It's a beautiful day!

Well...Here we go, my first official post. Today was/is a beautiful sunny Sunday. We went to church this morning. I'm the Sunday School President and my wife is teaching the 7 year olds...(CTR class I think). I'm sure without the weekly influx of spiritual food I get on Sundays my life would be pretty void. I know that shows a shortcoming me and my family have, but we are trying to get better. Of course we've been trying to get better for about 7 years now. I suppose it would be wise to follow Yoda's wise words here, "Do, or do not, there is no try." But, I guess we all are "trying" in some way, in the various callings and duties of life. For those of you who know me, some of this may be review, so please feel free to skip ahead, but I would like to give some background info here. I was born to a great family in Northern Illinois. I grew up mostly in Illinois, except short stays in Nauvoo Illinois and St. Louis Missouri. I grew up enjoying friends, church, music, movies and sports. I played the drums in school...and unfortunately have had very little time or opportunities to play since getting married. I was in a band in High school that a couple of my good friends and I formed called "When Dogs Collide." We played mostly '90's "grunge." I was also in choir and again, have had very few opportunities to sing except in church on Sundays. I played football in High School. I started playing tightend as a freshman, until the coaches figured out I couldn't catch, and then I moved as a sophomore to a pulling guard. I also played defensive end. I mostly enjoyed being on specialty teams, especially kick off team. I wrestled in Junior High, but unfortunately had to quit in High School because of scheduling difficulties. I participated in track as well, mostly in an effort to try to keep in shape for football. Of all things high school I would have to say football I miss the most, it is also really the only thing that I can think of, when I look back, that I wish I would have done differently. I think I could have applied myself ALOT more. It is still something I struggle with when encountering life's new opportunities, but I felt I wasn't "Blank" enough (fill in the blank with a positive attribute). I wasn't athletic enough, fast enough, smart enough, etc ... etc. I do have to explain it's not that I felt I wasn't talented to some degree in various aspects of life...just not enough to be really good. If that makes sense. Anywho, I digress. After high school I worked for some time at a small town root beer stand and a UPS hub as a package handler for about a year until, in December of 1996 I got a mission call to Samoa. I left home in February of 1997. I spent 2 month in the MTC in Provo UT. then went down to Samoa. The first couple months of my mission were pretty tough for me, as I suppose many missionaries encounter. From not learning the language fast enough, to feeling like I was a baby sitter for a trunky companion, I felt I was not accomplishing what I was sent there to do, although we were "successful", and very much so, according to some's standards. About 3 months after getting to Samoa I was assigned to a new area with a new companion. Elder Teila (Taylor) Falua and I worked together in Siusega, near the Samoan capital of Apia, on the island of Upolu for 3 months together. All told I served in Siuseaga for about 9 months. I loved that area, and that companionship, that was really a turning point of my mission. I learned the language enough to feel I was understood, give lessons and most importantly I learned to enjoy the Samoan spirit of light heartedness and love. I enjoyed all my areas on my mission (all 3 of them) but I think the last 2 (Siusega and Vailuutai) were most enjoyable, not necessarily because of the people, but because of my attitude and my learned aptitude with the language. I loved the food, although I have never been a HUGE fan of sea food, I learned to enjoy it. As crazy as it sounds I even learned to enjoy being drenched in sweat all day long because of the heat and humidity. Mainly because the closest I think I have come to heaven was when, after a long hard day on the paths of my last area, Vailuutai, we'd return to our small 1 room house to clean up and prepare for our dinner appointment, and I would take a nice long cool shower. Now, this was no ordinary shower...let me explain. Close your eyes and picture....hum...never mind...that wont work if your reading...well....just imagine... We lived behind our chapel in a small 1 room house (literally about 12X12 foot room, just enough room for 2 beds and 2 small cubby holes for shirts and clothes. Anywho, again I digress.). We used the chapel restroom for all our toiletry needs except showering. There was a large black tank filled with water continually for times of water shortage outside in back of the chapel. It was partly surrounded by the likes of beautiful flowers of various colors and sizes, coconut trees, etc. It was beautiful. The water would be cool to luke warm because the black lining on the tank would collect enough energy to warm the cold water to just the perfect temperature. We've all seen the picture of the beautiful guy or gal standing in some tropical place under a waterfall....this was that! Anywho...It was THE most relaxing thing I have ever experienced in my life. I'm sure the fact that by that point in my mission I felt I was truly accomplishing what the Lord (and what I) expected of me and the work added to the enjoyment and relaxation after those hard long days of sweat, and sometimes tears. I will always feel somehow, deep down, part Samoan for the rest of my live. I hope and pray I never forget the Spirit I learned to feel, but also that I will never forget the people, and culture I came to know and love! In February of 1999, my father came to Samoa, and we returned home together via Hawaii and Utah. Almost immediately I started dating this cute little chick from my local stake. I knew her sister growing up from stake dances and gatherings, and had met her through her sister before my mission. I suppose my cousin Rachel is partly to blame for our getting together as she encouraged it from the start. Well...that fall we both ended up in Provo UT. She was going to BYU studying elementary education, and I was working various jobs trying to figure out what I wanted to do (I'll let you know if and when I figure that out!). In December of 1999 I proposed to that, now beautiful woman, and we were married in April of 2000. My wife graduated from BYU in 2002 and I had obtained about 30 credits from UVSC. We moved back home and I eventually got a great job doing police dispatch. My wife had also gotten a job at a child care facility and things were going great. In 2004 we had two wonderful miracles enter our lives. Tyler and Cera were born late in 2004, considering we weren't sure if we'd ever be able to have kids...this was indeed a miracle in our eyes.

