A Whole YEAR!!!

We have now officially been together a whole year. Well, sort of...We got engaged exactly a year ago today! At this time last year Daniel was working full time, I was going to school, we were planning a marriage, and totally wild and crazy about each other. We aren't planning a marriage, but other than that, nothing has really changed. Except now, we are not only wild and crazy about each other, we are totally, completely, and eternally in love. We can be very wild and crazy though. :) This past year has been wonderful. We have both grown so much and realized how much we really need each other.

These past couple of weeks have been crazy! Our car broke. We had to replace the transmission. We are just really glad that we followed the prophet's advice and saved for a rainy day. I still have not been able to get a job, so unless something amazing happens over the weekend, I am just going to continue doing school. I have found at least three more classes that I could take through independent study if I need to. I am already planning to do four classes and am almost done with three of them, so I may just be able to get them all done.

Daniel's internship is going well, he seems to really enjoy working with his group and he talks about new things everyday. I don't really understand everything, but I know they were just working on RNA extraction. Apparently, it is very tedious, and you have to do everything just right, or you have to start over again because it didn't work. Daniel is also getting excited about his research opportunity in Bioinformatics with Dr. Xu, and Dr. Dam. He will be working on a Bio-fuel project. He has been doing lots of research on it. It sounds very interesting, and I think he will enjoy it.

We miss everybody and we hope that you are all enjoying your summer. We are!!

Mi Casa es...Casa Mia

Stephanie and I just got back from a wonderful dining experience. With limited storage and cooking space here on campus, Stephanie and I take Friday nights as an opportunity to leave our dorm and eat out.

Tonight's venue was a little place called Casa Mia. We guessed from the name that it was a Mexican restaurant, but the food was actually inspired by Latin American countries further south. The food was very tasty, not quite as spicy as Mexican food, but rather a refreshing blend of natural flavors from the meat and vegetables. Stephanie ordered the night's house special, a plate of chicken nachos, with authentic tortilla chips and a great vegetable topping. I ordered a lomo saltado, which was small steak strips sauteed with onions and tomatoes, served over french-fry style potatoes, with a nice cream sauce on top. In addition to the great food, it was a nice, clean, simple, yet elegant atmosphere. The entrees were really affordable too, which made our visit all the more worth it.

Athens, Georgia has a lot of unique restaurants, and we look forward to trying out some new things while we're here!

We're In Georgia!!!

We're finally settling in here in Athens, Georgia. These past several days have been pretty intense. We left Provo early last Thursday morning, and spent the afternoon and evening with Stephanie's family in Colorado Springs. Friday we had a pretty uneventful trip to Columbia, Missouri where we camped for the night. Saturday we traveled to Augusta and spent the night with the Wilsons, some old friends. We had a wonderful day at church on Sunday and we got to see many old friends.

Come Monday morning, we packed up again and drove up to the University of Georgia in Athens. We arrived a few hours before my internship's check-in started, but our dorm room was ready for us to move in, so we started unpacking and re-arranging everything to make it as homey as possible.



Since then, Stephanie and I have been pretty busy. I've been spending all day at the Life Sciences building, and when Stephanie has a break from hunting for jobs, she's been studying back at the dorm. We have, however, been able to find time to spend together in the evenings, and we've enjoyed getting to know the campus in the warm, rich Georgia evening air.

Well, sorry it took us so long to post this. We love you all and hope everything is going well!

Today the family that I home teach spoke in sacrament meeting, so they asked Stephanie and I to watch their two children, Andrew (3 -4) and Emily (1-2). They actually weren't too bad, although Emily required a pretty consistent stream of Froot Loops to keep quiet.
Halfway through sacrament meeting, Emily saw momma and dada on the stand, and she started pointing at them and saying their names. It was really cute.

We're really lucky to have the chance to visit my mom and dad today. My grandma is visiting from Arizona, so this should be a very special Mother's Day.

We're leaving for Georgia on Thursday and we can't wait!

Key Lime Pie

We are leaving for Georgia in a week and a half, so Stephanie is working hard to finish her cooking class before we head out. Today's assignment...key lime pie. Yesterday as we were shopping I learned that key limes are smaller than normal limes and have a slightly different flavor, made popular by the pie we are making today! This is actually practice for a demonstration assignment--we are having Grandma James and Jenny over tomorrow night and for our FHE Stephanie will be showing off her skills! We're excited.

This morning we had the chance to go to Lehi to witness the blessing of one of Stephanie's cousins. Baby Railey is way cute, and we were glad that we were able to be there. We are enjoyed mingling with a lot of family afterwards.

We love you all and hope you have a great week!