Women's Conference

Today was our stake's women's conference. I felt like I really needed to be there, and after attending I understood why.

There have been many different things on my mind lately, and most of them were addressed during this conference.

We had three different topics we went over, and I'm going to record my notes from this event.

In the opening remarks given my Sister Lori Toney, she talked about the importance of visiting teaching in the Lord's plan.  She reminded all of us that we serve through our visiting teaching, and that we need to show each other how much we love one another and how much the Lord loves us as individuals.  We also need to treat our sisters we visit as family, and that visiting teaching is all about family.  This notion of visiting teaching is all about family really struck me. I also remind myself that the church family really is a family of mine. It's hard for me sometimes to be so far away from my side of the family, and being reminded that we need to treat each sister in RS like family helped me feel like I'm not just here in MI all alone.  Also, I was thinking about how much visiting teaching strengthens me and helps me be able to better focus on my role in the home. Then the last point Lori made was how we need to help all of our sisters return home to Heavenly Father's presence.

After the remarks, we broke up into our different groups and then rotated through the church to our different lectures.

The first group I was in, the topic was The Lord's Jewels. The main focus for this group was fulfilling our divine mission here on earth. Then she talked about the different "powers" or strengthens that we are blessed with to be able to find our full potential so we can complete our missions we were sent here to do.  The different powers were: the power in revelation, power in priorities, power in the word of God, and lastly the power in fulfilling our missions. There were many quotes that she used from talks that I want to find and study. Those talks were by the following:

• Sister Beck, General Conference, April 2010
• Sister Beck, General Conference, October 2010
• Sister Beck, BYU Women's Conference, May 2010
• President Benson, General Conference, April 1988

Power in Revelation:

How do we stand strong, increase our faith during great opposition? There are a few things we can do, such as pray, read our scriptures, keep our covenants. But the main thing that will help us is personal revelation. Revelation is the manifestation of the power of the priesthood. D&C 8:2-3.

Power in Priorities:

In order to make something a priority, we must feel that it is important.  There are so many things that we want to do and have to do, that it can seem overwhelming at times and that we have no idea how we will be able to complete everything that needs to be done.  It has been said by many apostles that if we put the Lord first, then all things will fall into place.  All we need to do is have faith and trust in the Lord, and put him first.  If we trust his word, then we know that all things will be taken care of if we make HIM our first priority.

Sister Beck said that we need to make a list of our priorities.  The list needs to include the essential, the necessary and lastly, what we want to do.  The essential are the things needed for us to reach the celestial kingdom and exhalation. The necessary are the things we need to do in this temporal world, such as working to provide for a family, cooking, cleaning, etc. And the lastly, the other things we would like to do is just that. 

Power in the Word of God:

She started running out of time by the time we got to this topic, but she talked about WWII and how England did not succumb to the Nazis.  The UK government strengthened their people through words, and had posters such as the Keep Calm and Carry On. And then we read D&C 1:17-19.

Power to fulfill our Divine Missions:

We find the power to fulfill our missions by making and keeping our covenants.  We find the strength we need from the temple.

The second group that I attended was entitled Right Here, Right Now.

Christmas Letter December 2015

Dear Friends & Family,                                                                                      December 2015

           

            A lot has happened in our family since our last Christmas card two years ago!  First of all, we have a new addition to our family – Juliana Elizabeth Seneca who was born March 19, 2014 on her due date!  She has been a joy and a challenge all at the same time, which is one of the reasons we didn’t get a card out last year.

            This year has been full of wonderful experiences.  Sean has continued working for Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety as a public safety officer.  He has been really successful and has also been testing to become a detective for the past two years; this year, he received the highest score!  We are hoping next year in our letter we will be able to say that he is a detective following the footsteps of his dad and uncle.  Sean has also been serving faithfully at church as the financial clerk up until last month, and currently is serving in the elder’s quorum (men’s group at church) presidency.

            Christy has been busy with the kids and running her two businesses with Young Living essential oils and Younique.  She was serving as the Primary (children’s Sunday school, ages 18 mo. – 12 yrs.) President up until mid August when she was released and is now serving as Cub Master for both of the LDS Cub Scout Packs in the Kalamazoo Area.  She also took some much needed “me” time this year by going to Time Out for Women, being a leader at Girl’s Camp for church, and then being able to attend Young Living’s convention down in Dallas, TX.

