graduation: class of 2009!

On May 1st, 2009 I officially felt like a college graduate...I was officially a college grad back in December but having the opportunity to walk with my class gave me a greater sense of accomplishment. I've learned so much in the 4 1/2 years I've attended UVU. I'm proud of myself and this has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, I'm extra pumped because I'm the first in my family to graduate with a bachelor's degree.

I loved the moment when we were preparing to walk down the hallway and into the McKay Events Center. It was a sad day knowing I'd probably never see my friends again but it was fun talking about where we'd end up and accomplish in our future. 

On either side of the aisle were all the Social Science and Humanities professors. I felt very powerful when we started heading down the aisle that lead us to our seats...having my friends in front and behind me and my professors and mentors on either side made me feel that much more important. I became very close to several of  my professors and will never forget all that they taught me. I saw Liz Andrus (an adjunct teacher, my scholarship advisor, and my friend), Dr. Jensen (my group therapy professor, mentor, positive psychology internship leader, and friend), and many other professors. I felt like an individual as they congratulated, waived, and hugged me as I walked by. Even better was having my friends and family in the crowd to support me and cheer me on.

Here I am as I'm turning the corner to find my seat, my dad got a pretty good action shot. Eric and my dad kept yelling at me to slow down, but I couldn't hold the line with picture taking.
And there I am getting my empty diploma holder. Apparently, I'm deaf because everyone said they kept yelling my name and I wouldn't turn to look at them - I looked for them in the crowd but there were so many people it was hard to find them...eventually I did tho. My mom even called me Monkey for not looking at them, that's her nice term for calling me a brat.

We didn't sit in alphabetical order and luckily I found 2 of my favorite classmates, Heather and Bethany. We kept each other entertained during the long ceremony. Heather was so nervous she was going to pass out. I just didn't want to trip on my over sized gown.

Commencement followed the Humanities and Social Sciences ceremony. This was a very special commencement for UVU because not only were we the FIRST GRADUATING CLASS OF UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY, but President Monson was our special guest speaker. The First Presidency was there to support us (or him) too. How did UVU get the Prophet as a guest speaker and not BYU? After having to clear the event center for commencment I found my family...then back down to get in line. After we found our seats for a second time, I saw the prophet right in front of me and I seriously couldn't control myself, I was so excited to be so close to him. His speech was amazing and he even received an Honorary Doctorate Degree, so did Sister Monson, and a few other people.

Having the Prophet speak was a huge perk, especially for my family because it made a long 4 hours of calling out names and speeches that much more bearable and worth it. My brother Billy was probably the most excited of them all. After it was all over I was able to find my favorite people!

Me and my mom. I love her so much and am thankful for her love and support.

Jalaine and my mother in law. Thank you Eileen for also supporting me and I'm lucky to have you as a second mother.

Lexi did pretty well at graduation, she looks so excited to see me! I just love that girl, she is so dang cute. Glad she made it through the ceremonies and wasn't too bored and antsy. Here is a current update on Lexi, she can now say my name! Before, as in a couple days ago, she would always call me Eric because Eric and I were always together and she knew us as Eric (and its easier to say) but we've been teaching her how to say CYN-THI-A and finally she can say it, very crisp and clear. Before it was cee-ya. It is the cutest thing I've ever heard.

One day she may even attend UVU! GO WOLVERINES!

That's right, my tassel is on the LEFT side...meaning I'm graduated! WOOT WOOT!

Me and Eric, my favorite person on earth. Thanks Eric for supporting me through EVERYTHING, your love and support can get me through anything. You are my rock and I love you! Only one more year until we get to do this all over again but in your honor! I can't wait.

Mom and Dad! Thanks Mom and Dad for supporting me in my education and for pushing me to come out to Utah. I don't know where I would be had I not moved out here, I love you guys so much and thanks for celebrating this special day with me...you too Billy and Iris!

My brother Billy and his wife Iris.

