Merry Christmas!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas. We spoiled each other so much it was crazy! We got gre at gifts and we were both so excited to finally get to open/use the things that we got. We started buying clear back in October so that we could pay for things as we went. We were almost more excited to give each other the presents we got than to open our own. It was crazy running around from house to house to open presents and shopping and everything else. We had a great time shopping the few days before Christmas in Las Vegas with my family and then on Christmas day we drove up to Provo to spend time with Josh's family too. We couldn't believe all the snow everywhere.Vegas still had a couple inches in some places and we hit some bad roads on our way up north. It was so pretty to have a white Christmas! We got to see Josh's Great grandma in Ogde n and also visited his Poppy and Grandma Noza in Richfield on our way home from Provo. We visited his Aunt Wendy in Heber and went to dinner with her and his cousins DJ and Brandee. We were happy we got to see so much of his family. I am overwhelmed with love for Josh and for our families. I can't help but feel extremely blessed and so grateful for all that I have been given in my life. I am especially thankful for my sweet husband. He is so thoughtful and loving and he does so much for me. I couldn't ask for more. We are both extremely satisfied with our Christmas this year and look forward to jumping on in to 2009. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!


Tess and my mom


The mountains just outside of Mesquite Nevada Covered in snow!


My little sister was trying to take this picture and she kept messing up so by the time we got this one she had already taken 5 and everyone was yelling at her and it was a disaster of a family picture but don't we just look so cute!? haha


Josh with the videos I bought him. It is our favorite TV series and he has been wanting it since we saw the first show almost 2 years ago.


This is me with my very own Ipod Touch!! Josh felt bad that I always get his hand-me-downs and he got me one with my name on it like his! What a Sweetheart!


My new Christmas jammies and the scarf my mama made me!


Joshy wearing his cool new sweater and holdin the iron gym my parents got him


Josh's dad snoozin


Josh's mom, great grandma and us in her cute little apartment.

Say Hello to Dr. Carpenter!!!

The big day finally came! It seemed like this day would never come yet Monday was the long awaited December First. The first phone call we got was at 6:00 in the morning from IUPUI in indianapolis (this was our second choice) but they said he was on the alternate list and that they usually bring up quite a few closer to April. We were just excited it wasn't a flat our rejection! So Josh got up and started getting ready for school and checked his email and right before we left for school he got one from Temple in Phillie and they said YOU'RE IN! We were both overwhelmed and just started to cry (I know, what boobs!). I decided that instead of waiting until Christmas, I would give him his new Ipod touch because I had it engraved on the back to say "Dr. Joshua Craig Carpenter". He was almost as excited about that than the dental school acceptances and thinks that I am the best wife in the world, even more so than before. Now we we were waiting for Pittsburgh and Western because Phillie was our last choice. At around 9 Pittsburgh called him and said that they wanted him to come to their school also! That made 2 acceptances and we couldn't have been happier, but we were still holdling our breath waiting for Western to call. They did a little after 10 and they said they wanted him too!!! I am so Proud of Josh and all the hard work and determination that he has been putting in for the past 5 years(well almost). Not only did he get accepted to 3 universities out of the 4 that he interviewed at but he got accepted to our number one choice in Pomona, CA which is only 6 hours away from good ol' Cedar City. We are just thrilled to death and are already searching for houses and I am preparing to apply to a dental hygiene school (SJVC in Rancho Cucamonga). We are going to do some Praying and soul searching at the temple to make sure that Pomona is where we are supposed to be but as of right now we both feel very strongly that it is meant to be! Now California is so close we expect a lot of visits from you all!! We will update you more on that later on!
Carpenters out

My New Haircut!

I have been wanting to cut my hair since the beginning of last year. Everytime I saw someone with short hair I loved it and would always ask Josh if he liked it. I went in february to have Kenna cut it but chickened out at the last second and cried when she cut it. It wasn't really short or long and I was really sad. I kept liking it on everyone else so the other day I called her and said "Kenna, we are cutting my hair when you come this weekend." She said "Great!" and we did it. I love it! I wish that I would have just sucked it up and done it way back when I first wanted it. She did such a good job and did exactly what I was wanting. THANKS KENNER!

