TAG - ROAD TRIP

So, our plans have recently changed (for those of you who knew what they were), or haven't (if you didn't know). Dan and I our moving together down to Destin, Florida. We will be making a TRUE cross-country road trip in less than 2 weeks from Auburn, WA to Destin, FL. We have 12 days to pack our moving truck, unpack at our destination, and drive across our great nation with stops that will include Mr. Rushmore, Nebraska - to see the Johnson Family :O), Oklahoma - to see family, and Memphis Tennessee - to see...(I'm not sure yet. For some odd reason I've always wanted to go there. Anyone been there before? I know that is where Elvis lived, and supposedly they have great music?) We are very excited! So, in preparation for our road trip...

Here is the TAG!

To: Anyone and everyone who reads this blog,

Post about your most memorable Road Trip experience. Now you can take "memorable" to mean whatever you want, but I am curious to see what sort of trips stand out in everyone's memories. I look forward to reading them!

Breaking Dawn Madness...

So, I've never been one on top of new releases of anything! I didn't get into Harry Potter really until they were all out. I've never done the midnight matinées of ANY movie, and I've never waited in line longer than a normal ticket line or grocery for ANYTHING! In fact I will wait until movies get to the $2 theater before even if I really want to see them. Well, I guess there is always a first for everything.

I have been encouraged by many people to read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series. I had to wait until school and state boards were done, but once I started I really enjoyed them. Now, I don't think I would say enough to get myself to Borders books or Barnes and Nobles at midnight for the last of the series release. But due to my Mom, sister, and a few women in the ward I somehow ended up making shirts with my Mom and sister and going to a Twilight Party that ended with cramming into a suburban with 8 other women and young women to be at Barnes and Nobles to pick up our copies of Breaking Dawn. And it was actually a lot of fun. We had a trivia game of all the books at the party, there were party favors and pictures one woman and her daughters had put together from their trip to Forks, WA (where the book takes place) and the bookstore was having costume contests, trivia, and more. It was fun to hear debates of the the books and hear people share their favorites and so on. All in all, it was a fun night, and it was fun to be a part of the group to celebrate something little, but fun!

(For those of you who know sister Sodenkamp - she was there and she was hilarious. We were walking from our parking spot to the book store and she screamed and started running for the doors saying, "I just can't wait! Why are we walking!!!" It was fun!)

Book Tag

1. Pick up the nearest book to you (one of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Well, I had my choice of the 4 books of Stephanie Meyers Twilight series all stacked next to me when I read about this tag. Since I haven't gotten to page 123 on the newest book I just grabbed and opened the second book. It sounds weird if you haven't read it and you may be wondering what kind of book this is, but here it goes.

"I wasn't paying attention to where I was driving - just wandering through empty, wet side roads as I avoided the ways that would take me home - because I didn't have anywhere to go. I wished I could feel numb again, but I couldn't remember how I'd managed it before. The nightmare was nagging at my mind and making me think about things that would cause me pain."

TAG: Brandi, Mookie, Tori, Amy, and Chris

Girls Camp

Well, we have a lot to catch up on what with our trip to Yellowstone and all, but while I wait for pictures from that trip I'll bore/entertain (your choice) you with my Girls Camp experience this last week. I was a 1st year level assistant leader. It was a lot of work and required immense amounts of patience at times, but I learned so much and had a blast! This was Tori's first year at Girls camp so it was fun to not only be at camp with her but be over her level. Unlucky for her she had 1/2 of her family joining her at Girls Camp. My mom was a last minute replacement for one of the YCL leaders and my Dad was one of the priesthood brothers for the week. It was actually a lot of fun. The first time my Dad went to Girls camp was my first year of girls camp so he thought it was neat to share that experience with both daughters. Well, I could blab on and on about my week, but I'll just highlight some moments through pictures and words.
(A nice family picture. Tori's shirt is doing something funky and if you can notice the antennas on mine and Tori's head we were the Humble Bumble Bees.)


