rambo

chris and i went hunting with chris' dad, brother-in-law and kid brother this past weekend. we spent 3 days in the wilderness driving and hiking around looking for a monster buck. by the end of the 2 day we had seen one deer. it was almost dark and we were headed back to the campsite to eat dinner when chris' dad swerved off the road and pointed his truck to the side of the mountain. he grabbed the binoculars and said there was a small buck down a ways. all chris heard was buck and he immediately jumped out of the truck aimed his gun and shot before i could even realize what was going on. {like why was he shooting at a "small" buck?} then without a work, he takes off down the mountainside like a madman after his deer only to realize that his monster buck had 6 inch antlers coming out of his little head. that's right ladies and gentlemen, my husband is rambo and i never knew it until now.

one down...

...four more to go. chris had his interview with the university of utah. CONGRATS CHRIS! he felt like it went well, but we wont hear from them until sometime in march. now that we've had an interview we get to wait, wait wait. until hopefully someone takes us into their school. after today, chris is hoping it's the U...my grandpa brinkerhoff may get his wish {i may yet become a ute!}

bad at sharing

i've had this pair of black slippers for almost 2 years now. i wear them everywhere {grocery store, target, yoga class, school, etc...} and all year long

when chris and i first got married he always made fun of my slippers. but the ironic thing was that i always seemed to catch him wearing them around the apartment. he would complain that is feet were cold. if my slippers weren't in my closet i knew where to find them: on chris' feet. but by the time i got around to buy chris a pair of slippers, the weather had turned warm and all i could find were flip flops. occasionally chris would offer to split the pair he would wear one slipper and i would wear the other, in which case, i would surrender both slippers only to find them later stretched out and wet {chris' feet sweat like faucets}. i know they teach the importance of sharing in primary, but i can't get myself to share slippers...cuz whenever i want them, so does chris. but now that the weather is turning colder, slippers are once again on the racks at the local stores. while at target today picking up some black dress socks {let's just say we have a problem distinguishing navy blue and black in our house} chris spotted the perfect pair of man slippers. without any hesitation or thought of our budget i agreed. with the little guys below housing chris's feet, i no longer have to share or put up with soggy slippers. quote from chris: " i LOVE my slippers! best $15 i ever spent, ever ever ever!"

pumpkin carving

for fhe {family home evening} on monday we got together with the waltons and millers for some good quality pumpkin carving. chris carved his in a record time of 2 minutes, while i took closer to 2 hours. {not that the fact a jazz game was on in the background had anything to do with that} when we got home, i lit up the pumpkins on our coffee table and enjoyed the jack-o-lanterns in the dark with chris.

here are the lit jack-o-lanterns. i went with polka dots, chris chose an open mouth, spikey hair dude.

scared in the chair

chris got a haircut today so he is sharp and clean cut for his university of utah interview tomorrow. when he got home, he complained to me that he hates it when the stylist leaves a "racing stripe" {i didn't know what that was either, but it's a shaved space in between the ear and hair, apparently it's not cool}. i thought this was funny because whenever i complain about something i have control over {like a haircut or color job at the salon} chris always scolds me for not voicing my opinion and really getting what i want. when i returned this little piece of criticism back at him by telling him he should have told the woman cutting his hair he didn't want "racing stripes", he looked at me and said, "i get scared when i'm in the chair". i laughed out loud, but realized that i'm the exact same way. the reason i never say anything is because i'm too frightened. i feel like they're the stylist and they know what they're doing. it's almost like he who has the scissors has the power. weird but totally true.

flag raising

every morning at 7:30 the flag at BYU is raised for the day and every afternoon at 5:00 it's lowered for the day. the national anthem is played over the loud speaker, but unless you are in the very center of campus, the flag is completely out of view and the anthem is only barely audible. however, even if people aren't even on campus yet and can hear the muffled notes of the anthem, people stop and face in the general direction of the flag. one time, i even saw someone stop halfway up the stairs on the way up to campus. i couldn't hear the anthem, so i know for a fact he couldn't {unless he had some sort of extra-sensory powers} i will always stop if i am in view of the flag, but i don't feel it's necessary, but stupid rather, to stop when you cannot see or barely hear. maybe i'm being an anti-patriot, but since people stop when they can't see the flag being raised here on campus, does that mean we need to stop at every instance we know a flag is being raised or lowered, because i think that would be a pretty daunting task. i know that the reason people stop every morning and evening on campus is due to the fact that this instance, like many others, stems from the fact the BYU students are here for one thing--to impress those of the opposite sex.

best decision ever

at the beginning of the semester i was enrolled in a classical civilization class to fulfill one of my generals. i ended up switching to another class {humanities of asia} that will complete my two remaining general requirements. it was pretty much the best decision i have ever made {well, maybe besides marrying chris}. not only is it approximately a hundred times easier than the previous class, it's a hundred times more interesting too. well, anyway, last week we had our first exam. since i already had 2 other important exams in other classes as well, i didn't study...at all. i read over my notes once and viewed the art and listened to the music once. our professor handed back the exams yesterday at the end of class. when she called my name, i braced myself, preparing for the worst. when i saw my score i was so excited i yelled out loud...yeah out loud {how embarrassing, right?}. staring back at me was my first ever perfect score on an exam in my BYU career. like i said, pretty much the best decision ever.

