Tagged...

So it took me a while, but here is finally my tag from my cousin Mandy. Basically we needed to open the fourth folder of our pictures and post the fourth picture, and talk about it. Here's the picture, not nearly as exciting as the back of david's head (thanks heather, for that classic), but that's what you get from a sappy newly-wed couple with no kids. This is actually of Renee and our good friend Tania Sorenson, bouldering in "The Flume" in the white mountains. This was right before Renee and I started dating officially, which makes it about 3 months before we were married (Octoberish). I was the one taking the picture.

Nightmare on Elm Street

I have to say that our neighbors really take the Halloween spirit to heart. They decorate their houses and get all dressed up to hand out candy to the kids. I must admit that before Halloween last year, I really did have some prejudices about inner city living. There is something about growing up in suburbia and hearing about inner city crime that always made me feel a little bit like a stranger in the city. However, that all changed Halloween night.

I really got to know my neighbors as we hung around on our doorsteps waiting for the trick-or-treaters. Matt and I got 3 of the regular size candy bags, and we ran out in the first half hour! The lady across the street gave me a bunch to hand out when my pumpkin was empty. The man next door has been dressing up as Werewolf Man for eighteen years, and he has parents who used to come trick-or-treat our street bringing their kids to see the Werewolf Man now.


Halloween and Snow Storms have become my favorite holidays because our street turns into a party. I took pictures this year of some of the houses all decked out.

Parenting Practice

Again, it has been quite a while since I posted. This is because of two things: school, and the adoption site. School was unusually busy, with final projects, assignments, and of course, my research. In addition, I started interviewing with companies. Yes, I know it's early, and it's definitely weird, but they seemed excited and willing to work with me. So enough with the excuses... what's new?
Well, we've finally finished the adoption website. There of course is still room to grow, but this just about our final draft. So, why don't you all go take a look, and let us know what you think (your feedback last time was invaluable...) The next step is for us to get cards, and then to begin distributing them. Thanks to everyone who offered to help. We'll keep you all in mind and send you some! We're excited things are possibly going to be working out for us soon. Granted, it may be 4-5 years away, but every time we pray about it, Renee and I have the overwhelming feeling that God has a specific child ready for us, and we just need to do all we can to find them and to trust Him to lead them to us. That's comforting.
Renee has been pretty busy the last month as well, taking care of her niece and nephew one day a week. They are currently being taken care of by Renee's mom, but that's an exhausting job, and so Renee offers to help. We usually try to do one fun thing with them, and then take them to our apartment to take naps, eat, and maybe even spoil them with a Disney movie (oh, the power of Nemo... what did parents do before that movie???). One of the first weeks in October we all went to one of Boston's zoo together, and here are some pictures of us. Both Bowman and Ivy loved the ostritch, although Bowman got bored if the animals didn't come and move all around just for him. It was actually quite fun, but after taking care of two kids right of the bat, both Renee and I thought it was a good thing that we'll be getting them one at a time.

We also get some good parenting practice in when we go visit Brett and Erin in NJ, but their baby, Aeriana is so cute that she takes very little effort. Well, it seems that way, but that's just because she has us wrapped around her little finger! We tried to play some new games (which, by the way to my family, are great fun and you should try... Bonanza and star-munchkin) but didn't get much in due to our frenzied rush with trying to get the website done. It was pretty much an "adoption website spectacular" between the pictures they took of us, and the programing that Brett did, they deserve more credit than we do for the website! Here is one of the pictures that they took of us. Renee as usual looks nice... maybe one day I'll have an accident that horribly disfigures me, and the resulting plastic surgery will help my face look normal, eh? :)
So our final parenting practice? Cats. No, not my idea. No we didn't get them for ourselves. My friend here in Cambridge is a lonely older gentlemen with many animals, and he asked Renee and I to watch them while he travels to Khakistan for a month. Wow. That in and of itself is an adventure. Since this post is already long, I'll have to tell you about that one later. There's already lots of stories, but I'm going to try to get a video of the best ones. At this rate, we're going to be pros by the time we find our baby!