POLAR DIP

The Polar dip is the "opportunity" girls have at 7 am to go dive into the freezing cold lake. This lake is absolutely beautiful and breath-taking...literally. The water is straight from a glacier. No one could ever convince me it is a sane thing to do, especially after the camp missionaries said by jumping in it you may induce hypothermia within 2 minutes. I know I don't have enough meat for that.
I only went out one morning to watch (the first morning) because some of our first years were going to do it. The poor things were the only ones out there (everyone else has learned their lesson over the years)...oh, and my Dad. I can't really decide if it was funny or sad, but when those faces came up out of the water and I saw the pure shock and horror on their faces I wanted to laugh, cry and yank them out all at once.


























Girls Camp Goes Green

The new thing at girls camp this year was to try and cut down on the amount of Garbage we produced so instead of paper products we all used mess kits and set up wash stations. The first basin had hot soapy water (after scraping your plate), the second had a bleach mix in and the last had hot water to rinse. The only problem was that if you were among the last to eat then you were the last to wash and hence got dirty water to wash in. But being the totally phobic of this situation I made sure all my girls got clean water to clean in (perhaps to the chagrin of some of the kitchen staff).

Canoing
What turned out to be among my favorite moments of the week was free time. A new rule this year was that every canoe had to have an "adult" leader (meaning no YCLs). Few leaders wanted to put themselves in a canoe with girls that may want to tip you in. As a result there were tons of girls wanting to go canoing and only 2 leaders willing to go out, so I dedicate the free time to being a canoe "adult". To my surprise I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like teaching the girls how to canoe and be able to enjoy the beauties and peace of the lake and help the girls recognize it too.
(nice hat huh?)






10 minutes at the SPA
Some of the stake leaders put together a little mini spa for the leaders which included parafin waking of hands and soaking feet while eating chocolate and drinking lemonade from champagne glasses. It was very delightful, but had to put your feet back into dirty socks (CAMP IS SOOOO DUSTY! NOTHING STAYS CLEAN! NOTHING!)














Ranch Dressing Dispensers
Need I say more...






THE AMAZING RACE
The theme at Girls camp this year was on Divine Nature and we centered it around the idea of The Amazing Race TV show. One night we had a giant amazing race where all the girls were mixed up into random groups and sent out from station to station to accomplish team building activities and other tasks as a group. What was truly amazing about this activity is somehow EVERY single girl was involved and smiling! I have never seen that before. Even some of the girls I was most worried about were totally into it and being befriended by other girls. It was so special to witness.

Sister Probst
I made a new friend at camp. Sister Beth Probst was the ward leader for our group and we had a blast together. She is really an amazing woman and I really enjoyed her company and our discussions together. It wasn't until the second to last day that I realized I had gone to EFY and a birthday party with her brother (Megan - you remember Jay Irish?) Well, that was a pretty amazing discovery and just added to our ability to relate.

Much more than I can or should write...
Just know that I had a wonderful, challengeing, exhausting, and FUN week at girls camp. I actually look forward to the next time I have the opportunity! It is such a special opportunity for the young women of the church to come together, feel the spirit, and enjoy God's beautiful earth! I'm thankful I had the opportunity to be apart of it.

I DID IT!!!

Well, I just wanted to thank you all for your prayers, encouragement, and support! I finally did it! I took my test last Thursday and have been checking online everyday since with no results. I thought the test was horrible and I was sure I failed the moment my test shut off. Yesterday, I had pretty much resigned myself to having failed, but Dan kept feeling that we still didn't know for sure. Tonight I checked again still with no results so Dan convinced me to pay the fee for quick results online - and I PASSED! What a relief. I was pretty much ready to start studying all over again, but I am finally done! Everything I have worked toward over the last few years has finally come! I am now a registered nurse. I can't wait to start working now and really learning how to be a nurse! :O) Thank you all again!

Prayers would be appreciated!

So, my relief after graduation was fairly short lived as I realized just how little time I had to prepare for the NCLEX state boards. I have basically been studying at almost every waking moment for this test and I still don't feel as prepared as I would like. I will be taking my test this Thursday at 8 am and I would really love all of your prayers. I know that may sound like a really lame thing to ask for, but I think of all my wonderful friends and family and all their faith and I could sure use that extra help...ok a lot of that help.

