Lucas living

Proud of my Sis'!

2011-02-08T23:10:00.000-08:00

So I'm not even going to try to update about the latest happenings in Lucas Livin', but I just HAD to blog about my sister's latest creation! Sierra, my older sister, has created an AWESOMELY aDoRAblE company, called "Lollies". Check out their site at lollieslv@gmail.com. They look soo cute and yummy and are the perfect, affordable treat for any occasion! You're gonna love it!

As a short update on what's going on with us here in San Francisco, Seth is busy studying for the second round of Boards before he graduates from Dental School this June. Then, in July, he'll be starting the Orthodontics program at UCSF. So it'll be another three years in beautiful and entertaining San Francisco for us! I'm about to finish my Clinical Fellowship at CPMC Davies and am currently applying for full-time positions for after that is over and I become a fully licensed Speech-Language Pathologist!!! Exciting stuff!

Bring on the sCrUbS!

2010-05-04T22:25:00.000-07:00

It finally happened! I officially accepted a Clinical Fellowship position at CPMC Davies Campus. It's such a relief to have the interview process over and to be able to move on with getting my license. I will start in July and be working Tues thru Saturday...I know..not ideal, but that's what you get when you work for a hospital... mediocre pay, lame schedules, limited/no holidays off, but great exposure to a variety of patients, great experience in high pressure environments, the opportunity to work with some real characters, and a GREAT addition to my resume. It'll be for 9 months, so if you were wanting to spend holidays with us, you better plan on hanging with me here in SF after I get off at 5pm :). I'm super excited to get to work with the team I did my internship with...they're awesome!

Exciting times for the Lucas family!

2010-04-16T15:50:00.001-07:00

Seth and I have been soo busy lately, but it's all seeming to pay off this week! I will be graduating May 23 and am thus searching for a Clinical Fellowship Year placement, which is a 9 month paid position where I will be working under another speech pathologist's license. This is required in order for me to then earn my Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) and my own license to practice speech-language pathology. I've had three interviews already, and currently have one formal offer (California Pacific Medical Center-Davies Campus Inpatient Rehab) and one informal offer (Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California). I have always felt myself drawn to working with the little ones, so my first choice is the Hearing and Speech Center, where I would be able to work with children ages 19 months (approximately) and up, with even some adult patients possibly thrown in the mix. Some of my caseload would come from the auditory oral school at the Center (for children with hearing impairments) and the rest of my caseload would be from the general public that comes to the clinic. CPMC Davies is where I completed my hospital internship this past fall, and I really had such a great experience working with adult patients, focusing mostly on patients with traumatic brain injuries. It's a beautiful inpatient rehab facility and would be such a great place to work (if only they had kiddos too, it'd be perfect). So tough decisions will be made within the next week, but this is a spot I'm happy to be in despite the stress involved.

As if two amazing job offers weren't enough blessings for our little family, Seth just took the GRE today, a standardized test required for applying to orthodontics programs that he's been studying for for the past several months. He did AmAzInG!!! He only needed to get a 1200 to look good to schools, and the kid got a 1430 (710 on the math and 720 on the verbal)! I am so proud of him and so excited to finally have my husband back. I'm totally gonna get rid of those GRE study books as soon as possible since they are the guilty parties that have been stealing Seth away from me every day and night for all these months! So with awesome Boards scores AND these high GRE scores, Seth's chances of getting into the orthodontics program of his choosing just skyrocketed. We're pretty excited!

I was talking to Seth about all these blessings we've received lately and how I truly don't know what we did to deserve them. I am truly grateful to everyone who's supported our getting to where we are (family, friends, teachers, mentors) and am really excited for where we are in life right now. It's so exciting to have the world at our fingertips, and I'm looking forward to see what the next few years bring.

LifE iS gOOd!

2009-09-15T16:21:00.000-07:00

Summer has been crazy and full of fun! We've gotten to spend the 4th of July with the Parkers in Joseph, UT, visited Jeff in Seattle, met adorable Gavin, the newest edition to the Lucas family, seen Coldplay put on an amazing concert at The Gorge, tried out the amazingly awesome "eYeClops" (thank you Ash and Kory!), hiked Half Dome aGaIN, spent time with the Klavanos, celebrate our 3rd anniversary, see two close friends get married, and see the Killers perform at the Shoreline! Now you know why I've been so busy and haven't updated the blog lately! On top of all this fun, Seth received his Boards scores back and did an amazing job (i have to say...this score proves who our kids will be getting their brains from!), I studied for and took my Comprehensive (COMPS) Exams and National Praxis Exam (both required for graduation and licensure as a speech-language pathologist), Seth started working on real-live patients in the dental clinic, I've landed a spot as an intern at CPMC hospital, and Seth got his braces off! Everything has really just fallen into place for us, and we've been so grateful for how blessed we've been. Thank you to all of you who sent us your warm thoughts and prayers while Seth and I had challenging academic requirements. We truly feel that they made all the difference and helped us get to the place we are at today. I always think that pictures say way more than words can, so I'll leave the rest to the slideshow!

hErE's To ThE nIgHtS...

