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2010--Mark applies to multiple music schools; decides on Michigan. 2011--Mark begins at Michigan.  There are four performing ensembles.  Mark beats the other freshmen and some sophomores and makes it into the #3 ensemble (of 4).  Mark also attends a meet-and-greet for the Men's Rowing Team, and signs up. 2012--Mark's entire life is dedicated to rowing.  And some music.  In the Spring, Mark outdoes the other freshmen in his freshmen recital.  Daddy and I are thrilled.  He also receives his mission call to the Russia St. Petersburg mission. 2012-2014--Mark serves a life-changing mission in Russia. 2014--Mark receives notice that he will need to reaudition for his music scholarship despite being told before his mission that he wouldn't need to.  We all panic.  Mark pulls through and gets his scholarship reinstated.  Mark is also given an ultimatum by his horn professor--rowing, or music.  He can't do both.  He gives up rowing. 2014-2016--Mark works hard to comple

I have had a pretty crazy week.  As I was writing about it to Hannie this week, I wanted to record it all, but I didn't want to rewrite it for the blog, so I thought I would just copy and paste it here. Oh my goodness, Hannie, it has been SUCH a busy week!  I had to set my alarm for this morning (Monday) just to make sure I got something off to you! Monday afternoon, Glo and I left to drive Jewel back home.  This was after Glo had taken a final that morning, finished cleaning her apartment, and driven to downtown Salt Lake City to pick me up.  Of course, I was wandering around multiple parking structures, trying to find where Ethan had parked his car after walking to Deseret Book and picking up new garments for Daddy.  We knew we had cheesecake to take back home to Michigan, so we stopped by Smith's to buy an insulated tote bag (which, by the way, worked AMAZING!  Every night, we would unpack it and throw the cheesecake and yogurt drinks in the hotel mini-frig, and rep

Oh boy, this year's trip to the Salt Lake City marathon was fraught with dread on one side and met with great anticipation on the other.  It all depended on the athlete. John was entering this marathon with the most do-able injury so far of his running career.  He's been sidelined before because of a recent surgery on his foot or knee which means an absolute "no" for the possibility of running.  But then there are the times when he enters a race injured and just powers through it.  This time, none of us were very optimistic that that would be possible...except for John.  He's always had problems with his achilles tendon, but three weeks before the marathon, he was out running and felt something in his foot just happen.  It caused a lot of pain, but he didn't know the specifics of what had happened.  It was crazy to see how stressed out John was about the possibility of never running again...and how quickly he joined Weight Watchers after it happened :-). Whe

#BabyChickensDontCluckWhileRunning I needed a t-shirt for our celebration weekend, but unlike the times were the location is the main focus of our trip, we had a bunch of things to celebrate in just a few short days.  So I created a shirt that attempted to encapsulate all the fun in one long hashtag. #--Mark and Allison are notorious for creating about a million hashtags after anything they post or write.  So the t-shirt began with that ;-) Baby--We were all really here for one reason.  Baby Brother was being blessed.  And I made the t-shirts a nice blue. Chickens--We were holding a belated Celebration of the Egg. Don'Cluck--There is a new movie called A Quiet Place that is seriously intense.  We had all been waiting anxiously for its release, and we planned to see it.  Well, everyone except Allison and Rebecca ;-) WhileRunning--Not hard to guess this one.  That darn marathon. And of course, everyone had their names and numbers on the back of the shirt in how they rel

I had no idea the struggles my parents were going through on Sunday, but during Sunday school I heard something that made me think of my parents and their house experience, and was asked to share it on the blog: Our lesson was about the story of Moses and how he was called to free the Israelite people. If you read the first couple chapters of Exodus, you can see that Moses has a lot of doubts in himself. But he pushes through those to go and be the Lord's prophet. As we know, he went to Pharaoh to ask him to let the Israelites go, and of course the Pharaoh refused. In addition, the Pharaoh took it one step further by making life harder for the Israelites. They were the brick makers for Pharaoh's projects, and he had up to this point provided the clay and straw needed to create the bricks. After Moses asks to have the Israelites freed, however, the Pharaoh decides that the Israelites now have to collect the straw themselves, while still making bricks. I'm sure this was v

This week, I have been extremely emotional.  Being my sentimental, sensitive self, I am used to short bouts of deep, weepy emotions, but having it extend for such a long period of time has been...well, it's just been. I attribute it to a few things.  For a start, it looks like our house may have sold.  We have a contract on it, and a neighborhood friend of mine told me that she ran into the buyers at a party, and they are totally committed to getting the house.  While this should be a reason to rejoice, John and I just feel relief more than anything.  Lots and lots of relief.  And a tinge of sadness because we have lost so much money on something that we poured our hearts and souls into for so many years.  And it almost feels as if the love that has existed in that house has been cheapened or lessened, even though I know it hasn't.  But at the end of the day, it's hard to believe that this trial in our life might be coming to an end. Which leads me to tears of gratitu