Back to School…

Today it’s official… I am dating a college student! Haha!! Troy is officially a college student again! His classes started today at the bright and early hour of 7:30am… yuck!! While the next several months will be a little insane… I am very proud of Troy for committing to get school completed! And with his classes all mapped out and scheduled right up to graduation in December – I am sure its just going to fly right by!

And of course, the “A” parking pass makes it much easier too – THANKS DAD!!! Today Troy was able to park about 50 feet from all of his classes! Makes it much easier to get out of the there and off to work too. Gotta love that!

This past weekend we had lots of fun… we had to fit in as much play time as we could before school started today.

~We had the Race for the Cure on Saturday morning which was great, as always. There were roughly 16,000 participants here in Salt Lake and it was amazing to see so many people out supporting the cause. As usual a few times during the race, Troy and I both were very moved by the “in celebration of” signs on peoples back… seeing the little kids with signs that refer to their mothers and grandmothers are always the hardest for me. I think this year it all hit a little closer to home for me than in years past… I hope that a cure will come very soon.

~ Saturday night we went out for a yummy dinner at Bambara and headed over to the Utah Opera’s performance of Don Giovanni. Dinner was delicious, as always – we love that restaurant! And the opera was excellent. Don Giovanni was the first opera that Troy ever saw, and he saw it at the age of 8. He loved it, and has been hooked on opera ever since. This was my first time seeing Don Giovanni, and I really enjoyed it! For those that don’t know, it’s the story of Don Juan the womanizer who gets sent to hell in the end by the ghost of a man that he had killed when the man was trying to protect the honor of his daughter. The music is beautiful and the production was excellent. The opera was sung in Italian (with English super-titles on a screen above the stage) and now that my Spanish is getting a little better, I actually found myself understanding more of the Italian than I thought I would – the two languages have a lot of similarities. There was also a Vivace After-Party (and combined Cast Party), which made it an extra fun evening! A long and tiring evening after such an early start to our Saturday! haha! But a fun time!!

~ A couple weeks ago there was a huge pet adoption fair that we stopped by to play with some of the puppies and check out all the cute dogs. This past weekend we decided to do that again – so we stopped by the adoption fair they were having in the parking lot at IKEA. There weren’t very many dogs there and we were happy to hear that a few had already found new homes. We enjoyed meeting cute little Pacino and Cody and playing with them for a bit. They were such sweet little puppies! Being the dog lovers that we both are, we have a really hard time seeing the dogs in those little cages and if we could, we would take them all home! We hope that they all find loving homes soon!

~ I am also considering getting a scooter for my commute to work so we spent some time on Saturday checking out Vespa, Eco Moto, etc. Found some really cute ones that I loved, but discovered that a lot of them are too tall for me.. Haha! Apparently I am really short… Anyway, we figured out that you can have them lowered, and some of the models actually fit me pretty well. So…. perhaps my efforts to “reduce my carbon footprint” will work after all… we shall see. Do you think my Harley helmet with the flames on it will look silly with a Vespa?

~ And on to Mother’s Day… Troy had a very nice surprise planned for his Mom – speaking in church – and she loved it! Everyone else in the family knew, and we all managed to keep it a secret, right up until Troy walked up on to the stand and sat down. I didn’t see it, but apparently Colleen actually jumped with surprise when she saw this. Haha! Troy’s talk was wonderful and was an excellent tribute to his Mother. He included some great stories, and even a quote that he strongly felt his Father wanted him to include. It was an emotional time for all of us when he talked about the cancer coming back and Colleen’s strength and unwavering faith even in the face of this adversity. Her strength, testimony and faith are really an inspiration to me, and to so many others as well. ((Troy – In case I didn’t tell you enough yesterday - It was an excellent talk and I am very proud of you for doing such a great job! XOXO))

And last but not least – Happy Birthday to my favorite older brother, Craigy!! :) I hope you have a wonderful birthday!