Yes, we are still alive

Not having internet has really put me behind in the blogging world but yes, we are still alive. Actually, not having internet and tv has been kind of nice. Not that we have a whole lot of down time, but now the time we do have we are able to spend it doing more productive things. Oh, but we do have a little bit of tv now. We borrowed a converter box from a friend and now get 3 channels...ABC, Telemundo, and the CW channel. I tell you, not too exciting! lol. pretty much all we watch is the news. Now our spare time is consumed by that silly dog of ours. He is sure a hyper little guy and loves to help with anything and everything. Like the other day when I decided after work that I wanted to build a snowman. No matter how many times I smacked him he still came back for the poor snowman's nose. But, despite all that, it turned out really cute thanks to the help of the neighbors granddaughters. For Valentines Day this last weekend we were able to leave Skeeter at home (with our nice neighbor taking care get away of him) and have ourselves a little vacation. Sat morning we got up and headed to Lava Hot Springs for a little relaxation. I never thought this was possible but it wasn't as fun as it could have been cuz the weather was really nice. Because it was so nice everyone wanted into the coldest of the 3 hot pools thus making it VERY crowded. But it was still fun. That night we headed down to Utah to stay the night and meet up with Dillon's fam Sunday. After a few unplanned detours around Ogden we found the resort they were stayin in and spent the day hanging out, eatin, and watching the Olympics. Then came Monday. Monday we spent A-L-L day skiing. Now, don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun but....I am not a skiier. I only been a few times and it has all been with Dillon and the most recent was 2 years ago. But, like I said, despite the blizzard conditions, all the people, tons of fog, my not so good skiing skills, and my thick head...it was fun! I could barely get out of bed Tues, but it was fun! :) Other than that we haven't been up to a whole lot of anything besides work and more work and school for Dillon. We did hear back from Eastern Washington on saturday. We go up to Spokane March 6th for Dillon to take part in a group interview. We are both pretty excited to be getting somewhere in this grad school proccess but can't wait to have set plans. We don't really care where we end up but do think it would be fun to go up to WA for a little bit of a change. Guess we'll see how the interview goes and what news we get from ISU. But for now we are still really enjoying living in St Anthony and have been LOVING our ward until they split it. We had to speak about 2 sundays back and that day they announced the ward boundries would be changing. We have been out of town since and so we're not sure what ward we are in now or how it is but i hope it's as good as the last one. Everyone in that ward was SO SO friendly and accepting. Even though we didn't get to be a part of it for long Dillon was able to get some basketball playing out of it and i even got to play some volleyball. But like I said, I'm sure we'll love our new ward too as soon as we stay in town long enough to go :) Another thing that's nice about St Anthony is the wildlife. As I walked out my front door to leave for work the other morning this is what I saw. Look closley and you will see not only 1 but 2 moose. 1 at each of the neighbors house across the street. I was SO glad that they were in their yards and not in mine. If that had been my front yard there is no way I would have been to work that morning. I was scared enough going past in my car. But, as I was leaving they were headed down the road and behind the houses. This was also one of the days Skeeter got loose and the neighbor had to chain him back up for us. I'm sure it was cuz of the moose and the fact that he is hudini. But, now...thanks to Lyndi, JR and Jed and my parents....we have made him a little kennel so we no longer have to fight with him try every type of clamp and clasp possible to keep that stupid dog chained up. Well, I think that is about all the excited news we have for now. Hopefully we'll have some really exciting grad school news here in the very near future. I'll be sure to come steal the internet here at Dillon's work to let you all know! :)

Back to the grind

Well, Christmas break is over and after getting moved, driving to UT to see my best friend and her adorable little baby and my sister and her 2 adorable little babies, spending Christmas in WY and playing LOTS of Mario Kart on the WII, bringing our dog Skeeter back with us, cleaning our apt and gettin all checked out of that, spending some time with Dillon's family, driving back down to UT to see the Utah Jazz get dominated by the Denver Nuggets...we are back at home and gettin back into the swing of things. Today was my first day back to work after having 2 weeks off and I only had to work just over 1/2 a day!!! :) The power blew here from St Anthony to Rigby again (it went out for 3 hours a week or so before Christmas) so we got to go home. It was quite nice but I'm pretty sure it came right back on right after I left because it was on by the time I got home, oh well! :) Here are just a few pictures that pretty well sum up the last 2 weeks of our life......oh yeah, and you can't really tell in this picture but I cut about 4 inches off my hair and dyed it dark again to get all the yucky out! :) and i don't know why my hair looks gray in this picture but i promise it's not gray! lol

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas!

