Ricks Adventures

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

I know, it's a day early, but we are so cool, we celebrated early. Actually, since Trevor is in boy scouts in our ward, he has an activity on Tuesday night so we had to change it up a little. But I'm so glad we did, because our day was so perfect!

For starters, we spent the day at the Art Institute of Chicago. They have free days for locals so we went downtown and spent a few hours with all the beautiful artwork. It was one of the coolest museums I have ever been to! It was HUGE and had so many cool exhibits from African and Asian art to Medieval armor to amazing furniture from all periods of American history--not to mention TONS of paintings that we both had learned about in school and never thought we'd get to see in real life. We are not usually artsy, museum-y type people, but we were both blown away with how cool it was.

An African headdress...I wonder how much this weighs?!

Full-body armor built for jousting competitions.

Georges Seurat--A Sunday on La Grande Jatte..This painting was enormous.

Grant Wood--American Gothic

Edward Hopper--Nighthawks...This one was a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

I loved this old couch. I totally wish craftsmanship had the same detail today. It was so pretty.

This was an original Tiffany lamp. It was my favorite thing in the whole museum. I read a book a while back about the designer of the lamps and how hard she worked for women in her factory back in the 1900s. It was cool to see that her name was by the lamp now, since she was never recognized for them in her day.

After the museum, we went out to dinner at a place right in the middle of the city. It was a nice little restaurant with amazing food and they let us sit upstairs so we could look out over some of the city and watch it snow. It was so pretty and we talked all night about how we couldn't believe that we are lucky enough to live in such a cool place and take advantage of all it has to offer (at least when it's free!)

This time in our marriage has been such a special one because even though we are busier than ever, we are the same kind of busy, so we get to do it together. We can study together and plan our time so that whenever we have free hours, we can spend them together. I am so grateful for the 9 months we have had here, and am so looking forward to what's coming up!

We're loving it

2012-02-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

For Christmas, we received so many WONDERFUL gifts from our families. We were totally spoiled! But one of the things we were totally not expecting was a double sleeping bag...that's right...a DOUBLE sleeping bag. Is is as big as our queen bed and the picture on the box shows an entire family in it. It was a little tricky flying home from Utah with it, but totally worth it.

A few weeks later, we realized we weren't going to get to use it until the next time we went camping (which is going to be a while) so Trevor suggested we just pull it out and sleep in it for a night. I laughed, but we threw it on the bed and it has stayed ever since. This thing is seriously amazing. It's super warm and fluffy so it's like sleeping inside a huge pillow.

At some point I know we are going to have to put it away, but the more we sleep in it, the more I want to put that day off.

Hibernating

2012-01-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

Winter has finally come to our little place. We had about 6 inches of snow last week, with a lot more on the way, and frigid temperatures for days on end. It's so beautiful here with all the snow, but all I want to do is cuddle up in a blanket with hot chocolate. So that's what we've been doing. We got this new blanket for Christmas (I had to steal the picture from Pottery Barn, but I wish we had a fireplace in the background at our house!) and have been fighting over it all weekend. I tell people it's my new best friend...and I think it really is.

In addition to snuggling, we have been cooking and cleaning up a storm. We cleaned all 750 square feet of apartment from top to bottom this weekend, dusting and vacuuming, organizing and throwing things away. I feel like we have so much more space now, but I think it's just because I can see our desk again. As far as the cooking goes, Pinterest and I have set out to show Trevor what a great thing my little time waster can be. I found tons of new recipes and made things like lemon crinkle cookies (Trevor's new favorite), homemade honey bread, and baked egg cups (I think those need a new name). I didn't take any pictures, but the egg cups need a description, so here is the one from Pinterest. I was pretty proud because mine looked just like them.

In the end, we had a pretty good weekend just hibernating in our home. Luckily we have some good friends who pulled us out each night for either games or crafts, and we went to a dance for my school on Friday! Complete with a four-course dinner.

Here's to a few more months of happily staying inside where it's warm...and maybe gaining 10 pounds thanks to Pinterest.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas! We definitely did here in Utah. We were able to visit so much family and even Skype with our missionary brother. It has been an uplifting and peaceful weekend.

Enjoy this video, it brings a special spirit to my heart.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Trevor's Birthday

2011-12-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

Hello All. This is Trevor. In celebration of my birthday, Melissa and I took a trip to Mecca, I mean Moline, IL. What is in Moline (pronounced mo-lean) you may ask? For your information, Moline houses the world headquarters of John Deere Co.

As some of you may know, I have a bit of an obsession with all things John Deere. I think it derives from spending a lot of time at Ricks Farms in Idaho with my cousin Rhett, and our awesome John Deere lawnmowers growing up. I have a thing for green! We are a John Deere family, what can I say?

Anyway, Melissa had been trying all week to not schedule anything on Saturday. That sneaky girl was trying to keep secrets from me. She kept waiting for me to ask what we had going on on that day, because the plan all along was to invent a story about how we were going to go a friend's house, and planning something with them... but I'm too smart for that.

On Friday, we were talking about our weekend plans, and our Saturday schedule came up. All Melissa could think of was to say we're going on an "adventure". I grunted at this and went in the other room. All of a sudden it came to me– I ran back into the other room and said, "Are we going to the John Deere store?! In Moline?!" Then Melissa got a pouty face on, and denied it. After a second though, she gave in! "Woo hoo!" I screamed.

