Can't Help But Smile

Summer is coming!!! The days are getting oh so long. I find myself thinking its 4 or 5 only to look at the clock and see that its almost 8! My days fly by, but I love the sunshine so much that it's totally worth it. I'm staking out sunbathing spots, making book lists and looking forward to a trip home. I LOVE this time of year!

Ok, let's backtrack a bit and cover some SUPER important stuff my blogging inabilities have made the world miss.

Easter

We didn't really get an Easter break, but we were able to have a nice Easter Sunday. Last year, both of our moms made/mailed us Easter baskets and/or candy. Spoiled, I know. But now that we live out in the boonies we were on our own. So I bought Tay a cute basket at Wal Mart, filled it with that annoying grass stuff that you somehow still find on the floor at Christmas, and yummy yummy candy. Sunday morning, he made me hide it for him. He hid my Easter treat. I was so surprised (not really, I saw him carting it around Wal Mart) to find.........

THIS!!!!!!

So for all you people who wonder who the HECK buys these bunnies, the answer is goofy, cute, sweet, red headed men who want to make their wives laugh (and fat, I guess). I know you are wondering if I ate the whole thing. Sadly, I could not. The date is May 15, roughly a month and a half after Easter. This is my bunny's current status. 

I'm not showing you this pic to brag about my great skills in self control because, let's be serious, when it comes to food I pretty much have none. He honestly didn't taste too super great to begin with and I took those bites in the first couple of days after Easter. Now he is very stale, I just can't bring myself to throw him away! So his home in is my pantry. He can stay there as long as he doesn't invite some insect or rodent friends to come play.


Six Flags

A few weekends ago, Taylor had a Friday off. All the med students out there know that this pretty much never happens, so we took advantage! We both LOVE amusement parks and decided this would probably be one of the last times we could go just us before kiddos enter the picture. We had a BLAST. We rode every roller coaster and it was my first time doing one of those terrifying things that brings you so high you are certain you are going to die and then drops you so you feel like you ARE dying. Intense. We learned two things that day: 

#1: April = best time to hit up an amusement park! The lines were short and the weather was PERFECT!

#2: We are old. The last roller coaster did us both in. We spent the rest of the evening in bed with headaches and upset stomachs. It didn't help that we were surrounded by 5 million middle school kids there for some band competition. 

Looking Ahead

This summer is going to be a busy one. Taylor has finals next Friday then immediately starts his preceptor-ship that evening. From what I understand, the preceptorship is to give the students more hands on (or really just eyes on) experience. Taylor gets to follow a Doc in the ER here in Kirksville. He will do that until the following Tuesday, on which he has some kind of First Year Testing and then flies out THAT evening to go to Officer Training for the Air Force. He will be gone for one month. He comes back on June 28th, gets a two week break and then starts his Second Year of school. Pretty crazy, huh? What will his poor lonely wife be doing during all of this time? Well for the rest of May and the first half of June, I'm sticking around K-ville, working with my twinners and catching up on any TV show I've ever had any kind of desire to watch, I guess. Seriously, though, I have goals to make more/new friends and get out of my house!!! I'm heading home to MD mid June for about a week and a half to spend some much needed time with friends and family. The last week of June is GIRLS CAMP, which I am super looking forward to. It is perfect timing! Taylor and I will both get home on the same day. Then its two weeks of normal people life!!! 

It's hard to believe we've almost made it through one year of medical school. Well.. more like Taylor has made it through school. I have made it through watching him go to school.... a lot. Here's to my favorite time of year and the changes and craziness it will bring!

Birthdays, Snow Days, and Lots of Days In Between

24

That's right, I turned the big 2-4. Its kind of sad how when you get older birthdays are less like "YAYAYAYYY celebrate me!!!I'm becoming a grown up!!!" and more like, "Oh man, has it been a whole year since the last time the hubs and I ate a whole funfetti cake??" Time sure does fly, but as I look back on my 23rd year, a lot has happened! I celebrated my first wedding anniversary, moved to the mid west, made many new friends and got even closer to old ones. I met 10 amazing young women in the K-ville 1st ward, up'ed my sewing skills, got some big time experience handling twin babies and have learned the trials and joys of being a "med school wife". Overall, life is good and I have been blessed immensely. Bring it on 24!

