Hello blogging world! It's been too long since I have posted on here. School is done, Christmas has come and gone, and the New Year is approaching. I am happy to report that I did well my first semester of nursing school.... I almost got all A's. I was one percent away from getting an A- in pharmacology. I have been out of school for almost two weeks now and I am taking full advantage of my break and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I have mostly enjoyed spending more time with Kyle. We have been able to actually go on dates. It has been so much fun staying up late watching movies, sleeping in and making breakfast. I will be extremely sad when it ends.

Kyle spoiled me this Christmas. The majority of my gifts were gifts that I knew I was going to get but he was able to pull off a few surprises. My favorite surprise though was my tickets to see Sarah Mclachlan. I cried when I opened that present. I have told Kyle from the beginning of our relationship that I would love to see her in concert. Little did I know, he took a mental note. I didn't spoil Kyle quite as much as he did me but I did get him a gift that went over pretty well with him. I got him season tickets to Real Salt Lake. I was pretty excited to give him that gift.... I knew he would love it. My family started a new tradition last Christmas and it's called "I love you gifts." Instead of buying everyone in the family a Christmas gift, we drew names and made homemade gifts. Last year Kyle and I were in Arizona for Christmas so we didn't get to participate last year but this year we were able to and I can honestly say this was my favorite part of Christmas this year. Kyle drew McKenna and I drew Taylor. I made Taylor a wall hanging that holds your earrings. It turned out really cute and I am pretty sure she liked it. Kyle's gift was awesome. I was more excited for him to give McKenna her gift than I was to give mine. He made Mckenna a beautiful lamp. It was perfect for her. When Kenna opened it she started to cry so sure enough all of us girls started to cry.... it was awesome. Kyle and I really enjoyed making these gifts. We make a good team when it comes to craftiness and drilling through ceramics.

This is Taylor and McKenna with there gifts from us

Isn't that lamp awesome!!!

Well the New Year is almost here as well as my birthday. I usually get really excited for my birthday but for some reason this year I'm not. I just feel like it's an insignificant birthday so why bother getting all hyped up about it. I'm sure Kyle and I will do something fun for it but I want it to be simple. I do on the other hand get very excited for the New Year. The New Year brings about so many possibilities. Anything could happen. The unknown is exciting and yet makes me nervous too. Kyle and I have been so blessed this past year in so many ways. 2010 has been good to us. I hope this next year will be just as good and than some.

Wow! I have been terrible at the blogging thing lately. Life has been so busy with school and work. I hardly have time for anything else and when I do get a spare moment, I use it to catch up on house work or to catch up with Kyle. Before I started school, Kyle and I knew it was going to be time consuming and that we would see less of each other but we didn't realize it was going to be this hard. We really were spoiled our first year of marriage. We saw each other all the time. We had classes together, we studied together, and we loved every minute of it. There are some days that we only see each other for 5 minutes in the morning.... I hate it. But we know that this is only temporary.

I wish that this post was a little more exciting or that I had something really exciting to share but unfortunately I don't. Our lives are pretty basic.... work, school, home, repeat. We do get to have a little vacation soon though. We are going to Arizona for Thanksgiving and I can't wait. Last years Thanksgiving was ruined due to the flu..... while everyone else was stuffing there faces, I was throwing up out of mine. So I am really looking forward to this Thanksgiving and feasting on all of the yummy foods. I am also excited for the 80 degree weather.

One Year Anniversary

September 3, 2010 was our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Yay we made it! Our big trip to Belize was mainly our anniversary gift to ourselves so we didn't go all out on our actual anniversary but we still celebrated. I had school in the morning and Kyle had work that day as well so we didn't get to do anything special that morning. I wasn't home by the time Kyle got home from work so he called me and asked where I was, I told him I would be home soon. So when I got home, I walked in and saw flowers sitting on the table. I was so excited to see those because if anyone knows me, they know I love getting flowers, and if anyone knows Kyle, they know he hates giving them, something about them being a waste of money and dying, blah blah blah. A few weeks prior to our anniversary Kyle kept asking me what he should get me and I would tell him flowers and a nice card would be the best gift ever for me. So when I saw the flowers I was completely satisfied and content. After giving him a hug and kiss for the flowers, he asked if I wanted to play a game, the hot and cold game. I was like a little kid and shouted YES! So after playing the game of hot and cold, I found my card that he got me that brought me to tears and to top it all off he bought me some shoes that I have been wanting for the longest time. It was fabulous! He spoiled me. For Kyle's gift, I got him Bee's tickets and I made him a card and gave him his favorite treat and favorite cookies. My gift to him was pretty lame compared to my gift. I have decided that guys are impossible to shop for. But fortunately I have a husband that would have been satisfied with a just a kiss and maybe a little extra.... wink wink. After exchanging gifts Kyle and I drove to the Salt Lake Temple and did sealings which I thought would be appropriate since a year ago we were sealed to one another. It was my first time doing sealings and I really enjoyed it. After the temple we enjoyed the most fabulous dinner at the Roof. We had an amazing evening together and I wouldn't have changed a thing about it.