            Elijah is going to be four years old this month!!  Where has the time gone?!  He is transforming from toddler to a little boy with his interests changing from wanting everything to be Disney to adding in super heroes such as Spider Man, Bat Man, and the Avengers.  It totally made his year when we went to Disneyland and he got to meet Thor and Captain America in real life!  Captain America told him to always be a good man, and Eli hasn’t forgotten!  Another HUGE milestone for him is that he started preschool this fall, and loves it.  He also loves to be mommy’s big helper whenever he gets the chance and is becoming quite independent.  His favorite things to do this year include painting, puzzles, his Montessori “activities,” and helping out Juliana whenever he can.  Eli has also made it very clear that he wants to be an astronaut and a doctor that helps mommies poop babies out!

            Juliana has grown so much this past year!  Last year at this time, she was still nursing every two hours at night (she did that every night until she was done nursing at her first birthday), not even walking or talking yet.  Now she sings “Let it Go” all the time and we have to watch Frozen everyday!  She is very strong willed and determined.  Her favorite people are Sean and Eli, she likes Christy too when Sean isn’t around and sometimes even prefers Eli to comfort her when Daddy is not near; Eli is, after all, her best friend.  And her little pink “snuggy” needs to go with her everywhere.  Christy made the mistake of putting oils on it when Juliana was congested one night, so now she sniffs her snuggy whenever she needs comforting or is tired or just wanting to relax.  She also loves to have dance parties like her mommy and brother.

            Our family has enjoyed many fun times together.  We made the most of Sean’s “7 days” which is when he is off for a week straight by going on day trips, spending many mornings at museums or libraries, doing projects around the house such as building compost bins, and taking a few trips.  Our two favorite trips were this summer visiting Christy’s aunt and uncle up in Traverse City.  The kids just love visiting Don & Judy.  Our other big trip was going out to California to visit Christy’s side of the family.  Christy took both kids on the plane by herself to head out early while Sean was working and then Sean joined the family later.  We were out there for almost four weeks and it was so much fun!!  One of Eli’s favorite things was going to the California Science Center and getting to spend as much time as he wanted visiting the Endeavor space shuttle.  Then seeing the Hubble Telescope IMAX movie just solidified his career choice as an astronaut as every 30 seconds he leaned into Christy saying that he just NEEDED to go to space and NEEDED to do all of the things he saw the astronauts doing.

            We have been blessed to spend much time with both sets of grandparents.  Eli would frequently go spend the night at Sean’s parents so Christy could sleep in with Juliana to try to get extra sleep.  And of course, there were many Sunday dinners and grandparents watching the kids so Sean & Christy could go out on dates.  We have also had the privilege of Christy’s parents coming out to visit on an average of every 3-4 months.  And there are plenty of Skype calls and Face time chats with the Davis side of the family!

We love you all and want to wish you a happy holiday and a joyous new year!

                                                                                           Love, The Szekely Family

                                                                                           Sean, Christy, Eli & Jules

Christmas Letter 2013

Dear Friends and Family,

     It has been another year of many changes for us this year!  We bought our first home this year in Portage, MI, Sean graduated college, and we are expecting an addition to our family!

     Sean graduated in April with his bachelor’s in Criminal Justice and a minor in Spanish. He still loves his job as a public safety officer at Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (KDPS), and he’s had command officers comment on how hard he works.

     Christy has enjoyed being a stay at home mom, and making our new house feel like a home. She’s been spending a lot of time doing church service as Primary president with the children ages 18 months to 12 years in our congregation. She’s also pregnant with our baby girl, due March 2014. This pregnancy has definitely been difficult, but it’s starting to get easier.

     Elijah has been growing like crazy! He has enjoyed spending lots of time with both sets of grandparents. He’s been able to do fun things like go to various zoos, parks, and museums – including Discovery Science Center, apple picking, and the beach! He loves to play in water, no matter what the temperature and his favorite words are: balls, cars, Mickey!, cheese, juice, Mommy, and Daddy.

     This summer was busy with traveling! In June, we went to visit Christy’s family and Eli had his first visit to Disneyland! Right after that trip, Brenda came out to spend a week with Eli so Christy could be a leader at church girls’ camp.  Then we went on a camping trip with Sean’s family to the UP and Mackinac Island to celebrate Scott (Sean’s dad) retiring from KDPS. Lastly, we are excited to spend our first married Christmas in California this year.

     We hope all is well with our loved ones and that you have a blessed new year!

                                                                        Love,

                                    Sean, Christy, and Elijah Szekely

Christmas Letter 2012

Dear Friends and Family,                                              December 2012

     We have had a crazy year for sure! Sean and Christy have been adjusting to parenthood and other life changes that have happened.

     Sean has enjoyed his second year being a public safety officer for the city of Kalamazoo. He already has received the life saving award from the department, which was one of his career goals. He’s also been going to school and should be graduating Spring 2013!