2009-06-13T22:40:00.000-07:00

What?!? Two posts in two weeks! I know...cRaZiNeSs!!! This week, I got to go to Vegas to see Elina graduate! I know! I can't believe she's getting that old! That means I'm old! lol. Elina was valedictorian! She gave a great speech and looked absolutely beautiful! Yay, Bee!

Seth has been studying like a champ, but has been so great in still making a little bit of time for me each day. Friday, we even got to go on a quick date! I recently discovered the oh-so-awesome Early Bird Special at Century Theatres! If you go to the first showing in the day of any movie, it's only 6 bucks! This deal works every day of the week! Hooray! So we took advantage of this great deal Friday and went to see a movie, enjoy delicious Kettle Korn, and grabbed a quick lunch. As if that wasn't cute enough of Seth to take the time out of his intense study schedule to do that, he even bought me beautiful tulips! I can't wait for Seth's studying to finally be over, but I still feel pretty spoiled with the cute things he does during the time we do get together right now. Thanks, Beb!

Still kIcKiN!

2009-06-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

So I have to apologize to all of you who visit our blog, disappointed time and time again to see the same old posts. I guess we're just so busy, I forget to make time to update the blog! Sorry, friends!

We've had some fun times since January! Despite being constantly busy with church callings and school, Seth and I have tried to take my dad's advice to "WORK hard and PLAY hard" to heart. Sierra and Nick came to visit for Valentine's Day, and Leslie came to play in March. The most exciting thing of all was our Easter present from Sierra and Nick. Seth and I got a really cute package with a bunch of eggs full of all sorts of goodies. One of the eggs had a special note to "OPEN ME", and inside there was an ultrasound picture! Sierra is pregnant and due on October 27! Hooray!

For Memorial Day, we were able to take a road trip with the Knells and Robarges down to San Diego. Sadly, Ashley and Kory (Knell) will be leaving us to move down to La Jolla at the end of this month, so we helped them look for apts while down there. It made me really excited as I entertained the idea of moving to a place with warmer weather! I love San Francisco, but I'm a true desert rat who is constantly cold here! The Robarges, Knells, and we had so much fun taking time just to relax, hang out on the beach, and take it easy.

Last week, I made a quick trip to Vegas to see one of my old best friends, Taylor Ludwig, get married. His wife, Halley, is so sassy... I loved it! It was really fun to catch up with old friends. We don't get to see enough of you guys! While in Vegas, I got to go with Sierra to her OB GYN appointment. It was supposed to be just a normal check-up, but when Sierra said she couldn't feel the baby yet, the doctor decided to do an ultrasound to help her coordinated the movements she was seeing with what she was feeling. I had been so sad because I wasn't going to be able to be at the appointment when she found out the sex of the baby, which was supposed to not take place 'til the end of June. But great news! During this unplanned ultrasound, the doctor was able to confirm that the baby is, without question, a boy! We couldn't be more excited! Congratulations, Sierra and Nick! Thanks for letting me come to that appointment that turned to be such an exciting one! I seriously look at baby clothes every day... I think I have Seth convinced that I have baby fever, but I'm really just so excited for my new little nephew!

So.. that's the latest and greatest in our little Lucas family! I've included a few pictures of our house..well the living room at least...cuz I wanted to record what our little apt looks like! This stage of life is so fun for us, and we can't wait for the next adventures that lie ahead!

wE'rE nOt DeAd!

2009-01-21T23:15:00.001-08:00

We're alive! It's been so long since our last post, I'm sure some people we're starting to wonder. I've always been guilty of living life to the fullest and forgetting to record it! Instead of giving a detailed description of the fun we've been having the last four months, I thought I'd just share some of the highlights.

SEPTEMBER:

As Seth and I began falling into our routine of school and studying, we were pretty lame when it came to doing anything else. I got my first speech client in the school clinic, and Seth was busy studying for his Dental Boards.

