It'll be March in 2 days...

And in Virginia, March means SPRING! Really, truly, grass turning green, flowers, warmth, and even bare feet on the beach. We've gotten some premature tastes of spring lately but it will really be here soon. And I can't wait!

Life has been pretty crazy lately. School is SO BUSY! I am studying an insane amount but I've been able to do well enough so far. I LOVE my Mechanisms of Diseases class (most of the time). Anatomy has gotten crazy. The head and neck were pretty tortuous. By the time I finished that exam on Tuesday afternoon I felt like it should have been Friday. I was wiped out. On Thursday in lab we opened up the chest cavity and started learning about the lungs. So fun.

On Valentine's day Burke and I celebrated 3 years of knowing each other. After dinner Burke took me to Color Me Mine. Instead of each getting our own pottery to paint we picked one thing and painted it together (that is probably the epitome of our poor student lifestyle!). But actually we had a lot of fun doing it together and we both love how it turned out. Burke wanted to paint mountains, and when he did they reminded me of sweet Provo.





Which is where, on that fateful day 3 years ago, we met in a tent outside the Marriott Center. We feel pretty grateful for our mutual friends and for BYU basketball...what brought us together. Speaking of BYU basketball, I just can't get much studying done when they play. No, we can't watch the games on TV, but we've been finding ways to follow.... and we love it. I miss being at the Marriott Center SO MUCH! We are looking forward to a Cougar-filled NCAA tournament!



We have been doing less "fun stuff" than I figured we would simply because we are busier than we expected and because everything costs more than we expected. (For example, Colonial Williamsburg costs like $40 a person at the least!) This month we are looking forward to a trip to see Aaron in Buena Vista and hopefully a visit from some of Burke's family! I am excited for March.

Freedom from want

Yesterday Burke and I drove down to the Raleigh, NC temple. My mom and dad met us there and we did a session together. It was SO lovely! I loved seeing Mama and Daddy again and being with them in the temple. Plus Burke and I hadn't been to that temple since our wedding day.


After our session we all went to the NC Museum of Art. We got to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit (it was in Wisconsin in the fall but we missed it!). It was a pretty fun exhibit, as they go. I really enjoyed learning about this man who illustrated classic America. I was especially moved by a picture he painted of a little black girl in a stark, white dress being escorted into a white school at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. What a powerful moment and a brave little girl.


Rockwell also illustrated the "Four Freedoms" speech that President Roosevelt gave at the state of the union address in 1941. Roosevelt said:

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world."


I love these goals and Rockwell's interpretation of them. I'm grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in this country. I know that all of those goals haven't necessarily been met, but these are worthy goals. And as I look at my own life, I recognize the great freedom that I have always felt from want. Especially thanks to these two lovely people:


I am so blessed.

Our new environment

Burke and I are starting to get settled into our new surroundings and routines here in Norfolk.


We were not so excited about our apartment when we first got here. Actually, angry is probably the better word. We signed the lease blind, but it was only a month-to-month so we figured we were safe. Our first impressions were, as soon as our month is up, we're out. Now that we've gotten unpacked and settled, though, we think it'll work just fine.

We literally live right on the beach. It's protected in some way so there are very little waves, and I can't tell if it will be alright for swimming or not, but it's beautiful. We've gone out for sunrise runs on the beach a few times now. It's amazing. I'm excited for when it will be warm enough to go barefoot, but even so I just love how rejuvenating it is to go running on a beautiful morning. It brings joy to my heart.


I am now the proud wearer of a white coat! Actually, I haven't worn it yet except at the ceremony where I received it. But next week I will have my first clinical practice assignment at the TATC. This is a practice clinic where paid actors come in and pretend to be patients. I'll get to watch video of myself and get feedback from my patient. I am way excited about it. All I have to do for the first one is make them feel comfortable and take their history, but it is a grade so hopefully I won't be real nervous. My white coat is a short one, which is how you distinguish "learners" from pros.

I like my classes. It's fun to learn cool stuff that I love all the time. Some of them are a little boring so far, actually, but I think they'll pick up. Anatomy is information overload, like usual, but I'm really finding that my Functional Anatomy class at BYU helped a LOT and I remember lots more than I expected to. Dissection is....interesting.... but it's amazing what you can get used to, and how quickly. I haven't been stressed out yet, but real tests start soon, so we'll see.


Burke had a rough first week because we had internet issues (it sure is hard to work from home without the internet!!). But this week is going great. He found a steal of a deal on craigslist for a desk so he's all set up with his own home office. He's finding he has lots more to do than he expected and we have every reason to think that this long-distance thing is going to work out just great.

AND we have been called to work in the primary. Specifically in the nursery and the cub scouts. So that is interesting! Being in nursery is a completely different experience of church. We haven't done anything with cub scouts yet but Burke's pretty excited about that.

