4 YEARS AGO TODAY...

...WE STARTED OUR FOREVER. THANKS BABE FOR ALL THE AWESOME MEMORIES AND THE MANY MANY MORE THAT ARE TO COME. YOU ARE THE BEST, AND I'M SO GRATEFUL TO HAVE YOU IN MY LIFE. I LOVE YA!

the past month...and a little more

I'm such an awful blogger that this post will include the whole month of November and a little more...




...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME...Birthdays are such a fun time of year. Getting the mail is exciting...opening presents is fun...and it's always an excuse to go out to dinner! This year we went to Red Robin. It had been such a long time since we had been there. I wasn't smart enough to get my free burger this year, but I'm prepared for next year. And our good friends Tyler and Rachel made me a yummy cake...thanks guys!




...THE UB FOOTBALL GAME...was on November 17th we decided to go since the tickets are cheap and we have not gone to a football game in a long time. We bundled up, packed our hot chocolate thermos, treats and blankets and headed to the game. On our walk to the stadium there were lots of signs stating what was and was not allowed in. Ofcourse drinks were NOT allowed. So we were gulping down our hot chocolate all the way to the gate, only to get through without anyone questioning what, if anything was in the thermos! It was cold but we had fun!!


...THANKSGIVING...this year we hosted thanksgiving. Josh's sister Kalee and her husband Joe came to stay with us for a few days. We had a good time hanging out, playing games, watching football, and chatting. As for the Thanksgiving meal...I would rather show up at someone else's hosted event and then leave after the festivities. The only part of the whole meal that I was intimidated by was the TURKEY. Which ofcouse is the biggest part of thanksgiving dinner. I thawed my turkey for days in the fridge, got up early thanksgiving day, read the directions and time per pound, prepped the turkey and put in the oven. The directions said it would need to cook for 5 hours. 5 hours after putting the turkey in the oven it was still not done. Thinking it wouldn't take much longer we prepared everything else, still the turkey was not done...long story short we ate everything and then had turkey and pies later!






...NIAGRA FALLS...When you visit Buffalo the trip is not complete without seeing the falls. It was pouring rain the day we went, but it was the only day left. Kalee had never been to Canada so we braved the weather and ran across the rainbow bridge, and in to Canada. The boarder patrol guy looked at us like we were crazy when we rushed in all soaked. We went to the Hershey's store and bought 2 of their home made cookies and then sat in the Coke store and split them. Then we walked up the 'mini strip'. Then we ran back across the bridge. It was quick and crazy, but fun!

...IT'S A WINTER WONDERLAND...It snowed...not that it's surprising but, I always said it couldn't be any worse than the 3 winters we went through in Rexburg, but I will admit the quantity is more than anywhere we have lived before but they do know what a snow plow is, and they use it...unlike Rexburg!

...CHRISTMAS...is on it's way! I LOVE Christmas. The lights, the decorations, the surprises, the festivities, thinking of others, and most importantly the chance we have to remember the reason for the season.

...WORK CHRISTMAS PARTY...here are a few picts.

sWeeTeSt dAY

October 20th was sweetest day... Josh said what is sweetest day? I explained that it is another day to celebrate being lovers! So we did just that!! We hung out all morning together and then went to a late lunch. It was really fun.

I looked up online the origin and facts about sweetest day...because truthfully I did not know what sweetest day was...I just saw that mr. & mrs hallmark celebrated it so i decided to join the fun!

SO MUCH FUN...NEVER ENOUGH TIME

My parents came to visit us from Oct 9th to early morning on the 15th. We had such a good time with them. Josh was busy studying for midterms so he wasn't able to do a lot with us, but I was able to take some time off work to hang out.

While they were here we...

went to Niagra Falls. We looked around on the American side then walked across the rainbow bridge to the Canada side. We walked along their mini strip, enjoyed lunch, went to the hershey's store, watched a glass blower, took some picts and enjoyed the view.

the next day we went to palmyra. We went to the sacred grove, the Smith homes, and the printing press. It's always such a neat experience to be at the exact place where it all happened. And the Sacred Grove was really pretty this time of year with all the changing leaves. We also stopped and walked around the Temple grounds.

