Since the Last Post....

Josh's 24th Birthday!

Josh was able to go home and visit his family for a bit while I went to school because our breaks never coincide. Then he and his dad came back and we went fishing with his uncle down by San Diego and caught a bunch of blue gills and catfish. Then we all went golfing too. Those Carpenter boys love the outdoors!

Lake Powell!

Our families went to lake Powell camping for a long weekend. We found a great little spot back in a private cove and we had a blast. My little sister was able to meet up with her friend there too so they were off playing in the water and missed this photo-op. It was nice to have a relaxing vacation with both of our families. We are so blessed to have such loving and fun families.

School School School

Josh and I have mostly just been busy with school. He started his second year and so far is doing awesome! This year has been a lot better than the first. I have been plugging along and preparing to take the national boards. The exam is 8 hours long and all on the computer. My class will be taking them on Dec. 3rd. Very scary but I think that I will be just fine. We started seeing patients 3 days a week and had a ton of requirements. It was very challenging and stressful but I got through it and I feel like I have really improved. I finished up my 3rd term of dental hygiene school and now i'm on break again. I pulled off a 4.0 again so that was really exciting! Twice in a row! Being the President has been another added challenge but I think that so far things have gone really well.

Weddings!!

My friend Cindy from school got married and we were invited to the ceremony. It was such a pretty wedding and we had a great time. They are a cute couple and have been together a long time so I was glad to see them finally tie the knot.

Other fun things:

• we got to go home to visit a few times and see Chase and Mckenna's new baby Brody and Danica and Derek's new house.
• We've been to Disneyland a couple more times which is always a great time. We saw the new World Of Color show and were not impressed. It was actually a little miserable but we had fun being together.
• Josh was in a movie called Lies at LAX with his buddy Mike.
• We've had lots of fun dinners and outings with good friends. We have met so many nice people out here and are so grateful for our ward and all the amazing young families/couples that we have the honor of calling friends. We have so many people that are going to dental or med school too and are in the same situations as us and its just nice to have people to count on.
• We had lots of birthday parties to go to lately for our friend's kids. Scouts 1 year, Audrey's 4 year and a few others. Most of our friends have at least 1 friend some have 2 or more so we are getting pretty baby hungry.
• We went to a magic show in Santa Monica called magicopolis which is pretty funny. After we ate cookie ice cream sandwiches at a place called Diddy Reese! they were super cheap and really yummy.
• VISITORS: Josh's uncle Che stayed for almost a week. A guy named Kyle from SUU came and stayed the night so he could interview at Western. He dropped Josh's name and the interviewers were really excited about that because they all just love Josh. How could you not right? Josh's cousin JD and his wife Kayla are going to stop by to visit on their way home from SD and then Josh's parents are going to come visit too. We love having family and friends come stay with us. If you are ever in the area give us a ring. California weather is always amazing and we're super close to all the fun things around here.
• We've been to the beach, Magic Mountain, Redlands temple!! (Not all the same day
• Our stake changed the ward boundaries so we got a whole new primary because all but 4 of our kids went to a different ward. Our Primary president is in Tunisia which is in Northern Africa, for 3 months so the other members of the presidency and I have been trying to keep our heads above water and get things all figured out. So far we are doing ok but its been a heck of a ride. Because I'm the 2nd counselor I'm in charge of scouting and I have to do a pack meeting activity next week.

Life is good! We are extremely blessed and are so grateful for all that we have been given in our lives. We are very busy and there is a lot of stress but we also have a lot of fun. We are doing well and are just as close as ever. We have really learned to cherish our time together since we see each other so rarely anymore. We are starting to feel really comfortable here and are really loving it.

I will be going home to visit our families and friends and to pick up my grandma to bring her back to be my patient. My parents will be coming in the middle of Oct. for vacation in Oceanside and Anaheim. I'm so excited that they are coming and I can't wait to see them all.

New Responsibilities

Today I was voted as the Class President for our senior year of hygiene school. I am so excited for this new responsibility and challenge. I was the VP before and now my very good friend Cindy is my VP. I also started a new calling in the presidency of the Primary at church. I was called to be the 2nd counselor. The Primary president told me that the bishop suggested me and she knew the moment she heard my name that it was right but she fasted and prayed and felt for sure that I was meant for this position. When I was set apart, which by the way is one of my most favorite things about the church, The 1st counselor told me that the impression came to the bishop on the stand as he was looking out over the congregation and he wrote my name on a piece of paper and passed it down to them. They unanimously agreed but also prayed about it and felt that I would be perfect for the job. I was overwhelmed with emotion and my testimony has grown so much. It means a lot to hear such sweet things them. I am so grateful to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm grateful for the power of the priesthood and that my husband is a worthy priesthood holder. What a wonderful blessing it is to know that we can be together forever. It is going to be a busy year ahead between school, church, and family but I know that the lord will bless me as I serve him by serving those around me.

