Friday, June 29, 2012

Jenny Hobbs Steiner




I remember wondering when I graduated where I would be in 10 years.  I can't say that all my dreams came true or that all the criteria I set for myself has been met, but I can say the last 10 years turned out completely different than expected, and l have been richly blessed. In some ways, not much has changed. I still play soccer when I can, I still live in the area, and I still cuss the winter and wonder why I still live in the area. I get to see some of my good friends from high school once in awhile because like me, 10 years settled them right here as well. But for those of you that don't see me in the local Walmart, here is a short synopsis of my life since high school.
 
After getting accepted to several colleges, I decided to let  BYUI pay me to go to school. I actually made money the first two years and enjoyed a study abroad program in Europe and a new car as part of my education. I took school pretty seriously and made sure I got good grades. Little did I realize, the real world would care more about my major and less about my grades. Apparently, a BS in History doesn't go far in SE Idaho. I did make one good decision in college and married a MHS class of 2000 alum, Mark Steiner. We shared a seminary class together when I was a sophomore, but he never came so we didn't know much about each other. Kurt Schwab set us up on a date in March of 2004, and we hit it off. We were married in October that same year. I graduated BYUI in 2006 and worked a number of pretty crappy jobs for a few years waiting for Mark to finish.  My plan was to work until I got pregnant; I could endure any job for a few months right?! Unfortunately, my plan never really worked out and I never could get pregnant. I suppose someone pitied my situation enough and thanks to my Exercise and Sports Science minor and networking through various soccer leagues, I landed a temporary dream job teaching soccer classes at BYUI. It literally saved me and gave me a reason to smile in the morning. After years of discouragement, I started to realize my path to motherhood was destined to take a different direction. Mark and I started our adoption process in late 2009. We were just about finished when our world came crashing down. Mark was diagnosed with stage IV Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma February 12, 2010.
 
We spent the next few months in and out of medical facilities and thanked the heavens above for health insurance. I honestly felt our adoption was out the window, but a good doctor encouraged us to keep the hope alive. We learned that hope really is the best medicine. After months on hold, we finished our paperwork and were officially approved to adopt in May 2010. We were cautiously optimistic and absolutely floored when a birth mother contacted us in July. She will ever be our saving grace and angel on earth. The cancer didn't scare her off, and perhaps more shocking, neither did our "nerdiness". On December 15, 2010 our little Paige came into the world and became one of the most loved babies on the planet.
 
Today we find ourselves living pretty normal lives. I stay at home with Paige and Mark works in software sales for NAVEX Global. He has been given a clean bill of health and we really are kind of boring now. Paige keeps us on our toes, and we are so grateful to have her in our home. We are in the process of building a home and learning patience. Thanks to serious pressure from Jill Hancock, we will be attending the reunion and look forward to seeing some of you there.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Jaxon and Megan (McBride) Anderson








Hey all y'all!! It's been a while since Megan or I have seen or spoken
with many of you. Some of you may know our story, some of you may not.
I had a major crush on Megan McBride our senior year... she was the
talented, beautiful, acting, singing, skateboarding, dancing chick
that I thought was pretty untouchable for a band/choir/health
occupations geek like myself. But I FINALLY (as Megan would say) asked
her to our commencement dance and it was pretty much history after
that. We dated and went to college at BYUI together the summer after
we graduated, and then I went on an LDS mission to Germany/Austria.
The mission didn't go quite how I planned and ended up coming home
later that year. The next year was a blur filled with interesting and
trying experiences (such as breaking up with Megan on R mountain,
working construction, etc...). We ended up getting back together, were
engaged in March of 2004 and got married in the Idaho Falls temple on
August 14th of the same year. Meg finished her Bachelors degree in
secondary mathematics education and minored in american government
while I got my associates degree in nursing. I started working at
EIRMC on the cardiac unit and Megan did some substitute teaching for
Madison and Rigby school districts. We bought a trailer right behind
the high school and acquired a little Shih Tzu named Minnie, and lived
there for a couple years. We had our oldest child, Courtney Rose, in
June of 2007 and I started my bachelors in nursing. I graduated in
2008 with my bachelors in nursing and we moved down to Idaho Falls. At
that same time, I also transferred to the ICU at EIRMC and worked a
second job with Creekside Hospice. In August of 2009 we welcomed Azely
Marie into our family. After much contemplation and prayer we decided
to move to Raleigh, NC in January of 2010 as I began applying for
graduate school. I worked in a large level one trauma center in
downtown Raleigh (WakeMed) until I luckily got accepted to the Raleigh
School of Nurse Anesthesia/UNC -Greensboro. What an experience it has
been living in hot humid NC!!! We have frequented the beach as many
times as our limited budget allows, learned how to cook on a charcoal
grill, and many other things that this area and the south has to
offer. Megan is currently pregnant with our third child (a boy which
has been temporarily assigned the name of "g-money") and is due on
July 15th. I will be finished with my clinical residency on August
18th with my masters degree in nurse anesthesia. We will then be
headed back to the motherland and I will be working at St. Alphonsus
Medical Center (St Als) in Boise. We've had many great experiences
together and hope to have many more!! Due to financial constraint and
the fact that Megan is ready to pop we will not be able to attend the
10 year reunion. Hope all is well and hope to see some of you soon!

