This is what I feel like sometimes...even without the anesthesia

Sewage Seepage

So... Last Wednesday Chris was taking a bath, and I was upstairs checking e-mail and facebookin' when all of the sudden I hear Chris yell, "ANGE!" I ran downstairs and the smell was horrid! I looked down and there is sewage coming up out of the bathroom floor drain! Luckily it stopped as soon as we stopped draining the bath tub. I called our landlord and he came right away and fixed it. It really wasn't a big deal, but it was something exciting that I thought was great blog material. Our basement is at a lower level than the sewer so we have this special pump thing to pump the water up and out to the sewer, and it just quit working. The landlord just replaced the pump and all was well again. It wasn't very fun to clean up that's for sure, but it could have been a lot worse. Good thing Chris was downstairs to notice. We could have flooded the whole basement!



On to other news. Chris and I have started the P90X program. You have probably seen the infomercials for it on TV. It's just an exercise program. Oh man! It is so hard! They have different types of exercises for each day of the week and you just follow the set out schedule and follow the videos. We did yoga the other day, and we started it thinking, oh yoga isn't too hard, this will be a nice break from the aerobic stuff. We couldn't even finish the thing! It is an hour and half long, and it was just so hard. Just watching you would think that it would be a peice of cake, but it's not. We have heard from quite a few people that it is really effective, and I don't doubt it. There's no way you couldn't lose weight if you follow the schedule and do the exercises. We've been doing it for a WHOLE 4 days now, and it's already killing us! It will get easier though...right? It has felt good to actually be doing some exercise though. We just need to be disciplined and keep it up. We should take some before and after pictures!

That's pretty much it for news at the Hardcastle Residence. Until next time....

New Puppy!

Chris's Mom and Dad got a new puppy last week, and she is adorable! She is a Yorkie Shitzu mix, or a Shorkie. Her name is Roxy, but not everyone agrees with the name quite yet so she's got a few names. She gets called Abby, Puddin, and Roxy. We went up to Salt Lake for my interview for USN so we got to play with her all weekend. She is definately a whole lot different from their other dog Nelly. Roxy is a typical puppy, curious, playful, and loves to chew on everything. It's so funny when she tries to play with Nelly, because Nelly just gets so annoyed with her. Nelly is 105 in dog years so she just doesn't have the patience for Roxy.

Spencer, Chris's little brother, went to prom on Saturday. He looked pretty Shnazzy in his tuxedo. They went to PF Changs for dinner, and went to a gymnastics training gym for an after the dance activity. He said that he had a lot of fun.

As I said before, I went to Salt Lake for my Interview with USN for pharmacy school. I was really nervous before I got there, but everyone was so friendly and they really tried to make you feel comfortable. My Interview was second to last! I had to wait for three hours after the orientation presentation to get interviewed. It was kind of nice because I got to just sit around and relax for awhile and talk to other interviewees and current students. It sounds like a really student oriented school, and all the professors seem to care for the students a lot.

It's kind of a different program. They have a block schedule meaning that you focus on one subject at a time. So for 2 weeks you'll learn nothing but biochemistry 8am - 3 pm monday-friday. You test on the material you learn every other friday. You take a self assesment first and you must get a 90% or higher to pass. After the self assesment you take the same test with the group that you are assigned to for the year. If you get 95% as a group they add 5 points to your self assesment to help you get the passing 90%. If you don't pass the test friday you get another chance to take a similar test on monday, but if you already passed you get that monday off of school. If you fail again on monday you have to go to summer school, and take that block over again.

When talking to other students about the program, they all expressed that they loved the block schedule. They also said that the teachers are always willing to help. Much like Snow College, they have open office hours, many teachers give you their cell phone numbers. Everyone said that it is really intense because it is a 3 year rather than a 4 year program, but it is doable. Another positive comment was that because it is a pass-fail program there isn't so much competition between students. Everyone is more willing to help each other out.

It seems like a good fit for me. The only downside is the cost of tuition. Other students that have children and spouses that are also going to school are able to find a way, so I know that we can too. It's going to be rough, but so far through prayer I have felt that this is something that I can do. I haven't even been accepted yet, so who knows what will happen. If I do, I think that I will go for it. I will find out no later than May, so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed until then!

New Job

As usual I'm behind on my news. Most of you probably already know that I got a new job at the local chinese restauraunt, The Snow Dragon. I've worked there for about 3 weeks, and so far I like it. Everyone is really nice there, and it is pretty busy and I make pretty good tips. The last couple of days it's been a little slow, but hopefully it will pick up again. It's definately not my ideal job, but I'm just grateful that I found a job. I called several places around town and no one was hiring. I just found out that the place that is always hiring, Western Watts, is actually closing down. That was the place that was going to be my fail safe if I couldn't find a job anywhere else! It has become very apparent even in Ephraim that the economy is not in good shape. I am truly blessed that I was able to find a job, hopefully I can keep my job.

The past week I have been pretty bored since I'm not taking any classes, and I don't have the PCAT to study for anymore. So, I've been trying to fill my time with things that I haven't had time to do in the past. I've read 3 books in the past week, and I've been trying a lot of new recipes. I feel bad for complaining for a lack of things to do, when so many other people are so busy they could scream, but I'm running out of ideas for things to do when I get home from work. Sadly, I am excited to start school again. I feel so unproductive.

