Andrew and Erica Lowe

Belly pics!

2012-01-27T14:04:00.000-08:00

The long awaited belly pics! We are alive and well and I have no idea why what I'm writing is underlined! Maybe our blog just knows how excited we are for our little girl to get here, so it added it for emphasis.

Anyways. We had been slacking on taking pictures of my growing belly, especially when I really wasn't showing very much. She is growing and kicking and we love her so much!

26 Weeks

31 Weeks (Sorry for the big time gap)

33 Weeks! (We finally realized that this background is much more visually appealing.)

These aren't the most flattering of me, but I love seeing the progress she is making. We feel so unbelievably blessed to have this great blessing coming so soon! I am now 34 weeks! How did that happen?!

Andrew is enjoying his classes. I can tell he already loves our little girl so much-- I can't wait to see him as her daddy. I'm still subbing a bit during the week. I love when kids ask if I am pregnant-- it's helped me bond quickly with the students since I'm usually just there for a day or less.

Lately I've been so focused on her just getting here. The other day I realized that I really love being pregnant, and I'm going to miss it! Don't get me wrong, I CANNOT wait for her to come! I just need to appreciate and enjoy this stage. It's so fun to feel her move and start to get to know her.

We are so, so happy!

The Latest...

2011-11-03T17:41:00.001-07:00

As many (or all) of you know, we are expecting a little girl in the beginning of March!! We are SO happy, grateful, thrilled, excited... I'll just let you look at the pictures first, because that's really what people want to see. (Sorry for the bad quality of pictures. We're trying to figure out our scanner.)

Her cute foot! I have definitely been feeling them kick. Andrew thinks she will be a soccer player, "or she can be whatever she wants to be, but maybe a soccer player."

We love her and her cute little nose.

I can't believe that's inside of me! What an amazing, crazy thing.

Us at our ward Halloween party. We got this cute idea from here.

It was a long road to get to this point, but I know many people have/had longer. We are grateful for all the prayers for us. Even though we had wonderful doctors that helped us get to this point, we know that it was a miracle. We're grateful for the Lord's plan for all of us. We can't wait to meet her! :)

Cabin!

2011-09-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from July, and I know it is September. I am really bad a blogging! I think part of the reason why is because I really don't know what I'm doing. Like, why is all of the writing so light on our blog?! If you know how to fix this, let me know, because it's really annoying.

Anyways, in July, we headed up to Lake Wisconsin for a fun week at the cabin with the Thomas family. It was so relaxing! We fished, played games, ate food, road on a boat, watched movies/ Pysch.

The back of the cabin we stayed at, and Amber looking sneaky.

Alex, Josh, and Andrew our fishing on the dock. There was a lot of fishing going on! And almost everyone caught a fish while we were there.

Andrew's birthday at the cabin!

Andrew and I on the closest thing I have seen to a mountain in the Midwest. It had a gorgeous view!

We loved our time there! We got to spend a lot of great time with my family! Thanks Lake Wisconsin! :)

Colorblind

2011-08-28T13:23:00.000-07:00

After working on de-cluttering our house, we came across some pillows that came with our new couches...

Andrew: But what are we going to do with all of these red pillows?

Erica: What red pillows?

Andrew: These right here! (Pointing)

Erica: You mean the black pillows?

Andrew: (Looks closer) Oh yeah.

I just hope our children don't fail preschool because Andrew's teaching them their colors.

Josh's Grad Party

2011-08-22T08:42:00.001-07:00

A week (or 2?) before Josh graduated, my family had a graduation party for him (as is tradition in Minnesota). It was great. I can't believe my mom has done 4 of these!

The Josh Shrine.
Yummy food.
Andrew was the cake-serving master.
I think this was actually the week that Josh graduated. Trevor, Heather's then fiancee, came to visit. The boys initiated him into the family by the traditional burning of the Christmas tree. When Andrew came out to visit when we were dating, Josh, Dad, and Andrew burned two Christmas trees in the backyard. The flames seriously were 5 times higher than this one. It was a great bonding experience for them. ;)

More pictures to come-- This is just the beginning of the summer!

Josh's Graduation

2011-08-22T08:29:00.001-07:00

My brother graduated from high school! How could this be?! He heads out to BYU next week, and I'm in denial. But he'll love it. Josh with my parents.