OCTOBER:

Things got a lot better once Seth's Boards were out of the way, and we were actually able to make time for friends (sorry for those of you who felt temporarily neglected!). One of our craziest October adventures was hiking Half-Dome with the Robarges and the Knells. We left Friday night and drove all the way there, arriving in the very wee hours of the morning. After putting on as many layers of clothing as I could possibly fit and successfully making myself look like a fat marshmallow child with high-waters, we began the ascent. We made it all the way to the top, and though it made us barely able to walk for the next few days and gave us a few bruised toes, we had a blast!

Just a week later, we went camping and abalone diving in Fort Bragg with a group of Seth's classmates. Though none of us Mormon kids got pulled over this time for drunk driving this time (if you don't know the story, I'll have to share that with ya), it was still a ton of fun!

Before we knew it, it was Halloween. Seth struggled to decide on what costume would be the best, so he decided to sport two different costumes. For school, he went as San Francisco's famous "Bushman", and he had so much fun scaring unsuspecting people as they passed what they thought was a bush. I was coming out of the gym when one of Seth's friends told me that Seth was in the quad scaring people, so I decided to go watch for a little bit. It was hilarious! I watched Seth nearly give an old man, who we later found out was a nationally acclaimed pulmonologist, a heart-attack! For Halloween night, we went to the Haleck's party as cheerleaders, which was pretty hilarious too. There were some great costumes there! We ended the night with yummy fondue with friends at our house.

NOVEMBER:

We got to see my family a lot during the month of November, as they came out to Frisco several times for various things. During their visits, we got to bike the Golden Gate Bridge over to Sausalito, tour the city in fun go-carts, and celebrate my mom's birthday by sharing her lemon meringue pie cake!

DECEMBER:

As school began to wind down before the Christmas break, Seth and I were able to have fun using our kitchen. We decided to take advantage of the Farmer's Market we kept hearing about and to make a delicious meal together. We went down to the Ferry Building and scoped out the food selections, planning our meal as we went. We decided to try making ribs, since Seth had been dying to find a great ribs recipe. We made rosemary potatoes and delicious vanilla cinnamon poached pears too! It was such a blast cooking together, and the meal tasted great!

Another fun adventure we were able to take was doing one of many "city walks" described in a book that our neighbor lent us. The book gives you cool historical insight on various spots along the walk. It was really fun to learn more about this cool city while enjoying time together.

Before leaving town, we were able to make cute gingerbread houses with friends. I had decided that decorating our house when we wouldn't even be here for Christmas was a lot of work for nothing, so the gingerbread house gave our place a tiny bit of Christmas cheer!

We got to see so many people over the Christmas break! It was so fun! We saw all of my immediate family and just about all of Seth's too! On top of that, we got to visit with a lot of friends we hadn't seen in a while and see a couple of their new little ones! Seth and I felt like we were always on the go, as we visited Denver, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas in our two weeks off!

JANUARY

When we got back to San Francisco, we decided to start off the new year by spending a day at the horse races. Neither Seth nor I had ever had this experience before, and despite having no idea what any of the "lingo" involved in placing bets meant, we loved every minute of it!

Seth and Jensen decided to go on a manly adventure in Tahoe, where they snow-shoed up Mt. Tallac and snow-boarded down. Well, of course Erika and I weren't just going to sit around, so we decided to have a play day of our own. We got brunch and met up Ashley to see a movie. Kory then joined us girls to do a little painting at Color Me Mine. Fun stuff!

Yesterday Seth got school off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Though I was getting over a bug I caught this weekend, we decided the weather was just too beautiful to waste, so we joined Ben, Anisha, Grayson, and Becka in Monterey. It was fun walking around Fisherman's Wharf there and taking a group stroll on Lover's Lane (haha). Seth and I decided to go ride the 17 Mile Drive and watch the sunset there. It was a lot of fun, and the views were amazing!

Now that the blog is updated, (FINALLY, I know), I will try very hard to keep it current! School starts for me next week, which means life gets busy again, but we'll see if I can get better at blogging! Don't give up on me!

wE mAdE iT!

2008-09-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

August 26th was our two year anniversary!!! HOorAY! We still love each other! Actually, I think we probably love each other more now than we did when we got married, and I LOVE that fact! Since the 26th was on a Tuesday, I had school. We kinda just did the usual that night (had dinner together and studied...nothing to exciting). But Seth had a whole fun weekend planned for us that Friday. We left right after I got out of school and headed up the 101 to the Redwoods. We took our time getting there, stopping to visit the "Drive Through Tree", taking the long route through the "Avenue of the Giants", and stopping to walk around "Confusion Hill." I had never seen redwood trees before, so this was quite a treat! I never knew trees could get that big! It was pretty awe-inspiring to realize what those trees have been around to witness (some were around when Christ was on the earth!!!). We arrived in Eureka just before dark and checked into our adorabley awesome bed and breakfast that Seth had found, called The Carter House. Our room was so cool! It had a huge jacuzzi tub, two shower heads, a cool bed with drapes that fully enclosed you inside if you wanted (I secretly always wanted a bed like this when I was little cuz I thought it was a princess bed), two fireplaces... the place was just amazing! Seth and I decided to go explore Old Town Historic Eureka and find a place to eat. We ate at Hurricane Kate's, which was an awesome little restaurant that put a cool twist on all their foods! It was really foggy and chilly when we left dinner, so I was very grateful for the fireplaces when we got back.

