Did ya know

Wow I can't believe Chase and I have already been married for 3 years!  That's crazy.  I feel like it's been forever since we got married.

The reason I titled this post "did you know" is because when someone sees us they will usually ask what we have been up to.  SO to tell the truth, pretty much the exact same things we were 3 years ago!  Okay okay I know, we've changed jobs, we've moved, and Chase is further in school, but it's still all the same.
Since Chase and I have been married he's worked at Allens Camera in American Fork, Klune Industries in Spanish Fork, and now some new job that I don't know what it's called, but it's in Orem, yay.  Since we've been married I've worked at Utah Spine and Disc (US&D) in Murray and 1-800 Contacts in Draper.
You probably think that we don't like hanging around at our jobs for a long time.  Well that's wrong.  Chase worked at Allens Camera before and after his mission.  He then luckily got his job with Klune making more money.  Which came at the perfect time.  I was able to get a job at Utah Spine and Disc a couple months before we got married.  We were so thankful that I was able to get this job. unfortunately, I was laid off just 3 months after we got married.  Chase had just gotten his new job which was such a blessing!  We then recieved another blessing when one of my patients at US&D noticed that I was gone.  When he found out they laid a couple of us off he gave them his information and told them to pass it on to me.  I was so grateful when he told me to apply at 1-800 and put his name down as a reference.  He helped me get my job I have today and I am still so grateful for the day that I met him.  Which now brings us to Chase's current job.  He had wanted to work for this small company earlier in the school year but decided to stick it out with Klune.  However, during the hunt of career jobs he realized that the skills he could learn at his new job would probably help him with the type of jobs he's looking at for his career.  So he asked the guy if he would be willing to let Chase help him out for a short period of time.  The boss agreed and so Chase started this week.
That then takes us to School.  Chase has pushed really hard to get through school and it's paying off.  Each semester he's been full time plus some.  It's been tough at times but he's survived.  Thank goodness :)  He has also always worked while going to school.  This has been much appreciated and I love him for his hard work.

Chase's Senior Capstone Project.  Sorry Dad's this is the best picture we have.
The video below shows the project in motion.

Now you're probably wondering um you've been married for 3 years and don't have any kids.  Yep that's right, no kids.  We wanted to wait until he was done with school.  Our hope and goal is for me to be a stay at home mom.  Which meant that waiting would be a key factor in that goal.  Plus if we did already have a kid I would be pretty darn sad leaving my baby for 9 or more hours every day, so that I could work.  I think that would've been rough on us.  Now p.s., this is not an announcement that I'm pregnant.  When that time comes I will be letting everyone know.
So instead of having our own kids to love on we love on our nieces & nephews.  In order of age :)

Cadence Johnson

Taylor Birks

Lucy Hadlock

Lyla Johnson

Myles Jenkins

Devan and Paige Birks

Aren't they all so cute?  We love them.
Now to the moving part.  We hadn't thought about it much but when the opportunity presented itself, we decided why not.  The funny thing is we stayed in our stake.  If you draw a square we literally went from one corner down diagonally to the other.  After talking with a member of the bishopric we realized why we moved.  Moving also brought me the opportunity to receive a calling as secretary in the young women's and a calling for both of us as the ward trek leaders & ma and pa for trek in July.
So that's what we've been up to the last 3 years :)  We've also had a lot of fun mixed in with all of the mumble jumble part of life.  Thank goodness too, or else our lives would be pretty darn boring.

catching wind 

Goals

To me goals are a very important part of our life.  I personally don't think we would get anywhere if we didn't make goals.  Growing up, my mom did her best at helping us to understand that it's important to set goals.  More importantly she taught me how important it was to find a guy who was/is goal oriented.  I am so grateful for her instilling that in me because I know the importance and I married a man who also sets goals.

While in a rut after high school my sister encouraged me to set short term and long term goals.  I made a bunch of goals.  Some of which I have accomplished.  Others that haven't been completed.  Now as the years have gone on I've decided that some of my goals need to be changed.  Also what I love about being married is that Chase's goals are now my goals as well.  I want to do everything I can to help him accomplish them.  So I have listed off some of our goals.  These goals are going to help shape our lives, and bring us much happiness.

Our biggest goal is College for Chase.  I am so happy to say that in April Chase will be graduating.  What an accomplishment to be able to say that he has his degree and is an Engineer.  Now with Graduation brings on new goals, like finding a career job.  He is currently searching and applying so hopefully we'll end up with one soon.  He has a goal on what he wants to do with his career so were trying to be a little bit picky with the job hunt.  I'm sure it will all pay off in the end. :)

One of my goals is to run a marathon.  I've already ran three half marathons and was training for my 4th so I figured I could step it up and do a full.  I signed up to run the Utah Valley Marathon on June 8th, however an injury has set me back.  I was unable to run the half marathon and I don't think I'll be running this marathon anymore which saddens me because I was excited to run it.  The good thing about goals though is that if you need to revise them you can.  So it looks like I need to decide on a different marathon to run.

One of Chase's goals is to restore his 67 911 Porsche.  This is going to take him a few years to complete but will be well worth the hard work in the end.  He has made it a goal to do most, if not all of the work himself rather than sending it off to someone to have them re-build and restore it for him.  This will be really fun for him since he loves cars and he will come away with a lot of new skills.  I'm excited to see the excitement in his eyes when the project is all done.

It should look something like this when its done

Another one of our goals is to travel.  We have a few places that we would love to go visit and I'm sure more will be added to our list as time goes on :)  For now though we really want to go back to Germany, so Chase can show me the beautiful place he lived in for 2 years.  We have some friends where the husband also served his mission in Germany but up North, so we've discussed having all 4 of us go over so that we can see all of Germany.  One day this will happen.  When?  We don't know yet.  We need to set that in our goal so we can actually work towards it rather than just dreaming about it.  The other place we really want to visit is Ireland.  This has been my dream/goal for a very long time and it has turned into Chase's as well.  So we will one day be visiting Ireland as well.  Don't worry there are a lot of places that we need to see in the states as well.  Along with traveling to visit family :)

I'm so excited for all of our goals and trust me there are more and will always be more to come.  The one thing we are lacking in right now is actually writing them down so that we can look at them and plan for them.  I like to think of them as only dreams if we don't make it a goal and plan for them.