The One Where I'm (Almost) a Doctor!!

Holy cow, April has been crazy!!  I actually have so much news from this month that you'll all have to wait and hear about it in bits & pieces as I catch up on life (I've somehow built up multiple half-finished posts, coming soon!).

The biggest announcement is...

I passed my final preoral exam!!!  Woo!!!  The only thing left between me and a PhD is this little thing called a dissertation.  No biggie :)  After talking to other students from our year I also think I am the first to reach this point so I'm at least still on schedule.  And no "conditional passes" this time, I straight up just moved on to the next step.  Such a relief!!  Yay!!!

Coming up: niece/nephew memories, meeting Anistyn, & weekend with Steve

The One Where March is Madness!!!

Whew!!  What a crazy month!!  March for us was saying goodbye to Grandma and one of the shortest road trips ever, welcoming a new baby to the family (it's about time I posted so I could mention Anistyn's birth.  Congratulations Lisa and Travis!!), my 27th birthday, and the return of UA basketball to the NCAA tournament (and sadly their elimination).

The beginning of the month was a little sad obviously with the passing of Dad's mom.  But I was glad for the chance to go back home to visit again, if only for a few days.  I think Mom said it best when we were dressing Grandma, "She wasn't a typical Grandma, but she was a good Grandma."  It's always interesting to me to hear the stories from people's childhoods when I've only known them as adults.  Who knew Grandma was so ornery?!  What a funny lady!  Love you Grandma!!

With every ending there is a new beginning and I'm excited for Lisa and Travis to welcome their first baby girl.  Can't wait to get to meet her in person (and take some pictures)!  She came close to sharing my birthday but I'll always have the record as the only double digit newborn (and I don't wish breaking that record on anyone!!).  Still March is a great month to be born :)  And where did her dark hair come from?!  So sweet!

My birthday was really fun this year!  Justin surprised me at lunch with a vase of flowers- red and blue for UofA, how sweet!  And they're still alive!  We had some friends (Brock and Carrie) over for dinner to finish off the carne asada Steve sent home with us.  Best fajitas ever!!  I kinda regretted sharing when we finished off the meat but it was sooo good!  And we played Bang (which Mom and Dad gave Justin for his birthday).  That's our current favorite game.  We're using it to create other Bang addicts.  Brock and Carrie have already invited us back over to their house for dinner, as long as we took Bang.  So funny!!  We just taught Paul, Marsha, and Maddy how to play this past Sunday too.  We liked it so much we didn't even play Carcassonne!  Justin gave me my own copy of Carcassonne and a new backpack for backpacking.  That will be sooo nice this summer!!  Last year I just used my school backpack- definitely not made for hiking trips!

 

And speaking of camping, we finally used up our last wedding gift card and bought a grill at REI.  We've had our eye on this grill for a while and found a good deal so we got it.  I think we'll have the inaugural grilling tonight when we feed the missionaries :)  If it stops raining!

I love that it rolls- so easy!! 

  

I loved all my presents but the best one came late when Arizona beat Duke!!  Handedly!!  What a great game!!  I don't think anybody could have beat them that day, they were playing so well.  Too bad it wasn't the championship :(  The good thing about sports is there's always next year right?  Looks like we're in for another good 20+ years of tourney appearances (and hopefully wins) with Sean Miller.  Go Cats!!!

 Bear Down Arizona, Bear Down Red & Blue!  Bear Down Arizona, Hit 'Em Hard Let 'Em Know Who's Who!!  Bear Down Arizona, Bear Down Red & Blue!  Go, Go, Wildcats Go!!  Arizona Bear Down!!!!!

The One with all the Basketball

March Madness is almost here!!  Well it is already March and Steve's birthday is today!!  (See I do remember other people's b-days)  And that is really the beginning of this crazy month.  Not to mention baby Anistyn could make her grand debut any day now...  Who doesn't love March?!

