University of Utah Graduate!

Miss me? I havent had much time lately because I have been bustin my butt for this....

I finally graduated from college!!!!
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The last two semesters I took 24 and 26 credits so that I could be done! If you ask me now I say that it was well worth the time, effort and stress. But if you would have asked me two weeks ago during finals my brain was fried!
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I was lucky that one of my favorite authors was the speaker at my graduation, Mitch Albom (he wrote the bestselling book Tuesdays with Morrie, which I highly recommend)! It made it so memorable for me! One of the things that he said that I loved was, that your life is made up of all the grains of sand in an hourglass. When your time is up and that last grain of sand is falling, what is it that you want most? Your big screen TV? or to be surrounded by the people you love to let them know you love them? In your last grain of sand all you want to do is to give your love to everyone. Every grain of sand is exactly like the next, you can discern one from the other, so why should all the other grains of sand in your life be spent doing anything but investing in the relationships that will ultimately be all you want in life?

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I graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelors of science degree in Health Promotion and Education with an emphasis in Emergency Medical Services and Search and Rescue. Yeah its a mouthful! So what do I want to do with my life now you ask??? My dream is to be a ER/Life Flight nurse! So I will be finishing out my RN degree and in the mean time I hope to start working in the ER and try to get on with the Utah County Search and Rescue team I love the outdoors and I love the adrenaline rush of helping people when they are at their worst. 

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I really enjoyed my schooling and all the classes and teachers I had, which helped me realize even more what I wanted in my life! I also want to say that there is no way I could have done any of this with out my family. My parents and grandparents helped me out so much! And Landon, poor thing had to put up with me on a day to day basis while I was a mental case with stress! I love them all so much for helping me get to where I am now!

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Here are some more pictures from graduation!!!

I got my die hard BYU fan Dad to wear the red U of U tie I got him for Graduation! Shows how much he loves his daughter!

Im pretty sure there is a future U of U alum in there!

My wonderful family!

Yay Me! It took me a long time, and a few different colleges, but I would change one bit of it!

getting around to it....February Recap!

Ha ha ha, that seems to be the theme of my life lately

....getting around to it!

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It kills me to think that March is almost over and I still havent posted anything about February! So much has happend in the last two months that it overwhelms me to think about blogging about it all and so I haven't.

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So here is a quick overview of Feb!

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I love the month of February only because it starts off by my birthday! I turned 25 this year, and totally had a quarter life crisis! I cant believe I am so old! I contemplated what I have done with my life so far and what I still want to do! I have vowed to make the next 25 years much more entertaining! One thing that I really look forward to being 25 is now I can rent a car without paying extra fees!!! Landon and I are really excited about this because it opens up more vacation possibilities for us! 

For my Birthday I was able to hang out with some great friends and all of my family! I had like 4 birthday cakes!

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One present that Landon got me was Kiteboarding lessons!!!! I have been wanting to do this for years now and it was a blast! We learned the basics of how to fly and handle the kite! We get to go again this week and actually get on our boards with the kite!

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My other Birthday/Valentines present was a supper nice Bernina sewing machine! I LOVE IT. I never used to be much into sewing but with my sister having a baby I have started to love making quilts. I finally was able to finish a quilt I started when Landon and I first got married!

LOVE IT! Now I just need to get it quilted!

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The end of February was so much fun! One of my old roomies from USU is pregnant with her first baby girl! So we found it a good excuse to get together all of our old roommates and their husbands for a brunch date and a baby shower! I had the best time! These girls are some of my BEST friends and I am supper bummed I dont get to see them much anymore! We always laugh and have the best time together!

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For the shower I made KJ a baby blanket and to beanie hats from the cutest fabric! I was able to put the baby's name on it seeing they have already picked it!

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And last but not least Landon finished off the month by surprising me and taking me to a Jazz game! He rode up to SLC and surprised me when I got off work! It was a great night and a nice surprise! 

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It was a great month! Hopefully soon I will start posting about the exciting things that have happend this month!

GO ME!

So I picked up the mail today and saw a letter from the U, I figured it was just something regarding my upcoming graduation....but it wasn't.

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It was a letter notifying me I had made the Deans List!!!

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I have made the deans list before but I wasn't taking nearly the class load or the upper division classes that I  did last semester.

