Goodbye 2014!

I really need to be a bit better at updating this, but at least it's happening--right?! Since I last posted in August of 2014, we are now in a new year (barely) and I figured I'd post something so you guys don't think I've died or something.

So today is a new year and I spent a lot of time reminiscing on what happened 'last year'.  Since August I of course started school again. It was a pretty easy semester overall but I really struggled getting up for my classes in time (as always) and my 9:00 class which would normally be something really risky for me to take because of how early it is in the morning (don't judge) was nothing compared to my 7:30am class...yup... Don't know how I did it people, but I did!! I got pretty decent grades and really enjoyed my classes--I took 3 this semester. School Social Work: I loved it, definitely something I'd be interested in; Social Work Policy: essentially a debate class, it was pretty fun; and my Practicum class.

First day at McKay-Dee

My Practicum class was something pretty different this year from most classes I've taken. It was a class/internship. My internship was at McKay-Dee Hospital and to be honest it wasn't really everything I was hoping it would be. I worked on the Joint and Spine floor and I had a really amazing supervisor who I got along with really well. I picked up on what to do pretty quickly and do a pretty good job there but it's just not something I want to do for the rest of my life or something that would make my life fill fulfilled--to be truthful I feel much more fulfilled at my job where I get paid not very well (more on that later). My supervisor applied for a new job at a school and got it--I'm so very happy for her because it's something she's wanted for awhile but it now leaves me without my awesome supervisor and I'm currently still in the lurch for where I'm going to end up next semester, so fingers crossed that it all works out for me.



The best part about school this semester was that it was basically my last semester of school!! Next semester I will have my practicum class which only meets once every other week (regrettably at 7:30am!) but I already have the syllabus and it has about 3 assignments and no tests. I will go to maybe 7 class times.  It's kind of strange to be finally finishing up school--I've been doing it for so long (19 years) with no breaks so it's hard to imagine life without it.  While I'm finishing school for right now, I don't plan to finish for good; I plan to go back to school within 2 years or so for a Masters Degree in Social Work but I definitely need a break from school for awhile (again, 19 years).

I'm still working at the boys home Youthtrack and I really enjoy my time there--for the most part. I spent Halloween, Christmas and New Years Eve with the boys and was happy to be able to make the holidays a bit better for them.  I'm not worried about not liking my internship because I really enjoy my job here and it reaffirms that I really do want to be a social worker. I've developed a lot of great relationships with the boys there and my co-workers and will a little sad to leave when I have my degree--but will definitely appreciate a better paycheck and the ability to help out on a bigger scale as an official social worker.

Quick follow up on my neices and nephews: I finally got to meet Emmaline for her baby shower but I completely spaced taking pictures with her!! It is one of my biggest regrets as she and her family have now moved to New Mexico and I missed out on all the aunt cuddle time!


Lydia Belle was born on October 31--Halloween and a week late just as her mommy planned (Poor Lydia, her mom was micromanaging her before she was even born *wink*) I got to spend a lot of time with Lydia as Megan--her mom was staying with my parents and I spent at least a night a week there for my internship.  She is just the cutest! My internship is going to be a bit harder this next semester without Megan and Lydia to hang out with afterwards as they are heading back to Grenada with Bryant at medical school there.

Lydia and I cuddling after a long day at McKay

My hand bandage made me feel like Cyndi Lauper

I hurt myself a bit this year... up until this year one of my coolest facts was that I had only ever had one stitch, it was in my lip and I pulled it out when I was a toddler. This year destroyed that fun fact as I had stitches for my mole removal, then just did a lot of stupid things. First stupid thing was the first day of school I was all excited about getting off on the right foot and having breakfast with Brooks before school and cut my hand instead of a bagel... just dumb. In Novemeber I outdid myself by slicing BETWEEN my toes by stepping on my bedframe. Can't really explain how I managed that--but don't worry I did. When asked at the E.R. if I had been drinking I answered "Nope, I'm this stupid sober!" The nurse took a couple minutes trying to figure out how to even go about stitching between someone's toes and that was pretty painful for me. The worst of it was trying to explain to everyone how I had managed to slice between my toes I wasn't entirely sure myself.


Brooks and I hit our 3 year dating anniversary on December 23. It's crazy to think that we've been dating for so long! It's crazy to look back on how much our relationship has grown and changed since we first started dating and to emphasize that we redid our first date to Temple Square, and celebrated Festivus as we did 3 years ago on our anniversary.  We've done a lot of fun things together since the summer including: visiting Tony's Grove, throwing rocks at a moose (Brooks--not me, first time seeing a moose and thought I was joking when I warned him that they charge, thank goodness it didn't), changing 6 tires (don't ask), dressing up for Halloween, going to see the lights at Temple Square, wrestling (Festivus), and just general fun and happiness. It's been a good 3 years, can't wait for what the next year brings for two adventurers like us!