I feel so fortunate to be married to Kyle. He truly is my best friend. You know you are with the right person when you are able to look your worse and act like a complete idiot and yet he tells you that your beautiful no matter what and will love you no matter what, and that is how Kyle is. He makes me feel beautiful when I'm not, he makes me want to be a better person. He makes me want to play and laugh and enjoy every moment. I hate no spending as much time with him as I used too. I feel like a part of me is missing when we aren't together and I think that is what love is supposed to feel like. A friend once asked me if spending eternity with Kyle was too long? My response to her was it isn't long enough. I love him more than words can describe. I hope that one day everyone gets to feel as happy as I do when I am with the person I love, because it truly is the best feeling ever and I contribute all of my happiness to Kyle. I love ya babe. Here's to one year and an eternity to go.

The Roof

My gift!

Getting the cake ready

Kyle learned his lesson... NO SMASHING!

We went to the Bee's game the following Monday

Newest Adventure

Me on my first day of school

So in a previous post I had mentioned that I had gotten into a nursing program and since that post I have started the program. After just a few short weeks, I have learned to maintain a sterile field, insert a foley catheter, give shots, anything and everything about macrolides and aminoglycerides. I have also taken my first pharmacology test, fundamentals test, medical terminology test, and I just finished taking my mental health test. It has been really good so far. I am actually really enjoying it. If I were to have a complaint though, it would be not seeing Kyle as much as I would like. We have decided that we were spoiled our first year of marriage. There isn't very many newlyweds that get to go to school together, take classes together and study all day and all night together. Kyle and I were literally together all day every day, and we loved it. So needless to say, it has been hard going to school without him and not having my trusty study partner. I'm not used to going hours without seeing him. It will take some getting used to. He has been amazing though with me going to school everyday and working almost every night. He helps me out so much by doing all of the household duties such as washing the dishes, doing the laundry, and packing me lunches. To him they may be small little tasks but to me they are huge helps. I love him to pieces and I honestly don't know what I would do without him. I love ya babe. Thanks for all you do.

Out with the Old and in with the New

The day after Kyle and I had gotten home from our vacation we had to pack up our apartment and move to our new one. It was a little stressful but with a lot of help from my family, a uhaul, and lots of food, we managed to do it. We loved our apartment at the Gateway and we will miss is, but we love our new place too. We live next door to our really good friends, Lyndsee and Clint, and I am walking distance from my parents house. Another bonus to living in our new place is it is much closer to my school.

Here are some pictures of the old place....

Dining/living room

The livingroom

The kitchen

Our office

Our bedroom

Our bathroom

Our awful stackable washer and dryer

Our entry way

Our view

Here are some pictures of our new place....

I love this huge closet

And I love my new washer and dryer.... they are amazing

I'm not quite sure what to do with this room yet, for now it is my junk room



This place is a little bit smaller than the old place, but I love how much cozier it is. We are happy to start an new adventure in our new home.

Favorite Pictures

This is the restaurant at the resort. It was really good and the atmosphere was cool. It had windows around the whole restaurant so you had a 360 degree view of the island.

This is the dock to our resort. I am waiting patiently for the costal express to pick us up and take us to town.

Kyle trying to climb a tree!

Lazy Croc's! Best restaurant ever. It is on a dock and there are crocodiles swimming around the dock and they come right up to the dock.

See! I told you. This is Jaws.

Kyle swimming in the pool in the caves. Most refreshing water ever.

In front of our resort

Estelles. Great breakfast food.

Fidos

Favorite drink

In town

This is Top. He was our guide when we went snorkeling. Kyle and I were in town riding our golf cart around and we saw Top. We yelled to him and he ran over and jumped onto our golf cart. He asked us to give him a ride home. I was shocked when I saw where he lived. It was pretty sad. He was a really nice guy.

Basketball court. It was so colorful, this picture doesn't give it justice.

Our last day on the island, Kyle and I were sitting on the beach and this guy approached us and asked if we wanted to see some of his work. Kyle fell in love with it. We ended up buying a sail boat from him and he engraved it for us. We asked him to just write "Belize 2010" on it for us. When he handed it to us it read " To Kyle and Miranda Belize It 2010 Zericote wood, By Joe." Ha ha, Kyle wasn't too happy! Oh well, it makes a good story.

This is the plane we took back to the mainland. I didn't want to go on the two hour boat ride so I begged Kyle to get us plane tickets instead. It was a 17 minute flight.

View from our 12 seater plane

We have a lot more pictures but I am getting too lazy to put more up. Maybe some other time.