Life has been pretty crazy this last month and therefore I haven't had much time to update. But, I thought I would give you all a quick update before we join the world of no internet. Yup, this is our how our last few days have been spent....doesn't it just look like SO much fun! :) Hopefully by Monday we will be all packed and moved into our new/temporary house in St Anthony, just in time for Christmas! This year we get to spend it in SV with all of my family and I am SO excited. The only bummer is that my brother won't be there (dang missions ;) and my sister Lacie and her sweet little family won't be able to join us, but... for good reason. That's right! Her amazing little babies FINALLY made it home yesterday after spending 3 LONG months in the hospital! I cannot wait to be able to hold and snuggle them and tell them how much I love them! :) Congrats little ones and good luck mommy and daddy. Well since I last updated I was able to go down to Preston to a baby shower for Lacie. It was fun to see everyone down there and see all the SUPER cute stuff Lacie got from everyone for these little ones. I was a bit nervous during the drive cuz I had to take this down with me. Isn't that the cutest cake you have ever seen??? A fellow Fairviewite that lives here in Rexburg made it for Lacie. She is beyond talented. (http://www.ashleyscakesbydesign.blogspot.com/). Thanks so much Ashley and I'm SO glad I didn't ruin it in transit! :) After the baby shower we only had a week or two before Thanksgiving which we got to spend in Shelley with Dillon's family. It was a lot of fun and full of food, cards, hot tubing, food, and fun. The day after Thanksgiving we headed up to the mountains to find us a Christmas tree!! I know, we are crazy for getting a tree and decorating for Christmas when we are moving right before Christmas but I couldn't bear the thought of not decorating at all, so we did it anyways! :) Getting a tree is always fun, but I do have to admit I was a little bummed that we couldn't find a better looking tree. Don't worry....I got over it and think that it turned out pretty cute. Sorry I don't have a picture of the final product so these will have to do. Since Thanksgiving we have just been working, doing school work, Christmas shopping, working, doing finals, packing, and going to Christmas parties (there is an advantage to having 3 jobs amongst 2 people! :) We are now REALLY excited to have some time off from school and work to be able to relax and enjoy family and get settled into our new place. Since we aren't gonna have internet for a while (it may be a long while or we might get it sometime soon...we don't know) I will update whenever I can.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

"Thankful" by Josh Groban

So tonight as I was working away, cleaning my house (finally) and I flipped the computer open and turned on some Itunes with Christmas music. While I was cleaning this song came on..."Thankful" by Josh Groban. As I was listening to the words of this song I guess I kinda had a change of heart. This Thanksgiving season I have known that I have a lot to be thankful for but I haven't taken the time to sit down and think about ALL that I do have to be thankful for. Instead I have kinda been struggling and have been complaining and dwelling on the negative things in life. Thanks to this man I was quickly able to flip all those stresses into something I am honestly and truly thankful for. I decided to share some of that list with you.

This Holiday Season I am thankful for............................
-the fact that I had to say goodbye to my only/little brother for 2 full years because it means that he has lived worthy and is willing to go and serve the Lord and spread the word of the gospel to the great people in the Phillipines

-the opportunity I have to worry, sympathize, and encourage my sister and brother-in-law while they are struggling with having 2 babies in the NICU cuz it means that their babies have beat the odds and are alive

-the chance I have to come home exhausted and beat everynight cuz it means that I have not only one, but two jobs

-the stories I have to tell about how hard the kids I work with in preschool are cuz it means that I am able to work with kids that are struggling and/or have special needs and that I just might be making a difference

-the fact that I am now beginning to worry about important grad school decisions and finances cuz it means that I have a great husband that cares about getting a good education

-the opportunity I have to struggle with the fact that we have now been trying to get pregnant for six months because it means we have only been trying for six months

-the large check that Dillon had to write out to the computer doctor today cuz it means that we now have a working computer again

-the chance I have to sit and add up how much money we have wasted on rent this past 1 1/2 years cuz it means that we have a nice place to live

-the times Dillon and I argue about silly little things cuz it means that they are only silly little things

-the lectures I'm able to give Dillon about doing the laundry right cuz it means he cares enough to help me out and do the laundry/dishes for me when I'm not home to do it

-the little time I get to spend with Dillon cuz it means that we are both working hard and trying our best so we can have the best in the future

-and the list could go on and on.........................................

