Quite the Week...

Well this week has been quite the eventful week... to say the least. After a near drowning incident at our beach house in Florida and upon return to our home in Atlanta, my mother had a stroke on Wednesday morning, June 13. She is only 49 years old, so as you can imagine, it was unexpected. She was talking with Arielle and just sat down and couldn't move or speak... it was scary. I have never seen my parents like that, so sad and scared. Romy and I flew in the next day and it was good to spend time together as a family supporting our mother. By Friday she was walking around on her own and saying a few words. Physically she has no problems from the stroke, mentally her speech, writing and reading are impaired and she will have to go to therapy to regain and strengthen those areas in her brain. She was able to go home on Saturday evening from the hospital and she was so happy to be home! She wanted all of the family to come over on Sunday and we made a nice, big, meal for Father's Day. It was good to see her laughing. It was hard to leave her on Monday evening, knowing that the next months would be the hardest on her, but at the same time it was comforting to know that she would be well taken care of, surrounded by many friends and family. If anything, I have learned that life is a gift, that health is a blessing and that I have so much to be grateful for, especially to have my mother still here with us.

Mom in the ICU.

My siblings and I hanging out in the hospital room.



The family on Father's Day.

CALIFORNIA

Morgan and I feel like we have become quite the little travelers! We were able to go to Southern California for a few days to spend some time with Morgan's Family and see where Morgan grew up! Other than the intense sunburn we both got... we had so much fun!

Morgan and I

The beautiful hills of California

The Rocky Beaches 

This picture looks fake! But I promise I really took it!

More Rocky Beaches!

Upstate New York

So we have had a fun couple of days, I took some time off and Morgan and I flew to Rochester, NY. I have never been to upstate New York, so I was really excited to go! We drove across the border to the Canadian side and were able to go on a boat tour of Niagara Falls... we totally recommend it! Even though we were soaked at the end, we had a lot of fun! We then drove to Palmyra, NY and were able to spend some time with The Searle's, they are the Hill Cumorah Church Site Directors, and they were my mission president in NYC. We had so much fun as they took us and gave us personal tours of the sites. THANK YOU! We loved touring and seeing the special place where The Restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took place. Here are some pictures from our trip!

Morgan and I at Niagara Falls

 The Sacred Grove

 Sunset at the Hill Cumorah

 The Searle's

Charlie, happy that everyone is home

We get to go to California next week and spend some time with Morgan's family and I get to see where Morgan grew up! We are excited for some warm weather and to be able to spend some time at the beach!

Hope all is well wherever you may be!

6 Months later.

So, I was thinking, I wonder if anyone even reads this?!

Well, our life has been busy, but good. I can't even believe this much time has flown by. Morgan is busy with school, we are aiming to graduate in May, so we will see. As for me, I can officially say I am a workin' woman, it's intense working full-time, but also ful-filling knowing that I can provide for both Morgan and I. Morgan, Charlie and I love our walks after work, it's nice to be able to take a break and catch up. Charlie, especially, loves his walking time. Morgan and I both work with the youth in our ward, and surprisingly, that keeps us pretty busy. Morgan is coaching little league for cute little 5-8 year olds in our area and he is really enjoying it. He just loves baseball, but it's also fun to watch him interact with the little kids. Charlie on the other hand, doesn't really like little people, he loves babies, but if they can walk, he feels threatened, so... we are working on that one. We feel really lucky to have had both of our families visit us in March and are excited to have them come back to visit in a few short months. We just feel that we have so much to be grateful for. Sometimes my favorite moments are just taking time to do the little things together, like cleaning or grocery shopping... we have so much fun. Life is just that good.

Life as we know it...

Morgan and I feel like we have so much to be thankful for... it sure feels like time is flying. We have been married for almost 3 months now. Our little apartment feels like home and we sure do love it. Charlie has arrived and seems to like his new place :) Morgan is studying and doing so well in school, he seems to like the U. As for me, I am working at Kirton and McConkie, a law firm downtown as a Legal Assistant and absolutely love it... its only 5 minutes away from our house! We love living in Salt Lake City, we enjoy going to parks with Charlie and going on long walks. We have been able to attend some fun sporting events like the BYU vs. Utah game (which we both wore our different schools colors!) and also a Real Salt Lake game, it's so fun to be so close to downtown and we enjoy exploring. It's been nice to have both of our families come out and visit us and it's always nice to see our siblings, they all live in Provo. We like our new ward, Morgan and I are both working with the youth and we really enjoy it. Time is flying by so fast we cannot believe it is almost November! We are excited to be able to fly home to Georgia for the Holidays and take a little break. That's pretty much it, life is good!

All moved in...

Morgan and I have been married for 3 weeks tomorrow... let's just say, they sure have gone by fast! The wedding was absolutely perfect and we cannot adequately express just how thankful we felt to have so many good friends and family come out and celebrate with us. The day was perfect. We then went on a cruise to the Eastern Carribean, we went parasailing, snorkeling and enjoyed the time together. We came back and were packed and left 4 days after... it sure was hard saying goodbye to our families and to Charlie... But don't worry, he will be joining us soon. :-) Driving across the country was fun, we listened to a lot of Michael Buble and Morgan learned to like country. We made it to Salt Lake City and began unpacking and settling into our new apartment, it was fun at first, to go and do all of the shopping but after a while Target and Walmart got kind of old. We LOVE our new apartment and it feels so comfy and cozy, we hope to see a lot of you visiting us! Morgan started school at the U this week... its WAY to RED up there :-) But you know what, other than that... Life is great. Really good.

Utah Bound...

So, for any of you who are reading our new blog :-) We have some exciting news... we will be moving out to Utah a week and a half after the wedding! We will be living in Salt Lake City where Morgan will be attending University of Utah in the fall and I will be looking for work. These last couple of months have been busy and exciting. Morgan finished up school and I started a certification class at the University of Georgia to be a Paralegal, hopefully it will help me find some good jobs out there. The class finishes the week before the wedding, needless to say, life is very busy. Thankfully the wedding plans are all finished and we are just looking forward to the big day! We are sad to be leaving our families here in Georgia but feel that moving out to Utah will be a great experience for the both of us...