Lake Powell

Back in August Travis and I went to Lake Powell with Jessie and Jeff and Jeff's family. We had such a good time! The Bryners sure know how to party ;) Due to the huge pile of homework I am taking a break from for a minute, I will let these pictures speak for themselves about our trip.

Rodeo, Rodeo, Rodeo!

We love the Ute Stampede! This year Travis found out his clinic was going to be closed on Friday, so I took the day off as well and we headed to Nephi Thursday after work. That's right, I was at the rodeo 3 nights in a row! Between chuck wagon breakfast Friday and Saturday morning, craft shows, horse rides, carny dogs, Jennie's BBQ and our annual Green Team BBQ, we have a great time!

Here are just a few pics from the fun weekend!

1. Travis getting into the spirit of the rodeo with the bandana he caught 2. The traditional sky diver bringing in the flag during "I'm Proud to Be An American" 3. Trevor with all of his fat beef tickets. I know he is will win it one of these years 4. The One-Armed Bandit with his buffalo 5. Marissa and me on the second night 6. Travis and I the first night while it was raining

The Life of a Physical Therapy Students' Wife

When I first met Travis over 5 years ago at Snow he told me he was going to become a Physical Therapist. Right after he proposed he went into great detail of how the next few years of our life would pan out culminating with him getting into the Physical Therapy Program at the U (I didn't hear a word of that because I was so excited he had just proposed but he felt like he needed to explain himself. He took my silence to his plan as a "no", so he kept explaining until I finally shut him up). After we were married we transferred to SUU because Travis knew that doing his undergrad in Athletic Training would better prepare him for PT graduate school and felt like it would give him a better chance of getting accepted into the U. He spent the first 4 years of our marriage preparing for graduate school, and I was preparing myself too.

I knew that PT school would be very time consuming. I have heard from other wives that while their husband was in grad school they never saw them. I was bracing myself for how busy Travis would be, especially in the last few months before he started. I knew that I would not be seeing him very much, and I was ok with that. 15 credits in grad school + clinical hours + lots of studying = not much time for anything else. I knew I could handle 3 years of this. Or so I thought.

I made him pose in front of his building

So far, Physical Therapy school has been a breeze! (Travis would kill me if he heard me say that because it hasn't been a breeze at all for him and has been really hard and stressful, but time wise for me, it has been a piece of cake!) Travis usually leaves about an hour before I leave for work, goes to class, stays to study, and  we usually catch the same bus home (occasionally he comes home after me, but not too often).  Sure, he has to do homework at night but while he does we can still be in the same room while I read, or make dinner, or watch something girly, or blog (which while I am doing this now he is sitting next to me studying). He has time to hang out for a least an hour every night, and we almost always can do something fun on the weekends. Once I start school I know this will be even better too because then we can do homework at the same time. All the 2nd and 3rd years tell them that the 1st year in the program is the hardest, and he is almost done with his first year!

I would like to give a big shout out to SUU's athletic training program. I give it full credit for making PT school so much easier on a wife than I thought it would be. Travis was so busy in the evenings by having to go to every practice and game for most sports on top of his heavy school load (he double majored!) and work that it makes all his studying now not seem not so bad (it helps that I am at work 40 hours a week while he is in class and studying. I'm sure if I was a stay at home mom it would seem a lot worse!).  Thanks Athletic Training!

Travis being the cutest Athletic Trainer the SUU football team has ever seen

Don't get me wrong. PT school is hard, time consuming, a lot of work, a lot of hours,and sometimes my husband is so stressed out I need to steer clear of him so he can get everything done, but I am happy to report that I had prepared myself for the worst only to be pleasantly surprised that I still get to see my husband on a daily basis:)

I'm taking the Plunge

I am going to grad school! A friend I had at SUU is in the program now. I ran into him on campus back in November and he told me that he thought I would enjoy the program he was in. I told him I would look into it, but with the intent that I would not apply. (Ever since I graduated, I have been hearing non stop that I should go to grad school. I work in Higher-Ed so of course that is what I will hear. I've wanted to, but as I looked into programs at SUU nothing seemed to fit. I didn't want to do a program that I was going to hate. When I started at the U I looked into programs that interested me, but there is no way I would be able to finish them before Travis finishes, and who knows where we will end up once he gets a job. I had kind of given up on the idea and thought maybe I would do grad school once all my future kids are grown up.)
Everything fell into place as I was looking at it and knew that this was going to be the next step in my life. I can do the program part-time so I can still work full time (thank goodness! especially since I have almost hit my year mark so we can cash in on half-tuition for Trav) and the best part is I will graduate the same semester Travis does (May 2015)! Ok, the real best part is the courses I get to take. As I look at what I will take (almost) every class looks so interesting, and I can't wait to start! I want to take all of them the first semester!
I am nervous though. I'm afraid I have forgotten how to do homework in the 3 years since I have graduated (it took a lot of effort and way more time than it should have to sit myself down to write the 3 admissions essays). But I am so excited and know that this is what I should be doing! I wish it was May already so I could just start!!