JANUARY

Well I have come to grips with my last post. We will be moving to California if Daniel gets into one of the med school there. I am good with that happening and I am kind of excited to not have to deal with the snow.

January is a busy month for Daniel and I because of birthdays. We celebrated Jakob's birthday on Monday the 18th. His birthday is really the 21st him and Brock share that birthday. We went downtown to Rodizio Grill. It is a Brazilian steakhouse and they have some delicious food. I get the salad bar and Daniel gets the "full Rodizio" which is all you can eat meat and salad bar. Daniel out ate everyone, he had two huge plates of meat and by the time he was finished eating he was stuffed to the top. It is always fun to go there since Daniel is such a meat eater. The salad bar is small but has a ton of good things and since I am vegetarian it is super yummy to my taste buds. Then we went to Marble Slab Creamery and had the best ice cream in the world. I usually get coconut ice cream with marshmallows and sprinkles but this time I got cake batter ice cream with sprinkles and Daniel and I shared it. So delicious. Mmmm good.

Daniel and I
Maddie and Jakob

The whole group at Rodizio Grill
The boys at Marble Slab

Mad and I at Marble Slab
We are so cute :)

Then on Tuesday the 19th we celebrated Shelly's birthday at The Olive Garden and it was so good. I am addicted to that place and pizza lately. Yum Yum. Shelly's birthday is on the 23rd but she will be in Vegas so we had to catch her before she left. We had a really good time with her.

Daniel and I with Shelly for her Bday celebration

All of us at The Olive Garden for Shelly's 23rd Bday

The rest of the week played out normal, we went to work and carried on with our busy lives. My family came into Wingers on Brocks birthday to celebrate. We have been pretty busy at Wingers lately so we didn't get to talk much when they came in.

My birthday is coming up next. I am staying home and doing nothing all day :) That is all I really wanted for my birthday is a day of relaxation. People are going to stop in if they want to see me but I am not leaving. I know Maddie is planning on cooking some yummy Mexican food for me and I am pretty excited about that. She is a freaking good cook and I am thrilled. I am anxious to see what Daniel is getting me for my birthday since it is such a big surprise. Daniel and Maddie are going shopping today for my present. Yay me.

Saturday night after I got off from Wingers Maddie and I went to Wal-Mart to buy some yarn for headbands we make and sell and on our way back to my house I almost hit three deer. Then Maddie and I stalked them and took pictures. I was a little shaken up but they were so fun to follow. That was really exciting so I thought I would share it with everyone ha ha. Well I am off to another fun filled week that will end with my birthday so until next time have fun with life. You only live once :)

2 of the deer I almost hit

Daniel's Schooling and so on...

I am here mainly to talk about Daniel’s schooling.


First off, he is officially a registered Certified Nurses Assistant (CNA). He got his certificate in the mail a while ago and I forgot to tell everyone.


Second, Daniel is going to be taking a Phlebotomy course at the beginning of April and that will look really good on his application when he applies to med school.


Third, Daniel has decided his major which is a huge relief for him. He has decided that Anthropology with Health Emphasis is what he would like to do. Most medical schools are now looking to accept people who have unique majors versus the typical Biology or Chemistry major. For those of you who don’t know, Anthropology is the scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans. The University of Utah said the study of Anthropology with Health Emphasis is to teach the interactions between biological, environmental and social factors influencing health and illness; human adaptation and maladaptation from an evolutionary perspective and how systems of medical knowledge and health care vary across cultures.


