September, October, and November

The end of September is Mr. Max Man's birthday. This year for the kids' birthdays I decided to have them come have a sleepover in Provo. The weekend before Max's birthday I had to go up to Centerville for a doctor's appointment. That afternoon was also the Viewmont Homecoming Parade, which Spencer was in with the Girls' Soccer Team. I took all Spencer's kids to the parade where they got WAY more candy than anyone else (perks of being adorable and having an entire team of teenage girls love you). I dropped the other kids off and then Max and I headed down to Provo. Max fell asleep on the way, but he woke up in enough time to decide he wanted to go to Arby's for dinner. Being the cool Aunt that I am, I even let him get Pepsi for his drink.

We went back to my apartment, got in our pajamas, dragged my mattress into the living room, and turned on "3 Ninjas." Max loves that movie, He was hilarious the whole time. He was very concerned that my roommate Haley wasn't home yet, so we called her a couple of times until she came home and played with us for a little bit. Max and I slept in the living room that night. In the morning, we made pancakes with ice cream on top for breakfast. We spent the morning just playing and watching "Tangled." 

That afternoon was the BYU vs. Virginia. Max got to go with his dad, which he was SO excited for. It was so much fun to get to hang out with Max. He is so sweet. Haley couldn't get over just how nice and sweet he was. He's totally adorable.

It was Emily Ruth's birthday in the beginning of October. We decided to celebrate by going to Thai food (which was insanely delicious!) and have a small party for her.

We didn't intend to all wear scarves that day.

We had a great time celebrating our amazing Emily!

Emily, Karen and I decided one Saturday that we needed to drive up Provo Canyon to experience the goodness of the fall colors. We found a random road to park on and hung out by the secluded lake for a couple hours. Emily and Karen sketched (they are actually artistic) while I just wandered around and enjoyed the quiet.

We found some flowers and they insisted on putting them in my hair. We had just a great, relaxing time. I'm glad that I got to spend some time with two of my favorite people without worrying about the rest of life, even if it was just for a couple of hours.

In October our cohort decided we needed to party together, this time outside of school. We finally decided on a night that would work for almost everyone and made plans to go to a corn maze. We headed over to Cornbelly's and had a great time walking through the maze and getting to know everyone's significant others' better.

Jonathan, Zach, Curtis, Jen, and Kara

Back: Lucas, Kara, Tess
Front: Jonathan, Emily, Me, Leanna, Zach, Jen, and Curtis

Afterward, we headed to one our professor's houses for hot chocolate and homemade apple fritters. It was so much fun to hang out with everyone outside of the stress of school!

For Halloween this year, my roommates decided to throw a party. I'm not much of a Halloween fan, but it was actually a surprisingly fun time. There were SO MANY people there. I am pretty sure we don't even have that many friends. We figured there were about 70 people there throughout the course of the night. Emily made homemade cider and donut holes that were a huge it. She also made my T-shirt costume for me (since I don't really like Halloween).

Rorschach Ink Blot Test

The best part of the night was Ben. Ben is my roommate Karen's boyfriend. He lives in Texas, but he decided to surprise Karen and fly into town for a few days. Emily went and picked him up from the airport and dropped him off on campus to study while he waited for enough people to show up to make his entrance unnoticed. He showed up in a blue morph suit with his face covered. He was probably at the party for about 25 minutes before revealing himself to Karen. Longest 25 minutes ever for me. I was dying. Finally, he went over and was sort of bugging her, which was funny cause she was totally freaked out. Then we went back and took off the part covering his face. Karen totally freaked out screaming! It made me tear up. It was so great!

Shannon and Amy are both having babies this coming Spring! Yay! We love little babes around here! 

In November Shannon and Jeff had a gender reveal party at Jeff's parents' house. They had seven boxes with balloons in them, either blue or pink. Each kid (plus me and Trent) opened a box and revealed the balloon. In the end, if there were more blue balloons then it meant it was a boy and if there were more pink ones then it meant it was a girl.

Trent got to open the last one: it was pink! We are SO excited to meet their little girl come March! She is going to be the most loved and spoiled child ever! Amy revealed a little while later that she is having a little boy! 

We are stoked that we get both a boy and a girl within a couple of weeks of each other! Babies are the best!

Everyone got to be here for at least part of Thanksgiving this year except for Alicia, Peter, and Will, who were in San Francisco with his family. Mandi's parents, Marie, and Andy and his kids all came too. The food was delicious, as always. My mom found some simple presents for everyone and hid them so the kids could have a good time trying to find them. 

