The Week in a Nutshell

We have been pretty busy this last week and I haven't had a chance to do a post for everyone until now. So here is the week in a nutshell!

The Graduate!!
Tuesday was a pretty momentous day for me. I sent in my final paper for my final class!!!! I have now finally finished my bachelors degree!!!! For those who do not know, it has been a struggle for me to finish. There seemed to always be something that delayed my graduation again and again. I have worked so hard and fought for so long to finally be done and now I can say that I am! It's an incredible feeling and I appreciate it so much more because of my struggle to get here. Sometimes it's strange to think it took this long, considering I have really good grades and am motivated. But alas, it is done and I don't have to worry about it anymore (except of course when I go back to get my nursing degree). Now the hard part of finding a job is setting in.

The Visitors
Kelvin's friend from High School is moving to Houston with her husband and baby, and they made a stop to see us on Wednesday since we were on the way. We met them at his parents house since our place was out of their way. We got pizza and chatted for about an hour until they had to get on the road again. It was fun to meet them and we had a good time.

The Dump
As if the week couldn't get any better, we moved from the dump of a place we were living in in Arlington on Friday! Both of us were elated at the thought of going to his parents house for our last week and feeling like we could get clean again. Never again will we live in a place like that. We didn't realize just how bad it was until we were all moved in for the summer. Maritza told us we were too nice to have just put up with the apartment. She is probably right. We had problems with that place from the beginning. A couple weeks before we were leaving, the ceiling in the bathroom started to leak. I called and placed a message for emergency maintenance. About an hour later, the ceiling was drooping down and looked like it was going to cave in. I made another emergency call and got through to the office. When they heard my panic they sent someone right over. He came in, looked at the ceiling and started laughing! He literally laughed at me. He said it was only a condensation leak. After poking some holes in the ceiling he told me to let it drain for a day or two and then it would be fine. It was still leaking when we left!

The Rained out Rangers
Friday night after the move, we went to the Texas Rangers game. We got free tickets from Lockheed Martin in the all you can eat section. It was a lot of fun. The bottom of the 7th inning though it started to rain and kept raining. The sky was black and as it increased in intensity, the players went into the dugouts and the field was covered up with a big plastic sheet. Luckily we were under the only roof in the stadium so we were able to stay seated while everyone else had to duck for cover. It was still raining hard after an hour so we decided to leave since they couldn't finish the game anyway. The field had puddles! Some smart alecks decided it would be funny to run onto the field. When they did, the crowd was cheering them on as they tried to get away from the police. They did get caught and arrested though.

Our first rangers game!



One of the 2 home runs that were hit by the Rangers.



This was the sky as the clouds rolled in and got really dark!



If you look closely, you can see that the bleachers have water filling up at the bottom.



It was a sheet of water coming down. The picture doesn't do it justice, but you can see that the seats are empty and the people have huddled to cover. You can even see the roof that was over us.



The Day at Athens
Kelvin's Aunt and Uncle own 100 acres in Athens that we go visit every time we come to Texas. Everyone came except Brandon who had to work. Besides the crazy rain we drove through to get there, it was really nice. Last time we went, which was a couple months ago, they had a donkey and a cow. Now they have 3 cows, a horse and colt, and a donkey. That doesn't include the 2 dogs. I got brave and petted the horse and colt, but refused to touch the cow.








Kelvin loves to climb trees so when he got a little bored, he decided to join the little boys and climb a tree. This tree basically had two trunks, one going up and the other went sideways. When he was climbing down, the branch he was holding onto broke and he fell about 5 feet and his back landed directly on the tree trunk that went sideways! I saw the whole thing happen and was stunned for a second, then ran to him and saw him get up. He was more mad about falling than he was hurting. But it scared me to death and I broke down in tears right there. It was the scariest thing I have ever seen as I thought he had broken his back or worse and it haunted my thoughts. After I burst into tears, he had to hold me and calm me down for a while. He said he didn't get hurt, but after a closer examination, he had scrapes all over! His arm was scratched the worst but he did get scratched on his back too. One calf was scratched and starting to bruise and the other calf was bruised. We think that because he landed on his back and kind of rolled off the trunk, it protected his head because he didn't hit it. I have said many prayers since then thanking Heavenly Father for protecting him because he could and probably should have gotten hurt much worse then he did. After I calmed down I went into the house and washed my face. His mom had some quick thinking and got some Neosporin and started putting it all over his arm. When I lifted up his shirt we found that scrape and put some on there too. It was good thinking because it helped his injuries heal a lot faster. His foot started hurting yesterday and his calves still hurt as well as his arm, but his back doesn't hurt at all.





Isabella rode her first four wheeler this trip and she really enjoyed herself despite her face in this picture. She also LOVED the dogs and animals. It was so fun to watch her interact with them.



Clouds started to roll in and it did rain when we left, but if you look at the trees you will see they are a little fuzzy. That is the humidity. It was so humid it was visible!!!!! Obviously it's cooler to see in person, but this little picture captures it pretty well.



More of the ranch and humidity. Isn't it beautiful? They get to live on this land. Behind the trees on the left and up a little ways is a pond, and then behind the pond is a forest where there are hills and some four wheeler paths. It's quite a place.



It was a busy week and we did lots of stuff! But we leave on Friday to go back to Utah so the more stuff we can get in and do with his family the better. It will be a little while before we get to see them again. We are excited to get back to all our stuff and our apartment is waiting for us. Also it will be good to be in our ward again.