Tuesday, March 23, 2010

2 years hitched and loving it!

Well, March 18 marked our 2nd wedding anniversary.  These past 2 years have gone by so fast, but at the same time, it feels like we've been married longer than that... After reading through my past journals, I understand why.  As I've mentioned before, my time off of work to recover from surgery has given me PLENTY of time to think about things.  This past week, I have been reminiscing mine and Natalie's history together.  I dug up my old journals from my parents house, and have been reading them for about the past 3 hours now.  It's funny how you can forget things that happened not so long ago, and it's even more funny some of the things I thought were so important back then ha ha.

I would say our story really began on the Alta High Swim Team during my senior year in 2001 to 2002.  Natalie and I knew each other the year before through life guarding, but really didn't talk much.  One of my favorite memories is riding on a school bus to a swim meet in Richfield.  I don't remember how exactly, but Natalie and I ended up sitting with each other and the "flirting" began ha ha.  Natalie taught me all about the different kinds of roofs and other architectural tidbits she was learning in her interior design class, and I taught her about the human body from my Anatomy class.  I know you're thinking "Nerd Alert!", but hey, it was the start of a great friendship. From there, we started to talk more and more...

Our unofficial first date was the Sweetheart's Dance (which Natalie asked me to).  Our official first date came a few weeks later, and I will never forget her front door opening and Natalie's mom shooting me in the head with a pea-shooter.  The thing I love about our relationship is that it was more of a friendship than anything.  We went on countless dates up until I went on my mission, but we kept things at a "friendly" level.  Natalie and I wrote each other every week during the almost 2 years I was in Sweden on my mission.  The funny thing is that we grew closer during those 2 years away from each other than the time we shared together before I left.  We were both there to support each other in these new stages of life...Natalie in college, and me serving a mission trying to learn another language and culture.

So I was kind of weird when I got home from my mission, which Natalie will definitely agree to.... and anyone else who knows me ha ha. 2 and a half more years of dating went by.... This time we were definitely a couple.   Props to Natalie for being so patient with me.  I wouldn't trade any of our time dating for anything... We truly got to know each other and became each other's best friend.  We got engaged in November 2007 and got married March 18, 2008. 


Married life is great.  It's hard to remember what life was like not being married... Anyways, I am greatful for these past 2 years and am excited for the years to come.  Natalie and I had a great anniversary.  After she got off work, we went to the Salt Lake Temple to do sealings.  Can you think of a better way to remember your wedding day??? To make things even better, we went to The Melting Pot afterwards for an awesome fondue dinner.  It was an awesome day!  Happy anniversary Natalie!!!!

Friday, March 19, 2010

St. Patrick's Day


We celebrated St. Patrick's day in style, as you can see from our awesome pictures.  We had a couple's dinner with Natalie and I, Candace and Devin, Rhett and Erika, and Jordan and Nate at our apartment.  The menu consisted of corned beef, cabbage, green mashed potatoes with green gravy, green jell-o salad, broccoli, green ice water, and apple beer.  After dinner, we finished off the evening with the ancient Irish tradition of hot-tubbing at our apartment complex.  It was a really fun night. Personally, I had never done anything like this on St. Patrick's day so I felt especially privileged.  :)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Happy Birthday Natalie!!

 I thought I better be the one to write this one real quick and brag about my great birthday weekend thanks to my husband because he is the best, really. Nate picked me up from work Thursday and blind folded me as we drove to....what turned out to be the Little America Hotel. 

We spent the next couple of nights just relaxing, swimming, shopping, exercising, eating yummy food and oh yes a surprise birthday dinner Friday night with friends and family at the Olive Garden downtown followed by some swimming at the hotel. Saturday we had dinner with Nate's family and Sunday with my family. We had a great time, thanks everybody!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Waking up the dream....

WARNING: THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG ONE!!!

