Cougar fans listen up!

I don't know why, but this fall I have been especially missing BYU. I love BYU in the fall. The beautiful mountains, the leaves changing colors, the cooler weather, the excitement of a new semester, and best of all COUGAR FOOTBALL. So, since we are missing out on all of the home games, we won't stand a chance at missing the UNLV vs. BYU game in Vegas on Saturday, October 10th at 7:00 p.m.. We are running a little behind schedule with buying our tickets in spite of the recent happenings in our lives. This is a call to all friends and family who are cougar fans. Come support the Cougars in Vegas! We will purchase our tickets tomorrow or Wednesday sometime so let us know if you want to join us asap so that we can sit together. P.S. It is still hot here, so feel free to bring your swimsuit and swim at our pool if you come:)

L.A.

Saturday we went to LA for one last visit with the Cordons and Bouslogs. First we went with Matt and Karyna to the LA temple. It was our first time going to this temple and we really enjoyed it. The LA temple is beautiful and huge. Then Paige and Jared joined us with their new family of four! Their baby #2, Ryker, is about a month old. This was my first time meeting him and he is so cute! We had a BYU football game party and watched the game. Unfortunately, they lost terribly but we still had a good time.

Me with my roommates from BYU. Karyna, Paige and baby Ryker.

Me and baby Ryker

We will miss you guys! You better come visit us in Vegas:)

Green

This past week we had an opportunity to take a short, last-minute trip to Oregon Wednesday through Friday. I will discuss the details of the trip later, but for now we will just say it was a 'business' trip. We flew into Portland but stayed in Salem. Salem and Portland are both really pretty and very green.

This is a town home downtown Portland adjacent to 23rd street that I wouldn't mind living in at all.

Willamette river in Salem. We took a stroll down riverfront park.

This is the park area in front of the state Capitol building

State Capitol building

More pictures and information about our trip to come!

Results are in...

Niel passed his boards!!!

But wait...he didn't just pass...

He finished in the 90th percentile of PA grads in the U.S.A.!!!

He has put in endless hours of study time in preparing for boards.

Congratulations to Niel on finishing school and dominating his board exam!!!

Silas

Niel's little sister Stephanie and her husband Devon had their first baby in July. Stephanie sent us some photos the other day of Silas. Isn't he cute?! I love the little dimple in his chin. I think he is yawning while giving a little kung fu punch at the camera in this picture. Congratulations to the new parents!

July 22, 2009

9 lbs. 3 oz.

20.5 inches

Goodbye

Yesterday was my last day of work at Downs Energy. I was only a month shy of my two years of service award. They threw me a going away luncheon and served my favorite-Porky's BBQ Chicken pizza. Tevia made an A-mazing homemade dessert pizza for the party. I think they were trying to fatten me up before I left because one of my co-workers also brought me a box of Krispy Kreme donuts:) Below is a picture of my co-worker Amy and I.

I definitely will not miss the commute, crabby customers, and a few other things:) But, I will miss getting gas at cost and the good people I got to know while working at Downs.

THE big day

Today at 1:00 p.m., Niel will take the PANCE (Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam). He has up to six hours to complete the 360 guestion exam. Niel has been studying a lot and is feeling prepared. I'm glad it's not me who has to take the test, I would be freaking out.

I am looking forward to having my husband back after boards are over!

Good luck Niel! You will do great!

Santa Monica

I went to LA on Labor Day to see Karyna and Matt. We went to Santa Monica, played bocci ball on the beach, and went to Wahoos for lunch. Believe it or not, Karyna is almost six months pregnant with a baby girl on the way! I am really excited for her.