Melissa was a little bummed that I had figured out her surprise so quickly. However, I think in the end she was satisfied with the excitement that surrounded me as the time to drive to Moline approached. After a relatively quick 2-1/2 hour drive, and one stop in at Culver's in Peru, IL, we arrived.

This place is called the John Deere Pavilion (as you can see from the picture). Inside they have a timeline of John Deere, as well as some smaller machines.

The real kicker though was the presentation inside. For the month of December, John Deere had teamed up with a bunch of local grocery stores to do a canned food drive for the local homeless shelter. As part of the "promotion", they built this.

	All made out of cans...

This is a to-scale John Deere combine made completely out of cans.

The green parts are in fact, predominantly Popeye's spinach! Also, if you look really close at some of the above pictures, you can see that the ground is covered in kidney and pinto beans, to create that "dirt" effect.

After wandering around the museum for a while, we went over to the conveniently placed John Deere gift shop where I promptly acquired a book. No no, not for reading– it's a picture book of old John Deere tractors starting with the very first Waterloo Boy. It is now sitting on our makeshift coffee table in our living room for all to see. I love it!

After we snapped a few more pictures at the museum, we headed off to JDHQ. We didn't really know what to expect, what with just showing up to the building an all, but we followed the signs for visitors and ended up in the right spot. The first thing that amazed us was the amount of geese in front of the building (which was massive by the way). There is a large pond where there were some fountains and things, but most impressive was the amount of geese. I would say conservatively 500-1000 geese populated this pond. We were greeted by the honk of these guys as we opened the door to get out.

Once you get inside, the doors, you cross a walkway and this is what you see:

Awesome awesome awesome. Check out some of these:

Below: This is Melissa next to a tire of a 9600 series center pivot tractor. My whole life I have called these fat tractors.

Above: this is what I'm going to buy and use to farm my 10 acres that I'm going to buy when I retire.

Ending on my favorite tractor. The John Deere model "A". What a beast!

All in all, this was one of the best birthdays I have ever had! Thank you so much to my dear sweet wife for coming up with something so creative and so PERFECT for my birthday. I love you!

Give Me A Break

2011-12-08T16:55:00.000-07:00

So, I finished my finals, and I got a week off from school! Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying school, but it was so WONDERFUL to have a week with no studying or tests. Since our breaks don't come very often, we decided to live it up. First on the list...a big time hair cut. It had been almost a year since my last one and I was getting way too many comments on how long my hair was. So I decided to go for it and went from this...

to this!

It took me a while to get used to it, but it's finally growing on me. I was able to donate 11 inches, which was pretty cool, and now it only takes 3 minutes to dry every morning!

.............................................................

Next on the list was a Christmas festival in downtown Chicago. They had a huge parade where Minnie and Mickey Mouse led the way, lighting the street as they went. It was so fun to go with some of our good friends and spend some time in the city sight-seeing and shopping.

Janelle had the idea that we should switch cameras and take as many pictures as we could, so these are all pictures they took for us. It was such a fun idea because we were constantly trying to find fun places to take pictures of them and catch them when they weren't paying attention.

..........................................................

Later in the week, we went to Indiana to see my family for Thanksgiving. I was so bummed because we forgot to take pictures while we were there, but we did some great things. We had tons of good food, saw all of my family and even went to the Oakenbucket football game (IU vs. Purdue). My dad went to IU and my step-mom went to Purdue, so we were a pretty split family with some good trash talking. Purdue ended up winning the game, as expected, and the rain held off until we started driving home.

We had such a great week, and now I'm back in a new quarter while Trevor is finishing his last final today. We are so lucky to be living in such a great place with so many wonderful friends!

Happy November!

2011-11-07T20:19:00.001-07:00

Is it really November already? I can't believe it! In two weeks, I will be half way through with my first year of PA school...which means half way done with sitting in long classes and taking 2 or 3 tests a week. It's been CRAZY, and so busy, but I've learned so so much and I love it. This is totally the right thing for me, and I'm so glad we took the leap of faith to pick up our lives and trek out here. I'm especially grateful for my sweet husband who supports me in everything and is totally my rock out here. He has prevented quite a few break downs (or at least scooped out the make-me-feel-better-ice cream afterwards). He is truly amazing and I am so lucky to share this time with him.

But I just wanted to take a minute to bring the blog up to speed. Here's what we've been up to...

I spend most of my days like this...sleeping...I mean, studying. :-)

Trevor is now the assistant scout master in our ward and he is LOVING it! He has such a blast with the boys, and they all love him (how could they not?). But on his first camp-out a couple weeks ago, he tripped while playing capture the flag and jammed his finger pretty bad. Luckily we are in a ward full of medical and physical therapy students who had lots of tips on how to make it better. It's still pretty sore and swollen, but not nearly as bad as it was.

Last, but not least, we went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat. We dressed up as BYU freshman complete with backpack and class schedule (Marriage Prep and American Heritage anyone?) and had so much fun! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween, too. :-)

White Coat Ceremony

2011-10-05T18:05:00.000-06:00

Last Friday we had our school white coat ceremony. Most medical schools have white coat ceremonies as an introduction to medical school, but since Midwestern is entirely a health profession graduate school, they extend the ceremony to all first year students...med students, PAs, dentists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and pharmacists. We had it at a convention center in Chicago, and then went out to dinner with my class afterward. My dad came up from Indianapolis for the ceremony so we got to spend a couple of days together. It was also his birthday on Friday and mine was Sunday so we had a birthday dinner the night before the ceremony. It was a great weekend!

