Peru...Coming Soon!

Hey everyone!! We have over 600 pictures from Peru and I am sorting through all of them to get the best to show the whole experience but it is taking a while. We got home yesterday and are exhausted but I promise it is coming soon! We had an amazing adventure and I can't wait to share it with everyone!!

Settlers

So as many of you know Chris and I are big time gamers. We love all kinds of games and have quite a collection. Well this is our newest obsession in gaming. Yes, believe it or not we haven't even played Scrabble since before Christmas. I gave (hmm...Santa) gave Chris the game and 6 player expansion pack for Christmas and we have been playing it ever since. We taught our friends Steffi and Josh how to play and they played a little trick on us the other night.

For those of you who don't know the game, you collect things like wood, sheep, wheat, ore, and brick and use them is ways that apply to the strategy of the game. Every game is different and in some games you have a severe shortage of one resource. Well in our case in our last game with Josh and Steffi it happened to be wood that was short so we were all asking "got wood" or "does someone want to trade for wood?". SO here comes the story.

It was after 10 on Friday night and we hear the doorbell ring. Well Chris and being a little tired looked out the peephole and saw no one. Well our "Mamas didn't raise no fools" so we thought it was best not the answer. Well the doorbell range 2 more times and we started to get a little freaked out. Finally Chris went upstairs and looked out the window and saw that someone had doorbell ditched us and left something on our doorstep. It's a log that says "Got Wood?" on it.

It turns out that their landlords had cut down a tree in their yard that day and left all these wood logs in the yard and they thought of us and this funny joke. We were cracking up! Once we realized we weren't going to be robbed by strangers. LOL. Here are the culprits. They brought us dessert as well. We love these guys! But they gave us quite a scare.

Sickness!!

We hate being sick! Chris has the flu. Poor thing has a fever and is just miserable. And of course this is the weekend before finals and big case presentation. Ahh...real life is tough! I hear you Shana! It isn't all roses. But I sure like to think so!

Peru Better Be Worth It!

Yep! Look at those shots! It's no wonder I can't move my left arm! Seriously...I forgot how painful a Tetanus shot is!!! The needle was like the one on the left. Huge! And it was in my arm for a long time while the nurse pushed all the stuff out. My muscle was spasming! The others were the size of the one on the right and not bad. But brace yourself if you ever need a tetanus shot!

Those Little Devils!!!!

These candies are some of my all time favorites!!! The problem is that they are only available at Easter time so I always end up buying at least one and eating a whole bag before Easter is over. It's a little guilty pleasure. But htey wouldn't be so tempting if they were available all year! Crazy candy makers!

One More to Add! You Know When....

When you can't watch a closeup of American Idol or a closeup of anyone on TV for that matter with noticing or hearing about the person's teeth( i.e. diastamas (spelling), missing premolars, yellow teeth, crooked teeth, etc.) and knowing or learning how they would be fixed. Sometimes that is just all you look at. I know...sad. I'll never enjoy American Idol again! JK! I love it! Go David Archuletta!

You Know You Are A Dental Student's Wife When....

So after being the wife of a dental student for almost 2 years now, I thought that I would do a blog entry to show some of the common and strange things in our dental enthusiast lives. So....you know your a dental student's wife when.....

You find models of teeth of random people in your house on a frequent basis. And also just plain models. And what is sad is that you can almost diagnose all the problems (ie. what teeth are missing, if there is gum recession, what teeth have had work done on them etc.)

This is literally a god worshipped 2-3 times daily in your house and a prized possession that goes with you almost everywhere.

When you come home and find a scene like this....you know it's going to be a late night. Notice the two monster drinks, soda, and snickers. Missing from the picture are the other books and binders to reference as well.

You find empty syringes around the house and know your husband is not a drug addict...only an addict to whitening his smile.

Honey...NOT TONIGHT...refers to not wanting to floss AGAIN! But I just did it yesterday! Ohhh...the guilt!

Your nightstand is not cluttered with best selling books but with these dental favorites and journals of dental research. Yeah....it puts me out fast! But we have a booklight for Chris...

Your husband has a business card with information that does not really apply to him...but you know how to really reach him if you need to.

You wake up in the morning and find books like these open to disgusting pages like these on your kitchen table and don't think twice about it as you eat your breakfast. You may even read about it as you eat your oatmeal. And then you put them away time and time again every morning! But you can tell your husband exactly what page he left off on.

You have tested almost every dental product out there (this isn't even half of it!) and have half empty bottles in your linen closet just in case you need to compare. And if one of your friends has a problem you don't think twice about letting them know which product would serve them the best. You may even bring it up in common conversation and quote several ingredients and why they work best...I know nerdy!

You find teeth (the fake practice ones they buy at school) in the washing machine from the pockets of your husband's pants. What's worse is you can tell what number tooth they are and if they are molars, premolars, canines, bicuspids, etc.

You have pictures like these on your digital camera...and they are of your mouth!

And these....yes that is my gum. I didn't have much warning..

You get to play with fun toys like these!

And you have more pictures of your mouth....

and more...

