so you think you can dance dance dance

I feel like it's been awhile since I last blogged. Let me just say that Spring is so much busier than we thought! Everyone was always telling us how spring is so much better than fall and winter but so far ours has just been crazy! Here is what our schedule consists of:

Monday/Wednesday:
Husband- works from 7-2, class from 2-6:30
Wife- class from 10-1
Tuesday/Thursday:
Husband- work from 7-4
Wife- class from 12-1 and 4-6
Friday:
Husband- work from 7-2, class from 2-4
Wife- class from 10-2

So I thought that my schedule looked a little empty and one of my friends told me about a job opening so I thought yeah.. I could probably handle that and it would be helpful to have a little extra money every week so I interviewed and got the job. After doing two days of training in Bountiful I was then going to finish my training at home. So that week it had been kind of hard to get my math homework done because I usually go into the lab to get help but once I started working, I didn't ever get to do that because it was closed when I got back so on Friday I spent 5 hours (12-5) working on just 5 problems of my homework that was due that day and then I still had to go home, finish my training, study for a test I had to take Saturday morning and start reading a book that I had to finish by Tuesday. Also, since I'd been going to Bountiful, I got home late and Mike and I didn't really get to spend time together since he has homework too. Well for newlyweds this arrangement just wasn't working out haha. Also, my house was a disaster and I think every dish we owned was dirty. The next week I had a math test coming up that was starting on Tuesday and I had no idea when I would have time to study or have time to even take it. Plus I would miss the review by going to work. Sooo, after a long talk to my husband we decided that maybe it wasn't going to work for me to have a job right now and I called and let them know that I wouldn't be able to work anymore.

The next day I took my test and we deep cleaned our house and then we went to a BBQ and went mini golfing to get out of the house. I won of course :) It was really crowded, it being a Saturday night and all, and we had to do a lot of waiting around. Especially since there were three unsupervised kids in front of us and at every single hole the little boy hit his ball like he was driving it rather than putting it and they all ran off giggling and screaming looking for it. It never got old. To them.. haha. At the end it was late so we decided to skip a few holes and go to the last one. The people in front of us hit all their balls into the fountain at the end and Mike thought that seemed fun so he tried to chip it in and instead, it went over and flew right over a guy bending down to pick up his ball. It totally would have hit his head had he been standing. We froze thinking he would turn around looking for the ball that almost knocked him out but he didn't even notice so we ran away laughing.

Two great things happened this week.

This show came back into my life.

Mikey's little sister, Kayla, graduated! Yeah Kayla!

The Morgan's are looking good :)

We wanted to go so badly but with school and everything we just didn't know if we could make it down. Good thing she's coming to BYU in the fall! :)

P.S. If any of you don't watch so you think you can dance. Do. It is the greatest show ever.

Thank you Heavenly Father

For this beautiful place.

This is what I saw walking up to campus today. 

It is warm and beautiful out and I really hope this means its time for summer.

Home Improvement

My schedule doesn't match up very well with Mike's anymore. We went from being together 24/7, because we had all our classes together, to not seeing each other until 6 every night. He works from 7-2 Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then has class until 6. And on Tuesday and Thursday he works from 7-4 and then I have class from 4-6. Since I do not have a job, I am going to start filling my time with useful things, such as blogging :) 