Here are our close/great friends that we do everything with: Jalaine, Greg and Lexi. Thanks for coming out and sitting through that long ceremony. You guys ROCK! And a special shout out to Greg for taking the day off work to come to my graduation! Greg, your's is coming up soon, you better believe Eric and I will be there!

The whole reason I moved out to Utah was in part to this wonderful man: Dr. Bezzant. He presented me with an opportunity to go to school at Utah Valley State College. I had my heart set on attending San Jose Sate University, I already had my classes, my roommates, and my apartment. Two months before the Fall 2004 semester started, I had a meeting with Dr. Bezzant back home and he told me about the Golden Gate Scholarship foundation. This scholarship gave me the chance of a lifetime, to go to school for free and get a full ride scholarship (plus a monthly stipend). Boyd and Jill Smith are the most loving and giving people I know. They are the creators and founders of this scholarship. They are a very wealthy couple in my Stake back home and they started a foundation for minority students in my stake to attend school at UVSC and to be surrounded by members of the Church. Hesitant, I decided to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity (after much consideration and hours of crying) and pack up and move to UTAH. I registered for UVSC a week before classes started, we packed the car and we were off. This move was the hardest thing I've ever done. I left everything I knew back home...my family and friends. I left with such short notice, I barely had time to mentally prepare myself for the big move. The good news is I loved it so much my parents didn't even have to ask me if I wanted to stay one more year.

Since the Smith's live back home, they employed Dr. Bezzant, who is the UVU Assistant Vice President for University Partnerships, to look over the students on the scholarship. He oversaw everything we did on the scholarship. Liz Andrus, who is a counselor and adjunct faculty at UVU is our scholarship advisor. She was there to give us a home away from home and help us get through school, we met with her weekly and that helped keep me on track. 

With the help of the Smith's, Dr. Bezzant, and Liz Andrus, I graduated from UVU debt free and graduating as a better person than I was when I moved here. I owe them everything and am so grateful to have known such wonderful and giving people. In fact, my first year here Boyd and Jill Smith received an Honorary Doctorate Degrees from UVSC at graduation, just like President Monson and Sister Monson. Boyd Smith received the degree of Business and Jill Smith received an Honorary Degree of Humane Letters. That just shows what wonderful people they are.

After all the picture taking, Dr. Bezzant invited my family and I into his office, there we had one of the most profound and moving conversations of my life. He gave me advice and spoke so fondly of me to my parents. He made me feel like I was the best person in the world, but in reality, he is. I admire him so much. He even suggested that I sit in his chair in his beautiful office and take pictures. I will remember this day forever, and will remember all the wonderful people that helped me get where I am today.

Like President Monson said to the graduating class of 2009: "the two most important words are these: thank you".
To celebrate, all 11 of us (Greg, Eric's brother, was kind enough to meet us after graduation) headed to Tucano's Brazilian Grill for lunch. It was delicious and I knew my family would love it. Especially Billy. He loves buffet's and can pound a lot of food, ha ha.
I'm so blessed to be surrounded by so many loving people. I have strong ties at UVU and am a proud Wolverine. Go Green!

pampered toes

I forgot how amazing getting a pedicure can be. Yesterday my old roommate Rachel and I got pedicures. I haven't had one since my wedding...thats more than 3 years ago. We went to this great place in the Riverwoods mall. The massage on my legs was amazing, especially the warm stones. We finished off our pampered day with lunch at Magleby's Fresh...that place too is delicious! I raved about how great it was to Eric and he agreed that I deserve to get a predicure more often than once every 3 years. We all deserve pedicures every once in a while!

friends in the city

I can't leave home without catching up with my good ol' high school friends. We met up in San Francisco and had dinner. Veronica just moved there and Vanessa is attending USF. I love the city and would move there in a heartbeat, if our pocket books could afford it, SF would probably be our number one choice!

We spent so much time catching up that by the time we decided to have dinner a lot of places were closed, and I thought Utah County was bad for closing everything at 9, but it turns out that most places close at 10 in the city, only an hour later - but that hour seems to make a big difference sometimes. So we headed over to Mels Diner, not the best food in town but they stay open late, I was craving a good shake anyway.

