Dallas & Natalie...& Spaz

Happy Birthday Spaz!

2011-11-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

Spaz dressed up as Rainbow Brite and we themed the Costume Party around her.

All the cute cousins and Aunt!

Our home

2011-10-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to give you an idea of what our house looks like these days!

Jason and Katie are living with us for the school year and it has been lots of fun. Everyone is in school except me but I seem to have just as much homework as everyone else. The only one not pictured is Dallas...but we all know he doesn't really study all that much anyway and he was taking the pictures!

Catch up Post

2011-09-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

Right before school started we decided to take a quick trip out to San Diego before Natalie started her new job and I started taking classes. While we were there we went to Sea World, to see if it was as cool as we remembered from going there as kids.

It wasn't.

It was fun, but probably not something we'll be doing again soon.

Spaz, however, loved it. She got really excited looking at all the fish... and all the attention

She was really concerned about the giant turtle... Daddy, not so much.

I (Dallas) got to touch the dolphins a couple of times, Natalie didn't have the same luck.

At the dolphin tank they have 2 sections of glass, so the dolphins can see you as well as you can see them. I took Spaz over to one, and she got really excited every time a dolphin would swim past. After about 15 minutes, one of the dolphins pulled a Shamu, and splashed a ton of water out of the pool... all over Spaz and me. After about 5 minutes, she calmed down, so we went back to the wall, and the same dolphin splashed us again. Keeping a safer distance, we watched him splash the crowds 4 more times. He must have thought it was hilarious.

We found an amazing hike. There was even a waterfall at the end of the hike. Spaz had a blast playing in the water!

Look at that face!

We went to Show Low for the Fourth and had fun hanging out with all the Fish's.

Natalie's grandmother passed away a few months after these were taken, this was the last time we got to see her in good health.

Cherry-pickin' Dallas

New House

2011-09-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

I LOVE having a clothesline!


They are still a little young... Cousins played dress-up with all my play clothes!

She was less than excited about playing dress up, here she is with her Cowboy Hat.

MMMMM.....Edible Chocolate Bowl. We had fun making these, lets just say there was chocolate everywhere!!

Annika's Wedding.

2011-06-28T23:22:00.000-07:00

Andrea took this picture of Spaz at Annika's wedding.

She was worn out after a busy busy day and was very snuggly which is my favorite.

Out for a walk photo shoot.

2011-06-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

Push me mom!

This is fun!

Crawling away..the grass feels funny on my knees! I think I'll just stay here.


This is a typical Spaz pose. "I really want this leaf but I know I'm not supposed to put it in my mouth...what to do, what to do?"

Cute Pics

2011-06-14T23:23:00.000-07:00

Spazisms

2011-04-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

First of all she is the most wonderful, beautiful, happy baby. I am so lucky! She has been wonderful to babysitters and takes awesome naps. Although she hasn't quite figured out how to sleep through the night.

She lives up to her nickname and is very active. She never stops wiggling her little fingers and toes. When she eats she pinches the back of my arm as she wiggles her fingers around. While the rest of her is intently concentrated on something else her fingers and wrist are rotating and moving.

She is so close to crawling, she gets on her hands and knees rocking back and forth trying to figure out how to get her back end to go forward with her front end. Sometimes she gets frustrated and just throws her front end forward which results in a nose dive for the object she is pursuing. This causes her to cry and need a hug from mommy (which I willingly give because I usually get a 'quick' neck cuddle in return.)

She has figured out that mommy is her favorite. This of course gives me great pride but at the same time can be frustrating when she doesn't like going to anyone else when I'm around. She sometimes even prefers me over daddy (I should enjoy this now before she really becomes a daddy's girl.)

Now for the best part...PICTURES!

I love this picture (February-Valentines Day, I'm so behind on pictures)

Family picture

(Lincoln was jumping up and down behind the photographer and she loved it.)

Playing together...at least they are both looking in the same direction even if it isn't at the camera :-)

This is such a typical Spaz face, I couldn't resist posting it!

Family time..Discovering the Grass.

mmmm...leaves.

Easter Morning in my cute Easter dress exploring my Easter basket. I've grown so much since Valentines day.

Getting ready to brush my teeth for the first time!!

My first doll for Easter...yum

just some thoughts

2011-04-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

its crazy how life just seems to work itself out sometimes if we are patient, pray, and keep trying.

dallas and i have had so many blessings. i was looking around the house thinking about all the things we have that we have been given, especially things for spaz.

we are so blessed.

dallas and i decided to go to a drive in movie for fhe tonight and so we are sitting here with a dead battery waiting for someone to come let us borrow their battery. again we are relying on the assistance of others. people are so nice letting us interrupt their movie to jump our car.

Townhouse for Rent!

2011-04-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

We are trying really hard to rent out our Townhouse so that we can move closer to family.

Please let us know if you know anyone is interested.

Two bedroom townhouse located at 35^th Avenue and Union Hills in Phoenix.

1100 square feet, large bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, walk-in closets and a large covered patio.

Has a full washer and dryer and lots of storage space.

One covered parking space less than 20 feet from the front door and plenty of visitor parking.

The entire community was just painted in the last 2 months. Complex has a large community pool and lots of open, grassy areas.

Very quiet neighborhood. Perfect for a small family or roommates. No pets please.

Life is marching on...

2011-03-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

This last month has been busy!

I started working a couple days a week, Dallas had a birthday, and Spaz has gotten chubby.
These are some pictures of Spaz from my Camera phone. The quality isn't great but they are easy to send to Dallas on the go!

She collapsed her toy on herself with her feet.

She likes to sprawl when she sleeps...

I look so cute in my blue outfit, very patriotic!

Reading the newspaper with mom...mostly I think its fun to listen to it rattle!

First taste of apple..mmmm!

I discovered my feet and love to play with them!

I love my bath time but I hate getting dressed afterward...brrrr!

Love my cute dress!

More Pictures

2011-02-20T10:27:00.001-08:00

We gave Spaz her first taste of (pseudo)solid food yesterday, rice cereal! I'm not sure if she likes the food or the attention more...

Every time Natalie would try and give her a spoonful, she'd immediately stick her hands in her mouth, so not only are we battling Spaz to get the food in the mouth, we're having to keep the food in her mouth and her hands out of it!

All done!

Spaz

2011-02-04T23:02:00.000-08:00

We can't get these pictures rotated but they're still cute!

We finally had our appointment with the Geneticist.
Spaz is 3months old.
She is 13lbs, in the 50th percentile in weight and 75th percentile for height.

She has a Metabolic Disorder that results in a low carnitine level. Carnitine is a chemical that is used to transport food in and out of the mitochondria which make energy.
The doctor told us that as long as she is supplemented with carnitine she will live a normal life.

Crazy that it took us 3months to find out that simple statement. This is usually a minor problem, and she won't be affected by it much, if at all.

For now, she's growing like a weed, and has recently found her voice. She'll coo and sing to us all day long as long as we're there to sing and coo back to her.

She's a Converse AllStar!!

2011-01-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

Going out on a Saturday!

Thanks cousin Joy for the awesome shoes!!

More Cute Christmas Pictures

2010-12-20T20:50:00.001-08:00

Matching Sweaters!!

Could she be any cuter?

Temple lights...
The hat is still a little big:)

Christmas pj's at a Christmas party!

Best friends already!
Ready for Christmas, playing under the Christmas tree.

My really good friend Mara had her little girl a few weeks before me.
We both had girls.
Aren't they adorable.

Gingerbread Houses

2010-12-11T23:44:00.000-08:00

Christmas season is here!

i built Rapunzel's tower

Dallas's inspiration came from our recent trip to Washington DC.
I think it looks pretty good until it collapsed a few minutes later.

White House

She is starting to get really interactive and alert!

Isn't she cute!!
This is the end of a very cute smile :-)

Maryland Trip

2010-12-11T00:11:00.000-08:00

Spaz and I accompanied Dallas on a business trip to Baltimore, Maryland.
We stayed a couple extra days and did some sightseeing around Washington DC!
It was cold so you don't see much of Spaz she is cuddled warm in her carseat.

Washington Monument

Lincoln Monument

We walked up to the Washington Monument but it was so cold and windy we left a few seconds later. This is a picture of Dallas running back to the warm car.

Dallas and Spaz in the lobby of our hotel.

The Hope Diamond.
(I love the girl in the backgrounds' facial expression)

Dallas and the bones of a buffalo at the Museum of Natural History

Me and a bony giraffe

Cuddled warm in the hotel room

Relaxing in the hotel room waiting for Daddy(Dallas) to finish working.

At work with Daddy!!

It's only 10Am

2010-12-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

Todays checklist

Pooped on...Check
Peed on...Check
Spit up on....Check, Check, Check
Buggered on...Check (not sure thats a word)
Baby Bath Time...Check
Laundry....Check
Nursed...Check. Check, Check, Check
Smiled at...Check, check, check, check, check

Loved...CHECK

okay...this is a picture from yesterday but I haven't really had time for picture taking today:)

Spaz Moments

2010-11-22T19:12:00.001-08:00

She is adorable and we love her but she sure makes some funny faces.

While we are waiting for the results from her blood/urine tests,
the doctor had us start supplementing her with Carnitine.

It is grape flavored...but she still doesn't like it...

First dance with Daddy at
Cherise's wedding.

Grandpa Turley and Spaz

Great Grandpa and Grandma Andersen

Halloween!!

2010-11-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

Spaz's first Halloween!!

I dressed up as a 'Farmer' and she was my little Pumpkin!

I think she made the cutest little pumpkin!!

Picture of the Pearce Cousins and their Aunt and Uncle.
Stephen with Anna, Kyson, Caleb, Amber with Spaz

Newest Turley

2010-10-24T22:51:00.000-07:00

So she's almost a week old already, but here she is!!!

She was born on 10/18/10 at 8:30 PM, after 23 and a half hours of labor. She weighed 8 lbs 0.8 ounces, was 19 inches long, and has just enough hair not to be called bald!

She looks a lot like her mom's baby pictures, but she's got Turley fingers and toes (translation: she was born with big hands and long toes. Sorry Spaz!) and she's still almost as spastic as she was before she was born!

Both Natalie and Spaz are doing great, we really appreciate everyone who helped us with meals and everybody who stopped by to visit. We're still on Cloud 9 and enjoying every minute of our new family.

First Family Photo

Proud papa.

She will eventually not be so crosseyed... right?

Going home from the hospital outfit

Projects Projects Projects!

2010-10-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

Since taking my boards I have had a lot of extra time to spend getting ready for the baby:)

It has been so relaxing.

The best part is just knowing that if I want to lay on the couch and read a book there will be no repercussions.

Crib Bumpers

Carseat Cover

Two blankets:

- The first one has little giraffes, lions, and elephants.

- The second one I finally finished a couple of weeks ago after having starting it way back at the beginning of the year

Hair bow holder...can't wait for her to wear these....

