Five Things, Eight Things, Too Many Things

So I had a couple of friends (Cari and Heather) tag me. I would like everyone to notice that I am the death of any tag (meaning I tend to not tag anyone else). If you want to do it though, consider yourself one of 13 people I was supposed to tag.

5 things you want to do before you die
1. Take Bryce to Italy
2. Learn Spanish
3. Get in really good shape
4. Read a lot of church books
5. More volunteer work

5 things that make you absolutely happy
1. Spending time with family
2. Pictures
3. Cooking
4. Real Bryce time
5. Good friends

5 places you want to visit
1. Italy (I know I’ve been there, but I’d love to have unlimited funds and a few months to see everything)
2. Switzerland
3. Egypt
4. China
5. Chile

5 favorite places you have visited
1. Italy
2. Hawaii
3. Mexico
4. U.S. Virgin Islands
5. New York

5 people you admire
1. My dad
2. My mom
3. Grammy
4. My mission president and his wife
5. Prophets and Apostles

5 things of sentimental value or things you cannot live without.
1. Bryce
2. My leg pillow and stuffed bear that acts as a second pillow to keep my back straight while I sleep
3. Mission journal and pictures
4. Technology that allows me to keep in contact with everyone
5. Family

5 things on this weeks to do list
1. Christmas presents planning
2. Work on the nursery
3. Sleep
4. Catch up on emails
5. Blog about Colorado

5 of your favorite smells
1. Freshly laundered sheets
2. Roses and lilies
3. Old Spice Deodorant
4. Any good candles
5. Rain

5 favorite foods
1. Pizza (especially while I’m pregnant)
2. Ice cream
3. Strawberries
4. Cinnamon rolls
5. Queso (well, chips and dip in general really)

8 TV Shows I enjoy watching:
1. House
2. Biggest Loser
3. The Office
4. 24
5. Project Runway
6. Top Chef
7. Law and Order
8. What Not to Wear

8 Things that happened yesterday:
1. Woke up
2. Ate breakfast with my family in Colorado Springs
3. My niece, Grace, stopped and put her hand over her mouth mid aisle at seeing my parents, me, April, Bryan, and Sarah all at church when she arrived (despite the fact we’d just seen her 15 minutes earlier at the house)
4. Timed reaching DIA perfectly (got through security, stopped at the bathroom, filled my water bottle, and got to the gate just as they were calling my seating group.
5. Got delayed (not bad) in Chicago because of snow (I’m going to miss snow this winter)
6. Bryce picked me up at the airport
7. Came home to clean clothes
8. Went to bed at midnight (yes, I know that’s late for a pregnant person, but I did sleep til 7)

8 Things I am looking forward to:
1. Bedtime
2. Thanksgiving
3. Pig roast for Thanksgiving
4. Putting the nursery together
5. Our baby boy
6. Christmas
7. Seeing Joy (my sister gets home from her mission in a few months)
8. Having Bryce time during Thanksgiving and Christmas (he has tests just before those breaks so he won’t have to study during them. Yeah!

8 Things on my wish list:
1. laser vision correction
2. Go to Italy tomorrow
3. Better sleep
4. More energy
5. More time (and desire/energy) to exercise
6. Get paid every week without working
7. Have all of my friends move to the same city/area permanently and we’re there too
8. A few more maternity clothes (I have enough to get by, but it’s like the mission where you just start to get sick of the same small wardrobe and look forward to having other things to wear again someday.

8 Things Bryce did yesterday:
1. Went to church
2. Took a nap
3. Studied
4. Watched a football game
5. Picked Cathi up from the airport
6. Made himself dinner
7. Laundry
8. Listened to a talk by Stephen E. Robinson

What? Bryce cooks?

Yes, I do. It may come as a surprise to many of you, in particular my sisters, but I enjoy cooking. I'm not very good at it, but I have fun. The main problem is that I often don't have the patience. I've lucked out in that Cathi can cook really well, whereas I can only help her with basic stuff. That being said, I like to challenge myself every once in a while.

About a month ago some friends from school and I went out to eat after one of our tests. The appetizer we had was called Asparagus Phyllo. We all thought it was really good so I decided to make it myself. I finally got around to it on Friday. I tracked down the phyllo dough at the store, had my sister email me the recipe I had looked at a few weeks ago and started to get everything ready only to realize that the dough had to be thawed for 2 hours first. Lame. I didn't want Cathi to know until they were done, so I had to be creative in hiding the dough and finding the time to finish them. I had already hid the asparagus in the fridge, but since I had already cut some of the stalks, I decided to go ahead and eat it before Cathi got home. Just as it finished boiling, she walks in. I had to stand in front of the stove and wait till she left the room to drain the water and put them in a tupperware container. Before she walks back in, I hid them up in one of our cabinets. Once in the kitchen, she actually asked why it was so warm by the stove. I played dumb and got away with it. While we were making dinner, she opened the same cabinet, the one with the asparagus, to pull out some noodles, but fortunately didn't notice the asparagus just sitting there. Then, while she was stirring the noodles, I had to stealthily pull out the phyllo dough I had hidden under some other food in the freezer and place it on top of the fridge. I was pretty surprised she didn't ask what I was doing because she's normally very suspicious of me. After having dinner, she left for a church activity, allowing me time to finally make it.

As for actually making this stuff, working with the phyllo dough wasn't easy but it turned out ok. The rest was easy. All you have to do is cut the asparagus, brush the dough with melted butter and add Parmesan cheese. The dough definitely wasn't cut the straightest it could have been, and I'm sure anyone familiar with working with phyllo would have been laughing at my efforts. I think that was one reason for waiting till Cathi was gone, so I could make it up as I went.

