New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas break in Wisconsin! We did lots of fun things like ice skating, watching movies, playing Wii, eat out, shopping, etc. Vance was such a trooper through it all! We got to see my Grandma and Grandpa Kindt's house in Greendale (Milwaukee), walk through it, and reminisce. I would love to be able to purchase the house...but that's just not possible...

To make myself more accountable, I wanted to post this on the blog.

New Year's Resolution:
Exercise three times weekly

Vance and I are waiting to hear back from graduate schools. It is kind of fun not knowing where we'll be in the fall, or even possibly spring/summer. The places we may go are: USC (Los Angeles, CA), U of U (Salt Lake City, UT), Texas (Austin, TX), Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN), Carnegie Melon (Pittsburgh, PA), and Perdue (West Lafeyette, IN). We are REALLY excited. I would love to start planning and dreaming about new XX location, but I just can't yet. I would love to KNOW where to look for apartments, plan for long runs, etc. We'll just have to be patient.

Rosewitha Steinmann Kindt

My Grandma Rosie passed away last night after a battle against leukemia. She was born and lived in Milwaukee her entire life. Two and a half weeks ago, she and my grandpa moved to Mesa, Arizona.

Vance and I had the opportunity last weekend to be in Mesa to see her. I had the opportunity to share memories with her, thank her, and tell her how much I loved her. After a few months of battling leukemia, she was weak and not feeling well. It was an honor to be there in her last few days. I was able to hold her hand, rub her hands and legs that were in so much pain. She was the one that held and took care of me as a baby and child, but now the tables have turned! It was one of the most painful experiences for me but also one of the most spiritual. It made me think a lot about how I know that I will see her again.

She taught me a lot about generosity towards others. She also taught me the importance of reaching for the greatest blessings, and not accepting any less. She grew up in difficult circumstances as a child, but married a good man and has lived a wonderful life with seven successful children with many grandchildren and even a few great grandchildren. I love her smile, her laugh, and soft skin. I loved being able to grow up in Wisconsin with her so close.


It was amazing to see her. She has been though so much and still looked very beautiful to me. Although death is very sad, it must have been a relief for her from all the pain. This picture of us at the hospital will be one to keep forever. I love you Grandma and will miss you...

Halloween and Soccer

It was the day before Halloween and Vance and I were still struggling while deciding what to dress up as. I mean, we are still young enough that it would be too boring not to dress up. Plus we had a ward Christmas party. We heard of some unique ideas from friends and relatives on what they were doing, but didn't want to copy. So Vance thought of this. I am the balloon and basket and he is the radio air traffic controller from the well publicized "Balloon Boy" story on the news the week or two earlier. It was fun.

Vance was on an intramural men's soccer team this fall. He played defender most of the time, which he's best at. This is an action shot. Although fuzzy, I was just glad to get an action picture. It's hard because he moves so quickly! They did very well in tournament and in one season game and one tournament game, he scored a goal, even as a defender on the back of the field. I went to almost all of the games. Why? Because I'm his biggest fan!

More on this Fall

Vance and I attended a wedding reception in October. Here he is above. He is so cute.
Hawley, me, Natalie, and Julie. Old roommates and good friends. Natalie's sister got married. It was a great reason to see old friends too!

Vance and I in front of the Salt Lake City LDS Temple...just before the wedding luncheon in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.


While we were in Las Vegas to see family and the BYU game, we went to see the new highway inside the Hoover Dam. It was incredible to look at....what an engineering dream.
Our nephew Dallin in the backseat at the Hoover Dam. He was such a good traveler!

BYU Football Games

Vance and I have season tickets to all the football games. Here is a picture of one of the first games we went to in September. The LaVell Edwards Stadium is very large, it is neat to see how many people can attend these games.

It was really hot at the first game in September. But at least we won!

Vance and I went to a BYU game in October when we were playing LasVegas- in Las Vegas. It was a lot warmer. We stayed with Vance's sister and brother in-law (Jennifer and Steven) so it was nice to see family as well. Here was our view in Vegas. We were in the fourth row- nice and close!