Life

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

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

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!!

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!

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!!!