The Allens

4 months (just a little late...)

2012-01-30T20:44:00.000-08:00

Addilyn has had A LOT of firsts this month;

Addilyn at 4 months

First time rolling over back-to-front. She would then yell because she was stuck on her tummy and hated it.
First time on a plane. It was not a pleasant experience. Really she was only bad during take-off and landing but it was just so hard to watch her be uncomfortable and not be able to do anything about it.

About to take-off on her first airplane ride.

First time meeting a bunch of different family members and friends. It was so much fun to get to share our little sweetheart with everyone we love.

Hanging out with cousin Tayler

Addilyn, Mommy, and cousin Nya

First Aggie game. Luckily it was Christmas break so the Spectrum wasn't quite as loud as it can be but she still wasn't a fan of all the yelling. She fell asleep with my hands covering her ears though.

My little Big Blue

First time rolling over front-to-back. Now she gets around everywhere!
First solid food- Rice cereal. It didn't go well.
First Christmas! So much fun with our family and seeing her with all her cousins.

Mom and Addi on Christmas

Cousin Shae checking out Addi's haul

Addi's stocking

Merry Christmas

2011-12-15T17:56:00.000-08:00

3 months

2011-11-27T12:08:00.001-08:00

Addilyn at 3 months
11/27/11

I can't believe how fast this little girl is growing up! At church today everyone said how big she has gotten and it's so true!

She is getting a little less cuddly and wants to sit up like a big girl more and more. I love watching her sit on her dad's lap. She just looks like his little buddy and is so content to watch whatever daddy is doing and explore her new favorite toy- hands. I often will hear her smacking down on her hands from her room or swing. She also loves holding mommy and daddy's hands and sometimes will not fall asleep unless she has a hold of a finger in each hand.

Snuggling with Daddy
10/31/11

She is now sleeping in her crib rather than the swing, which is a good thing because she's such a wiggly thing I was sure she was going to jump out of it. She is a wiggly thing in her crib too. I have found her in about a million different positions every time I go to get her out of bed including having her feet sticking through the slats, laying sideways with her head and feet bumping the sides, and turned a complete 180 from how I put her in, but her favorite is laying on her side with a hand in her mouth.

She is the happiest little girl ever! Well, about 90% of the time. We made it through her first cold this month. Mostly she was still her smiley self, she just couldn't breath very well. We recently discovered that she is ticklish and we're having lots of fun getting her to giggle. She must be camera shy though because I can't ever get her to do it when we're on the video chat with the family.

Addi with a cold
11/5/11

I am so grateful for technology! We got to talk to both of Dustin's brothers who returned home from their missions last week and my family on Thanksgiving. Last year our trip home for Thanksgiving was a whirl-wind and then we turned around and flew back home 2 weeks later. It was crazy enough with just the 2 of us last year so we decided that there was no way we were going to try that with a 3 month old. So we had our own little Thanksgiving and I have to say it turned out just perfect. I was so nervous to cook the turkey but it turned out great.

The Turkey!

Our Thanksgiving spread

Showing off her Thanksgiving Outfit from Aunt Kaylee

Watching Mom and Dad cook dinner

And we will be traveling to Utah soon! So excited for Addilyn to meet all her aunts, uncles, cousins, and honorary aunts! Until then here are some more pictures of our sweet girl to tide everyone over.

She feels the same way I do about 9 o'clock church!
11/27/11

Loving those fingers
11/27/11

Sitting up so big!
11/27/11

Month 2

2011-11-10T16:18:00.001-08:00

A little late on my post of my 2 month old baby girl.

