Self succiency is the best!

God made dirt and dirt don't hurt! That was the theme of last weeks Family Home Evening. Andrew's parents came over and we weeded our garden and prepared it for planting!!! I've never gardened in my life on my own so I'm super excited! Spokane has a pretty short growing season so I'm not even late in planting one. We haven't put the seeds in yet, planned to today, but Andrew has to work and I'm not doing it on my own :) Here are some pictures after we were done. It only took a couple of hours. I should've taken pictures before we started, it was a mess!!

Andrew and I were trying to pose like these guys, but it didn't quite work out (we didn't have a pitch fork and I don't think we could be that serious if our life depended on it :)

Now I think I'm pretty much caught up on blog postings...I graduate from college next Friday!!! Woo Hoo!!!! More to come on that soon!

Memorial Day Weekend! My Best Friend's Wedding!

This Memorial Day weekend was great! Before we left, I turned in my internship portfolio. It was about a 3-inch thick binder with a lot of stuff in it. I've enjoyed my time at Sacred Heart a lot and I have a couple jobs lined up that I think I can get...just waiting to hear back. On Wed, May 26, my best friend since 1st grade went to the temple because she got married May 29th. Here's a couple pics of us at the Columbia River Temple in the Tri-Cities. For her wedding gift we gave them a beautiful picture of this temple because she gave me one of Mt. Timpanogos, which was where I went to the temple for the first time. It was great!

Thursday we went to Sunny and Nate's reception. I didn't do a great job of taking pictures, I kept forgetting my camera. On Friday we travelled to Twin Falls, which was where she got married. The worst part was that I again forgot my camera. Luckily Dad had an i-phone that I took pictures with. I couldn't believe it. I was sooo mad at myself. Oh well. They got married on Saturday and we caught a temple session between the luncheon and the reception. Andrew and I have now been to 5 temples together :) Can't wait to go to more! Sunny and Nate are moving to South Dakota because he's starting his 3-yr long residency as a family practice doctor. I'm going to miss her, but we vowed to see each other once a year. It's a 7hr drive for both of us to Bozeman, MT so we think we'll be meeting there sometime and will then make a trip to Yellowstone because it's only about an hour or so away. Nate's a good man, I couldn't be happier for her!

We played dodge ball on the trampoline with balls of silly string.

Erica performed a couple Hannah Montana (or is it Miley Cyrus) songs for us with some sweet choreography included!

We had a bbq that Mom made! Those ribs were delish!!

Andrew had a really runny nose all weekend! Poor guy :)

On Memorial Day we visited some friends, dug out some shrubs for Dad and then went to the Dairy Fair and had some really good ice cream. Andrew also had squeaky cheese (cheese before they pound it into blocks) for his first time! Wow, what a weekend!!

College sports has come to an end...

First half of my fan base at my last meet

(minus Andrew who's taking the picture)

Well...a couple of weeks ago I ran my last race ever. It's crazy to be done! I actually have to workout by myself now. I had a huge fan base at the Conference Championships at Weber State. It was great...I felt so loved that my parents, sisters, and husband would drive 10 hours to see me race for less than 15 seconds. Thanks for all the support I've gotten through the years. I ran a 14.68, a new PR my very last race. Placed 10th out of 22, I think. A big thanks to Andrew for supporting me too...he's the one that encouraged to live my dream of doing college sports. After hurting my shoulder playing vball at GU, I thought my college sports days were over, but about a month before starting school at EWU, Andrew encouraged me to run track. I hadn't even thought about that option until he brought it up. I then compared my times to girls that were on the team, e-mailed my future coach, she told me to come out to practice and the rest is history! I love my team. We've had a great couple of years together! I loved running track, but I'm ready for what's next in life, a family!! GO EAGS!!


The other half of my fan base at my last meet :)

They couldn't all fit in the same picture.

My coach and I after my final race...he was a really good coach!

My Jump Squad at Conference, minus Krys, she redshirted :(

Video of our only outdoor home meet, the Pelluer! I won that race!!!

A couple nights ago, we had the EWOOs, an awards program for all athletes at EWU. Some of the awards presented were Best Game, Best Team, Newcomer of the Year, Best Male and Female Athlete, etc. I was nominated and won the Female Scholar Athlete Award. I was surprised I got it, but we got a bobble-head of our mascot Swoop and a plaque and a highlights video was played of my accomplishments on the track and in the classroom. Later on in the night, I sang a song on stage. It was a parody of the Alladin song, "A Whole New World", we changed the lyrics to "A Whole New Field" talking about EWU's new red turf that coming in. It was a lot of fun!

We're Alive!!!

Hey once again it's been a long while since I've posted. I'm not very good at this blogging thing. Sorry. But now I must spend a while updating you on our wonderful life. Here's a couple of items I need to update you on...