I also had some projects around our house for my dad to work on. The base boards in our bathroom were those cheap, plastic, crappy ones. Most of them weren't even sticking to the walls they were just leaning up against the wall. And around the cupboads in the kitchen there weren't any base boards...so we had to fix that. He also put up some shelves in our garage and basement, and fixed some piping in the basement. We love it! Everything looks so awesome! I felt bad that it took so much longer than expected, but we really appreciate it... and through it all we invested in a few tools! My mom was awesome too. I think she did the dishes the whole time they were here, cleaned the floors, folded laundry, unclogged the sink, made dinner for us and our friends...I told them they could move in Josh could go to school, I could go to work and they could stay home and clean and do the home repairs!

They also loved our dog, Teton. They could not believe how well behaved he is and how he never barks!

After all the work there was not enough time to go to Letchworth State Park...we'll

have to do that next time...but there was still a little time left

to see some stuff around Buffalo. We went to the botanical gardens,

and the water front along lake erie.

We loved having them here and can't wait to see our families at christmas...only 8 weeks away!!

kayaking

Wow! I'm really bad at this blogging thing. I don't feel like i have anything interesting to tell so I go weeks between posts...oh well...here it goes...

A couple weeks ago I went kayking with my friend, Amber. We had a blast! We went to this little river in Williamsville. It's right in the middle of a park right off of the main steet in town. How cool is that?! The water was kindof gross in spots because the water is stagnent, but I love outdoors-ie stuff so I didn't mind. We kayaked down the river to dream island. A little island in the middle of the river with a castle on it! It's huge and really old and cool looking. I would love to go inside it. Past the castle there were weaping willows that hung over the river. It was like something you see out of a movie~ people peacefully kayaking down the river under the weaping willows~totally cool!! On the way back we talked to a lady that told us the story behind the castle and dream island. I guess back in the 1960's it was sold to a couple. Right after they bought it, it burned. It was their dream to live there (hence the name dream island) so they rebuilt it and lived there until they both died a few years ago. Now their daughters live there. After kayaking we ran across the street and checked out the water fall. I came home and told Josh we will definately have to go back there together. It was so much fun, I had such a good time~thanks Amber.

School has been going pretty well for Josh. It's tough and stressful but he manages his time well and stays on top of things. He had his first two tests this week-histology and anatomy. He did well on the first one, and is waiting for the results of the second one. My job is getting better. I hated it at first, but it's pretty good now. We had some friends over for dinner last sunday, and hung out with some other friends last night in celebration of being done with the frist Anatomy test! Way to go guys!!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor day weekend came and went too fast. We didn't do anything special, it was just fun to have some extra time to relax and be together. My weekend was extra long because I didn't have to work on Friday either~the joys of working for a specialist, so I took advantage of the day off and went shopping with my friend Briste. It was really fun! There were sales and it wasn't too crowded. Josh, however, saw the weekend as a chance to get ahead on his school stuff. So bright and early Saturday morning he was studying. I caught up on some house stuff, we went running together...ok for those of you that know Josh and his running abilities and me and my running abilities you know we weren't really running together, but we were at the same place at the same time doing the same thing so to me we were running together! Later that evening we decided to go out to the mall, but it was WAY too crowded for us. So we settled for finishing up Friday Night Lights, a TV series, online. Monday Josh had an eye dr. appt. and came home with a new glasses. They updated his old Rx, so that it's actually beneficial to wear them and come to find out looking at a computer screen all day dries out and damages his eyes! Eye drops to the rescue since staring at the screen of his laptop is his life for the next 4 years! As hard as it was we're back to work and school today.

A CRAZY COUPLE OF WEEKS

I DON'T UPDATE THIS AS OFTEN AS I SHOULD, SO THIS WILL BE A LONG ONE...