We were able to spend a few days in NC before school started and we got to see Ian and Emma and Adam and Beth before they all headed back to Utah. I was really grateful for that. Unfortunately the quick move meant that our Christmas with Burke's family was a little more rushed and stressful than I would have liked, but it was really nice too. I think my family had a wonderful Christmas (it was a white one, even!) with a little niece/daughter/granddaughter to spoil rotten. Last Friday Mom drove up to be at my white coat ceremony and she spent the night on our futon, and it was so fun to have her here! And this weekend we are going back home because it's Dillon's birthday and I have a day off of school. It's a long drive but doable, and that's really really nice.

Do I look like my mama?


Pilot Mountain with Bethie

For a day we were all together!

A BIG Blizzard and Some BIG Blessings

The Blizzard:

So I've mentioned it before, but ever since I knew we were going to be moving to Wisconsin I've been dreading this winter. As it turns out, I'm getting off pretty easy. For one thing, we're moving to Virginia before January. Plus, normally in Wisconsin it snows in October and there's a good amount of snow on the ground by November, but this year we had our first real snowfall on December 9th. Still though, I think I may have had enough of winter by the time we move anyway. This weekend we had a big blizzard with 13 inches of snow from Saturday evening til Sunday morning.

I had to work 2nd shift on both Saturday and Sunday. Burke was out with the missionaries Saturday evening after the snow started, and they picked me up from work on the way home. It took us 40 minutes to get the missionaries home and then 30 minutes to get home from there. Then we got stuck getting into our parking lot and Burke and our neighbor had to dig our car out. Thank goodness we have a garage in our complex. On Sunday, church was cancelled, which must tell you how bad it was since this is Wisconsin, for crying out loud! It had snowed so much with so much wind that we were literally snowed in! That's never happened to me before. There was a 4 foot snowdrift in front of our door and about the same in front of our garage. Someone came to plow our parking lot around noon on Sunday when the snow finally stopped. Then we could shovel out our front door and in front of our garage. The roads were awful! Thankfully, Burke does pretty well in the snow and drove me to work for the next couple of days. The road we live on and the road my work is on are still a big mess, but otherwise the city has mostly recovered.

The biggest pity is that on Sunday the temperature dropped and the wind continued so that we've been having wind chill factors below 0....too cold for much snow playing! Maybe the next snowfall will be nice and gentle, at a balmy 28 degrees or so.

A view of our garage right as the guy started plowing:


We opened our front door to this:


The next day looked like this:

The snowdrifts looked really cool the way the wind had shaped them:


The Blessings:

1. We all survived the big blizzard, even though we unfortunately couldn't stay huddled up inside all weekend (like any normal person should do).
2. I only have a week and a day left at my job... Hallelujah! (I'm quitting before Christmas so I don't have to work 2nd on Christmas Eve... double Hallelujah!)

AND THE HUGE BLESSING OF THE WEEK:

3. Burke has a job!!! He found out yesterday that the company he works for now (Thrivent Financial) is keeping him on to work LONG DISTANCE! We couldn't be more grateful. We haven't figured out a lot of the details yet but he'll be working from home, with a salary and benefits! Sigh of relief just doesn't even express it. We're not sure if this will last forever but it's a guaranteed 3 months at least, which will at least give him an opportunity to meet people in the area and get ideas about what else he could do there.

I'm so proud of him, just because this is not something that this company ever does! They just decided to give it a try because they like him so much. :) We feel so incredibly blessed.

Now that I've spent so long writing this I'll mention that we still haven't decided where to live (that's another story for another day) and we haven't started packing, even though we could be moving as early as two weeks from yesterday. Not to mention Christmas is in there too. And I'm here blogging...

Two of the best holidays...

We had two holidays this last week... Thanksgiving and my birthday!

I really enjoyed Thanksgiving this year. (Well, I suppose I always do...) We spent it with Burke's parents, Blake, Bonnie, and Burke's aunt, uncle, and cousin who drove in from Minnesota. I made an apple pie on Wednesday. I was nervous about it because I've only ever made like 3 pies ever, and only 1 of the 3 turned out very good. But Mama sent me her recipe (she makes apple pie every year, and it's always fantastic!) and I took my time on the crust, and when it was finished it actually looked really pretty! And when we finally got around to eating it on Thanksgiving, it was delicious too.

I had to work on Wednesday night and Friday morning, but getting to spend all day Thursday with the family was nice. All of the food was delicious! I took a nice nap in the afternoon, and in the evening we went to see Harry Potter. Ah holidays!