Late Night + Sugar + weird name =

So again, it's been quite some time since I've blogged. This time it was NOT due to lack of comments, however. We've had all kinds of things to talk about. This is more of a business issue. I've been spending almost all my free time looking into web design so that Renee and I can build a website for adoption. We were "approved" for adoption a couple of weeks ago, which of course made us very happy! However, even though we were approved, they don't have any of our stuff written up, so our profile is STILL not online. (Don't ask us why we're approved but without a profile...) So we've basically decided to make up our own. The link to the side will take you to our site, but it still doesn't do justice to what we're envisioning. Give us one more week and the final site will be up. Also, please pass the word along! If you know anyone who's considering adoption, please send them our way. In fact, we have little business cards that we'll be using, and if you want some to pass around, just let us know!
We had some fun this last week playing games with our friends, the Jacksons. I actually knew Joe Jackson back at BYU. We took engineering math together, and he and his wife Jen adopted a little boy in Utah about 2.5 years ago. Well, we went to go play some games and to have a family home evening with him last Monday. Keep in mind that this is the first time we really spent any quality time with their son Ian, since the previous outings were past his bedtime. Renee gave a fun lesson, and we sang a couple of songs, and then had s'mores over candles for the treat. Joe and Jen were a little worried that he'd be buzzed from the sugar this close to his bedtime, but nevertheless consented to his mass ingestion of marshmellows and chocolate.
At this point, Ian was sent to bed, while we stayed up to play games with Joe and Jen. Being the sneaky and loving parents that they are, they had been listening to Ian when he went to bed using an old baby monitor, since he tended to sing himself to sleep. So, we decided to listen to his entertainment while we played games. Now, I'm not sure if I should be annoyed, flattered, or worried, but for about 90 minutes, this is the gist of what we heard:
"memmotts, memmott, memmott... One Memmott, Two Memmotts.... Memmotts Memmotts Memmotss..
"I love to see the temple...." Memmotts... Matt Memmott and... uh... the other Memmott... Memmotts Memmotts Memmotts!"
Over and over and over again. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life. So is this normal? Do your children really do this? Is this an odd product of sugar, late nights, and weird names? Just thought this was really funny.
So in order to avoid boring you, I'm not going to talk much more, but seriously, visit our adoption site over the next week, check it out, and let us know if you have any recommendations or changes. Most importantly, let us know if you know anyone who's considering adoption!

Blogging has taught me one thing... I'm VERY boring!

Okay, so after being chastised by 6 people in the course of 3 days (you know who you are) about not updating my blog, I’ve decided to repent. I of course have many excuses: I’m busy, I’m writing my thesis, I’ve got no pictures… but really, it boils down to one thing… I am a very boring person right now. Renee has all kinds of great stories to tell, but ever since I experimented with blog writing, there was no going back… I’m stuck as the official blogger. And really, the last week I’ve been doing the same thing every day… writing my thesis, running more computer models, and then playing games with friends. See, not very interesting, is it? Nevertheless, I’ll do what I can about updating what has happened recently.
Renee and I are trying hard to return to our normal weights. No, we’re not anorexic; it’s just that we did a diet study for a diabetes center here in Boston. We started out for 3 months eating delivered meals of yummy Asian food, like this:

And ended up for the last 3 months eating fatty, gross, American pre-prepared food, like this:


It was a fun study, but I gained 24 pounds, and Renee gained 13 pounds, all in the 3 months of American food. So, we’re trying to get back to normal, but it’s slow… 24 pounds is a lot. Although it is convenient to be able to sit my plate on my belly when I watch tv!
My calling is incredibly fun, and although I joke about loving primary more than Sunday school, there is a good deal of truth to it. Have any of you ever seen that church movie, “out of the mouth of babes?” Well, I’d like to bear my testimony of the truthfulness of that movie! Kids say the absolute best things!! I absolutely love it! Don’t believe me? Well, here are some of the things we hear that make us laugh in primary:

Me: Good job, Neal! That’s right. You are so smart!
Leo: Na-uh! No! My dad says I’m the smartest one, so you have to say that to me!

Me: So does anybody know what’s in Utah that missionaries go to?
Leo: Grandmas!!!

Sister Frandsen: So this is Jesus, and he’s teaching people about drinking the sacrament… here they’re drinking wine, but we drink water…
Noah(sunbeam age): Oh. What’s wine?
Sister Frandsen: Um, it’s something that we don’t drink.
Noah: Oh, is it alco… alcho… Is it alcoholic?