DURING JOSH'S ORIENTATION WEEK WE WERE ABLE TO GO TO THE BUFFALO BISONS BASEBALL GAME. IT WAS REALLY FUN TO GO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN WE NORMALLY DO. BUT WHENEVER THEY SAID BISONS THEY SAID IT LIKE THE S's WERE Z's. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?!



THE LAST DAY OF ORIENTATION WEEK WAS FAMILY DAY. WE WENT TO A WHITE COAT CEREMONY, WHERE THEY HAD SPEAKERS THAT TOLD THE FAMILY'S WHAT A TOUGH 4 YEARS THIS IS GOING TO BE, AND THAT WE NEED TO BE SUPPORTIVE AND PATIENT. THEY ALSO TALKED ABOUT HOW THIS IS THE MOST HIGHLY QUALIFIED GROUP OF STUDENTS THAT UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO HAS EVER ACCEPTED. THEY ACCEPTED 90 STUDENTS THIS YEAR, THEY USUALLY ONLY ACCEPT 85. DENTAL SCHOOL IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE COMPETITIVE EVERY YEAR. UB RECEIVED 2001 APPLICATIONS INTERVIEWED 205 AND ACCEPTED 90. I THINK THAT IT'S AWESOME THAT JOSH IS PART OF SUCH A HIGHLY QUALIFIED GROUP OF STUDENTS. WAY TO GO BABE! AFTER THE TALKS THEY GAVE THE STUDENTS THEIR WHITE COATS. THEN WE WENT TO A NICE CATERED LUNCH, AND LATER AN ICE CREAM SOCIAL.




~P.S. I GOT A TICKET ON OUR WAY TO THE WHITE COAT CEREMONY FOR TURNING RIGHT AT A RED LIGHT. APPARENTLY THERE ARE CERTIAN INTERSECTIONS IN BUFFALO WHERE YOU CAN'T DO THAT. BUT THE SIGN STATING THIS IS POSTED 50 FEET BEFORE THE LIGHT NOT ON THE POLE NEXT TO THE LIGHT. THE FINE FELL UNDER THE SAME CATEGORY AS RUNNING A RED LIGHT. YEAH THAT'S CORRECT I WAS FINED $125 FOR TURNING AT THE INAPPROPRIATE TIME, WHEN I COULD HAVE BEEN SPEEDING AND CAUSING REAL DANGER TO PEOPLE AND ONLY BEEN FINED $75!



WE LIVE ABOUT 2 MILES FROM THE SCHOOL, SO ALMOST EVERYDAY JOSH HAS BEEN RIDING HIS BIKE . ON MONDAY AUGUST 13TH JOSH CALLED ME TO TELL ME THAT HE WAS DONE AT SCHOOL AND HE WAS HEADED HOME. A COUPLE MINUETS LATER MY PHONE RANG AGAIN, WHEN I SAW THAT IT WAS HIM I KNEW THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG. HE TOLD ME HE CRASHED ON HIS BIKE AND I NEEDED TO COME GET HIM. HE WAS SCRAPED AND BRUISED ALL DOWN HIS LEFT SIDE. HIS HIP ENDED UP GETTING A BRUISE THE SIZE OF TWO FISTS. FROM HIS KNEE TO HIS ANKLE WAS MAJORLY SCRAPED AND CUT. HIS HAND HAD 2 HUGE CHIPS OF SKIN TAKEN OFF AND HIS ELBOW AND ARM WAS SCRAPED AND BRUISED. HE LIMPED FOR ABOUT A WEEK AND STILL CAN'T LAY ON HIS LEFT SIDE. I JUST HAPPENED TO BE HOME FROM WORK THAT DAY-THANK GOODNESS! HE WOULDN'T LET ME TAKE A PICTURE SO YOU'LL HAVE TO IMAGINE JUST HOW BAD IT WAS.