Flew Right By

2011-09-06T22:09:00.000-06:00

That's right...our summer flew right past us. Not to say that we didn't enjoy it, because we totally did. We had some great times checking out our new Chicago town. We:

checked out some classics at the car show our neighborhood has EVERY FRIDAY (not that we went every Friday)
bought some beautiful flowers and not-so-great vegetables at the farmer's market (again a weekly occurrence)
hosted my wonderful mom for a wonderful week

saw Yo Yo Ma play in the park
spent some quality time at the pool
learned history of Chi-town on a water boat architecture tour
played for HOURS at the Museum of Science and Industry (then crashed watching movies all night)
studied lots of anatomy

found some great friends
made some great food (I fried doughnuts for the first time)
caught some BIG fish (they get bigger every time I ask)
saw West Side Story...unfortunately not as good as the movie

Not Lost

2011-08-07T19:23:00.001-06:00

Contrary to popular belief, we are not lost...or dead! Just buried under piles of books and notes. Also drowning in rain and humidity! This has been the wettest summer in Chicago history, and I am loving it because the lightening storms every night are like nothing I've ever seen before. We tried to take a video, but we just can't do it justice. It's incredible. Anyway, just thought I'd say hi. It's only 2 weeks until finals and I am starting to see the light--but then I remember it's only 10 days of light. Ha ha! But in all seriousness, we love it here and life is crazier than ever. Have a great week!

At a Yo-Yo Ma concert in the park...we are so cultured...and Trevor was the only boy.

Anniversary

2011-06-28T20:29:00.000-06:00

Last Monday was our 3rd anniversary. We knew we wouldn't have time to celebrate on Monday because of my studies, so we decided to do it on Saturday, instead. We were so excited to go to the Chicago temple and we knew this would be the perfect time to go. We drove out there in the early afternoon (it was only about 25 minutes) and spent a couple of wonderful hours there. It is a small temple, but it's so beautiful. There are sky lights all around the building and a beautiful entry way with trees inside. There was also a really cool fountain outside.

Here we are in front of the entrance to the temple.

This is the street side of the temple.

Here is the awesome fountain in front of the entrance.

After the temple we went to Bucca di Beppo for dinner. We got way too much food, but that meant we had dinner for the next couple of nights too! Ha ha We didn't get any pictures at dinner, though.

All in all it was a wonderful anniversary. We were so excited to get to spend it in our new home with each other.

Just for fun, I thought I'd add some pictures from the last 3 years...

First Day of PA

2011-06-13T13:47:00.002-06:00

So, today is Melissa's first day of official classes at Midwestern University. This is a dream that she's had for a long long time and we are so happy to finally be making it real. Needless to say, she's a little bit nervous, so we decided to take some pictures. The one on top is the official first day of school picture. This next one is how she is really feeling on the inside...

As I said, nervous. Either way, she will be a fantastic student. Her biggest obstacle is a 7 credit Anatomy class, complete with cadaver lab. We understand that it is going to take over her life. Either way, we are praying for her to do her best, and for me to be able to occupy my time... because I will NOT see her for the next 10 weeks-ish. :-(

That said, I thought I should include some pictures that we took over the past few weeks, from a few of the places we've been before and after we left Utah.

Thank you Photoshop...

Elder Jameson Ricks, Missionary in Dallas, TX

Wyoming...

Nebraska- best gas milage I have ever gotten in my car... 32. Thank you flatness.

You wouldn't think, but this was at a gas station.

Lake Michigan and Navy Pier

In Indianapolis... delicious bass. Must have been a lucky Jimmer shirt day.

As a parting shot, this is our old house that we will miss dearly. We took this picture as we were walking away for the last time. We will miss you American Fork!

We Did It

2011-06-10T11:13:00.001-06:00

We packed up everything we own, shoved it into a little moving truck, drove for 3 days and arrived in Chicago. We now live in a little suburb called Downers Grove. It's so pretty here! There are huge trees lining every street, the houses are all beautiful, and it's so green (partly because of the HUGE rain storm we got that knocked power out of my entire campus on the second day). We are pretty homesick, but so far we are loving it. We get to go to church for the first time this Sunday, so we'll meet our new ward members and we are going to a picnic tonight for my class, so I can get to know them better. We've explored downtown Chicago once already, but we are going to do some great window shopping tomorrow and drool over all the things we can't afford. I'm sure there are many more adventures to come, but for now...Hello from Chi-town!

Here we are in front of the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park...better known as the "Bean."

Bittersweet Day

2011-05-01T17:44:00.000-06:00

Today was our last Sunday in our ward before we move. Because we don't actually move until the end of the month, we thought we still had plenty of time. But yesterday we did our monthly scheduling and realized we are going to be gone the next 3 Sundays. So we went today totally unprepared to say goodbye to everyone. However, it was the perfect meeting. We were able to bear our testimonies with those that we love and to hear testimonies that strengthened our own. Trevor got to teach his class for the last time, and the closing hymn of Sacrament was actually "God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again." There may or may not have been a couple of tears shed by each of us.
As we gear up to move across the country, away from friends and most of our family, we are excited and sad all at the same time. We will miss so many people that we have known and loved--some since grade school and others not as long. We will miss our little apartment--the place we started our marriage. And last, we will miss the things we love about Utah in general: skiing, the influence of the Church all around us, BYU, and mountains. But we are so excited to have a new adventure. We're ready to try something new, make more friends and figure out what we are capable of outside our comfort zone.
Chicago...here we come.

