2008 in a Wrap

Well most people send out letters and cards for the holidays. As I would love to do that, I feel like nothing great will be done til Dave and I final settle down, in our own place and have our space to freely move and live, so until then this is what your going to get and as we realize not everyone has a blog that we would like this to reach, so we send our apologies in our hearts to them.

2008 has been a heck of a year. And I wouldn't classify my usage of heck as up in the great. wonderful, fantastic words category. It wasn't the worst but it was rough and down-in-the dirt kinda year. I've heard many people say things like this about 2008. Many people are happy to see it go. As most are happy to see it go, our year was full of life's great (and not so great) moments...

Our year began up in our first little place in the Artic Tundra of Utah (as many have referred it as), Logan. It was a great little place. It was near where we needed to be, USU's campus though it was a treacherous walk up that almost-vertical hill. We enjoyed it. Dave worked at Pepperidge Farms where he loaded trailers. Rachel was working at Iggy's Sports Grill as a waitress. Both jobs did what they needed to. We were both busy, busy, busy with school and work. At the end of the Spring (more like winter) semester, we packed up and moved all our stuff to Jon and Julie's and the Nasella basements, all eccept a car full of things we could take along with us to St. Louis, Missouri.

St. Louis was a choice we made the year before to possibly get a head start in the finance area. Yes, Dave went door to door selling security systems. As for Rachel, she worked in the office setting up installations, doing paperwork, and a lot of other stuff. We were able to celebrate our first anniversary in St. Louis. Dave had to work on the day but we were able to to work around that. We even were able to get away for a day at the zoo (which was the hottest day ever!) and spend a night at a cute bed and breakfast. We lived in high class apartments that were actually right out of St. Louis in St. Charles. Our typical day was like this: in the morning you would find Rachel in the little workout room until the morning meeting, Dave fighting to try and train for LOTOJA as little as possible:); noon we would be at the meeting; about 1-8:30 p.m. Dave would be knocking and I would be in the office taking phone calls and doing paperwork; sometimes I was able to go play with the girls; 9:00-9:30 Dave would roll in and head straight to the computer and load the next Lost episode while I would finish making dinner. We were able to finish all 4 seasons of Lost in about a months time. We were addicted thanks to Jess.

At the end of our summer there the Nasella family made a trip out to visit. We were able to go see Carthage Jail and Nauvoo. It was amazing! We also went to the arch (for our 3rd time) and our 2nd Card's game. The Card's game was mostly for my dad. That stadium is one sight to see though. They even have a casino in the stadium. It was a good end to our summer. Missouri was gorgeous but we were sure ready to get back to Utah. We'll never forget the long trek back. We were determined to go straight through. The drive is about 1400 miles long but we were determined. Let's just say it was quite interesting. I've never had to push my eyelids so hard to keep them open. Past Cheyene we had to pull off and let Dave take a power-nap. I was so wide awake from the eerie feeling of nothing around us. It seemed as if the road between Evanston and Park City never was going to end. We swear we went into hallucinations. The Salt Lake Valley never looked so good coming out of Parley's.

Three days later we started each of our last semesters at Utah State. The first couple weeks were a bit crazy. We took a couple vacations. One to Lake Powell and the next weekend to Logan following Dave through his first LOTOJA bike race. Even though most of his training was in mountainless Missouri, he still finished strong! His support crew (me, Britt, and Cris) even missed him at a stop. Luckily his parents came to the rescue! (Yay for dependable parents!) It was such a great experience for all of us and a great accomplishment for Dave. Dave wants me to do it next year...we'll see if I can get through my long time fear of bikes.

December came quickly with Rachel's final week as a student teacher and Dave's final weeks trekking up to Logan a couple times a week. December 13th we completed our journey at USU. We both walked. It was so fun to finish that big step in life with the love of your life. It made it that much better!

We are currently trying to end our trend as ping-pong balls and finally settle down into a house of our own. It's been a long road but I guess we are learning great things along the way. We are learning, and continue to learn and grow each day in this adventure we call life.