Jaxon, Megan, Courtney, Azely, G-Money, and Minnie

Emily Head



I will have to agree with everyone else that the past 10 years have gone by so fast! After graduation, I got to spend the summer up in Stanley, ID (close to Redfish Lake, for those of you who know where that is) working and enjoying the beauty of the mountains, lakes and hiking. That's how I spent most of my summers in college. :)  Soon after, I started school at BYU-Idaho in the Fall semester. I started as a music major, but soon realized that even though I loved music, it was not what I was supposed to major in, so I soon switched majors to Family & Consumer Sciences Education (although I still took many music classes and participated in the BYU-I Symphony Orchestra).  I absolutely loved my time in college and all of the experiences that I was able to have there.  In the spring of 2005, I decided that I wanted to serve a full-time mission for the LDS church, so I started on the paper-work that summer.  I also completed an internship at Island Park Scout Camp as their Trading Post Director that summer before I left on my mission! It was so much fun to work up in the beautiful outdoors! I was called to serve in the China Hong Kong Mission, and I left for the MTC in September 2005.  I was there for 3 months learning the Cantonese language, and couldn't wait to get to Hong Kong.  I absolutely loved my experiences and my time in Hong Kong! I returned from my mission in March of 2007, and then went back to school in the summer semester at BYU-I, I continued to go to school and graduated in April 2008 in Family & Consumer Sciences Education.  
I got my first teaching job in Star Valley, WY teaching at Star Valley High School and Middle School in Afton, WY.  If you have never visited this part of the state, it is one of the only beautiful places in Wyoming!  I was teaching Culinary Arts at the High School and Home Ec classes at the Middle School.  I had a very busy schedule and hardly had a break all day (even my lunch break was normally spent at the grocery store and traveling between schools) but I loved my time there, and made many friends that I consider some of the best people in the world!  But even though it was a great job, I was discouraged that in a town of 1800, there was not many single guys my age, since they were all in college somewhere else, and after being set up on some pretty awful blind dates, I pretty much gave up on the whole dating game! But the Lord had a different plan for me, since one of my neighbors down the street had a son (Jason Head) that she gave my number to.  Jason called me and asked me out on a date on Valentine's Day. (I know it is totally cliche, but it was an awesome date!) We went snowmobiling to Granite Hot Springs, and ended the day by making dinner together, and watching movies.  I guess you can say that we hit it off, because after dating for only a month and a half we got engaged April 1st and were married on July 1, 2009 in the Rexburg LDS Temple.  We spent our 1st year of marriage in Star Valley, where we both worked, and then decided to start our little family by getting pregnant with our first daughter.  In July 2010 we made a big move to Pocatello, ID where I taught at Highland High School, and Jason continued his education at ISU.  We welcomed Rebekah Ruth into our home on December 6, 2010, and she is such a joy to have in our family! She is super busy all the time, and was walking by the time she was 9 months old.  She is 18 months old now and can already say so many words and some short sentences! We love her so much! She is going to be getting a little brother in September, and we are so excited to be welcoming baby #2 into our family this fall! In November of last year, Jason was offered a position back in Star Valley to finish his Electrician's Journeyman, but because I was still under contract with the school district, it would mean that we would only see each other on the weekends.  It was a very hard decision to make, but ultimately we decided to take the job because it would allow me to finally stay home with our little ones. So after 6 months of temporary separation, we are finally back together again here in Star Valley, WY. I also became a Mary Kay Consultant in the middle of all of that and I am enjoying the freedom that it gives me to keep my priorities in the right place, and still earn an income.  We just bought our first home, and we are loving this time in our lives! 
Its been great to read about everyone's lives these past 10 years!  

Kersten Hendricks Searle






After High School I attended BYU-Idaho for about 1.5 semesters and then on 16 August 2003 I married my husband Matt, who is from Shelley. It seems like we've spent most of our marriage moving around (just completed our 14th move last December).
Shortly after getting married we moved to Orlando, Florida. Matt got his degree in Audio Engineering at Full Sail University. While he was at school I worked at a fitness center, and then at a Veterinary Clinic. We played a lot and also endured 5 severe hurricanes. After all our hurricanes we decided Florida was not the place for us, and when Matt graduated we moved to Los Angeles, California, where we lived for 5 years. There my husband worked at an Independent Record Label, Cheap Lullaby Records. In 2006 I had my first son, Arley. People there thought we were crazy when I chose to be a stay-at-home-mom, though I also took some night classes on the side. 

Eventually the company Matt worked for made the move to Wisconsin, so after some thought we felt it was time to come back to Rexburg. I went back to school full time and my first week back I found out I was pregnant again. I got to finish my first year back at college, super pregnant and miserable. I got the swine flu among various other ailments, but still managed to finish my last semester of the year four days before I had my second son, Henry in December 2009. 

I continued at BYU-Idaho until Matt was transferred to Provo for his job. We loved Provo and only ended up living there 6 months before Matt was surprised by the perfect job at BYU-Idaho working for the BYU-I center running their post-audio department. With that we moved back to Rexburg, and have now been back for about 1.5 years. We bought a house here in December, and I just had my third child, Evelyn, May 17th. 

My kids are awesome and crazy. Arley is a whirlwind of energy and emotion. He is constantly singing, or just making noise, I can see him following in my dramatic nature. The poor kid spent more time in the principal's office his first year at school than I ever have. It makes me dread when he'll be a teenager. Henry loves sports and can take his big brother down in about 2 seconds flat. He does not get his athletic ability from me, as I have none. He also loves music, and likes to drum and play air guitar. So far Evelyn is a great baby, she will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. All I can really say about her so far is that she sleeps great at night (from 5-8 hours) and has from the start.

