On Monday Elisa and I bought tickets for our honeymoon. Finally. Woohoo! We’ve almost been married for six months. The tickets are for a trip over our first anniversary. We decided on going to Italy. We’ll spend a couple days in Rome, then a couple days in Florence, and then finish the week in Paris. I guess we don’t really know what we’re doing in any more detail yet. We talked about other itineraries further towards the Mediterranean but in the end it just seemed like in Western Europe we wouldn’t have to spend as much time traveling.

Elisa got the info she needed from BYU to start preparing for her school program. I have been pre-accepted. There is a 1 credit student development class I need to complete and then I’ll be free to finish my degree online. That should keep her from going stir-crazy this winter. I am thrilled to be able to take classes toward my degree again. It is starting to feel like I’ll actually complete it instead of just talk about it being done sometime. It will just be in general studies, but there are some interesting emphases to choose from. I’ll probably do psychology or family studies.

So, Elisa and I were thinking about something that I know sounds silly. We came up with a name for our house. I’ve always wanted to have a name for the house. For a few months it was once nicknamed “The Ranch” (because of the large backyard) or “The Casino” (because we were always playing poker in the middle of the night). Cheryl Smith wanted us to name it “Ché Parry.” That one’s not my favorite. Anyway, our latest choice is “Ameixas.” That’s the Portuguese word for plums, and we like it because there’s a ton of character in the plum tree in the middle of our yard. Plus I think it sounds cool. Does it sound as cool as I think? Maybe don’t answer that. I still like the idea of having a house with a name. Let me know if you think that’s a good idea. We looked “house naming” up online. It is a pretty big deal in England. They have house names rather than house numbers. One naming suggestion was to find something that was a unique feature of the place. We also like the idea of making it say something about us too. Some other words that sounded lively were “Campoverde,” “Ameixa Azul,” “L’Arbre Bleu,” “Par de Cerejeira,” “Ginjeira,” and “Âbundancia.”

I got to go to Hilary Kruetz’s baby shower for Carter. It was originally planned to happen while we were at Lake Powell but was rescheduled. I was very excited about that! Hilary has been like a sister to me forever. Her and her husband Brian adopted Carter in June. Their story is so amazing and I am overjoyed for them! It was a lot of fun to celebrate their little family.