Anyways, today I went to Home Depot and I got some things that we needed to take care of our little home. I got light bulbs, super glue (who doesn't need that right?) and some rubber thing for the shower. Our light outside has been out for probably about 4 or 5 months so first I changed that. Then I glued the dumb knob on one of our drawers that comes off every single time you grab it. And then I did the hardest project ever. Ok, maybe not ever but it was hard. I bought the little rubber strip that is supposed to go on the bottom of the shower door to keep in water because our shower makes a giant puddle outside every time we use it. The strip had a little notch at the top that you are supposed to feed into a matching (but opposite) notch on the bottom of the shower door. Sounds simple enough right? Well it turns out our shower door doesn't have said notch. I was trying to figure out ways to glue it on when I found a notch in this little plastic rail thing that used to be sitting in the bottom of the door frame until we caulked it there when we were tired of kicking it out every time we stepped over it. So I thought "Oh I just have to thread this rubber thing through that plastic thing and that should work. So I started to do that. This plastic thing is 2.5 feet long and after the first 2-3 inches of threading I thought I'd never finish. I so wanted to wait for Mike to come home so that he could do it, especially when I got to the last 3 inches. But I really wanted to surprise him with all my productivity. I literally sat on the ground and stared at it for 10 or 15 minutes before I decided to tough it out and do the last 3 inches. It took me over an hour and a half. My back is killing me and my hands are so tender from pulling on rubber so hard for so long. But lets hope that I fixed the problem and that Mike is proud of his little wifey :)

School's out!! ... and back in again

Last week my mom came to visit. It was so awesome to have her here. The day after she got here we took our last final and then the next morning we headed off to Zion National Park. It is so amazing there. If you haven't been there I highly recommend it. We did a few short, easy hikes to make sure we didn't overwork Michael's knee but they were still so beautiful. I went a little picture crazy.. But if you've ever been there then you understand why. Michael and I stayed there from Friday until Monday afternoon and my mom and Zach came back on Thursday night. My mom is so awesome. We stayed at this awesome hotel.

And got to eat out at some really good restaurants. Lets just say that between the restaurants and my mom's cooking... we'll be hitting the gym often

hopefully that wasn't too overwhelming.. haha

It was a really good trip. Then we had to leave it and come back to this..

Boo. Luckily my mom helped us plant a little garden outside to brighten up our days.

I love my little flowers. And that one on the bottom right is a Zucchini plant :)

My mom also spoiled us with lots of good food and a costco trip.

She left today, it was sad to see her go but I guess we have to get back to our routines of work and school and boring. 

Our classes are going good so far and Michael is liking working at the MTC. He's been able to see my friend Liz and take her some goodies. He also has time there to work on homework during the down time. My classes are completely opposite of my previous classes. In one of my classes there are 30 girls and 1 boy and in another there are 20 girls and 2 boys. I am taking a PE class where they teach us how to teach elementary school children about physical activity so we basically get to play every day. The first day we played with one of those colorful parachutes for twenty minutes and the next day we jumped rope the whole time. It makes me feel like a kid again. In my other class we read picture books :) It's fun. I'm also taking differential equations. My last math class for my math minor. Hooray! 

Spring semester seems different from fall but we like it. Let's see if we still like it once we're farther in.

March Madness

About a week and a half ago, at Michael's 6 week appointment (for his surgery) I realized that my last post was about his surgery and although our life has been very repetitive and it seems like nothing very exciting has happened, I guess there are a few things worth mentioning. To save every one from a long, boring post I will just highlight the exciting things that have happened to us in the last 2ish months.

1. Michael got accepted into the Mechanical Engineering program! I'm so proud of him and we're really happy that he can start to take some of the professional program courses. Also, I got accepted into the Elementary Education program! We're excited that we finally are sure about what we are pursuing, about time.. But we are both taking spring and summer courses to get some classes out of the way. Hopefully we'll be able to do it..

