owe not just my life, but in a huge way of how I live it, toher. Thanks Mom!!! We love you! I hope to send your card off soon!!

OXI Night was a hit!!!

OXI Night was a hit!!! The music program I was in charge of went off with a blow out performance! Each year Saint Sophia, along with most Greeks, celebrate the day the Greek nation beat the Italians during the WW2 world conquering tour. OXI means no in the language and that as what the leader said to the Italian government when asked to join forces with them and Hitler. It's a big event. So our theme this year was international freedom. There was singing, speeches, dances and instruments. Every child performed and in some way shared what freedom means to them. The program started with the children walking in with flags from their heritage lands, they also dressed up in outfits representing that culture. I thought it was a good idea when I presented it, I never knew how excited everyone would get! I am the one in the pink-I'm France...just in case you can't tell.

This is the Zorba-that's not how it's written in Greek, but how it sounds. I was the leader, organizer, choir director and tech person during the program. I was crawling on the floor a lot-hushing kids, adjusting mics. and etc. The dancing bookended the event-it was a huge hit.

This is me with three of my students and a pre-schooler. Right to Left: Hannah (dutch), Me (France), Roman (Greek) and Raeya (Pakinstan).
It took everything I could say to make them stop running around and pose for the picture.

R to L: Mary (dutch) Me, Vriege(Armenian)
This is after the program, when we were eating dinner-I love pasta.

R to L: Me, Kaliope (Greek), Karlyn (Greek), Eleni(Greek) I love these little girls!!! I love getting hugs from them each day. Being a kindergarten teacher really rocks!!

This is me leading the singing, they did such a nice job! We sang the Saint Sophia hymn, My Country Tis of Thee, I sang Amazing Grace with a student band, and then the Greek National Anthem. Hard work, but so worth it in the end. Their parent's faces were great-best they had ever sang they said. So all in all, the stress and work was worth it and I think I could do this again next year-thanks for Sue, teachers, Mr. Paul my TA and the beautiful students.

Life is a blessing.

Hello to all who read the life-and belated updates of the young Romriells known to you as Nick and Jen. We want to thank you for all the comments and updates!!! Life here in SLC is getting colder-fall is falling on us fast-no pun intended, and we pulled out our gloves and hats. This is needed when you wait to ride the bus!! Update-we are doing well, but are both sick. As a kindergarten teacher you get first crop of the colds from the little students that you love and as the loving wife that I am, I share everything I get with Nick. Isn't he lucky. So we are in a threesome right now, Me, Nick and a box of tissues. We never separate. Other then that we are doing well. We both have jobs, a roof over our heads, and food, truly we are blessed. We have the extra blessing of still being able to work with the full time missionaries!! Nick was called as a ward missionary(someone the young elders can call if they need anything) and we are having a beautiful friend from India, taught about God, the plan of happiness, and Jesus Christ-his gospel and atonement, in our home. We are thrilled since this knowledge has given us all our joy and has blessed our lives together and separately more then anything we have ever found. How amazing to see someones life change and become better!!! I adore her and her strength. She is such an example to me. Nick also works with the Elders with a young woman from Brazil, so he is able to teach in his favorite tongue, once each week. Speaking of...Nick and I sang in church last Sunday. We sang I need thee every hour-and he of course sang in Portuguese. Most of the people guessed it was Korean or Spanish. We get that often. I tried to sing with him in the end. Since they couldn't tell what language it was to begin with, they thought I spoke it too. The Lord helped us for sure. Miracles happen everyday.

Mission reunion!!!

Oi Brazil!!! We had a blast at Nick's mission reunion. We've never been to one before, we didn't know what you did at one or who would be there, and I would be knowing no one. But life is being truly lived when you step out of your comfort zone, so we stepped, my stride being a bit bigger-not just because I have short legs. We loved it, feeling everyones love and spirit and meeting people that knew and looked up to Nick was such a delight. When we walked in President Dansie walked right up to Nick and said, "My trainer, how are ya!" And that was quickly followed by a huge hug from Sister Dansie-we felt right at home-part of a family. Here is Nick and I with President and sister Dansie. You can see the ever familar LDS gym divider in the background.


Then it was neat to meet some of Nick's fellow missionaries. He had mostly Brazilian comps. so we didn't see any there, but it was great to hear stories from those that knew and loved him. I of course got to know thier wives-we were in the same boat, so there was a connection.