Yesterday I baked a cake. It actually ended up tasting a lot better than I thought it would. It was a yellow cake with raspberry frosting and a cream cheese midlayer. I decorated cakes when I worked at Cold Stone, and I miss it at times, so I decided to go all out on decorating the cake. It is much harder to do when you don't have all the supplies at your fingertips, but it still looks pretty good. I really want to learn more about decorating cakes, maybe that is what I can do in my spare time, although that probably won't be a good thing for our diets...

As for Chris, he has been doing great. He's been really busy with school, but he's been doing a great job working hard to keep up with everything. He complains a lot about school, but I know that he does enjoy the things that he's learning, since it is all he talks about. I'm glad that he has a passion for his education. It's going to make it easier for him to finish school, and he's got a long way to go!

All in all everything is going great at the Hardcastle residence. I really am so grateful for how we have been blessed with health, great family and friends, and finances. It really is a reassurance that if you do the right things, and work hard, that the Lord will take care of you. We sure are a lucky couple!

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving break was so nice. We didn't have to worry about school and got to have a fun week before the stress of finals came around. We spent Thanksgiving at Chris's Parents' house. We all helped set up the tables and chairs. Although I think Chris and Spencer spent more time fighting with each other in the true spirit of Thanksgiving. We figured out how to make turkeys out of the napkins and set them up on the dinner plates.

We had wonderful lunch/dinner with his family and my parents as well. That night the boys played texas hold'em while I sat and watched.

Friday we had yet another thanksgiving feast with the Turley family, except at this feast we ate pizza and all kinds of desserts. The boys played basketball, and we had a family game of volleyball.

It was such a great couple of days that we got to spend with both of our families.

On friday Chris, Spencer, my mom and I went to Body World's at the Leonardo in downtown Salt Lake. It was awesome! I'm sure that Chris and I enjoyed it more than spencer and my mom, but they found it interesting. It was a fun experience, and I would recommend to anyone to go see the exhibit at least once. I think it was worth the $24.

Later on friday night we went with some friends to temple square to see the lights which were beautiful as always.

Chris's parents were kind enough to let us have their old Christmas tree to bring back to ephraim with us. Due to the fact that we had procrastinated all of our homework until the moment we came back home on sunday night, we didn't have time to decorate it, but we decorated the tree for family home evening on monday. It's modestly decorated since we didn't have any ornaments or very much money to buy any, but we love just the same. We just went to walmart and bought some cheap ornament bulbs, some candy canes and made a star to top it all off. We also cut out some snow flakes and hung them from our ceiling. Now our living room looks like a winter wonderland! Okay...not really, but it is festive!

It's been awhile

Sorry, it has been a long time since we have posted anything.  Chris doesn't post anything on here, but he's been really busy with school and so have I.  It just seems like we can never catch up with everything.  I'm at the anatomy lab right now, and they had a test today so of course no one wants to come to the lab study.  There really isn't a single soul, but hey now I can catch up on the blog! 

Two weeks ago was homecoming and all of the clubs are suppose to participate in the parade or tailgate party.  As presidents of the married club we were expected  to do one or the other.  We didn't have time to organize a float so we did a game booth at the tailgate party.  I wish we had a picture of it, because it was awesome.  I made a giant hand out of cardboard and spray painted it a skin tone.  Then I got a towel ring and one of those cheap party favor kaleidoscopes and made a giant diamond ring.   Do you get it?  It's a ring toss!  We had people kneel on one knee like they were proposing and try to toss a ring onto the ring finger.  If got the ring on any of the fingers you got a ring pop.  I thought it was an appropriate game for married club, right?  I'll have to see if anyone took a picture of it so I can post it.  

We are now planning a halloween party for the day after halloween.  It's going to be a costume party.  Our funding for it was approved so we are going to get some nice prizes for the best dressed couples.  We are still trying to think of some other activity ideas, but I'm really excited!  It should be lots of fun.  Hmm...what else is going on?

We got a new old washer!  New to us, but used and free.  It is the smallest washing machine I have ever seen.  It is about 2/3 of the width of a normal washer.  I was kind of scared of how it would work, but after a few replaced hoses it works great!  We can't wash very much at a time, but it's just the two of us anyways.  

I almost forgot. Chris and I received our callings.  We are going to be in the nursery!  They have just started a nursery, and there is only 3 or 4 kids old enough for the nursery.  It shouldn't be too hard.  Plus we are rotating with 2 other couples so we won't be in there every sunday.  Chris was also called to be an elders quorum teacher.  He's kind of nervous for that, but he will do great!  He is a good teacher.  

That is all of the new news that I can think of.  So, until next time...

Fall Leaves and Conference

Chris's parents and little brother Spencer came to our humble home for conference. After the first session on saturday we took a drive up ephraim canyon to look at the fall leaves. At first it was looking like we wouldn't be able to see any with all of the fog, but with faith we kept driving and soon enough we drove write out of the fog and you wouldn't believe how beautiful the leaves were. It was the prettiest I have ever seen fall leaves in my life! It looked like a digitally enhanced photograph. The pictures don't even do it justice.

We had a lot of fun with Chris's family, and we had a lot of great food! We had chicken noodle soup, breakfast casserole, caramel apples, and a pot roast. We had a feast. The food was awesome, the leaves were awesome and most importantly conference was awesome.

I love fall, but it also means that we are that much closer to winter. We were definately reminded how close it is when we went on the drive up Ephraim canyon. We went to skyline drive at the very top of the mountain and it was snowing! Only a matter of time before it starts snowing in the valley. We'll just have to enjoy the fall while it's here.