Oops, not the best pic of Josh. From left: Andrew, me, Amber, Josh, Nikki, Heather, and Trevor (the newest member of our family as of 8/13/11).

I don't know where he is, but he's in there.

Right after they called his name. Yay for Josh!

Chocolate Inspiration

2011-04-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

"When you can't control the wind, adjust your sails."

I read this quote on the wrapper of the Dove dark chocolate I just ate. I really liked it-- the quote and the chocolate.
I tend to want to be in control and dictate how things in my life should be instead of making the most of situations. Trials come, and it's up to me to adjust, relying on the Savior.
Thanks Dove for giving me a better perspective.

Also, our apartment is really hot right now, so the chocolate I ate was a little melted. I think I'll have another one. Dark chocolate is good for you, right?

The Windy (and delicious) City

2011-03-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

Andrew and I went on an adventure to Chicago! We had a blast, and had a LOT of great food. Looking at the pictures we took, I realized that pretty much all of our pictures were about food.

Ghiradelli sundae. Need I say more?

Hershey's Chicago. This bar was like $40 or something ridiculous.

A cute Swedish restaurant that had a delicious breakfast.

Andrew very happy. He's giving two thumbs up by the way.

Yum.

Oh yeah, and we saw Blue Man Group. It was a very different experience-- we liked it, but it was pretty weird. We also walked around Magnificent Mile, which was so fun. I love walking down streets like that in big cities. We will definitely go back again!

Home Comforts

2011-03-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

So I really like this book. It is HUGE and intimidating, so it took me awhile to start reading it. Andrew's grandparents got this for us for Christmas one year. This lady is seriously smart-- lawyer, professor, and homemaker. I recommend this book to everyone. There are a lot of things I don't know how to do around our home-- this is a good resource to learn how to do things the right way.

Anyways, there's a part that I think is hilarious. She's talking about food short cuts:

" Nonetheless, there are times when you would be foolish not to use a mix. perhaps a domestic emergency occurs. Perhaps cupcakes must be brought to school tomorrow morning, but when you stop at the market on your way home from work, you cannot remember whether you have baking powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, nutmeg, cake flour, chocolate, or vanilla on your shelf, or you want to go through the "five items or fewer" line. So you buy the mix. Only a glutton for punishment would do otherwise. I have a hard time imagining emergency pancakes, but stranger things have happened." (pg. 46, Home Comforts: The Art & Science of Keeping House, Cherly Medelson)

Maybe I've been reading this for too long, but the last part cracks me up. What stranger things have happened?! I love that phrase. Andrew and I use it all the time now.

Christmas 2010...better late than never.

2011-03-10T08:30:00.001-08:00

So, these pictures are out of order, but they are all about Christmas break! We did a LOT of sledding over the break. My family has a tradition of building sled runs in our back yard. It's a blast! We had a runs with jumps and turns-- we loved it. Andrew helped put some of these runs together-- he did a great job!

Andrew's pride and joy.

Heather's 20th birthday! Woohoo! No more teenager for her.

This picture represents the countless hours the men were working on a puzzle.

We also went up to Milwaukee for Christmas Eve, another family tradition. Here we are playing a game called Celebrities-- very fun.

The fam. It was so sad when the break ended. Great memories.

No more excuses!

2011-03-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

So my long-term teaching job is over, so I no longer have an excuse for not posting on our blog! We just had a wonderful weekend up in Minnesota to visit family, and I didn't take any pictures! I even remembered to bring my camera. So here's a picture of my family. And unfortunately, Minnesota doesn't quite look like that right now. Nat, Alex, and Heather were sadly not there. My Aunt Jinelle and Aunt Pam came up to visit! We went and saw my cousin's newest addition to their family-- cute little baby Aaron-- up in Minneapolis.

Funnies

2011-01-30T16:33:00.001-08:00

Here are a few gems from school:

"URGH! School is so boring! Everything is so boring! Even Heaven is boring-- my uncle told me in a dream!"

"Sorry Mrs. Lowe, I just can't focus. It's the hormones."

I'll get pictures up soon! I'm just charging my camera batteries! :)

Don't give up on our blog yet!