THANKS TO THE SOUTHWEST DING SPECIALS, YESTERDAY MY PARENTS BOOKED A FLIGHT TO COME SEE US IN OCTOBER. WE'RE REALLY EXCITED! OTHER THAN THESE EVENTFUL THINGS WE HAVE BEEN CRAZY BUSY WITH SCHOOL, AND WORK AND ERRANDS, AND LAUNDRY, AND MEALS AND THEN DOING IT ALL OVER AGAIN.

REAL LIFE...

WE'RE BACK TO REAL LIFE AGAIN. ON TUESDAY AUG. 7 JOSH STARTED DENTAL SCHOOL, AND I STARTED MY NEW JOB WORKING FOR A PERIODONTIST. WE REALLY LIKED THE PAST 2 MONTHS WHERE ALMOST EVERYDAY SEEMED LIKE SATURDAY. WE HAD NO SCHEDULE, NO ONE TELLING US WHAT TO DO, AND WE GOT TO SPEND ALL DAY EVERYDAY TOGETHER. HOPEFULLY WE WILL STILL BE ABLE TO FIT A LITTLE FUN TIME IN WITH ALL THE CRAZINESS.

I chopped my hair!

The other day i cut my hair and i love it--most of the time. I still wake up every morning and wish I had someone to do my hair, that will probably never change.

while we've been in buffalo

When we first got to buffalo with Josh's parents we took them to see Niagra Falls. While there we paid the $1 to walk down to the lookout. Most people bought ponchos so they didn't get sprayed by the mist, but we didn't. We walked right up to the very edge of the lookout and were sprayed by the mist. It was so much fun!! We all said the $1 was well worth it! We also walked across to the Canada side of the falls. That was fun, I'd never been to canada.








The next day we took them to Palmyra to see the church history sites. Of course we had to stop at the Chill'n Grill for lunch and some of their famous ice cream.







After Josh's parents left we worked on our house. We unpacked, painted a few rooms, weeded, put a boarder and mulch around our flowers. This summer we've also hungout with friends, played lazer tag, guitar hero, mini golf and other games. Gone to Crystal Beach, the Hill Cumorah Pagent, and Allegany State Park, and celebrated our summer anniversary.

Josh working in the yard.

Our summer anniversary is when we celebrate our first date. This year it was our 4th first date anniversary--it's so much easier to say "Summer Anniversary" We usually try to do something cute for each other and it's an excuse to go out to dinner! ~July 11, 2007

We backpacking at Allegany State Park. It was so pretty there! The woods here are so much different than when we've gone backpacking in Colorado and Idaho. At night there's no way to see the sky through all the trees so it is pitch black. We love backpacking and had a really good time except for the fact that my camera died about an hour in to our 5 hour hike in the first day, and on the way back we got lost. Other than that we had a great time, and our dog Teton loved being free to do whatever he wanted to do too! ~july 12-14,2007

This was the first time Josh and I had seen the Hill Cummorah Pagent, we had a good time. The church always does a great job with their productions. We went with Tyler's whole family while they were in town. ~july 20, 2007

the past few months

We just moved to Buffalo, NY and have some downtime before life picks up again so I thought that this would be an ideal time to join the craze and start a blog! Here's the update on our life. In December of 2006 Josh was accepted to dental school at UB in Buffalo, NY. Right away we started making plans to buy a house. After all the negotiation, fedex overnight paper packages, phone calls and money exchanges...well i guess it's not called an exchange when we're just giving money, not getting any...we closed on March 8. Our lives didn't really change when we became homeowners. We stayed in our same townhouse and at our same jobs in colorado springs until our lease ended at the end of May. Then we stayed around for Josh's brother's wedding and began our adventure across the country the day after the wedding. Josh's parents helped us drive since we had a uhaul and 2 cars-we really appreciate their help. We got here in 3 days, and have been hanging out and working on our house. We painted a few rooms and worked in our yard. I'm currently looking for a job and Josh starts school in a few weeks and then all our fun and free time will have to slow WAY down. Until then we're going to live it up!!