Taylor and Amanda Petersen

Iron Mountain Classic Competition!

2011-10-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I will start this post off with a warning....there will be pictures of me scantily clad on this post so if you don't want to see them, then don't scroll down:) I have been kind of surprised by the mixed feedback I have gotten since doing this competition. A lot of it has been negative, which I wasn't really expecting. Most of it had to do with me being "immodest" and it has kind of hurt my feelings a bit. Those of you that truly know me know that I am very modest and very self conscious about my body. I don't like to show off my body, but the purpose of a figure competition is to show off hard earned muscles and you can't really do that without wearing the suit. I equate it to a swimmer who goes to compete in a race....nobody expects them to cover up and not put a swimming suit on. It should not be viewed as a sexual type of thing at all and I have been disappointed with some of the negative remarks people have made. However, with that being said, I have also received A LOT of support and love from people and it has really helped get past the negative stuff. I had so much support at the competition...Kent and Kathleen drove all the way from Twin Falls just to watch me! Seriously...who does that? I loved having them there and appreciate their support so much! Jared and Marianne also took time out of their busy lives and drove there to watch me and took all their kids after just getting back from Mexico. I loved having them there! I also had two of my closest girlfriends there to support what they call "team Amanda". And, of course, my husband who had put up with me and supported me every step of the way was my #1 fan there. I love him so much and know that he's the best husband in the world...sorry ladies, but it's true:) I also had my awesome trainers helping me and supporting me as well. It was an amazing day!

I set a goal and accomplished it! It was definitely the hardest thing I have ever done, but also one of the most rewarding. It's amazing to see what your body can do if you give it the proper fuel and are consistent with it. This pushed my limits in so many ways and made me do things that I never thought I could and I am really proud of myself for doing it! I went into this competition prep with the goal of finding out what my body could do and what it looked like underneath all those comfy layers of fat:) I have been lifting a long time and wanted to set this goal and do it. Even after watching Taylor do this, I had NO IDEA what it would entail to get there. I was in prep for 15 weeks which included eating a very set diet of clean foods and exercising like a mad woman. There were days that I couldn't even imagine why I ever wanted to do this in the first place, but there were also days when I was so pleased with how my progress was coming along that it all evened out. Overall, I feel stronger and more athletic than I ever have. It has given me a new sense of self esteem and I feel so healthy!

So, lets start out with how I did...I placed 3rd in my class and was happy with that! The 1st place girl in my class took home the overall award and looked great. Both the girls who "beat" me have been competing for years and looked really good. I missed 2nd place by 1 point and 4 of the 7 judges thought I should have been second so I was pretty happy with that. I was SOOOOO NERVOUS on stage. I didn't know what to expect and I was literally shaking like a leaf. I couldn't stop no matter how hard I tried..darn adrenaline anyways:) Hopefully, that will get better with time because your stage presentation is very important and can really affect your placing. But, I really didn't care how I placed at all so I was super happy to bring home a 3rd place trophy:) Okay, here are some pics now...

Here's my class in our front poses...super competitive class! Check out my fake tan...pretty crazy huh?

Here's our back pose...yes, that is just as uncomfortable as it looks!

Here's our side poses. The girl in the middle took first and the girl on the far right was 2nd place.

Here's one of just me from the side.

And from the back...

Here's our group with the top 5 trophies:)

Here's my hot hubby....it's crazy how different the tan looks under normal lights huh? Tay looks like an albino next to me:)

Kent and Kathleen after the show! Thanks so much for coming guys!!!

Jared and Marianne...before anybody asks, her hand is on the table behind us...lol!

Here are my trainers...Roger and Ally Baker. Seriously can't thank them enough for what they have done:) The other competitor there is Shawna, another RAB girl...she looks awesome!

Anyways, I think that's enough pics for now. I am so glad that I did this and really admire people who do it because now I know how much hard work and dedication it takes. I want to say thank you to all of you for your support and love. It really helped and means a lot to me!

28 DAYS OUT!!!

2011-10-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

I seriously cannot believe that I am saying this, but I am 4 weeks out from my first figure competition today. In some ways the time has gone by really fast. In others, not so much. Since my last post, I have been pretty busy with all of my contest prep, working, stoning my suit, posing practice and working out. I have now been doing 2-a-days for a week and will continue that until my competition. I have to go to the gym in the morning for cardio on an empty stomach and then I have to go back later to do my lifting. I have now been dieting for 11 weeks total with 4 more to go. I am still doing a ketogenic diet with my only source of carbs coming from veggies and have been doing that for 4 weeks now with 4 more to go. Let me tell you....a low carb diet literally turns me into a mean, neurotic mess:) Taylor probably wonders why he ever married me..lol! On some days, I feel just fine, but on others, I feel like I have no energy whatsoever. To add misery to my low energy, I am STARVING all the time. However, Taylor is trying to gain weight to put on muscle mass so he is eating 5,000 calories a day to gain weight. He has found that if he eats any less than that, he doesn't gain weight. So...put those 2 things together and I literally want to strangle him with my bare hands on a daily basis! Every time he says "oh...it's time to eat again and I'm still so full" I can barely restrain myself from doing the flying monkey leap, tackling him, and kicking him while he's down:) But seriously though, all violent thoughts aside, it get really hard sometimes. For example, we went to the Washington Ironman Competition near Seattle last weekend. It is a 2 1/2 hour drive for us and we knew that it was going to be an all day trip. So, I prepared all of my food ahead of time and packed it in my cooler so that I could stick to my meal plan. Well, I didn't account for the fact that I would be up 4 hours later than I usually am and by 9:30 PM, I had eaten all of my meals and was STARVING! We then had to drive home and Tay decided that he was hungry and stopped at Burger King where he proceeded to order a triple whopper and large french fry. Oh my gosh...the smell of french fries in that little car was almost too much for my starving self to take. Then, he started shoving his face full of french fries and I just felt like having a mental breakdown. NOT one of my better days.... Here's a pic of us at the competition. I look like a giraffe with my neck stretched like that:)

So there's the bad and the ugly of my contest prep. Let's move on to the good! I have officially finished stoning my suit, except for the straps!!! I have to wait until I sew the straps to stone them so I know how long they will be. I can do that about 2 weeks out. Here are some pics...they really don't do it justice! It's so pretty! I can't believe I didn't ruin it! One of my prouder "domestic" moments because it was REALLY time consuming and hard to get it to look right.

Here's the top. Remember, I still have to stone the straps, so it will look better after I do that...
Here's the front of my bottoms...
And the back of the bottoms...
Then I tried putting them together, but the bottoms kept sliding down so it looks kind of funny.

Okay, I know some of you have been requesting pics of me and my progress. I am way too self-conscious to post them yet on here, but I promise I will post contest pics:) I am excited to say that I recently turned 30 and have never been in better shape in my life! My coaches have dialed in my diet so that I have been able to maintain my muscle mass and I have NEVER been this lean before. Super exciting! (even if I am carb deprived) I have especially been noticing changes in the past 2 weeks and it seems like my body finally got the memo that it's time to start changing and shredding off the fat:) It's been an amazing journey to realize what my body can do if I give it the proper fuel and stay consistent with it. Most of you know that I am a very self-critical person and always see my flaws first. I am starting to feel so much better about myself and the way I feel. I can feel a difference in the way I hold myself and I am proud of myself for sticking to this. I am excited for the competition, but more than anything, I am excited that I decided to start this journey. I can honestly say that I don't care if I place dead last in my competition...I feel like if I step on the stage knowing I have done everything I could, then I already won. I am so glad that I found my coaches because they provide so much support and encouragement as well as doing all my diet plans. I hold them solely responsible for the changes that have taken place. They have been GREAT! And, as much as I get mad at Tay, I couldn't ask for a more supportive and amazing husband. He puts up with so much from me and I love that hot man more than I can say! Can't wait...only 28 more days to go!

46 DAYS OUT!

2011-09-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

Okay...so I officially had to say a ceremonious goodbye to carbs on Saturday night. My new meal plan started Sunday and let the KETO begin! My only source of carbs in my diet now come from vegetables like asparagus, mushrooms, onion, broccoli, cauliflower and bell peppers. Who knew you could miss oatmeal so much? I am now 46 days out or 6 1/2 weeks and am getting pretty excited and nervous. I am going to post a few pics...I have finished the outline on the bottom of my suit and can now start on the design...300 hand glued stones later:) The pics don't do it justice, but the stones are really pretty. Once the design gets started, it should look really good!

I have to start on the top now too. This is seriously time consuming, but it's better than paying several hundreds of dollars for somebody else to do the same thing. Wish me luck with no carbs:) I'm going to do my best to stay sane....