Me: So who knows what elders are?
Aiden: Oh, I know! That’s my mom. She’s old. Plus she’s gonna have a baby (keep in mind she’s 8 weeks along at this point…)

Sister Frandsen: See, here is Jesus handing the cup to his disciples…
Noah: Oh! I saw this one… this was on Indiana Jones, and you have to drink from the right cup, or else you’ll turn into a monster and DIE.
(wow, sacrament must be fun for his parents…)

Andrew: I got a new baby brother last night. But he’s kinda gross.
Me: That’s not very nice to say! I bet you love your new baby brother!
Andrew: I do, but he’s gross. He decided to come out of my mom’s bum.

Anybody want to guess how many times I hide behind the chalk board so the kids can’t see me laughing? It’s great. Maybe that’s what I’ll have to blog about from now on. Or I guess I could always talk about my fish. All the babies grew up, and I sold them to the pet store owner. It was great. I’ve paid off the fish tanks, and all the fish, and all for doing something I LIKE to do anyway! This time, however, I decided I needed to build the fish store owners confidence… let him know I’ll return money that he gives us (at’s least that’s how I tried to sell it to Renee) so I spent it all on MORE fish. These ones are really cool though… they’re called Cardinal Tetras, and they are glow in the dark neon, like this:
Guess you just have to be here to appreciate them. Here's what my tank looks like now:

Those fish are the proud parent "Pearl Gouramis" who have been so good for our coffers. Yeah, I guess when you don't have kids, this is what you're reduced to talking about. My appologies.
The adoption process is still stagnant, but we’ve decided to move on anyway. We’re in the process of constructing an adoption site, as can be seen in the links on this page, although it’s still under construction. We’re also printing of several hundred cards to hand out to people, so if any of you are interested in helping us out in finding a child, or referring us to friends, please feel free to ask for some cards, and we’ll send some your way! Also, anyone reading, please be on the lookout at all times for us! We’re not picky, we’d just like to find our family soon! Our nieces and nephews will need more cousins, right?

Home again, Home again...

Well, it sure is odd to be back in Massachusetts. We rolled in around 3:00 AM Saturday morning after a series of delays in our flights (which, amazingly enough, was due to weather in Boston – sunny, the Midwest – actually stormy, but what does that have to do with anything, and air-traffic control, all at the same time). I had forgotten how nice the west can be, particularly weather-wise. I feel especially bad for my brother James… he is serving as a missionary in New Jersey, and got the whole brunt of the weather. Renee and I lucked out BIG-time, however, because we left the same morning that the heat index in Boston was around 110°F. Ouch. Meanwhile, California was a nice, dry 70° all week long. Speaking of home in Boston, I don’t know if many of you have seen our apartment, so here is a picture of what we got to come home to:
We’re on the second floor, and I can practically hear some of you complaining about city apartments, but really, this place has the most amazing views ever! Don’t believe me? Well, consider that our windows are practically magic! One day, we open the blinds, and we see a blank wall. Another day, we see a window with shades. My favorite day, however, was when Renee opened the blinds to look out the window, and not 2 feet away was an old, obscenely LARGE-bellied man in boxer shorts, smoking a cigar, and staring at her from his window. Tell me that isn’t just enchanting! Needless to say, we don’t open our blinds anymore.

