I made the Dean's List. YAHOO!

Just thought I would brag for one little second. I got my grades yesterday for my final semester. I thought I would get possibly a C+ and then the rest of the grades in the B range. I wasn't too upset thinking this because I knew it was my last semester, and a heck of a semester it was...but to my excitement, I made the Deans List. One B, two A-'s and an A in stats! That is a 3.63. Yeah!

Damon and Halle are so excited that Mom passed all her classes!

Boys Will Be Boys...

We actually had some good weather the other day, so spent the day outside playing. We pulled out Damon's power wheels 4-wheeler. He drives that thing with reckless abandon, but at least has a GREAT time doing it. Here is just a small clip of Damon showing his driving skills, when just a few seconds into it, he has already crashed into the neighbor girl, Heidi. No one was hurt in the making of this, and I thought it was quite funny to watch. It is fun having a son, and watching him grow up. He gets to be more of a boy everyday...you know, hyper, no pain no gain, the bigger the mess the better... I thank Heavenly Father everyday for Damon.

One month to go! USA or BUST!!

Can you believe it? Joe has already been gone for 11 months. One month to go, and he will be home again. At times, it seemed as if time was at a standstill, and I thought this year would never end, but looking back on it, I can't help but think time flies.

This week Joe sent out one of his famous journal entries to friends and family. In it was the first time I ever heard him talk about meeting the wives and children of the detainees in the prison he is a guard over. He was able to send a couple of pictures of himself with them. It was very interesting to read about this, and then get to see a couple of pictures. I think of my life this past year not having my husband around, but never really thought of the families whose husbands, brothers, dads etc... have been put in a prison in Iraq. Joe is often telling stories to me of Iraq, and then men he sees, but I never looked at it from a wife's point of view until this past week. It touched me but also broke my heart.

I am so proud of Joe, his brother Rob, and brother-in-law, Brian, for all that they have done this past year. Only a month to go guys. Then it will be back to craziness at home with your own wives and kids, and you will be wishing to go back! Just kidding. We are counting down the days and anxious for you to return home.
Until then, take care, be safe, and I LOVE YOU!!! I look forward to having you around, and am even more so especially excited for summer this year! See you soon Joe.

Graduation!

Last Friday I graduated from Utah Valley University with my Bachelors of Criminal Justice. I am quite proud of myself for finally finishing my degree. I am not exactly sure what I will ever do with a Criminal Justice degree. For the most part, I will probably just be a mom. But it is nice knowing that I completed college and know that I was able to accomplish that huge goal in my life. Thank you to everyone that supported and helped me through it this past semester especially. Thanks to everyone who watched the kids for me so that I could attend classes or work on projects and homework. It never went unnoticed. My goal would have never been reached without the help from everyone around me.

Let's get started!

I have never been much into crafty things. I don't do scrapbooks or journal writing. So upon looking at some of my friends blogs, I decided that is something that I could easily do. We will see huh? I just wonder why in the world I didn't think to do this a year ago when Joe left, so he would have updated pictures and stories to read, and I could have had an online journal of this past year....oh well, let the past be the past. At least I am starting something now, and I hope to keep up with it. I am not going to try to back-pedal and post things that happened ages ago, or I would be doing this forever, so I am going to start my blog from just recently and go from there.

Some may wonder why our blog URL is thetinytinys. When Joe and I first got married, his pet name for me was Tiny. Then we had Damon. Immediately and without even thinking we started calling him our Tiny Tiny. Then came Halle. It was only appropriate that she was named the Tiny Tiny Tiny. We better stop having kids, or it will be hard to have to yell out for Tiny to the 7th power to come home. So as I was trying to think of a blog name for us, I thought, we are the Tiny's...lets go with that. Thanks to Joe for our fabulous nicknames!

Tiny Tiny and Tiny Tiny Tiny