Hunger

2011-09-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

Wow....this week has been a tough one for some reason. I am now half-way in this process. I have 7 1/2 weeks to go and I have been dieting for that same amount of time. I am now on my 4th week of very low carbs. I take in about 60 grams of carbs daily which consists of 1/2 c. of oatmeal after my workout and then the rest comes from vegetables. As a result of staying on low carbs for so long, I occasionally get a "cheat" meal which consists of 1.5 hours of eating what I feel like. My first cheat meal was a couple of weeks ago and I paid for it dearly the next day when I went to the track to do my sprints/plyo workout. Definitely not one of my finer moments, but let me share...I sprinted 200 meters followed immediately by 200 meters of lunges and then repeat that process going around the track without rest. Let me just say that there was projectile vomiting and 1/2 hour of me laying on the football field seeing stars after that one. Then I had to get up as soon as the stars stopped and finish my workout with my jump squats and skater jumps. Again, so glad that nobody had a video camera that day:) So, anyway, back to the diet. With such low carbs in my diet, many things happen...1.) I turn into a grumpy monster that will bite anybody's head off with little or no provocation. 2.) I feel like I have no energy whatsoever...even if I wanted to chase a little kid to steal his ice cream cone, I couldn't do it:) 3.) I FEEL HUNGRY!!! I sincerely believe that for most of my life I haven't really known what hunger feels like. Sure, I've been "hungry" before, but not like this. My meals are very planned out and if I deviate from that plan, my stomach turns into a painful grumbling mess and then the grumpy monster is soon to follow:) Poor Taylor...maybe everybody that reads this could call him and give him some moral support while he has to live with a crazy lady for the next 7 1/2 weeks! On a more positive note, I have started stoning my suit and it doesn't look half bad! I have really had to put my perfectionistic side away and realize that it's not going to be perfect, but it will still be pretty. So there's the weekly update...thanks for letting me vent here. I feel like it's therapeutic to just get it out sometimes:)

FIGURE COMPETITION

2011-08-29T19:29:00.001-07:00

Okay...so I have officially gone crazy and decided to do a figure competition. I find myself in need of a place to vent and discuss this journey, so what better place than on our blog? After Taylor competed in his show, I was just really amazed by the female figure athletes and it made me want to compete as well. Those of you that know me well know that I love to work out. I have been consistently weight training for as long as I can remember, but have never been disciplined with my diet enough to see the fruits of all of my hard work. Well...I have decided to do a competition and shed that fat so that I can see what's "hiding" underneath. To add a little bit of psychosis to my current insanity, I am "blinging out" my own figure suit. Figure suits can range anywhere from $300-$3000 in cost depending on how many stones they have and how much they sparkle. Well, I am WAY too cheap to pay that much, so I had a suit made to fit me and I am going to stone it myself. Again, for those of you that know me, you know that the crafty and creative side of my brain never developed. I am horrible with crafty stuff, but my frugality won out over my pride this time and I am going to give it a whirl. Here are the before pics of my suit and I will post more after it is done. Yes....that suit is SUPER TINY! I throw up in my mouth a little bit every time I even think about trying it on..let alone wearing it on stage in front of hundreds of people:)

Anyways, I am about 6 weeks into my 15 week competition prep. I will be competing in the Iron Mountain Classic in Wenatchee, WA on Oct. 29th. I have been sticking to eating 6 meals a day of clean foods and avoiding processed and refined carbs. When I decided to do this, I realized that I couldn't figure out my diet on my own because I haven't ever tried to get that lean before. And let's face it, my body holds onto fat like there's no tomorrow. So, I decided to hire a couple that owns RAB Fitness in the Tri-Cities to help me with my diet and exercise program. They are both very successful competitors and they help people with competition prep. They have been absolutely AMAZING! They formulate all of my meal plans and work-outs and all I have to do is stick with it. LOVE IT! Don't let that fool you into thinking that my raging sweet tooth isn't begging to be satisfied however:) The diet allows me a lot of variety in healthy foods, but sometimes my brain just wants junk food. So, when I really feel like eating chocolate, I look at my suit. If I still feel like eating chocolate after that, I try it on. Words cannot describe the humiliation, but at least my chocolate craving magically disappears after that:) So, this is now the place for me to talk about my contest prep. You'll hear about the good, the bad and the ugly! Wish me luck!

Just when you think things are going good......

2011-05-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

So, I will post a quick update on us because I feel a very strong urge to VENT! Since we moved to Moses Lake 18 months ago, we have been living in a rental house that we really love. It is a 3 bedroom house in a decent neighborhood with a fenced backyard that allowed pets. We have worked really hard to make it our home and have really loved the house we live in, even if it is just a rental. We rent through a real estate agency that manages the property, so we have never met the actual owner of the house. We just pay our rent to the real estate agency and they give it to him and if we have any problems, we contact the agency. Over the past couple of months, we have been getting people knocking on the door from a bank asking if we are the owners of the house and thought that was pretty strange. We have also been getting mail addressed to somebody that we don't know from that same bank. So, 3 days ago, we got a call from the real estate agency telling us that the owner had defaulted on the mortgage and our house is now on the market as a short sale and is priced VERY LOW to sell quickly, which means that we have to move. Let me tell you how awful the rental market here is right now....you can either live in the ghetto and pay next to nothing, but risk getting "capped" by the nearest gang member, or you can live on the lake and pay a million dollars a month for a crappy house that happens to have a view. Oh.. and did I mention that nobody wants to allow pets? AHHHHHHH!!! We have officially resorted to driving around neighborhoods and calling the For Sale By Owner signs and asking if they would be willing to rent instead. No, I'm not kidding...that's what we spent all day doing today with no fruits to show for our labor:( Anyways, that's my venting for the day...please pray that we will be able to find a place to live soon!!!

VANCOUVER NATURAL COMPETITION

2011-04-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

WARNING!!!!! This blog post WILL be filled with excessive bragging and pictures of a VERY HOT MAN:) So...this past weekend was the Vancouver Natural Bodybuilding Show and it was Tay's first bodybuilding competition. I will start off by saying that I am so proud of how hard Taylor worked to be ready to step on that stage. For 12 weeks, he literally put his heart and soul into this competition. He gave 100% in all aspects. I watched him wake up early to do cardio and then head back to the gym later on for his weight training every day. I watched him weigh out every ounce of food that went into his body and keep track of every calorie in order to cut all the fat off of his body. He had to stick to a diet pretty low in calories and had to be exact in his ratio of carbohydrates, protein, and fats. He literally did not cheat even once on his diet for 12 weeks. He even felt bad one night after eating a couple of extra bites of brown rice because he was so hungry and depleted...that's the closest he came to cheating. The amount of dedication and perserverance that it took for him to do what he did was amazing all by itself, but the ultimate goal was to compete. I'm going to explain the process of how the show runs because I didn't know this before we went, so most of you probably don't either:)
So anyways, the competition was on Saturday April 2, 2011 and we left Moses Lake on Friday morning. It was about a 5 hour drive for us, so we decided to leave early and stay 2 nights. We got there on Friday and he had to go to the weigh in at 5:30 that night. As you will see from the pictures I will post, you have to get CRAZY tan and bronzed to go on stage. All that bronzing comes with a price...mainly a very painful back and neck for me after spending 6 hours literally painting on his tan layer by layer. So that is what we spent Friday night doing. Kent and Kathleen drove over 9 hours to come and support Tay and they stayed with us in the hotel! It was so amazing to have them there and I know that it really meant a lot to Taylor to have some extra support there. They kept me company the entire time, which was great because the competition was LONG and entailed a lot of watching other people waiting for Tay to come out on the stage. Anyways, so we woke up early Saturday morning and headed to the pre-judging. The competition consisted of pre-judging early in the day and then the finals at night. However, the pre-judging is where most of the actual decisions are made as to who is going to win it. Taylor signed up to compete in the novice division because it was his first competition thinking that he would be competing with other first time competitors. That wasn't the case....you qualify to compete in novice as long as you haven't won your division before. He competed against 8 other guys and he was the only first time competitor. This was a BIG show and the competition was FIERCE! I couldn't believe how great all of them looked. I could not believe how AMAZING Taylor looked. You could seriously teach an anatomy lesson from his body:) I am a little biased, but I thought that Tay definitely looked the best during pre-judging. After pre-judging, we knew that he was in the top 4 because of the way they arrange the competitors, but we didn't know the actual placing. So, then we went back to the hotel to wait around until the finals. I seriously can't even describe how amazing he looked. This may sound weird, but as the day progressed, he just kept looking better and better. The cuts in his legs got deeper and he just looked more shredded as the day progressed. The finals started at 6:00PM, but Tay didn't get back on stage until almost 9:30 because of all of the competitors. He had to do an individual posing routine to music for 60 seconds and then they brought out all of the top 5 from his class. They start by announding the 5th place winner, then 4th, then 3rd, then 2nd and 1st. With each name that they announced, I was screaming louder and louder because it meant that Tay was getting closer to first place. When I say screaming, I'm being serious...I feel so bad for anybody that was ANYWHERE near me during that competition because I was cheering for my man pretty loud. Kent and Kathleen were there too, so we were pretty loud and I'm sure people thought we were crazy:) So, it got down to the top 2 competitors and the announcer was asking the crowd who should win and I'm not kidding when I say that people who didn't even know Tay were screaming "TAYLOR". It was awesome!! Then they announced that he had WON THE HEAVYWEIGHT NOVICE DIVISION!!!! I was so proud of him. But, the bragging doesn't end there....he then had to go up against the winners of the novice lightweight and middle weight classes. They posed together and then the judges decided on an overall winner for the novice division. Yep, you guessed it....HE WON OVERALL!!! I have never been so proud of him in all my life and I literally could not stop jumping up and down and grinning from ear to ear! It was so great to see all of his hard work rewarded. He got 2 AWESOME trophies and was really pleased with the outcome, but you know Tay, he was very modest about the entire thing. They gave him a judges score card to see how each judge voted and only 1 of the 7 judges didn't put him in 1st place. That's amazing because it's usually about half and half for one competitor vs. another. I'll post a bunch of pictures now and they will blow you away!

This is right before pre-judging...don't make fun of the tan:)
Kent, Kathleen and I hanging out at pre-judging (for 4 hours). It was soooo good to have them there!
Kent and Kathleen look AMAZING! They both just finished a 12 week challenge and lost a ton of weight and body fat! Super HOT!

