Christmas Break

This is our first Christmas together and who knew that it would be so much fun!

I always borrow my mothers luggage when I go on trips, and I think she was getting sick of it. Her luggage is the kind that has four wheels and spins. My parents gave Joe and I spinner luggage for Christmas, so that we can probably stop borrowing hers. We need to go on a cruise now to use it!

We spent Christmas in Burley where I was able to experience all the fun Preston traditions. For Christmas Joe gave me my favorite portrait from our wedding day blown up and on Canvas! I love it!!!

Renae and Tim gave me the Christus statue that I have always wanted, but figured I would probably not get one for a long, long time. And notice in the pictures our Christmas PJ's!

We left Burley Christmas night so that Joe and I could get back to work and it took us over 6 hours to get back, and it normally takes us 3 hours. I have never had so much fun driving in a car than on this trip. I can think of no other person I would rather be with!

The next day we got one of the funnest presents! A new niece named Jane! And she is adorable! When I went to go see her for the first time I walked into the hospital with my niece Emily who was now a big sister for the first time, and not too sure about how she felt about it. I told my niece that I was Suzanne's little sister, and my little niece just looked at me like I was lying. Then she just kinda looked at me and I could see in her eyes that she was thinking ,"Get out of town!" I just know that she will love being an older sister.

I gave it up!

So for a few months now I have kicked my Dr Pepper addiction. I tried to quit during the summer, but quickly failed. If you do for some reason see me drinking it...don't worry I allow myself one cheat drink a week.

What I got to do today

So today I had to wake up and be to a rehab center for my first day of clinicals of nursing school. I had so much fun!

I was able to poke people to get their blood glucose, and then do subcutaneous injections. Joe thinks its weird that I find this stuff fascinating. The nurse that I was working with was so sweet and was a really good teacher.

I Still have a lot to learn before in the next year before I'm on my own!

Crafty

So this week I have been a little under the weather and have not really been able to concentrate on studying, so since I couldn't do that I decided to make this count down till christmas. I wish I could say it was my idea, but I got it in a kit from Pebbles in my Pocket. But I did have to sand the blocks and paint them, and then I learned how to do modge podge to get the pieces of paper on. I feel like a child because I get so excited to turn the block over the next day.

Turkey Trot

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday!

Last year Joe and I ran the Turkey Trot in Cottonwood Heights with his family and this year we did it again. Joe beat us all. He has been training real hard.

I caught up to Cheri, but once she saw the finish line she took off running and left me in the dust
I'd like to think that I was so fast that Sam couldn't see me coming to take a picture from the front, the truth probably is I was so slow that they were bored from waiting and couldn't see me coming.

After the Turkey trot we headed down for dinner in P.G. with some of Joe's family. It was yummy. Then we went to dinner #2 at my friends Fairy's place.

The Richards family usually goes and sees at least one movie on Thanksgiving, and so to try to keep that tradition alive we went to a movie. I love Thanksgiving!!!
Once we got home I was able to decorate our house for Christmas!

I can't believe its been 6 months!

Yesterday Joe and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary! I think I can speak for the both of us when I say that the past 6 months have been the best time in our lives. I love you hunny! And I am so excited to share so many more anniversaries!

Daydreaming

So today in class all I can think about is.....

Maybe its because my brother and sister in law just got back from a 10 day cruise, or maybe its because school and work has been so stressful that I need a break, or maybe its because Joe has been studying so hard for the LSAT that I feel like he deserves a nice trip. I can dream can't I?

Body Worlds

I have been begging Joe to come with me to the Body Worlds exhibit. The reason why I was so excited to go was while I was at BYU I took the human dissection class. We would prepare the cadavers for the anatomy students so that they could learn from them. This was the most fascinating class I took while at BYU! I learned so much about the body, and it really strengthened my testimony of the gospel.

Everyone needs to go to this exhibit if you haven't already! We invited my parents to go, but they both laughed and refused. (they never enjoyed the conversations I would have with them when I would tell them after class what I got to dissect)

You don't need to know anything about the human body, it doesn't smell in there, it is just amazing. I would suggest getting the audio guide if you don't know much about the anatomy. Don't go on a Friday night, it is way to crowded, and hot.

I was a little sad because I have been researching body worlds before it was announced for them to come and the cadavers I wanted to see weren't in this exhibit, but they still had amazing ones. One of my favorites was the archer lady and the man they cut into 3 sagittal sections, it was crazy!

bodyworldsutah.com

Pumpkins

So on monday night Joe and I carved our Halloween pumpkins. Here is Joe hard at work.....



Here is Joes final product. He carved eyes for it too. It is some type of an animal, maybe a dragon?

Mine is just a classic puking pumpkin.

Halloween Time

So Joe and I have been looking forward to Halloween for a really long time! While I was visiting him in DC last year Joe came up with ideas for halloween costumes.

