A Year of Firsts

The year is almost over. December snuck up on me and I'm left wondering how so much time passed without me noticing. It seems like just yesterday Spencer was starting medical school and we were hunkering down in Wisconsin for the second snowiest winter there in recorded history. Now, we've yet to see a flake (which is good) and we're living in hot and sunny California. The weather is messing with my sense of the seasons since I'm not used to it. Everything is turning green and rainy--it's the complete opposite of what I'm used to. Instead of getting blisteringly cold in the winter and hot and green in the summer, we get blisteringly hot in the summer and warm and green in the winter. Weird.

This past year has held a lot of firsts for us. First mean change and change is hard. There's a saying that goes something like "nobody like change except wet babies." I think that's pretty accurate, but it's hard to grow without change. The last year or so has resulted in a lot of growth because of all the changes we made. Though it's been hard a times, I think we are in a better place now than we ever were before.Some of the major firsts/changes we experienced over the past year are the first time neither one of us has been in school, the first time we bought a house, the first time I've been in a non-musical calling at church, and the first time Spencer will have to work on Christmas day.We adopted our first dog. It's our first time living within driving distance of the beach, the mountains, and the desert, and it's the first time I've lived in a community with a pool. The list could go on and on, but you get the point. We experienced a lot in 2011 and you probably did, too.

May we always remember the firsts brought on by 2011, and here's hoping for many more firsts in 2012!

Christmas 2011

 This year for Christmas was didn't do too much. Spencer was scheduled to work for most of the month (including Christmas Day and Christmas Eve) so we couldn't travel to visit family, so we decided to have people over instead. Miraculously, his scheduled ended up switching around so that he got both days off and we were able to spend the holiday together. On Christmas Eve we went with a couple of Spencer's work friends to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Seeing movies on Christmas is a tradition that my family had growing up starting when Beauty and the Beast came out. It's about the only time each year that we would go to a movie. On Christmas day I spent most of the day cooking a traditional Thanksgiving-type meal complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, apple pie, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and my Granny's spiced carrot recipe. We had some of Spencer's friends from work over that didn't have family in the area and couldn't go home because of their schedules. We rounded the night out with the Packers and a quick game of Apples to Apples. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food and most hadn't ever had homemade before! All in all I think it was a great success.

The New Pup

2 weeks ago we welcomed Percy, a miniature poodle, into our home. We are really loving having him and watching him explore his new home. He is a pure bred dog despite the multicolored coat. So far his favorite pastimes are destroying cardboard, destroying paper products of any kind, and just being generally cute. We got him from a breeder down in San Diego. He was one of two black puppies (both male) out of a litter of 6. The other 4 were an apricot/cream color. 5 were boys and 1 was a girl. Below are some of the pictures I took with the new camera my mom gave me for Christmas. Hopefully now that I have a camera I like, I will start getting better about taking pictures and posting them to the blog. Pardon the quality of some of the shots--it's very hard to photograph an active puppy. :)



Thanksgiving--Portland Style!

For Thanksgiving this year we drove up to Las Vegas, hung out for a few days, and then flew to Portland. While in Vegas we saw two shows: The Lion King and Mystere. If you have the chance to see either, it's worth it. The costumes and sets are amazing in both. The signing is really good and so is the acting. The story line is a little slow with The Lion King, but I decided that it was probably because we grew up with the cartoon version and the musical pretty much follows it exactly. We also did lots of other Vegas-y stuff that you do when you don't gamble or drink or go clubbing (i.e. walking around and seeing free stuff). We went to the Bellagio to see the fountains and indoor gardens, Caesar's Palace to gawk at the outrageously priced blue crocodile handbag ($10,000 for the medium and $4,000 for the clutch!), a buffet, Coke World, M&M World, and hung out at the pool. We also fed the slot machines about $9.00. We won some and lost everything we put in which was kind of the point. Once all that was done, we headed to Portland on one very tiny, cramped airplane courtesy of Spirit Airlines.

While in Portland, we spent most of our time hanging out with family. There was a nasty virus that went around which kept people in bed (my mother) or at bay (her sister) for most of the trip, but we did all manage to get together on Thanksgiving day for some quality turkey time. My dad, my sister Melissa, Spencer, and I went to the Muppet Movie. Melissa, Rachel, Spencer, and I went to burgerville (try the chocolate cherry shakes!). My husband and my grandpa hung out and watched football and grandma baked at least 6 pies over the course of 3 days--possibly more. I am now addicted to pie and have been going through withdrawals since I left on Saturday. Spencer, my sister Melissa, and I drove down to Cannon Beach and the Tilamook factory and had some wickedly good ice cream and cheese. My sister Rachel hung out and did home work a lot, but I guess that's how life as a student goes. My mom's other sister and her family were around, but were experiencing a tragically sick beloved cat so we didn't see to much of them. I decided it would be wise to go running in the pouring rain at least twice and came home soaking wet. In other news, Wisconsin has officially ruined my ability to properly experience temperature's so where most people would feel downright freezing, I only felt slightly cold. On the other hand, ever since I've been back in California, I've been freezing in the mornings because our water isn't set that hot and our heat is out so it feels REALLY cold when I take my morning shower.

And finally, several last pieces of advice I picked up on our way home via Vegas: restaurants that existed in casinos 5 years ago may or may not exist there presently (in our case not) and if you plan on driving home to California from Las Vegas on a Sunday, it's best to do it early in the morning or your 3 hour trip will at least double. Also, the road that parallels the highway does not go all the way to Primm and you will have to navigate a very bumpy looking dirt road if you decide to try to bypass traffic that way. We didn't do it, but we saw a lot of people who did.

All in all, it was a great trip and we're looking forward to our next set of travel adventures!

A Growing "To-Do" List

As we are about to embark on the new experience of home ownership, my mind has begun racing with possibilities for what we will do to make our new place "ours." True, no one has ever lived in this place before, but we still want to make it our own nevertheless. So, here's a short list of things I want/need to do once we finally get the keys:

1. Seal all the grout on the tile floors
2. Blinds for the windows so people won't see us shower/sleep
3. Curtains
4. Paint
1. Kitchen/dining room--green
2. Living room--shades of navy
3. hallways--linen white
4. banister--dark brown/black
5. master bedroom--perhaps a nice red accent wall with the rest white?
6. bathrooms--light blue?
7. other bedrooms--tbd
5. Kitchen back splash
6. Lights under kitchen counters
7. Get stools for bar
8. Landscape
9. Install water softener
10. New rug for living room?
11. Headboard for master bedroom
12. Get a real bed for one of the guest rooms--queen?
13. shelving around the garage
14. shelving in the laundry room
15. pull out drawers for the kitchen
16. closet organization systems for bedrooms
17. Christmas decorating
18. puppy proofing

Suddenly part time employment seems like a lot of extra work...