     Christy has been enjoying being a full time mom. She spends a lot of one-on-one time with Eli and enjoys watching him learn about the world and grow. She also has been spending time doing enrichment activities with the 8-12 year old girls at church and is a Sunday school teacher for the 11 year olds.

    We have been able to travel quite a bit even though Sean has been very busy. We were able to go to California to visit Christy’s family this spring. Eli enjoyed his first time at the beach. Then we were able to make two family trips up to Traverse City this summer to hang out with our dear Uncle Don and Aunt Judy. Then, Christy and Eli were able to visit California once more in October.

     We have also had Grammy and Doppa (the Davis grandparents) visit several different times throughout the year. They love visiting with their first grandbaby. And even had a visit from Aunt Jeaninne!

     Another highlight of the year was when Sean’s sister Leilani visited for a week from Arizona. Eli got to see his aunt and cousins every day as we did fun things like Boo Zoo, going to the pumpkin patch, and getting to play with his very own soccer ball (as you can see in one of the pictures, Elijah loves soccer)!

     This Thanksgiving we were able to have Christy’s family come to Kalamazoo and join us for a wonderful dinner.

     We hope all is well with our loved ones and that you have a blessed new year!

                                                Love,

                        Sean, Christy, and Elijah Szekely

The Arrival of our Sweet Son

I had Elijah Scott Szekely on Thursday, December 15th, 2011. He was born at 4:55pm and he was 19 inches long and 6 lbs 10.5 oz.

I had had a few nights where I thought for sure I was going into labor. My body went crazy with Braxton-Hicks contractions. What can I say, my wanting to be overly prepared for everything is a biological response more than a part of my personality. And my body was preparing for labor when I was 36 weeks along. At my appointment I was 70% effaced and dialed to 1 cm! So when I called my mom and told her that they thought I could go into labor at any time, she flew out two days later so she could be here to help me out getting everything ready.

I had an appointment on the Monday before I delivered. At that appointment I was 80% effaced and 1-2 cm dialated. While Brandi was checking me, she stripped my membranes. From that point on I had Braxton-Hicks contractions until real labor started at 5:30 am on the 15th. And of course, Sean was at work and it was the day that the department did vacation bid.

I was so grateful my mom was here in Michigan with me. I would have freaked out with going into labor with no one around. I had started to lose my mucous plug the night before, and my BH contractions were every 3 mins but not painful so I did not sleep much.

When labor started, my contractions were 5 minutes apart lasting for about a minute. Brandi had told me that when I was in labor and once my contractions were 5 mins apart lasting for a minute for an hour, then I needed to call and touch base. So around 6:45 am, I called up the on call midwife (who happened to be Brandi), and we decided that I should labor another hour and see how I felt. In that hour, I took a shower - which was AMAZING for the back pain I was already experiencing - did my hair, and ate breakfast. In the future, I will know to NOT eat once you're in labor. It leads to throwing up while in labor. Then my mom and I started to get everything into the car to head to the hospital. Sean wanted to finish up his shift and then do his vacation bid before coming to the hospital.. Yes, he is that dedicated to his job.

I ended up laboring with my mom helping me while Sean slept. As I entered into transition, my back labor wasn't letting up and I decided to get an epidural. It was amazing because I could rest, but when it came time to start pushing around 4 pm, I could feel some sensations without experiencing too much pain. My contractions spaced out to every 5 mins, and around 4:56 Eli was born!

Belly bump pictures

Taken July 2011. This is at Station 7 during Sean's FTO.

Visiting Donna and Jack Vizzard. During my California trip September 2011.

This was at the KDPS training center. Sean received the Life Saving award. October 2011.

Liz's 22nd birthday party. This was about 2 weeks before Eli was delivered.

Right before leaving for the hospital to go deliver Eli! He showed up about 9 hours after this was taken!

Happy Leap Day!!

It has been FOREVER since I have written a post on here, and life for Sean and I has changed so much!

Our April last year was crazy!! Sean and I took our first mini-roadtrip to Syracuse, New York to visit my brother and his girlfriend Erin for Easter. We weren't sure if we would be able to take this trip because one of Sean's coworkers was killed in the line of duty, and we needed to be at his funeral. It turns out that the funeral was the Tuesday after Easter.

Eric Zapata's funeral was so beautiful. It was a wonderful tribute to a public safety officer that gave his life to protect our community. It was amazing to see how many officers from all over the country came to support KDPS in our time of need. One of my greatest fears is Sean never coming home from work, I have been worried about being all alone dealing with the loss of my dear hubby. I realized that I am never alone, that there is a whole family in blue that will be by my side. Not to mention the blessings of being sealed in the temple, so I get to spend eternity with my love even if he is taken prematurely from this earth.