Again, us just chillin' at pre-judging.
This was Tay in his heavyweight novice division in pre-judging.

Again, here is he at pre-judging posing with another competitor.
This was at the hotel in between pre-judging and finals. I'm telling you...he just kept getting more and more SHREDDED as the day progressed!

MAN....LOOK AT THOSE LEGS!!!!
This was the top five being called out in the finals that night.

Like I said, they call out 5th place first and then 4th and move their way up to first. The top 3 are in the back there....
And of course, TAY WON, so here he is getting his trophy for the winner of the heavyweight novice class.
Then, he had to go up against the winners from the other novice weight classes to decide on an overall winner. Here they are posing..
More overall posing..

Again....sorry, he just looked sooo hot it deserves a few extra pics;)

So, then they announced that Tay had won the OVERALL NOVICE DIVISION!!!!Here he is getting his trophy from this guest poser at the competition...

Look at that TROPHY! He got 2 super nice trophies!

Here they are together...we were all SOOO excited. I think that Kent, Kathleen and I were more excited than Tay.
This was pretty much the look I had on my face all night long....grinning from ear to ear with pride:)

So, there you have it. I know this was a long post, but I know a lot of people wanted to be there that couldn't make it and I wanted to portray it like it was. It was an AWESOME day and I can't even say how proud of him I am!

COMPETITION TIME

2011-01-23T17:10:00.000-08:00

So, I have to start this short little post off with a warning....I am probably going to get into a LOT of trouble for posting this. But, I'm a total REBEL and I think it's pretty amazing, so I'm going to post it anyways. Taylor has signed up to do a body building competition in April and has started his diet for that. He will have to eat perfectly clean for 12 weeks with absolutely NO cheating. For those of you that have tried to make even small dietary changes, you know how much self discipline and dedication this is going to take. A few months ago, he did a "mock run" of a competition diet for just 5 weeks and this is what he looked like after it was done. I am so proud of how hard he works and he would never do this himself, but I can brag if I want to about my HOT husband. Seriously, I could teach an anatomy lesson just from these pictures:)

Pretty amazing huh?

FYI: I did update our blog with a recent Christmas blog, so please keep reading!!!!

Christmas 2010 Blog & Lately

2011-01-23T16:01:00.000-08:00

So, I have come to realize that no matter how good my intentions are, I can't seem to blog more often than every 6 months or so. I know, I know....I'm a total slacker! Anyway, since I last posted in the summer, I figure that it's time for my semi-annual blog post. I want to post some pictures from our Christmas trip home to visit our families. Hey...better late than never I guess! We started out our week off at my parents house and then went to Tay's parents house. We had such a blast spending time with everybody and ate WAYYYYY too much food. Seriously, I am going to have to spend the next year working to undo the damage I did on that trip. I felt like a sugar addict that needed to detox after that! I blame it on my mom's amazing Christmas candy making skills:) Okay, so here are some pictures in totally random order because I'm so not smart enough to figure out how to get them in a decent order on the photo uploader here.

At Texas Roadhouse with Devin and Shay. This is Tay's FAVORITE restaurant.

Seriously, does it get any cuter than that?
Here's my cute little mom and I hard at work!
Through the generation with the women in our family.
Can you say GODIVA?!?! Tay filled my stocking with my favorite chocolate. He totally knows the way to MY heart is through Godiva:)
Silly picture! Who even knows what Shayla is looking through!
Call us crazy, but we took all 3 of our dogs! They did better than we thought they would though.
Zoe is getting so big!
Okay, so now on to the visit at the Petersen house....we took family pictures and I LOVE the way they turned out!

LOVE THIS PICTURE!!
New Year's Eve with good food and lots of good company!
I just loved this picture of Nicole and Marley...they are so cute!
So, we made candy canes....I have never done that before and it was so much fun!
Here are the crazy boys doing a pile-up. I don't know if poor Kent will ever recover from this one. I'm sure there was permanent back damage done!!!

Okay, so since we have gotten back, it has been business as usual. I am back at work and am SUPER BUSY! Who knew so many people needed health care in such a small town! Tay has started back in school and has 3 semesters left before he is done! Our 3 crazy dogs keep us pretty busy and we are both teachers in the Young Men and Young Women. I love my calling and am amazed every day by the Young Women in our ward. They are so talented and amazing! It teaches me a lot to be around them!

Taylor is also getting ready to do a body building competition in April and has started his diet for that. I'm so proud of how hard he works and really admire his discipline. I'm going to post some pictures of him because he did a little "mock run" with a 5 week diet and looked AMAZING. However, I'll have to do a new post for that because I can't figure out how to get the pictures at the bottom. P.S. Don't tell him that I posted his pictures after his diet or he'll be soooo mad because he's pretty humble about it!

We love and miss everybody and hope that all is going well for everybody!

Life

2010-07-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hello...my name is Amanda, and I'm a total blog SLACKER! I wish that I could say that I was going to do better, but that would probably be a lie considering I am so dang proud of myself for updating right now that it's pathetic:) So anyway, this summer has been going by WAY too fast! I can't believe that it's already the end of July! I feel like we haven't really done anything to enjoy the summer too much because it seems like I am always working, but I sure do love the WARM weather! Taylor is now in summer school and is super busy because all of his classes are condensed down to 8 weeks instead of 16 like normal. He has been so diligent about studying and I am so proud of how well he is doing in school! My job is going good. I'm surprised every day at how much I don't know about medicine. It keeps me on my toes looking things up all the time and I can't believe how much I have learned in my first 10 months practicing. The learning curve is pretty sharp, but I love medicine, so what better thing to learn about right? Other than work and school, we have been really enjoying the local farmer's market here in Moses Lake. They have it every Saturday and there are tons of fresh fruits and veggies, the BEST homemade salsa ever, and lots of other goodies. Is it sad that the farmer's market is the highlight of my week? Oh well, I really love it! Since the last time I updated the blog, we did go back to Idaho to visit family. We spent some really fun time with my family and then headed to Yellowstone to stay in a condo with Tay's family for a while. Even though this post is ridiculously late, I am still going to post some pictures of our trip. I have to thank Nicole, photographer extraordinaire, for the pictures that were taken. I realized when I was looking through the pictures that my family is really "photo phobic". They really don't like getting their pictures taken, or they pull funny faces, so I didn't even have any really good ones to put up of our time with them. It was so much fun though and, next time, I am going to force them to take pictures with us:)

Here's a picture of the girls at Carino's in Idaho Falls. Man, I MISS that restaurant!

Here are the boys at my parents house looking all manly.

This was inside the condo in West Yellowstone. It was so nice!

Wow...Tay looks like the meanest, most selfish uncle in the world right here huh?? I promise she got plenty of sweets that day! Isn't she so cute?

Again, at the condo. We were all just hanging out and having fun!

I seriously LOVE this picture. My husband HAS to be the hottest man alive and Kaydence looks adorable with her little hood on! This was outside the center with the bears and wolves. The wolves were SOOO cool! I was amazed at how huge and playful they were. I loved it! (No, this does not mean that I am a member of Team Jacob:))

In the lobby of the hotel.

Here we are at the bear and wolf center.

Okay, so there are some of the pictures. We had so much fun and just love being able to spend time with family. That quality time is really priceless! Taylor will be leaving to go back to Idaho and then Arizona in about 2 weeks for Johnny and Jess's wedding and for some family time in Arizona. I couldn't get off work, and am so bummed, but still so excited for the soon to be newly weds! Well, I hope this post isn't too boring, but we're just not that exciting!

Gracie

2010-03-13T10:10:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, my 3 year old neice Gracie was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer about 2 weeks ago. She has been in the hospital undergoing tests in order to stage her cancer and is now getting ready to start chemotherapy. She was diagnosed with a Stage III (high risk) Neuroblastoma. This news came as a complete surprise to us and it has been a really hard thing to digest. Gracie is looking at months of chemotherapy and all of the associated side effects before it is safe enough for the doctors to try and surgically remove the tumor. I would really appreciate any prayers that you could give them at this time, especially little Gracie. She needs them more that I can say. There is a blog set up for her at www.graciecare.blogspot.com that tells her story and keeps you updated on what's going on. Hope that everybody is doing well.

Nothing New

2010-03-01T16:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, so here's a quick post to let everybody know that we are boring and nothing new is going on with us. What can I say...when you live in a boring place, you become boring! I guess I could talk about Valentine's Day. As many of you know, Taylor is not the most romantic person on the planet. He actually asks me to tell him exactly what I want him to do to be romantic, completely not realizing that by me telling him, it takes away any romance that could have come from that action. So, I really had just accepted the fact that Valentine's Day would by like any other day. On the Friday before Valentine's Day, all of the girls at my work were getting flowers delivered or some other cute things and it really didn't bother me. I was joking around with one of the girls I work with about how she and I should just buy each other presents because our husbands aren't into the romantic stuff. So, I got off of work and walked out to my car to find 2 HUGE heart shaped and love balloons tied to my car. Then, there was the most gorgeous pink tipped white rose and a sweet card on my windshield. It was so sweet and the card was very adorable. I was pretty surprised and just loved it! It's always the best when you're not expecting anything!
I also wanted to post about Tay's Birthday because I actually took some pictures, but I didn't realize that the memory card wasn't in the camera, so it just saved the pictures to the camera memory and I can't find the cable to get it on our computer. When I figure that out, I'll post the pictures.
Oh yeah, here's something that decreases the boring factor in our lives....we were called to be the Bear Den cub scout leaders for 3 wards, including our own. Now, Tay and I don't know ANYTHING about scouts. In fact, when we went to our first planning meeting, I thought that the pack meetings were called Pow Wows for some reason and I sounded like a COMPLETE IDIOT. We have 10 boys in our group and the are all 9 years old. Holy Crap! If you ever feel like saying "sit down and shut up!" over and over again for an entire hour once a week, come to our den meetings. They are like caged animals being set loose for the first time in ages! We do have fun with them even if they are animals. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but I am almost convinced that Tay and I are the only cub scout leaders ever that don't have kids. We are definitely the odd balls out there.
So, anyway, there's our boring update. I'll post pictures when I can get smart enough to download them from my camera!

