Anniversary Celebration: Day 2!

We decided that since we didn't get a chance to go anywhere fun for our anniversary, we would celebrate a bit the following week. Tuesday was a full free day, so we made plans to see a movie and go out to eat for lunch.

We headed out to the 12:15 showing of Avatar in Idaho Falls! Unfortunately, it wasn't a 3-D showing, and the next 3-D was at 3:05, so we bought our tickets for the 3:05 and drove over to the mall to walk around and window shop! We actually had a good time!

Then we went to eat lunch at the Chinese place next to the theater. It was really good food for a really good price! We also had some dim sum, which Drew said was very authentic Chinese. Surprise, surprise: an American Chinese restaurant with authentic food! On top of that, there were American girls working there! Whoa!

After a great lunch, we headed to the theater to see our 3-D movie! (To tell you the truth, I wasn't so stoked to see Avatar because it looked a little weird to me and I didn't know much about the story. I only agreed to seeing it because I knew Drew wanted to see it really badly!)

Let me tell you... AVATAR WAS AMAZING! I keep hearing from people that they thought it was just a good grown-up version of Fern Gully, but it was so much more than that! Director James Cameron had been working on this film since his last, Titanic, hit the big screen. It's true that taken by itself, the story was pretty generic and predictable, and some of the dialogue was cheesy, but for the two of us, it totally worked! We bought into it 100 percent, and that was probably because the art and visuals had us totally enveloped in James Cameron's fantasy world. It was the first movie we saw in 3-D where we felt like it really made a difference (we saw animated films like Up! and Monsters vs. Aliens in 3-D before, and they really weren't very different from the 2-D versions), and what a great difference it made! Everything about the world was so beautiful and detailed, and we had the feeling that we were there, it was so cool! The movie is long (almost 3 hours), but neither of us felt that way while watching; we both loved it so much! We even spent most of the car ride home talking about it, and how different and amazing it was, and how it really was the perfect movie... at least for the two of us. It was awesome! Go see it!

And that was our night. Happy Anniversary to us! (Again!)

(Kudos to Drew for writing part of this post!)

1st Anniversary

We've had an amazing first year, and we wanted to write a little about it.

As for today, our 1st Anniversary, we made sure it was a perfect day! We slept in until 11am, leisurely got ready for church, went to church at 1:30 and stayed with each other throughout the meetings (Drew came to Nursery with me), made chicken curry together once we were home (and had a great time!), watched Up!, opened up some sparkling cider and chocolates, watched some Law & Order: SVU, and then went on a late late late night adventure (at about 2am) to the gas station to get some snacks! We had such a great time being together all day long!

This year has brought so many new experiences, and we'd like to individually share some of those memories...

Carissa: Oh, Drew... What many wonderful memories we have... ALREADY!

• I remember when we used to go on late Sunday night adventures! We'd go after midnight to get fresh donuts and chocolate milk at the nearby Byrne Dairy/Shelby's Donuts! Can we do that again?
• I loved when we would take our Sunday afternoon naps together and wake up after 4 hours and I would tickle you to wake up...
• It's sweet how you like my quirks... like fixing your shirt collar and sleeves. I remember one time you messed up your shirt on purpose a few times when I wasn't looking because you knew I'd re-fix it every time.
• People watching is always better with you, like at Universal Orlando while we were off on our own. We had a fun time sitting there talking about what those people were thinking or saying.
• One of my favorite memories is when we were laying on the couch at my parents and were blowing up each other's noses! We're so goofy! My mom looked at us funny...
• I loved it when you would sing "Ring Around the Rosie" for the kids in nursery just because you knew they needed another person singing. They have so much fun with you.
• When we were at Universal, it made me so happy when you were willing to go to the kids' part of the park with me. : ) We had a great time on the Carou-Seuss-el!
• Remember how we went to Applebee's on our wedding night? Then we got a free dessert to-go (that we never ate) because I told the server that we had gotten married that morning. Yay for free stuff!
• I loved being introduced to your family's traditions and non-traditions. It was the perfect New Year's Eve going to the Watertown Regal to be with your family. Then we watched Marley & Me. And we cried.
• Thank you for taking care of me every 12,000 times I got sick during the first year. And thank you for never getting frustrated with how often it was and how needy I got.
• Hey, remember that time (not too long ago) when you taught me about what is going on with football? Thanks for finally letting me into the club! : ) I'm all knowledgeable!
• The first haircut I gave you turned out pretty great! We sat out on the deck, then in the garage. It took forever, an hour PLUS, even, but it was fun. And now that the beginner's luck has run out, I can only use clippers, and the haircuts are getting worse and worse... Haha Thanks for being a good sport!
• One thing I love about you is your sensitivity. I remember when you and I first talked about having children once we were married. Something you told me made my heart skip a beat and made me tear up. You told me that someday you would like for us to adopt a special needs child. Am I really so blessed to have such a sweet husband?
• I will always remember your smile from the first time I showed up at the movie theater unannounced. I was so glad I could surprise you, and then I stayed and watched a movie and you brought me a free drink. : ) This memory, and all the others at the theater, were more than just the free movies and drinks, it was how happy it made me to know that you loved seeing me and that I could make you feel good. Sometimes I started to feel like there was no reason for you to get so excited to see me because you were with me all the time, but you made me feel so special, so beautiful, and so loved. I love you.