I think I've managed to make this sound cooler than it was, so here's a picture to prove I actually did it. Kim, Kristen, Erin and Ashley, you can now pick your jaws up off the floor. And by the way, Cathi said they were good.

Haberston?

About a week and a half ago Bryce's med school class had their White Coat Ceremony. Pretty much it's a day for family to come and hear/see what medical school is like in the morning, and then go to a ceremony in the afternoon where all the first year students get their white coats. The coats are short, as to help doctors, nurses, and others distinguish the students from qualified help, but still nice.

Thankfully the presentation of the coats went fairly quickly. They signed the student oath, and then three at a time came on stage to have their white coat put on them by one of the faculty. Nothing crazy there. Thanks to Sarah who made my pathetically dark picture viewable. It was dark in the auditorium and I should have stood up as to avoid the light off the guy's head in front of me.

After it was over, all of the students went to get a class picture taken and the family members went to a reception area. Only I, Cathi, went for Bryce. Each student got two tickets, no exceptions, which of course, is lame for anyone that is married and has parents. So, we donated a ticket to Andrew and Tara so that Tara as well as Andrew's parents could go. The only mishap was on Tara's name tag. Apparently they put the medical student's picture on the name tag of the family member so Tara had a picture of Bryce on hers (since she had our other ticket). Oh the stories we could have come up with.

Anyway, so Bryce comes out all smiley from the reception and shows me his coat. First off, he doesn't like these types of things so I was confused as to why he was so chipper. Apparently he was just happy it was over and, to add to his and my amusement, his coat was the ONLY one out of about 160 that was misspelled (and mind you, there are some pretty difficult names in his class). They knew it when they gave it to him, so it's getting redone.

So, to be a good sport, here's one final picture of Bryce and I after the ceremony. I think I look tired. Which, to be honest, is most likely true since I'm always tired.

Things are going well for us. The baby's growing fine and loves to see what types of weird internal sensations he can make for his mother. 25 weeks down; 15 to go! I'm still at my same job at Johns Hopkins and will be the administrative assistant to the Director now since the person I was filling in for came back, and they still want to keep me around. It's only temporary so that he can have some help while we look for a full-time person that he likes. It's a perfect situation for them to have me there while they are hunting for someone since I don't want a full-time job after the baby's born. And I got a nice raise so that's always appreciated and helpful. After we get someone hired, I'll most likely still have a job doing something else in the department at least until the baby, and possibly something small afterwards. We'll see.

Bryce's second class started this past Tuesday. He's doing Cell and Molecular Biology this round. He's been playing flag football with some of the dental students in our ward as a release. Other than that, he's helping me get things organized around here and in the garage so we can start in on the nursery in the next few months.

Two Pictures

Picture #1: Bryce is often lazy about making a lunch for himself. So, this morning, I noticed a Walmart bag (i.e. lunch bag) on the counter and decided to take a peek. Look at the picture below. The contents were the following:

1) 1 string cheese
2) 3 Skittles packs
3) 3 Snickers bars
4) 3 Starbursts packs
5) 1 M&M pack


Anyone else concerned??? I was. Laughing, I asked him if that was really his lunch. To his defense, it wasn't. He was taking some of the gobs of candy we have left over from Halloween to share with some people in his class. I now vaguely remember him mentioning this over the weekend, but you can imagine how amusing I found this bag when I saw it. Before we left, he added a bagel and granola bar for his actual lunch (I was only allowed to post this picture if I clarified what he actually took for lunch).

Picture #2: My friend, Sarah Boman, tagged me with the challenge to post the 4th picture in the 4th folder of my Pictures. Here it is.

This picture was taken in 2004 right before we went home for Christmas break. Erin and Ashley (Bryce's sisters) came over to Bryce's apartment with their boyfriends, Nate (we actually had to call Erin to remember his name) and Greg (Ashley's future husband--don't worry Greg, we didn't have to call Ashley to get confirmation). We watched The Italian Job in honor (partly) of me leaving for Italy on my mission in two months.

The Result of Cravings

Bryce has a test tomorrow which means I have the task of finding ways to entertain myself in quiet ways so that he can study (hence, the two blog posts this weekend). Lately, almost all of the foods we normally eat just don't seem that appetizing to me. Luckily there are only a couple that make me gag, but I still find myself wanting things that I don't usually make.

So, over the past few months Bryce has been subject to many new and experimental recipes thanks to allrecipes.com. I know there are lots of you out there who are bored with your dishes, so I figured I'd post a couple of links to the things that have been good. Most of the ideas I've added come from the comments of others, so don't think I'm that creative with recipe alterations. The low-fat dairy substitutions are me though, as the normal stuff doesn't do nice things to my digestive system.

And to Tiff who sent me a recipe chain email which I neglected to continue on, here's my contribution to helping you try new things.

1) Chicken Chimichangas with Green Chile Sauce. I tend to try to make things less-fattening so I used fat-free cream cheese instead of regular and sprayed them with olive oil spray and baked them instead of frying. We only made half a batch (four), and although they looked small compared to what you get at a Mexican restaurant, one each was plenty.

2) Cinnamon Rolls III. For about the first 18 weeks of my pregnancy, the thought and taste of cereal didn't go over well. So, I started getting creative with breakfast options, especially when I grew tired of Toaster Strudels. Once again, I used lighter cream cheese for the frosting (maybe the 1/3 reduced fat) and omitted the nuts since we're not huge fans. My only mistake was not cooking them long enough so the middle ones were too doughy to eat. I've got to remember I don't live at high-altitude anymore and shouldn't assume the low end of the bake time is always the best move.

