DC Graduation and Creer visit

Hello there. It's been a while.  But you  know the drill by now, where I take long hiatuses of blogging.  I took a month off for daily blog posts during our Whole30 experience and now I'm back.  Kinda.  We'll see how long it lasts.

Dustin's graduation from the University of Western States receiving his doctorate of chiropractic and masters of sports and exercise science was June 20th.  It was exciting to celebrate graduation and we enjoyed having some family visit for the special occasion.  My grandparents and Dustin's family both came to help party. 

Graduation was at 11:00, then we took a whole lot of pictures and had lunch at Jake's Famous Crawfish with the whole gang (Creers, Gailey grandparents, and Art and Sheri and Jake Gailey).

 

 

 

 After lunch we went to the Portland temple to show the Creers around.  There were a ton of weddings that day and we tried to get Jared to sneak into a red headed family's group picture (he would have fit in perfectly!) but he didn't want to photo bomb them.  It would have made for some hilarious conversation for them.  The rest of the evening we just relaxed playing Mario Kart and taking a nap.

Saturday we went out to Seaside and Cannon Beach.  It was a perfect beach day! Apparently everyone else thought so too because it was sooo busy.  And Cannon Beach had a sandcastle event going on so what should have taken 10 minutes to get from Seaside to Cannon Beach took 2 HOURS.  It was insane. 

 

 

 

 

We met the Brent and Holly Creer gang at Mo's in Cannon Beach and then walked the long stretch of beach to see what all this sandcastle fuss was about.  And it was kind of lame.  But we got some great exercise walking that beach! 

 

 

 

Sunday we got to enjoy Dustin in the special musical number during sacrament meeting before heading up to Roy Washington for a BBQ and softball game.  And by BBQ I mean Brent grilled some amazing steak and halibut.  It was so good! 

 

 

 Monday was a day in Seattle taking a ferry from Bremerton to downtown and exploring the waterfront and Pike's Place.  And then AMAZING seats at the Mariner's vs Red Sox game. 

 

 

Tuesday we drove back down to Portland, dropped Nicole off at the airport, and then fell alseep.  Because we partied so hard.

Wednesday I had to go back to work but Dustin and his dad went on a guided fishing tour on the Willamette.  It was kind of a bummer because only ONE fish was caught by anybody on the boat. Dustin was the one to reel it in, but it was on the guide's fishing line so he got to keep it (lame). We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Claim Jumpers that night with "Thor" as our waiter. 

Thursday we had to say goodbye to the Creers as they headed down the coast and through scenic California on their way home. 

It was so much fun to have them here to visit!
And wahoo for graduation! One last quarter (that we now are 4 weeks through, only 6 weeks to go!)
So proud of my doctor and the all the work he's done to get through school!

Pinning Ceremony

Dustin has now entered the clinic phase of Chiropractic School. Imagine a residency portion for doctors- this is the residency portion for chiropractors.  They work in the on campus clinic at first treating other students, getting real practice in.  Then they start working on non students.  Like me.  Or other family members.  And then they can go off site and treat even MORE patients.  Then they graduate and make money (if only it was that easy).

So to celebrate becoming chiropractic "residents" they have a pinning ceremony - officially putting on their white coat and receiving a school pin followed by light refreshments.

Not a lot of family/friend support came to the ceremony, so I was glad I could be there to be a part of this transition.  I expected those who were in attendance to clap/cheer/hoot&holler when their loved ones had their names read, much like a graduation ceremony.  Nope.  These people were stone cold silent.  It was sad. So when Dustin's name was called (note, C's aren't that far in so I was able to set a good example for those coming after) I gave a "whoo!" and people laughed.
I'm awesome.  See?

Congrats babe!  One more year til graduation! Whoo!

December

December is quite the month! It is flying by and filled to the brim as we get ready to head home for the holidays for a little break.  We don't fly out until Christmas Eve morning and I'm hoping and praying that everything goes ok with the flights (we fly to Reno for a small layover before landing in SLC) so we make it time for family Christmas Eve fun!

This Monday was Dustin's birthday which we celebrated by going to a Portland Trailblazers basketball game vs the Toronto Raptors.  It was a fun game and the Blazers won which is always nice.  We also celebrated D-man's birthday by seeing The Hobbit in Real 3D with Dolby Atmos sound at the Cinetopia in Vancouver.  It was so unreal!  The video and picture quality was just... crazy awesome.  The movie was pretty good too, but I was mostly amazed by the imaging. 