Things That Make Me Thankful

Image from here



Last year I did a series of posts called "21 Days of Thanksgiving" where I posted things I was thankful about for 21 days straight. This year, it seemed like anyone and everyone had jumped on that type of theme and I didn't feel like tagging along, but since Thanksgiving is a little less than a week away I did think it was time to do some sort of Thanksgiving-themed post. So, here is the brief list of things I'm Thankful for this year:

1. Days colder than 75 but warmer than freezing
2. Snow on the mountain and not in my driveway
3. New California friends and old friends from everywhere else
4. Airplanes that make travel oh so much faster even if security makes things slow
5. Fresh fruit and veggies
6. A loving husband who works hard 
7. Freezers
8. Plenty to eat
9. Wetzel's Pretzels--my perfect post-Disneyland treat every time
10. Going to Disneyland with my husband, our friends, and out of town family
11. Disneyland's chocolate covered marshmallows on a stick
12. Having family within driving distances
13. My calling in Primary
14. Car insurance
15. My iPhone
16. A job that's flexible enough for me to move my schedule around whenever I want
17. A loan guy that's stuck with us through this house buying thing even though we're taking FOREVER
18. Yoga
19. Running
20. Everything chocolate
21. Baking
22. Book clubs where you don't bring the book and spend most of the time chatting
23. Knitting and the closeness of a great knitting store with a great group of people
24. Alpacas, llamas, rabbits, goats, and sheep for giving me various forms of yarn
25. The easy availability of clean water
26. The calming effect of being near the ocean or on a beach
27. My two puppies that passed away recently
28. Hamsters
29. The various sitcoms that I watch and find amusing
30. A warm, comfortable bed to sleep in at night

I could go on and on and on with this list, but for now I'll leave it at that. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The thing about house buying is...

it takes FOREVER,


                   but I am thankful to be able to at least attempt it.

Dog Cravings

It was recently brought to my attention that I don't really update this blog anymore. It's true, I don't. I tend to update only when I have down time, am bored, or just need to do something "creative." Currently in my life I'm having lots of "down time," but I'm pretty much using all of it on fun things like knitting or watching TV or going to the beach or going to Disneyland. Blogging is just so far down on my list of fun things I want to do with my day right now that I very rarely think about actually doing it. But, that being said, I do anticipate interesting, post-worthy things happening in the future that I may or may not get around to blogging about. You'll just have to wait and see. Now: on to the originally intented post.

I did not have dogs when I was very young, but I did grow up with them for the latter half of my childhood and we always had pets for as long as I can remember. Recently our mutt, Esther, was put down because she was old and sick and suffering. Our purebred, life-of-the-party, naughty, loveable little poodle is soon to follow suit. I guess this is making my dog craving especially strong because I've been looking much more frequently for available dogs in the area. I've browsed off and on since I left home, but now that we are about to OWN a home instead of RENTING, I finally feel we're ready to at least seriously consider owning our very own pooch. So, if in the near future I post a picture of a little fuzzball that's suspiciously bigger than a hamster, you can rest assured that it's a dog and not some sort of mutant. :)

September Updates

September has been busy. Between house hunting and a surprise visit from a little sister, we've had a lot going on. The good news: we've found a place we like, but I'm not saying anything is final until all the I's are dotted and T's are crossed. For now all I'll say is that it's just down the road from where we are and is essentially the same type of place. We like it and really, really hope it all goes according to plan this time.

For my sister's whirlwind visit, we went to Disneyland for a full 16 hours, went to the beach at Dana Point, drove through Hollywood (can you say sleazy?), and hung out at Santa Monica Pier. It was great to see her and have her around to do fun stuff with even if it did wipe me out. Oh and it was also nice to have someone else do my dishes for a change. Can you come back please? I need a live-in maid.... :P

October is fast approaching. It still feels like summer. I don't know what I'm going to do with all my winter clothing...will I ever get to wear them? Yesterday morning it was 60 degrees and people here busted out the parkas. I was in short sleeves, and when it warmed up to 75 later that day I kept thinking it was waayy too hot. Thank you, Wisconsin, for ruining my ability to enjoy warm weather.

In other news, I'm back on the exercise bandwagon. I've been pretty good with my runs and have also been doing some DVDs for weight training. With a crazy schedule it's hard to keep exercising because you never know when you'll have a free moment, so my philosophy as of late is to just do it whenever I have an hour of down time. So far it's working, and here's hoping it will keep doing so.

Oh yeah, and I've been contemplating more school....but then I contemplate paying for it and not getting paid and I stop. *sigh* That's what I get for being a school-junkie.

House Hunting (Take 3)

Soooo I think I might have mentioned this before, but if I haven't, we *were* in the process of buying our first home. Everything was set to go and then due to reasons beyond any one's control, the property we wanted could basically only be purchased with cash. We do not have that much cash (relatively speaking in comparison to how much the property cost). So, we did could not buy the place we wanted. LAME.

Therefore, I (we, but let's face it: he works 60+ hours a week and I work maybe 25) am about to embark on house hunting take 3. Take 1 had us with a seller that declined our rather generous offer. Take 2 left you just read the conclusion to. Take 3 is off to a rocky start, but at least this time I've narrowed down where I want to live. Now I just have to find a place that fits our ever-so-strict requirements.

Things I am looking forward to: getting this done with for the next 4 years or so. Potentially having a place to decorate and make my own. Possibly finding a place with a pool.

Things I am not looking forward to: realtors, moving, and making an offer/loans/negotiating/etc.

Good think the ocean is near by and I've found a knitting store. I'm a gonna need me some stress relief and nothing spells stress reliever like ocean breeze and a ball of yarn. :)

Posting Slacker

So it turns out I'm turning back into a posting slacker. Somehow, even though I'm only at work for about 25 hours a week I don't feel any less-busy. I don't even have that many commitments floating around to eat my time. I think I might feel so busy though because of the sheer number of things we cram into each week. For instance, this is how my week went last week:

Monday: Rode my bike to work since Spencer left the house at 6am. I woke up around then, didn't start getting ready soon enough, and it was either wait for the late bus or hit the streets peddling. I chose the later. Then I worked till about 2, got the keys from Spencer, drove home, tore the house apart looking for a missing book, and went to the post office. Then I started to head to the yarn store, but was forced to stop and turn around because Spencer texted me that he was done. He wasn't. I proceeded to wait in the car for him. Then, when he was finally done we got about 2 blocks from the hospital only for him to get paged to go back in again. So I dropped him off, then headed over to the gym and spent an hour playing basketball with a bunch of guys from work. Then it was back to the hospital to wait for him to be done (took about an hour), then home for dinner and TV watching, and nursing my aching body.

Tuesday: Rode to work with Spencer and got there around 7am. Took the keys from him and said hi to my bike, which was still sitting at the bike rack next to my office at work. Worked until about 2, then decided to head to the yarn shop again. Got almost halfway there after stopping for a Slurpee. Spencer called, so I had to turn around a pick him up and drop him off at home. Got another book ready to mail, went to the post office, then went back to the yarn shop. Knitted there for a couple hours, then headed back home for dinner, exercise bike, and more TV watching.