2011-01-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

Wow, I just realized that I haven't blogged for TWO MONTHS! I am such a slacker. Life has been good for us here in Iowa City. We just got a snow storm, and unfortunately, we did not have a 2 hour delay. I am a permanent sub for a 5th grade teacher until the beginning of March (I started December 1). It is getting easier-- the first few weeks were not so good. It's good to remember what it feels like the be a teacher again. There are definitely rewarding moments. Fifth grade is very different from 3rd grade I'm discovering, full of 5th grade romances, Bath and Body Works, Justin Bieber...

Andrew just started yesterday with his SECOND semester of medical school. He survived a whole semester! He really is enjoying it, and I'm very glad. We're very happy here.

Christmas break was amazingly good-- I'll blog about that later with pictures. My whole family was able to be home, and we made a lot of wonderful memories.

More to come!

Iowa City Surprises

2010-10-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

One afternoon we noticed the Fox News van in our parking lot. We also saw this next door:

Turns out a guy was arrested for groping and stalking girls. This is the girl that called the police. Gross.

The ACT is in Iowa City! Who knew?

Fast Sunday Food Extravaganza!

2010-10-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

Last Fast Sunday we made the horrible mistake of looking through cook books on Fast Sunday. End result: one apple pie, brownies, cashew brittle, and a HUGE loaf of Challah (a yummy Jewish bread). Oh and then there was also dinner. It was SO fun to make, and the smells were awesome in our little apartment. A little too awesome.

We made the Challah in our bread machine. We thought it was going to come out of the bread machine. It was HUGE and very yummy.

Apple pie!
Mint brownie "cupcakes."
Cashew brittle. Yum.

Amana Colonies!

2010-10-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we decided we wanted to do a little Iowa exploring! We had heard about the Amana Colonies ( a old German communal community), so we thought we'd check it out! It reminded us a lot of Garner Village up in South Jordan, Utah. It had cute shops, and it was quiet and relaxing just to walk around the different buildings.

I just thought this house was really cute.

A view down the road. There was a fudge shop, chocolate shop, bakery, toy store (Andrew liked that one), German restaurants, clothing shops, general stores, a winery, and lots of cheese.

Cute buildings.

Us!
We had a lot of fun there! It felt like a relaxing getaway! And it didn't hurt that the weather was beautiful!

The Night of Nights

2010-09-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

It was a Friday evening. All was well in the Lowe household. Or so we thought.

It was the night before the Iowa State football game and the University of Iowa football game, and it's a big deal. Many people get drunk here, and they were especially drunk on this night, apparently.

Andrew and I went to bed around 11 or 12 Friday night. We were both very tired and fell asleep almost instantly. At about 2:30 AM, however, I was awakened by a loud BANGING on our front door. I woke up Andrew, and he went over to the door to see what was going on. I for sure thought our apartment was going to be broken into, and we would get shot, or something horrible. While Andrew was brave, I just stayed in bed in shock.

Andrew asked them what they wanted, and they said, " Really?!" YES really! What are you doing at our door?! (That's what I thought.) After a while of banging on the door, they moved onto ringing the doorbell for a while. And it wasn't just ringing it every minute, it was every second.

After about 10 minutes, I think they either realized that a) They were drunk and didn't know where they were b) Someone who used to live in our apartment doesn't live here anymore or c) They were bored.

In any case, I'm really glad they finally left. Andrew and I didn't really sleep very well after that-- I was SO scared! When we woke up in the morning, I thought that it was all a dream, because it was SO bizarre. But it wasn't, it was very real.

Andrew's Whitecoat Ceremony!

2010-09-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

Well, here is my stud pre-doctor husband.
Every year they put "white coats" on the new medical students as a kind of initiation.
This was at the Old Capital Building. Isn't it gorgeous?!

Andrew before the ceremony. And a bald guy.

Before and after getting his white coat.

Here is Andrew's class. Can you find Andrew?
This week that we had the ceremony was pretty crazy, but when we were sitting there at the ceremony, we felt so grateful to be there! Bring it on University of Iowa, we're ready for you!

2010-09-11T09:54:00.001-07:00

This summer my family got to go to our Monk Family Reunion (on my mom's side). This happens every other summer. Last time we were at the beach, Andrew came down from Maryland to see me...and meet my family for the first time. It was pretty awkward. This time it was WONDERFUL! It was the first time since Natalie and Alex's wedding that we were all together. I am r bummed that I don't have very many pictures from the beach! Here are a few from our family photo shoot:

I guess you could say we inherited our mother's good looks.