In case I didn't mention it before, in October our ward got a new primary presidency and I was called to be 2nd counselor.  It has been fun but also made me SUPER busy!  Between learning what the heck we're supposed to be doing, cub scouts, sharing time, and planning a meet and greet breakfast for the beginning of the year, every night is booked!  But I work in an awesome presidency and we are learning quickly. 

It's crazy how sick this world is getting.  And not the good kind of sick.  On Tuesday here in Clackamas, just a 10 minute drive from our house, there was a shooting at the Clackamas Town Center mall.  This is the mall that we usually go to! We love Clackamas! We love how the sidewalks sparkle! It's crazy to think that someone would come and start randomly shooting at our mall!  It's lucky that this happened on a Tuesday afternoon instead of a Friday night or Saturday because the mall is always extremely busy.  Our hearts go out to those families that were affected by this sad incident.

And then Newton, CT on Friday.  Oh my.  I can't even begin to imagine why anyone would go to an Elementary School to kill innocent children and teachers.  That is a sick sick crime and I was so heartbroken to hear about the massive amount of damage that was done.  I send my prayers to those families in that town, both to those that had losses and those that survived.  That is such a tragedy.

What is this world coming to?!

As far as us, we're doing ok.  The news of our negative results reached a breakdown last week.  We were fine until some LDS students in a club meeting at school with Dustin started complaining about how they were pregnant again and how they can't believe they have so many kids.  UGH.  Makes me so mad.  And then I started my period which is always that awful reminder that it really didn't work.  That we are still waiting and must continue to exercise patience and faith. 

I did meet with a family doctor this week to get testing done on my TSH again and see how that is doing and whether we need to change my dosage for my thyroid.  I'm still waiting on those test results, but hopefully we can start making progress. My insurance is changing next year, which I am SUPER happy about because I've hated my insurance.  We did get a ray of hope when I saw an EOB show up online from my insurance that looks like it will cover most of the first ginormous bill we received for bloodwork.  I'm talking about an $818 bill going down to $24.... HUGE DIFFERENCE!  I'm still waiting for an updated invoice to really feel in the clear, but it was a tender mercy and a little sunshine that we will make it through this and not become absolutely broke at the same time.

I probably won't have time to post again this next week so we wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  We look forward to 2013 and hope it brings happiness, peace and miracles!

I'm not fat, it's just my awesomeness swelling up inside me

Where to begin?  Do I blog about our trips to Seattle and Utah?  Do I blog about our weight-loss journey?  Do I blog about how freakishly hot our apartment is and therefore we got a window AC unit but have not yet installed it?!? That post would be easy.  It would go something like this:

Our apartment is freakishly hot.  Portland doesn't believe in AC being standard.  So we bought a window AC unit.  But haven't installed it yet.  Don't fear, we bought the plexi glass for the rest of the window area.  But that was today.  Which is why it hasn't been installed yet.  The end.




