New Year, New Me...Maybe?

Happy New Year

With all the changes Im making this year perhaps being better at blogging will be one of them. I have a journal I write in so sometimes and I guess I feel like I am re-writing what I have already written. Also I have found that I am much better at speaking than writing (thus my major), so please forgive my errors for I do not care. If you have trouble reading something poorly written I advise you to stop now and save yourself the agony.

Anyway here is just a little up date about how our life is going here in Iowa. I have been working as a Substitute Teacher as of September 2011. So far I am really enjoying it, it pays decent here and the work is steady. It has also prompted me to continue my education in Speech Language Pathology. Yes that means I am planning to take the GRE and apply to grad. school this year. I feel nervous thinking about it, but I am also very excited. Any advice on the GRE is much appreciated:)

Ron is doing so well in school, it never ceases to amaze me how motivated and determined he is with his school work. I plan to be like him when I grow up:) He has almost reached his year mark which will be in March. We will have reached our year mark of being here in less than a month! I know I can hardly believe it myself.

All in all life has been good to us. We love our ward and are sad that some of our friends are leaving and more will be leaving soon. On a happy note more will be coming, its just the circle of life:)

 Some updates on our families, starting with Ron. Darcy Ron's oldest sister is prego with her 4th child and will be having a home birth in about a month or two and is really excited for her new adventure. Lene Ron's second oldest sister just moved back with her 4 little ones to Las Vegas. Danny Ron's younger brother is in the military and will be deployed in March and will be leaving his sweet little wife. Jacob another little brother is in the MTC and will be headed out to Dallas Texas before we know it! Carl and Luke the babies of the family are doing what boys do (whatever that means :).

 Now on to the crazy Collins clan! Daryle my older sister is working making bank at the mine and received her endowments in December, it was beautiful! AJ lives in Alaska and is doing well working and hiking and all that outdoorsy stuff. Jake will be welcoming his 3rd child in March and is working on his masters. Me I am cool. Starr is prego with her first and its a Girl!  She is due in May and will most likely have her baby on my birthday. Teal is finishing up a year in Hawaii where she has been leading a grueling life of going to the beach, working at the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center), dating handsome and buff poly boys and going to school. We all feel so sorry for the poor little darling and her tan skin. Madi, Sammi and Tacy are home with Mom and Dad keeping them young... or making them old sometimes I cant tell which.

Just a little side note I love plants! I have  become a crazy plant lady and I love it. I have about 15 plants and hope to gain more as time goes on! When we came home from Christmas break which we were gone for over two weeks my 3 foot tall peace lilies looked as though they had died. It got really cold and their leaves were drooping to the ground. I really wish I would have taken a picture to show how sad they were. Yesterday I water all my plants and guess what today they thriving as if nothing had happened! So if you have a plant that needs a home I will be glad to help give it a good place to live. Well thats it for today thank you for reading.

 

Life in the Fast Lane

 Life here started out slow and simple. It was cold and snowy, but soon warmed up and we haven't gotten any snow since.We had about month here to get settled and organized. It was really fun we spent alot of time together that we don't normally get and probably wont get for a while, if ever again.

The pace started to pick up slowly after Ron and I spoke in church. He was called to be the young mens president. At first I was so excited for him then I was felt disappointed. The reason I felt a bummed is because everyone here has been telling me that this first year is the hardest and throughout this whole experience I will become a "chiropractic widow" hardly ever seeing my husband. So I thought just one more thing he has to do, means less time with me. Then I got called to be the activity days leader.Which is good, I always liked activity days when I was younger, and we get to go to church on Wednesdays together twice a month! There is always a silver lining, he is an amazing leader, and rises to every challenge he meets.

I really wanted to get my masters degree while I was out here, but I have felt the need to support Ron. After he received his calling I really felt the need to support him and put off my masters. I will get it, but I just don't know when.

School started at the beginning of March, it started slow then kicked into hyper-drive. Ron is taking 30 credits this semester. He is really busy studying ALL the time. He also is playing baseball on the Palmer team which is a nice stress reliever for him.I have been doing my Iowa licensing for the past three weeks up in Ceder Rapids which is about 65 miles away. So last week I saw Ron for a total of about 4 hours. I was really sad I missed my sweet husband. I have also been working at the ymca here teaching swimming lessons, but I want to get a job that pays better and has better hours. So I am going to try and find a job for the summer, because I am set for when school starts again. 