Trip Home!!

2010-01-26T19:41:00.000-08:00

So...I am way behind. We got back from our trip over a week ago and I am just now getting around to updating our blog. Better late than never, RIGHT?? Anyway, we had an AWESOME trip home to see our families! We drove 1700 miles through 4 different states in 8 days. LOTS of driving, but it was all so worth it. Our first stop was at my parents house to hang with them for a few days. It was so nice so be able to see them. It felt like it had been forever since we had seen them. My mom is so cute and she had the house totally STOCKED with all of the goodies that Tay and I love. We mainly just spent time together with everybody there and that's exactly what we wanted to do. My sisters were both there for a bit and it was a lot of fun. There was, however, a mishap with the carpet while we were there. Yep...you guessed it. My dogs chewed the brand new carpet in the addition to their house. I was SOOOO mortified! Want to know the ironic part? My sister's dog had chewed the exact same spot a couple of weeks ago. Thank goodness we were able to get that fixed before we left! Here's my cute little mom! If you look closely, she was crying because this was actually when we were getting ready to leave. I miss her so much already!

Here's Sadie begging for forgiveness after chewing the carpet. She so knew that she was in trouble and kept buttering my mom up to get her to forgive her.

Here's Shay and Dev. Yes...he really is that tall! 6'8".

So, from my mom's house in Idaho, we headed down to Utah to see the new baby! I was seriously SOOO excited so see her. She is seriously the most beautiful baby! I was such a baby hog the whole time. I pretty much held her hostage the entire time I was there. It's amazing how much you can feel the spirit and reverence that a new baby brings. She brings such a feeling of peace and has such a sweet spirit. LOVE HER!!!

Here's a picture of us girls! Try not to notice the fact that Nicole is a total rockstar and doesn't even look like she has even a tiny little belly. Yes, that is her brand new baby I'm holding here :) She is such a hot mamma!! She was such a good hostess too. She wouldn't quit doing things for us even though she was hurting because she just had her baby. Nicole, I love you!

Here's the studs doing something manly on the computer.

So, Boo has been having a few problems with adjusting to sharing all the attention with Marley, so Tay and I wanted to do something with just her that would be fun. What better place to have fun with a 2 year old than McDonalds?? She was so excited and adorable the whole time. She got chicken nuggets and had to dip them in EVERYTHING she could find. There was some really good music in there and she was totally dancing and shaking her cute little bum.

She really loved her juice, but gave it up pretty fast when she found out we were going to go play on the toys.

Yes, I climbed up in that stupid toy to help her get down the slide. Don't judge me...Taylor did it first! I couldn't believe how brave she was. We went with her the first 2 times and then she totally went all by herself and made friends. I literally had to bribe her with ice cream to get her out of the play area. It was so much fun and then she fell asleep on the 2 minute drive home! She is such a cutie and we love her soo much!

Then, Kent, Kathleen, and the girls came to their house to hang with all of us. I was sooooo excited to see them. Kathleen is really starting to show now and she is so cute pregnant. I can't wait to meet their little girl too. I'm sure she will be just as adorable as their other 2 girls! Kent was trying to show Kathleen just how much he empathized with her pregnancy, so we had a contest to see who had the most pregnant belly. You decide for yourself, but I say Kent wins!!

It was sooo hilarious when Kent did this, but he really had to try to get his belly out that far!

Then, we headed back to Idaho to Tay's parents house. Here's Dane showing off his muscles. Too bad Tay's Muscles are GINORMOUS and nobody quite compares to him!

We had a blast hanging out with everybody. Marsha, Tay and I went to Avatar on Friday. I thought that it sounded dumb, but I really enjoyed it and thought that it was well done! I also elicited the help of all the girls to make the watch bands that you can switch out with beads. It was a lot of fun and I got 4 watch bands!

I couldn't get a good picture of everybody so Travis has to take one for the team on this one. I have NO IDEA what he was doing!

So after 7 fun filled days, it was time to leave. We were so sad to have to say goodbye to everybody, but on Sunday morning we left to go home.

I just thought that I'd throw this picture of Bentley and Sadie in because this is how they sat in the car on the way home. It was soooo cute!

Well, we had such a fun time with our families. We didn't get to do everything that we wanted to because time was so short. We really wanted to see some friends as well, but it was crazy busy. (Sorry Andrew and Shandee....We miss you guys!) Thanks to everybody who took such good care of us. We love you all.

GOODBYE 2009!

2010-01-02T18:12:00.000-08:00

I'm always surprised at how fast time flies! I can't believe that I am going to have to start writing 2010. Let me tell you how much of an old lady I am. On New Year's Eve I worked until about 5:30 and came home. We don't know many people here, so we just decided to have a low key night, get some pizza, and watch a movie. So anyways, I came home and, being the old lady that I am, was ready for bed by about 8:00, but Tay insisted that I needed to stay up. So, I dragged my pillow out onto the couch and pretty much passed out long before midnight. Then, at midnight, Tay yelled "HAPPY NEW YEAR" in the living room, my crazy neighbors started firing off definitely illegal fireworks and I got majorly GRUMPY. Anyways, not the best way to start off the new year.
On New Year's Eve, Tay and I were talking to Nicole and Travis on Skype about all of the things that happened in 2009. It's amazing how much can happen to change your life in just one year! This past year, I graduated from PA school and started my first job in Moses Lake, WA. What a ride! Taylor was finally able to go back to school to start working on his degree again. Those have been two of the major changes in our lives, but there were many, many things that happened in both of our families as well. I have to admit that I take a lot of things for granted. I have come to realize since we have moved how much I took our families for granted. I mean, I loved spending time with them, but I never realized how hard it would be to not see them for extended periods of time. I also take my poor husband for granted. He does so much for me and is so sweet. I don't know how he does it. I always say that if I was married to somebody like me, I would have been divorced a long time ago! It is my New Year's resolution to be more grateful and show my gratitude more often.
As we start the new year out, Tay will be starting up his next semester and I will be continuing on in my job. We are pretty boring, but oh well. We don't have anything too excited planned yet, but hopefully, we will be able to take a nice vacation this year sometime.
Here's a total change of subject, but in exactly 1 week, Tay and I are leaving to visit our families! We are soooo excited and can't wait to see everybody! Nicole...seriously, tell the baby to come out already so we will be able to see her!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

2009-12-20T16:29:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how much I love the holiday season. Everything seems so different than other times of the year. There's a bit of magic in it all! Quite a few people in our neighborhood went all out on decorating their houses for the Christmas season. They have lights ALL over their houses! Every time I drive by, it makes me happy. It also makes me wish my womanly powers could have convinced Taylor to put up Christmas lights on our house:). I will really have to work on those powers for next year! The holiday season tends to bring out the best in people. The company that I work for has something called the Angel Fund. People donate to it year round and especially during the holidays. There is so much poverty and so many people who need help that they picked 6 families in need and decided to use the Angel Fund to give them a Christmas. The families had written down Christmas wishes to give us ideas on what to get them. The family my group was in charge of had 4 small children whose only request for presents was to get them coats to wear in the cold weather. We had a budget to stay within to get them presents and a Christmas dinner. I couldn't believe how generous people were with donations. We were able to get them so much due to generous business owners and donations from people. We were able to buy them coats as well as other clothes and toys for the kids. On Friday, we went to deliver a whole truck full of gifts and food to this family. It was so amazing to see the wide eyes on the kids as they saw all of the wrapped gifts. What a way to feel the true holiday spirit!
Our Christmas season has consisted of work, school and a little bit of shopping. We won't be able to go home for Christmas this year and that has been harder to accept than I thought it might be. The best part of the holidays is to be with family. We are actually going to spend Christmas with Jared and Marianne and their kids. It is so nice to have some family close to spend the holiday with! We are so excited to go!
Taylor just finished his semester. He might kill me for announcing this, but HE GOT STRAIGHT A's!! I'm so proud of him! His classes were pretty time consuming, but he did really well.
Here are some random pictures. We did our best to decorate our house up a little bit for Christmas. Our tree is real and I LOVE IT!! It smells soooo good and it is so beautiful. We put it up the week after Thanksgiving and I have wanted to have it lit up every minute of the day. The pictures don't do it justice, but we love it!

Tay did a good job getting all the lights on the tree. That's my least favorite part of decorating the tree, but he handled it like a pro!

I love this little snowman. Taylors mom gave us this Nativity scene and it is sooo pretty! I don't have one of those fancy backdrops for this, so I just put it on the table. Kind of ghetto, but I still love it!

I spent my afternoon yesterday wrapping presents. I really love wrapping and making the presents look pretty!

Here's a couple of pictures from the drive to Spokane to go shopping. I was so proud of myself for remembering the camera and wanted to take a bunch of pictures. Apparently, I forgot how easily distracted I am because I got 2 pictures from the car, but that was as far as it got. The mall there was really huge and cool. We also ate at this great little Italian restaurant called Tomato Street. It was really good. Fun trip overall.

