Update

Just in case some of you haven't noticed we have added a few more blogs to the list!! We now have Kristi Gunderson, Samantha Barnes, Lindsey Nield and Heather Summers!! Check em out!! They all have such awesome blogs and families!!! Also, we have new pictures at the very bottom of the blog!! Woohoo! I hope everyone has a great V-Day!! Take Care!

* Jessica Gallup*

My after-high-school story began…with me heading-off to Atlanta to be a nanny. I lived in Georgia for six months and then ventured back home- to good, cold Idaho! I started my college adventure at BYU-Idaho, winter semester '05. I loved every minute of college, and I will admit, it was a million-zillion times better than high school! I wrote for the University's paper a few semesters. And had the opportunity to be News Assistant Editor, one semester, and Copy Assistant Editor, the next. I did thoroughly enjoy the experience, but realized it wasn't my true passion. I was a Communication major with an emphasis in journalism, and I continued my pursuit of major, I just changed my emphasis to Public Relations and Advertising.

The fall after we graduated, I was off-track and got a full-time job at the Melaleuca Call Center, to obviously try and earn some much needed money for college. At the time, I will be honest, I was anti-man. My definition being- I was sick of all the crazy, silly college boys that I had, had no luck with and had decided for "sure" I was going to serve a mission the following year. You see, growing up, I had always wanted to serve a mission to some foreign, exotic country- the men in my life had just secured my decision in one tight knot, or so I thought. But it seems we all end up falling victim to serendipity.

I met Travis, at no other than Melaleuca, and we immediately became wonderful friends. Such good friends in fact, he eventually stopped seeing the girl he was dating… to soon become my boyfriend… than fiancé….and finally, best of all, my eternal, best friend…a.k.a my husband. Don't worry, it didn't happen as fast as it seems! We were married in April 2006. We both decided to start BYU-Idaho's "Fast-Grad" program…which for those of you who don't know…means you go to school-year-round till you graduate. My second, to last semester, fall 2007, we found out we were expecting. So yes, I was able to graduate from college in April 2008, six months pregnant. And don't worry, with my gown on, you couldn't even tell! I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Communications with emphasis in PR/Advertising, and a cluster in Psychology and Chinese. Two clusters, is like one minor…and yes, I do speak basic, Mandarin Chinese. I promise, I am not trying to brag, that's not me, I just thought I would clarify for those of you who may be wondering.

Brielle was born, July 2008, and it was certainly the hardest, but best thing I have ever done! I seriously felt like Wonder Woman! Brielle has truly made our family even more complete! She is 7 months old, and the time passes so quickly. My husband graduated this past December, and we moved to San Antonio, Texas. We really love it here, and are enjoying the warm weather. We hope and plan to stay here for awhile…

I love life, every single breath and moment. I have big dreams, which I still plan to fulfill… I hope to soon start my own, design company, example: wedding announcements, web sites, custom photos, etc. I also plan to someday write a children book series, the ideas are all ready in the making…and many more big dreams-But most importantly, I plan to live life to its fullest, and just cherish the time I have with my husband, and children and other family members. Because I finally figured out what life was all about! I really hope all is going well for everyone, and I really mean it. And I hope all of you have a wonderful day, and if you don't it's your own darn fault….yes, a high school lesson from Coach Jolley, I will always treasure! Oh, and always feel welcome to check out my blog :)

Kendle Trost

Well after High School I went to ISU's college of Technology. I graduated in December 2005 with my cosmetology license. I also got married September 3, of that year to Derek Hammon. A few months after we were married my sister got sick so we moved back to Rigby to help with my little brothers.That was an adventure. Boys are so crazy!

The next year we moved to Laramie Wyoming so Derek could go back to school. i got a job at a salon in town and was ready to have my hubby all to myself. About a month into our stay in Laramie we found out that we were pregnant! We had Abigail Sue Hammon on May 25, 2007. She was 6 pounds 4 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. She was a blond haired and blue eyed baby! That was such a shock to me! Derek graduated in June of 2007 and we moved back to Rigby.

Abbi is now 20 months and a crazy little girl! I am a stay at home mom. I babysit a little girl from church. She is 4 months younger than Abbi. Derek works as a technician at Stones Town and Country in Rexburg. Our life is good! We are happy and we love being parents!