Wednesday: Went to work at 7am. Worked until about 1:30. Drove an hour to get my hair cut by an old friend. Spent about 2.5 hours in the chair catching up and just generally having a great time. Drove back from Orange county in rush hour traffic (1.5 hours of my life that I will never get back). Went to a friend's for dinner at 7pm. Hung out until 9pm when it was time to pick up Spencer. Went home and crashed.

Thursday: Went to work at 7am. Again. Worked until about 1:30, then took the bus home. Took a 2 hour nap on the couch. Went to book club with a friend. Stayed out until about midnight because that's what girls do when they finally get a night to themselves.

Friday: Went to work at 7am again, which was annoying because I don't typically work on Fridays. Worked until about 12 when the once a month meeting ended. Went home and cleaned up around the house a little. Picked up Spencer and we went to dinner. Then we went over to a friend's house for games and stayed until about 11pm.

Saturday: Took Spencer to work around 9am (woohooo! he got to sleep in!), worked on my knitting, cleaned up around the house, picked him up around 12:30. Went to a knitting class from about 2-6pm. Came home and made dinner, watched a movie, and worked on my lesson for sharing time.
Sunday: Took Spencer to work around 9am. Came home and got ready for church. Went to church at 11am. Sat with a friend who has 2 young children and helped her wrangle them since her husband is also a resident and was at work. Went to primary. Wrangled more children, taught sharing time, and held a friend's baby while she did singing time. He was rather tired and grumpy. Went home, did the dishes, made some lunch, ate lunch, then got a call from Spencer. Went out to run some food over to him and his friends at work. Went to a baptism. Had to play the piano and speak as the primary representative. Came home. Ate dinner (a peanut butter and jelly sandwich) and talked to a friend on the phone for a while. Picked up Spencer around 9pm. Crashed and went to bed.

And there you have the story of why I don't really blog anymore...

Thoughts on Random Events

So about that plan to be active for 90 days straight...yeah, that's not happening right now. And I'm OK with it. Really, I am. I have been generally a little more active out here in Cali anyway. When we go out to do fun things it typically involves the great outdoors and I am working like crazy to get our place clean and everything put away. (Aside: Who knew that clean could be so time consuming and make you break a sweat? Not me. I guess I've been doing it wrong for all theses years). On to the point of this post.

I am a planner. I like to have a map and know exactly where I'm going in life. When I'm driving somewhere new, I always look up driving directions and pull out the GPS just to be safe. One of my main complaints about moving is that I don't instinctively know where everything is, which creates this sense of not knowing and uncertainty that I just don't like. Here's what being in a car accident last week reminded me of: you can only plan so much. Sure, it's great to have a plan, but it's even greater to just go with the flow sometimes.

We don't have as much control over our lives as we think we do. In one moment, someone you know or don't know can affect your life in unpredictable ways. In my case, last week's car crash was one of those events. I didn't know the guy, and I never would have thought I would have been hit when I was just sitting at a red light. While the outcome of the event was relatively minor (I was fine, the car is not but is being fixed), it still put such a huge kink in my plans that week that I haven't even fully recovered from it all. I was planning on doing so many things that I just didn't have time for because I had to deal with all of that and I had to get used to Spencer's crazy new schedule for the month. There's nothing I can really do about either. So, instead of stressing about it like I almost always do, I'm letting it go. If I make it to the gym today, great. If I go home and go out for frozen yogurt with my husband (who I never get to see because of his crazy residency schedule) instead, even better. Plans are meant to change. Life just wouldn't be interesting if they didn't.  You wouldn't want to read a book if you knew what was going to happen and predictable TV shows/movies are boring. So here's to life's random events and going with the flow!

Activity Updates

Well, first off let me say that with the exception of Sunday (which should be a day of rest anyways), I did complete my goal of being active every single day. Secondly, let me just counter by stating that some of what I counted as activity probably wouldn't traditionally count towards what most people think of when they think of exercising. That being said, here's the stats:

• To recap:
• (Monday July 25) Day 1: Couch to 10k, week 5, day 1
• (Tuesday July 26) Day 2: Physique 57 DVD
• (Wednesday July 27) Day 3: Exercise Bike for 45 minutes
• (Thursday July 28) Day 4: Couch to 10k
• (Friday July 29) Day 5: 2 hours scrubbing the bathroom, 5 walking around Disneyland
• (Saturday July 30) Day 6: Walking on the beach for about a half hour and then climbing about 250 stairs to get back to the car.
• (Sunday July 31) Day 7: Rested, unless you count walking around the house in heels. :P
• (Monday August 1) Day 8: Scrubbing my kitchen top to bottom (including cabinets and counter tops) for 2 hours

I had planned on running yesterday, but due to Spencer's new rotation this month, I ended up running out of time in the morning since I had to drop him off at 6am, drive home, and then turn around and head back into work by 8am. By the time I got home from dropping him off, it was almost 6:30 and there just wasn't enough time for an hour run, shower, makeup, and hair. I toyed with the idea of running after work, but it was almost 100 (and pretty humid!) yesterday so I never got the nerve to venture out. The kitchen scrubbing took up most of my afternoon/evening anyways.

Oh, and I'm not really sure how this challenge will continue to go. Ideally, I'd go run today, but I was rear ended last night and am just not feeling so hot. So, I grabbed my swim suit this morning and will head to the pool after work until Spencer gets done. If I'm feeling better by then, maybe I'll go for a swim and try running this evening. If not, oh well. Life  goes on. Any tips for exercising post (minor) car crash?

90 Days of Activity

A while back a friend of mine started posting her daily activities on Facebook with the goal of doing something "active" every day for 90 days straight (Bel, if you're reading this please correct me if I'm wrong). At the time I think I was sick or on vacation or probably moving, so I didn't jump on the chance to join in on a fitness challenge like I usually do. Well, we're moved now and have been here for almost 2 months so I decided it was time to jump back on the exercising bandwagon. So yesterday I drug myself out of bed at 5:30 (AM) and went for a jog. Not just any jog though, the week 5 day 1 of my 10k training program jog. That's 68 minutes of heart-pounding sweatiness. Mind you, I haven't run since mid-June, and before that I'm thinking the last consistent running I did was back in March on a treadmill (because we were still in Wisconsin and the snow doesn't melt until June).

Let me tell you, coming back into wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We have been leading a fairly active life out here in California. We've been to the beach a dozen times, walked around Disneyland for hours on end, gone fishing, and cleaning or moving on down time. Plus, I've been cooking more since our new kitchen is so conducive to cooking (pictures to follow eventually). Cooking takes a lot of energy. Who knew?

