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Two Years

Wedding Day

Two years ago today the greatest adventure of my life started.

An adventure full of joy and happiness, trials and disappointments, and more fun and laughs than any two people could share.

I married a man who laughs off fights, wipes away tears, puts me first above every responsibility no matter the sacrifice. He also is the man who will lazily lounge around on the couch with me all day, eat copious amounts of cheese-dip shamelessly late at night, and make any fun night-out unforgettable.

Tyler, I love you more than you will ever know and I thank the Lord everyday for making you so perfectly for me. Happy 2-years, I am looking forward to MANY more!

First Look

 

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Hospital Visits, DES, and our New Apartment

So I have been meaning to write this post for quite some time. There are so many updates to be shared, but then exam time snuck up and I have been spending every last hour I am not sleeping studying.

First big update has been my selective I am doing at the hospital. I started a couple weeks ago making regular visits to the hospital as part of the selective where we work with physicians and take patient histories and do patient exams – a basic H&P. It has been so cool. I spent over a year volunteering at a hospital in Long Beach before coming to SGU which, in some ways, I was able to see way more than I will ever see in Grenada. However, I love how much we now know. It seems that with each patient I see, I have a pretty decent idea of what is going on. I understand the lab work, I can read and interpret the x-rays and imaging very well, and now I can even understand and start to interpret EKGs. I think the part I enjoy the most is that I can start to see how all of this knowledge I am stuffing into my brain really works together. I work with two different doctors, one who is in ER and one who on a basic medical ward in the general hospital. So far it has been so much fun and so rewarding. The 8+ hours out of my week has been draining, but I think totally worth it. And since we have the next 2 weeks off for exams, I can through myself back into school.

The next big thing I have been doing is leading DES review session for Anatomy. I am pretty sure everyone here knew that I wanted to lead these session by about our 4th week of classes last term. Peer tutoring and explaining concepts is something that I love to do. Perhaps in another life I would make a really good teacher, but I want to be hands on way too much to be able to do that long term. Nevertheless, it has been such a wonderful experience to sort of guide the new class of 1st termers through their hard classes. And as a plus, I think I now know my anatomy about 5 times better than I did after exams last term. Something about seeing it again makes it set in, plus I am constantly surprised by how many of the small details I still remember.

Thirdly, in a non-school related matter – Tyler and I have found a new place to move into this May. We decided last term that our current apartment was simply a little too quirky and a little too small for our likes. Plus, we knew that we could find a nicer place for a lot cheaper rent, so we decided that we would definitely move this summer. We found the most wonderful apartment that is sort of “off-route” as they would call it here. Since it is not on the main road to campus, the rent is almost half of what we pay now. But, it is on the water of the bay, has great big open windows to let the breeze in, is within a gated yard with fruit trees, has a little patio right in front that is all ours. Plus, the property has a big deck and pool that will be fantastic to have on those occasions where we can just sit outside and relax. When we started looking for places, I came up with a bunch of lofty desires for our new place in hopes of being sure that we spent time finding one we would really be comfortable in and that would easily accommodate us both needing to do work and school at the same time. And amazingly enough, we found a place with all of them (minus the hammock, but I will live.) Oh, and it has couches. 3 of them! I cannot wait to move and I am already coming up with ways to craft some cute decorations to make it more homey.

I feel like those are the big highlights. Exams are not too far off, starting a week from Monday. This term is just flying on by. Your prayers as I prepare would be much appreciated.

And for those of you that read regularly, it is spring on the blog again! Since the blog kicked off with our lovely green spring tree (our wedding tree I might add), I feel like we have come full circle. And it also means that our first year of marriage is quickly coming to an end. Crazy how fast life moves sometimes.

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Our Wedding

I feel like a great place to start is to take a moment to recap the wedding.

May 7th, 2011 I woke up and it felt like any ordinary day in so many ways. I washed my face, ate some breakfast.  It started to feel different when I pulled out a wedding dress as the days attire instead of my good ol’ jeans and favorite shirt. It was daunting to think about what a momentous day it was – it was simply incomprehendable.

The most memorable moment for me was standing there just before Tyler and I’s first look. I remember standing with all my bridesmaids gathered around ready to walk up behind him. Our photographer captured a pretty good picture of my mindset, which was a sort of “this is it” big deep breath as I realized that we were walking towards our point of no return. Tyler, in all of his greatness, made it even better by doing a huge jump around turn when I tapped him and giving me a huge, classic Tyler “HEY!” before giving me a huge hug. But I know I will never forget the feelings of excitement and joy flowing through my veins as I walked up behind him. As the both of us reflected back on the day we both agreed that our first look was one of the best parts of the whole thing. We got a chance, if even for just a second, to look at each other and say “today, we’re getting married!”

The ceremony was great, although admittedly it is hard to remember all of the words that were said. Mike, our officiant, could not have been a more perfect person to marry us and I know that there could not have been someone up there with us that was more overjoyed and more proud to see us get married. It was great having so many family and friends there with us and in looking through the pictures we were able to fully see all of the 150 faces that were watching us. It is pretty amazing that those 25 minutes that we stood up on that altar completely changed our lives forever. We know it is truly one of the greatest decisions that we will ever make.

The reception that followed was such a blast. I have to hand it to my good friend Melissa, also my wedding coordinator, for working hard to make my ideas and visions come to life. The reception flew by and we sincerely wish we could have spent more time with everyone that was there celebrating with us. But the whole afternoon was filled with good times, some heartfelt speeches, Tyler’s fantastic dance skills (okay, maybe not) and some delicious cupcakes. We got so caught up in everything that we almost forgot about the cake cutting altogether. However, since Tyler decided to smash the cake in my face, perhaps we should have just forgotten it  😉

We owe many thanks to our fantastic wedding party. They truly were a big help and support and we were so blessed to have so many close friends there with us. And they were also good for some laughs for just being their great, ridiculous, amazing selves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking back at everything now, it is sometimes hard to believe we are married. The new reality has yet to set-in and it is sometimes crazy to remember that just 3 weeks ago was our wedding. But then at the same time, it feels like we have been married for a long time. We are comfortable together and love being around each other and I think that there is something very natural about living together (minus getting used to each other’s quirks). We are so excited to get to experience life together and are excited to begin our many journeys and are loving getting to know each other more each day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to see some more images from the day, check out our photographers blog.  He seriously could not have captured the day better.

Also, if you want to read about our story, then you can do that here.