and another dental school!!

Found out yesterday that Brian also got into Roseman Dental School here in Utah! We're still waiting to hear about Loma Linda (Southern California) and Iowa. Roseman could be a good fit - I could keep my job, we wouldn't have to move very far, etc etc. Arizona would be a good fit too though because it is close to Brian's family. They are both excellent schools. Choices choices... I'm just glad we have some! I remember back when we were thinking we were crazy for wanting to apply a year earlier than planned. It was a crazy year of cramming in too many classes in too little time, studying for the DAT without having taken all the classes, and doing the insane application process... but it is all going to be worth it! Yay!

photo from http://rosemanu.wordpress.com/category/college-of-dental-medicine/

guess who got into dental school...?

Brian! 

We got an unofficial official call this morning from Midwestern University in AZ and they told him they had an "offer" for him and that he could see it online on Monday (they aren't supposed to be officially accepting people until the 3rd). 

So exciting! It is his top pick (I think - he changes his mind a lot). I think it's a great school... it's just so dang hot out there close to Phoenix. I'd melt. We will probably find out about other schools on Monday! So proud of my geek ;). 

First day of pre-dental classes so long ago - he was pretty enthusiastic about those chemistry goggles (if you can't tell!)

Crayola Rex

Have you ever done something totally insane and it turned out awesome?

Back freshman year, I got the notion that I really needed to buy a car. My sweet friend Megan was always more than willing to give me a ride if I ever needed to go anywhere (which thankfully wasn't too often because I lived on campus), but I don't like being a mooch. So, I decided that I was going to buy my car off of eBay. Yes, eBay.

I looked at hundreds and hundreds of car and finally found a sweet deal. I bought Crayola Rex (my 2003 Jetta) while sitting in the library at BYU. I remember freaking out a little bit when I realized I won the "bid" and called my dad right away to let him know that his little girl just bought a car that she had never driven or seen from a complete stranger in a different state!

Thank heavens luck was in my favor and this car was a total steal. The poor seller didn't put a "reserve" price on it and it should have sold for much more $$. I was sneaky and didn't bid until the last moment (2 other bidders kept going back and forth, back and forth) and sealed the deal. The seller actually contacted me soon after and told me he was just fine if I backed out because he had many other people offering to buy it for much more money. Sorry, bucko, I still wanted it!

So, my dad and I flew out to Texas, drove it around (the seller was still insisting that I shouldn't buy it), paid the man, and drove home.

I have many fond memories with the car and I am hoping that it lasts for a long time. You might be wondering why I named it Crayola Rex. Well, for some reason, the car always smells like crayons. And... I like dinosaurs. And... Crayola Rex just sounds good and it stuck.

So why this blog post dedicated to my car? Sunday was the big day. The day Crayola Rex made her 100,000th mile. It was while driving the Alpine Loop - so really a great way to enter the 6 digit world with a bang. Oh, and over 50,000 of those miles were with me in it!

there [was] a bun in the oven

For some reason talking about miscarriage seems to have an element of taboo to it. Well, I'm still going to talk about it.

Most of you who read this don't know that I was pregnant. We were waiting to tell everyone until I was in the 2nd trimester. I found out in the morning on July 8 (after 3 pregnancy tests - couldn't stop at just one!) and let Brian know later that night by wearing an apron that said "There's a bun in the oven!"

Let's just say he was super excited. He is going to be the best dad :).

So, we had a bun in the oven! A pea in the pod. A... you get the idea. I was due on March 12th.

I had normal pregnancy symptoms. Nothing too extreme - I never threw up or got super nauseous, but I had pretty much all the other symptoms you would expect like fatigue, having to pee all the time, bloating, etc. I was feeling so great and was thinking I was really a lucky girl.

Brian and I picked out names we liked and even bought some children's books to read to the little one when he/she arrived. We were so excited for our little baby!

Well, at week 7 I started bleeding. Just a tiny tiny bit. Of course I rushed to Google to see what was going on and I found all sorts of responses ranging from "it's normal in the first trimester" to "go to your doctor right away!" I had my first appointment with the midwife the next day anyway, so I figured I would just wait and talk to her about it then.

The appointment was fun! We talked about pregnancy and how fun (and hard) it is to be a first time mom. She did an exam, said everything was looking good. She said that she wanted me to go get an ultrasound just to be safe but that she wasn't concerned about the spotting. So, lucky for me they had an opening right then and so Brian and I headed up to the hospital to get the ultrasound done. 

