HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

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

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

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

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!

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!!!

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........

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

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

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!