What We Have Been Up Too.....

Kyle and I went to Belize on August 7th through the 15th. Lets just say it was AMAZING. Before we left I was having the worst anxiety ever. I had never been out of the country before and this was the first big trip I had taken without having my parents there. Kyle and I were going to be on our own, in a strange country that I had never heard of until we started planning this trip months before. So I was a bit nervous. I was hoping that once we got there though that my nerves would be put to ease but they weren't. We flew into Belize City and my first thought was HUMID! But I was trying to stay positive and get excited. We got our luggage and found ourselves a taxi and asked him to take us to the water terminal. While we were driving there I was praying, hoping, and wishing that our resort looked a lot nicer than what I was seeing. It definitely is a whole new world down there in Belize. Kyle had been to Mexico before so he was used to seeing rundown, poverty stricken places. But for me this was a huge shock. Once we got to the water terminal, my thoughts shifted from humid to "Yuck, what are we doing here?" Kyle was feeling a little discouraged himself. We were tired, hot, and annoyed by the people trying to earn a buck or two off of us. After waiting an hour for the boat to leave, we finally boarded and started heading to the island that we would be staying at..... Ambergis Caye. The boat ride wasn't my favorite thing to do but I didn't mind it. Kyle and I were able to get some pictures along the way and I was able to take a little snooze. When we arrived to the island, a guy from our resort was waiting at the dock for us so that he could take us to the resort. Kyle and I and another family all got into the boat that would be taking us to our resort. When we got to our resort I was in awe. It was so pretty. I honestly felt like a millionaire. The staff there treated us like royalty. They showed us to our room and again, I was in awe. Here are some pictures or our resort, our room, the dock we were dropped off at after riding the water taxi and the dock at Ambergis Caye.

The only way to get around the island is by water taxi or golf cart. The first night we were there we took the water taxi into town and went exploring. We had dinner at a place called Sunset Grill. The atmosphere was really cool. The restaurant was on a dock and swimming around it were these huge fish. If people wanted they could dangle a fish above the water and these huge fish would jump up and grab the fish out of there hand. I was to afraid to do it so we just watched.

This is Kyle waiting for the water taxi to pick us up

This is me looking at the huge fish

Every morning Kyle and I would wake up and go swimming at the pool for a coulpe of hours. It was an awesome pool. There were two pools, one in the front and one in the back. The back one was more for swimming and playing. The other pool was mostly for lounging in.

It wouldn't be much of a vacation if we didn't do any excursions while we were there and it would be a waste of a vacation if we didn't go snorkeling in Belize. So our first big adventure was the Catamaran Cruise. This was so much fun. We took the Catamaran around the island and to the other island, Caye Caulker. We stopped at Caye Caulker and had lunch there and did a little shopping. We also did some snorkeling along the way. We got to snorkel at two different locations, Shark Ray Alley and Hol Chan.

Caye Caulker

Lunch at Caye Caulker

Kyle swimming with the fish

Our other adventures included renting a golf cart and driving it around the island, cave tubing, visiting the Belize Zoo, and witnessing the famous Chicken Drop.

Allow me to explain the chicken drop. So there is a board with a bunch of numbers on it and people bet on these numbers. Then they bring out the chicken. A person takes the chicken and spins it 3 times and then shakes it a little bit and then blows on its bum. Gross! Then they put the chicken on the board and waits for it to poo on a number and if it poops on a number that a person bet on, that person wins a prize. It was pretty hilarious to watch.

Cave tubing was amazing. We sat on these inner tubes and floated down a river while going through caves. It was scary at times because of how dark it was but we did have head lights on. It was so pretty in the caves and in the jungle that we had to walk through to get to the river. While we were walking, our guide showed us a termites nest and told us that we could eat the termites. I was skeptical at first, so of course I made Kyle eat one first. He said it tasted just like mint and carrots. So I tried one and sure enough, it tasted just like mint and carrots.

We spent a lot of time in town too, mostly to shop and to eat. They had some really good restaurants there, well I guess I should say they had really good food. Some of the restaurants were questionable but somehow I had the courage to eat at these restaurants. A common dish served in Belize was cerviche! It is so delicious. I didn't think I would like it because it has fish in it and I am not a big fish eater, but I was all about trying new things and I am so glad I tried this. It was my favorite thing to eat there and I would order it everytime we were at a restaurant. Another thing that is really common there is Fanta sodas. They mostly serve alcohol but with us being non drinkers, we drank a lot of soda and Fanta was the only sodas they had. They had your typical orange fanta but they also had pineapple soda, which was Kyle's favorite, and they had fruit punch fanta which was my favorite.

I have quite a few more pictures but this post is becoming way to long so I will post some of my favorites and call it a day. All in all Kyle and I had an amazing time and we are so glad we got to experience Belize. Together.