I was so excited to see our little one!

Based on the weekly emails I was getting, he/she should have been about the size of a blueberry or raspberry and had a little heart flickering away. That's what I thought we'd see. But... no.

The ultrasound technician starts the ultrasound and is making little measurements on the screen and asks me a few times if I am sure about my dates. I told her yes, I'm 99% sure.  I said, "Why? Am I measuring small?" She nodded and continued with her measurements.

I started looking closer at the screen, trying to decipher what I saw on there and started asking questions. Yes, that is the uterus. Yes, that is the sac. Yes, it looks like there is no baby in there. No baby? But I'm over 7 weeks! The sac was measuring around 4 1/2 weeks. 

Then she says another bad thing. Not only is there no baby in there, there is no yolk sac either. Oh and the sac is "irregular" whatever that means. It just kept getting worse! The doctor came in and discussed our options but recommended that we wait a week and get another ultrasound and hcg to make sure the sac has quit growing.

Fast forward to the second ultrasound a week later. Well, after a very difficult week of feeling lost, depressed, but still hopeful, we were pretty much in the same boat. Hoping for something definitive (either no growth or lots of it!), instead we got another "grey" result. The sac has grown, but still no baby. So, what does the doctor want to do? Wait another week. Another tortuous week.

Even though my midwife and the doctors say it is an "almost certain failed pregnancy," we thought there must at least be some hope if they were having us wait another week. We went on our vacation to California as planned (still tons of fun, but with that awful worry in the back of our minds) and went to get an ultrasound the day after we got back. Same story. Sac was growing, no baby. This time we had a progesterone level too, however, and that indicated an unviable pregnancy too. So, that was that. My body just wasn't recognizing that this wasn't going to turn into a healthy pregnancy. So, I was prescribed cytotec and some pain killers and told to take the pills and call in sick to work.

Tuesday night. Worst night ever.

I would never recommend it. Let's just say I thought I was going to die. It was one contraction right after another, many times running together. We finally went to the E.R. because it was so awful. The doctors there said that some women's bodies just react differently to the medication and go kind of crazy. Just my luck! So, I've never been through real labor, but the doctor said I was probably experiencing real labor pains, but one right after another without any breaks in between. So, after some morphine and another ultrasound, I was sent home with some better pain medication and it was so much better after that.

Brian has been so great through the entire experience. He has been there for me through all the physical and emotional rollercoasters. I couldn't have done it without him. I am so grateful for him!

I've learned a lot from this experience and feel a lot of empathy for friends and other women I know who have gone through miscarriage or have a hard time getting pregnant. It is really hard. Better luck next time I guess.

"So, how did the DAT go?"

Seems to be a common question nowadays. Well, after all the painful days of studying, waiting, and agonizing over the dreaded exam, Brian took it on Monday :). We were just so ready to have it be done. Part of me didn't even care if he did awful on it just as long as he quit studying and hung out with me.

Seriously. He studied ALL THE TIME.

Good thing hard work often pays off :)!

I am generally against bragging, but this is something to be proud of! He did better than we expected. Better than he had on all his practice exams. He got a 22 overall and a 23 overall in science! Not only that, but he got a 29 in organic chemistry. 29. According to the percentiles, that's better than 99% of people who take it. And.... he hasn't even taken the 2nd half of o-chem yet. He taught himself the reactions he needed to for the test. Oh, and special thanks to "Chad's videos." If you're taking the DAT, Brian highly recommends them for o-chem. For those of you who wonder "well, is that even good?", an 18-20 is recommended to have a competitive score. So, yay!

I won't go into detail about all the individual parts, but I am just so proud of him! Way to go Brian! He is such a smartie. So, applications are in, fees are paid (well, the ones we know about so far anyway), and now we just... wait. It will be so exciting to see where we end up :).

So, SO glad the DAT is over. May we never have to talk about it again.

our first anniversary :)

Brian and I had a very eventful weekend! 

We had thrown around a couple of ideas as to what we wanted to do for the big one year, but still hadn't decided on anything as of Saturday. Friday night we went on a campout with our ward and that was lots of fun... but then... I got food poisoning.

Ew.

So, I spent Saturday morning ralphing and Brian went and took a practice DAT exam (which he did well on, by the way :)). By Saturday night I was feeling better (and significantly more thin - the only benefit of food poisoning) and we decided it was time we made some plans! So, we looked into a few options and decided that we just wanted to get out of Provo at all costs!

