In May 2014...

...I will be a graduate of The George Washington University Physician Assistant Program. I will be fellow alumni with Colin Powell, J. Edgar Hoover, Alec Baldwin, Casey Affleck, and Jaqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis to name a few. And where do I get to have graduation?

That's right. On the Mall. So mark your calendars people.

So here are some pictures from our beach trip over my birthday back in August. These are some of my favorites, and mostly speak for themselves.

Look at these eyelashes. Totally unfair.

Dead jellyfish. Both Jer and I got stung on this trip. Jerry's was much more worse, and continued to get worse over the next week. Apparently he's a little sensitive to them.

We met this family on the beach-and their little girl pictured here had a blast playing with Misha. Her name is Liesle. Sadly, that "L" at the beginning of her name got changed to a "W" a few times by Meesh. Poor thing. Good thing she was only two and wasn't bothered a bit.

Wait for it....

Oh yeah. This little boy LOVED the water.

I love southern architecture.

And one of the best things was that we got to see Kelly, Matt, and their daughter Natalie. She's pretty much family to me, and I was so glad they came and spent some time helping me celebrate my birthday. Love you guys!

Thanks to Blogger not letting me post any photos, I will have to put our beach trip pictures on hold until they fix their issue. So instead, I found this site on my friend Annie's blog. And look at what I found...it's just awesome.

http://hookedonhouses.net/2011/08/22/the-real-life-up-movie-house-interior-photos/#more-31269

Enjoy!

If the door is a rockin'...

Don't come a knockin'....we just had an earthquake out here for those that didn't know. It was a 5.8 magnitude that hit in Mineral, VA (near Richmond-about 115 miles from us) and was felt all along the eastern seaboard (all the way to Massachusetts at the highest report so far). I was on the phone with my mom at the time she felt it in her office and said, "Oh my gosh, it's an earthquake" and we immediately felt it here at the house. Pretty freaky. Certainly brings to mind the scriptures speaking of "earthquakes in diverse places" when speaking about the last days. We are certainly in them. For all our friends along the eastern seaboard-we hope you're okay. We're fine, just a little amazed and surprised.

Birthdays

We've had a lot of birthdays in the last few months-all of ours in fact. Here's some snippets of each one.

Scott-April 7

Misha-May 20

Jerry-July 8

Hayley-August 15

Oh the Athletic Things We Do!

So, I've been working out at the gym nearly every day for the last year + (since week 5 post c-section thank you very much). All of it has been to train for the few athletic things we wanted to do this year. The first goal was to actually run the entire Race for the Cure that was in June. I am happy to report I did just that-and in my best time yet for a 5k. Okay okay, it's only 3.1 miles, and I run slow, but I RAN the whole thing nonetheless! My time was 35:45.

The next thing was for us (me, Jerry, and my dad) was our first sprint triathlon. It was a 300 yard swim (my hardest part by far because of the severe disgusting-ness of the pond we swam in, and I didn't have a way to particularly train for it), an 10.85 mile bike ride, and a 5k run.

As stated above, the swim was my hardest part. It took me twelve minutes to complete making me the last. Jer kindly stayed with me the whole time despite the fact that he could have finished well before me. He's used to sticking his face in nasty water from growing up in Florida. I am hoity toity and refuse to stick mine in anything but a pool or clear, fresh water. So, here we are gearing up to start.

Why am I the only one with my game face on? Man look at how white Jerry and my dad are. Yowzuh.

So, we got done with the swim and transitioned fairly well into the bike. Jerry and I passed two women in the first 5 minutes, but saw no one after that. It took me until more than half way through the bike ride to get past the nausea I was feeling after that lake, and I got a huge burst of energy after that. We finished up the bike ride strong. The run was tough. 3.1 miles after all that other stuff can be hard. It didn't help that it started within the first 1/4 mile with a really long steep hill. After that it wasn't bad. Jerry and I crossed the finish line at 1:49:33, a full five minutes after dad who finished in 1:44:58. I'm so proud that my 58 yr. old father went out on his first ever triathlon of any kind and finished before his 27 yr. old daughter and 30 yr. old son-in-law. Way to go dad! All in all we had a great time, and I'll consider doing another if it involves the swim being in a POOL.

We didn't finish last (okay, okay, two people finished behind us, but they were a good 30 minutes behind us in finishing), and might we note-my dad was the oldest competitor. Again, WAY TO GO DAD!