Pre-baby baby pictures

2010-09-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

We looked through our old photo albums this morning to look at our baby pictures and to see what we have to look forward to...

Natalie, pretty in pink.

Hey, get that fat kid out of here, we're looking at baby pictures!
Oh wait...

WISH ME LUCK...

2010-09-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

AT LAST THERE IS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL...

AND (i hope) IT IS LOOKIN' GOOD!

No, I am not in labor...

I take Boards tomorrow..AHHHH!!!
~6 hrs
(+a few bathroom breaks,
lets all pray for my bladder),
and 360 questions

Hypocritesinaction

2010-09-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

Check out my VERY clever hubby's blog

Hypocritesinaction

Hope you enjoy:)

Nursery in Progress...

2010-09-12T23:48:00.000-07:00

In reality it is the babies corner...
She will be sharing her room with our study
(3bookshelves and two desks)

Saturday was my baby shower in the valley!
It was so much fun to see everyone, we received so many amazing gifts!
I had to show off some of the great items we received!
The theme of the nursery is/will be giraffes, as soon as I get done studying for Boards!

The giraffe was made and designed by Shawna (PA friend), isn't it awesome!
The bright pink blanket was made by Dallas's Mom! It matches perfectly!
Dallas's Grandma Miller crocheted us the blanket on the left.
The material on the back of the crib is what the future bed set will be made from...when I'm not studying.

And this is a picture of the baby and me, are we not getting huge!
35 weeks...

Studying tips: Entertaiment Ideas

2010-09-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

(I know it sounds counter-productive but it is completely necessary!)

#1 favorite: Exercise ball
- It's bouncy and gets the 'Wiggles' out (For all you ADHD people out there)
- Provides a little bit of core strengthening, i.e. exercise
- I can't decide whether the Baby likes the ball or not...she gets pretty wiggly when we are on it! She seems to have lots of wiggles to get out!
- Warning!!!, It is also very easy to fall off. It hasn't happened yet, but there have been a few close calls.
#2: Pandora
- Sometimes you just can't stand your own music selection anymore!
- Careful with overuse, I hear they cut you off after a certain number of hours!

#3: Colorful Pens and Highlighters
- You would think I would grow out of this, but there is something about studying from a well highlighted, multi-colored page (organized of course)...it keeps your attention!

#4: Low calorie snacks, FOOD!
- My current favorite is Smarties (This is primarily because I have a giant jar full of them and nobody else seems to like them)
- Previous favorites include KIX cereal, Cheerios, Wheat Thins, Tootsie rolls (failed the low calorie requirement)

#5: Facebook
- It is fast and gives you a little break here and there. Plus if you check it too often nobody has posted anything new so it takes even less time!

#6: Channel 8
- This is an option when you get desperate, can't handle studying and have tried everything else.
- Choose a boring program that you aren't interested in!
For example Wine sampling/growing, painting, evolution, photography, travels through various countries...

#7: ..............Any ideas??
(Can you tell I'm already getting bored with studying?)

Feeling Domestic

2010-09-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

I love this recipe because it reminds me of the Dutch Babies my mom use to make. This is a healthy version of the same thing!
This morning I cooked them stovetop and they turned out awesome!

The healthy version!!

German Babies (also known as German Pancakes, Dutch Babies...)

Serves 2

3 eggs
1/3 c. flour
1/3 c. milk
Sometimes I add a little melted butter to the bottom of the pan to make the edges more crispy... but it is a little less healthy this way.

-Beat ingredients together
(my mom always said to not to over beat the eggs or something bad happens with the eggs, Dallas gets carried away sometimes though...and they still turn out okay!)

Original recipe calls for them to be cooked in the oven at 475 for 15-20 minutes. (9x13"pan)

Also can be cooked stove top (6-8"pan-I used cast iron) with a lid (for the hot summer days) on low to medium (closer to low), for about 15-20 minutes.
(I tried this for the first time this morning and they were awesome and my house isn't stifling hot from the oven being on.)

Served with Syrup or if your feeling a little more gourmet it is fun to drizzle lemon juice and sprinkle powdered sugar on top!

Good Luck!

First day of Studying

2010-08-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

I was crazy to think that I would be able to jump right back into studying 8-12 hrs a day!

I gave it my best effort today. I had nothing else to do...no one to do anything with.
Just a giant folder of notes to start digging my way through again.

I was not successful. The longest stretch of studying that I got done today was probably ~45 minutes.

So today was officially just a WARM-UP!
I'll try a little harder tomorrow and maybe I'll go just a little bit further....

Dallas's Sleeping Habits

2010-08-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

Now, I realize this is going to make me seem like a terrible person...but no maleficence was intended.

Last night, like every night, I was laying next to Dallas waiting to fall asleep and listening to him sleep. He's usually a very quiet sleeper and only occasional snores or makes funny noises. He is a very slow breather probably around 9breaths a minute (normal is 12-18ish)
Last night his nose was making a really annoying popping noise every time he breathed in. VERY annoying. I decided rather than wake him and make him blow his nose I would plug his nose for a few seconds and make him breath through his mouth.
Well, a few seconds past and I couldn't tell if he was breathing or not. I waited...and waited. At this point I was kinda curious how long it would take for him to start breathing through his mouth. I waited some more...I'm guessing he should have breathed 4-5x at this point. Still he didn't open his mouth to breath...I'm completely curious at this point!
All of the sudden, his mouth opens and he takes a huge gasping breath, waking himself up.
He then says, "Why do I keep doing that?!"
Me (innocently), "Doing what?"
Dallas, "Waking up in a panic?" At this point I'm giggling like crazy and spill the beans.
He wasn't angry or upset, more worried that it took him a full minute to start breathing through his mouth.
Don't worry, he laid back down and was asleep a few seconds later.

The night before...
My phone has a terrible habit of dinging (twice) when it is done charging. There is no way to change this. No setting, just the way some (retarded) engineer designed it. And since I have to plug it in every night, it goes off in the middle of the night.
So 3-4x a week we are awakened by the obnoxious dinging. It always scares me a little bit, but I'm used to it at this point and usually recover quickly.

I was laying in bed again trying to fall asleep and the phone dings. Dallas sits up straight in bed, and just stares into the dark without making a peep. After 15 seconds or so I know he's still asleep. I reach up and pull him back in bed, "it's okay, come back to bed."
Dallas(in his still asleep voice), "What's going on?"
Natalie, "My phone went off, come back to bed."

He finally lays back down and "goes back to sleep". He only remembers half of this in the morning.

Conclusion: Sleeping next to Dallas is always an adventure...

I'm DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-08-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

I am FINISHED with PA school!!!

Finished my last day of rotation yesterday,
and did it feel GREAT

SEE YOU AT GRADUATION!

Natalie's Graduation Announcement

2010-08-16T12:16:00.001-07:00

Kankles!!

2010-07-31T23:34:00.001-07:00

I am very sorry to report that my ankles have officially gone missing! I hope they return soon...
(I actually really like my ankles)

28 Weeks!

2010-07-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

Wow the time has flown! Can I already be in my 3rd trimester?
This week I have to go for the dreaded 1-hour glucose tolerance test.

BOOO!

I am also getting closer to the end of school. My last 6 week rotation started this week!
Here we come graduation! I can't believe I've been in PA school for...exactly 2years 1 month 2 weeks and 3 days! I am amazed at the things I have learned and experienced in all that time.

I've been on 9 rotations, currently on my 10th. I have watched amazing doctors save lives and had the privilege to learn from them. I have watched and participated in surgeries from C-sections to heart catheterization while someone was having a heart attack.

Probably some of the most amazing doctors are the ones that go to work everyday trying to make the difference between life style changes and serious health problems, such as a heart attack or stroke. Things that seem so easy like starting diet, exercise,and maybe starting new medications. How frustrating it is to watch the patients come back who didn't take the doctors advice and end up with severe life altering health problems.

One of the most important things is that I have a wonderful husband..who I think can do almost anything. He has slowly taken over all the chores. He does most of the shopping, laundry, he cleans the house, has almost completely taken over cooking, the bills (sorta), and all the other tasks that come up.
With all these new responsibilities, he still works various jobs (PMT, Life Legacy), is almost done with his Masters in Engineering, and is about to start his PhD in Engineering. He has been able to snag an amazing job (with benefits), that couldn't have come at a better time. It has come just as we are preparing to have our first baby!

We are so blessed. We couldn't have asked for more perfect timing if we had planned it ourselves. I graduate August 27th, 4 weeks later I take the boards (September 23), and 4 weeks later our baby girl is due. Definitely the work of the Lord. I am so thankful for a loving heavenly father who has blessed us in so many ways.

What is a PA?

2010-07-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

The most common question I am supposedly asked by patients.
When I started PA school 2yrs ago, one of our assignments was to memorize the answer to this question. It goes something like this...

A PA is a Physician Assistant. They are mid-level providers that work under the supervision of a physician. They perform similar responsibilities as the doctor. They can diagnose, treat, perform procedures, and prescribe (write prescriptions).

I usually just say a Physician Assistant who works under the supervision of the doctor, performing similar tasks. The only thing they really can't do is be the actual surgeon in a surgery.

My new favorite description...I'm seriously thinking about using is...

A PA is a Physician Almost. I think that pretty much sums it up..don't you???

Hey! Watch it, Buddy! ... oh, nevermind. After you, sir!

2010-07-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

Natalie and I were driving over to my dad's house yesterday. We were approaching a construction zone, where the left lane was closing, so everybody had to merge over. We change lanes, and as soon as we do a giant Dodge truck goes flying past us, pulls in front of us, and hits the brakes!

I grumble my usual grumble when annoying people do that to me, but when we got up to the light and got close enough to read his license plate, this is what we saw..

We started cracking up! He's apologizing up front for being a terrible driver!

Updates

2010-07-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling pretty great these days, no big complaints!

My bump is now a a giant hill, I think I'm past the stage where you just look fat!

The babies nickname is "Spaz."
She earned this nickname by her CONSTANT(incessant) movement! She isn't always kicking hard but I rarely experience moments of the day when she isn't rolling around and poking various body parts out.
She enjoys the quiet noise of our house, this is when she is the wiggliest.
She also seems to like the warmth and hum of my computer fan that also sits on my stomach every evening. Kicking the computer and making it move is her favorite past time.
She doesn't seem to like large crowds and lots of talking. (Or she does and decides to take a nap:) For example, all the family parties over the fourth she was pretty calm and serene.

She is back to her old self this week. For the last few days she can't seem to decide which side she likes better. One day she spends the day on the right the next on the left. My stomach is quite lopsided all the time. Button-up shirts are the worst because the buttons don't stay down the middle!

Dallas thinks it is hilarious and likes to provoke her... She will run away from his hand when he pushes. This morning while I was sleeping he put his hand on my stomach and I guess she was doing somersaults! I'm just glad neither one of them woke me up!

