Farewell to Portland

We enjoyed our last few weeks in Portland and tried to do everything we could to soak it all in.  My parents flew out September 18th to help us drive back the 2 cars.  Thursday the 18th we enjoyed visiting our favorite Portland sites- Gateway Breakfast house, the temple, food trucks, Powell's Books, and Voodoo Doughnuts.

 

 

 

 We had dinner at Noho's, ending our Portland experience where it started 3 years ago.
That night we drove out to Hood River and spent the night at the Hood River Hotel.  I'm not a fan of old buildings, but it was a fun adventure and the breakfast was delish. 

 

The drive around the Hood River Fruit Loop was beautiful and I'm glad we were able to stop by our favorite farms one last time.

 

 

 

 

 Another pit stop night in Boise and we were back home to Utah!
It's great to be back with family and Salem is so beautiful. 

We miss Portland and still think about all our friends all the time but Utah is home.

Packing

I hate packing.  I really do.  Having to cram my whole life into boxes is the worst.  We are excited for this next stage of life- no more school, no more student loans (just paying them off for the next forever), just being adults with real jobs, and hopefully real kids and real houses somewhere in the next few years.
We are anxiously waiting to hear back about a few jobs Dustin interviewed for in Utah last week.  There's one that Dustin really really really wants so I'm really really really hoping that he gets it.  Send good vibes/prayers/juju to us pretty please? 

As I'm packing I feel like there are so many things left to do in Oregon and I am sad to go.  This will always be our second home, a place that we will always love and hope to come back and visit often.
Here are just a few things I am really going to miss about Oregon:
No sales tax
Trees EVERYWHERE
Waterfalls
Someone else pumping your gas for you
Being close to the beach, the mountains, the desert, all within a 2 hour drive
All our friends we have made here
Being so close to the Art and Sheri Gaileys and the Brent and Holly Creers
Farmers markets every weekend in the summer
Cinetopia
Rain (I still don't think it rained enough while we were here!)
No judgements from anyone


We have been working on our bucket list but we are definitely not going to be able to finish it. Just means we need to plan a trip back next summer so please keep in touch all you Oregon peeps! We want to see you again!
We are really excited to be so close to both our immediate families and being there for more family functions. 
Looking back to when we moved here 3 years ago, I feel like we were so young and now we are so old.  We've grown a lot in these past few years.  When we moved here we had recently gone through fertility treatments that ended in miscarriages.  It was hard for me to talk about my infertility without getting super emotional.  I have become a lot more comfortable with myself and my struggles.  I love that no one here questioned the fact that we have no kids. I found so much support from others in my ward who struggled with infertility.  I have some worries about going to Utah and knowing that we will be the odd childless ducks. I'm hoping that when we get these questions (because I know they're coming) I can answer with love and tact. 
And now I need to go do some more packing...

Welcome home Sister Jack!

Dustin and I spent a whirlwind weekend in July with our families.  We originally planned for just me to fly in for Ginelle's homecoming, but then decided a few weeks before that Dustin should come too.  And I'm so glad that he did! I'm also super glad that we booked our tickets on Southwest so we could sit together! Southwest for the win.
Dustin and I flew in to Salt Lake City on Friday July 11th just 20 minutes before Sister Ginelle Jack's flight was scheduled to land.

We got off our flight, checked an board for arrivals and saw that her plan had landed!  We rushed over to the Delta section of SLC and called my mom to make sure it was ok that we see Ginelle first, right as she got off her flight. My mom said she would be jealous but that she knew Ginelle would love to see us there.
We waited patiently as everyone got off the flight and there was no Ginelle yet. I was getting worried that I had looked at the wrong flight so I asked a passenger who had just gotten off and she said it was correct. Finally, Sister Jack walked out of the jetway and I ran up to her and gave her a hug. She was so surprised and so happy to see us! It was awesome to be able to spend a few minutes with her before everyone else.

