Plotting Along on the Road to Paradise

"The principles of living greatly include the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and trial with humility." - Thomas S. Monson

This is the beginning of what I hope to be a blog I will keep forever. It's about time that not only do I record pieces of my life somewhere, but also keep others updated on my life. My plan is to write every week from here on out.

Here's a life review in short: I was born January 22, 1986 (yes I'm starting at the very beginning), was a very quiet child in West Valley, UT and struggled to make friends when moving to Sandy, UT at the age of 8 which led to a lot of other life experiences I won't delve into. I finally came out of my shell around 8th grade and discovered some people preferred me being a follower instead of outgoing and independent. At the end of junior high I went to Spain for two weeks with a Spanish class which was the beginning of many later travels. High school was...interesting (enough said) and mostly just a midpoint to get to college.

Now rapid fire -- went to Weber State University in Ogden, UT for one semester, moved to Florida and

Me and Kay in our Uniforms at WDW

worked for Walt Disney World for six months, job hopped for another six months while living with my aunt in Fort Myers where I experienced Hurricane Wilma, school in FL flopped and I returned to live with my mom in South Jordan, UT where I worked at Hyundai Motor America, took some summer classes, and then left to serve a mission in Neuquen, Argentina in Feb, 2007.

Penguin in Punto Tombo, Argentina

Upon returning in 2008 I somehow was able to find funding to go to Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR where I first lived in a cooperative house called Azalea where I met Valerie who became a lifetime friend, and I later moved into what became the Mormon house that marries you off and got a Chinook puppy named Koyuk (http://brownstonechinooks.blogspot.com/). In that house I made an amazing lifetime friendship with Laura Dexter where we somehow survived with three dogs (occasionally four). I graduated in 2012 with a BS in Animal Behavior and Psychology, and a BA in International Studies (1 of 12 to graduate with three degrees!). Thanks to going to a super expensive school I was able to study abroad for 6 months in Sydney, Australia, and do a 3 months internship with the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia, Africa. To skip all the crushes, dating, and whatnot...I met my husband Matt at a MSYSA event in Albany, OR in 2011 where he was awkward, funny, and asked me to dance - match made in heaven. Unfortunately Matt's pet allergies, and my extremely busy last year at OSU led to me giving Koyuk back to the breeder and we became petless. Matt is a professional self-employed painter in Eugene, OR (where he grew up) so we moved to Springfield, OR to be close to his work after I graduated, and is where we rescued an adorable stray kitten named Odin. Since the move July 2012 I have been working at home and now have Odin to keep me company. The company I worked with was called Herbalife, whose products helped me lose 22 lbs, but now we switched to a new company called Vemma which pays a lot more and has even better products. That is pretty much everything in a nutshell.

Now we are currently waiting to get my confirmation of enrollment and financial aid information for my Masters of Research program at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. If all goes as planned I will move out there by Feb. 14th, 2013 and will begin my program. We still don't know when Matt will come over, or if we'll be able to take the Odin. To get to this point has been an uphill battle and I believe there are many steep hills left to climb. Nevertheless, we are on the road to paradise as we strive to achieve our dreams not only here on earth, but after this life in the true paradise.