Taylor and I read a book together this month called "The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck. As most of you know, my husband is so obsessed with Glenn Beck that I wouldn't be surprised if he got arrested for stalking charges. Whether you are a fan of the man or not, I would highly suggest this book! It is so inspirational and has a really great message. Perfect for the Christmas season and a great way to keep the true spirit of Christmas in mind.

Anyway, we hope that everybody has a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

THANKSGIVING

2009-11-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

So...I can honestly say that I will NEVER take being able to show up at somebody's house where a delicious Thanksgiving dinner is already prepared for granted again! I don't know how people do it every year! I was surprised at how much work and time went into preparing one meal. I think all of this stems from the fact that I am a perfectionist. Nothing I do ever turns out absolutely PERFECT, but I always really want it to. So, of course, I wanted this dinner to be perfect. Taylor's family came to Washington for the holiday and we were SOOO excited to have them come. We have really been looking forward to it and are so thankful that they decided to come see us. Anyway, so I have spent literally hours looking online for recipes and reading reviews to see which ones are the best. I planned the menu for dinner and was really excited about how it was going to turn out. I should have known that cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the first time will NEVER turn out perfect....

The first disaster in the kitchen happened with my first attempt at pie crust which was supposed to be "fail proof" and delicious. Well, I made the dough, chilled it, and rolled it out into my pie tins. It looked really good......until about 10 minutes into cooking when it shrunk so far down into the pan that you couldn't have filled it with ANYTHING. Moral of the story?? Experiment with recipes before you prepare them for a special occasion!

Second disaster occured when I was talking and not paying attention to what I was doing while making a pumpkin cheesecake. The recipe called for a 15 oz can of pumpkin, but I apparently thought that it was a good idea to put a 29 oz can in instead. It did turn out okay because I added 2 more egg yolks to help it set up. Lesson learned?? Don't talk and cook at the same time!

Anyway, I could go on all day about things that I did wrong with this dinner, but it all turned out okay in the end. We had turkey, ham, rolls, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, banana cream pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and apple pie. Tay's mom saved the day and made the rolls and stuffing for me. Overall, it worked out well and we all ate A TON!

After the cooking was over, we were able to just hang out and have fun! We weren't able to do a ton of stuff outside because it was a bit cold, but I still had so much fun talking and spending time with them. Here are some pictures in a random order because I have already spent WAY too much time trying to get this blog to work for me...

We went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant together. It was a lot of fun and delicious! The other picture you're seeing is what I like to call Tay's "TURKEY HANGOVER" aka what he does to get out of the dishes.

So, Taylor and Johnny were wrestling to see who was tougher.....It was a pretty even match if you ask me!

Here are the pictures of our feast! We ate soooo much. I'm sure I gained 10 pounds over this weekend!

Here's Tay's "picked on" face while doing the dishes! But, really, the guys did all of the dishes which was soo great!

Bentley and Sadie LOVED having everybody here. In fact, this morning when Sadie woke up, the first thing she did was run all around the house looking for everybody. She came back into our bedroom looking pretty confused because they had to leave early this morning. You can tell that the dogs miss them already!

So, this is pretty much how Johnny was for 90% of the trip. He was texting his girlfriend all the time. And if he wasn't talking to her, he was talking ABOUT her. It was pretty cute. Nauseating, but cute!!! I kept teasing him, but he's a pretty good sport.

So, that's our Thanksgiving in a nutshell. We had so much fun, but missed all of our family that couldn't be with us. We love everybody and are so thankful for all that we have been blessed with. We have two amazing families, the gospel, and eachother. What more could you ask for?

Recipe Help

2009-11-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

So...this year, I was not able to get any time off to go home for Thanksgiving. We were really bummed out, but Tay's parents decided to make my year and come here! We are so excited to see everybody and can't wait for them to get here. However, I have never actually done a Thanksgiving dinner by myself before and I'm a little bit nervous. I need some good recipes for things like stuffing, pies, side dishes, etc. I would really appreciate any help that you can give me with some good family recipes! I know that it's kind of a pain, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me out!

Moses Lake

2009-10-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

So...here's an update for all of you diligent people who haven't completely given up on me updating the blog :). We have been here in Moses Lake now for a little over 3 weeks and are getting settled in. Our move was pretty amazing with the people that packed and moved all of our stuff. It was very stress free and now we are just working on getting everything unpacked. For those of you that haven't heard the story...we moved into our rental house without even seeing it. I was so scared to see what it would be like, but it is sooo nice! It was definitely a pleasant surprise! We are liking it here so far, but we are still adjusting to being so far away from family. That has definitely been the hardest part. However, on the positive side, we are pretty close to Jared and Marianne and we've been able to spend some time there. It's been really nice. We're heading there for Halloween and I'm soooo excited to see the kids all dressed up. It should be fun!! Our house is still a work in progress, but we got some new furniture and have been decorating a bit. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our new furniture. We got a new dining room table, new couch, bedset and rug. It's so nice!
I have started my job now and even gotten my first "grown-up" paycheck! I have been really enjoying my job so far. It is a very good company and I work with really great people. I am taking over 600 patients from the provider that recently quit. Don't worry....I just peed my pants a little bit when I heard that! I have to admit that I am losing sleep at night now because I am in charge of my own patients and that scares me sometimes, but I am adjusting and really liking it.
Tay is going to school online and is doing well. I think that he might be going a little "stir crazy" staying at home, but he sure helps me out a lot with everything. He's such a great husband! I can't believe how much he supports and loves me. We had our 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY on Oct. 16th. I can't believe how fast it's flown by! Here's some pics of our house and other random stuff...

So that's what's been going on with us lately. We miss everybody and hope that all is well! Love you all!

Next Phase!

2009-08-25T14:45:00.000-07:00

So....this last month has been more than a little crazy. It's been a whirlwind of traveling for interviews, graduation, board exams, the excruciating wait for my scores and preparing to move from our little home. From a previous post, most of you know the options we were comparing. We have made a decision and signed a contract. We are going to MOSES LAKE, WA of all places. It was an interesting conclusion because that was the only interview that Tay wasn't able to go with me on, but I really loved the clinic and the way that it was organized. It is in a community health clinic with 7 doctors and 8 other PA's. It's a brand new clinic with very nice rooms. The job itself has great hours, a really good benefits package and a good salary. One of the main attractions was the fact that they GUARANTEE student loan repayment! I will be able to be debt free after just 3 years! It's a very large benefit that happens to be tax-free! The community itself is a small place with about 20,000 in the city limits and about 40,000 in the greater area. I was expecting it to be a hole in the wall, but I thought that it was a cool little place. Tay and I will be going there in a couple of weeks so that he can explore and so that we can get the final details worked out. I am scheduled to start the first week in October. We are really excited about this move and feel that the Lord has played a very large part in our decision. Just an example of that is the fact that we are selling our house on the 25th of September without even putting it on the market! It has been such a huge blessing. Of course there are very mixed feelings because we won't be near our families anymore and that makes me more and more sad as time passes, but we do feel like this will be a good move for us. We have been so blessed to be near our families. They are so amazing and we are thankful every day to have been blessed with such great families. Plus, my brother Jared and his family live about an hour away in Kennewick so I will actually be able to spend more time with them now! Tay and I don't know much about Moses Lake, so if anybody does or has any tips for us, let us know!!!

AHHH RELIEF!!!

2009-08-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post a quick blog and let everybody know that I PASSED my boards!! I found out on Thursday and was sooo excited. I posted an update on Facebook, but then realized today that I hadn't updated my blog. It was pretty funny because to find out my scores I had to log in to a certain website and it would tell you your score. My heart was pounding when I was logging on, but the ultimate feeling of relief came when I looked and saw that one little word...PASSED! So, I proceeded to run upstairs screaming "I passed! I passed!" Tay was still in bed and I scared the crap out of him! So..that was pretty much the greatest feeling ever. I am finally DONE with school! It seems surreal, but we are so excited to start the next phase of our lives. Speaking of which...we have made a decision on where we are going to move. I will post about that a bit later when I have more time!

When I Grow Up........

2009-08-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

So....these past couple of weeks have been a crazy mess consisting of a nauseating amount of travel going to my interviews, my graduation, and studying for my board exams. In 2 weeks, I have been off and on 14 airplanes and spent more hours than I care to count being bored out of my mind waiting at 5 different airports. Let me tell you a bit about my interviews so that all of you can help me decide what to do with my life when I "grow up" and get a real job:). My first interview was in Aberdeen, WA for a hospitalist position. It is right on the coast and is BEAUTIFUL. They are offering a killer salary and a lot of time off, but I would be working 12 hour shifts and it would be 7 days on and then 7 days off. That sounds like a crazy schedule, but they also offer 5 weeks of paid vacation per year. Next up was a family practice clinic near Lake Havasu, AZ. The doctor there was really nice and it qualified for student loan repayment, but the salary would be significantly lower. Then, I was off to Moses Lake, WA at a community health center which was set up really well. It also qualifies for student loan repayment, but the salary is quite a bit lower than the one in Aberdeen. Anyways, there are my options so far. We are still deciding and we haven't heard back from all of the places yet, so I will keep you posted as we find things out. Here are some pictures....
This is the view from the neighborhood we would live in in Aberdeen. It overlooks the harbor and it's so pretty!

Here's a shout out to all the Twilight lovers of the world!! We were driving down to the beach and saw this sign. I wasn't going to stop, but then I thought that I couldn't claim to be a true Twilight fan if I didn't take a picture of this!!

You've gotta love the beach! It was so pretty with the morning fog and the waves. There's something very therapeutic about the ocean. I love it!