In the case that you have a large mouth like mine, your husband and his friends give you the nickname "typodont". And you know what that is. You also know what size of dental apparatus you require for taking impressions (extra large).

Your social calendar revolves around school and studying...

You have at least two bookshelves in your house that look like this. This is one of 3 in our closet in our office!

Your husband has a large collection of ties like this one because half of them will get thrown away due to getting plaster on them, some pink rubbery material on them, someone's spit or something gross like that on them, or frayed from all the stuff he has to wear at school. But he still has to wear a tie everyday!

Just to name a few. I may add more later. Dental wives....you KNOW what I mean with all this! Feel free to add any odd things that you notice as well.!

Blog Tag....This one is for Lainie

BLOG TAG

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog

10 years ago: I was 15 1/2 counting down the days until my 16th birthday so I could drive!!! And date...

5 things on my to-do list today:
1. Send out and finish 3 packages (one for Mom's birthday, one for Jon and Joe, and the last a care package for Dayna my friend who just had foot surgery)
2. Make the cookies for the packages
3. Try not to get sick from my girls as I am home with them all day because they have the flu with high fevers
4. Laundry
5. Run for an hour
6. Make a Dr. appointment for my tetnis shot for Peru and make a BUNCH of phone calls

5 Snacks I enjoy:……OR NOT
1. Bear Naked Vanilla Almond Crunch granola with yogurt or just plain.
2. Peanut butter on a banana
3. String Cheese
4. My green spinach vegetable shake.
5. Any kind of fruit. Mostly Fuji apples, strawberries, pinapple, blueberries, and red grapes

What would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire:
TRAVEL TRAVEL TRAVEL!! Mainly to Europe. I would go all over Italy and I would take my family with me. I would go on a bunch of cruises too. Basically TRAVEL. I would buy a beautiful house with a view and open floor plan and pay someone to decorate it in a Tuscan style, Pay Jon, Joe, and Mikey's college tuition. Pay off our dental loans. Buy an SUV maybe an Acadia and buy a corvette for myself. Actually a new corvette and a 1952 corvette with red leather interior. Pay for a housekeeper (I'm with you on that one Kelti). Buy a gym that I could teach at and since I would own it only charge a small fee so anyone can come work out. Finally, I would find random people who need help and anonymously help them in some way.

5 Places I have lived
1. Pipe Creek, TX
2. Hopkinton, MA
3. Provo, UT
4. Las Vegas, NV
5. San Rafael (San Francisco), CA

Jobs that I have had
1. A bunch of secretarial, receptionist, administrative assistant jobs
2. Waitress
3. 2nd Grade Teacher
4. Nanny

Things people don't know about me:
1. I secretly really want to run the San Francisco Marathon in August but am unsure if I could actually do it.
2. I grew up with 5 brothers and was not spoiled. The boys were.
3. I lately have scared myself with a small obsession with Oprah. I have her magazine and tivo the show everyday. SCARY!
4. I speak Spanish
5. I would love to become my own version of a Martha Stewart.
6. I remodeled both of our bathrooms by myself.
7 . I genuinely really love to serve and help people in any way (I think this may scare people at times)
8. I never had braces
9. I can fit my fist in my mouth
10. I love to teach anything. Lately it's been fitness classes.

I now tag Dayna, Becky, Tiffany, and Mom

This One's For Grandma Julie...

My First Quilt!

So the same place that has the $2 ties also has these amazing precut scraps that are all the same size of tie material that for one reason or another was "warped". So they were selling these scraps for $5 for as much as you could fit in a grocery bag. Well....each grocery bag holds at least nine little bags and each little bag will make a quilt the size I just made. SO...I have A LOT of quilting to do since I have 14 little bags!
Each little bag has scraps that are all the same pattern but different colors.

I sorted out the colors of the first bag. You can't see in the picture but these scraps are a pretty diamond pattern.

This is the contents of one small bag all laid out to be sewn together.

And the finished product. It took me a while but it WAS my first time. Now...can I make 13 more? I dunno about that!

Another view.

This blog entry is dedicated to my Grandma Julie who was the most AMAZING quilter I have ever seen and to Jessica Curtis for providing the support and know how of it all. Thanks Jess for letting me invade your home and get fabric fibers all over your carpet and clothes. We had a really fun afternoon!

The Meal for Our Gourmet Chef Guest (minus my chargers)!

We have a friend who is an amazing chef! So naturally when it was our turn to have them over for dinner, I was a little nervous. I'm so mad that I forgot to put out my chargers. I knew something was missing from the table. I have these beautiful chargers that go underneath the plates and this table look funny without them.

It's almost time! The meal included a roasted tomato and red pepper soup topped with a blend of Italian cheeses and basil, a deluxe caprese salad with seasoned artichokes, kalamata olives, onions, basil, fresh mozerella, and tomato (The Italians know how to make a salad. Lettuce? Yuck! You don't need that in salad!), Focaccia with basil, sundried tomatoes, onion, and a blend of Italian cheeses, A spinach, pesto, and ricotta cheeses stuffed shells covered with Italian sausage, sundried tomatoes, and marinera sauce, and for dessert a lemon torte. Darren also brought an amazing bananna pudding!

