The Beginning of the Unknown...

We're finally catching up on the blog. A lot has happened in the last month. To start, Jared graduated from Brigham Young University - Idaho with his Bachelor's of science in Mechanical Engineering on December 19th. It was a wonderful and exciting day. Here are some pictures from his graduation.

President & Sister Clark and Elder Scott

Jared receiving his diploma cover from Elder Scott

The Happy Family

Jared's Mom and step dad, Dick, joined us for the day.

Jared's sister, Michelle, also joined us.


Daddy and Daughter

So now, as the title of the post says, it is the beginning of the unknown. We do not know what the future holds for us. Jared is applying to graduate school all over the country. Three applications have been submitted and three more will soon follow. We are just waiting to hear where he gets in so that we can pray to know where is right for us.

Since Jared's job was a student job on campus, he is no longer able to work there since graduating. Nikki has picked up more hours at work, and Jared is Mr. Mom. He has applied to Bambino's, some sort of Italian/pizza pocket place. Once his graduate school applications are all submitted and he has retaken the GRE, Jared will likely focus more on applying for jobs. He will retake the GRE on January 27th.

We are considering buying a new car, but are not sure if we will be able to afford the one we would really like to get. Both of our cars are paid for, but one is a 1995 VW Golf with 190,000+ miles on it, and the other is a 1993 Ford Ranger, which actually only has 77,000 miles. Depending on where Jared gets in, we could potentially be moving across country, and it would be good to get a more reliable family car. The car of our dreams right now is the Hyundai Elantra Touring, but because it is really new, the only option would be to buy a 2010 (which = more $$ than we have). We are probably going to sell both of our cars and get a newer one, but we don't know how new or what kind of car, yet. Any recommendations?

Something else that we are trying to decide is if we want to move for the last 6 months or so that we will be here in Rexburg. Our contract will end March 31st, and signing a new contract would mean another $15/month increase in rent. That increase would make it $40/month more than when we first moved in. So we have some decisions to make.

All in all, we are doing really well. We are happy and healthy.