Internship...

Well Andrew and I have been living in Maryland for a little over a month now and we love it. Andrew is really enjoying his internship with Senator Risch. His commute isn't so fun... I drive him to the bus stop, he catches the bus, rides the bus into D.C. then gets on the metro, rides the metro for about 15 mins or for a couple stops, gets off the metro and walks about 2 blocks to the building that Senator Risch has his office. The entire commute takes him about an hour and a half. But while the commute is awful, Andrew enjoys what he is doing once he actually gets to the office.
We have been to a couple Orioles games, which has been super fun! It is a good date night. :) And every Friday night we go support Karson Lawrence at his high school football games. We have had a lot of fun moments while we have been here and hope that we can keep having them.
I'm sorry that I haven't posted any pictures lately and I'm sad to say that I'm not very good at taking pictures. I guess that I'm going to have to change that if I'm to convince Andrew to get me a super nice camera. :)
Here are a couple pictures that Andrew has sent me from work. And I promise, I will try to be better about taking pictures and posting them!

Here is Andrew at his first day of his internship. He looked super good in his suit.

 This is a picture of all of the Senate interns. Andrew told me that they were kinda forced into this awkward social situation "to mingle with other interns" and at the end this picture was taken.

Oops!

So it has been a long time since my last post. Sorry :) Life just got going and I didn't have much to blog about. But some big things have happened since my last post so here it goes.

January - April 2012 marked my last semester of classes for my Bachelors degree. It was hard for me to believe that I was already at that point in my life. At the time I was trying to figure out my internship and had something lined up. Well it ended up not working out and I found another option, which would begin at the end of April.
April is when I walked in the graduation ceremony even though I wouldn't officially graduate until July. It was an amazing thing! My family came and I loved having them there to be part of my accomplishment. After graduation, Andrew and I took a little vacation. And then it was back to Rexburg. My internship started and Andrew started his new job on campus. 
My internship was with the Eastern Idaho Public Health District. I was working on the implementation of the Fit and Fall Proof health promotion program. Basically what I was doing was teaching exercise classes for the elderly (50+). It was such a great experience. It really showed me that I was in the right major.
June was a stressful month. This was when Andrew was going to find out if he got his internship for the fall. I had the hardest time waiting. I wanted to know so bad if he got it and I'm pretty sure I was worried enough about it for the both of us. We found out while he was on an internship expedition in Washington D.C. and HE GOT IT! We were going to be spending the last four months of the year in Maryland!
July came quickly! I was finally done with my degree and I couldn't believe it! It is still hard for me to believe that I am a college graduate.
August came quickly as well. Before we knew it, Andrew and I were getting ready to celebrate our first anniversary. We got massages and then went camping with my parents and little sisters. It was a fun way to spend our anniversary (as well as my parent's 26th anniversary). And then my diploma came in the mail just as Andrew and I were getting ready to move out of our apartment in Rexburg and move to the east coast. I cannot express the emotions that I felt. I was so excited and happy. I felt so accomplished.
The end of August was upon us and we were on our way to Maryland. Andrew's internship starts tomorrow (Sept. 10th) and we knew we wanted to have a couple weeks to get settled and to spend time with his family. We also knew we wanted to save some money on rent so we decided that we would live with his family in Waldorf, MD and he would just commute to D.C. This way we can save up money for the next year.
This year has flown by and I wish I had some pics to post but I have been really bad about taking pics. Hopefully while I am here in Maryland I will get a little better at it. I will also have to post about what Andrew is doing for his internship. Right now what we know is that he is the GIS intern for Senator Risch from Idaho. GIS is Geographic Information Systems or basically mapping trends. We are excited to see what he will actually do. I will do better to keep this blog updated.

Happy New Year!!

Well I think its safe to say that I'm not so good at keeping  up a blog while I'm in school :). I did finish out the 25 days of thankfulness for November on facebook, so I wasn't a complete slacker.
Here is a quick update of what has happened since my last post.
November: Andrew and I spent Thanksgiving with his Aunt and Uncle in Alpine, Utah. We had a lot of fun and I enjoyed meeting more of his family. We spent a lot of time with family and got a lot of spare time to spend together. We got new phones (Droid Incredible Two) for free as part of Verizon's Black Friday Deals; and we really like having smart phones! I was able to get an internship with help from one of my teachers (Major Blessing!!)
December: We were both super busy and stressed because of finals and my work schedule. It was a crazy couple of weeks trying to finish everything and do it well enough that our grades wouldn't suffer. And then it was a little stressful waiting for grades to come out to see how we did- which we both did rather well! And then once finals were done and we were both done working graduation, we had a couple days to ourselves and then we left for Utah. Once we got to my parent's house, we hung out for a few days, helped my dad pack the car, and then left for California. We spent about a week and a half or so in California visiting family and visiting parts of Andrew's mission. We had a great Christmas with my family! And we got to go spend a day at Knott's Berry Farm, which was way fun!! New Year's Eve was spent at my sister's house just hanging out and we brought in 2012 with a kiss and some sparkling cider. And on January 1st we drove back to Utah.
So here we are to today. It has been a crazy, wonderful year. We are looking forward to starting this new one and we both have some resolutions that we want to work on. And we all know that resolutions are hard to keep for longer than a few weeks but I'm going to try something to help us remember and hopefully it will work.
I am most definitely looking forward to my last semester of classes and my internship. I will be working with a general pediatrician and a neonatologist both in a clinical setting and a hospital setting. I am graduating in April and will officially receive my diploma when I'm done with my internship (July-ish). Then I will be applying/working on applying to PA schools.
 Andrew is excited for the new semester as well. He has a full load of classes and will be working Mon, Wed, and Fri from 7am-12pm on campus. It was a blessing that he got this job, because he hasn't been working since his birthday in November and he won't have to drive back and forth between Rexburg and Idaho Falls anymore.
We are ready for 2012 and all the things that it will bring! We are glad to be where we are at and can't wait to see where life takes us next. Happy New Year! and remember that perspective is everything!