Well, it's been over 2 weeks since I had my surgery, and things couldn't be going better!  My incisions are basically healed, and I am off of ALL medications!  I had an appointment with my surgeon last week and he is amazed at how quickly I am recovering.  He said that I should have a good 5 to 10 years without any problems.  I'll take it!! I've accepted the fact that crohn's can't be cured (yet) and I am going to make the most of this time I have been given to be symptom free.  Why didn't I do this sooner???

Besides going a little stir crazy at times, I have been enjoying my time off work while I recover.  I have had a lot of time to reflect on my life and things I want to accomplish in the future.  It's funny the conclusions I have come to.  For those of you that have known me a long time,  I have always wanted to go to medical school and become a doctor of some kind.  Over the past couple of years, I let that dream slip away for many reasons.  First, I became discouraged with the pre-requisites for medical school that I was working on while finishing my business degree.  It was really hard studying subjects that were so different, and I had to give more attention to the business classes since that was for my degree.  Second, I have been on a roller coaster with my health, and started doubting that I could physically handle the stress that comes with being a medical student.  These factors caused me to lose my drive to become a doctor, and I ended up finishing my business degree without continuing the pre reqs for med school.  I decided to put away the dream I've had since I was a kid because it just didn't feel like a possibility, and decided that I would shoot for a masters degree in healthcare administration...

Anywho, I have had a huge awakening this past week.  It started with going to a session at the Draper temple last Tuesday to see my brother-in-law Michael go through for the first time.  It had been quite a while since I had been to the temple, and I had the most wonderful feeling of peace and my mind was cleared of any negative thoughts.  It's funny because it had been a pretty rough day up to that point for reasons I won't get into.  I was feeling pretty down when I got to the temple, and almost immediately those feelings disappeared.  Anyways, something motivated me at the temple that I really need to stop coasting and make some important decisions for my future.  So, the rest of the week I spent a lot of time working on applications for graduate school for my dual degree in healthcare and business administration and studying for the GMAT exam. 

Applications for graduate school are TORTURE.  You have to write essays, get recommendation letters, and pay outrageous application fees.  I have been working on these essays, and have been bothering old bosses and professors to get recommendation letters in before rapidly approaching deadlines.  I had been making great progress, and the thoughts came to me yesterday--- What would it take for me to get to med school at this point?   Do I really want to get my MBA and a masters in Healthcare Administration? Is this really what I want to do for my career?

So, for the heck of it, I emailed the pre-med advisor at the University of Utah to see what my options are.  I got a quick reply that I can either go for a 2nd bachelors degree to complete the pre-requisites, or take the classes as a non-matriculated student. It was still possible, just not the easiest way to get there.  This got the wheels turning in my head, and a little fire of excitement was lit in my mind.  The dream of becoming a doctor was coming back from the dead. 

Now for the really corny part.  Last night, I couldn't sleep... My body is still working to get rid of the prednisone I have been taking the last couple of months.  So, I popped in a DVD of Grey's Anatomy.  Now I know that show is full of silly drama and a lot of the stories are pretty out there and that's not totally what it is like being a doctor, but it INSPIRED me.  I have watched the show from the beginning... I have watched the main characters that started out as interns fresh out of med school, and seen how they've developed into doctors through the years the show has gone on.  And it came to me again last night,  I WANT THAT!!  I want to help people overcome sickness and pain, like the doctors and surgeons have done in my own life.  I want to make a difference in people's lives at the most personal level. 

So, unless something really out of this world happens, that is what I am going to do.  I am going to get back on track with the life and career I always wanted.  I am going to go for my dream.  I know that it is going to be hard and take a lot of time.  It'll be worth it though!! I told Natalie this tonight, and she lit up like a christmas tree.  I think she has been biting her tongue for a long time.... She had mentioned that ever since she's known me I had talked about wanting to become a doctor.  I know that my recent decisions surprised her, but she has been nothing but supportive in the career choices I have made.  She wasn't just hanging around cause she thought I was going to be a doctor ha ha :). The happiness I saw in her eyes when I talked to her about this was just another sign that I am making a good decision.

Time to get busy!!! Thanks for reading :)