I actually wanted to explain why I decided to change because it was a pretty scary decision and process. Hopefully I can make this short. So my whole life I've loved kids and loved teaching and I've had quite a few good elementary teachers that really inspired me and made me want to teach. But I had this problem of my pride and thinking that that wasn't a very impressive major. So when I came to BYU I wanted to do something with all the math that I'd taken. And because I really liked math and I'm pretty good at it too but I ended up hating all the math classes that I've taken in college. That is why I initially decided on ME because it was applied math instead of just math.. And I still really love my engineering classes. At least in the ones that I've taken, I've done pretty well and basically enjoyed everything I've learned. But anyways.. (I realized this will be a long explanation, bear with me) back in October I talked to Mike about possibly switching my major but ultimately decided to stay with Engineering. Then at the end of January the thought came to me again. I think all those other times it had to do with my pride. I just didn't want to have to tell people that I was studying Elem. Ed. and especially since I changed from something like ME. But I weighed out the pros and cons of switching and this is what I decided. First of all, I didn't ever want to get a job with ME because I just didn't really feel like it would be right for me. I was basically just getting my degree for the degree. Seeing as how I would still have 2-3 years of straight school (spring summer included) I didn't really think that would be worth it. Plus, it would make it really hard to start a family if both Mike and I were in school constantly, especially if we were in the same classes. Second, I love teaching. I can totally see myself teaching and loving it. And I think teaching is such a great job for a mom to have because I can always do subbing if I need to help put Mike through school and then if I need to or want to I can go back to teaching once my kids are in school and have the same schedule as them. It's also be good for teaching my own kids before the go to school because I'll learn a lot about how kids learn and develop. Third, I have a few new friends who are teachers and they love their jobs and every time they tell me stories I get jealous haha.

Ok so this conversation happened on Tuesday Jan. 25. Tuesday Feb. 1st was the day that the ME application was due, Friday Jan. 28th was the day we were leaving to Vegas for Mike's barbershop competition. So basically I had to decide right at that moment. After talking to my mom, my husband and Heavenly Father, I made the decision. The next day I went to talk to the EE people. The application for fall was already due on Jan. 15. But they were going to call for me and see if the program director guy would allow me to turn in a late application. They said to just go ahead and turn it in anyways but that it wasn't just a paper. There were a few things I would have to do. One of them was that I had to take 4 computer proficiency tests. They suggested doing the practice ones online before taking the real ones. So I planned on coming in on Thursday to take them. But since we were leaving all weekend to Vegas, I had so much work to get done so I was caught up in all my classes and decided that I would take them on Monday when I had more time. Well, Monday just happened to be the day that Michael got hit. I was kinda stressed because I didn't want to leave him but I didn't want to wait too long to turn in the application but needless to say, I got it turned in and I got accepted. I start in the fall and I'm really excited!! Wow.. so much for making a long story short.. Anyways, I still get a reaction of "wow. That's a big switch. Why'd you decide that?" when I tell people of my major change but oh well. I have my reasons :)

One more thing, I decided that it was blessing that I initially decided on ME and that I stayed in as long as I did. Although Michael and I didn't meet in our ME classes, our first semester that we had all our classes together is when we grew so close and changed our relationship from best friends to being in love. Also, since I decided a month into the semester we're still in all the same classes which turned out to be a blessing because it was really hard for Mike to get to class after he got hit and again after his surgery. So I went and took notes and helped him catch up and study for the tests. If not for that, it would have been a lot more difficult. Ok, enough of that.

2. Another exciting thing that recently happened (these are in no order at all..) is that Mike got a job! He'll be working at the MTC doing maintenance and whatever stuff like that they need done. He starts this next week!! We are so excited. Once spring semester starts, he'll be able to work 40 hours a week for the most part. I'm so happy for him.

3. Two things that Michael is most excited about is getting rid of his crutches and then, a few weeks later, no longer having to wear his brace! He wasn't allowed to bear any weight at all on his left leg until 2 weeks after surgery and you better believe that the day the doctor told him he could try walking on it he almost just handed me his crutches and walked right out the door. But seeing as he'd been on crutches for over a month, it needed to be a little more gradual than that. He started out walking with his crutches still supporting him since his leg was pretty weak and I think the first place that he went without crutches was church on Sunday. And a loooong month later he was allowed to no longer wear his brace. He hated having to wear his brace but his mean ol' wife made him. But since that doctor's appointment it has never went back onto his leg. He is walking pretty normal now with little to no limp for the most part (unless he's been sitting still for a long time) but he's just pretty slow still. That's ok though :) Oh yeah, one thing that has been totally awesome was our handicap pass. It made it so that I could basically drive Mike to the door of every building that he had class in and then park somewhere nearby. It also gave us pretty prime parking wherever we went :) But unfortunately, it expired on Sunday. We have a huge hill between our house and campus so we've had to leave a little earlier to get to school on time but I'm kinda glad we get to walk again because after the first day of that hill again, I was sore. Michael was even more sore, even his little toesies :)

