Big Changes

Well, this is a long overdue post, but with all the craziness and chaos of the past month I have not had time to update. The last few weeks of the semester brought big changes for our family in many ways, all of them great and exciting changes, but changes nonetheless.

The first of the big changes came on Monday November 23rd 2009, when I decided to start packing up the things in our bathroom that we didn't need out, so I could get a jump on packing before all the graduation craziness began. I found a box of at home pregnancy tests and thought "well, I can pack these or save the room in a box and just take them for the heck of it." When I came back a few minutes later to check the results, I was TOTALLY caught off guard when I looked down at the test on the counter and read "Pregnant" on the test. We had been trying for about a year and a half, but it didn't look like anything was going to happen anytime soon. We had been focusing much more on finding Cameron a good job for after graduation than on baby stuff, so believe me when I say I was very shocked. I actually thought I was misreading the test and needed to have someone confirm to me what I thought it said. Cameron was half way across the country in Cleveland in THE MIDDLE of his interview at the Cleveland Clinic, so I immediately texted my trustworthy neighbor Linzi and told her to come over ASAP! She ran right over and I didn't even have to say anything, she just looked down and saw the test and started screaming and hugging me. I was like "so.... im not reading this wrong??" (by the way, it was a digital test that either says "pregnant" or "Not Pregnant", so there is virtually no way to read it wrong, thats how in shock I was). After staying with me for a good hour calming me down and telling me what to do next, Linzi went back home. I was hoping to be able to get a hold of Cameron, but I knew he was probably still in the interview. I called his cell probably 15 times and then finally took a picture of the test and sent it to him with the text reading "i'm pregnant!" A few hours later Cameron called back and I could tell by his voice that he was completely surprised as well.

It was actually great timing because with Thanksgiving so close, we were able to tell our families in person which was fun. Our parents had been asking us for ideas for Christmas, so we decided it would be fun to make a Christmas list with real things we wanted and then add in a bunch of baby things too. Here is the list:

It says a bunch of things that we wanted such as a blue ray player, movies, stethoscope for cameron and then says things like crib, stroller, diapers... and then at the bottom it said Happy Thanksgiving GRANDMA and GRANDPA!!! Both families were very very excited.

The next big event happened just days after the baby news. As I said, Cameron had gone to Cleveland, OH to interview for a great job at the Cleveland Clinic. This job is truly a blessing that came out of nowhere. At the beginning of October Cameron got an email from a nurse recruiter at the clinic saying that they have had graduates from BYU schools before and have really liked them and that he should apply in their ICU. We were both very excited to have some kind of job prospect since Cameron had been applying like crazy day and night and nothing was coming of that. Anyway, he applied, had a phone interview and then scheduled an interview at the hospital for Monday the 23rd. He had the interview and felt like it all went well, so we were just waiting to hear back from them. Just after Thanksgiving break, after we were back at school, Cameron got a phone call offering him the job. We were both SO excited to finally have secured a job since graduation was in just a couple weeks. We were also very excited because it's not just any old nursing job where Cameron would have felt like he was settling to just have a job. It is an amazing opportunity at the #3 ranked hospital in the U.S. He will be working in the ICU, which is also better than we could have imagined. He will start the job on March 1st and we will move out to Cleveland the middle of February. We are sad to be so far from home, but know that this is where we are supposed to be right now and are so grateful for this amazing opportunity. We are excited to start a new adventure and get to be out on our own with our newly growing family.

So, with two huge changes coming our way, we were ready for graduation. Cameron and I both graduated and were able to walk together which was so fun. Our families both came down from Spokane and helped us load up our stuff and finish the last minute things that needed to be done. We had such a fun weekend getting to walk at graduation and getting to hear from Elder Scott who spoke at both Cameron's nursing pinning(which was really cool since there were only 32 graduates) and at commencement. He gave some very cool apostolic blessings to the nurses at the nurse pinning. We had fun hanging out with family Friday and Saturday and then Sunday we loaded up in our 5 car caravan and hit the road headed home for Spokane. With a few unscheduled stops along the way(to let me out of the car after throwing up, good ol' morning sickness), we got home that evening and it was nice to be able to just relax after about a month of chaos. Here are some pictures from graduation.

Cameron and his good friends from nursing at the pinning ceremony. We were getting ready to leave, that's why Cameron sticks out in the picture with his black coat on.

Cameron and his best buddy over the past two years, Elliot, after their nurse pinning.

President Clark gave a few statistics at the beginning of commencement on Saturday. Cameron and I were one of 41 married couples to be graduating together.

Cameron and his brothers.

We both absolutely loved our time at BYU-Idaho and will always treasure the things that we learned there and the many ways we grew. It was very hard to leave (mostly for me I think, since Rexburg has been my home for the past three and a half years), but we are very anxious and ready to start the new adventures we have ahead of us in Cleveland.