Memorial Day Weekend (with LOTS of pics)!

We had a BLAST this last weekend! For Memorial Day, we drove up to Michigan and the rest of my family flew up there and met us. It was a little bit of a stuggle leaving Ohio, but after getting our AC fixed and FOUR new tires, we were off! Friday night we stayed at my grandpa's house in Holt, Michigan and the camera stayed in the car :( Then on Staurday morning, we drove up to Glen Arbor, Michigan and the camera came out! We had so much fun and got to stay in a really nice place. (and no pics of the place where we stayed...sorry)

I started out with over 200 pictures and narrowed it down to these ones to share with you guys! Here we go!

The first thing we did when we go to the house was EAT! This is Emmi eating her oreos and crackers:

Matthew, the hunk, and Josh:

After getting food in us and relaxing a bit, we decided to tour the cute little town it was a lot of fun. So here a few of us walking around. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Matthew on Nathan, Grandpa, Emmi on Josh

Stirling! I love this kid! He is so smart and so much fun!

Brayden on Dad, Matthew on Nathan, Stirling on James and Emmi on Josh:

He has gotten so BIG since I last saw him! He is such a CUTIE!

Matthew:

Christine & Shawnee

Stirling: I love this pic

Cute Emmi:

Me with Stirling:

Brayden running away: This kid is FAST!

Gramps! Love him so much!

Matthew: This is my FAVORITE pic of him. He just looks all big and bad!

James & Shawnee being James & Shawnee:

We walked down by the lake too and skipped some rocks. Here are a few pics:

Bath Time:

On Sunday, we went for a scenic drive, played in the sand dunes, went swimming, jumped in the VERY cold lake losing Christine's ring, and played in the dunes again. We had such a great time. More pics:

We tried to go tubing down the sand dunes, but that didn't work, so Josh, James & Shawnee made their own way to go tubing. A few pictures to describe how they went down:

We buried Stirling ALIVE:

We left Monday morning. On the way home we saw this on the front of a restaurant:

We had such a GREAT time! And were so happy we got to see everyone!

One Year!

Wow! It's been one full year since I have started my blog! My how much our lives have changed in the last year. As I was reading some of my older posts, a lot has happened this last year. A year ago, we had no idea that we had gotten into podiatry school! But after a busy busy summer, a move across the country and two full semesters of school and the dreaded test weeks...we are here! So, not only is this a time to celebrate our Blog-iversary but also a time to celebrate being done with our first year of school! YAY!!!!!

Here are a few things to highlight that we have blogged about this last year:

• My first and only Scorpion bite the first night Josh and I were apart after being married
• The trip to Michigan that no one that was there will EVER forget
• Our last big party with my family in Oklahoma celebrating my college graduation and our moving away party
• My sister, Shawnee's, wedding
• Our first camping trip in Ohio with new friends celebrating the end of our very first test week.
• My sister, Karri, got married too!
• Our first winter in Ohio, Christmas in Idaho and my brother, Logan, left on his mission
• A long weekend with just my sisters!

We have had one BUSY, CRAZY year, but we have had so much fun! We miss our families like crazy but are so thankful for all the friends we have made in Ohio! We can only wish for another year as good as this one!

To My Mother!

I just wanted to give a shout out to my mom! Oh how I love my mom! My mom is someone who has ALWAYS been there for me. Not only is she my mom, but she has always been a great friend. She was YW's President for most of the time I was a teenager but honestly I didn't mind it too much! I had fun being with her. One of the things that I love most about my mom is that she always trusted that I would be the right thing and showed me that she did trust me! As I have gotten older, I have learned a lot more about my mom. I have seen how strong her faith and testimony are! I LOVE watching my mom with her grand kids. I think it's one of the sweetest things to watch! I better stop now cause I don't like to get all sappy on here and I don't really want to cry again today! But Mom, I love you and I am so grateful for all that you have done for me in my life! I hope I can be half the mom you have been! I love you, MOMMY! Happy Mother's Day!

Everybody does it, right?

1. Everybody walks away from the check out line leaving a bag of groceries or gallon of milk at some point in their life? I did this for the very first time this week. I made it all the way to the car before I realized I left my gallon of milk at the register. The cashier was looking for me and I felt like an idiot!
2. Everybody eats just ice cream for dinner! Yum!! Nothing like cookies-n-cream ice cream for dinner.


3. Everybody LOVES Mexican food like I do and keeps eating the HUGE platter in front of them until it is completely gone even when you weren't too hungry to begin with. YUMMMM...I LOVE Mexican. I need it now! It's a BAD addiction that I have had. I haven't really had good addicting Mexican food since we moved to Ohio until this last weekend. (Thanks Karie!) And since then I haven't been able to get my mind off of it!!!


