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!