I'm trying to get motivated to study so I can take the PANCE (PA board exam) before Spaz decides to come. It is extremely difficult! I have so many other things I want to do! Going shopping, sewing, organizing, and just generally being lazy in the hot summer heat. We bought season passes to Wet n Wild that is just down the road from our house and that is on my mind all day every day!
Any ideas for kicking my motivation into gear, feel free to share...

Pictures of the week--things that made me smile!

2010-06-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

I've been rotating at JCL-Deer Valley doing rotations in the morning, when I found this sign!!
It made me smile!
GO PA's, we made it onto the sign... (never mind about the nurse practitioners...they can dictate wherever they want)

Now for the best picture! This car was parked across from me in the parking lot.

The license plate says: OURBOAT
What can I say, it made me SMILE

2010-06-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, the one on the right is Natalie!

We had the ultrasound last week, and found out we are having a little girl!

The ultrasound was really cool, but the tech forgot to hit Record on the DVR, so we only have about 5 minutes of the half-hour ultrasound, and it's really hard to figure out what you're looking at without some frame-of-reference. Not only that, but this might be the most active baby in the world, and she wouldn't hold still for the 3D images, so she looks more like a monkey than a baby!

It's a good thing we're having a girl, because we've been having a really hard time coming up with names for boys. We have something like 8 potential girl names that we like, so all we have to do is pick our favorite, which actually turns out to be pretty tough.

Natalie is due on October 16th, which is only about 6 weeks after she graduates from PA school!

Stinking tabloids, what'll they come up with next...

2010-05-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

Shopping Carts vs Shopping Basket

2010-04-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

Which one do you prefer when you go shopping (not when you have kids)?

I usually grab a shopping cart.

Dallas usually grabs a shopping basket.

We went to Target last night...the first time I've been to the store in months. (I felt like I was on this wonderfully fun night out on the town, shopping...at Target!)

Anyway we had 2-3 things on the list so when we walked in the store Dallas made the decision to grab a basket instead of the cart I was going for, and told him he should grab.

We walked around the store for about half an hour, finding one thing after another that we needed, because Dallas only buys "bachelor stuff:" basically meat, cheese, and toilet paper. We bought tissue, make up, vitamins, candy, paper towels, cleaning supplies... by the time we left the store his basket was overfilled and we were both carrying boxes of tissue and a giant package of paper towels. We looked a little ridiculous.

But at least I got to say I told you so!

I Graduate in AUGUST!

2010-04-24T22:51:00.000-07:00

A post from my sister Jamie's blog:

Today my students were testing. The third graders were taking the AIMS test and the 2nd graders were placed in several different locations while they took a test as well. On Friday we spent time covering the walls. We had to cover anything that may help them on the test. I even covered the clock. I didn't want my students to be concerned about the time because it isn't a timed test. At the end of the day one of my blessed little kiddos said, "Ms. Pearce, what time is it?" I told him that it was 2:00 and time to get ready to go. He said, "Wow, it is amazing how fast the time flies when you can't see the clock!" I thought it was so cute. Isn't it true though? When we aren't always focused on the time...it seems to fly by! So....let's hope this testing week continues to fly by!!!

Me:
I hate counting down! It makes everything exciting come slower!

The problem is that everyone else thinks I should be counting down, when they discover I'm not they take pity on me and count down for me. I then have to either just give in and let them figure out the time line or I have to be rude and inform them that I don't count down.

This is usually how the conversation goes:
Them: "How much longer until you graduate?"
Me: "I graduate at the end of August."
Them: "How far away is that?"
Me: "I'm not sure, a couple of rotations and a week of vacation!!"
Them: "Well lets see its April....so May, June, July, August! 4 months, you must be so excited."
Me: "Oh wow that is still a long ways away ...thanks, it is very exciting!!"

I think it must be human nature, because EVERYONE wants to know how much time I have left rather than just the date of when I am done.

It's is like when your in the car on the way to vacation and you say to mommy and daddy...

"Are we there yet?"

Such a ditz!!

2010-04-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

So for the last 4-5months or so my post have become few and far between! (I always have to have Dallas check and make sure I say these silly sayings correctly)

I was also extremely disappointed that no one was commenting on any of our posts. I must be really boring!!
Then accidentally I figured out that I had made it so all the comments posted had to be "moderated." I was hoping to avoid the random annoying posts from people I don't know!
Instead I cut off all my comments!

Well... I have finally figured it out so COMMENT away!!!!

Dallas studying...jinx

2010-04-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

It was so wonderful to come home and see Dallas studying so hard....NOT...
That is just a dream I have...But I imagine this is what he would look like if he was studying or studied...
He is even at his own desk, instead of plopped in the middle of my desk and all my study stuff!

But alas, he is trying to fix his computer that quit on him today... I guess it's time for a new computer.

Big News!

2010-04-03T19:18:00.001-07:00

I am getting a PhD! I got offered a job a St. Joseph's hospital as a research associate to work at the Keller Center for Imaging Excellence. The plan is to get a doctorate in MRI pulse programming.

I found out a couple of weeks ago, it's taken me a while to post about it because a lot of it is still up in the air. For instance, I haven't actually been hired, my future boss said that he would hire me when the position opens. The position will open (depending on the hospital's budget) when one of his other students graduates, which should happen sometime mid-May. I still have to apply to the PhD program at ASU, which shouldn't be much of a hurdle, seeing as how I already have funding and a mentor, but you never know... ASU has done many many completely brainless things like raising tuition by about 10% every year for the last 6 years.

I'm a little nervous because I didn't see my life going this direction, but the more I learn about it, the more excited I get about the idea. It's going to be a lot of computer work, doing computer programming no less, but the lab is doing absolutely amazing work, and it's going to be fun to be a part of it!

Baltimore Snowpocalipse: belated update with pictures

2010-03-01T08:28:00.001-08:00

Washington monument from the lab. The snow just starting to fall Friday afternoon.

Washington monument from my hotel just south of downtown

View from my hotel room Saturday afternoon.

Sorry for the delay. I lost the cord for my camera (which is such a lame excuse), then I lost my memory card reader, so I am finally using Natalie's computer's built in (read: cannot be lost) card reader to finally get these pictures off our camera.

I was in Baltimore when the first version of Snowpocalipse (apparently they have had 2 record setting snow storms since!). I was supposed to fly out at 6:30 Friday afternoon February 5th. Well in anticipation of the snow, they started canceling flights at about 10:00. We started a betting pool to see when the snow would start falling, I voted for 1:30 and it started coming down at about 11:15.

It didn't stop until about 2:00 in the morning on Sunday.

They closed BWI Friday afternoon, and they posted online that they would try and resume flights Saturday afternoon depending on snow conditions.

Saturday afternoon they announced they had canceled all flights and would try and resume flights Sunday afternoon depending on snow conditions.

Sunday afternoon they announced they had canceled all flights and would try and resume flights Monday afternoon depending on snow conditions.

Monday afternoon they announced they had canceled all flights...

On Saturday night I got tired of having my flights canceled so I booked an 6:00AM Amtrak train to Newark airport (New Jersey) to fly out Sunday morning. Amtrak called me about 45 minutes later and told me my train had been canceled, which meant I would miss my flight.

Rescheduled the train, rescheduled the flight (for the record setting 6th time), and finally made it home at 7:30 Sunday night.

If I didn't take the train to Newark, I probably wouldn't have made it home for another week. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, all the way into Virginia, all airports had canceled flights or were severely delayed.

Great News!!

2010-02-26T16:05:00.000-08:00

I made it through another CAD day!! (CAD=terrible day of testing after each PA rotation)
I'm 99% positive I passed everything too!

Now I have to go on rotation to Maricopa County on my Surgery rotation = long hours and NO fun :(

You can start feeling sorry for me at any time now...

Adventuresome Adventuring: Updated with Pictures

2010-02-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

Out in the boonies

Jeep trails (not too impressive from this view, but you should see the downhill)

Natalie and I went on a little adventure yesterday. We gassed up our SUV and headed out to the Lake Pleasant area to find a hike. Thanks to a late breakfast and mid-morning road construction on the Carefree highway, we didn't get up to Lake Pleasant until almost 11:30.

I looked up online where we were supposed to go, but things rarely work out that easily, and our adventure wouldn't have been very adventurous if we found our hike first try. We wound up taking a series of wrong turns and missed exits, and we never did find our hike. What we did find was actually a lot cooler.

If you head up Castle Hot Springs road to Cow Creek road (who names this stuff?) you will eventually find what looks like an abandoned cult compound. There were several dilapidated old buildings, some washed away down to the foundations and a rusted out VW bus. Combine that with dozens of "No Trespassing" signs and you come to the logical conclusion that the only people crazy enough to move out to the middle of nowhere en masse are legitimately crazy.

We turned around shortly after passing the last of the empty foundations whe. The road turned into a sandy wash, and seeing as how we sold our only vehicle with 4 wheel drive, we decided not to risk it. We headed back and saw signs for Humbug wash (again with the weird names!) three miles ahead. Turns out those three miles were down a Jeep trail, where even people driving Jeeps have to scout the road to make sure they're not going to get stuck or flip over (remember: we're driving our 2 wheel drive Lexus SUV, and yes, we got gawked at for being in a Lexus on a dirt road, especially a dirt road like that one).

Again, the road finally deteriorated to the point of no return, so we turned around before anything catastrophic happened. We still haven't gone on our hike, so I looked up another one on the internet... because that worked out so well for us last time...

We headed over to Cave Creek to find "Black Mountain" and one of these days I'm going to learn to read the fine print. It was only a 2.5 mile hike, which sounded fine, but the total elevation gain over those 2.5 miles was close to 1300 feet (that's an average 10% grade for those of you paying close attention). I'm pretty sure Peter Jackson used this hill as inspiration for Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings. There were these giant, jagged black rocks all the way up and especially at the top. The view from the top was pretty amazing though.

We got back at about 6:30, 7 and a half hours and almost 150 miles all told.

Christmas is officially over!

2010-01-26T13:25:00.000-08:00

Dallas and I took down the Christmas decorations last night! (Monday is our new Saturday since I am working the next 5 Saturdays in a row and Dallas is going to be out of town for the next few weekends. Thankfully Dallas doesn't have class on Mondays so we actually get to see each other occasionally.)
We decided that since the decorations didn't get put up until right before christmas that they deserved to be up a little bit longer. We wanted to make Christmas last a little longer. We were going to make sure that we took at least the christmas tree down before we sold the truck, but that didn't happen. So, for the last week we have been stuck with a christmas tree without a way to get rid of it. There was no way I was putting in my new car...

Instead we waited until it was the night before the trash man came then snuck it out the back door and threw it in the dumpster. Shh don't tell, I heard the trash man come this morning and take it away so everything is okay...

