The End and Several Beginnings

Short and sweet summary of recent events:
-Zach graduated in Theatre Arts Studies with a Business minor.
-Kristen will graduate in August but walked in April.
-Zach is currently job hunting (anyone know any openings??)
-We moved to a new apartment.
-Kristen and I are expecting a baby in November!! Yay!

(By the way, Zach is writing, and I prefer to write in first person than second because it's hard to say this is both our thoughts, but Kristen will edit it anyway, so don't worry.)

Now let's see what major event should we touch on first...All right, all right. We'll talk about the baby. Around Christmas, Kristen and I spent a weekend with my family - around my adorable 6 month old neice, Eva. Well, being nursery leaders hadn't yet brought up the subject, but this little cutie did. So after some discussion, we made up our minds to go off of birth control. It didn't take very long. Kristen was declared pregnant by March and we are now anticipating the baby's arrival in early November. We have heard the baby's heartbeat, which is amazing in and of itself, and we will know the gender on June 16! The hardest part for Kristen has been dealing with the nausea. She is slowly getting off her medication, but we aren't out of the woods yet.

Now, I'll just work down the list.

I graduated from BYU on April 22, 2010. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts Studies with a Business Minor, and it's official - I received my official diploma a couple of days ago! Overall, it was a great experience. I was a little tired of school, mainly because it's a hard schedule to live day in and out. But it wasn't all bad; I really did love my major.

Kristen walked with me (we didn't want to put our families through the misery of two graduation ceremonies!), and will be graduating officially in August. She will be getting her Bachelor of Science in Food Science, and then moving on to motherhood. I'm super proud of her. With the help of a government grant, Kristen is taking a few classes this spring to finish up. Her only required classes are Technical Writing and an online Human Development class. She is also taking Floral Design to meet the requirements of the grant and is loving it, because she gets to take it with her sister, which is a blast!  And who could say no to pretty flowers?

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it to our graduation, and we understand if anyone couldn't make it. (I personally think BYU could simplify everything by holding both ceremonies on the same day.) We walked in Kristen's convocation beacuse she has made so many friends in her major. I only gradually found out who I was graduating with, but overall it was a good choice and it was nice to see so many friends graduate with us as well.

So the obvious follow-up question is: "Now what?" Since my plans for an MBA didn't go through this year, I am looking for a job. Now, my degree's emphasis in theatre critcal studies has few direct job opportunities, so I'm scouring the job market for positions that take any Bachelor's degree. Among my many applications, I have interviewed with Enterprise Rent-a-Car, First Investors, Farm Bureau Financial Services, Kohls, Costco, Property Solutions Inc., a Family Search internship, and Goldman Sachs. ...and Goldman Sachs is still in the picture. I do have referrals though for My Select Comfort Mattresses and Progressive Auto Insurance. I think these last three especially have strength because of the referalls I have gotten - thank you! We both have high hopes and know that something will come up that works for us. But please keep your eyes and ears open for anything else, and keep us in your prayers.

Finally, we have moved. We decided to move into our friends', Kendon and Amalie, former condo since they were buying one in the same complex. This had several benefits including being in the same ward as them, moving closer to other friends, and lower rent by about $140 / month. It is a smaller apartment, but it is easy for Kristen to walk to campus and for me to use the car for job hunting. It will be a little tight when the baby comes, but we'll work it out. We are also hoping to either find a job for me in Utah County, or one in Salt Lake that pays well enough to help pay for gas.

So we are "on our way". As Kristen mentioned recently, we don't have a lot of major decisions ahead of us - they are already in the works. So, wish us luck and pray for the best.