Here are some touching videos from Eric's funeral:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcrLLlojByI&context=C4978022ADvjVQa1PpcFN0sfXvcajGlcNtwKUMhEhpC84R2P256yA=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78jfMnzKtdA&context=C47c5e18ADvjVQa1PpcFN0sfXvcajGlc8-lfq8XC2DMX8xNM-YIwA=

Last year I took my first graduate level classes and applied to the get a Master's of Social Work at Western Michigan University. Sean and I had been praying about what direction we should take our life and the big question was either we should have a baby or if I should get my Master's before we started our family. We had been praying for about a year, and we had decided that it would be easier for me to go to school before starting our family but I couldn't figure out what program I wanted to do. On April 28th, 2011 I found out that I was not accepted to the MSW program for this year (they wanted me to reapply for this coming fall) and then a few hours later I took a pregnancy test and it came back positive. We thought for sure that I wasn't pregnant, and that I was just stressed out from everything that was going on that month.

We went to the doctor to see if I really was pregnant. Sure enough I was already 5-6 weeks along!! Right after we found out, the morning sickness started. It was a LONG summer being sick, Sean was working 24 hour shifts, it was an average of 95* when I was the sickest. It was a good day if I managed to get out of bed and make it to the couch for the day. We saw the midwives at Partners in Women's Health, and they had this medicine that helped with the morning sickness and once I was on that it was AMAZING and such a life saver!

In July, my mom came out for a visit. It was so fun to have her here. While she was out we visited Uncle Don and Aunt Judy at their lake house. And I had an appointment when I was 17 weeks along. At that appointment, Linda French said that we can do an ultrasound to see if we could find out the sex of the baby since my mom was in town. We were able to get in, and we found out that we were for sure having a boy!! Our little baby was NOT shy at all!

Here is a picture of his ultrasound:

The rest of my pregnancy went pretty smoothly. We did another ultrasound around 32 weeks, and I told the ultrasound tech that I still was having morning sickness. She thought I might have gallstones. She said she would check, but with how big I was that she might not be able to see them. Luckily, she was able to see my gallbladder, and I in fact did have one really large gallstone! Craziness. It explained why I was so sick and uncomfortable. I just had to wait till after I delivered Elijah to do surgery to remove my gallbladder. More of the story to come.

The Big Move

This most likely won't be the only "big move" that we make while living here in Michigan. But I'm looking forward to the "BIG move" one day to another state.

Anyways, Sean and I moved into Cooper's Landing Apartments the second weekend in March. We were able to get in early to paint some of the rooms. We painted the dining room and one wall in the living room a Martha Stewart color called Bamboo - it's my favorite. We also painted the master bedroom and the second bedroom. It makes our place feel so homey.

We actually moved our things in with tons of help from Sean's parents, members of the Kalamazoo 1st Ward, and one of our dear KDPS friends. We were able to move everything out of the old place and move into the new place in about 4 hours! Then Grandma Skinner and Aunt Barb made lunch for all of our hard workers.

Everything was unpacked and cleaned up by the following Tuesday. We absolutely love living here. It is so quiet most of the time. And there are tons of families here as well as doctors. One of the main blessings of living here is that we have the totally awesome Shumway family living below us. We met them from church and it has been awesome getting to know them better.

Sean and I are going to get a new camera for our one year anniversary coming up in June, and then we'll post pictures!!

Snow Snow Snow - My first Big Blizzard

Today we woke up to 2 feet of snow all outside. It was really windy last night, so the snow drifted. I thought it was rather beautiful to see everything covered in white.

Sean had to be to work by 6:30, and when he walked out to his car, he realized that he would not be able to drive his little sudan. He shoveled the front part of my car out of the snow, and made it about 10 feet before it got stuck! But Sean, being the amazing man he is, got it back into my parking spot. So he walked the half a mile to work. Sean is so dedicated to his job.

And it's a good thing that Sean thought he had to dress warmly for work today because his training officer told all of the new bees that they were going to spend the whole day shoveling fire hydrants out of the snow. Luckily, the ended up just wrestling each other for 3 hours and then received their gear instead!

When I woke up around 8:30 being grateful that I could sleep in because the Museum was closed, I peered through the windows at all the snow that had fallen. There was about a foot of snow on our porch, and knowing that Sean would most likely come home for lunch, and seeing that there was a break in the snow, I decided to shovel it. I mean, I live in Michigan now and will for a couple of years, I should get used to shoveling, right?

