Garner, Caralee (Hill)

Where did 20 years go? I really can't believe I'm having to recap the last 20 years! I don't know where it all went.

Well I'll try to summarize it quickly. After high school I went up to Ricks college for a year and loved it. I regret not going up for the 2nd year. As some of you know our senior year I was dating a Timpview graduate.(You can see me in the year book with a timpview lettermans jacket on!!) Anyway, while I went to Ricks he went on a mission to Japan. We wrote the whole time. We were in love before he even left. So the second year of his mission I came back from Ricks and went to Dental Assisting school and worked as a Dental Assistant for 7 years and loved it. So when my best friend came home from his mission we were engaged 5 months later and then married 8 months after that! It has been a blissful 17 years! He went to BYU and I worked so we could pay for it! He graduated in Education and taught high school for 31/2 years. During which we had our first born son. 18 months after him we found out some exciting news that we were expecting twins!! Oh boy, we didn't know how we were going to afford two at the same time for the rest of our lives so my husband decided to get out of education. He found a better job that would also pay for more education. So he went back to school and got his MBA while I had a 21/2 year old boy and identical twin girls! I shudder when I think about those times. It was hard but we seemed to get through it. We had built a little starter home in Lehi by Micron and loved the area. When our little twins were 2 years old we got the hardest news. Our one little twin Maddie was diagnosed with a childhood cancer called Nueroblastoma. Then our world turned into a whirlwind. It was right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and it really felt like the end of my world or the world in general. She had chemo that didn't do anything and so we made the decision to take her across the country to the world famous pediatric surgeon in New York at Sloan Kettering Memorial hospital in Manhattan. She had a tumor in her abdomen the size of a large grapefruit and he removed it for her and saved her life. That was 7 years ago!! She is our miracle child. Right after we got back from New York, I knew it was time to get our last child here. So we had our youngest son a year later! So no wonder 20 years flies by. I am a stay at home mom, that works part time at my kids school as a reading aide. We built our 2nd home just up from Cabella's in Lehi and my husband is a logistics specialist for GE Healthcare. We have tried to leave Utah to experience something new but have never gotten the opportunity. But we also LOVE our ward and friends and family that surround us.

I'm very nervous to see you all at the Dinner but it should be fun. I hope I can recognize people and people recognize me. 20 years does alot to ya! So hope to see many of you at the dinner party!!

Caralee Garner Hill