Work and Play

Our lives have been pretty crazy since I last posted. First of all, we bought a house. It is in Moab, where we always wanted to end up, and we absolutely love it! We closed on it at the end of May and are still trying to get everything unpacked and settled in. Trevor was gone for pretty much the whole month of June for trainings with the ARMY and the school district, so I was left to do most of the cleaning and unpacking.








For our 3 year anniversary, which we celebrated over 4th of July weekend, although it is really June 30, we went to Stadium of Fire in Provo. It was awesome and we had a great time. I have always loved celebrating Independence Day, but I get a different feeling about it being married to a soldier. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it does make me feel a bit more patriotic, I guess.




Trevor is still working for the school district, and I have recently started working at Moab Dental Health Center as a hygienist. I love my job! I'm so glad that I finished school and can now make money cleaning teeth! As for Kaydance, she has mastered the art of walking and is becoming more of a handful every day; but we love every minute of it!





We have been staying busy trying to keep up on all of our responsibilities, but have still found some time to play and be together as a family! We are loving life right now :)

Thanks and gratitude

Here's to me finishing school!!! This was my second time graduating from college, and it feels great to be done. Again. I now have an AS in Community Health and an AAS in Dental Hygiene. I feel so accomplished.... sorta. I mean, 5 years of college to get two associates degrees?

Whatever.

The past nine months have been such a blur, have drug on and on, have been such a trial, and have been some of the best months of my life. Looking back now, I can't believe that I actually did it. Me. I did it. With a brand new baby and no husband; I did it.

But, really, I can't take all the credit. I had so much help from so many people. Here's my condensed list of people to thank:
1. Heavenly Father - for always listening and being there for me, when no one else was
2. My parents/in-laws - for always being willing to watch Kaydance and encourage me. Who knows how many phone calls I made to my mom complaining and on the verge of tears; but ended up being a pep talk that always made me feel better and ready to conquer.
3. My siblings/ siblings- in-law - for always reminding me how smart and strong I was. And for all the calls and emails to check up on me.
4. Janel - for always being willing to babysit a sick Kaydance at the last minute because no one else would take her. And for the many, many dinners, and talks of encouragement.
5. My visiting teachers - for bringing me dinners, and being faithful in coming to see me every month. Knowing that they were always willing to do anything for me made everything seem less daunting.
6. Kaydance - for always keeping me company while Trevor was gone and teaching me better time management skills.

And last, but certainly not least
7. Trevor - for being strong when I wasn't, for providing for our family, for encouraging me to finish, for being proud of me, for loving me, for sharing my sorrows and my joys, and for telling me I could do it, and for letting me.

I'm grateful for the friends I made, I'm grateful for the things I got to experience, I'm grateful for the knowledge I gained, I'm grateful for the self-reliance I learned, but most of all, I'm just grateful to be done!!!

Firsts

This post is a bit late, but none the less, here it is.

This last month has brought a couple of firsts for our family. Mainly Kaydance.

We all got to spend Easter/Conference weekend together as a family, and had a ton of fun. Kaydance got to go on her first 4-wheeling trip and she loved it. She also got to do her first Easter egg hunt. She just gets cuter and cuter by the day.



Kaydance also got her first black eye. She is getting pretty good at getting around these days. She likes to pull herself up and hold on to furniture and be where all the action is. Trevor and I happened to be at the computer and had Kaydance over by us. She pulled herself up using the drawer handle on the computer desk and then turned her head around to look at me. Before she knew it, her feet slipped, I guess from trying to turn around but keep her feet in place, and she hit her cheek on the drawer handle. Poor girl!



Right before the incident





And right after


And lastly, Kaydance took her first steps over Easter weekend. Sadly to say, she hasn't made much more progress than this. She's a chicken. But she is doing pretty good at the crawling.

I did it!

In order to become a dental hygienist one must: 1) go to an accredited dental hygiene school and receive a diploma certifying attendance and graduation, 2) take a written and clinical board exam on anesthesia, 3) take a written national board exam on EVERYTHING learned in 2 years at dental hygiene school, and 4) take a clinical hygiene test - meaning clean someone's teeth and have an examiner check to make sure you got all the yucky stuff off.