Anyways, I couldn't find the shovel and thinking, "Oh, Sean must have taken it to shovel those hydrants," as I'm still half asleep, I decide to use my mop with the nice brush end, and "shovel" our porch and stairs. I was very proud of myself for braving those cold temperatures and freezing winds. AND I did it again to shovel my car out of the snow after the snow plows came by our street. So that means that I shoveled twice in the same day. Although, as I was in the middle of shoveling the people in the plow saw me, and came to help. It was super nice of them.

Skyler ran outside with me when I went to shovel my car out - and let me tell you - I think the most difficult part was getting her to come back inside! She loves the snow, and this is the first time that there were snow walls. But I had lost her for a moment because she jumped into a snow pile and all I could see was the snow moving and no Skyler. She's the strangest cat ever.

After all that excitement, I curled up inside with my lovely electric blanket my husband gave me for Christmas, and drank my bengal spice tea while catching up on some homework. After I finished that, I cleaned almost the entire house, and made Butternut Squash Soup. All in all, it was a productive day during this wintry weather.

Hope everyone stayed warm and safe today!

This past weekend...

This weekend has been full of blessings and some hard times.

Friday was a day of awesomeness. Well, it didn't start out that way. I had my first dentist appointment here in Michigan for a teeth cleaning. Every year when I get x-rays, I end up having two cavities... this time was no different. One tooth has been extremely sensitive to cold recently, and it turns out I have a decent sized cavity on that one, and then a little one on a different tooth on the other side of my mouth :( It means that in March, when Sean's dental insurance kicks in I get to spend two wonderful Tuesday afternoons at the dentist!

Then Sean took me to go get Sweet Water donuts!! Perfect thing to eat after a teeth cleaning, right? Then we headed out to see some potential living places. We have been looking at places together for about a year now trying to decide where we want to live. And we found the perfect apartment at Cooper's Landing - thank you Jake for suggesting we look there.

We are going to be in a two-bedroom 1.5 bath apartment. It has a full sized washer and drier, TONS of cabinets and closet space, a pantry, heating is included and we can turn the thermostat all the way to 75 (not that I'm going to do that, it's way to warm inside, then)!! The only thing we'll have to pay for electric, plus it allows us to keep Skyler! And Sean loves it so much. In fact, he couldn't wait to get back to the leasing office before announcing that we would take it.

Saturday was a pretty awesome day too. We went to the Detroit Temple for the first time together. And it was only my second time in the greater Detroit area - now that I'm done with K I really need to get out more and see what Michigan has to offer. The Detroit Temple is a tiny temple, kind of like Newport Beach but maybe a little smaller. And I met some of the sweetest old ladies before we started our session.

After the session, we headed to one of my most favorite cities, Ann Arbor. We did some shopping there and I was able to go to H&M, which is one of my favorite stores, but the only time I had one close by was when I was in Hungary. And Sean was able to get some more dress clothes for work.

While we were shopping, my mom gave me an update on my Uncle Randy. He has been in the hospital for a week and a half, most of the time he has been unconscious on life support and not very stable, and the doctors do not know what happened. But Saturday he was finally stable enough for an MRI. The MRI showed that there was massive brain damage, and that one time when he coded that his brain was without oxygen for 10 minutes. The family decided that it was time to turn the machines off. So everyone who was in California was going to the hospital to say good bye to a wonderful man.

Sunday was an emotional day for me. Our primary lesson was on the Childhood of Jesus Christ, and Sean taught most of it. We have the funniest kids in our class, and we love each one of them. Sean and I had dinner at his parents' home, and the missionaries were there too. Then they shared a spiritual message with us about the importance of family, and being a forever family. It was exactly what I needed to hear! And then Scott (Sean's dad) had us all share our testimonies; it was a touching moment.

Sunday night, the family started the process of turning off the life support machines that were keeping Uncle Randy alive. He passed away this morning around 1:30 PST.

Randy - you were a great man, and you took such great care of everyone around you. We will miss you dearly in our mortal life, but we will be able to be together again in the eternities. You raised two beautiful daughters, and I promise that I will do my best to help take care of them. And I will try to comfort the rest of the family as we mourn your passing. We love you.

First Week on the Job...

Sean started his job at KDPS on January 3rd. He absolutely loved it! Then the next day they were asked to bring their workout clothes, and Sean just thought that they were doing to do DT (or otherwise known as Defensive Tactics).