Wait for it...

Running action shot.

My family's next Christmas card.

We had a fantastic time!
There were 3 beach houses RIGHT on the beach.
We relaxed, ate, and boogie boarded all day.
We also had a fun skit night, Olympics, music night... so fun.

Summertime, when the living's easy...

2010-09-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

YAY! We found our cord to download pictures to our computer! Sorry for the delay. We are having a great time here in Iowa City! Woohoo!
The picture above is of Andrew's family and us in Carthage, IL. On Andrew's family's "trek" out west, they stopped in St. Louis, and we were able to meet up with them there! We stopped in Nauvoo and Carthage while we were down there too. Andrew has some really neat family history there (including Lydia Knight who his little sister, Lydia, is named after), so it was cool to learn more about his ancestors.
Here are some pictures of our summer adventures around the country (They are in reverse order):

After Andrew found out he got into medical school, Andrew's family threw a little celebration party for him including: cake, balloons, and a little kid doctor's kit. Awesome.
Andrew's siblings!
While we were in St. Louis, we met up with our good friends, the Lees. Diana used to be my roommate! We had a lot of fun with them, and even got to indulge in a little Ted Drewes with them-- YUM.
The Arch! It's HUGE!
Andrew as king on his b-day.

My cousins and family also made"Pin the Organ on the Body" and had awesome decorations around the kitchen when we got home to celebrate Andrew getting into medical school. It was GREAT! Pictures hopefully to come soon.
We also got to go on an amazing vacation to North Carolina, and we moved to Iowa, so we'll put up more pictures soon...

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles!

2010-08-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Throughout the past few weeks, I've had the song "Miracle of Miracles" from Fiddler on the Roof in my head. Our lives have been INCREDIBLY blessed to say the least. We are officially University of Iowa Hawkeyes! Andrew was the last person accepted this year in the Carver College of Medicine aka MEDICAL SCHOOL. We found out August 12 while we were in St. Louis visiting Andrew's family. Then Andrew started orientation 5 days later. Ah! It's been a whirlwind, but we are so grateful to be here. So here is our epic summer story of how we got here: (WARNING: This is very long, so buckle up!)

SO, around April/May of this year, Andrew had interviewed for medical school at 4 schools, and he was put on the waiting list for all 4 of them-- one in Baltimore, one is St. Louis, one in Milwaukee, and then here. Andrew was number 76 on the waiting list at Iowa, and a lady at the admissions office here said that she thought this list would make it to #86 this year. That was good to hear, but man! How can we make plans with THAT?! We decided we needed a backup plan so we could at least know if we should move or not. So Andrew applyed for the Masters in Public Health at the University of Iowa since he wanted to do that anyways. We figured if he got into that, we knew for sure that we would be moving to Iowa, and if he got into the med school this year, then great! We'd already be set. He was also close on the waiting list at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

A few weeks later, we heard that he got into the Masters program! Woohoo! We decided that since we knew we'd be moving to either Iowa, for the Masters and maybe the medical school, or Milwaukee if he got in, then we could live with my parents in Minnesota to save some money. They live right in between the two schools! Perfect!

Well, throughout July we started looking for housing down in Iowa, because we hadn't heard anything from either school. Our plan was the Masters for now. We found this GREAT apartment close to campus, and we were going to sign for it on August 1st. We actually found out that we got the apartment the day we got to my family reunion in North Carolina. (Man! I am tired from just writing this, so if you are still reading, wow.) While we were in North Carolina, Andrew was going to work on reapplying for medical school at Iowa for next year. (By the way, applying is no fun, let alone REapplying. Poor Andrew was SO discouraged.) Not a very good vacation.

While we were there, Andrew got a call from the Medical College of Wisconsin. They offerred him a spot in their medical school for NEXT year. Not what we were expecting! We were still so excited to have somewhere to go. We figured that Andrew could work on his masters in Iowa for a year and then go to Milwaukee. WELL, turns out that Andrew's particular track in the Masters program could not be done in one year.

