I'm dreaming of a warm Christmas!

Guess what?

THE SEMESTER IS OVER! :)

Well, besides finals. But after finals, we're done! I couldn't be happier!

Last Sunday Todd and I decided to go over to the Temple to see the Christmas lights. Back in November we helped our Stake decorate the Temple grounds and wanted to see how it all turned out.

My camera has a hard time taking pictures in the dark (as most do) and turns out my lens was dirty! So just look past those few things.. ha ha.

The tree that we decorated ^

There aren't as many lights as Temple Square, but it's still pretty! :)

Wish us luck on finals!

Lately

Well, life has been crazy the past couple months. Todd and I are both super duper busy and sadly don't get to spend as much time together as we would both like. Therefore I don't really have anything fun to report nor do I have cute pictures of things that we have been up to.

Our lives right now consists of: work, school, and sleep.

I'm doing physical therapy for my back and it has it's up's and down's. I was feeling great and then they decided to bump the intensity level up and now I just hurt. I know it will help in the end though and have to be patient. I also have to keep pushing myself to do my exercises and remind myself that I wont be healed in a day.

School is going good for both Todd and I and we are so excited the semester is half over. Our classes require a lot of study time and a lot of concentration. We have two classes together which is fun and we help each other study and prepare for tests. Although I think he helps me more than I help him.. ha ha :)

Todd works for Washington County School District as a paraprofessional teacher (I thinks that's what his "title" is) He works at an adult/special needs high school and helps students with anything they have questions with. He gets to work with our dear friends Jon & Kenzie so he loves it. I work for Big5 still and managed to pick up a second job at Bath & Body Works. They are both fun and keep me busy.

I've decided that my brain and body need a break so I'm not going to school next semester. I am SO excited! I just want to work and in my spare time do fun crafts and DIY projects (that darn Pinterest). I also can't wait for this semester to be over so I can have my husband back. He works so hard and is always running around. I know with him going to med school that this will be our life for a few years but that's okay. It will be worth it in the end! :)

So thats our life. So if you're ever wondering why we never talk to you or if we're alive, just know we're simply busy. We're not ignoring you :)

I fell on my crack & broke my back.

Yup.. you read that title right.

Last August, I went rollerblading for the first time in many years and within the first 5 minutes I fell straight on my tailbone. It hurt a lot and gave Todd a good laugh. My tail bone was very sore for a few days and then everything went back to normal. April rolled around and one day out of the blue my back really started to hurt. It hurt consistently for about a week and then I finally broke down and went to see a chiropractor. I had no idea what was causing my back pain. I have mixed feelings about chiropractors. Sometimes it helps, and sometimes it hurts. When I went for my back it almost always left me hurting after instead of feeling better. My chiropractor had told me there was most likely a problem with my sciatic nerve and that my muscles in my lower back were agitated and were causing inflammation and pressure around my nerve. So he gave me some exercises/stretches to do and did adjustments.

We moved up north soon after and in the month that we stayed with my parents before going to Bear Lake my back almost completely healed. I had almost no pain whatsoever. When we got up to camp, I started working hard and moving around so the pain started up again. I went through the whole summer fighting the pain. When we finally moved back down to St. George, I kept having the feeling that instead of going back to my chiropractor that I needed to see someone else. My brother-in-law Paul had told me that I should go and see a D.O. (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) back when I went to a chiropractor so I thought maybe I'd give a D.O. a try now.

I thought about it for a couple weeks struggling with the idea that a D.O. visit would cost much more than a visit to a chiropractor but I had this persistent thought that I needed to see someone else and get a second opinion. I finally made an appointment with Dr. Brad Root at the Southern Utah Spine & Rehabilitation Center. The soonest they could get me in had me waiting almost 3 weeks so I was tempted several times just to cancel my appointment and go see someone else. I'm so glad I didn't though, Dr. Brad Root is an amazing doctor. I explained my history and he decided to do some x-rays. They took six x-rays of my spine and found something quite unpleasant. He pulled up my x-rays and said,"hmm.. well my dear, you have cracked a piece of your vertebrae." .... umm what? Talk about a kick in the face.

