Almost there

Believe it or not, we're about 6 days away from some freedom! Chris has a Physics final Monday and my Nursing final is Monday. Chris also has to finish his Psychology finals probably Tuesday and my Physiology final is Tuesday. We're hoping they go well. I'm quite nervous because I have crammed a lot of information into my brain this semester and I know I have forgotten a whole lot. I guess I'll be relearning some of it for the final!
We will still be working- and I see that my hours are increasing the further we get into the holiday season-which is great- I'm glad I will have something to do so I'm not home all of the time. One of the managers also asked if I would stay on through January at least- which I will be very busy with school, but it won't be too many hours, so I said I would. Chris' hours will probably stay about the same.
I'm excited for Christmas Break for a few reasons:
1- More time to spend with Chris. It seems like he is running constantly. To class, then to work, then home late and almost straight to bed.  
2- Our couch, table, and desk (hopefully) will not be piled high with books, computers, and papers.
3- A little time to relax- no classes to go to. Maybe I'll get to do some leisure reading (not textbooks..).
4- I wish I could say go home.. but I'm doubting we get to. Chris has to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. (Sounds like an exciting Holiday for us- maybe I'll volunteer to work Christmas Eve too so I'm not here by myself.). I was thinking about changing my schedule so we could go home the 18th, but I looked and I am already scheduled. Starting next week I am picking up a lot more hours than before (the money will be nice!). I do enjoy working there most of the time-until I have grouchy or rude people!
5- Some time to work out. Carnival.com says we cruise in 24 days! We are SO excited to get out for a while and spend a whole week with his whole family and my parents (in a warm climate!)
6- I could go on forever, but the last thing I'm really looking forward to is reorganizing our poorly neglected basement. I love reorganizing- and I'm ready to do it!
We set our Christmas tree up the day after Black Friday and I just love it. We had to push the table in the corner so we'd have room for it. 

 I didn't note it in the last post, but we finally picked out a tv! It was a wedding gift from his parents. I told Chris just to wait until Black Friday and we'd get a good deal. So, I was watching the ads, and the TV we had chosen was one of the few NOT going on sale.. so I said we could just get it. I think we got a pretty great deal for what we got. I had a hard time getting a clear picture of it. Sorry if the flash is blinding. (and it really isn't odd shaped- it was just the angle I took it at)

A whole lot of nothing..

Our lives are seemingly uneventful right now, but for part of Relief Society tonight we talked about blogging, so I got the desire to write a post (plus I really don't feel like doing any homework or studying.. my brain checked out after two terrible tests on Tuesday).

A little update on school and such- I honestly cannot believe the semester is almost over. Many times, it has been really rough and painful, but I have actually thoroughly enjoyed the learning part of it. I won't sugar-coat that any longer and admit how incredibly TERRIFIED I am about second semester. I am excited to be doing clinicals in the different areas at the hospital, but I will be putting in a lot of hours on top of the school work.
Chris has also been working very hard in school with his Physics, Psychology, Workout, and Nutrition (on top of plenty of working!). I appreciate him working, but I really hate when we has to go. He works mostly evenings/nights. He has learned working in the Pharmacy that he has no desire at all to become a pharmacist.

Chris and I also just got a new calling- we are the Sunbeam teachers! We are loving it and are so excited for our new (huge) class coming in. We will have 12 sunbeams in January! It will be a handful, but we are ready. We take them for the lesson on Sundays right now so they can get used to us.

A while ago for Relief Society, Sister Wilson taught us how to make bread (and gave us the recipe). I'm in love with it. It is so moist and delicious! It also makes really great breadsticks- I've made bread twice and it has turned out both times! It is wonderful. Thank you so much Sister Wilson!

We are SO excited to go home for Thanksgiving. We are leaving either Monday night at midnight when he gets off or early Tuesday morning. We have to be back on Black Friday to work, but we are grateful we get to go home! Hopefully the roads will be alright- we have gotten snow almost every day for like a week (i'm guessing).