Here we are with the best seat in the house: Eric, Me, Vanessa, Veronica, Adriana, Kike. Kike just proposed to Adriana a couple weeks ago and they are getting married sometime next year. I'm so excited for them, they are high school sweethearts and have been dating for 8 years. Kike is like my cousin and Adriana is a great friend. I can't wait for them to tie the knot.

We missed Claudia, Maricela, and Iris during this little reunion. Claudia and Maricela are both pregnant and are due in September, both 2 days apart and both having boys. What are the odds? I'm so excited for them and can't wait to go out there in September to see their babes. This couldn't have worked out better in my favor because now I only have to go out there once :)

Can you tell I took this picture? I'm not very good at taking the picture when I'm in it, I usually cut some one's head off, in this case its mine.

Another group picture but with a better view. We're outside Vero's house. She lives on probably one of the steepest streets in SF. Let me tell you, we had a hard time parking in our stick. Vero was so kind as to let us park in her drive way so we wouldn't further damage our clutch (we left a pretty bad smell). Its a pretty narrow street and she says if we don't park close enough to the curb when the bus comes they'll chop our mirrors or doors off and don't even care. Looks like if we move to the city we'll be trading in our tC for an automatic. The view of the lights were gorgeous, this picture doesn't do it justice.

I love my friends and am glad we still keep in good touch, we could go months without talking or seeing each other but that doesn't change a thing. Those are the best kinds of friends. I'm done posting about our trip to cali...yay.

Easter 2009

I love Easter, next to Christmas, Easter is one of my favorite holiday's. I love what Easter represents. I love the Savior and celebrating his sacrifice and the love he has for us. Easter to me also means the start of Spring...warm weather, flip flops, cute skirts, pretty flowers, pretty colors etc.

Luckily we were able to spend it with my family this year. I haven't spent Easter with my family since I moved out here 5 years ago, so this was a real treat for me. We spent the night at my sisters and woke up to this cute Easter basket: The Easter bunny ate all the carrots that were left out the night before (not really, everyone in my family - except Eric, he hates raw carrots - ate a carrot so Kelley would think the bunny stopped by). The Easter Bunny gave us all baskets. Kelley got 2 trucks, he was so excited because that's all he plays with now, he must have about 50 toy trucks. After we opened our baskets and got ready, we headed to my parents and had an Easter egg hunt for my nephews. It was fun hiding the eggs, I haven't done that since I've moved out here because there is no one to hide eggs for. We hid them well, almost too good :)My dad still had some responsibilities at church, so as we waited for him to have Easter dinner, we enjoyed the weather on the porch and took LOTS of pictures.

The three girls. Me, my sister and niece Ashlee. Ashlee is growing up so fast. I was five when she was born, I was more of her play buddy than her aunt. I wasn't a very good aunt to Ash either, we were 5 years apart, can you blame me? Despite the small age difference, I still see her as my little annoying niece. But she's not anymore, she just had her senior PROM last weekend. She graduates from high school next month and just got accepted to Chico State - party school! I'm so proud of her and can't believe how fast she's growing up.

Here we look like we love each other, but we still get into our fights. My mom would always tell me to be nice to Ash and "play nice" but years later I still can't be nice to that brat! I admit, I'm a brat too. That's just how we show our love, kind of, my mom still doesn't get that.

The boys: Billy, Jimmy, and Eric. So glad Jimmy came down from Oregon to party with us! Next time Annette needs to join him. We missed you Annette!

Here again, Billy is missing in the sibling (and niece and hubby) photo! I don't know where he snuck off to...

But we got Billy and Iris in this one!

Ash and Kelley...sibling love.

The other three girls, me, my mom and Ashlee.

Finally my Dad came home and we were able to start the feast. We had ham and all that juicy goodness that comes along with Easter dinner. I loved spending this special season with my family. I just miss them so much and can't wait to live closer to them...one day we will. California is waiting for us.

