new york, new york

Danny got another interview yesterday afternoon! Hooray! He will be interviewing in Albany, New York on the 29th of November. Which means I booked my flight to Arizona just a week too early! No New York trip for me...so sad. The huge Christmas tree in NY would have been up, thus crossing an item off my bucket list but I guess if we get in I could visit the tree every year. But the prospects of New York are super exciting. Albany is three hours from the city and about two hours from Boston. Be still my little American heart!

Albany Medical College does the 10 min interviews rather than the 2-3 long ones, which makes me nervous. I think I really do get more stressed out and nervous than D does. He is a guy that loves to talk to others and interviews well. All I know that if it was actually me going through this process I wouldn't get in anywhere just based on my crazy nervous interviews. My boss at EFY told me (later when we were very close and had worked together for years) I was one of the worst interviews she ever had. Sad! I think divine revelation got me that job. 

In other news, D passed his physical and got the all clear for the Air Force. Just one more thing off our shoulders.

Can you believe it is almost Thanksgiving (aka Welcome Christmas Feast)?! Where did the summer, let alone the fall, go? All I can say is that I adore the snow, I adore the season and I have even really been enjoying the cold. Maybe now I can appreciate and enjoy it because I get to snuggle up and not walk to campus freezing my tail off.

As always, keep your fingers crossed!

public transit

Sometimes things go as you planned....today was not one of those days and isn't even 10AM yet. 

Today Danny has his Air Force physical. Once today is over we will be done with the long checklist of AF items and we will just be waiting on an official acceptance letter then onward and upward! The physical started at 5:30 this morning so the Air Force put him (us, because I love tagging along) up in the Radisson hotel for the evening. So fun, right? Staying in hotels with big fluffy beds, sample size shampoo, hot tubs and room service is one of my very favorite things. 

The plan was to hot tub it up, have a lovely evening and then I would drive to Ogden in the morning. Once the physical was over (it takes eight hours...don't ask me why) D would take Frontrunner down to the Roy stop thus savings us the annoyance of taking two cars. It almost worked out. 

We got to the hotel and Danny got put with a roommate....that was not me. Oops! Luckily, the lady worked it out after scolding him about how I was not invited. Oops! We seriously, didn't know that part because the recruiter told him he would have his own room so no big deal. Then like the paranoid rule follower that I am, I refused to go down to the hot tub in case we got busted. But seriously, what was I supposed to do at 10 o'clock at night? Drive back to Provo? Sheesh.

Then the alarm went off at 4:30AM, Danny got ready to go and kissed my forehead goodbye as I was still in a sleep stupor. Half an hour later I got a text...Danny accidentally took the car keys with him. This left me to scramble to get checked out, get on a bus and make it to Frontrunner. Here is the thing, I do not like public transit because it makes me really nervous. However, after freezing my tail off for 15 minutes I got on the bus. Got off on the wrong stop, a nice driver let me on a different bus even though I didn't have exact change and then I made it on to the Frontrunner! A college aged guy even asked me for help, "Miss, do I cross the tracks to get on the train or how do I do this?". At least I looked like I knew what I was doing!

  

Anyway, the moral of the story is...keep a spare set of keys with you. Check your hotel reservations to see if your spouse is allowed and avoid public transit. Sorry Syd, I will leave that to you in Chicago!

link love

Just a little link love for things I'm loving on.

Pink Chalk fabrics. Seriously, so many fun prints that I adore. If only I had the sewing skills to go with he fabrics!

This skirt tutorial from Say Yes to Hoboken. I know summer is over and skirts tend to go to the back of the closet, but how gorgeous would this be in a dark crimson or gold for holiday parties?

A delicious tortellini soup for the cold weather. I love hot soup and thick socks but I also adore tortellini  My favorite pasta!

I am loving the peter pan collar. Especially this one for the holiday season. And I wouldn't mind pairing a peter pan collar with some loafers and a trench coat. 

I always want to wear my hair like this but it never turns out right. Any suggestions out there? Maybe a good tutorial you know if?

I absolutely adore these books made out of your instagram photos. I love instagram because it is more of a daily life and interesting pictures mixed with memories and humor. Facebook can be totally overwhelming but instagram is just right. But I love to actually hold pictures or show them to friends without passing my phone around, so this seems like a wonderful option!

And lastly, I'm beyond excited that a Trader Joe's will be finished in SLC in just a few days! Not only because it is a fun and random store but also because they stalk these really delicious coconut cookies! I'm also addicted to the Home Goods because they have big pieces of art on the cheap, holiday decorations and some seriously beautiful lamps. I can't wait to move and redecorate, we have be using everything I inherited from family back when I started college. Upgrade coming 2013!

The simple joys of life

We are getting really good at finding the simple joys in life!
Sometimes I get caught up in the "When we finish med school" or "When we can buy a house" etc.  I hope I'm not the only one ;-)

Honestly it's hard to see my friends growing up, buying houses, having babies, and going on exciting European trips. Oh how I do wish that could be us somedays. I have days where I wish I could paint my walls because they are mine. Or that we could book a trip to Jerusalem and not have to worry about homework.

Even though I get caught up in these thoughts every once in a while they don't last.  I do love where we are at. Even though we are years and years away from buying a house I enjoy decorating our cute condo. Even though we can't go on fancy vacations I like to plan little "staycations" to help us get-away. Even though we can't go out and buy new fancy things we love working on our budget and trying hard to find good deals.

Anyway....yesterday was one of those moments. Though we are living a simple life we found joy in that. Zipcar (our great option for a vehicle) was doing a special for election day. I jumped at the chance to get a car for a couple of hours. We bundled up and headed to Costco. While walking through the aisle we both looked at the things we wish we could have. After passing up a few items that we just couldn't afford we decided to splurge....and what did we get?

Rasberries and Muffins! Yep, and I was so excited!!!! I ate a muffin for dinner last night and had both for breakfast this morning.

It may not be a house but our costco muffins and raspberries sure brought some simple joys into our home. We're thinking raspberries, warm hot fudge and ice cream for dinner tonight :-)

So on the days I get caught up in the "When we can...", I'm going to try my hardest to remember what we have now!

election day

Hope everyone rocked the vote (or plans to) today! Election Day is on my top 10 favorite holidays list. I was an American Studies major in college so election day makes my little political heart pitter-patter. We have had CNN on all day (how dreamy is Anderson Cooper?) and already went out to the Justice building to cast our ballots. Then we went to McDonald's to get some french fries like real Americans...

Tonight we are having a little watch party with some couples in our ward. Pizza, streamers, Romney/Ryan sugar cookies and a nail biting election make for one of the best parties of the year! So excited!

But on a serious note, voting and especially women voting is a topic dear to my heart. I believe in this country. I believe we are and can be great and I believe women play a very influential role in our destiny. Here is a video of one of my favorite speeches, Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I A Women". If you have time, watch and listen, it is gorgeous. (The speech starts at 26 seconds)