Working out in style!

AND the biggest achievement of the last few months: I'm actually cooking and sort of working out now! So that's awesome!! Looking forward to another year and all the changes that will be coming!!

 Photo Dump:

Cut my hand

The moose

Tony's Grove

Brooks at Tony's Grove

I get crafty with some Pumpkins!

Harry Potter day at work with the boys

Keagan and I--he's a goof!

Max and I--when he decides it's okay for me to hold him

At the E.R. for my foot

Brooks and I were able to go to a Voice Male concert with the boys
I sort of successfully curled my own hair!!

My dad got a helicopter and my brother got it
horribly tangled in my hair

School's Out: Revenge of the Babies

SO! It's been awhile! School is pretty much officially over for me! I've finished all my assignments and everything, there's just one test that I'm taking that's unrelated to any of my courses that I need to pass if I want to go on to a Master's Degree. (I can retake it once a month if I need to but that'll get pretty pricey so I'd like to pass it my first try to keep options open) That's not until Thursday though, so I still have plenty of time to study for that. It's such a great feeling to be done with school this semester, it's felt like I've been dragging my feet through sand uphill. Yeah... It's been a rough semester filled with pretty much zero motivation for school but I think I scrapped through alright and look forward to the next semester and the opportunity to take some classes that I'm actually interested in again!

Brooks and I at Bear Lake

Speaking of next semester, I finally got my practicum placement! For those of you who do not know, a practicum is essentially a class I have to take that has an unpaid internship that I must participate in as well. I got my first choice as a medical social worker at McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden working in the Joint and Spine unit! That should be a great experience and I'm really looking forward to it. Plus: my mother works at McKay Dee so I'm looking forward to having lunch with her and hanging out with all the sick peoples! I'll be working there about 16 hours a week on Tuesday and Wednesday so for those of my friends still in Layton that means I'll be at my parent's house every Tuesday night so we should hang out for sure!

Something else that is new with my life is that everyone in my family is having babies this year!! Like literally every single one of my siblings are either expecting by the end of the year or have already delivered, it's the year for babies and I'm kind of left out... I'm thinking about making Brooks buy me a baby hedgehog so I'm not left out. He promised me once that if I caught a fish with my hands and he has yet to follow through... plus, just look at how CUTE!!!

 

I mean I need this right?! 

But in all seriousness:

Trevor & Brynn gave birth to little baby Max Gotberg on February 10th. He has gotten so big and I got to see him today for his baby blessing, he's a cute little boy!

Jessica and Mike gave birth to BIG baby Parker Tiberius (Yes, really) Stagg


On the way to see baby Parker, Aunt Nikki's car broke down and would not go faster than 20mph on the freeway. It's officially dead and gone now which is a bummer for sure.... I guess that's just the price you have to pay for adorable nephews. Speaking of nephews, Parker's older brother Keagan is not very thrilled currently about the new addition.

Keagan's not too sure about Parker yet

When asked if he wants to give Parker a kiss Keagan says NO! He's not a fan of having to share his mommy and daddy.  My mother tried bribing Keagan with pop to get him to like Parker more. She gives him some pop and says "Parker told me that you could have pop, Keagan! Isn't that nice of Parker? Say thank you, Parker!" and Keagan says "Dank oou Pawkew."

Brook and Jake have announced that they are expecting a baby girl on July 24th! This baby gets blessed to have 2 of the most adorable older sisters!! Girl power! It'll be fun to have a new baby neice after 2 new nephews.



AND! Megan and Bryant recently announced that they are expecting!  This is really great news as some of you may have known they have struggled with fertility issues which makes this baby an extra little miracle (to read more about Megan's super empowering story you should read her blog at http://bryantandmegan.blogspot.com/2014/04/two-very-different-announcements.html. They are due on October 25th and I get the privilege of getting to spoil this baby rotten because I will be seeing him at least once a week when he's born because Megan is coming back to the USA (YAY!) and living with my parents (DOUBLE YAY!) so when I'm home for my practicum dates I get to see Megan and new baby.  I'm really looking forward to Megan being back in a very selfish way because I've missed her a lot since she left to the Caribbean last year so Bryant could go to medical school and I'm happy to have her so close again without the distractions of having a husband (no offense Bryant). She'll be coming back in the end of May. The only thing I'm not too excited about is to be standing next to her in all her tanned glory while I'm still ridiculously pale.