We planned how she would make her entrance- Dustin and I would be standing in front hiding her, we'd count to three and then lean to the side so she could pop out the middle! Our family saw Dustin and I coming down the escalators and looked so disappointed. Then she popped out and they all cheered (scaring poor baby Audrey). But because it was a surprise, no one really caught it on camera.  Haha.

 

 We left the airport and gathered at The Cheesecake Factory for Ginelle's welcome home meal.  We loved having Elliott sit next to us.  Look at the adorable bread and banana plate they give kids!

 

 

Unfortunately, Elliott was not entertained for long.

 

 It was so fun being there with so much family and sharing meals, sharing cheesecakes, and being loud and crazy together.  I miss being with family so so much!

Friday night Ginelle was released as a missionary and we spent the evening catching her up on all the YouTube videos she missed while she was away.
Saturday morning I worked on finishing the Dino quilt for Dallin and Becky's baby.  I hadn't done binding in a while and I am not used to my mom's machine so it was harder than it should have been.  But I finished it and I think it turned out adorable!

 We missed the Blendfresh launch party at Thanksgiving Point that morning (and our chance to win a Blendtec), but it was good to be able to finish the quilt and help prep for the couples baby shower that afternoon. We had fun games and prizes and enjoyed getting ready for baby Rex (not his real name, just what I called him).

I like how my dino themed presents for baby turned out and I think they really liked them!

 

 Saturday night we spent with the Creers enjoying Texas Roadhouse and hanging out together. It's always a good time at the Creers!
Sunday was Ginelle's mission homecoming talk and we enjoyed visiting Salem 4th ward.  That afternoon I started to feel sick so I took a long long nap.  Like 3 hours I think.  When I woke up it was time for Frozen with the family followed by old family movies.  Nathan, Dustin, and I stayed up way to late trying to find an old home movie we made but we found it!  It was fun to see the endless dance parties we had growing up and how Evan was completely adored as a baby.

 

 Monday morning I woke up still feeling sick, but worse because I was nauseous.  We had an early morning temple trip scheduled for Spencer to receive his endowment because he has his mission call and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it.  I got ready and asked Nathan and Dustin for a blessing.  We were a little late to the temple but made it in time for the session and I am so glad I was there! I love being in the Celestial Room with my family.  And Spencer was so happy.

 

 

 I was feeling a little better so we all went to IHOP for breakfast, but then I started feeling sick again so we rushed home.
Monday afternoon Dustin had an appointment to shadow a chiropractor up in West Jordan who is hiring.  We packed up our stuff and headed up with my mom, Ginelle, Becky, and Reimi. Dustin was dropped off at the office and then the girls had a lovely afternoon of shopping and Cold Stone.  We picked up Dustin a few hours later and headed to the airport for our flight home. I was afraid that I'd have another barfing on the plane experience like when we came home for Dallin's wedding, but I was feeling much better and there was no barfing.  :)
Right after we checked our bags in for our flight, we got the text that our flight was delayed by an hour.  It would have been nice if they could have sent that 20 mins earlier! We hung out at the airport and talked about how Dustin's shadowing went.  The doctor is definitely hiring (which is a definite plus!) but his philosophy of practice is a lot different than Dustin's, which means he wouldn't be a good fit for us and we won't be a good fit for him.  So we're still looking.
One thing we learned from this trip is that Utah is DEFINITELY where we want to be and feel like we should be.  We are still unclear on the details, but we are excited to be going back home.
It was a fast and furious weekend but I'm so glad we went! Even if it meant coming back to mounds of work.

