easter egg-citement!

josh and i had a fun easter weekend.  josh had to work all day saturday so i decided to be productive and get some much needed cleaning done at my house and run some errands.  i woke up early and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned until everything was polished, vacuumed, and smelling good.  then i ventured to the grocery store to buy some food for our easter dinner (bad idea... lee's was having an easter egg hunt for the little tykes and the grocery store was swarming with children.  i almost ran a few over with my cart before i decided to grab the necessities and i'll return next week to do my full grocery shopping trip).  i made it to the craft store, a baby boutique, the bank, sams club, and the gas station.  when i got home, i threw together a cute wreath craft that the girls in my ward put together for an enrichment activity (i wasn't able to attend because i had to work).  i did 3 loads of laundry and i wrote 2 papers for school and worked on a powerpoint presentation.  it was probably the most productive saturday i have ever had. 

when josh got off work we headed out to the american west heritage center for baby animal days.  i have always wanted to go and this was the first year that i was in town for it!  i know, i know, we don't have any kids, but i wanted to go and i didn't care who thinks it is lame.  i had to drag josh along but i think he enjoyed himself.  we got there late and just as a storm was starting to blow in.  we played with the cute little baby farm animals until the weather wouldn't cooperate anymore.  it was nice though because all the parents took their kids home one it started sprinkling and we had a lot of the animals all to ourselves!

ok, i did not dye my hair red even though these pictures make it seem that way.  also, ignore the windblown look, i couldn't help it.  and don't mind the washed out pictures of me either (josh struggles with the camera sometimes).  in fact, just look at the animals and don't even pay attention to the faces i am pulling.  

so while we were looking at some of the reptiles, josh started talking to a lady who was selling african dwarf frogs.  you know, those frogs that are the size of a quarter and you can never hold them or else they'll die?  somehow she convinced him that he needed to purchase some.  i felt like a mom explaining to her child about how a pet is a big responsibility- you have to feed them, clean their little tank, and love them.  he agreed to do all the above and purchased 2 little guys. 

after playing with the pets we headed to dinner and returned home to dye some easter eggs.  however, the egg dyeing kit wasn't so much a dyeing kit as it was an egg painting kit-- i was quite disappointed.  i guess next year i need to read the box better.  anyway, josh and i painted away and i just need to say that we are probably the world's worst egg painters.  in my mind, i pictured these beautiful, colorful eggs with sparkles and gems on them.  ours turned out... not so much beautiful or artistic, but they were definitely colorful!

the top row were mine- "dino egg", "green blob with sparkles", "blue blob with sparkles", and "pretty in pink".  josh's are the bottom row: "watermelon", "eliza" (josh named it that after me because it was his prettiest egg and he wishes eliza was my nickname.  strange, yes), "fingerprint", and "balu."

after egg painting we headed to petsmart to find some gravel and a tree for our little frog tank.  this is how it turned out:

josh hasn't named his frogs yet- he says he needs to get to know them before he can name them.

this morning we got up and headed to church.  when we got home, the easter bunny came and brought us some eggs filled with treats, some mtn dew, and a perfect pushup.  random, but fun. 

i asked josh what he wanted for his special easter dinner and he said chicken and steak.  so i marinated some meat and we grilled up some kabobs.  we also made rosemary potatoes, a summer salad, and rolls.  it was such a delicious meal josh decided to take a picture.  this is proof that i don't make mac and cheese for every meal.  

birthday weekend

conference weekend is also known as birthday weekend at the bringhurst house. my beautiful little sisters laura and katie were both born on april 5th, but 4 years apart, and my mom's birthday is april 6th. so we always have some great family time, great food, and lots of cake and ice-cream the first week of april. too bad they're all choc-o-holics and only like chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. yuck.