Thank you, honey, for all of our special memories. I wish I could write so many more...

Drew: This has been a great year for me, where I have learned and grown so much with you. Here are some of the great memories that come to mind when I think about our first year of marriage:

• I remember our wedding day, when your mom was worried about you being late to the temple, but it was actually me that was running late, and after the ceremony, when we were out in the snow forever taking pictures until it started pouring so hard that we finally had to stop, and then our moms were stuck under the same umbrella running out to the car! That was a really eventful and great day
• I remember our first time going "out" as a married couple, to Kyle and Whitney's reception the week after ours, and how happy both of us were to call each other "my husband" and "my wife" to our friends
• I remember when you would come visit me at work on a Friday or Saturday night, when I was closing, and you would watch a midnight movie even if it wasn't one you wanted to see or you had already seen it, just so we could ride home together
• I remember Easter together, when we hid eggs for each other in the morning in the family room and videotaped each others "egg hunts"
• I remember the multiple times we went to the pet store and played with the little puppies and talked about having our own (it will happen someday)
• I had a lot of great memories with your family members on both sides in Youngstown, Zanesville, and Kansas City, and with my Uncle Kevin and his family in Orlando
• I remember all the times you would drag me out of the apartment this past semester to be social - Halloween, the ward Christmas party, the temple, you would help me get out and then we would always have a good time when we did
• Most of all, I will always remember and be grateful for the times that I really needed you and you were there for me. Its been a rough year in a lot of ways, and between losing a friend in February, my grandmother in September, and all the other little struggles and issues we had this last year, you were there when I needed you the most and you have been such a great support to me through it all. Thanks so much Carissa, I love you and look forward to many more years of memories!

I love you, Drew

At last, my love has come along

My lonely days are over

And life is like a song

Oh, yeah, at last

The skies above are blue

My heart was wrapped up in clovers

The night I looked at you

I found a dream that I could speak to

A dream that I can call my own

I found a thrill to rest my cheek to

A thrill that I have never known

Oh, yeah when you smile, you smile

Oh, and then the spell was cast

And here we are in heaven

For you are mine

At last

At Last: Etta James

Drew and I were married exactly one year ago today. It has been the most amazing one year of my life. We have enjoyed so many firsts, new adventures, and we have grown so much together.

This post is for my honey; my sweetheart; my Drew. Happy Anniversary, love. Thank you for all of the wonderful first year of memories. I love you!

It all started when I burned the bacon...

Our first Christmas Day together was a frenzy of plans falling through and unexpected goings on!

...and it all started when I burned the bacon for our Christmas morning breakfast. The whole morning was going so smoothly! We woke up in the living room, my brother, Dirk, called, and then we opened all our gifts from our wonderful families and friends!

Then came breakfast. It was a little late in the morning, and we knew we should be going to our ward dinner soon, but we wanted a special breakfast anyway. Then I burned the bacon. Not all of it, but most of it. So Drew ate the burnt pieces. : ) Then I accidentally forgot to start scrambling the eggs when I put them in the pan, so Drew had an omelet instead. Oops! Breakfast still turned out okay with bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice.

After breakfast we got a call from Elder Barron! Luckily he was able to call us (we're family!) after his call home. Yay! He sounded great!