At any rate, day one is done. Today is day two. I'll try to post weekly updates on my progress, but if I forget please do forgive me. :)

The stat's so far:

• Day 1: Couch to 10k day 1 of week 5
• Day 2: Physique 57 DVD

June Update

Well, things are finally starting to get settled down around here. Most of the boxes are unpacked and all that's left is mostly books or office supplies. We both started working which is providing structure to an otherwise structureless life. We spent most of June splitting our time between trekking back and forth from the beach or Disneyland and our house. Rough life, I know. :) But hey, soon residency will get really busy and I'll never see Spencer again (well, at least that often). I'll get busy with work and we'll have less and less time to run around doing fun things. So even though we've neglected the unpacking/organizing/cleaning in favor of running around and having fun for the past few months, I don't feel too bad about things. There will be time to clean and unpack later. Those things are nice, but not essential.

Speaking of updates, my new job is at Loma Linda University as the research coordinator for the Cardiothoracic Surgery department. I know I swore I'd never work for surgeons again, but the job is great for what I need right now and the people are great as well. The whole feel of the department is much more positive than the other surgery department I worked for and I'm really liking it so far. It's part time, about 15 minutes down the road, and it's nice to be working at the same place that Spencer is again. We can commute together! And have lunch! And...well, you get the picture.

Stay tuned for more to come!

We Made It!

A few quick thoughts before I resume the arduous task of unpacking.

1. After 5 days of travel (some were short days and some were rest days), we pulled into our new place in California.
2. I called the ward when we were in St. George to see if we could get help unloading the truck.
3. About 6 hours later, at least 10 people had shown up and our truck was unloaded in an hour.
4. That means we got to sleep in our bed the first night!!
5. With the exception of my friend's boyfriend in Wisconsin, we loaded the truck ourselves. Having people to help is waaay better.
6. There is an abundance of Mexican food here and we are loving it.
7. Also, you can get horchata everywhere and we are both totally addicted.
8. We still have too much stuff.
9. Next time we are going to pretend to be gypsies and just leave everything instead of moving it. Except maybe the couch. And the books. And the kitchen gadgets. And the...oh, well. You get the picture.
10. Fridges are expensive, but having one makes life oh so much better. Eating out only maintains its charm for so long before you're just plain sick of it.  

Well, there you go. The house is getting slowly unpacked. We are getting slowly settled in. I am getting to sleep in and may or may not be still in my pj's at 10:30 in the morning. (I know that last one sounds kind of lame to all you stay-at-homers who are used to being in them all day, but as a recovering work-aholic it's a big deal). We love it here so far and don't expect to stop. Unless it hits 100+ degrees, which it's quickly on its way to doing...

Moving Realization(s) #4

Image from here.

A few brief (and random) thoughts while I'm supposed to be working...hehehe, what can they do, fire me? :)

1. We are leaving in 3 days. 3. Wow. How did that happen?
2. The closer we get to moving, the less nostalgic I get about "stuff."
3. Hopefully, I won't later regret this temporary "declutter bug" that's taken over.
4. How is it that I'm still dealing with crazy projects at work when I only have 2 more days?
5. Wisconsin is getting humid. Perfect time to leave for dry heat.
6. I gave my hamster away (the demon one). I am both elated and sad all at the same time.
7. I am probably not going to get another hamster since I just gave away all of his hamster "stuff."
8. A dog would be nice. Spencer, can we please get a puppy? Pretty please? Yes? Awesome.
9. I'm about to join the ranks of the unemployed and I feel {mostly} calm about that.
10. We are about to embark on a 36+ hour car trip where we will both be driving the WHOLE time.

Life sure is full of uncertainty. Isn't it exciting?

Moving Realization #3

I have less stuff than I thought I did. At least, that's how it seems. Maybe our current place could more storage or maybe I was just really, really bad at storing it. Whatever the case, I'm glad since we rented a kind of smallish truck. Here's to hoping that everything fits...

New Title

In honor of Spencer's new title, I've dropped the "future" from the header/title of this blog. After 5 years of marriage I can finally say I'm married to a doctor! Now we just have to wait about 5 more for him to start making the big bucks! Until then...a job huntin' I will go. :)

Graduation and Such

Well, it's official. We done gradu-a-mated. The ceremony was last Friday and we had almost all the family in town from brothers and sisters to grandma and grandpa. The weather was lovely for a change. Our families were spoiled! After they left it dropped back down to freezing after having been a pleasant 60-70 degrees all weekend. At some point I may or may not share more pictures, more information, and just more in general about graduation, but for now I'll just sum it up.

Thursday night we had an awards dinner for Spencer's medical class. We went and were sat (assigned seating) at a table with one of his classmates and her parents, grandparents, boyfriend, and boyfriend's parents. They all were meeting for the first time. Fun! The dinner was excellent, but the awards were, well, boring. Maybe because Spencer (or anyone else I knew) didn't win anything. But hey, that's how awards ceremonies are, right?

Friday morning the assorted relatives gathered at our place for breakfast, we took pictures, and my mom, dad, and sister headed out with me for the graduate student lunch. The lunch, again, was excellent. They even had complimentary campagne (they didn't for the medical students the night before). Our table must have looked kind of funny though because half of us don't drink, and a few also didn't like champagne. Wisconsin is a very alcohol-heavy environment though. They even gave my 19 year old sister one! At the lunch we were also put on the spot to say something so I got up and thanked people, and made a joke about not eating cereal anymore. After that, we lined up, marched in, sat for about 2 hours (or rather napped), got the diploma, took pictures, and went out for dinner at Carabbas. Afterwards we treated the non-natives to frozen custard, which was an instant hit. Spencer's dad started out with 2 scoops then went back for 2 more!!

Saturday and Sunday were spent with the family seeing the sights, shopping, and lots and lots of eating. All in all it was great having everyone around. It was crazy, but we had a really good time with everyone and got to do a lot of touristy type things that you don't normally do when you live somewhere.

Phew. And that was the short version. So much for that. :)
Now, it's onward and upward to the next big phase of our doctoring lives: residency!

Moving Realization #2

I'm beginning to see the logic in e-books and e-book readers. We started packing the books first. We are using fairly small boxes since they tend to get heavy pretty fast, but we have already packed about 15 boxes just of books. And that's only about half of them. Plus the DVDs and Wii games....

I've tried to pare down our inventory. Believe me, I have. It's just--there's nothing quite like the smell of a book, the feel of the pages, and the sound the pages make when you turn them. Some people never re-read their books; I do. To me, that justifies keeping them around, even if they do take up space and weigh ten tons.

On a brighter note, after the books we pretty much just own clothing and kitchen wares.

PS: 3 more weeks to moving!!

Moving Realization #1

I have way, Way, WAY too much stuff.

But I will never have enough yarn. Ever. Even though I totally just filled two 35 gallon Rubbermaid containers with it....hehehe. :)

Cruise!



Alissa and me with our a towel rabbit.