 

We live in whats called the Quad Cities. It is composed of  Davenport where we live, Bettendorf IA, Moline and Rock Island which are a part of Illinois. The area of town where we live is ghetto with a capital G. There are houses which are really old many of the originals. They are huge and I can only imagine how they looked in their prime. So we live in the old part of town mostly comprised of Black people. I have never lived in a place with so many Black people, even in all the places we have lived and we have lived in 4 different states since we have been married. I am a little scared of them because when they are on their porches and I drive by they all stop and watch me. I have also heard that there is a lot of crime that happens in this part of town which I think contributes to me being a little scared. (Dont tell my mom!)

All in all we really do like living here. The weather is good the grass is green and the trees are starting to turn green as well. We have a really awesome ward and have made some good friends. Although things may be challenging at times we are happy and know this is where we are supposed to be, and we couldn't have chosen better companionship to go through this crazy, challenging and wonderful time of our lives.

We are not in Utah!

We are in Iowa!!!

As of Feb. 1st we were no longer in Utah. We drove halfway across the country to our new home in Davenport Iowa. Ron starts Chiropractic school in March so we are here for the next 4 years! 

My parents graciously accompanied us on our 1,200 mile trek and we missed all the raging storms that were sweeping across the nation. We feel very blessed and are grateful that we made it in one piece. When we first arrived it was after their blizzard hit here and there was 17' inches of snow on the ground. The interstate roads were fine, but the streets in town were not real safe for driving on. Some men from the elders quorum came and helped us unload the rental truck which was awesome! The apartment is old, but as I have learned everything in this town is old.

Our apartment is a house made into 3 different apartments.When we first came in I was a kind of sad because it smelled old and everything needed to be cleaned. Anyway my parents and brother helped us unpack and then they left the next day. After a little while of unpacking and getting everything in its place we are happy to be here in our new home.

As for me I am looking into a couple of jobs and hopefully will have one that will keep me busy, and have fun at the same time. I am looking into online masters programs, but for now I am just adjusting to my new environment.

I know

I know I suck at blogging. The thing is only like 3 people in the whole world will probably read this and one of them is Ron, because honestly he mostly likely wont ever post anything, but he dose like to read it. If this post sounds really scatter brained thats because that is what kind of activity is going on inside my brain.

Ron and I have been really busy, some things that have happened since my last post are:

1. Teal came to live with us in Knoxville she was the best part of my summer

2. I got a job working at Chick-fil-A 

3. We moved from Knoxville to Johnson City from a 2 bedroom apt. to a single room extended stay hotel

4. Teal and I ran every morning like crazy and it was amazing

5. Teal left and I was very sad she is so sweet and one of my best friends

6.We packed up and left to go home

7.We went to Iowa to visit Palmer school of Chiropractics where Ron will be attending this up coming March

8. I am very scared to move to Iowa where we will be far away from family, and dont know anybody or really anthing

9. We came back home and lived in Darcy's basement for 2 and half weeks until we could move into our apt.

10. We went to Ely and saw our family after a long and drury summer, we got to see Jacob play foosball, and I played in the alumni game and was amazing, this I know because everyone told me so

11. We went to Idaho to see Heidi run her marathon (26.2 miles!!!) were she took second and was amazing!

12. Then we went to Boise to see the ever so popular Henze's it was great out on the lake I didnt go to the lake because I stayed back to spend some time with my family who were down for Naani's baby blessing which is missed to spend some time in Boise, but after the lake fun had happened

13. I got a job!

14. We are happy and healthy for the most part Ron has an injured shoulder, and I have an injured knee. Don't worry I didn't hit him too hard

So I will be putting up some more posts with pictures now that I have a place to live and internet that works well. The post will not be put up in chronological order so if you three out there who read my blog get confused, that is why.

The Long Awaited Over-due Graduation Post!

So this year has been very eventful especially with graduation. I graduated with my bachelors degree from BYU. Starr graduated with her associates degree from BYU-I. Teal Graduated from high school as salutatorian. And last, but certainly not least as class president Madison was promoted from eighth grade! Here are some cool pictures of it all! (sorry for the picture overload!)