Updates 1

So, here's the beginning of updates. Over the last few months we have...

Given Jerry a mini-me. I've told him a thousand times to use a #2 guard, but does he listen? No. What do we get? A cancer baby. But an adorable one. And now we just use a #1 guard all the time!

Celebrated two birthdays! My babies are getting so big!

Given little man a taste of real cake. This is in between the two birthdays-on his actual birthday we gave him a cupcake, and he didn't have nearly this much fun with it as with this piece of birthday cake. Yum yum!

Been with family. We celebrated the two birthdays with family in town over Easter weekend. Aren't they all so cute! Could the two girl cousins look any less alike? Oh but they're cute together! We had so much fun with everyone and were so happy to celebrate my sister and her husband's sealing. And now we can't wait for her baby that's due in just a couple of weeks. Can't wait to meet you baby Griffin!

Explanation

That's right, I haven't been updating. Here's why. (If you want the short sweet version, skip to the last paragraph.)

I'm applying to graduate school. PA (Physician Assistant) programs to be exact. I'm getting my master's degree so that when I graduate I can get a full time job and support us so that Jerry can finally go and finish school. Oh, and it's kinda what I want to do anyway. Now, you may think that there's not a ton involved in applying to grad school (for those who haven't), and that may be true for some (who got good enough grades the first time through their classes). Seeing as how I didn't do horrifically stellar, I've had some courses to retake to be eligible to apply. So, the things for me involved in applying for me have included the following:

A) Retaking Psychology 111 (via independent study at BYU) in approximately two months

B) Retaking Chem 121 (via distance ed at Oregon State University) "spring semester" that just ended June 6th.

C) Studying for the GRE (which I'll be taking on Friday).

D) Filling out the central PA school application, along with the supplemental applications of all the schools to which I wish to apply.

So, it's been involved, and really stressing/overwhelming. On top of all of it I'm the Primary secretary and ward camp director (camp's next week), I've been training for Race for the Cure (which was June 4th, and I finished in 35:45-my fastest time for a 5K), and for a sprint triathlon that is this coming weekend (300 yard swim, 11 mile bike ride, and a 5K) that my dad, Jer, and I are doing. I'm also now battling a sinus infection that the nurse practitioner swears is only allergies that caused a viral thing and that I shouldn't even be taking antibiotics. But she prescribed them anyway, and I'll be darned if I'm not going to take them so as to be able to make it through said sprint triathlon on Saturday.

So the long and the short is, I've been busy, and when I'm busy I take fewer pictures. Look for some at the end of June/beginning of July.

Finally!

So, Scott has already started walking. He's starting to get so confident, and I love it! I can't believe baby boy turns 1 on Thursday!

BMG Again!

We had the chance to go see Blue Man Group again on their tour that brought them here to DC. It's so rare we ever get to go on a date, so we got documentation.;) We had a great time with some great friends of ours. Their show always rocks-if you haven't seen it, you should!! Oh, and for those that didn't know, I chopped my hair again. I went pixie short. I love how easy it is, and how little shampoo it takes! And I finally look like I make a bit of an effort (without having to make much of one!). Thanks Jason and Amy for coming with us. We had a great time!

Saying Good-bye

To facebook. It is entirely too time consuming, and I find it odd that people that hated me in high school have attempted to friend me. Not that I'm not a forgiving person, but I wasn't friends with you then...so...yeah. I've also not posted anything on there in months, and no one seems to particularly noticed, so that too is a reason to chuck it. That means I'll be updating this more often. Most of you only seem interested in pictures of my kids anyway, so that's pretty much what will be on here. So, back to blogger we go!

And to start things off, here's a picture of Jerry and his mini-me. I've told him several times to use a #2 guard on the clippers, and he fails to remember this. At least it keeps baby boy's hair neater.

After doing Misha's hair in a heart shaped pattern of mini-buns, we took her hair out and this is what she looked like! It was awesome. The only way we can get her super-fine hair (sorry baby girl, you got that from mommy) to hold a curl is this way!