3) Easy Enchilada Casserole. I always buy the light sour cream (but not the fat free since it tastes a bit weird), and it worked fine. I didn't put the 4 tortillas on the top and didn't cover it, so it was a little soupy, but not too bad. It was also soupy probably because I used a large can of red enchilada sauce and threw in a little salsa with it instead of the 3 cups of salsa since I had that in the pantry. Next time I will probably add two tortillas to the top to help with the soupiness, but still use the enchilada sauce with a little salsa. It was still good regardless and Bryce, who hasn't been a big fan of enchiladas as of late, ate the leftovers at least 3 times. Oh, which means it makes A LOT, so if you don't like left overs, half of the recipe will feed 4 just fine.

4) Chris' Bay Area Burgers. Okay, these aren't new, but still really good hamburgers. Some of our friends and family have had them at our place and loved them. I use half the olive oil and they are still wonderful.

And in the next few weeks I'm going to try:

5) Three Cheese Manicotti. The recipe makes two pans so I'll cut it in half, and then of course, use my own fresh made Italian sauce instead of the spaghetti sauce in the jar. For the sauce, I won't use meat and I'll add the pint size Fat Free Half and Half (yes, it comes that way at Walmart) to make a creamy pink sauce. It is delicious and actually very healthy since the only fat in it is from the little bit of olive oil. I generally make a batch when I'm making pasta and then freeze the rest in little containers that I can take out and heat up when we have a pasta dish. I'd say it makes 6-8 cups easily.

6) Slower Cooker Carolina BBQ. When we went down to North Carolina for Labor Day we had some of the best pulled pork sandwiches. We bought the meat from a restaurant, and me, being used to thick red BBQ sauce, thought they had forgotten to put the sauce on. Little did I know the magic of a vinegar-based sauce that is very light, yet flavorful. The only downside I've found to the recipe is that it says it stinks your house up (from the vinegar), so I'm thinking I'll make it on a weekend and put the crockpot on the balcony since there's an outlet out there. I figure I'd better be home to watch it though so nothing happens. I'll let you know if it compares to the real thing.

I highly recommend the allrecipes.com site if you want good, home-cooking type recipes. They have some that are more gourmet, but epicurious.com is really the place to look for a fancy meal.

To Appease the Masses

See, although I'm 23 weeks, I really don't look all that pregnant yet, even if I'm arching my back a bit. I think the kid is going for a wider approach than for sticking straight out. We'll try again in another month or so and see if he's made any forward progress.

All Done!

During my breaks from work (I work for a temp agency) and Bryce’s nightly studying, I tend to get bored. Since I have done all the puzzles we own at least twice, my friend Amy kindly offered to let me borrow their Mickey Mouse puzzle. I’ve had it for a few weeks now, but finally finished it this past Wednesday. It’s 1000 pieces and each piece is a mosaic of some Disney movie. Needless to say, it took a bit longer to complete than most puzzles, but I got it done. Now I think I’ll take a break from puzzles for a while.

So, as I mentioned, I work for a temp agency. My most recent assignment is to fill in as the Administrative Coordinator for CEPAR (Critical Event Preparedness and Response). It’s part of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins, but at their administrative offices up in Mt. Washington so I don’t have to go into the city (i.e. I can drive there and have free parking). They coordinate all other university and medical departments’ disaster response plans. So, if there is an emergency, each department has someone that they go to in order to make sure there isn’t a lapse in communication between the entities. The department also has a grant from Homeland Security for a National Center of Excellence in preparedness and critical event response (PACER) so the physicians and researchers work with other universities across the country to study and coordinate disaster response. My job is basic administrative support, but I’m starting to do some other projects for them as well as they discover I’m able to do more than just answer the phones and schedule conference rooms. The temp position is for six weeks, but they have offered me a permanent position, either in the job I’m doing (if the person I’m filling in for decides not to come back), or they will find something else for me to do until the baby is born. It’s nice to know that I have something set and fairly consistent for the next few months, and I like the people I work with. It may be that I can still do some part time work for them from home after the baby is born, but that’s something I’ll have to discuss with them once things get settled and I see what they are having me do. At any rate, I’m now working 40 hours a week and have much less bored time.

There have been some requests for belly pictures, but those will have to wait a few more weeks as it’s pretty hard to see still, despite not fitting in any of my clothes any more. Have no fear though, I will post some eventually.

Bryce is doing fine. He’s got another test next Monday (6th) so this will be another week of cramming. He passed his first test fine which was a big relief. He’ll still be studying a lot though. He’s had a love/hate relationship with the rainfall for the last few days; he loves rain, but hates it when it prevents them from playing football on Saturday mornings. He’s also been called to be a Teacher’s quorum advisor and Assistant Varsity Scout leader. I teach some lively 6-7 year olds in Primary.

We finally got couches so I’ll post some pictures of our apartment in the next few weeks. We just need to do some organizing and hang some pictures, but we’re getting settled. We have our 20 week ultrasound on Tuesday so I’ll post some pictures of that as well.

And the Results Are in...

It appears that the cake continues to be the most accurate way to predict a baby's sex. Yes, we are 99.5% sure that we are having a boy. Well, either that or we saw something pretty funny on the ultrasound. Bryce and I had kind of been feeling that way, but knew that those feelings are often wrong. We are very excited. Now we'll start thinking seriously about names and all the other baby stuff.

If It Were Up to the Cake...