Here's her stats for the month:

Length: 21 3/4" (yep that's right she's shrunk since she was born, she had a big bump on her head for the first couple of weeks)
Weight: 10 pounds 10 ounces (my perfect 10!)
Head: 15"

She loves:

Her binkie (or "paci" as everyone around here calls it)
Her swing
Mommy and Daddy
Getting her diaper changed
Taking a bath
Being held
Having her hands up by her face or in her mouth

She hates:

Her crib
The car seat
When mom puts bows on her head
Getting dressed
Being swaddled
The vacuum

Here's some photos from our past month:

Sleepy Girl
9/29/11

Showing off her Poke-a-dot Jacket
10/15/11

All ready for her first time at Church
10/16/11

Chillin in the Bumbo
10/19/11

Laughing at mommy
10/19/11

All ready for a night out on the town with Mom and Dad
10/21/11

I don't think she likes the bow!
10/21/11

Baby Bear
10/25/11

Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear at the ward Trunk-or-Treat
10/25/11

Mama Bear and Baby Bear
10/25/11

This is what it looks like when it's time to eat around here
10/27/11

Posing for mom and dad
10/29/11

All smiles!
10/29/11

Looking at mommy
10/29/11

Perfection
10/29/11

1 Month

2011-09-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my baby girl is one month old already! So this is what I want to remember about my dear sweet girl at this age.

Addilyn-

You are such a sweet baby. I love watching you when you sleep. Every once in a while the sweetest smile will creep across your face or you will let out what sounds like a giggle. I love that when I change your diaper you don't cry or scream or fuss (unless you are particularly hungry), you just stare at the poke-a-dots on the sign with your name on it and make sweet cooing and grunting noises.

I love how your cheeks are getting a little chub to them now and how you have the perfect little chin. I love how your mouth drops open and your bottom lip sticks out when you sleep, just like your daddy.

I have the feeling that you are getting spoiled by being held all the time since you now have times when you fuss if you're anywhere but in our arms but your dad and I just can't help it. You are so snuggly and sweet.

Nursing has not gone as smoothly as I would have hoped but when you cooperate I love hearing the sweet satisfied cooing noises and when hold my finger while you're eating. I love how comfy you look laying on my shoulder and how you always fall asleep when I try to burp you and look like you are just so content.

I wonder what you will look like as you grow. Will those dark dark blue eyes turn to brown like your dads or will they stay a blueish-greenish-grayish like mine? Will your hair keep the little wave it has now and be curly? Will your hair ever grow or will you stay bald forever like I did when I was a baby? I wonder what you will be like too. Will you stay so sweet or is a storm of colic in my future? Are you going to be stubborn or sweet? What will make you laugh?

In a few short weeks my time with you will start to shrink as I head back to work. I hope you will never resent me for doing this. I love being your mom and maybe someday that will be my only job but for now I will leave you in the loving hands of your daddy. I know that he will take such good care of you and that you will both benefit from spending this time together.

I hope you know that you we hoped, dreamed and prayed for you before you were even born. You are our dream come true and never doubt that you are loved.

Love,

Your Mommy

The Rest of the Story

2011-09-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

39 Weeks. 5 days before Addilyn was born

So back to the story...

Thursday morning was spent timing contractions and waiting for them to get close enough to head to the hospital. However, instead of getting closer they started to get farther and farther apart... first 15 minutes, then 20, then they almost completely stopped, I was just having about one every hour. Bummer! So we called/texted the family we had let know and told them it would be a little longer than we thought. I got some paperwork done and then called my sister Mardee. She's been pregnant with baby number 6 at the same time as me and we must be body twins because every symptom I would tell her about she would say- "Yep that happens to me too!" So when I told her about my contractions and she said "Kim, I do the same thing and you could do that for another two weeks! Just call and ask to be induced!" I believed her and followed her advice.

I got a nice chuckle from the nurse when I asked if I could schedule an induction for the next day. Then the doctor got on the phone and said he could do it first thing Saturday morning. Okay, I thought, that's only one more day and it will give me time to hopefully get everything started on my own. But by midnight on Thursday we were back to contractions every 7-10 minutes and these ones hurt, BAD. There was no sleeping through these ones that night so I slept in 10 minute increments. By Friday morning I was ready to call and beg the doctor to please let me come in. However the contractions followed about the same pattern as the day before and by the afternoon had spread out but not as much as they had the day before and they were definitely more intense.

We knew that Friday night would be our last night not being parents so despite my moaning and groaning every 7-10 minutes Dustin got me out of the house for dinner with our friends Steven and Kathryn. Our great meal of thai food was interrupted occasionally by my "slow paced breathing" that we had practiced for weeks but it felt good to have something to think about other than how bad everything hurt. Friday night was another long sleepless night, spent praying that contractions would get close enough for us to head to the hospital early. No such luck!