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I dont mean to stroke any ego I might have, but I feel so proud of myself! I have been working my butt off to graduate. Last semester I took 26 credits of all upper devision classes, while working and commuting! I spent so much time on homework and tests and I had pretty much punched my ticket to insanity island....but it payed off so I have to say it....GO ME! 

Let the Lists begin....+Exciting News!

I'm going to be mean and leave the exciting new till the end,and let the excitement build!

So I decided to take a idea from one of my Good friends Jenn C! She shall always be know as the queen of lists to me, and she is so good at them! At the beginning of each year she makes some lists an I did list, and a I will do list, and I have decided to do some of my own this year!

I did in 2010...

1. Completed a 24 credit semester with all A's and 1 B!

2. Camped in Lake Powell

3. Welcomed my brother back from his mission.

4. Celebrated our 2 year anniversary.

5. Family vacation in San Diego.

I will do in 2011...

1. GRADUATE from college!

2. Leave the country for a vacation.

3. Go on a cruise.

4. Ace my last semester...(another 24 credits)

5. Eat healthier, and work out more...(isn't this on everyones list?)

6. Learn how to paddle board

7. Finish my first quilt.

8. Spend more time with family and friends.

9. Do at either a triathlon or half marathon.

10. Go parasailing!

And probably many more!

And so now on to the exciting news......

No its not my baby (just a little bummed about this) but it is my big sisters! I'm so excited my I'm finally going to be an Aunt! Im sure my sister is going to get sick of me, but I can't wait to spoil my future niece or nephew! I already have so many ideas for this little one! I can't even contain myself waiting to hear if it's a boy or a girl! My sister broke the new to us on sunday when they invited us all over to dinner, she stuffed little ultrasound pictures in New Years party poppers announcing that she is due on July 21st, yay! Even though I found out on Sunday I had to wait till now to say anything until all of the family knew, we are all so excited!

Finally some Free time!

I have finally finished my second to last semester! Not with out some trouble though....I missed my last final because I was stuck in traffic from an accident! Lucky for me my teacher was amazingly nice and set up a time with me to take it the next day! I do have to say I am pretty proud of myself, with taking 24 credits I didn't know how well I was going to do in all of my classes, but I managed to pull off all A's and only 1 B! One more semester to go, then Im done!!!!

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Since I finished my finals on friday I had some free time to do some christmas crafts that had been collecting dust for awhile!

Two years ago Landon and I were able to get these great silver and gold ornaments for our tree on clearance! I love them and think it gives such a chic classic christmas feel to our house. 

But...I didn't have any matching stockings or tree skirt to go with it. I was blog surfing one day and saw someone who had made stockings and a tree skirt out of a $10 canvas drop cloth from Home Depot, I fell in love, and the canvas color would work great with my tree! I have finished my stockings, but im still putting the finishing touches on the tree skirt!

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While I was at it I wanted to add some other christmas decorations that matched my tree, but could not find any. So I decided to make some Christmas blocks (I had already made some for thanksgiving and valentines day). It takes me awhile because I have to make the stencils all by hand.....hint hint hubbs....! But I think they turned out really cute!

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I LOVE how they turned out, I think they are my best blocks yet! I am horrible at taking pictures while im making things but here is my summarized process.

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I had Landon cut and sand the blocks all different sizes from a 2x4 and 2x6  and a skinny piece for the Merry. Then I picked out different fonts for each letter and printed out on card stock and exacto knifed them to make stenciles. I painted the blocks white and sanded down the edges. I then stenciled on the letteres, I used folk art metallic paint to match my glittery tree! I then took some stain and rubbed it along the edges to distress them some. Last but not least, I also cut out snowflake stencils (the hardest and longest part of it all) and painted them on to random blocks. While the snowflake paint was still wet I covered it with some white sparkle glitter! 

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I now thing my living room looks complete! I am so excited for Christmas if not just for the fact I dont have to worry about school, I also get to spend extra time with my family and Landon!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

November almost come and gone....

This month has seem to fly by for me mostly because I have had little time to do much of anything besides homework and work. Lets just say that taking 24 credits was not one of my brightest ideas! Many people who find this out think I am some kind of nut job, then they find out im working and commuting on top of it and they ask how I am still alive. On a side note I have a friend who is taking 36 credits and basically lives at Starbucks, so compared to him I am normal!