We were so confused. While we were in Utah, we prayed and prayed to know what we should do. We kept feeling good about Iowa, and felt confident moving out to Minnesota for the summer. I had a teaching job all lined up in Utah before moving, and I felt really sad that I could have taught there for another year.

After a while, we tried to see why we were where we were. Maybe we could work and save money! That would be GREAT! Maybe we could go on some trips! We were still pretty stressed about how everything was going to work out, because we were still holding onto Iowa. It was Andrew's first choice of the schools he interviewed at, and we still had hope. We kept wondering why we felt so good about Iowa. PLUS our landlord let us put our apartment in Iowa City on hold until we found out if Andrew got into medical school here. Who does that?! Seriously, we felt so blessed that he let us do that.

Well, right when we were getting used to the idea of Milwaukee, we headed out to St. Louis to meet up with Andrew's family on their way moving to Utah. We had a great time with Andrew's family and extended family. One day, we were both feeling pretty overwhelmed and just plain TIRED of waiting. We driving home from a musuem, and literally RIGHT when we pulled into Andrew's grandparents' driveway, Andrew got a call from the University of Iowa Medical School Admissions. They asked if he would like a spot in their medical school. Um, YES!!

We were shaking and crying, overwhelmed with how blessed we were/are. As we made calls to family, and called our landlord, the song "How Great Thou Art!" was in my head. After all that waiting (10 months to be exact), we finally saw the Lord's plan for us. We got to celebrate with Andrew's family, which was so great! They even gave him a toy doctor's kit!

The Lord answers prayers and has a wonderful plan for all of us. Sometimes it takes A LOT of patience, but when we are willing to wait and put our trust in Him, He is more than ready to POUR out so many blessings. Looking back, things happened when they were supposed to. During the time, we couldn't see why, but now we understand. We know that we are supposed to be here, and we knew way before too. There were times that I felt abandoned and a lone, but we never were. Andrew getting into medical school was 100% a miracle, and it only could have been through the Lord. We've learned so much about having faith and patience.

It has been crazy, and Andrew's been so busy, but we feel so grateful to be here. We knew that if the Lord can get us here, then we'll be taken care of.

I'm so grateful for this experience, and all that I have learned from it. For those people who are going through never ending trials, great or small, the Lord knows us and knows our needs. Trust Him, and He'll make you more happy than you could ever imagine. He is my Rock and my Redeemer. He will guide my life to be something much greater than I could ever plan. It's not easy, but it's worth it. Great things come to those who wait.

And for now, while Andrew works hard at school, I am waiting for my Iowa Teaching License to go through, then I will start substitute teaching! There are plenty of things to unpack and clean as we get settled. I will post pictures soon after I take a little blogging break!

We're still here!

2010-08-24T19:31:00.001-07:00

To those who read this blog, we are still alive!! After a crazy summer, filled with MANY twists and turns, we ended up in Iowa City, Iowa for Andrew to do medical school! More info to follow...

Runaway Frogs

2010-06-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

So we got some water frogs for my classroom. I would occasionally take them home over the weekend, and Andrew and I noticed these poor frogs trying to dig holes to escape out of their tank. Ha! They will be very let down if they ever dig a hole to the bottom. They must so bored in that little tank. Maybe someday, we'll liberate them.

Graduation, End of School, and Moving On!!

2010-06-11T13:03:00.001-07:00

I am a super lazy blogger. I have no excuse! Andrew is graduated, and I am officially done with teaching 3rd grade. We finally know where we are going to go...kind of. We know we are moving. Andrew got into the Master of Public Health program and the University of Iowa--closer to my family. It's our back up plan. We are hoping that Andrew will get into either the medical school in Iowa or Wisconsin later this summer, so we are waiting in Minnesota with my family until we hear. We are SO glad that we can finally make plans to move. Our contract sold unbelievably fast. We feel so blessed! We are also very excited to live with my family for a while--We haven't been there for over a year!!

Cousins John and Andrew with their parents. Woohoo!!
Andrew's family, minus Jacob.
Andrew and his cousin John Peterson (far left), and his brother Matt and sister Lydia after graduation.
Andrew and I before graduation.

Spring Vaca!

2010-05-02T13:29:00.001-07:00

Andrew and I experienced something this year that we haven't for a long time: SPRING BREAK! Wow, it is such a great thing! BYU should really think about having one. Andrew missed a little bit of school on during my school's spring break. We had so much fun! It was much needed. We decided, with the help of a friend, to go to Monterey, California. It was perfect, relaxing, and really helped us put things back into perspective.

