School starts again!

School as started for Danny and I yet again but, I'm very excited to announce it is our last first day of school! This might lead you to believe we are graduating this year...no. But it is our last year of sitting in class, studying, and taking exams. Next year is my last year, I do 6 rotations to different pharmacies, and then I get to graduate in May of 2015! Danny is finishing his last year in class also, the two years following will be clinic work. All of this hard work is finally going to pay off! Dan and I had a great summer. We traveled lots, cooked, played lots of games, and enjoyed a relaxing summer together with our puppies. I had two rotations, one at a veterinary compounding pharmacy and another at a hospital close by. They went really well, I was lucky to work with some great pharmacists and learn a lot! Now that school has started again, we are back in full swing. Dan is back to putting in 16 hour days and I'm back to the books. We've been cooking a lot the past few weeks. Danny is an amazing cook, and is constantly looking for new recipes to try. He's awesome. Right now we're unwinding from a very successful cooking day...Dan made jamaican jerk pork with grilled mango and a caribbean glaze...seriously tasty. Then it was bananas foster for dessert! Now we're just laying down, watching Harry Potter and snuggling with the pups. Life is so great. Hopefully this quarter will fly by so we can get on to the holidays! It is finally starting to cool of here...well it is still one hundred degrees outside, but at least it isn't one hundred and twenty :) Arizona is amazing in the winter and I'm so excited for it this year! Hope all of our friends and family are well!! Here are a few pics from this summer!

Exciting Summer!

Our first years of Dental and Pharmacy school have officially ended. This summer I have two rotations for four weeks each and then four weeks off for us to play. I did my first rotation from the end of May to June 20th at a veterinary compounding pharmacy. This was a big change compared to the Walgreens I've been used to, when I was working as a tech. It was a great experience, and while I was there Danny was studying for his first year boards. We got the results yesterday, and he passed! They have changed it, so we don't get scores just pass/fail. It was really nice that Danny was busy with boards while I was busy on my rotation. My preceptor was great and let me go home for a couple days for my sweet friend, Lauren's wedding.

It was such a beautiful wedding. I was so happy I could make it, Lauren seems so genuinely happy, and Kyle seems wonderful. What a perfectly matched couple. Danny couldn't come because of boards that weekend, he was missed! When I finished my last week of my rotation, Danny and I scooted off to Florida to celebrate Randy finishing is Oral Maxillofacial Surgery Residency. What an accomplishment! It was such a great week of celebration, beaching, shopping, and eating.

More exciting things are coming this summer! I now have the month off, and Danny and I are playing and enjoying it! Lots of watching our shows, movies, cooking, and relaxing. Next week some of Danny's friends are coming down to play golf for the week. I decided that this would be a great time to go visit my sister in D.C. So I will be off this next week, and I'm so excited. It has been so long since I've been out to see her. It has been so nice to be out of the classroom and be able to relax at home with my sweetheart. We have a few more weeks until I go to my hospital rotation the end of this month. So we are soaking it all up!

Happy girl

I don't have much to blog about that hasn't been extensively posted on FB or Instagram. On that note, for those who get sick of how many puppy pictures posted...imagine how many I send to Danny on a daily basis. It's seven on average. So it could be worse.
I just wanted to take a second and say how grateful I am for the blessings in my life. I don't know what I did to get where I am. I still am shocked Danny and I get the opportunity to go to the same school and the way it worked out that I get to go to a three year pharmacy school compared to the usual four years. I love where we live, I love Arizona. I love family, but living away has been such a positive experience for us. I love our condo, and how it took almost no time to consider Arizona home. When we go back to Utah I feel like I'm visiting, not going home. I love how somehow pharmacy school is less stressful than undergrad ever was. I love the time we make to have fun and experience new things together. I am so grateful for Danny, he is the best man I know. I know that everything good in my life is because of Danny. We have been so blessed.
I focus on the future so much, sometimes (like right now) I need to pause and realize what an amazing time in life this is. Without children, working or owning a house I still feel like our responsibilities are minimal. I don't doubt that hard times will come, but for right now I'm so happy with the decisions we've made together and the direction our life is going. I don't think anyone reads this but I think it's a girl thing to focus on the future and want to skip time and go to the "next stage". But remember when you were looking forward to the stage you're in right now? Two years ago I would've given anything to be where we are now and I sometimes sit and long for our next stage after school is over. It's good to stop and realize the best parts of the stage of life that we are in at the moment.

