Back in Lubbock, finally

After a long week. I made it home. I had a fun trip out to Philadelphia and New Jersey. It was really fun to see Becky and Garry. For those that are in the area, I highly recommend Hoboken, NJ. After a crazy finals week I left for Philly, very unprepared for the trip. They canceled the flight before mine so I was able to go out later in exchange for a voucher. Being the fiscally responsible student that I am, I couldn't turn down the voucher, especially after I learned that it was for $250. After my original flight left, I noticed that I was sitting at the front of the plane and that my ticket had been stamped "first class" what a bargain! Or so I thought. After many delays, I finally arrived in Philly at 1:30 am and began the long drive to the hotel. I only got lost once, which was good. Once was enough to learn an important lesson. Never drive around downtown Philly at night, in a minivan. Mom, thanks for the Garmin, it really came in handy. I finally made it to the hotel where I slept for about 3 hours before leaving for the conference. The conference was boring, but that was OK because I worked on my last final through most of the presentation. After that I went to New Jersey to meet Becky and Garry. We had a great time in Hoboken. We ate Thai food and saw New York from the Jersey side. That was the fun part of the trip. The next day it was back to work, visiting Universities and working for the the University. I did take a few minutes to check out the liberty bell and the U.S. mint. Philly is a fun place. I would like to go back. Carrie and I want to do a "National Treasure Tour" and visit D.C., Philly, and Boston. After leaving Philly at 4:00 am, I made it home safely but tired only to start my next project here at home.
The professors that I visited at Utah Valley University came down to visit our school. They have some interest in starting a personal financial planning major at UVU. I was in and out of meetings all day jumping from campus tours to research presentations. There was also an LDS professor interviewing form Georgia, I had to switch off taking him around as well. The good news is that our visitors from UVU loved it. There is a good chance that we will have an offer to come back to Utah to teach at UVU. From the information that we have now, it seems like working at UVU would be a great opportunity. So we will continue to hope for the best, we have a lot of opportunities, we'll just have to wait and see how everything works out.
There is much more to share, but you're going to have to call to get details. I'm going to bed! This next week is our home repair week. We have a lot of projects that have been waiting for a break. We'll put before and after pictures up when we're finished. Happy Mother's Day to Mom, and all Sisters. Carrie and I enjoyed participating in the family fast today. We appreciate your faith and prayers. Have a great week.
Jacob & Carrie

Just to recap - major accomplishments:
I visited 3 more states PA, NJ, & DE (just 15 states to go before I've hit all 50),
Lived through a midnight drive through downtown Philly,
Flew first class (for free),
Got an A's on my finals in Stats and Household Asset Theory,
Impressed the guys from Utah Valley University,
Survived a crazy week &
Made it home safely!

P.S. Show Kristen how to blog when she is in Australia.

Guess what?!?!

It's a Boy!!!!!

Trying to finish the semester

This is the semester that will not end. I was supposed to be done on Tuesday, but there is just too much to do. I'm on my way to Philadelphia, PA tomorrow for a conference. The problem is that I still have one final to take and one to give. Thanks to the miracle of modern technology and a new lap top battery, I can work on the road. I'm going to get back on Thursday just in time to meet with the Dean of the business school at UVU. I visited him in March and now he is coming down to visit us here in Lubbock. Hopefully everything will go well and I'll actually get a job someday. The good news is that by Friday night I'll be home, visitors will be gone, finals will be finished, grades will be posted, and I'll be done. That means on Saturday I can start gardening and doing yard work again. For some that it not a break, but I've been waiting to start working outside again.
Carrie is down to four more weeks of school and can't wait to be finished. She is going to be quite the little traveler this summer, visiting family and going to weddings. It looks like we may even get to see a few of you this summer. That's all for us. Good luck on everything and keep on bloggin'.

Hello everyone,
Well I am in Sydney for the summer/winter and it is great to be back. It feels more like summer here right now then Utah does with all of it's snow and cold...in MAY...crazy. Well I thought I'd share some good news with you all. I wrote a research paper this semester in my Book of Mormon class. It was like 14 pages of a lot of hard work and I was grateful for Rebeccas help on it. Well I got it back a little while ago and notice a beautiful 100% written across it! :) As if that wasn't good enough, my professor wrote a note at the bottom saying..."Outstandig paper. I am interveiwing a few students in an attempt to find a research assistant. Would you be interested?" Obviously... I was. So I e-mailed him back a we met and I was a bit nervous that he would say something like... ummm I'm interview 20 people, or half of the class got 100% on the paper. But he told me I was the ONLY student of his who got a 100, he asked me for an electronic version of my paper that he could use, I was one of three who he was interviewing, I was first in line for the job, and the next highest grade was a 94%. I know you are all thinking that there must have only been 20 people in the class, but this was out of 4 classes, 2 RM classes. So I was very grateful about all of those blessings, and very excited for that opportunity to meet with him (oh it's Daniel Judd by the way. So anyways, he e-mailed me the morning I was leaving for Sydney and let me know that I had the job if I wanted it. So watch out Rebecca and Jacob because I am slowly but surely gaining the title of "the smart one in the family" Haha...just kidding. Just thought I would share my exciting news with the family. So it looks like I will be back at BYU Fall semester with a pretty cool but hard job. But I'm excited for it!

