Aaaand we're back!

What better way to procrastinate writing my thesis than catching up on our long forgotten blog?!

The last ten months in a nutshell: 

studying for me and every intramural sports league in PDX for Parker. 

I successfully completed my first year of PA school and lived to talk about it. 

Parker was supportive through the tears, all-nighters, and medical babble and continues to love his job at Nike.

Since we broke our camera last fall (water damage thanks to the fabulous Oregon rain...), the only documentation of our existence on this planet since then are a handful of random iPhone pics. 

As it turns out, we actually managed to squeeze some fun into our hectic year!

Stephanie the gold Saturn hit 100K. Officially over the hill.

Finally saw the show people have been raving about for years. It rocked.

MB & ME's wedding at the UT State Capital.

Small family came to visit and we saw the Oregon sites.

Weekend in Seattle.

BYU vs. OSU football with my famous football family members. Such celebrities they are.

 

Spring Break in Mexico with the Mangums!!

Sad ending to the season, but at least Parker's hair was 7 inches tall for the Superbowl.

In other news, we bought a townhouse! 

We're psyched and will post pictures once we get a real camera we have them.

I know our lives are just riveting, so we'll do our best to update more frequently so you can all stay appraised of our happenings and travels!

Long overdue shout out

MB+ME

They'll be carrying on the Small tradition of frigid December weddings on December 17th, 2011

We couldn't be more excited to welcome Mr. Matthew Edwards into the family! 

(But you'll need to genuinely start loving the Patriots and Red Sox, Matty boy)

CONGRATS!

 We love you both!

Sox and Hawks

Serendipitous that the Red Sox were playing the Mariners the weekend of my summer break...

Naturally, we had to be there.

On the extremely long and traffic laden way up to Seattle, we made a stop at the Seahawks practice facility to drop off a custom 3/4 pant to Marshawn Lynch.

No. Big. Deal.

No pictures allowed... except in the parking lot.

The team was practicing, so we didn't really meet anyone cool, but we did get to wander through the locker room. Which is sweet. 

Did I mention the facility is on the banks of the river? It's like practicing in heaven.

But on to better teams...

Believe it or not, this is one of the few games the Sox won all season.

The best part? There was a 2:1 ratio of Sox fans to Mariners fans in Safeco Field

And we absolutely all stood up and sang "Sweet Caroline" before the bottom of the 8th.

My, don't I feel legit!

In celebration of the completion of our first semester in PA school, they gave us coats!

I think it's because our classrooms are always so cold... 

::Kidding of course but really, they keep us refrigerated in there::

My group and advisor. They're super smarties.

In non-kidding terms, we had our White Coat Ceremony.

We had our practionerhood bestowed upon us symbolically as we take on the role and mindset.

No pressure or anything...

Kelly and Heidi, best study buds of all time.

The ever supportive husband!

One semester down, six to go. 

Still alive, 

Still loving it, 

Still torturing anyone who will listen with my new medical know-how!

A Healthy Dose of Humiliation

Nike's Bowerman Athletic Club put on a 5K, we signed up for it.

How traumatic can a 5K be? It's 3.1 miles...

Little did we know that this was some kind of qualifying race for elite and ubercompetitive runners. 

Even children's competitive running clubs (which I didn't know existed) were there as well as several college cross country teams. 

 I'm fairly confident we were the only non-professionals there.

When they introduced the US Olympic Team athletes that would be running with us, 

I almost turned around and just ran home instead.

These people "warmed up" for the race by running the entire course... twice. 

Nice farmer's tan!

In the end, we both ran well and I even PRed!

But we were both beaten by the elderly (over 70) and some young ones (under 10).

 Geez.

My apologies...

... for my lack of updating.

Really, we are interesting people who do cool things,

there is just one itty-bitty thing getting in the way of me and my blog.

Now, imagine that child is a chihuahua and it's drinking from a fire hose at it's highest setting...

... and then that would be an accurate description of PA school.

It's a weirdly masochistic feeling; I'm drowning in drugs and disease, but I absolutely love it.

Coolest things I've learned so far? (because I know you're dying to hear this)

- Women can be genetic mosaics.

- Acetaminophen is actually pretty toxic

- You cannot get the Flu from the Flu shot

There are millions of other things that I think are amazing, buuuut I doubt you care.

I say this because Parker literally falls asleep when I talk to him about cool things I learn.

Movin' Up in the World

 Great news: Parker has gone into the NFL and got a killer signing bonus and I got a record deal... 

so we've upgraded our living arrangements!

Okay, so 2/3 of the above statements are entirely false.

But would you believe me if I told you we are really living here?

It was an incredible blessing when we found out that a wonderful couple from a neighboring ward was heading out to serve a mission and needed housesitters for a year and a half.

We are so grateful for the Bleaks and we're taking good care of this gorgeous home in their absence!

NOW who wants to come visit?

:)