6 years of BLISS

So it was our 6th wedding anniversary yesterday and to commemorate the occasion I will do as others have done in the past and blog about the last 6 years accomplishments.

Craig and I got married one week after graduating with our specialized associates. (me in photography and him with Agronomy(weeds and soil science).   It was really nice to graduate together and as it turns out was the only graduation we would ever attend. :)

We spent our first summer in Emmett while Craig worked for his dad on the farm and I at Taco Bell.  We purchased our first home ( a 1999 Oakwood single wide trailer with over 1200 sq. ft.) and rented it out that summer in Rexburg.  We also found out we were pregnant with our first child and bought our first Car together as a couple...it happened to be My first car ever!!!!

That fall we went back to Rexburg for more schooling.  Craig changed his degree a bunch of time and ended up with History and a minor in philosophy.  He also got into teaching seminary and thought that might be the route he would take.  He taught 2 periods in Idaho Falls for a year.  He also worked at Circuit City, which didn't turn out to be as fun as he originally thought, and Best Western hotel.  We applied to several schools that offered a bachelors in Philosophy, since BYU-I did not... and we were accepted to the U of I.  As we were making plans to move up to Moscow a wonderful thing happened.  We were able to get some connections with some philosophy professors at BYU who ended up getting Craig into the program. 

We had Kaydence in February and I continued to finish my schooling, thanks to the help of Craig's sister Lindsey who was also attending BYU-I at the time.  She watched Kaydence while I was in class and we couldn't have done it without her.  I was able to graduate with my Bachelors that december.  We sold our trailer and had to move in with my brother and his Wife Helen the last few weeks of school, because the owners wanted the trailer before school ended.  So another shout out..this time to Helen...thanks!!!!

We moved down to Provo and were able to live at my Aunts house for the first semester while they took the semester off and went to SPAIN.  My uncle is a Geography Professor at BYU and the timing was perfect.  They needed someone to housesit and we needed a house :)  While we were there we found out we were 3 months pregnant with Soren...while only having a 10 month baby at home.  Craig started working as a research assistant for one of his professors (one of the professors that got him into the school)  who quickly became one of the most influential people in his life.  Craig was fortunate enough to help Prof. Paulsen publish some great works on Joseph Smith and the church's theologies.

We always assumed Craig would continue on to get his doctorate in philosophy and become a professor but the job market and the amount of schooling needed was to long and unpredictable so we decided to try LAW.  We signed him up for this LSAT course just to try it out and he did pretty well, so we presued it further.  Applied to a few schools and got accepted again to the U of I.    So we packed up our stuff and headed North to Idaho once more.  Craig was so glad to get out of the Utah bubble and swore he would never want to go back to that. (I  mention this because a few years living in liberal moscow he quickly changed his feelings about happy valley.)

The next 3 year is kind of a blur :)  Starting Law school with 2 young toddlers is something that is probably highly discouraged but we did it anyway.  I got a job working at a local photography studio and put the kids in a near by daycare....that lasted about a month with dues being too expensive to be worth it and also Soren didn't handle it very well.  He had abandonment issues afterwards.  I continued to work part time while Craig watched the kids....that took a tole on his studies so we decided for me not to work the next year and live completely on student loans.  His grades greatly increased and so did our debt :)  That first summer we lived again with his parents while he worked for ADA county public defenders office.  He really enjoyed his time there.  The second summer we lived yet again with his parents and he worked at the Gem County prosecutors office.  He always thought defending would be where he wanted to be but after working for the prosecution he feel in Love with that office.  His DREAM job would be to work in Emmett, his home town, along side Dick Linville in the prosecuting office.  Because he chose to do two externships for credit, instead of trying to find a paid gig.. we looked over everything and found he had enough credits that he could possible graduate early.  He had to take 20 credits that last semester but he did it.  

We said goodbye to Moscow where we had made some really great life long friends and headed AGAIN to Emmett.  We have lived with Craig's parents for a combined time of more than 12 months out of our 5 years of marriage and so you can see my eagerness to buy a house of our own :)

Craig took the bar in Feb.  Passed and was sworn in in April.  We lucked out and found a job in a great little firm in Boise and we couldn't ask for more.  Everything has been working out so well and we couldn't have done it without the help of so many friends and family.  

When we got married we had no idea this is the life we would be living, but so far the Lord as guided us down a great path.

1 marriage, 2 children, 3 years of law school, 4 cars, 5 degrees and 6 years of bliss.  

I LOVE YOU CRAIG!!!!!  

** I didn't realize when I sat down to write this post that it was going to turn out to be a mini biography of our life...but thats basically what it turned out to be :)