As far as I go, I'm planning on again returning to school to finally finish my last little bit of my BA. My plan is to major in English, and then eventually get my Master's in Library Science, with the intention of becoming a children's librarian. On the side I also love to sew, crochet, knit, decorate, and paint. Now that we live somewhere with a decent yard (yards are hard to come by in Orlando & LA) I also plan on giving gardening a try.

Chris Marcum




A lot can happen in 10 years, so I'll just start at the high light - my wife. Shortly after returning home from my mission, I reconnected with a couple of our class mates, Kim Erickson (Kim West, now) and Sean West. I think they took pity on me because I was so awkward and had lost what little game I may have had, so Kim set me up on a blind date with their neighbor down the street who had moved in the year prior. I nervously knocked on the door to pick up my date and was brought inside by my future father-in-law, where I first laid eyes on my wife-to-be. Of course at the time I was actually picking up her sister, Patty, for the date. But I still remember seeing Jules and thinking, "yowza." 

Jules' and I had an odd courtship. Basically it was non-existent. We were in the same ward at BYU-Idaho and her home teacher wasn't around much, so I took it upon myself to sacrifice my time and visit the hottest girl in the ward (it was tough, but someones gotta do it). We became friends and enjoyed being around each other. We'd go out on a date every few months, but it never really progressed. Throughout the process we dated other people, but always stayed in touch. Long story short, she went on a mission, we wrote each other, fell in love and got married 3 months after she came home. It's been a party every since. 

I graduated from BYU-Idaho in 2009 with a degree in Communications (advertising) and a minor degree in Culinary Arts. Seems random, but I love to cook and I needed something to keep me sane through my education. I'm now working as the marketing manager for a software company in Provo, Utah. Jules and I bought a house last year in Spanish Fork, where we've been living since. Jules actually blogs quite a bit about the work we're doing on our house and you can see that here: http://chrislovesjulia.com

A little over 2 years ago we added little Greta to our family. Greta is tall for a 2 year old. I feel bad for her sometimes because people think she's 3 or 4 years old and they expect her to behave that way, but she's not even 2.5 yet. And she has staggering amounts of energy; I've never known a kid with such energy. And I know it's not just me, because her pediatrician says the same thing. But she's smart as a whip and keeps things interesting, that's for sure. We really love that little girl and get so excited every day to see the new things she learns.

Anyway, that's us. We're livin' the dream down here in Utah County. We'll be at the reunion so we're looking forward to seeing those of you that are there. If anyone is living down this way, let us know. We'd love to connect - we're all about having people over.

chris

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Alan Patterson



 After high school, I started attending BYU-Idaho in the fall. I finished up two semesters before leaving on an LDS mission to Baltimore, Maryland. Crazy fact – at one point, we had 5 missionaries from Rexburg in our mission (one being Ben Brubaker). After returning home, I went right back to school and decided to major in accounting. A few months later, I met my wife Kristy on campus. She is from Southern California (Anaheim area). We started dating and were married in August 2006. We have had a lot of fun together and shared some exciting experiences. We lived in Connecticut for 4 months in the winter of 2008 as I was working on my internship for an accounting firm there. We were only an hour train ride from New York City so we were able to see most of the sites on the weekend and got to see quite a few Broadway shows.
I graduated with my Bachelors of Accounting in July 2008 and moved to Utah to attend the University of Utah to work on my Master’s degree. I finished that up a year later and we decided to stay in Utah as my wife has a brother and sister living here. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that at first but we have grown to love the area. We bought a house in West Jordan where we still live. After graduating, I found a job with Deloitte, a large global accounting firm with an office in downtown Salt Lake. I am a tax accountant mostly dealing with business tax. Kristy and I decided to start a family and had a boy in October 2009, who we named Tanner. He has kept us on our toes for the past 2+ years. He is constantly on the move, which has caused him some pain (5 staples in his head to close a gash and recently a broken elbow after falling off his bike). He enjoys cars and sports, especially going to BYU football games (yes I know, I went to the U of U but stayed true to the Cougars despite taking a lot of heat from my classmates).
The first year after Tanner was born was very busy for us. I was working a lot of hours during tax season and also studying for the CPA exam. I was lucky enough to pass the exam and am now a Certified Public Accountant. Things were going smoothly when we decided to add a second child to our family. Kristy and I were worried that having two children would be difficult with me spending long hours at the office. I was able to find a new job with a company called Extra Space Storage working in their tax department. I started there in December 2011 and we have loved the change. Shortly after I started my new job we added our second son, Trevor, to the family. So far, he seems less busy than his older brother was but we will see how long that lasts. We enjoy being parents and the challenges that come with raising two boys.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Kami Blackburn McKee