Happy Easter

2011-04-22T21:29:00.000-06:00

I found this video today and I think it is perfect for this season. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend remembering Christ and all He has done for us.

New furniture

2011-03-13T21:35:00.000-06:00

Lately, I've been needing some projects to keep me occupied while Trevor studies, so I've been working on some furniture. When we moved in, my mom gave us the dining room table and chairs that I grew up with. I love that table, but the chairs were in need of some new cushions. They were stained and the fabric was pretty yucky. See what I mean?

For a while I went back and forth about painting all the chairs, but I ended up leaving them the way they were and just changing the cushions. I LOVE the new fabric, but I'm bummed that we can't take the set with us to Chicago. So now, they are just better looking for someone else. (Anyone want to buy a new table and chairs? hee hee)

My next project was the best DI find I've ever had. I found this great little side table for $15. It was in pretty bad shape and the top of it was really ugly. It was glass with a wood border, but it had a hole in the middle so a lamp could go through it.

Making a new top for it and some good paint made all the difference. I love it now, and it's so nice to have a table in our living room!

Stressed

2011-02-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

So, I think I've been a little stressed lately, because my mind has been overreacting a little. For instance, this is what happened at our home today. Trevor left for work and I got in the shower. When I got out, I had a text from him saying, "Hey, call me quick." Naturally, I called him, but there was no response. It had been about 10 minutes since he sent the text, so I sent him a quick text asking if everything was ok. No response. Cell phones aren't allowed at his work, so I thought maybe he was just talking to his boss and couldn't call me back. But as the minutes went by, I started wondering if maybe he was in an accident on his way to work. Maybe he was in the ambulance and couldn't answer. I called again and still no answer. Finally my theories escalated to the fact that he was quite possibly kidnapped and is now being held hostage. Don't judge...I've been exaggerating a lot lately. By the time I was almost convinced that he was kidnapped, I called his office phone and sure enough he answered. He told me that he forgot he had texted me and left his phone in the other room. He made a new phone ring and wanted to see if it was working, so he thought I should call him to try it out. I instantly started crying and he started laughing. He did apologize and told me that he should have explained the reason I needed to call, but now I just feel silly. Please tell me these things happen to other people and that I'm not going insane!! :)

Another Winter Photo-op

2011-02-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

For Christmas we got new snow shoes. I think my grandparents figured we couldn't ski in Chicago, but we'd still love to be out in the snow, so they were perfect. We haven't been able to use them a ton, yet, but we got to do it this morning. We drove up to Tibble Fork Reservoir in American Fork Canyon and went on a hike for a couple of hours. It was pretty cold when we started and the sun wasn't quite up, yet. But by the time we came back down (the trail went straight up hill and then straight back down again), the sun was shining and it was beautiful. We couldn't resist taking lots and lots of pictures because the landscape was incredible. Tibble Fork is one of our favorite places and definitely one we will miss.

Ice Fishing Extravaganza

2011-02-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

That's right, I went ice fishing. After years of Trevor telling me how cool it is and telling me that some day he will get me out there, I finally held in my excuses and went for it. I was expecting to be sitting in the dark, freezing and hovering over a little hole. It was totally different! The sun was shining (because I slept in a little), we were warm in 3 layers of pants and tops, we had our little propane heater, and I decided that looking through a huge hole in the ice that I helped cut was pretty cool. I did freak out when I realized I was just standing on ice. Everything was covered in snow, so I couldn't tell at first. But we found one spot without snow and it was a little unnerving. Once we cut the hole and I could see how thick it was, I was ok. We didn't end up catching anything, and Trevor was pretty bummed, but all in all it was a very successful first trip. The biggest thing that surprised me was how many people there were! It was like a Cabela's heaven. Everyone had on cammo and Carharrt. I felt a little out of place in just my ski pants. But I went, and I loved it, and I will definitely go again...and catch something this time.

Our Vision...

2011-01-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the eye doctor. For Trevor, this is a yearly event. But I hadn't seen an eye doctor since the 5th grade so I didn't really know what to do. But they asked us the typical questions, "Does 1 look better, or 2? Which one is clearer, the red side or green? Which line can you read?" All in all, Trevor did great, except that his eyes have gotten a little worse (He's in the 7s now). For me, I couldn't stop laughing and tearing up because I am totally not used to having drops or bright lights in my eyes. By the end, the doctor was laughing, too. The best part came on the ride home. Our eyes were dilated and we couldn't read anything. My eye lids couldn't stay open because the doctor had to numb them so he could get the drops in. We couldn't read text messages, Trevor's prescription, or our receipt after getting milkshakes. We were laughing so hard because we could see ourselves fifty years from now in the same predicament. We kept holding everything at arm's length and squinting, then just cracking up.

In the end, the best part was getting stylish souvenir glasses! ;-)

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. We were able to spend a lot of time with both our families this year which meant lots of fun and lots of driving. Between skiing, family dinners, opening presents and playing games, we were also able to spend a lot of time focusing on the true meaning of Christmas--our Savior, Jesus Christ. We have been so blessed this year and it was nice to spend time remembering who those blessings come from. One of the highlights from this Christmas was getting to go to Temple Square to see all the lights on the night before Christmas Eve. We went with my brother and Trevor's cousin and saw all that Temple Square had to offer. Since this will be our last year to live here for a while, we wanted to be sure that we got there before the holidays ended.