THE END...ok, not really. I still have one last post from our trip!

going back to april

So as I sat down today to finally update my blog, (I've been a slacker and haven't had the motivation to sit down and do it) Eric asks me, whats the point in uploading your pictures to your blog if you upload them to facebook too? I thought the very same thing, most of my friends are on facebook and I'm on there more frequently than my blog, but posting the pictures on my blog allows me to talk about them. The blog is kind of like a journal for me, kind of - I'm not very good at it because I really only post about our activities, nothing else. But I think I'll have more time on my hands so I'll get better. Anyway, there are a lot of things I want to post and my slight undiagnosed OCD forces me to post some highlights from the "beginning"...or the last time I posted. So I'm going back to April. WARNING: There are a lot of pictures, I love taking pictures and I have a problem with posting too many, I have to restrict myself from going picture overload.

Eric and I took a road trip home to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday over Easter. My sister planned a surprise party and we were one of the surprises, along with my brother Jimmy, he came down from Oregon. This gathering was the first time the whole family has been together in more than 4 years...so I was really looking forward to this trip.

We arrived at my sisters house on Friday at the wee hours of the morning. We surprised my dad that night at dinner in San Francisco, we were supposed to surprise him on Saturday, the day of the Pachanga, the plans changed and we really couldn't wait that long to see him, we decided to surprise him at dinner. So my sister made reservations at Morton's Steakhouse because my dad was craving it and had heard this place had amazing steak. It better have because when we looked at the menu it about blew our socks off, it was the most expensive restaurant Eric and I had ever been to. We waited for my parents in the lobby and were going to surprise my dad there. When he walked in he took a double look at us, and had the biggest surprise on his face, it was priceless! He had a hunch we were coming because some people just can't keep secrets, but he was still shocked. Here are some pictures from that day.

Before we met the rents at dinner, my sister, niece Ashlee, nephew Kelley, Eric and I hung out in the city. We were craving clam chowder so of course we had to hit up the Wharf.

Even though Morton's was expensive, they had great service. In the reservations my sister told them it was my Dad's 60th birthday. So when we got to our table they had happy birthday confetti all over it and even had specialized menu's for each of us that said "Happy 60th Birthday David!", you better believe we took them home! They even took our picture in the lobby and put it in a cute frame for my dad, all at no charge!

The next day was the BIG 60th CELEBRATION PARTAY, we went to Huddart Park, a park we always went to growing up, its in the middle of the Woodside hills. The drive up there is gorgeous, its surrounded by huge Redwood trees, other towering trees, trails, and sometimes you even see horses trekking along on the trails. Once my family and I even got lost for a couple hours in the many trails in the forest, it was scary but makes for a great story.

Since we were going to be all together, I wanted to get family pictures. Well, here is our attempt at that...we're missing Annette (Jimmy's wife) and my two nephews Kelley and Samuel, those kids were off running around somewhere! We were supposed to get them professionally done, but nothing ever goes as planned in my family! This is kind of a random shot, didn't think this would be all we got!

oh, and here's another one...not too great but it will have to do! Kelley made it in this photo.And here come all the pictures!
My mom bought party sound maker things...we had a little too much fun with them!

Here is my crazy brother with his Mexican jersey and his American flag bandanna, if it isn't obvious, he is very proud of both countries!

Kelley is such a cutie, he couldn't stop climbing on my back.

Here we are getting our food, it was delicious! We had carne asada, BBQ chicken, beans, my sisters weird pink pasta salad (which i don't recommend), and a lot more delicious food!

Its birthday cake time! You can tell this was my mom's doing, she is so crazy! Gotta love her!

The three siblings, Billy never seems to make it in the pictures, I don't know where he was off to. Probably talking someones ear off :)

Samuel hates getting his picture taken, hence why he's not in any of my pictures. But we managed to get a good shot of him hitting the Pinata (blogger wont let me do the fancy "n"). You can't see the pinata, but you better believe we had one!

Here are los invitados:

My dad is the only Gringo in that picture! It was a fun day, thanks for having a birthday Dad!