I know it's not official but a huge Congratulations goes out to this year's Arizona Wildcats for making it back to the tournament!!  Woo hoo!!  Couldn't be prouder if I was the team's mother :)   And another Congrats to Justin and the Park First Ward B team for making it to the regional tournament here in SLC.  Go team!!  If you all didn't notice at Christmas Justin is a huge football fan when it comes to watching sports and an even bigger basketball fan when it comes to playing.  He plays anywhere between 1 and 5 times a week depending on how many pickup games he gets into at the rec center.  Our ward has so many "young" men that they actually had two teams.  And Justin got on the good team.  At least for me- it was the team that most of my friends' husbands also played on.  So we got to sit in the stands together once a week and cheer on our men.  I would say a surprising number of guys that came out to play had little knowledge of the actual rules and skills needed to play basketball (surprising to me because as a UA alum I can't understand not knowing how to play) but they all had a lot of fun.  Those who knew were always willing to teach and it was funny to see everyone fight to stay on the bench rather than stay in the game to ballhog. Although that could have been a result of previous lack of cardiovascular exercise :)

These are pictures from their last regular season game.

Pre-game huddle.

 Tip-off- unfortunately Justin was behind the ref in this shot :(

One of Justin's 3-pointers.  Again, he was jumping backward- out of the shot.  Grrrr.

Finally, he was in my view!  I thought this was a great action shot :)

Just to prove he's not the only one busting 3's.

 They were so close!  But you can see how much fun they all had playing together anyway.

 And this was one of the higher scoring games!

Sadly, their regular season record was 1-5 but they won the important game, the one that got them to the tournament.  So last Saturday evening Justin and I drove to the first round of Regional Playoffs.  (Did they actually have those in the Gila Valley?  I really don't remember any tournaments other than softball)  We had a surprise walking in when we saw Justin's old roommate suited up for the other team.  He got married a year before us and luckily (for him) lives in the ward that has won the past 4 years in a row.  (Not that this was unexpected, tournaments are usually set up best record vs. not-the-best record.  That's the whole point of being a 1 seed right!)  Justin's team didn't win :( but I think that was one of their best games.  Justin is a pretty good 3-point shooter so it was really fun for me to watch all the guys try to feed him on the perimeter.  And be proud of their assists.  And now he has more friends in the ward than just my friends' husbands.

The One Where We Went Downhill

Literally.  I had such a hard time deciding what to get Justin for his birthday this year when I remembered we'd been talking about sledding.  It has snowed A LOT up here this winter.  Probably as much this year as in my other two winters here combined.  So I got Justin two sleds.  Here we are trying them out for the first time.

The Snow Boogie

We are obviously not even amateurs.  Two kids showed up halfway through our sled date and showed us up with some crazy snowboard/sled hybrids that slid downhill like a dream.  And, more importantly, under control.

Oh and when I said it snowed, I mean it snowed.  This was my truck at noon today!

The One with Last Christmas

I've decided our theme will be "Friends," hence the titles "The One..."  I love that show!!  Seriously, haven't found a person who can outquote me when it comes to Friends.  This post isn't about the show though so I'll get on to the pictures.  I've whittled it down to the Top 20 (+/- a couple and some funny videos).

I absolutely LOVE the holiday season!!  I love shopping for presents and anticipating the looks on people's faces when they open their gift.  Last year I made Steve's present (out of necessity) but he liked it so much I did it again with Lisa and Travis this year.  Not a clue what's coming up for Amy and Ray and co. but I've got time for inspiration to strike :)  Most of all I love being able to spend multiple days in a row just hanging out with my family.  Doing things like this:

To be fair, this was before we drove to AZ for Christmas but I think for a first attempt at making holiday goodie plates my Rice Krispie wreaths turned out pretty good.

Our first Christmas tree!

**Most of the presents under the tree were from Grandma Sabol.

We unpacked them to make it look like we actually had something under our tree :) **

Pretty sure those are my gloves but Justin can pull off pink.

Maybe he shouldn't...

Just cute.

So much more fun when all the cousins arrive.

This is where Justin took the camera.

And we ended up with pictures like this.

And this.

 And this.

 And my personal favorite- Kaden's socks.

Dillon really wanted to hold the leash.

Good thing Cooper is proportional :)

Climbing trees and walking the dogs.

Grandpa and Callie.

This picture is so funny to me!!

Love this shot of Trevy.

If you listen carefully you can hear Trevy saying "Boing, boing!!"

So cute!!

Probably the funniest thing that happened all week.

Gotta love Uncle Dude.

The kids loved the helicopters but got scared when it got too close.

I wish we had some pictures playing Bang! from New Years.  That was fun!!  Mom and Dad gave it to Justin for his birthday and we've played it with friends.  You know I hate to brag, but I won as the Renegade once.  It was the first round and nobody else had played but hey, that counts.  Merry late (or super early) Christmas!!