We ended up going to Logan to the Anniversary Inn (yes, you may roll your eyes and gag at this point because of the unoriginality of this idea)... and let me tell ya, it was awesome! Maybe it's because Brian and I are such kids at heart, but we thought the themed room was so much fun! We stopped by Brian's uncle's house (Martin) on the way and picked up the amazing wedding video he made for us last year. We had actually never seen it because our copy never made it from the reception, and it was neat to watch it! I may or may not have gotten a little teary-eyed. He did such a wonderful job - THANKS MARTIN! I tried to figure out a way to post it on the blog, but no luck so far.

Monday we hung around Logan for a while and then headed up to Bear Lake where we had spent the majority of our honeymoon. We took some cheesy pictures: 

I got the idea off of Pinterest (where else?) to take a photo on every anniversary and then it will be really neat to look back and see how we've changed as the years go by. I'm sure we could do that with normal pictures too, but I think it will be really fun to do it on our anniversaries. So, we took a few and we'll decide which one is our favorite later. Probably not the kissing ones, but because this is a blog post about romanticy things, I just couldn't leave them out, right?

We, of course, went and got the famous raspberry shakes that Bear Lake had to offer. We got our two favorites from last time and man alive, they were tasty. I could've probably eaten 10. The first picture is of Brian eating the deliciousness last year and the rest are of this year. Still delicious.

I simply had to pose with the same ferocious bear too... again, last year on top, this year on the bottom.

After hanging around Bear Lake for a while and reminiscing, we headed back to Logan where we ate at the oh-so-delicious El Sol (not to rub it in your face, mom), and then went to my grandma's for a visit and to stay the night. I worked Tuesday so we got up a the crack of dawn and headed to Salt Lake where I put in a full day of work and Brian put in a full day of studying! It was a very eventful day at work, but I'll save that story for another day :).

I really can't believe that it's been a year since we got married. It has been such a great year and I am so grateful that Brian asked me to be his wifey. We have learned a whole lot this last year and I love him more than ever before. Here's to many more years to come! I blogged about our wedding and honeymoon here, here, here, and here

And some wedding pictures for good measure :)

our turquoise, pink, and yellow wedding reception

I finally have all of my wedding photos back! That's right... this means that there will be a few photo wedding posts in the near future! This one has loads of photos from our wonderful reception. I just love how the colors came together and I thought the venue was perfect for us! We had an ice cream sundae bar with delicious Creamery ice-cream and loads of toppings. Only downside to your own reception is that you don't have any time to eat the yummy food! 

ice cream sundae bar - yummy!

In LOVE with the centerpieces. We designed them to have floating lemons and candles with my favorite flowers - gerber daisies! They turned out even better than I expected :)

I just loved our cake, too! Brian's cousin, Chad, made it and I thought he did such a wonderful job... and it was seriously so tasty (chocolate with chocolate cream). Brian's aunt Sharlan did the flower arrangement on it. 

Sharlan also made our bouquets! She has talent!

Our rings on the tablecloths. I loved that our venue came with our choice of tablecloths - these were so classy!

Adorable wall-hanging given to us by Megan and Mike Stohl. Love!

Photo sign-in book. It's so fun to go back and read what "advice" everyone wrote! 

Brian's youngest sister, Annette, and niece Addy!

Daddy, Brian, Best Man Russell, and Dad #2

I was SO excited that Megan was able to come out for the wedding. We've known each other since freshman year and were roommates for 3 years and best friends forever!

I love my family!

Dan and Laura - helping to run the show!

Cutting the cake! 

Everyone watching the wedding video/slideshow. It was super fun!

*sigh...*

daddy-daughter dance! 

Ba haha! It looks like I'm going to eat his nose!

...and our first dance as a married couple!

time to get the garter!

guess who caught it? Brian's little cousin, Trevor! 

Best bouquet-catching picture ever!

and guess who caught it? My little cousin, Paige! 

SO happy that my best friends all growing up could come. Dani and 'Lex... we went through all those crazy elementary, middle, and high school years together! I was so lucky to have them.

And what would I do without my BFF Andrea?! She is amazing and I just love her!

mis amigas!!!

time to go on our honeymoon! Sparklers and bubbles along the way.

saying by to my amazing momma

and daddy!

... the beginning of happily forever after!