Thanksgiving, Mexico and Christmas

I should be studying, so I'll keep this short. This past quarter was my second and Danny's first. It was really exciting, in October we both received our white coats. All first years at Midwestern University receive their coats together in a ceremony. Our families came down and it was such an awesome day. I am so grateful for this opportunity that has been given to us. That day made me reflect on the long process it took to get us to that point. We have worked so hard and it really is paying off. We both talk about how blessed we've been to get to this point. We both applied to twenty schools, got interviews to a little over half, and this is the single school that we both got accepted to. All of the other schools were states away from each other, and would have forced one of us to put our dreams on hold. I don't know what we did but I am so thankful for the blessings that we have received, and so happy that I have Danny to share them with.

School went really well this quarter and we were so excited for the Thanksgiving break. We had two weeks off and decided that would be too long to spend in the cold of Utah. So, we decided to jet off to Cancun for a week and it was the best idea we ever had. So relaxing, fun and enjoyable. We stayed at an adults only all-inclusive resort and it was the perfect time to go! Seriously, book these kinds of trips the week before a holiday and it won't be too crowded, it was awesome. We aren't quite as exciting as some...no excursions and no going into town. When Dan and I go on these kinds of trips, we have a hard time leaving the pool and beach. :)

Then, we went home for Thanksgiving. It was so great to see family and spend time together without school or work or any other distractions. Both of our families are so blessed and enrich our lives so much. We got home from Thanksgiving, did a few weeks of school and turned around to make that 10.5 hour drive back to utah again for Christmas. We were home for about 10 days, and I swear for the first half we were just nomads. Driving from house to house, party to party...let me just say, we spend more in gas driving around up there than we do making the drive to get there. We were able to stop in las vegas and see my Dad and Debbie and it was such a fun night! I love that they live closer so we can see them more. Christmas was a fun filled day! We saw lots of movies, played lots of games, ate way too much, and had the best time!

Well, the time has come for me to quit procrastinating. Oh wait! I've decided that when I remember I'm going to post a little pearl of wisdom that either Danny or I have learned in school that I think will be helpful for us to remember and for others to know... Pearl #1- courtesy of Danny in Dental School... One of the most common ways that children get cavities is from adults sharing things between their mouth and their child's. Things like sharing straws, utensils, and cleaning off binkies in your mouth, introduces a bacteria into your little one's mouth that they don't have yet and it can cause cavities. Until next time, Happy New Year!!

Fibber

I'm sorry, I lied. I did not post the next day. Lets be honest...I knew that would happen. Well it is my second quarter of pharmacy school, and Dan's first quarter of dental school and we are pretty busy to say the least. Sadly, Dan's work load is pretty heavy and we haven't been to Disneyland in a full month! Yikes. Poor us right?
Really though, things are going so great. We are so happy here in Arizona, especially that the temperature is finally starting to drop into the double digits again :)
So anyways...here are some quick pics.
We drove down here...




Went to school....but probably to Disneyland more...




Some trips just us and then Dan's family came down and we surprised Piper by taking her and the whole family to Disney on her birthday.




Amber and the kids surprised Piper and Kohen while we were all here in AZ and then came to Disney with us!
























It was so much fun going and playing there every other weekend!
We had a pretty calm fourth of July...I had to study :( but there were tons of fireworks going off and so we went out on the course to watch with the dogs...we sat in what seemed like the perfect spot...until the sprinklers came on. Dan managed to save himself and I was right behind him until I realized that Darwin and Luna wouldn't move from the sprinklers. They just sat there! So I sacrificed myself to get them out and we were all soaked! It was a fun night.




Then we went home for Chelsea's wedding which was so beautiful!




We love where we live. We are renting a condo from our friend Jeff and it is so great, so close to school and of course right on the golf course. Danny is in heaven. So many nights we go out there after the flags are down and he'll hit a few balls while me and the pups will walk around and just enjoy the night.








I love it, when Dan is putting every once in a while Luna and Darwin will go and steal his golf ball right from under him.
Then we went for a quick weekend vacay to Las Vegas. It was so relaxing, and so much fun. We got to hang out with the newlyweds Sean and Chelsea! It was such a fun weekend full of sitting by the pool, dinner, lunch and visits. Crazy enough my Mom and Greg were in LV for the Garth Brooks concert and my Dad and Debbie just barely moved there too, so we got to get in lots of visiting. It worked out perfectly.
















