Merry Christmas....

I love Christmas time!! It has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I love getting together with family, singing carols, giving gifts and celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. There is such a fun feeling in the air. We all seem to care a little more for each other. It is even more fun for Dave and me this year because we haven't seen our families for about 5 months! We have missed everyone and have loved visiting with everyone in person. When we flew in I was so excited to see the mountains, Utah is so beautiful. We have been busy with family parties, shopping and snowboarding. :) Dave and I are VERY sore today. We went boarding with my family yesterday, by the end of the day we didn't think we would make it down the mountain to our car.... our legs were melting down! We need to get in shape! Oh my!
Well I will write more later I better get back to the Christmas celebrations!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! Have a wonderful day!

Just pictures... because I am lazy and I ate too much today :) HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Update….

This last weekend Dave and I were invited to go to South Dakota to stay with Teissa’s family. We were there Friday evening and we got back Sunday night. We had such a great time! Teissa and Casey’s family are so sweet for inviting us into their home. :) Teissa and her sisters walk a lot, speed walk that it. This is not for babies mind you! They are hard core and I am sore! And I am a rhyming, lol.

Saturday we went to dinner at Johnny Carino’s, (delicious!) and went hot tubbing. Friday and Saturday morning it was pretty chilly. But Saturday afternoon and Sunday the weather was so nice. On Saturday we went out to their families’ property and rode 4 wheelers and had a fire. That night we took Isaac and Bella trick-or-treating. It was so funny! There was the two of us, their parents, their grandparents, and Dan and Chealse. Ha ha! We definitely LOOKed like overprotective parents! They really aren’t of course. We just all wanted to go trick-or-treating! :) Their kids are so cute! It was such a fun night. Afterward we watched a movie and relaxed.

Isaac, Teissa and Casey's son really wanted to play Red Rover... so we did. The guys loved it. HA HA! They all ended up on the same team. I love these pictures! Don't they look happy!?

Teissa’s and her parents are amazing cooks! They made so many great things! I am going to have to try out their recipes. We definitely got spoiled. That is the closest feeling to going home we’ve had in the last 3 months. It was really nice.

Last weekend the married students in the medical school had an activity. We all went to a place called Vala’s Pumpkin Patch. We were thinking that it would have a corn maze and a couple other activities. But no, this place was huge. It was a full amusement park almost. There were haunted houses, 3 different racecar tracks, little restaurants, mini-golf, pumpkin and apple launchings, pig races, and I am sure I have forgotten something. The list was endless.

So while we were in Kansas City we went to Liberty Jail. It was really a neat experience to see that jail and to learn more about the history of the LDS church. There are so many things that I do not know about church so it was really fun. The jail was actually torn down for a while but the church rebuilt part of it and now they have a visitor center there. Joseph Smith wrote many sections of the D&C while he was there.

Ribbon dancing?

Check out our new hobby. We have been practicing very hard.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/cDe6upUx2jRinwSX

Kansas City…

Me and Teddy

A few of the girls who live by us are really great runners. I, as you probably know, am not a great runner. :) Well a couple girls, Ali Thuerer and Tiffany Boss, who are good runners decided to run the Kansas City Marathon. A group was also running it as a relay. They asked me to run a portion. So Dave and I went to Kansas City with. I ran 4 of the 26 miles; my part had a pretty good hill so it was a good run. Running in it really gave me a greater desire to continue running. I don’t know if I would ever want to do a full marathon but I would like to run half sometime.

The trip was so much fun. Dave has been studying so much lately so it was a well deserved break for him. He had Monday off for fall break so I took the day off and we were able to stay in Kansas until Monday afternoon.

Kansas City is a great city. It is really big! Before we left everyone at my school kept telling me that I had to get BBQ while we were there. They are known for their BBQ. We found a fabulous restaurant! Oklahoma Joe’s. It is in a gas station on a random corner, totally looks ghetto, BUT it was delicious! I never realized how tasty BBQ could be. Hands down the best I’ve ever had. Our whole party loved it. Dave even added it to our book of best restaurants.