Fourth, I have been researching med schools. There are a total of ten med schools in California. Two of which specialize in osteopathic medicine so that leaves eight medical schools that Daniel will be able to apply to in California. There are five different University of California medical schools UCDavis in Davis, UCSD in San Diego, UCLA in Los Angeles, UCSF in San Francisco and UCI in Irvine. Also, there is KECK University in Los Angeles, Loma Linda in Loma Linda and Stanford in Stanford. When the time comes he will apply to all eight of the California med schools and also to the U of U. We will most likely relocate to California for him to attend med school. I am slowly coming to grips with that idea, though leaving family is one thing that makes me sad to think about it. I was born in Cali and I absolutely love it. Half of my family still lives in California so it won’t be that hard of a move…I hope. My great grandma had two daughters Carol and Bonnie. Carol is my grandma and she along with her six children and their children and their children live in Utah. Then Bonnie and her five children and their children live in California. I consider them Aunts, Uncles and Cousins because that is pretty much how we were raised. Also, my Aunt Susie and her kids live in California. So, I would be moving to California still having family to see often if I needed too. I figure if Daniel can still get his bachelors degree in the time we figured we will be making the big move to California either at the beginning of January 2012 or the beginning of May 2012. We have planned for none of this to happen but it seems like it will be the right thing to do and so far it looks more and more like it will one day be a reality.


Fifth, almost everybody knew we were going to start trying to have a family at the end of 2010 but due to the change of events in our future we will have to postpone it a bit longer. We figured that it would be smart for us to wait and when the time is right we will know. So, we really don’t know when that will be but we are going to assume it is longer then we had been planning. We are good with all the changes that will come in the future and we can’t wait for what more exciting surprises are ahead of us.

December to an end and 2010 begins.

I haven't blogged in so long I had to pull out my 2009 calendar so I make sure not to forget anything important. Well Daniel finished school and starts up again on January 11th. School is going well for him. I am getting nervous about medical school because the odds of him getting into the University of Utah's med program is slim to none. I really don't want to move out of state but it is not looking in my favor to have the luxury of an opinion in this matter. Sad, I know.


Daniel and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium for Baby Ashton's birthday celebration. He turned one year old. He is our favorite new one year old out there. The aquarium was pretty neat it had quite a bit of fish and soon there will be a penguin exhibit. I can't wait for that since the penguin is my favorite animal. This is a picture of Daniel and I with; Jess who is Ashton's aunt; the one and only Baby Ashton and Jen who is Ashton's Mom. We love them so much they are all our family. On December 21st Chaz had a concert at Bingham High School. He has first chair for the Bass. He did really well and Daniel really enjoyed being able to go back to the school he graduated from and listen to their perfomance. It is called the Candlelight Concert and they always perform it before Christmas. Chaz was looking pretty slick in his Tux and we enjoyed his performance. Daniel got to sing in the last song and that is what this picture is he is on the right hand side next to the Harp in this picture. Chaz is in the picture below looking pretty studly.

This is our Christmas tree. I am not sure why I even bothered to put it up this year because I felt like I never got to look at it and it was taken down before I even knew it. I sure do love Christmas though and that is probably why I put it up.
We celebrated Christmas with all the usual traditions. First is our huge family part at my parents house. All the cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and family friends get together for a huge party. We all bring appetizers and dessert. The kids have a gift exchange and the adults play the White Elephant game. We all leave the party having had a blast and with gifts in arms. We love it. Then Daniel and I spent the night at my parents so we could wake up Christmas morning and open gifts. I got a new sewing maching and a gun. Yes, a real live gun....it was a bit scary. Daniel got video games and the Wheel of Time series (it is a book he really enjoys..12 books) We had a really wonderful Christmas and went to my grandma Nelta's for dinner and visited with everyone there.
After Christmas we drove to Idaho. Yup, that's right on the 26th of December my cousin Stevie got married in the Twin Falls temple. It was a gorgeous temple and Daniel and I had fun spending time together. This is us at his reception.
Daniel and I had the whole last week of December off and we saw three movies, all of which I probably enjoyed equally. We saw Avatar, Sherlock Holmes and The Princess and the Frog. All three were good movies. On New Years Eve we went to Teppanyaki Steak House they cook the food in front of you it was so much fun. The three pictures below are us having fun at dinner.
That evening Daniel and I had a party at our house. Everyone played board games and rock band. I think everyone had a good time. We loved bringing in the new year with all our closest friends and our family of course.

We were able to see Daniel's Aunt, Uncle and their kids on New Years. We had dinner with them and visited with them about the holidays. We didn't see them for Christmas since they were in southern Utah visiting Grandma and Grandpa Ruesch. We are grateful to have all of our wonderful friends and family. We are grateful to bring in the new year healthy and happy. We love you all.