Because I've cracked this small piece of one of my vertebrae, this particular vertebrae slides forwards and backwards (only a few millimeters) and causes the surrounding tissue to inflame. My doctor told me I'm lucky I haven't cracked it more or even popped the vertebrae completely out of place during the year I've been walking around like this.

What's next you ask? I don't know. Surgery someday? Physical Therapy for sure. Maybe a few more x-rays and an MRI. Can everyone see my money flying out the window? Because I can. And I don't have any money.

The good thing is, I have an amazing doctor. He is conscious of my money situation and is bending over backwards to help me get the care I need at the lowest cost possible. Such a sweet guy. I'm anxious to go in and start physical therapy and get some answers to some questions I've got.

This is definitely going to be an adventure.

Decor

Take a gander at this:

I've been wanting to put this together for awhile! Basically it's a frame with a sheet of metal in it. Simple right? I've kept asking my dad to find me some sheet metal and when we were up visiting last my parents went out and found some sheet metal for me but they also found this fantastic frame! I was planning on covering the metal with a cute fabric but the frame has so much character that it looks perfect just with the sheet metal in it. Now I have a creative magnet board to hold pictures and quotes.

I love it. It's simple but cute. :)

Thanks mom and dad!!

Boulder & Capital Reef

Well, the weekend before school started we went on our yearly trip to Capital Reef National Park. My has been camping there every year since before I

was born. It's pretty much a big deal. :)

This trip was a pretty chill trip. We didn't do too much because it rained off and on and Todd and I had been "camping" all summer long. We went on a few drives, a few small adventures to get fire wood and just hung out together as a family. It was pretty nice! We were going to do a couple hikes but my back was bugging me from our move down to St. George so we decided not to go. On the drive I realized I had forgotten my camera but don't worry, Jake brought both of his nice SLR cameras so we are not short for pictures. Somehow this trip turned into a truck photo shoot (not that was don't have enough pictures of the truck already.. haha j.k dad!) but that's okay, it's a good lookin' vehicle!

Here are some pictures:

Jake looks like he's thinking " Oh yeah? Well i'm the one who is holding the chainsaw.. so try me." ha ha.

The Handsome Hubs

Rainbow :)

Check out the lights!

Look who made it up the mountain! My dear car "Patty" or I like to call her "The Grand Patster Pat." She's a trooper of a car.

I love camping. My kids will love camping too. They don't really have a choice! :)

Kris & Clare

Today I found out that my dear friend and old roommate Clare and her husband Kris were in a horrible ATV accident on Sunday. They are both in the hospital and are stable but in pretty bad shape. Clare has been unconscious since the accident and has brain trauma as well as a broken wrist and pelvis. They won't now how severe or the effects of the brain damage until she wakes up. Kris has several broken ribs and bruising on his lungs and heart. My heart is completely broken and my prayers are with them both as well as their family.

Clare is the beautiful bride. I don't have a picture of her and her hubby :(

Keep them in your prayers!

Our New Place

So as I'm sure everyone knows, we have moved back to St. George. (Yay!) We absolutely love our new place. It is so stinking adorable! It is a lot smaller than our first place but honestly, it's the perfect size for just the two of us. It is a one bedroom two bathroom townhouse with a loft that has a really cool skylight. The loft can function as a bedroom but we use it as our "family room". We have our T.V. and office space up there and it's just the place we go to hang out and relax. Here are some pictures of our cute place.

The main room or "Front room":

Dining Space & Kitchen:

Bathroom & Bedroom:

Loft:

Skylight.

We love it here. It's in the center of town and it literally takes us 2 minutes to get to school. It is a little older, but for how old it is, it's in really good shape.

Come visit us anytime! There is an air-mattress in the loft with your name on it :)