Disneyland was great fun, but to be honest, after The Price is Right, not even the Tower of Terror can produce the same “rush” that it used to. It was nice not to have to wake up at 3:00 AM for Disneyland. That meant that Renee didn’t have to bring pillows and blankets for the line like she did for The Price is Right (although I did make an IHOP run, bringing back takeout and hoping no one wanted to jump me for it). I had to laugh a little, because the rooms in the Disneyland hotel were decked out. There was glow in the dark fairy dust on the walls, and even a map of Disneyland on the TV stand. Despite being at a conference, I managed to have a bit of fun… I learned what it’s like to be on a teen movie. You know the scene: someone has to be in two places at the same time, and rather than being upfront, they try to be in BOTH places, constantly shifting back and forth until they’re caught. Well, I was supposed to be presenting a technical paper and listening to all of the other conference papers. But I mean, really! We were in Disneyland! I made a valiant attempt at going to conferences and not ditching too many sessions, but let’s be honest: that lasted for ONE (yes one) session. I would run back from the park and change into my dress clothes just in time to sit next to my advisor for the crucial sessions, only to run back to the park 1 hour later. Contrary to what the movies show, however, it can be done!! My paper got presented, and Disneyland met its equal (that is to say, I didn’t cry on any of the rides this time…)
We also had fun meeting with a friend of Renee’s, Jennifer Casady, and eating at the Rainforest Café. For those of you who don’t know, that place is a theme park in and of itself! It’s decorated like a rainforest, with little animatronics everywhere. Jennifer’s poor kids were so terrified of the robotic gorilla that we sat next to that they would scream when he’d make noise, and then eye it suspiciously for the following 10 minutes. Just when they were convinced that the ape was just “sleeping” as daddy told them, it made monkey noises and moved again, and the wide-eyed panic started all over again. Too bad we didn’t get a picture of that, eh? I then told Renee that if our kids were easily scared, being a dad was going to be really fun. Probably not the smartest thing to say, but I won't tell the social worker if you don't...
And, in honor of my habit of saying dumb things, I learned that even NOT talking can get me in trouble with my wife. I was stressing a bit this morning, because the primary kids were supposed to sing in sacrament meeting, I’d never even worked with them before, I didn’t know the song, and I had no idea how to do it! Renee looked over at me and said “That’s okay, at least you can carry a tune. I can’t even do that!” Okay, so since we were at FHE a couple of weeks ago and that turned out to be slightly true (just that one time… she was sick) I started to giggle. I didn’t agree with what she said… I knew that was deadly stupid, I just giggled. Next thing you know Renee was smacking and biting me at every opportunity! “Hey!” I protested, “I didn’t say anything!” But I WAS thinking it, and I guess that’s enough. Oh, the things I’m learning as a husband! One of these days I’ll get the hang of being married, eh?

This was me with my non-disclosure agreement, where I agreed not to tell what I won on The Price is Right. Do I look excited to you? Don't worry, it's all an act.

What? Who's "Matthew Mee-mot?"

So, my lifelong curse was broken today! I no longer have a negative luck anomaly. What in the world am I talking about? Well, for as long as I can remember, I cannot win any form of luck related contest! I don’t get raffle prizes, I don’t win awards at parties, and I just am generally all-around unlucky! So with this mindset, Renee and I decided to attend “The Price is Right” as the first part of our vacation in California. I even mentioned to Renee that she has fantastic luck, and that she should be prepared to work out prices in her head so she could win.
Therefore, it was with absolute apathy towards winning anything that we set out to stand in line, meet over a hundred new people in our same position, and procure seats in the studio for a 1:00 PM showing of The Price is Right. We had the little interview before going in to the studio from which all the contestants are selected, and I got the distinct impression that MIT students don’t often come to the price is right. Right there in the interview, the guy asked me what I did, and when I told him, he took 2 steps back, started flailing his arms, and said “WOAH!!!!! How do YOU have time to watch The Price is Right?” I mentioned that I didn’t have to go to every class, to which he responded “Ohh… so you’re going to be a BAD nuclear engineer.” Nice. I then told him I’d be a great one, but who would notice if I wasn’t anyway. I laughed, but didn’t think any more about it. Certainly being a “bad” nuke-engineer isn’t earning brownie points.
The studio was awesome. Completely noisey, to the point where we couldn’t hear anything, and I got to set over by Renee towards the front. Renee and I didn’t have clever T-shirts, just a maroon shirt and an MIT shirt, so again, no expectations.
Things took a dramatic turn partway through the show, however, when the announcer said “Matthew Mee-mot, come on down.” I looked around trying to figure out who had such a goofy name when I realized that it was ME!!!!!!! How’s that for bizarre! Even now, it doesn’t quite seem real, but it was so dang fun. Drew had a heyday during commercial breaks commenting on and making jokes about my intelligence, and we all laughed quite a bit. Renee and I learned that in real life, the models are not drop-dead gorgeous, like the appear on TV (she commented that had larger thighs than it looks like on TV, and I noticed that under the makeup was some not so pretty faces – makeup and camera editing does wonders…) and she finally confessed that I was right…. She’s quite pretty, or at least, she lets ME say that without arguing now. (that alone makes it worth it, that my wife realizes she’s stinking gorgeous without plastic surgery… well, at least not much, but that’s a different story. :) ) Everyone had a hard time believing that I studied nuclear engineering, and made frequent googily-eyed looks of awe and unbeleive. In fact a couple of confused girls yelled that I should marry them, and I, probably appearing unnecessarily grumpy and annoyed, had to visibly show off my already-present wedding ring and my beautiful wife. Plus, Drew Carey asked me what the square root of pi was. Nice, Drew… funny.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any pictures, and I’m not allowed to talk about the show at all, but if any of you are interested in checking things out, the show will air 9:00 AM MDT on CBS on June 24th, 2008. So, feel free to watch, but don’t get too many hopes up… I’m a nuclear engineer, not a consumer goods specialist!