SCHOOL...we just found out that Andrew was accepted into the Masters in Teaching program starting June 21. That was sooo exciting for us to hear! It is a very intense 5 quarter long program that I will support him through. I will graduate from college on June 11 and then plan on working while he's getting through his Masters. This last quarter was good. Andrew is now taking a break this spring because he has all his pre-reqs done, but he will be taking 2 independent study courses from BYU to finish his History degree. This spring quarter is going to be great for me. I only have a 10 week long, 20-hr/week internship at Sacred Heart Medical Center (the largest hospital in Spokane) working with the Chief Nurse Executive. Besides that I will have to take my capstone. Cost of books this quarter came out to $6.24. That is pretty awesome huh!?! I'm very excited for the internship. It will give me some good hands-on experience and hopefully will jumpstart my career!

TRACK...3 weeks ago I finished up my last Indoor track season. It was a good season. The Big Sky Conference Championships was at Montana State in Bozeman, MT. I ended up running my fastest time ever while I was there. I didn't place, but I was happy with my time. While there, Andrew and I and Andrew's parents and Uncle Dick wen to the Museum of the Rockies. It was pretty cool. I hope to do a little more at the Outdoor Championships at Weber State in May. The transition into the outdoor season has been good, but really tough. Jon works us to death at times, but it's great. Our first meet is in 2 weeks at the University of Montana. I look forward to it.

This was taken right after my hurdle race at conference.

This picture was taken at the Museum. I'm pointing to the incredible length of a dinosaur's leg (femur of the right lig) and his rib (most right bone). That museum was incredible.

The last picture at our first apartment. It was good to us!

NEW HOUSE...We love it!!! It's been good to us. Major upgrade from the apartment life. We no longer listen to our neighbors vacuuming and yelling at each other in Ukranian every hour of the day. We have great neighbors and it now takes us only 10 mins to get to the freeway!!! It's great! The only true visitors we've had are my little sisters. They came for Valentine's Day on President's Day weekend. We had a blast making each other valentines, making and decorating sugar cookies, and eating heart-shaped waffles. We celebrated Presidents Day by going ice skating (I hope my coach doesn't read this :) It was tons of fun! Nobody hurt themselves, but I'm afraid the little girls walked away with some deep bruises (it was their first time).

These are the waffles we made on Valentine's Day

The cookies we made on Valentine's Day

A picture of us ice skating. It was the girls first time and they loved it!

CHURCH...Andrew is still the YM President. It's a very busy calling, however, he does like it. We only have about 2 boys that come regularly to church and a couple more that join them at mutual. This weekend they are going on a campout, so that should be lots of fun! I am the 2nd Counselor in the primary presidency. It's going great! I just love being around those kids and watching them learn the gospel of Jesus Christ each week. This past week I was in charge of Sharing Time and I narrated the story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt while the kids acted it out. It was a huge success. We then watched that same clip that is in the movie The Ten Commandments. They loved it. The point of the lesson was to have the kids learn that the Prophets keep us safe if we listen to them. Another calling we have is that we are the DJs for the Youth Stake Dances. We had a "March Madness" themed dance this past Saturday. It was way better than the dance we had to DJ at on Friday for the older single adult ages 30-70. That was a rough dance. We had to play everything from a 50s waltz to Destiny's Child. That was a challenge. Our playlist disappointed people left and right.

SPRING BREAK...is this week. In a couple of hours I will be on my way to sunny Phoenix, AZ to visit my best friend Sunny. She just got engaged this past week so we now have to go wedding dress shopping, plan her reception, bridesmaid dress shopping, etc. It will be so fun!!! Sadly, Andrew will not being going with me. I'll miss him dearly. I'll be back this Saturday.

BIRTHDAY...I had a birthday , shout Hooray! On the 16th of March I turned 22! I share my birthday with my now 3-yr old nephew Eli. I've realized that birthdays are not as fun as you age. I was watching Eli open his gifts and eat his cool cake that his mom makes each year and his birthday was way cooler :) I was going to have another little nephew born on my birthday, but Jamie (my bro LaDon's wife) had to have him on the 15th at 7:30. Missed it by that much. Oh well, Daniel John is a cute kid and we were just glad that he got out safely.

This is Eli opening the gift we gave him. It was a 400-pg coloring and activity book of Curious George. He loved it!!

Here's a great picture of me. I think I was thinking about how I was going to blow all 22 candles out in 1 blow. Thankfully my little nephew Abram helped me out so we did get it in 1 blow.

I think that's it for now. I really will try a little harder to post more often. I hope to be like Jamie (my sister-in-law) and post so often that I have a picture of my newborn up on the blog just an hour after I have him :)

Time for an update...

Hey I know it's been a while so I thought I would update you all on what's been going on...

First of all, Andrew & I finished up fall quarter. It's my last fall quarter of my undergraduate degree!!! How exciting!!!

Since then, we have been doing all sorts of things. Andrew got in a car accident and totalled his car. He was rear-ended by a kid messing with his heater in his new car. Andrew was fine, a little sore and since then has been treated to massage therapy. My car also isn't working so we are out 2 cars. We are now looking to buy Andrew's dad 2002 Nissan Maxima. We have also been at home packing because we are moving into a house!! I'm so excited! Moving is not fun, stressful, and boring, but today we finished it up and tomorrow we're having a cleaning party in the morning before we have to check out of our apartment. It's crazy that we're moving. The new place has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, an entertainment room, living room, kitchen with a lot of cupboards, storage room, big laundry room, a backyard with a nice garden, deck, and a 2-car garage. I'm really excited!! We will still be renting, but it's still a nice step up. It's more than double the space and the same price as what we're renting for right now.

