3 months

It has been almost exactly 3 months since my last post.....I just don't find the time. So what I am going to go ahead and do is give you a brief overview and hopefully add more details and photos later. So, here is what we have been doing since Valentines Day:

- Getting ready to move. Which includes: find boxes, spending alot of time on craigslist, collecting newspapers, getting everything shut down, lots of cleaning, saying goodbyes

- My mom and stepdad came down at the end of

March for my stepdad's mother's funeral and were able to spend time with us.

- I quit my job. Which was really hard at the time.

-Dustin turned 27!! Luckily my mom and Paul were here for his birthday so they took us out to a really nice restaurant and we celebrated !!

-Dustin took his last set of finals for law school this April

-Dustin graduated from BYU Law School!!!!!!

- Luckily, my mom and Paul were able to come up again to Utah but for Dustin's graduation this time. Also, Dustin's dad and brother were also kind enough to make it to the graduation. It was a nice weekend.....freezing....but nice.

-We tried to hang out with everyone we could before we left. We hung out with some neighbors, church friends, old buddies, law school guys....the works! We will miss you all!

- We moved. Dustin's law buddies were kind enough to help us load up the Penske while I cleaned the apt. with a fellow R.S. friend. I miss my Provo apt.!! Its the only married place we have known.

- I turned 23! I celebrated my birthday by getting up really early and moving across the country. Dustin drove the truck and I drove the car so I spent my birthday alone in the car. Luckily, I am not super into birthdays or that would have been a really depressing one. Also, we stayed in a nice hotel that night and I just soaked in the bath so that made up for things.

- We are currently living in Missouri until we get established and find an apt that we love.

- I just got a job yesterday working for a medical company as an Account Coordinator. I basically work with nurses to try and get them out to patients to teach them how to use their meds and how to inject them. It seems like a great job.

-Dustin is currently....as we speak.....applying for the bar exam in another state! We applied and paid for the Kansas bar but realized that most of his job leads lie in Missouri so it would be beneficial to take the

Missouri bar. Sooooo, now we will defer the Kansas bar exam till next Feb. and he will take the Missouri one this July. So his time and summer now consists of studying for the bar.

- I am also hoping to start my masters from UMKC sometime soon so I can get going on starting my career. I am hoping to do counseling in an academic environment. We will keep you posted.

-Side note: I am anticipating the preview of my favorite show Wipeout!! When does it come on this summer? ahhhhh. Also, we have a Blue-Ray player here in Missouri and Dustin bought his first Blue-Ray DVD, Avatar, and it looks amazing on our TV :)

So yeah, thats about it in summary. We are doing great and are anticipating what our future will hold for the next 6 months! :)

Valentines Weekend

Well, let me back up a little bit. So earlier this month Dustin bought a plane ticket to go to Kansas so that he could work on some job prospects and see his family during placement break at the law school. Hence why I have time to write this post. First off, I am excited that Dustin has the opportunity to go to Kansas and that it seems to have been a successful trip thus far.

Luckily placement break was after the Valentines holiday so I was able to have him for that weekend. So this year, Valentines fell on Sunday which makes celebrating kinda hard but lucky for us we decided we were not going to celebrate this year. We are not "gifts people" and Valentines day has never been a big deal for either of us. So Friday night after work I start on the topic of puppies (and anyone who reads my blog knows I have wanted a puppy for a long time) because I probably found a random YouTube video of a puppy and of course wanted to talk about it. Well long story short, by the end of the night Dustin and I have gone to every dog website that matches breeds to owners. We kept filling out these survey's and answering questions to see what would be the best dog for us. After many hours of drooling (no pun intended) over cute puppy picture and reading up on breeds, we decided that a beagle would be our best bet for our current situation. And then it happened.....Dustin said to me what I have been waiting to hear for so long: "Hey Meredith, you know what? I am okay with us getting a puppy this summer once we move into a dog friendly apartment." I nearly died....I am so excited!!!! So it kinda turned out to be an accidental Valentines present....I am getting a puppy!

So then on Saturday, Dustin woke me up and asked me if I wanted to go look at puppies. Of course I said yes and joked about buying one that day. Dustin stated that if I get a puppy that day then he gets a new flat screen TV (something he has been wanting for over

a year now). Well, we knew neither was going to happen so we just joked about it. After spending the day out and about and looking at puppies, Dustin asked if we can just drop by Best Buy so he can look at TV's. I said sure, we do it all the time.....whenever we go to Target, Walmart, Best buy, or any

store that has electronics, we always have to stop by the T.V.'s. So long story short, by the end of the day we

had bought a top of the line massive, beautiful TV for an amazing price. It was nice that there was a President's Day sale and we had just gotten a huge tax return. We have been pinching our

selves since Saturday night. We cant believe after a year of really really wanting one that we finally bought a T.V. and a super nice one AND we could use our tax return. We have now upgraded from a 1990's 27" huge box TV to a new large flat screen. Dustin was giddy for a loooong time. Boys and their toys.