Our friends James and Amy Bloom have a tradition of baking a cake that is half blue and half pink. The cake is then frosted and placed on a turning plate. The father-to-be is charged to turn the plate and the expectant mother then cuts a slice.


Whatever color she cuts determines whether or not they are having a boy or a girl. Yes, another old wives' tale. Yet, for the Bloom family, it has been 100% accurate. So we decided to see if it will hold true for those outside of their relations.

And the result? Well, it appears that we're having a boy. Thanks James and Amy for making the cake and having us over. We will hopefully find out on Thursday at our sonogram what we're having so we'll let you know if the cake method worked!

Tropical Storm Hanna

We didn't get nearly as much rain as some places, but here's what it was like for a while outside of our apartment. It rained from Friday night to about 3pm on Saturday. The storm peaked around noon. Luckily as you can see, we have a nice down slope into the woods so the water drained just fine. Some places were without power for a while, but that was mostly near the ocean. Bryce loves the rain and made me leave the sliding glass door open all day so he could listen to it. I'm not complaining either though; after living in the Utah desert, it's nice to see a good rainstorm every now and then. I apologize for the less-than-engaging commentary.

The Baby's Heart is Beating!!

I get so annoyed when other people don't update their blogs frequently enough and then I realized, wait, I haven't posted since August 11. Oops. But, we have had a decently good excuse since we were moving. Anyway, this is just a quick post to let you all know that we are alive and doing well.

We moved into our apartment on August 14 with the help of Bryce's parents. Since I am pregnant, Marilyn didn't let me do much in the way of lifting boxes, but I did get a lot of them unpacked. The apartment is still a work in progress, but we're getting there. Hopefully our couches will come within two weeks and we will get the pictures all hung up. That will hopefully make it feel more like home and that we're settled in.

Bryce is doing well with school. He has lectures from 8-10am, then a dissection lab from 10-12. After that, he's got the entire afternoon and evening to study. He's been doing pretty good, but as we all understand, needs to take breaks every now and then. His first test is on Sept 15 and will cover all the material up to this point. Thankfully subsequent exams aren't cumulative so once a test is done, it's over. Except for one future class and then of course the boards, that is. At any rate, he's liking school and glad to be making progress towards his goal.

I have been busy getting all of the odds and ends in order (all those things that need to get changed and settled when you move to somewhere new). The last major task is to get my car registered, which I will hopefully have done by the end of the week. I am also working for a temp agency, hoping to get an assignment soon here that lasts a few months. I have one day left at my first assignment. It's been difficult. I answer the phone (which rings maybe once an hour), let people in the door (today it was only the mailman), and occasionally mail a letter. Other than that, I'm allowed to read. I've finished one book already and will probably be done with a second by tomorrow. It's not significantly different than what I would be doing at home, except that I get paid to read a book there.

We enjoyed a nice Labor Day weekend down in North Carolina with some of Bryce's family. His parents, brother Mark and family, sister Kim and family, and sister Erin and family were all there. Erin was there for the week from Utah so it was a nice bonus to get to see her, Chris and Max in addition to everyone else already down there. Bryce enjoyed golfing with his dad and brothers-in-law. We (Marilyn, LaDonna, Erin, and I) subsequently made the boys watch the kids so we could go to lunch. It was nice to get away and talk as girls.

So today we went in for our first appointment with our OB out here. Everything went well. I'm about 15 weeks along. We finally heard the heartbeat and it sounded good...fast and strong. So, I guess I should start coming to grips with the fact that I will be a mom in six months. It's becoming real as my clothes (even the big ones) are getting tight and the bump is forming. I'll post some pictures once it's more obvious that I'm actually pregnant.

Well, this is boring, but at least it's something. I'll try to come up with something more interesting to say soon.

Alive and Well in Baltimore

Well, since Bryce is at school and I'm sitting in a hotel watching the Olympics, I decided I didn't have a really good excuse to not at least post something as a "we're still alive" note.

Despite all the warnings and horror stories we heard about cross-country travel, we cruised across the U.S. without too many problems. After all the hectic moving stuff in Utah, we really enjoyed a few days to relax in Colorado Springs, spend time with my dad, Susan, Grace, and also see some friends, Heather and Tyson and Dan and Julie. The three days went all too quickly and before we knew it we were picking up Marilyn (Bryce's mom) from the airport on Saturday night. Since I'm 11 weeks or so along now, I get pretty tired and I didn't want to use a lot of caffeine pills to help me stay awake so Marilyn offered to come out and help me drive. My mom is taking care of her father whose health is quite poor right now. (I guess I haven't officially announced my pregnancy so we'll see how many people read our blog that I haven't told I'm pregnant yet...this should be interesting).

We headed out with out two cars on Sunday morning towards Kansas City, MO. Marilyn and I took turns driving my car and Bryce, the stubborn, drove his car by himself. We gave up on all attempts to convince him to let someone at least ride with him for a while and instead enjoyed listening to Harry Potter 7 during the drive. We got halfway through the last chapter when we pulled into Baltimore. Pretty good. And it made the drive go faster. To whomever created the audio book, thank you.

Props go to Hotwire.com as well. It's a bit of a risk to pay for a hotel without knowing where you are going to stay, but considering we got four rooms (two in Kansas City and two in Columbus) for $240 and ended up at a newly renovated Sheraton, and a decent Best Western, it was completely worth it. We did it again out here and are in a very nice Hyatt Place for $70 a night (including breakfast and internet). I'm a fan.