Term 2 Break

After dinner at planet hollywood. We went to the Ultimate variety show there. It was really fun!

Me and my daddy hanging out in the condo. It was soo nice to be with them for the weekend. I love them soo much!

I gave an orientation speech for the incoming class at my school and helped them get settled in a little bit before I headed off to Vegas for the weekend. I think the speech went pretty well. A guy came up to me after and said " Great talk, I felt like I was in church, you are mormon right?" haha it was so funny. He was a member as well and his sister is going to my school now. Then a bunch of other people said how good it was and that they were inspired so I was pretty excited.

Me and a bunch of girls from our ward got together and had a fun girls night at cheesecake factory. It was nice to relax and chat and just hang out with them all. I rarely get to do that because i'm so busy with school. I also was just called to be the 2nd counselor in the primary so that's going to be way fun but super busy too! I hope I can handle it all. I'm sure the lord will bless me, he always does ;)

This was me on my way to hang out with the girls. I haven't been able to fit into those jeans since high school and I got the shirt and shoes when I went to LA with my friend Kendall over the break also. We visited the fashion district which was soo much fun.

I got together with some of my good friends to play at the pool with them and their adorable babies! It was very nice. They are all so cute and fun.

My new hair cut! Not the greatest picture but it looks good in real life and I love it!

After Getting my hair done I went to Disneyland with my senior buddy from school. She is also a member and one of the cutest girls I know. She has the best personality and is so much fun. I just love her to death and I'm so glad that She picked me to be her buddy.

This was at the salon in a fancy robe they made me wear. It was so nice there I felt so pampered.

Josh and I in our twinner shirts! We're so cute, I LOVE him so much. I'm super sad that He gets the summer off and I have to go back to school. I have to clean his teeth so I can see him more.

Josh's mama eating dinner after we spent the day cruisin around souther California seeing all the sights.

Josh and His dad doin dishes. They looked so cute making the same faces while they washed. It was so nice to have them visit us. We miss our families so much but we are enjoying our lives here in Cali. We have made some wonderful friends and are doing really well with school. I can't wait until the next break! Hope yall enjoyed the updates because it may be another 4 months until I do it again but I'll try to be better.

My 22nd Birthday

Josh is such a sweet heart and he always goes out of his way to make sure I have a great birthday. This year he spoiled me a month early with a memory foam mattress topper for our bed. It is sooooo comfy, I love it! Then our printer was having issues so he gave me another early birthday present of a brand new cannon printer. It's wireless so we can print from anywhere in the house. Super cool! Then on my birthday he made me apple cinnamon pancakes and gave me a nice set of storage containers for the kitchen so we don't have to use old cool whip and butter containers. Then he gave me a super cute brown sparkly VAIO lap top. It's so nice, I can't believe how good he is to me. He is so cute too, he can't wrap very well and the gifts were to big for a bag so he wrapped it up in one of my quilts haha. I love this guy. Then we spent the rest of the day at disneyland after I got out of school and ate a fabulous meal at Cheesecake factory including some yummy cheesecake. Needless to say I had a wonderful birthday. My parents were able to come down the week before my birthday and they spoiled me too taking me shopping for a new dress, new shoes, and a new straightener and giving me some money to buy more clothes when I finished the diet. I'm so lucky to have such wonderful family.

Josh at The Cheesecake Factory. Don't know why he's making this face but I love him!

My yummy low carb sugar free cheesecake.

My delicious breakfast he made me. apple cinnamon pancake with sugar free syrup.

His lovely wrapping skills.

The storage containers he got me. The printer he gave me is in the back ground on the desk.

My new laptop!!

Sportin the Minnie ears at Disneyland. I got out of school at noon so we spent the rest of the day at Disneyland playing

Pictures

Josh and I getting our groove on at the banquet. I look like a creeper haha

I promise we were not drinking. We don't need alcohol to be this crazy!

All dressed up fancy. We LOVE our new clothes and we got amazing deals on them too

Dinner. Don't know what Josh was looking at haha. oh well he's still cute.