We headed to the hospital at 7:30 on Saturday morning and were checked in by 8. I got hooked up to the IVs, asked for an epidural (Planned on waiting longer but I had been having contractions for 2 days so give me a break!) and labor was on its way! I had to wait about an hour for the anesthesiologist to get there and this is where the fun part begins.

The only picture Dustin was allowed to take of me before delivery.

Must have been after the epidural because I'm smiling.

Here's what went wrong:

Felt pressure as the needle hit my bone instead of the epidural space.
Felt a sharp zing down my right leg
Felt an intense head ache just on the right side of my head. It was the worse headache I have ever felt.
Blood pressure dropped, heart rate increased, started feeling dizzy.
Only felt numb on the right side of my body.
Had to have the epidural taken out and put in again in a different spot.

When he moved the epidural it fixed everything, except for the headache. Apparently its called a spinal headache and it's caused when too much spinal fluid leaks out where they punctured the epidural space and changes the fluid pressure around the brain. (Looked up on WebMD). The remedy was to lay flat, drink lots of caffeine, take Tylenol and wait until after I delivered the baby to have them do a blood patch- where they take blood out of my arm and put it in the spot in my back where they did the epidural to fix the change in fluid pressure. So the contraction pains were under control but I had a raging headache. Lovely.

The next couple of hours are kind of a blur. I tried to sleep, watched t.v., texted my mom who was on her way to me, and tried not to move my head too much. The headache did get alot better and after awhile I only felt it when I moved my head to quickly.

Finally the doctor came to break my water and by the next contraction I was ready to push. After about an hour of the hardest physical workout I have ever done, Addilyn arrived at 5:02 pm. Then I stared into the face of my little girl who, after 9 months of being pregnant and 2 years of wishing I was, was finally here.

Wide awake right after being born

Love at First Sight

Dustin was amazing. He kept me calm, kept me smiling, and kept me from giving up. He was able to give our little girl her first bath and immediately began snapping pictures :)

Addilyn's First Bath

Daddy Time

So now our family feels a little more complete. This past week has been the happiest and hardest week of my life. I don't know what I would have done without my mom and Dustin doing absolutely anything I needed or wanted.

Don't know what we would have done without Grammee

Her First Outfit and Blanket from Grandma Neta

Heading Home

I am loving being a mom and Addilyn is the sweetest baby. Despite all the complications I had getting her here, she never gave us a minute to worry from the moment we found out I was pregnant. Of course, now all I do is worry but I guess that's not her fault, it just comes with the territory of parenthood.

First Moments at Home

Nap Time

SHE'S HERE!

2011-09-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

Pictures to come soon but had to let you know:

Addilyn Maxiene Allen arrived on Saturday, August 27th at 5:02 pm. She weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and was a whopping 22 inches long.

Still trying to figure out how that long body fit in my belly and now know why it felt like she was pushing on my ribs and the inside of my hip at the same time :)

Here's the story:

I finished my last day of going out to see clients for work on Wednesday. It was a very long day and I spent most of the time sitting on the floor- not the most comfortable position when you're 39 1/2 weeks pregnant. I got home at about 5 and assumed my usual position of laying on the couch and propping my feet up. Around 7 I started to feel contractions, real contractions, not Braxton-Hicks contractions, or at least I was pretty sure they were real because they hurt a lot more. They came off and on and by the time we got in bed at 12 they were pretty regular at every 10 minutes. Oh we were so excited! We were going to have a baby soon! I slept through most of the contractions and finally got up at about 6 am. Dustin texted his mom and dad to let them know that labor had started. Contractions were still about 10 minutes apart but not too painfull. Dustin ran around taking directions from me and putting everything in our hospital bag.

To be continued...

The Search is Over... hopefully!