So, now we're out in Baltimore, having arrived last Tuesday. We stayed with some friends of my sister, Josh and Nikki, for two days, then have been using some free hotel points we had, and Hotwire. Since our stuff arrived last week, we rented a truck and loaded it up to put in storage on Wednesday. Our awesome friends that told us about our complex, Amy and James, are letting us use their garage so we didn't have to put our stuff in storage and then reload it and unload it in a truck. Thank you guys! So, that saved us some more money and now we just have to drag everything from their garage, across the parking lot, and up the stairs to our apartment on Thursday. I'm anxious to get moved in.

We bought dinner for Amy and James for their help with the moving as well as another couple they recruited, Clark and Liesel. They informed us that another first year med student had moved into the ward. I thought that was great. All of the others out here are dental, law, or pharmacy. They told us his name was Andrew and that he was married, but other than that, we didn't know anything. Bryce found him during orientation and as they were talking they discovered that both of their wives had served their missions in Rome at roughly the same time. Yep. Of all chances, I already know Andrew's wife. Tara entered the MTC only six weeks before me and although we never served together, we did have quite the adventure on what I lovingly call "the boat ride from hell". So, another friend found. And, she lives about 5 minutes away from our apartment. They had us over for dinner last night and then we all went over to a 4th year med student in his 8th year (he did a PhD after his second year for four years, so he's finally in his last year of the medical school portion) for dessert. Bryce and Andrew were able to get some good insights in what to expect at UMB and I got some good information from his wife about local stuff.

Well, this is longer than I had expected so I'll let Bryce do a post sometime here to let you know how school is going in more detail than "fine". We're always up for visitors (well, maybe after we move in on Thursday), so feel free to come out sometime!

Emerald Pools at Zions

To understand this post, you'll first have to have read Cathi's post about our trip to St. George and Zion National Park. She claims that because I was in charge of the camera that no pictures were taken of the pools, but we instead have a picture of a squirrel. As rebuttal, the picture of the squirrel was taken earlier during the day. Second, we both forgot to take pictures up at the pools. We were exhausted. Besides, any pictures we would have taken wouldn't have looked any different from these:

http://www.zionnational-park.com/images/albums/index16.htm

So, just pretend we actually took pictures and that they looked like these.

St. George and Zion National Park

This past weekend Bryce and I went to visit his sister, Erin, her husband, Chris, and their 2 month old boy, Max. We had a great time.

We took Friday off and drove down to St. George so that we could have all of Saturday to spend with them. After dinner on Friday night we decided to be daring and see if we were skinny enough to make it through a slot canyon. Well, with some determination, we made it up this very narrow bit of rock, but not without a few holes in the clothes. Oops.

Erin stayed back with Max and found a way up the hillside to come take pictures at the top.












On Saturday we got up super early (we left St. George at 6am) to go to Zion National Park. After passing through the foreign territory of La Verkin (a crazy little town in southern Utah that has a sign that states, Voted out of: the UN 2001, the USA 2006), we then made our way through Springdale (a city that only survives because of the park) and parked the van to go by shuttle into the park. The weather was beautiful, mid 70s and still shady. First, we went to see Weeping Rock, a large rock that drips 10,000 year old water. In this picture we are facing the rock so you can only see the park behind us. It was gorgeous, though Max preferred to sleep for almost the entire day.



We hiked another trail, then went back to the car to eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches before returning to the park to hike up to the Emerald Pools. Sorry, we didn't take any pictures. Wait, correction, we didn't take any pictures of the pools, but here's a lovely one of a large squirrel (Bryce was in charge of the camera). Pretty brave squirrel though. Somehow I think that spiel they made about not feeding the wildlife was lost on this little fellow.

By the end of the hike it was superhot so we hopped back on the shuttle, got the car, and headed for home. By 3:30 we had showered and were napping. It was awesome. After some In-N-Out for dinner, Wii Mario Kart, and a movie, we had sufficiently worn ourselves out again and went to sleep. Max decided to give a gift to his parents and even slept in until 7:30am. They were ecstatic.

We spent more time just hanging out on Sunday and were sad to leave that evening, but were glad to get to see Erin, Chris, and Max one more time before we move. We hope everything continues to go well for them down in St. George and will hopefully see them out in North Carolina for Labor Day. Thanks guys for letting us come down and play for a few days.

Moving Logistics

Well, needless to say, things have been busy around here. We've been very busy getting everything planned to move out to Maryland. Thank goodness for small miracles. Everything has really worked out, despite some scary moments. We feel pretty blessed.

So here's the timeline for everything we're doing in the next couple of weeks (forgive us if during these said weeks we don't keep in contact very much).

Thursday, July 24: a.k.a. Pioneer Day in Utah (it's a state holiday so we don't have to work). This also means that we are packing and our ABF trailer gets delivered for us to load. Mind you, this was the last ABF trailer available in the month of July. Good thing we didn't wait another day to call.

Friday, July 25: Our official last day of work (we'll probably end up going in for an hour or two on Monday to wrap things up). Bryce is also taking me up to Midway for some time to ourselves before things get crazy.

Saturday, July 26: Bryce has a BYU softball tournament game and my mom comes down for the night to see us (she's taking care of her father out here).

Sunday, July 27: Mom leaves, Church, and dinner with some of Bryce's sisters and their families.

Monday, July 28: Real last day of work. More packing and cleaning.

Tuesday, July 29: ABF takes our trailer away and drives it out to Maryland for us (for a small fee of course). We're going to stay through the day to say bye to some friends and hopefully see Tiff and Kyle, some of my best friends that are arriving back from a year in China tomorrow! Welcome home guys!! We're very excited to see you.

Wednesday, July 30: Drive two cars out to Colorado Springs.

