Family

I have the best family ever! LOVE them all! It doesn't hurt that they're all extremely good looking too :)

WILKINSONS

 

YODERS

October!

Our October was jammed pack with fun things to do! I LOVE this time of year because there are so many seasonal things to do. I've definitely been taking advantage of having so many options since we're back in a big city. At least every Saturday I try to get Nate out of his study cave to go on an outing somewhere new.

To start it all off, Nate had his white coat ceremony at the beginning of October. The white coat ceremony is a symbolic event for all the first year students. Now that they have been awarded with their white coat, the students are held to a higher standard and are expected to represent Midwestern in a professional manner. The expectation especially goes for when they are out on their clinical rotations.

 Nate's physical therapy class

Nate and his friend Dustin

We also made it out to a farm close by to pick out our pumpkins. I was really disappointed that a lot of farms don't let you pick your own pumpkins anymore. They have them picked and on display for their customers. I'm on the hunt for a good pumpkin patch where you can actually pick your own. That's just one tradition that I'm not going to lose!

Nate's pumpkin

My two pumpkins. I can never leave without getting a baby pumpkin. They're so cute!

Last weekend we finally went to the Desert Botanical Garden. In all my life of living in AZ, I've never been there. I'm so glad that we decided to go! Sure, it's not what you think of "garden", or at least what I think of when I hear the word garden. It's an Arizona garden :) Oh, and I dyed my hair!! You'll see it in the very last picture in this section.

I definitely can't leave out Halloween! Nate borrowed the best costume from my brother this year! It won him "best costume" in one of his classes.

Nate the Grouch

 If you can't tell, Halloween is a big deal on Willow Avenue

Some of the candy...We tried to keep track of the number of kids that came by and we finished at 700 kids within 90 minutes.

To finish this post up, Nate started an indoor, co-ed soccer team with some of his classmates called the Palitators. Yes, the Palitators. It was suppose to be the Palpitators...get it? A soccer team comprised of physical therapy students known as the Palpitators...Anyway, the girl that signed Nate up got it wrong and now they're stuck with the wrong team name. Next week is the championships that they get to go to! They've done really well. Here are a few pictures of them in action.

Lake Powell

Over Labor day weekend Nate and I were able to go to Lake Powell with my family and close friends. It was a blast and we look forward to going every year! Here are some pictures from the trip.

 Getting ready to swim

Little sis swimming

The group hiking

Lundeen family and Yoder family

Remi, Jen, Kelsey and Justin

 Filing out

Nate made a friend :)

Kelsey jumping off the cliff to swim back to the boat

The gorgeous swim

 The view from the beginning of the hike

 Kayaking

Nate posing in the kayak

The house boats minus one

The best part of Powell, tubing!

It gets a little intense!

Cory, Kade, Kelsey and Jacob

All of the Yoder kids

Justin, Jen, Kelsey, Nate and Ashley

Recently...

Ok here we go!

• I finally started my job at Del Webb hospital in the Acute Rehabilitation department. I work with P.T.s (whoohoo), O.T.s and Sp.T.s. Most of the patients are older, which I have the most experience with. I LOVE IT. I actually get to see miracles happen, and the patients get to go home! I have been so blessed to have an awesome preceptor. She's the best I could have gotten. I'm done with orientation and am on my own starting next week! 
• Nate started his second quarter. His load is a lot harder this time around! He has physiology and histology together. The only other class I remember is evaluation. He is so excited to break out all his tools finally. I have a feeling I'm going to be the Guinea pig a lot.
• I had an interview at A.T. Still University Friday!!! I was an awesome learning experience. I felt it went really well. My interview group was the first and consisted of 24 people. Two-thirds were female, and one-third (that I know of) were LDS. Crazy, right? This is one reason why I love my church so much, education is so important! The interview consisted of an essay portion, faculty interview and chair interview. We actually got to meet the main man. Here are the stats for the school: 3,000 applicants, 250 applicant interviews and 70 accepted. It's a smaller school, but I like that. Everyone seemed to be really close and friendly.
• Nate and I were able to go on the annual Lake Powell trip this year over Labor day weekend. I'll have a separate post on that, but we had so much fun like always!

It's Raining Sunshine!!

So now that we've been in AZ for about a month now I guess an update is in order!

Nate Update
Started the physical therapy program at Midwestern University June 6th
The only classes I really hear about is anatomy and clinical problem solving. One REALLY time consuming and the other boring. You figure which is which.
Already had his first anat test and did great! That's a pretty big milestone for graduate school. First hard test.
Studies ALL the time. I'm proud of his dedication, even if I don't get to see him very much.
We celebrated his birthday last week. I took him to the Cheesecake Factory. This guy has never been! Talk about deprived! He's now determined to try all 40+ cheesecake flavors. Over time of course...

Ashley Update
Has been patiently waiting for AZ to finish verifying CNA license...NOT
Applied to a bunch of jobs. Has a interview on July 8th for a position at a hospital. Fingers crossed!
Sent in her CASPA application about a month ago to Midwestern University and A.T. Still. Filled out a secondary application for A.T. Still. Now just waiting to hear back for interviews!
Overall, just enjoying her time not working. This time won't last forever.