4. Everybody feels like they are going to DIE after running only a mile! Yes, I have been working out for about a week and a half and I still feel like I am going to die, but I am pushing through!
5. Everybody NEEDS Dr. Pepper like I do, right? I haven't been able to stop drinking it for the last week. This was also an addiction that I had in high school. I made myself stop drinking it except for on special occasions, one of which was last week when I brought Josh dinner at the school. I haven't gone a day without one since.


6. Everybody sits at work, ignoring their phone calls so that they can blog and chat with their mom and sister.


7. Everybody HATES waking up as much as I do. It's so hard to wake up and I hate it when the sun pours into our East-facing window in the morning. 

Everybody does these things, right? (Sorry about the abnormally LARGE photos...not sure what happened there!)

Weekend in Indiana!

Last weekend Josh and I got to go to Indiana to visit his aunt, uncle and cousins! Josh lived with them in Oklahoma for a while. One of their boys was getting baptized so we decided to head over there. It turned out to be about a six hour drive. It wasn't too bad though. We had a great time. It was a really good mini vacation weekend. Here is a picture of us in the car on the way down there. Josh didn't want to smile for me. He was just being stubborn because he says he doesn't like it when I take pictures like this. Oh well!On the way down, we drove through Columbus, which is where Graeter's ice cream is located. I had never been there before but I have heard GREAT things about it. Everyone says it's the best ice cream they have ever had. When we went, the place was pretty crowded, so we hurried through. It was good ice cream though! I would say it's just about as good as Braum's. The only reason I think it's not better is because it was WAY more expensive. Oh and for those of you who don't live in the Oklahoma area, Braum's is a ice cream/burger chain that is REALLY REALLY good! Oh how I miss it! We got there a little late at night, so we chatted for a few minutes with Jordan and Melissa and then also Josh's grandparents! Then we went to sleep. We were soo exhausted. On Saturday we went to Fair Oaks Dairy farm that was close by. It was really interesting. Being the city girl that I am, I sure did learn a lot! I even saw most of the process of a cow giving birth. Now that was interesting. Here are a few pictures taken at the farm:

Once we got back from the farm we had to hurry up and change and go to the baptism. Jackson was then baptized and confirmed! It was a great weekend!

We had a lot of fun seeing family again! We left Sunday morning and drove a more scenic route home. We had a blast and were completely exhausted once we got home. But like any other weekend vacation, it was worth it! Our next trip will be to Michigan with my family in May! All siblings are going to hopefully make it! I love weekend trips! They completely exhausted, but we ALWAYS have a good time! So, that was our weekend. We are now into finals! Wish us luck these next few weeks!

All in One Night

What did I do last night?? I did a ton of stuff. I don't think I even sat down until I laid down in bed at like 11:30! Last night, Josh had a church missionary meeting and I had too much to do. Here is the list of things I did:

1.) I did the laundry! Doing laundry in an apartment with no washer/dryer is difficult. Luckily there is one on each floor of our apartment building, but it cost $1.25/load to wash and then a whole to dry. We are so cheap, that we just hang dry our clothes in our apartment; we save A LOT of money doing this, but it is also such a pain in the butt!!

2.) I cleaned our apartment! Now, I know this might not look "clean" to everyone because there are still little stacks of papers and other things, but you should have seen it before I cleaned. I vacuumed too! The carpet was pretty dirty!
3.) I made my mom's FAMOUS and FABULOUS sugar cookies! Yum!!! They are soooo good!!!

4.) I made strawberry jam! I can't wait to eat it! Yum! And as you can see....strawberry jam + sugar cookies+ small kitchen=BIG MESS. But that's fine, the kitchen was a disaster before anyways. So I did clean the kitchen afterwards too

I got home from work at about 6pm last night and did all of this in about 4 hours! There are plenty of things that I want to get done, but I was just too exhausted! I wanted to be able to clean the bathroom, clean the kitchen floor better than I did, put away ALL the laundry (some of it didn't get dry last night), clean the bedroom, and pack (we are going to Indiana this weekend! WooHoo)! I am actually very happy though that I was able to get so much done in one night. But you guys are probably thinking that I am crazy (and I would agree) and wondering why I decided to do ALL of this in one night after working for 9 hours! Well I do have reasons, and for the most part, they are good reasons. If I were to sum it up in one word, it would be PROCRASTINATION! For those of you who want more of an explanations, read on...

1. I HAD to do the laundry. I absolutely hate doing and therefore put it off until either Josh complains he has nothing to wear or I get tired of wearing all the clothes that I only wear when I have no other clothes. In this case, it was me tired of wearing all my "ugly" clothes (or the clothes that I don't like any more). And since we are going away this weekend, we needed clean clothes.
2. I cleaned the apartment. Our apartment really needed some attention. This last week, Josh and I have been really busy every night and have just thrown everything in the living and it was bad. I HATE leaving for a vacation, even just a weekend vacation, and coming back to a dirty house! It just stresses me out even more and it's so nice to come home to a clean house! So, since we are leaving right when I get off work today. The apartment HAD to be cleaned last night!
3. I made sugar cookies! I was actually going to make this last weekend, but I got too busy. They have been on my mind though and sounded so good to me. I also wanted to have something sweet that Josh and I could snack on on our six hour car ride! So, yes I HAD to make sugar cookies!
4. My sister-in-law, Ashley, did a post this last week abour her homemade strawberry jam and it made me CRAVE it! I bought strawberries for it this week since they were on sale. And the reason why I HAD to do it last night, is because the strawberries were starting to get a little mushy and I knew they wouldn't last through the weekend. I decided that I needed to make it before we left. I can't wait to actually eat some of it! Hopefully it will trun out good. I've never done it before.