Winter Wonderland

So when we first moved here people often warned us of the infamous Kirksville winters. We really were not too worried. We have both traveled across the frozen tundra that is BYU campus during Winter Semester multiple multiple times. We thought we had this whole winter thing in the bag. Well let me tell you, when it snows in Missouri, it SNOWS! We got hit by two storms almost right in a row and in just a few days, we had FEET of snow. Taylor even had classes canceled one day. Well, of course, we wanted to go sledding. Ask Taylor, I've bought a bunch of junk since we have moved here. However, one thing I did not ever get was a sled. So, what do you do when you need ANYTHING and you live in Kirksville, Missouri? Go to Wal Mart! BUT they were SOLD OUT!!!! We were super bummed. But, my genius husband came up with the plan to use the cheap, flimsy, plastic cutting board sheet things (that came from... wait for it.... WAL MART) as sleds. I kinda thought he was insane, but they were the best! I guess that's why he's the one in med school ;) So so so fast! We went to a huge hill right down the street and had a blast. Reminded me of the good old days at the Denton Bridge overpass :) 

Spring Break

For the first time in our lives, we had a spring break! For some reason BYU doesn't like to celebrate spring, but we are oh so glad that ATSU does! We were able to go Utah to see family. We spent most of our time at Tay's parent's house. We played games, chatted tons and got to see so many people we have missed so much. Taylor hit up the Provo for some much needed fly fishing and played lots of ping pong with the bros. I relaxed and enjoyed just having him around. We also went to the Red Iguana in SLC with my brothers and had some good Miller time :) We were only there for about 4 days, but we packed in a lot of awesomeness! We were so blessed to be able to go back home.

In other news...

Not often do things change much in our little life. Just a few small updates:

* I got called to be the Young Women Camp Director in our ward. Look out, Girls camp, I'm coming and bringing all my favorite loud obnoxious songs with me!

* Taylor had a successful second quarter of Med School... finals and the weeks leading up to them were INSANE but he made it through and is hitting the books hard already in all his new classes. 

* I'm planning a trip home this summer and can't wait to see my pregnant and non pregnant besties <3 Beach\day needed!

* At the doctor a few weeks ago (nasty head cold) the nurse measured me and said I was 5ft-1/2in. I'm GROWING. This is big news, people! Under 5-0 no longer! haha wellll I'm not sure if I'm actually growing or if was some other factor (kind sympathetic nurse, shoes, messed up measurer thing, or all of the above) but you better believe that's my new answer when people ask how tall I am. Score!

* Tay got his first professional haircut since the mish. Thanks, nice lady at Cost Cutters, for doing a great job with that shaggy head of his.

I'm realizing how lame these are getting and am stopping :) Like I said, not much changes very often in these parts. We are happy, healthy and blessed!!!

MY new little life..

So much has changed as we have made our HUGE transition from Provo BYU life to Kirksville Med school life. We have adapted to less time together, a smaller town (that we adore), new goals, different grocery stores, MUCH cheaper rent, new daily routines, and tons more. We have loved the changes we have made together. 
More recently though, I made some changes of my own. Now let me tell you, before I even graduated high school I wanted to be a Speech Language Therapist. I went through undergrad loving it. When Tay and I found a town that had both his med program and my grad program so that I could actually be a practicing SLP, I thought that the stars had aligned and that our perfect life was starting! Together we were gonna save the world, one patient/speech client at a time. Well... back in October I started having very unexpected health problems that were somehow related to school. To sum it all up, I was a VERY unhappy person, in ways I have never ever experienced EVER in my life... ever. It was terrifying. It was like the old me was staring at the mirror at that this new confused and sad me wondering who the heck I was and where the heck the happy me went. So, I withdrew.
Holy COW! Withdrawing from SCHOOL??? What?!? That is NOT me, I am NOT a quitter and this was my dream... I thought. But, I had so many amazing people supporting me in doing what was best for ME. The minute I withdrew, a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I eventually got the old me back and I feel as grand as ever :) I honestly think it was one of the hardest, but also the best decision I ever made. It still makes me sad, thinking that my hopes and dreams didn't work out perfectly. But, I guess that's what life is about... making plans, seeing some work out beautifully immediately and seeing others work out, not at all how you expected, over time. I still LOVE speech... I still love thinking about what test I would give to assess a client and then what I would do in therapy... I still love pinning great ideas for clients on Pinterest. I hope it works out sometime, someday, but the biggest thing I've learned through all of this is that it doesn't have to be TODAY. 