Breaking up with Portland

Fun fact (you should let other people tell you they're fun- Pitch Perfect): This is the longest we've ever lived anywhere in our married lives. It's true.  We love Oregon and we love the friendships we have made out here.  It will always be our 2nd home and we plan on coming back to visit often. But...
It's official.  We're breaking up with Portland.  We handed in our 30 day notice at our apartment complex yesterday and will be packing up a moving truck and driving it to Utah Labor Day weekend.
While trying to come up with a plan for when we wanted to move and where we wanted to move to, we've tried to go through a couple scenarios. It's been a debate between Labor Day weekend and mid September.  We had made up our minds to move September 18th when my parents could fly out and help us load up.  But then our apartment decided to raise rent (yet again) exponentially higher starting September 1st so we knew it was time to move before then.
We still don't know what we're going to do in Utah.  Dustin has been applying for jobs and working with a friend on a business plan to start our own, but we are not positive which direction we are going to take.  I'm sure I can get a job once we get there, but it makes a difference if we're going to be in South Salt Lake County as an associate vs. Utah county with our own practice, so I'm holding off applying anywhere until we can finalize that decision.
Which means we have no idea what we're doing.  All we know is that we definitely want to be in Utah and feel like that's where we are supposed to be.  We are moving in faith and hoping that our little savings will get us through until we figure it out.
Thank goodness for parents.  And family.  We still have a few things to finish up the first couple weeks in September so we will be staying with my aunt and uncle in Battle Ground (cousin sleepover EVERY NIGHT Connor!)  Our stuff will go into storage in Utah until we figure out where we are going. And once we're in Utah, we'll stay at my parent's house until one of us gets a job.
I'm hoping this next month we'll have some firm decisions made and can move forward with life.  It's kind of a scary move going into the unknown, but I know that this is where we are supposed to be.
It will all work out, right?

Life Updates

I know I've needed to do a post about our Utah trip and a gluten free update, so I figured I would combine them all in a general "life" update.  Hope that works.  Sorry... it's long.

Our Utah trip was ok.  Maybe I should be more enthusiastic about it considering I used up all my PTO for this trip, but it was just a really busy trip with lots of driving.  And we only got to catch friends and family for a moment here and there.  I look forward to the day when we live much closer and can spend real time together!

Dustin rocking my shades since he forgot to bring his

We drove from Portland to Boise, then Boise to Salem, then Salem to St. George.  Once in St. George we stayed for a full 48 hours before driving back up to Salem.  By this point I was DONE with driving and ready for teleportation to be invented NOW (or yesterday).

 While in St. George Dustin visited with lots of docs and spent a whole day with one that we really like.  We also got to visit with my cousin Amber and Joe, high school friend Spencer and Stacie (and baby Isabelle), and Dustin's cousin Emily and Landon.  And we got to eat at Dickey's. Holy gluten free BBQ goodness.  Once upon a time there was a Dickey's here in Gresham but then it closed.  And then we were sad.

Back in Salem Dustin visited with more docs while we tried to fit in visits with the Creers, the Jacks, and high school/college friends Scott and Tiffany, Lindsey, and Lauren.  We also got to remember the joys of Chuck-a-Rama taking my grandparents out to lunch as a thank you for doing our taxes.  They pretty much are the best. :)  And oh yeah! We finally got to meet Kinsey, Kendra and Adam's baby!

 When we were at church in Salem at my home ward, we got to check out the missionary board and it was full of missionaries! 18 just from my home ward! So proud that my sister Ginelle is one of them right now!

The weather in St. George was BEAUTIFUL but Utah county had another idea of April fools-snow!  Yuck yuck.  Certainly do not miss that part about Utah!

No wonder we want to move here.. beautiful blue skies!

Some of the doctor visits were frustrating while others were very enlightening.  We would still like to join a doctor as an associate (we're hoping for our favorite St. George doc!) but if that doesn't work out, we are seriously contemplating starting our own practice.  Which is scary.  But could be awesome.  Hopefully we'll have a real decision as to which direction we will be going in the next few months so that 12th quarter we can really get plans worked out.
We were able to catch Conference on the way home by listening to it on KSL.  Between family visits here or our visits to Utah, we keep missing conference! I am definitely looking forward to next month's Ensign to catch up on the talks that we missed.  And to next Conference session when we will be DONE with school!