GRADUATION!!!

Caution: The following entry is quite long and may not be of much interest to some - read at your own risk or leisure

Well, it has finally happened. We have finally graduated! I with my Bachelors of Science in Nursing and Dan with his AMAZINGED Double Bachelors of Arts degrees in Spanish and Political Science. That's right, double degrees. Not majors. Not minors. Degrees! He worked so hard (Averaging 18-23 credits a quarter) for them and got both degrees in the same amount of time it took me to do one - he's so smart! :O) It is a great feeling! WOW! I am using too many exclamation marks, but that is just how exciting it is!

We graduated on June 13th, 2008. It was a long day (considering we had 3 graduation ceremonies to do) but very memorable. The day started with my nursing school convocation. It was a GREAT ceremony with wonderful and funny speakers, awards, and it was VERY well organized. There were some memorable highlights for me:
- The First: My class lined up outside to enter the auditorium in a small court yard. In order to file through we ended up passing every single person in our class and someone started the "high five - good game" deal that kids do after YW volleyball or tee ball games. It was awesome!
- Another memory was that as we filed in all of our professors, administrators, clinical instructors and the rest of the school of nursing staff applauded us! There were so many of us and they looked at us and yet they applauded each of us so genuinely. The way they smiled and applauded me made me feel like I was the only person graduating that day!
- The dean gave an opportunity for the graduating students to stand up and applaud all of our family and friends who had supported us through school - I stood up and turned to see my wonderful husband, Parents (both birth and in-laws), and my grandparents. I even teared up as I realized how much they had helped me through the insanity of nursing school.

I snuck out of my graduation 5 minutes early to make it to Dan's first graduation. The Political Science convocation was definitely lacking in some organization and zeal, compared to the Nursing convocation, but was none-the-less an incredible moment! It was wonderful to hear his name called and to feel so much pride swell up in me. He has truly earned that degree and has grown and learned so much in the process. It has opened so many doors for him!

After that we spent time taking a few pictures...OK...a LOT of pictures. The ones above are only some of them (some of my favorites). Then we went to a restaurant in Bellevue called Maggianos and the food was incredible. We went all out and did the ultimate family style Italian lunch. The food that was brought to the table consisted of truly amazing food and as much of it as we could eat! We had stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta, Caesar salad, Maggiano's salad, Broccoli Fettuchini Alfredo, Mom's Lasagna, Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Marsala, then last but definitely not least - apple crostada and creme brulee...
Let me just say we ate ourselves silly!

Later that evening, after some window shopping with Mookie, we headed back to UW campus to attend Dan's last graduation ceremony for the Spanish department. It was extremely layed back, but very personal and enjoyable. They had the Lieutenant Governor of Washington State, a State Senator (the second most powerful politician in Washington State and the Consul General to Spain in attendance. The Senator spoke and she was very motivating. I spoke with her because she overheard Dan talking about how we are moving and that I just graduated in nursing (she used to be a nurse). Anyway, this graduation ceremony was much better than the Political Science one.

They had a potluck there with all kinds of authentic foods that...I HAD to try! Many of Dan's teachers were there and all of them expressed what a wonderful student he was. Being a VERY liberal department, Dan was seen as controversial in many ways, but through his ability to validly argue many points and not being afraid to stand up for what he believed in really made an impact on his teachers and peers and MANY expressed great respect for him that night. I am so proud of him!

The day ended well, and believe it or not with some milkshakes and fries (Dan told the lady at the drive thru that we had just graduated and she gave us large milkshakes for the price of a kid's size...and she said she was proud of us)!

Just one more thank you to all of our family and friends that supported, encouraged, and helped us through these last few years. We have been extremely blessed by your love! THANK YOU!

It's About Time...

