We are a Happy Family

So-this is my little sister Ashley. She is out here with me in Boston. I'm glad she's here. I'm mostly glad she's here because she has EVERY color of jewelry known to man. I put an outfit on, go to her jewelry drawers and BAM! SOMETHING in that drawer goes with ANY outfit I'm wearing. No-but seriously-it helps to have her with me in the office. It gets boring in here so we've been getting creative. Like yesterday, we made up a dance to a Hillary Duff song. A few days ago we took pictures jumping off of chairs in the office. We sing a lot, write funny things the reps say on a pink, giant poster board, and then spend the rest of our time on....FACEBOOK-the time sucker of the century!! Oh ya. I can't forget to mention that Ashley is THE GIRL who got shot through the leg. Yep. She's the one. The one who takes pictures with pretzels hanging out of her mouth and candy corn shoved up her nostrils. She's crazy-and she's fun.

GOING TO THE TEMPLE LIGHTS JUST HANGING OUT WITH MY NEPHEW ASHTON MAKING FUNNY FACES
OUR TRIP TO BOSTON IN A PASTRY SHOPSLEDDING!!

Year two was great! I wised up and didn't take as many classes so I could actually cook dinner every once in a while, do the laundry, and feel like a half decent wife. I still worked full time at Porter Brothers. Brad didn't follow my lead. He just got more busy. He taught seminary, loaded his class schedule up, did real estate school, joined 3 basketball leagues(winning 2/3 of the championships) coached the Priest's in basketball in our ward, AND...decided to manage a sales team in Boston for Eclipse Marketing with Aaron, my brother! Brad and Aaron worked hard recruiting sales reps, flying to Utah for trainings, and having training meetings at our house. OH! A highlight of year two was that we didn't live in an apartment anymore! We were able to live in Brad's Grandparent's house while they were away teaching school for the year in Peach Springs. It was so nice to live in a house! I know a lot happened in year two...but I can't really remember...

OK...summarizing the past 2 years of my life is taking a REALLY long time...so I"ll try to speed things up or we'll NEVER catch up to the present! As I was saying, we took MANY trips to UTAH to check out the pest control business with Eclipse Marketing. Aaron had been working with Eclipse for the past few summers and had much success. Since we flew for free, it worked out for us to get to Utah often for trainings.
Long story short-we signed on, moved to VIRGINIA/DC last summer, Brad sold pest control service agreements door to door and did VERY WELL. He ended up like # twenty something (top 5 of first years) in the company out of hundreds of sales reps in approx. 40 locations all over the nation. I was so proud of him. He worked SO HARD. He was ALWAYS one of the LAST ONES to come home at night. He would RUN from door to door and take very short lunch breaks. Each night he would just CRASH after he ate dinner (around 11 or 12). I would wait and wait for him...reheat his dinner 3 times...and then when he FINALLY made it home-he'd be SO exhausted that he usually fell asleep fully clothed-belt with mag light-attached, shoes on and all!! We rarely had quality time together-and that was pretty hard for me at times-but it was a GREAT EXPERIENCE and very worth while. Plus-we lived in DC!!

Summary of our first year of marriage: We were both full time students. Brad taught seminary and worked at America West Airlines. I worked full time at Porter Brothers Construction. I had night classes, he worked until 11 or 12-sometimes even on weekends. Therefore, we rarely saw each other. I probably cooked 5 times that year, and deep cleaned our apartment...not enough times that year. :) We were BUSY, but we were HAPPY.
HIGHLIGHT of the first year = TRAVELING!! Brad worked for the airlines, so we flew for FREE!! It was tricky to find time off-but we did-and we went...BAHAMAS! NEW YORK! UTAH! HAWAII! FLORIDA! CALIFORNIA! COLORADO! etc. FUN FUN FUN!!! We enjoyed every minute of traveling together. I feel like we never really unpacked our suitcases for that first year. We would just slip off for a weekend get away with last minute notice. I'll post pics of some of our trips. Brad took me to WICKED on broadway for my birthday that October and I LOVED IT! We had 11th row seats right in the center. Then we went to LION KING and I was amazed at those costumes. Again-incredible seats. We ate at Patsies pizza (which is Grimaldi's in Scottsdale by the sugar bowl) and it was THE BEST PIZZA!!
Our traveling was SO out of control that we went to Disney WORLD and Disney LAND within a few WEEKS of each other. Now that's insane!! I enjoyed the POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER in Hawaii even though the weather wasn't great. Camping in Colorado with the Walker family was wonderful. Our travels to UTAH lead us to the next part of our life adventures....PEST CONTROL. But first I will post pictures of the trips.

The Atlantis hotel was INCREDIBLE and the clear, aqua water was BEAUTIFUL

Once upon a time, there lived a handsome young man who loved to play basketball. After serving a mission in Belo Horizonte, Brazil he decided to continue his basketball career at Eastern Arizona College with the "bruthas". At this same time, there lived a young lady who LOVED to sing, dance, and play the piano. This young lady decided to attend EA as well, for the music program was said to be enchanted. The two found themselves in the same institute class on the first day of school. They caught eachother's eye-but the young man lacked the courage to approach the young maiden. They exchanged "hello's" here and there, but never anything more...UNTIL...that one magical day.
After seminar, the young man approached the young lady and said "I don't know if you know who I am...I'm Brad Smith. I was wondering if you would like to go on a group date with me this weekend". The young lady could hardly believe this day had FINALLY come. Of COURSE she knew who he was, and of COURSE she wanted to go on a date with him. What the young man didn't know, is that upon their meeting, the young lady had made it her duty to "investigate" this Brad Smith. Whenever she saw him with another person-she would approach that person and ask millions of questions about Brad. "Does he say bad words on the basketball court? Is he nice to everyone? Is he well tempered? Does he always go to church?" Etc. The young lady was thrilled because the reports were always EXCELLENT. As you may have already guessed...the young man and woman thoroughly enjoyed their first date...and second date....and 10th date...and so they were sealed for time and all eternity in the Mesa temple on April 8th, 2005.