For Christmas we stayed in Spokane until Christmas Day. For Christmas Eve we had most all of Andrew's family together. Matt & Rachel couldn't make it because they were sick and Kim & Aaron stayed in Tri-Cities because they were all traveled out. That night we had many soups for dinner and then all the grandkids performed the Nativity Story. It was so cute. My camera was dead so I didn't get any pictures, but it was priceless. Then we all opened one gift. Andrew got a book and I got a slow cooker recipe book. It was fabulous! Christmas Day we went over to Mom & Dad Borders house and opened up more presents. At noon we were treated to a phone call from Emily, Andrew's sister, who is currently serving a mission in Puerto Rico San Juan East Mission. It was so great to talk to her. She's doing so many great things and her testimony of the Savior is so strong. She's completely fluent and I can't wait for her to come home. She's great!!

Then we borrowed an Expedition from Lovena, our primary president (I'm her 2nd counselor), and went to the airport to pick up Nicole, Dallas, Benson & Melilla. It was so great to hang out with them. We missed Jonas and LaDon, Jamie, Ally, & new baby, but we had a really fun time with Nicole's animated kids.

Here are some pictures of that...

On the way home to Sunnyside we stopped by Kim & Aaron's to drop off gifts from all the Borders families. We got home at around 6:30 and at 7 p.m. we were treated again and talked to Jonas, my brother, for about an hour. He's serving a mission in Raliegh, North Carolina. It was also so good to hear from him. He's doing great. He knows why he's out there and he's working so hard. We were so blessed to talk to both of our siblings on missions. It was great!!

After that phone call, we had Christmas at Mom & Dad Linde's house. Again, we got some cool gifts. We got more books (including Joseph Smith Papers- Book 2 for Andrew), movies, storage containers, clothes, socks, shoes, Xbox games, little knick-knacks for our new home, etc.

Then the day after Christmas we went and took a "Sisters" picture at "The Picture People". The photographer didn't do too well, but I think we got a couple good pictures out of it. We then went back to Sunnyside and had a Christmas dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, & LaNyce. We went home after and just vegged out.

On Sunday we went to church and saw some people. We saw Sunny and her new boyfriend. I hope they get married soon!! We saw some other people too. Dad sang "The Innkeeper" in Sacrament meeting. It was great. After church we had a sisters only tea party. The whole time we tried to talk in a British accent and did terribly, but it was really fun.

During our apple juice, gummy bears, pudding, and popcorn party (aka Tea Party), Benson and Mom played on the drums. Here are the mallets he used.

On Monday, Dec. 28th it was Nicole's birthday and we convinced Mom & Dad to join us in Seattle. All 10 of us squished into the Expedition and drove to Seattle. It was soooo uncomfortable, but it was totally worth it. We went to the Space Needle and had lunch at there. The view was great and we had some good food. We then hopped on the Monorail and rode down to Pike's Place Market and watched the flying fish. It was great. We got to Seattle at 1 and headed for home at 5:30. And here are some pictures of that...

All in all, we had a great Christmas and look forward to the new year. We love you all and thought you deserved an update. I hope to do this more regularly, but we start winter quarter on Monday so I'm not promising anything :) Sorry.

It's been a while...

Sorry I haven't written any new news for a long time and again today I'm afraid I won't. I left my camera at home in Sunnyside and my computer doesn't work right anymore. Well it works, but the internet doesn't anymore :( Life is good. We're almost done with the fall quarter. Finals week is Dec. 7-11. Track is going well for me. I am now a multi and I'm doing to Pentathlon at our home meet Dec. 4-5. I will do the hurdles, high jump, long jump, shotput, and the 800. I'm nervous, but excited to see how well I can do. We'll see.
Andrew is still the Young Men's President, I'm the 2nd counselor in the Primary Presidency, and we are still the DJs for the stake dances. In fact, we have to DJ the stake youth dance for nearly 300 kids tonight after Best of EFY. We hope it goes well.
During the break I'll really catch up with pictures too!

Peer fun!!!

A couple weeks ago we got to go down to Sunnyside with Gordon and Robyn Peer. We had a wonderful time!! My mom got to hook them up with tons of baby stuff because she's a wonderful woman and has the resources to do it because of her job. Here's a couple pictures from that fun experience!!

Here's the Peer's before there birthing class. We left Spokane at 11:45 p.m. and got to Sunnyside at 2:45 a.m. because class was at 8 a.m.

This is the boys having fun at the arcade!!

Here we are at Robyn's surprise baby shower. She loved it. It reminded her how much we all love her and Gordon.

Here's her crib that we got her for a sweet deal! It was beautiful. We stuck all her gifts in the crib. It was awesome!! We love them and miss them so much :( but we're down in Utah right now and get to see them tomorrow!! Woo hoo!!!