Out with the Old, In with the New!

Another year has come and gone. This weekend, James and I will be celebrating our second anniversary! The time has flown by, it seems. In keeping with our tradition, we mark the New Year with a poster outlining our goals for the coming annum. But first, let us review our accomplishments from 2014:

Apologies for the shadow, this poster lives on the wall next to a bookcase

Our family goals we met 100%. We had a baby--go us! :) We went on a family camping trip (a couple, actually). We started preparations for our Black Belt Testing, which is coming up at the end of January. We took Joel to the zoo. We planted a fruit tree, an apricot which shot up like crazy over the summer. We went on a date every week this year. We visited the temple at least once a month, including a trip up to Brigham City.

Our individual goals were a little more hit-and-miss. James has indeed graduated from BYU (we're still waiting to hear on a few grades, but he's on track for magna cum laude). He has just completed his goal of reading 10 new books this year. Weight loss goals for the both of us didn't quite happen, unfortunately. He didn't learn to do a popup, though it's something he's still working on, and Joel has not yet learned any ASL. However, James met his goal of getting at least a 168 on the LSAT by scoring a 171!

I did referee at Nationals, and earned my B2 referee certification. I have not yet completed The Seventh Guardian (sequel to The Tale of Telsharu and The Scourge of Narak) but it is in progress, at least. Pre-baby weight is close, I'm hoping within the month. I did compete at the Utah Summer Games. I am nowhere close to learning how to do a back walkover, although I did learn how to do a headstand! :)

Which brings us to our goals for 2015:

For James:

• Go to Law School
• Earn 3rd Dan
• Successfully change oil in my car
• Read 10 more new books
• Prepare for and run a Ragnar

For Valerie:

• 4th Degree Black Belt
• Write The Seventh Guardian
• Compete at the State Taekwondo Championships
• Read 10 new books [I liked James's goal, so I copied it for myself]
• Learn to make sushi 

For both of us:

• Move to ___________ [We'll fill in the blank once we know where we're going for law school]
• Go skiing/snowboarding
• Family camping trip
• Teach Shadow to sit
• Go on 1 date per week
• Visit the temple monthly prior to the move, and at least once during the fall semester

We are excited about the coming year. While there promise to be some pretty major alterations to our lives, we look forward to the adventures and challenges ahead. In the meantime, we look forward to enjoying life with our little family!

Our Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas!

The biggest event of 2014 for our little family was the birth of Joel Riley Holley on April 15^th. He was born at home, a healthy 7lbs 12oz. He has grown so much since then! Now 8 months old, Joel's favorite activity is crawling around and getting into everything! He also enjoys pulling himself up to standing. He's still getting used to solid food, but loves peas and especially bananas. Joel is generally a very happy baby. He gets along very well with our sweet dog Shadow. Sometimes Joel pulls Shadow's fur, but Shadow usually repays him by licking his face (which we try to discourage!) 

 

James graduated from BYU this month, magna cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science, and a minor in Computer Science. He has done very well in school, but is definitely ready for a little break! He took the LSAT and got an excellent score, so has applied to several of the top 10 law schools. We should be hearing back in the next couple of months. It is very likely that we will be moving next summer for James's schooling, which will be quite an adventure!

Both of us continue to be busy at our taekwondo studio. Valerie cut back after the baby was born, but we each still teach about 5 hours a week, in addition to the classes that we attend ourselves. We love our work at the dojang, and enjoy seeing our students progress and grow. We also enjoy competing together, especially on our studio's demonstration team. We competed at several local tournaments this year (including one when Valerie was 8 months pregnant!). Valerie also had the opportunity to referee at several events, including the National Championships in San Jose during July. James and Joel got to spend some quality time together that week, and they did great—better than Mommy did away from her boys!

We are loving our beautiful house, and have made a couple of big improvements this year. In the spring, we renovated our back deck. It was in pretty rough shape when we bought the house, but now is quite lovely. Then this fall we hired Valerie's brother Kyle to tile our kitchen. He did an amazing job, and we absolutely love having the tile floor.