Thankful for the Little Things

It has been a crazy week so far and I am more than stressed out with school and homework and tests. I will be so glad when this semester is over because it means that I will be able to take a break from all of this craziness! But looking back on the past couple days, I realized that sometimes it is really hard to find things to be grateful for... And when this happens, its usually because I overlook the little things that make me smile during my day. This week has been a testament to those little things :)

November 14, 2011- Day 14:
Today I am thankful that I was able to get out of every class early. This in itself was a little blessing. It was a typical Monday and it wasn't one of the good ones. I was having a hard day. There just seemed to be too much to do and not enough time to do it all in. And then I got out of my classes early! It didn't give me much time to get stuff done, but it gave me enough time to take a breather and relax if even just for a few minutes. I felt like I was going and going and those little breaks really help me out!

November 15, 2011- Day 15:
Today I am so thankful for the yummy sandwich that my wonderful husband made for me... and for my new boots that I got in the mail. :) Today was another really long, stressful day with not enough time to get everything done! I had a Biology test today that I spent three + hours studying for and 2 1/2 hours taking. It was SO hard! And because of class and work, I didn't get a break between classes and when I started studying, and I didn't get the chance to go grab food. Well Andrew is amazing and he makes really good sandwiches, and he brought me a sandwich and a snickers so that I wasn't going to take my test on an empty stomach. It really made me smiled and meant a lot to me that he did such a sweet thing. So I went and took my test and finished about ten minutes to ten at night. Needless to say, I was tired and frustrated and very discouraged cause I still had quite a bit of homework. But when I got home, the boots I had ordered online last week had come and it helped me forget about some of my worries.

November 16, 2011- Day 16:
Today I am thankful for my teacher, Sister Nelson, because she is helping me find a way awesome internship that will be in either exactly what I want to do or closely related! I feel so blessed to have her helping me because she is an OB/GYN and has the connections to get me an intership and because she is so willing to help! It also helps take some of the weight off of my shoulders of trying to find an local internship when I don't know anyone at the hospitals or clinics around the area because I utilize the student health center instead of the community clinics. I am very hopeful that something good will come of this!

It is interesting to see how the little things can really brighten your day! And finding something to be thankful for every day really helps you stay positive even when things get super stressful and hectic.

Today is a day for gratitude!

November 12, 2011- Day 12:
Today marks the day of being with Andrew for one whole year... Well being together :) It was a spectacular day. We got to sleep in and then I studied a bit for a chemistry test, which I did relatively well on. And once I was done with my test, Andrew and I went to Idaho Falls to get some stuff with a couple gift cards and to spend some of his birthday money. So today, I am thankful for  the afternoon and evening that I got to spend with my husband... It was one of our first Saturdays of the semester when he wasn't gone at work and boy was it WONDERFUL! I absolutely loved spending time with him and not having anything that we had to get done. It was a great day! I love my husband so much!

November 13, 2011- Day 13:
Today I am thankful for one of the simplest things ever and that is Chocolate milk! I love that stuff so much. I don't really drink chocolate milk... its more like I inhale/gulp it! I would even venture to say it is my favorite drink and just because it is SO good! It is really my nephew Parks' fault for getting me hooked on chocolate milk. I honestly hadn't thought of how good chocolate milk was until the time we got to spend in California around Parks, who would always tell Nicole (his mom) that he wanted his chocolate milk. And that's when it hit me! I was seriously missing out on something so yummy! I know it sounds kinda lame but chocolate milk seriously makes me feel better and makes me happy. And for anyone looking for an "energy" drink, it has been proven in a study done for (possibly by) the army that chocolate milk is the best energy drink because it supplies your body with things that your body uses most for energy. (something I learned this semester- YAY!)

Gratitude

November 10, 2011-Day 10
Today I am so thankful for sleep! I definitely don't get enough every day which makes school difficult sometimes. But today I got more than usual and it was so very nice! I wish I could get more sleep every day but between class and homework, it isn't going to happen. One day...

November 11, 2011- Day 11:
Happy Veterans Day! And happy 11-11-11
Today I am so very thankful for all the wonderful men and women who have sacrificed so very much to serve our country and maintain our freedoms. Enough said!

Thankful for...

November 8, 2011- Day 8:
Today I am thankful for the job that I have. It is great working on campus and I love the people that I work with. We all have so much fun all of the time. Another bonus is that I don't have to work many hours, which gives me the time to keep up on my homework. It really is a blessing.

November 9, 2011- Day 9:
Today I am so thankful that Andrew doesn't have to work in Idaho Falls anymore. He recently quit his job at Downeast. The hours that he was working were taking away from the time he had to do homework or take tests or study.... And I never got to see him. He didn't work too many days but his hours were kinda long and he worked on Saturday (which is pretty much the only free day we have to be together). It was hard for both of us. He left on really good terms with the company and his manager so if later on he decides he wants to go back, he could. But for now he isn't working.
Andrew did get a job that starts in January though. It was a blessing that he got the job that he did because there is a rule on campus that spouses can't work in the same office or under the same boss. And Andrew's job is in an office that corresponds with the one I work in and his boss is technically my bosses boss. It worked out nicely! But he will be working mornings a few times a week and its gonna be great!