This was an experience where you know it's a small world. My MTC comp. beautiful sister Richardson grew up with the elder in the pink shirt and hat. How neat was that? Oh and Jill, what do you think of the other guy on the right, he seemed really cool, smart, funny, RM, and he speaks another language...it's just a question.







Here is the whole group. Nick served with this group at the very end of his mission, so we didn't know a lot of people-most really, but with the few he knew and the chance to see his mission president and wife and to sing and pray in portuguese it was the highlight of the week thus far ( besides conference of course). As Nick sang his mission song, tears filled in his eyes, memorizes came flooding back and the spirit became even stronger. What a blessing it is to serve a mission, to teach, preach, and live the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We lucky few, our cup runneth over. We are so blessed. Tchau for now!!

Kindergarten, met Mrs. Jenn!

"Good morning Boys and Girls!" Yep that is right, I am a kindergarten teacher at Saint Sophia School. I am loving it!!! I must be honest, it is hard...I am so tired at the end of the day-I fell like I am competing with video games etc, but I love the kids so much and there are so many things that are amazing about teaching, that it makes up for all the bad days (I really haven't had a bad day yet-just some hard moments. So I have been teaching for a week and an half. It's full day kinder. And that can be tough on these little ones...there are some dramatic moments-on average two-three kids break out in tears, but they are learning their sounds, letters and numbers really well-that' s exciting!!! I am going to be getting a TA next week to help out with the class. I have a few students that need extra attention. So let me give you a tour around the room. First, the side view, this is the play area-sand and toys, what else could a kid want! Also there is the center sign, this lets the kids know where they need to go for centers.

This is one of my favorite centers, the writing center, and it's blue on the center chart. We have blending posters up with eight books that they love to read, plus the ABC's which helps since they are still trying to learn how to write them.

The blue thing on the write are the vocab we are learning for the week, they use it to copy the words down. Below it are the writing tools, crayons, markers, pencils everything, plus writing games. Yep...one of my favorite centers

This is the kid's favorite center-media. They are a computer generation. There are educational games on them of course. This is where I take kids and assess their progress-sinces there's only two units. Color is yellow-hence the pencil and sunflower. My desk, and the "done" box is the red one.

This is the reading area, with tons of books, pilliows, stuffed animals and letters all over. And what is more fun then to read under a tree. The picture shows a bare tree but we just made fall leaves so it looks even better. (tree is the brown bookcase) The color is red. Oh and there's blow-up letter people as well. Thank you SAR. They are grounded from them this week-too many wacking on heads and fights, funny to watch, but you have to teach them not to fight sometime.

Math center-duh I know. To the right there are drawers of math games and fun counting, grouping games!!! The kids love this center too.
I crawl under the table to get to the seat, I assess them there as well, and use the white board. Love it!!!

Reading center again...I just wanted to show off the word wall, come June it will be filled to the max! This is where they get mail from me every morning and where they keep their workbooks

My desk...I don't know what to do with it yet. The 17 kids sit at two table and I move around a lot to instruct. It works well. Not ideal, but it's not a big room...you do what you have to do.

My tree, I am pretty proud of it. Fabric, string and my tall husband, and there you have it a tree. The kids love it at least and I guess that's what matters. I did the change in two days. I wish I had pictures of what it looked like before, nothing on the walls, desks and files against the wall, different corer, no centers at all...It looked...confusing. But now it's about done, Mrs. Jenn style. I now know why teachers use the whole summer and not just two days. Good thing I have a theatre background-we're used to doing things quickly and on a shoe-string budget.

Mission completed. We're in!!