Our big adventure at the moment is preparing for Black Belt Testing, which will take place at the end of January. Valerie will be testing for her 4^th Degree and James for his 3^rd Degree. There's a lot of work that goes into it beforehand, and the test itself is going to be pretty intense! We're really looking forward to it.

Thank you for reading, and thank you especially for being a part of our lives. We love you very much! We hope that you and yours have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!

Love,

The Holley Family

Christmas 2014

Future: Pending

James is scheduled to take the LSAT for the second time at the end of this month. He took the test for the first time in June. We had high hopes for his score, and were very surprised at the score he received, which was several points lower that he'd been anticipating. Much to his chagrin, James learned later that he had missed 2 full pages of questions. He thought he had been at the end of the section, and simply didn't turn the page. If he had answered those questions correctly, his score would have been significantly higher.

At that point, James seriously considered just taking the score he got. We had been looking at BYU's law school as our main option, and the score he got on the first LSAT definitely would have sufficed for applying to BYU. Plus, preparing to take an LSAT is a lot of work! But I pressured him to take the test again. If he could get a higher score, I felt that he should do so. It would open a lot more doors, and hopefully increase our chances at scholarship money.

Somewhat reluctantly, James agreed to take the test again, at the end of September. To prepare, he has been taking practice tests twice a week. And he has been scoring well--remarkably well. The scores that he's been getting on the practice tests would basically mean that James could get into any law school in the country. After getting a handful of these high scores (all of them higher than what we'd even hoped he would get the first time around), James started seriously considering the possibility of going to a Top 14 school instead of staying at BYU.

We've spent the summer daydreaming about law school. We spent a family home evening comparing the pros and cons of different schools, to narrow down which ones James will apply to. (We compared everything we could think of: tuition, program ranking, likelihood of scholarships, cost of living, crime rates, distance from a temple, and more...)

It all hinges on this LSAT. At this level, the difference in a single point influences James's likelihood of acceptance and how much scholarship money he can get. And with tuition upward of $50,000 a year at the Top 14 law schools, the amount of scholarship money he gets will make a huge difference for us.

Of course, James will still be applying to BYU. But it's definitely become the 'back up' school, and not the top choice like it once was. My James is ambitious (a trait that I value highly!) and with the possibility before him of attending a top-tier school, attending BYU seems like settling for less than his potential.

The idea of moving across the country is both terrifying and electrifying. On the one hand, it seems like a grand adventure! So many new experiences to have, new people to meet, new things to see and do. But on the other hand, I am heartbroken at the thought of leaving my family, our friends, our beautiful home, and our taekwondo school that is such an intrinsic part of our lives. I am worried about moving somewhere with no built-in support system, like I have here. That part of me wishes that we could stay here! But then I ask, is that in the best interest of my husband and our family? So many questions that have no immediate answer.

So for the next few months, our future is pending. First we have to get James's next LSAT score. Then get through applications, which is an adventure and a half. And then...the wait. That will be the worst part, I think! Waiting for acceptances, and then trying to navigate getting scholarship money--we hope! And then I suspect it will all come down to fervent prayer as we seek the Lord's guidance on where He would have us go. And so, for now, we prepare and we wait.

New Year's at The Holley House

Happy New Year from our Holley House!

For the last several years (since...2010, I think?) I have created a New Year's poster filled with goals and aspirations for the year. My roommate of the time was the one who started it, but it's been something I've really enjoyed, so I've created my own posters every year since. The poster-project has a couple of rules:

1. The goals must be achievable within the calendar year.
2. The goals must be measurable. (Nothing vague.)

Last year, James and I created a poster together, and I rather liked how it turned out, though several of our goals fell by the wayside (like every year). We put James's goals on one side, mine on the other, and "family" goals in the middle. You'll see that we also added one "Surprise!" that had been intended for the following year. Behold:

New Year's goals from 2013

James's Goals:
-Earn 2nd Dan (check)
-Receive sport poomsae certification
-Attend non-classical concert (check)

-Nail a 540 ° kick

-Compete at Nationals in sport poomsae (check)

-Get a 4.0 semester (check)

Valerie's Goals:

-Two Prelims (check and check)

-Referee at Nationals (check)

-Learn a Back Walkover

-Rock Concert (half check...does the Piano Guys count?)