So those are my reasons! I am really excited to get away for this weekend! We are going to Indiana for Josh's cousin's baptism! We are really excited to see them! I haven't seen them since they moved from Oklahoma! Have a great weekend everyone! Wow that was a LONG post and it only covered one night!!!

Easter and My B-Day

And I was doing soooo well....Here's a quick update! For Easter, we were able to go over to a friend's house to dye Easter eggs. I forgot my camera, so I just took this picture when we got home. These are the ones Josh and I dyed! We had a great time. Church was really good too! I LOVE Easter programs by the choir! They did such a great job! We had a GREAT EASTER.


This birthday was QUITE different for me, not that it was a bad one though. Growing up, Mom would take me out of school on my birthday to go shopping with her! That was what I always looked forward! No school, shopping, and one on one time with Mom!!!! You can't be that! This year, I had to spend the day WORKING!!!! YUCK!!!! and no shopping and no Mom! It was a little traumatizing to be honest. I am not like this whole "real world" of working! These are the days that I miss college! Oh well! Josh definitely made it a great day for me though! i woke up to BEAUTIFUL flowers, a balloon. breakfast and a sweet note from him!!! He got up SUPER early to do this too! What a sweetheart! I was smiling ALL morning because of it too!

After work, we went to dinner with some friends at Damon's Grill! It was quite tasty and my meal was FREE!!!! So it tasted much better :) Then we went over to our friend's, Karie and Trevor's, for cake and ice cream and games! It was so much fun! Thanks Karie! You guys are awesome! To make it even better, the girls beat the guys in BOTH games that we played!!! It was a blast! Over all, it was a GREAT birthday! Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes!

Conference Weekend

I had a GREAT weekend! I was able to go to Utah for Conference. The way out to Utah ended up being a LONG day of travel, but it wasn't bad. I was able to meet up with Christine in Phoenix and travel the rest of the way with her! And let me tell you, Christine is THE BEST person to travel standby with. She's sooo laid back and fun to be with! It was great! The only thing that I missed was that Nathan, Nichole, Matthew and then Shawnee and James weren't able to make it! Hopefully next time though! I miss you guys! Anyways, Christine and I were the last bunch that made it in that afternoon. We were all totally exhausted, so we ate our Dill-Get-Together-Tradition of PIZZA and then pretty much went to bed! We woke up to SNOW!!! I was so disappointed, but got over it quickly! Here is a picture of Dad and Brayden out in the snow before we left for conference. Oh and sorry about the GIANT snowflake on my dad's head---OOPS:

Before conference, we met up with my Grandpa and aunts at a McDonalds for breakfast! I am totally bummed that I didn't get any pictures with them. But it was great to see them! We rode the tram thing into Salt Lake, which was the best decision ever because there were SOOOO many people! Here is a picture of everyone that went with us to the actual conference session minus my dad who was taking the picture. Oh and Jared is the guy in it. This was the first time I ever really got to talk to him. I met him in the temple when they got married and that was it.

Of course there were protesters, but there weren't as many as I thought there would be and it wasn't bad at all. All I can do is to laugh at them because they are just so off the mark. But enough about them. Here is a picture that we took in front of the conference center right before the session on Saturday morning.

It was such a good session of conference and really the only one I got to see this time around. It was really good to go with my family too! It was a great experience. Right after the conference session, we went to go watch the Joseph Smith movie in the Legacy Theater. It was really good. I had seen it before, but it was the same with conference, really neat to be there with my family as we are now older and somewhat more mature. After the movie, we were able to go eat at a restaurant that is on the top floor of the Legacy Theater. It was really good food and had an amazing view. Here is one picture that we took from the restaurant.After eating, we did a little church shopping in the distribution center. We just all got a few pictures and things, nothing too big. Then we went to the visitors center few just a few minutes before we had to catch the tram back.

Here's a picture of Brayden that was just too cute not to post!

Then we went over to my aunt's house and had a great time talking with them! It was really good. Then we left EARLY on Sunday morning! I was able to make my flight and sleep on them, so that was good. It was the best weekend trip I've taken in such a long time! It was so short and we packed so much into it and we were all totally exhausted when we got home, but it was so much fun! It's amazing how much of a difference being spiritually uplifted makes! Anyways, all in all it was a great weekend and I have been totally exhausted since, but it was well worth it.