So what the heck do I do with all my time??? Well, let me tell you:

The Top Five Reasons Mynewlittlelife ROCKS!

1. Stress free vacas!

ALL OF US :)

Sorry to all those who are in school, but I realized the nicest thing about NOT being in school is that you don't have to think about it ALL THE TIME. There is no more, "Oh, I should be studying or reading or planning!" No way, sir! I just think about the now... and gosh, I love it! Over Thanksgiving, we went to St Louis. We stayed in hotel in the City (thank you, priceline) and just explored. We went ice skating in the city park, saw the Gateway Arch, and went to zoo... we even had thanksgiving dinner/lunch in this cute 50's diner. It was perfect. We were also able to go home to Maryland for Christmas with my family. It was the first time everyone has been together in like 3 years. Crazy!! We had a blast!

2. Twin Baby Girls
 Ok, think of the cutest baby you have ever seen. Make it a girl in cute pink flowery clothes. Add a smile with dimples that crinkles up her entire face. Then DOUBLE it! That is my day. Be jealous! I started watching twin nine month old baby girls after Thanksgiving. They are seriously the cutest, most happy, adorable little people in the world. I'm kind of in love. 

The K-ville 1st ward lovely ladies after getting
FIRST place a the stake V ball tourny

3. Young Women
I was called to be the Laurel Class Adviser back in October. For those of you that don't know what the heck that means, I teach the girls ages 16-18 a few sundays a month at church and go to their weeknight activities. Because I am no longer in school, I have gotten to spend WAY more time on my calling. I now can attend Wednesday night mutual and I have time to go to Nauvoo for stake activities. I've also been able to go out and see them play basketball, sing in the school musical, etc. BLESSING!!!




  4. Personal Progress
So this kind of ties in with Young Women. During the six years of being a young woman (age 12-18) you have the opportunity to work on Personal Progress. 

The very very Beginnings of my quiet books... thanks to
Kari and Pinterest for some grand ideas!

This program focuses on developing skills/knowledge/faith in each of the values: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue. Who knew that you can also complete the program as a leader??? I did it when I was 18, but know that redoing it can only help me grow more. 
I am currently working on a Quiet Book for all the cutie little red headed children of mine that are still just a twinkle in my eye. I have also started memorizing The Living Christ... which is NOT easy, but I have already learned tons! Again... BLESSING!

5. Home <3
Ok, so I admit it, I have kind of always been one of those women who found pride in the fact that I was going to WORK. I just knew that I would always be able to find the perfect balance between being a career woman and being a lovely mom/wife. But something I've found out about myself is that I love being home. I know I don't have crazy kids at my feet yet and you moms are probably like, geeesh this girl is CLUELESS... haha and maybe that's true. But, when I look at my future grad degree-less, I actually find myself surprisingly content. Like maybe home is where I've really wanted to be all along. BUT we will see... there is still so much life ahead. 

What an amazing, crazy, sometimes disappointing but oh so beautiful thing this time here on earth is... And that is what my new little life is all about!

My Housewife Failures :)

The HAIRCUT! 

So Tay's dad has always doubled as his barber. And he does a great job! Even in college, he was close enough to home to have his dad chop his wild hair every few months. So, when we moved to MO this job became MINE! I bought some nifty color coded comb clippers (holy cow, check out that alliteration!!) and went to town on his red hair!!

