Happy Anniversary!

The past couple of weeks have been pretty good. Mike started a new job a couple of weeks ago at a company called Clickbank.com. He does customer service and he LOVES it. His building is at the entrance to one of the local parks, it's only minutes from campus, and he has a window seat that overlooks the river! There is a total of about 30 people that work there and so they get to know each other really well. At Mike's old job there was about 25-30 people just on one team and there were about 15-20 teams just in the collection department. His new job has been a pretty big but much needed change.
The week after Mike started his new job was the 5K.
Today is our 4 year anniversary :) I find it hard to believe that it's only been four years but I doubled checked and it's true, it's only been four years. I don't mean that in a bad way. In the past four years we've lived in 3 different apartments. I've had 2 different jobs and 3 if you count being a mom. Mike has had 3 jobs and he's been in school for all that time. We went to Europe for our honeymoon the summer following our wedding. Shortly after we got back from Europe I had a miscarriage. A year after that I was pregnant with Ryleigh. When January 2008 came around I had two aneurysms and Ryleigh was born prematurely. Throughout 2008 I was recovering and we had some things to work through with Ryleigh. Lastly, this past April Ryleigh started chemotherapy. It just seems like all of that should take 10 years to go through, but I know that we have been blessed every day of the past 4 years. I am so grateful for Mike and how caring he is with me and Ryleigh. It's been a good four years.

Women's celebration weekend

On September 26th I was in my first 5K! I was in the stroller division pushing Ryleigh. That weekend happened to be Women's conference weekend and Mike's mom and sisters traditionally get together in Salt Lake for the conference. They are all so sweet that they came up here to Boise to be with Ryleigh and me and they even participated in the 5K with us!! (I couldn't leave Ryleigh here for the weekend because Mike had work and school.) The 5K event is an annual event that benefits the hospital where Ryleigh and I stayed when I had my aneurysms and Ryleigh was born. It is also the same hospital where Ryleigh had her brain surgery and where she had her port placement surgery for chemo. For me, the 5K really meant a lot. I wanted to give back. I am so grateful to my mother-in-law, Sue Freeman, and my sisters-in-law, Angie, Shauna, and Melissa for walking the 5K and celebrating women. More than 12,000 women, young girls, and babies participated and there was such an amazing feeling of joy and happiness felt throughout the crowd. As we were nearing the finish line we came to "Tuxedo row"; there were about 15 men dressed up in tuxedo garb clapping, high-fiving, and just offering words of encouragement. We were able to see that the participants at the end of the crowd were all in wheelchairs and they were unable to push themselves so they had volunteers assisting them! I will always remember the feeling of unity as we crossed that finish line.