Saturday we woke up pretty early and had our free continental breakfast downstairs before we headed out to drive farther north to go kayak Trinity River (prearranged by Seth). The drive was beautiful as we winded our way through lush green mountains. We drove through a freakishly thick cloud for about ten minutes, which then vanished almost as suddenly as it appeared. Kayaking Trinity River was so much fun. Seth and I were the only ones kayaking with the company that day, so we kinda got a private lesson from our guide, who just happened to teach kayaking for one of the local universities! Seth and I thought we had done crazy rapids in Sun Valley when we went with my family, but the rapid on Trinity River were so much scarier! The craziest rapid was a class 3+ that only had one path we could take if we wanted to do it correctly (and even then the guide said we had a 90% chance of getting tossed out by the rooster tail created by huge amounts of water at the end of the rapid). Our guide even had us get out of the kayaks first and walk over to the rapid in order to plan our route and decide if we had the guts to try it. I kinda had been planning not to do the death-wish of a rapid, but my "go-getter, impress my husband with my crazy bravery" side came out so I decided to go for it. I was really pumping myself up to do it and had found my inner courage, but that was almost totally shattered when our guide told me that he always gets nervous before this rapid! Even the professional kayaker got nervous! I knew I was doomed. I decided to let Seth go before me, so he followed the guide in. I was pretty close behind, but knew things were not looking to good for me when I could no longer see Seth's kayak in front of me because he had gone off the mini-waterfall of a rapid (the drop was honestly at least five feet). Well, I managed to enter the rapid at the right spot and was on the correct route. I was feeling good. All that was left was that final instruction I'd received to throw my weight to the left to counteract the rooster tail of water that would try to flip my kayak to the right. I threw my body with all my might, only to end up submerged under my kayak. I was really thankful for the wetsuit I'd chosen to wear despite the grief Seth had given me for it! It turns out that Seth had flipped out of his kayak too, so I didn't feel that bad. It kinda boosted my ego too when a lady on the shore told me I was awesome cuz she'd never dare to try going down that rapid! Hooray for trying-to-be-a-tough-girl-pressure! Seth decided to try the rapid again, but once again got dumped out of his boat! That rapid got the best of us, but we both felt really tough for trying it.

The kayaking trip had taken most of the day, so we headed straight back to Eureka. We did, however, remember to stop at the Bigfoot Museum on the way. I don't know about you, but I'm convinced he's real (totally joking!). I loved that each of "Bigfoot's footprint" casts looked completely different from the others! Maybe the people trying to convince us all of some giant monkey man should get together to come to an agreement on what they'll make him look like before trying to sell it to us.

After seeing the roomful of Bigfoot evidence, we headed to Eureka to clean up for dinner. Seth had made a reservation at the restaurant downstairs at The Carter House (4 stars... nice!). It was known for it's world-famous wine list and organic, home-grown menu. You can just imagine the waiters face when we told him we wouldn't be having any wine that evening! He tried to be professional and polite but he was pretty easy to read. The dinner was fabulous though, and it was really fun getting all dressed up for a night out with Seth. After dessert, we enjoyed the complimentary herbal teas that the hotel had in the lobby by the fireplace.

We had planned on going home Sunday, but there were still so many things we wanted to do while in northern California, so we took advantage of it being Labor Day weekend and decided to extend our stay another day. Of course, we could afford to stay in The Carter House again (it was nice, but with nice comes high price), so we quickly found a cheap room at the Travelodge down the road. We took some pictures of really cool Victorian houses in town. Then, we headed up further north to go to the "Trees of Mystery." When we pulled up, a ginourmous Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe were there to greet us. Paul had a man hidden somewhere inside him that was talking and making Paul wink and wave. Crazy stuff! We walked on the trail through the redwoods and saw cool ways the trees had grown like the "Cathedral Tree", the "Brotherhood Tree", and the "Candlabra Tree". Then we road the Sky Trail up through some huge redwoods! I kinda got weak in the knees when I looked down, so I mostly enjoyed the tree tops while Seth talked about how crazy it'd be if we fell! Nice convo to be having when you're hanging by a cable, huh?!? The view from the top was so beautiful! After the Sky Trail we walked through the Trail of Tales, where we learned all we could ever want to about Paul Bunyan! Seth and I actually really like the tall tales of Paul when we were both little, so this was kinda fun! We waved goodbye to Paul and headed for our next adventure.

