The Texas Tucketts

So I'm pretty much the only one in my family who just up and left Texas. Well, I didn't just up and leave. When I first graduated high school I went to Elmira, NY for a couple months. Then I went to school up in Rhode Island, and after a year transfered over to Denver. It was always nice cause I knew that even though I was away I would always be going back home. Those places weren't permanent. I always said that I wanted to move away from Texas, but now that I'm pretty much officially away I miss it more than ever. Oddly enough I miss things I never thought I'd miss.

• I hated storms (and still do) but I miss a good rainstorm. I guess I should clarify, I hate storms where when you're watching T.V. and the weather men keep interrupting your show to tell you that a tornado is going to hit you any minute now! I've never been in a tornado, but we've had some pretty bad weather.
  
• I miss the humidity. Never thought I'd say that, but I do. I have to apply loads of lotion on here cause it's so dry.
• I miss the Tex Mex. I thought that no matter where I went mexican food would always be the same, but it's not. You can only find good Tex Mex in Texas.
• I miss the warm weather. I thought I wanted to be where it snowed, but after a couple winters in snowy weather I'm ready to move back where it barely gets to freezing during the winter.
• The one thing I miss the most that's in Texas is my family.

I know you're suppose to grow up and move on, but it's hard to be away. Like I said before, anytime that I was away I knew I'd be back soon. I love where I am with Todd, but sometimes I wish Texas wasn't so far away. But the best part is that no matter where I am I know my family is always there for me.
I have one of the best families anyone could ask for.

• I have a sister who is such an amazing example to me and despite the past still loves me. I know whenever I need her I can just call her. When her and Dallin first got married I would love going over and having a girls night. We would end up watching old movies. And with her, and the help of my mother, I have learned many labor stories. I was usually in the car stuck between two car seats while her and my mom would talk about it! So maybe I'll be somewhat prepared when that time comes.
• Scott can make anyone laugh. Once he walks in the room there's usually never a dull moment. I remember once when he was suppose to be watching me he fell asleep and I almost set the house on fire by burning my mom's crocheted tabled cloth. The smart person he was, he turned the whole to face the wall so my mom wouldn't notice! And then there's the time when he was watching me and Spencer and when asked to throw me the ranch dressing he literally threw me the ranch and it busted on the tile floor! So we cleaned the mess, taped the bottle and put it back in the fridge!!
• Spencer pretty much taught me how to to defend myself with wrestling moves. No he's great guy and any girl that marries him is one lucky person. When I went to Elmira he probably doesn't realize it, or may not even remember, but he gave me the courage to stay because of an email that he sent me that I still keep.
• Then there's my parents. My dad loves his kids and I know he would do anything for us. Once in elementary he helped me build a rocket out of medical supplies that he brought home from work. It was pretty sweet. He's someone that likes to spoil and now that his kids are grown he's spoiling his grandkids, especially with candy! And my mom. She has the biggest heart I know of. She has raised 4 amazing kids and many other's kids through her day care. Growing up I loved laying with her and watching Life Time movies! Most of all she has never given up on me.

My family has helped me to become who I am today. I love you guys. I truly can't wait till Todd and I will be able to have a family and create as many memories as we both have our own families. Maybe someday if the stars all align Todd will get into Vet school at A&M and we'll be back in Texas! But as for now we're enjoying creating our own memories in good ol Idaho!

New Classes, New Job, Maybe New Home?!