We did it, we have successful moved form the little college town to the real eight hour job, big city. And it was nothing short of a miracle!! The Lord blessed us every step of the way. We recieved the offical job offer on August 22nd (friday, the day that Honk!jr opened-that was a crazy weekend) we then took everything we had and boxed it (thanks Safeway, Wal-mart, Albertsons and Liberty's Liquor store-only time we've ever stepped into one of those) We packed like crazy-who would of thought that two people could add so much stuff in just two years. Married life I guess? On August 28th (thursday) our knight in shinning 'ford' came to save us with a large van and a small trailor-thanks Alan! Question is will it fit? YES! Just about. We had wonderful help from dear friends-Sam you have a talent-and come afternoon we were off to Payette. When we got there we researched our figures off on the internet, for possible apartments-yep we didn't know where we were moving to yet-leap of faith! Friday morning (August 29th) Nick and I headed down in hopes that, even without knowing the area and it being labor day weekend, we could find our new home. We exceeded minutes calling all the apratments on the way down, but it was worth it we narrowed our possibles to ten. Six hours later, and after getting lost once we saw our first apartment-no go, we were desperate but not that desperate. Then onto our next choice, we met Lori. We saw several apartments on the lot, and thought-this is the best for the price-lets do it. We came across road blocks. Having never rented an apartment before we had no idea what information we needed to provide. We needed Nick's current empolyer, his last employer, and the managers of our last apartment. It was late in the afternoon now and we just caught Nick's new employer on the phone. As far was his old employer-he worked for the college, and it's summer time, how would we get a hold of them? Luckly because the college has been moving people around, the human rescources manger was there still at four-thirty(different time zone worked in our favor) and she had not hired Nick, but worked with him when he did an internship with her, so she pulled strings and looked at his past work record and vouched for him. Then the finally road block-our old apartment. We lived in married student housing so Res. Life was over seeing that-again it's summer time and didn't hold normal hours-we couldn't find them. But then a thought(prompting) came and we asked if our current mangers could vouch for us. Lori said that was fine. We called up our dear friends the Craguns-just new managers for about two weeks. Carly got the call and was amazing!!! She vouched for us and by six our time we had an apartment. Now the issue of moving in. It was labor day weekend and we couldn't move in until Monday, but when Lori asked us what our current address was, and we said "none" she said that we would come in, on her own time and have us move in on Saturday!!! Down comes our shinning knight with his beautiful wife, and our stuff-thanks Alan and Coreen, and with Nick's new employer's help and Adam, be are moved in by three. Wow, what a rush, and tender mercy of the Lord!!! So now we are here and are planting roots, for now.

Our New Apartment!!!

African Food!!!

We love trying new things and tonight was a treat!!! Doctor and Montana invited us over for some TZ, TouZou. It was very yummy. I was a pancake/flour/wet/soft/pull apart bread thing with soup.









The soup was hot and spicy, with greens, chicken and other things we're not sure of-again it was amazing. You rip off a chuck of the bread with your hands and then scoop up the soup with it. I was an adventure-and yummy one, it was so good!!! So if you ever get to try it, we think you should!!




Thanks Doctor!!

Here is thier little boy-the most adorable baby I've ever seen!

Romriell/Hatch reunions are a blast

It's that time again!!! Family reunion time...and the Romriells know how to do them!! I adore my new family...just had to put that in before anything else. So this reunion lasted for two weekends (or if you didn't have to go back to La Grande and direct children in the musical Honk-it was a two week event.) It had everything! We splet out in a tent our first three nights-semi camping as we like to call it. This is in the kid tent right after evening prayers. Chris, Sarena, Avery and I (L2R).

Then we had fun washing cars!!! It was a blast even little Annika and Alan had a rag in hand and scrubbed. Shawn, Me, Sarena are in the back. Avery and Chris are in the front.

We tried to clean our car which turned 21 this year...we had fun but I don't think we did much for it. Nick is in front, then Chris, Annika, Avery and Jourdan in back, with her back to us.

Alan, Neal (on the bed towards the window) and Nick are fixing up the RV. I see bonding time with father and sons. They loved it.

We had the whole day at the beech! We wakeboarded, tubed, rifted and swam. I had my excellant swimming buddy Sarena, we swam for hours. I also recieved a lasting impression from the sun. Shoulders as red as red can be. Note-I am still in full swimsuit attire-not just short shorts and a tank-it had to be said;)

What reunion would be complete without suemo wresling. Here I am being blown up.

Here Nick is in full sumo attire. Handsome I know.

Here is the loving couple attacking each other. Mean and dangerous comes to mind. Note the suite doesn't fit me. My legs are too short. So I had to hop around to get...or really escape Nick as he waddled for me. I lost two to three-it was close. I laughed so hard I cried.