Wow 10 years....that's so crazy how fast the time has gone by. Well
here goes nothing.......After Graduation I bummed around for the
summer and moved to
Utah in August. I lived in Utah for 2 years, mostly playing ball,
growing up, learning A LOT about myself, and attending class
occasionally ( just enought to keep me eligible to play ball really).
After that I decided to not play ball anymore and moved back to good
ol' Rexburg. I found a job cleaning houses for the upper class in
society, made good money and played hard. After getting sick of the
commute back and forth from Jackson to the Burg I found a job working
at Artco as a CS Rep...money not so great, but it paid the bills. I
played harder and then decided maybe I should try to go back to
school. I went to ISU's extended campus and then BYU-I......missed
more classes than I actually attended. School just wasn't my thing I
guess. I met my "Man" and best friend Clayton McKee in 2005 through
a good friend of mine. We dated for about a year and decided that we
didn't want to live without eachother so we got hitched. We were
married on Dec. 1, 2006 in beautiful, freezing, windy Rexburg. We
were sealed a year later to the day in the Salt Lake Temple. We lived
in Pocatello for 6 months and then moved to his Grandfather's
farm/ranch in Inkom. There we lived in a crappy little trailer for
about 3 years. But it was free so I can't complain too much. I
learned how to chase and brand cows, drive a tractor and all the fun
stuff that comes with farming and ranching. The funny thing is I
really loved it. We are hoping to build up there in the next few years
on our 2 acres that his Grandfather gave us....well moving on... we
were able to do some traveling with the dough we were saving on rent
and Clayton was able to finish his schooling during that time too and
became a Journeyman electrician. I worked at Highland High School
first with Emotionally disturbed kids and then as a teachers aid in
the Special Education classrooms. Very hard but very rewarding jobs
at the same time. We welcomed our daughter Afton Leona in 2010. It
was about that time that we decided that we should probably up our
living standards for her sake. We bought our first home last year and
are loving it. It has a huge backyard that Afton loves to play in.
She loves, loves, loves being outside. She's a spunky little 2 year
old, and she keeps me on my toes. She's so full of life and so much
fun. I'm so lucky that I get to be her mom, she might feel
differently one day however. We just added to our little family in
March with the birth of our son Clayton Bridger (AKA Clayt) He's such
a sweet little guy, and his smiles just melt my heart. We are loving
life and having so much fun. We are so, so, so blessed! The past 10
years have been the best and it makes me so excited for the next 10.
Can't wait to see ya'll

Brett Forsgren




Shortly after we graduated I trekked south with a bunch of our classmates and attended Utah State University in Logan, UT.  I never changed my major but I did take a bunch of random classes that spread a 4-year degree into a 6-year process, but those 2 extra years were well worth it when I left with not only a B.S. in Computer Science, but a minor in Latin as well as a wife.

I first met my wife (Lauren) in the fall of my 4th year of school, and since she isn’t proofreading this post and can’t defend herself, I get to share my version of how we met (and leave you to wonder how much is accurate): at the time I was sharing an apartment with Ryan Crandall and we and our other roommates spent a good portion of our time playing Dance Dance Revolution in the living room (you step on arrows on a pad in time to music; sort of a precursor to Guitar Hero and the like.)  For those who haven’t played the game, you work up a sweat pretty quickly.  Our remedy to this was to open the windows for ventilation and to wear as little clothing as possible.  One day Lauren was walking by and saw a bunch of sweaty men in their underwear dancing in the living room.  She picked out the most impressive of the pack and said to herself, “mmm, that’s what I’m talking about.”  I won’t bore you with too many details, but we first met in September of 2005, were engaged in February of 2006, and married in June of 2006.  (As a funny anecdote, we were on a date in November of 2005 and after dinner she hugged me and whispered in my ear for the first time “I love you.”  Me, being exceptionally smooth, responded with “Thank you.”)

Our first two years of marriage were pretty typical with both of us going to school, working, and being flat broke.  In May of 2008 I finally graduated from USU and shortly thereafter I convinced Microsoft they wanted to hire me as a programmer and in June of 2008 we moved to Redmond, WA, just outside of Seattle.  A few months later we got 2 whippets, Leto and Dune (litter-mates.)  In the fall of 2010 we decided that our family needed to include more than dogs and we quickly found ourselves awaiting a baby boy.  Needing more space we moved out of our apartment in Redmond and into a house in Bellevue, WA just a few minutes south.  Unknown to us at the time, God had a slightly different plan for us, and we lost the baby.  Odin Vernon Forsgren (Odie) was stillborn on June 23, 2011 at 38 weeks due to a blood clot forming in a kink in the cord.  This has by far been the most difficult thing we have gone through, and it continues to be difficult.  We chose to bury him in Bountiful, UT to be near family, but struggle with it ourselves because we are still in Washington and can’t visit him as often as we would like.  I realize I’m getting older but I feel too young to own cemetery plots, let alone to have one already occupied.

Even after our loss we still felt that we needed to grow our family and in a few months we learned that Odie was going to get a baby brother.  On May 4, 2012 we welcomed Tyr Nokes Forsgren into our lives and he has been a joy to have around.  While he doesn’t make me miss Odie any less, I think it helps me appreciate the experiences that I do have, and gives me hope for having similar experiences with Odie someday.  I look forward to when Tyr gets older and I get to tell him about his big brother in heaven watching over him.

Unfortunately we won’t be able to make it to the reunion but if you haven’t found me on Facebook already, it should be pretty easy, or if you prefer email, I’m always available at brettfo@microsoft.com.

Britney Conrad Ringel


 Ten years already? Wow! I can't believe it. After graduating high school, I started school at BYU-Idaho just like most of you. I got a Specialized Associates Degree in Professional Preschool Education. After finishing my Associates Degree, I decided to continue to get a BS in Early Childhood Special Education. I never imagined I'd go into teaching, but I absolutely love it. 