4. On March 2, one of my best friends left on her mission. She's going to Kennewick, WA! She is doing amazingly well and she loves the MTC. I miss her a lot though.

5. We got to go to the Carl Block exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art. It is amazing. If you haven't had a chance to go, I highly recommend it. A lot of the paintings there are ones that we've seen in our church buildings our whole lives but at the museum there are explanations of the paintings that helped me to appreciate them more and to notice more detail. It was a testimony strengthener of the miracles that Jesus performed and the Atonement.

6. We made brackets with some of our friends so we ended up watching a lot of basketball. Until all our teams were out.. haha. But the most exciting of course were the BYU games. Although the last one did have a pretty sad ending.

7. Michael's mission president, President Waddell got called to the first quorum of the seventy! We were pretty excited. It was kind of funny because last April at the mission reunion, he didn't say anything and the next day at conference he got called to be an area seventy. So this April at the reunion he got and was like "I am so excited that I finally get to tell you all about my new calling!" And then he told us some stories and experiences he's had since being called to the area seventy. And the next day he got released and called to the seventy! haha the little sneak :)

8. We got to go to the Sunday morning session of conference and it was awesome. We loved it.

9. Michael's little sister, Kayla, got accepted to BYU and she's going to be coming here in the fall! Yay :)

10. My mom is coming to visit in ten days. I'm pretty excited to see her. I wish I could go home to be with my family but I guess this is the next best thing. Although I do wish that my dad was coming too.. Oh well. I'll see him in June when I go to Seattle for Whitney's wedding :)

11. Three more days of class. Almost there...

Well, I guess this did turn out to be a lot longer than I wanted.. I apologize. Hopefully I will get better about blogging when exciting things happen to us so you don't have to read a super long post every time!

15 things.

Well, Jessica wanted to know 15 things about me so here it goes..

1. One thing that not that many people know about me yet is that I very recently changed my major.. I haven't really told that many people yet because we have been so busy after that. But I decided to man up and finally pursue my passion. Elementary Education. So there it is.. I am no longer doing Mechanical Engineering starting in  the Fall.

2. All through high school my best friend Chandra and I did everything together. We walked together at graduation, went to BYU to be roommates and we eventually got engaged with a week of each other and about 5 and a half months later we got married within 3 days of each other! We totally planned it, but we never thought it would happen.

3. I love to cook. Especially with my husband. We love trying new things and we love to feed other people at dinner parties.

4. I really love snowboarding. It is so invigorating and exhilarating and I love how it makes me feel.

5. I am really, really good at remembering peoples names. Sometimes it makes me feel like a creep.

6. I have 3 brothers who I really love.

7. I absolutely love snow cones or slurpees or icees or anything of that sort.

8. I pick at my eyebrows and my eyelashes when I'm bored and especially when I'm reading or taking tests.

9. So you think you can dance is my favorite show ever. It makes me wish that I could dance so bad. In November my husband took me to the tour. It was awesome!

10. I understand Spanish very well for only having took it in high school. I'm not very good at speaking it though. Sometimes my husband hates it because I can usually understand when him and his mission companions try and talk about me in Spanish.

11. I used to be obsessed with Zac Efron but now I'm just obsessed with my husband. He is the best!

12. I'm always cold and when I have to go outside when it is really cold it depresses me. And I hate being touched by cold things.

13. I'm super afraid of the dark unless I am lying in my bed. Then I love it.

14. I really hate getting ready for bed. I wish I could just get in bed without washing my face, brushing my teeth and taking my contacts out.