Then...after my finals were finished Danny had orientation every single day for eight hours...so I decided to jet home and visit family. I missed Dan so much, but it was great to hang out with everyone. It was busy while I was home! We did a Real soccer game, went to the Mumford and Sons concert, and went to a wedding.






















Mumford was a blast!




Got some much needed Grandparent time in :)




















As long as I live I will never forget driving to Mumford with the dancing slinky Alien dancing to Earth Wind and Fire.
And another quick trip to Disney :)












And now we are back in school and busier than ever. But all is well and we are so happy here! We love and miss everyone and are so excited to come home again and visit over Thanksgiving!

8 months

The past 8 months....hmm. Some concerts, Danny graduated, got two perfect puppies, we moved to AZ, and we go to Disneyland like its our job I'm going to try to pick this back up again, but with school I'm not that confident. Just updating to say we are in AZ, killing it at school and loving life right now! I'll try to post pics...tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow.

Relief.

Dec 1, 2011 7:02 am...1 missed call on Danny's phone from Arizona.

Danny calls back to receive the best news of our lives so far. Danny got into Midwestern University's Dental School in Glendale, Arizona.

As soon as they told him he was accepted Danny said thank you and the phone cut out. This was during the crazy windstorm. Dan called him back and expressed his gratitude. Danny and I couldn't stop smiling...and still can't. Our dream that has been years in the making is actually coming true! We both get to go to school...the same school...and both have careers. I just can't believe it's all going to happen. We move in May and we are so excited to start this next chapter.

Thanks to everyone for all of their love and support of us through this process. It's been long and hard. Without the help of both of our parents and support of our friends we couldn't have done it.

I'm so proud of Danny. He is the best student and the hardest worker. He has changed me and my life in so many ways. I know for a fact that without Danny I wouldn't have made it to this point. I'm so proud of us!

Cautiously Excited!!

There has been a lot going on this past month but the time is just creeping by for us. So I went to both of my interviews in September and I was really excited. I've always felt that I interview really well and I wasn't to nervous for this part of it. If anything I have been looking forward to the interview part the most because I feel like I finally have the chance to give them an idea of who I am. So my first interview was at MWU, Chicago. We have to go on our interviews by ourselves because it would double the money we are already spending to fly both of us. So I got to Chicago and was so glad I decided to rent a car so I could get to my interview really early. The good thing is MWU is literally down the street from where Dan and I lived 2 summers ago in Chicago. So I knew the area really well and felt really comfortable. As I said before this was a group interview and there were six interviewees and 2 interviewers. We all had a chance to answer every question and it was pretty relaxed. They asked questions that I was expecting, nothing was really out of the blue.

The night before I had planned on the craziest questions! We have a list of questions that people found particularly challenging to answer and they were cake compared to those!

Mostly just-

Who are you?
Why pharmacy?
When have you had to solve a conflict?
How are you a leader at school?
What makes you think you'd be a good pharmacist?
How will you as a pharmacist help better health care?

I hate to sound over confident but I feel like I answered every question perfectly. And really by saying that I mean that when I left I felt like I said everything I wanted to and gave them a really good idea of who I am and why I'd be a great pharmacist. But some of the habits of people in the interviews were driving me crazy!! We were all sitting at a conference table that had swinging chairs and so many people were swinging around like crazy! It was so distracting and made it really obvious that they were really nervous. I like MWU, Chicago a lot but the winters are cold there and Dan and I would prefer to go somewhere a little warmer. Great school though. So after the interview I jetted off to Arizona for my second interview.

Thank goodness Danny went on a mission because his good friend/old companion Shane and his wife Tasia live just outside of Phoenix and they were kind enough to let me stay with them and use one of their cars. It was nice I had a day to relax before my interview and I'd been pretty sick so I watched about 6 hours of "Say yes to the dress". Loved it. and I played with their adorable dogs all day. The Arizona interview was pretty similar except there were 3 interviewees and 3 interviewers. I immediately loved the faculty and deans that we met. Again, the interview went swimmingly well :) I talked about Danny applying as well and one of the interviewers (Dean of Admissions, Mike Dietrich) was so supportive and said they have a lot of students in our similar situation and that they are happy to have couples in the same school. OMG the most distracting thing, they gave us mini water bottles (since it's 1000 degrees) and one girl in my group held hers in her hand the whole interview and like...crumpled it making this frightening noise and she would play with her hair a little bit. the crazy thing is that I probably did something just as distracting.