 Here's a brief list of highlights from our recent cruise:

1. Cabo: seeing whales, awesome snorkeling, the most amazing taco restaurant with a Beatles-enthused owner/chef.
2. Puerta Vallerta: Long boat trip on a small little skiff, seeing tons of tropical fish, hiking around a small little village with tons of stray dogs, holding an iguana
3. Awesome shows: Second City, Justino and Daniella (magician), and an acrobatic couple
4. Games and meals with the entire family--27 people in all!



First meal on the ship.




Our ship, the Norwegian Star.




Whale!




Another shot of the whale.




Beach in Cabo.





Two good looking brothers.




What a cute family!




Silly boys!



Moving Cross-Country

If you've never had to move cross-country, consider yourself lucky. It's a lot of work. In an ideal world, you have an infinite amount of money, time, and resources to not only examine each and every possible scenario for what your life will be like once you get there. I don't believe that anyone really has this. If you have the money, you might not have the time. If you have the time, you might not have the money. Or, you might have money and time, but no way of making it out to the new area. It's always something. The greater the geographic distance, the harder it is. For us, it's a combination of all three.

When I found out Spencer's grandma wanted to take everyone on a cruise out of California, Spencer was in the middle of the interview process. Loma Linda was one of the first places he visited and he was absolutely in love with it. In his mind, it had everything a program could ever want and more. I was a bit more skeptical since it was one of the first and we were heading into another dreary Wisconsin winter so the appeal of somewhere warm was highly desirable, but as time went on it remained his top pick. So when it came time to book flights for the cruise, we decided that we would extend the trip by one day just in case we matched there so we could go look at housing. 

Match day was about a week or so before we left for the cruise. When we found out that we were indeed headed to Loma Linda, we began immediately making plans for how we would get out there, what we wanted to do, and most importantly which areas we wanted to see. We contacted a realtor, and he set up a time for us to meet him and show us a few places.

Most of the places he showed us needed a lot of work. Many were banked owned properties. It's truly amazing how poorly some people treat their homes. In one house, the people had let their dog urinate all over the room they locked him up in. In another, they had let their cats and/or dogs tear up the carpet. Others were in comparatively better shape, but still had cosmetic defects (which we were OK with) or in some cases more serious defects (like water damage) which we were not OK with.

One house stood out to us though. It was a lovely home, a bit small for what I though it should be, but it had a huge yard with a pool and more space than we've ever had. They had done a lot to build in storage and were the original owners. You could tell that they had worked really hard to keep up with the place and really loved it. So, we made an offer. We low balled a bit, but not much, because the other homes in the area we selling for less. They didn't negotiate. We walked.

At this point we were back in Wisconsin and I was freaking out. We didn't really have the time or money for another trip. We needed a place to live. We didn't know how we could find one without actually being in California to look.Miraculously, I was given the opportunity to be flown out to California for two job interviews. Despite being deathly ill, I was able to make it to both interviews as well as visit a property. It turned out to be just the thing we were looking for. We're still in the process of finalizing things because it's a short sale, but we will be able to rent it on a month to month basis until then.

So, at least that part is taken care of. We have a place to live. I've put my notice in for my last day at my job, and we now have a tentative move date. The pieces are slowly coming together. All that's left is to sort out the details.

Blizzard!

So this is crazy late, but back in February we were getting slizzard by a blizzard. School and work were shut down--which has only happened about once or twice in the past 25 years. The amazing thing was that by the end of the day, they had done a great job of clearing out most of the snow in the area so you could get around. Here's a few pictures:

This is a snow pile at the end of the parking lot where I cut through to our neighborhood.

This is a house down the street. Look how high the snow pile is!

This is the parking lot at work. You can see all of the snow piled up--it's almost as high as those houses!

 

This is a view of our driveway. The snow was in drifts so it was deeper in some places and others had nothing at all.

Well, it's 2 months late, but at least you can see why Wisconsin winters are so crazy! California here we come!!

April Updates

OK so remember when I said I'd be posting more updates soon? Yeah, I don't either. Well, here's a quick run down of why:

1. I went back to California for a few days.
2. I had some crazy bad virus that laid me up for over a week.
3. We have been trying to find housing from 2,000 miles away.
4. We've had a lot of other random things going on.

So, I promise I will post some pictures and updates soon. But don't hold your breath that they will be up very soon.

Thanks. :)

Adult

You know you're officially an adult when you've put an offer in on a house... :)

I promise! More updates to follow! Life just needs to slow down for a bit. Brief preview of topics: match day, cruising, California, Cabo, Puerta Vallerta, more cruising, house hunting, and hopefully some more definite plans on when we actually move! Phew! I feel tired just typing that.

Until later,
Ciao.

Match Day!

Match day is here!!! We matched at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, CA!!!

More details to follow...

Working on my Physique

A while back I decided to try a new workout DVD set called Physique 57 based on the recommendation of Mormon in Manhattan. She's a gal that's been on Broadway (and currently is right now) and has also made a living as a personal trainer. Needless to say, she's pretty fit. So when she said it kicked her tushy, I knew it had to be worth a try.

Physique 57 is a workout system based on the Lotte Berk method and is also very similar to the bar method. Basically, it's kind of like a combination of ballet and Pilate's. It started out as a studio in New York and has since branched out to DVDs and a studio in LA. When it first came out, it got a lot of press, especially since Kelly Ripa apparently does it to keep in shape (and if her shape is any indication of what these workouts can do for a person, it's worth a try). You use your own body weight to strengthen, lengthen, and tone your muscles. You also use hand weights, a bar (or chair), and a playground ball to make the movements more intense. A lot of the movements are small, so it seems easy, but trust me--it's not.
 
There are 3 DVDs in the set: the full 57 minute workout, a 30 minute express workout, and a 30 minute arms and abs booster. They also have a second set of 3 DVDs that I haven't tried yet, but have coming in the mail. These DVDs are supposed to be harder, but I can't really speak to that since I don't have them yet. The DVDs I do have are a little corny, but they flow well and are easy to follow. I don't have to stare at the TV to figure out what's going on so I can just concentrate on getting the move right and feeling the burn. And boy are they hard! My muscles start shaking almost immediately and I have a hard time getting through all the sets. It's not so hard though to be discouraging, and they do offer encouragement and modifications to help beginners get started and keep going. They also say that you can do them while pregnant or recovering from rehab, but I think you'd need a pretty good exercise knowledge base to be able to modify them enough to make it work.

I first tried the full DVD back in December, but with exams and travel I didn't get too into them. This week, I decided to try them as recommended. The recommendation is that you do the full workout 2-3 times per week, and the two 30 minute workouts once a week. Combined with my running program, that's rounding out to be a lot of exercise (I'm doing the couch to 10k program). So far, I've mostly been able to stick to the schedule. I've done the two 30 minute workouts this week, but will only get 1 full workout done (tomorrow). I've also been walking/running about 3 times per week for about an hour at a time for the past 4 weeks, and I'm happy to say I'm starting to see some nice results. My arms are more defined, my posture's improving, and my legs feel stronger. I'll update a few weeks from now with my progress, but if I can keep it up I'm thinking it will be pretty good. Spencer even commented tonight that I was looking pretty good. Needless to say, if you're looking for a good workout to add to the mix or if you're like me and don't really like tradition weight lifting, give Physique 57 a try. I'm sure you'll be happy with the results.  

