I am back!!

Dinner at the Lighthouse in the San Diego Harbor.

Attempting the scallops. We both hate seafood but were willing to try.

Josh hurried up and swallowed, I munched a little. Not so delicious. We will stick to the steak.

Picture in front of our neighborhood Christmas Tree.

Wow. I can't believe my last post was before we got married. Now 1 year and 5 months later I have come back. I will be better. What has been going on for the past year. We have spent some time in San Francisco, Hawaii, Utah, hiked all over Moab, Phoenix, and been to Guatemala. In October I was able to go on a medical mission with Helps International. We spent 2 weeks in Huehuetenango serving a beautiful people. I worked with in the recovery room. We had many surgeons, performed many hernia surgeries, cleft palate/cleft lip surgeries, a few gallbladder removal's and lots of ob/gyn surgeries. We triaged over 2000 patients in 5 days. I have never met a more rich, loving, kind, giving, and humble people in my life. They, who have nothing would give me the only shirt they had if I asked for it. They walked for days and hours, through the rain and mud, and waited outside the military base for days to even be triaged. It was an amazing experience and there is so much more to tell. I will have to get back to it.

25 days!

I cannot even believe how time has flown by. We are at the 25 days mark. It is so crazy. Josh has been gone for almost 6 weeks now! It has been so hard without him but I do know that this time apart has strengthened our love for one another. He started off in Panama, went down to Colombia, and is now finishing up in El Salvador. While I believe that he is having a great time, I don't think I will ever let him leave for 6 weeks again. When he gets back things are going to be crazy. So much to do, so little time. I feel like I have gotten all of the big things taken care of and out of the way, but now it has come down to the nitty gritty things like place cards, seating charts, bridesmaids shoes, etc. This engagement has been so fun. I have had two amazing bridal showers and my bachelorrete part. Can I just say that I have no clue where I am going to put all of the kitchen stuff I have gotten. I don't want to get rid of any of it because it is all legitimate things that are nice and can be put to great use. Yesterday was my bridal shower in Utah. It was so nice. My grandma surprised me beyond belief. I opened up her gift and it was a handmade queen size quilt. Words can not even express how beautiful this quilt is. If you know my Grandma, you know she has never quilted it. She said that she wanted to do something very special for me and decided on the quilt. She says she started in in March and finished it about a week ago. I was crying as I opened it up and looked at the stitching and the squares. She gave me a card as well that says within every square is a memory of the fun things we have down, each stich represents the love that she has for me. It was amazing. This will be a family heirloom that is passed down for generations and generations to come. I was crying and made everyone else cry too. Last week Nick, Jess, Jamie, and Autumn all came down to San Diego and stayed with me for a week. Though the weather was June Gloomy, I still had a blast with them. We did the beach, padres game, and lots of eating. Their favorite place is BJ's, the server messed up on their order twice and they ended up getting 3 free pizza's. It was pretty sweet. I really had a good time with Autumn and Jessica. They are such good girls. They can come stay with me whenever they want. We always have a blast. On Wednesday, we made the long trek back in the Tahoe. I must insert here that I didn't recieve any speeding tickets and it sucked so bad driving the speed limit, but o well. I can't believe how big my two nephews are getting. Theye are so adorable. I took Kaden with me to target and out to Kneaders with Trayc and I the other day. He was so sweet. I let him pick out one toy at target because he was so good. The whole day with me there were no tears, no melt-downs, nothing but smiles and laughing. It was so fun. Lincoln, on the other hand, is turning into such a little mama's boy. He is so funny, he does this low growling noise that I can't even do because it hurt's to do. It must be his defense mechanism. I love it. He has doubled in size since the last time I saw him. His head is huge and he is crawling. I can't believe it. I love him so much. Hurley has turned into quite the hiking dog over the past few months. He loves it so much but man when he gets home he picks one spot, lays down and passes out. It is so funny. Apparently when he gets up into the snow, he can't just walk on it like a normal dog, instead he turns into a penguin and slides down in, using his bag legs. Sometimes at night I find him lying on his back with his paw over his face. Such a human I swear. Anyways, this blog has gotten to long. Peace out for now.

4 months in...4 months to go

Wow, I am so terrible at this blogging thing. Hopefully I will get better at it. Lets see besides lots of working I have been doing lots of wedding planning. My dress is ordered and will be here May 15, the bridesmaids dresses are almost ordered, my shoes are in, and I am ordering invitations on Saturday. Josh and I got to attend Lora and Eric's wedding reception on Friday, it was so much fun. Poor Josh, he kept having to fan my face because I was getting all emotional. Guess what though, I got Josh on the dance floor. He is too funny. He was sweating so bad. But he did it, we made it through the whole song and he even spun me around at the end. He hasn't done much dancing thus far. We are going to be so ready for our first dance though because we are starting dance lessons soon. The great thing is that Josh is actually going for it, I think deep down inside he is actually excited about it, though he will never admit it. We are so excited to be coming home to Utah next week!! I can't wait to see everyone, especially my amazing, adorable nephews, I am sure Josh is just going to eat them up. Maybe it will convince him to have kids before he is done with Dental school. We keep jumping from 2.5 years to 4 years, some days I want them within a year, we will see what happens. I can't believe there is only 16 weeks left until we are married. Boy does time fly. I am slightly sad though because Josh leaves for 6.5 weeks to go out on the Navy Hospital boat. Hopefully time flies while he is gone. We did lease our first apartment last week. We are so excited. It is a top floor and south face just like we wanted. There are two giant balconies, pools, jacuzzi's, and work out rooms. I move in April 9. I can't wait to start playing the part of a house wife. It is going to be soo much fun. I just realized yesterday though that I am moving into this apartment with almost nothing to furnish it with. It is kind of funny. Over time though I am hoping to acquire more than just my bed, dresser, and TV. Bring on the bridal showers!

Engaged and wedding planning

We figured that getting a blog spot would be nice so that we can let everyone know how wedding plans are coming along. Yes...they are coming along. Engaged a little over 4 weeks now and I feel like I have done very well with getting things done. We have the reception spot, caterer, photographer, my wedding dress which I was really nervous about since it wasn't suppossed to get in for 6 months but just found out yesterday it will be here May 15, yipppeee, and the DJ. Next on the list announcements and florist. I can't believe how amazing things are coming together. I can't believe the changes that have taken in my place over the past few months namely: graduation, dating Josh, getting engaged, working full time in the ER, planning a wedding. So much change but I am embracing it and running with it. I couldn't have asked for a more tender, loving, caring husband to be. Not a day goes by where Josh doesn't tell me at least 10 times how beautiful I am. He is amazing. He has so much going on right now with school and I am glad I get to be by his side through all of it supporting him. We can't stand being away from eachother and can't wait for July when we can finally not having say goodbye to eachother each night. Time to go get the cookies out of the oven. I love making and frosting Valentine's day cookies.