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!!

An Awesome Trip Down Memory Lane

I love that I can hang out with all my old high school friends, and we can laugh and joke and be loud and weird like no time has passed. Most of us (Leslie, Bryson, Rob, Shanna, Heather, and spouses who probably grudgingly dragged along) were able to get together at my house last weekend, and I had so much fun and laughed so hard I wanted it to never end. Since I was having so much fun, I didn't take any pics, so enjoy this pic of us white trash bowling our senior year. We were, and are, sooo awesome.

I hope one day we can all live on the same street.... or at least the same town.....or I guess I can settle for the same state right now.

6 for 6

In honor of being a city slicker for 6 whole months now, I thought I would list my 6 favorite things about living in Salt Lake, and my 6 least favorite.

Favorite

• We are so much closer to family! If I go a week without seeing Jessie it feels weird and we try to see each other, even if it's for a few min. It only takes 40 minutes to get to my parents house opposed to the 210 minutes it took from Cedar (I thought stating it in minutes would seem more dramatic).
• There really are so many store options. We used to plan all our bigger shopping trips in St. George around when we were going to go to the temple. Now we can just go, and be back within an hour.
• We have discovered 5 Smith's within 10 minutes of our house (the latest one was just discovered last week). We are so amazed every time we are driving down a new road and find yet another Smith's!
• 3300 South. It is just that awesome.
• Our apartment is so spacious! We lucked out finding this place and just love it! We can invite all our family over (since they are all so close!) and everyone fits! Plus we have an awesome deck with a spectacular view!
• Being here means that we are that much closer to Trav being done with school and me retiring (2 1/2 years!)

Biggest Complaints (and they are big)

• Traffic, traffic, traffic!! Where are all these people coming from and going?! We HATE that you have to plan the time of day you are leaving somewhere based on the traffic. The first time we drove to Nephi it took us just as long as it did from Cedar because we were big idiots and we thought leaving at 4:00 was early enough. A few times it's taken us that long to get back because of car wrecks in the exact same spot!
• The University of Utah is sooo big! Trav and I are at opposite ends of campus, so even by shuttle it takes about 20 min to get to each other's building. Nobody knows anybody else in all the departments, and they are so unhelpful! SUU spoiled me (and I still really really really really miss that job..... Just ask Trav. He listens about it every day).
• The air quality sucks. You can see so much smog as you look off of our awesome deck.
• I have become quite the paranoid person. I am always looking over my shoulder expecting some crazed homeless person to be chasing me down. (I hate to look down upon the homeless, but I have heard many stories of the homeless taking over our church building, my work building, and the forest by Trav's building. Hence, paranoia. Plus you never know who really needs help, and who is just being lazy).
• Bikers think they are cars here. They get in the lanes, cut off cars and buses, and then are mad when a car hits them. They annoy me so bad. Who even knows what their arm signals mean anyways?
• You have to pay everywhere you park, and yet there is no where to park. Parking on campus sucks and is so expensive! Which brings me to my love-hate relationship.

BONUS ROUND: Love-Hate Relationship

• I hate driving, especially in high populated areas, so it is really nice that I get to take the bus to work everyday. It picks me up relatively close to our house, and drops me off a few blocks away from my office (and it drops Trav off right in front of his building!). They give every student and U employee a free UTA bus pass, so we save money on parking and gas. It is nice to not have to worry about all the traffic (especially in the snow/rain).
• As much as I love the bus, I hate waiting for the bus! Especially when it is late! And sometimes you get passive drivers who get stuck at every light! Or you get the real jerky (not personality wise) stop and go drivers. Then you are sick. Oh well, I would rather be sick than have to pay for parking.

I love to see the Temple

Last month we went to the Brigham City Temple Open House. It was so beautiful! It was also so nice to hear of the history behind that temple, and how they describe each room in laman's terms. I love the temple and always feel so blest when I am in/near a temple.

The best part of the trip was we went with my oldest friend, Bryson! We have been friends since kindgergarten, and I will always consider him one of my best friends. Whenver we are together our spouses are kind enough to tolerate our reminicings of 19+ years. Luckily he married a cute girl :)

To sum it all up, I am grateful for temples, and good, life-long friends.

 I had to throw this picture in because I find Travis extremely handsome in it. I am a bit squinty.