Then we got ready for the day. We were already super late for a ward Christmas dinner we knew nothing about, so we hurried out of the apartment sporting our new clothing from Kelsey.

When we got the clubhouse for "dinner", we didn't know what we'd be walking into. Apparently, we were completely out of the loop for this shindig: there were 3 couples sitting at a table playing games, their dinner plates were scraped of food and piled in the kitchen, and we were completely embarrassed. We stayed for a little bit, watched them play their game of Clue and then started a game of Apples to Apples with them. Eventually we found out that there was a sign-up that went around at church for those who wanted to participate in this dinner by bringing a dish. Being in Primary, we didn't get any of the announcements, as usual... we're on the other side of the building. We were bummed.

When we went home again, Drew and I didn't know what we were going to do with our time. We didn't get the Christmas dinner we were looking forward to and we were discouraged. Correction: I was discouraged. We watched one of our Christmas Classics, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, while we figured out what to do. We knew one thing: we were hungry!

Unfortunately, we hadn't been grocery shopping since we believed we'd be eating with the ward and didn't have anything in the apartment except potatoes and popsicles: not exactly a Christmas feast. We decided to drive around to see if there were any restaurants open... I began to cry and miss home more than ever. This was not what Christmas was supposed to be like! I missed my parents' non-traditional traditions, their usual Christmas activities, and a nice, big, filling, HOME MADE dinner. I was so grumpy and sad. We drove all over Rexburg and nothing was open. Of course not.

Our friend, Tyler Larson, texted Drew and told him we should join his family again for the evening (if you read below, we were with his family in Idaho Falls for Christmas Eve). They had already eaten, though, so we still needed to find food. We headed toward Denny's in Idaho Falls, but once we got close, we just went to Tyler's instead.

As we arrived, the Larsons were getting out their leftovers for a second round of food! THE HEAVENS OPENED! : ) We ate a big dinner with all the fixin's: ham, turkey, funeral potatoes, pomegranate salad, pistachio salad, and poppy seed salad! YUM! Drew even had some pumpkin pie (his favorite)!

That night Drew played nothing but video games all night with Tyler and I wrote down recipes from Sister Larson's cookbooks while watching Home Alone with the family. We are so thankful for the Larsons in our lives!

We got home late and went straight to bed in preparation for work the next morning. Our first Christmas will be one we always remember...

Christmas Eve!

Thank goodness for loving and caring friends! Drew and I were unable to go home for the holidays, so our friend, Tyler Larson, invited us to his family's home in Idaho Falls for Christmas Eve. We had a blast!

We ate delicious soups and snacks.

We played ping pong.

We watched Frosty the Snowman and Rupolph.

We had a little program of a reading of the Christmas story in Luke 2 and some showing off of talents.

We played with "Flarp" (a flatulent noise-making silly putty) for about an HOUR! Haha!

It was quite eventful!

Once we got into Rexburg late that night, Drew and I drove around to see some of the beautifully lit homes while listening to Christmas music. We got home, turned on the 24 hour marathon of "A Christmas Story" and settled ourselves on the couch and floor with hot chocolate and blankets. Drew said he would like it if we slept out by the Christmas tree that night, and I readily agreed! We had fun!

Our first Christmas Eve together will be one of the best holiday memories I will ever remember.

Primary is the BEST!

Our ward Christmas party was last night and our Primary kids (well, our NURSERY kids) were volunteered to sing/dance to "Once There Was a Snowman" in front of the whole crowd! It was so cute! We worked really hard to get these almost-two-year-olds and a 3 year-old to do the motions and sing the song. We practiced and practiced for about a month! If you can see in the picture, we're standing behind the little ones and our Secretary, Sydney, is standing in front so they'll do the motions. SO SWEET!

I LOVE PRIMARY CHILDREN!

Our First Tree!

"I Hope They Call Me On a Mission..."

Elder Erik William Barron is now in the Missionary Training Center!

(I forgot to post this when it actually happened though...)

Elder Barron has been called to the California Roseville Mission and reported to the MTC on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009. The WHOLE Barron clan (Keith, Sharon, Dave, Erik and Grandma Pat) came out west from New York to visit and bring Elder Barron to the Provo MTC.