And on Saturday I turned 23. (Today is the birthday of one of the resident's at work who is turning 83. I've remembered it all month because she is almost exactly 60 years older than me!) It was a pretty chill day. We went over to Burke's parents for "lunch" which turned out to be a surprise party that Burke and Bonnie had been working on. It was really thoughtful of them and Kathy and those who came. I got to talk to (almost) everybody in my family and that was really great too. In the evening Burke and I went out to dinner. (Burke insisted that we had to go somewhere that we could get cake! I needed a piece of birthday cake!) When we came home we decorated our Christmas tree, which may have been my favorite part of the day. Thanks to everyone who made my birthday special!

WE ARE MOVING TO VIRGINIA

We've kind of assumed it for a long time, but it's official. Today I put in my "4 weeks notice" at work. We'll be moving to Norfolk, VA around the end of the year and I will be starting the PA program at Eastern Virginia Medical School on January 3. Hoorah!

Decisions, decisions.... you know, the big ones? I'm tired of them! The last few months have been SO HARD! But now we know. It's hard for Burke to quit his job but he's been applying for lots of finance jobs in the area and we've been making contacts as best we can (without actually knowing anyone there!). I got accepted to Rosalind Franklin but we didn't feel like it was the right thing to do. I got a rejection letter from AT Still in AZ, and that was a little disappointing I guess, but alright. I still don't know for sure from Wake Forest, but I talked to the program director last night and she basically said "Look, I just don't think we're going to have a spot for you, but we won't know for sure until January or February." SO here we are.

Burke is amazing, really. None of this is easy for either of us, especially him, but he is so supportive, and always has been. We really are trying to do what we feel is the right thing for us at this time. We are so excited for this next adventure! Nervous, definitely, but excited! I am so grateful for my husband, my better half. I'm also grateful for the knowledge that our Heavenly Father answers prayers! He does!!! And I don't know what on earth we would do without that. He loves us. He loves each of his children, and He wants to bless us! Just ASK!

The Science of Exercise

You may not know it when you consider my current occupation and pay rate, but I have a Bachelor's Degree. In what? you might ask. In Exercise Science. Now, I'm not exactly sure what comes to your mind when you hear that, but I'm betting it wouldn't really describe how I feel about the education I received. I kind of feel like most people that I've told lately think I should be a personal trainer or something. Not that I couldn't have been, but it's a flexible major and I didn't really gear it that way. Besides, you don't need a Bachelor's degree to be a personal trainer. So what did I end up with? A completely unmarketable degree with no experience. I knew I was going to grad school, so it didn't really matter to me then.

Not that I haven't learned anything about exercise. I definitely have. I know enough to tell you that one of the best ways to live long and healthy is to exercise. But how do I apply this very expensive piece of knowledge? Well, up until a few weeks ago, not very well. I was struggling after we moved here because there were not very many places to run and I couldn't get into a good routine around my weird work schedule. But a few weeks ago, Burke and I joined the YMCA!



It was a major decision, because as far as we were concerned... it is a LOT of money. But we decided to do it facing the prospect of a long, snowy, Wisconsin winter. We signed up during a promotion and saved a good $60 or so. Since then we have gone swimming, ran on treadmills, lifted weights, Burke has tried to teach me how to play racquetball, and I started taking a Zumba class.

Since yoga (which would be my first choice any day) costs an extra 20 or 30 bucks, I decided to give Zumba a try. The first day of the class I was nervous, thinking, "Gosh I wish I had someone to go with me." As soon as the class started, however, I was SO GLAD I didn't know anyone in there! I look like an idiot. It's just dancing for exercise, and it's fun I guess, but I just try to avoid the mirrors at all costs. The whole time I'm just trying to figure out how to get my arms to move like that with my legs and hips, etc.

And swimming? It's a similar story. I took a beginning swimming class at BYU my sophomore year to try and relearn how to swim (because I had literally forgotten since my childhood swimming lessons). By this point, I know HOW to do the strokes correctly, but I still can't go 2 lengths of the pool without stopping. My swimming workouts consist of going one length of the pool at freestyle, rest, then back; repeat with breast stroke; repeat with back stroke.... repeat until I've had enough.

Then there's racquetball. So I like tennis, so I figured racquetball would be great. We've only played once so far, but I just couldn't get the hang of hitting the ball AFTER it bounced off the wall behind me. It was a little frustrating... and imagine poor Burke. Like I said, we've only played once.

Needless to say, most of the time when I exercise, I feel a little pathetic. Even running nowadays... I can do it outside, but on a treadmill I can't make myself go more than a mile or two. Add that to the admission that my degree is in Exercise Science, and well, I guess all I can say is, ya gotta start somewhere.

But I'll tell you one thing I do know about the "science of exercise": pay a bunch of money to join a gym and you'll be much more likely to get your ever-needed exercise.