This was one of the best Christmas vacations ever. Dallas took the two weeks off with me (or didn't have work, whatever you prefer)! We just played for two weeks straight with family and friends. It was fun spending time with everyone.

-We went on various hikes, discovering some great places for relaxation, I can't believe I've lived in the valley for 6 going on 7 years and I never knew about these awesome places. Dallas has lived here his entire life and he didn't know about them so I don't feel too bad.
- Had some really wonderful talks and learned more about each other. (I didn't think there was much left to learn, it was great:)
- Celebrated our 4th anniversary (WOW!) the week before...then on the actual day I forgot what day it was...I still can't believe it! (Dallas forgot a little too, so I'm not in the doghouse.) He bought me some really amazing flowers that are supposed to survive better without a lot of attention or sunlight. (Plants seem to die around our house)

Life is great, sometimes surreal. Can't believe I'm in love and married to such an amazing man.

-----------2009-----------

2010-01-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

2009 Looking Back.... (Stolen from Laurie Jane)

What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
D:Started graduate school!
N:Delivered babies!!

Did you keep your new years' resolutions?
D: What new year's resolutions?
N: Don't remember...some maybe...mostly no.

What are some of your resolutions for 2010?
D: Learn something profession related everyday!
N: Survive and Graduate from PA school.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
D: Mindy my sister did to Ginormica aka Nellie.
N: Christy my sister did to skinny mini :)Love you Anna

Did anyone close to you die?
D & N: NO

What countries did you visit?
D: Just the good 'ol US of A
N: Nope no time for that kind of silliness.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
D: Steady employment.......................
N: A degree in Physician Assistant Studies.

What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
D: August 29th, the day of my first Triathlon in Bear Lake, Utah/Idahoish
N: Last day of class. (Sometime in May I think)

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
D: Olympic Triathlon, got sixth place...in my age group.
N: Surviving my first 5 rotations and passing (barely) all my exams. whew.

What was your biggest failure?
D: What's that?
N: Answering questions like; If the patient presents with this, what is it?....and this....and this....and this...and this (As I sit miserably racking my brain for anything that might sound a little intelligent and thinking, "am I really supposed to know this???")

Did you suffer illness or injury?
D: Shin splints...ouch.
N: I broke my arm...just a little bit.

What was the best thing you bought?
D & N: New Car, at least for us!

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
D: Barack Obama and the entire GOP.
N: Kanye West (Such a dork...even Obama thinks so.) ---Is it sad that I don't know how to spell the Presidents name but I can spell Cholechodolithiasis??

Where did most of your money go?
D: Mortgage.
N: Tuition.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
D: Natalie.
N: Having time to exercise, hike, bike and run:)

What song will always remind you of 2009?
D: New Divide by Linkin Park... cus (high pitch) I like it?
N: Breakfast at Tiffany's...Don't ask.

Compared to this time last year, are you: much happier, richer, nicer?
D: Happier, poorer, nicer (questionable..ask my family)
N: Happier..poorer..nicer(you'll have to ask Dallas)

What do you wish you'd done more of?
D: Studied.
N: Study and Played more (maybe I wish I would have just found more time)

What do you wish you'd done less of?
D: Goofing off on the internet, reading the news.
N: Watch lame TV shows (maybe that's where my lost time went)

How did you spend Christmas?
D & N: With family, my cute, adorable Nephews and niece, brothers and sisters, husband and parents.

Did you fall in love in 2009?
D: I'm already in love, DuH!
N: Yes, I fall more in love with Dallas everyday.

What was your favorite TV program?
D: Comes and Goes
N: I refuse to make favorites at this time.

What was the best book you read this year?
D: The entire Dune series...all 15 of them. (Thanks Natalie:)
N: Book..that's funny...who has time to read. (I actually laughed out loud at this question)

What did you want and get?
D: IPOD touch (That pretty much sums up all my wants)
N: A new (automatic) car.

What were your favorite films of this year?
D: Blindside.
N: Blindside and the Proposal.

What were your least favorite films of this year?
D: Fantastic Mr. Fox
N: Fantastic Mr. Fox, All about Steve

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
D: Age 25, Ipod touch, can't remember.
N: Age 24, On rotation then drove to the valley for Dinner with my friend's at the Cheesecake factory...then a movie:)

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
D: I didn't have to work this year, it was great, I wouldn't change a thing.
N: Not being away from Dallas for almost 18 weeks of the year

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
D: You really can wear shorts everywhere and all year long.
N: Professional wear: Dress pants and a white coat, I tried white pants...Dallas decided he didn't like them so he shrunk them...never mind my bad.

What kept you sane?
D: Natalie.
N: Dallas and there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Who did you miss?
D: Natalie, we spent a lot of time apart:(
N: Dallas, my house, my friends.

Who was the best new person (people) you met?
D: Dr. Bennett and Scott, I worked with them at ASU.
N: All the wonderful people at all my rotations. The most meaningful, Dr. Alhaderi (Kyson's Cardiologist)

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
D: Don't embarrass Natalie in front of my entire extended family...She doesn't like that.
N: Don't reach out to catch yourself if you fall off your bike. Just take the fall.

What are you most excited for in 2010?
D: Trying to find something to be excited about...more triathlons and Natalie's Graduation.
N: Hands down, Graduation, at the same time kinda scared.

What are you least excited for in 2010?
D: Nothing... 2010 is going to rock...except I couldn't figure out anything to be excited about either.
N: Surgery rotation...ugh.

Anthem Triathlon! Results

2009-12-25T19:58:00.000-08:00

So... a little late, but here are the results from the Anthem Triathlon 3 weeks ago...

My friend did this triathlon last year, and that was my only goal: I wanted to beat his time. I am proud to say I smoked him! We were just about even on everything but the run, where I made up almost 5 minutes. That was kind of weird to me, because I hate running!

I convinced my dad to do it with me, and he did really well. He got first place! ... in his weight & age group...

This is me and dear ol' dad right before the race started, freezing our butts off.

Neither of us realized the swim was going to be outdoors! They did heat the pool, but waiting outside with a swimming suit and a swim cap was not fun.

7 minutes later and still smiling ...

Heading down the finish line!

Apparently they assign race numbers alphabetically, because my dad and I had consecutive numbers. Every where we went, people thought they were so clever... "hey you guys know each other? Huhuhu..." Yeah we know each other; aside from the fact that our numbers are right next to each other, we just happen to look like each other. Good job, smart guy.

My aunt and uncle live in Anthem, they came to cheer me across the finish line. Their (super cute) kids made me signs "Go Big D!" Turns out it worked for my dad (Danny) too!

My dad crossing the finish line. The run was pretty tough for him, not because he didn't train for it, but because halfway through it, he managed to get a giant straight pin stuck through the bottom of his shoe that poked him every time he took a step!

Anthem Triathlon!

2009-12-03T12:05:00.001-08:00

This Saturday I am competing in the Anthem Holiday Classic Triathlon! It's a Sprint level, which means it won't be quite as long as the Bear Lake tri. It's a 400m swim, 12 mile bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run through Anthem.

The best part is that I convinced my dad to run it with me, so he'll be out there too! We'll take lots of pictures (hopefully they'll turn out this time), and I'll try to keep track of my goggles!

It starts at 9:00 at the Anthem Community Center (41130 N. Freedom Way), hope to see you there!

Anna Jo Christensen

2009-11-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

Christy had her baby last thurday, November 12!! She was 7lbs 3oz, 20inches long!

I told my mom I would post these pictures of Anna on my blog!!

Isn't she so adorable!!

2009-10-20T14:02:00.001-07:00

Natalie started another rotation up in Show Low, which means I have to figure out what to do with myself for a month until she gets back. This rotation is going to be a lot tougher than the last; over the summer I could go up to Show Low and hang out all week, so we got to see each other a lot. I have classes I can't miss this time around, so we might get to see each other on weekends, but Natalie is supposed to be studying for her mid-year exams, and I'm going on a few more trips for work, so we're not really sure how much time we'll get to spend together.

A lot of people have been asking me how my classes are going, and the only thing I can think of to tell them is that they're "ok..." There's really not a whole lot to report: chances are you wouldn't understand it if I tried to explain it (not only because it usually involves scary-complicated math, but because a lot of the time I'm not sure I understand it myself). So suffice it to say school is going ok.

I work as a TA for one of the undergraduate bioengineering courses, and the lab instructor might take me on as a grad student in his research lab. He works on MRI, specifically making different contrast agents to highlight specific structures in the body. I am seriously toying with the idea of getting a doctorate, but I'm still a ways off in actually making that decision. I have to find a project I can get excited about, and since my lab instructor has been out with the swine flu, things have been on hold until I'm confident he's not contagious (in a slightly unrelated note, one of the things we're doing in my math class is calculating the conditions necessary for a contagion to become an epidemic. Stay tuned for details).

Other than that life has been pretty mellow.

Thank You!!

2009-09-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry this won't be very long...it's really hard to type with one hand!!

I thought breaking my right wrist would be about the same as breaking my left wrist. I was wrong. I'm right handed. It takes me longer to do everything and I just plain can't do other things.

For instance, I cannot open a water bottle :(
The funniest thing is watching people figure out how to shake my hand. I put my left hand out and people grab it like they are going to hold my hand and then they kinda shake it. It's really funny!

Thankfully I have the most wonderful husband(sorry, but it's true), and he helps me do everything. Wednesday morning Dallas got called into work and I had to get ready on my own.
I ended up having to go to my rotation late, without breakfast or lunch, my favorite glasses broke, and my hair was awful. It was not a good morning:(
Every other morning I've been clean, dressed, hair done, make-up on, well fed with lunch, and with sunglasses:)

He's so wonderful, I couldn't do it without him!

I get my new (removable) splint next tuesday!! I cannot wait, I'm so tempted to take this one off so I can clean my arm! Maybe I'll "accidentally" get it wet....jk

This is what it looked like on Wednesday (2 days after the break and before the surgery).

Quick update

2009-09-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

Natalie's surgery on Friday went really well. It actually took a lot less time than either of us thought it would. We checked in at about noon, and we were on our way home by a little after 4:00. The doctor said the prognosis is good, he fixed everything he wanted to fix, and so now we get to go through recovery. Yeay.

It was an open reduction; they had to make an incision to put in a plate and screws. Natalie's hurting, but getting through it.

Thanks to every one who called or stopped by. We really appreciate the support.

2009-09-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

Life has been rather interesting of late. On Labor Day, Natalie decided it would be fun to go on a bike ride. We went cruising around Anthem the night before looking for small roads with big bike lanes, and to see, just for fun, if there was a way we could get to Anthem without taking the freeway. Turns out Anthem is much too far away to ride a bike, but that's ok, we figured we'd go part way on some side roads and turn around and come back.