1 Week!

And then there was 1....week!

By this time next week I will know where we are going. I still can't decide where I want us to end up. I have an idea of where I don't want to go, but coming up with a definitive wish for where we do want to go is proving to be much harder. As long as we go somewhere, I'll be happy. :)

Until next week,

Megan

PS: Anyone else worried about the gas prices? All I can say is yikes!

2 Weeks

Just in case you forgot....2 weeks to match day!!

I'm thinking of putting a poll up about where we'll go, what do you think?

And the Year Goes "March"ing On

Since it's March, I thought it would be nice to take a peak back on my New Year's goals and see how they were going. For the most part, I think I'm doing OK, but I'm sure I'm not quite doing everything I had hoped to do. So without further adieu,

Goal #1: Knit more. I am definitely doing this. I've even finished a few things and taught someone to knit. Unfortunately, since I'm also hanging out with more knitters, it means I'm near more yarn. That means that I'm buying more...which means my stash is growing. Also, I didn't finish any projects in February, but I did get closer so I'm going to count that as a win with room for improvement.

Goal #2: Read for fun. I am totally rocking this goal. I've read 3 books since the beginning of the year and have at least 3 more in progress, with more cued up to read. Of course, I'm not really sure if very many people would find The Jungle a "fun" read, but since it wasn't an assignment, it counts.

Goal #3: Bring my lunch to work. This pretty much never happens. I do, however, try to make healthier lunch choices and find ways to eat for free. For instance, we have lots of leftovers from other meetings. I call it the "student meal plan" (as in I plan on mooching off free food whenever possible). When things settle down at work, I will try to re-instate this goal.

Goal #4: Make better use of my YMCA membership. I'm totally rocking this one as well. Since starting my 10k training a few weeks back, I've been going at least 3x per week. Sure, I didn't really get going until February, but I did finally get going and hopefully it will stay that way.

Goal #5: Be more consistent with my scripture study. I'm still trying to be better about this. I was doing better for a little bit, then things got crazy again and I regressed. Oops. I guess it really is a constant struggle to stay on top of it.

Goal #6: Actually clean the house. So I had a job chart going in January and for a while, it worked. When I say it worked I mean that I did pretty much everything by myself. So now we're just back to cleaning when we can and my new mantra is "it's OK if it's messy." Life's a lot more enjoyable that way.

To recap, I'm doing pretty well at keeping up with my goals so far. A few are lacking, but that's to be expected. I think goals are great because they give us things to work towards, but one of the things I've learned by setting goals is that we have to be a little easy on ourselves when we don't quite do everything perfectly. It also helps to evaluate them and see if they are reasonable. For me, a couple are not really reasonable right now if I want to have any semblance of a life outside of work so a few of them are getting neglected. I'm OK with that, but still want to improve. The great news is that I can.

3 Weeks

3 weeks from now, Spencer and I will know where we are headed for residency. We're either staying put or going somewhere, and hopefully if we go it will be somewhere a little bit warmer. I've been so busy the past few weeks that I've hardly had time to think about. But, the next couple of days aren't so busy and I can't help but wonder. Will we like where we end up? Can I really handle 4 more years of Milwaukee winters if I stay here? Will I be able to find a job if we move?

*sigh* Does anyone know of a good way to speed up time?

Just Call Me A Cave Woman

So I haven't been posting very much as of late because my work has been pretty busy. It's the kind of job where when it rains, it pours. Right now it's pouring. Just to recap: we are down 1 full time person in my position, we increased our workload by 3x at the beginning of the year, we got slammed with a surprise audit that's pretty much consumed my life, and we have a site review coming up that was supposed to be at the end of April, but got moved up to the end of March. Needless to say, I am busy. On average, I am getting into work by 8am at the latest and typically heading home around 6pm. The good news is that I am enjoying what I do and being busy helps the days go by faster. The bad news is that there is not too much to post because I pretty much just sleep, eat, and work. As Spencer said to me the other day after asking me what my goals for the day were, "it sounds like you are a cave woman." Yes, dear. I am a cave woman.

Despite this, I have managed to have some fun. Highlights have included rock climbing with Jessica, visiting the Milwaukee Ale House to see Crash County Music (the singer was an American Idol hopeful and the drummer was a grad student that works in my friend's lab), and an awesome hot stone massage that I purchased off of Living Social.

In other news, we are in the throws of taxes. Yay! Match day and Fairbourn cruise, you cannot get here soon enough. I still can't decide if I want to stay in Milwaukee or go to California, but since that fate is pretty much out of my hands right now, I guess there's no point in getting worked up about it.

Wisconsin Weather

Wisconsin's weather never ceases to amaze me. A couple of weeks ago we were hit with a monstrous blizzard that closed schools,the highway, and even the Medical College of Wisconsin (though they did wait until 5am to make that decision). Amazingly, by the afternoon many places around Milwaukee were navigable and life returned to (fairly) normal the next day. Then we had a week of sub-Arctic temperatures. With wind chills well below zero, it was bundle up or be frozen. Last week we had record highs with temperatures approaching 50 degrees and nearly all the snow melted. In fact, you couldn't even really tell that we had even had a blizzard a few weeks ago because there was grass everywhere and everything seemed like Spring--right down to all the mud. Today Wisconsin decided it was winter again. After snowing all morning, it's now decided that it's time to dump sleet/freezing rain on us. So much for seeing the grass again! But seriously, the Midwest's weather is crazy and you never know what you're going to get from one minute to the next. To quote the local weatherman (I think I've quoted him before), "If you don't like the weather in Wisconsin, just wait a few minutes."

Can it be warm yet? Like, for more than a week?

Romance Novel

First off, Happy Valentine's Day. This post is only slightly related to the most loved/hated of holidays, but since it surrounds the "romance" genre I thought it would be a fun inclusion to all the other V-Day posts out there.

I guess a while back there was a deal where you could download a copy of a newer book (Giving Chase) for free to read on the various Kindle applications. Since we not only have iPhones, but also an iPad, we use the Kindle app quite frequently (Spencer especially. I prefer the "feel" of a real book). At any rate, he downloaded it because it was free and mentioned on a deal website he frequents. I innocently stumbled upon said download and decided to start reading. I made it through the first chapter, thoroughly enthralled in the story line, but wondering why it was so badly written. Being the impatient person that I am (I used to read the last chapter first because I couldn't wait), I looked it up on Amazon to learn a little bit about it. I've included the link above for your reference as well. Turns out said book is a romance novel. Not only that, it comes with an "explicit content" warning. Needless to say, I stopped reading and un-downloaded (is that a word? it should be) the book as fast as you can say "Mississippi."