I forget that wives always win...

So, many of you may have wondered why our blog has remained so atypically silent for such a long amount of time, when I am indeed, nowhere near a silent person. Well, you can all officially blame it on my stubborn self. (What? Matt stubborn? Of course not!) I received word from Renee shortly after our last entry that she wouldn’t blog any more until I took a turn. I was sure she was joking, and told her so. (Oops! Wrong thing to say!) Then I insisted that wives usually did the blogging. (Yes, I know... I can’t believe that I’m that stupid either.) I then insisted that I would be a terrible blogger, since I didn’t have kids, I don’t have a way with words, and all I’d talk about is fish. I don’t think she cared. It then become something of a test of wills. That’s okay, right? I am a strong willed person, and can win out the battle, right? Hmmm… and here I am blogging…
So I finally just finished with my big semester of classes, and it feels great. I’ll be heading to California next week to present some of my research, and I’m right on track to graduate next year. I can’t wait. I can’t even imagine what it’d be like to earn money at this point. I guess that means I'll have more time for my hobbies, like breeding fish.
Sure enough, our fishies had little babies 2 weeks ago, and I’ve been raising them up to sell them. The dad was fun to watch, because he took care of them all, and made sure none of them got lost. Mom just tried to eat them, so we had to move her out of the tank. We went to NJ last weekend and I collected yet another tank for dirt cheap. Poor Renee is going to regret letting me start the hobby of breeding tropical fish.
Speaking of NJ, we went to visit our friends, Erin and Brett 2 weeks back, and low and behold, we walked into church (it was stake conference) just in time to hear someone say “Hi! I’m Elder Memmott!” I had to look down just to make sure I wasn’t wearing a name tag. But, it was just James. That took me by surprise. We talked for a little bit, and then I had to work hard to convince his mission president that it was genuinely, purely, and certainly an accident. At least I can have confidence after that last weekend that James will NEVER be called to serve in the Elizabeth branch, (that is were Erin and Brett go to church, and Renee and I actually spoke last week there) which may not be too bad for James, since he claims it’s the most messed up branch in the mission.
I also discovered a hidden, secret weakness living inside Renee: Mario Kart. Here is the woman who plays no video games for more than 4 minutes before getting bored. Well, that all changed with Mario Kart wii. I had to even answer her phone because she was having too much fun to stop. In fact, watching her reminded me of Christmas time at our place when I was growing up... video games and PJ's all day long, baby! Maybe this means we can get a wii once we’ve adopted a child? :)
Speaking of which, the process is dreadfully slow. If any of you are considering becoming infertile so that you can instead adopt, and thus keep your girlish figure, I’d have to talk you out of it. It is a long, tedious, and frustrating process, and in the Northeast, a seemingly hopeless venture. We know that the Lord is in control, and we try to trust Him, but when we’ve been done with all our papers for 2.5 months, and STILL don’t have any word of whether they’ve even looked at our application, I’m beginning to loose hope that we’ll be able to adopt before we’re 30. I guess it’s a good thing that we are both working in the primary, so that we can enjoy everyone else’s kids. Which, I just learned today, will continue for some time. Apparently, I’ve been called to be the primary chorister. Yeah, that’s weird… I don’t think I’ve ever known a guy primary chorister before. I’m sure they’ll change their minds when their kids come running to them at the end of primary complaining of the sick moose that tried to make them sing. Hmmm… I wonder if that would be grounds for being fired...

Left Cross Over + Toe Pick = Bruised Knee

And many other minor injuries. Yes, Matt and I were really excited to go ice skating. He had tried quite hard to find a free skate at a rink in town that wasn't on Sunday or at the oddest hours last year, but to no avail. This year, we were not only going skating (on a Monday evening no less), but both the skate time and rentals were going to be free!

However, in our enthusiasm, we overlooked a few logistics. We couldn't imagine where in the business district of Cambridge they would find room for a hockey rink. We were surprised and delighted to see signs on the outside of one of the new construction buildings touting open rink time from noon-5 almost every day! The windows were frosted over (a good sign for a rink), so we walked around the building to find the entrance and instead came upon a triangle shaped outdoor rink. Hmm...we were thinking indoors with no wind and where we could take off our jackets. Well, the jackets stayed on, and we ignored the whipping wind.