Home-made water slide with a home-made Romriell slide team. We got some speed, air and mud. Chris is in front even though you can't see him, followed by Sarena, Jourdan, Me and Nick. I was a blast.

And our swim suites got very muddy. (sorry for the side-ways view...but it wont hurt your neck too much to look.) There were games as well. Jourdan was our comp. for three-legged race, egg race and water balloon toss. She's a champ.

Of course there was a talent show!! Here we are singing a Kenneth Cope song "Love is" we picked it in the car on the way down...we should have worked on it more. Every skit and song was great, and some, like the song Alan wrote for Grandpa Romriell, made us cry. We do have a talented family. Which ended in a night of campfire songs. Yep it had everything. Most important it had a lot of food!!!! Food, music and fun, that's what you'll get at a Romriell/Hatch reunion. And we loved it!!!!

Blessings from EOU-We love you!!!

This is not intended to brag but to update and thank those that we have met and grown to love at EOU. We've been very blessed. As goodbye gifts EOU offered some neat things to remember them by. We both were honored with the Cum de Laude and wore bright yellow ribbions with medals when we graduated.We were blessed with best theatre, business and leader this year (you can guess which one got what).





Here are the best theatre professors EOU has...and I would agree most anywhere else. From Left to right: April Curtis, Kenn Wheeler, Ken Bush and I in the center. Each one has help me mold and refine my craft and I character. I love them dearly!!!









This is the crown and rose I recieved at the theatre dinner, honoring the graduating seniors. I won the Jodie Foster award-being good at everything having to do with theatre. ( I just think that when you grow up in it-you do tend to learn and do everything) It was a really sweet reward and there were tons of tears that were shed!!! I love my theatre department!





This is Nick, and Mike-dean of student affairs. he recieved so many awards this day, this one is his leadership award. He was ASEOU's student body president. He put in a lot of hours, and this his amazing VP's and senators, they did a lot of things this year, Mike said they were the best governement body he has seen yet. What an honor it was to work with so many amazing, bright and dedicated students and faculty.



And this picture I added for kicks. Is it Christmas time in La Grande? No it's just June. It was the Monday before graduation and it snowed!!! It was perfect, warm and sunny the day before-crazy I know!

This is our apartment in La Grande. We thought you might want to see our newlywed home we've had for two years. for a first apartment we were really blessed. Thanks married student housing.

Our Romance with Ashland

For our Senior year we decided to celebrate by reliving a trip we both have taken together earlier in our college career. Ashland, home of the Shakespeare festival. Nick and I went the first time while we were going to TVCC. We were "friends" then, but it still was a beautiful place for us. So we thought it fitting to have our big trip to celebrate graduation, be at the same place of so many fond memories. I don't care what you think, Ashland is a charming and romantic town. Now married it was even better then we remembered. We went with some of our closest friends in the theatre department. Front left and then going in a circle: Papa, Amanda, Mom, Fune, Jen, Liberty, Brian, Trea, Jeff, Me, Nick, Buck and lovely April.

The we ate outside, and this was the best shot that showed the pouring rain. Some people said it added to the mood. After awhile it just added to a wet bottom, clothes and head. We used our glasses to get the rain before it fell into our food. The food, as in most tourist towns, was amazing, even if a bit watered down. We loved dressing up to see shows and to eat at places we normal wouldn't go to-or afford for that matter.

Another treat was having my parents come. We would go out, and as tradition in my family, talk about and review the plays that we saw. I always enjoy that...I'll miss it when I'm gone. Left to Right and going in a circle: Papa, Me, Jeff V. Jessica B. Jen, Fune, Nick and my mom-making a wonderful face for the camera-what do you think she's thinking?

Like I said, Ashland is a romantic town full of gardens, waterfalls, ponds (with swans and ducks to feed) streams(made to wadd in) forests (to walk through) and unique shops (to stroll pass/in) We made good couple time just taking walks and talking and such.

We left thursday-after a chior concert-at 10:30. We had to turn back once because someone forgot thier tickets(starting with a F and ending in a "une"). We drove all night! Yep it was intense, Nick and I stayed up all night, with a few faithful helpers. We got to Ashland at 8:00 A.M. went to the hotel's breakfest and then got dresses up for the matinee show(after a LITTLE nap of course). We saw three shows, and left sunday in time to be back for classes. A weekend trot that was-all in all-a success!