We were SO lucky to have the Barrons come to Rexburg to visit us before taking Erik. Their visit made our week wonderful! Once they landed in Salt Lake, they rented a car and headed up here to Rexburg. I had a HUGE dinner ready for them (delicious spaghetti and meatballs) and even invited 3 friends over to celebrate the Barrons' arrival! We have a small apartment, but we fit TEN of us in our little front area! It was a blast!

The next day, Drew and I played half-day hooky to spend more time with the family. We shopped, we ate, we went to Idaho Falls to visit and eat Craigo's Pizza with the Larsons! Finally, we realized that we should take some pictures before Elder Barron left us for 2 years...

We had a great time with our Barron family and we are so grateful to them for driving up to visit and helping us as much as they did. THANK YOU GRANDMA AND SHARON!!!!!

Let's Eat Some Turkey!

The Holidays have begun!

Thanksgiving happens to be Drew's favorite holiday! He says it's the best because it's the start of the season and everything just gets better from there. We can't wait for tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, when we have an excuse to eat crazy amounts of food, lounge all day, and be with friends (and, in most cases, family)! Best of all, Drew and I are going to make it a tradition to set up our Christmas decorations and tree on "Black Friday" every year. Woo!

Now that we've moved to the middle of nowhere, Rexburg, Idaho, and are still less-than-wealthy newlyweds, we aren't able to make it to any of our family's homes for the holidays. Luckily, we have amazing friends in the area, and one of them, Tyler Larson, invited us to spend the day with his family and have Thanksgiving Dinner! We were eager to accept!

I can't wait to spend the day eating and laughing and being with wonderful people! Most of all, Drew and I are both thrilled to spend our first Thanksgiving together!

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Make sure to tell your loved ones that you are thankful for them, maybe even start a new holiday tradition like going around the dinner table and naming one thing you're thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Count Your Many Blessings!

"When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost..."

We sure count our blessings! I thought this an appropriate topic considering the season.

For those who pay tithing, you will understand what I mean when I say money comes out of nowhere whenever we need it most. When we pay an honest tithe (10% of any increase paid to the Church), we find ourselves coming up with solutions to pay the bills we owe when we didn't think we were making enough to do so.

It's not just money that we've been blessed with. I (Carissa) was having a hard time finding a job. I even tried to go back to the Subway I had worked at last year, but had no luck. A girl at church works in the public school system and told me about some openings for Aides in the school district. I applied for a few, was turned down by two, and, finally, accepted by one! I started working as a recess monitor at Madison Middle School and had a good time with it... while it lasted.

Unfortunately, the money we made between our jobs wasn't covering the bills we needed to pay (Drew at a market research call center, and me doing recess duty), so we started looking for more work. I applied to some part-time teacher's aide positions at the middle school, and interviewed with the principal and two assistant principals. I didn't get the job, but when another position became available, a full-time resource aide position, I was referred by the assistant principals (I guess I had made a good impression before!), and was hired immediately! The whole process- finding out about the job, applying, interviewing, and getting hired- only took 2 days! Since I started working, I have been learning more and more about these special needs and low-comprehensive children. I work one-on-one with 2 children; one in the morning, one in the afternoon. These kids do not have the same level of comprehension as the rest of their classmates. It's a struggle sometimes, but most days I come home thinking about how I can help them more and finding it very rewarding. I just took and passed my certification test for this job, only missing 3 questions out of 90!! I plan on sticking with this job as long as we're here in Rexburg!

Okay, so money and jobs aren't all! Drew and I have been blessed to have been called to serve in our ward (church congregation)! We have just had a new bishopric (leadership over the congregation... similar to a Priest, Minister, or Pastor) called in the ward, and the Bishop wanted Drew as an Assistant Ward Clerk, handling all the finances of the ward. I was given a calling as the Relief Society Fellowshipping Leader, befriending and getting to know all of the women in the ward. Just this past Sunday, I was called into the Primary Presidency in the ward. (For those who aren't familiar with Primary, it's a program where we teach the children of the congregation under age 12 about God and Jesus and sing songs.) Being in a young ward, we only have 5 children in our Primary, the oldest being 3. So we have Nursery! It's so sweet that the children are learning young about how God loves them!