We were on out way back from 15 miles of uneventful (but really really hot) riding. We were literally less than a block away from our house. Natalie went up onto the sidewalk, and was looking back to make sure I wasn't going to run into her, when her bike went off the sidewalk. Her bike fell over, and I practically landed on top of her. She fell pretty hard on her right hand onto the concrete sidewalk, and after a visit to the ER and some x-rays, turns out she broke her wrist. After a consult with an Ortho doctor, turns out she needs surgery to put everything back into place.

So to make her feel better, we went out and bought a new (to us) car! It's a 2000 Lexus RX300, and the lady selling it literally cried when Natalie drove off in it. We've actually been looking for quite a while, and this just happened to work out really well, because it turns out that driving a car with a manual transmission with only your left hand is pretty tough. We'll post pictures soon.

Natalie's surgery is on Friday afternoon, and she's hoping to be able to go back to her rotation on Monday.

Dallas's Olympic Triathlon (Bear Lake Classic)

2009-08-31T16:19:00.000-07:00

HE DID IT!!!
Dallas finished his first triathlon and did awesome.

The coolest part is that he did really well!
He was 6th in his age/gender division!
And 43rd out of 70 overall!

Dallas's sister Cherise convinced him to do a triathlon with her a couple of months ago. Well she also convinced him to do the Olympic level rather than a Sprint.
-Sprint triathlon consists of an 1/2 mile swim, 12mile bike ride, and 3mile run.
-Olympic triathlon consists of a mile swim, 25mile bike ride, and 6mile run.

They both finished and did an awesome job!!

It started off a little shaky, with Dallas forgetting his cap and losing his goggles right before the swim started. In fact we were still looking for goggles when the gun went off and the swimmers took off. He borrowed Cherise's second pair and then forgot to take off his gym shorts as he was running into the lake.

In all the commotion my camera got on this really weird setting...so I don't have very many good pictures:(

If you look closely you can see everyone (but Dallas) with wetsuits on, due to the fact that the water was freezing cold. This is Dallas taking off his gym shorts as everyone is running through the water.

This is Dallas's finishing his mile swim (33.5min) and running to go start his bike ride.
(Again he is the one with only legs..because he isn't wearing a wetsuit)

This is him finishing the 25mile bike ride (1hr18min)...he has a smile on his face!!

And this is us after his 6mile run (54min46sec).. Finish!!!

Total time 2hr 50min 37sec!!

First day of school!

2009-08-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

Caution: complaints, whining, and boo-hooing below. Read at your own risk, leaving snarky comments of "oh suck it up you big cry baby" to yourself. Thanks.

I had a real whiz-bang first day of school today. It started with an alarm clock that didn't go off when it should have (so in reality I wasn't thinking straight when I set it, but it should know better, dang it!). A part I ordered for my truck finally came in, so I wanted to get ready, drive down to the dealership when they opened, fix my truck, and be on my merry way. Well that didn't happen. I stumbled out of bed, put on my broken glasses and the only clean t-shirt I have left, and hobbled down to the dealership. I fixed myself a bagel (very handy for eating in the car when you're 20 minutes late), but I left it on top of my car, so it went kersplat on the driveway. Traffic was awesome, as usual, so by the time I got to ASU I was almost going to be on time, but I forgot one very important little detail: there are almost 60,000 people that go to ASU's Tempe campus, and about 95% of the parking spots are gone by 6:30 in the morning. I wandered around for almost 20 minutes looking for a place to park my truck (the one that's still broken) before I sort of double parked in the light rail Park-and-Ride lot (if anyone asks, I took the light rail to school today).

I finally made it to my first class almost a half hour late. It was fine, I missed some of the "how do you do's," nothing major. I met with my professor which went really well, and it seemed like everything was looking up in the world... until I read my schedule wrong and showed up at the wrong classroom for my math class. I've been going to ASU for 6 and a half years, and suddenly I'm 0 for 2 in showing up on time.

And I'm hungry, because my breakfast is somewhere on 35th Avenue.

So now I've got one last chance to redeem myself: my last class is at 4:30, and I've already been there once today, so I know exactly where it is!

2009-08-13T00:32:00.001-07:00

It's the story of my summer..but I miss my hubby:(

Road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway

2009-07-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

Natalie had a few days off over the 4th of July so we took off Friday for California! We took our bikes with us to get a little exercise and see the sights a little slower. Of course, the first thing that happened is we got a flat tire. 2 of them. This is the second, on the side of the road on our way back to the hotel. We were in scenic Port Hueneme ("you-n-me" cute, huh?), there were tons of green fields and cute little fruit stands all along this road.

There were tons of these types of trees that all looked like giant bonzai trees getting blown over. It made the whole town look slightly tipsy.
In addition to the drunken trees, there was the most random sign on the road out of town.
Pirate Staffing? Seriously? What do you need them for? Do you go to those guys if you have a pirate ship you need staffed, or is it for placing buccaneers in corporate offices?

We drove through some really pretty wine country... on accident. We made a wrong turn on our way to Santa Barbara for the 4th, and wound up cruising through some really pretty farms. We played "Name that Agricultural Product" as we drove. We got pretty good at recognizing strawberries and grapes, and that's about it. If it wasn't for the sign, we never would have guessed those fern-looking things were artichokes (of course, we didn't take a picture, but that's ok).

We stopped in Santa Barbara on the 4th, there were SO many people!!! This is us taking a break from the madness.US-1: Pacific Coast Highway. It was so gorgeous the whole way up. As you can see, it's a windy little 2 lane highway that hugs the coast as much as possible. A couple of places were pretty scary but the ocean was breathtaking.

Natalie thought these trees looked funny, so we have about 15 pictures of these and others just like them.

Stopped along a little turnout somewhere up the coast, I think this is near Carmel.

Why is Dallas making this funny face, you might ask?

That's why.

We made it all the way to San Francisco and rode our bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge.

The thing about taking a vacation with just the two of us, it's hard to get good pictures of us together. Maybe if I was a little more adept at Photoshop I could do more than just put my picture close to Natalie's picture, but that's ok.

More to follow...

miss you

2009-06-25T22:37:00.001-07:00

it's funny the things that i have stopped caring about this last year. it's not only that my priorities have changed...but i have started to just not care!
i don't seem to care what the background on my blog is, in fact for a while I wanted it to be the most boring plain jane background i could find. funny how that made me feel better.

on the other hand i've started to really care (or obsess) about the time i spend with dallas. nothing else can make me feel as calm and in control as when i'm talking to my love. life with him is my baseline. it isn't cheesy, it's true. the time we get to spend together just makes me feel inspired. a lot of that time seems to be just chatting on the phone rather than physically being together.

i was thinking the other day about all the "what if's" in my life. it seems there are an endless number of them. as my imagination wondered through each possibility i realized that the ones that made me happy included dallas. the life possibilities that brought sad tears to my eyes were the ones where dallas had been left out of my life.

the truth of the matter is...DALLAS YOU ARE THE HAPPINESS IN MY LIFE!!

It's official: Rotations have begun

2009-06-11T12:42:00.001-07:00

This post is a little out of order, so bear with us...

Natalie has officially finished her first year of PA school, which is why we were able to go with her family to San Diego. It was so much fun! We spent 3 days lounging on La Jolla beach. The weather was less than perfect for everyone but me: it was cloudy and windy with a high temp of about 65. Everybody was pretty cold for most of it, but wierdo me was absolutely loving it! :)While we were there we took the time to go to the San Diego temple with Natalie's parents and her sisters. It was a nice break from the giant kegger party that is Southern California in the summertime.

Natalie's first two rotations are up in Show Low, so we spent last weekend moving her and her friend up to Show Low. She's working in a Family Practice doctor's office and so far it has been pretty uneventful. She mostly just follows the doctor around as he sees all his patients. It has been kind of weird having Natalie gone, the house feels really empty without her! I (still) haven't received a schedule from my work for this month, so it looks like I'll be able to spend a lot of time up there hanging out with her little brothers while she's at work!

I updated our slideshow with some of the pictures we took in San Diego, and one thing I've noticed is that we really like to take pictures of ourselves in goofy sunglasses. The pictures are randomized, and while I was watching it there were 4 pictures in a row of Natalie and me in weird weird sunglasses.

San Diego Trip

2009-06-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to use my camera in San Diego last week!!

Kyson was adorable...he liked the water but he loved the sand.
He could have played in it all day!

Zack the Strong!

Kyson was having a lot of fun playing in the little waves that came on the shore...until a big wave came and knocked him over :( This is a picture right after the wave hit him...so sad!!

After the wave got Kyson, he was happy to lay in a blanket on Grandma.

Kyson back to playing in the sand.
I insisted on being in the middle of it all and knocking down the wall Andrea, Jared, and everyone else built!
He looks pretty excited about it!

Caleb and Me...He was trying to smile...
I guess he was just cold and he couldn't figure out how to get the sand off his hands.

Tuesday it was really windy! If you look in the background of this picture you can see our beach neighbors:) Their umbrella turned inside out!

Kyson decided that my mom needed to be covered in sand.
The funny part was she just sat there and let him!

Me, at the campsite

This is typical Kyson. He's giggling!!

We had a crazy ride over to Coronado Island.
We stopped at a park and had dinner!

This is Katie and Jason playing "King of the Hill"

Christy and Zack

Caleb got left in the swing...all by himself.
He didn't complain that much but he sure looks miserable:)

More pictures to come.....

Our Herb Garden

2009-05-23T12:06:00.001-07:00

The only part of our garden that is actually growing....

Rosemary

Basil

Peppermint

Lavender

The Pickle got me through it!!!

2009-05-23T01:07:00.001-07:00

The story goes something like this...

I needed the perfect pencil for finals...one that wouldn't let me down!! I searched high and low. Then it found me...a bright green pencil with the words in shiny dark green print that read "DILL PICKLE!" I couldn't resist, it had to be the one!

Of course we all know you can't go into a test with one pencil. You have to have two, just in case something catastrophic happens to the other one. (I've actually lost many pencils to nervous jitters. They usually fly under the seat in front of you.)
My second pencil I chose because it speaks for itself, "Primary makes me happy." Nothing could make the jitters disappear faster than a statement like that.

So, well armored, I entered my tests with confidence...maybe that is a little too strong of a word... I entered my tests knowing my pencil would get me through.

AND it DID!! I SURVIVED MY FIRST YEAR OF PA SCHOOL!! I MADE IT THROUGH MY LAST FINALS WITH AWESOME/FLYING COLORS DUE TO MY TRUSTWORTHY DILL PICKLE PENCIL. IT DIDN'T LET ME DOWN ONCE!!

I am so excited to be done with that part of school. It was rough and involved a lot of complaining on my part. I couldn't have done it without... my awesome husband Dallas(you thought I was going to say Dill Pickle pencil) He stayed up late with me Thursday night keeping me motivated to study my last night.

I'm so thankful to all my friends who helped me through. I learned to love them even when the stress made us a little hard to be around. They are awesome girls, I am going to miss being around them during rotations. THANKS GIRLS!!

