20-11

here's to a new year and a new me!

i am actually excited that 2010 is over and 2011 is here.

we have some big changes ahead of us this year and i'm getting excited for them.

hopefully this year will bring us

a new town

a new home

a new job (my residency)

possibly a new job for josh (depending on where we move to)

more money to save for a house 

time to figure out what i want to do

and where i want to do it

and josh time to figure out what he wants to do with school

we also have 2 weddings in the next 3 months

which means a new sister and brother

and another brother coming home from his mission in june

i have a couple of trips planned for international travel (wahoo)

to provide audiological services

i'm thinking we should even plan a vacation for me and josh

since it seems like i'm always off traveling and leaving him at home

i have made a few simple 'new years resolutions' for 2011

they are:

learn photoshop

take photography lessons

take more photos- my daily photo challenge

watch less tv

read more

take a trip- just me and josh

lately i have found myself wishing that we had more pictures documenting the little things going on in our lives.  i'll bust out the camera for holidays (sometimes) and snap a few pictures, but i really want to et better at capturing the little things.  my goal is to take at least one picture a day- even if it's an iphone photo (hopefully they won't all be iphone photos- that would be lame) because i'm sure everyone is sick of all the rambling i do on this blog and would much rather look at pictures. 

so, here are the pictures i have taken so far in 2011 in no particular order.

josh taking a much needed nap while i was studying for my comprehensive exams

the fabulous pumpkin pie cupcake i treated myself to after spending countless hours studying for comps

josh was in charge of dinner one night.  so we went to arbys and got me a sandwich, mcdonalds to get fries and mcflurries, and chic-fil-a to get josh some chicken strips.  fast food junkies?  that night, i'd say we were.

a new year meant a major closet purge for both of us.  this is one of 2 piles that were donated to the di.  somehow many of my old favorites made it to this pile, but josh's ugly green military style shirt that he literally found on the side of the road didn't.  hmmm....

due to my crazy studying schedule on top of working lots,

christmas was not officially taken down until 2 days ago.  this shows our cute 2010 ornament- a guitar that plays rocking around the christmas tree

we ran into some of my favorite people in the whole wide world at the jazz game.  i sure love those sponbecks.

this is what my purse looked like after sacrament meeting.  between the little boy sitting in front of us and little rachel sitting next to me, my purse didn't stand a chance against the cheerios and goldfish

today officially documents my last "first day of a new semester".  i would have been way more excited had this not also marked the first day of our comprehensive exams.  our comps include written essays, practical examinations, and oral examinations and can be on anything we have learned thus far in our academic or clinical experiences (hence the major study sessions i have been having for the last month or so).  today was a written exam day and i spent the whole morning typing away.  tomorrow is also a written exam day and this picture shows the stack of information i have to go through to prepare for tomorrow's test.  in addition to my school comps, i also decided to schedule my state boards on saturday morning while all the information is still fresh in my mind.  smart move?  i'll let you know saturday afternoon.  let's just say between studying, work, applications, and interviews, this has been quite the stressful 2 weeks or so.  luckily i've only had one major melt down and only about 2 minor melt-downs.   thank goodness for a supportive husband and an endless supply of diet coke.