Thanksgiving Break and The Christmas Spirit

Thanksgiving break was so nice! Josh and I definately needed a vacation from school. Thanksgiving dinner turned out awesome. We had 17 people there from my family and Josh's and there was tons of food! We ate ourselves silly! Then, Friday my mom and grandma took us shopping for some Christmas decorations for our house. This is our first Christmas in our own place so we didn't have much and they wanted to help. We found some great deals and my mom and I made an adorable wreath for about $10 that is much cuter than the $60 one I wanted at Roberts crafts. I was so excited that I went home and decorated right away. I love Christmas time and all the lights and pretty decorations everywhere. It just makes me smile whenever I see it. I love searching for gifts for everyone and the yummy treats and everything else about the season. I do however remember the reason that we celebrate Christmas is in honor of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Everytime I think of his life, his example, and his ultimate sacrifice or gift shall we say; I am overwhelmed with love and gratitude to him and to our father in heaven. I love the spirit of service and charity at Christmas time and I wish that it would last all year round! I feel like I am a little more patient and a little nicer at this time and I think most people are too (at least in my own little dream world). We also went to Grantsvillle for baby Carson's blessing. Josh was really excited that Jake asked him to be in the circle, it was his first time participating in a baby blessing. We love Jake and Heather's families, they are just the sweetest people and always make us feel like one of the gang. Thanks guys for inviting us! Anyway, Merry Christmas to All of you and I hope that we can all remember the true meaning of Christmas and let ourselves be more willing to be an instrument in the hands of God this holiday season. We love you!

PS: There is a lot of pictures!

The wreath we made!

I love this cute little moose!

We got this whole nativity set for $10!

"Oh Christmas Tree"

Christmas towels Grandma bought

Isn't Dawson just adorable?!

Jake and Carson

The Happy Family

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, food, and fun! This thanksgiving is going to be our last one living in cedar and we are having a big get together with both of our families. My mom is so excited to have a house full of people she can hardly stand it. We are going to have some yummy food and lots of fun visiting. In the spirit of the holiday I thought I would just mention some things that I am thankful for...

1. Josh, my best friend and my eternal companion.
2. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints and the blessings of the holy temple
3. Our humble little apartment and all of our many comforts we have living in this country in this community.
4. Our loving families who help us and support so much
5. The freedoms and liberties that we have as Americans
6. The opportunities that I have been given to get an education and pursue a career of my choice
7. Our calling in the church to teach the sweet yet crazy sunbeams
8. Our health and strength and able bodies so that we can do anything without problems
9. Good friends that are great examples to us
10. The atonement of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful blessing it is to know that we can be forgiven for our imperfections and that we can strive to become perfect like him through repentance, faith, and effort.
    

These are just a few of the many blessings that I enjoy in my life and I hope that you are all thinking about what you are thankful for at this time. Please be safe and happy and we love you all very much!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!! (well sort of)

Every Halloween since I was little my family has done a very yummy but disgusting dinner. We have Elephant scabs with blood and pus, Giant's toenail clippings, and brains, with witch's brew to drink with worms. My little sister is only ten and she gets a kick out of it. Josh was on his interview in indiana so it was pretty lonely with out him there. I made some cute little bats out of felt with little pockets on the back for candy to give to our little sun beams. and my dad and I went out for pumpkin milk shakes at artic circle while my mom and brother took tess out trick or treating. After all the trick or treaters were gone we watched Hancock. It is really funny and my mom and dad are hilarious to watch movies with. While Josh was gone I was able to deep clean our apartment and re-organize some things. It feels good to have a clean house. Saturday morning my friend Julia and I went to Yoga for a couple hours and then I made us some lunch and we got to spend some time together chatting. I went to a wedding for a friend (alone) and saw my good friend from way back in middle school and her husband and they were nice enough to let me hang out with them for the night so I wasn't lonely. Josh got back at midnight and then it was daylight savings so I guess he really got back at 11. It was so nice to have him back. I will have him write up a blog about his last interview. I hope you all had a safe and Happy Halloween!!

Scabs and Toenail clippings

Brains

Witch's Brew and Worms

My Mom was a vampire Tess was a Kitty

Weekend Fun!