As most know, I am going to become a dental hygienist, and am well on my way to completing the requirements! I will be graduating from dental hygiene school at the end of April, and will receive my diploma! But, really, school isn't all THAT hard. So #1 was pretty easy to accomplish. Requirement #2 was a little different, however. This past Thursday was our anesthesia exams. We had both the written and clinical the same day. Most of the girls in my class also took this test the same day as me.

Here's how it went down...

We stayed at our teacher's house the night before (she only lives about 15 minutes from where the exam was) and just relaxed and had some cafe rio. In the morning we had a big breakfast and drove to Weber State University, where the test was taking place. The written exam was first and consisted of 55 questions. You had to pass with a 75% in order to continue on and take the clinical exam. It was a quick hour to take the test and then a stressful 15 minutes of waiting to find out our scores. Luckily, we all passed!!!

We went to get some lunch and calm our nerves for a little while since we all had our clinical exam in the afternoon. I was actually the last person of the day to perform the clinical portion (I would estimate maybe 40 - 50 girls taking this exam that day).

In the exam, you have to perform two different injections, two of the hardest to give, in order to prove your ability to give anesthesia. I went in and set up my chair and had my patient waiting. The examiners came over and I started the first injection. No problem. They said I could go on to the second one. I started the second injection, and was almost half way done when they said to "STOP AND HALT" I knew that was bad. They made me wait while they deliberated. They came back and told me to dismiss my patient. I knew I had failed. I got my results, and sure enough, I had passed the first but failed the second injection.

Now, if you fail, you have the option to repeat it that day, for $120 that is. I decided to do it. I had to find a new patient to perform my second injection on and fill out all the paperwork again. I was pretty flustered at this point knowing that I had failed, paying $120 bucks, filling out paperwork, finding a new patient, being the last person of the day, and having everyone, LITERALLY EVERYONE, waiting on me so we could all go home, including the examiners. I tried to calm myself, and luckily everything went as planned the second time and I passed. What a day!

But the good news is that I am now certified to administer local anesthesia in a dental office, and I'm half way to completing all the requirements to finally be done with school and start making money!! Here is a picture of all the girls that took the exam with me and our success memo.

in a pickle

Those who know me well know that I like to eat my grilled cheese sandwiches with BBQ chips, chocolate milk, and dill pickles. Tonight just so happened to be one of those nights when I enjoyed such a meal. Now some may think this to be an odd combination of foods, my husband included, but it was how I was raised. I remember having said meal on many occasions, especially during the summers.
Well, tonight as I was trying to enjoy my dinner, Kaydance began to get a little fussy. I had her sitting in her walker beside me with toys and such to entertain her. But of course, all she wanted was what I had. I decided to give her a pickle to see what she would do, and to occupy her with something so I could enjoy my dinner. She LOVED it! She didn't even make a face or anything. She was pretty upset with me when I took it away, but she was getting pretty dirty... check out her shirt!



Looks like she's on her way to growing up on the same meal I did!

On another note, we also gave her a lime one night (again, part of our dinner), and she loved that too. We were sure she was going to make a sour face, but she didn't even flinch. She only started to cry when the juice got in her dry little cheeks.... poor girl!



She's just TOO cute!!

same ol' same ol'

There's not much that's new, but just thought I would do a quick update:

- Kaydance is now 5 1/2 months old and is getting so big. She loves going to the day care center while I go to school (although she's already been sick twice since school started less than a month ago). She also loves to eat... EVERYTHING! I've been letting her "practice" feeding herself...

- I have been trying to study like crazy for my boards, which are in March and May, so that I will be able to get my license and be a practicing hygienist!

- Trevor spends the majority of his time working and driving. He is getting pretty sick of the 3-hour-one-way drive every weekend. But it is always worth it!

Here are just a few more of the latest and greatest pictures of Kaydance:

Holiday Fun

Well folks, it's that time of year again... and no, I'm not talking about new years, I'm talking about that time when school starts up again. For me, I always have the greatest Christmas break, and then I get the "Sunday night blues" just thinking about going back to another semester of school. But the good news is, that this is my last semester of school!! I can't believe I will be done in just 4 short months (at least I hope it will be short.)

As for the break, it was probably the greatest one I've ever had. I got to spend the whole time with Trevor and the rest of our families. That three weeks was the longest consecutive time I've spent with Trevor in the past four months. It was just wonderful :) Kaydance was thoroughly spoiled, and Trevor and I got some nice things, as well.

I don't have much else to say, I really just wanted to post some pictures of our Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays... enjoy!