We drove through Elk Grove to the Fern Canyon trail, where we got out and walked through some of the prettiest areas I've seen. Every surface was covered with moss or ferns, and many places had trickling water running down the walls. It was so beautiful. We got a lot of good nature pictures. Seth and I thought some of the people on the trail were pretty hilarious, though. They treated the walk like a true hike, prepared with their camelbacks, fanny packs, and hiking boots. We heard a group talking about how they needed to make sure to drink some water as they stopped for a rest! I begin feeling like I must be missing something as I walked around in my flip-flops. We never did find that "hike" they were so prepared for..haha. Maybe they were the ones who were confused?!? On the drive away from Fern Canyon we saw a huge elk on the side of the road in the trees. He was the biggest buck Seth had ever seen (seven pointer on each antler) and the first elk I'd ever seen, so we got out and took some video and pictures. About ten minutes after we'd gotten back in the car we saw a huge group of elk in a meadow by the road! Some of them got soo close it was crazy!

We then headed to a small town (I forgot the name) where Seth really wanted to see a lighthouse. It was really pretty, but it was freezing outside and really windy! We quickly took pictures of the lighthouse and an adorable church we found and then found a cute place for an early dinner. It looked like a hole in the wall, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was really really good! I even was able to get a delicious salad! We then returned to Eureka and headed for the Travelodge. Seth did his Fantasy Football draft while I flipped through the channels on the TV, and then we decided to get dessert. By this time, however, it was about a quarter to ten so we had to hurry to find a place that would be open. We found a Marie Calenders and rushed inside five minutes before ten. We really felt lucky when we saw them lock the doors behind us and refuse service to a group that tried to come one minute after ten! Right under the buzzer! Seth and I splurged and enjoyed delicious Lemon Meringue Pie and an Apple Pie Sundae. Mmmm! It was delicious, and I was really glad I'd only gotten a salad earlier so I could help Seth polish off the apple pie! Delicious! I went to bed with a very happy stummy that night!

Monday, we woke up and started heading down the 101 back towards San Francisco. We made sure to stop in Ferndale first however. Ferndale is a really cute Victorian town where all the houses look Alamo Square's painted ladies. Seth found an eerie cemetery, complete with a dirty black cat who decided I was his new best friend (I really don't like cats!). After taking some fun pictures we walked around the town and found a little Mexican restaurant to have lunch in. We went into a couple of the shops and then got back on the road. We stopped at an old logging town, but were really sad to find that the logging company was no longer in business and the cool buildings we thought we'd be able to tour were now abandoned. We then headed home to our beautiful city of San Francisco! I love coming home to such an awesome city! We had so much fun on our trip the Redwoods and had a fantastic anniversary. Thanks, Seth, for planning such a fun-filled vacation and for being such an amazing husband! I love you more than words can say!

FuN iN tHe SuN!

2008-08-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

We were only back from Sandpoint for a couple days, when we turned right back around and headed back up to Idaho, this time to Sun Valley. My family's been going to Sun Valley for summer and winter fun my whole life (a bunch of my dad's family lives up there). We had so much fun hanging out with my family and Elina's friend Page. We got to go white-water kayaking on the Salmon River, hiking, biking on the awesome local trails, riding the lift up to the top of Baldy Mountain, floating the freezing cold river (where yes, I definitely slipped of my intertube and got totally drenched while trying to avoid a gnarly tree that tried to attack me), eating out at great restaurants, painting pottery at our favorite spot "Local Color", and attending the ridiculously terrible play in the village. We really packed it in! It was Seth's first time in Sun Valley during the summer, so we were determined to show him a good time. He decided he definitely loves summers in Sun Valley better than winters (even though they are awesome too). We biked or walked almost everywhere. I loved being so active! Elina is a champ at staying fit, so we'd get up early everyday and go workout together. It made it easy to enjoy working out with such beautiful bike/running trails right around our house! It was so fun to do so many things outdoors with my whole family (especially with my mom who recently had surgery on her ankle after a 7 month, stubborn break from snowboarding refused to heal on its own). She was a trooper! Unfortunately, being that active meant limiting the number of cameras we took, and I still need to get the majority of the trip pictures from my family. Here are the ones I have so far though!