* Chelsey Furniss*

I love this whole blog thing. I am loving finding
out what everyone has been up to the past... FIVE YEARS. (well almost).. Whoa we are getting old. : ). . So I first want to start out saying, no I am not dating anyone right now. Ok glad we got that covered. ha ha jk...Ok well to start, after high school I went straight to BYU-I and started working on my bachelors degree in Health and PE education. I was put on the summer/fall track system. I can just tell you all that I LOVED college. I probably loved it a lil too much. I had the time of my life and really figured out who I was and what my purpose in life was. So I went to 4 years at byuidaho and worked at the fitness center and met some very interesting people. While in college I had the opportunity to travel a lot! Being single has its benefits haha! jk.... My very last semester I was able to student teach in west valley, utah. I taught Aerobics and HEALTH! .. Yep I teach about sex and drugs.. I cannot tell you how much I love teaching. I taught at a high school that was pretty ghetto and a lil scarey. There were a lot of different cultures at this school and lots bigger than rigby high. I had a lot of crazy thing happen and I can't tell you how many times I got asked if I was a student and what class I was suppose to be in. GR! I don't look that young. I can just tell you that students love it when a younger teacher comes to teach. They do ANYTHING to get your attention (especially lil high school boys) haha!

After I graduation in dec 2008, I moved home and went to Florida on vacay and I came back and decided that I want to serve a mission! So I am currently filling out my mission papers and am planning on serving as soon as I can. So that picture is one of my mission pics and I'm totally trying to get used to buying old grandma clothes. Not that I dress in-modest, but let's face it do sister missionaries look that stylish? NO! Anyway, I am loving being home with my family and getting ready to leave. I hope to hear and find more fellow rigby-ites on here and I hope everyone is doing well!

-Shalene Poulsen-

When I left High School in 10th grade I went traveling with my parents on a job called Historical Collectors Menus. I went to Washington to the Ocean, to Vernal Utah to the Dinosaur Quarry, to Oregon, to Montana.

After a the year came up, my parents health started to plummet. We ended the job and I finished up Seminary. I didn't graduate but I did the best I could to learn about every place we went. I found out I learned more on the traveling then I did in school.

In 2005-06 I got a job at the D.I. in Rexburg. I worked there from October to the end of June. Through the time of working at the D.I. I was saving up money because my father was going through Chemo treatments. He had a tumor between his stomach and spine.
At the end of June I left to go to Utah to be with my parents. My father was in the L.D.S Hospital about to go through radiation treatments. I was the only one in the family that wasn't pregnant or had little children. So I left the D.I and went down to be with them.
My Father was transferred to the Madison Hospital in October of 06 because the L.D.S hospital could do no more for him. I found out later on that they cured the cancer but his liver was failing. He passed away on November 19th 06.

My mother and I could not keep the house, so we had to move to my grandparents house in Ammon. We stayed there until April 07 where I stayed and mom went back to Ammon with her parents. I went to the singles branch there for almost a year and a half. When I met Tim.

Tim is from Montana and has just turned 31 on December 31st lol :D. We dated every day except one for 2 1/2 weeks. On July 26 he asked me to marry him. We were married in the Rexburg Temple on October 11 2008. We currently live in the Gladstone Apartments. Tim is going to School and working at the D.I until school is done. We may be moving but not sure where.

I am currently a stay at home wife. I keep my self busy with sewing, writing, cleaning the apartment, and playing on the computer. I love to be home. I am currently saving up money to go to school so I can finally get my G.E.D "shh, don't tell anyone" ;) So I can get my degree to become a seamstress. I write on the side and have almost finished my first manuscript. We are happy and loving the fact that we are both similar in many ways. Which is what I was looking for. :D

I am currently making a blog, pictures and information to come soon, check my blog.
http://srwhiting.blogster.com

*Audra Close*

What Happened Since High School

To start off, I'm happy I'm not in High School anymore. Ever since I moved to southern Idaho, I've always felt out-of-place… lost almost. It takes a certain kind of person to thrive in that area, a kind of person I've never been. A few months after High School ended, I moved to Rexburg to go to school at BYU-Idaho. I wanted to major in Art, but after a while I decided that Art was more enjoyable as a hobby and not a career. I got burned out pretty quick.

About the second semester in, I met Caleb. I refer to him as my knight in shining armor. He prefers to call himself the night in dented old armor. That way, if he ever falls off his high horse it will be more comic instead of tragic. Needless to say, after we met (which is a whole 'nother story in itself) he asked me to marry him. He took me to the Idaho Falls Greenbelt, where the bridge crosses over the water. It was February, and very cold. It was the funniest thing. He was so nervous, and when he got down on his knee and opened the case with the ring, it slid out of its case and almost fell down to the water/ice. We laugh about it now.