my sisters have become my best friends these past few years. isn't it funny how that happens? we grow up bugging the snot out of each other and now we're tight.
laura and i spent a summer together in alaska and we definitely learned how to lean on each other for love and support when we were hating life. she is a movie quoter (one thing i am not) and knows how to make anyone laugh. she loves to travel (she got the same travel bug i have from my dad) and we are currently making plans to go to hawaii, greece, and australia. she has spent countless hours making my nails oh so pretty and i look forward to those hours of pedicure time to catch up on life, love, and stupid boys. she is a fabulous cook and made me my first cookbook when i moved away to college. she knows some of my favorite recipes by heart so i don't even have to write them down, i just text her.
katie is a mini-me. she and i have the same style. she knows that if she loves a shirt, she should probably get one for me too because most likely i'll love it too. she loves to laugh and she does so uncontrollably sometimes. she's medically minded (like me) and wants to follow in her sister's footsteps and work in the medical field one day... probably in physical therapy. she's not crafty, but no one is perfect.
my beautiful mom is fabulous too. she's one of those people who sits on the sidelines and doesn't say a whole lot but she has a heart of gold. and when she does speak up, she's so funny. she's one of those people that will do anything for the ones she loves. she has an amazing memory and always does those little things to make your day- she'll buy you those treats you love or she'll get you that cute shirt you've been looking at forever online- just because she can and she likes to. she is one of the hardest working people i know, but still makes sure to spend time with her family, friends, and her church calling. she's a great mother, wife, and friend!

my cute {tired} hubby

this is a little post dedicated to my awesome husband.  these pictures were taken a week or so ago, but they were so cute i had to post them.  he loves his sleep- he misses the luxury of sleeping in and taking frequent naps- but sleep isn't always possible between his school, work, and time spent keeping me happy.  sometimes he crashes in the most random places and at the weirdest times.  aww, he's a stud and i sure do love him!

spring break '09

i had what could possibly have been the most amazing spring break in history (insert sarcasm here).

jk.  in all reality, my spring break was filled with a whole lotta schoolwork, a whole bunch of seminars, and a lot of time spent in cold climates.  let me back up and explain.

as many of you know i am currently working on my doctorate in audiology.  i am a first year student (almost done with my first year in fact) and i have 2 more years here at usu and then it's my fellowship year (kind of like a residency year) and then i am finished forever with my schooling!  there is light at the end of the tunnel... i just have to make it through 3 more grueling years....

but anyway, i thought i'd post a few pictures of my class and the other 2nd and 3rd years in my program.  these pictures were taken in the fall when the grass was green and the sun was out.  kind of like last week but not so much like today.  look how professional we look in those white jackets of ours...

so these are the 1st years... minus the blondie on the back row and the guy in the orange tie standing behind me.  they both decided to drop out of the program at the end of fall semester.  so, that leaves 4 of us left to battle it out.  it's kind of nice having such a small class size, minus the fact that when you're starting to fall asleep during a lecture, everyone in the class knows it, especially the professor.  

so, part of what we do in our clinic as part of our program is fit people with hearing loss with hearing aids.  we test them, figure out how bad their hearing is, and then find the right hearing aid to help them out.  there are a bunch of hearing aid companies out there (and hearing aids are quite expensive) so it's a pretty competitive industry.  so, what do those hearing aid companies do?  they offer to fly us students out to their manufacturing facilities, wine and dine us, and try to convince us to promote only their top of the line hearing aids.  basically it is an all-expense paid trip that none of us wanted to pass up.  this time, it was starkey that wanted us to come and visit.  unfortunately, it was the thursday through saturday before spring break.  and it was in minnesota.  there's nothing in minnesota besides rain, snow, clouds, and the mall of america (so random that it is there) (and i didn't even get the chance to go to it).  triple bummer.  

so, to give a pretty basic run-down of what we did:

when we first arrived, they cleaned out our ears, did hearing tests on us, and then fit us with our very own hearing aids.  sweet, right?  only an audiology student would think so.  basically they gave us a hearing aid to wear so that we will be better at understanding the issues our patients deal with with their own hearing aids.  and we got free (expensive) hearing aids which was a bonus.  