Thursday, July 31st-Saturday, August 2: Stay with my dad in CS for a few days. We'll probably visit some friends, see a movie, and then on the 2nd Bryce's mom comes out so that she can help us drive to Maryland.

Sunday, August 3: Start the long drive out to Maryland. We'll probably stop in Kansas City that night.

Monday, August 4: Continue the drive. We're going to stop in Columbus for the night and meet up with some friends from BYU that are doing medical school at Ohio State.

Tuesday, August 5: Finish our trek after 4 glorious days of lengthy driving. In total we'll drive about 2100 miles.

Wednesday, August 6: Bryce goes into Baltimore to get everything done that he needs to for school.

Thursday, August 7: Orientation for med school starts.

Friday, August 14: Move into our apartment at Winterset (yes, to our friends James and Amy that live in the same complex, we seem to have gotten an apartment, final approval pending. It's looking like we have it though--yeah!)

So some of you may have noticed that week between when we get to Maryland and when we move into our place. Yes, we noticed that too. We'll be hanging out wherever we can find a room until we can get in, but we really like the apartment and are glad that there are some other med and dental school couples that live in the complex/area. We are just glad that Bryce is in and are more than happy to cope with any temporary inconveniences that come with it.

Relief, Shock and Excitement - University of Maryland School of Medicine Class of 2012

Is that a long enough title for this post? On to the news...last Thursday, July 10 was the end of a very long and disappointing application process to medical school. The University of Maryland called me Thursday morning. I saw the area code, 410, and recognized that it was from Maryland, but it wasn't until I let it go to voicemail that I recognized the rest of the number. I just about lost it. I called them back and they asked if I was still interested in the U of MD? My first thought: Is that a rhetorical question?!?!? I know they had no way of knowing if I'd been accepted anywhere else, but from my standpoint, of course I was still interested because they are the only school to have offered me a spot. I was really starting to think I wouldn't get in this year. The Medical College of Wisconsin had sent me a letter the previous week saying they wouldn't be able to offer me a spot this year. I had also been job searching in NC for about two weeks. So, when Maryland called, I was ecstatic, relieved, shocked, etc. I still am shocked. We both feel very fortunate that I've been accepted after going through this crapshoot of a process. Ok, so maybe it wasn't a crapshoot for my two brothers-in-law, but for the rest of us, it is.

After calling Cathi, my family and a couple of friends, I started thinking about times where I had wanted something so much, had worked hard for it and had prayed hard about it, that once it happened I didn't feel like I deserved it. This is one of those times. I have friends that are as "qualified" (whatever that means, considering you're relying one or two people who meet you for 45 minutes to convince 15 other people that you'll be a good doctor and are a good fit for their school) or more so and weren't accepted. I think it's ridiculous.

So, prior to Thursday, we had told lots of people we were moving. Their response: "Oh yeah, where to?" Us: "Don't know." I kind of liked answering it that way just to see people's reactions. But I like it even more now that I can say Maryland. We're in the process of finding an apartment, packing and planning the trip. We'll stop in Colorado for a day or so. The next stops will be Kansas City and Columbus, OH where I'll remind my dear friends at the OSU School of Medicine that a terrapin could take a buckeye any day, anytime, anywhere - unless it smells bad (And for those of you wondering how a tree and a turtle would fight each other, don't worry about it).

In summary, we're looking forward to finally leaving Provo and starting this next phase. Feel free to visit us in Baltimore. Cathi will enjoy the company.

Tagged for the Very First Time

Well, we'll see how many of these tags I actually do, but Bryce is playing basketball with some of the guys from church so I figured I might as well do something. My friend Michelle is always getting tagged and decided to tag me this time since we've finally started the blog.

On a side note, my friend Kallista and I went to see Michelle down in Tucson a week ago to keep her company while her husband is deployed (if you want to see what we did, go to her blog). But, her husband gets home on Saturday night and I am so excited for her!! Have fun Miche and say hi to Blaine for us! Ironically, Michelle and I were freshman and sophomore year roommates while her husband, Blaine was Bryce's MTC AP. Small world.

Okay, here it goes:

What I was doing 10 years ago: I was 14 and had just finished middle school. I was probably babysitting for some kids up the street a few days a week for very little cash, but it was fun and at least I had something to do. High school was just around the corner and I was excited to get to go to school with my sister, Joy, again (she's two years older than me), as well as the brand new high school. Good times. Awkward times. Wouldn't go back either.

5 years ago: The end of my freshman year of college. The only summer I went home. I ended up meeting some friends in the singles ward and a group of about 6 or 7 of us probably hung out 5-6 nights of the week. I think my parents almost had a heart attack with my sudden change into a socialite. During high school it would have been a good week if I went out once.

1 year ago: I was working full-time at Graduate Studies for the summer and entertaining myself however possible (I even started crocheting) so that Bryce could work on his med school applications. There was lots of softball of course, and fun with friends, especially our neighbors below, Ryan and Sarah, and across the street, Chris and Julia. And of course, Kallista, Dave, Tiff, and Kyle. Then all but Kallista and Dave moved. Thanks guys. Well, at least Na and Devin came back.

Yesterday: Worked. Made dinner. Did some laundry and dusted. Watered the lawn. Watched Star Wars III on and off, and read some. Yes, it was a really exciting day.

5 favorite snacks: Hard these days as it seems to constantly vary. Chips and queso (especially On the Border queso), ice cream, fruit (when I remember to buy and then eat it), cookies, and brownies.

5 favorite books: How about the last five books I've read? 102 Minutes, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. Yes, I read the Twilight series. It's a great no-brainer and was great Hawaii reading.