2011-04-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

Okay I really don't think I've been this stressed out about making a decision about something like this since I bought my wedding dress. Finding a crib set... sounds simple enough right? Not for me. See I'm just not a girly-girl and the bright, obnoxious, ruffle-filled, covered with flowers and birds and animals sets were just too much for me to handle. I just couldn't find something I thought was perfect for our little girl. I have probably looked at over 500 different bedding sets. Finally I decided that I just needed to pick one. So with the help of my sister Kaylee I finally picked this one:

I think I actually had looked at it before she emailed it to me but it took seeing the other 500 to realize just how much I liked this one. I really love the muted colors and all the different textures on it. For now I just ordered the bedding set and I think I'll add some of the accessories once I see how it all looks in person. Oh and we also got the go-ahead from our landlords to paint the baby's room. Here is the before (from when we moved in):

Yep, the red just wasn't going to work with anything baby girl. So as soon as my parents get here in a couple weeks to visit and help us paint (I can't wait!) I'll have some more updates for you. We have a long way to go and a lot of stuff to move out of the room between now and then. Wish us luck!

Baby Updates

2011-04-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

So, first the news we've all been waiting for...

IT'S A GIRL!

If you know my family, you know just how funny it is that we're having a girl. My parents had 6 daughters, no sons. Then they had 8 granddaughters before they got their first grandson. We thought the streak had been broken with little Willy but baby Nora added one more. So when our little sweetie comes my parents will have 6 daughters and 10 granddaughters. Sorry Dustin, you never had a chance.

Introducing our little girl. I know I'm biased but I have to tell you that these pictures really don't do her justice. The ultrasound was amazing and she was doing some cute poses that didn't get captured on camera. The nurse said she looked absolutely perfect.

So what did we have to do after we found out? Well first we made phone calls to grandparents, sent out a mass text, and posted it on Facebook. Then I had to head to see one last client for the day, boo! After that we hit Kohl's to start spoiling her just a little. The plan was to get one, maybe 2 outfits. We came home with 6 and it wasn't even all my fault.

The Strawberry outfits and the "Mommy's Sunshine" were both Dustin picks. My personal favorite is the green and brown outfit. I just love all the cute details.

Now for a few shots of Mommy. I'm not one of those girls who is a stick to begin with and has a cute little belly bump on a ity-bity body, but good, bad, or ugly, I decided to document the progress of my baby bump.

16 weeks

17 weeks (see a difference?)

20 weeks

I am feeling her move around all the time now and I love it. The urge to nest has definitely started now that we know to plan on a girl. We are constantly planning and plotting where we are going to put everything to convert the office into the baby's room. Our house is roughly the size of a shoebox so it's going to be interesting... We'll keep you updated!

Best Christmas Present Ever!

2011-02-27T19:25:00.000-08:00

Question: Am I pregnant?

Answer:

Yep, that's right! We found out on Christmas and I've finally made it far enough to feel safe to share. I'm about 14 weeks and due on August 26th. We won't know whether it's a boy or girl until April 7th although Dustin is sure the heartbeat sounds like a boy.

Here's our baby's first picture. He/she doesn't look like much here, at just 6 weeks, but we were excited to know that he/she was in there!

Thankful

2010-11-17T10:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry, no pictures here. I have a wealth of them waiting on my camera but for now this is what you get because this is what I need: to count my blessings.

I am grateful to have a job that I can get home from and feel like I've helped someone.
I am grateful just to have a job and feel productive.
I am grateful for sisters. Especially when they call just because, or just to tell me to look at pictures of their new little baby, or when they talk to me when I call just because.
I am grateful for my mom who is my best friend and is great at keeping my company on the phone during my long drives home.
I am grateful for the view from my front porch. Our trees have been the last ones to change colors and I love holding on to the brilliant colors of fall before the BROWN takes over everywhere.
I am grateful for my ward family and that they think to make sure we have a place to go for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I am grateful that I am able to fly home to Utah for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I am grateful for finding new friends.
I am grateful for all the friends that do so much to let me know they still care and work to keep our friendship strong, across all these years and all these miles.
I am grateful for Facebook and having grown-up chat conversations with my niece Kasadee. I can't believe she's a freshman in high school!
I am grateful for all the technology that lets me feel close to those that are far away.
I am grateful for finding new favorite place to eat and fun local things to do.
I am grateful for our little house. It couldn't be in a better location for my work and Dustin's school and all the little details are just so cute!
I am grateful for my health- being sick for awhile makes you realize just how great it is when you feel good. (I'm still getting over a bad case of bronchitis and a sinus infection)
I am grateful for my 9 nieces and 1 nephew and all the joy that they bring to my life.
I am grateful for my education and that I'm done with school!
I am grateful that I still find joy in the little things, like finding therapy toys on sale, and that I have friends who understand my excitement.
I am grateful for my wonderful husband who makes me feel beautiful on my most blah days, who sees challenges as adventures, who helps me to see the glass half full, who is patient when my emotions get out-of-control, who I can be silly and goofy with, who is my best friend!

