the spirit of thanksgiving

i wish thanksgiving happened more often than once a year.

i am grateful for a month dedicated to focusing on all of our many blessings (even if some people jump the gun and go straight to christmas)

i want to do better at recognizing my blessings throughout the year.

today, i am especially grateful for:

my hubby josh- who loves me despite my quirks and faults

my amazingly supportive parents

my in-laws who truly are my second family

my siblings who are there for me when i need someone to talk to or a shopping buddy

my job and josh's job and the opportunities they have provided us

my caring coworkers who have become such great friends

my new home and the fact that it means josh and i are finally becoming "big kids"

my pups for loving me unconditionally

my health and my husbands health

my car and its reliability

my warm and comfy bed

my education and the fact that i am actually done with school forever in 5 short months

my desire to learn and grow

my computer that allows me to connect with friends and family all over the world

my girls who are there for me through thick and thin

my "guilty pleasure" tv shows which make me laugh so hard

my husbands sense of humor when i act like a complete dork

my new piano and my ability to "play it out" when i'm having a rough day

my new ward and the new friends i have made there

my membership in the church of jesus christ of latter day saints

my belief in the gospel of jesus christ

my understanding of trials in our lives and the peace that comes from the lord when going through those trials

my ability to have such inspirational messages/videos at my fingertips when i need them the most

i loved that!

tonight we're hosting our first ever thanksgiving dinner.

last night josh was kind enough to take care of cleaning up the turkey because it was freaking me out.

i think he did it so i can't complain when he watches football on his new tv all day long today.

i'm grateful that chuck-a-rama is open today as our back up plan in case our thanksgiving dinner is a flop :)

happy thanksgiving everyone... 

we are grateful for you and the impact you have had on our lives!

the good, the bad, the ugly, and the awkward

well, we've been in the house for a few weeks and we're still loving it.  but no, this is not a house update post.  that will come in due time.... once the decorating and cleaning and all the other little stuff has been completed.  what this post is, however, is a little update on some of the good, bad, and awkward things that have happened in the last little bit in no particular order

the good: the fall!  i have grown to absolutely love the fall. i love the colors, the smells, the food, the cute layered clothes, the decorations, etc.

the bad: days are getting shorter... yuck.

the ugly: the temps are getting colder

the good: my favorite uggs are out of storage and back on my feet.  and just as comfy as they were last year.

the good:  we had a little get together with some friends to make caramel apples!

the bad:  i ate way too many caramel apples

the awkward:  the other day at work i was getting a patient set up for a hearing test.  as i turned around to walk out of the sound booth, my feet got caught up in some cords and i fell face first into the ground.  that was a first... and hopefully a last!

the good:  the guy and i had a good laugh about it all for about 10 minutes.

the bad: the cute, brand-new blazer i was wearing that day didn't love such a forceful fall- the seam on the back split right open.  hopefully it can be mended!

the good:  my cute hubby turned 27 on the oct 10th!  we had fun celebrating with his family and relatives in town from cali.

the good:  red iguana for his bday dinner complete with some delicious tres leches for dessert.

the bad: josh doesn't let me choose his birthday presents for him- he likes to purchase them himself and say they're from me.  ruins the fun of birthdays if you ask me.

the good: josh bought himself (from me) a new apple airport for faster wi-fi at our house and a new ping-pong table

the ugly:  now he's going to want me to play ping-pong with him.  i dislike ping-pong almost as much as i dislike miniature golfing

the good:  homemade lemon cake with lemon frosting for his birthday cake

the bad: i got burned out on running (ok, ok... working out in general) this summer and haven't been doing much since getting back from vietnam back in july

the ugly:  my body definitely is letting me know it's time to get back into shape!

the good: my little sister has talked me into running a 5k with her this weekend

the awkward: me thinking i could run 5 miles and could only run 1.5.  i've got some major catching up to do.