wow

WOW, it's been a while since i updated so i should probably give a little update. well.....dillon's work load has slowed down a little bit now that he has gotten the GRE under his belt. what a relief! now it's onto grad school application and the wait to see where it is we could be headed come summer. he only has about 5 weeks left in this semester then only ONE MORE before he graduates with his Bachelors! YAHOO! other than school and work, work, work we haven't been up to a whole lot. we celebrated Halloween by watching a few scary movies and handing out candy to only 3 sets of trick-or-treaters. we've been able to spend time hanging out with my family and getting ready to say goodbye to the little dude since he only has about 5 days until we ship him out to the MTC. (WOW cody....i think i'm really gonna miss ya!) We were able to go down to Logan and go through the temple with him and go home to SV last weekend to see him speak in church and party it up with him. (sorry no pictures this time, long story short...he have been fighting the computer monster that seems to REALLY wants to destroy our computer and the poor thing have been in and out of the doctors for over a month now and is there as we speak. if it wasn't for our good friends the Doyle's we would have been completely computerless this whole time! THANKS SO MUCH BRANDON AND DAF (and Jaylee! :) Sheesh, now that i sit down to update you all, it doesn't sound like we've been all that busy but wow...it sure feels like we have been running our butts off. The craziness that I have felt isn't gonna slow down either. This weekend I'm off to Preston for Lacie's baby shower while Dillon goes hunting... next weekend I'll be in Pocatello for a Child Conference...the next weekend is Thanksgiving weekend... then it's DECEMBER and that is always an insane month. Oh oh oh, that reminds me, we do have some BIG news!!! but it's not what all of you are thinking.
Instead we are moving. Our contract is up the end of Dec so sometime in the next 3 or so weeks we will be packing up and making the big move to St Anthony. Dillon has a great grandma that lives over there but she isn't there in the winter so we will be moving into her house until we head out to grad school...where ever that may be. SO, that's about it. I'll update when I have some time and something to actually update about......if anyone even cares enough to look at our blog anymore :)

Utah trip

I got home last night from my trip to Utah and let me tell you...although I missed my husband SO SO much, I really wish I didn't have to come home. I LOVED the time I was able to spend with Lacie (and a little of Jake) and little miss Sofia. I'm sure Lacie wasn't apposed to me leaving tho since I did cause her a little bit of a headache I'm sure. LOL. Sorry Lacie...but it was a fun adventure, right?? :)

The originial plan had been for me to head to Logan Monday and pick Lacie up from her doctors apt and take her to Ogden and stay the week with her there while Jake stayed in Logan to work but, as we are discovering, with 2 babies in the NICU plans change QUICK! Sofie was taken by ambuance from Ogden to SLC Monday afternoon. She needed to be in Primary Children's Hospital to have surgery done that would place a port (resivoir) in her head to draw fluid off her brain. Although this was not much fun and put the 2 babies in different hospitals in 2 different cities it was nice on my end since Primary's has a far different policy than McKay Dee and since she was now at Primary's I was gonna get to see her!!! :) So Monday night around 4:30 I was able to see little miss Sofia Adell for the first time. It was amazing and heart breaking all at the same time. Although I had seen countless pictures, nothing compared to seein her in real life. Since only 2 people could be at her bedside at a time we had to do some rotating (thank you Lacie and Jake for letting me spend time with her). Since her surgery wasn't until the following afternoon we spent the evening with her Monday then went and got settled at the Ronald McDonald House just a short drive down the hill. Little Sofia's surgery Tues afternoon was short and sweet and did just what it was supposed to do! :) A few hours after surgery Jake had to head back up to Logan to work the rest of the week, leaving Lacie and I on our own in SLC. oh man! Close to an hour after Jake left Lacie and I jumped in my car to head back up to the hospital to spend the evening with Sofie. We pulled out of the house parking lot and instantly I knew something was NOT right with the car but didn't know what it was. I pulled out onto the main road and after going only a few feet I KNEW we had a flat. UGH! After a few blocks of trying to get over so I could pull off the road we got stopped and jumped out to see a terribly flat tire. Now what???? Lacie called Jake and he was already back in Ogden and I called Dillon (since it was his car) for some advice. Lacie and I really didn't know anyone that could be there quick to help up out. (ok, let me explain something that we BOTH had to explain to our husbands...we were on the right hand side of South Temple road in SLC with a flat tire on the on the front drivers side of the car, in the freezing cold, just as it had gotten dark....YES we probably could have put the spare on ourselves but NO, we weren't about to try given the circumstances). So...after a few mins of sittin in the car coming up with a plan we decided to walk the 2 blocks back to the Ronald McDonald house and ask the house manager's husband to come help us. We got back and explained the situation to the lady sitting at the front desk (not the house manager) and she just kinda looked around and didn't know what to say or do. Well right behind her was a guy washing windows. The conversation to follow went like this...