The last two weekends Josh and I have been doing some really fun stuff. Two weekends ago on Friday we went out to dinner, then bowling, and then to off the cuff. Then Saturday we went down to St. George to have the dealership where we bought our car for the 15,000 mile service. Then we went to the temple and afterward we went to lunch and to PetCo to look for salamanders. Last weekend on Friday we went to dinner at Wingers and then went to the Cedar High VS Canyon View football game. It was fun, Cedar was kicking CV's butt! We didn't stay for the whole thing because we went to Off The Cuff at 9:30 so we could get a good seat. Saturday we went back down to St. George and bought some tires because we already needed new ones and there was a grand opening of the tire company in Hurricane so we got a screamin deal. After that, we went to Santa Clara to a trail called "Barrel Roll" on the river preserve and went mountain biking. It was a lot of fun. It was really pretty there too, the views were breath taking. This is the first time we have been actually mountain biking on my new bike. I was still pretty scared and clumsy but I only got a couple scrathes and a 1 big bruise, but I didn't break anything and I am still alive so I am feeling more and more confident. Our Sunbeam class is getting to be a lot better. They are learning the songs and starting to behave better. It is so much fun, they say the funniest things. Well I guess that is all for now. We hope that everyone else is having some great weekends and enjoying the last of the good weather. Carpenters Out!




This is where I dropped my bike on myself and got all tangled up in it and cut my ankle.

View over Santa Clara

View towards Bloomington
(Bottom) this is a picture of part of the trail we were riding on.

OFF THE CUFF

Josh and I have decided that our new favorite thing to do on a friday night is go to off the cuff at the grind coffee house. It is an improv comedy show and the people are SOOO funny! We have made it our weekend ritual for the past few weeks. It is only $5 a person and if you get a card after 3 stamps you get one free. It is from 10 to midnight and they have yummy smoothies and drinks for pretty cheap that are fun to sip on while you are listening. We haven't had any accidents with it coming out our noses or anything so thats good. They also have a class or something on Friday at 4pm in the GC109 that people can go to and play around with improv. Anyway, It is really a blast and we have enjoyed it so far. If any of you are in Cedar on a Friday night and want something really fun and laid back to do, head on over to the Grind and we will see you there!! We hope everyone has a great weekend. Take care and be safe!
Carpenters out!

I'm Back

After a really long weekend I am back in good ol' Cedar City. As you know I had 2 Dental School interviews this past weekend and they were great. I started off by going down to Las Vegas and staying with our friends Landon and Ashley. They are so great for letting me stay with them! I stayed at their house Wednesday night and Landon woke up and took me to the airport at 5:00in the morning what a stud! My flight took me to Houston and then to Philidelphia. When I got there my friend Matt Kelly came a picked me up from the airport. When in Philly it is a must to eat a Cheesesteak so as soon as he picked me up we went to a famous cheesesteak place called Chubby's. So we stopped and picked up some chubby's and went back to his apartment to eat them.
Me at Chubby's

The Chubby

Me Eating a Chubby


It was Delicious by the way. Matt and Calli were awesome for letting me stay with them. Matt took me to my interview at Temple the next day and gave me the behind the scenes tour (the stuff they don't show you on the real tour). The school was nice, a little old, but I loved it. The patient base is phenomenal right now they have over 55,000 active patients with new patients coming in every day. If I get accepted here I would see so much stuff it would be unbelievable. I thought the interview went well. It was very laid back and the guy that showed us around the school Brian Hahn was awesome. It was a group style interview and there were five of us for this one interviewer. The questions were really straight forward no off the wall questions like the horror stories you hear about. After that I sat through a lecture with Matt and then we went back to the apartment and ordered some pizza and did homework. Saturday Matt took me out on the town and showed me the Rocky Steps and I got my picture with Rocky Himself.
Me with Rocky!

This is where he stood.

Rocky must have been a heavy dude because he left these brass shoe prints!

The Steps

After I ran up the steps and made a fool of my self we went over to the Liberty Bell monument and saw that which was cool. Then we tried to get tickets to go see where the constitution was signed but they didn't have any available which was kind of a drag. Downtown Philly was really neat lot of historic places to see.
Me and the Bell

Ben Franklin's Final Resting Place

Where it all began

After the historical tour we finished off my trip at the place for Philly Cheessteaks in Philly. Jim's it was the best thing I have ever eaten I wish I was there right now.
On the Grill