Okay, now I need to get back to my pile of paperwork. To be continued...

New Toys!

2010-10-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

So I had quite a bit of free time when we first moved to North Carolina and I spent a good part of it surfing the internet. I started looking for some used toys for my work with kids- a habit passed on from Todd Houston, my boss/professor/friend. He would always show up with a toy he had found at a yard sale or on sale at the grocery store. So one day I hit the jackpot on Craig's List and found a Fisher-Price Little People farm and dollhouse, complete with all the animals/people and lots of fun extras! I had to drive an hour and a half to pick them up but I only paid $50 for all of it! (A find I think Todd would be proud of)

Here's some pictures of my goodies and a little tutorial on sanitizing used toys:

1. Wipe off with Clorox wipes or just soap and a rag.

2. Mix Clorox bleach with water according to directions on clorox.com : 3/4 of a cup of bleach to 1 gallon of water.

3. Place toys in liquid for 5 minutes (I flipped them over to do 5 minutes on each side)

4. Rinse off bleach

5. Let air dry

6. ENJOY!

Some of my other favorite toy finds are:

A pizza listening game (came with 2 pizzas and a bunch of pictures of different toppings)
Japanese erasers- I don't actually use them as erasers but they have ones that look exactly like small versions of food, animals, vegetables, and school supplies. Kids love them!
A bowling set for $1 at Wal*Mart
A Build-a-Bear with a set of boy and girl clothes-courtesy of my nieces. This is great way to hit language targets I would would work on with a doll but playing with a bear makes parents of boys less nervous than when I want them to play with dolls.
Foam stickers found at Wal*Mart or Michael's.
Wind-up toys! Seriously I think I use these in almost every single therapy session.
Books: I have way too many of these according to my husband but I never feel like I have enough. I try to incorporate a book into every session I have so I can introduce children to literature and instill an early love of books. My personal favorites are anything by Mo Willems but I'm quickly finding that more repetitive books such as "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" are easier to use with my littlest clients

I don't know if anyone other than my "speechie" friends will enjoy this post but I just get so excited about finding the perfect toy to help children learn to listen and talk that I just had to share!

Projects

2010-07-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some projects I've done over the past couple of years and just have never gotten around to posting.

Allen Sign

This is the one that started it all. What started out as a little shopping trip with my friend Keira, turned into a full day craft project. Love how it turned out and can't believe how well it matches in our new place. I made another one like this for my friend Brittani's baby but didn't get any pictures of it before I gave it to her. It makes a great wedding or baby gift and the price was pretty reasonable. We made 3 different projects out of a pice of wood that cost $3.

Halloween Sign

My obsession with Modge Podge continued with this project. Jessie and I worked on this one as a release from homework. I printed the paper from one of the kits from Summer Driggs' Kit "Fangs for the Memories." (Just a tip: Let printed paper dry for at least 24 hrs before doing modge podge to keep it from smearing)

Ornaments

I made these for my friend Marinda while she was on her mission. Jessie and I made a set for ourselves too. This one was from Summer's "Winter Wonderland" and "Giving" kits.

"LOVE" Scrapbook

I made this for Dustin for Valentines day. I think it still needs something. I want to put some smaller rings on it and maybe some ribbons. I started with a chipboard album then I scanned it into the computer to get the measurements for the design right. Again, I used one of Summer Driggs' Kits- "Fathers and Fedoras" the alphabet and ribbon came from her "Relax" kit. Not sure where I got the tag because the file name was erased when my computer crashed. Dustin gave me a hard time for making him a Valentines Day present that was for myself but I think he secretly likes it.