Since you visited the blog, I had better make it worth your time and add a few pictures.. Life has been crazy and my house doesn't stay as clean as it used to, but I suppose I can add a few pictures of the rest of it :) Again, I apologize for the cell phone pictures, but we're getting a real camera Black Friday, so it won't last too much longer!

I rearragned the living room a while ago. I think I like it better this way, even though it doesn't fit as well.

Ugly, but delicious breadsticks with Sister Wilson's recipe :)

The hall. The further door to the right is the one that goes out and up the stairs to get outside. The door closest that is partially open leads to the creepy "closet shower." Honestly, when Chris told the landlord we thought this place would be fine, I was terrified- I didn't think I could bring myself to take a shower in it. Come to find out, its not so bad. Yes, Chris' head touches the ceiling in it.

a poor picture, but I think you get the idea.

I'm sure the next post will be after Thanksgiving, so if anyone reads this, Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

So much to do.. and I'm blogging!

I feel like I should be working on other things, but a lot has happened in the last two weeks so I want to just hurry and catch up.
First, we ripped down the paneling finally, painted, and got a table! I was so excited to have the ugly paneling gone and its so nice to have a table to sit at to eat! Now we can actually have people over to eat as well. We are pretty excited.

Secondly, everything has gotten really busy lately. More work in school, getting a seasonal job at Bath & Body Works, and still trying to keep everything else caught up!
Third, we are so excited to go on a cruise in January. We are going with Chris' family and my parents. I'm so excited to go with them and have my parents come along! It will be fun to spend some time with some family. My dad hasn't really traveled much because he's always working so hard- I think he'll enjoy a little break. Maybe we'll get him hooked on traveling! Our cruise leaves from Miami, then we go to Isle Roatan, Cozumel Mexico, and Belize. It is a week long. I'm sure by the time January comes, we will be very ready for a vacation.
Fourth, classes are going well, despite quite a lot of work! I start clinicals in a just a few weeks! It will be fun to apply some of the things I"m learning though. It has been a lot of work so far, but I'm really liking nursing school.
Fifth, last weekend Haskells were able to come down. It was really fun getting to see them and spend a few days with them. Chris ended up having to work 12:30-9 on Friday and Saturday. I felt bad because he didn't get to see his family as much as I did! On saturday, we went to the UW game against Utah. It was fun, but again, I felt bad because Chris (who really wanted to go) wasn't able to go!
Lastly, today after class, I got to the car and there waiting for me was Chris and some flowers. I quickly tried to think if it was some special day or anniversary. After failing to come up with anything I asked what they were for. He told me "just because." He is such a sweetheart! (I think his father trained him well!). [He also took me to Sonic- our favorite place for drinks! I got a cherry lime diet coke (AMAZING) and he got an orange cream slush(also pretty delicious!).

I suppose I'll wrap it up, and if we survive this next week (2 tests, lots of studying, finishing 28 drug cards which take forever, and some case studies), I'll try to post again someday!

Is this FALL weather?!

First-A few things I love about fall:
Being able to wear a sweatshirt
Hot Chocolate or Hot Cider after coming in from the brisk weather
Baking! (to be continued...)
Beautiful Leaves
Decorating
Fall-smells (outside, and of course the ones we burn)
Chris's last favorite: me wearing SWEATS:)

I have been so excited to have our own place so we can decorate and make it smell good (two silly things that make me ridiculously happy. I have recently decided that I really like pumpkins. So, we have several pumpkins hanging around. I'm running out of surfaces to place them on! Chris is such a sweetheart, and is pretty attentive when I talk about silly things that make me happy. So, for part of my birthday gift, he got me a really cute little pumpkin, a candle from Bath & Body works that is in a little pumpkin glass, a fall-smelling handsoap (carmel apple!), 2 fall-looking wallflower plug ins, and plenty of wallflower fall-smells. I was so excited, but I told him I didn't really want to bring out the fall smells until it got a little chilly and felt like fall. (It has been really warm for the last two months and wasn't feeling at all like fall) This morning it was chilly in the apartment, so I looked outside to see -gasp- a dark sky! It surely felt like fall today! So, I happily replaced the wallflowers with the fall scents!
Chris had to work today, so I went to the church to watch General Conference. I have always loved having my birthday around General Conference weekend. It is such a special time and I love hearing from the Prophet and his counselors. Its always a time of reflection and determination to be better.
Earlier, I mentioned that I love baking. This is still true, but the 2,000 feet elevation difference has thrown me for a loop in the kitchen! At first, I couldn't figure out why everything was so sticky when I was using the same amount of flour as before! Then, I tried to make Becca's Cookies. They're usually nice and fat, hardly flattening at all. This is what happened when I made them.

