Snow Time

My Saturday morning run was quite chilly since it SNOWED! It snows in Albuquerque but usually not this early in December. I know what you guys are thinking, me running again? It's nothing intense but I am working out with an online personal trainer/nutritionist and I'm seeing some great results. I'll post more later.

But our Saturday was super cold and cuddly. I love those days. We went on the most gorgeous walk in the mountains sine we live like 5 minutes away. It was breathtaking. Barkley loved her life and so did Dyls. (He loves running around on the rocks acting like he's 5). The hike came to an end when Barkley jumped right into a cactus! It was bad but being the good mom that I am, I nursed her back to health within 2 minutes of the needle encounter.
Our day was finished with a trip to the groomers for Barkley and a trip to the temple for us.

The first pic is my view on my morning run. We have this great little path behind our house. The others are of our walk in the mountains.

Oh and you are probably wondering what's up with my blogging activity. I got an iPhone and it has blogger and a sweet camera on it. Plus instagram is life changing for photos.
And it's true, if you don't have an iPhone... Well you don't have an iPhone. Yeah I'm one of those people.

Terrible Twos

Barkley has decided it’s time to start acting like a two year old, literally. They say that babies are at their worst during their “terrible twos”, and I think that hits Barkley spot on right now. Our once angelic dog has turned into a little demon overnight. In the past week, she has gone to the bathroom in the house not once, but two times! In the entire time we’ve had her (almost 2 years), she’s gone to the bathroom in the house only a few times, so this is not like her at all. She has learned to tip over the trash can and eat whatever she can find inside of it this week, which is so fun to clean up. And, she thinks that Christmas ornaments are chew toys. Our normally well behaved dog is on probation right now, and if she keeps it up, we’re going to put her little bottom in the kennel when we leave the house. I mean it.

Other than that, we’re going on a little vacation in just a few short weeks. Think sandy beaches, lots of sun, and some well needed relaxation before things in our life get crazy (school for Dylan next year and a possibility of children in the near future. No, this is not a subtle announcement, we’re just thinking on it. We’ve kept Barkley alive for almost 2 years, so we might try a kid out sometime). Dylan has his UNM interview in a few weeks also, so keep your fingers crossed that one.

Other than that, we’re just getting geared up for the holidays. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving, and no, I did not take any pictures.

Don't judge me

The boyf is out of town again at an interview in Arizona. He was supposed to come home today, but because of a snowstorm, he has to wait until tomorrow (since when did it snow in AZ??). Anywho, I hate being alone, even for 1 night (it's going to suck when Dylan is studying all the time for med school, I'll probably hate my life or move back in with my parents). So, what do I do when I'm depressed? I go to Paradise Bakery, buy a big bowl of Baked Potato Soup, and not 1, but 2 cookies (because they are buy one get one free, duh). I ate them both, and I don't feel bad about it. I'll regret it tomorrow when my pants don't fit, but at least for the night I feel ok sleeping alone.

Dirty Little Secret

I don't like to wash my hair, well at least not every day. I like to go as long as possible without washing, but this can be a problem sometimes. I like to workout and get crazy sometimes, so my hair gets naaaaasty. I had a friend at work tell me about this miracle product called dry shampoo. I was skeptical, so I decided I'd give it a shot, but I'd buy the cheap brand that she was buying. I bought it, and I'm sold. You just spray this bad stuff in your hair and then comb it out a few minutes later. It eats up all the oil in your hair (and maybe my hair too, I'm not sure if it's bad for you yet). I'm in love.

This was probably the biggest surprise to Dylan when we got married, that I don't wash my hair everyday. I stepped out of the shower one time with a shower cap on and he freaked that my hair was still dry after my shower. He still loves me, he just thinks I'm gross.

***Hair Sylist friends, is this bad for my hair? I have to know****

Husbandless

I know you are not supposed to announce things like this on the internet, but I’m not really one for all the CSI, murder shows, so I’m still skeptical. My husband has been gone since Saturday, and don’t worry he is coming back. He’s at an interview in Miami right now for a school down there. Though Miami might seem like a luxurious destination for the next 4 years, I’m still not buying it (I even could’ve gone on the trip, but because of work stuff I decided to stay back). As crazy as it sounds, I’m ok with staying in New Mexico, but we’ll see where everything takes us over the next few months. We should know where we will be ending up in February-ish, so for the next few months, our lives are “To Be Continued….” in the schooling/living arena for next year.