My favorite things

2010-12-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

Living in an old house with no central air and not enough heat to open the windows in the winter, things can get a little stuffy in our home. So on the days when I am lucky enough to have a wonderful husband who makes me french toast and bacon (YUM!) for breakfast, I am so glad to have this little guy around.

This way, instead of smelling bacon for the next couple days (which has been known to happen), our house smells like hot wassail. Yummy, yummy apples, oranges, cinnamon and cloves. Yes, I love it. Also, I fell in love today with a baked macaroni and cheese recipe. Why? Because Trevor won't eat macaroni and cheese, but he will now eat this. So as of dinner tonight, my tummy is full and my heart is happy because macaroni and cheese is one of my very favorite foods. :)

6 months

2010-12-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

Six months from today, our lives will change forever. We will be living in a new apartment in Chicago and I will be sitting in my first class as a PA student. I found out a few weeks ago that I was accepted to Midwestern University as a PA student...something I have always wanted to hear. I applied for schools a little earlier than we planned, because I didn't think I would get in the first time, so when I did I was a little caught off guard. Suddenly, I didn't know if I should accept or not. There were still schools I hadn't heard back from (and still haven't), we didn't know what Trevor would do, we didn't know how expensive it would be to live in a big city. But after about a month of thinking, planning, searching online, praying, fasting and asking advice from anyone who wanted (or didn't want) to give it, we decided to jump in with both feet. I signed the matriculation agreement, Trevor is transferring to the University of Illinois for his last year, and we are going for it. Wish us luck!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-29T22:29:00.000-07:00

Trevor and I usually go to Indiana for Thanksgiving. We love spending time there and love seeing family, but I had to work a lot this Thanksgiving weekend so we weren't able to go. Instead, we stayed with my mom for 3 days feasting and shopping. We baked most of the night Wednesday and all day Thursday (which ended up being a TON of food for just 5 people). We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and reminisced about the year we got to watch it in person from a window in a tall New York City building. The food was finally ready and we stuffed ourselves with turkey, potatoes, veggies, and pie. At about 9 we all passed out so that I could be at work by midnight while Trevor and my mom hit up Walmart Black Friday deals. Most of Friday was spent shopping at the outlets and catch a movie.

This isn't really a picture from Thanksgiving, but we took this one a week before because Nate and Anjanette moved to Colorado with their cute little girls.

Trevor's big adventure wasn't until Saturday, though. While I spent the day taking care of sick patients, he went to Wyoming with his brothers and some in-laws to bring home our perfect Chrsitmas tree. After getting 2 cars and a trailer stuck in the snow, they finally got on their way and went out to find their prizes.

The Ricks boys waiting to cut down their trees

Our tree took a little primping, but it looks great and smells fantastic. We had a wonderful weekend and are so excited for the Christmas season!

Our tree, up and decorated

You are a Ricks...is that like Ricks College?

2010-11-23T10:36:00.002-07:00

Trevor and I had a 4 day weekend last week so we went home to the mother land. We drove to Rexburg Thursday night to spend our break with Spencer (Trevor's brother) and his wife Jocey. We got there late that night and then stayed up even later. We had 4 awesome days of good food, good company and relaxation. We also got to go see Mandy (Trevor's sister) and her husband, Durk, on Friday morning before they left town for the holiday. Thanks so much for letting us come party with you guys! We miss you already!

Chicago is...my kind of town

2010-11-08T21:46:00.003-07:00

This weekend I spent 4 days in Chicago. I had my first PA school interview at Midwestern University (a small medical-based graduate school). I flew in late Thursday night (after almost a 2 hour layover in Denver). My dad and little sister, Hailey, drove up from Indianapolis to spend the weekend with me, so they picked me up and we drove to Midwestern. Friday, my interview took up most of the day. We sat in on a pharmacology class, learned about the program, met students and went on a tour of campus, and had an interview with a member of the administration. I really enjoyed the school and feel like my interview went well. I also found out this week that I have another one at Wake Forest in January and hopefully others to come in the next couple weeks.

There were geese all over the campus! It was so funny and the students said they couldn't get rid of them.

This is the skyline of Chicago. Driving into the city was so slow, so I could take lots of pictures while I was going 2 miles per hour.

After getting to the city, we went to a great dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. The best part was a huge chocolate cake with a sparkler in the top called the VOLCANO!

Saturday was shopping day! We started at the John Hancock Building so we could see the whole city from above, then went to all the high end stores we could find so we could look at the over priced dresses, shoes, purses, make-up, and jackets. We treated ourselves to some of the lesser-priced items and saw Romeo and Juliet.

Pretending to wash windows at the John Hancock Building 92 stories above the city.

Sunday we parted ways so I could fly back to the snow! All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. Thanks, Dad!

**Updates on PA schools will come as I find out.**

Halloween

2010-10-29T21:18:00.004-06:00

We had a great Halloween this year. We decorated the house with some fun pumpkins and fall leaves, made lots of amazing pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes and went to a Halloween party for our ward. We dressed up as 80's skiiers and had such a party with good food and friends. Thanks, Mom, for the old ski suits!!

Happy Halloween!! See you on the slopes!!