After that it was back to the airport. Philly was awesome the neighbor hood where Matt and Calli lived was really nice there was a huge park in their backyard. I could really see myself living there.
So as I am sure I have mentioned before in previous blogs I had to fly clear back to Vegas and then clear back to Pittsburgh for the second interview which kinda sagged. But I am getting ahead of myself. So I flew back to Vegas where my wifey surprised me with her presence which was really nice because I really missed her while I was gone. So they took me home and I went straight to bed. The next day my flight left at 4:30 and I got to the airport in Pittsburgh at 11:30 at night. An awesome former SUU student who is now going to school at Pitt Darren Hatch came and picked me up. He was awesome he had never met me before but he came and got me way late and took me to his house and let me stay there. I didn't get to meet his wife but I hope to one day and I thank both of them for letting me stay there. Pittsburgh was really nice. It was really cool to drive into the city at night and see it all lit up. The next day Monday Darren took me to the school for the interview. The school was very nice we had an awesome brunch with the current students we got to pick their brains. The interview went really good my interviewer was awesome he made me feel really comfortable and he didn't ask me any of the normal questions at all. He just asked me about the dental clinic that I started and then we just sat and chatted it was really nice. The school was super nice and the faculty seemed really friendly. After the interview was over Darren showed me around Pittsburgh a little it seemed really nice it was a beautiful time of year to go with all the leaves on the trees turning colors. I wish that I had more time to explore the city but my flight left only 3 hours after the interview was over. After showing me around I got on a bus to the airport and flew back home. I drove all the way back home and got in at about 12:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Overall it was a good trip I am still trying to get on the right time but I loved every place that I visited.
This is a picture of Pitt dental school form the 36 floor of a big tall building on the Pitt campus

Carpenters Out

My Great Surprise!!

Josh has been gone since wednesday evening and I have been going crazy! The first day I cried and cried and tried to keep myself busy with homework and housework but I discovered that I am incredibly efficient and got everything done wednesday night. So, Thursday was pretty busy all day with school, work, more school, Dinner with my parents, then more work, then homework and house work. But the nights are what is hard. I don't like to be alone especially at night. I am afraid of just about everything so it was pretty scary. I did a lot of praying and that really helped a ton. It was my grandma Macklin's 78th birthday yestderday so I went to Mesquite with her and my family for the weekend and stayed at the Virgin River. We went to Vegas Saturday afternoon for dinner at this amazing Italian restaurant, Don Antonios, and had dinner. I saved some chicken parmigean and pasta for Josh and had my parents take me to Landon and Ashely's house. Josh didn't know that I was going to go with them to the airport to get him and stay the night. I almost blew it quite a few times and Landon even told Josh I had just got there but made up a cover story only to find out Josh hadn't even heard him. After what seemed like forever he finally called and said his plane had landed and we rushed over to the airport. Ashley and I went in to find him but ended up just missing him and he beat us to the car. We walked up and he couldn't believe it. He jumped out laughing and hugged me! It was so awesome to actually surprise him! He always acts like Sherlock Holmes and figures out my secrets or gets me to spill the beans. He was very excited to see me and almost as excited for the left overs I brought him. It was really nice to see him even though we didn't get to spend to much time together. He drove me back to Mesquite and we had breakfast with my family and then he headed back to Vegas to catch his flight to Pittsburgh for interview #3. He will let you all know how the interviews went when he gets back. He will be home tomororw around midnight and I can't wait! Hope everything is going good for everyone! We love you all! Carpenters Out!

Western Interview

I just got back from my first Interview at Western University. It was awesome I love the school and I love the area. The Dean Dean Koelbl was awesome and very funny. The rest of the faculty and staff were very friendly and personable. Overall I think that the interview went really well . and I am excited to hear from them in December. One down and three to go. This week I leave down to Las Vegas on Wednesday and I stay with my good friend Landon and his wife Ashley. Then I fly out Thursday Morning at 6:30 a.m. and get to Philadelphia, at 5:15 p.m. where my friend Matt is going to pick me up and let me stay with him. He is giong to take me around Philly to the Rocky steps and get a cheesesteak. Then my interview is on Friday and I fly back to Vegas on Saturday. Then I stay at Landon and Ashley's house again and I fly to Pittsburgh on Sunday, for my interview on Monday. Its pretty crazy but it will be fun I am way excited because I have never been to the east coast before. Anyway that's whats going on with us. Carpenters Out!

Sunday Drive

Josh and I took a drive up the mountain after church today. We took our camera along and had a good time trying to find rocks and trees to set it on or parking the truck in funny spots so we could set the camera on it. Josh would set it up and then run over and smile and then go check it. It was so much fun. The leaves are all changing colors and the mountain was just covered with so many different trees. The view was amazing. We enjoyed our drive so much. It was a good get away from classes and teaching and applying and all the other things that we have been so stressed about lately. The mountain is going to be one of the many things we miss most about Cedar when we have to move in the spring. We thought this was a wonderful oppurtunity to take it in as much as possible before we leave. We hope you all enjoy the pictures, even though it doesn't really do the real thing justice. Carpenters out!