We both got gym memberships here, so we usually go together after Nate is done with school for the day to sweat it out! We've found that we sweat A LOT more here. Wonder why... Apparently it's been 110 or more for the past week. Thank goodness for AC. Nate and I both agree that we'd rather have heat than cold.

Nate has also had the privilege of killing some scorpions too, big and small. He's been a trooper, but I can't help but laugh. He's paranoid. I guess I don't blame him though. He won't walk around the house barefoot and is going to get a black light since scorpions glow under them. Makes it easier to spot them. I think I'm the only one in my family that has ever gotten stung by one. That's not bad statistics considering we've lived here forever. The fact that I got stung while in bed doesn't help relieve his fear though. In a few days we're heading over to Cali for the holiday weekend. Maybe I'll actually take some pictures to put up on here. Here's a picture from the lake that I took last night. I LOVE Arizona sunsets.

Change in Scenery

In about three weeks we'll be making our way down to Arizona for what hopefully will be our last move for awhile. I'm SO done with moving...once is enough. We haven't even started packing up our stuff yet. Yikes! Most of our stuff is in storage anyway. If you haven't heard, Nate was accepted and starts P.T. school June 6th! Yay! He'll be attending Midwestern, which was our first pick of schools. Yeah, my husband is a rock star. He'll be in school for three more years. Once he completes Midwestern's program he'll have a doctorate in physical therapy and then just have to take the official test to become a licensed P.T. The end is in sight!

I am SO SO SO ready for a hot and sunny summer. Lots of tanning, bathing suits, and swimming! Winter is not my season! That seems to be the main season in Idaho and Washington. (We don't get along well) This is my last week of work before we leave. YAY! I've been ready for a change in employment. Then we head up to Canada for a mini-vacation (very much needed) before the long journey to AZ.

That's the brief summary of the next few weeks for us minus the chaos of packing. Oh, let the good times roll!

Arizona Here He Comes!

Yeah, I wrote that right. Nate is going to AZ WITHOUT ME!! For a good reason though. He has an interview with a P.T. program in Goodyear, AZ. YAY! So if he gets in, I'll move down there permanently with him. That's good enough for me :)

Our New Life

Well, it's official, I have finally landed a job! I start tomorrow and I'll be working as a Certified Nursing Assistant. I've completed the two hour rigorous ordeal of paperwork, drug testing, and TB testing. It will be perfect for me since I can count it as hours towards graduate school and I'll be working with some wonderful people! I am really excited and happy about this new opportunity! Plus, I'll be making almost double the amount I was making in Rexburg...it's ridiculous what they can pay you in a small college town. So we'll be able to save up a lot of $$$!

Nate is really enjoying his time as a Physical Therapist's Aid. He knows without a doubt that this is what he wants to do now since he has been in the office with patients and Physical Therapists. We can't thank Paul and Kathryn enough for helping him through the process of getting the position.

As for the graduate school update, Nate completed all his applications and secondary applications so now we're just waiting to hear back from them. All the programs I applied to were already full, so I will try for round two in April! We actually wouldn't mind having a year off since we've been going year round with 15+ credits a semester for the past two years. A break is nice :)

We really love where we are at in life right now. I'm not saying I wouldn't mind being out of graduate school already and have a job as a Physician's Assistant, but I'm content. I'm learning to just enjoy every day, and not wish for the future. It will come soon enough!

Update

So here are a few things that are happening in our lives:

• Nate graduated!! He has a B.S. degree in Exercise Physiology.
• I have my C.N.A. license now.
• I've been working my butt off these past weeks...every day...every holiday.
• We are out of Rexburg...mixed emotions about that.
• We are now in Spokane, WA! We made the 8 hour trip at 6 o'clock p.m. New Years' Eve with the car packed from top to bottom, literally. Both cats traveled on my lap. Luckily, they did great! Chloe had her expected throw up session (twice). Poor kitty gets car sick. I had to catch her throw up in a popcorn bowl. I'm pretty sure I can handle anything that gets thrown my way now after being a C.N.A. and catching cat throw up in a bowl. :)
• We're still unpacking, trying to get situated. We have A LOT of stuff. It's mainly my stuff...clothes to be more accurate. I'll admit it.
• Nate is on day three at his internship as a P.T. aide! He's really enjoying it.
• I'm trying to get my C.N.A. license switched to the state of WA so I can start working! I'm going CrAzY! Unemployment is not for me!
• I just tried Zumba for the first time last night! LOVED it! I'm addicted now!
• We've applied/applying to grad schools now. We're only applying to schools in AZ the first year since there are 3 P.T. programs and 2 P.A. programs really close to Glendale. If we don't get in our first year, we'll branch out and apply to more our second time around. Right now we're focused on getting clinical hours and experience in the health care field.

I'll make sure to keep everyone updated throughout our next adventure!