{please disregard the horrible picture of me...just focus on the pretty background}

I am taking advantage of every opportunity and going to the beach before we move from CA. If I could choose anywhere to live solely based on location, it would be near the beach. But, since we don't have any immediate family in or near CA, it changes things. I will miss the beach...and of course being near Matt and Karyna:)

thinga-ma-bobs

I call these thinga-ma-bobs because I watched The Little Mermaid the other night while Niel was studying. Consequently, I still have Ariel's vocabulary on the forefront of my mind. That movie doesn't get old by the way...great Disney Movie. Anyways...I was in charge of the joint activity for Young Women's on Wednesday night and we made these mini magnets. They are fun to make and super easy. You get clear, flat sided marbles and use modge podge glue to glue an image on the back. Stickers, printed scrapbooking paper, and magazines work well. Then you glue a magnet to the back using a hot glue gun.

Harry & Lloyd

I will preface this post by saying that I hope you've seen the movie Dumb & Dumber. On our way home from Vegas Sunday night, around 10 p.m. I got really tired while driving. We only had half an hour left to go, but I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I got off the freeway and let Niel drive. As soon as I reclined my seat, I was sound asleep.

Next thing I know, I wake up to Niel saying, "Oh NO!" I groggily sit up and say, "What's going on?!" Niel sheepishly responds, "I've been going the wrong direction...back towards Vegas!!"

UGH. He has been driving in the opposite direction?! We could be home by now, but instead we still have an hour left to drive!

I felt like I could relate to Harry in Dumb & Dumber when Lloyd drives the wrong direction. Luckily, we didn't run out of gas or have to turn our car in for a moped. I guess it could have been worse:)

Resort Style

Looking for a place to live in Vegas ended up being a unique experience. We were looking for a one bedroom to rent for the first year while we save up money to buy a house. Since neither of us knew the area very well, we decided to get one of those apartment guides (which was about 300 pages long). It was quite overwhelming and we weren't sure where to start looking. We ended up going to about 10 or 12 places. It wasn't easy deciding on a place.

I've never experienced apartment shopping of this sort. Not only are the apartments cheaper than in CA, they have all sorts of crazy perks. We don't have to pay a security deposit to move-in or pay the first months rent. All of the complexes have resort style pools and fitness centers. But that's not all...below are some of the crazy features we actually saw at various places while looking. No joke.

-Free breakfast and brunch for all tenants every Sunday morning

-Cabanas and waterfalls at the pool

-Free massages in the cabanas for tenants

-Lounge areas with plasma TVs and pool tables

-24 hour smoothie machines with free drinks

-Two accent colors of tenant's choice in the apartment...and they will paint for you (all free)

-Free tanning bed

-A trash shoot inside each unit so that tenants don't have to take out the garbage. You simply put your trash inside the trash shoot.

Basically, all of the apartments we looked at felt like resorts. It was kinda weird, but I guess that's Vegas for you.

Ghetto fabulous

One might think by looking at these pictures that we planned to wear the same outfit to work. Wrong. We all showed up to work wearing black shirts, jeans, and flip flips. I had the idea of taking a 'family picture' since all of us matched. We figured nothing but the Honda would provide the backdrop of choice. Notice the Utah license plates still. Awesome.

Want to know what the best thing is about this picture? One of my co-workers put a customer on hold while we ran outside to pose for the camera. Definitely ghetto.

It's official...

We're moving to Vegas

We made a quick weekend trip to Vegas to meet with the doctor, check out the area, and look at apartments. It was a stressful, yet fun and productive weekend. The doctor took us to eat at a French Bistro restaurant where we were seated outside on the patio next to the lake. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure what about 75% of the menu was. Niel and I aren't very cultured when it comes to food. We both really like the doctor. He is super laid back, funny, and a very nice guy. We were able to discuss loose ends and get more information about the job, salary, etc. We stayed with my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Carl who also live in Vegas. They were wonderful hosts and fed us delicious meals, including steak dinner:) Want to know what is crazy? After Niel was offered the job with Dr. Tingey, we found out that Dr. Tingey and my aunt Marilyn's son were roommates at BYU. Small world.

And...we found an apartment we liked in Northwest Vegas and signed a year lease. Our move-in date is September 24th and Niel starts his job on September 28th. In the mean time, Niel takes boards one week from today and is studying non-stop.

As for me...I have five days left at my job! Can I get a hallelujah?!?!