Graduation Clipboards

I got this idea from a user forum on twopeasinabucket.com. Since us Speech-Language Pathologists are always needing a clipboard I decided to make one for everyone that I graduated with. I like the way they turned out, even though I never wanted to see a bottle of Modge Podge again when I finished (it took 2 small bottles and 3/4 of the big bottle to finish all of them). All of them came from Summer Driggs kits (I swear she's going to start charging me for her kits when she sees how much I use them). Here's the list of the kits starting at the top from left to right: "Year to Shine, One Year Older, Happy Mother's Day, Fathers and Fedoras, Inspiration, Apples and Almonds, Relax, Gratitude, Owl Always Love Spring, Sweet Springtime, Golden Sunshine, Limeade, and Winter Wonderland"

Baby Callilyn's Sign

I made this on for my friend Ashley's baby. It was super simple to make. I just painted the blocks and then found these cute chipboard stickers. Love how it turned out!

Cards

These were my latest project. I got a little carried away but I was just a bit bored and I had a bunch of scraps from another project.

Took me long enough to post all of these! Hope you enjoy!

Life in NC and Our House (before)

2010-07-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

I know, its been a long time since I posted anything. Life was a little crazy while we were moving, but things have slowed down now... way down. I was supposed to start working July 1st but I've had some issues getting my license as a Speech-Language Pathologist in North Carolina so I won't be able to start until August. In the meantime I've been meeting some of my coworkers and some clients that I may be getting from them. I've also been working on putting together and decorating our cute little house. I still have a little ways to go before I want to take pictures of it but here's the pictures we took when we first looked at the house. It's in the middle of now-where but we're loving the area, our ward, and the beautiful views all around us.

The Front of Our House

(yes we have a sliding door for our front door,

kind of weird but it's not too bad)

Views from our front porch

The Kitchen

The Living Room

The Office/ 2nd Bedroom

The Bathroom

Our Bedroom

While we were visiting to look for houses before we moved we went on a little hike around the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here's a couple of my favorite pictures. It was so gorgeous! Dustin was making fun of me because I would take a step, then take a picture, take another step, then take take another picture. I couldn't help it!

The Allens are Moving...

2010-04-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

I have a job! It's in... (are you ready for this?)... North Carolina. Someone who knows all the people I worked with at the implant center at UNC wants to hire someone to work in an area where kids with hearing loss aren't getting any services. Everything has just fallen into place and I can't believe it! Dustin found a school in the same area that had his specific program and he just found out that he got accepted!

Here's some more of the story:

I had been looking at the job in North Carolina for awhile, but everything was on hold until Dustin found out if he got into school out there. In the mean time, I had sent my resume into another job in Georgia and was surprised when they wanted to do a phone interview and fly me out to see their center. I was having a hard time deciding which of the two jobs would be better because in NC I would be working all by myself which made me nervous, also I would be working with all children needing early intervention in the area and in Georgia I could specialize in just those children with hearing loss. But, I wanted to live in NC more than at wanted to live in Atlanta. So on Saturday I flew out to Georgia for an interview. From the moment I got there it just didn't feel right.

I got there late Saturday night and then went to church and got a tour of Athens Georgia from some relatives of my cousin that I am living with here in Provo (only 1 1/2 weeks left of my last internship!). Every time they would show me something I would think or say, "Oh we had that in NC." The school out there that Dustin was thinking of applying to is in Athens and while I was there looking at it, he found out that he couldn't get into the school there. But, being the ever-supportive husband, he said he could find a technical school or something like that if he couldn't got to school anywhere else and if I decided I wanted to go there.

On Monday I went to the interview. The center was amazing but I was still not feeling like it was a really good fit for me. I watched some therapy sessions and the therapist that I was really impressed with was one that was trained in NC and had interned at the same center that I had. So everything was pointing towards NC. And then when I was in the airport Dustin told me that he had found out that he had gotten in at Appalachian State University in NC. I was reluctant to give up Atlanta because of the amazing facilities they had and the security of working with a more experienced therapist down the hall. But, the center was not impressive enough to warrant making Dustin put school on hold.

So I emailed the lady from NC to let her know that Dustin had got into school and asked her some of the same questions about the job that I had found out from GA. I was so happy to hear her response and I just felt like she really wanted me to be there, which is not the feeling I got from the other center. Then I talked to her on the phone and we discussed benefits such as an 11 month salary scale so I will have time off to come home, health insurance, retirement, setting my own work schedule, etc. So we set up a tentative start date for July 1st. I still can't believe this is happening!