Hiatt Family Reunion in Sandpoint, ID

2008-08-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

Seth and I had so much fun meeting up with his family in Sandpoint, ID, where we all attended the HIatt (Seth's mom's side) Family Reunion. Cherish and John were nice enough to let us crash at their cool cabiny hotel. We had fun walking the bridge, eating out, celebrating Jackson's birthday, and hanging out as a family. Seth and my favorite part of the trip was our 15 family bike ride. It was soo cool! It was called the Hiawatha Trail, and it was the track of an old train, complete with several tunnels and trussels! We all had little lights on our bikes that we had to turn on each time we went thru one of the tunnels (cuz otherwise we wouldn't be able to see!). One of the tunnels was two miles long! The ride was pretty easy on the way down, so we got to just enjoy the scenery and the awesome experience. When we got to the bottom, Cherish, Seth, John, Beth's boyfriend's oldest daughter (hope that wasn't too confusing), and I decided to get a little exercise and ride back up. Cherish and I took it slow (I honestly don"t know if I could have gone faster though!), but the other three raced to the top (and beat us by an hour!). We felt very tough when it was all over!:)

Concert cRaZiNeSs!!!

2008-07-28T00:18:00.000-07:00

Seth and I got to go to the John Mayer concert in San Jose with Ashley and Kory Knell. We all decided to get food before and sneak it into the concert with us in order to get the full experience of our lawn seats. After much debate and a sad rejection by Costco (they closed right as we were trying to go in to get a pizza), we decided on getting burritos and donuts. We were so excited to dive into our baby-sized Chipotle burritos and our huge box of fresh Krispe Kremes, but we first had to get them into the venue unnoticed:). I managed to smuggle the burritos in unscathed, but I'm sad to say that the donuts didn't fair as well. Seth had hidden them in one of our blankets that we brought in to sit on, but I guess he didn't pull off the strangely stiff blanket look too well because the security guy totally know he had donuts. He actually just laughed at us and let the donuts slide through. I think Seth was extra scared to have those donuts taken away though because by the time we found our plot of grass and were ready to break them out, our once perfect fresh donuts were smashed! We all had a pretty good laugh about it, and we were happy to find that smashed donuts taste just as good as unsmashed ones. The concert was so much fun. We had great food, great company, and a two great shows (John Mayer and the couple in front of us. The guy was completely groping his girlfriend. I tried several times to catch his hand down her pants, which shouldn't have been difficult since it happened so often. I hope I caught it well enough to give you a good laugh)! Thanks, Ash and Kory, for a great night!

bAhaMaS baBy!

2008-07-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

So after months of promising to put up pictures of our various summer activities, I've decided that instead of letting them continue to build up, I'll show you our latest adventures and then go back and post pictures of our earlier summer escapades. We just got back from the Grand Bahamas, where we were vacationing with the Klavanos (family friends) from July 14 thru the 21st. We had so much fun and were able to get much needed tans and relaxation time.

Brad and Diana Klavano had rented a house on the east end of Grand Bahama Island. The house was amazing! It was right on the beach and had plenty of places to enjoy the beautiful surroundings in or out of the sun. Seth's good friend David Klavano and his wife, Emily, were able to come, as well as David's sister Kayla. Emily's brother, Austin, joined us and so did Valiere, Seth's sweet mom. We all had so much fun together.

The day we arrived it rained harder than I've ever seen it rain. It seriously looked like someone was pouring a ginormous bucket of water from the sky. Luckily, it cleared up just as we were all settled in, but not before we got to all go on a fun hike in the rain! The hike led us to cool bat-filled caves that we had fun exploring while getting eaten alive by mosquitos (ouch!).

Most days we just hung out on our backyard beach for the majority of the day. The house came with some really cute beach chairs, which were the inspiration for us to have a full blown photo shoot on our amazing beach. It was so much fun, and the gorgeous blue and teal water made for some awesome shots.

We also went to Paradise Cove, where we all enjoyed a beautiful beach and snorkel day and were able to see all sorts of beautiful fish. I even saw a squid! The boys all went fishing one day too! They came home four fish and cooked them up for us. Seth still wasn't satisfied with his catch, so he continued to spear fish throughout the week, cooking it up as he got each one. He's pretty good with that spear, too! My fears of being trapped on a deserted island with nothing to eat are now gone. As long as I've got my burly husband with me, I'm good to go!