Well, Todd has been through almost 2 weeks of classes the semester. He is taking a math class, history, Book of Mormon, New Testament, and a Military training class. So far everything is looking good. He took his first math test today and got a 93.3! In his military training class he gets to do a lot of running, the first Wednesday they ran 3 1/2 miles. Every Wednesday is their long distant run. So Tim and Tom, Todd is getting a little glimpse of what you guys got to go through for boot camp!
Along with new classes Todd started a new job. Well, last week he started training for a phone marketing place and pretty much hated it. So he decided to go get a job on campus and is now a custodian for the boys dorms. Today was his first day. The best part...the hours are 4am to 7am! So he gets up goes to work, comes home, showers, and then we leave again for me to take him to school before I go to work. At least he's home in the evenings now. The other job he was working till 10 at night. I honestly didn't know what to do. It was kinda weird. After a day he enjoys it. He pretty much just goes around the dorms and checks everything. He's just glad he doesn't have to clean the bathrooms!
Anyway, so we might be moving to new apartments. We posted our lease on the BYU-I bulletin just to see if anyone would be interested in taking it over. Well, after a couple days some people came and checked out the apartment and pretty much said they wanted it. So we've been spending this week trying to find a place and decide on what we needed to do. But we both feel like the right thing to do is move. Our apartment is tiny, its only 538 square feet. It's a studio made into a one bedroom by putting up a wall. It's way expensive too. So the new one we found is a two bedroom and its the same price as what we're paying now. They're closer to campus, so when Todd has to walk to school it wont be as bad. I was a little hesitant by the set up but today we went and talked to the mangers and got to go into theirs and it really made me feel a lot better. It was just nice to see how someone else set their place up. It gave me some ideas to do! So now I'm really excited. All we're waiting for is the couple to sign a contract for our apartment. Once they do that I'll feel much better. I just don't want to move and then they back out. That would really stink. So we might be in a new place as soon as May 10th! The only bad part is moving out of here. The list the manager gave us, for our apartment, gave us is so extensive. The last place we lived all we had to do is just make sure everything was clean and decent, here you have to do everything plus they take a butt load of money out of your deposit. But oh well, we'll either move out now or in January so I'd rather just get it done with now. Hopefully we'll have some good news in a couple days and know if we get to move or not!

Administrative Assistant Day

So I got a really nice surprise at work today. I left my desk and when I came back there was a bouquet of flowers! It was so pretty. There was a card that everyone signed. It was nice to know how much you're really appreciated. I didn't even realize that today was Secretary Day. When I saw the flowers I thought they were dropped off for someone else! I truly love this job. The job is great and the people I work with make it even better.
My friend Shauna picked the flowers out and she said she made sure she found a bright green vase. I love it.

New Callings

Well, Todd and I now officially have callings in our new ward here. I got mine a couple weeks ago, but with conference and everything I haven't really gotten into it until recently. I was called as the 2nd Counselor in the Primary and Todd is our new Gospel Doctrine Teacher. I'm kinda bummed that I wont get to ever go to any of his classes though. I've only been in primary a couple weeks now. I think we have a total of about 6 kids and 2 or 3 of them are suppose to be moving soon! Only one is actually Primary aged the others are all nursery. Since there's not many kids they mix the two together.

We have stake conference next weekend so Todd gets to start teaching in a couple weeks! I think he'll enjoy it. I loved teaching Relief Society. I think I enjoyed the studying part the most though. It'll be good for him. We've been here for almost 3 months now and we really don't know anybody in our ward. Well, we know people, we just don't have a lot of friends I guess. It's hard getting to know people here, but hopefully with our new callings it'll be a little better.

Todd also just got a new job. He starts training tomorrow. It's not his dream job, but hopefully it'll be somewhat enjoyable. He also starts his summer semester tomorrow. That'll go until the end of July and then he has all fall off. Things are getting better in Rexburg too. It's still not my favorite place and I can honestly say once Todd is done with school we are out of here. The weather was awesome last Monday but then the rest of the week was horrible. Even today it was freezing and extremely windy. Everyone tells me it gets better in the summer, but I think they're just trying to keep my hopes up. All I know is that it'll be back to this nasty weather sooner or later! But I just have to keep looking at the bright side! We have 1 semester down and 7 more to go! We're getting there.

Duck Pond

On Thursday Todd and I decided we would go feed the ducks at a park here in Rexburg. These ducks were the most animated and friendliest ducks ever. When we use to go feed the ducks in Northglenn, they would rarely get close to us. We had to throw the bread. In this video you can see how close they got to us. I would drop a piece right next to Todd's foot and it would come up to get it. That's never happened before.


Towards the end more and more ducks kept coming, but we ended up seeing a little one come up and this one male duck would go up and chase it and bite it. So I started recording it. I don't know if the bigger duck just didn't like the little one, or what. Finally another duck had to come up and save the little one. I wanted to do it, but Todd said we can't interfere with nature!

The Many Faces of Todd

Tonight Todd's been working on homework and getting ready for finals. So I've been doing things to keep me busy. I baked some bread, read a little, and then I started looking at pictures that we have on the fridge and they made me realize Todd has many different faces. I love it. All my pictures I usually always have the same face, but with Todd there's always something new. There's one from the wedding where him and the guys made goofy faces and I think that one cracks me up the most. I don't know how much he appreciates me posting pictures of him on here, but I thought everyone would enjoy them. Todd, it's only cause I love you!


