I'm off!

Well, today I am headed to Washington, D.C. for my first time ever! I get to go with a group of nursing students to study the Veteran population. I am very excited, we'll be very busy listening to panels of veterans, and meeting the chief nurse of the VA. We'll also get to do a little sight seeing and tours of things like this...
This is the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It's a big deal.
And I will get to meet wonderful people like this...I am very grateful for our veterans. They deserve so much of our gratitude. They give the ultimate sacrifice and too often that is forgotten.

And... we're Back!

So after a long break from posting anything on our blog we have much to catch up on. This post is just going to be focused on my trip to Moab with a few of my cousins in March. They decided it would be great fun to run a half-marathon and invited me along and in a moment of insanity I decided that was a good idea. (I soon after regretted it, but it was too late, I had already paid the fee). And so I was committed to running this race but in the end I have been quite glad that I did. I've never been a runner so it was a good experience and was great to bond with my awesome cousins.

Here we are trying to catch a picture of the scenery on our drive down. It's actually not a great picture of us or the scenery because as we pulled onto the side of the road to change drivers and get a picture a police officer pulled up right behind us. Everyone got supper nervous wondering if we had done something wrong but he was nice and was just making sure we were ok. He even took this picture for us.
Well after our exciting run in with Officer Funk we jumped back into the car and headed down the highway for a few miles when I realized that my phone was missing. Then Kevin in a panic realized his was missing also, and to top it off, Karen didn't know where her phone was either. Kevin and Karen eventually found their phones but we decided to turn around and look for mine.
Nope, not under the car. Not at the site we took the picture. OY!


Finally we gave up the search and kept on driving till we got to our hotel. The good thing about the hotel was that it was super cheap. (during the half-marathon all of the hotels in the area raise their prices ridiculously so we were glad for a deal). The bad part of the hotel... well, it was cheap. It made for some great memories. I even braved the shower that night. I prayed that I wouldn't get a weird fungus and so far I have remained fungus free!
(we were also comforted by the idea that we had new mattresses- we found this pile of old ones on the side of the building).

We then went to the local gas station to get breakfast and gatorade for the next morning. Here Kevin shows off his gummy hamburger that he and Scott decided to get as a light night snack.



Early the next morning we checked in with the race officials. Karen, Wendy, and Kevin were running the 5 mile race and Scott and I were signed up for the half marathon. Here they are as we waited for the time to come to load up on the buses.

Wendy and Kevin Waiting up in the canyon for the race to start. Look at that beautiful scenery. This is what I got to run in for about 10 miles. Unfortunately the last 3 miles were in town and felt like death without the pretty scenery and shade from the canyon walls.


Kevin and Wendy after the race looking quite relaxed. They did the race with good times too. It looks like they hardly broke a sweat.
Scotty coming in from the half-marathon averaging a very impressive 8.5 minute miles (for 13 miles)!
I didn't show you what I looked like when I was coming in. Those pics were not very pretty. However once I got my breath back I was feeling pretty proud of my 10.5 minute miles.


Here we are after the ordeal. We look surprisingly chipper.
To finish off the day we decided to go out to eat (after all, we had just worked off a ton of calories) and celebrate for my birthday which was the next day. We chose a fish house where our waiter ended up figuring out that it was my birthday. This is what happened as a result.

Just to say 'hi'

Well this post isn't about anything really, I was just getting sick of seeing that we hadn't posted anything since Christmas. Since I'm on campus I can't post any pictures (which I think are the best part of blogs) but I can just say hi.

As for updates in our lives, well, Valentines Day was great. I made dinner and James and I went bowling. We're not very good but had a good time (despite me getting a whopping 57 on our second game). Oy! I think I will stick with Wii bowling, I'm almost a pro on that!

Well, I guess I had better run to class and hopefully I will try to update you all soon.

Long Overdue Halloween Pictures

This is just a video from Halloween that is long overdue. Jon was able to borrow a very cool lightsaber so that he could dress as a Jedi. I was so impressed with the lightsaber that we decided to shoot some video of it and then post it online. So here is the link to the video: Lightsaber Halloween Video.

Ok, of course we also have to include some other Halloween pictures.

I am dressed up as a computer nerd for Halloween. Paula is dressed up as an old lady. Harr harr harr, I hear you laughing about my costume. You're saying, what's the difference? Isn't that how I always look. Hey well guess what, no, I'm not that nerdy.

Our Christmas Vacation

Hello all, I thought I would post a few pictures I have been wanting to share with all of you. James and I have been down here in warm and mostly sunny Chandler, AZ. It's been great getting to be with the Speirs and we're so glad all of the siblings could make it down here too.

First, here is my cute and adorable, and extrememly nice dog Gypsy. Joy found this device of torture to put on Gypsy and she was so good and just took it in stride.

This is the new haircut I got. I love it and even though it doesn't look nearly as good when I do it, I still think it is one of my favorites in the last few years.

Here is our cute house at 6 am. James was so great and put up tons of lights this year so when it snowed our house could look like this! What a great guy he is! (Plus it was awesome to have more lights up than the rest of all of Provo. I think we were the most festive house for many blocks).

For our Christmas Eve we held the first "Speirs Ugly Sweater Party Event." Here is what James and I put together. You can't tell but James is wearing a Uof U sweatshirt and I found a very ugly sparkly turtleneck and glued ugly candy canes and bows to it. We had some great laughs and I will have to share more pictures with you soon.

Here are the backs of our ugly sweaters. Merry Christmas!

Can't Wait....

Hey everyone, so it is almost Christmas and I just can't wait! In fact, I'm having a hard time focusing on my studies. I just finished one final and only have one left, but it's snowing right now how can I be expected to focus? Ah, it's "beautiful, gorgeous, wish you were here!" (Guess that movie). Well, I'm going to try really hard to study so that I can get this over with, but want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Post Thanksgiving

Well, Thanksgiving was a blast for us. It was fun getting to spend time up in Salt Lake. James and I got to sleep at the red brick house that my dad has completely remodeled and it was beautiful. I felt like we were at a luxury hotel (minus the luxurious bed, Thanks for letting us borrow the air mattress April, James and I still appreciated it.)

Now it is back to the grind of school, but it's not so bad knowing that there is only a week and a half of classes left and then a week of finals. I'm kind of looking forward to all of it, and being able to check each test off of my calendar.

Meanwhile James is living up this last bit of freedom before he jumps back into school in January with lots of computer games and building a new TiVo. (I love having a techy husband!)

Well, to everyone out there, happy holidays!