A Semi-Brief History, part 1

I am the 4^th of 6 kids and grew up on an apple farm (though I know very little about apples or farming). I went to Snow College where I got my Associates degree and had an amazingly fun two years doing so.

Jenny, Ruth, & I sharing a home-mixed Vanilla Coke

After college I got a job for Big-D Construction as a receptionist on a jobsite. One of the foremen set me up on a blind-date with his younger brother John, who was fresh off his LDS mission. From first date to wedding day was only two and half months, and two weeks later he was deployed for Afghanistan. 

saying goodbye...

While he was gone I quit my job at Big-D (one of my most regrettable decisions), moved into our basement apartment, and started working at a nearby gas station.

John got to come home for 2 weeks

  John was a reservist for the Marine Corp, so when his year-long deployment ended, he had to go back to his civilian job, Verizon Wireless.  He convinced me to apply to the Verizon Customer Care Center, where I was hired. Not too long later, I got pregnant, and John got a different job. We put an offer in on a house; I quit my job (poor timing), then finalized the closing after he got back from a 3-week summer training. About 2 months after we moved he was deployed again, this time to Iraq, Xander was born a couple months later...