Here's a picture of us walking around in Carmel. This was a super ritzy place full of cute little shops.

Awesome jelly fish!! The Monterey Aquarium was amazing. Who knew there are so many jellyfish! These reminded me of Finding Nemo.A sunset at a beach in Pacific Grove. It was beautiful and freezing cold.
Here we are riding a surrey on a bike path along the coast. It was so fun to just relax with Andrew and site see.
Such a pretty place! This was at Lover's Point. Oh yeah.
Us at Lover's Point.
We are so lucky to be able to go to California and have quality time together!

Waiting...

2010-02-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

We're calling this stage in our lives "waiting." Way too much waiting. We're waiting to here from medical schools for next year--we're on the waiting list for University of Maryland, St. Louis University, and Iowa--Carver. WE'RE DYING. Whenever I think about next year, there are so many different things that we could be doing. It's an exciting time, so we're trying to love right now. It gets hard sometimes though. We're just grateful to be in a good place right now. Come what may!

Maryland Christmas!

2010-01-17T16:41:00.000-08:00

The Boys. From the left, it's Andrew's brother Matt, Andrew's Dad, John, brother Jacob, Papa Lowe, and then the lovely Andrew.

One the bottom is Andrew's sister Lydia, Andrew's Mom, Debbie, and then me!

We had a lot of fun. We spent some time downtown D.C.--even ice skating outside downtown! What a cool city. We also went to a really fun wedding reception, and fun just hanging around. Thanks Lowe's!!

One Year of Success!

2010-01-17T16:18:00.000-08:00

We've been married a WHOLE YEAR!! Woohoo! It seems like we've been married longer that that, but at the same time, the time has flown by. Marriage is such a wonderful thing. I'm so grateful to be married to a wonderful man. :) Some exciting things that have happened this year are...

We got married! December 27, 2008 in St. Paul, MN. I know...we're crazy.
I finished school and conquered the Teacher Work Sample. That was probably one of my greatest moments of weakness--I'm a sane person now that it's done.
Andrew took the MCAT...twice! And he's applied to medical schools and had a few interviews. Now word yet on where! We're just waiting.
We went to California--Sacramento and San Francisco. We had a blast and even got to see Wicked there. We visited with Andrew's Aunt Kristina and Uncle Josh, and we also got to hang out with my Aunt Becky and Uncle Wade. My family was able to come out too! Very fun.
I got a job teaching!! WOOHOO!! Teaching is much more enjoyable now than it was at the beginning of the year. They kids say funny things. One kid in my class said that he and his parents were going to watch Harry Potter for his parent's wedding anniversary. He then explained that Harry Potter #1 "came out when my parents were about teenagers, so it means a lot to them." I wonder if he had some say in what movie they watched... And I wonder how old he thinks I am, because I'm pretty sure that movie came out when I was a teenager, and I'm definitely not old enough to be his mom.
We went to Maryland...twice! Once for fall break and then for Christmas break! It's so fun out there. Andrew's family is there, and we've had fun spending time with them.
We've read the whole Percy Jackson series. If you haven't read it, YOU MUST! They are great.
My sister Natalie got married to Alex Madsen over Thanksgiving break! They are a great couple, and we couldn't be happier for them. :)
Andrew's brother Matt got home from his mission in Italy. I met him for the first time in the airport! Both of Andrew's brothers are here at BYU and I have 2 siblings out here too! It's been fun having so many siblings here.
We conquered the swine flu!

We love each other even more! It's been a great year! We're grateful for all of the experiences we've had, and all of the adventures we have yet to come.

Long time, no see!

2009-10-27T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm home sick today, so I figured I had NO excuse not to post on our forsaken blog. Life has been pretty crazy lately with Andrew applying to med. schools and flying out for interviews, and me teaching school. We are happy being busy though! Recently though we've both caught the flu, which has forced us to slow down. We are ready to get back to normal.