I kind of doubt it though because I think I probably looked like a stiff because I practically glued my hands to my sides when I saw everyone's nervous ticks.

Then we had lunch and Dr. Dietrich came to our table and said the admissions committee meets today (same day as the interviews) and we could hear as soon as the following Monday...or sooner. WHAT!! Most are like 6 weeks at the soonest. I was loosing it inside. So I went back to Shane and Tasia's house and tried to keep watching TV but it was difficult because I wanted to know so badly. They update your student status online before they call you and like a crazy person I kept refreshing it knowing perfectly well I probably wouldn't find out for a few days. Then at 2:58 (mind you my interview was at 10:30) my status changed to Accepted Student!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't think I've called Danny that fast ever! But as I was looking a little closer my Matriculation Agreement (where you electronically sign to accept) wasn't available. My excitement dropped as I realized, "Maybe I got wait listed." I really doubted it but I had to be sure...of course I called everyone and told them in the mean time (I was just so excited!) But I was still nervous. Then at 4:00 Dr. Dietrich called me

Me-Hello
Dietrich-Corinne?
Me-Yes
Dietrich-Congratulations

Even though I'd already seen it online it felt much more real when he called me. Tears immediately filled my eyes. After four years of working my butt off in school and at work someone was acknowledging it all and saying that I was good enough, smart enough and that they wanted me in their school. Words honestly can't describe it. It made me think back to all of the late nights at the library, bad tests, good tests and tears already shed. Dietrich told me that all of the interviewers agreed that I gave a "perfect interview" and that they think this is a "great fit" and "we're excited to have you". Then...

D-Has your husband heard from our Dental School yet?
Me-No, he has a lot of other interviews but not to MWU yet
D-I don't think they've sent out interview invites yet...send me his information and I'll send it over to the dental school and have the right people look at it and see if he's someone they'd like to interview

Within a week Danny got invited for his interview.

After I hung up the phone with Dr. Dietrich I sat there on the couch, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and just had a good cry.

Dan had his interview two weeks ago and LOVED the school. At this point MWU, AZ is our #1 pick (we think). I still haven't heard from VCU or UF yet. But who knows! Dan's interview went really well but again we won't hear from any dental schools until December 1st. There is still a chance that he won't get in but I'm pretty hopeful. His GPA and DAT score are higher than what they accept on average so we're pretty hopeful!

Other school news...the day before my University of Colorado interview they declined Danny's application. This takes UOC off this list. But I was still stuck with the interview. We couldn't refund the tickets but we could refund the rental car which saved us a lot so I canceled the interview. Some people might think this is weird but here's the thing. Even if Danny didn't get in anywhere I had already gotten into MWU and would prefer to live in AZ over Colorado so I declined the interview. About a week ago I got another interview to Concordia University in Wisconsin. Dan has already interviewed at Marquette in Wisconsin but again we won't find out about any acceptances for him until December 1st. My interview is December 15th. So we are going to wait until the first to book the flight and just hope that MWU accepts him quick so we don't have to spend more money on flights.

Oh-and I found out I got accepted to MWU, Chicago :) they haven't offered Danny and interview so we made the decision to decline so we wouldn't have to pay another $1000 retainer fee to hold my spot.


Danny and I want to go to AZ so badly! We both love the school, it's closer to home, it has warm (scorching) weather and it would only be a three year school for me. We have been getting a little too excited planning in our heads where we would live when we would move (3rd week of May ah!). It is so hard not to get ahead of ourselves. December 1st can't come soon enough. I am so excited to have our own house and to move on to our own adventure. Don't get me wrong it's been great living with my parents but I'm excited to have our own space. I sort of feel like I am just shacking up with my boyfriend in my parents' basement. Haha.

I can't believe that after all this time our plan might actually work. Crazy.

Baking like a MAD WOMAN!

