We are ALIVE!!!

Well, it's been 3 whole months since I last posted in the blogging world. We are still alive and doing well! Quite a big has happened since August (the last time I posted). My pictures came up in the wrong order but oh well :)

We took family pictures, finally! They turned out really well. I am excited to use these pictures to replace the pictures we have hanging in various frames in our living room since they were taken when Caydance was one week old, and I had a one week post-pregnancy body....YIKES! You all know exactly what I'm saying.




If this is not the cutest thing ever, I'm not sure what is! Here are two peas in a silly little pod! Tyler is going to school at Eastern Oregon Univeristy full time and working full time as the manager at Beyond Wireless (Verizon Wireless). He keeps busy nowadays because one of the Verizon stores in town just closed down and they (luckily) are now receiving all those customers which is excellent for commission! We decided one week to get a truck, and low and behold now Tyler has a truck! If you ever saw it you would say it fits him perfectly.... right down to the fuzzy orange and blue Boise State balls hanging from the rearview mirror and the insert of BSU in the tailgate hitch :) He is definitely a BSU fan and quite enjoys wearing and flaunting his gear in Oregon!!!!



And here is my big girl! She just turned 3 this past Sunday and I can't believe she is 3. Something is just so much different between saying I have a 2 year old and saying I have a 3 year old. 3 is not so much a toddler, but a little girl. Makes me sad :(



I'm still in school and so is Tyler. I am almost done with my 5th term. I start my 6th and final term in January and graduate in March. My college graduation is March 14 (Sunday) for all of you people who are going to celebrate with me! It's here in good 'ole La Grande so mark your calendars! Below is a picture of me and my buddy Megan. Our community health group planned and implemented a free sealant clinic for the local kiddo's who needed them. We sealed 98 teeth! And the reason I am wearing ears is because we did it on Halloween morning :)




I had posted earlier about studying my life away for my anesthesia board. It was August 28th in Spokane, Washington at Eastern Washington University. I took a written test and PASSED and then went on later that day and took the clinical portion where I gave 2 injections while the examiners watched me and graded me. For all my fellow dental hygienists reading this... I'm pretty sure I had the worst experience you could have! I gave a perfect IA and went on to do a right PSA. The examiners left and came back and told me they wanted to see a PSA on the left (meaning the two examiners didn't agree.... one thought I had failed the PSA and one thought I had passed). So I got ready for the dreaded left PSA (you know what I speak of). They give you a total of 3 attempts at one injection. My first attempt I didn't go out in the mucobuccal fold far enough and hit bone at about 3 mm in. I told the examiners I was going to withdraw and do my 2nd attempt. I went in for a second attempt and slid in perfectly. Aspiration=positive! I told the examiners I was going to reposition and aspirate again. Aspiration=positive again! So then I had to withdraw. So now I am on my 3rd and final attempt. I insert the needle and hit bone immediately but it is my last try! I scrape and push past the bone pretending like it's nothing and as soon as the needle was in 1/2 way I checked my angles and exclaimed "target site!" .......needless to say I was sweating like a horse waiting for my results and the following picture will tell you that it was good news :) I passed!

Singing Caydance and Summer

Yesterday, I took Caydance over to the little playground at our apartment building with a bunch of toys so she could play in the sand while I camped out and studied for 3 hours straight! She was running around and playing and playing. The little girl that lives upstairs came over and had a little mP3 player and was listening to a song and singing along with it. Caydance just thought that was awesome, so she had to be cool and sing a song too. She joined in with the only song she knows that is "hip" in this little high pitched voice, "mama mia! Here Go!! Ooooh ooohh! Mama Mia!! Here Go! Whhhhyyyy!!!"..............it was the cutest!!!!

Other news:

I am done with summer term. I have a local anesthesia board in a week a half (August 28) in Spokane. First is the written, 55 questions in 60 minutes. If I pass that, then I go on and give two injections to my partner with two examiners hovering over my shoulder to see if my angles are correct.....YAY. I'm terrified of the written, I must say! The clinical should be easy. After that I will have 1 board down, 2 more to go until I am a REAL LIVE DENTAL HYGIENIST! Hahah. Caydance and I are just hangin out every day. Poor kid watches a LOT of movies so her poor mother can study. She's a good girl.

Pokin people!

That's right. I am learning how to do local anesthesia right now. I LOVE LOVE LOVE giving the injections and HATE HATE HATE recieving them! I have only given 3 total so far but we learn 2 new ones each week! In august I will take my board to be "certified" or "registered" or whatever to give anesthesia!!!! I never knew I would enjoy poking people!!!