the awkward:  today at work i had a super cute super old lady (whom i had never met before) who dropped her hearing aid as she was putting it in her ear.  we thought (her daughter and i) that it fell on the ground but after searching the floor for over 5 minutes, we couldn't find it anywhere.  we started patting the lady down trying to see if it fell down her shirt or pants or something and the daughter started laughing hysterically and crying so hard because we weren't able to find the hearing aid.  the cute grandma started bouncing around and flapping her arms all around hoping the hearing aid would somehow show up.  after about 5 more minutes of searching the cute grandma started lifting up her shirt and unbuttoning her pants trying to search for the missing hearing aid and told me she and i were about to get really close :)  i started hearing the hearing aid squeal and i asked her if it could have fallen into her bra and she said that was impossible because she wasn't wearing a bra. she lifted up her shirt just enough for me to see that the hearing aid was lodged under her left boobie.  she asked if i would help her get it out (because her daughter was still laughing in the corner hysterically)... which i did... and then she popped the hearing aid right back into her ear and told me she and i are officially best friends now.  that was a first... and hopefully a last!  

the ugly:  i've decided i'm terrible at decorating a new house.  i feel like everything i already have needs to be tossed and i need to start fresh with everything new.

the good:  my vision of light grey walls in our master bedroom complete with a stenciled accent wall became a reality... and i love it!

the ugly: stenciling such a big wall was a tedious task and took hours/days longer than predicted

the good:  my new white iPhone 4gs is in the mail and i'm super excited about it

the ugly:  i need to sell my current iPhone 3gs... do you know anyone that wants one???

the good:  our fence was finally installed the other day

the ugly:  it took 3 weeks longer than planned

the good:  my parents are very kind and watched the pups while we waited on the fence people

the good:  the pups are home where they belong and are loving it!

the awkward:  the pups have some awesome halloween costumes courtesy of my cute mom

the good:  ebony (the black one) is a great running dog so now i don't have an excuse that i don't have a running partner

the good:  my favorite purchase this year from swiss days... my Mr. Frankenstein

the awkward:  josh lovingly named him Dr. Hankinstein 

the good:  while decorating my house, i have gotten a lot of inspiration from pinterest.  

the bad:  it has almost been too much inspiration

the good:  i have found a color scheme for our master bedroom that josh actually agrees on

the awkward:  how do you keep white comforters clean??

the ugly: my list of wants is about a hundred items long

the bad:  there is only so much time/resources to actually make all those things from pinterest that i want

the good:  i was given an old wingback chair from my parents to refinish

the ugly:  quite possibly the worst diy project i have ever taken on.  i wanted to scream and pull my hair out on many occasions

the awkward:  not knowing what on earth to do with the chair now

the good:  some of my favorite stores ever are opening soon at the fashion place mall

the bad/the ugly:  some of my favorite stores are opening soon at the fashion place mall :)

the good: stores including h&m, crate and barrel, and ann taylor loft to add to an already awesome jcrew and nordstrom.  just add an anthro and i'll never have to leave

the good:  i found the cutest, most perfect new boots for the fall at nordstrom.  they were meant for me.

the ugly: ordered them to be delivered at my home only to find out they are out of stock and not going to be made again.  sad day.

the good:  deciding to paint the garage before we officially moved in 

the ugly:  the sore necks and arms we all had the day after painting

the good:  having the best family ever that came over and helped us paint/clean before the big moving day... we are so blessed

the good:  being the target of some major garage envy in the neighborhood... so we've been told :)

the good:  going out for a girls night out with a new group of cute girls

the awkward:  not having enough time to properly prepare for the witches night out at gardner village and feeling a tid bit underdressed

the good:  there's always next year to redeem myself

conference weekend

how could you not love this smile??

conference weekend has been amazing... yet again.

i always feel so inspired after hearing each of the talks

loving all of the reminders of how i can be a better wife, sister, daughter, and friend.

hope your weekend has been just as fabulous!

closing time

well, we have some exciting news.

 some very exciting news!!

after a few months of house hunting and looking for "the perfect home", josh and i finally agreed on one that we love, we made an offer, it was accepted within a day, and we will be closing on it this week!

it is the perfect house for us!