2010 Books List

So, I made it my goal last year to read 52 books for the whole year-obviously an average of a book a week.  Well, as of midnight on December 31, 2010, I reached my goal.  (Okay, okay, so it was by midnight in the central time zone, but I say it still counts because I hadn’t gone to sleep yet.  So there.)  Obviously I didn’t read one per week-some took a while to get through, and then others I’d blaze right through.  I read four books in the last three days of the year alone.  Now, my mother tells me it wasn’t really that hard because I’m not working.  Which is true, I’m not.  However, I did paint my house, grow a baby, HAVE a baby, recover from surgery from having said baby, go to the gym starting at week five post surgery to have said baby and gone almost every day Mon-Sat since then, take a beach vacay, take a Utah vacay, take a very short trip to Boston, kept track of all the finances, cleaned the house weekly, did more loads of laundry than I can even keep count of (though I’m thinking about keeping track this year just for fun…), and did two weeks at Disney World/Universal over Thanksgiving.  I’d say I was fairly busy this year despite not working.  But you can judge for yourself.;)  Here is the list of those I read-mostly in order.

1. Deception Point-Dan Brown (GREAT way to start the year-it’s very good.)

2. The Time Traveler’s Wife-Audrey Niffenegger (What a terrible last name, no? And this was by far a bit more graphic than I expected…if you’re Mormon-it’s not one I suggest.  Bit too much for my personal taste.)

3. A Study in Scarlet-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (S.A.C.D.)

4. The Sign of Four-S.A.C.D.

5. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes-S.A.C.D.

6. The Heretic’s Daughter-Kathleen Kent

7. Nefertiti-Michelle Moran

8. Cankered Roots-G.G. Vandagriff (G.G.V.)

9. Devil’s Food Cake-Josi S. Kilpack

10. The Heretic Queen-Michelle Moran

11. Cleopatra’s Daughter-Michelle Moran

12. Fablehaven-The Keys to the Demon Prison-Brandon Mull

13. Blowback-Brad Thor

14. Takedown-Brad Thor

15. The First Commandment-Brad Thor

16. The Last Patriot-Brad Thor

17. The Red Pyramid-Rick Riordan

18. Wings-Aprilynne Pike

19. The Spire-Richard North Patterson

20. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built-Alexander McCall Smith

21. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner-Stephenie Meyer

22. The Apostle-Brad Thor

23. The Necromancer-Michael Scott

24. The Lace Makers of Glenmara-Heather Barbieri

25. The Help-Kathryn Stockett

26. Courting Trouble-Deanne Gist

27. Of Deadly Descent-G.G.V.

28. Spells-Aprilynne Pike

29. Deep In the Heart of Trouble-Deanne Gist

30. The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins (OH MY GOSH.  Such an incredible series-though the ending was a bit anticlimactic.)

31. Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins

32. The Book Thief-Markus Zusak (This was good-but really slow-I took a really long time to get through this one.)

33. The Hourglass Door-Lisa Mangum (I read this one and the next two within three days.  Awesome.)

34. Choke-Obert Skye

35. The Golden Spiral-Lisa Mangum

36. The Mocking Jay-Suzanne Collins

37. Clockwork Angel-Cassandra Clare

38. The Fourth Nephite-Jeffrey S. Savage

39. Mennonite In a Little Black Dress-Rhoda Janzen (I by far laughed out loud the most in with this one.  Hilarious.)

40. City of Bones-Cassandra Clare (These are quite good-the “prequel” to this series is the Clockwork Angel above that just came out this year-though each series can be read independent of the other.)

41. City of Ashes-Cassandra Clare

42. City of Glass-Cassandra Clare

43. Juliet-Anne Fortier (I quite liked this-did anyone actually know that Romeo and Juliet is actually based on history??)

44. The Dressmaker-Posie Graeme-Evans

45. The Lost Hero-Rick Riordan (Those demi-gods are back!  Loved this and the Percy Jackson series-you should read it first before beginning this one.)

46. Alma the Younger-H.B. Moore (She is an incredible writer-the books she write like these really make the scriptures come alive.)

47. Poison-Sara Poole

48. The Christmas Sweater-Glenn Beck (If you don’t cry, you’re completely out of touch with your emotions.;))

49. Leviathan-Scott Westerfeld

50. The Jaguar Prophecies-Phyllis Gunderson

51. It’s Okay to Take a Nap and Other Reassuring Truths for MOTHERS EVERYWHERE-Debra Sansing Woods

52. Tangled Roots-G.G.V.

 

What do you think-should I shoot for 100 this year?  Ugh-that makes me tired kinda thinking about it.