Rusty’s USU graduation

May 8, 2005

Wow! It’s been a long time! A lot has been going on here in Logan. We have officially decided to take the job offer at Ball Aerospace and move to Colorado. We will move at the end of the month. It is an exciting time, but a little scary as well. I’m sad to have to live so far away from both our families. But, we prayed a lot about it and feel it is the best decision for our family. The most exciting pa rt of the move is we finally get to buy a house!!! For the past two months I always catch Rusty on the internet doing a house search when he is supposed to be doing homework. Rusty can’t wait to have a yard for Halle to play in, and I can’t wait to be free of barking dogs and loud music. Alan is helping us make a down payment and we are so grateful for that blessing in our lives. It is so wonderful to be surrounded by family who is so willing to help out! We feel so blessed to be part of such a wonderful family. We leave on our house hunting trip on Tuesday! Hooray!

More exciting news—Rusty is finally graduated with his Master’s degree. His

official graduation was on Friday, May 6, 2005. My parents, his parents and Grandpa

Miller came up to Logan to help us celebrate. We got Halle a cute Aggie outfit with a

little skirt. She was darling! The ceremony was held at the Spectrum and we got there

just in time to see Rusty marching up the hill into the Spectrum. They were playing the

graduation march over the loud speakers as all the graduates marched from the fieldhouse

to the Spectrum. But, when we walked in to find our seats therewas a Jazz Band

playing. The jazz band played while the graduates filed in andthe whole time while

diplomas were awarded. It just didn’t seem right. I just asked Rusty what he wanted to

say about graduation and he said,“It was cool, but scary.”Those are profound words I’m sure he will treasure. I went down to the floor and videoed Rusty being “hooded” and awarded his diploma. He looked so good in his robes and I am so proud of all the work he has put in to get this degree. I know our family will be greatly blessed by his hard work. After the ceremony and a quick Halle nap, we all went to Hamilton’s, a steakhouse in Logan, for a great dinner. All in all, it was a perfect day. (Except it was pouring rain when we wanted to take pictures). Rusty finished his thesis at the end of March and I got to go watch him defend. He did a great job. He put in a LOT of hours on that proje

ct and I think it paid off in the end. All his professors were very impressed. His boss from

work even came to watch him defend and gave Rusty a great compliment. He said he was

a very hard, self motivated worker with a lot of integrity. I felt so proud!

I am also done with all my class work and will graduate from grad school with a 4.0. Good job me! I have so enjoyed being in school, and again, feel so blessed and grateful for the opportunity. Heavenly Father sure has done a lot for us! I hope that we can do a lot for him in return. I think my biggest accomplishm ent of this whole year is that I got 100% on my midterm statistics test and a 97% on the final. Anyone who knows me and math know that is a big deal. I will miss teaching my first aid class—that hasbeen so much fun, and a great experience. I am now a certified instructor, so hopefully I can run some classes in CO.

Halle is growing up so fast! She went to nursery for the first time today. Of course, she LOVED it. It was so much better than sittin g through Relief Society and Sunday School. I was subbing for the primary pianist and she was so cute. She sat in her chair and tried to do all the hand actions with the other kids. What a sweetheart. Her favorite thing right now is to go “side.”(outside). She loves to look at the ducks in the little stream by our house and go for walks down our country road. She gets to see dogs, cats, horses, cows, duck, birds, and other random animals. It’s a little girls heaven. She also loves to go on the swings by our house. She has lea rned a million new words and is starting to string them together. Mostly she says bye by e dada, or hi mama. She is also getting very good at giving loves and kisses. But sometimes she attacks your face. I always have little Halle cuts. She loves to wrestle and play Blast off with dad, and airplane with mom. She goes through movie phases and lately she has loved Bambi and Jack Jack attack. She always walks up to the computer and says “Jack Jack” while signing please. She has also learned to say Thank you, which is so darling. Halle has learned to fold her arms while we say prayers (as long as they are short) and say “namen” at the end. The innocence and love of little children is

so sweet. We try to have a 5 min family night lesson for her and she usually just runs around, but when we mention Jesus or say a pray she is very still and reverent. DSCF0102