See You Soon, St. George

The last few months have been exciting with the anticipation of moving to the Philippines. Adam loves what he is doing and it's a treat for me to be next to him on this roller coaster ride. It's a startup business, so as you may know there's a lot of turns to take and you never know what's around the corner. It's exhilerating. 

In recent news, our venture is taking us to St. George. Not just to visit, but we're going to be there a lot...most of the time...for an undetermined amount of time. Staycation maybe? Whatever it is, I am thrilled. I long for St. George when I am away. 

When do we leave? Tomorrow. I've known for about five hours now. Friends ask me why I don't freak out with sudden changes, moving out of the country, living life not knowing where i'll be in a few months or even weeks...how is it possible to be so calm? I honestly don't know. Maybe becuase I'm a phlegmatic. Maybe, it's the child in me. I've always enjoyed playing make beleive with kids. Now, It's my own adventure coming to life.  I love learning new things and going to new places. I welcome change and the unknown. "Variety is the spice of life"

I can't wait to leave...but I don't look forward to packing. Better get started!

BYE Happy Valley,

HELLO St. George!

See you again, Lola

On Sunday morning, February 22, 2015 at 6am, my maternal grandma passed away peacefully in her sleep. She left this life just shy of 83 years of age. She had six children, with my mother being the second to youngest. She was born in the Philippines and has been away from her home country for over twenty years.

My husband and I were privliged to serve LDS missions in the Philippines. It was a blessing to be able to communicate to her after I learned tagalog. My whole life my lola would hiss or point to me to communicate, not being able to speak a word of english!

My mom always shared stories of how sassy my lola is. She taught her children well and worked hard her whole life. My mom had the chance to care for her the last year and half of her life. Though it was hard at times seeing her ill very often, she loved caring for her.

Her passing was expected, yet still heartbreaking. My lola's wish was to return to the Philippines where she can live out the rest of her days till she passed away, sadly, she was to ill to travel back. This Summer my mom will be returning with my Taytay (grandfather) to the Philippines where he can stay with family till he joins my Lola again.

Before her passing, my Lola was baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She left this life knowing the Plan of Happiness, that she will be with her family again. I know she can finally rest and one day we'll be together once more. Till then, we will miss you!

See you again, Lola XOXO

Make a Wish Zach!

A couple weeks ago the Make-A-Wish foundaion approached my husband's Marine Corps unit about visiting a little boy named Zach. This was my husbands second visit with the family.
Zach B is from Delta Utah, a small town you may have never heard of south west of SLC. He's four years old and was born with just half a heart and has had five heart surgies and countless testing and visits to the doctor in between. But he has a heart bigger than anyone I know. It was a privlige to visit him for the first time today. When approached by the Make-a-Wish foundation, Zach's wish was to be a US Marine!

On our visit we were accompanied by Sgt Floyd Clark, a retired Marine with the Utah Marines Organization, Leslie, a six-year volunteer for the foundation and LCpl Liddell.

When we first saw him today, he was laying in a dark room getting tests done on his heart. But he gave us a thumbs up, letting us know that everything is good. He's so brave.  

The Marines presented gifts to Zach. He received his own uniform, helmet, cover, flag, toys and personalized dog tags.

When finding out that his cousin signed up for the Army, little Zach told him that "You're only half a Marine.." Haha, funny kid :)

Zach just recovered from RSV and he's doing well. The tests are looking good and he's feeling much better. But his journey isn't over.  Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

It was great to speak with Leslie about what she does in her role as a volunteer for the foundation. She is a wish granter and attends the events set up for the children. The Utah Chapter has a dedicated building in Murray where you can tour and learn more. There's so much the foundation has to offer and I really hope I can do this one day. If you're interested check out the Make-A-Wish foundation! I really loved sharing this experience with my husband, it was so rewarding. 

Jazz it Up!

Adam and I are not big sports fans, but we had a lot of fun at our first Jazz game!

Adam performed in the colorguard, scoring us some floor passes and seats to the game. 

It was hard to get a good shot becuase the camera man stood in front of them the whole time! I got lucky and snagged about 5 seconds after the National Anthem was done.

Sadly, they will no longer be doing the Color guard so this was our first and last game. Bummer! I really enjoy watching sports live. There's just so much energy in the room!!!

Oh, and Gordon Hayward said HI to me. I feel like we're already best friends now :)

Our Next Big Adventure!

January has come to an end. So, what's new??

I measure time by how old my daughter is. So little E turned nine months this month. Still a ball of fireworks, no teeth, some hair and can walk now with falls here and there. She also reached a new milestone of her childhood. She had her first accident. She has second degree burns on her wrist and hand. My poor baby. I cried watching her scream in pain after she crawled over my straightner.  It broke my heart to see her that way! But, I did enjoy cuddling with her. She never falls asleep in my arms anymore or  cuddle unless she's sick or in this case, in pain. She's a trooper though!

In other news, I should let everyone know why we are putting our house up for rent. We are moving!!! Guess where we are going? We are moving to the Philippines!!! Crazy huh? Yeah, I still can't beleive it myself. It's really exciting becuase if you didn't know, we both served in the Philippines on our LDS missions and I am also half filippino. Therefore, we love the culture and people there.  And if there was a good time to have an adventure, now is the time to do it.

 Our plans are constantly changing but we are pretty sure this is happening. Adam had his last day at his day job on Friday and he'll be finishing up with the Marine Corps in the next couple of months so that he can have the flexibility to do what we are doing. So, why are we moving to the Philippines? In short, we are working with a solar company and will be managing the outsourcing processes in the Philippines. Adam started working on it end of last November and things are moving along. I'm a bit relieved he finally left his day job becuase  he was working all the time and still didn't have a enough time to do it all.

In more detail, we're moving to CDO (Cagayan De Oro) on the island of Mindanao. I'm not going to lie, but my heart dropped when I found out that's where we'll be. Missionaries assigned there know that foreigners are not allowed to be assigned there for safety reasons. But, after talking with many people I feel ok knowing that CDO is a safe place.

We don't have a a departure date set in stone but we're looking at April and plan to be gone at least a year. We are excited for this experience. I have no idea what the future looks like but I hope everything works out well.  We'll be around for a couple more months to wrap things up here.

Till then we need to find a temporary home for our puppy. Know of anyone who wants to babysit for a year??