15. I really love math and my engineering classes in school. And I am good at them. I'll miss them probably. But I don't regret my decision.

So i guess I have to tag people now.. I want to learn 15 things about Krystle, Kaylee, Michelle and Casey!
Can't wait :)

Happy 2 months to us!

Friday marked 2 months since we got married! And guess how we celebrated... Surgery! Woot woot. That was actually on Thursday but it basically carried over to Friday and will be taking over our whole weekend haha. But lets talk about the good things that happened before we get into surgery.
Last Friday was Michael's birthday and to celebrate, I surprised him on Thursday night by taking him to Olive Garden and then to a Vocal Point concert that was in Salt Lake. It was so fun, we got to dress up and kind of get away from life for a night and spend it together. Vocal Point is really amazing, here are some videos if you have never seen them before.

Anyways, it was a fun night. On his actual birthday we were supposed to go to a ward party but since our building flooded it got cancelled. So instead we stayed home and I made him fajitas.

And then the next night we had some friends over to have ice cream sundaes. They were quite delicious and it was fun to see some of our friends that we hadn't seen too much of. 

Monday was Valentines Day. I wanted to make Michael something delicious that we don't get to eat much but I didn't have everything I needed for my meal so I had to go shopping. How romantic.. usually we love to go shopping together but because of Michael's knee he didn't want to go to Costco so I went by myself. But I bought some delicious looking steak and when I got home I made steak, potatoes and salad. Then we started a new tradition of doing fondue on Valentine's day. Mmmmm.

hahahaha I apologize for the creepy face..

The strawberries were the best

One more thing... We received a letter in the mail on Wednesday that Michael got into the Mechanical Engineering program!! We are so excited and I am so proud of him.

Ok, I guess now we'll get to the fun part of our week. On Wednesday night we got a call about his surgery and they told us that he needed to be there at noon. We were pretty excited about that because we didn't want his surgery to be super late at night so that we could get him home earlier. On Thursday morning they called and said they were running a little behind so instead of having us come sit for a few hours they wanted us to come at 1. So we got there at 1 and filled out all the paperwork. They told us his surgery was at 3 so we were a little wary that we had to wait an hour and a half but then we realized it wouldn't be so bad since he had to get all prepped and everything and it should go pretty quickly. He went back at about 2 to get ready. About 15 minutes later his uncle Steve showed up to see how everything was going and to help us get him home when he was done and then about 10 minutes later we both got to go back and sit with him until he went in to surgery. Just before 3, Steve left and we expected Michael to have to go in to surgery. 

At about 2:30...

Right before he was supposed to go into surgery.

He had to write yes on his knee so they didn't do the wrong one on accident

Well, 3 came and went. We just sat there, I held his hand and we talked or he played games on his phone. Then it was 4. Poor Michael was starving since he had to fast all day and I was pretty hungry myself. The nurse came in wheeling a TV behind her and handed us a list a movies. This was not good news. She said they had just called over from the shoulder surgery his surgeon was working on and it was taking longer than normal and it would be about another hour. Bleck. So we put in Evan Almighty so that hopefully that could help pass the time a little. Well after an hour, there was still no one there to take him away. The rooms on all sides had had people come and go and poor Michael was stuck there starving all day and hooked up to an IV. At about 5:30 a nurse came in to tell us she was going home but that if we needed anything to just push the red call button. We asked her how much longer and she said it sounds like they still have about half an hour but then 5 minutes later she said actually it's gonna be much sooner than that and at ten to 6 they took him away. 