So there you go. I may be the only person in recorded history who mistakenly began reading a romance novel, got drawn into the story even though it was badly written, and the voluntarily put it down once I figured out what it was. I guess I can't really recommend (or caution against) this book since I didn't really read that much of it, but I can only guess based on the warning that it's definitely not my thing. If it's your thing, the first chapter had me hooked so I guess that's good for this type of genre.

Thurday Afternoon Rant

I’m warning you now; this is going to be a rant-y post. If you don’t want to read that sort of thing, you should stop reading. Did you stop? No? OK, well don’t say I didn’t warn you.


It has come to my attention that there are a large number of women (and girls, check out this blog post) who think that they are fat. No, this really isn’t that shocking given today’s cultural obsession with women who are stick skinny, yet unnaturally top heavy, but what is surprising is the number of women I hear (or read about) complaining about being fat while either pregnant or recently after giving birth. Perhaps I just can’t sympathize since I’ve never been pregnant, but seriously? You’re supposed to gain weight when you get pregnant. Your body is supposed to get round and cushiony so as to accommodate and support the life form growing inside of you. In fact, if this is not occurring there is probably something wrong. Your body has to expand to make room for baby and that does not make you fat. It doesn’t mean you ate too much or should lay off the cheese puffs and chocolate cake (though we should all probably do that). It doesn’t mean that you’re unattractive. Oh, and your bell is not supposed to magically contract instantly after expelling the aforementioned life form from your womb. Get over it. It’s as annoying as h-e-double-hockey-sticks to sit around and listen to you complain and fret over how HUGE your ankles look or how HUGE (*gasp*) your waist is. Pregnant bodies (women’s bodies in general) are beautiful and yours is no exception. You do yourself and the women around you a great disservice by comparing yourself to a cow, beached whale, elephant, etc and by calling yourself fat. It’s not good for your self esteem, and it doesn’t set a good example for your daughters (or sons, or the other women/girls around you) either. I’m sure people have compared you to Buddha by now. I’m sure they’re all eager to rub your belly and you feel self conscious that you can’t fit into your skinny jeans any more, but you really, really need to get over it. Embrace the belly. Pregnant does not equal fat.

That is all.

*Image from here.

"Fried"-day

This marks the end of the first week of being officially down one coworker. My lovely coworker and friend Bel made the transition a job much closer to home this week. She no longer has to commute over an hour with her baby just to get to work every day, and she doesn't have to get up at 4:30am anymore either which means she is finally getting some well-deserved sleep. All in all, it was an awesome move for her and I'm happy that she was finally able to make that change and for herself and for her family. However, I'm missing her like crazy and wishing she was here to help out with some of the work load. We tripled the number of reviews we are doing this year and since my other coworker only works part time, it feels a bit like the brunt of the work is falling to me. Don't get me wrong, I love being busy. Being busy makes the day go faster, keeps me on task, and sends me home with a sense of accomplishment I can't quite get from a slow day of web surfing. On the other hand, I'm incredibly tired and wishing there was another set of hands to help carry the load. Plus I miss our lunch time walks that included a visit to the munchkin and other daycare kids. It was nice to get out and see the sun--even if has been below 20 degree for the past few months. Oh well. At least it's Friday.

The Games that Left Me Anything But Hungry

While in Utah for Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law gave me the first of 3 books in the Hunger Games saga to keep me entertained when the boys were overindulging in football, football, and more football. At first I was hesitant to get into it since I'm the type of reader that forgets the rest of the world exists when I get into a good book. However, I finally succumbed to temptation and dove into it not knowing exactly what to expect.

The first book was a quick, easy read that was masterfully written. I enjoyed the way the Collins wove in description to her story without going over board (think Meyer's in the 4th Twilight Saga book...*shudder*). At any rate, I really got to know the characters pretty well and became attached to them. Sure, the descriptions of all the gore sometimes turned my stomach, but I was definitely caught up in it. It was compelling enough to be a page turner, but not so compelling that I had a problem putting it down to do something else for a while (this is a good thing for me). I also really enjoyed how Collins made it pretty clear that this was some version of a future America. It was both interesting and a little disheartening to see how poor and backwards the people of the districts were, especially in contrast to the amount of technology available in the Capitol. So when my sister offered to let me take the second book, Catching Fire, home with me, I jumped at the chance.

Taking that book turned out to be one of the best decision I made that entire trip. Through a series of weather-related delays, I ended up reading almost the entire book either on a plane in flight, in the airport, or stuck on the tarmac in a plane that had no available gate to go to. The second book was just as interesting as the first, complete with a second hunger games. Collins did a good job of showing how tumultuous the pre-revolutionary country was and how ruthless those in power could be. I also appreciated that some of my favorite characters were back, though I didn't really care for how dense Katniss (the main character) was when it came to the relationships in her life. Still, the story ended on a cliff hanger so of course I was begging for more.

Which brings me to the third book, Mockingjay. Because I was finishing up my final papers for my degree, I was unable to dive into this book quite as soon as I wanted. Plus, I didn't actually have a copy and didn't really want to buy it. I also didn't get any responses to my desperate plea on Facebook for someone to loan me one. So I did what I do in any situation where I'm too impatient to wait for something to come out. I googled it. After reading the ending, I really wasn't all that interested in reading the third book. Still, the opportunity to read it presented itself to me last week when Spencer "checked in out" from his Kindle app on the iPhone. It was just too tempting not to read it, so I downloaded my own copy and spent a few days reading it. The story was just as well written as the previous books. There were no really slow parts, though I did not care for the direction Collins took with some of the characters. I didn't care for portions of the ending and I didn't think it really served her message. Spencer disagrees with me, but that's just his opinion.

All in all, this was a fun, quick series to read. Well, maybe fun isn't quite the right word given all the death and gore, but I did enjoy reading it. I've heard they are thinking about making it into a move. I have no clue how they would do it without making it so gory and so violent as to drive off most audiences. I certainly wouldn't be inclined to see it, though I would be interested to see how the movie created the world of Panem and some of the crazy characters in it. Movie aside, if you're looking for an entertaining read, look no further.



Hopelessly Devoted To....YARN

You might think it's crazy, but becoming a knitter has turned me into an obsessive freak that has the uncontrollable urge to own all the yarn or yarn related paraphernalia in a 50 mile radius...even though I already have more yarn than I could ever possible knit right now. (Seriously, I have a lot. I should put up pictures sometime. We're talking mammoth quantities of yarn here. And I still sometimes catch myself thinking, "I have nothing to knit!")