see that guy in the white lab coat?  that is bill austin- founder of the starkey hearing aid company.  he's super old (and super famous, as you will see later) but he has done some amazing things in his lifetime.  he does humanitarian trips all over the world and has helped so many kids with hearing loss.  what a generous guy.  

so basically, bill austin has fit every celebrity and their dog with either hearing aids or some sort of protection for their ears while doing concerts and performing at large venues.  you name the celebrity, they are most likely on one of his many walls of signed celebrity photos.  presidents, musicians, comedians, athletes, astronauts... they're all there...

yup, even chuck.  

we were taught some cool things, given some fabulous starkey embellished loot (backpacks, waterbottles, notebooks, pens, etc), and were put up in a nice marriott with a fabulous pool.  at night, we played a whole lot of pop 500.  for hours.  and hours.  

on the last night, mr austin had us all over to his house for cocktails, dinner, and free reign of his home.  it was a mansion (to say the least) and he had some cool rooms worth exploring.  somehow nikki and i made it into his wife's massive walk in closet- it was a dream come true.  

this is elton john's red grand piano that i am playing.  yep, elton and bill are tight.   
this is a small portion of his autographed guitar collection.  they lined the floor and covered the walls.  everyone from the beach boys to ozzy osbourne to tim mcgraw.  

this was his work out room.  that is nikki with a boxing glove signed by about 2 dozen famous boxers.  i'm sure mr austin wouldn't appreciate her wearing that glove, but we put it back where we found it.  
no biggie- just a signed robe and glove from mohammed ali.  i didn't even get pictures of the rest of the basement- the sports room, the sauna, the lounge area, the hot tub room, the bar (the open bar)... the house was definitely fabulous.  
nikki, bill, and me.  we're besties.  we tried convincing him to let us join him for his next humanitarian mission in egypt.  i'm sure he's still considering it.  
this is us hanging out in a rolls royce.  poor mr austin spent $540,000 on the car so he could auction it off for charity.  unbeknownst to him, the laws in minnesota say that nothing over $500,000 can be donated to charity (what a dumb law) so he just had to keep the car.  rough life.  

it was an open bar.  and i'm a lush.  so what.  

the gang on our last night in minneapolis.

well, the fun didn't stop there.  maria (a 2nd year) and joe (a 3rd year) and i were picked to participate in a grant where we get to work with other students and professionals in an interdisciplinary program focusing on families and children with special needs.  because of our involvement with this grant, we were sent to dallas, tx for a conference focusing on early childhood detection and intervention of hearing loss.  sounds way too cool, right?  it was a big conference with hundreds and hundreds of professionals all gathering together to talk about things they are doing in their own practices and things we can all do to improve our knowledge and continuing education.  how lucky were we that this conference was taking place over our spring break?

it was 4 long days of seminars, meetings talking about state legislature, mixing and mingling with other students, and getting the "in" with audiologists in other states.  we learned a whole lot, but at times it was almost too overwhelming.  i was happy to have some fellow students with me so we could endure it all together.  one thing that we were hoping for was some sunshine and warm weather!  but alas, we are unlucky souls and brought the cold front that hovered over us in minnesota to dallas.  it was sunny the first day we got there, but never again.  from sunday to wednesday it was windy, cloudy, and chilly.  definitely not what we expected.  but, we survived, and probably learned a lot more than we would have had we played hooky to sit outside and soak up the sun.  funny thing is, i didn't take a single picture while we were in dallas (probably because the only exciting things we did were eat at some fabulous authentic texas bbq restaurants and shop at the galleria, a massive mall they had about 5 minutes from our hotel).  

i was gone for a week, but it felt like an eternity being away from josh.  poor guy didn't get much of a spring break either because he was stuck working his 40 hours just like any other week.  after i returned home on that wednesday, i ran some errands, cleaned up a bit, and prepared for 3 days straight of working doubles at sabor.  how's that for topping off a spring break with a bang?   

i'm thinking we're due for an update...

so, i have tried to update this blog many times in the last week but for some reason, my drafts were never saved and everything was deleted (numerous times).  so, this will probably be a condensed version of what has been going on just in case my computer deletes it once again.   josh and i have had a busy month between homework, tests, reports, work, church meetings and activities, working out, running errands, traveling, etc.  i'm going to try better to keep this blog updated because i dread catching up after an entire month.  