I met my husband, James, in Nov. 2003. He is from Tetonia, ID. We dated until he left on a mission to Cambodia in May 2004. We wrote each other and stayed in touch the whole time he was gone. He came home in May 2006, and we were married in the Idaho Falls Temple on July 27, 2006. I graduated with a BS in December 2006. I was a substitute teacher for District 91 and 93 for one year while also working at Madison Memorial Hospital as a Health Unit Coordinator/Nursing Tech. I got my first actual teaching job in August 2008 in Pocatello, ID. I was a Special Ed Preschool Teacher for the Early Intervention Program for the Pocatello School District. I loved it, and I was very sad to leave this year. James has been attending ISU studying Pre-Architecture and working part-time. He was just recently accepted to the University of Idaho and we will be moving to Moscow, ID in August. He is excited to finish his degree in Architecture and to be done with school. 

In December 2009, Makenzie Lyn Ringel joined our family. She is 2 1/2 and full of attitude. She loves Mickey Mouse, Ariel, and Toy Story. She is a problem solver, just like her dad. She likes to figure out how things work. She loves dogs and loves to go swimming. We are so blessed to have her in our family.... even if she is super spoiled and a handful sometimes! :)

We are excited to start the next chapter of our lives over in Moscow, ID. It has been a lot of fun reading all of the updates!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Trudy Parkinson





Ten years is a long time, but it sure flew by for me. Two weeks after we finished high school I began full time cosmetology school at Career Beauty College. (This has closed down now because there are two awesome new beauty schools in Rexburg). I worked part-time receptionst at Reflections Hair and Nail Design (which happens to be owned by my sister) to get by financially. I also continued to live at home and mooch off my parents as long as possible. After graduating, taking my state board exam, and becoming licensed, I continued to work at Reflections as a hairstylist and nail technician.
So there I was. Living at home with my parents, working hard for the money, and playing extra hard at night (doing things like country dancing...) I was just dating lots, not wanting to get serious with anyone, when I met the love of my life! Bryce Parkinson! We actually met at the St. Anthony skate park, when I was hanging out with some other boys who happened to be friends with him. He was living in Salt Lake City and had come back home for a weekend visit. We had actually both gone to Madison, but he is one year younger in age and in school. (I know, Ive robbed the cradle!) Oh, and he had transferred from Sugar for his junior and our senior year. So that's why I didn't know him. We hung out that entire weekend, and he just kept coming back weekend after weekend. I started visiting him too, we were on the phone with each other all night long every night, and we fell madly in love! We were married in the Idaho Falls Temple on August 5, 2005. I moved to Utah the next day.
I have continued my career as a Hair Stylist in Utah. I work at Foxi Hair, a salon in Midvale. Bryce has worked for Grainger Industrial Supply for 9 years. His current position is Territory Sales Representative. In October 2009, we purchased a home in Taylorsville. On February 26th, 2011, we welcomed our first child! Hazel Grace Parkinson. She is the light of our lives, and the best little girl anyone couls ask for. She's 16 months old, loves to chat (with everyone-including strangers), sing songs, and play outside.
I'm excited to see you all!!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Britney Checketts


Just like everyone else I do NOT feel as though I am old enough to be 28 years old.
BUT I do feel like it has been a lifetime since highschool!
After graduation I went down to Salt Lake and attended LDS Business College doing the Interior Design AA program they have. Upon finishing I moved out to the Twin Cities of MN where my family had re-located to and did 3 semesters at a local college working on getting my BA. I met a boy who had just come home from his mission and was heading out BYU-Idaho, so I said why not and followed him back to the burg. Things didn't work out with him, but it did get me back to find the love of my life. After getting into school at BYU-I I met my love in our singles ward, and crazy small world he went to Sugar and graduated in 2002 as well. We were married in the summer of 2006 in the Salt Lake Temple.




I finally finished my BA in 2007 and while waiting for Wyatt to graduate we welcomed our little boy Brecken into our lives in 2008.

He is the smartest kid you'll ever meet, and I'm not just being biased he's a genius. 
He is also in LOVE with Taylor Swift and has every intention of marrying her. 
In 2009 Wyatt finished his BS & we moved out to the Twin Cities so we could get residency in a state with a Dental School. We loved it there but were SO ready to get on with our final journey of schooling so we could settle down. 
In 2011 we welcomed our little boy Oliver into our lives.


He is such a cheesier and is so happy! He is also SO busy! I used to get so much done, now I am constantly chasing! He was crawling at 6 months and walking at 9 and life has not slowed down since!
Wyatt started Dental School at Marquette University in WI in 2011 and we LOVE it here! We live about 18 miles north of Milwaukee and I hope to always call it home. Our little town(Cedarburg) is charming U.S.A. there isn't anything about this place that I don't love-well I take that back, I could do with a little less humidity and a little warmer winter, but other than that it is PERFECT! If any of you ever have the erge to come to WI let me know! We LOVE to have company, and with Chicago & Green Bay only 2 hours way and Milwaukee a half hour, there is never a shortage of things to do! 
Life has been VERY good to us, and we feel extremely blessed.

It has been so fun reading through and catching up with everyone. 
I am a little bumbed that the tickets we bought to come out to Idaho AGES ago put us leaving to come back home on the 6th when the reunion ended up being on the 7th, but hopefully we can catch up with some of you while we are visiting  the few weeks before that! 

