The House

Ben has spent nearly every spare waking moment for the last 3 years renovating our house in Midvale. We LOVE our house. There's still a lot we need/want to do with it, but we've been able to update all of the major systems and Ben has learned to do almost all of it himself. The most noticeable improvement we've made is on the basement; as I write, paint is drying and the basement is nearly finished.



Leaving our house just when we would have really been kicking back and enjoying it was definitely on the "con" list when we were deciding if we should leave this fall. But... we're trying to find renters who will treat it well. We'll get to come back to it, after all. We set up an ad on craigslist and ksl.com. It's strange to see pictures of your house on a for rent ad.

Here's to all the fun we've had at the house so far, and all of the fun yet to come! (especially in that Theatre Room Ben is determined to see happen)

Our big decision

Last fall, as Ben was ruminating on his future and if he'd like to go to grad school, he stumbled across a Shakespearean Studies program on the internet at King's College London. After linking to the school to read more about it, he discovered that they also had a English teaching program. Both of the programs had links with the Globe Theatre. Both of the programs were only 1 year! Knowing that I had ALWAYS wanted to get my master's degree in England, we suddenly got a great idea: we could both get master's degrees at the same school the same year.

So we applied. And we waited. And then... we both got in. At first we couldn't believe it - Ben's program only accepts 15-20 students each year. We spent the next few months trying to figure out how we could possibly make this work, financially, timewise, etc. Could we get used to calling french fries "chips"? But things started falling in to place. Coincidentally, we were leading our students on a study abroad trip to London in May-June, so while we were there we met with people from our departments and looked at the campuses. We were finished teaching, I won a gift certificate for a laptop, did I mention we both got in? Amazing. After a lot of discussion, planning, and prayer, we decided this really could be a good choice for us and this would be the best time for it. Thankfully, we'd spent the last year saving, which enabled us to make a decision like this.

Now we're exactly 4 weeks out from leaving to go to school in London for 1 year. We are excited and nervous - there's still so much to do to get ready. While there's so much to look forward to, we are leaving behind everything that we've gotten comfortable with and built our lives around, not to mention our families. But all of our family, friends, coworkers, and ward members are excited and supportive, and something tells me that everything is going to work out just fine.