Now I just have a lot of packing, organizing and planning to do!

Needs and Wants

2010-04-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

I have so many things I need to update on my blog, but for now I only have time to do a quick list:

Things I need to do:

Study for the PRAXIS
Finish my last exam of graduate school
Prepare more for clinic so I look/sound like I know what I'm doing
Laundry
Clean my room
Unpack
Repack to start moving things back home (been living in Provo for almost 2 months)
Make a decision about jobs
Loose weight
Start working out again

Things I want to do:

Move back to Logan right now
Take a vacation
Start a new craft project (pictures of past ones to be posted soon)
Update my blog
Spend more time with family and friends
Go to bed and sleep until noon
Eat some chocolate
Get a manicure/pedicure
Have a life outside of school!!!

Visiting Teaching Handout

2009-11-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

This is kind of last-minute but I just finished this Visiting Teaching handout and thought I'd share it in case theirs anyone else who procrastinates at much as I do. The scrapbook paper came from Summertime Designs which is one of my favorite sites. She has a new FREE digital scrapbooking kit almost every month.

Hope you enjoy these.

Scrapbook

2009-06-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot more time on my hands lately, with no classes and still doing a lot of training at my internship. I started working on my digital scrapbook again. I started doing some pages of college pictures last summer but haven't done much since then. I thought I'd post some of my latest and greatest ones. Let me know what you think.

Roommate Pictures

Our First Weekend Outing

2009-05-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

Dustin and I have decided that we were going to go somewhere fun every weekend while we are here. Since we had already traveled a lot this week we stayed close to our house in Durham. We drove about an hour away to Greensboro which is one of the areas that Dustin served in on his mission. We went on a tour of Guilford Courthouse, which was a Revolutionary War battleground. While we drove around the park we thought of how hard it would have been to fight a war in the thick woods all around the battlegrounds. It was a great place to be around Memorial Day and to be able to remember what people had sacrificed for our freedom.

On Sunday we drove back to Greensboro and went to church in the Lakefield Ward that Dustin had served in during his mission. There were a few people who remembered him and were very glad to see him. It was great to go to church and have something that was familiar and a little piece of home. I love that I know that no matter where I go, the gospel I know is true is the same and I have people that I know I can count on.

Update from the Road

2009-05-27T19:40:00.002-07:00

Day 1 Saturday

We somehow got the house clean (a big thanks to Dustin's sister Jen for all the help!) the car packed and headed out from Logan. I was glad that we had the GPS that my mom and dad got me for my b-day, it has helped a lot. We were going to try and make it past Cheyenne but when we were getting close to Cheyenne it was raining hard and foggy so we stopped for the night there. Too bad we hadn't planned on stopping there ahead of time, it ended up being the most expensive hotel room of our whole trip, just because we didn't book it online. I was excited to get out of Wyoming- nothing but sagebrush as far as you can see!

Day 2 Sunday

This was our big driving day! We drove from Cheyenne to St. Lois, Missouri and once again I was very grateful for the GPS. I was glad to arrive at our hotel finally. It awesome to see the Arch at night. It was really close to our hotel. It was good to know that the longest day of driving was over!

Day 3 Monday, Memorial Day

We started out today with a trip to the Arch. The rain had followed us from Wyoming and there was poor visibility so we didn't go up to the top of the Arch. It was still awesome to see! It was much bigger than I thought it would be.

The rest of the day was a bit of a disappointment. We had looked up two restaurants that were on the show Dinners Drive-Ins and Drives and tried to go to both of them, but they were closed. We went to a old train station that had a lot of restaurants and stores in it, kind of like Trolly Square, only bigger. It was pretty cool, but I picked out a Barbeque Restaurant that was definitely a dive but not in a good way, yuck! Our dinner of St. Louis style pizza with yummy toppings and a super thin crust made up for the awful lunch.