the home is in riverton in the rosecrest subdivision.  the neighborhood is super cute and we've heard such good things about the neighbors and the ward.  it's a young neighborhood with plenty of children running around which is exactly what we wanted.  

we feel like the home was meant for us- it has all of the "non-negotiables" from each of our lists.  the seller has been amazing at fixing up the few little things that needed to be done, but the house really is move-in ready.  looks like we'll be doing a few little projects this weekend and look at moving in next week.

i didn't think we'd get a home as quickly as we did (i kind of thought we'd be milking the free-rent-at-the-parents-house thing a little longer), but i cannot explain how thrilled we are to finally have a place to call our very own.  it's exciting to finally feel like the student life we've been living for the last few years is finally coming to an end and this is the home that we will live in for many years and start our family in!  as soon as we're all moved in, i'll post some more pictures but i definitely expect visitors very soon!! and yes, we have a guest room for all you logan friends :)

i've got seoul

our flight returning to the u.s. had a long layover in korea.  after talking to many people, we found out that it's pretty much a tourist trap and they have all sorts of excursions that you can arrange at the airport so you can go in and see the city.  being the suckers we are, we decided that it would be better than spending 12 hours sitting in an airport so we picked a tour that looked fun and went with it.  one of my professors, lauri, and i were the only ones heading back at the same time so she became my korea traveling partner.  she's super cute and it was fun to have someone to sightsee with.   we also made some friends in our tour group- a couple from nyc on their way to bali and a guy from san francisco who was on a "soul searching" trip through southeast asia.

our first stop was the cheonggyecheon stream in the middle of downtown seoul.  it was a beautiful river that was once "lost" and has recently been uncovered to add to the beautification of downtown seoul.  the stream and the surrounding structures have a lot of symbolism and meaning behind them- there are murals, sculptures, wall paintings, wishing wells, the grand fountain, and bridges all along the path of the stream. if i remember correctly, isn't there a scene in lost where jin and sun walk along this stream?

our next next stop was the changdeok palace, "the palace or prospering virtue".  the grounds are large (over 100 acres) and are made up of 13 buildings and 28 pavilions.  it was interesting to see the king's private residence, living quarters, libraries, main hall, auxiliary rooms, family rooms, and queen's quarters.  i was constantly in awe at the detail of the paintings, furniture, and detailing on the pagodas, and it was very interesting to see how the royal family (and the king's concubines) lived.  my favorite part was the main temple and the gardens leading up to the "secret garden".  i was sad that we weren't able to go through the gate into the secret garden, but i guess it's still only for royalty or by invitation only.  bummer.

afterward we were hungry and our tour guide wanted us to experience a real korean meal.  so, we went to the myeongdong which is a huge shopping district with restaurants, shops, and entertainment all over the place.   we sat down for a traditional meal called bibimbap which was a hot bowl of rice mixed with sprouts, mushrooms, beef, zucchini, bellflower and other unknown veggies mixed with an egg and chili paste.  i was super nervous to eat it but after mixing the concoction all together (and the egg cooking thanks to the hot bowl), it actually didn't taste too bad.  i also tried the kimchi (fermented cabbage) but was not a big fan of that one.  we ate quickly so we'd have enough time to wander up and down the street looking at all the little shops.

we then walked over to the jogyesa temple- the main buddhist temple right in the middle of the city. it seemed a bit out of place when compared to the other temple in the sense that it was right in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of a huge city.  interestingly enough though, inside the temple was very quiet and peaceful and it was interesting to watch the people worship.  the three large gold plated buddhas inside the ceremonial room were huge and represented the amitabha buddha (buddha of love), shakyamuni buddha, and bhaisaiya buddha (the medicine buddha).

it was a busy day but i was happy to fit in a little sightseeing before we headed back home on what felt like the longest plane ride ever (i think it was because the people i sat next to were awful).  i really enjoyed learning about a new culture that i had never studied before and hope to go back again next year and see even more!

vietnam cont'd

my goodness.  it has been a while.  last time i posted was when i was in vietnam and that was about a month and a half ago.  i think i was dreading going through all my pictures and writing up a post about them, but i decided i needed to get some details written down before i forget them.  this has the potential to be the longest post ever. 

