Hello dearest family,

Most everyone is aware of my engagement at this point, but I thought I'd leave a blog just in case. His name is Geoff Parker. We dated before he left for his mission in 2005, and he has fairly recently returned home. We have wasted no time! :o) We will be married in Oakland on August 18, 2007. I bought my dress on Tuesday!

He is the middle child in a family of eight, originally from Texas and most recently from Alpine, UT. I met him in 2005 at my ex-boyfriends missionary farewell (it's all good, though, because that boy is also getting married this summer).

Anyway, I'm about as happy as it comes. I hope everyone is doing great, too!

Well, you can all see that I have slightly altered the layout of this blog site. The other template wasn't working too well, and so therefore I had to find another template to apply to the blog. However, I am working at something that will be slightly different for the family.
I have decided to get a lot more into web design and hosting. So I actually have created a website hosted from a server that I have in my house. For those of you who have absolutely no idea what that means, that's ok. I am just aying that I have made it possible to have a website dedicated completely to the family. One of my first proposals for the site is to create a family newsletter that can be on top of the blog. This is due to the fact that some people may not know how to use the blog, or just aren't that interested in blogging frequently. A better way is to create e newsletter. All I would need everyone to do is to go ahead and write a small paragraph or whatever regarding whatever you would like. We can do it once a month, once a week or however everyone decided to do it. But this paragraph would be stored in a program like Microsoft Word and sent to my mother. She would go ahead and put it together and then email me the final product. I would then go about posting the newsletter to the website, archiving past newsletters for download. The present would be available for immediate viewing, and past ones available for download. Eventually, as I learn more about dynamic web programming, the website will become more and more complete and hopefully then it can be up and running well. It was just a thought, so I wouldn't mind getting a few comments up regarding this idea, and see if it is something that people would enjoy.
One more thing, if anyone wants to see the personal site that I have up right now, just point your browser HERE! CLICK ME! Also, eventually I hope to be able to develop a web page dedicated to each indvidual member of the family. Of course, these pages will only contain the information that everyone tells me to post about them. I think it is a solid idea, and I hope to get some feedback on it.
I hope everyone is having a great day, and, as you can see, I am totally trying to put some of this new knowledge to use! Information systems is definately a great fit for me, and you can tell that I am enjoying it! See ya'll soon, and have fun in Acapulco grandma and grandpa!

So, everyone, I just thought I would come and check in on the blog site here with the family. It has been awhile since ya'll had heard from me. This picture is from my family's recent trip to Southern California to check out Disneyland! It was tons of fun, and if you haven't gotten a chance to go, you should try to find the time. I am 23 (well, next week at least), and still love it! I beat Amanda in this round!
I have been accepted into the Information Systems program at BYU. It is going to be a challenging semester, between creating a true corporate database, and programming all of the advanced java programs that I need to. It will be an exciting move for me. I look forward to learning more about object oriented programming, and database creation and administration. I will even learn about advanced networking techniques! It will be fun. Now, I know what the majority of you guys are thinking. You are thinking that my future life sounds a bit boring, but that's ok! Not everyone finds my "geek" life as entertaining as I do. If anyone is curious to find out a little bit more about what my program means, check it out by clicking -----> HERE!
Apart from that, my life is about the same. I had a great birthday meal with my family here in Utah, and saw a beautiful baby blessing of little Ian. I hope that if you didn't have a chance to be there that you have at least heard about it!
Well, I think that is about all new in my life. Hopefully I can blog ya'll with some good news on the marriage side for me! Love you all.

Hello lovely family,
It's been a little while since I said anything, so I thought I'd leave a short update on my life. Things are going just great - there is very little to complain about in my life (excepts, perhaps, not enough time in the pool!!). I have finally decided on a major. I'm going to major in sociology with a minor in communications. I will graduate a semester early (Dec '07) and plan to get a masters in communications after that. It sounds a little intimidating, but I'm very excited about the decision. I'm also excited about the condo I will be living in next semester. It's close enough to walk to campus and has a washer and dryer in the unit. Work is going well and I will miss some aspects of my job when I have to go back.
Coming home for the summer has been wonderful. I just wish that I could drag my mom and dad around in my pocket so I didn't have to leave them. :o)
Best wishes,
Amanda

So I guess I thought I could give everyone an update on my measly little life, not that I really have much of one! :-)

I am geting ready to head home for the next couple months and dedicate myself solely to working and entertaining my mother. I am just about to finish my spring term classes here at BYU and I think that I have done well in them. I took the last two classes that I need to apply to a new major that I intend on graduating in. I have been a neuroscience major ever since I started here at BYU, but I have decided that it is not the major for me and I will be applying to the business school in the next few days to graduate with a Master's degree in information system management. It will be about three years until my Master's with this program. I am excited about being able to work with both people and computers for the rest of my life, as computers have been a love of mine since I was very little. I think it will be the perfect fit for me. If anyone feels like checking out my home page that I had to make for one of my classes this term, simply do so by clicking HERE or HERE.

Also, I have been busy at work. I work at Costco Wholesale, and have been working there for about a year now. It is a job that pays very well (especially by Utah standards) and it also does a pretty good job of accomodating my schooling needs. When I go home for the next couple months, I will continue working for Costco at the Santa Rosa store, and I hope to be able to log about 40 hours a week. That will definitely keep me happy and healthy. I need the extra hours to buy the required laptop for my new major. . .that will be an expense for sure!

Other than that, I haven't been doing too much. I am looking forward to spending some time at home with my mom and dad and sis. Truthfully though, I just plan on using them for the pool! With as hot as it gets here in Utah during the summer, I am truly lookihg forward to taking a private dip in my own backyard!

I hope everyone in the family is doing well. I hope that all your dreams come true. If you can all keep me in your prayers over the next few days so that I can get into my program, that would be great! I need all the help I can get! All my love.

I just created this web page for us as a family today. I am trying to figure out all the uses for it, and I hope to have it up and running for everyone as soon as I can get the hang of it. Hope to hear from everyone soon! Everyone, in the meanwhile, can check out some cool technology on this website! And for those of you who can't appreciate my lovely photo of Rubi because your aren't A's fans. . .Sorry! But the Oakland Athletics are still the greatest! Go A's!