The Land of the Living

Well, hello there,

bloggerworld.

Yes, we did drop off the face of the planet for about a month,

but never worry,

it is only because our lives are so INCREDIBLY boring, 

I can think of absolutely NOTHING worth informing 

friend and family about.  

Well, other than the fact that yes, indeed,

we ARE still alive.

2013 marks a year of change, change, change.

Brennen graduated from BYU-I in December with his 

Bachelor's in Emergency Services.

The smarty-pants graduated with a 3.88 GPA, too.

I also "graduated."

I technically won't get my diploma until May or June

because as of January 2nd, I am officially a 

"Teacher Candidate"

a.k.a. a Student Teacher.

Which means that I had to quit my job at the plasma center.

Which also means that Brennen now has to find someone

who will hire him for 6 months...which is nobody.

There are 2,000 extra students on campus this year, and guess what?

There are NOT 2,000 extra jobs. Talk about competition.

As for me, I'll just be teachin the little ones in the meantime

This semester of student teaching goes from 

January 2-April 30--That's almost 3 weeks longer than the 

original semester.  Well...4 days down. And only 76 left to go.

Well, hopefully 2013 will bring about some positive changed in our lives.

A big move, 

a career change, or career beginning, rather.

Possibly a change to our little family too!

Haha, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

But a little enthusiasm goes a loooong way :)

Hard to Believe

• It's hard to believe that Brennen and I will both be walking in graduation in two days. It seemed like just yesterday I was in my first college class.
• It's also hard to believe I'll be quitting my awesome job at the plasma center in three weeks and start student teaching 2nd graders!  
• It's hard to believe we'll be leaving cold, icy, windy Rexburg for sunny, warm, beautiful Mesa in just 6 months!
• It's hard to believe that in 6 months I will no longer have to put up with this kitchen:

and I will soon have this kitchen:

Source

or something like unto it.

• It's hard to believe that in 6 month's we'll be graduating from our little, subsidized, 30-year-old apartment to a newer, cleaner, bigger townhouse.
• It's hard to believe this will be our last winter with snow (pffft).
• It's hard to believe when my children go to college, they'll say "I'm from Arizona"
• It's hard to believe that we're moving on and growing up so quickly.

But...

I'm excited to start this new adventure.

Excited to live somewhere new.

Work somewhere new.

I mean, look at this:

Source

And it's only 20 minutes away.
Hard to believe, I know.

Bringing Sexy Back

...To Idaho that is.

So, I know that it's been a while since I've ventured

back into the blogging world, but it's been a busy past few weeks.

Why, hello there handsome.

Sorry, not a ton of pictures of OKC, but

it was beautiful.

I was there November 20-22 and it was still

green

with leaves

and grass...

and warm too.

We headed over to the OKC zoo

which was free that day..

Most of the animals that were out were all 

animals that were native to Idaho...

Elk.

Buffalo.

White-tailed deer.

Then later that day, we went to the OKC Bombing Memorial.

Now, if you're anything like me

you don't know anything about the OKC Bombing.

Well, if you would like to learn a little about it,

you can go here.

I wish I could have live in OKC with Brennen.

We loved it there and didn't want to leave.

But, duty calls.

One day I thought I lost my camera, so no pictures from that day.

Turns out it was just in the glove box of the car.

We left Oklahoma on Thanksgiving,

just thinking that we could pick up some dinner at a restaurant.

Ha. Ya right.

NOTHING was open that didn't have a line

out the door and twice around the building.

So we stopped at a supermarket/fast food joint called Braums

and grabbed some chicken strips and french fries.

That first day we drove through Oklahoma

through the panhandle of Texas

and ended our night in Santa Fe, NM.

Where we did some Thanksgiving night shopping.

The next day we drove from Santa Fe to Salt Lake.

Taking the scenic route.

  We came up through Moab since I have never been there before.

It was so cool.  Not a ton of pictures because it got dark pretty fast.

Once we got to SLC, we did some shopping,

sleeping,

and came home the next day.

For once, I didn't want to come home.

So....Home.

Pfffttt.  Ya, welcome home.

Don't think me an awful person,

but it's been HARD adjusting to having him home.

But, it was hard adjusting to him leaving, so 

I guess it makes sense that it's been hard.

But will all that said, I'm glad he's home.

So that was our adventure. 

Our three month adventure.

And now...