We were all very disappointed to find that the food on the island was absolutely terrible! The worst was this one tiny restaurant called Bev's. Beverley herself was running a one-woman show there, serving us the fish her husband had caught. We were all holding back the giggles as she repeated told us that the items we'd try to order from her 10 item menu were unavailable. "Not today," she kept saying. We ended up with mystery meat hamburgers, fried chicken with feathers included free of charge, and fish with the skin and tails included. Sick! Even the sodas on the island tasted funny. We all thought we might starve to death (or at least have to resort to living of candy). That was until we went to the local festival, called the Junkanoo, where we found a ton of awesome food! Seth, Val, and I got the biggest and best hot dogs we've ever had! They were fabulous! The Junkanoo was really fun. We watched the local girls do a fashion show, a local band play, and a really awesome fire-dancer while we enjoyed our pina coladas! It was so much fun to experience the islanders' festival with them.

As if we hadn't already done some crazy fun things, Seth, Brad, Diana, and I decided to do a shark dive on Saturday. I was so scared, and it took a lot of convincing to get me to agree to do it. We went out a little ways off the coast to a wreck site where a small boat had sunk and was upside down on the ocean floor. We all got in the water and were horrified to find that sharks were already circling the wreck below us! I was so scared! The dive master had us follow him down to the wreck, where we then all knelt on the sandy bottom shoulder to shouler (creating a wall in front of the wrecked boat). Once we were all situated, the "feeder" man in a medieval looking chain-linked suit came down with a tube of food for the sharks. He was only about 10 feet in front of us and fed the sharks every minute or so. We were surrounded by about 20 black-tip reef sharks ranging from 5 to 8 feet long! Because the feeder was so close to us, the sharks often would head straight for us after going in for some food. They often would turn until they were only about a foot in front of our faces, hitting us with their tails as they turned! It was really so surreal to think that we were that close to potentially deadly sharks! Once the dive was over, the feeder led the sharks away with his food and we all escaped to the surface. Hope you enjoy our crazy pictures!

We had so much fun in the Bahamas and are so grateful to the Klavanos for inviting us to come along. It was so great to hang out with everyone and get a chance to relax! Seth has been studying so hard for the dental board exam, which he'll take in September, that I haven't really gotten to spend much time with him lately. It was so great to get him away from his studies (well, he still snuck some in each day) for a little bit and to get to catch up with everyone on the trip. Thank you so much, Brad and Diana!

FaBuLoUs NeWs!!!

2008-04-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

Ok ... so I know I have been slacking on posting pictures of our abalone diving trip to Fort Bragg... and pictures of my awesome shopping day with Seth this past Saturday ... but I'll have to do that later;)! I have way awesome news that I am bursting to share! I just got a call a few hours ago from San Francisco State University Admissions Department, and they said that a spot opened up for their grad program this fall! I'm off the waiting list, people! Yay! I am officially accepted into grad school and am on my way to becoming a certified speech language pathologist! I'm so so excited! I had to share! And I promise I'll get around to posting those pictures I promised!

SpRiNg BrEaK sPeCtAcUlAr!

2008-04-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

A week in the British Virgin Islands was absolute bliss! I was so happy to finally be able to have time with Seth, and he loved not having to worry about school. Brian, my mom's brother, and his family was able to join us, so we had two catamarans chartered for the week. The islands were beautiful, the food was delicious, and we created memories with our family that will never be forgotten.

Elina's Birthday

2008-04-10T00:17:00.000-07:00

I decided to give Seth a study weekend here in Frisco and to go down to Vegas for Elina's 17th birthday, which was on Friday, April 4th. It was really fun to see the family and get to spend time chillin' with all of them. Elina's best present was a Nissan Pathfinder! She's been driving the family car for the past year (the family rule) and now lucked into a very lightly used awesomely adorable car! She's a little hottie now! Watch out world!

Back to work!

2008-04-10T00:08:00.000-07:00

So I finally returned to my volunteer job after having been on a series of vacations for the entire month of March. I showed up and was very excited to find out that it was a field trip day! We road the Muni (the public transportation) to USF where we attended the Annual Teeter-Totter-athon held by one of the student sororities. It was really fun to watch the kids get their faces painted, make pet rocks, and have an Easter egg hunt. There weren't many good photo opportunities cuz the kids were constantly separated as they went to the various activity booths, but I did manage to catch this one of Angela. What a cheese! This is what she did when I asked her to smile. Isn't she adorable? I couldn't stop laughing. Hope it brightens your day as much as it did mine!

Sad Day ... I mean really sad!!!