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This last week has been one of the craziest of them all. Now that the term is coming to an end all of my term papers, research papers, assignments, quizes and tests are all due at the same time! Just this last week I busted out both a 10 page and 20 page research papers in 2 days!

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But the AMAZING NEWS!!! My graduation application has been officially accepted and I have registered for my last semester of classes (another exciting 21 credits) and I will graduate on May 5th next year! Needless to say I am STOKED! And in all honesty thats the only think keeping me going during these last two horrible semesters! I just want to be done!

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A funny thing happens when I get really stressed....I get a perma twitch in my left eye! Loads of fun....it drives me bonkers and random people think im winking at them!

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Another cool thing that happened the beging of November...My bro came home from his mission in Rochester, New York!

Its been fun having him back. Since he has been back he has spent a considerable amount of time and our house, cleaning off any leftover dinner we might have! Also now that I spend an annoying amount of time on the computer doing homework, he and Landon spend quality bonding time on the couch....

 playing halo. I get the joy listening to them kill people as I try to come up with new ways to feed the hungry in Africa!

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Landon and I are continuing to look for a house, it is becoming very tedious and adds even more stress to my life. Some days I think we will never find a house and we will be doomed to live in apartments forever. We get the joy of moving next week also to another apartment that will let us go month to month until we find a house so we dont have to resign another year lease where we are at. 

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This last saturday after my crap homework week I decided to throw a early Thanksgiving dinner party! Landon and I will be on vacation over Thanksgiving with my family and we wont be able to have a traditional Thanksgiving. So I decided to have one with some friends of ours and it was so much fun having them over for good food and fun! It was my first time ever making a turkey and I was horrified of ruining it. But amazingly it turned out perfect and moist and better than expected for my first time!

 Everything turned out so wonderful! I was exhausted from spending all day cooking in the kitchen, but it was so much fun and something I hope to continue for years to come!

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I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving! After the break I only have two  more weeks of class! After that I can start enjoying winter and hopefully go snowboarding and enjoy Christmas before next semester starts!

Press Pause...

This last week was my fall break from school and also mine and Landon's two year anniversary! It was nice to finally be able sit down and not have to do any homework, taking 24 credits can burn you out fast...who would have thought! I was finally able to catch up on a few other things, like; cleaning my disaster area apartment! How dose an apartment keep getting dirtier when your never there? And I also finally got around to doing my laundry that I was two week behind on! I was also able to get ahead start on some upcoming homework I have, and finally get around to catching up on my blog!

I have really enjoyed most of my classes this semester! One of my favorites has been my search and rescue class! A few weeks ago we got to go visit the Air Med helicopter pad and the Life Flight plane hanger and talk with the crews! I was in heaven, this is what I want to do with my life so getting to talk to these guys and watch them in action was the highlight of my month! When we were on the air med heli pad we got to see two helicopters land with patients, and see them get a call and take off to go pick up someone else! It was so cool! And in the Life Flight hanger we got to see how they can transport patients by airplane!









For our anniversary we were planning on going to San Francisco but we put an offer on a house we like so we had to stay closer in case we needed to do anything with that. So we ended up going up to Park City for the weekend and stayed in the nicest hotel I have ever seen, it was called The Chateau at Silver Lake! Landon out did himself and I had such a great time! It was nice to be able to see and spend more then 30 min with Landon seeing that we are both so busy! We were planning on riding the alpine slide and zip line but ended up getting rained out, I was so bummed, but it was nice that we didn't spend as much money as we had planned on!









Over all it was a great pause from school and work it helped relieve so much stress and tension i had. I felt bad because with both of us being so busy and stressed in a small little apartment there were times we got on each others nerves. It was nice to take a week and remind ourselves how much we love each other. Needless to say I am dreading to have to start back with everything tomorrow but it is nice to know I am now half way done with my nightmare semester!!!
Also I am excited for the weeks coming up, my little brother gets home from his mission!!! I can't wait to see him! After he gets home we are going on a family vacation over thanksgiving to Cali so that should be fun and oh so entertaining! Nothing like saying welcome home Elder then being confined in cars and hotel rooms with your family for a week!