Free Time!

I have been out of school for 8 days now- most of which were spent following my sister Kacie around in preparation for her wedding. We did bridal portraits, hair, nails, entertained lots of family, ate lunch, made my mom cry- ya know, the usual wedding stuff.

But since I haven't blogged in awhile, I have a LOT to catch up on!

During the last week of school I did a health fair at a nearby elementary school. I focused on convincing the kids to never ever smoke. We showed statistics of what they could buy if they weren't buying cigarettes (i.e- 10 Wii systems a year...), showed nasty pictures of lung and mouth and throat cancer, and even had REAL SMOKER lungs (set in plastic) for them to see!!!! How cool is that?

May 8 was Kacie's graduation

I think my Dad's glasses look really funny in that picture.

May 9 was mother's Day AND our anniversary...I already blogged about that, but here is our annual "Mother & Daughters" picture.

School wrapped up on May 14 with a HORRENDOUS neuroscience exam. I don't have my grades yet, but I have had an entire week to become very indifferent. I know I passed, and that

is what matters. At this point, I really don't care if it is an A, B, or C

We saw our dear friend Cara get married on May 14, also... and don't have pictures. I am really, really bad at remembering my camera. I'm a work in progress.

I hosted a baby shower for a friend in NW Arkansas on May 15. And on May 15 I decided that married girls without babies SHOULD NOT EVEN BE ALLOWED to go to baby showers. It's for the same reason that you don't take children to pet stores. And no, I am not comparing babies to puppies. I think you all understand.

So wedding weekend was great...and insane...and exhausting. However, Kacie and Michael are married and in Cancun for the next 6 days :) Mom and Dad are home alone crying about not having to turn the air down and stuff like that, and Daniel and I are enjoying a clean and quiet house.

Here are a few wedding reception photos- we don't really have any of the wedding itself yet.

Cutting the cake...

Don't they look beautiful? Her dress was just made for her :) My friend Cara (the one who got married a whole 7 days before Kacie) made that stunning cake.

Also, you should know that Kacie borrowed my necklace. (It's a "sister rule" that when one of us borrows something from the other one, that it must be acknowledged as the rightful owner's property.)

My dad eating the cake... (probably my favorite picture of the entire wedding). He says that he LOVES wedding cake, but we will see how he feels about it after he eat the leftover bottom layer over the next 2 weeks.

The rest of the menu included some amazing spring rolls, fruit kabobs, teriyaki beef skewers, crab rangoon, and sushi! We had a lot of leftover sushi, so I ate it the next day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I am sushi-ed out.

The Father-Daughter Dance was to "Kung-Fu Fighting", which is VERY appropriate if you know my dad and sister. They even choreographed it!

Dancing with Dad

Kacie and Michael leaving

The next day my piano students gave a lovely recital pieces by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, and Scarlatti. I am always so pleased with my students' effort.

And now, I start my LAST EVER summer vacation! I made a to-do list a month ago, but can't find it now. I guess that means that I don't have to do anything:)

Anniversary... and a Glimpse of the First Year

Today is our 1st wedding anniversary, and I can't believe it has been an entire year since our wedding! I will be honest- there were some adjustments and compromises that we both had to make, and there have been a few days when I wanted to shoot darts out of my eyes in his general direction, but this has definitely been the most wonderful, exciting year of my life. Daniel is THE most patient, even-tempered, thoughtful man I have ever met, and I am so blessed to be married to him.

One year ago today...

A few days later, we left for our honeymoon to Jamaica, where we sat around on a beach and I gained 5 pounds that I think I will NEVER again be able to lose. (We also kayaked, snorkeled, and he tried to wind surf)

Then, after a summer of hard work we got to spend a few days exploring

Chicago!

A few more days later med school started- and our lives were never the same again...

In December, Daniel graduated

.... and then started right back to school.

This was our first (married) Christmas. He got me a pair of super cute cowboy boots (which I am not wearing in this picture because he hadn't given them to me yet) and I got him a drill press. I don't have a clue what it does, but he had been wanting it for a LONG time.

It snowed so much that we BOTH got a snow day (he got several, actually), so we headed out to mom and dad's to abuse the four-wheelers.

We had SO much fun that day in the snow that we decided we wanted to go snowskiing, so over spring break we went to Red River, NM and pretty much had the whole mountain to ourselves.

That brings us to today! We ate lunch with my mom and took a walk together (with Cooper), then worked on the bedroom re-do. As our present, we "gave" each other a queen size mattress and new bedroom stuff. I am very pleased with how it turned out, but I don't know how well my camera captures stuff. The room is gray, furniture is black, and bedding is white and green. Come over if you want to see it, because I am VERY proud of it :)

This evening, we went to Mike's Place for dinner (that's where Daniel proposed). You can't see my feet, but I wore the boots he gave me for Christmas because they are his favorite.

And now, I need to go eat the top layer of my year-old wedding cake :)

Kingdoms and Creativity

It's been another stressful week, but I know that is what I signed up for so I am trying to not gripe too much! We got our Gross Anatomy grades back and I was pleased with mine. I am so grateful for God's strength and guidance- many of my classmates will have to repeat this year, but thankfully I will NOT be repeating. Well, unless I fail Neuroscience. I don't think that is going to happen, though.

My Uncle Lloyd has been in the hospital all week having his aortic valve and aorta replaced. I have such a wonderful family that has taken over every aspect of his care since he is not married and his kids aren't really around. My mom, grandma, aunt, and cousin have been sacrificing a lot for him. Things still don't look great, but his surgery was fairly successful so there is still hope.

There are still 2-ish weeks of hard- core studying going on, so here is my kingdom:

Daniel is done with school, so his kingdom (outside) will hopefully get mowed tomorrow :)

Speaking of Daniel, he is such a thoughtful guy- this is what I came home to today!

Also, I went to Hobby Lobby this week. It's a pretty dangerous place! We need a new wreath, and I had a lot of fun making one for Christmas, so here is what we ended up bringing home (minus the cat- she was already here):

I will post another picture when I am done- the only problem is that I can't find my hot glue gun anywhere! Sophie jumped in the picture at the last second. She is such a weird little creature.