Shawna and Heidi right after our last final on their way out to head to PA conference in San Diego!

Mara (who had no idea I took this pic:)

Heidi, Shawna and Katrina
We went back for one last study session at Paradise Bakery, one of our favorite study nooks. We usually take over this table in the corner and study there for hours. If we leave when they close they usually give us leftover cookies:)
Today they brought us a box of cookies just for good luck!! Aren't they sweet?!

Me...with a weird look on my face

Katrina, studying hard

Katrina after her last final!!

Melinda after her last final!

Traveling man updated with pic

2009-05-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

So while Natalie is back home studying her little heart out, I am spending her entire finals week in Washington DC for work. I get to travel quite a bit for my job, but I don't often get much time to see the sights at these cities I visit. There have been a few exceptions, like when I took Natalie to Boston and Baltimore, but those have unfortunately those have been the exceptions rather than the rule. What usually happens is I spend 2 days in a city, I fly out of Phoenix early early the first morning, spend the rest of the day slumming around the hotel, spend all the next day working, and go straight to the airport to fly home. Not too exciting, let me tell 'ya.

This time though, I have almost 4 full days in the DC area, and I only have to work for about 6 hours total in those 4 days. I'm really excited because I've never been to DC long enough to walk around and see all the monuments and museums. I even get to go to the DC temple! I went down to the National Mall this afternoon and saw the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Veteran's memorial, I had to sit through almost 2 hours of downtown rush hour traffic to get there, but it was totally worth it!

On a side note, we bought this totally awesome new digital camera... which I didn't bring on this trip. I didn't even bring out older, cheaper-but-still-better-than-my-cell-phone camera, so all I have are a couple of blurry pics which I'll post when I get home.

The Lincoln Memorial was a lot different than I thought it would be. It was really simple, I was expecting a full Smithsonian style exhibit about his life and especially death. All it was was a long marble staircase up to the seated statue of Lincoln. On the left wall was the Gettysberg address, on the left wall was a speech I didn't recognize, it looked like an inaugural address from his reelection, and that was pretty much it. The Vietnam memorial was really cool, but I really liked the Korean War memorial. I started tagging along behind a tour group listening to the tour guide, she was telling all kinds of stories. The Korean memorial is really similar to the Vietnam, but instead of carving all the names of casualties in black granite, they put portraits and pictures of the fallen soldiers.

It almost doesn't seem fair that I'm touring the nation's capital while Natalie is at home studying for her ridiculous number of finals, but I think she'll actually get more done if I'm 3000 miles away, and so far it seems to be working. Four finals down and only two more to go! I'm going to get home just in time for the celebration, as of Friday, Natalie is officially a second year PA student!Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Monument looking across the reflecting pool at the Washington monument (I believe the Jefferson monument is the domed building behind the Washington)

Not too bad for a cell phone camera!

New Camera!!

2009-05-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

Dallas bought a new camera yesterday and I love it!! It takes awesome pictures!

Now I just need something to take pictures of...come on vacation!!!!

This is all I could find to take pictures of.
We went for a walk into our backyard out through our complex. I found some really interesting things to take pictures of. My favorite is the giant tree in someones backyard that has outgrown it and is lifting up their fence trying to get out.

It's going to take me awhile to learn how to use it!

......2 weeks!!!

2009-05-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

And this is why I want to go into Pediatrics!

I have two more weeks full of hardcore studying!
Wish me luck!!

Favorite Things!

2009-05-07T01:25:00.000-07:00

#1 on my list right now is my little backyard. Dallas has put so much work into it! I love it! Everyday I get to eat breakfast on my cute white swing and watch as my flowers, strawberries, and various herbs get bigger and bigger. I love watching them grow! It's my little retreat away from school!

#2 on my list is my bike. I've started riding it to school consistently in the last few weeks. It is so much fun. The weather is getting a little too hot but not too bad yet. I'm going to keep it up... until I start sizzling that is!

ROTATIONS

2009-05-01T00:21:00.000-07:00

I have officially started a countdown! (I hate countdowns they just make your goal come so slowly!!)
Unfortunately everyone around me is counting down and so I can't help it! It's too much fun to wake in the morning and say 3 MORE WEEKS!!

That's right everyone! I am done with my didactic(sitting in class all day and taking tests all day everyday) year in 3 weeks. I get one week off....any great vacations ideas???...then I have one week learning how to be a student on rotations. I then go on rotations June 8!!

It's really crazy that I'm already done with the hard part. I felt like it was never going to end. The truth is that I don't mind sitting in class, I just don't really like taking tests. I have an average of 2 tests a wk, last semester it was more like 3! Now I'm just complaining.

THE WAY EXCITING NEW IS....
I got my rotation schedule today! I'm starting my rotations in Show Low (Family Practice then OB/GYN!) I'm staying with my parents, kicking my little brother out of his room, and ditching Dallas:) I feel a little bad about that and I'll miss him tons!
Overall I think I'll be doing around 4 rotations in Show Low! (At least I'll be out of the heat for the summer.) The rest of my rotations will be here in the valley. Kinda crazy!!

2009-04-30T00:08:00.000-07:00

The truth is I should be in bed. Unfortunately I can't sleep because I'm worried about this dumb test that is at 8:00AM tomorrow morning, not even a big deal, except I don't know the information well enough. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure I've taken one test in PA school where I've felt prepared.
Why am I worried now? It's no different from any other test...I don't know! Probably because it's late and I'm tired.

I should be asleep but instead I wanted to say HI!

Home improvements

2009-04-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

We have been spending a lot of time working in our little backyard lately; you've seen our grow box, and now we've added a porch swing! It took pretty much all weekend (and then some), and my fingers and knuckles are all mangled, but it's finished, and it looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself!

As soon as we got it up, we went and sat out on our porch for almost 2 hours just hanging out enjoying the weather!

We had a few... setbacks... namely one of the support beams broke in two while I was hanging on it, trying to see how strong it was. Apparently, it wasn't very strong! It was pretty scary because I was hanging directly underneath an 8-foot long 4x4 which came crashing down right next to me!

Our grow box experienced a little setback of its own; I thought I would go and do a good deed and put fertilizer out there because some of the plants weren't looking so hot. Well, apparently you're not supposed to bury your wife's favorite in steer manure, I guess they don't like that sort of thing. So yeah, a bunch of our plants died, especially the flowers. Natalie was very sad, and I got in big trouble! Thankfully, our food plants survived for the most part, and now we have a few little green strawberries growing in our back yard!

WATER FIGHT!!!

2009-03-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

We went to an awesome one year old birthday party for Dallas's Sister Mindy's little boy Jace!(That was a mouthful!)

Here are some pics...(thanks Diane!)
The first one is Dallas and I NOT eating sugar..(Dallas forgot he promises!)

The next few are of Dallas and his little brother, Hans in a water fight. I guess Hans was bullying the younger kids so Dallas had to show him what an older brother is about. I believe Dallas had won until....

(not pictured unfortunately)

I got him soaked all the way down the back:-)
So I guess that means that I won since I walked away dry!!!

Hubby deprived:(

2009-03-31T17:43:00.001-07:00

I have been feeling very deprived of my husband! In the last week I have hardly had a chance to say Hello to him! He is either working on the ambulance or gone on some trip for work! Just last week he went to Dallas, Texas and Chicago. I thought I'd get some hubby time tonight but he is working the worst shift; 12p-12a UGH!! I have to leave to go to school really early and when I get home he's already gone:(

What a bummer!

Now that I am done complaining about my absentee husband...

I've had a lot of opportunities to share the gospel with my friends at school recently. Most of them are very religious or grew up religious. The one question that seems to have been asked the most is about the church's view on women. Some think that a few of the girls in class and I are disobeying the rules of the church by being in school. Especially being in school and married. I have had some very interesting conversations about the priesthood and the church's view on women and education. It has really helped me remember why I have worked so hard to get where I am at. Sometimes it would be so much easier to just stop school and have a baby. I know though, that right now I am supposed to be in school getting an education, no matter how cute the babies are. I'm not completely sure why.

I wanted to thank my sisters for rallying to help me a couple weeks ago. I wanted to give a girl at school a talk by Pres. Hinckley on Women and Education but I couldn't find it! I looked for a long time. Fortunately my sisters are wonderful and found it for me!! THANKS!!!

My hearts' in Dallas, Texas

2009-03-26T22:55:00.001-07:00

I love you. I miss you when your away. I miss you when you're only in the other room and now you're in another state! I can't wait for you to get back! I love you.

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-03-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

I had the best birthday! Natalie and I went to Disneyland with Andrea and Jared and their two kids for 3 days. The last time we went, Disneyland was so crowded they stopped selling tickets, so this time we were hoping for a little smaller turnout this time. We got there on Thursday afternoon, and the place was practically empty! The longest line in the place was maybe 20 minutes at the most. We did the park hopper passes, so we got to go to California Adventure too.

It was actually really fun to be there with Andrea's kids, we had a lot of time at Disneyland, so we did all the little kiddie stuff that gets skipped when you only have one day to see everything. I remember those rides being a lot more fun... but it was really cute how excited Caleb got. Even Kyson would get really animated. They did really good for being at a crowded amusement park for 3 days (with little or no nap time).

My big birthday present was a new iPod! I had been wanting a smart phone, but Verizon is stupid, and I couldn't get one without paying an extra $30 a month. It was a lot cheaper to get an iPod, so that's what we did! It's a second generation iTouch, and it is almost too much fun.

I want to thank everybody that called or sent me messages or came over to hang out. It meant a lot to me! And most especially I want to thank Natalie for having so much fun with me!

Thanks for the best birthday ever!

2009-03-12T17:55:00.000-07:00

I READ IT

I LIKED IT AND I CRIED...

Happiness

2009-02-27T13:18:00.000-08:00

Scientist have researched and concluded that happiness spreads to the people we are around.
We've known that all along.
A SMILE IS CONTAGIOUS!!
It makes me laugh that scientist are doing research on it. It's like they think that something can't be true unless they can prove it scientifically....then it's a fact.

Don't get me wrong I think science and research is a VERY important part of our lives. Why waste your time researching something that the world already knows!!

If you would like to read through the article....

Analysis suggests happiness may be contagious among friends, neighbors.

The Washington Post (12/5, A8, Stein) reports, "Happiness is contagious, spreading among friends, neighbors, siblings, and spouses like the flu," according to a study published online in the BMJ.

Nicholas Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard University, and James Fowler, Ph.D., of the University of California-San Diego, "analyzed information on the happiness of 4,739 participants and their connections with several thousand others...from 1983 to 2003," the New York Times (12/5, A12, Belluck) adds. They found, for instance, that "a next-door neighbor's joy increased one's chance of being happy by 34 percent, but a neighbor down the block had no effect." Meanwhile, "a friend living half a mile away was good for a 42 percent bounce, but the effect was almost half that for a friend two miles away."