Last week, Andrew and I were able to go out to Maryland for one of Andrew's med school interviews during my school's Fall Break! It was perfect timing! We left Wednesday right after school and got back Monday night. We'll find out in about a month if Andrew got in! We got to spend more time with Andrew's family and had a great time. It was pretty rainy and cold though, so we are lacking in the picture area. Here are a few though:

Us on the Metro! We were on our way up to D.C. to the National Archives. We saw the Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta, and all those cool things.

We could NOT believe they have an OBAMA shop! How bizarre is that?! Never in a million years would you see a "Bush Shop." Wow. That's all we had to say. Of course we needed a picture. You can't see it, but behind me is a cardboard cut-out of President Obama.

We are grateful that everything worked out perfectly for this trip! Maryland/D.C./Virginia is such a cool place!

San Francisco!

2009-07-09T15:25:00.001-07:00

We got to go to the crazy city of San Francisco! We loved it there, but spent a chunk of our time there trying to figure out their crazy streets! We even got to see Wicked there!! It was Andrew's first time and my fourth! Wow-- a little too many times. It was great though, and we had fun with my family there as well!

Here we are at Fisherman's Whaf/ Pier 39. We got yummy clam chowder in a bread bowl, and saw the sealions! Excuse my huge honking bag.

They're just chillaxin.'

At Wicked! Woohoo!

At Ghirardelli Square! We had a yummy hot fudge sundae there. Behind Andrew is a machine that makes chocolate.

Lombard Street. The crooked-est street in the world. People LIVE on it!

We stopped by the Oakland Temple to see the awesome view of the Bay Area. It's an awesome temple! Andrew's Dad grew up in Oakland, so we went to check it out!

Andrew's cute little cousins, Sam and Michael. We loved staying with them! They are such an awesome family.

Whew! All done.

California Trip!

2009-07-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

We went to California a week or so ago to visit family and celebrate Andrew and my birthday, as well as our 6 month anniversary! It was Andrew's first trip to California, so we had a great time. The car ride was a bit longer than we expected, but we read Fablehaven on the way there and back-it's a cute book! So we went to Sacramento where Andrew's Aunt and Uncle Rolph live, and we stayed with them. My Aunt and Uncle Denna live there too, so we saw them a lot too! My immediate family came out to the west--California first and then Utah, for a family reunion. ANYWAYS, here are pics!

Here's Andrew at Muir Woods. It was a mini Redwood forest. Really beautiful, huge trees.
On our ride up, we saw Erica Road! Of course, I needed a picture!

What a sad little blog we have!

2009-07-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

Here we are again. I make no promises that we'll be consistent bloggers, but so much has happened since the last post, that I finally caved in! Like I said before, we got to go to the Tulip Festival in April. It is so beautiful--if any of you haven't gone before, GO! So worth it. Here are some pics:

GRADUATION!

2009-04-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

I totally graduated last week! It's really surreal to finally be done with everything. Now it's off for the job search... It's a tough search! Andrew and I are enjoying our school free time for now. He's off to take the MCAT tomorrow in Salt Lake City. He was going to take it two weeks ago, but the testing center was CLOSED due to "technical difficulty." I think it might have been the first time in history that the MCAT was canceled!

Anyways, today to help Andrew relax, we went up to the Tulip Festival. If you haven't gone, you NEED to go. It's like heaven on earth. The weather was perfect and we have a wonderful time! Pictures to come!

We're back!

2009-04-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

Alright, now that student teaching is DONE, I have no excuse for not being a more dedicated blogger! Life has been good for us. We got our wedding pictures!! Woohoo!! Very exciting. Andrew is also taking the MCAT this Saturday, so he's been cramming all this week. He is such a hard worker! All the stuff he has to know is incredible.

Today it SNOWED. In April. I don't know why I'm surprised...Minnesota is cold too. I read that someone put that Provo's weather is just as predictable as a girl's mood, and I thought that was pretty funny and true. I hope that the weather gets a bit more predictable though.

Well, there goes my first official blogging. Hopefully I'll have more to blog in the future :)

2009-02-22T14:55:00.001-08:00

We are bloggers!

2009-02-22T14:46:00.000-08:00

We finally caved and started our own blog! We are excited to start doing more and more married things! Woohoo! Life is good for us. I just finished my first block in student teaching, and Andrew is getting read for the MCAT/medical school. We are sad to say that we do not have any wedding pictures to post. We just figured out that it won't be another month til we get them! Anyways, life is good.