When husband’s go out of town, it’s the perfect opportunity for the wife to do WHATEVER she wants. “When the cat is away, the mice will play”. You know the saying. And, no, I didn’t do anything crazy while D-man was gone, but I did some good old-fashion cleaning of the house…. Including throwing away lots of Dylan’s clothes that I no longer approve of). I even did a few things around the house that I probably would need to get prior approval if Dyl was here. I spray painted some picture frames white to lighten up our bedroom a little bit. It looks AMAZING. And I bought some super cute Halloween stuff for the house.

Other than that, it’s been super lonely without the husband around. The 6 hours was great. I dropped Dyl off at the airport, ran errands with my mom, went out to dinner with my friend Katy and her adooooooorable baby (the kind of baby that makes you want to have kids even though you don’t really like newborns), went to Target, and even posted some stuff on EBay I’ve been meaning to sell for months. Sounds like a great night, right? Well it was, up until I finished some cleaning and had no one to cuddle and watch a movie with. Barkley is useless when it comes to cuddling (she’s super temperamental and only lets you sit next to her if she’s in the mood), and she kept doing this creepy thing where she stood looking down the hallway like someone was there (after watching the Paranormal Activity previews on TV too many times, I got really scared and locked us in my bedroom for the rest of the night). I thought it would be a great little at home vacay with the Mr. gone, but it has actually been a big sob story (don’t feel bad for me, he comes back tomorrow). I guess it just makes me realize how much I love my husband, and even though we get in silly fights and stuff, there is no one else I’d rather spend my time with. (ok, enough mushy gushy).

***Disclaimer: If you are a robber thinking about breaking into my house while my boo is away, I have a super mean pitbull that will kill you****

Bon Qui Qui Burger King

And, for your viewing pleasure, I can’t get enough of this video. I die every time I watch it.

Best day of my life

Well besides my wedding day, I guess. My mom is the BEST. She took me and my sisters to Las Vegas in July for a super quick weekend so that I could fulfill my dream of seeing Celine Dion in concert. My sister Cristina moved at the beginning of August to Texas because she is getting her PhD in Accounting at Texas Tech (can you say nerd?), so this was our last chance to have an all girls' weekend for a loooong time. Any of my Vegas peeps, don't be offended. I was there for only 36 hours and it was kind of dedicated to only family time. My mom is a super crazy and she woke up at 3:30 AM the day we left. We were on the road by 4AM and we were in Vegas by noon since we gained an hour. We shopped, ate (obviously, look at my picture. I need to lose some weight stat), had a blast on the strip, and even gambled a little bit (my sweet 80 year old grandpa always gives us $20 to gamble with when we go to Vegas. I never win, so the moral of the story is for any of my YW that read my blog is that gambling is bad....very bad).

Celine Dion was AMAZING!! I can't even explain how much fun it was. It was just my mom and I that went to the concert, and it was kind of emotional for me. I cried, yeah I did. The lady next to me was from Quebec, and she had saved up for years to go to Vegas and see Celine. She was crying a little bit, so I did too. I was just so happy. I was totally bonding with the lady next to me, until she kept looking in her binonculars and telling me how gorgeous Celine looked up close. Hello? Let me use them! I never asked, but I'm still mad at her for not sharing.

Loved every minute of this trip with my mom and sisters. It's crazy to think that I lived away from home for 5 years while I was in school. It's so nice to be back and get to do fun stuff like this with my fam.

Guess who's back?

Per request of multiple individuals (I didn’t even think people read my blog, but I guess you do), this is my first blog post in almost 2 months. Whoops. I guess I just forget to take pictures and that sort of stuff. Which, I did. AND we only have a fancy schmancy camera now because both of our normal ones are broken, and it’s kind of weird to bust out a big camera to take a snapshot at a restaurant. My phone camera sucks, and Dylan busted his phone (which is touchscreen now and doesn’t work at all. Literally cracked every little part of the screen and now it looks like a spider web is on it permanently) when we went to Cliff’s (Amusement park in Albuquerque). So, I may be a loser when it comes to blogging, but I’ll work on it.