The only thing that I had planned for Valentines day was to make Dustin breakfast in the morning before church so on Saturday night we went to the grocery store to get food. While we were there I saw some gorgeous tulips and of course my sweet husband bought them for me and I love them. So Sunday morning came around I made his breakfast but to be honest the days before Sunday felt more like Valentines Day. So anyways, after purposely not planning anything for this holiday it actually turned out to be one of our best! I love feeling like a newlywed even though we have almost been married for over 2.5 years. Thanks Dustin for a great holiday!!! He is the best!

Holiday Catch Up!

Hello All!! The reason for the lack of posts have been because of the lack of eventfullness. Christmas was good. Dustin and I just slept in on Christmas morning, listened to Christmas music while making and eating a delicious breakfast, and then we opened the presents we had restrained from opening earlier in the season. It was a little weird to not be with family on Christmas morning because of the following reason: a loud house, everyone sitting in a circle around the tree taking turns opening their presents, the excitement of seeing your family's face when they open presents, the Celion Dion Christmas album blaring through the surround sound (cant do that in an apt.), and then all the warm water running out because everyone wants to shower at the same time. Oh good times were had when I was younger. With the way we are planning life, this should be some of the few Christmas's we have alone. Soon we will have our own family (hopefully) or at least be close to immediate family.

Nevertheless, this Christmas was relaxed.....well kinda.....I had to work all the way up till Christmas eve and the days after following up to New Years. I sure love and miss the school schedule breaks. Because I was so tired from working over the holiday, both Dustin and I were passed out when it became 2010. I remember that it was one of those rare nights that we fell asleep at 8 or 9 and woke up at 11.....contemplated whether to stay awake or not.....we both went to bed but heard fireworks going off at around 12:05. Hearing the fireworks made me feel lame....we are old fogies. In the moment I did not care, but looking back I wished I would have stayed up and kissed my Mister. Oh well.

Well Dustin has started school back up.....his last semester!!! It is weird to think he is almost done. It has not hit me at all.....just
like it took me 3 months after I had graduated for it to hit me that I did not have to do homework when I got home. School is all I
have ever known. It is going to be weird to not consider ourselves "college kids." I am so proud of him though....that I am sure. He works so hard and has found passions in law that get him excited which get me excited. I just want him to find a job so bad that he loves. He deserves it SOOO much! The kid is brilliant and applies himself and the law firms that have worked with him love him. For all who don't know, the last 2 years of Dustin's law experience, we have received a job for the summer weeks before the semester would be over. It is always nerve racking so we are kinda hoping for better luck this year.

Since real life is just around the corner, Dustin and I are on this kick about winning the HGTV dream home this year. If we won it, he would sell it and probably be left with 1 million bucks! That would be nice. I just want the million, I don't want the house in New Mexico, it is not my kind of house. Yes....we dream about taking the easy road and being lazy for forever. We just want to sleep in everyday, then travel, and have a personal masseuse. Its fun to dream!!

Some exciting news on my end is that one of my undergrad papers was published in a Psychology Journal. It is official and it is in print and I love it. I always wanted to add a publication to my resume for grad school. Speaking of grad school, I am kinda feeling flip floppy about what I want to go to grad school for. I really love therapy but some days I wonder if I have the heart for it. I am not sure what else I would do. To be honest, there are days that I want to go to law school.....if only I was smart enough. Because I would probably do family law (which Dustin hates and would never do) which is a good mix of psych and law. We would make a pretty good lawyer team :)

I totally forgot, my brother came into town at the end of January. It was nice because he was able to spend about 5 days with us and we relaxed, played on the wii and went sledding. I am just hoping that Carson got a good break from work. It was not crazy eventful because Carson is still a kid (even though he is 19) about video games and cartoons so much time was spent doing that. He also slept into 12 or 1 in the afternoon everyday and it reminded me of my teenage years when that was not a problem for me at all and now I don't like to sleep past 11. I sure love that kid though. He is so nice and timid. I just hope the best for him....his is still baby Carson in my mind.

All the time that we have left, Dustin and I are looking for job for after April. We are sad to leave our Provo apt because it has been the only apartment we have known as a married couple and it is nice but we wont miss our loud neighbors and having to tip toe around. I think we would like a townhouse in the future. We also love to routinely watch our 30 rock, Community, Modern Family, I watch the Bachelor and Dustin watches Lost. Lately, we have been extra glued to the T.V. because Dustin has been sick for about 3 weeks and cant walk anywhere too fast.....so we sit lazily on the couch.

Well, thats about it. Hope you enjoyed!

P.S. sorry for the random photos!!!