Amber Powell Redd






\Well, two weeks after we graduated, I started right into college at BYU-I.  I graduated from the nursing program in 2004, then finished with my BSN of Nursing 3 semesters later in 2005.  In May of '04 I went on my first date with my future husband.  I had met Kevin about a year before, but by the time we went on that first date, all I could remember was that everyone called him "Redd" and he had mad volleyball skillz.  It finally came to me, though, and we were eventually married in the Idaho Falls temple in May of 2005. We bought our home here in Rexburg in 2006 and have never ventured away!
 
I have been working at Madison Memorial Hospital for the past 8 years (whoah!) as a labor & delivery nurse. I've had the priviledge of helping many of you welcome new babies into your families, and have helped during miracles & tragedies while there. I really love what I do, but right now I have cut back to an "as needed" status (2-3x/month) so I can be at home to raise my kiddos. Kevin has been working at BYU-I for the past 6 years, and is one of the Advisors for the Competitive Sports Program.  This will also be his first year as the Volleyball Commissioner for High School Volleyball in District 6. 
 
My greatest achievements in the past 10 years are named Logan, Brooklyn, and Samantha.  Logan just turned 5, and is the craziest kid I know. He is extremely outgoing, loud, clever, and has way too much energy. I feel like I'll only be able to outsmart this kid for a couple more years, at best. Brooklyn is 2 1/2 and is a cute little sassy-pants. She cracks me up everyday with the things she says and does, and seems to be following right along in her brother's footsteps, heaven help me! Samantha is almost 3 months, and is so happy & smiley.  I can proudly boast she already sleeps 8-9hrs at night almost every night. 
 
Eventually, I plan on returning to school to further my nursing degree.  But for now, most of my days are spent washing little hands and faces, discussing Transformers, Dora, Diego, bugs & spiders, and cleaning up messes again & again & again.  The crazy part is that overall, I love it, and I'm happy with how I've changed and grown in the last 10 years.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Brian Jacques

Not sure why everyone is complaining about being so old. I don’t feel old at all. Actually, people ask me everyday if I am still a teenager. I will now attempt to sum up the last 10 years in a few paragraphs...

After we graduated I found myself in China teaching English to preschoolers and meditating in the surrounding mountain areas. A year later I served a mission in Dallas, Texas, speaking Mandarin Chinese. It was very fantastic.

After two years of sharing the good word with the native Chinese Texans, I went to school at BYU-Idaho. I got sick of that pretty quick so I ran off to China again, but this time to attend a semester abroad. After a few years of traveling around and finding myself, I found my way back to BYU-Idaho. One cold Rexburg winter, I realized there was also a BYU located in the beautiful islands of Hawaii.

I transferred to BYU-Hawaii soon after and got a degree in International Business. Since I never actually studied a day in Hawaii, I spent all my time (years and years) surfing the waves and jumping off waterfalls. In the evenings I worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center as the only white boy drummer. Then the best thing happened, I met my wife, JoLyn, (we met in the ocean) and we were married a few years later.

We now live in Southern Utah where I work for the Government (sorry, can’t really talk about what I do on a public blog). In my free time I spend my evenings trying to get a start as an underground freestyle rapper known as “Professor B”.  

Much Love and Aloha,

Brian Jacques

Monday, June 18, 2012



JUST A HUGE REMINDER>>>>>>  IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON GOING TO THE TEN YEAR REUNION DINNER BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW BY JUNE 21ST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THAT IS THIS THURSDAY!!  THIS DINNER IS GOING TO BE A BLAST!!! WE'VE ALREADY HAD A LOT OF PEOPLE SIGN UP FOR THE DINNER SO DON'T MISS OUT!!

SIGN UP NOW BEFORE IT CLOSES!!!

To purchase tickets look to the right of the blog for the pay pal.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Jennive Maxfield Miller


Hey all! I’m loving this blog! It makes for great reading during a 3am baby feeding.  

Like a good handful of us, I went to BYU-I upon graduation. My first year there I spent having too much fun playing and not enough time studying. By my second year I was bored and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Luckily one of my good buddies from the old days, Daniel Miller (he went to South Fremont), was still around and we started hanging out/making out and in March of ’04 we got married.

After that things got crazy. We lived in Rexburg for a year playing and working. Then Daniel took a job as an iron worker for a company in Utah and we started living out of suit cases. Within a year his job took us to Mesquite, Honolulu, Denver, and Battle Mountain, Nevada. While in Nevada, Daniel crushed his hand sheeting a building and had to work out of their office in Utah. During his time there, they found out what a genius he is offered him a job as an estimator so we left the ‘Burg and moved to Sandy, Utah.

During that whole time, I was taking classes online trying to figure out what to do with my life. I changed my major too many times to count. I finally graduated after 4 years with an Associates of Applied Sciences (pretty much nothing). In Utah, I took a job at Lifetime Fitness as a pool manager for almost 2 years before our first little dude was born.

Mason was born in September ’08 and Madilyn (Madi) was born in June ’10. I loved being able to stay home with the kids and just be a mom. While I was pregnant with Madi we started playing the “what if” game. We realized that if I ever had to provide for my family, my associates degree in nothing wouldn’t really help me much. So when Madi was 4 months old I went back to school and graduated last May as a Licensed Massage Therapist. I have been working at the Grand Spa at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City ever since and really love what I do.  We expanded our family this past March when Burke was born. It was nice to stay home for a few weeks with the kiddos and play house again but it was time to head back to work.