Hello everyone!

Hey guys! Not too much is happening around here. Jacob is getting ready to finish up this semester. Hooray! Only 1 1/2 years left!!! We are so excited. Next year around this time we will probably have a good idea as to where we are going next. Life has a way of taking turns that you don't expect, so it will be interesting. One thing that happened this year that was so awesome for Jacob is that he was awarded the Graduate Instructor of the Year Award. He is really excited and I am very proud of him. I think he is most excited about the award because he gets a little money for it. Just kidding. Actually one of the most exciting parts is the professor that he has had the most difficulty with is one of the professors that nominated him. Kind of neat. Anyway! Congrats to Jacob!

This past week has been good. Tonight we went to a temple worker fireside. Talk about INCREDIBLE!!!! Our temple president gave the best talk I have ever heard on the Savior. Now, I didn't hear the talk by Elder McConkie, the last talk he gave at General Conference about the Savior, but I have read it and I kind of imagine Elder McConkie's talk to be like President Hendricks talk tonight. It was a great night.

Visitors Welcome. Also, we are currently taking reservations for the Sybrowsky Hotel in Lubbock this summer if you would like to sign up. There are a lot of interesting and fun things to do here. We'd love to have anyone come out. The Agriculture museum and the Windmill museum are waiting!

We hope that everyone is doing well. We are excited to see some of you throughout the summer, maybe!
Love you all!
Jacob & Carrie

Blue Mountains

Buenos Dias mi familia! We've just arrived from the Blue Mountains after the Mission Presidents Seminar. It was a lot of fun! We stayed in a very nice hotel called Lilianfels. I think most of you have been to it. I came up on Thursday and stayed until Saturday. I got to meet with the Mission Presidents and the Area 70's who came and then mom and Dad and I had fun! We went on some mild hikes around the "Mountains" (They really are more like canyons) and we ate at a very fun chocolate place, then dad and I played a game of pool in their very British "Billiards Room" just before dinner. It was great. We hired two movies from the Hotel, I Robot, and Sleepless in Seattle. We tried to watch them at night but that proved futile so we watched them in the mornings. There is a Super Trip in the makings for around 2016 where we will all probably come down here so I bet you can all look forward to seeing all this then, if not before. Congrats Chelsea for the high grade on your first exam! Congrats Carrie for her garden achievements, and Jacob for his ESPN bracket ranking! Everyone else who reads this, I congratulate you for all you've recently done or plan to do, or just for being you!! We love you all and look forward to seeing Josh and Sarah and the kids here around the beginning of May, and Chelsea on the 1st of May, and Kristen and Jason and the kids later in May. Anyone else who wants to come down, please do!! c ya soon,
love,
Jared

Well, here we are, back to work until the end of the school year. We enjoyed a very nice trip to General Conference. It was nice to see everyone and we enjoyed attending several sessions of conference. So, now we are home and Jacob is working hard to finish strong and I am working hard as well. No new drama at school, surprisingly enough. I don't know what the plan is for next year, yet, but hopefully we'll find out in the next month or two what is going to happen as far as will I have a job there next year. We have started our planting for our garden already. I know you guys are REALLY excited to hear all about that. We always start them indoors until they are strong enough to withstand the wind, which is a little tricky around here. It's really fun to see them start poking their head out. Tomorrow we are going to plant some flowers. It will be great fun. When Jacob blogs, I'll let him tell you all about the plants. Well, I am sleepy, so I am going to close this message! Love you all!
Jacob & Carrie

General Conference

I loved coming to Utah and spending conference weekend with all of you. I went to the first three sessions at the conference center and then listened to the last session with Joseph, Shauna, and Chelsea with the gorgeous view of the Temple as a backdrop. Don't you all love that peaceful conference feeling?

March Madness

Most of you know this, but it needs to be recorded for posterity. Not to gloat, but this is a once in a lifetime event. For all of you March madness fans out there, who are participating in tournament challenge on ESPN, my brackets have done well. My top bracket is at 1330 points. I'm ranked 137th out of over 3.2 million. Not bad for a guy who knows nothing about basketball. Carrie does not understand how cool this is, so I am seeking accolades elsewhere. So, accolade me, and vote for Kansas tonight.

Update

Joseph and I just got back from a fun weekend in San Diego. It was so much fun and the weather was so nice. I just wanted to soak up the sun. We went to my ward's "Prom Night" which was a total blast. They had it all themed 50's and we got to eat in our cars and all the Young Women brought our food out wearing poodle skirts and roller skates. Then we went into the church for the dance and ice cream. It was a really fun night. Joseph and I were just planning on staying for a little bit but ended up staying until it was over :o) We had fun seeing the family and spending sometime at home. Anyways that's about all for now... Oh well except...
WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!