Instead, they did a workout designed by navy seals to see how fit they are now, and then in 4 months after doing PT (physical training) for 30 mins or so every morning, to see how much they improved. The workout consisted of:

• 5 pull-ups, which also includes something called "jumping pull-ups" where you use a step to help you gain momentum
• 10 push-ups
• 15 squats

All of that was considered a set. They had to see how many sets they could do in 20 minutes. Sean ended up doing 11 sets, with 8 of those sets including jumping pull-ups instead of the regular pull-up.

He was proud of the work that he had done, but after the work out he could not straighten his arms. In the evening, his left bicep area started to swell.

When he woke up Wednesday morning, his urine was brown... which is never a good sign. Then in the evening, both of his arms swelled to a rather large size. We were debating whether or not to go to the ER, but Sean didn't want to go and promised me that he would tell his supervisors at work the next day about the injury.

Thursday morning rolls around, and his superiors tell him that he needs to go to the doctor's. So Sean and the captain end up going to ProHealth. ProHealth tells Sean that he needs to go to the ER for some more testing. I get a call at 10:00 am saying that I need to join him at the hospital because something is off. By the way, KDPS is considering this an "on the job injury," which means that they are covering all of the costs. This is a HUGE blessing for us!

Thursday night he ends up being admitted to the hospital and was being treated for something called Rhabdomyolysis. Basically, it is rapid break down of the skeletal muscles that floods your blood with a protein called myoglobin. This can lead to acute kidney failure, and is life threatening.

Sean ended up being in the hospital till yesterday afternoon on a constant IV drip. He is doing better, but it is not up to full speed.

He has a weight lift constriction of 20 pounds, and should not be working out for a week or two. We also have many appointments for getting blood work done, and follow up visits with the doctor.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, love, and support. We are so blessed to have so may people care about us so much! We love you all!

Christmas Letter 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

This year has been busy with many magnificent changes in our lives!

We had a wonderfully beautiful wedding on June 18^th in Newport Beach, California. Followed by a fun honeymoon. We spent a few days around Orange County, and then took a cruise to Mexico! We went horseback riding on the bluff of Ensenada– it was Sean’s first time riding a horse!

Christy graduated from Kalamazoo College this June with her Bachelor’s in Psychology. She is currently applying to various Master’s programs in Social Work, and will be attending Western Michigan University’s Graduate School as a non-degree seeking student in January. And she is enjoying her volunteer work at the Gryphon Place (www.gryphon.org) as a crisis worker. She is also working at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, where she has made many new friends, and even learned how to knit and spin yarn!

Sean has been working hard on finishing up his undergraduate work in Criminal Justice and Spanish – he only has a year left! He has been working part-time at the Village of Bellevue Police Department as a police officer, and at Sear’s as a store detective. He recently has been offered a full-time job with Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety. He will be starting on January 3^rd. This has been a life-long dream of his, and we are VERY excited for this opportunity!

Mid-October, we added an addition to our family! We adopted the cutest kitten, named Skyler. We have enjoyed her very much. And she really loves her Szekely and Davis grandparents, and her cousin, Kingston! Doppa (Lynn Davis) likes to call her “the grand kitty.”

We hope all of you have a wonderful and safe Holiday Season! And we hope you have a prosperous new year!

Love,

Sean and Christy Szekely

Sean's 25th Birthday!

Today is Sean's 25th birthday! And we had a wonderful day!

We started out our morning by having breakfast at our favorite joint, The Antique Kitchen. And it turns out that when you go on your birthday, you get a discount off your meal! It was wonderful.

Then we opened up a few presents and had some alone time together before we headed out to Paw Paw for Sean's party. I had been planning his party for a few weeks, because Sean has never really had a birthday party with his friends before... or at least not that Sean could really remember. And me, being a person who loves to plan fun get-togethers just had to plan something.

We found out on December 15th that Sean was officially hired with Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (in other words he is going to be both a police officer and a fire fighter). We also found out that I got accepted to Western Michigan University for graduate school... it was a very exciting day, and the Lord blessed us greatly.

So back to planning Sean's party. I was able to convince him to have a few other people besides his family there if we celebrated his being hired with the city as well. We were able to have the Szekely, Skinner, Osbon, and Quantz families over to Sean's parents' home, as well as the Ulman family and most of the Koontz family. It was a wonderful celebration of Sean turning a quarter of a century old, and he and Ben being hired with the city.

Sean's party was Chicago Cubs themed since we were unable to make it to a game this summer, and Sean LOVES the Cubs. Katie Koontz made the most delicious cake I have ever had, and it looked like the old kiosk at Wrigley Stadium with a baseball that stuck out as if had been thrown into the cake!