*my parents came up a few weekends ago to play with us.  my mom and i went to my womens conference while josh and my dad hit up all of the local establishments (cookies/crackers from pepperidge farm, cheese curds from gossners, and chips and salsa from cafe sabor).  after our meeting, we did lunch and then a sealing session at the temple.  i really liked doing sealings because i think it is a great reminder of the things that were said to us just under a year ago on our wedding day.  after the temple, we headed to get some aggie ice cream (no trip to logan would be complete for my dad without some aggie ice cream).  it was a great day and i am especially grateful for the loads and loads of groceries they brought us!  it was a great surprise and i love that my parents know us well enough to bring us all the stuff that we love, but rarely buy for ourselves.  i've also loved the fact that i haven't had to go to the grocery store since!  thanks again!

*the next weekend, my little sisters laura and katie came to visit us.  while josh was at work, we slept in, made breakfast, and then worked on crafts all day.  it was a great way to spend our saturday afternoon and we definitely want to make it a tradition.  we topped the day off by giving each other pedicures.  laura always does my toes (i am obsessed with acrylic toes) and i decided to take a shot at doing hers.  i didn't do as good of a job as she did, but for a first timer, i felt like they weren't too bad!

* i had one week that was crazy busy with a bunch of school work, projects, and applications due for a position i was applying for within my program.  josh is such a sweetheart and came home one day with roses, candy, a new cd, and some magazines.  it totally made my day and i am so lucky to have such a thoughtful husband that will do just about anything to make his wifey happy!* speaking of that program at my school... i got the position!  it's called sound beginnings and basically it is a 2 year program set up to help children with hearing loss develop spoken language at a young age.  these little kids have hearing aids and cochlear implants.  i'll be doing at home visits, toddler groups, preschool, and offering parental assistance and information.  i'm really excited about this opportunity, i am fully aware that it is going to be a lot of work, but i'm hoping that this position will help me get some extra experience in being a pediatric audiologist!
* this last week i was in minneapolis and dallas for some school stuff.  i will post later about those trips.  

* i survived my first month of booty camp, and am doing it again this month.  i am excited that i am finally at the point where my entire body doesn't ache the day after and think that this month will be just the push i need to get my butt in gear.  i'm thinking about running in a half marathon in august if anyone is feeling a bit ambitious and wants to join me!

*we had a ward pinewood derby last week and it was way fun!  they passed out cars about a week ago and josh has been hard at work trying to decide exactly what to do to his car to make it extra fast and super cool.  it was a "no rules" competition, just no combustibles, nothing taller than 6 inches, and nothing weighing more than 3 lbs.  with those liberties, the boys in our ward went crazy.  josh knew the competition would be fierce- mostly because we have quite a few engineers in our ward- so he worked hard on his little car and it paid off!  he took 2nd place overall and had a great time doing it.  his car had a few motors in it and was pretty sweet.  the winning car was super sweet- it had a few motors plus it had gears and would shift gears as it went down the track.  i don't know much about how it worked, but it was pretty dang cool.  josh is excited to one day have a little boy that he can teach how to make super sweet racing cars.  

*so last week nate dawg (josh's youngest brother) got his mission call.  he's going to kennewick, washington, spanish speaking, leaving june 10th.  we are super excited for nate and know he'll be one awesome missionary!  while he's gone maybe we'll even learn a little spanish... i'll have to ask the cooks at my restaurant to give me some lessons....

* speaking of kennewick, washington... a good friend of ours, zach call, just got back from that same mission a few days before nate got his call.  josh and i were able to meet up with him and catch up on the last 2 years.  it was great to see him and we're hoping that he decides to come back to logan for school so josh can have another friend to play with :)