2010-08-19T21:35:00.007-06:00

It's official...I'm a terrible blogger. I read everyone else's all the time, but somehow can't seem to find the time to post on my own. This past two months have been filled with craziness, though! We have been to Indiana and Idaho. We have had family parties, two weddings (one is still in progress and happens next Friday), and two pregnancies (my cousin and my sister-in-law!). I have taken the GRE for graduate school, finished my statistics test (almost) and my PA school applications are officially due next week. Trevor has been fishing and working like a mad man and we have officially finished all the home projects! Every room and baseboard is painted to perfection, every light switch and socket is new, our radiator is no longer bright gold and our walls do not have any more holes. This summer has been such a party and such a whirl-wind. We are so ready so settle into a pattern this fall and gear up for everything that it has to offer. Until then, here are some pictures to show all that has been happening as of late.

At the Art Museum with my family in Indianapolis

Freedom Festival in Provo for the 4th of July

Spencer and Jocelyn's Wedding...we set them up on a blind date a year ago!

At the temple for Spencer and Jocey

Victory ice cream (Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey) for taking the GRE!

Happy Anniversary!

2010-06-22T12:37:00.004-06:00

This past Sunday was our second anniversary. To most of you who read my blog (If there is anyone!), 2 years probably seems so short. I remember thinking when we got married, though, that being married for one year seemed like such a long time away and now we have doubled that. We wanted to celebrate and go somewhere fun. Luckily I had a 4 day weekend coming up and Trevor's boss went out of town so we both ended up with Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday open for whatever we could think of. My grandparents own the greatest house in Deer Valley that they live in about 6 months of the year and rent the rest of the time. One phone call and the promise to bring up all the deck furniture for them secured us a weekend stay in the mountains.

A couple of our big plans included riding the Alpine Slide (a toboggan slide that runs down one of the ski runs at Park City Mountain Resort) and to hike up to the top of the ski resort where we got engaged. We decided to mesh them together, so Friday we bought our tickets and rode the chair lift up to the top of the slide run. We then hiked the rest of the way to McConkey's bowl. It took about an hour and a half and would have been a little longer, but we hit snow and couldn't go any farther on the trail so we decided we were close enough, took some pictures and walked back down. When we got back to the chair lift we collected our toboggans and raced down the slide.

In the winter, these red bars are a little shorter than waist-height. I don't think I ever realized how much snow there is!

The lower parts of the mountains were beautiful and green, but the higher parts were still either pretty muddy or pretty snowy... The highest peak in the picture above is where we got engaged. The picture below is the Alpine Slide. They have 4 tracks so it is really fun to race other people as you come down.

The next night we went to dinner on Main Street. The Park City paper prints 2 for 1 coupons all summer long for tons of restaurants up there so we cut out a bunch of them and walked around until we found one we hadn't tried before. It was delicious and so fun to be on Main Street for the night. We also saw street performers dancing to Michael Jackson and couldn't resist taking some pictures. We loved our weekend and feel so lucky to have been married for two years and look forward to all that is ahead.

Trevor the Fishing Machine

2010-06-21T18:16:00.003-06:00

Hey. For once this is Trevor. It's going to surprise Melissa big time when she sees that I actually posted a blog. Anyway, I think I'll keep it relatively short, but I will post a tidbit from the email I sent Melissa concerning the most epic fish I've ever caught in my life... okay not really. But I still think I'm pretty cool. The email reads:

Hi Sweetheart!

So here's the thing, I was using my usual lure, and I was casting it out and reeling it back in (As a side note the fishing was really slow this morning). So I was kinda hanging out, not trying too hard, and all of a sudden I was reeling in a fish. I was like "Cool! I didn't even feel him hit my lure!" So I reeled him in, and I was watching my lure come out of the water- attached to some other fishing line. I thought "What the heck?" My first idea was that my lure somehow slid up the line. As I kept reeling in, I saw a fish attached to the end of the line- just as I had suspected. Upon further inspection, I found that someone else had broken (or cut off for whatever reason) their line, and left the bait, hook and sinker on the end. The only thing I can figure is that the fish saw the bait on the bottom of the lake, ate it, and continued swimming with this line and sinker hanging out of his mouth. Now how did I catch him? I think my lure snagged the line that was sticking out of his mouth, and slid along it until it hit the sinker. Boom, just like that, fish on.

I told ya you wouldn't believe it.

So, that proves it. Here is some photo documentation. Pay no attention to the size of the fish- it's a camera angle thing that's not the important part of the story anyway...

Jamie's Graduation

2010-06-01T13:39:00.006-06:00

Last Thursday we got to go to the Mariott Center at BYU and watch Trevor's little brother, Jamie, graduate from PG High School. It was fun to watch him graduate and spend the day with the family enjoying each other's company and good food afterwards at Los Hermanos. We were sure the give the waiter a hard time, but he was funny and sent us home with a whole to go box of extra chips and salsa! Here are some pictures from the day. We're so proud of you, Jamie!

This was the face he made when he realized his diploma wasn't actually in there!

Poppy and Jean got to come, and so did Mandy and Durk. They are getting married at the end of August!