So if you are ever in KC, Kansas look them up and stop by. :) You will not regret it. Ha ha I am beginning to sound like an advertisement.

We also went to a pretty cool shopping center too. It is called the Plaza. It is a really ritzy outdoor mall. There are tons of fountains and cool old buildings, so it was fun to walk around there. We found out that KC has more fountains than any city in the world besides Rome. Pretty cool.

For Kali...

This one is dedicated to you Kali! I am so glad that you found a great job. Congratulations! Yay! Sounds like a blast. I am also so jealous that you live in California. SO SO So jealous!!! Ahhh, how would it to be...? Summer all year long. Lucky.

It is NOT, I repeat, not, summer weather here this weekend. If fact Saturday morning I woke up to a good three inches of snow outside! Oh and it kept snowing all morning. :)

I can't complain too much though, it was rather fun. And I almost hit Dave with a snowball. I regret that almost. I saw the snow while he was in the bathroom. So of course I ran down stairs to get a snowball. He was a little suspicious, and just as the snowball was about to hit him.... he slammed the door shut with lightning speed! So sadly the snowball hit the door instead of him. Man, talk about ruining a perfectly good snowball fight. Then all I was left with was to quickly clean the melting snow of the hard wood floor. Oops.

We did get a couple pictures of the snow before Dave headed to school to study. Here they are.

Today I found a recipe my mom gave me a while ago for chicken chili and flat bread. She made it for us once and it was delicious. It felt like a chili day, with the cold weather and snow so I decided to make it. I really enjoyed making the flat bread. I really enjoy cooking breads for some reason. There is just something fun about the smell of the yeast and the dough rising. I love it. It reminds me of being a kid I guess. We made dessert breads after dinner which was fun too. Dave had chocolate and cinnamon on his and I had honey butter.

Here's a picture of the leftover bread.

Oh so I signed up to go to a birthday card making night a couple weeks ago. I did not know what I was doing! But I gave it a shot. I had to design a birthday card and then make enough for 16 other people to assemble my card. So I got the supplies to make 16 more of the card I created and headed down to the clubhouse here at Village Green. I put together one of each of the cards other people brought and now I have tons of super cute birthday cards, too cute to give away in fact! LOL! So I took a picture of them all. That way if I ever want to make one of them again I can remember what it looked like. And I don't feel like I can't part with them.

I can't believe how creative and intricate some of the cards were. I am definitely not as high tech as some of these card making women. (Mine is the orange one on the second to bottom row, right side)

Well I can't think of anything else super exciting.... I am loving teaching here in Omaha. I really like living here. People are friendly. One complaint the fastest speed limit anywhere is 60 mph... yes 60. And no one speeds at all. Oh my, it is a good thing I live half a mile from my school and I hardly ever take the free way. Otherwise I would be bound to get a ticket, I swear I have a lead foot. It is very easy for me to get going over 60 on the freeway.

It's Friday!!!

Yay! The work week is almost over. The weekend is ahead of me. I love that feeling. :)

Dave had his second quiz today and it sounds like he did really well. I guess it was a pretty hard one. So there is another reason for cheer! YAY!!

Last weekend Chelsie and I got some materials to make wreathes for our walls and doors. This weekend I think we may have time to make them so that will be fun.

Dave has made a couple good friends from his class. We are getting together with them on Saturday. Casey and Teissa invited Dan and Chelsie and Dave and I to a BBQ at their house.

They are really nice. I am so excited for that on Saturday.

The boys have their first test on Monday so they will study while we make dinner and probably while we hang out afterward... Oh the long hours of study. I do not envy that at all. I am so proud of Dave for doing it.

Omaha

Dave and I are having so much fun here in Omaha. I love teaching my 16 wonderful 2nd graders. They are such funny, great kids! I love spending the day with them. :)

Dave is so busy with classes, labs and studying. It is nice that I have been super busy as well. He had his 1st quiz last week. And he did really well! So we are very happy about that! Great job Dave! He has been working really hard. I am very proud of him.

