Go West Young Man

Our latest vacation consisted of lots of driving, a little bit of family and tons of fun. I learned a couple of things while we were gone.

1. The drive from Iowa to Wyoming is not fun! We've made the drive three times now and it seems like each time I learn the same thing, 16 hours in the car is not fun.

2. Spoiling nieces and nephews is awesome because you don't have to deal with their tantrums later.


3. Family really is the most important thing in my life.



Unfortunately we didn't take a picture with my entire family and so you get a picture of Sterling and I with some of our nieces and nephews. Sometimes you just don't think of the family picture thing until it's too late.

Anyway, we spent time in Wyoming, Montana and Arizona. We attended baseball games, county fairs, we went horseback riding, we went to a play and so many more things. I can hardly wait to tell the stories of our fun and post the pictures.

Stay posted, there is more to come.

Future Plans

It is funny to look back and realize that we have been in Iowa for two years now. I am half way done with my Doctor of Audiology (AuD), and some exciting parts are coming up. We have really enjoyed our time here in Iowa. However, I have to admit that I am becoming anxious to move on to some place new and exciting. I have become accustom to moving frequently and have come to enjoy it. I had not lived in the same place for more than one straight year for six years before we moved to Iowa. These past two years in Iowa now seem like a long time even though they have been great.

I thought that I would let everyone know about what may be coming in the next few years of our lives. I am currently preparing to apply for placements for the last year of my doctoral program. The last year is a full-year externship in which I work full-time. I can complete that externship anywhere in the United States. It is exciting to consider all of the possible places we may be living in one year and the possible externships I could obtain. Most of the externships begin during the summer months. I will start my externship in the summer of 2010, in less than one year. I am considering placements in Minnesota, Nebraska, Arizona, Oregon, Ohio and Massachusetts. Those of you who know how indecisive I am will appreciate the magnitude of the difficulties I will face in making the decision. Cylynn is willing to move anywhere. She claims to be so impartial or apathetic to where I decide to go that it is sometimes frustrating. Sometimes I wish she would make the decision for me so that I do not have to make it myself. Stay tuned to hear where we will be in a year. I will find out early next year (February or March).

I will also be doing some traveling as part of my program for conferences and humanitarian work. I will be in China for a couple of weeks in May next year providing hearing aids to orphans and educating doctors on Audiology. I will also travel to Arizona and possibly California for conferences. This year will be full of traveling for interviews and school. Luckily I like to travel.

Following the AuD degree, I have the option of working as an Audiologist or continuing for a PhD in Audiology. Another decision to be made. Unfortunately, I seem to have a change of heart or mind every other day. The PhD would be an extra two years following the end of the AuD and would be back here in Iowa.

Anyway, just thought I would give an update on the current and future plans for our family.

New Posts are Fun

Well everybody (especially Hollie), the moment you have been waiting for...Sterling and I finally did something fun and worth posting about. We just returned from vacation and took plenty of pictures of family and of all the fun we had. Stay tuned for exciting updates on our vacation and our otherwise monotonous lives.

My Little Doe-Doe Bird

When I was in 9th grade my sister Jaycia gave birth to a little boy that would soon become one of my very best friends. From the time Joseph was born I loved him so much and as he gets older I find so many reasons to love him more. We had so much fun together during his stay over the holidays. We played basketball, performed baptisms at the Nauvoo Temple, threw rocks into the Mississippi river, counted the number of grapes that he could put in his mouth without choking (he manged 50), laughed together on more than one occasion and most of all just enjoyed our time together. So without further introductions, here he is, my little best friend.

Christmas In Iowa

Shortly after Sterling and I were married we decided that spending Christmas together as a family and starting our own traditions was very important to us. This year we were able to start that process and were lucky enough to have Mom, Dad and Joseph here to celebrate with us.

It all started as we dug out our christmas decorations, all of them are on our small end table. Next was the purchase of our first Christmas tree. As you can see Sterling was so happy about the purchase that he gave our tree a welcome to our home hug (perhaps this was not his idea but with a little bit of coaxing from me he conceded). We decided to decorate it "old-school" style by stringing popcorn onto thread, adding some candy canes and putting the cards that we received onto the tree. In the beginning I was saddened by the fact that we would not have all of the fancy decorations that I remember as a child and yet the simplicity of our decorations was absolutely beautiful.

Christmas this year was so much more than I could have ever imagined!