Christmas Card 2013

Merry Christmas from our always moving home to yours!! We hope this finds you and your family well. Here it is-our first Christmas card!! Check out our adventures of TWENTY THIRTEEN!

Time is passing                                  Trip of a lifetime
Wedding                                            Husband time
Eternity begins                                   I have a husband again

New Adventures in familiar places       Roadtrip (for my family)

Time with the girls                             Trips to Nebraska
Y am I alone                                      Essence of a Jayhawk
                                                         End all be all
                                                         New beginnings

Time is passing
It is amazing how fast time is flying. I still think I was in high school two years ago but my 5 year class reunion this past summer reminded me that is not the case. Catch up on our lives over the past year...

Wedding
Matt and I were married on December 29, 2012 so this makes for our first Christmas as husband and wife!

Eternity begins- honeymoon #1
Our honeymoon took us to the Bahamas over New Years. We had a great time! We felt like we were one of the only ones on the island; one day we rented a Moped and drove across almost the entire island and found that thought to be pretty accurate.

New Adventures in familiar places- honeymoon #2
Matt had a business meeting in Nashville, and I didn't start school for another week so as soon as we got back from our honeymoon we took off again. I like to refer to this trip as honeymoon #2. We went to Memphis-hung out on Beale Street and toured Graceland coincidentally on Elvis's birthday. Then we headed to Nashville where Matt went to business meetings, and I worked on thank you cards. It was my 12th trip to Nashville, and I finally got a tour!

Time with the girls!
In January I took a girls trip with some of my classmates and new found friends to Vegas for a Lady Gaga concert. It was probably the coolest concert I have ever been to; she puts on a HUGE production.

Lady Gaga concert with Lisa, Katie, Caitlin, Jenna & Shefy

Love these goofy girls!

Taking our limo ride to start the evening. 

"Y am I alone?"
Matt took off in May for his final summer with Southwestern Advantage. He left me alone to move...again and continue to work on my master's degree.


Trip of a lifetime-Ecuador
In occupational therapy school, we have three one week and two three months clinical rotations. My final one week rotation was completed in Ecuador as part of a medical mission trip. Eight OT students, 5 PT students and three faculty sponsors made the trip in August. We worked in a clinic that treated people with Hansen's Disease (leprosy) for a week and did some sight seeing at the end of the trip. It was an unforgettable experience.

The whole group of girls

Husband time!
I took a quick trip up to New England to see Matt this summer. My mom went with me to Boston for a few days. We had a great time visiting the area.

Fenway Park

Matt came and met up with us, my mom went home, and we headed to Maine. We went to Acadia National Park-so beautiful!!!! Then we headed to visit with my host mom, Helen, that I stayed with my final summer with Southwestern Advantage.

Portland Head Light, Maine

I have a husband again!!
Matt finally decided to move back home so after eight months of marriage we decided it would be a good idea to live in the same state.

Roadtrip (for my family)
The first weekend Matt was home my family decided to come visit us and go to the Chiefs/Cowboys game. The whole family decked out in their Cowboys gear. Matt however chose to wear his Broncos paraphernalia and was given a pretty hard time by all the Chief's fans.

Trips to Nebraska
We made as many trips back to Nebraska as we could. State volleyball and friends' weddings were always good excuses. After driving back and forth for a year and a half, I am quite positive they have conspicuously added at least 50 miles onto I-29.

Essence of a Jayhawk
We thought we better get in as much hometown spirit as we could while we lived in KC so we took a trip to Lawrence for the KU exhibition game.
You can check out my post about that here.

End all be all-capstones
Capstone was supposed to be the end all be all to our academic career. I sit here writing this before my last final and it seems like capstones were a really long time ago....but it was nice to get that done and over with when we did!
You can check out my post about that here.

New beginnings
And here's to new beginnings. After Christmas we are moving to Phoenix where I will complete six months of clinical rotations and Matt will start a new job. We are excited for this new adventure-mostly because of the warm weather. Wish us luck, and if you are ever in the area be sure and stop on by! Make sure to subscribe to my blog, if you haven't already, by typing in your email address under "Follow my Blog" on the side. God Bless and Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!

Ice skating at the Crown Center

Holiday Happiness

Thursday was my last class.......EVER!!!!!! I have spent the last 20 years (yes I am counting pre-school) in a classroom. I cannot wait to be done!! There are still two more big finals left to take, but that is all. And exciting as it is to be done with school it is a little bittersweet. I have met some very fabulous women in my class that I will miss dearly. 

This weekend was filled with holiday parties for me. Saturday, we headed to the crown center to go ice skating with some of our best friends, Patrick and Angela. Matt had to make a pit stop inside the crown center with the Lego figurines. I think our next trip may have to be to Legoland! 

Matt loves his Legos!!

We hit the ice rink and had a great time. It had been a few years since I had been ice skating. It was our first time ice skating together and skating outside; everything was great except my skates were two sizes too small...ouch! We saw one proposal and experienced many stages of cold. Overall it was really fun!

Before we started skating they had a nice video of all the rules to follow, and we all watched it as we were waiting in line. Apparently some people did not take these rules seriously as one of the rules specifically said "no chain skating". Below you will see a picture of what is clearly chain skating!! Yes, we documented these rule breakers, but how cute are they?!?

The Smurf family caught "chain skating"

The Christmas decorations throughout KC are spectacular. Here we walked through the crown center. I LOVE the huge wreath!!! (That would be quite the project for me!) You can also see the huge tree outside in the background.

Merry Christmas to you all and congrats on another semester down!! Only one left for me and that is only clinicals! Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season!

Capstones

Friday, November 22nd marked an important day in our graduate school career. It was our research capstone day. We all presented our projects we have been working on for over a year. 

Our poster which will also be presented at the national conference in Baltimore this spring.

My awesome capstone group! Jacque, Angela, Sophia, Ginny & me.

Presenting our research

It was a great day, but I think everyone is a little a LOT relieved that it is over. Cross one more thing off the list. Only nine days left of class for me, ever!!! Can't wait!

All our hard work left us wanting to have a little fun. So Angela and I went a little crazy! Thanks Sophia for taking all these awesome shots!!

Showing off our Nebraska pride: a Bluejay and a Loper

We thought we looked like Christmas so we thought we would spread our Christmas joy!

Santa and a reindeer.

The three Nebraska girls: me, Angela & Stacey

Angela, Sophia and me. One good thing from this project has been the chance to make such great new friends!

Me and Jenna with our ruffles

It's been quite the ride. I definitely couldn't have done it without all the awesome ladies in my class to help provide support, laughter, fun, friends and a good time.