Let the games begin...

Matt started his Masters program and is working on getting a TA position to discount some of his tuition. Apparently his intense BYU ISYS core has prepared him well for his masters classes as they are covering material he has already studied. He is also staying quite involved with the BYU ASM club and is applying this week to the Top 5 accounting firms again.

Keri's Heart Walk & Run is now only 3 WEEKS AWAY! Eeeh! While much is done for the prep, she still feels like she should be stressing out. This is her fifth Heart Walk to implement and she has a great planning committee of mainly young professionals and U of U or BYU students who have worked very hard to prepare. It will be exciting to see how this year's event turns out.Check out the article that Deseret News ran for us to highlight some of our top fundraising companies and our partnership with Ken Garff's Road To Success program. We will doing another follow up advertisement this next week with our Top 4. This has been an exciting piece for us as our companies have loved the attention, we have caught the eye of many in the community and now other offices have wanted to copy it.

Let's not also forget to mention the impending doom - or excitement, depending on which part of KerMatt you ask :) - of NFL beginning - and Fantasy Football taking off. Matt will be playing in three leagues this year - Family league, Friends league and an BYU ISYS Alumni league. Keri will be managing a team in the Family league and then co-managing a team with Matt in the Friends league. Keri had to restrain Matt at our ward activity last night as he was heavily recruiting others to join us, bless his heart. He just gets so passionate about his Fantasy Football :) Love him!

Keri also finished another home project inspired by the shutters that she previously restored. She turned a cd crate into a fake window box to sit right below the shutters in our kitchen. This project has been in the works for a couple of months and we are both quite happy with the finished product. Check out the pics.

We want to say congrats to our recent friends who have had their first babies - Brad & Sharee in Spokane with the little baby girl, Finley Rae, and then Dawn & Steve Hoem in Irvine with their little baby boy, Jensen. We are so happy for both of them and can't wait to see them in person!

We hope you all have a wonderful week!

- KerMatt

KerMatt springing for the Masters

As many of you probably already know, Matt has been accepted into the Master's program (MSIS or Master of Science in Information Systems) at the University of Utah. He also found out on Friday that he will receive Residency Status, which means that we will save on tuition BIG TIME! Now the third, and final step, of this piece is to find out  if we will be receiving any financial aid which may change our opinions on actually entering the program.

We are so excited for Matt and looking forward to this next year and the increased knowledge Matt will receive - even if it does mean another winter here in Utah. Although if it is as mild as last winter was, we will be just fine :)

Matt begins classes in just one week! And he will finish anytime between May 2011 and August 2011. He begins with a program orientation this Friday and a barbecue for both of us to attend on Saturday.

Keri is excited to have Matt going to school closer to her work now so she can see him more - maybe even have lunch together sometimes. She has been busy as usual getting ready for her Heart Walk coming up in just 5 weeks. Thanks to some great company donations, she was able to reach her fiscal year goals for the first time since she started with American Heart and she is looking forward to potentially reaching her event goal of raising $175k as well.

Also continuing with the exciting news, Keri has been invited to sing in a special Draper/Sandy Regional Choir for the afternoon session of General Conference in October. She will be having special practice sessions for the next 6 Sundays and looking forward to this experience. Though she does not own a black skirt well below her knees or a non-shiny earring so she'll have to work on that one a little.

Overall KerMatt has much to celebrate!

Little Red Riding Hood

On June 5th, I rode in the "Little Red Riding Hood" along with 2 of my co-workers. Rachel did the 58-miler with me and for this being her first time she sure had no problem keeping up. And then Jen (also a new rider) did the 33 miler with her mother-in-law. 

It was a blast and probably the best organized bike ride I've ever done. We started in Lewiston, UT, which is just a couple miles outside of Logan and we rode throughout the farm country that is Northern Utah. It felt good to be back on my bike doing a long ride again, especially at the turn off for the 80-milers and 100-milers knowing that wasn't me. Although I felt like weak sauce for not being them since I know that I can do those but all in all I was less sore, I saved a couple hours of riding and for Rachel's first experience this was probably way more enjoyable than a full century.


I  have never seen so much food at a ride as this one. Not only did they have every snack you could think of about every 15 miles and then Subway sandwiches for lunch but at the finish line they had all of this plus more! When we rode through the finish, we were handed a little cheap tiara (obviously this was a women only ride) and a strawberry daiquiri. Then you walk further and they had a whole trough of Creamies (best popsicles ever!). They had a whole chocolate fountain tent complete with tables full of things to dip. There was another large tent with an extensive  nacho/salsa bar and a candy table with little containers to put your candy in.


It was hard not to eat back all of those calories that I had just rode off! Seriously, I have no self control for this stuff, especially when Creamies are involved.


The best part was when Rachel and I stopped at the Finish and asked some ladies to take our picture with our bikes. I was a little tired obviously and I leaned towards Rachel for the pic, forgetting that I was still clipped into my bike. And down I went, still attached to my bike :) Oh the sillyhead.