Scott gave a toast to congratulate Sean and Ben for their accomplishments and looking forward to the kick off of an awesome career. Scott said some wonderful things, and gave advice that the boys will hopefully remember.

Happy birthday, Seanie! Hope this coming year will be full of as much love and exciting changes as this previous year has brought!

Thanksgiving 2010

This Thanksgiving was our first together as a married couple! We have decided that we are going to try to spend every other holiday with Sean's family, so Easter was with the Szekely's which meant that Thanksgiving was with the Davis family. My parents had originally decided to go to Syracuse to be with Peter and Erin for the holiday, but Peter wanted to come to MI. So my parents and Peter and Erin flew into Detroit and drove over to Kalamazoo the Tuesday before.

Wednesday was a fun-filled day of wrestling, shopping, getting nails done, and baking! Peter and Sean went to Paw Paw wrestling practice in the morning, then Erin, my mom, the Krenk girls, and I went to get our toes beautified! Then home to bake cookies, cheesecake, and these really yummy tarts!

Thursday I cooked the turkey all by myself! Sean had to work at Sear's in the morning, so before my family came over I set the table, made broccoli casserole, and made sure the rolls were rising properly. Then I met my family and Sean at Sweet Water's donuts (yes, they were actually open!) for a quick breakfast before dinner. The other things that we had were sauteed veggies, corn, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, Sean's yummy rolls, apple salad, and of course, TURKEY!! Then we went to Sean's parents' house for dessert!

Friday morning Sean needed to at Sear's by 3:30am!! He had a filling fall out, and he woke me up in a panic thinking it was part of his tooth. After that I couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to do some Black Friday shopping. I got my first pair of snow boots for $15 at Burlington Coat Factory!! The women's sizes were too big, so I had to get the children's size, but hey it saved me $5 which I then used to buy some DVDs at Target where were on UBER sale! But I'm not going to post about Christmas presents here because they are a secret! I had to work Friday night at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum so the family came in to see the Race: Are we so different? exhibit, and see our Pink Floyd laser show. They got to see about 20 minutes of the laser show and then the cooling system in our planetarium broke so it wouldn't work anymore!

Saturday, Peter went to wrestling practice again, and then we chatted some at the hotel before the family headed back to Detroit.

It was a wonderful visit, and as Sean said, it was really nice but too short!

Pictures will be posted soon, or you can see them on Facebook, Sean and I are tagged in a few that my mom posted!

So I have been horrible with my new goal of writing something new about once a week... I haven't even posted once a month!

Anyways, Sean and I are very excited for Christmas which is just around the corner! It's been so fun figuring out what traditions we should have as a family! We have decided that we should make sugar cookies (which we will be doing with this super cute family that we have become friends with over the past month or so), and go caroling together. We have our Christmas cards almost finished, we're just waiting to hear back on some news before we officially print out the Christmas letter.

We have our home all decorated minus the tree because Skyler thinks that the tree is her personal jungle gym! And since we don't want all of our ornaments to get broken we just have lights. And I'm really mad at Target because they don't sell nativity sets in the store anymore, AND when I asked a worker about them she didn't even know what a nativity was!! I mean, what is this world coming too!!

We are excited for the Christmas concert that the KUB is putting on tomorrow night at 6:00. And this Sunday will be our last at the University Branch and we will be moving to the family ward (Kalamazoo First Ward).

Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season, and that you are staying safe! Our next few posts will be about Thanksgiving dinner, and hopefully we'll know soon about the exciting news and we'll post about that too!!

New Goal!

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to let you all know about my new goal. I am always reading everyone else's blogs, and NEVER updating mine, and then when I do it's from things that are months ago and are super long. So here it is...

My new goal: to post more often (like once a week?? that might be too ambitious though) and have the posts be shorter!

Honeymoon

Our honeymoon was so much fun!! Sean and I really enjoyed being able to relax and spend some quality time alone together! We had not been able to spend too much quality time together because of my graduating and finishing up my last quarter at K.

Our favorite part I think was staying at Embassy Suites. We were there for 3 days before we left on our cruise. Our first day, I had a hard time walking from being in high heels all day the day before, so we just stayed in our room for most of the morning. Then we decided to check out the pool area. We then ate a late lunch at BJ's Pizza, and headed to the movie theater to see Toy Story 3. I had told Sean that we could see it during our honeymoon since Toy Story is one of his favorite movie series. Afterward, we wanted more Disney so we headed to Downtown Disney to listen to the different musicians play, and watch the fireworks.