We decided early on in our marriage that we wanted to make as many memories as we could with our kids so we have spent a good part of the last few years traveling. We were able to go to Spain before Mason was born and since then have been to Disney World 4 times (with our 5th trip planned for this fall). We head home to Idaho to visit family (and get out Gringo’s fix) at least once a month. We take at least one trip a year to Yellowstone and try to go camping as much as we can.

To shed some unwanted baby weight, I started running. Daniel and I have done a few races together and we like to include our kids in the runs as much as possible. Last July, Mason was able to finish a race with us. The smile on his face was amazing.  The past 10 years have gone by faster than I could have imagined.  Reading about everyone’s lives has been a blast! Keep it coming everyone!

Jennifer Hansen Yost



Oh buddy! I feel old and kind of boring, I haven't done anything super exciting the last ten years, and yet I have thoroughly enjoyed my life. After high school I went to byu idaho and got my A.S. in generals. Woot woot. During my college life I was able to go to Europe with Julie Haderlie Stewart. Loved it. I lived the single life for a couple of years after college before I met my husband, Scott Yost. He's from Idaho Falls, and a couple of years younger than us. That's right y'all, I'm a cougar, rar.  He's perfect for me.  We were married in Idaho falls in November 2008. We had our baby boy last November. His name is Bridger. I don't what we did before we had him, you know, except like sleep, take long showers, come and go on a whim.....huh, I've forgotten what those things are like. We love him tremendously. As of now his hobbies are flirting with all the ladies, putting anything and everything in his mouth.....and he's on the verge of crawling, oh heaven help us all. we've lived in rexburg since we were married but Scott was just recently transferred to Provo so now we are living down there, I refuse to be an official utahans.  Can't wait to see everyone.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Attention MHS Class of 2002!  It is officially time for our 10 yr reunion!!!!!!!

Here are the details of the upcoming reunion.

Date: Saturday July 7th, 2012

Family Event: 12:00 NOON at Smith Park Pavilion in Rexburg, ID. Bring the whole family!!  Please bring your own lunch and get ready to have some fun!  This is a for you to visit with old friends and meet their families!
 

Dinner at 7:00 PM at OUR High School (it is now known as Madison Jr. High). We will meet in the commons (lunchroom). The dinner will be catered by Chiz’s and we’ll have tons of GREAT entertainment featuring our very own classmates. Casual dress, spouses/guests are encouraged to come (no kids please). $30 per ticket (the ticket price includes dinner, supplies, and rental of the building) For those who don’t know about Chiz’s…. it will be worth the $$$$!  This is going to be so much fun!

Tickets must be purchased in advance no later than Thursday, June 21.
Tickets will be open for purchase starting June 7th 



To Purchase tickets please look to the right of the blog press the button for pay pal.
 
Even if you can't come, please help us pass this message around so all of our classmates hear about this!  We want every person that graduated to be contacted so please PLEASE spread the word!  


If you would like to be part of the entertainment for the reunion please contact Danielle Sherman by emailing her at u0487568@utah.edu 


BUY YOR TICKETS NOW AND GET READY TO PARTY!!!!!!!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Austin and Sydnee Rasmussen





Well a lot has occurred in the few years that we have been out of High School, and it sure is fun to hear what everyone has been up to. After graduation I continued to poor concrete and attended a year of school at BYU-I. I then served in the California Ventura mission, which was a great experience as has been echoed by many of you. While on my mission my parents sold their home and built a home in Rigby where they still live. After returning home I continued my education at BYU-I, still doing construction among other things and even got to spend a whole summer in Pismo Beach doing an internship. My parents’ neighbor did her best to set me up with ward members or random waitresses that she’d meet, and I thought it was just because she liked me. As it turns out she was trying to get me married off before I found out she had a smoking hot 19 year old daughter. Well it didn’t work, I married the farmer’s daughter 3 years ago the day I graduated from BYU-I. I’m not sure I’ve become the favorite son-in-law yet, but I don’t think I’m at the bottom of the list anymore either. 
The first summer we were married Sydnee finished her Associate’s at BYU-I and I worked in Jackson, and that fall we moved to Boise to start graduate school. It was quite an experience and my sweet wife has been the bread winner in our family for the majority of our marriage thus far, but I am doing my best to make up for lost time. Our studies have given us the opportunity to travel a little bit and see some fun things. While Sydnee was pregnant and just after Raleigh started to crawl, we lived in Fairbanks for a month and a half. I also moved to St. George and later Twin Falls by myself for a time and drove home whenever we could afford it. Fortunately I bought a sweet old car from a little old lady who used it to go to the Post Office for 20 years, and it got superb gas mileage. Even more fortunate, I married a sweet wife who has worked very hard to keep the home fire burning often on her own. 
The night after graduation last fall our son was born. 3 weeks later we moved to Western Washington, about 40 minutes outside of Seattle, where I work in a busy Emergency Room in Tacoma and another smaller but equally busy ER in Federal Way. It’s funny, I spend a lot more time dealing drugs and with blood on my hands than I had ever imagined I would when I grow up. It is unfortunate that my fear of pain thwarted my promising career as cage fighter or a professional bull rider. But, we have a pretty good gig right now, I get to see and learn a lot, and really shouldn’t complain. 
Sydnee is finally at home where she loves taking care of the kids full time, and is still smoking hot. She works very hard to take care of all of us and is the only thing that stands between us and complete anarchy. Raleigh is almost 2, got her Momma’s great looks, and is our little pistol. She keeps us super busy, but is very sweet and helpful to her little brother. When she was still just 18 months old it was not uncommon to hear Heath cry and then stop, only to find that she had gotten a bottle off the counter and was feeding it to him on the couch while they watched Phineas and Ferb. She kisses him on the head every night before bed, and then she bites him every once in a while, just to keep him in line I suppose. Heath is our bruiser. He gets his charm, athletic build and great looks from his mom, and he gets his hairline from his dad. The only thing larger than his appetite for exploring his world is his appetite for eating it, and he is one happy little dude. It’s incredible how fast time flies and how fast these kids grow, as mentioned before, Raleigh is almost 2 and Heath will be 1 in August. Just the other day I watched Heath stand up on the couch and reach out and swipe an Oreo right out of Raleigh’s hands, and when she reached to get it back he spun and lunged to the ground as he loaded it into his mouth. It was good watching. We’re having so much fun we can’t hardly stand it right now, and we count our blessings of health and happiness every day. I hope this finds you all well.
Austin, Sydnee, Raleigh and Heath Rasmussen