We were able to debut our costumes this past weekend at one of my life time best friends Catherine Wolfgramm party. It was also fun to go and see my sister and her "friend" Ben...we were able to have a few laughs with them. So in case you can't tell what we were dressed up as...
I was "Holy Cow" and Joe was "Bull Crap"

Joe could not help but play with the hilarious utters on my costume.

"Now that is bull crap"

What our baby would look like

Some of my friends have seen what their babies would look like through this web site and it got me wondering how we could do.
What do you think of "Peter"? I think he totally looks like Joe, with his hair, and smile, but he does have my nose.

MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

Blue Jean Baby?

So my sister just admitted to having 49 pairs of shoes. In her defense my brother not only worked at a shoe store for years, but he also bought a shoe store later on and our whole family became shoe collectors.
My addiction is Jeans. In my defense I work at Gap, and I have for the past 7 years, and so a majority of my jeans are Gap, and I receive an amazing discount. In all I have 33 jeans in my closet. I have to admit that some of them I have worn so much that they should be thrown out because of the holes in the crotch. but they do have some emotional value to me. The pair that I wore on my first date with joe has been repaired by my mom, and is wearing out again, but I can't throw those out!
I did not think that I had an unusual amount of jeans until one day I looked in my closet and said, "I have no jeans to wear!" and all Joe did was laugh. He thought I was kidding, but I was being serious. I did not have the right pair of jeans to go with the top that I wanted to wear.
So aside from being addicted to Dr. Pepper, I'm addicted to jeans. We all have our addictions

Multiple Guess

Sarah has been doing her nursing school for the past 3 1/2 months. She has been a dedicated nursing student. She will leave for school at least four hours before I even consider about waking up. She has been studying, reading, and memorizing so consistently even though she is still working a full-time-stress filled forty hour a week management-job. She has proven throughout this time that she is the smart kid in class. She proved it this past weekend as she finished her finals for her first semester. So although the final results are not known, we are pretty sure that she has all A's gracing her record.

She now has a nice 10 day break with her only responsibility being her full-time job. She is so excited because she now has a week where she has time to read a book that she wants to and go to the gym.

Saturday morning was a huge day for me (Joe-Sarah's husband-the reason she has a new last name-I know; I can't believe that I am blogging either). I took the LSAT. Some would have you believe that it stands for Law School Admitance Test. This is completely and utterly false. LSAT actually stands for Lowsy Saturday Afternoon Tradgedy.

I initially signed up to take the LSAT at UVU because I thought that this would bolster my confidence when I went there to take it. I would feel like a smart BYU grad coming down off of my hill of knowlege and spiritually centered learning to the reject school-I apologize to all of you wolverines out there, at least you aren't attending Paul Mitchell. Well my confidence was shot as soon as I started driving to the test. I was more nervous than a redneck guy on Jerry Springer waiting for a paternity test. I ended up bringing 7 pencils to the test as well as a pencil sharpener. I was a little paranoid about my pencils and having any of them fail me. Well after the test was over I realized that I could have used a pencil that was 2 centimeters long with a nub of an eraser left and bite marks and I would have been just fine.

I will not find out the results of my test for another two and a half weeks but I am pretty sure that I didn't rock my test as well as my dear wife did hers. But I just never know. Life is made up of uncertanties. Maybe I did all right. Maybe I got a score that will allow me to get into a top 10 law school. And maybe some student at Paul Mitchell could do better on the LSAT than I did.

The Best Calling ever!

So a few weeks ago Joe and I were called to be Nursery leaders in our ward. We love it, and for many reasons.

1. Puzzle time- They have some of the same puzzles that I did when I was a kid. Also I like playing puzzles with the kids. One boy is so smart that he did 2 puzzles at the same time. One little girl did the same puzzle over and over again for twenty minutes, she is a pro.

2. Treat time- Why don't they do this in Relief Society? I would probably be able to pay attention longer. We also have this lady we call Cookie Grandma and she comes in and gives the kids even more treats.

3. Play times- okay this is my favorite time in nursery! Joe was playing with his ecth a scetch when a little girl took it away from him and then sat on his lap and started to play with it. Also the same little girl really likes to play make believe and she is so lucky because joe and I are really good at that game. We are still amazing her with how we can eat imaginary food and all the sound effects that we can make up to go along with it.

4. Coloring time- Joe and I haven't lost our tallent, and we can still color in the lines. We just have to watch out for a little boy who thinks the crayons are food.