At least he keeps things interesting!

General Conference

For the past two days Todd and I have been able to watch General Conference. This Conference was particularly special. We were able to sustain our new Prophet and first presidency. It was such a neat experience. It was done differently than I thought it would be, but it was neat. As we were sustaining them, I just got this feeling that I knew they had been called of God. Thomas S. Monson is truly a prophet of God. No man picked him to be, only our Heavenly Father. I love the organization of the church and how everything works. I'm so grateful to be a member and have the knowledge of the gospel in my life. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church upon the earth. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that as Todd and I have been sealed together in the temple that we are sealed together for eternity. How grateful I am for that. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet upon the earth today and that Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf are his counselors
I hope that those that weren't able to watch conference can get a copy of the ensign and read it next month. There were so many powerful words spoken.

Knot Tying

So Todd had to learn how to tie knots in his Basic Skills class and he had a test this week over it. Well, he was suppose to but now it's changed to Monday. Anyway, so Tuesday night he was practicing the different knots. He even got on the computer and was watching videos on how to do it. After awhile I start hearing different things than what he was watching. I look over and he's still practicing the knot tying, but now he's watching funny videos. If you notice in the video he got a little distracted. If I hadn't started laughing I probably could have gotten a little more. Sorry the video's a little shaky because I couldn't contain myself.


So I thought that was pretty funny. But anyway, this past weekend I had the chance to go down to Salt Lake. Not on the best of terms, but it was nice. Last Wednesday, the 26, my Aunt Ruth (one of my mom's sisters) passed away. When I first found out it was a little hard for me. I'm not sure why. I think it started when my mom told me she taught me how to shimmy. I completely forgot about that. My Aunt Ruth was a neat lady. I didn't get to see her much since she was in Utah and we were in Texas, but I can remember her as a being an outgoing person. And her laugh. She had a very distinctive laugh. I think it was the last time she might have come to visit us but that's when she taught me how to shimmy and she also taught me a two-step to a Brooks and Dunn song. I think it was actually Boot Scoot and Boogy! During her visit we were making fudge together and ran out of something and had to go to the grocery store. When we got back we couldn't remember how much sugar we had already put in, needless to say we ended up putting way too much in. I wish I had more memories of her. The last time I got to see her was almost three years ago this summer.

Her funeral was Monday, the 31st. It was really nice. The day before it was cloudy and it ended up snowing that night, but Monday afternoon turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. Not very warm, but at least the sun was out for her. I'm really glad I decided to go. I contemplated not going, but I felt like I needed to. It was fun to see family that I haven't seen in forever. Hopefully now that I'm a little closer I can go down more often to catch up on the time that I didn't get to spend with them growing up. Anyway, here's a picture of Aunt Ruth along with her obituary.













Ruth Swilor Parkin "Mumzie" 1935 ~ 2008 Even for those who've lost touch or didn't meet on earth, our good friend and sister, "Ruth" passed away Wednesday night after years of valiant resistance to a weakening heart and conventional behavior.Born November 8, 1935 in Croydon, Utah to mine-construction worker, Milan "Iron Mike" and Eleanor Marie (Toone) Swilor, Ruthie loved Lost Creek and playing with cousin and childhood friend, John Love. Mumzie raised her kids in Capital Hill and Woods Cross neighborhoods and helped her man, "Junior" coach baseball and raise kids, many of whom were gathered from the street. Ruth graduated West High in Salt Lake City and after marriage, worked as administrator-nurses aid for Dr. Eugene Hall, credit counselor for Clyde Tooman, seamstress for ZCMI and Jim Bangerter. Ruth was a hard worker, dedicated mother, loving grandmother and strong willed woman. Care-givers could "just hear" Ruth say, "quit gawking at me and get back to work" as they watched over Ruth in her final hours. Preceded in death by eternal companion, Martin (Junior) and sons Keith and Kent and sister Wanda Snarr. Survived by daughter, Kim (Lowry) Redd, 12 grandkids and a gaggle of great grandkids, many of whom were present at her passing. Also survived by siblings, Milan, Jim and Jackie. Our family thanks all Ruth's friends and the good people of Legacy House of Bountiful for their friendship and care during her most recent years. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. at the Bountiful LDS Tabernacle, 51 South Main Bountiful, on Monday, March 31 with a viewing starting at 12:30 p.m. Interment-Bountiful City Cemetery.Online guest book at www.russonmortuary.com