Reminiscing

Yeah! I am done with school-for this semester at least. Yes, there was a bit of cramming at the end; but I am finished and ready for the Christmas break.

My Christmas break to do list:
1) Deep clean our apartment
2) Read a book just for fun (Does anyone have any suggestions?)
3) Go Christmas shopping (I'm not even close to being done. Actually, I haven't really started.)
4) Look for a house
5) Start writing papers for my Nursing Seminars class that I am taking next semester (I think this is probably a little optimistic.)

A little while ago I was emailing a friend about how fun it is to reminisce about the past with family. We shared experiences that we have had while camping in different national parks. Brian and I promised her that we would post a few pictures of us at Yellowstone National Park about 3 years ago.

The beautiful Grand Tetons

Matthew and Brian with a buffalo in the background

Some people we don't know, but they are getting pretty close to those elk.

Yes, this picture is a little blurry; but the lines are hail. We got caught in a hail storm in the middle of one of our hikes. This picture is of Brandon, Amy and Mat trying to find shelter during the storm. After the hail stopped, it continued to rain which turned the trail into a stream. We were all soaked by the time we got to the car. BUT it was so much fun and so memorable!

Christmas Fun!

I got an email from my brother-in-law (Tyson) showing some of us as elfs (http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1219515507). So I couldn't resist trying it out with my brothers and I http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1236395958

Thanksgiving Fun!

Sorry that this post is about a week late, but as they say, "Better late than never" AND I had too much fun over Thanksgiving not to share some of the excitement.
There are 2 reasons why I love Thanksgiving
#1 Spending time with family and
#2 The wonderful and extremely yummy food
(I had to work until 2:30 pm this year so it was about 7:00 by the time we got to Brian's parent's house. Thankfully Thanksgiving leftovers are just about as good as the actual meal.)

Friday all of Brian's family (one nephew and his wife are the only ones missing) got together for pictures. It was a little chaotic with that many people in such a small area, but everyone cooperated and the pictures turned out really well (sorry but none of those pictures are posted). I took advantage of everyone being together and took some pictures of some of Brian's nephews and nieces.

Tyler and Mckenzi (siblings) , Stephani, Ashli, Canon and Tani (siblings)Brothers: Fraser, Jason and Spencer
Cousins: Tori and Stephani

Cousins: Brennan and Spencer

Brian's parents with all of their grandchildren

Friday we also visited my brother, Troy and his family. I was hoping to get a picture of all 4 siblings together as promised in a previous post, but it didn't work out. We had a lot of fun hanging out with my nieces and nephews. We took Troy and the 3 oldest out to dinner to hopefully give Jamian and little Eliza a little bit of a rest. On the way we unexpectedly ran into Santa Claus.

Ethan, Chloe and Bennet with Santa Claus

We also had a lot of fun reading books together. There are a lot of really cute children's books.
Two of my favorites that we read are "Where's My Teddy?" by Jez Alborough and "Cinder the Bubble-Blowing Dragon" by Jessica Anderson.
Ethan, Bennett, Brian, Chloe and Me
(Bennet broke his arm falling off a chair while eating at Costco.
Hopefully he isn't going to take after his rather klutzy aunt-ME.)

We also got a few minutes to hold cute little Eliza. Brian holding Eliza

I really enjoyed spending time with both of our families this year. I am so thankful for family. I have felt their support and love too many times to count. Thank you, each and every one of you.
And for those of you reading this blog who might be thinking that you are not in my "family" classification, I have also been helped and uplifted by many friends and acquaintances over the years. Thanks to each of you as well.

Fun lab

Here is a video of something I made in my Opto-Electronics lab. It's a light emitting diode (LED) like the one by your computer monitor's power button (yours is probably green - mine is red). Really all we did in the lab was just added aluminum patches to a semiconductor wafer (GaAs) that was made specifically for LEDs. In the movie you see us increasing the voltage on the probe causing the LED to emit light.


The next task is to make a semiconductor laser, but that has not been successful at our school yet.

A New Niece

I am thrilled to announce that I have a new niece. She is absolutely beautiful, just like my other nieces and nephews (Ok, so my nephews are "handsome"). I love being an aunt and am excited that I will be able to meet Eliza the end of this week.

Chloe holding her new sister Eliza.
(I'm hoping to post a picture of all 4 siblings next week.)
She is the first of 3 new nieces and nephews that will join our family within the next 6 months. New babies are so much fun and bring so much joy! I look forward to each new addition to our families.

Family Time and Basketball

This past weekend we spent with my family. All of my brothers and sisters and their families were there except for 2: Troy, whose wife is expecting their 4th child any day now (I am so excited to meet little Eliza!) and Amy who is in Texas. I'll just say that Emilee had the biggest cheering section during her basketball game. I had a great time watching her play basketball and found myself wishing that I could don a uniform and play with them. (I'm sure I would just warm the bench, though, because it has been way too long!) I like to say that I am the one who started the girl's basketball legacy in my family. After all, I was the first girl to decide to give it a try. I definitely was not the best player but I loved it! Since then, all of my sisters have played basketball as well and I enjoy watching them!

GO EMILEE!!

Emilee (#32) during a team huddle between quarters.

GREAT JOB, EM!!

Emilee and a few members of her enthusiastic cheering section:
Aaron, Katie and Myself

AND

We celebrated Katie and Tyson's birthdays.
Tyson, Katie, Aaron (sorry we can't see your head) and my Grandma

It's always fun getting together with family, but when we are all together it's a BLAST! (We missed you Troy and Amy but look forward to Christmas when you and your families will be here as well.)
The more the merrier!

I look forward to...

As Brian mentioned in an earlier post, I went with him to one of his on-site job interviews in California. We flew into LAX and then drove 3 hours.

A view from the car as we drove to the interview.
The white lines on and at the base of the mountains at the top of the picture are all windmills.

We were a little worried about running into problems with all the fires, but all we saw was a lot of smoke and a few areas of burned brush. It was a lot of fun spending time with Brian and the interview seemed to go well because he received another job offer.

Brian and I at the LA Temple

On our way back to LAX, we went through a session at the Las Angeles Temple. I enjoy going through the different temples. It is so amazing to me that although the architecture may differ, within each one is found the same beautiful, peaceful feelings.
Brian has received a few job offers. Each has it's pros and cons, which is why we still haven't decided which one we are going to accept. So, no we don't know yet where we are going to live after Brian graduates but we can tell you it will either be in Arizona, California or Utah.

Some of the things that I am looking forward to after Brian graduates:
1) Buying a home! I've enjoyed our apartment but it will be fun to put some color on the walls and to decorate however I like. It will also be nice to fit everything in our home rather than storing a lot of our belongings with family. (Thanks Holly and Mom!)
2) With a home comes a backyard and hopefully a porch! I love spending time, relaxing outside. Our apartment's parking lot just isn't the same.
3) With a backyard comes a dog! Both Brian and I agree that the dog will have to live outside. What we don't agree on is the breed of the dog.

I grew up with Australian Shepherds and enjoy their personalities.

Brian would prefer a black lab.

What do you think?

Job Hunt

Wahoo!! I got a job offer! That is a big relief for me. This was from my first on site interview; I've managed to set up 3 on site interviews within a week and a half. Hopefully they all want to make me offers so that I will have a choice of jobs and so that they will bump the starting salary up. Tomorrow I go to my 3rd on site interview and this time Jenny is going to go with me!

We're flying into LAX and noticed that our directions to the site puts us traveling through the fires on our 2 main routes. I'm so glad that Jenny will be with me to help me navigate through LA with possible freeway closures.