Finals, snorkling and free money

Well, there isn’t much this week on my end. Ryan has done most of the writing lately, and life has just been steadily going a long for me. We decided that we are only going to Brazil. We will be there for about 2 months.

After that, our options are coming back to Utah or Key West Florida. Right now we are hoping that he gets a job with the OSC (Open Source Center as an analyst for the government). They pay well and the benefits are great!! It is the first job that both Ryan and I have felt really good about. Plan A would be to most likely come back to Utah and live for a little bit while we wait to go to Key West to work for the OSC…even though it would be great to go strait to Key West (that is what I am hoping for!!!). We will still continue to do the translation business…it is just too good of a tax write off!!

We would live there for 2 years, and then if they like him, we would live in DC for another 2 years, and then Panama for another 2 years and who knows where after that. This all greatly excites me!!! I can’t wait for the tropical weather to be all year round. I am normally not a fan of hurricanes, but since he would be working for the government, we would be flown to safety before there is any danger. Also, I am willing to put up with that inevitable risk since I would be able to go to the beaches, snorkel, go diving, swim with the dolphins and enjoy basking in the sunlight(with sunscreen of course!) It is a life I think I could easily adapt to (couldn’t anyone??).

It looks as though we have buyers on the house. If everything works out, the buyers will move into the basement in July (and rent out the upstairs). This would let us out of our contract that goes until August, which would be a huge blessing since paying for a place that we wouldn’t be living in for 2 months would really stink. It also means that we will have more spending money in Brazil!!!!

We will both miss all of our friends…it is really hard to say goodbye to people that we care about (especially hard for me), and wont see for a long time, or maybe never again for that matter. Two of our closest couple friends are moving. The Cranes are going to Texas in a week, and the Higbees are moving to Argentina in a month or two. If we get the job with the OSC it looks as though we will be fortunate enough to live near and work with one of our other friends, Cameron, and his new Chilean bride Natalia. It will be nice to have friends nearby.

Well, overall life is going pretty good. I’ve hit some low points in the past couple months, but am determined to make it through and be happy with all that life has to offer. Ryan and I are excited for all life has to bring. We are continuing to grow in love with each other.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers that a baby will come. We really want to start our family.

Here is my sweet hubby!!

I take my last two finals tomorrow. One is at 7:00am and the other is at 2:30 pm. I suppose the early final is due to the fact that my instructor for that class is a part-time member of the faculty and has no seniority at all so if they tell him that he has to give his final at 3:00am he has to do it. After I’m done with the first final I plan on cramming for the next one until 2:30pm when I have to take it. That doesn’t sound like much fun but I count myself lucky since as of about 4:00pm tomorrow, I’ll be all done with this semester.

Having to try and teach Becca how my little business is run and enjoying her help makes me realize how I’ve been doing two people’s job for about a year and a half. Last week I had a few hours where I had nothing urgent to do. It was the first time in I don’t know how long. Even Sundays are usually very full for me.

A week before last Friday I applied for a double major in Portuguese and graduation in August. It was actually pretty exciting. I was puzzled a few days later to receive an email saying that I had had activity on my BYU financial account. This usually means that BYU wants money. After poking around on my account a bit I found, what is to me, a substantial amount of money that I supposedly had. I went to the administration building a little later that morning to ask them about it and, for once, they had good news for me. Apparently the government gives out what are called SMART grants (Science & Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant) to people who have a certain GPA and are studying certain subjects. To my surprise, I found out that Portuguese is one of those subjects. HURRAY for Portuguese and SMART Grants!

It’s late and I have a big day ahead of me. Thank you all for your prayers and fasting and for everything that you do for us.