And yes my fellow dental hygienist friends, I know that I use strange fingers on the syringe. My instuctor pointed it out and I tried one injection using the "right" fingers and subconciously went back to using the other fingers......strange????

From the mouths of babes

Today I was chatting with Caydance and the following was said:
Caydance:"Mom, Daddy's at work."
Me: "Yes he sure is. Is mommy at work?"
Caydance: "No"
Me: "Is Caydance at work?"
Caydance: "Yes".
Me: "Oh really. Where does Caydance work?"
Caydance: "At Grandma's house, far away."
Me: "Oh. What do you do at Grandma's house for work?"
Caydance: "I give kisses and hugs for work".

Summer 2009 Busy-ness!

WOW! We have been so busy! I am currently in the middle of my finals. I took two today and I take two more tomorrow and then I am officially HALF WAY done with dental hygiene school! Now just look at me being all optimistic!!!!! Tyler is taking his finals this week as well. I start summer school on June 22 and get done August 14 and am taking 16 credits this summer! It should be VERY intense and interesting but it will really help that Tyler is not taking summer school and is just working.

We lost a member of our family....Jilly has gone back to Idaho. Caydance goes to the babysitter almost every day and absolutely LOVES it there. The night before she went for the first time, I had talked and talked to her about it. I told her when she woke up in the morning she was going to go to a babysitter like when she went to Mikki's (our old babysitter in Idaho Falls) and was going to get to play with kids. She layed her little head down on her pillow, fell asleep by herself, and 10 minutes later she walked out of her bed room and said "Mom I wake up! I go to babysitters!" She was so excited and so cute. What a relief for her to love to go to the babysitters!!!!

Another new development, Caydance no longer is sleeping in her crib. Her crib went to Idaho Falls with my parents when they came and picked up Jilly. She is sleeping in a twin bed and does a billion times better in it than she ever did in her crib. I should have given up a long time ago on the crib. It was sad to see the crib go. A first step in realizing that my baby is growing up into a big girl.

Tyler just finished his football season with the Boise Spartans in the ICFL. We went to Boise this past weekend as he was playing in the championship game! They played the Boise Cougars (the team he played on the last couple of years) and they got to play at the Qwest Arena where the Boise Burn play their arena football. It was really fun! I was worried about all the stairs because we have a serious stair lover in our midst named Caydance, but she sat with her Grammy for the first half and slept the entire second half! So I actually got some fun pictures and video of the game! Tyler plays on this team with his little brother Brady and older brother Erik. Tyler plays running back, kick return, and is the kicker, Erik is the quarter back, and Brady plays defensive end. Tyler scored two touchdowns for the team and did AWESOME, they won 33-6!

After my finals this week, Caydance and I are headed to Idaho Falls to visit my parents. I haven't been there since Christmas and am so excited to see my family. I'm also excited that Ashley and Alaynah get to come and we get to see them because I haven't seen them since Christmas!


The brothers after the game (Brady, Tyler, and Erik)


Both teams paying their respects



The score...... :)

Announcing the Spartans

Tyler checking in with the ref before kicking off....Tyler says this man must be super small if he stands shorter than Tyler :)

One Of Tyler's Touch Down Run's In Their Championship Game!
The Other One Was Even Better!

WOAH! Almost made it a month!

It was been almost a month since I wrote on my blog....not doing so sweel in the blogging department lately. Yet I check everyone else's to see if they are blogging! haha. Well, we have been super busy lately. I am in the middle of my 3rd term of dental hygiene school and taking 21 credits. It's pretty intense! Today I saw a patient and ALMOST completely finished her in one appointment (3 hours)!!!! Hey now, that's MUCh faster than I used to be! Plus I have to have instructors check EVERYTHING that I have done!

Caydance and I have been on the search for a babysitter! We are sadly losing our live-in nanny this weekend and are truly devastated! The good news of that is that my parents and little brother are on their way as we speak to come move Jilly home so we are super excited to have them staying with us! We have a big 'ole pot of clase planned on the menu already!!!!!

The following are some pictures of Caydance helping....as she insists on doing ALL the time!

Caydance has a crush.....

Tyler, Caydance and I were laying on the couch watching American Idol last night. Anoop Dasei was singing and I made the comment "I really like his voice." We went on watching the show and Anoop got done singing. Caydance, who was sitting on my lap turned to me and said "Mommy he's cute". Tyler and I burst out laughing. It was the cutest thing ever.