The Los Angeles Times (12/5, Kaplan) reports, "The research is part of a growing trend to measure well-being as a crucial component of public health. Scientists have documented that people who describe themselves as happy are likely to live longer, even if they have a chronic illness."

The researchers based this study on data "from the Framingham Heart Study, which has been running since 1948 in Framingham, Massachusetts," Bloomberg News (12/5, Kresge) notes. The authors "defined happiness as a perfect score on the questions 'I felt hopeful about the future,' 'I was happy,' 'I enjoyed life,' and 'I felt that I was just as good as other people.'" According to Dr. Christakis, "The Framingham data had been used before to assess depression as a risk factor for heart disease, but this was the first time researchers looked at happiness across a broad network."

That darn cat!!

2009-02-21T13:59:00.000-08:00

So I spent all this time making this pretty backyard growbox for Natalie's Valentine's day present, and we went outside yesterday to water the flowers... and we found a very unpleasant surprise.

The neighborhood strays have decided that my growbox works better as a litter box! There were piles of cat scat all over our patio! My next day off work might have to be spent on a stake out of our patio with a pellet gun and pepper spray. I have no other ideas on how to keep the cats out of our backyard, other than to put the pidgeon strips (spikes to keep birds off ledges of buildings) all over the top of the fence in our backyard, but that seems like a lot of work to keep our private property from being the feline dumping grounds.

Any suggestions?

I'M OFF..........

2009-02-16T14:49:00.001-08:00

I'm off to study for finals....

Wish me luck!!!

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-13T18:52:00.000-08:00

Announcement Announcement!!
Dallas has officially really surprised me for the first time!!!

He put up the block wall, filled it with dirt and made me a little garden.

I love it!!

!!! Tickle Fight !!

2009-02-13T15:39:00.000-08:00

My favorite study break this week included a full blown tickle fight!!
Our tickle fights aren't the kind where someone tickles (he he) and then pulls away. It isn't the kind where one person tortures the other one while sitting above them tickling mercilessly.

Our tickle fights look a little bit more like this.....

I usually come away with a couple bruises, nothing big. Just a few to show how tough and relentless I can be:)

Who do you think wins these tickle wars???
Dallas with his giant man muscles or Relentless Natalie??

*******************Natalie******************

Not because I'm relentless but because Dallas is extremely ticklish!
At least I can win at something:)

Some good things in life.

2009-02-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

1. Snuggling

It is so Comforting.
Some of the most comforting times is when we're snuggling with someone. The perfect example is when a child needs to snuggle with their mommy and Daddy.
When I'm sad I just want to snuggle with my hubby.

2. Comfort Food

Eating is a very important part of life.
In fact one might say that you have to eat to live. So what's all the big fuss? Oh yeah it's the whole love handle, tire roll and I want to be beautiful, thing.
(And I've recently heard from a certain PA school that problems related to eating too much is the leading cause of death...)
At the end of the day...when I need something to make me feel better and I'm all alone, its gonna be food.

My current favorite is Carmel Popcorn!!
I never do this recipe thing but I love my Mom's Carmel Popcorn!
1/4 c. Butter (1/2 a cube)
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. honey (or corn syrup)
Melt the butter in a pan, then add the brown sugar and honey.
Boil it for 1 min.
Pour over freshly popped popcorn.

Enjoy!

3. Singing in the Rain

Singing in the rain, just singing in the rain.
People who live in rainy places don't know what they're missing.
I love feeling like a kid again splashing in puddles.
Luckily I'm currently in the nursery so I get away with splashing in the puddles with the little ones on our "nature walk"

4. Family

So maybe this one should be at the top!
I love my family...
nothing is better than knowing you have a Mom, Dad, 5 sisters, and 2 brothers that will be there for you if you ever need them.
It's even better when you get married!
I love my in-laws, they are all so wonderful!

5. The Gospel

Perfection.
I love knowing the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I love the wonderful people it brings me close to. I love the beautiful spirits I get to teach every Sunday about the basic principles of a testimony.
Nursery is as basic as it gets. Jesus Christ, Family, Prayer, Temples, The Creation....

6. Education

Learning is exploring.
I love learning. I always have.
Anyone can learn anything if they have the motivation and resources. The church teaches that we need to get all the education that we can. 1- Every Sunday we have Sunday School to learn and grow in the Gospel.
2 - Every other day when we are kids we go to school to learn the basics of surviving in the world. (Reading and Arithmetics) 3 - Hopefully we then go to College to learn how to support a family. (At this point we get to start exploring and expanding our talents.)
These are all basic stepping stones in our learning progression. We keep learning and growing our entire lives...until at some point
we are considered old and wise. Hopefully at this point we have put our talents to good use; helping others, raising a family, teaching our children, and being the best we can be!

One more....Just for fun

2009-01-28T19:57:00.000-08:00

Gotta LOVE 'M

Dallas didn't know I was going to post all these pictures!! But I love them.

It reminds me of a really cool decoration on Chaos Theory..the movie. I love it...I might just have to hang them up in my house sometime:)

Study BREAK!! - My Favorite Christmas Presents -

2009-01-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

Lately I have not had the luxury of taking study breaks...I even study while I eat!!
Well, I decided to heck with it! I've been wanting to show off my Christmas present ALL year :)

I had the best christmas!!

I got to spend almost 3 whole days lounging around with my family and husband. We didn't do anything but eat awesome food, play games nonstop and just enjoy each others company. It was a blast. (I also was supposed to be studying...and didn't....the best!!)

I also got 2 favorite presents (I just can't decide which one is more favorite:)

My dad has an amazing talent/hobby. He builds stuff/Furniture out of wood:) This year he made me this bookshelf. It was very badly needed. My books were everywhere in the Study, driving me crazy. The best part is that it matches a desk that he made me for my birthday 3 years ago. Isn't he the best!! It's being put to good use.
I gave my dad a picture of a bookshelf off of PotteryBarn and he build the same one... But Better
AMAZING

The other favorite present was a KitchenAid from my little sister!! What an amazing gift...it totally surprised me! I'm difficult to surprise (I hear).

Love Story

2009-01-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

Our 3rd(wow) anniversary was this last week(okay I started writing this awhile ago)! I didn't get a chance to post because I was busy busy busy! Surprisingly I did pretty well on the test I had the day after our anniversary....weird how those things seem to work out!

(Stop reading now if you can't handle me talking about my very handsome husband)

Our love story.

Dallas came and swept me off my feet in 2005. It was totally unexpected (especially considering I hadn't been on a date for almost ~1 1/2 years)
He became my best friend almost instantly. In fact I broke up with him so many times I lost count. I couldn't stop hanging out with him...he was the best.
We weren't even 'together' when we got engaged. I can truly say I married my best friend.

Water was our favorite. If we weren't swimming or boating I was pushing him into the pool. Clothes and all (I don't have any pictures)

One of my favorite memories is of a water fight. It took up the entire parking lot and I think some of my little brothers and sisters even got involved. I was so wet and I like to think he was too (I was very persistent).

One of my worst injuries occured on one of these boat excursions. Yes, I tore my ACL. Oww!!! Dallas came and rescued me in the water... I was floating on my stomach because my leg hurt to bad to get the wake board off my legs.

Last summer we had a week off of work (I don't think I actually had a job at the time). It was around my birthday so we decided to take off on a trip. We had $400 and a whole week to do whatever we wanted. We loaded up our car with everything we could possibly think of. (camping stuff, nice clothes, beach things etc...)
We ended up going to Flagstaff and camping for the night. We went to the Grand Canyon and hung out for awhile. We didn't know where to go next, so we headed up to Las Vegas to visit Dallas's family, Theron and Lisa and their little boy!
We then headed to St. George, camped there and then drove through Zion's National Park on our way through Kanab.
It was one of the most random, but fun trips!

Last Valentines day...

Dallas and I bought a townhouse in Glendale. We decided that it couldn't hurt anything, since renting anywhere was more or just as expensive. It has been a blast owning our own place. I have my own study room where I spend the majority of my time!
Here are Dallas and I in our newly painted bedroom!

Dallas and I tend to get lost when we try and go places we've never been. It's actually quite funny. I always thought Dallas had this awesome sense of direction until we went somewhere else and then I realized he just knows Phoenix cus he's lived here his entire life.
Above is a picture of us lost in Baltimore (or Boston...) we got lost both trips. We were supposed to be in the middle of the city but we were in the woods in the middle of farms. We decided to just pull off the side of the road and take a picture. It was pretty funny. (The rental car is the same rental car we had in on both trips and the car we got when Dallas wrecked his car..exactly...kinda weird)

If you're ever feeling rich, go to this restaurant, Fogo de Chao (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) it is really really good. But it's $50 dollars a person! YIKES

This is how we look these days. Both of us with a little less hair. I cut mine off and Dallas well...you can see for yourself.

And of course the biggest adventure we've had yet is surviving PA school! It has been crazy!

Dallas has been the best. He has slowly taken over all the wifely duties. He pays the bills, cooks, shops (I haven't been to the store in 3 wks), he cleans, does the laundry, works, deals with stupid Verizon.
Most importantly he helps me with all the little things.
I even got him to type up some study notes for me the other day!
I love him so much!

I am so grateful that he is putting up with me as I struggle to make it through this program.

He is the absolute best!

Love you Dallas.

...and we lived happily ever after....sorta

Picture Time

2009-01-13T00:30:00.001-08:00

Pictures from my Graduation:

Inside the arena...Construction engineers think they're so special with their silly hats... maybe we were just jealous because they were the only ones not wearing miter boards.

An empty diploma holder, representing my 6 and a half year 4 year degree. Yippee!!

My beautiful wife, supporting me by sitting through what was the most painfully boring commencement ceremony known to man.

Christmas week at my mom's house. Theron and Lisa were over, Theron is obviously very popular with the 8 and under crowd.

We're back

2009-01-03T11:41:00.001-08:00

I think it's funny that so many people (including us) that used to be such dependable bloggers disappeared over the holidays! We spent a lot of time out and about; we went up to Show Low for Christmas and Salt Lake for New Year's.

Christmas was so relaxing, which is not something you can always say about holidays at the in-law's! We got there late Tuesday night and left on Saturday, and we pretty much spent the entire time eating good food and playing games. All of Natalie's siblings were home, so it was a full house but it was really fun. We played Apples-to-Apples, Sequence (which I ruled), Balderdash (which Natalie ruled), Rook, watched old movies, and sat around talking for hours. It was miserably cold and windy on Christmas day, it rained almost the entire day. Somehow "Wet Christmas" doesn't hold the same charm as a White Christmas. It started snowing Christmas night, and it snowed almost the whole day. We had a few pick-up snowball fights, which mostly consisted of me putting snow down the shirts of Natalie's little brothers.

