Tricia's Birthday

We celebrated my 39Th birthday on October 23rd. My family and friends really made it a great day for me! The day started by smelling fresh homemade muffins. Elizabeth had gotten up before Seminary (by 5:00 AM) to make them to be ready when I got up. They were yummy!

When I went out to take Amberly and Trent to school we found that 3 sneaky people had painted my van! Before they left they had painted my windows with words like - Honk It's my birthday, 39 (for the first time), pictures of a cake with candles, balloons, etc. It was funny! It was kind of fun to get honked at! (I always jumped first and then laughed.) I went out to lunch with a sweet friend and was able to talk to friends on the phone throughout the day. That evening we ended up eating Subway and enjoyed yummy birthday pie. I told Darin I wanted Pie instead of a cake. It was yummy! It was a great day! Thanks everyone!

Happy 18th Anniversary!

(I know this is late, but I could not not write about this special day in my life.)

On September 21st, 1990 Darin and I Were married in the Dallas Texas LDS Temple. What a wonderful day it was! It was so wonderful to have family and friends with us there to share this special day. But that was only the beginning! 18 years have gone by since that beautiful day and words cannot express the feelings I have for this wonderful man in my life. My life has been greatly blessed by having him in my life. He is more than a husband. He is my best friend. He is my strength. He is everything to me. I look at my life and the love we have for each other and especially the love that I feel from him daily and it is sometimes hard to believe that I could be so blessed. We have had our rough spots over the years, but together we have been strengthened and made stronger for those times. My favorite time of day is when he comes home from work and just holds me in his arms. I love those moments!
Our story:
My first memory of Darin is seeing him in Sunday School class at church. I had come home from BYU for Christmas and saw him sitting by his mom. He had just recently moved to Midland. We had a young single adult activity during the break and played volleyball. (Darin hates this memory!) Well, we were all playing volleyball and my brother Tom went up and spiked the ball, right in Darin's face! Needless to say, I laughed. :)
My next memories of Darin is the next summer after a semester at school. Darin was the young single adult rep. for our ward. I talked to him occasionally, thought he was weird. I started dating a guy I worked with, but I really didn't tell anyone about this guy. Well, Darin started calling me and reminding me of different activities happening. I was never at home so he and my mom started talking quite a bit. He found out I sang and wanted to sing a duet with me. I said, "Sure", but I never did anything more about it. He kept coming around and I just wanted him to leave me alone. But, I didn't say it. He asked me out and I actually stood up the guy I had been dating to go out with Darin. (Ouch!) We had fun, but I still didn't want anything to do with him. He kept coming around and even showed up where I worked one day. Yes, the other guy was there too! Talk about uncomfortable! I recorded in my journal at that time that I didn't know why, but I just couldn't tell him I was dating this other guy. Well, during this time I was serving as the temporary Primary secretary in our ward for the summer and Darin was a primary teacher. One Sunday as I was sitting in the back of the primary room I had one of the most profound spiritual experiences of my life. I sat there crying during the experience and knew that I had to break up with this other guy. I knew that my future children depended on that. It was a moment I will never forget. A few weeks later I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting about what I was doing now to prepare for my future family. I hadn't shared this experience with anyone and decided to share it. After the meeting Darin came up to me and asked if he could talk to me for a minute. I was like, OH great. Now what. We walked over to be alone and he asked me if the experience I had shared really happened. YES. Did it happen at this specific time on this date. YES. "Well, that's interesting. Because at that specific time I had the same experience myself." I just looked at him and said. "That's nice. Talk to you later." and left. I went out to my car where Delisa (my best buddy) was waiting. I got in the car and just started screaming! I told Delisa what had happened and she just started laughing! I wasn't happy. Well, the next Sunday was the last Sunday of the summer before heading back to BYU and after church as Delisa and I were in my car ready to leave she rolled down the window and called Darin over. I was like WHAT ARE YOU DOING!! She then asked him for his address so that we could write to him. UGH!! Well, a month later I finally did decide to write to him. I wrote to him and apologized for the way I had acted and told him that I had been dating another guy all summer and just didn't know how to tell him. From that point on we began to write each other and occasionally talk on the phone. I went home for Thanksgiving and Christmas and spent time with him during each trip. I was confused and scared of this whole relationship. I had been hurt by a few guys and honestly didn't trust my own feelings. It was funny because my roommates would always tell me if you don't like the guy just tell him to get lost. I couldn't. On April 1st he called and I decided to play an April fools joke on him. Let's just say that over the years I have played too many of these jokes on him and they always backfire on me!! Well, I told him I was dating this guy and that it was really serious and I felt like he was the one. He was really quiet on the phone. He then told me "That's interesting. Because theres this girl here that has been really interested in me and we just spent some time at the beach together. (He was in Mississippi at the time) I was shocked! I then told him April Fools. Silence on the phone. Of course his wasn't a joke. I can't really explain what happened at that moment, but everything changed within me. I was still scared, but it was different. Yes, I was jealous, but I finally realized just how much he meant to me. Over the next few weeks our conversations changed and we started talking about our future together. I went to the temple during that time and was praying and truly felt in my heart that Yes, he was the one for me. On the night before my first final (not a good idea!) Darin got down on one knee in a telephone booth in Mississippi and proposed to me. I wouldn't answer him over the phone, but we both knew what my answer was! (Let's just say I didn't do too well on that final the next day!) A month later I drove to see Darin in Mississippi and we became officially engaged. Our engagement was a long distance relationship. The amazing thing about our relationship is that we truly became friends first.
Each day I thank my Heavenly Father for bringing this man into my life. I love him with all my heart and I truly do look forward to spending Time and all Eternity with him by my side.