So, on our last night in Washington, Tay and I went to the Pike Place Market in Seattle. It was sooo cool! I'd like to go back there and explore some more.

Now this one was the view from our hotel balcony in Lake Havasu. It was really pretty! Our hotel there was so cool. It had a ton of modern touches.

As you can tell, the further we got into interviews, the lazier we got with taking pictures. In fact, I didn't take any on my trip to Moses Lake, but it was a pretty area. So, there's the facts. If anybody has any suggestions or advice...feel free to share. We can use all of the help that we can get!

Now, on to the big graduation day. It was a really great day! The graduation ceremony was just for the PA students and it was in this gorgeous building. The ceremony was not too long and the speaker was hilarious. Then there was a catered reception following the ceremony. We had a limit of 10 people that we could invite to the ceremony, so afterwards, we had a little get-together at the park to celebrate with everybody. Thanks to all of my family and Tay's family. You guys spoil us soooo much and we really appreciate it! Love you guys. Here's some graduation pictures. Don't laugh at how ridiculous I look in that stupid cap! I really wonder if they want you to look like a complete idiot on the day of graduation. I mean.. come on!!!

So there's the scoop on us. Exciting times! I am getting ready to take my board exams next week. PLEASE PRAY FOR ME!!! I feel like I'm going to have a stroke pretty much every time I think about going in to take the test. Seriously, I HAVE to pass this test and I don't deal well with that kind of pressure. My anxiety level is outrageous! Taylor is probably ready to move out until I get this out of the way. But seriously, please pray for me. I'm going to need the Lords help more than I can say:). We love everybody and hope that all is well!

Exciting Times

2009-07-20T14:19:00.001-07:00

Yep....it's already that time! Here's a copy of my graduation announcement for those of you that didn't get one in the mail. Let's be honest, I was WAY too cheap to send one to everybody because I'm a poor college student! But I really do want to thank everybody for the support that you have given me during the past 2 years. I have been blessed with such an amazing family and family-in-law! I couldn't imagine finishing PA school without all of their help. Taylor has been an amazingly supportive husband through it all. I have not been an easy person to live with...constantly stressed out and gone for weeks at a time on rotations. This journey has been such a roller coaster ride for me! It has been one stressful thing after the next, but now that it's coming to an end, I can say that it was worth it. Now comes the hard part. You know....finding a job, passing my boards, etc. I am seriously going to need to be admitted to a mental hospital with all of my anxiety! My poor husband is probably ready to lock me in a closet and throw away the key!
So, Taylor and I leave for our first interview in Washington on Thursday, then it's off to Arizona on Monday for another one. It's going to be pretty busy, but we're excited to move on to the next phase of our lives! So, that's what's been going on with us. Hope everybody is doing well!

Crying Kids and CrossFit

2009-06-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well...I think the title of this blog speaks for itself. For the past 5 weeks, I have been living in Twin Falls doing my Pediatrics rotation. When I rotate in Twin Falls, Kathleen takes one for the team and lets me live with her. So, as I'm getting ready start my rotation, Kathleen keeps mentioning this new class she's taking at the gym called CrossFit. I was really wanting to switch my work out routine up a little, so I decided to try it out for the 5 weeks that I would be there. I went into this whole thing knowing that it was going to be pretty HARD CORE because even Kathleen said that it was crazy hard and she's in really good shape. So...needless to say I was scared. CrossFit is a really high intensity strength and endurance work out. It only lasts about 20-40 minutes, but don't let that fool you. The objective is to work out smarter, not longer. So, we show up the first day and I look at the board telling us what we are supposed to do. It consisted of 100 jumping pull-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 push-ups, and 100 squats. That, of course, doesn't count the running we have to do before and after the work out. Oh, and did I mention that this is all timed? It took a couple of days, but I WAS HOOKED! It is such a different way of working out. I found myself achieving things that I never thought that I could before. The trainer that teaches the class is pretty hilarious. On a particularly hard day, we were doing "wall balls" (trust me...you don't want to know what they are!) outside in 85 degree weather and we were all feeling a little sick. One of the guys in the class started puking in the bushes and the trainer went over there to see if he was okay...or so I thought. The trainer looked at him and said "either puke harder or go finish your set!" He's pretty hard core! That was the same day that he walked up to me when I was dead tired and taking a rest in the middle of my squats and said "Okay Sunshine. It better be passing out or puking time." Anyway, call me crazy but I love it now! I'm so sad that I won't be able to do it anymore. I tried to do it twice a day and I really felt a difference in my overall strength and endurance. Kathleen is pretty crazy though, because she would show up at 5:00am and go to an hour of spinning and THEN go to CrossFit. I don't know how she does it!

So...it was 6:00am, we have no make-up on and we're sweaty from just getting our butts kicked. Don't judge us for looking so bad!!

This pull-up bar was the cause of A LOT of pain over those 5 weeks!

Here's the trainer. Don't let that innocent look on his face fool you!

Okay. Enough about the gym. My pediatrics rotation was a lot of fun, but I'm pretty sure that it took 10 years off of my hearing because of all of the yelling that took place in such small exam rooms. And I got pretty sick because every time I had to examine a sick kid, they decided to get me back and cough in my face. Parents should tell their kids that sharing is only a good thing with food and toys! I was in the clinic for most of the time, but I ended up in the NICU and on the OB floor for the last week. That was a good experience and I learned a lot. I start my Psychiatry rotation now. LAST one!!
On a VERY HAPPY NOTE...I graduate on July 31st! I am so excited! I'd be more excited if I had a job, but that will come with time I hope! Kathleen took my pictures and made my graduation announcement up for me. Again, she's SUPERWOMAN and I'm quite convinced that it's not fair for one person to be so talented in that many areas! She's pretty amazing! I've been so blessed to have her in my life. Talk about marrying into a good family!

TV Addiction

2009-05-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

So....I'm the first one to admit that I have many bad habits. For example, I bite my nails when I'm nervous, I nag my poor husband until he goes crazy, I'm a control freak, etc, etc. However, one of my major weaknesses is getting too addicted to TV series. I love The Biggest Loser, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, and pretty much anything on HGTV. Don't get me wrong...I do have a life and am not always able to sit down and watch all of them on the night that they air, but hey, that's what my DVR is for. So, I record everything and can watch it without the comercials. It's pretty fabulous. I just have to blog about the Grey's Anatomy season finale that was on tonight. WOW! I always love Grey's, but the past few weeks have really been AMAZING! I seriously can't believe all that has happened. The elevator proposal made me cry and almost turn a cartwheel because Derek and Meredith are FINALLY on the same page. Then, last week I cried so hard during Izzy and Alex's wedding that I thought my eyeballs were going to fall out. And this week, the drama got even better! I swear, I am going to be sooooo mad if two of the original characters die! I don't know how many of you watch Grey's, but it is what I like to call GREAT TV! One minute you're laughing and the next you're crying. I LOVE IT! Sorry, but I had to talk about the finale with somebody because Tay isn't really into it. Thanks for listening to the rantings of an addict!!!

YEAH!!!!

2009-05-13T22:48:00.001-07:00

So...I just wanted to drop a quick note and let everybody know that I PASSED my first set of boards! I am so excited! I also got done with my 26 page typed portfolio! I can't even count how many times in the past few weeks that I have wanted to throw up just THINKING about all of my deadlines, but now they are all done! Now, I'm heading back to Twin Falls to live with Kathleen, Kent, and the girls. I am so excited for that. I love Kathleen and I am so glad that she has found such a great guy to be her new husband. My rotation in Twin is in Pediatrics. I think that it will be a lot of fun because I love working with kids. Taylor is getting ready to start school here in a couple of months. I'm so blessed to have such a patient husband. He has been so supportive and amazing through these last 2 years, and I love him so much for that. And besides, it's pretty hard not to love somebody that HOT!!!

Update

2009-04-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how incredibly bad I am at updating our blog! And, I'm quite possibly the biggest hypocrite in the world because I love to read all of the blogs to keep updated on what's going on with everybody, but it apparently takes me 4 months to update my blog. Pretty pathetic! Speaking of pathetic.....My life is so boring and mundane that one of the most exciting things that has happened lately is the purchase of a new blender. However, in the blender's defense, it's not just ANY blender....It's the SUPER BLENDER. For all of the people in the world that love healthy foods and fresh ingredients, this is the blender for you! It's a VitaMix blender. When our blender broke, we were looking pretty hard for a new one because we use ours about 4-5 times a day for our protein shakes. So, we were wandering around our favorite store (aka Costco), and there was a guy there giving a demonstration on these blenders. It was pretty incredible! You can make your own FRESH fruit and vegetable juice using JUST the fruits and veggies. You don't even have to add any water or anything! Don't think that the coolness stops there! You can make your own low calorie sorbets and ice creams, soups, breads, batters, dips, dressings, etc. Yep, that's right! You heard me say soup. This blender will boil water in 3-4 minutes! So you put all of your fresh soup ingredients in and let it run while it heats the soup and preserves all of the nutrients in the produce. For the sorbets, I have been using fresh fruit, ice and Splenda. Very healthy and very delicious! You can also grind your own wheat into flour. The possibilities are endless!!! I really LOVE IT! Man, I should get paid for all of this advertising!