We got back on Saturday, hung out with my dad's side of the family for a while, and then left again on Monday for Utah. Natalie's friend is dating a boy (Paul) whose family is from Utah, and the three of us went up, the friend to meet the boyfriend's family, and Natalie and I for moral support. The best part of the trip was that Natalie and I got to go snowboarding! I had wakeboarded before, so I was pretty sure I could pick it up fairly quickly, but going down that first big hill was more than a little terrifying. Natalie was a good teacher, and I am happy to report that not only did I make it down that big hill, but I didn't break anything or die in the process! ... not to say that I didn't have more than my fair share of hard falls, but that's what I get for turning off the green trails onto black ... twice. We didn't get any pictures from the trip, but we had fun anyway.

We rang in the new year at Paul's brother's house. The 4 of us were out in the hot tub (a rather strange combination of burning hot and freezing cold) when we realized that we had about 90 seconds to get inside to see the ball drop and drink our Martinelli's. We got inside just in time to shout hurray and throw streamers at each other.

So now we're back home, Natalie's back to studying, and I'm going to try and figure out what to do with my free time.

I are edjumicated

2008-12-16T14:07:00.001-08:00

It's official: I took my last final and handed in my last term paper this morning. I. are. done. [sic]

Sweet!

And now for the hard part... what to do with all this time I'm going to have on my hands! I'm actually going to have to grow up (just a little, not too much) and go out there and find a real job. I have 2 part-time jobs right now, but they are both an "on-call" type arrangement, but neither are particularly satisfying as far as careers go.

So no more tests, no more homework, no more lab groups (a special hallelujah on that regard), and no more ASU! I don't know if I can express in words how frustrating ASU ~~can be~~ is. It's a wonder their Alumni Association has such a hard time getting people to donate!

We're having a graduation party on Friday night after the commencement ceremonies. Anyone who is up to driving to the far Northwest valley is welcome to come!

One More Week

2008-12-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

One more week(which is full of three tests, a quiz, and an outline for a final presentation) Is it fair to have an outline due, for a final presentation which your not going to be giving until the end of the semester, at the beginning of the semester?

Wish me luck....I get another two weeks off at Christmas! Ya hoo:)

It's Christmas at the Turley House!!

2008-12-07T21:16:00.000-08:00

We went to Show Low this weekend and cut down a christmas tree!! Dallas was too excited to wait, so we put it up tonight:) I'm excited we did. It doesn't feel like christmas until the christmas tree is up and sparkling.

I love turning off all the lights in the house and just sitting around the christmas tree telling christmas stories...

Things that make me smile...

2008-12-05T01:14:00.000-08:00

{Note from Natalie: Dallas posted this about his chemistry professor and I just love it! It is officially my favorite post}

I actually really enjoy my Organic Chemistry class, the one and only reason being the professor. I am taking it at MCC, so it's not quite as hard as the university course (just ask Natalie), but I absolutely love that guy. He is very patient, explains things several times if he has to (and only occasionally makes fun of stupid questions), but always tries really hard to teach... which in my mind is what higher education is all about (if you think that is such an obvious statement that the author must be an idiot for even thinking it, let alone writing it, you obviously have never been to ASU).

Even better than the fact that he is an awesome teacher is the fact that he is hilarious. He is a really funny guy, who likes to have fun with the material and the students pretty much every day.

I was over at Andrea's house finishing my homework when Caleb picked up a crayon and started drawing on a pile of papers right next to me. I wasn't fast enough, and he put a little green doodle on the corner of my homework before I could stop him. I was almost finished, so I just left it, and wrote a little note, saying that the crayon was a present from my 2 year old nephew that just wanted to say hell0.So what does my professor do? He grabs his own marker, squiggles his own little green doodle, and writes "Hi."
So yeah, my 40 year old Organic Chemistry professor, Ph.D., is corresponding with a toddler on my homework. How cool is that!?

And they say OChem is no fun...!

Motivation...and CHRISTMAS

2008-12-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

the time has come for me to again find motivation. i need to study. i've said it so many times that i'm tired of hearing it come out of my mouth. i need to study. i feel overwhelmed already and i've only been in class for three days.

thankfully christmas is coming up and i get another 'sorta' two weeks off then. i have a test when i get back, so break will include a little studying. hopefully not too much.

i am soo excited for christmas...i need to start decorating my house so i can get in the christmas spirit. i've decided even if i play music it just doesn't feel right until the tree is up and decorated:) we're heading to show low this weekend to go and cut one down. yes!!!!!!!!

Craft DAY!!!

2008-11-25T14:01:00.000-08:00

Some friends from school came over yesterday and we had fun doing some of these craft's!!

Chauvinist MEN!!!

2008-11-25T12:47:00.001-08:00

male chauvinist

–noun
a male who patronizes, disparages, or otherwise denigrates females in the belief that they are inferior to males and thus deserving of less than equal treatment or benefit.

I am sorry...but I had an experience this afternoon that reminded me how much these people(chauvinists) bother me!!!

My friend had a flat tire so I went to help her out.(None of our men were around) The only reason you need a man around when you have a flat tire is for the muscle and so they can be the ones to get all grimy and dirty:) Other than that they are useless if you are the kind of girl who
#1-knows how to change a flat tire
#2-doesn't mind changing a tire.

Instructions on how to change a tire:
1. Make sure you have a jack(what lifts the car for you!), a crowbar(what loosens the bolts/nuts), and most importantly a spare or donut tire:)
2. Take your crowbar and start loosening the bolts (This is the hard part for us girls)
- It is important to do this before you lift up the car with the Jack because you don't want the car to fall off the Jack as you wildly jerk the car around trying to get the bolts off that the mechanic put on with an electric thing:)
3. Once they are loosened proceed to lift the car with the jack
4. Remove the obnoxious flat tire.
5. Put the spare on by putting the same bolts back on!!

Ta Da you are officially an expert! - No Need for the brains of a man, just their muscle:0)

If I had been a man none of the following would have happened....
- During our changing the tire today we had 2 people try and tell us to skip step #2!! I really just wanted to yell at them, "Thanks, but No Thanks, for your stupid advice. Thank You I am doing it the correct way. Yes, I have probably changed more tires than you! (In high school I had a streak of flat tires, 7 just to be exact. Someone either really didn't like me or there were really big nails on our dirt road!)."
- I have to admit that we did accept the help of a man. Those stinking bolts were almost welded on!! I was resorting to jumping on one side of the crowbar and pulling up on the other end...at the same time trying not to strip the bolts. I had successfully loosened two of them and he very easily loosened the other two for us. It was when he opened his mouth that he started to show that all he was worth was his muscle. "You should have put your Jack on first."

I am of course (yes one of my faults) not able to let it pass. "No Actually," I say, "You don't put the Jack on first because YOU DON'T WANT THE CAR TO FALL OFF THE JACK. Thank you so much for your help:~)"

His input was, "The parking break helps the car not fall off the Jack."

OR you could just not put the Jack on and save yourself the trouble of having any possible problems at all of the car falling off the Jack!!!

I really believe the reason that most girls won't even try to learn how to change a tire is because they believe there will always be Chauvinist Men around!! Maybe, today with all our cell phones there is usually one close enough to come help you out! Someday though you are going to end up in a situation where no one can come to your aid and you're going to have wished that you had learned!!

Now about those Men who think they know something and don't! Just because you are a man does not mean that you know how to fix a car, change a tire, or KNOW ANYTHING at all about a car. It takes some actually training and knowledge. You don't just magically know what your doing because you have..a..muscle.

Any of you girls ever tried taking your car to the mechanic or gone to get new tires? Well, I have and I am personally sick of the stupid men at these places. They just suppose you don't know what you are talking about and almost dismiss you!! It drives me bonkers!! I'll admit I don't know a ton about cars. I do know enough though that if you spend two seconds talking to me, I'll comprehend the problem!! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO JUST DISMISS ME AND MY QUESTIONS!!

-I always send my husband to do all car things. Not because I can't do it, but because he gets treated like a human being and can actually get something accomplished. Huff!!

Sewing Lessons

2008-11-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

Dallas wanted a bag for the air mattress...
I suggested he sew one out of some old jeans...
He thought I should do it...hmmm time for a quick sewing lesson!!

Sewing Lesson
Day 1: He decided to help me with a pincushion I wanted to make. I just needed to figure out what shape to cut out the pieces. I left him to it! An hour later I go see what's taking him so long... he was still at it but he had his computer out, paper, pencils, and a CALCULATOR!! He was figuring it out engineer like:) (At least he's putting that education to use:)) Two hours later he has a pattern and starts cutting out pieces and handing them to me to sew together. He keeps cutting...after 6 or 7 pieces I say that's enough! "It's going to look like a football no matter what you do to it."
Back to the drawing table he went. After another hour (total of four) he has another pattern ready and while I'm in the shower tries to thread the sewing machine and start sewing it himself.
After rescuing him...and a quick lesson on how to thread the machine... he starts sewing it together...very...very...very...slowly:) Hey at least he's trying:)
The final product wasn't too bad! (yes I added the bow for a finishing touch)

DAY 2: He started on the bag for the air mattress today...
It was quite the process.
He was going pretty well...with the occasional freezing of the sewing machine with me coming to fix it...
until he stopped paying attention and his seem turned out being a quarter of an inch at the top and an inch at the bottom.
The perfectionist that he is decided to take it out and fix it.
~30 min later I hear in a frustrated voice, "Oh NO!!! I sewed it backwards!! I sewed it once and it was right! I took it out and sewed it again and it's backwards! I even zigzagged the edge!...Look ziggyzagy!"
It was soo funny I couldn't stop laughing.
Poor guy...

Here's the finished project...looks pretty good!

Procrastination

2008-11-21T21:42:00.000-08:00

I found this little comic strip and couldn't resist sharing it. I feel like this ALL the time during school!!

http://hypocrisyinaction.blogspot.com/

2008-11-21T00:09:00.000-08:00

So I found this AmaZInG blog called "hypocrisy in action!"

My hubby, who has amazing writing ability decided to write some of his thoughts on a blog(after some nudging from yours truly)

He really has an awesome ability to write...and he has some interesting things to say about things going on.

Check it out!!!

~Transformation~

2008-11-17T00:16:00.001-08:00

This was recently transformed....

INTO THIS!!

I decided to try making this dress! I found this very cute material…and had to try.
It’s not finished…I’m of course having lots of problems because

A- I hate following patterns…I tend to do what I want…It doesn’t always work out.
B- I obviously can’t measure and made it too big!!
C- It’s too big in the shoulders…ugh the worst place to try and make it smaller…
D- I forgot to buy a zipper so I can’t finish it anyway till Monday morning when I go back to the store.

We’ll have to see how much patience I have…hopefully I can finish it!

I also decided to make pillows for my big Study Chair and hopefully a cute apron (I lost mine in the move and I NEED an apron) ~-WISH ME LUCK~