-Write "The Seventh Guardian" (sigh...in progress)

-Learn Spanish

Family Goals:

-Get Married! (check)

-Get pregnant (check)

-Caribbean cruise (check)

-Buy a house (check...though not one of the original goals!)

-Go to Broadway (check)

-Compete on Demo Team at Nationals (check)

-Go on a date every week (complete with 52 tick marks...each one: check!)

-Attend the temple at least once a month (check x12)

We feel pretty good about our family goals! As for the individual goals, there are things that were out of our control (James's sport poomsae certification, for instance. We were planning to attend the sport poomsae training at Nationals...which ended up not being provided. Lame sauce.) Some things (like my back walkover) just got neglected. But overall, it was a busy and productive year for us.

As we approached making our poster for 2014, we wanted to select goals that meet the rules (achievablility and measurability), that seem realistic for us, but which will still challenge us physically, mentally, and spiritually. Presenting, the Holley family goals for 2014:

James's Goals:
-Graduate from BYU magna cum laude
-Read 10 new books (complete with 10 tick marks)
-Get down to 175lbs
-Learn how to do a popup
-Teach Baby J at least one ASL sign
-Get at least a 168 on the LSAT

Valerie's Goals
-Referee at Nationals
-B-2 certification
-Write "The Seventh Guardian"
-Return to pre-baby weight
-Compete at USG (Utah Summer Games)
-Learn to do a Back Walkover

Family Goals
-Have a baby (yes, we know it's inevitable at this point)
-Family Camping Trip (we define this as a trip including both Baby J and Shadow)
-Start preparing for Black Belt Testing
-Take Baby J to the Zoo
-Plant a fruit tree
-Go on a date every week (complete with 52 tick marks)
-Go to the temple at least once a month, with the additional goal of at least one of these trips being to the Brigham City Temple.


2014 is going to be a big year for us! Of course, the biggest event is the upcoming birth of our firstborn, for which we could not be more excited. We'll have to see how all our goals balance out with having a baby. Still, we feel that all of these goals are doable in the coming year. And we are excited by the challenge! Bring it on 2014!

God truly cares about me!

I have just had one of the most spiritual moments in my life. As Valerie could tell you, I've been stressing over school work recently, particularly a program assignment for one of my Computer Science classes. I've been struggling with this assignment all week, and it came to a head today, the day the assignment was due.

I started working on this program this morning, and made slow but steady progress throughout the morning. However, around 1:30, I hit a brick wall. I have never been so utterly stymied in anything I've worked on in school, but this one did it. I worked all the way through my 2:00 class and through my leadership class at Taekwondo, fortunate that I have a loving wife to take care of my Leadership responsibilities for today.

The clock kept ticking, and I grew more and more frantic. I had combed my code multiple times, and just couldn't figure out what the matter was. It got to a point where I was *this* close to a nervous breakdown, and I finally turned to the Lord in full. I had uttered some small prayers throughout the day to help me out, and had felt His presence guiding me, but the time for small prayers was over. I gave myself over completely to the Lord, begging him for guidance and direction, admitting that I couldn't do this alone.

I finished my prayer, and waited for an answer. Eventually, I felt I should check a particular section of code I thought I had already combed thoroughly. However, I did look again, and lo and behold, the missing code was staring me in the face! I was able to complete the program for full marks and pass it off on time.

Now, I know that there are some who would read this and say it's merely a coincidence. I assure you, dear readers, that I was certain of that part of my code being acceptable, all the errors pointed to a completely different section of my program, and I almost certainly would not have thought to look at the faulty section. It is my testimony and firm belief this was no coincidence, that God helped me through this struggle, and that He did so because he loves me. It is my prayer that my faith will continue to grow, and that my experience will be an example for others who wonder if God listens and loves us. I know that He does!

James R. Holley