This is Macy

These are her fans from the Henze clan.

These are some of Macys amazing professors, she likes all who are pictured and did well in their classes. There may be a connection, but I can't say for sure.

These are Macy's fans from the Collins clan.

This is Hallie another of Macy's fans and Ron's pride and joy.

Now on to Teals graduation, we were so happy to go as Levi's smile represents our true feelings.

Lexi even gave her famous princess smile! She was so excited and loves being in the car for hours on end.

Here we are in our very good seats! (Thanks to my dad for coming 3 hours early.....he likes to be prepared what can I say)

Here is Madi pondering life with Teal graduated and gone.

Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Rick enjoying the time they get to spend together before the commencement.

Starr is very observant shining for the whole world to see!

Mom and Dad at peace that another will be leaving soon.

Lexi Sandwich! Yum.

Teal sitting on the stage so superior!

Getting her diploma......finally.

Yeah she made it big hugs from Mom and Dad!

Madi so happy that she is going to be the oldest at home. The one thing she has wished for her whole life and she just can't contain her emotion!

Yeah the ceremony is over! (Thank heavens there were only 74 graduates!

The proud parents and their new grad!

Wow look at all these beautiful girls and all in the same family!

We all felt this way when the day was done Levi was the only one to be true and show how we all felt!

Here at Madi's 8th grade promotion we were so lucky to sit behind Luke.

Madi was the class president and won junior elks student of the year!

Madi gave a speech, and only thanked the boy she likes who wasn't there, for letting her wear his jersey. Don't worry taught I Madi a lesson on loyalty.

Carl also was promoted, but I had a hard time getting pictures of him :(

Well thankfully if you did indeed look at this whole post you will be happy to know that I am done for now, and  hope to have some cool and fun things to update in the near future!

Little Bit'O Tennessee Rain

Just a short update!

Summer is here in Knoxville and I have really enjoyed many of the new changes this past month. The first change I noticed after I came back after having been gone for a week is the increased humidity. Next I noticed that in the evening there were fireflies everywhere! I love them so much it is so cool to see them twinkling every night. 

Summer Knoxville Sunset

Little Town of Knoxville

Third the rain here is crazy. Just the other day it was sunny and hot around 1pm within 15min. torrents of rain were pounding the trees. I took some pictures of the rain pounding the trees, but I am not sure it captures the intensity of the rain. I actually recorded the  rain with the ole camcorder, but I don't know how to put videos on here so the pictures will just have to do!

As you can see the rain drops are huge!

For this picture you will notice the color difference from the picture above. This is because the rain was really coming down and you are looking at the trees through more water.

Just one more picture of the trees getting beat by the heavy rain!

Well now you know why the humidity has increased inviting my new firefly friends!

The Rest of May before I left

I will start off saying that I had a wonderful mothers day thanks to my husband being the good man he is. We went to dinner and to the movie theaters the night before to celebrate. 

Mothers Day Celebration!

             Next we celebrated my 24th birthday yeah for me I'm getting old! But, this was the very best birthday I have ever had, it was so much fun. First Ron made me his specialty for breakfast french toast and eggs and it was delightful. Then we went to the mall where Ron spoiled me rotten and gave me a little shopping spree. It was so fun to buy new cloths! Next we decided we were going to go mini golfing, we put the address in our GPS and it took us to a different mall where they sold the brand of stuff for the mini golf course that we had looked up on the internet. So we decided to watch a movie at the mall the new Shrek movie it was really funny.

We were very hungry after the movie so we decided it was time for some Memphis BB-Q at Sonny's and it was sooooooo GOOD! We had brisket, pulled-pork, fried okra, baked beans, salad, garlic bread and coleslaw. The sauce there is amazing and just leaves you wanting for more. Finally we found a golf course that had a batting cage. This was so fun Ron may or may not have beat me at golf, but we really didn't keep count so its hard to say. (I'm making banana bread right now and it smells so good!!!!) Any way we practiced our hitting at the batting cage and it was a blast I had so much fun. Ron took the day off of work which he almost never dose so this was a very special day and I love him so much he takes such good care of me and treats me like a queen.

Me getting ready to hit, I was really nervous, but it was really fun!

  This is my handsome husband he is really good at hitting and looks good doing it.