we had some fun excursions planned for our second weekend in vietnam.  on saturday, a group of us traveled into ho chi mihn city for a cooking class/shopping trip.  we met the chef at the market and picked out all of the fresh meat and veggies and then headed to a nice restaurant to cook our lunch.  our cooking class was really fun and we made seafood fried spring rolls, banana leaf salad, and pho (pronounce "fuh?").  we had a great time and while i am a bit of a picky eater and didn't like the idea of baby squid, octopus, and shrimp mush in my spring rolls, i ate them all and admitted that they were indeed good.  that afternoon was spent shopping and we had a fabulous time.  one of the ladies in our group read the lonely planet book and found some small shops that used all the proceeds to help battered and abused vietnamese women help get back on their feet and support their families.  i bought some awesome souvenirs from them including a hand stitched baby quilt for my future (not near future) baby girls room.  we also headed back to the market and shopped until we couldn't carry anything else.

 on sunday a group of us took the longest bus drive ever to the cao dai temple.  cao dai is a religion that integrates teachings from taoism, buddhism, and confucianism, with a little bit of christianity and islam.  there are about 3 million followers, all in southern vietnam, and they hold services 4 times a day (6am, 12pm, 6pm, and 12 am) every single day.  the service was very interesting and we were able to watch it all from the balconies above.  the temple was part pagoda, part cathedral, and part mosque and used beautiful colors, textures, and symbols to show the integration of the different types of religions.  we watched as rows and rows of men and women (young and old) came in dressed in white robes and barefoot, knelt down together before the alter, and spent about an hour praying.  there was a group of children that sang from the upper balcony with a few musicians (playing who knows what instruments) and a gong that would ring every few minutes.  it was so interesting to watch these people worship and really was a beautiful service.

i would say one of the funnest days we had was the 4th of july.  of course, they don't celebrate our national holiday in vietnam and we were all a little bummed that we wouldn't be getting our patriotic parades, bbqs, and fireworks.  but our vietnamese friends wanted to celebrate with us the best way they knew how.  we all wore our red, white, and blue.  our cook made us the most "american" meal she could- our fruit fries (yummers!) and beef that she said is as similar to hamburger or steak that she could get.  we also all drank our ice cold coca-cola light.  and that night, we went karaoke-ing with our students.  let me just tell you- those vietnamese people sure love their karaoke.  there are karaoke bars all over the place with about 20 rooms at each place.  they brought in a bunch of food and drinks and we had the best time ever.  we would switch off singing songs in english and in vietnamese.  some of us even tried a few vietnamese songs and totally butchered them.  we taught them some classic american songs (old mcdonald, yankee doodle) and they taught us some of their own songs.  we danced and sang our hearts out for about 4 hours and loved every single minute of it.  it was the best way that i could ever think of celebrating the 4th of july while on the other side of the world.

like i mentioned before, we ate some really good food and then some food that was a bit questionable.  the cook at the school we worked at had a team of cooks that would get to work early every morning to start preparing the meals for the day.  if you walked past the kitchen in the morning, you'd usually see them out cutting meat, preparing vegetables, and doing dishes to prepare for lunch and dinner.  while i was a little hesitant to eat some of the food that was prepared for us, i always made sure to at least try it once.  i would have to say though, at the end of the trip i didn't want to eat another bowl of rice for a very long time.

these are just a few pictures that show how the vietnamese people travel on their motorbikes.  honestly, their transportation was the craziest thing to see and i am still amazed at how many people/how much stuff they can pack on to a small 250cc scooter.  no pictures will ever truly show how chaotic their streets were with people going here, there, and every which-way.  ps- notice their power lines- talk about an electrical fire waiting to happen.  can you see now why it was necessary for us to use surge protectors with all of our computers and electronics?!

