Hello to everyone! Since our lives have a tendency to change quite frequently we thought it would be nice to create this little page so we could let everyone know what's going on. Just for fun, we'll go back to when we got married so everyone can be up to speed.

We were sealed in the Manti Utah temple on the 11 of August 2007. Life hasn't slowed down much since that time. Jared immediately started school back up at UVSC (now UVU) full time working towards an associates degree in pre-engineering with a bachelors in civil engineering as the end goal. He was also working full time at H&H Engineering in American Fork. Between full time work and full time school he was a busy, busy man! I was working as a massage therapist in my own private practice out of my home and as a TA at the massage school. I enjoyed the work and the ability to control my own schedule! It was great! January 2008 is about the time lots and lots of major changes happened.

In January we found out I was expecting our first baby and of course enjoyed the sickness that came along with that! It made it really difficult to continue working on my clients so I began to refer them out to friends of mine until I would be able to do massage again. As you can imagine, when you lose part of your income it can make you reconsider the best way to finance your education and we had to look for new ways to pay for Jared's schooling. (Without having millions of dollars in debt at the end since I already had enough!!!) At the beginning of Feb we were driving up to Salt Lake and the thought of the military paying for school crossed my mind. I wondered why we hadn't considered that as an option. I didn't say anything to Jared about it, but a couple days later he was checking the email and received something from an Army recruiter about the reserve. He jokingly said, "I could join the Army." I said, "Are you serious?" He wasn't really, but I told him what I was thinking about two days before and he told me we could look into it if I wanted him to. He emailed Sergent Kopecky so we could look into it. We met with him a day or so later and liked all of the information he gave us. As we continued to look into things over the next couple weeks we decided joining the reserve was the direction we needed to go and by the end of Feb Jared had signed his life away to the government.

Soon after that I was feeling very antsy and needed more space and light in my living quarters. Just a couple months after that we closed on a condo that was in the boundaries of the ward we were living in. I love our little condo. Jared hasn't lived in it much since he left for basic training about a week after we moved in.

Basic training was not an experience that any of us would like to repeat, but Jared got through it with the best attitude I think anyone could possibly have! He was in Missouri for that and then went to Texas for his advanced training as a combat medic. This is where our lives continue to change. Jared really enjoyed the training he received in the health field and was very good at it so we began to look into what it would take to become a physician's assisstant (PA) through the army. The more we looked into that the more we liked it and have decided to pursue that as a possible career. Thier program is 2 very intense years of education but by the end of it he'll have a Master's degree from the University of Nebraska. It'll take us a while to get everything done to be accepted to the progam so things could change once again, but we're excited about the opportunties that are out there for us.

The most recent change in our life is the birth of our little Jonny. Timothy Jonathan Black was born Sept 6th 2008. He weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches long. He was a beautiful little boy from the moment he was born and I don't think I'm just biased - he really was cute! He only continues to get cuter as we get to know him! What a little blessing! Being a new mom is definitely a new phase of life for me, but I've never enjoyed anything more! Jared is still away from us until the beginning of November. I look forward to the day when I can erase that sentance from this post. I continue to be amazed at the sacrifices he is willing to make for our family and I think this is the greatest one - being away from his little boy. We love him for all he does and look forward to his return.

That's about it for now. I guess if there is anything else we need to post on here that you all would like to know just ask.