Life back in Portland is still as busy as ever.  Dustin has a similar schedule to last quarter but with a little more flexibility. He loves being able to spend time in the clinic and work with real patients.  Dustin loves chiropractics and dreams about it frequently. One time I woke up in the middle of the night because he had grabbed my foot. I asked what he was doing and he told me he was just going to try an ankle flow.  I told him "no you're not" and that was it. In the morning, he didn't even know that had happened.  He is sleep adjusting! I'm glad he loves this career path so much and that this was a good decision for him.  Graduation ceremony will be coming up the end of June but he won't be done til mid September.  That's only 4 months away!  One of his teachers this quarter talked about the importance of going on a family vacation when school is done.  He is my new favorite teacher. :)  Not sure how we'll be able to fit a trip in, but hopefully we can plan something cool sometime within a year of graduation.
My work is still busy busy.  Working in accounting I really can't tell you much about my job, but I can say that this month I will have the highest number of invoices entered in the history of this company EVER. And this record breaking month is from the new record I made in December. Good thing I'm a rock star so I can keep up with this workload, eh?  I talked to my boss about our upcoming plans for the fall and gave her a tentative last day of September 5th.  Who gives a 4 months notice like that?! I know, I'm crazy. But they can take a while to hire someone new and I want a month (at least) to train.  I told her I want to stay until then so they can't get rid of me sooner even if they find my replacement.  She agrees. She really loves me doesn't want us to leave. I love that she looks for job openings for us here so we can stay.
I've also been trying to think about what I want to do after Dustin's graduation.  Our entire marriage has been getting Dustin through school.  If we start our own practice I will definitely be a big part of running the office. If he joins as an associate then I have a lot of freedom as to what I can do.  I don't know if I want to stay in accounting forever... right now a part time job at a fabric store sounds super ideal besides the fact that it would be a retail job and a retail job sounds awful.  We'll see how things end up.

I often get asked how I'm feeling now that I'm gluten free.  It's been over a month now (about 6 weeks) and I feel just fine.  Remember that I wasn't having major digestive problems, so it's kinda hard to say exactly if there are any changes. I feel like the other symptoms I talked about earlier have decreased a little. I don't get anxiety as much, but it comes and goes. Some days are good, some days are bad.  Same with my energy level, I feel like that has gone up, but some days I'm drained (like this week's #manlessmonday where I came home from work and took a two hour nap instead of doing something productive- or anything at all really), and others I'm ready to conquer the world (like today is a good productive day).  Eating gluten free has been a pretty easy transition. The only time I've REALLY wanted to eat something with gluten was when we had lunch at Panera and they brought around FREE fresh baked baguette loaves.  Oh my, the heavenly smell of fresh baked bread! But I was strong and we gave the loaf away. I've found some really delicious recipes and enjoy what I eat.
In case you were wondering, eating gluten free does NOT mean eating Paleo or clean or healthy.  There are so many delicious gluten free things out there that are super unhealthy (cupcakes, fries, chips, etc).  Another question I get is if Dustin is gluten free as well, which he is not. When we eat food I cook (which is becoming more and more common, wahoo!) then he does, but if we're eating out, he gets regular food. And that's fine, I don't feel like he's not supportive (he's very supportive) or making me feel bad. I like what I eat. There's a lot of great GF options.
We are trying to move toward a more "clean eating" lifestyle in addition to gluten free and I am excited for those changes.  We're planning on eating less sugar, more veggies.  Less processed, more whole foods.  It will be a good switch.
For all those wondering how Portland vs. Utah with gluten free options compares, Utah has a lot of great things going for them in the Gluten free field.  Number one is probably New Grains.  We picked up some New Grains products sold at Macey's and I am in love.  The English muffins, pizza dough mix, and crepe mix are all amazing.  The texture is amazing, the taste is amazing. All around delicious! Sweet Tooth Fairie's GF cupcakes were not magical but her sugar cookies are! Costa Vida is basically all GF and were very accommodating to even avoid cross contamination (something I don't worry about a LOT, but do a little).  Utah has In'N'Out.  Utah has Dickey's.  As much as Portland is "forward thinking" in their dietary needs service, Utah has a lot of good things going on and I feel like they're pretty equal. Though if it came to straight up gluten free bakeries, Portland would win.  Which is maybe why I should start my own gluten free bakery in Utah. ;)

So that's life for us in a nut shell. Still busy, still GF, and still hanging in there through the good times and the bad.