So, first and foremost, an update of what’s going on in our lives. Dylan is applying to Medical Schools right now (and still considering Podiatry). We were banking on UNM for the past 2 years, but some stupid advisor at UNM steered Dylan wrong, and he wouldn’t be able to graduate until after summer school this year. UNM Med school starts in July, so that won’t work because he HAS to be finished with all classes before the start date of Med School. We are torn right now between deferring another year (I do NOT want to do that) while Dylan could just work and then start UNM in Fall of 2013. It seems like too far off to me, and though I’d love to stay here, I just am not sure we are willing to wait another year. We’re still seeing what can happen on that end, plus he has to get in to UNM to even go down that road. So, more than likely we are moving in the next year. There are some pretty cool options, Tennessee, Arizona, Miami, NEW YORK CITY, and even lovely Iowa. We’ll see where this adventure takes us, but no matter what, I know we’ll be fine. I’m not happy about moving, well unless we move to NYC, then I’ll be one happy girl J

Other than that, I’m still working and Dylan is at school. The new job is fantastic. Love my life, can’t even describe it. I go home every day for lunch to eat and play with Barkley, it only takes me 5 minutes to get to and from work, and I get every other Friday off. It is the most amazing thing ever to have so many 3 day weekends. I can’t even describe how nice it is. Part of my job is event planning for the technologists that I work with (Party Planning to the max), so last week I got to go to Santa Fe to look at hotels. For work. Really? It's amazing. We’ve been doing a lot of studying for the MCAT lately, which leads to me painting rooms and buying things we don’t need. (pictures of the paint job will be up shortly).

For now, these next pictures will have to hold you over. One Sunday afternoon when Dylan and I were coming home from church, we noticed a bird was just sitting in our front yard on top of a bunch of pine needles (which we get letters from our HOA to clean up ALL the time). The bird would not move, she was just sitting there. So, I threw a rock at her. She flew away super fast, and then we saw that she was sitting on 2 little baby birds. She didn’t even make a nest. We are so lazy at yard work, that she just used the pine needles that were laying around to make her little home. So, we had a little mama bird with her babies living in our yard for a week or so. They never got big enough to fly away because our stupid neighbors called Animal Control to come pick them up. It may not have been the most sanitary thing for us to be out there playing with the birds all the time, but it was our yard, so they had no business turning us in. Either they turned us in, or they stole the birds to make soup (not to be offensive, but they are Korean).

My girls

I'm in Young Women's, and I know, most people say how wonderful and fun and amazing it is. But, it is. It is truly the best calling I could've ever been asked to do. I'm the Second Counselor in the YW Presidency (I know most people who read my blog know about the church, but just in case). That means I get to be with all of the Beehive girls who are 12 and 13 years old. It's crazy, like really crazy. Especially since there are 16 girls who are that age, and they all come to church. Like I said, it's crazy. It's so crazy that they had to get me a second advisor to act as "crowd control" when the troops get out of line (which is all the time).

Really though, I work with the most amazing girls. When I first got into YW over a year ago, I was overwhelmed with thinking about how I could teach them what they needed to know and how I could help them. Through this past year, I have realized that they don't really need me that much; but I need them. I have learned so much from these girls, which sounds silly since they are half my age. But they are so smart, and so strong, and they deal with way bigger issues than I have to. I look up to them, and I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for this amazing opportunity I've been given.

Ok, enough with the sappy stuff though. I got to go to Girl's Camp for a night at the beginning of June to hang out and have fun. It was great. The girls are so fun, and of course, I made them take some pics with me.

Top 3 Best Things about my new Job

1. Every other Friday off
2. FREE tampons in the bathroom
3. Every other Friday off

I've been a little busy lately with all these Fridays off (lots of little baby road trips), so I haven't had time to blog. Just know that life is gooood and I'll be blogging about my road trippin life soon.

Girls' Night Out

Lesly and I..... love this lady. She is so funny.

Chels, Mee, Katy, and Me

I went on a girls' date last week with the other leaders from Young Women's. While I was away for the night, Dylan went on a man date with one of the other husbands (oh, how cute).

The ladies spent the night eating dinner at a popular Mexican restaurant, El Pinto. The food is so-so, but the atmosphere is a-may-zing!! It is this cute, old, Spanish hacienda type building (kind of like where I had my wedding reception).

These women are some of the most amazing ladies I've ever know. I love each of them so much, and I'm so lucky to get to work with them.

It's weird getting older and being in a ward for a while. We like have real friends who are actual adults....it's weird. It's been so fun being in a ward for longer than a year. We finally feel like we actually fit in and are the regulars at church now (not just the newbies).