5. Clean up time- The reason why I like cleaning up is because all the little kids sit on the table and when we turn on the vaccum they scream until it stops. One little boy was brave and jumped off the table and ran to the corner of the room and yelled to the other kids that it was safe over there. Then the vaccum came his way and he booked it for the table. This makes us laugh every time

We seriously don't know what we did to get this calling, but it has so far been the best. All we do is laugh the whole time

Gas Prices

I'd like to think that the drop in gas prices has been to me!
I have to go up to draper 2 times a week for school and for 3 months I have been driving up there. I felt like our gas budget was out of control. So I looked into public transportation and for the past 2 weeks I have been riding the bus... I don't know if you have noticed the drop in gas prices since then but really I think I had something to do with it. Plus I would rather spend money on Dr. Pepper and clothes rather than gas. (I gave up Dr. Pepper for just over a week)

I kinda really like riding the bus, it gives me more time to study, and it gets me up earlier in the morning than I normally would. And sometimes the people on their can be pretty entertaining.

So next time you fill up at the pump and sigh a nice sigh because gas was cheaper than the last time you filled up think of me decreasing the demand.

New Family Tradition

Well today Joe and I went to his cousins baptism, and his aunt Joey told me that I needed to update our blog...Joe and I have a boring life right now all either of us have time to do is work and study, here is my best effort to update our blogs

So when John, (Joe's little brother) left on his mission in January we went to Tucanos on our way to the MTC and ate ourself sick. Tom leaves on his mission on Wednesday and he did not want to do the classic drop off at the MTC where you watch the video that pulls at your heart strings, instead he wants to be dropped off early in the day "on the curb" as he says. And he didn't want to make a big deal of him going away. So yesterday night we went with the Burley Boys to celebrate him going. When I go to Tucanos I like to know a day in advance so that I can prepare my body for the feast that will take place...well this time we got about a 2 hour prep time.

The waiter tried to be funny and tell us that they were out of pinapple! Thankfully they weren't and they just kept it coming our way. There is also something about the turkey bacon that I can't resist.

Any time anyone wants to go to Tucanos you can count on Joe and I to go with you!

Disneyland

We went on a quick trip to Disneyland with the Preston clan this week. We were able to spend all day in Disneyland for 2 days, and we really mean all day (7:30-close). There is something about that place that just makes me feel like a kid again. I for some reason love taking pictures with all the characters. My favorite was when we tried to take a picture with Sulie. Sulie did not want Joe in the picture and kept kicking him out of the shot, or stomping his feet at him, that is why Joe isn't in that one.

We were also in an Earthquake. I've never been in one, and Joe was a baby when he was in way so it was new to us. They had to get everyone off the rides, and out of buildings, so we sat around for about 3 hours on our second day.

We love Disneyland!

I'm giving up Dr. Pepper

A typical day for me usually involves lots and lots of Dr.Pepper. I love the 23 flavor! Recently I decided that it would be better for me to give it up for many reasons

• Cost-It doesn't fit real well into a newlyweds budget


• Health-I'm thinking it will be easier for me to excercise


• Teeth-I had a teacher once who said if you drank soda it was like you were coating your teeth with sugar, and sipping on it all day was only making in a constant coating.

I am happy to say that so far I have not had Dr. Pepper, Coke or any other like that for 5 days!

I have discovered that Crystal light and propel water is tasty!

Honeymoon pictures

We went to Puerto Vallarta on our honeymoon! We had so much fun sitting by the pool, or by the ocean. We were able to do a canopy tour where you zip-line from tree to tree. Getting up the mountain to zip line was half the fun because we drove ATV's. It was kinda scary because we started driving in the Mexican streets, and they don't use their turn signals, and nobody obeys any rules. While we were there we managed to find the LDS church! As we walked back to our hotel from church a family that was there saw us walking and asked if we wanted a ride, so we got in the back of their truck. They ended up inviting us to their house for dinner. So we went back to their place and played with their kids and visited.

I did not know that bull fights ended with the matador killing the bull with arrows and swords! All that I have seen in the movies was the matador waiving their red cape, and it just seemed like they were playing a game. So I asked Joe if we could go to the bull fight when I saw advertisements for it. He seemed kinda surprised and just told me that if I really wanted to go he would go. I was probably one of the only women in the arena. At first I was having fun watching the bull be tricked by the matador, but then they started throwing darts and swords at it, and basically tortured it to death. It was terrible!

We loved the hotel that we stayed at, and we are hoping that in 10 years we can go back for an anniversary.

Nursing School

Yesterday I started Nursing school! I've wanted to do this ever since High School, but I never did it. I got a Bachelors in Exercise Science at BYU which will really make my first semester at Nursing school a breeze because it is all review. In 18 months I will be an RN!

Joe and I have the worst luck with weather...the day we got engaged it rained which almost ruined Joe's engagement plans, it rained the day we took engagement pictures, it rained the day I took bridal pictures, and our wedding day as we were coming out of the temple buckets of rain came down. The advantage of all of this is we have pictures that we absolutely love because of the color overcast days bring.
Here are a few of our favorite pictures from the wedding day.