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.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Because we left for Utah on December 17th, we celebrated Christmas at our home on December 16th, just like the Dunphy family from Modern Family. Only we didn't have an express Christmas, we had a normal one :) Santa Claus came to town and we were able to open presents and stockings and enjoy the day together. We packed up that day in preparation for our flight on Saturday.
My family picked us up at the airport in SLC, then we went to the Grand America to check out the giant gingerbread candy house. We were going to check out the lights at temple square, but no one really felt like it, so we skipped out and went to dinner at Zupas in Draper instead.
It was fun to have almost everyone together including....
Elder Dallin Jack!! He returned from his mission in Tokyo Japan on December 21st, just in time for Christmas celebrations!
I always thought it was so wonderful to have our families so close together cuz that meant we could spend the holidays with both families, but this trip I felt the stress of trying to get equal amounts of time in with both families. We spent Christmas eve with the Creer clan in a big family party complete with Christmas ham, white elephant gifts, and hot chocolate chugging. Dustin's grandparents brought HUGE white elephant gifts and Dustin and I agreed that we would be the ones to end up with them, just cuz we were the only ones who wouldn't be able to bring them home on a plane. And guess what.... we were right! Check out my sweet new fireplace cover.... that is currently residing at my parent's house.Dustin's gift he ended up with is a Nutcracker set for the 12 days of Christmas. It was actually pretty cute, but is also hanging out with Cowboy Santa and his posse of snowmen.
Christmas day we spent with the Jack fam complete with stockings from Santa, Christmas sugar plum ring, opening lots of presents, Christmas sacrament meeting with the home ward, and a Roast Beast dinner.
The day after Christmas, Dustin and I headed up to East Canyon with the Creers for a couple days. Now our normal December trip to East Canyon is filled with lots of hot cocoa, sledding, and building snow igloo slides. This year there was NO snow, so we spent the vacation playing a lot of Just Dance 3 and Michael Jackson dancing on the Wii, watching movies, and shooting guns. I shot a gun for the first time in my life! At first we thought I was slightly retarded, but then realized I'm really just left eye dominant and needed to shoot left handed. And then I was a bull-eye every time. Okay, not every time, but I think I'm a pretty decent shot for a beginner!
After East Canyon we spent some more time with the Jacks, celebrating my Momma's birthday, introducing them to Just Dance 3, and lots of Carcassonne.
New Years Eve was spent playing, that's right, Just Dance 3! with the Creers. We saw The Muppets with the Creer clan, which was cute, but not as AMAZING as I was hoping. Then we had a dance off, Ticket to Ride Germany, Uno, and a countdown with bubbly to 2012.
New Years day brought a missionary homecoming talk by recently returned Elder Dallin Jack at an early 9 AM. He gave a great talk and it was fun to have family over for the afternoon. We love our Jack family and we don't always get to see them!
The rest of our time in Utah was trying to spend as much time as we could with family and friends. Of course I had to visit Roberts Crafts with it's store closing 75% off sales and was super excited to get 21 items for $21 including tax! We flew back to Portland on January 6th and were happy to see our apartment and car untouched while we were gone for 3 weeks. The day after we got back, we were sure to stop by Target to pick up our own copy of Just Dance 3 on the wii. It was so great to be with family and back in Utah for so long because we probably won't get to spend that much time with them for a while, if ever!
The holidays were very happy and the Christmas was very merry! As busy as December always is, it really is the most wonderful time of the year when you get to spend it with family!