Inspiration

2010-05-20T13:39:00.002-06:00

I woke up on Tuesday with a terribly sore throat. I knew it had been a long-time coming since my sweet husband has been so sick for a week with a temperature, sore throat and headache. Over the next couple days my sore throat quickly developed into a full throttle cold. It is not the same thing Trevor had, and quite disgusting if I might say so. I have gone through boxes of Sudafed, Nyquil and am now on to Dayquil. I went to the store today to purchase 3 boxes of tissues and more medicine with my raw red nose and manly sounding voice. I fell into my LoveSac, slept for hours and woke up feeling quite sorry for myself. To pass the time that I should have been working on my on-line statistics class, I read some of my favorite blogs and stumbled upon a new inspiration. Her name is Stephanie. She and her husband were in a plane crash years ago and her body was badly burned. I have seen her before on the Today Show and other programs, but to read her words was different. She approaches the hard things in life with a smile and simply asks for prayers. She shares the gospel through her blog and trials in ways I wish I had the courage to do. It helped me know that I can do the easy things like statistics (once I finish my post ;-) ) and that I can even endure the hard things like migraines that cause my whole body to tremble. It was a great blessing today and one that I needed O so badly.

Watch her story here.

Going the Distance

2010-02-26T11:52:00.002-07:00

Last night at Girl's Night Out for our ward, I was asked to be a running buddy. At first I thought that would be so fun! Motivation to exercise, company while working out, getting to know a friend better. Then I found out we'd be training for a half marathon. Wow. I've always wanted to do one, but have never had the drive to actually train. Without even a moment of hesitation I told Amy I'd love to train with her. Her response was, "Well, I want you to really think about it and be sure." Boy was that ever good advice.
In order to think about it, I decided to go for a run and see how my body felt. I go to the gym pretty regularly, but I don't run regularly and it sure was a change. I was surprised at how quickly my legs got tired but excited that my lungs were plugging along great. In the end, I decided I'm going to go for it. It will take a lot of dedication and self control on my part, but I'm excited to check this off my list of things I want to accomplish. Thanks Amy!

Last weekend

2010-02-20T10:05:00.006-07:00

So, we didn't end up doing anything too fantastic for Valentine's Day, but we still had a wonderful weekend. My dad brought my little brother, Hank, out for a 5 day visit. They came in on Friday and stayed until Tuesday. We skied a couple days through blizzards and amazing powder, ate at some great places, swam at their hotel pool, went to church, and watched plenty of Olympic events. All in all, it was such a party weekend and we were so sad to see them go back to Indiana until next year. Needless to say, we are already looking forward to our visit at their house during the summer. Thanks for a great weekend!

Happy (Almost) Valentines Day

2010-02-11T21:35:00.004-07:00

I was with a good friend this last week while she was working in the locker room at the gym at BYU. Every time someone came in to get a wrist band (a must-do if you are going to work out on campus), she asked them what their Valentine's Day plans were. Some groaned; others were really excited. One girl had 13 things she and her family have done ever since she was little from pink heart-shaped pancakes to singing songs that were special to them. Another girl I know gets a new pair of red or pink shoes every year from her parents (wouldn't that be great!) Usually we don't plan anything big, but this year it's all going to change. I've been inspired to make our celebration something special. My dad is coming from Indiana tomorrow with my little brother, Hank. They are staying for 5 days and so will be celebrating the day of love with us in our little house. I'm not sure what to plan, yet, but I'm excited to have something cooked up for us all to enjoy. So far, I know it's going to include good food, making Valentines for each other, and a video chat with everyone else still freezing in Indiana (they have had way more snow and cold than we have in the last couple weeks).

So, while we are enjoying our holiday, I hope you will be, too!

My New Job

2010-02-02T13:57:00.005-07:00

I started my new job about a month ago. I work here at the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. It's a huge hospital that has only been open for 2 years and I work on the 11th floor in the Surgical/Trauma unit.

After looking for a job for so long, I'm so excited that I finally have one that I love! I keep getting asked what I like about it, so I started making a mental list of all the things I get excited about each day. Here is my list:

~I really enjoy doing 12 hour shifts. I thought it would be really hard, at first, but we are so busy that our days go by really quickly and I'm able to put a lot of hours in so I only have to work 3 days a week.

~I am so grateful to have health benefits, especially with a company like Intermountain Health Care. After having BYU health insurance for so long, paying so much, and not getting very good coverage it is such a relief to have good coverage come along with my job.

~I love wearing scrubs all day.

~I love meeting all the patients we get to take care of. On our floor we have a huge variety of people because of the nature of our care. We only have each patient for an average of 2-3 days, so we are constantly meeting new people who are usually fun to talk to and I get to learn a lot of new things from them.

~I am able to spend so much time with Trevor on my days off. We go to the gym together, he helps me with some of my crafts, we go to the temple together and I can even go to school with him on his shorter days so that I can work on my on-line Statistics class while he is studying. It's so great to have all this time together now, because I know it will change once he graduates and starts working full-time in a career.

~I can do on-line classes and study for the GRE so I can prepare for PA school.

~I am getting a ton of great experience and being exposed to so many things in the health field.

Picture Update

2010-01-25T22:51:00.005-07:00

This is the before picture. Our camera didn't quite do it justice, though. You can't see the black goo stuck to the wall behind the stove, you can't see the white patches all over the walls covering holes from the last 3 people who lived here, and you can't tell quite how yellow it really was. It was pretty awful.

These pictures are attempt number 2 (we didn't take any of attempt number 1). This is the mint ice cream look that our kitchen sported for about 1 and a half months. It would have been a great color for a bathroom or a little kid's room but for a kitchen (especially with our cabinets) it was just a little too much.