5 fave places to run away: Gym, outside, mall, friends or family, Italy.

5 bad habits: Trying to be responsible for everyone and everything, not eating well, criticizing myself, worrying, bad posture.

5 things I would never wear: If I had a choice for the rest of my life? Pantyhose. Hate them. Uhm, also bikinis, shirts that show your stomach, super low rise jeans (they make everyone look bad, no matter how skinny), and tube tops.

5 pet peeves: People that cross the road where there isn't a crosswalk, people that go around someone turning left and thereby almost hit the person turning left from the other direction, people who don't call you back, not being able to do everything I want to do, people who are inconsiderate.

5 things I enjoy: Hiking, working out in general, going to sports events, spending time with Bryce, going out with friends

5 people I want to tag: This was fun and all, but I'll let anyone who wants to do it. No pressure.

Softball

As many of you know, I grew up playing baseball and absolutely love the sport. A couple of summers ago, I started playing slow-pitch softball as it's the best I can do (I wouldn't be able to do much in an actual adult baseball league). I played on several teams last year and this summer hasn't been any different. I'm playing on a Provo city team, a BYU intramural team and a Pleasant Grove city team.

The last few weeks have been pretty full because of regular season and tournament schedules overlapping. Just three weeks ago, I ended up playing in 7 games in 4 days - 1 game on Monday, 3 on Tuesday and 3 on Thursday. We ended up winning the BYU intramural division we were in that week. The next week however was an off week as I didn't have a single game. Cathi went to Arizona for a few days so I entertained myself with golf and basketball instead. Last week, I had another 7 games as the next BYU term started and I played for another team that needed a sub. It's been nice because the times haven't conflicted nor have the days of the games. On the other hand, there's no time for my shoulder to heal in between games. I hurt it soon after the summer started and have a shearing pain every time I throw the ball somewhat hard. Oh well, no lasting pain...yet.

Back to the recent games: Tonight we played two games in the Provo tournament and we are in the losers bracket. We pulled off two come from behind wins tonight. In the first game we were down 11-5 in the top of the seventh. We scored 9 runs and didn't allow any in the bottom of the inning to win 14-11. The second game was similar as we were down 9-4 in the top of the sixth. We went ahead 10-9 and then added three more runs and held them in the bottom of the seventh to win 13-9. I swear we don't try to do it on purpose, but it's something about our team that we don't hit until later in the game.

So all in all, I've played 16 games in 21 days and have at least one game on Wednesday, and could play as many as 3 more games this week. As you can imagine, I don't look forward to the day when I can no longer play and I become one of those parents that tries to live vicariously through their kids. I will say I don't think my parents ever did that so hopefully I don't. But then again, I hope my kids are somewhat atletic only because it's a good way to stay in shape. And who knows, they may even get to win a championship of some sort in their 20's or 30's. I also have to say I appreciate the fact that Cathi lets me play so often and attends so many games. Thanks babe. Sadly enough, it'll end someday.

Father's Day

As I was perusing other people's blogs tonight, I noticed a common thread. Perhaps there is an excess of love for men today, or more realistically, it's Father's Day so we are thinking about our husbands and fathers and how much they do for us. So, since Bryce is up in Park City presenting at a conference for his work (yes, only chemists would schedule a conference over Father's Day), I have free reign to write whatever I want about him without any sort of censoring. Oh, the power. Use it wisely, Cathi, use it wisely.

I guess I'll begin with two pictures. First, Bryce in Hawaii taking our niece, Grace, to the pool. He had no idea I was taking this, since, if he had, he would have put a hand up (see picture #2).

It is with our nieces and nephews that I see glimpses of what Bryce will be like when we have our own kids someday. He is always so loving and kind towards them. He will play all of their silly games and go to extraordinary lengths to make sure they are happy. I know there will never be a lack of laughter in our home. Yet I also know that he will nurture them, help them to grow up to be responsible, and hopefully, love the Lord and have a desire to serve Him as they follow their father's example. I anxiously, but patiently, await for those days to come. Thanks Bryce for always making me happy and putting up with me when I frustrate you (trust me, this is a frequent event and Bryce is very, very patient). I love you with all my heart. Happy Father's Day.

And next, my father. (This part will probably be a lot longer seeing as I've got 24.5 years of memories to draw from.) It seems fitting to have two pictures of him as well. The first is on top of St. Peter's Basilica (the Vatican) when he, my mom, and Joy came to pick me up from my mission. He looks happy but try to get him to let go and look over the edge and you'd realize how tightly he was gripping that masonry. Second, is obviously, from my wedding. It almost makes me cry every time that I see it.

I really appreciate everything my dad has done for my sisters and me. He has worked so hard to provide for us, and for that we are all truly grateful.

But, more than the temporal help, he has been a great dad. It's been a few years, but we used to watch old 8mm films of us when we were little. I still remember the one where he was playing bucking bronco with us. We would climb on his back and he would try to bounce us off. We never won.

Of course there are the daddy-daughter dates, the numerous AFA hockey games where I could get a sip of Coke from him if I begged long enough, and plenty of mini-golf (which he always won, of course). As we got older, I recall him coming to our lacrosse games when he could. It's not easy to get away from his work, but as much as I generally played worse with him there, I still appreciated seeing him in the crowd. My favorite was when Joy's team played mine (we went to separate high schools). She was on offense and I was the goalie so he was always hoping that Joy wouldn't score on me. She never did, but her team beat us every time, so I'm not bragging.

