March Madness!!!

Wow! We've had a pretty crazy month!! Lots of things have happened....or it just feels like it!! Good news too....I have pictures to post! :) I have more on the other camera so those will come later!

Here are the highlights though:

Yup!! You're not blind! There really is no red line-it's that cold!! :)

This was on one of our Sunday outings-we went to the beach/gravel pits and met our friends Wayne and Jenna there with their puppy so she could run around. We successfully got our Jeep stuck.....again! Luckily someone came by and pulled us out! It was COLD! This is also showing Todd's ruff around his hood which I am proud to say I sewed on by hand!! :)

Here are the snow drifts that we woke up to right before Todd had to get to his morning Inservice. Lots of snow!! They should have cancelled that meeting!!! The roads were so bad!!

This is mainly for our moms but seriously we are so blessed! The only fruit and veggies you get up here are flown in and they are way expensive so we never buy them from the store. There's a family in our Branch, the Enderle's, and they order from Full Circle Farms which is a mailing program that sends fruits and veggies each week. Anyways one night we got a knock on the door and they had brought us a box that they wouldn't be using! It was SO nice! When I was making the salad I was getting upset because my hands were getting so cold from washing the veggies in the cold water and then I stopped and remembered...You live in the Arctic. You have no way of growing any of this which means you had to do no work in order for this to be in your house right now and you're complaining that your fingers are cold. We are so blessed! Thanks Enderle's!!!! :)

Leprechauns aren't real?? Think again!! This is what we pulled out of our dryer!! :)

We had the unfortunate event of mourning the death of a teenager....just kidding!! :) But we both did wear black to church! This was my 20th Birthday!! :) We went to the school after church to talk with my family on skype and open the box they sent me! It was fun! They even had a cake for me that my nephew blew out for me!

This was Todd's 25th Birthday/St. Patrick's Day! He said he likes the 'exact' amount of candles on the birthday cake. Well...up here where a box of 10 candles cost about $5 I went the old fashioned route and rolled up pieces of construction paper! They didn't stay lit very long but he was able to blow out one candle!! :) It was a pretty good cake I might add!! :) We both had great birthdays though! Thanks families for being so nice to us and sending us things!! :) You're great! Todd was great too.....I got a sewing machine! (sorry I don't have a picture uploaded on this computer yet)

This was the best part of March! We got to go down as a Branch and attend the Anchorage Temple!! We had two families get sealed-the McCrays and the Lilos! It was so special to be there for those!! It was great to be in the Temple with Todd though. I think we both feel a lot better about life in general now! While we were down there, we visited a Walmart!!! It was so crazy! Everything was so cheap!! We stocked up on the kitty litter and the kitty food for next year though! (It's expensive up here) I'm glad to be back in Barrow again though. There were WAY too many people down there! I seriously had so many panic attacks!!!

This was the group! Good looking wouldn't you agree?! :) It was between 45-50 degrees while we were down there! It was awesome! There was slush!! And mountains and trees and birds...it was great! We also saw 4 moose! 2 on the side of a busy street just eating grass...our shuttle driver almost hit one!!! And 2 more 20 feet from the doors of the Temple! We got good pictures of them....probably too good. I was so scared one was going to charge Todd!

We love our Branch!

Here is Barrow!! :) We live along the airport runway which is the long dark line in the middle of the picture. Our home is on the very far left side of it! :) Can't you see it!? Just kidding!

This is farther out but it shows the ocean. The ocean is frozen from where the town is out until where you can see the water......pretty cool!!

Well! That's all folks! Finally right? :) Sorry! I have pictures though so that makes it more interesting right? :)

Good News!!!

We're 2 months/8 weeks from seeing grass and trees and birds and cows and horses and mountains and FAMILY!!!!!!!!!! Wahoo!! Oh and school will be over!!!

I think we're gonna make it!! :)

Homecoming King and Queen?? Maybe not!

Hahaha! First of all I want to thank Annie Enderle for taking these for us!! :) Being the youngest teacher at the school Todd gets asked a lot to chaperone for the dances. Well they finally stopped asking him to chaperone and then guess who moved up here?? Me!! The person who can't say "no" to anyone!! Well we got trapped, thanks to me, into chaperoning Basketball Homecoming a few weekends ago. It was....fun. Annie was the photographer for the pictures and she asked if I could take the picture orders and since I was already going to be there I agreed...hey it'd pass the time right? She asked if we wanted a picture so we laughed and posed!! Hahaha!! Oh funny!!

Classic Prom pose right? We thought so!

Well! I think that's it for now! I have more pictures to put on but Todd has to help me download them....his camera is confusing! :)

The Sun'll Come Out....Yesterday!

Well the sun came out! :) It rose at about 12:50 pm and then went down at about 2 ish. It was so fun!! :) I would look out the window about every 20 minutes to see if it was coming up and it finally did! :) We went out to Fresh Water lake and got some good pictures! Well this is short but exciting! :) Oh! No job but I started Substitute teaching and watching a little 7 month old baby girl named Georgiana! She's half Samoan, half Native....she's beautiful! So something to keep me busy! Todd was called to be the Seminary Teacher up here in the Branch so that'll keep him extra busy too! Well that's it for now!