It was a great night! We toasted with sparkling pomegranite juice. If only I had remembered the chargers!!! The chargers!!! Grr.....But it was a great evening!


This was all by candlelight and Andrea Bocelli and Micheal Buble of course. Then a happy Chris taught our guests how to play Settlers (his all time favorite game). We played late into the night and they really liked it! But it's not a game for everyone.

His Hair Grows Abnormally Fast!!

I love my husband! But the hair on his head grows at lightspeed! It's a good thing that I know how to cut hair or it would cost us a fortune every month to groom him. I cut his hair sometimes every 2 weeks! Another reason why I am thankful that I grew up with 5 brothers. I had lots of practice cutting men's hair.

$2 Dollar Ties!!

Sooo...those of you who know me know that I LOVE a bargain. I am a bargain hunter by blood and I almost never pay full price for anything. You are actually probably really sick of hearing all my bargain stories. Well I found this place that sells "warped" ties for only 2 dollars. YES 2 DOLLARS!!! They are "warped" because they may have a little string hanging off, or they didn't sew the tag in the right spot, etc. But they really perfect designer ties that originally cost over $70! So since Chris ruins all his ties in dental school....I bought him a bunch. Seriously he has to wear a tie everday to school and they get destroyed! So now I won't cringe when we have to throw one away because it was only $2. YES $2!! Chris says his favorite is the blue one (12th from the right) because it matches my eyes. What a smooth talker...LOL

Valentine's Day Treats and Crazy Story

I LOVE to make and decorate sugar cookies. This Valentine's day I decorated some heart cookies for some close friends. The one that says Turbo was for my kickboxing class since we had one on Valentine's Day. It was a prize. We do a 1 1/2 minute "Turbo" in the round which is a really high intensity group of exercises. I usually do 3-4 reps so it ends up being more like 5 minutes.

This was the final product all wrapped up and ready to go. Of course the Hot Stuff one was for Chris....so the crazy story was that as I was carrying all these goodies out onValentine's day morning, the wind blew my door shut and locked me out of my house!! The Palmers have an extra key but they weren't home and Chris was at school. I was frantic because I had to go get my girls and I was going to be late. Well...THANKFULLY we have a super sweet neighbor who let me use her credit card to jam into the door (since the dead bolt was not locked because you have to do that from the outside) and in two minutes I had it open! Thanks to Chris who walked me through it! Thank heaven for our deadbolt though or it would be easy to get into our house. It's always locked when we are away now! CRAZY!

Our First Kitchen Fire.....Sortof

We got this potato thing from Chris' grandparents for Christmas and I was really excited to use it with our sweet potatoes. Well I put them in the microwave as I usually do our potatoes because it only takes a few minutes. I was preparing the salmon and I started to smell this really funny smell.........I opened up the doors and I saw a little campfire in our microwave. I took it out and wasn't sure how to put it out since it wasn't really big so using the fire extinguisher wasn't necessary and I didn't want to ruin any of my floormats, towels, etc. So it just kept burning. LOL. Finally I beat it in the sink. LOL

If you look closely, you can still see the smoke coming out and our poor sweet potatoes just didn't know what to think. It turns out that this kind of thing wasn't meant for the microwave. Apparently most people cook their potatoes in the oven. I ALWAYS use the microwave. I guess that part of the instructions were missing. That means I'm yet another person that needs the extra instructions that we all make fun of like.....Do not eat this paper bag......yeah....I know....

And....This little piggy got broken.....

It's been a year of breaks. At least this time it was just his toe....Yep....we are getting really good at treating broken bones.

Over the Hump Party

Well....we are officially half way through dental school and it was celebrated with a big party and somewhat formal dance. The theme was "Hump"coming and there were a lot of homecoming like activities. They had a hilarious program with all kinds of student made movies and pictures from the first year of dental school. Then there were some very talented student performances. They even had a "hump"coming king and queen with class superlatives like "Most likely to sleep in class" and since there are a bunch of Mormons in his class there was even an award for "Most likely to be confused for a Mormon". They had a whole bunch. Sorry for the quality of the pictures. It was really dark.

Check out Chris' tux! He is now the proud owner of a tuxedo. We could rent one or buy one for the same price. We found this warehouse store that had Italian tuxes for a crazy price! Looks like we will be eating at the Ritz more often. LOL. YEAH RIGHT!!!! But I loved how Chris made his tie match my dress. It was a nice touch!

Chris and his buddy Craig.

Yes there was dancing and yes that is me getting my groove on...I don't normally make funny faces while I'm dancing. At least I don't think that I do.

Dancing the night away!

Us and our pal Rachel.

This was one of the performances that was HILARIOUS!! You MUST check out the full perfomance on YouTube at the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ia3y4LnHNk

It was by far the funniest thing of the night!

Some of the classmates did a Salsa dancing performance.

Our friend Tamara sang a few songs. She has an amazing voice!!

One of the faculty busts a move. He was really good!

Rachel and her friend (Darren's temporary replacement for the night)

It was a great time had by all. VERY FUN!!