Welcome Home and Catch-up

Welcome home to my boys!! That's how I think about you all even though I realize you are mostly grown up men now. But in my head, you are still my boys. To clarify- I mean my freshmen year boys, the Carroll Hall boys, the men of the 55th ward. 78 guys who have gone to all corners of the globe serving missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From right here in Utah to California, England, Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, all the way to Russia, Korea and New Zealand- and everywhere in between. I can't wait to catch-up with all of you!

Us girls haven't been idly waiting around while you were gone however. Rather- eagerly preparing : ) We've traveled too- from Hawaii and Jerusalem, to Spain, Germany, Italy, India, Ghana, and China. 29 of the girls are married with 4 more engaged. We have 2, almost 3, children born while you were away. 6 girls are away serving missions, with 2 more having received their calls recently. But more than that- we've been studying hard and working hard. Sometimes working full time and taking a full load just trying to make everything work. Even changing our majors and careers completely. We've moved apartments, probably several times for some of us. We've gone to new wards and made new friends, but stayed in touch with old friends too. We've been on blind dates and horrible dates, first dates, and the last first dates too. We've fallen in love and some of us have had our hearts broken. But we've picked ourselves up and moved on . We've thrown bridal showers, even baby showers, and we've cried and laughed together. We've been to weddings and mission farewells and homecomings. We've been in hospitals and doctor's offices, sick and tired, sometimes alone, other times surrounded. We have gotten phone calls that made us cry- sometimes because everything was crashing down and other times because life was wonderful. We've gotten in fights and been to funerals. We've lost people we love and gained strength and hope in the journey. We've become stronger, deeper, more faithful, better communicators, and experienced students. We've discovered a lot of things about life, about growing up and responsibility, about family, about enjoying the little things, and about ourselves. And through it all- we're still your girls!

Depending on your mission, you might have missed some things that happened over the past two years. Just a sampling. . .
Death of Michael Jackson
Death of Polish President, his wife, most of the cabinet and members of parliament in plane crash
H1N1 flu virus
Ms. Sotomayor -first Latin on Supreme Court
Wiki Leaks
Haiti Earthquake, Chile earthquake
Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico
New Healthcare reform
Justin Bieber
The Republican Congress in 2010
Winter Olympics in Vancouver
World Cup in South Africa- Spain wins
Shooting at Fort Hood- 13 dead
Osama bin Laden killed

Some good movies you missed:
Animated- Toy Story 3, The Princess and the Frog, Despicable Me, Megamind, Tangled, **How To Train Your Dragon, Cars 2

Chick Flicks- Time Traveler's Wife, Letters To Juliet, Water for Elephants (And others, but I'll spare you)

Action Movies- Prince of Persia, Iron Man 2, Red, Unstoppable, Sherlock Holmes, Inception

Other Good Ones-Invictus, The Karate Kid, The King's Speech, Tron Legacy, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, The Blind Side

Welcome Home and I hope to see you all soon!