Summah time! and other updates.

As David announced, we have a new addition to our family. Little Vader is so adorable and I love him so much. I wish you could all meet him! He's gotten bigger, but more impressively, he knows so many tricks!! David and I spend a lot of time training him to do awesome things, like play dead and use the force. We're incredibly pleased with ourselves. Ha.

In other news, David has been invited to participate in the Summer mathematics research project! This is exciting because it will give David some more experience in research to see if that is something he would want to do career-wise, it will look great on his job resume and his grad school application, it will give him a nice little $3,500 stipend (a very nice little Summer job opportunity for only 8 weeks of work, M-F, from 9-4), and finally, this is exciting because it is a miracle that David was even given the opportunity.
Last semester, David's advisor suggested to him that he look into participating in an REU program during the summer for the reasons stated above, plus because this is the only Summer he could do it (you can only participate the Summer before your Senior year). The only problem is that Fresno State hasn't had REU programs on their campus, despite his advisor's attempts to get one going here, so he would have to apply to other campuses that offer an REU. Well, the REU pays for travel and living expenses, but he wouldn't want to go somewhere without me (let's be honest, I wouldn't want him to go without me even more), so we thought about applying to the REU programs at University of Utah or BYU, who have previously both held Summer REUs, because we could probably stay with family in Utah and eliminate the living arrangement challenges. However, this year, both the U and BYU have stopped holding REUs (which was incredibly disappointing to me because the prospect of spending the Summer with the Chinns and my awesome sisters-in-law was overwhelmingly appealing. Bummer.). So we'd kind of given up on the prospect of David participating in an REU, when the heavens opened and angels sang as David's advisor announced that Fresno State would hold an REU this Summer and that he (the advisor) would be heading it! Only 8 applicants were invited to participate, and only 3 of those applicants came from Fresno State. Of course, David was one of the students chosen!
Okay, okay. So David getting into the REU isn't a "heavens opening and herald angels singing" kind of miracle. But, it is another one of Heavenly Father's sweet ways of letting us know that he listens to our prayers and knows that our problems, though minuscule, are still problems. He loves us. I don't know why He loves us so much, but He does and I am so appreciative of His hand in our lives.
As for my Summer plans? I will be working at the Lyles Center (my regular on-campus job) with increased, but not full-time hours (at my request). I will also be having surgery on my right knee to clean up a meniscus tear (very simple surgery with minimal recovery time) and possibly an ACL replacement (more complicated and longer recovery time) on June 14th. They won't know if I need the ACL replacement until they are already in surgery, which stinks, but my employers are very accommodating and flexible with me and my mama is going to come up and take care of me. I'll be fine, except for one thing: if they need to replace the ACL, they are going to use... a CADAVER'S ACL!!! What the crap??? What kind of day and age are we living in that they can't just put a fake ACL in? They make synthetic boobs and bones and fingers, why the heck can't they do that for an ACL? I am obviously very bothered at the thought of having a ZOMBIE KNEE in my body, but can you blame me??? Ay!
And on a lighter note, we're buying a house! Don't worry; we're not staying in Fresno forever. We're buying a small house to live in for the next 3 or so years that we'll be here finishing school. Once we're done with school, we plan on reselling or renting out the house and getting the heck out of here. Worst case scenario, we'll be here for 5 years or so. But yeah, we are crazy excited! Tyler and Karina are going to rent a room from us, which will help out both couples. And we've already talked about boundaries and conflicts that will arise and all that good stuff (when people hear about the whole roommate situation, they are very inclined to try to talk us out of it, so please don't try to talk us out of it). We're looking for a house with a separate living and family room so we would have as much personal space as possible. It really isn't going to be a whole lot different than our current living situation, being that we live in the apartment directly above Tyler and Karina's. We started looking at houses last week after getting prequalified and ready to go. We're hoping to have a house by July, but we'll see. Once we do, PARTY AT DAVID AND BRITNEY AND TYLER AND KARINA'S!!! Whoo Whoo!