These are the after pictures. We love the way it looks and we actually get really excited just to eat dinner each night in the kitchen. Mostly this is because we didn't want to have to put everything away twice so we just left a lot of stuff out on our table between the green and brown stages so we didn't have a table to eat at for about a month and a half. Needless to say, we are stoked. :-)

Mission Accomplished

2010-01-20T12:50:00.002-07:00

We finished our kitchen, FINALLY, and we love it! I've had so much free time lately with my new job that I actually painted the whole thing by myself. Trevor helped me tape it all off the night before (It was a big sacrifice because he hates taping more than anything else), and then I stayed home while he went to school. He came home and it was all done. He did help me do a little bit of touch up painting and new caulking around our counters, but I'm pretty proud of myself for doing it. Painting an entire room by myself is something I would never have done 2 years ago. I just didn't think I was capable of things like that. But I've done a lot of things I never thought I could do since we've gotten married (one more reason I love my husband--his favorite quote right now is "You could totally make/do that").

I was bored last week, too, and had an old stencil from a past project that I thought would look cool painted on a wall. So I got a great sponge and spruced up our bathroom a little, too. I've been having troubles getting the pictures off of my new camera, but as soon as I figure it out, pictures will follow!

The Kitchen Makeover Experience

2009-12-30T11:54:00.008-07:00

We've been talking about re-doing our kitchen for about a year, now. The people who lived here before us painted it yellow and glued wallpaper to the wall behind the stove (not with wallpaper glue but glue glue). We peeled all the paper off and found black goo stuck to the wall that we couldn't get off. So for Thanksgiving, we geared ourselves up to paint.
We've become painting experts while living here. So far we've done our bedroom, office, closets and bathroom. We figured the kitchen would just be another day project. Boy, were we wrong! To cover the yellow we went with a sage green. Let's just say it came out looking more like lime sherbet. Try number 2: mint ice cream! We were so disappointed. However, the weekend break was over and finals were in full swing so we gave up and put our kitchen back together for a month. Well, yesterday we FINALLY got to tile! I learned how to cut tile, lay tile, and grout it all by myself. Together we got the whole thing done in about 6 hours. I love it. Here are some step-by-step pictures of our fun time.

Hopefully, we can figure out a good color to paint the walls next week and I can finish that while Trevor is back in school. Look for updates!

Tis The Season

2009-12-06T21:23:00.010-07:00

I absolutely LOVE the holiday season! Fall is my favorite part of the year, followed closely by winter. Plus, all my favorite holidays come right then: my birthday, Trevor's birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas. What's not to love, right? So we are trying to live it up as much as possible. Here are some of the fun things we've been up to:

We bundled up at 2:00 in the morning to watch a meteor shower. I think we missed peak watching hours, but it was a lot of fun. The picture isn't very good, though, because the only light was from our car headlights. Sorry!

Trevor cooked his VERY OWN turkey this year! Even though we went to his parents house for the real feast, Smith's had a great $6.00 deal on turkeys and he couldn't turn it down.
Posing with the bird. Isn't he cute?
All ready for the oven.
The finished product. Sadly, I was at work the whole time and got home just in time to see it like this. But I have to say, the house smelled amazing and it tasted even better. Turkey attempt #1 was a success.

And, last but not least, we got a Christmas tree last night. All the trees were $23.00 at Smith's Marketplace (we love that store!), so we decided to get the most bang for the buck. It's a little fat because we gauged it by the size of our lovesac and I think we underestimated the space in our little corner just a little. But it was so fun to decorate and our whole house smells like Christmas. We are both so excited for all the festivities and family time ahead.

Let It Snow...

2009-11-13T21:59:00.005-07:00

Most people know that Trevor and I LOVE snow. Since I was in California 2 weeks ago and missed the first official snow of the year, today was my make-shift first day of snow. We decided that in order to celebrate, we should go touch it. We drove up to the Y Mountain trailhead since that was the closest place we could find.

There was about an inch or two of snow everywhere we looked. We got to touch it, we ate a little (it was yucky), and reveled in its beauty. We are both so excited for the real snow to come this year and all the fun that it brings with it. Happy first (or second) day of snow!!

Projects

2009-11-09T22:40:00.007-07:00

This past month has been so busy for us. Trevor has had tons of homework and school, while I have been working and traveling. My mom and I went to Napa Valley, California, for a week to see family and some amazingly beautiful countryside. This past weekend, Trevor and I went to Idaho for a cousin's wedding and had a blast. But in between all the craziness, when Trevor's studying, I've been working on some projects to keep myself occupied. Here are a few of the most recent ones.

This one is an older one, but it's one of my favorites. :-)

Here's a close-up so you can see the design pattern behind the letters.

We found this shelf on KSL for $10. Trevor's mom helped me refinish it, and I love it! I love that I have the time to be able to do all these projects and that my sweet husband helps me with all the power tools needed to make some of them. He's the best.

My First Blog

2009-09-07T20:58:00.000-06:00

Personally, I've always been anti-blog. Not because I don't like them (I get sucked into them all the time), but because I had nothing to write about.
Today, however, I read a book about a guy who blogged (Brianna, My Brother, and the Blog--it was great), I watched a movie about a girl who blogged (Julie and Julia--loved it!), and talked to friends about their blogs. After all this blogging, boredom took the reins and I decided to blog. So here it is: My first post on my first blog. Exciting, right??
I'm sorry I don't have a good story or anything like that to report...hopefully the next one. For now, I'm just excited to have gotten our wonderful pictures from Carissa! She is one of my good friends from high school beginning her photography business. It's called Dulce Photography and she is amazing. So fun, so knowledgeable, and the pictures looked great. Here are a few of my favorites.