We're back on the blogging train!

So, it seems like everyone is getting a blog these days and I think it's a great way to keep in touch with family and friends that we aren't able to see or talk to very often. So, I've decided that since Josh and I are taking the plunge into marriage soon, now is as good of a time as ever for us to start blogging together! We did have a blog while we were up in Alaska this past summer so for those of you who still check that one- forget it, delete it- use this one. I'll try to be a lot better at updating it than I was before.

We've had a crazy and exciting past few months since being engaged and we still have lots more excitement coming up in the next few months. Here's a very rough recap of what we've been up to:

After returning from Alaska in October, Josh and I traveled to Costa Rica with Chana and our friend Kenny for some much needed R & R after a crazy summer of cruise ships and tourons (tourists + morons = tourons, thanks to my sister Laura). Costa Rica was fabulous and we had a great time driving through the entire country doing anything and everything. We went ziplining in Monteverde, which is a rainforest in the clouds; we went white water rafting through the jungle; we took surfing lessons and had many lazy days on the beach; we hiked to fabulous waterfalls... it was awesome. However, I think the highlight of our vacation was when Josh proposed to me at the fabulous Arenal Pariso Resort at the base of the active Arenal Volcano. Josh, Chana, and Kenny managed to plan a whole evening around the proposal without me even knowing about it. Josh surprised me with a gorgeous ring (of course, he lied to me and said he couldn't afford one at the time), he had a candlelit dinner set up with flowers at a restaurant looking over the volcano, and he topped the night off with fresh Costa Rican fruits as we soaked in the hot springs and listened to the sounds of the jungle and watched the volcano. Who knew he was such a romantic!?

After such a wonderful vacation, it was time to face reality and return to the real world. Shortly after we returned home, we got results back from Josh's dermatologist that a mole he had had removed a couple weeks earlier had some abnormal cell growth and he would have to go see a surgical oncologist to get the rest of it removed. To make an incredibly long story short, Josh had a huge piece of skin cut out of his back and some lymph nodes removed from his right armpit, and then had to start treatment for his melanoma in hopes that they could prevent it from spreading throughout his body. It was a rough couple of months, especially the whole month of December while he was doing his treatment daily, but we've made it through what we hope to have been the worst part. Because of all the chaos that happened, Josh was able to compete his fall semester at Weber, but then had to move home for treatment and take this spring semester off. In the meantime, I got a job as a server at the Cheesecake Factory (glamorous job, let me tell you) and I also got a job working as a Speech Pathologist Assistant at the Murray School District. I graduated from USU in the spring with a degree in Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education. I was going to get my Master's in Speech Language Pathology, but this past summer decided to pursue a doctorate in Pediatric Audiology instead. So basically, since I'm super indecisive, I had to take a year off of school and have applied for the Audiology program and hope to be accepted sometime within the next few weeks. If accepted, Josh and I will be living in Logan for the next 4 years so I can finish up my degree. In hopes of my acceptance, Josh found a job working in Logan as an RV technician (yes, he's resorted back to a skill he's very good at) and currently drives back and forth everyday for work. We don't want to jump the gun and get a place up there just in case things don't work out for my schooling, but since he'll be supporting both of us, we needed him to have a good job with benefits that would go into effect the day we get married. So, long story short, I need to just get accepted and our lives would be a lot less stressful and we'd save a heck of a lot of money on gas every day.

As for the wedding, the big day is set for April 30th! Since we've had a 7 month engagement, most everything is set. We took our engagements a couple of weeks ago and they turned out really cute. I'll post some pictures as soon as we get them. It's exciting to finally get to the point that we're finalizing invitation layouts, I'm doing regular dress fittings, we've picked out the cake and flowers, we're figuring out plans for the honeymoon- all the fun stuff that comes along with a wedding!!!!