Alex and Mike. Josh's friend from school and his girlfriend who is also going to dental hygiene school.

Nichole, me, and Cindy at the SADHA convention in LA

Home made sour dough bread I made.

We went on the "its a small world" ride right before the fireworks show and we got a boat all to ourselves for a private cruise around the world. It was super cute and when we came out, it was dark and the fire works were going off right behind us. It was magical. We are so lucky to live so close to our favorite place. We have so much fun together there.

Standing in front of the Castle at Disneyland.

A not so good picture of us at Magic Mountain. It was so scary! The roller coasters there are definitely thrilling. I had my fill for the rest of the year though.

Brinja and I practicing our skills on our typodont in clinic lab.

Some of the girls in my class at our end of term 2 pool party.

Josh, Brinja and I at the oxygen bar at the CDA convention

Me, Suzanne, Ashley and Tania at the Senior's graduation.

Me and Susan, a girl from Josh's class, at the banquet for the end of their first year of dental school. We were excited about our twinner dresses.

Recent Happenings

Well a lot has happened in the last 4 months since I updated our blog so I'll do a quick recap in case anyone cares! I finished up my second term of dental hygiene school and managed to get a 4.0 this time! I have made some really great friends and we have so much fun together. We saw patients twice a week and learned soo much! I am now a senior and will be giving a speech at the orientation for the incoming junior class. I am going to run for president in the next couple weeks so we'll see what happens with that. We start preparing to take our national board written examination this term and will take it at the start of our 4th term. I graduate in January so i'm looking forward to all the new and exciting things we are going to learn and the more challenging cases i will see in clinic.

Josh is just about done with his first year of dental school! He is going to be done the day I go back to school so we don't get to have much of a break together but oh well. He was planning to go to officer training this summer but got put on the wait list. He is going to be off until August so he is trying to find things to keep himself busy. He is hoping to build a bathroom vanity to sell and i'm hoping he will remodel our master closet :) He has been doing really well in his classes and has passed all of them. His instructors are extremely impressed with his hand skills and constantly praise him for how well his preps and fillings look. They have even told him that he would pass the boards right now with them. I'm so proud of him and his hard work. It is challenging and stressful but Josh is doing great.

We were able to go to the California Dental Association's annual convention together a couple weeks ago and got lots of free stuff. It was cool to see all the new and exciting things that are happening in our professions.

We have been able to go home a couple times and our families have been out to visit us also. It's nice that we live so close that we can see each other often. His parents just spent the last 6 days with us and we had tons of fun seeing the sights and shopping. I am going to meet my parents in vegas after I help out with the orientation on friday and then its back to school for me monday.

Our lives are crazy busy with school and our church callings but we have a lot of fun and are enjoying every minute of it. We know that this is where we are supposed to be and that we are doing the right thing. Our faith in God continues to grow as we learn to count on him more and more through our trials. We are so blessed to be members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and are overwhelmed at all the blessings in our lives

HCG Diet

Josh and I took on the HCG challenge. It was probably one of the hardest things we have ever done but we are so glad we did it. I don't think we would have made it if we hadn't done it together. I didn't even want to do it but Josh needed to lose the weight for the army. I am so proud of us for sticking to it and following through. We both feel great and are so excited for our new healtheir selves. I lost about 23 pounds and Josh lost about 35. We lost several inches every where and had to buy a bunch of new clothes. I was having a hard time finding pants I liked so I took them to be altered and they look and feel great. We had fun shopping and rewarding all our hard work. It was a big life style change and although we eat pretty much what we want again, we are eating healthier and are more concious of our weight and what we eat. I have been exercising more regularly and trying to get into shape. We are glad that my mom and dad were so helpful and got us going with the diet, getting us all the stuff and then supporting us through it. They both did it as well and lost a bunch of weight and look FABULOUS. They were our inspiration. Thanks guys!

3 Year Anniversary! ( 5 months late, oops!)

I'm so behind on my blogging! Our anniversary was Jan. 6!! We have been together through so many big important things in our lives and we are excited for all the more things to come. We had a lovely sushi dinner after a long day of school. Josh bought me a gift certificate to get my hair done at a fancy salon in Pasadena that i'm going to finally use tomorrow. I have always been crazy about Josh and I didn't think I could love him any more but I just can't seem to get enough of him. I love him so much and don't know what I would do with out him. He is so good to me and we have so much fun together. We are definitely best friends. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful eternal companion and I couldn't ask for more. I thank the lord for him every day and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us. Happy belated Anniversary babe :D