This picture was one of our engagement pictures.

While we were engaged Darin was going through technical training in the Air Force. We were fortunate that a few weeks after we were engaged he went to Wichita Falls Texas for further training. I was able to go and visit him on some weekends and he even was able to come to Midland some too. This picture was taking on a weekend that Delisa and I went there to go to an Air Force banquet. (I have the funniest story about Delisa from that weekend!)
We were married in the Dallas Texas Temple. While we were in the Temple it had begun to drizzle rain but right before we came out the clouds cleared and it was a beautiful breezy day!
We were able to go to Colorado for our Honeymoon. We spent 5 glorious days together there!
I'm looking forward to many more memories with this wonderful man!

Surgery Success / July 4th Celebration

I'm happy to say that my surgery is over and appears to have been successful. After nearly 3 months of insurance nightmares it's such a relief to have it over with. It has been a rough week, but I'm so happy to have it behind me. Darin has been incredible this week. After I came home from the hospital things were going well when I started to get nauseous. I couldn't get past it. It was horrible! I couldn't keep anything down all day and night Friday. Darin was exhausted because he was up with me most of the night. We spoke to the doctor in the middle of the night and he suggested going to the ER and getting blood work done and finding out what was going on. Friday night in an ER just didn't appeal to either of us. Finally early Saturday it came to Darin to try some anti-nausea medicine I had taken before. He started giving it to me every 10 minutes and It worked!! I was finally able to drink fluids and keep them down and then he fed me small bits of bread. Miracle! With the nausea gone a lot of the pain stopped. I'm still struggling with comforts of sleeping, but that's getting better too. YEA!!

Eyn had his surgery on Monday. I have never been on the waiting end of a surgery. It was hard watching them wheel him away to surgery. We luckily only had to wait about 1 1/2 hours to talk to the doctor again. His doctor is incredible! I feel really blessed to have him. Eyn came out of surgery groggy and looking so incredibly sad. It broke our hearts! He hurt and I hated that! We were able to bring him home early Monday afternoon. He has his arm wrapped straight and tight with a splint in it. He will get it taken off on Friday and then he will start rehab. I know that will be tough, but he can do it!!
Were both kind of a pathetic sight!
The past few months have been really tough with all the problems with our insurance, but Darin and I can't help but wonder if we were suppose to go through these problems so that the changes could be put in place so that when this happened to Eyn that he would have the doctor he has. It's amazing how things happen and work out for the best for everyone. I know that our prayers have definitely been answered and we are stronger and better because of them.



July 4th Celebration



On July 4th I was incredibly sick, but we had children who still wanted to enjoy the fun. One of the great things about living where we do is that you can do "all" fireworks. It is always so incredibly loud outside on the fourth of July and also on New Years Eve. But it's so much fun!! They had been asking all day long about fireworks but I felt so bad Darin couldn't leave me. We had a few left over from New Years in the garage so we were just going to let them do those. But luckily, that evening some friends of ours called and asked what they could do to help us and Darin said PLEASE get our children some fireworks. They were more than happy to pick some up and bring them over. We were saved! So, while I was laying on the couch miserable they all went outside and had some fun for a little while. I was more than happy laying on the couch listening to the popping outside and the barking of our dog going crazy from them!! Here are a few pictures of their fun night.