2008-04-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

>So Saturday was a really sad day cuz we had just gotten the mail after having been outta town for two weeks (don't worry... I'll post pictures of our vaca' soon). Seth started opening a letter from SFSU without realizing what it was. He handed it to me, and I almost instantly burst into tears. It was a letter from the Communication Disorders Department (the grad program I'm applying for). It said I've been wait listed for this fall! I am so bummed and shocked! I totally thought I had this in the bag and honestly don't know how I could have made my application more qualified. Hopefully some people will choose not to accept their offer from SFSU so that I can get of the wait list and actually be accepted ... if not, I have a whole new career and life plan to find!

>What makes my getting wait listed even more confusing to me is the letter that came from BYU yesterday. It was from the dean my major's department, and he was congratulating me on being Magna Cum Laude! I bet I'm the first Magna Cum Laude to not get into the grad program she wants! I'm just really sad cuz I feel like I've busted my butt through college for nothing. Granted, I did only apply to one grad program (cuz it's the only program in the SF area), but that's a sacrifice I had to make for Seth ... and I was totally willing to do that... but I didn't think it'd be a problem getting in!

>So i'm hoping that I get off the wait list and get to go to SFSU this fall, but, if not, I'm gonna have to find a new plan. I'm thinking I might do cooking school if I don't get in (I got accepted to The California Culinary Academy last year but had to turn them down cuz it was super pricey...but if I don't have to pay for grad school now we might be able to afford it!). If anyone has any other ideas for what I should do instead of speech pathology, I'm all ears! Oh... and for those of you that are around me the next few weeks...I'm sorry if I seem glum... I'm just dealing with this major blow!

>OH! On a happier note... one good thing did happen that Sad Saturday. Seth and I got to go to dinner with Amy and Seth at Osha Thai! We finally tried it after having heard about it for months! It was as good as everyone said ... seriously everything we ordered was awesome! Food and good company was just the thing I needed after receiving such awful news from SFSU.

My Kiddies!

2008-04-01T21:35:00.001-07:00

So I've been volunteering at the Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California for the last five months, and I absolutely love it ... well ... except for those two times I had to clean up poop off the floor..eww gross that memory just gave me the heebie jeebies! Although I help out Ciara, one of the speech pathologists, and also help run a homework group, I usually spend most of my days being a teacher's aide in the preschool class there. I work with speech and hearing impaired kids who are three to five years old and absolutely adorable! I feel like I'm always talking about how cute they are and the witty things they all say, but no one can truly know what little shnuggas they are unless they talk to them and see them. Since only a chosen few have gotten to talk with them (Mom and Sierra), I thought I'd show them to the rest of you!

This is the whole class! Kristi is their teacher, and she is so good with them! From left to right it goes Justin (the savant artist), Renzl (my favorite...shh don't tell), Vincent (who flirts with me every time I wear high heels), Amanda (the "Chatty Kathy" who is so dang cute despite her poo mishaps), and Alcon. I'll show you more Renzl...but the stinker wouldn't smile for the camera!

Pizza and Bowling Night!

2008-04-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

Sadly, Ann and Jake just recently left us to head home to Salt Lake, and Seth and I were talking bout the fun times we had. I just finally found this picture from bowling night with Ash, Kory, Ann, and Jake. It was so much fun, and it made us wish all of our lives weren't so busy so we could hang out like this more often!

Hangin with my Seester

2008-04-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

One of my Christmas presents from Seth was tickets to see Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban in concert. Unfortunately, Seth got the opportunity to represent UCSF at the ADA National Lobby Day in Washington, D. C....right on the same day as the concert! I was way bummed, but it ended up working out just fine cuz Sierra was able to come fly up and join me here in Frisco! I had so much fun showing her the city during the day, and we had so much fun at the concert that night!

Getting Started

2008-02-24T21:44:00.000-08:00

So I'm just getting started with this whole blog thing, but I'm really hoping to finally figure all the cool options out so my page can be dang cute like so many I've seen! Anyway... my sister, Sierra (23) just sent me a bunch of pictures from vacations this past August thru December. I thought I'd make my first post using these cute family photos! The two gorgeous girlies with me are my two sisters, Sierra and Elina (16). Aren't they gorgeous?!? Oh! And that other hottie is my mom! Cute parents!

I used to be black! San Francisco fog has ruined that nice tan for me! So sad!

My dad is so grateful to now have Seth and Nick (Sierra's husband, 26) to add some testosterone to the family!
Seth's mom got to join my family for Thanksgiving! We had such a blast! Here, we're on our way to go see "O" at the Bellagio in Vegas! If you haven't been, we highly recommend it!
The whole family with the puppies! The two brown ones are Sierra's and Nick's, Bella and Pierre. Buddy, the white guy, is the family dog! Don't you love the matching pj's? Pierre's famous trick!