Holidays of Ours

Christmas Eve

Downtown Minneapolis...freezing.

Gotta love Craig and Emily. We will be chilling with them when we move to Philly.

Rich and the ladies.

Kristy and I playing dress up

Model in the making...

This group may need a little more work.... :)

Crystal Krebs and Kayden are awesome

The loser skiers (NOT!)

Mickey workin the work

School started again, so I probably won't write till the next semester break, but I am taking a break right now. Rich and I went to MN for Christmas and New Years. It was awesome being able to spend time with family and just relax. We haven't been able to spend that much time with them pretty much since I lived at home. Some activities we did that were definitely awesome were watching Rich beat everyone at ping pong (I had no idea he was a pro--sweat band pro), ice skating, sledding, shoppping with Kristy, cooking, games (we played pretty much any game you can name), movies, shopping at the best mall in the world, Minneapolis Museum of Art, wii and eating tasty food. After we left MN, we came back to Hastings, then headed to UT for a week. It was great seeing Rich's family. We went boarding/skiing twice! Brighton and Sundance. Rich's mom even joined us, and she rocked. We were able to see a whole bunch of friends, and also chill with Mickey at his place of works. I love the holidays and am always sad when they are over. The end.

The Knights in Shining Armor

My beautiful Tushy got married! I love her and Chad, and am so happy for them. Rich and I were not able to make it to their wedding....so sad, but the circumstances couldn't be changed. We were able to make it to their open house in MN, and that was magical seeing her so pretty and gorgeous. Our moms were pregnant with us together, so seeing her married and so happy was the bestest. I hope that our men can become best friends like us...if they can't, then they will just have to learn how to pretend because I would die without that little girl! Congrats to the Knights!

Our fine lookin' gentlemen

She. is. so. gorgeous.

Survivors

I have to admit, I am pretty happy that my brain still works! I haven't given it much time off lately... so I am glad that it hasn't gone on strike! After I got accepted into Creighton's program last April, they told me that I still needed to take a few classes... those classes turned out to be biochemistry, microbiology, nutrition and psychology. HUH?? I enrolled and took 15 credits this summer. Luckily, I survived. Rich had planned a trip for us in between the week break I had, so after I took my last final, we packed up our house (thanks again to everyone that helped) and headed off for Belize and Guatemala the next day. We had a fabulous time (I'll write about that later), then came back and moved to Hastings, NE. The day we arrived in Hastings was the first day of this semester. This last semester has ALSO been crazy. I have taken 18 credits. I recently realized that in 7 months, I have taken 33 credits. WOW. I will be taking 21 credits next semester... what was I thinking??!?!? AHAHHA!?! Oh well. It has been an awesome and challenging experience, and I know Rich and I have grown together because of our experiences. It is funny how much we are capable of when we have faith... and less sleep! :) I am really grateful for Rich's support this year. He is an amazing husband and is a very calming influence for me in my times of homework induced psychosis. I am also grateful for the people I have met in this program. They are fantastic people and I have learned a ton from them. I am also so grateful to be finished with school until January 12th!!! Woo to the hoo! Having this much free time is something I can definitely get used to! Yay for Christmas break.

Congrats Dr. Hott!

Wow! So much has happened. I'm definitely not going to blog much this year, but I wanted to write about some great new happenings. Rich got accepted into NYCPM and Temple University's School of Podiatric Medicine! YAYAYAYAAA!!! So happy for him and us!! He got amazing scholarships to both schools, which we were not expecting so that is just a HUGE cherry on top. Rich is 99% sure he will go to Temple. A few reasons why are that it seems to be a little better school - meaning they have a new foot and ankle facility, better residencies, and Rich just liked the feel of the school there, so why not? Also, we both are not sure if we want to live in downtown NYC for four years. Philly seems a better fit for us, and it's close to NYC so we can always visit, plus my bestest Sarah will be in PA soon, and there are other BYU students at Temple too--Rich will have Cougar friends, yaa! Rich also told me that there is a ski resort a couple hours from Temple, SOOO that is a huge big dealio! :) We are so happy about this. We feel super blessed that things have worked out this way, and we are super excited to move to Philly. I'm so happy for Rich. He has worked so hard for this and has taken a lot of hard classes and tests. He is going to be an amazing Doctor, I know for a fact. Congrats baby!

This is a running trail that Rich found for me when he was interviewing in Philadelphia. What a little cutie. SUPER stoked to run that trail!

Halloween Hayride

i love hayrides! especially with richy!

Home Sweet Hastings

this is our apartment. we live on the top floor. rich did a good job huh? it is the perfect apartment. it is tiny, but super close to the hospital and very cozy.

rich and i go on walks now for entertainment, and we love seeing all the old houses and big tall trees on our walks. hastings is such a quaint little town. i really like it. this is just one house of many really cool houses.

this is a picture of our favorite house in hastings. don't you love everything about it? it looks like a doll's house.

ps: i hope the owners don't mind that i was creeping...

Nebraska Rhymes With Awesome

Hello, loyal readers! It's been awhile since we last posted. Janelle usually does an excellent job of keeping our blog more up to date, but lately we've been pretty busy. I noticed it had been awhile, so I'm attempting to update our blog for the first time.

As most of you know, we moved to Hastings, Nebraska at the end of August. In case you were wondering, we really like it here. Janelle was accepted into an accelerated nursing program that allows her to graduate as a Registered Nurse in just one year! Look above! She's going to make a very beautiful nurse, wouldn't you say? It's a perfect opportunity, because my graduate schooling won't start until next year anyway, so this way we are able to make the most of the meantime.

We are loving Nebraska. I admit, I had reservations about moving here, but this place is actually really nice. The people are very friendly and Hastings is really a quaint and inviting town. Our ward has been very welcoming, and even helped us move in. There's a lake nearby, the State Fair was just down the road in Grand Island, and we even went to a rodeo. They love the Cornhuskers here, and since Nebraska is currently ranked in the Top 10 in the college football standings, everyone is showing their Big Red pride. We just might have to catch a Cornhusker game one of these times. I hear Memorial Stadium is quite the experience and perhaps the toughest place to play in all of college football due to all the crazy loud NE fans.

As for nursing school, Janelle is very busy, but doing wonderfully. She's well on her way and is very excited to be "Nurse Warnick" in less than a year. I get to be her "guinea pig" at times while she practices taking blood pressure, vitals, etc. I'm not particularly looking forward to the IV lesson. I might have to hide during that week. As far as work, I didn't know what to expect when we moved here, but I was able to find a good job in town and have started working, so that is a blessing. The weather has also been excellent and the fall colors are starting to turn.

We want to thank all of our friends and family who helped us with the move, especially my parents for letting us use their horse trailer. You have no idea how much money that saved us. We look forward to seeing you all during the holidays!