I know it has been a while since our last post, and we've left some of you hanging. Sorry about that. So here we finally are again! So much has been going on the last few weeks, it being the end of the quarter and all. We are sooooo excited to graduate tomorrow! It's a surreal feeling. So, our plans for after graduation are as follows:
We are going to enjoy an almost stress free summer. I say almost because although we are not working (not really) I still have the state boards I am studying for and have to take and we have to figure out our move at the end of the summer. The plan is to move to San Angelo Texas at the end of the summer where I will start work as a Registered Nurse! YEAH! And there we will stay for a period of time until part of the training for Dan's job is complete and then we'll move on to the white sandy beaches of Fort Walton Beach Florida. I am so looking forward to some sun...especially since it is June and I have seen my breath outside it has been so cold recently!

Our future home!

Fries & Flies:
Many have asked "us" regarding our plans after school. Well, my answer often goes something like this: after graduating we'll move from Washington State and go somewhere where the "sun flows" like sparkling cider.

Our journey has been fun in Washington; fortunatley, this is just the beginning.

A few years ago Tina and I were blessed to get accepted to the University of Washington. For Tina, this has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Nursing School at UW is ranked #1 in the United States, and has been for the last 11 years (U.S. News and World Report, Educational Porters, Nursing Schools.com). I am so proud of her. She is my motivation to keep going.

Well- long story short this is where we are headed:

These Are A FEW Of Our FAVORITE Things!

Gateway $2 Movie Theater
There is a fairly new $2 dollar movie theater in Federal Way and it has become our hub for date nights. Of course the movies are not fresh out, but we sure don't mind the oh...lets say $7 ticket price difference. One night we took Eric with us to see 27 dresses. Then, we each got a Hot Dog ($1 each - not gourmet...but good) and decided to go for another movie - National Treasure 2. We got popcorn as well.

The total: 3 people + 2 movies + 3 hot dogs + 1 popcorn = $20.

Having a great time and knowing the entire night is only $20 = PRICELESS.

Henry Wienhard's Root Beer or Cream Soda
This is a new favorite treat we like once in a while during movies.

Sunday Evening Walks
Since the weather has started to become nicer we have started a new habit of taking Sunday Evening Walks around the neighborhood. Sunday evenings here have been so peaceful. It is nice for us to get out after a long, busy, chaotic week and enjoy the flowers and birds in the neighborhood. It has also been a great time for us to be able to talk and sort out feelings and plans we've been having. There is nothing like walking hand-in-hand with your honey with no where to be or do than walking and being with each other.

Dan's Mui Delisioso Home-made Salsa

Dan has gotten so good at making Salsa. It is really excellent! He likes it really hot - I like it more on the mild side and usually he ends up appeasing me, but it is so wonderful. This is definitely one of our favorite things.

Upcoming graduation
The topic of discussion that ignites the most excitement recently is our upcoming graduation on June 13th. It is just around the corner and yet at times we wonder if we'll ever make it. This will be a great accomplishment for us and marks the end of one chapter in our lives and a start to a new.

Going to the Temple

One thing that has always been a constant in our relationship is the temple. Going to the temple was one of our first dates after Dan's mission. I think we went at least once a week before I left on my mission. We even did sealings(which my Dad arranged). It has always been something we've loved to talk about and it has always been a priortity for us to attend as often as possible. Last quarter we had a schedule where we were up in Seattle and we made the decision to attend the temple once a week. We have discovered that things in our lives go much more smoothly when we attend the temple. We have better insight into our lives and a special peace that only comes from being in the Lord's house.

The last time we went there had been a fire alarm - and it was the coolest thing. We drove past in front of the temple and it was beautiful on that spring after noon and the entire front lawn of the temple was strooned with people dressed in white. The entire grounds just glowed. It was an amazing site. Maybe a little like heaven. Well, by the time my camera was on and ready to go this was all I got while people where shuffling back into the temple


Fishing
At the end of last summer we went to visit Dan's family in Oklahoma where Dan introduced me to fishing. I'd been before, but it was different here. And we loved it. We got some great catches too! I have to say I had the biggest catch! Though there is not camera proof of that one. I also caught a turtle which I was more than mortified about. Don't worry - they all were all promptly returned to their ponds.


















These are a FEW of our Favorite things!