Changes and Surprises

So this last week was my last week of the semester. I finished all of my finals on Friday! 2 years down 1 to go! On Thursday night Elisa and Alex came over. Elisa went to Vegas for the weekend to get dome more wedding stuff done. She called me Wednesday wondering if she could stay the night on Thursday and get a ride to the airport in the morning since Alex had work early the next morning. While they were here we collected some pictures that Alex and I had to put on a cd for my mom. She is making a guestbook like the one she did for our wedding and needed pictures to get it started.

Friday morning I brought Elisa to the airport and went up to the school to finish some last minute studying for my last final. About an hour before my final I got a call from Matthew, he missed the Trax train and needed me to come pick him up. I was frustrated at first because I hadn't finished my studying and now I wasn't sure if I was going to. I was irritated all the way down to go pick him up, you know the whole talking to yourself about how inconvenient the whole situation is, and if he would have just done this or that then he wouldn't be in this mess sort of thing, but as I got closer to picking him up I began to realize how silly I was being. It wasn't like he had done it on purpose, I wasn't really worried about my test, and he was about to go teach students and was probably already frustrated himself, there was no need to bring contention into the situation. I was sort of embarrassed of myself, why was I making a big deal of something that didn't really effect much at all? Everything turned out fine, I made it back in time to get some final tips for my test and although he was a little late, Matthew was able to make it to his class.

Later that night we went out to an Institute Party for all the High School Seniors at the Sandy Institute. Many of the students Matthew teaches were there and we felt like we should support, and there was free food; can't beat that! It was kind of weird to be there I have to admit. It was like walking back in history. My memories of all the fun I have had at the Institute activities came flooding back to me and a part of me wanted to go "bust a move" on the dance floor, but as I walked into the gym I realized that that part of my life has passed. Not that I can't go dancing anymore or go to Institute activities, but that my awkward teenage years and all the craziness of it are gone. Well, I am not explaining it very well, but I realized that my place there had changed. I was now the chaperone, I was the old one! Although some of the students didn't even realize that; while Matthew was still in line for the free food, I went to go get a place to sit so we could more readily eat said food. As I approached a table I ran into a group of Matthew's students, some of whom I have met previously and some I have not. I said hello to a few of them and then one of them asked me if I was from Alta! I could not believe I was being asked if I was a high school student, it made me laugh. Well, I didn't want to hurt this young man's feelings or make him feel like a complete fool, so I just politely said, "No, actually I am the wife of one of the Seminary teachers at Jordan." The young man was very gracious and asked which teacher. I replied and he then complimented Matt saying, "Oh, Brother Bowen! We love brother Bowen at Jordan, he is wonderful. Jordan is already a great school, but he makes it wonderful!" It was a funny experience. Matthew and I ate, talked with some of his students, danced to a slow song, ate some ranch dressing on a dare and then head back home to bed. All in all, it was a great blast from the past moment for me.

Saturday we spent most of our time at home. I worked busily on typing a book for one of our branch members and Matthew tried to figure out how to amend our taxes. We turned them in early and got money back from the government, but after applying for FAFSA my taxes were selected to be verified by the financial aid office at school. After filling out all the paperwork, I went to the financial aid office to turn it all in and they found the discrepancy. I explained that it had been a complicated year as far as work went for us and after talking and looking over our forms he thought we had just reported some of our income on the wrong line of our tax forms. He gave us instructions on what we had to do to fix it and Matthew tried, but we decided that it is just a problem that is slightly over our heads, so tomorrow we will be headed over to a company to help us straighten everything out. I agree with Matthew that it is sort of a pain to have to do, but I think it is better to get it fixed now and even have to spend a little money doing it, so that we don't have to pay my tuition for the next year. Matt is working full time now, but that is still a lot of money to put down all at once. Unfortunately because of how long it took to figure this all out and because of all the other errands we had to get done, we had to cancel some of our plans with friends, but it was probably best because at about 5pm I got a call from my younger brother Jordan. He has been going to school in Virginia for the past year and was driving back home to Las Vegas with a friend. Their original plan was to take I-70 all the way to I-15, but there were some landslides on I-70, so they had to take I-80 which just so happens to go through Salt Lake! Jordan and his friend had decided to stop for the night so Jordan gave me a call! I was so happy that he did. We went out for a quick bit to eat and he tagged along with us while we ran our errands; I'm glad he didn't mind driving around with us. We are really excited for him. He found out this week that he goes into the MTC on July 28th to prepare to go on a mission to Guatemala. I was especially happy to hear that he wasn't leaving until July because that means he will be able to go to Bean's wedding and will go through the Temple to receive his endowment on the same day as her, which again makes me super glad that I decided to fly in on Thursday night.

One of the very important errands that we had to do was to go pick up a new camera!! The one we have is nice, but has been acting funny lately so we decided that since I was going to Pittsburgh, and we were planning a road trip this summer, it was the perfect time. I am so excited about this camera. We got a Sony Cyber-shot with an automatic panoramic picture option! It is really cool. I will post the first panorama shot that I took on it! It is of our living room, so it isn't that exciting, but it was so easy. (And unfortunately, that is as big as the picture will upload) All I had to do was set the camera to the panorama setting, press a button and sweep the camera along the scene I wanted captured, then the camera did the rest! Today Matthew and I also made a video that involved a pineapple and the Titan Peeler I got him for his birthday!

Today was a happy and sad day at church. President Heninger, Matthew and Brother Willie were all released from the Friendship Branch that we have been serving in this past year. The release came because President Heninger moved to Layton. Matthew and I have both really enjoyed serving with President Heninger and Brother Willie and will miss their company. Lucky for us Matthew was called to stay serving in the Branch as the 1st counselor to President Langheinrich. We are sad to loose President Heninger and Brother Willie, but are excited to serve with President and Sister Langheinrich and know that the Lord will continue to bless us as we serve.

Tonight we also went over to the Humphrey's home for Sunday Dinner. It was us, Gregily, TJ, the Longloopers and Ashley and Rusty. We missed Parker and Trina, they were at home with their new little bundle of joy, Brooklyn. We had a BBQ, but because of the cold weather ate inside. Along with the yummy burgers and franks we had an assortment of chips, potato salad, apple juice, cookies, homemade ice cream and a yummy plum yogurt surprise pie! We kept asking Jason what was in the pie, but he was not quite sure, a little scary, but very delicious! It was good to get caught up on what everyone is up to.