View of the rainy city of St. Louis from our hotel

The Train Station

Later we drove around Forest Park, because it was pouring again, and saw the World's Fair Pavilion which was beautiful. I would have loved to walked around that park when it was a nice day. So that was our day off of driving in St. Louis

Day 4 Tuesday

We drove from St. Louis to Nashville Tennessee today. It was really a beautiful drive with trees all along the road just about the whole way there. Once we got the Nashville we went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then headed out for the highlight of our trip, to see Montgomery Gentry at the Grand Ole Opry House. It was amazing! There was a whole two hour show with a bunch of different performers. Most of them were ones I had never heard of but they were still awesome. Little Jimmy Dickens, who is 83 years old an a country legend performed some old country songs and told some really funny jokes such as "You know your 83 when you bend over to get something and think 'What else can I get while I'm down here?'"

Little Jimmy Dickens

Finally, Montgomery Gentry came on to perform. They were awesome! When they finished there second song, someone from the Grand Ole Opry came on stage and invited them to join the Opry. I couldn't believe I got to be there to see that! Both of them were crying and they had to take a break before they could start singing again! I think that will be the moment I remember most about this trip!

Montgomery Gentry

Montgomery Gentry being invited to join the Grand Ole Opry

Day 5 Wednesday- Happy Birthday to Me!

One of the nicest things I got to do today was to sleep in!!! It felt so good to not have to get out of bed for anything. Once I finally did get up we had a busy and fun day. First we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It was fun to walk around and see all the costumes and cars and watch the videos they had in there. They had a huge wall covered with Gold and Platinum albums. The actual Hall of Fame itself was pretty small but it was neat to walk around and read all the plaques telling about people like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and Elvis.

After that we went on a short bus tour of the city and saw the amazing Bicentennial and Centennial parks. I was glad that we went on the tour so I felt like we saw the whole city and not just what was right around our hotel. We finished up the night with a GIANT hot fudge brownie sunday and seeing Night at the Museum 2 at an IMAX theater. Overall, I would say 22 was a pretty fun birthday.

Tomorrow we will arrive in Durham, North Carolina where we will be staying for the next two months. I think once we get there it will sink in that I'm not just on vacation and we are actually going to be living there for the next little while. At least I got to have a nice break before I started again.

Going to North Carolina!!!

2009-03-06T13:34:00.000-08:00

Dustin and I have been talking about moving to North Carolina for a long time. He served his mission in Charlotte and loved it there. They also have a lot of job opportunities for my field (Auditory Learning and Spoken Language for children with hearing loss). Well, in June we will be moving there for the summer! I have an internship at the CASTLE (Center for Acquisition of Spoken language Through Listening Enrichment) program at UNC. I am so excited to go and work with children with hearing loss. I am also excited to get a taste of North Carolina and see if that's somewhere we would want to live. We'll be there June first and right now I'm anxiously searching for somewhere to live. Wish us luck!!!

2008 at a Glance

2009-01-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

Since I'm so bad at doing frequent posts I thought I'd make a list of our milestones of 2008:

Dustin and I spent our first Valentines Day together. He made dinner, complete with homemade pie and got me a digital picture frame that I love!
I traveled to New Orleans for the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention conference.
I was accepted to Graduate School at USU and to the Auditory Learning program.
I graduated from USU.
We made a random trip to California and went to the beach and Magic Mountain for my B-day. We had a lot of fun!
I started grad school in the summer.
After moving 9 times in a year and a half I finally moved into "the little white house" where me and Dustin will be for at least a year.
We celebrated our first anniversary! We didn't do anything big, just went out to dinner and had a Harry Potter marathon (yes we know we're lame).
We were run out of our house by a mouse infestation. We left a week before Christmas and spent the rest of the break in Park City with my family and in Pleasant View with Dustin's family.
We conquered the mice and spent celebrated New Year's by going skiing/snowboarding with Dustin's brothers.

Our First Christmas Tree

2008-12-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

Last year we got back from our honeymoon on Christmas Eve so this was the first time that we got to put up our own tree. We had a lot of fun doing it. I was so worried that we weren't going to have enough ornaments but I found a box of Christmas stuff that we had gotten for our wedding and our whole tree was covered before we knew it. The only thing we are missing is a star or snowflake to go on top. I plan on finding one as soon as finals are over!