We were married August 27, 2005 in the Boise Idaho temple and then moved to northern Idaho. It is the best place for us. There aren’t very many people, just pined mountains and open sky. Caleb works construction and in our spare time we train and put miles/experience on horses. It’s a funny thing. In High School I wouldn't have been caught dead in a pair of cowboy boots. But then again, I didn't have a horse either. My horses name is Lassie and she has a yearling right now that is as tall as she is.

This Christmas my father in law made me a pair of chinks. He's a leather repairman. His specialty is fixing saddles and boots. Up here there's really no need for anything modern. My mother-in-law is a midwife, and I had both my kids at home traditionally. There are no microwaves, everything is cooked by scratch, all the meat is mostly wild game, there's no iPods, cell phones only work occasionally, no videogames, and internet is slower than molasses, because dial up is the only thing that works. The only thing the TV is good for is old cassette tapes that nobody watches anyway.

Jewel was born in November of 2006 and Gideon was born August 2008. I love being a mom. That's another thing I wouldn't have guessed while in High School. I've learned more being a mom than I feel like I've learned the entire time growing up. I've learned how to sew outfits for the kids and make quilts, how to cook from something other than the box or the can, how to speak baby gibberish and everything else that accompanies raising a happy and healthy family.

All in all life is really good. Caleb made a rocking horse for Jewel, and when Gideon gets old enough, he's going to make a rocking bull. Meanwhile, I've discovered a love for painting murals on walls. At my in-laws I painted their bathroom door to look like an outhouse door. (yes, they have an actual outhouse too for when summer comes and there isn't a lot of water) and in our house I've painted a sky on the ceiling and Tuscan Tiles around the built in bookshelf. It's fun fixing up our place. We have a black lab named Sadie who had 7 pups this year. Thank goodness we were able to get rid of them all. The last couple went right before Christmas. We're happy with just one dog. (I can only imagine the grocery bill if we had to feed all 8!) Life is good.

~Marian Peterson~

Isn't it funny how when you're younger you look forward so much to being one of the 'big kids' and going to high school, as though that were the end-all of all things important? Well, now that its past, I have to say it just keeps getting better!!

Let's see, life after graduation...

I went straight from graduating into BYU-I's nursing program, which absorbed my entire life for the next two years. After graduation with my associates degree in 2006, I moved here to wonderful Provo, Utah, and have been working as an RN on a cardiac floor for two and a half years! Time flies! I work nights and I love it! Except when I charge, kinda stressful :P. And Utah is definitely no Idaho, but the mountains are gorgeous and I have to admit the state is growing on me. Still have the Idaho plates on my car though...

Otherwise I have 4 days off per week so I fill that time with traveling, hiking, backpacking, snowboarding, visiting home, and then just the boring old daily errands. Laundry...puke. Some fun places I've been are Mexico, Bahamas, New York, Tonga, Hawaii, hit up some GORGEOUS national parks, and have hiked the high points in Idaho, North and South Dakota, Nebraska (more like drove up the little hill), California, and Nevada. Oh, my mom and I are trying to hike all the high points in the US. This summer we're planning on Utah, Montana, and Wyoming, and the Grand Teton just for fun. If anyone of you are around and are game... you should come!! I am really stoked out it! Fun + cheap = hiking!

Also this summer I discovered the wonderful world of dirtbiking and plan to do a lot of that with my new little bike. Actually little is not accurate, he's REALLY tall and pretty powerful, so I need to make some adjustments so I don't ride in fear. I feel like he's my little puppy
Currently, I am dating an awesome guy from Salt Lake who's going to BYU in mechanical engineering and LOVES cars. He's a smarty. And pretty cute too. To be honest, we're just dating... so if you have any further questions, the answer is "I don't know, we'll see." :) Aw dating...

Anything else particularly interesting? I'm trying to start cooking again (I was better at it at BYU-I) and am facing the sad reality that I stink. I forgot to put salt in my cinnomon rolls today, and you would be suprised how one little teaspoon of salt can change a whole batch of cinnamon rolls.

Well, it's been so fun to read about what's going on in all of your lives!! Most of you are married (It's okay Lindz, me neither) and have such beautiful families!!! Take car and keep this page updated!! If you move, have more kids, get engaged, get a new job, graduate school, have a near-death experience, take a fun trip... I (we) want to hear about it!