Man (kinda sheepishly): I can do it

Lady: Ok, I guess that can be part of your community service

Man (putting down window washing supplies): Where is your car at?

Me: Um...about 2 blocks down the road on South Temple

Man (lookin at the lady): 2 blocks? Is that ok if I go 2 blocks?

Lady: Yeah that should be fine

Me (silently screaming "AHHHHH"): Thank you so much!
Well, the man was very nice and followed us to the car, got the spare on, and walked on back to the Ronald McDonald house (well that's what he said at least). Lacie and I just kinda stood behind the car together hoping the man wasn't doin community service for something TOO major and being VERY thankful we were on the side of a VERY busy road. (no we didn't snap a picture...dang it). With the spare (very small and scary spare) on we carefully climbed the hill to the Hospital to see miss Sofia. We were there for only about 10 mins then got kicked out of the room so they could bring in a VERY sick little baby. We weren't able to go back in that night cuz the baby needed so much attention having just gotten there. So...we limped back down the hill to our room. We decided to stay put for the night. That night we laid in bed and talked until almost Midnight just talking and laughing and being silly sisters! :) The next morning I drug Lacie out of bed bright and early and headed to a Big-O, that was luckily just straight down South Temple, to get the flat fixed. After the flat was fixed the man working told me he was a little concered about the tire since it had been driven on. I explained that I was driving home to Idaho on the interstate the next day and the nice man rotated the bum tire to the back and told me I should be fine. So...off to the hospital, just in time for free breakfast! :) That day great Gma and Gpa Hunter made a suprise visit to see little miss Sofia (nicknamed by all her nurses as the "dancing queen" since she LOVES to move around). After their visit and as they were leaving Gpa gave me a little toy to keep me busy in the NICU. So of course I propped it on top of Sofia's incubator as some Halloween decor. Well by that night the poor little guy had fallen (when the top had been off to work on little Sofie) and gotten stuck in the incubator. OH NO! The nurse that night was kinda grumpy and didn't really seem like she wanted us there (she had good reason that I won't explain cuz it is WAY too sad and breaks my heart thinkin about it) so we didn't know what to do to get it out ourselves without askin her to "pop the top." So Lacie worked at it a bit but manager to pop the little guys arm off (OOPS) but eventually got him out. She quickly made me shove it in my purse and never get it out again! lol. Well the next day was our last and unfortunately a very quick day. We went and saw Sofie that morning then had to head out and clean our room at Ronald McDonald house before we could check out and leave...then had to meet a guy and pick up a pup for my dad. (I will definately leave out all that drama for ya'll, but to give you an idea, I named the pup Pita. It stands for "Pain In The A**, she was cute tho). So we got her and headed to Ogden to drop Lacie off to see her little man Lukas. I dropped her off and me and Pita hit the road again. I dropped her off in Preston with Bill and Nicole (thanks again for meeting me at the exit you guys!!! :) then FINALLY found my way home to my HUBBY!!! WOW...that was a long post.

But THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Lacie, Jake and Sofia for letting me come and invade and spend time with all of you. I know I caused a little added stress to your life Lacie (sorry) but it really was fun and I'm SO glad I got to come down. I miss you all already! (just wish I could have met my man Luke, oh well, rules will be rules).

LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!

Time for a break!

WOW...I can't believe that it is Oct 1st and the weather is FREEZING! Time is flying by. Life for us has been just plain crazy busy and just really not much fun lately. BUT, I am SO excited that we live in Idaho right now and that I am working for an Idaho school district so that I can have a FULL WEEK OF WORK OFF!!!! YAY! Because of no work next week I'm headed off to Utah to stay with my amazing sister and her beautiful little babes! (by the way...if you haven't figured it out, these little ones have their own blog so check out the "Bastow Miracle Babies" link on my blog list). YAY! Too bad BYU-I doesn't let their students out for Harvest Break, which means that I'll be leavin my hubby home alone :( Even though I'll miss him lots and lots I know he'll be just fine. He probably won't even notice I'm not in the same state as him seein as how we never see eachother anyways. Sorry you don't get a break honey...I'll enjoy mine extra lots for ya! :)