Big News!

Sorry it's been so long, but we have been so busy with a new baby and a new semester...that is almost over, now. In fact, I'm not quite sure I have a whole lot of time right now - being busy at work and everything. But even though I'm extremely busy now, I'm just tying up loose ends - 'cause I won't be working at BYU for much longer. Here's how it came about:

About a year ago, this guy moved into one of the units above us. His name is Chet, so of course Beth and I spent our evenings making fun of his name when he first moved in. But one day, he came downstairs and knocked on our door to borrow a cup of flour. Beth wasn't home, so I invited him in while I searched for it (let's just say I don't know my way 'round the kitchen too well). After about ten minutes of searching, I had found the flour; during that time, however, I had found a friend, and Chet and I have been virtually inseparable since then. Okay, that's a little bit of an exaggeration. We did become good friends, though, and even though he's single, he hangs out with us quite a bit.

So turns out Chet is a bit of an entrepreneur. As we've gotten to know each other, he's been really instrumental in helping me get my marriage workshop marketable and conceptualized, and he's done all this thinking and stuff for free. He's said all along that there's good money in my ideas and has been nothing but encouraging. So every now and then, he and I would talk shop and in just the year I've known him, I've made serious strides in getting my business idea off the ground (for those who don't know, I've been developing a marriage workshop and pre-marriage education program that I've been trying to market for a while).

In the meantime, Chet has made friends with pretty much every family in the building. He's done wonders for making us feel like a community - he just has this magnetic personality and everyone just can't seem to avoid his charm, no matter how cold they are personally (or, no matter what language they speak - we have a couple of Spanish speaking neighbors...). Well, a few months ago, Chet starting going up to Idaho every two weeks on business (not my business, but we've talked about that option). Every time he goes, he buys lottery tickets. About two months ago, he started asking us (and the other neighbors in the building) if we'd like to play. He's not Mormon, and found out soon from some of us that Mormons aren't supposed to gamble. But when he asked me, I thought, 'what the heck, this guys my friend.' So each time he went to Idaho, I'd give him a couple bucks.

Then came Wednesday's drawing - the jackpot was $187 million. I didn't actually find out about it until today, but with our pool of money he had bought 12 tickets (that's six of us, at $2 a piece). Chet didn't actually get home until yesterday night, but early this morning he came down before I went to work and told us that the six of us would split the jackpot - that's $15.7 million each (after taxes)! I'm sure it's hard to believe, especially given today's date, but isn't that something?

Beth and I are still in shock, but we've come to some conclusions: I'm retiring (early) from BYU and will now be working full time with Chet on my marriage workshops; we'll be buying a house real soon (not sure where, if we'll stay in Utah); and each of siblings will get a very special surprise from us. So that's our news; hope luck will shine down on you all soon!