The future has arrived

I've always tended to be one that lives in the future.  My thinking and planning has been, "When I go to college, when I get married, when we have a baby, when we finish school, etc."
The future has arrived. Not on the baby part (don't get excited), but we are done with school.  That has been the biggest "living in the future" for me.  When we're done with school and have a job then we can do this or that or life will be wonderful.
Dustin had his final check out of clinic and school today. He is officially DONE.  Monday he will take Utah State boards and Tuesday he will start a new job.  We are so blessed and so grateful that he got this job.  He really really really wanted it and we are really really really excited about it.
So now we're here in the future- done with school and landed a dream job.  And I don't know what to think.  I don't want to live in the future anymore, I am enjoying the present and soaking up these last few moments in Oregon.  I cried today as we were driving and talking about all the good memories we've made.  Life has been wonderful in the present.  This has been such a big part of our lives and it's emotional to close this chapter.
The next chapter is a new and exciting adventure and I am looking forward to what the future holds.  But I'm so ready to live in the present and enjoy each and every day.
I don't know what I'll be doing once we're settled- if I'll be getting a job or enjoying some time at home. 
I guess we'll see what the next few days bring.
For now, we are enjoying the moment. 

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!

What's the plan Phil?

2014 is well underway and we are almost able to start officially counting down to the end of school, but we're not quite there yet.  6 more months to go!  The past two years have flown by, so I'm sure the next 6 months will too!
Many people (myself included) have been asking "What are you going to do after graduation? Where are you going to end up?" 
Guess what.  I have no idea.  The plan changes every few weeks too.  We were hoping that we would be able to move to Utah in July and spend Dustin's last quarter in a preceptorship (like an unpaid apprenticeship).  Then Snowmaggedon happened and the clinic was closed for a few days, which made it nearly impossible for Dustin to get all his clinic requirements in a quarter early.  So we're sticking it out in Portland until the end of September. 
We've known for a while now that we would like to end up in Utah, and lately we've really wanted to be in St. George.  But it really depends on where Dustin can get a job.  We don't want to start our own practice out the gate, but would like to join a practice as an associate and hopefully be able to start working with a team. 
We will be going to Utah the first week in April to get the registration for the car we are borrowing from my parents taken care of, and we are hoping to shadow a few docs and get to know them.  We have a few leads we are looking forward to meeting and hope one of them will lead to a job offer! 
It would be so nice to know now where we'll be the end of the year.  I am so envious of my brother and sister in law that have job offers for after law school graduation this year and can start looking for apartments and planning their life. 
Hopefully in a month I will know more!  Hopefully we will have a job offer and will know where we are going to end up so I can start planning the next step!  I'll keep you posted.

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!