5 Month Anniversary

This last Thursday, Heather and I celebrated our 5 month wedding anniversary. I had a lot of fun surprising Heather. And this is what I did. Ever since I heard Elder Richard G. Scott's talk about leaving a message for his wife on 100 hole punches, I wanted to do something similar. So I took a new pack of 100 post-it notes. It was the kind where every other side was sticky. I folded them in such a way that I was able to write a message on them while still stuck together. Then I separated them and spelled "I [heart] U" over two doors and one closet in our living room.

When she saw the message, she was very excited. She started immediately to unscramble the message and put the post-it notes together. It probably took her hours, but she didn't care. When she finally finished, it read:

TO MY DOVE

I AM HERE AND YOU ARE THERE

IT IS TIME, TIME TO CARE

I HAVE SOMETHING OF A SIMPLE DARE

PLEASE SAY YES, TO BE FAIR

A DATE WITH YOU I'D LIKE TO SHARE

TOMORROW NIGHT WHEN LOVE IS IN THE AIR

-- HAPPY 5 MONTH ANNIVERSARY --

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH HEATHER

LOVE ROY

Heather thought it was very sweet. So the following night we went to Spicy Thai. We order 4 entrees because the leftovers microwave so well. Our waitress couldn't help laughing, though, for how much food we were ordering. Before she even brought our food out, she decided we needed a bigger table. It was a very fun night. We very fat, dumb, and happy. =D

College Stress

How does anyone go to school and keep up a positive attitude? Last April, my wife Heather and I were sealed for all time and eternity. For those of you not familiar with this terminology, we basically are married for this life and the next. Ever since that time, I have been trying very hard to plan every important aspect of our lives. Heather will finish up her school by June and start into her student teaching. I, on the other hand, just barely changed my major to Information Systems, plus I have a desire to achieve a Masters of Information Systems Management. So I essentially have five years at least before I graduate from BYU. That is a lot of time in my mind, a lot of time and money.

Both Heather and I work on campus. She is a peer mentor for all incoming Freshmen, and easily makes 20 hours per week. I work for BYU OIT as a documentation specialist, and as such, I am required to work 18 to 20 hours per week. Sometimes I wish I could work more hours. Other times I feel too overwhelmed as it is. I just wish I had more money available to cover the cost of going to school.

This semester I am taking more credits than I ever had in the past. Also, in past semester I wasn't working while going to school. I have never had this much to do at once. Being married, should also be called to attention. I love spending time with my wife, but we hardly see each other between work and school. I just wish life could slow down for one moment. I wish we could just be kids again, without any cares in the world.

I know there are a ton of people at BYU who are in more stressful situations. Some work full time or have two jobs while going to school. Others are taking 18 credits or more with independent study courses. Others already have children. Some even have to deal with all of this. So respectively, I should just count my blessings and shut up. At the same time, i have my worries, doubts, and stresses too. They are not the same, but they are there. I just want peace. I want to know that everything will be alright. I want the future to be secure.

Home Is Where You Feel Like You Are at Home

Being a college student can be hard! Often times you are hungry, tired, overwhelmed, and home-sick. It gets a little better once you are married. By better I mean worse. You feel worried about finances, stressed about school, and hungry for lack of food, BUT you now have a home with your spouse wherever you live.

My wife Heather and I still miss the large, open, clean homes of our childhoods, but we get to spend everyday and every night together. This last weekend, though, we were able to feel what it was like to have not just an apartment but a real home, all to ourselves. The reason? My brother-in-law was out of town!

Now before you go and think we are horrible people throwing parties in somebody else's home, you need to know that we didn't. We spent a quiet, homework-free weekend in their home. We did our six loads of laundry while we watched movies on the big screen T.V. We played with the dog. I even let the dog sleep with us! I am not a huge dog person, but dogs are starting to grow on me.

I can't wait to have our very own home one day, one where we will be able to raise our family and make it a refuge from such a troubled world. As much as I would love a large home, I am content. I love my wife, I love our small family, and I love our home, whatever it may be.

Who am I?

I thought a good place to start my first blog was an explanation of who I am. But then I thought, "What about explaining all the different names by which I am known?" So I want to talk about my names and the added significance they have to me through my experiences.

My name is Roy Alan Hemmert. Everyone just calls me Roy. I once asked my parents why they named me Roy, and all they said was that there wasn't any particular reason. They just looked through the phone book, found Roy, and decided they liked it. Not very exciting. As I have grown up, however, I have come to find how much i love the name Roy. When I meet people, they think it is a cool name just because there are not very many people with that name. In fact, i have never met another Roy that was anywhere close to my age. I have met a lot of old farts with the name Roy, and I have a young cousin named Roy. That is about it. I like feeling unique.

I used to hate my middle name as well. I had only ever met one other person with the name Alan that spelled it the exact same way as I do. He was a real jerk! So by association, I hated all Alan's in the world. It is kind of silly, I know, but i really hated my own name just because of that one Alan. I have since gotten over that hatred and enjoy my name as it is.

Other names include my nicknames. And they have significant meaning based on who gave them to me and where they were used. My first was when i was little, maybe 6 or 7 years old. I asked my mom why i didn't have a nickname. She explained that i didn't need a nickname because my name was already so short. That wasn't good enough for me, because all my friends had nicknames. So, I told my mom to start calling me Leonardo (as in the Ninja Turtle). Needless to say that name didn't stick around.

In the gaming community and through out the Internet, I am known as Rahboo (I pronounce it raw-BOO). This is another name i chose for myself but this time it stuck, probably from all the Halo my friends and I would play. The name comes from my initials "rah," and then i just added "boo" to the end to make me sound scarier. Later, I modified the name to be rahboo15. 15 is my favorite number, but that is another long story.

On the soccer field I became known as Wa. This came from a soccer coach that had heard of a French soccer player named Roy, but the announcers always called him Wa. This name stuck through high school. Later this name was altered by the same coach to be "The Janitor Wa." That is an embarrassing story for another time. =)

Some of my other favorite nicknames include Roy-Al and Royal. These both come from soccer coaches as well. From time to time people still call me by these names. When my wife and I started dating, she would call me "old man," because I was nearly 3 years older than her. Plus, I would groan like an old man when i would stand up.

After all is said and done, my favorite name is still Roy. I feel unique through this name and know that I can make myself known for who I am and not for what other Roy's have done. And at the end of the day, my wife still holds me tight and tells me, "I love you, Roy!"