BEFORE

Ha I was pretty nervous, but he, being the sweet dude he is, was super nice and told me that no matter what, it would turn out great!

WELL...

AFTER

from far away it looks just fine! Haha but close up... there are definitely some rough spots. Thank goodness I'll have tons more times to practice till he's a professional that has to impress ppl everyday.

Don't always trust Pinterest...

OK, so I found this recipe for "healthy" chicken and dumplings. It had chicken broth (yum), celery, carrots, and onions (all grand!), chicken (awesome) and wheat flour dumplings (whole wheat! = healthy!!). Sounds like the PERFECT meal! And it was in a crock pot, so super awesome easy!

Literally looks like something in a diaper

Well, when I got home I opened the apartment door and BAM it hit me like a ton of bricks.
That SMELL!!!! It was awful! Horribly, truly terribly awful. It was coming from my crock pot :(

And THIS is what I found. Gross, so so so so so gross. It tasted BAD, too. Not just, "oh, honey, I'm sorry this isn't that good tonight" bad. It was not edible!!
NOT AT ALL!

So, it went into the trash and we went to subway.

So, yeah... I'm that good!! :)

Life is still happy in Missouri! My school is crazy... a lot harder than I expected, but good. Taylor is super busy studying his brains out, but doing well. We can't believe September almost OVER! Time flies when you're... BUSY BUSY BUSY! We are still enjoying our mid west adventure.

Our New Little Life

The MOVE

 Taylor and I recently picked up our life in Provo, UT and plopped it down in the little town of Kirksville, MO. We opted out of the whole expensive moving truck idea and filled our poor little 1998 Honda Civic to the MAX and tore up that 19 hour drive in one day! We left at 5 AM and got to Kirksville at MIDNIGHT! Before, we always talked about how we could save $$ in the future and just drive to see our families (in UTAH or MARYLAND) but let me tell you, after that adventure... NEVER AGAIN will I do it!!! It was so so so way too super looooong. I made a CD (haha i know sooo early 2000's) filled with the Biebs, Glee, Fun, and tons of happy music. But, after listening to it for the 8th time we weren't so happy. Poor Tay was ready to die by the time we got here. I am super grateful, though, that our car was a trooper and got us to Kirksville safely.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Tay started Orientation just a few days after we got here, so Med School life started right away. They had a White Coat Ceremony for all of the new Med Students. It was a pretty cool thing to see the Dean put a white coat on my hard working hubs! Soon after, he dove into his 25 credit hour quarter of classes. He instantly was gone all the time and I instantly started my deep, meaningful relationship with Netflix.

Needless to say, I was super pumped when my school started last week. So here's the amazing thing about Kirksville. It was made just for us!!! Tay's school (A.T. Still University) is literally just blocks away from Truman State University where I am getting my Masters in Communication Disorders so I can eventually be a Speech Lang. Pathologist. So far, its super intimidating, but so so interesting. I get clients next week (hence the intimidating thing) which to me is laughable since I honestly have no idea what I am doing. But no fear, I have tons of support and help from faculty and stuff, so I won't mess up anyone's kid too badly!

So yeah, we are two busy people. We have kind of set up a way to study together in the evening so we at least get to sit next to each other for a few hours... and show each other the funny stuff we find during  facebook/pinterest/youtube distraction periods.

Our PARKING permits... woot woot!!

 "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, take the PICTURE"

Kirksville Top 10 List!

Reasons why Kirksville is AWESOME:

10. It's green! Tons of trees and forests make if feel like good old MD to me

9. Wal Mart is only 4 mins away! HOLLA!

8. Its so cheap to live here... makes the whole living on loans thing a lot less stressful

7. ATSU and Truman are within walking distance of our apartment

6. We are equal distance from both of our families

5. You can leave your car unlocked and not worry about it! 

4. There are so many bodies of water close, and Tay has helped me to find a new hobby: Bass Fishing!!

3. Our church is only like 5 mins away

2. It has that special, happy, simple small town feel

1. We get to start a new adventure TOGETHER <3