After dinner Amy, Mandi, and Shannon decided they needed to go to Target when it opened at 6 that night to get some things for their kids. Normally I'm not really a shopper (like at all), but I couldn't let the two pregnant ladies go to get some of the heavier items with just Mandi to help them. It turned out to be really fun. We also went to Khol's and totally died over the baby clothes, especially the little girl ones. I'm glad I got to spend some extra time with some of my favorite people!

Life Lately

I've been bad at this since school started. I decided that the best way to do an update is to do it more as a list of what I'm grateful for. Because life is good. And I have a lot of things to be grateful for.

1. School: School is really good. It's different, that's for sure. All of my classes are with the same 8 people (including me). They are also mostly discussion based. I feel like I'm learning a lot, but time is flying by. I'm taking less credit hours and working less than I ever have, so I actually sort of feel like I have a lot of time on my hands. Which sort of makes me worried that I'm missing something. But really I like it. 

2. Classmates: My cohort is pretty awesome. I'm the youngest, but not by nearly as much as I was afraid I would be. We only have two boys and, interestingly, they both are married and either just had or are about to have a baby. One of them is working with the same professor as I am. And it has been awesome working with him. We've spent a lot of time together this past month or so. It's really nice to have a sounding board and someone who is interested in the same things as me, but who doesn't intimidate me. Group work and sharing the load is very encouraged in our program, and I feel like we have done a good job of this. Also, even though trying new therapy techniques and such is scary because we have never done it, everyone is supportive and non-judgmental. 

3. Research: Research has been going surprisingly well. I spend about 10 hours a week writing and it is shocking how much work I've been able to get done. I spend another 5 hours a week working on running participants in our ongoing research projects. It's been great. And it really is true that the more you get into it the more ideas you have. Also, my first paper was officially published on the 20th. Yep, pretty dang awesome.

4. My mentor: In case I haven't said enough before, I got really lucky with my mentor. He wants his students to succeed, so he doesn't put tons of pressure on, but at the same time expects a lot from us. It's the perfect balance to help me reach my potential by pushing myself but not getting overwhelmed. And he genuinely wants me to do the research that I am most interested in. He doesn't have his own agenda in that way, which is great.

4. Roommates: My roommates are the greatest. We are all super busy and so don't get to spend tons of time together. Which means when we are together, we are crazy and obnoxious. Seriously, we already drove some boys away because we were so hyper at being together. We hung out with them three or four times one week, and after our hyper night, we never heard from them again. I love my girls. They make me laugh and we eat delicious food together. I love it. And they keep me sane when I get stressed or feel like I'm going crazy. 

5. Family: I get to see my family a lot, which I love. Alicia and her family live close, so I see them the most often, but with BYU football in season, I usually see everyone else pretty often as well. I got to spend a little extra time with Abby and Max a couple of weeks ago, which was really fun.

6. Temple: I have been going to the temple more consistently this semester than I have in the past. It has been good to have that in my life. It's a very peaceful and stablizing influence for me. Even if I have to wake up much earlier than I normally would. Also, the Ogden Temple Dedication was awesome. It is really neat to sit in the Marriott with so many people united in such an incredible experience and spirit.

7. Gospel knowledge and testimony: We have a girl in our program who isn't a member (well, two actually, but one that I talk to more). She is one of those people who likes to thoroughly research everything, so she found out quite a lot about the Church before coming to Provo. And she has some great roommates who decided to do roommate "Bible study" as she calls it, though they always read the Book of Mormon in addition to the Bible, so it's more scripture study. Anyway, it has lead to a lot of interesting conversations. She is very religious, so even if she doesn't believe what we do, she doesn't act as if it is too far fetched. Still, I have been extremely grateful that I have studied the gospel and can answer her questions. And that I can definitively say that it isn't just a gospel doctrine but something that I believe or know to be true. 

8. Past experiences: In our psychotherapy class, we practice giving each other therapy. It's hard for me to come up with something to talk about as the patient though, because, to be honest, I think I'm in the best mental health I have been in for a while. I'm not too stressed out by the program, in fact, I think my life is less busy now than it has been in the past because my work is research, instead of working on top of doing research. Plus, nothing dramatic has happened yet this semester that requires a lot of extra emotional attention on my part. I feel very prepared for the things going on in my life and I'm very grateful for it.