Dad's never been a man of many words, but there's a lot to be understood in what he doesn't say. I am grateful for his commitment to the gospel, and as we've grown, I think we've seen it, especially as he serves in the temple. I also know he loves my mom and my sisters and me and that he would do anything for us. I love him very much and hope he really does know how much we all honor him, especially today. Love you Dad.

Fruit Basket Adventure

One of our former employees had to come home about a month and a half early from her mission due to some health concerns. She had been in the hospital in the country she was serving in for three weeks so our office got a package together and sent it to her, just in time for her to miss it on her early return. We all wanted to do something for her still, though, and since her family lives in Provo, we decided to make her a fruit bouquet. Mind you this was a first time experiment, so it didn't turn out quite as professionally as those you can buy for a few hundred dollars online (Google search edible fruit and you'll see what I mean), but we were fairly proud.

All of the full-time staff were at a planning meeting on Tuesday so Maria, Sarah, and I decided it would be the perfect day to work on our creation. Here's a rundown of what we did:

First, I used a letter opener to shave pieces of stryofoam down to put in our sand pail.

Second, Maria skewered the strawberries and grapes

Third, we cut the fruit (pinapples with mini Reeses Peanut Butter cups, cantaloupe, and honeydew melong for the other flowers, centers, and leaves).

Fourth, we assembed the arrangement.

And the final product...although we did add some wrapped peanut butter cups to the base as decoration after we took these pictures. Not too bad for a first time try.

Sarah, me, and Maria holding our prized gift. (it's a bit fuzzy).

As fruit doesn't hold up that well, we had Maria and Sarah run it up to her house. She was very excited and has finally started doing a bit better.

Much Needed Amusement at Work

As most of you know, I work for Graduate Studies at BYU. During the summer, it is notoriously slow, especially when the full-time staff are at a conference and it's only the student and other part-time employees. I'm not saying that we don't work, but we have to get pretty creative sometimes to make up a project to keep busy. We can't really cut down our staff all that much because we all do have assignments, they just rely so much on the full-timers that when they are gone, it can be a bit rough. Wednesday afternoon was one of those afternoons. Fortunately, fate seems to see our misfortune and creates amusement every once in a while. What I'm going to attempt to explain has happened four times in the last year and it baffles us every time. There is no explanation.

On Wednesday it all began when the front desk phone started ringing. I looked down at the caller ID and it said it was the front desk's number calling itself. Odd. Shortly thereafter our data analyst got a phone call on his cell phone that showed the front desk number was calling him, despite the fact that no one was on the phone. He answered and after a moment of silence it started ringing as if he were calling someone. Then my cell phone started ringing. I look down to see that it is also showing that the front desk is calling me, but obviously that's not true. I didn't answer it and then Curt heard my voicemail and actually left me a message. Various scenarios of this type happened for about an hour. People's cell phones called the front desk, and then when someone picked up, it would ring to another person's cell phone under the first person's number. Never does it show on the phone that starts the cycle that a call was made. It's just weird. The first time it happened last year it was initially between Verizon phones so we called customer service (you can imagine their confusion), but then phones on Tmobile and land lines also began to do similar things. We've tried searching the internet to see if it happens to anyone else, but to no avail.

We were naturally suspicious as to who might be messing with us. We originally thought it might be the data analyst, but he can't figure it out. We also suspected the webmaster or publications intern, but both were out on Wednesday and were doing things that wouldn't have allowed them to spend time creating havoc. Of note, it only involves cell phones that are in the office, and generally only rings to office phones where people are working; it didn't involve any of the staff that were at the conference or out for other reasons. So, since that seems to limit how an outside person could be involved, and we've checked with IT and they can't seem to find anything behind it (although they would love to figure out how to do it), we've come to the conclusion that it's got to be some signal issue with our building. We are moving offices within the week so I'll let you know if it happens again...in some ways I hope it does. It provides much needed amusement on those slow afternoons.

Just B.S.

We finally graduated. Cathi and I completed our B.S. degrees in Exercise Science and Biochemistry, respectively. We also had two minors each. Cathi’s were in Nutrition and Business and mine were in Business and Spanish. We hope they’ll come in handy down the road.

It seems like I’ve lived in Provo forever, considering I started at BYU in August of ’01. Cathi started a year later. We’re excited to be moving in August. Given the time we’ve been here, it goes without saying that we’ve both taken classes we didn’t have to, but we enjoyed them and would probably take them again if we did it all over again. Along with that, we probably graduated with enough credits for three people instead of two. We’re definitely excited to be done and to not have anything else to worry about during the summer.



I guess that’s only a half-truth as we do wonder/worry about the medical school situation. You have to catch me on a good day for me to enjoy talking about it. I’m currently on the wait-list for 4 schools – University of Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Toledo. I have no idea where I fall on VCU’s waitlist, but I do know about the other three. I’m designated as high priority for Toledo, am in the 2nd quarter for MCW and am in the first half for Maryland. That last one doesn’t tell me much as I could be fifth on the list or 105th because there are 220 people on the waitlist. So we’re just hanging out till we hear something, which could be as early as June or late as August (or Sept. for Toledo). If I’m not accepted this year, the plan is to move to NC and work for a year before re-applying. For now, we’re both working full-time at BYU at our same jobs.

Besides work, Cathi is participating in a BYU wellness program and wears a pedometer all day (she’s supposed to walk at least 8000 steps per day), has read the Twilight series and is re-reading it, and I play about 3-4 softball games a week and basketball twice.

I Guess It's Finally Time

Despite all attempts to avoid starting a blog, we finally decided that we could fake enough interesting things to keep one up to date.

Well, that's up for debate, but we'll try to keep you all entertained with all of our comings and goings, the joys and ironies of life, and anything and everything else.