FLAT as a pancake. I was pretty sad! So, I went ahead and baked them all and put most of them in the freezer (my latest favorite treat- frozen cookies!). I'm really dying to make sugar cookies, but I'm scared to try! I also wanted to make an angel food cake for my birtday, but I really don't want to ruin that either, so I just made a raspberry jell-o (I think I like it better than cake anyways!)

This week in school, I have another nursing test Tuesday (over 10 chapters!) and then we're hoping to come home on Friday! We're really excited- we have missed everyone a lot!

We'll give this a try..

It seems like everytime someone from home calls, I end up trying to tell them things that have happened with us and don't get to hear much about them! Hopefully, by starting a blog, they can see some of the major things that happen with us, then when we talk, I can hear about their lives, instead of my own.

First off, Chris and I are in Cheyenne going to school. I started my first semester of Nursing school and Chris is just following for a semester or two while he gets things straightened out for his degree. (He is still taking classes, just not at UW where he will be getting his bachelor's degree). We're not entirely sure how long we'll live here, but at least for this year. We'll see what happens for next school year. One of us will have to drive either way. Chris says he'd rather drive than have me on that road in the winter, but we'll see what works out.

Right now, we're both just trying to do well in our classes and balance everything we have going on. Chris got a job at Walgreens about 2 weeks ago in the Pharmacy as a Pharmacy Tech. They have him working just about every open opportunity he has (he's taking mostly online classes, so he's able to work quite often). I feel bad because he is always so tired- the pharmacy is SO busy. He says that about 700 prescriptions go through daily. He says it seems like they all just run around the whole time they're working (definitely earning their money!) I'm really grateful he got the job. I hope to find one flexible enough eventually, but its hard right now because I think I want to get a CNA job after this semester. I have my Utah CNA license, so I can't technically work here, but after 1st semester, I just have a do a few things and turn in transcripts and I will have a Wyoming CNA license. Hopefully that will work out and we can both be working.

We are living in a basement apartment. Its really not too bad- it doesn't feel too much like a cave all of the time ;). It was about the cheapest thing we could find here with all of the things we wanted. It has been fun to have a place to call our own for a while and decorate and things like that. The landlord (who lives upstairs) was kind enough to turn over the painting over to us (for a little rent deduction)- so we have some of the colors and things we want in here. We still have a lot of work to do, but I think by the time we are done living here, it will look better than when we moved in. It took a few days to get used to the 'shower closet'. It is around the corner from our bathroom and it really is what the name says. Open the door, and there's the shower. Its an interesting little thing, but we're surviving the older features of this apartment. At least we got a different stove- the first one was TINY. Anyways, since Brad is the only one that has really seen the apartment (and it had boxes stacked almost to the ceiling when he did..), we'll put a few pictures up(gradually). Sorry for the bad quality- phone pictures. We both managed to leave our cameras in Lovell and Burlington (we think..)

Welcome to our humble little home.

This is the view from the living room. There are quite a few little built in shelving type things in the wall. They are kind of nice. The doorway to the left heads to the kitchen and the doorway to the right goes down the hall with the 'closet shower'.

Our Bedroom- a little asymmetrical right now. We need to put the other lamp in!

Chris' closet to the left, the living room (and a little wall shelving unit) straight ahead, and to the right, the doorway to the other 'bedroom' that we use as a dresser/freezer/mycloset/laundry that needs washed type room :)

The desk- in the little room in between the kitchen and living room.

The wall opposite of the desk- its really nice to have the extra storage space!

Living room- eventually we'll add a few more decorations...

Well the other rooms aren't quite in picture taking condition.. but there's more to come!