9. Ward: Although we haven't had very many normal Sundays yet, I think I like this ward a lot. They seem to be easier to relate to than some of my wards in the past. Plus, we've made friends with a few people who seem to find our apartment dynamic entertaining and fun. We like people who think we are funny, because we certainly think we are.

10. Answers: After years of not knowing why I was having a lot of joint pain, I went to the doctor last week and he said he believes it is benign hypermobility syndrome. My shoulders, elbows, fingers, spine, and knees all are off about 10 degrees when they are straightened and are thus working too hard. While it might sound weird to be grateful for having that, I am. It could be a lot worse. And probably the worse thing of all would have been more questions without any answers. So I'm grateful.

I have a few more updates and things from the summer, but for now this will have to do!

Emily Anne

My cute Emily Anne left me a couple weeks ago and is now an official Physical Therapy student at USC. That smarty pants.

Before she left, we got to spend some quality time together. At the beginning of August we went to "Wicked!" at Capitol Theater together. Before the show we went to dinner at a delicious Thai place in Salt Lake. The show was really, really good. Even though I had seen it in New York four years ago, I think I understood it much more this time. Unsurprisingly, I got a little emotional a few times as the impact of the music and lyrics really hit me.

It has only been a couple weeks and I already miss Emily like crazy. Emily is very steady. No matter what happens in her life, she reacts in a strong, stable way. She has been through a lot in the couple of years I've known her alone and has continually impressed me through it all. She is dedicated, loyal, thoughtful, and kind. Plus, she has the world's greatest laugh. Seriously.

I'm so proud of her and the courage she has shown in picking up her life and moving to an unknown place. She's going to be a kick-a physical therapist too. She is so smart and has a natural gift when it comes to dealing with athletes and sports related injuries. She is the best and I can't wait to see all of the amazing things she does in her life!

Birthday

I feel like every year I say the same thing in regard to my birthday. I like that my birthday gives me the excuse to be with people that I love. Other than that it isn't my favorite. This year was great though, because the focus was on spending time with people I love.

Anne and I have birthdays 3 days apart, so the past few years we've sort of combined them, at least a little bit. Wednesday night, the day before my birthday, Emily Ruth made veggie sandwiches and butternut squash soup for dinner. She said that when she thought of us and food she thought of veggie sandwiches. It was totally the perfect dinner. We're semi-obsessed with them during the summer when there are good fresh vegetables. Later that night we ate these delicious mini peanut butter and chocolate cheesecakes that Emily Ruth made. We didn't have any candles, so we used matches. It was kind of a miracle that we had all of our roommates and our two honorary roommates (Spencer and Cole) all there at the same time. So obviously I insisted on a picture. Oh the protests I heard! But, I pulled the birthday card and I'm glad I did because these are literally the only pictures we have of all six of our roommates together. 

The yummy cheesecakes

Anne, Emily Ruth, Emily Anne, Brittni, Me, and Haley

The next day, I went to class and work as usual. Bryson came over and visited for a little while before dinner, which was delightful. I forgot how much I love that kid! Spencer and Anne made lime honey chicken enchiladas for dinner, which were amazing! Then Anne and I headed up to the HFAC to see the play "Pride and Prejudice." Yeah, Anne knows me really well. I was a little wary at first, but I absolutely loved it. Bingley and Collins especially were awesome. 

Afterward we went to the Malt Shoppe (after a few other failed ideas). Anne and Spencer didn't stay, but I made sure I got a picture with her outside first. We had a great time talking and laughing. I loved getting to spend time with so many of my friends all at once. 

Everyone minus Karen and Briggs: Kyle, Jordan, John John, Nick,
Emily Ruth, Me, Haley, Brad, Jon, Emily Anne, Brittni and Cole 

After we got home, Jack and Corey came over to give me my present from them. They are hilarious. Jack explained that they were trying to come up with something and were thinking about his birthday. For his birthday, people give Jack Mountain Dew flavored things because he loves it so much. But I don't drink anything but water. So they decided they would find the "freshest water in all the land" and give it to me. Corey showed me the video of Jack in the Provo River gathering water in a glass bottle and then they gave me the bottle, along with the "map" they used to find it. 

I totally love those boys. It was a great present. 

That weekend was Conference Weekend, so I got spend a lot of time with all my family, which I love. It really did turn out great.