We live in an amazing community with so many members of the church that we love. I can't imagine that we could be blessed any more than we are now. Then again, I know the Lord loves us and will continue to bless us!

We will continue to "Count [our] many blessings; name them one by one..."

An unfortunate reason to meet more family...

Drew's mom, Sharon, had been making trips to Chicago every few weeks to be with her very sick mom. Unfortunately, it came down to Grandma Charlene being in constant pain. We patiently, and hesitantly, awaited her time to leave us; for her to peacefully slip away into her next life. She passed on Sunday, September 20, 2009, before 5am. Sharon was in Chicago with her sisters and other family and was heartbroken to lose her mother.

When Drew spoke to her on the phone he said she sounded more in pain than he had ever heard her. After much prayer and conversations about finances, Drew and I decided that we needed to be in Chicago with his family to support his mom while the wake and funeral services went on.

So, Sunday night we got in contact with Sharon's sister, Terri (sp?), who works for American Airlines! She got us standby tickets for only $100 per person each way. We were so relieved to have a connection to help us financially.

Drew and I got an early start to get to the Salt Lake airport and sat and sat... and sat waiting for our plane. (We had to be ubber early to be sure we would get on the flight we wanted.) Finally, we got onto the flight and arrived in Chicago on Monday evening.

Our time in Chicago was wonderful, even though our reason for being there was regretful. Sharon's family was so inviting and hospitable; they graciously welcomed me into their family. We had great food, great company, and, even at the 5 hour wake and Catholic mass funeral (neither of which we are used to), enjoyed our time with Sharon's family tremendously.

Wednesday evening we returned to the airport, this time meeting some LDS missionaries on their way from from the UK! They were great company! Another great thing happened on our flight home... we got FIRST CLASS!!! For no extra cost! It was SO awesome! And they served us dinner: Drew had chicken teriyaki and I had a great cheese tortellini in cream sauce! Our trays were served with shrimp cocktail, a Caesar salad, and a bread stick or roll. In the words of Rachel Ray: YUM-O! We also got constant refills on our drinks (which were served in GLASSES, not plastic cups)! Haha : ) There's something very fun about first class, I mean, I've been there before, but it was even better with Drew. We had a blast!

So we finally got home to our quaint little apartment in Rexburg, and quickly got back to our lives. I didn't get a chance to meet the wonderful woman we had gone to Chicago to celebrate the life of, but I was able to witness the love she had spread throughout her life. I got to go to a new city, but even more important, I got to meet and get to know more of Drew's family.

(Charlene's obituary was inserted in the Chicago Tribune, and can be view online HERE.)

Idaho, Here We Come!

I can't believe it, but we packed our car as full as we could with everything we possessed. And, actually, we packed it the morning we left. We had everything ready, of course, but nothing was actually in the car until about 2 hours before we left.

We got to say good-bye to the little boys, Scott and Nathan, before they left for school that morning. Then my Dad procrastinated leaving for work until after we left. He (and I) needed a good send off. Mom said NO pictures of her, so that was that, but she got us (yes, Drew too) all emotional before we left. Go figure!

Once we were in our car and ready for the road, we headed off on our 8-day road trip across the country in our little teeny Chevy Cavalier.

We had some time, so we stopped in Palmyra before we left New York! We got some great pictures!

First (official) stop: Youngstown (Austintown), Ohio. We stayed with Grandma and PapPap Dumas and had a really good time playing cards and talking. Aunt Linda, Kevin, and Krista came over too! It was a blast!

Day 2: before leaving Austintown, we drove about a mile to see Dad's side of the family. Aunt Dawn had lunch ready for us! We visited for a couple of hours and ate lots of good food! Uncle Stan and Grandma Drogowski even came over for a quick "hello"!

Next stop: Once we were stuffed with food and Grandma sent us off with more snacks, we were headed to Zanesville, Ohio, to visit Julie's parents! Drew had never met this part of my family, and I was really anxious for them to meet each other. When we got to Gramma's, I think I started to cry. I hadn't been in their house for years, and the last time I had seen Gramma Stimpson was when she was in the hospital looking weak and sad. She looked amazing this time. She had color in her face, she wasn't bone thin anymore, and she was walking by herself again! When Grandpa came up the stairs he gave us his twinkling smile (I'm sure most of you know what I mean). I was so glad to see my grandparents in such good spirits and looking so healthy!