I have presents under my tree :)

Two Days, Two Days, Two Days!!!

Hey there,

So, ya, not so many posts in the last few weeks.

But that's because all they would be

are countdowns until i get to 

fly to Oklahoma City to bring Brennen home.

And I figured you didn't want to read a weeks worth of that.

So here's one.

TWO DAYS!!!

I fly out on Tuesday morning.

So excited.

We're planning on spending two days in OKC

Then just driving straight home.

Oh, how fun.

Looking forward to you, 20 hour drive.

Not.

Oh well, at least i won't be alone :)

Oh, and in case you didn't hear,

WE'RE MOVING TO ARIZONA!

That's right. 

Touro University didn't want us, so our decision was made for us.

Say hello to the newest member of the

A.T. Still Physicians Assistant Program:

Haha, this picture is from Christmas 2010

We (I) are (am) so excited!  I'm actually not really sure

how Brennen feels about it.  He would have rather

gone to Touro because he will have a lot of family in that area,

but I think if the Lord wanted us to choose, he would have 

had us accepted.  And we weren't.  So, I think Arizona is where we're supposed to be.

He Popped the Question!

What's that, you say?

You already knew this?

Well, i just happen to be talking about a

DIFFERENT 

question.

Yes, Brennen popped THAT question 

2 years, 10 months, and 23 days ago, to be exact.

No, the question I'm talking about goes along the lines of

"When do you think we should get pregnant?"

...

That's right. Let's all take a moment for this to sink in.

...

My first thought:

Should I tell him what I really think so he can dash all my hopes and dreams?

Rewind to a year ago when I first hounded 

Brennen on starting a family.

He didn't feel like it was the right time (plus he'd seen a real, actual, natural 

childbirth and was really grossed out), and what was I going to do?

It's not like I can make a baby by myself.

So I waited..

and bugged him nearly every day since.

Pause here.

Bearing children means something totally different to women

than it does to men.

I don't think men get how frustrating it is to see

85% percent of your ward (a staggering, but not surprising, statistic)

almost all of your high school (and college, for that matter) friends,

and even people who graduated 1 and 2 year

AFTER you, just poppin out cute, tiny, little humans (or preparing to).

And, women do 99.99999999999999999% of the work.

Play.

So due to our current situation (the one where we will have no jobs come January and are starting P.A. school in June) I suggested that the prime opportunity had passed, and logically

it'd be best if we waited another few years when we weren't

crushed by the debt of student loans and struggling to make ends meet.

His response?

"But by then, I'll be OLD"

(Emphasis and punctuation added)

Well, dear, with all this watching of "Say Yes to the Dress"

I've been doing, I've come to the conclusion that the majority of the people on this earth

are barely getting married by their late twenties, let alone having kids. 

So, you'll be fine.

He suggested a date much earlier than I suggested, and, well...

we'll just see if he still feels the same way when his proposed date approaches.

Say Yes to the Dress

Since Brennen has been gone, I have had a LOT of time to find some new

Netflix series to get serious about.

First it was Grey's Anatomy.  I hate to admit that I watched the first

season in 2 days.

I know, utterly pathetic.

But then one day I was at church and we were were

talking about giving things up so that we can grow closer to Christ,

and I realized that this show was DEFINITELY not going to 

bring me closer to Christ.  So I quit it cold turkey.

It wasn't easy because I was into all the drama and medical stuff, but I did it.

So now I've been completely obsessed with this show:

Minus the "Big Bliss" part..

Pretty much people spent insane amounts of money

on dresses for their wedding.

Well, this show got me to thinking...

What makes the dress so important?

It's not the end of the world if your dress isn't the most amazing thing

of the face of the planet.

I know that I definitely didn't LOVE my dress,

but that's not what mattered.

Most important things first, I say.

So what's more important? 

What you're wearing, or who you're marrying?

(and where (: )

An Epiphany

One day I was at the D.I. looking for jeans

(because I never shop for jeans and I needed a few more pairs.)

As I was looking through the racks, I had this epiphany.

In 6 months i'll be moving to a climate

where even the coldest summer will not be cooler than the 

warmest summer of

my dear home, Idaho.  

So why am i looking for dark, heavy, blue jeans?

*insert light bulb here*

SHORTS

And who in the world is buying shorts at this time of year?

No one.

Who us giving away shorts at this time of year?

Everyone.

Hello, genius.