Man, that was an easy post. 
I feel like part of the problem I'm having with deciding what to write is because A) it's been a while since I posted so there could be a lot I could post about and B) I'm the kind of person that has a hard time sharing my weakness until they're conquered.  For instance, our weight-loss journey.  Have I mentioned dieting on this blog once?!  Ever?? No.  I get afraid to share my faults before I know I've progressed on them because what if I had a post that was entitled, "I'm sorry that I got fat, I will slim down." and then DIDN'T change my lifestyle and DIDN'T lose any weight, and then I failed in front of everyone!?  No, that's not what I do.  I'm too chicken.  The internet is a pretty vulnerable place.  Anybody can read anything you say.  And you can't really take it back.  Even though my blog is private, all anybody needs to do is to copy and paste my words or pictures and then they have them for anyone to see.  (Now don't go gettin' any ideas here!)
So I keep it all to myself until I have good news to share.  Like this post:
Guess what guys, I have lost 22 pounds in the past 2 months!    Which in my book is a pretty big accomplishment.  I still have a long way to go, but we are off to a good start.  (Dustin has lost 30 pounds, what a show-off, eh?)  We decided to try to lose weight because quite frankly, I was sick of how fat my face has been.  Have you noticed my lack of pictures of ME on the blog?  I hate how I look in pictures.  Hate it.  And I want to remember myself in these fun times we're having which meant that I needed to take a step in the right direction and change how I looked.  So to kick us off, we ordered Nutrisystem.  They send you all your meals and then you supplement in fresh foods like produce, dairy, and breads.  We were able to get gift cards from Costco 50% off and then online they always have like 40% off so we were able to get a decent rate (it's pretty expensive and we're still grad students).  The food was... meh... okay.  Dustin liked it way more than I did.  We stuck with pretty much only Nutrisystem foods for about and month and then the past month we've supplemented in our own foods-keeping things low cal, reduced fat, counting calories, and working out at the gym.  I've felt a lot better and am happy to be down 22 pounds.  My face is not-so-fat anymore and I'm okay being in pictures now. But I guess you'll have to wait for another blog post to actually see.  ;)
We still have Nutrisystem food left, but I'm very happy that we're implementing in more normal food.  This has been more a lifestyle change for us than just a diet-- We are all about portion sizes, reading nutrition facts, and staying within a good calorie range.  We should be doing this for the rest of our lives!! Of course that doesn't mean that I'm never eating cookies again.  That would be a sad sad life. In fact, I had Dustin make cookies this afternoon.  And they were delicious.  But it does mean that we have to stop after 1 or 2 cookies, not 5.
I set up some motivational rewards for myself to keep me excited about losing weight.  10 pounds was a new jewelry set (which I didn't buy... instead I got an expensive sewing machine, but that's probably another post), 20 pounds was new shoes, 30 pounds will be a manicure/pedicure, 40 pounds a new outfit, 50 pounds a weekend trip to Seattle (or the beach? Somewhere fun!)  I've needed new shoes for a while and I really wanted to get some from Forever Young Shoes in Utah when we were visiting, so I was very happy to reach my 20 pound goal while in Utah!  8 more pounds and I can get a little pampering.  Good idea? I think so.
I don't think I have an end goal weight in mind at this point.  Anything I can lose makes me happy.  As long as we keep at it, we should be healthy and looking oh-so-good in no time.  Project Looking Good is well on it's way.

Spring Break

Dustin's second quarter ended March 23rd so we ditched the city and headed out to the coast for some fun and relaxation in Lincoln City. Our hotel room was amazing. Seriously worth the $10 to get a nicer room with a fireplace and two person jacuzzi tub! Just look at how relaxing this looks!
So many bubbles!! On Friday night we went out for a couple sushi rolls and then saw The Hunger Games! We weren't necessarily planning on going opening night since we were on vacation, but we drove by Lincoln City's little theater and there was practically NO one there so we just HAD to go. Oh. my. goodness. I love The Hunger Games. I loved Katniss and Peeta and everyone. I thought it was such a good fit from the book!Saturday we had the best time shopping at the Tanger Outlet Mall. So many good stores and so many good deals! After shopping til we were ready to drop, we went to Mo's for some coastal clam chowder, fish and chips, and shrimp.
The great thing about Oregon coastal towns is that they are so quaint and calm. Not much to do, nothing that HAS to be done, so you can just relax and enjoy the coast! The weather was cloudy and a bit rainy, but we were at the coast so we duh, we went to the beach! It was beautiful! Rocks, kites, sunset, bliss.


We had dinner at a yummy restaurant that was on stilts over the water, which means the view was awesome, and then spent the night just relaxing in our jacuzzi and cuddling by the fireplace.

Sunday we were sad to go, but we stopped at another part of the beach for some beach combing (where we found nothing), and frisbee.

There were some stairs of death to get down from the parking. Stairs of death looking down....And the view looking back up.Happy at the beach!

We decided to drive home along the coast and it was so pretty! We found some great lookouts and a gorgeous beach with a monolith in the ocean and where a bunch of people were surfing.We ended our drive home stopping at Tillamook Cheese Factory for a little cheesy tour where Dustin was so excited to see a cheese jam in production. We had to get some goodies so we grabbed some ice cream, cheese, and fudge.

Now Dustin has had the past two weeks to play nintendo, watch baseball, and clean the house while I've been at work! 3rd quarter starts again on Monday and in 3 months we will be able to say that we are done with the first year of grad school! Wahoo! The countdown begins!