We got our skates and proceeded to put them on. Note: Do not wear ankle socks under ice skates. They just don't work. In my enthusiasm to skate, I overlooked the need for a pair of long thick socks. Oh well! The skin will grow back on my ankles, right? Matt was nice enough to switch socks with me half way through.

Despite the faulty planning, we had a blast! Eric Homer was nice enough to offer tips on stopping and controlling movements. By the end of the night, Matt could skate circles around most of the other people at the rink (and this was only his third time)! Matt says the the first two times didn't really even count because they were dates, and he wasn't there to learn how to skate. Now maybe Matt will take me skating for a date :)

Valentine's Day

Should a heating pad and a CO2 reactor for a fish tank and shrimp be given as Valentine's Day presents? Well, apparently the lady at the pharmacy where Matt picked up the heating pad didn't think so, but I think it is GREAT! It keeps me warm and happy during the cold winters here in Boston with our not so insulated apartment.

So I didn't get chocolates and flowers, but Matt keeps chocolates around the house for whenever I have a craving, and flowers around Valentine's Day are overpriced and often not so nice. But we did go to a Valentine's Party on Friday night where we got all the holiday trimmings.

First there were couple games. How did we score? Well, in the Couple Questionnaire, he went dyslexic on my social, and I didn't get his dream car right (Dodge Viper). We got 6.5 out of a possible 11.5. In our guesses for the Peanut M&M jar, he guessed 437 and I guessed 291 (Answer:591). We didn't even come close to saying that we always _____ and never _____ the same, but who cares when you have an artist and a poet such as my husband? Here is the picture of our first date that he drew:

But my favorite part of the evening was the poem he wrote just for me!

As I think of the two of us, together forever,
I’m glad my dad taught me to “never say never!”
I was ecstatic that you fell for me
(Though I really did wonder how well you could see!)
But despite all my weaknesses which are easy to find,
And though your good looks far outweight mine,
I’ll explain right now to those with us tonight
That despite any problems, we fit just right!
We compliment each other like notes in a song
If I come up short, I know you’ll be strong!
To prove that what I’m telling you all is true,
I’ll list some ways, but only a few:
You like people, and they like you,
I like my calculator, but it likes me too!
You know those crayons at macaroni grill?
How you can color and draw while waiting for the bill?
You’re picture is beautiful “It comes from your heart”
While mine, well, I’m an engineer… it’s equations, not art!”
I make others upset, I don’t know why!
But you are so funny, and you don’t even try.
I can give you a hug and you’re enveloped in fat,
But you’re slim and trim, no doubt about that!
When you cook we have a culinary feast,
Steak and potatoes, and gravy and peas.
I also cook food that is so totally boss,
I mean, what’s better than mac&cheese, mixed with applesauce?
If someone feels sad, you’ll make them feel better,
But if I try the same, their eyes just get redder.
You have great fashion and could make gay men yearn
While meanwhile my clothes, well, they should probably be burned!
Your face is beautiful, smiling and bright,
Mine is less so, but it looks better at night!
So here you can see we fit quite well
And saying we’re soulmates is an easy sell!
I’m grateful for fairytales to say the least,
Because we’re a true life version of Beauty and The Beast!

As for my part, I made Matt one of his favorite desserts- Chocolate Mousse (though I don't think such a thing compares to the thoughtfulness of writing a poem), and Matt got a card from his Valentine:

JeJe's Wedding

Miracles never cease! (I don't mean you getting married, JeJe). I mean actually having both Matt and I there. The Lord often gives us tender mercies. The sealing was beautiful and got me thinking about the sweet blessings the Lord gives us throughout our lives. Seeing JeJe and CJ together reminded me that the Lord really does know the beginning from the end. He often gives us bits of understanding that don't make sense to us at the time, but as things progress and we actually experience life, our eyes are sometimes opened, and we get a glimpse of how much the Lord actually loves us and is involved and interested in our lives. I can think of no better man for JeJe than CJ. We all knew that. But what I think is better is that the timing of their marriage is perfect. The Lord has blessed each of them with experiences and schooling over the last four years, and they have touched the lives of so many, including my life, that might not have happened otherwise. They have preparred themselves to be a united force for good wherever they may find themselves in the future. All of our love and bessings!