Kent & Maria (Watkins) Phippen
I guess after months of perusing everyone else's blogs and bios, it is finally our turn, however we prefer reading the spotlights, rather than being in them!
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> Maria and I, like so many other 98 grads, got married after I returned home from my mission to Geneva Switzerland. (Thanks to my persistence I might add…Maria did try to 'Dear John' me on two occasions.) About one week after we were married we boxed up all our wedding stuff and moved to London where Maria was finishing her final year at the Royal Academy of Music. I was fortunate to go along for the ride! Maria had already spent 3 years there at school and 1 year in Prague with her parents who were serving as mission presidents. While Maria was studying I worked for a healthcare company based in Windsor and I absolutely loved it! London was good to us and to this day Maria still says that she has to go to the 'loo', not the bathroom.
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> We moved back to Utah after Maria graduated and did various things over the next couple years. I started school back up at the University of Utah majoring in Finance, no wait, Business Admin, hold on a sec, Business Mgt, and a final change to Entrepreneurship. Ultimately I just want to work for myself. I finally just graduated this last fall….yep it only took me 10 years! The line from Tommy Boy comes shouting back here…so what took so long? In the meantime we had 2 beautiful girls. Emma who is now 3 and Claire who is 18 months. They definitely keep us on our toes! I worked full time initially for Infinity Mortgage Company doing Marketing, then moved into the real estate development world for a couple years, and now have finally decided that I ought to use that new degree and go out on my own. I'll be opening Go Motors next week. Maria started teaching immediately when we got back from London and her studio has grown like crazy over the years. She teaches about 30 students out of our home and we feel lucky that she can do that while still having the girls close by. When she's not teaching she's gigging around town….you may catch her at Pioneer Memorial, at Ballet West, or on an occasional Music and the Spoken Word. I'm just trying to keep up with her and the other 4 children we have – the harps! We now live in Farmington and have for about 4 years. We love it here and enjoy bumping into other classmates often…(even if we don't always remember their names!)
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> We're excited for the reunion and can't wait to see everyone!
5 comments:
K & M! It's so great to hear about you guys. Looking forward to seeing both very soon.
You have a great family there you two. Sounds like you are both very busy. Good to hear about what's going on in your lives. Look forward to seeing you both in July.
Kent, remember our favorite line from Tommy Boy?
"Lots of people go to college for 7 years."
"Yeah, they're called doctors"
Those words have come back to haunt us!
Stew
Maria,
I am so impressed with your music accomplishments. I was also a music major....but.....I never made it out of Utah for my education. Are you still playing tennis? You used to whooop me good during warm ups!! ha ha ha.
Tell Kent not to worry - my hubby also changed his major six times and finally finished after 10 years. After a couple years at Weber (for my sake) he wanted to return to BYU but they wouldn't accept him......he had too many credits!! At least they settle into a field that they really enjoy!! Good luck with your company.
jocelyn
Okay your family is WAY too cute. Thanks for all the work you guys are doing to organize this. You're amazing (as ever!). Have a great summer. Wish I could be there at the reunion!
Sarah (Connors) Petersen
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