Heaven help my bank account if I ever step into a yarn shop (which I did last Thursday). About the only words I can utter once under a yarn shops magical spell are "ooh" and "aahhh" and "pretty! I want it!" And if I have a knitting friend with me, well, let's just say I'm a bad influence. For example, I say things like, "you can totally afford that," or "yes, but feel how soft it is," or even "you know you want it."

This applies to knitting books as well. Even though I already have more books than allotted knitting book space, I still have this irrational desire to buy more. And more. And more. And now this little beauty is coming out soon. It has so many things I want to knit. And wear. And love.

The only problem with knitting though is how long it takes. It's not like just going to store or shopping online or even sewing. Still, I love it.

So if (and I do mean if) you ever have the urge to send me presents, please consider yarn (no acrylic please) and knitting books. Food may be the way to a man's heart, but this girl's heart is pining for yarn.

And Then There Were Two (Months)

I neglected this past week to post that match day is officially less than 2 months from now. Two months is not that much time, especially when you consider that one of those months is February (the shortest month of the year). At the same time, two months is a really long time when you're waiting to find out where you will be spending the next four years of your life.

So what will I be doing for the next 2 months while I patiently (ha!) wait for the news? Art. Knitting. Going to the gym. Attempting to clean more. Reading. Baking. Participating in Soul Restoration. Basically whatever strikes my fancy which is both nice and weird after being in school for most of my life. Spencer will be continuing his rotations most likely with a healthy dose of Starcraft thrown in. 

So, despite the waiting, I anticipate that the next few months will actually go by pretty quickly. Which is awesome, considering how long I've been counting down. :) 

Image from here.

It's ONLY Tuesday?!?

Somewhere between last night and this afternoon my brain did something weird where it made me think that several days had passed. Perhaps it was because I went out last night to knit with the gals or perhaps it's because I may have been having a rather vivid dream when I woke up this morning (you know-the kind where you dream you are at work, etc so when you wake up you're all confused and upset because now you really have to go to work). At any rate, some time after lunch I realized that it is in fact, only Tuesday.

It was then I decided that we should re-instate 3 day work weeks. Who's with me?

Life as a Grad

Well, it's been almost 3 weeks since I graduated (!) from my bioethics program. It was a big push at the end and took a ton of effort on my part to get motivated to write those last few papers. I love school, just not the part where you get graded and have to write about what they want you to write about. I guess I thought I'd be bored or something by now, but I can honestly say that I'm not. Here's a quick breakdown of recent happenings:

I turned in my final paper on December 21st, added red highlights to the mix, and started prepping for the trip back home for Christmas. We hoped a plane to DC on Thursday (no connections, wahoo!) for the Christmas/New Year holiday. We spent out time there shopping, going to movies, shopping, seeing the National Christmas Tree, shopping, going to the National Zoo, and did I mention shopping? Of course, there were the traditional Christmas activities as well like Christmas Tree Lane, hot chocolate, presents, and the obligatory post-present fashion show. Spencer's not used to so many girls, but I think he survived because he got to build my parents a brand new computer while he was there and filled the rest of his time with Star Craft.

January brought us back to Wisconsin and back to reality. Spencer started his radiology rotation and I went back to work. Two days later, I was home with the mother of all colds. It first hit in early December, then decided to rear it's ugly head again over the break. I though it had gone away until it knocked me on my back for a few days. Suffice it to say I haven't done too much since we've been home.

Spencer, on the other hand, has had 2 more trips to the far away land of Detroit, MI in the past week. Apparently the gods of match day want us to move to Detroit. Me? Not so much. I'd much rather stay here or go to sunny California instead.

Since I'm done with school now, I finally have time for exciting things like cleaning the bathroom, making dinner, and folding clothes. Hmmm. What does that say about my housekeeping skills for the past few years? Seriously though, I'm enjoying the time I have now to take better care of the house and spend my down time after work doing fun things instead of reading for class or typing up a paper. I'm reading for fun again and knitting more. In fact, I've already finished my first project and book and am hard at work on the second book/project. All in all, I think 2011 is shaping up to be a pretty exciting year. It's the year of change for us and that, for once, is a good thing (to quote Martha).

Happy 2011!

Well, we're officially on day 4 of 2011 and since the rest of the blogging world is already doing it, I decided to go ahead and add my own list of resolutions/hopes for the new year to the interwebs.

1. Knit more. Not just knit more, finish more. I currently have at least 9 (that I can think of) projects on my needles or in various states of being done. They are:

• Tiffany's baby boy coming home sweater (he was born last March and is an extremely large baby). All it needs is the sleeves sewn up, buttons sewn on, and a crochet border.
• The 6 month boy sweater for a soon to be 3rd time mommy- all it needs is one sleeve, button bands, and buttons.
• The 6 month girl sweater for another soon to be 3rd time mommy-still on the needles, needs the sleeve knit, the bottom ribbing finished, button bands, and buttons.
• The koolhaas hat for me in a creamy white-I'm on the second of 5 cable repeats, then I need to shape the crown and finish.
• A green scarf that just needs the ends woven in.
• A felted bag-so there are only about 4 rows on there...but they are there so I guess I should get working.
• Rachel's XOXO headband: Super soft, lovely. It needs a few more cable repeats and then it just needs to be sewn together. It's still on the needles right now.
• The Debbie Bliss 1 year old brown sweater. It's still on the needles and taking forever (probably because I never work on it, huh). I have barely started one piece and there are four total, then all of them need to be sewn together.
• My first sweater: it's the sweater that haunts me. It's been knit for a long time, but I hadn't learned how to sew knitted garments yet so the first time I did it, it looked horrible. Now I've picked out the seams and will be starting again. It's also way too small. I'm thinking of going back and adding ribbing around the sleeves and bottom since the width is OK, the length is just way off.

I also have several patterns in mind for the other yarn I've acquired. In no particular order:

• 2 more 6 month baby sweaters: 1 to donate, 1 for a baby scheduled to debut in March
• A scarf to match koolhaas with the left over yarn
• Socks! Lots and lots of socks! I even have some great sock yarn to go with it.
• Hand warmers to match Rachel's XOXO headband
• The "baby dotty" blanket form Mason Dixon--steeking, scary!
• A market bag
• Another sweater for me
• Some sort of short sleeved sweater or vest for the yarn from Wool and Sheep.

Phew!

2. Read for fun. I'm done with school now, probably forever (in a formal setting) and it's now time to read just for the sake of reading. I've got a ton of books on my shelves that I'd like to get to but haven't had time for yet and now is my chance. Plus, there are always more at the library!

3. Bring my lunch to work instead of buying most days of the week. It's cheaper and probably better for me. Unless I only bring brownies or cake. :)

4. Make better use of my YMCA membership. I don't use it nearly enough right now.

5. Be more consistent with my scripture study.

6. Actually clean the house now and then rather than just looking around and thinking, "wow. that looks really messy."

That's all for now. Really the list is only inclusive through about May which is when we will be making some sort of transition to residency be it moving or simply staying put. Wishing you all the best year ever in 2011!