Okay...enough about the blender! I have been busy with my rotations. Since the last time I posted an update, I have finished my Emergency Medicine, Dermatology and Inpatient rotations. I really love my rotations. I absolutely love all of the hands on experience and patient interaction. I also had to give my Master's presentation last month which is a big research project and presentation in front of a bunch of graduate committee members. I was soooo nervous, especially when they were grilling me with questions for over an hour, but I passed and am so relieved to be done with that. Just one step closer to graduation! So, I am about a week away from taking my first set of written Board Exams. I'm pretty stressed out because if I don't pass them, then I get kicked out of my program basically and there's 7 years of college down the drain. But NO PRESSURE right??? I will also be leaving for my next rotation in a couple of weeks. It is in Twin Falls so I will be going back to live with Kathleen for another 5 weeks. She is so sweet to let me live with her while I rotate there. I have also started applying and looking for jobs, so if anybody hears of any PA jobs, let me know! I won't even know what to do with an actual paycheck after paying to work so hard for so long!
Taylor is still working for the Sherriff's department, but not for long! He got registered for all of his classes to start in the Fall. I am so excited because he has put off his education to support us while I finish up and now he gets to work on his degree. He's such a good, supportive husband. How many men do you know that are not only smokin' hot, but supportive of their wife's dreams and aspirations as well? He's one of a kind!

Holiday Fun!

2009-01-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

Well...I guess that this post is better late than never! The past 2 weeks have been pretty busy, but soooo much fun. Of course there was the Arizona trip...then there was Christmas...then partying on New Year's Eve! It has been so nice to have some time off and be able to spend it with family. We had so much fun in Arizona, even with the mess we ran into trying to come home. There's nothing like trying to get the van "unstuck" and getting stuck ourselves. Then there were the crazy storms. As much as I love biting my nails down to the point that they hurt because I'm so nervous, I was sure glad when we stopped to stay the night in a hotel rather than driving on such horrible roads. But...enough about the negative. Let's move on to the positive!

When I heard that we were going to a cabin in AZ, I was expecting nice weather and a rustic cabin. Instead, I was greeted with 3-4 feet of snow and a beautiful, modern cabin that was AMAZING! I couldn't believe how pretty it was there! It was like a little winter wonderland.

Sorry...I know I say it all the time, but isn't my husband freaking HOT?
It was such a beautiful day that we decided to go on a walk around the loop. It was so much fun to have all of us there. Can you believe how much snow there is? Come on...this is Arizona!!!
Speaking of snow.....here's Tay and Gary up on the roof trying to push 3000 lbs of snow off of the roof. We pretty much tried everything to get it down, but to no avail! We were all up on the roof trying to get the snow down and Travis was on the ground with Nicole and Angela building a snowman. Well...Trav decided that he wanted to show off his mad skills and started throwing snowballs from the ground at us up on the roof. About 90% of them hit us, which started a huge snowball fight. I was pretty surprised that a little midget like Trav could throw that far. Pretty impressive! Just kidding. I'm not going to mess with Travis because he scared me when I watched him boxing on the Wii. He's hard core!
Here's all the Idahoans. It was so much fun to spend time with Travis and Nicole. They are our BFF"s.

I was so happy that Grandpa was able to come up with Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Ron. It was so nice of them to let us use their brand new cabin!

I had to get a picture with Boo. She looked so cute in her little boots! Speaking of boots...I borrowed those cute boots from Angela. Pretty ironic that the girl from Idaho had to borrow snow boots from the Arizonan!

Here's Kaydence's best attempt at a grumpy look. Pretty good, but she's so cute that NOTHING makes her look anything less that adorable.
So, I don't have any pictures from Christmas, but I'll refer you to Nicole's blog to see pictures. She's much better at documenting occasions than I am. It was so much fun. Then for New Years, we went to Blackfoot and partied it up with Kathleen, Johnny, Chad, Travis, Nicole, and us. We ate a TON of crap and played the Wii. Let me just say that Johnny is the new undefeated boxing champ! He rocked it! I'm still gloating about the fact that I got the KO when I boxed Tay for the first time, so it didn't even phase me when Johnny knocked me out twice in like 5 minutes. We need to get a new challenger in to beat him! Well....that's what's new with us. Hope that everyone had a great holiday season.

Arizona.....Here We Come

2008-12-16T20:54:00.000-08:00

Well.... I just finished my surgery rotation up in Twin Falls and then braved horrible winter roads to go to my end of semester meeting in Boise. It has been such busy time. I have literally been living out of a suitcase for the past 6 weeks, and I am soooooo happy to be home with my husband finally. I went to Boise and was able to stay with Trudy and Greg. They were so nice to let me stay there, and I dragged Trudy all over Boise shopping and we had a lot of fun. It's so nice to have family. I know that I already posted a few quick comments on the surgeon that precepted me in my last rotation, but he was such an amazing doctor. He collects antiques, and his office looks literally like an old medical museum. It was just too cool to not take pictures of, so I thought that I would post a few of them. They also just decorated the office for Christmas so it was even cooler than usual!

Here's one of the exam rooms. Just like a museum!

This is Dr. McClusky. Doesn't he look like such a nice Dr.?

Here's Nicole. She was so nice to me! She spoiled me while I was there.

Here's another cabinet with old medicines in it. Pretty cool for a medical office huh?

So....that's what I've been doing and where I've been hanging out lately. Now.....it's time to go and PARTY in Arizona! We are so excited to see everybody. Hope that the weather cooperates! We hope that everybody has a Merry Christmas and spends a lot of time with family!

Cutting and Loving It

2008-12-04T18:48:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Thought that I'd post a quick update on us. I am in my 4th week of my Surgery rotation. I'm in Twin Falls, which is about 120 miles away from Pocatello. Kathleen has been sweet enough to let me invade her space and stay with her and the girls. It's been a lot of fun to be around her. The girls are so cute! I'm not quite sure how she does all that she does and still maintains her sanity, but she does a great job. I am in surgery now, and I love it. My supervising Doc is the most amazing person. He not only has a PA student or resident (or both) with him year round, but he volunteers in the community more than anybody I know. He also wakes up early to come in and teach me surgical anatomy every morning, as if I don't take up enough of his time as it is. I have been really blessed to have him teach me. He lets me do a TON in surgery, which really helps me learn and get the experience I need. It's been really great. Also, there are quite a few other surgeons that have been willing to let me scrub in on their surgeries, so I have been able to see a lot of really cool stuff. However, it hasn't all been fun and games...there's nothing like removing anal warts from some guy and have him poop all over you in the OR. (Not one of my finer moments!) I have also been putting in volunteer hours at the free clinic here in Twin, so I have been able to stay busy working anywhere from 12-15 hours a day. Who needs sleep right?
Even though I am loving this rotation, it's been hard to be away from Tay. You never realize how much you take the people you love for granted until you don't have them. He's such a good husband to me and I miss him so much. But...they say absence makes the heart grow fonder right? He has been working hard and enjoying a semi-bachelor life since I've been gone. I have a feeling the controller on the Playstation3 will be worn out by the time I come home!
Oh yeah....I finally got to see TWILIGHT! What can I say besides I LOVED IT!!! Of course it didn't live up to the book, but it was still amazing. Even Tay liked it, which says a lot about a "Chick Flick". Let's be honest, Edward is HOT. NOT Taylor hot, but hot nonetheless.
Well... time to go try and get some sleep. I hope that everybody is having a good holiday season. We can't wait to come to Arizona and see everybody. Yea for warm weather and spending time with family.

#1 Reason NOT to live in Idaho

2008-10-12T18:03:00.001-07:00

So...call me a whiner if you want to, but I HATE being cold. So, it naturally follows that I hate snow. Anyway, here's the weather change situation that has started me on my complaining rampage. Last year in Idaho. we had 9 months of winter. 9 MONTHS for crying out loud! So, when there was no snow by the end of September, I was cautiously optimistic. Mother nature smashed my hope into a million pieces as the temperature started dropping at an alarming rate last week. Well, the other day, I woke up and let my dogs out to go to the bathroom and noticed that they wouldn't put all four paws on the ground at once. That was my first clue that it had gotten below freezing the night before. The second clue came when I fell flat on my butt while walking down my icy steps with my hands full in an effort to get out to my car. The best part of that was not only the fact that my butt was basically broken and soaking wet, but I had a protein shake in my hands which ended up on my shirt. Oh, and did I mention that my neighbor saw the whole thing and laughed at me? So, then I woke up yesterday morning to snow on the ground. A little depressing, but it was only about an inch, so I tried not to be too upset. This morning, I woke up to about 4 inches of snow. Let me tell you...it is not a fun task to get 2 chihuahuas to go outside when the snow is as tall as they are. Sadie just gives up on life and lays on her side with all 4 paws in the air until I go and rescue her. It's pretty pathetic. She hates the snow just as much as I do. Anyway, I knew that I would have to start my car early so that I could get to church on time, so I went outside and discovered that my ice scraper was missing. I proceeded to wipe 4 inches of snow off of my entire car with my bare hands and managed to fall on my butt once again (at least this time, I didn't have an audience). So, then I changed into my church clothes and miraculously managed to make it to my car without falling again. But, when I got into my car, the little bit of snow that I didn't wipe off earlier fell down and landed on my seat, which was just FABULOUS because it made it so I showed up at church with a wet butt anyway. I just don't know if my butt can handle another Idaho winter. Well, there's my battle with snow. Thanks for listening to me vent. For all of you that live in areas with no snow....ENJOY IT!

