Nicole (Elder) Dyer

Hi all! It's been four years since we were all together in the prep class, right? It started midway through the winter semester. We were all so excited. I feel like that first meeting was some kind of huge blind date. We were all wondering who our London friends would be. We met in that dark room in the JFSB with Dr. Benfell and every week it seems like we talked about how to be safe in London, which classes would be offered, bedding, laundry, what to pack, and all the stuff we had all been wondering about. We wrote down our roommate preferences, but little did we know we were all basically going to become roommates. Who could have imagined that a bedroom exists for 14, 12, or even 6 people? Not your typical dorms, but in an amazing way. I couldn't have asked for better roommates or friends!

Meagan Lake and I shared the same bunk and scratched lines from Shakespeare into the bunk's wooden slats above my head. I'm pretty sure I was on the lower bunk, right Meagan? Serves me right for being one day late. At least I wasn't the only one.

I remember such random, specific moments from being in London that spring - drying my hair in the bathroom next to the window overlooking palace court, being shooed out of the lower floors during class time by the cleaning ladies, sitting in the window seat in the library, eating a plateful of fried food for dinner, making nutella sandwiches for lunch, wanting so badly to lay down and nap in the Louvre, eating digestives - Is that really what we called them? Wow. It's so foreign sounding after 3 1/2 years!

I love hearing about all of your lives, now that you've all gone through such significant changes. As for me, I married Lance Dyer, the love of my life, in December 2008. I couldn't have been more lucky. We moved to Tucson, Arizona, and he works as an engineer for Raytheon designing missiles. I work for a public charter school, Sonoran Science Academy, and am teaching social studies to 6th, 7th and 8th graders. We recently have very exciting news - we're expecting a baby in July. I couldn't be more happy, especially that I will not be teaching again next year! (Needless to say, middle school is a challenge.) I've been feeling very healthy so far, so much so that I feel like it's unfair to all those women with terrible morning sickness. What a humongous blessing it has been, since I don't know how I could have continued teaching while feeling ill. We don't know boy/girl yet, and we don't have any good names picked out. All we have is our recent craigslist purchase, a beautiful crib!

That's us. Can't wait to hear from you all. I will find my London pictures and post some of them. I want to see yours too.

Sending love to you all,

ND

p.s. We have a blog too. I enjoy reading so many of your blogs - Rachel Martinez's, Monica's, Cathryn's, Janssen's, Merrick's, Meagan's, Megan Z's, Amanda D's - and I'm excited to discover that more of you blog too.