Done... FINALLY!

This past weekend, I was in Utah to defend my Master's thesis. I was absolutely terrified for this occasion, but it ended up going just fine- I passed with minor revisions. I didn't take any pictures the day of my defense, but I snuck in a few shots with a few faculty members after getting everything squared away on Monday. Shamefully, I didn't get any pictures with members of my thesis committee because I felt silly asking them, but I knew thesis ladies wouldn't mind a bit:

Kathy, the department secretary, and a gem of a human being.

Ms. Robinson, the speech & language clinic director and my former boss.

The best perk of being in town was visiting with friends. On Monday afternoon I celebrated with lunch at CPK with some of the girls from my grad program.

Marybeth & Me

Melissa (who defended the Tuesday before me), Brooke, and little Chase

I hopped around to 3 different homes in my 5 night stay, and it was really fun to catch up with everyone.

Some of my old college roommates at HQ: Vance, Cass, Liz, Chels, and Rachel.

Acting mad that I made them take a picture right before they went to bed.

My last night was at the Francom's house, where Mike, Alicia, Rach, and I ate Rio and played many hours of Guitar Hero.

Rachel was a natural. She kicked my trash every time.

And now I'm home! It took 3 hours longer than expected because of snowy weather in Cleveland. Landing conditions were too bad, so we had to stop in Detroit to re-fuel and wait for things to clear up a bit. Overall my trip was really fun, but it sure was nice to be with Spencer again!

My Studly Dentist

I haven't been very good about going in for routine dental cleanings pretty much since college, but now that I have an "in", I foresee much more consistency in my cleaning schedule.

My cleaning was only the 2nd one Spencer has done so far (the 1st was another dental student).

He did a great job! Didn't hurt a bit, and totally worth every penny of the $11 I paid.

TMI?

I've been tagged, so here it goes...

10 YEARS AGO~
I was a 14 yr-old freshman in high school, being a studious kid during the week and enjoying weekend sleepovers with friends where we'd gossip about all of the boys in our grade.

5 THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST TODAY~
1. Get ready for the day.
2. Babysit for a friend.
3. Fold some laundry.
4. Make dinner.
5. Exercise.

5 SNACKS I ENJOY~
1. Peaches & cottage cheese
2. Wheat Thins
3. Granola bars
4. Chips & salsa
5. Veggies & dip

WHAT I WOULD DO IF I WERE SUDDENLY MADE A BILLIONAIRE~
Buy a sweet house (probably in a different city than where we currently live), furnish and decorate it to my liking, pay off our car, buy Spencer a truck, take our families to Europe and Hawaii, visit Iceland (my husband's life long dream), invest, help people who need it.

3 OF MY BAD HABITS~
1. Procrastinating
2. "Talking" to other drivers on the road- I promise there's no swearing involved!
3. Staying up super late

5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED~
1. Cortland, OH
2. Medina, OH
3. Provo, UT
4. Rancho Cucamonga, CA
5. Bloomington, MN

5 JOBS I HAVE HAD~
1. Dairy Queen
2. Moneyline Lending telemarketing
3. TA for Physical Science 100 class at BYU
4. Assistant to Director of BYU Speech-Language & Hearing Clinic
5. TA for Language Development class at BYU

5 THINGS MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME~
1. I'm not as easy going as my family and college roommates made me believe.
2. I love decorating cakes. I remember asking my mom if I could decorate my own birthday cake one year (I was probably 12 or 13), and she let me. Then I decorated cakes for friend's in college. I don't really know what I'm doing, so my friend Becky and I are going to take a Wilton class from Jo-Ann fabrics in a few weeks to learn some techniques!
3. I'm almost finished with a Master's degree in Communication Disorders.
4. I was 20 years old when I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time (thanks to a self-made Spring Break with some friends).
5. I love beets. For me, a salad bar isn't very good if it doesn't have beets.

Weekend in Columbus

Saturday morning was our first day to work in the temple, so Spencer and I spent Friday night with my sister's family so we wouldn't have to make the drive the morning of. We had such a fun time, and this was the cutest part of our visit:

What can I say, the boys love the boots. The funniest part was watching him try to lift his little leg high enough to put them on. After 2 unsuccessful attempts, he gave up and put on his dad's much lower shoes instead. But later Uncle Spencer helped him out, resulting in a purely darling Kodak moment.

As for our experience on Saturday morning, we had a wonderful time! One of the best parts was running into these people:

• Murawski's- from my ward when my family lived in Medina (during my high school years).
• Sis. Overcash- one of my old Young Women leader's from the same ward.
• Sutherland's- from our current ward (we knew they were coming, but it was still fun to see them!)
• Erin Erickson- one of my friends from college who I haven't seen in almost a year- definitely the most unexpected run-in. She and her husband were in town for a wedding, and lucky for me, they walked in about 2 minutes after I started my shift as a greeter. Turns out the kid getting married was in one of my old BYU wards. Small world.
  

Premier: LOST

Last night we went to watch the season premier of Lost with some friends. We were disappointed when we found out that the first hour of the "2 Hour Premier" was just a recap of the first 3 seasons, but we thoroughly enjoyed the new episode.

Making some treats for the big night.

I tried to make some of them pretty by drizzling opposite colors, but I don't think it worked very well.

We had a good time making up our own theories about everything after we watched the actual premier. It will be fun to see if any of them are right as the season goes on (ex. Was that really Jacob in the shack, or was it Jack's dad?)

Snow Boots

I have been complaining to Spencer for some time about my wet feet after walking through the snow in my very not-snow-friendly shoes. I had my eye on a pair of boots that I thought were both cute and warm, but Spencer told me he thought they were ugly. Alas, we went out to run errands on Saturday and I got them anyway. After all, they were nearly 50% off after using the "Christmas Money" discount. My feet love them. Although Spencer said he didn't like them, this is what I found when I came in the living room after church:

Lookin' good!

I even had to bribe him with a few bites of my cereal (he was jealous of my Frosted Mini Spooners) to take them off. At least if he still doesn't like how they look, he can understand the coziness is worth it!

A (Very) Long Weekend

Hooray for no school on Monday! All of the museums in Cleveland were free on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so we went to the Great Lakes Science Center with our neighbors for a few hours in the morning.

I fully intended to take some cool pictures of us inside, but it didn't happen.

For dinner, we had a get-together with some friends. We all miss the deliciousness of Cafe Rio, so we just get copycat recipes off the Internet and make it ourselves!

I think this was the 3rd "Cafe Rio Night" that we've had. Yum.

In other news, we went to the temple on Saturday and were called and set apart as ordinance workers. We are so excited about it! So if you're there in the morning of the first or third Saturday of the month, be sure to say hi.