The Stimpsons took us to eat at Adornetto's, a place for the best Italian food in the area! It was a bit nostalgic; we always got Adornetto's pizza when we went to Gramma and Grandpa's! I was really glad that Drew got to meet these grandparents of mine. They mean a lot to me and have done so much to help our family since our families combined all those years ago.

The Stimpsons sent us off with their love and some leftover pizza, and we headed off to Cincinnati (Mason), Ohio!

Next stop: The Ackley's! We got in late and shared our leftovers and went to bed. The next day...

Day 3: A day with the Ackleys! For those who don't know who they are, DeAnn (or, Aunt Annie) Ackley is my step-mom's (Julie's) sister. Her family has grown up in the same faith as us and we are really close to them. Their kids are our ages too.

So, we were ready (already) for a day of no travelling. Aunt Annie was glad to help! She let us take our time waking up and getting ready for the day, and then we went to the coolest grocery store in Cincinnati: Jungle Jim's! This place has it ALL! Well, almost. Just about anything you have ever heard of being edible exists in this grocery warehouse! It's creatively decorated and laid out. Each nation has their own section of the store. So cool. Drew, having lived in Hong Kong for 2 years, knew exactly what he'd look for: durian (a really nasty prickly fruit), baalut (soft-boiled fertilized chicken eggs), and Philippine mangoes (the best kind around). Oh, and NutriSoy (THE brand of soy milk used in Hong Kong, since they don't use animal milk). Bad news: we didn't find ANY of that except for the mangoes. But they weren't fresh, they were dried. Oh well. We still found some good stuff. We got a few little treats in some of the nations that had the yummiest sweets! We also picked up some stuff for Chicken Curry and Egg Tarts (refer to "Theme Night Dinner" back in April)!

(We didn't do very well getting pictures of the Ackleys... Oops!)

Day 4: A day of travel! We made an early start to drive from the Cincinnati, OH, area to Kansas City, KS. It wasn't a terrible drive, but it was pretty long. We got into Kansas City in the evening and spent some time talking with Dave (my step-dad, Leslie-mom's hub) and my mom (Leslie) over a delicious dinner! After a long day of travelling, we were ready for bed.

Day 5: Another day with the Cases! It was so nice to sit back and relax while in KC. Mom took a few hours off from work and took Drew and me to see Harry Potter 6 at a theater designed after the Palazzo in Las Vegas. It was so great! Mom, Drew and I are all pretty big Harry Potter fans, so it was fun for us to see that movie again together. We had a great dinner that night--Mexican! Celeste and Aaron (her soon-to-be hub) and Christine came over to visit and eat. It was a good time! (By the way, it totally stunk, but I forgot my camera in the car while we were in KC....)

Day 6: A full day of travel. It was 16 hours from Kansas City to Kalin's (my sister's) in Saratoga Springs, Utah, so we split it up into two days with a stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming. One thing to say about the drive from KC to Wyoming: boring and windy!!! We finally got to the hotel, in the middle of nowhere Cheyenne, and bunkered down for the night.

Day 7: Another full day of travel, but this time we were headed for Kalin's in Utah! It took less time than we thought, which was nice, but (of course) the drive was still long. Luckily, I was with my favorite person in the whole world, so the drive wasn't boring! : ) Once we got to Kalin's, we had dinner and spent some time with her, Matt, and Dean, and I finally got to meet my little Addie (Kalin's adorable baby girl)!

Day 8: A full day with Kalin's family! It was such a nice day to relax. We didn't go anywhere until dinner time, when Kalin and Matt treated us to "el Pollo Loco", which was actually really yummy Mexican fast-food featuring only chicken. Drew and I got to spend more time with Kalin's little family, which was wonderful!

Day 9: It was time to leave Kalin's and head off to our little piece of heaven in Rexburg, Idaho! Luckily, the drive is only about 3 1/2 hours. We got to our complex, signed our contract, and received our keys to our first place together!!!

Once we were in, I needed to take pictures of our little place! We moved everything in from our packed car, and used our 72-hour kit food to make our first meal in our new home.

All in all, we're very excited to be in our new place; our first place together; our home! We really look forward to all the adventures we'll have here in Rexburg, and are excited to get involved in the community and Ward!