They said his surgery would last about 90 minutes and I was planning on staying there the whole time because I was too paranoid that he would get done when I wasn't there but I was starving and Steve took me to dinner at Costa Vida. It was super delicious and I ate way, way too much. We spent about an hour at the restaurant and then went back to the surgery center. The whole building was dark and locked up and there were only about 3 different groups there waiting. One of them left a little while later and then it was just me and Steve and this mom with her 3 young kids. At about 8 o'clock Michael's surgeon came and told me that he was done and it went really well. He said sometimes redo's can take a lot longer and can be harder if the holes that were already drilled were in the wrong spot or too big but he said it lasted about an hour and it went really well. He showed me pictures of before and after his surgery and then said that I would be able to go in and see him in about 10 minutes. In about 35 minutes they told us we could go back. 

There was my baby, lying a hospital bed covered in a big blanket that was being filled with hot air. The nurse said that he was shaking really bad after his surgery so that was there to keep him warm. He had an oxygen mask with his eyes closed. He tried to open them as I walked up but the pain meds were keeping him from doing so. After I grabbed his hand he kept telling me it was hurting a lot and I could tell that he was really in pain. I went to get the nurse to give him more medicine. It was hard for me to see him in such pain so I was happy when the pain meds started to kick in. Before the surgery, the anesthesiologist had told us that Michael would be waking up as he was rolling out of the operating room. Boy was he mistaken. Over the next 2 hours, he was pretty out of it. He went in and out of sleep and pain. He said a few funny things. He kept asking me the same questions over and over again every few minutes including: what time is it? how long have  I been done? Where'd Steve go? Can I go home now? Should I get dressed? and he also kept telling me that he was trying to open his eyes so he could wake up. After the pain meds had started to kick in I asked if he felt better and he said "I like drugs" haha. I told him that the doctor told him to stay off his leg for 2 weeks and he said "So I can go play football tomorrow?" He kept telling me and Steve thank you for coming and at one point he was waving to Steve and said "Hi" hahaha. He did do some cute things that were more like him. He kept pushing his lips out and I would say what? What do you need and he would just keep his lips out like that and I said a kiss? and he nodded so I'd kiss him and he wouldn't even kiss me back he would just lay there haha. And he wanted me to hug him but I had to lean over the railing on the side of his bed and it was really difficult haha. One time he was sticking his pinky out of the blanket and I said why are you showing me your pinky and he shook the blanket off and he was doing "I love you" with his hand. I must say he is a pretty cute drugged person. 

He kept telling the nurse that he was hungry but when she would ask if he was awake enough to eat he would shake his head. She told us that once he thought he could eat then she would give him food and a pill and if that was fine for his stomach then she would let him go home. When he started waking up more he said where is she with my food? This is poor service, she isn't getting a tip. So I went to find her to tell her that he was ready to eat and she gave him the choices of jello, pudding or yogurt. He chose jello and then said, "I was hoping for a cheeseburger." He was pretty funny while eating, I took a video of it in which he asked if I could just teleport him home :)

Smiling for his momma. As he was waking up

At about 11:15 we were on our way home. Steve carried him down the stairs and we got him in bed. I had to run to the pharmacy and it killed me to leave him but thankfully it was a pretty quick trip. I finally got into bed at about 1:00. At 2:00 I woke him up to give him some drugs, at 3 he had to use the bathroom and at 6 it was time for more drugs. Let just say that the past couple of nights we didn't sleep much.

This is where he spends most of his day, when he's not laying in bed or going to the bathroom.

They gave him this fancy little ice machine that is hooked up to this little pouch that goes around his knee and it circulates cold water around his knee to keep down the swelling. It's pretty cool but also very loud.

This weekend has just been one to relax and recover. Michael's meds make him quite dizzy all the time so he sleeps a lot. We have had a lot of support from friends and family checking up on us and making sure we had dinner. He is supposed to stay in the house until Tuesday when they want him in physical therapy. Hopefully he will be able to go to class that day as well. He just can't wait to start recovering and not hurt as much anymore.

We are so grateful for the advances in medicine that we get to take advantage of. We are also grateful for the priesthood and all the blessings that come from it. We are grateful for our friends and family and mostly we are grateful for each other! We don't know how we would get through this if we didn't have each other.