Well... once the little en's came, Beth quit her job to be a mom. She has been all that I ever wanted and expected a mom and wife to be! She is an example to me in so many ways. I admire and adore her so much. Tyler and Cera have grown so much in the last 2 and 1/2 years. Cera is quite the goof ball and ham. Tyler is extremely understanding and tolerant of his possessive sister. 2005, after the kids were born wasn't such a good year for us. We went to 7 funerals in two years from 2004-2005 including three of our closest loved ones. In January of 2005 My mom's mom passed away... Grandma Drew. In February Beth's Great Grandma June passed away. In December my mom, Rose passed away. It is an understatement to say that we felt overwhelmed with the loss of these great women in our lives. I am so grateful for the gospel in our lives! Without it, a very very difficult time could've become a time from which I would have never felt I could have overcome, nor had the drive to want to overcome. With it, I learned that death is, while very hard to accept sometimes, a VITAL part of life's plan. That we have to be born into this world to gain the experiences that we must have to return to our Heavenly Father, and that without death, the trip home is unachievable. I now look at birth and death in a whole new light. Birth and Death are not merely events in our lives, but I see them as quasi-ordinances. One must be baptised, repent and be faithful to enter the Kingdom of our Father. Aren't Birth and Death also required, in fact with out them, none of the stuff in between would be of value. Well...I have tried to learn from those events in life I didn't understand. One big help in rebounding from these emotional set backs in our lives came in August of 2006. I had just returned from a trip to Samoa (which I will talk more about in a later post) in which I had conducted research on parenting styles and adolescent behaviors in Samoa . To our surprise, we had been told that Beth was pregnant, but later we were told she was losing the baby because the hormone levels were not where they should be. This we felt was yet another blow to our already fragile spirits when, one night, Beth was having major stomach pains. We didn't know what it was, but thought it may be her miscarrying or something. We took her to the hospital and they determined it most likely was gall stones. When it rains it pours. They confirmed the gall stones with an ultrasound, but at 1 am that morning in a small ultrasound room in a small town hospital we learned something else. Beth did have the stones, and they confirmed she was pregnant, but not 5 weeks like they had initially thought....but 5 months...and everything looked great with the baby. In February of 2007 we had Carter a healthy baby boy.

This was only 2 months after I FINALLY finished up my bachelors of Psychology. So...long story short...I've had a blessed and eventful life. I'd had a couple of pretty bad years...but I think we're on the up bound now. Forgive this monstrous post, but hopefully from here on out, it will be more hip and happening and filled up with to date stuff that we all love to hear and gossip about ;-) . I hope that someone will find my ramblings useful and entertaining!

- Ulavale1