McGhee Family Reunion - pics

We finally had the chance to upload pics from our recent McGhee Family Reunion that took place in May. Below are pics that highlight our adventures together in Park City:

2010 McGhee Family Picture

KerMatt pic - We took the family pic opportunity to document our first year of being married & still smiling :)

Though the weather this weekend was not that great, we spent a lot of time playing together in the pool

With so many little kids, we tried to keep them busy with all sorts of projects. You can see how serious Matt and I took our coloring :) Kathy & Bekah were fantastic about thinking of so many activities to keep the kids entertained.

As you can see, bead animals became quite the project for whole fam.What we also didn't document was Johana teaching Bekah and I how to make earrings as well. 

Speaking of a hit, the newest McGhee addition, baby Alicia, was very popular with all. With all that hair and those huge eyes, who wouldn't want to hold this little bundle of joy. Congrats to Bekah & Skyler!

One of the nights we sent the boys out bowling and threw a little princess party for the girls, complete with makeovers, nail painting and even a parade around the hotel we were staying at.

But no matter what we planned, nothing could stop us all from picking on each other and horsing around. Matt usually being the catalyst for this.

Good times at the park, except when I got stuck pushing both Carys & Calay on the swings simultaneously. My arms were sore for hours afterwards :) But I just couldn't resist those little laughs and shouts of "faster!"

Matt and I introduced the McGhees to the wonderful game of "Minute To Win It". Oh the silliness and laughter this provided and in fact, we had to shut it down pretty quickly when we discovered that our raucousness was going to wake the sleeping children.

Word To Our Fathers

 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

 To Our Wonderful Fathers 

 Lane & Barry!

Why are men reluctant to become fathers?  They aren't through being children. 

~Cindy Garner

My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: he believed in me. ~Jim Valvano

Shout out to our fathers today! We have learned much from our dads throughout the years - some good habits, some not so great :) but we want to thank them for being the great dads that they are.  We know what a thankless job being a dad can be, especially when the mothers get most of the love, but we really do appreciate the important life lessons our fathers have taught us.

For Keri, it was about the importance of working hard. My Dad has worked hard throughout the years to support our family of 7 children and I know that wasn't easy. He made me get a job when I turned 16 and I have been working at various jobs ever since. And I have a strong work ethic to show for it.  Thanks Dad!

For Matt, it was the way my Dad taught me to look at everything with a gospel perspective. I always knew that the most important thing to my Dad was to live a Christ-like life. When I was a teenager, I didn't like getting up early, even earlier than my paper route and seminary class, for family prayer and scripture study.  But I knew that it was important and now I appreciate my Dad's efforts.

Two little girls, on their way home from Sunday school, were solemnly discussing the lesson.  "Do you believe there is a devil?" asked one.  "No," said the other promptly.  "It's like Santa Claus:  it's your father."  

~Ladies' Home Journal

Just to highlight a few more of the many great things that our fathers have done, we'd like to share some of our favorite memories of our dads:

• Matt:  Dad has always been interested in new technology and I'll never forget when he brought home the first family computer - a Gateway desktop with a 1 MB hard drive (if I remember correctly) and a 56k modem. You'd think he would be have caught on to text-messaging a little earlier :)
• Keri:  Dad taking me to "K-Mawt" to buy new toys or clothes. Yes I'd like to blame my early interest in shopping on him :)
• Matt:  Saturday morning cartoons and pancakes & waffles in special shapes (capital M, pancakes the size of the frying pan and funny shapes) and homemade maple syrup with my Dad  
• Keri:  Dad rolling up to family Thanksgiving Soccer games in his newly purchased neon-yellow running suit only to play for 10 minutes and then sit out with Grandma Goss.
• Matt:  Dad always being my Scout leader and Young Mens leader - teaching me the finer points of being a young man such as wilderness survival, backpacking, cooking, hunting, being an Eagle scout, being a righteous priesthood holder, sacrament duties, blessings and the importance of doing home teaching. 
• Keri:  Dad mentioning in every talk at church he gives that "he used to pray for more money and instead kept receiving more children so now he is going to start praying for more children and see if he receives more money". And Dad always being that guy in the ward who gets up before every Memorial Day, Veterans Day and 4th of July to remind us all how important our freedom is and to remember the troops. 
• Matt: Dad also regularly coaching my soccer and baseball teams. He taught me all about hard work, strategy and team work. 
• Keri: Watching 90210 and Fright Night Theater every week together with all these horrible shows about Killer Bees, Killer Spiders, Killer Frogs, etc...
• Matt: I have never heard my Dad say a bad word, unless you count him calling bad drivers "boneheads" and "knuckleheads".  

A father carries pictures where his money used to be.  ~Author Unknown

We love you both! 

-KerMatt