here are a few pictures of our audiology students.  we had about 17 students in our group ranging from ent doctors, nurses, hearing aid dispensers, nuns, and people who were interested in learning more about audiology.  having such  wide range of experience was a little difficult, but they did a great job teaching each other and were so willing to learn.  they showed up early every day and half the time didn't want to leave when lectures were over.  the first 2 weeks of the month long program (the only full 2 weeks that i was there) were spent teaching them about testing children, equipment, calibrations, etc.  the last 2 weeks (which i sadly wasn't there for) was when parents brought children and our students would test them and fit them with hearing aids.  they fit about 30 hearing aids!  i seriously loved our group and loved how strong their desire was to learn.  it made me realize how grateful i am for the education i have been given and i am so blessed that i have had the opportunity to share with them everything that i know (in a very condensed form, haha).

when planning for this trip, i was told that i would mostly just help out with the other audiologists and professionals and be more of an assistant than anything else.  while i was there, i ended up teaching many of the group settings (with the help of an interpreter) and i loved it! we also were able to bring about $5000 worth of audiology supplies and toys that we were able to give to each of the 100+ teachers and parents that came to the program.  it was awesome to see how grateful they were for every little thing that they were given that would help them provide better services to the children with hearing loss that they work with.

one day we took a break from lectures and went on a "field trip".  we traveled back into ho chi mihn city and toured their 'pediatric one' children's hospital and their ent hospital.  it was eye opening to see what kind of facilities some of our students worked in and it was amazing to see what kind of support the hospital administrators had for us and for our programs.  they are desperately trying to get as much training for their staff as they can and wanted to see what more we could do to help them help the people they provide services for.  i couldn't even believe what i saw at the pediatric hospital- there were parents and children everywhere!  they said the see an average of 6000 children a day which is absolutely mind blowing.  even though our medical system here in the u.s. isn't perfect, i honestly can say that i am so grateful for the facilities that we do have access to that are within just a few miles of where we live.  some of the people we saw had driven for days on their scooters to get their children help and had to wait for hours and hours to even be seen by a doctor.  

 here are some pictures of our students (teachers of the deaf from all over southern vietnam) on the last day of class for them.  this is the group of teachers that came last year and were back this year for more training. when this group left, another group of about 40 came to start their training.  these students were so fun and so excited to take what they had learned back to their schools.  they gave us such sweet gifts to thank us for coming and teaching them, sang us songs, and gave the sweetest farewell speeches.

 i got to work with the greatest group of people ever.  the audiologists that i worked with each day were so fun and knowledgeable and even i learned a ton from them.  the other audiology grad students (ada from hong kong and christi from dallas) were so fun to be around, too.  the other professionals (speech language pathologists and deaf education teachers from around the country) were so awesome too- i was truly in the presence of some of the most amazing professionals that are in my field and i felt so lucky that i was able to rub shoulders with them and learn from them.

 and this is what it really is all about- the children.  these children deserve to have access to listening and spoken language as much as any other children anywhere else in the world.  i think the global foundation for children with hearing loss is an amazing organization because it teaches the people in vietnam the tools that they need to provide quality services to their own people.  it is one thing to go to other countries and do the work for them, but it is a whole different thing to teach those who want to learn how to do it themselves.  the smiles on the children's faces and the light in their parents eyes made this entire trip worth it.  i hope to be able to head back next year!

and if you haven't had enough, you can check out these links:

ksl news article

global foundation for children with hearing loss blog
helen woolard photography (one of the students that came with us is an amazing photographer and writer!)

i'll post about korea later

a little piece of home

i hate to say it but i'm a bit of a picky eater

but i've decided to buck up during my stay here in 'nam and step out of my food comfort zone

some things i've eaten:

squid (with tentacles) stuffed with a meat of some sort

frog legs

octopus

bamboo

baby squid

shrimp mush

pigeon (yeah... we thought it was chicken.  little did we know)

morning glory

clovers

clams

catfish

some of these meals were good. some not so much.

let's just say i've eaten a ton of rice and soy sauce to fill up.

but the other day for breakfast i just couldn't do it

i wanted food my tummy was used to

so i busted out the instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal...

and the chopsticks... because apparently our hotel doesn't believe in spoons

even though it took forever to eat, it was absolutely amazing and i savored every bite