He has another quiz on Friday and his 1^st test on Monday. So cross your fingers that he does well. :) I am sure that he will.

Last week we wnt to the Botanical Gardens right by our house. We actually get in free because our townhouse complex sold them some land a couple years ago. So we can go whenever we want. It is beautiful!

We really like our neighbors here and our ward is awesome. The Bishop is such a great guy and the ward members are very friendly.

We have made some fun friends too. One of the other 1^st year med students in Dave’s class lives in our complex. He and his wife are not in our ward but we have become friends with them. Their names are Dan and Chelsie. They don’t have any kids; almost everyone around here does, so we have hung out with them quite a bit. Last night we all made dinner and played games. It was really fun. :) Last weekend we all went to a little Diner that we really like. Its called Petrow's. Here is a SWEET pic of one of the cars in the parking lot.....

????????????? :)

We have also hung out with Scott and Teddy Elder. They are such a fun couple. We love that we live right across the street from them. Dave and I have been friends with them for years. He is in Dental school and Teddy is a 2^nd grade para-educator. Maybe next year she will work in my school!

There are Sunday evening BBQ’s here a lot and girls getting together to work out in the complex so that’s been fun too.

On Saturday we went to the Farmers Market downtown. That was fun, we took a lot of pictures. It was a fun holiday weekend.

We also took some pictures out at the old train station. Its just a few minutes from our house. It is pretty sweet over there. The station has huge but now it is really run down. There is another train station across the tracks that has been kept up and it is a really pretty old building. They run a museum inside it now.

We have been so busy...

...and so I haven't posted in a couple weeks. We have the main floor pretty much done. :) Yay!! We still need to paint some moldings (but just around the pantry doors), and hang our paintings, but we are so close. Woohoo!! Its so much nicer down there now. Here are some pictures. We are loving it....

We haven't worked on the house at all for the past week and a half because we have both been so busy getting things ready for school. I decorated my school room, which took forever. I have had tons of meetings and then of course I had to find time to plan what I was going to teach my 1st week with my second grade class. It was crazy busy.
Dave had orientation and his white coat ceremony last week. That was fun his family came out for a couple days to attend. It was fun to see them.
This week he started classes. He was been studying and working hard. He has anatomy, molecular and cell biology, embryology and ethics. He also has anatomy lab 3 times a week. This week he and his lab group, there are 5 in his group, started cutting up there 1st cadaver. He really stinks when he gets home, so gross, so I can’t imagine how smelly it is in the lab. Sick... I could never do that! He is handling it well though. He doesn’t enjoy the smell but it hasn’t made him sick. I guess some of the other students have had to step out of the room because the smell was getting to them. Just thinking about it makes me sick!!
I am glad I am the teacher and he’s going to be the doctor. It works out perfectly. :)

Well I hope that everyone at home is doing great! We miss you guys!!

Ok this is getting good...

The house is looking so much better. Everything is still in disarray BUT we are getting close to having a kitchen again.

Dave has been working SO hard all week to get the tile in the kitchen and entry way. Last night he put down the last of it!!! YAY! He has done such a nice job. :) It looks great. I grouted the most of the kitchen last night and then some this morning. So this evening we will be able to put our fridge and stove and everything else back in there. That will be so nice. Not only will we be able to stop going out to eat for basically every meal but we will also have a family room again!! All the kitchen stuff is in there right now.

All the walls are painted, the moldings still need to be finished, but even the moldings (which look like they haven’t been painted since the 80’s) look better with color on the walls.

Anyway enough of my blabbering, here are some pictures…

K the “Bud Family” gave us a great BBQ for our wedding and we couldn’t have it out at our apartment so we are finally getting it put together. THANKS GUYS!! We are so excited to use our BBQ! We finally have the perfect spot for it.