I mean look at that tan... no one can compete with that!!

Yay for babies!! Something else that is going on this summer is Brooks has auditioned for and made it in the Grassroots Shakespeare Company!! It's very exciting for him to get back into the acting saddle. Grassroots Shakespeare Company is really unique: they don't have a director, a costumer, or light designer. The actors themselves collaborate together to put the show together. This is the way that it was done back in Shakespeare's time. They have limited rehearsal time and then they will begin touring around Utah performing outside at parks and Renaissance festivals. All the shows are FREE but the suggest you donate $3 so it's really not that big of a monetary commitment if you'd like to go see him. He's the leading man in As You Like It he has the part of Orlando.  He also has the parts of Westmoreland & Pistol in Henry V. I'd recommend seeing As You Like It if you have the choice. You can see the dates for upcoming performances here: http://www.grassrootsshakespeare.com/summer-tour.html to see if there's anything playing near you. They don't have all the performances up yet so keep checking back. Here's a sneak peek of what they're up to, I'll post more videos as time goes on!

My phone did this automatically... I think it's funny.

Now for some random pictures of what I've been up to:

Brooks at Bear Lake on the prettiest day in the whole universe!! It was gorgeous!!

Keagan and Ginger at the park, I'm not sure who liked going down the slides more!

Courtney Dixie and I at my girl's night over Spring Break

Girl's Night with my roommates and a friend

Wuv, Twue Wuv!

I took this picture!! :)

Hey! So I have not done anything with this forever and I’m going to blame it on the amazingly wonderful Brooks Lindberg who stole all my free time by his manly charm! Speaking of Brooks, I think I shall dedicate a post to the boy who ended all posts for such a long time!

So I’ve been dating Brooks for 2 years, but I’ve totally been head over heels for him for 3 :/ Yep! The whole “love at first sight” thing is pretty much the story of how I met Brooks.  It was my first audition for a production at Snow College and I was extremely nervous so that nervous energy chose to channel itself into fixing the cow lick of the cute boy in front of me… yeah… touching random guy’s heads is something I did back then I guess!  This really attractive guy would be Brooks which it was also his first audition at Snow.  

American Gothic... our take.

 We were auditioning for Arsenic and Old Lace (a personal favorite!) and Brooks and I kept getting called up to read together for the part of Nathan and Elaine the lovers of the play which I was REALLY okay with!  Brooks got the part, I on the other hand came close but lost out to another girl.  But from that day Brooks was definitely cemented in my head as THE guy. The perfect guy that everyone dreams about but never actually exists. 

Well the semester went by and little by little I got to know Brooks better and start to like him for his personality; he was so funny, intelligent, talented and interesting… unlucky for me I was not the only one to notice and for the rest of the year Brooks was in and out of different relationships.  Always my ideal guy and always out of reach.  

Before we were dating... so cute!

So when I graduated from Snow I figured all chances were dead and gone as I’d be off to USU and Brooks would have his 2^nd year at Snow ahead of him.  Over the summer to my great pleasure and delight, Brooks started texting me, *cue texts of ridiculous amounts of over the top flirting*.  During fall semester Brooks and I kept in contact pretty regularly and I made the decision to go see him in Taming of the Shrew at Snow where he was playing the lead character whose name I can’t even begin to spell.  I told everyone I was going back to see all my old friends, but it was definitely just Brooks. When I arrived I called him and made up some story about me needing to put air in my tires but not knowing how (lies!).  Brooks came to the rescue and we ended up spending the whole day together: perfection!  This happened a 2^nd time during November for their other school play, this time though Brooks told me he liked me which was pretty amazing (even if he did call me a Buffalo in the process)!  Well we worked hard and made it work long distance (3 hours away) we saw each other roughly 4 days out of a month but talked 2 or so hours on the phone every night.  I’m so happy that now we live in the same apartment complex and I can see him whenever I feel like it.

I’m so lucky to have Brooks and so happy to be with him. He writes me notes with the perfect blend between ridiculous and loving, has the enthusiasm of a 5 year old at times, and to top it all off he is my best friend. I feel as though I am constantly growing with him, thinking more than I’ve ever thought and truly discovering myself in the process. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life and I always want to spend every last second I have with him.  I mean, I love him enough to listen to a 30 minute discussion on the book he’s currently reading when he’s only like 10 pages in. Sorry for the sappy post! Just have to let everyone know!!

Now if only I could get him to ACTUALLY smile in pictures he'd be perfect!!