Master(s) of the House

Well, I guess I'll have to share that title with David now that I'm not the only person with a master's degree in the house. David graduated last Friday with his Master of Business Administration (emphasis finance) on Friday.

The convocation ceremonies were held in the massive Marriott Center. As you can tell, we had awesome seats. I sat next to my friend and her family and since we had little children in tow, we wanted to be close to the exit.

Zara mostly just wanted to climb up and down the steps. I haven't been back in the Marriott Center since my own graduation *cough*8*cough* years ago, and I forgot how steep they are. I wasn't too keen on her taking a tumble down a bunch of cement stairs. She wasn't happy with me.

David shaking hands with professors. 

They had two speeches (but I really only heard the first one, by a classmate of David's). Luckily, the graduate students walked first before Zara couldn't be contained any longer. It took them FOREVER to read the undergraduate names. Zara and I went outside during that.

Apparently, BYU's MBA program celebrated its 50th year this year and so all the MBA grads got to wear (and keep) these special yellow sashes to honor 50 years of the MBA program.

Zara thought David's tassel was pretty fun.

Finally, I just want to say a huge congratulations to David for accomplishing something so momentous. He's the first person in his family to earn a graduate degree (and the second to earn a bachelor's). He has worked so hard for so long to achieve this goal and I am constantly blown away by his intelligence, hard work, diligence, dedication, and mad Excel skills. He's been going to school full-time and/or working full-time the entire 5 years that we've been married. I don't know what we're going to do now that David will no longer have to do homework all the time.

Now, the next big step will be to find a job. Keep your fingers crossed that something comes up soon!

Gratitude Countdown: Day 1

I can't believe it's already November and that Thanksgiving is only two weeks away. Where does the time go? I'm almost done with my roadtrip updates--and I'll continue to post them until I see them through to the bitter end--but I wanted to do my two week gratitude countdown in anticipation of Thanksgiving again. I really enjoyed doing it last year because it made me very aware of how much I have to be grateful for and how blessed I truly am. I have even more to be thankful for this year so I'll try not to do any repeats from last year. (Maybe. :))

I am grateful that David got into the MBA program at BYU and got out of the Navy. Now, the Navy was very good to us (I'm finding it weirdly hard to let go of our ties to the military) and it was a good job. But it was never David's lifelong career plan; rather, it was a means to an end. He gained some valuable things in those seven years: two degrees (AA in Korean, BA in accounting), financial stability, a home, and a wife and daughter. Though David enjoys learning new languages, he did not love his job. He did his job and he did it well, but he had no passion for it.

But now he absolutely loves what he's doing. He's really enjoying his program and comes home every night excited to share what he did and learned that day. It's such a nice change from the last two years. I'm so glad he got into this program. It was absolutely the right step for him and us.

And We're Moving To.....

Since graduating from college in August of 2005, I've lived some pretty exciting places.

There was the year I spent living in the beautiful splendor of Monterey, California where David and I met. Of all the places I've lived, Monterey is the one I'd most want to move back to.

And then I spent two years living in our nation's capitol, Washington, D.C., attending graduate school, working at awesome museums and meeting some of the coolest people in the world. My history-lovin' heart was full.

After marrying David, I moved to Oahu (where he'd already been living for two years). It is a tropical paradise but of all the places I have lived, Hawaii is the last one I'd want to move back to. But I'd certainly go there on vacation.

After a year in Hawaii, we moved here, to Seoul, Korea in 2008 where our daughter was born. I've loved living here and I find myself getting increasingly misty-eyed as I contemplate leaving.

But leave we must.

David will be getting out of the Navy (hooray) and finishing his Bachelor's degree in Accounting (double hooray) and so we can go anywhere and do anything we want.

So what exciting new locale will we be moving to come August?





Provo, Utah. (Well, hopefully we won't be living right in Provo....I'd prefer American Fork, Springville or Lehi....)

Exciting, right?

Kind of tame after Monterey, Washington DC, Hawaii, and Seoul but we couldn't be more excited. (Well, David still isn't super excited about Utah itself but he is excited for the reason we are moving there.)

David will be starting an MBA program in finance and international business at BYU in the fall. He just got his acceptance email this morning. I'm so proud of him. He's worked really, really hard and I'm so glad BYU recognized his potential.

I'm looking forward to being closer to family, living in AMERICA again, and all the glorious food. Utah I can take for two years. And then you better believe we'll be moving on to somewhere far more thrilling.

I'm hoping for China. :)