Update

2008-10-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well, once again, it's been over a month since my last post. I'm not very good at keeping up with this. Oh well. I told Tay that he needs to start blogging, but he doesn't listen to me. Maybe if he sees enough comments telling him to start then he will. Our lives are pretty busy, but boring right now. I just started my second clinical rotation. My first one was in a family practice clinic and it was awesome! My preceptor was so great, and I learned so much. Now I am in my OB/GYN rotation, but I spend one day a week at the Cancer Center in Pocatello. I was able to see a child delivered for the first time three days ago. WOW! What an amazing miracle! Kudos to all of the moms out there. I have no idea how you do it! Let's just say that watching a child come out is pretty good birth control for me. OUCH! The OB clinic is a great place to work because every patient is happy and compliant. Everybody is pregnant there, even my Supervising Physician and nurse! Must be something in the water. The Cancer Center is a much sadder place. Everybody is really sick and just hoping that something will help them. It really makes me realize that I'm not the type of person that can work in that setting. Other than my clinical rotations, I haven't been doing anything. I'm a loser. Oh well. Tay is still working for the Sheriffs Department. He is planning on finishing up his degree after I am done in August. He's such a hard worker. It's a good thing because he has to support my lazy butt! We miss and love everybody!

Tagged

2008-08-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

Better late than never.... right?
Amanda's
THREE FEARS:
1) Rodents in any shape or form
2) Failure
3) Losing a loved one

THREE JOYS:
1) My HOT husband
2) Spending time with family
3) Running

THREE OBSESSIONS
1) Grey's Anatomy (Who isn't obsessed with McDreamy?)
2) The Twilight Series (Even personal hygiene went out the window for this one!)
3) Getting good grades (I'm a bit of a perfectionist)

THREE RANDOM FACTS:
1) I can't let a picture hang crooked on the wall without fixing it. (There's my OCD coming out!)
2) When I was 16, I got in a car accident and hit my head on the windshield which caused me to
basically forget everything in my life up until that point.
3) I consider my two chihuahuas to be my children and treat them as such
THREE GOALS:
1) To finish PA school with my sanity intact
2) To have adorable kids (How could I not with such a handsome husband!)
3) To reach my full potential

Obsession

2008-08-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

So...as most of you know, I am on a little break from school before I start my clinical rotations. I had MANY ambitious thoughts about how I was going to study for my rotations so that I could avoid looking like a complete idiot every day. However, instead of studying, I have acquired my newest obsession. It hasn't been this bad since I saw my first episode of Grey's Anatomy and realized that I would have no social life until I finished watching all of the first 3 seasons. For months, I have listened to Nicole and Marsha talk about a series of books that sounded completely ludicrous to be quite honest. Books about vampires and werewolves. I thought that they had both finally lost it! And besides, I didn't even have time to pee with all of my studies, let alone read a book for pleasure. So, last Friday night, I was at Marsha's house and decided to give in to the madness and just see what all the "Twilight" fuss was about. I AM HOOKED! I just finished the second book after getting them less than 3 days ago. Sleeping and eating are no longer important. I found myself sitting up last night reading with my eyes burning because I was so tired, but refusing to give in to sleep until Edward came back into the second book. How pathetic am I? This totally reminds me of the days when I discovered Meredith and McDreamy and stayed up all night watching the episodes, laughing and crying all at the same time. These books have done the same thing to me. One minute I'm laughing because I love Bella so much and think that she is so funny and the next I'm crying because Edward had to leave her. I'm a geek, I know. Oh yeah, just to let everybody know, I'm only finished with the second book so PLEASE don't give away any of the stories to come! Well, I'm going to take my pathetic self away from the computer now and go start the third book!

Summer Fun

2008-08-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

This summer has been so much fun for Tay and I despite our busy schedules! So...I decided to post a few pictures from our adventures. I hope they don't bore you too much! This is Tay and I at my family reunion. We went to
a camping spot and just hung out with the family.
We're not very "outdoorsy" people, but it was a lot
of fun seeing all of the family. After one night, Tay
informed me that he was all "camped out."

This is my cute little mom and dad camping out. They are a bit more hard-core than us because they stayed for the whole 3 days. Tay and I barely survived for one!

Tay was playing a game and got the ball stuck in the tree. So he decided that hanging from the tree like a monkey was the best way to get it down. When that didn't work, my brother-in-law stepped in with a shovel to throw into the tree to help him. Needless to say, it all went down hill from there as they "strategized" other ways to get it out. Finally, they got it and miraculously, nobody got hurt!

So, this is the next trip we took. We went to Wolverine with Tay's family. It was so much fun because there were so many people there. We ate soooo much and laughed and talked. It was a ton of fun to have Troy there! He showed us a magic trick that I had seen before and it BLEW MY MIND once again. He's amazing! I want to find out how he did it, so if anybody knows how to bribe him into telling, I want to know!

I thought this picture was cute because Kathleen looks as gorgeous as ever, but Kendra wouldn't smile. That's quite a rarity for her because she's always smiling! There's Johnny with little Kaydence. What a good uncle!

I was so surprised in this picture to see how much Tay and Troy look alike! Wow! They easily look like brothers! You'd think that their moms were twins or something. The other picture shows the four amigos hiking up to the swing.
I'm putting a disclaimer on this next section of the post....BEWARE NICOLE! I'm going to post some of the pictures from when Travis got hurt and she doesn't like to look at them. This picture happens just seconds before Trav got hurt. He had grabbed onto the swing to slow Nicole down. They were about 20 feet in the air and when he came down with all that force and speed, he landed just right on a stick about the diameter of a nickel. It went all the way through his shoe and into the bottom of his foot where I assume it hit the bone and stopped. Then I look over and Travis proceeds to pull the shoe off and the stick out of his foot. The blood flow that followed was quite impressive. It was squirting out pretty quickly, so I borrowed a sock to cut off the blood flow and Johnny, Troy and Tay took him down the steep hill to the cabin so that we could examine it. He left a nice blood trail all the way down the mountain. The pictures that follow don't do the wound justice, but they'll have to do. Trav was so tough about it. He kept saying that it didn't hurt. It was so cute how worried Nicole was. It was the most upset I have ever seen her. That's why she didn't want to post the bloody pictures. When I looked at the wound, it was deep and really dirty inside, so Tay and Trav went into Blackfoot to get it fixed up. Pretty exciting trip to the swing!

Notice the lovely bloodstained sock! Ouch....that had to hurt!!!

Moral of the story......don't swing in any areas with big sticks!!!!

July Madness!

2008-07-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

I decided that most of you are probably sick of the picture that has been on the top of our blog for the past two weeks, so I'll write a little post to update you all on what has been going on. It has been pretty crazy the past couple of weeks. I only have a week left before I am done with the academic year of PA school! They have been cramming as much information into my tiny brain as they possibly can, and I'm pretty sure that it's ready to explode at any minute. I will start my clinical rotations in ~3 weeks. That was a really exciting thought UNTIL we had our orientation and found out that we will be working anywhere from 60-80 hours/week in addition to the Masters Project that we have to complete as well. The only rule that they have is that we can't work over 80 hours/wk. Sounds like fun! Tay is working on the night shift now. He works so hard to support us. He works 12 hour shifts 3 or 4 days a week. It's a wonder he has time to keep that hot body in shape! We had a family reunion for my side of the family a few weeks ago. We went camping and it was a lot of fun. I'll post pictures soon. We are planning a week off during my break to have fun and hang out! I'm so excited!

More 4th of July!

2008-07-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

So.... here we are in the middle of a field getting ready to watch the fireworks. Nothing like living in Idaho! Always plenty of fields in the middle of nowhere! Actually, it was a great place to see them and we avoided all the traffic! It was such a fun day!

4th of July!

2008-07-11T06:59:00.001-07:00

We went swimming at Lava Hot Springs with Travis, Nicole, and Kaydence during the day. It was a lot of fun. Kaydence just chilled out all day long in her little swim diaper showing off those sexy rolls! She was adorable! Later on we all went out to eat and then to watch the fireworks. I'll post more pictures of all of that as soon as I get them! It was nice to actually have a day off with my husband because we don't get to see each other too often. Our schedules tend to overlap quite a bit, so it's a rare occasion when we get to spend the whole day together! Isn't he handsome?

Bentley and Sadie

2008-07-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here's our babies! They are little brats, but we love them. Bentley is the one with white on him in front and Sadie is the one in the back looking confused. Sadie may be smaller, but she's definitely the one that wears the pants. We got Bentley first and then bred him when he was about a year old. We planned on selling the puppy that we got for the breeders fee. However, when we saw her, we couldn't bear to give her up so...that's how we got Sadie. They are a lot of fun!

Our First Blog

2008-06-30T18:09:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Taylor and I decided we had better join the 21st century and start blogging along with all of the rest of the family. We have really loved seeing how everybody is doing! As for us... we are doing great! Life is busy, busy, busy! Tay is working for the Bannock County Sheriff’s office here in Pocatello and loves it. He has to work really hard. I am still in PA School at Idaho State University. I am about to finish my first year and thank goodness because it's driving me CRAZY! I will start my rotations in August and I can't wait! We spend most of our free time with our two crazy chihuahuas (Bentley and Sadie) and Travis, Nicole, & Kaydence. We love to go to the gym as well. Tay is getting HUGE! He really likes to lift weights and eat well. He always makes me feel guilty when I want to eat something bad. Oh the trials of having a HOT husband.

Running

2008-06-30T17:48:00.001-07:00

Call me crazy, but I have been getting into running quite a bit lately. This is me last September running my first half-marathon in Pocatello. It was a really cool experience! (If you can get past the whole legs going numb after 8 miles part!)
So, I enjoyed running my first half-marathon so much that I decided to do another one. This one was just a couple of weeks ago on June 14th in Rexburg. It was a lot of fun! I'm smiling in this because I'm about ready to cross the finish line. Now there's a reason to smile!