So I have decided that I want to make baking a talent of mine. I'm sure those who know me are scoffing at this. Especially Mikelle because in the seventh grade I made sugar cookies at her house...and forgot the sugar. I definitely don't have the best track record. However, over the past year I have really stepped my game up and worked hard and I am proud to say that I am turning this weakness into an actual talent! I am constantly searching the blogs and cooking websites for dessert ideas. I make desserts at least twice a week (another reason the jeans aren't fitting so great these days :)) Seriously it has become an obsession.

Danny would like me to mention that the 2 weeks I was gone, he lost five pounds because I wasn't surrounding him with sweets.

I'm of course documenting the recipes with pictures like crazy so here are some of the desserts and recipes I've used. If anyone makes any of these and wants tips to make them easier/better let me know!!

The cake that started it all...

Hermione's Cherry Almond Cake from the Harry Potter Cook Book

-sorry I don't have the recipe with me but if you want it let me know. I don't care if you don't like cherries...cake...or fruit desserts you will LOVE this cake. I haven't served it to one person who didn't like it. Honest. The almond cake is so moist and the whipped butter frosting is so light it feels like you could eat it for days.

I'll continue with the Harry Potter recipes...

Homemade eclairs. So this was my first pastry. The batter is so much more difficult. You have to start by boiling some of the ingredients and then you basically throw the dried ones in and it makes this very strange dough that you have to form in to a "ball". It was difficult and not totally worth it. They were good don't get me wrong. But I worked like 6 hours for 9 eclairs. Just go to dicks and buy them :)

Hagrid's chocolate birthday cake for Harry...
Dan was very specific that I had to get the spelling wrong because that is how Hagrid would have done it :) Love dan. This was the softest cake ever! No really it made it impossible to frost! To be fair the cookbook said it would fall apart and look like it was from Hagrid and they weren't lying! However with chocolate frosting and a chocolate glaze to put on top it was quite the delicious cake. Or so I heard...I don't eat chocolate very much but everyone else enjoyed it :)

The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook on amazon.com is amazing and has some seriously awesome recipes. I would highly recommend it and it's not very expensive either.

Next.

Piper (our niece) turned five in July and her mom Mandie wanted to give her a Tangled cake and we decided we'd try to make it all from scratch. It took forever but turned out so cute! And the best was when Pipes saw it she put her hands up to her face and whispered, "My tangled cake...it's perfect" That made it all worth it.

Seriously this turned out amazing. Mandie, Penny and I worked on it FOREVER! But like I said it was totally worth it.

Next.

My parents are avid gardeners. We have rhubarb in our garden and mine and my father in law Bob's favorite dessert is strawberry rhubarb pie. So again I searched and found a recipe for it and it was delicious!!!

Next.

My husband's favorite dessert (well one of them) is the red velvet cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory and I found a super easy recipe for it. However the red velvet wasn't chocolatey enough...so if anyone has an awesome one share it!!! This was such a beautiful cake and I am so proud of it.

Next.

We went to Idaho this summer for a concert and I had cinnamon roll pancakes and they were AMAZING. So I thought, "Guaranteed some awesome mom has an awesome blog where she's made these." and sure enough there was and it was delicious. They are super easy and the cream cheese icing is so tasty.

Next.

Alright! Everyone go to William Sonoma and buy the Marvel superhero cakelet pan! I saw it and knew that it was a great buy. The pan is so nice and these characters will be around forever. My grandkids will probably love spiderman. Seriously they are awesome.

The real challenge with these came with the decorating. I've been wanting to try something with fondant (even though I don't like the taste). So I did what everyone says to do and purchased Wilton Fondant but I also wanted to try to make my own. So I made my own marshmallow fondant...which tasted a little bit better but it was difficult to work with I thought. I think you just have to get used to it. But we made these for Kohen's third birthday and I used frosting for those ones and they turned out much tastier :)

And the most recent was the 14 12-layer cake. I was making it and forgot to throw the last to layers in the oven so it was 12 instead. You use Cafe Rio foil tins for each layer and then put a glaze between them all. They end up looking like a giant stack of pancakes. Then you put the glaze all around and I finished it off with my mother in law's amazing homemade chocolate frosting. I should have made more frosting though because I started to do the ruffle frosting on the sides but didn't have enough to finish.

So the cake turned out delicious! And so moist!

I am loving my new hobby!

Clearly