Together In Alaska!

Well! I just wrote a really long post and then exited out of the wrong window! Lucky you guys! It was all rambling anyways! Lots has happened since my last post! Lets see:

• I graduated with my LPN
• Todd finished his first semester of teaching
• I took my LPN boards and....PASSED! :)
• We celebrated our 1st anniversary!
• Our first Christmas together of course! :)
• Todd came down during his break and helped me move out the apartment AND pack all our stuff into storage AND pack all my things to move to Alaska.....stressful!!
• The Guymons (Todd's sister and brother in-law's family) came and visited from Texas
• We went and saw the lights at Temple Square
• Very LONG plane rides
• We're finally both in Alaska! :)

Lots and lots! Well I've been up here for about 2 weeks now. I like it. It's definitely different being the minority though. The sun isn't up yet. The sky gets bright like it's almost up for about 2-3 hours during the day. In about 9 days it'll pop up over the horizon though! :) The dark actually doesn't bother me. I barely even notice it. The cold.....even after putting layers and layers and layers on, the cold still somehow gets through! Today it's been about -30 degrees with a wind chill of -50 to -55 degrees! Your eyeballs basically freeze! :) Oh and something to look forward to....this isn't even 'cold' to the people who've lived here for awhile. They say it's just 'the beginning of what's to come'!!!! Ahh!! In Utah when it was -4 outside I thought I was going to freeze to death! Last week, one morning, it was -4.....I thought it was warm! Thank you acclimatization! :)

So far, still no job. I spend my days reading, doing puzzles, cleaning, doing laundry, ironing (we have an iron now!!), playing with Kali who, by the way, is incredibly obese at the moment! The days seem long until Todd comes home at 4, then they go by in a flash!

We have a very exciting life up here! On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we go to the Post Office and grocery store (just to see if anything is on sale) when Todd gets home, then we eat and watch the Cosby Show on our computer! On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I go to the school at 4 and hang out until 8 when Open Shop Night closes. Lots to do up here in Barrow! Lots and lots! :)

Well! I don't know what else to catch you up on. I thought I'd get better with this once school was over but it's kind of harder now since I don't even have the internet! :) Oh good news though! I have lots of closets in our apartment! Guess what though? We don't have hangers now to hang our stuff up! Hahaha! :)

I would put pictures up but I don't really know where the plug in for the camera is...I hope I didn't pack it away in storage somewhere! :) Someday though I'll put some up! :) Maybe!

Well I think that's it for now!!! :)

Holy Cow!!

I seem to have time to look at everyone else's cute blogs but when it comes to mine.......well you can see for yourself!!

November (and October for that matter) has gone SO quickly!! It was filled though with things that helped that time pass.

Todd was able to come visit for Thanksgiving which was a blast!! Only 19 more days of this stinkin livin apart activity!! So excited!! While he was visiting, I also had the wonderful opportunity to go under the knife. AKA get those stinkin gall bladder and appendix outta me!! It was rough!! Todd got some pretty sick pictures of me! :) Thanks dear!! I have some nice scars though! :) I have 6, 1 1/2 to 2 inch incisions and 19 staples!! :) Yeah!! I don't even want to know what my poor tummy will look like after all the babies and these ugly things!! :)

This past month I had my Mother/Baby clinical rotations......it was absolutely the most fun clinicals out of all of them!! I loved it!! My favorite is the Newborn ICU....guess I'm just gonna follow my momma through her footsteps through and through!! :)

Today I took my last final for Nursing school. Which means.......I'M DONE!!!! I can't believe this year is gone! I graduate next Thursday and it couldn't be much more needed! It's definitely an accomplishment that I'm glad to say is finally over! I applied to 2 nursing schools to finish my RN year. I was accepted at Weber State which is very flattering but I turned the position down so I could move up to Alaska. I mainly applied to get an extra point the next time I apply so I can be guaranteed a spot when I'm ready for it. I also applied at University of Alaska Anchorage....I haven't heard back from them yet but I will most likely be turning that one down too if I'm accepted. I'd rather just be with Todd for the semester! :) Who knows where we'll be in the Fall though. Hopefully I've gotten my foot in one of the doors that will be opened up to us in the future!

Here are a few of the pictures that I promised a month ago! I'll have more soon...ish!! :)

Before

After

Whitney and I after chopping our hair!!! So scary!! :)

Well! That's all for now folks! Maybe I'll get more ambitious and be on here more someday....doubt it! :) Have a good day!!

I Did It!!!

Well!! I did it! I got the courage to chop my hair!!! 10 inches!! I've been wanting to donate for about the past month and I finally did it!! Whitney Archibald (a friend from class) and I went and did it together!! It wasn't that bad! My head feels MUCH lighter....no more headaches!!! Sorry I don't have pictures downloaded at the moment to post but they will be coming soon....ish!!! :)

Well!! 10 days and Todd will be makin his unexpected trip from Alaska down to be with me during the surgeries!!! So fun!!! :)