24

that's right...jack bauer is my hero. chris and i joined the bandwagon of 24 lovers. we rented the first dvd of season 1 last weekend and are now on the third dvd {each dvd has four 1-hour episodes}. i always have told myself that i would never be one of those people who have "their show" that they have to watch every week. but i've seriouslynever watched a series that is so well-thought out and so intense. friday night we stayed up until 1:30 watching even though chris had to wake up at 4:30 for work...yikes.

guys and decorating

i guess i always just assume that guys have the same ideals/philosophies about various aspects of life. in this assumption, i found out, i am totally wrong. they don't. not even close. here's a few examples of late that we've experienced in our family
1. since i've been loving fall so much lately, i wanted to spruce up the dungeon {aka our basement}, with some cute fall decor. so while i was at the grocery store i picked up a couple bags of candy corn and other fall wrapped candies. i think candy corn looks super cute in a large vase or glass bowl. so i put the candy corn in this glass dish i have and put it on our coffee table as a centerpiece. when chris got home from work the first thing he says is "why did you spend money on candy corn, it's disgusting!" when i told him i had bought it for decoration, he pretty much thought it was the dumbest idea ever. "besides, it's ugly!"
2. our living room is what i like to call an extra wide hallway. it's not a square shape like most rooms, but rather a long skinny rectangle. we currently have our two couches against the long walls and the television in the corner. we have tried several configurations but with our coffee table, couches, end table and rug, it just looks more aestetically pleasing with both couches facing each other. chris' problem with this one? he has to turn his neck to watch TV. i'm thinking, big deal, right? the room looks WAY better the way i have it set up. but all the guy can think about is craning his neck 45 degrees to see the television.
even though chris disagrees with me on several aspects of decorating, i always end up getting my way {which is probably why i assumed he thought the same as me in the first place}

this time last year...

....i was in the middle of planning a wedding. crazy how fast time flies by. whenever we go to weddings i always joke with chris how fun it would be to do again.

sleep talking

ever since i was young i have had random episodes of sleep talking. it usually happens after watching a crazy movie or when i'm really tired or have a lot on my mind. this morning when chris left for work, he asked me if everything was alright because i had been freaking out about something in the middle of the night. i remember having to go to the bathroom really really bad and i was panicked in my dream because i couldn't find a bathroom that was open. apparently i had been screaming to chris about being able to find a bathroom and when he would tell me we only had one bathroom i wouldn't accept that and kept saying how these guys were working on it and we couldn't use it. then he said all of the sudden i threw all the covers off the entire bed {his side included} and stormed out of the bedroom, flipping ever light on in the apartment on my way to the bathroom. {i remember going to the bathroom and turning on one light, not 5} and then he said i left them on and was still asleep. he kept asking me if everything was alright and i just kept going on about not knowing if i could use the bathroom. he said i was really angry. i don't know why i didn't wake up or why i acted that way. i sometimes get mixed up between dreams and being conscious because last night i knew i was awake but i wasn't out of my dream yet...weird.

loving fall

1. changing leaves


2. crisp air


3. driving with the windows down


4. sweaters


5. pumpkins


6. caramel apples


7. general conference


8. candy corn


9. extra blankets on the bed


10. halloween


11. apple cider/hot cocoa


12. thanksgiving

med school update

we've seriously been so blessed these past few weeks as far as medical school stuff goes. chris's final MCAT score was released the first week of september. we were pleased with it because it was his best score and a very even score as far as the sections go. our first exciting news was his interview invite to utah the week after his scores were available. every week since then so far we've had an invite from another school. so far here's the lineup:
OCT 18 university of utah
NOV 2 medical college of wisconsin
NOV 13 georgetown university
NOV 14 george washington university
every time we get an email with an invite, i get so excited and chris has to quickly remind me that an interview doesn't necessarily mean that we get accepted. they say, however, that if you do get an interview you narrow your chances from 1 in 1000 to 1 in 100 {i guess that's good}. we were just hoping to get 1 or 2 interviews and now that he's already gotten 4 i feel good about our chances. chris really worked so hard on his application and every aspect of the process so far i finally feel like it's paying off. back in may when we were working on his personal statement for his main application, he spent all day working on it and then we would spend hours each night revising and changing things. after about a week straight of it, i was getting pretty frustrated. {honestly, how hard could it be to make a good essay, right?} i am so glad that chris was persistent and focused as he put his application together because i think that is a large part of the reasons he's been invited to the schools he has been invited to. although his grades are good, his MCAT is average {good, but not outstanding} and having a really good application on paper {through his personal statement, activities, service etc.} makes him a very competitive candidate. we appreciate everyone's prayers. i can't stop thinking about how blessed we are.