Sunday was Father's day. Again, Sean and I slept in. We went to my parents' home to open up presents and have a Happy Father's Day lunch with the family. When we went back to our hotel, we realized that there was a NCIS marathon so we ordered pizza and stayed in cuddling and enjoying one of my favorite shows (and now it's one of Sean's favorites, too!)

Monday we left Embassy Suites after having a very yummy breakfast. We headed to my parents' place so that they could take us to the port for us to get on the cruise. I must admit that I was so nervous going on the cruise... I was terrified that a rogue wave would hit us and we would be killed. The cruise ended up being amazing. We loved the freedom to do whatever we wanted pretty much whenever we wanted.

Tuesday we ported at Catalina Island, which is a part of LA county. Everything there was so cute a miniature! They even had a miniature FedEx truck! We rented a golf cart and drove around the island on their scenic route that they have. Sean LOVES the Cubs, so of course we had to stop at the memorial there for him. We then ate at Cooney Island Hot Dogs just to compare to that of downtown Kalamazoo. I liked the hot dogs at Catalina Island better because they are bigger! After that we went on a semi-sub ride and we were able to see the kelp beds and all of these tropical fish. Sean especially loved that, and I was surprised at the knowledge that I have retained from my mom always telling me the things she learned in her marine biology class.

Wednesday we ported in Ensenada, Mexico. Sean and I both loved being in Mexico. Sean was able to use his Spanish - huge plus for him - and we went horse back riding! It was Sean's first time ever, and we were able to ride at the top of the bluffs and over look the ocean. It was so romantic! On our way up there, our bus drove on this high way that turns into I-5. And my house is off an exit from the 5. Then we went back to the ship to clean off from the dusty ride, and when shopping!! We got a few really cute souvenirs.

Thursday was a day at sea, in which it was raining the entire day! So we slept in, ordered breakfast to come to our room, and watched Alice in Wonderland. We then walked around the ship seeing any of the last minute things that we had missed already. We watched a wonderful Broadway type show, and turned in for the night!

On Friday, we flew to Chicago, and spent the night there. Saturday we ventured into the city some and drove back to Kalamazoo where we began our everyday life together.

Wedding Day!

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect!

Sean had been staying at my parents' home, and so we did see each other the morning before the wedding. We both woke up around 6:30 and stayed on opposite sides of the house, then my dad drove Sean to his parents' hotel so we could finish getting ready separately. But before he left I made him promise to be at the temple by 9:15, and NO LATER.

Around 7:10 Coco showed up and did my hair, which was exactly how I wanted it! While she was doing my hair, the kitchen sink broke and my family was running around trying to figure out what the problem was exactly and what was the best way for it to be fixed. I continued to do my hair and make sure I had all my things ready. Then when mom was ready, it was 9:20 when we left the house... oops! Sean and I were supposed to be at the Newport Beach Temple by 9:30 with our escorts. Mom and I didn't get there till 9:45.

Once we were to the temple and inside, everything happened very fast, and before we knew it the time was 11:00 am. The sealer came and got Sean and I from the celestial room, and was we walked in there were 30 people there who loved us, and were all smiling. During the actual sealing, Sean and I were so happy that we both were almost laughing -- ok, it was mostly me laughing and Sean seemed to be holding back tears, obviously we know who the more emotional one in the relationship is! One special side note, Bishop Reedman was working at the temple that day, and I was able to see him before and after the sealing. It was so special because he and I have had so many wonderful memories of girls' camp and other stake activities, and we would talk about my wedding day, and he was actually there!! It was amazing.

Then Sean needed to change back into his suit, and I needed to do some touch ups before going to meet our eager crowd! Then the pictures started... Sean and I took pictures at the temple, then at Balboa beach, and then at Chapman University. All of these pictures, of course, were taken before the reception started. But of the 29 that I have seen so far, they are the best pictures ever, and exactly what I wanted. Pictures will be posted once all of them are available to us.

The reception was so much fun!! It was great to introduce Sean to the loved ones in my life that he had not had the opportunity to meet yet, and to see the in laws interacting with everyone! Then we had Polynesian dancers come before dinner started, and I think everyone enjoyed them very much. Then it was time to eat the best dinner ever!

After dinner, everything went by so fast! The first dance, father daughter dance, mother son dance, cutting the cake, bouquet toss, guarder toss! Then more dancing!!! I was dancing the night away, having a blast with everyone who was there! By the time I paused to get some water, the room was mostly empty with my family and the servers there, and everyone else had left! And it was 9:30 pm!!

Sean and I decided that it was time to go start our honeymoon. We left the reception hall and headed for Embassy Suites, where we stayed for 3 days.

You all can check out our Wedding slideshow to our song that Colleen Bell put together for us!