Friday, June 1, 2012

Melanie Griggs Eppich







I have really enjoyed everyone's updates so I thought it might be fun to give the quick version of the last ten years for anyone not interested in looking at my blog link (long and boring and probably way more info than you want anyway :) ). So here's the highlights:
 
I worked at Mini Mart (the Shell station in Thornton the summer after graduation) and while I wasn't sure life could get better than that, I moved to Logan, Utah in August of 2002 to go attend Utah State University.  I spent 2 full years in Logan changing majors and playing in the mountains and loving every minute of it! By my Junior year I was informed that I needed to pick a major and STICK WITH IT if I wanted to continue going to school. I picked the major I was the closest to completing which happened to be Exercise Science. I decided that would probably be a good place to start (or finish. . . or whatever).  The summer after my Junior year I packed up everything I owned and piled it into my little car and moved to a tiny town 2 hours east of Dallas, Texas.  Let's just say that if anything could go "wrong" on this adventure, it did- however, looking back, it was a life changing experience.  While there, I worked in a factory that produced those little wax paper pastry sheets that you grab your donut out of the case with (and I thought there was nothing better than the Mini Mart!).  I spent 2 months living, working, and experiencing the lone star state up close and personal and I can now say I truly miss it and it's southern hospitality. I then moved back to Logan for my Senior year. 
 
In April 2006 (just prior to graduation) , I received a call from Brian Meldrum (some of you may remember him from JR high when he terrorized our school for a couple of trimesters). He was in Salt Lake and wanted me to hang out with him and a couple of his friends from back home in Washington state.  I thought one of his friends was pretty cute (and he drove a really sweet truck) though despite my efforts, his friend spoke only a few words to me (upon entering his truck I said I liked country music and he asked me who the artist was, when I didn't know he said "then you don't really like country music.")  The evening ended and I headed back to Logan.
 
I graduated in May 2006 with a BS in Exercise Science (PE), a minor in Parks and Recreation and and emphasis in Recreational Therapy (I know it's a mouth full). I then moved to Jackson Hole, WY to manage a ranch office where I worked long hours for little pay and spent what little time I had hiking, biking, and playing outside. In July, I received a mysterious text from a Washington area code.  Yep, it was the friend with the truck.  We texted all night until I got off work and then talked on the phone until nearly 4 am.  
 
We talked every night for the next 2 months until Keldon (aka Kel, a farm boy from WA) moved to Rexburg and began working for my dad and started school at BYU-I.  I quit my job and moved home in September and Kel and I were engaged in October 2006.
 
We officially became Kel and Mel in January of 2007 on the coldest day of the year and I feel overwhelmed everyday that I found such an amazing man to share my life!
 
We moved to Idaho Falls and I worked for US Bank as a teller and at Apple Athletic Club as a fitness consultant until April when I was offered a position at the Behavioral Health Center as a Recreational Therapist.  Kel began working there as well in 2008 and we enjoyed the "Craziness" together.  We bought a house in Ammon in 2007 and promptly added a boxer puppy (Tuff) to our family.
 
In 2009, with the fall of the economy we became concerned about having "all our eggs in one basket" and despite absolutely loving my job, on a whim I applied for a job as a clinical exercise specialist at a residential treatment center for girls with eating disorders (my dream job) in Logan, Utah.  When the job offer came I jumped at the chance to move back to the mountains I loved (and leave the wind of Idaho behind). We couldn't sell our house so we ended up renting it out and moved to Utah.  I honestly didn't think there was a job out there that I could compete with my job at the BHC but I was wrong- I've loved the challenges of that population.  Kel began working as a Maintenance Supervisor for a large property management company in 2010 and be built our second house in Nibley in 2011.  
 
I just changed careers again, hopefully for the last time, when I became a mommy to our sweet "littlest" son on April 3, 2012.  After a scary few weeks, he was born 2 weeks early at a whopping 4 lbs 15.5 ounces.  He has been our little miracle and while I loved my careers- I could never have imagined the joy this little boy could bring to my life.
 
The last ten years have been riddled with hard times, but looking back I feel like the luckiest woman in the world. I love my boys and my life and couldn't ask for more! I'm excited for the reunion and catching up!