**Engagement Story** 11/6/10

Sorry guys, this is more for me then you all... But if you want you can read haha... I CANNOT believe it, I'm really engaged, 7 years later :) I'm so excited!!

The wedding is going to be June 11, 2011 (6/11/11)

So... Kenny decided to take me on a picnic. I woke up and was a little grouchy, cuz I had a headache, but we went anyways. The drive was probably 30 to 45 minutes. Our final destination was a little ways past the Sandia Ski Resort. We stopped and began to walk down to the "spot". A little ways down, Kenny had to stop because he couldn't walk, at all. He couldn't move his foot at all. (He had torn some ligaments in it and wasn't wearing his boot). I told him where we were was perfect and we had a good view. He, being as stubborn as he is, said no the spot is just like 50 feet further. I told him I would carry him, but he wouldn't let me do that either. He let me carry the blanket and the food but that was it. He literally drug his foot the rest of the way. We sat the food down and he walked me a little further to show me a heart he had made out of pieces of rocks (when he came up to find a good picnic spot a couple weeks ago). We then sat down on the blanket we had layed down on a big rock. He made me a sandwich (after spilling the brown mustard everywhere because he forgot we had changed elevation =) He drank a sierra nevada and we ate our sandwiches. We had some sour cream and onion chips and some chocolate covered waffers :) Of course I made him take a million pictures with me from every angle lol :) He being the baseball finatic he is, had to thrown some rocks (even with his hurt foot). He had to make sure he could hit the rocks he had made into a heart (which of course he did). Then he had to thrown some rocks at some trees right in front of us, "more power", "more power" throwing it harder and harder, missing everytime... then he barely tosses it and nails the middle of the tree. Just for the record I hit the middle of the tree left-handed my first try ;) He then had to go find himself a walking stick (even though I didn't want him walking around) And of course he just had to use his walking stick as a baseball bat a few times (yes my little baseball junkie)... We then decided to head back up to the car. This time he only let me carry the blanket, and gimpy said "try to keep up haha" but I did get some good pictures of him walking up the mountain ow ow :) He told me he had a surprise for me at the car and when we got to the car I had to close my eyes. I was thinking he had gotten me a necklace because my butterfly one had broken. So we walked to the bathrooms first then I sat in the passenger seat. He made me take off my sunglasses so he could make sure my eyes were close. I closed my eyes and could hear him switching the CDs. The music came on and it was a guitar playing, acoustic, nothing but the guitar. and he walked to theo ther side of the car and said I could open my eyes. He grabbed my hands and started singing to me. It was a song he had written just for me (and the guitar was Darrell playing music they had written just for this song)... I guess I was daydreaming a little thinking how incredible lucky I was to have this man in my life, standing here singing to me, that I didn't really process the lyrics. It wasn't until the second time through the chorus that I realized what was going on. (I of course was crying the whole way through the song)... He finished singing, got down on one knee, pulled out the most beautiful perfect ring I had ever seen and said "Would you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?" I pulled him in and just hugged him for awhile, I didn't even say anything. When he asked he had tears in his eyes and I was bawling. I finally let go of him and said "yes". I could not believe this was real and could not text people a picture of my ring fast enough. I know the whole trip down the mountain I had this stupid grin on my face. Kenny was laughing at me because I was texting a million different people the whole way back to the house. Kenny told me that he hopes I don't have any other plans and not to plan on getting much Biochem studying done (even though I really needed to because I had a big test on Monday), because we had dinner plans too and I had to get dressed up. We went home and visited with Ricky and Stef (I didn't know they were going to be in town even). And he told me I had to be ready by 6:00pm...

I know it's on the wrong hand, but I wanted a picture and I had a ring on my other hand lol... And it was WAY too big for the left hand :)

I LOVE this man!

The heart he made outta rocks

I think the sun was in his eyes, or maybe he was sick of taking pictures cuz I made him take a MILLION

The rocks from far away

Aww....

Him and his walking stick going back up the mountain... ow ow

The ROCK :)

Attitude... He better get used to it :)

We are not very good at this lol

After dinner, driving around looking at the lights... I still look like a little girl... Could not stop smiling all night :)

The inside of the limo.....

Me sitting in the limo while Kenny told the driver where to go

Us in the limo ready to go :)

Standing in front of the limo... Could not imagine a more perfect night to have my first limo ride :)

He had been planning this for awhile I guess, but I told him he absolutely COULD NOT ask me while I was studying for the MCAT and so he waited... He did everything perfectly! I still cannot believe it! I didn't think I would cry after being together all these years... But I still bawled like a baby!! I am so lucky to have him in my life and cannot wait to marry the man of my dreams :)

**the pictures are not in any order... but the ones in the blue sweater are the picnic and the very top is the only one i had after he asked me... and the ones dressed up are later that night :)

** I need to get the lyrics for the song he sang to me and put them on here too... But they are still in his car...

New Post

I posted a new post, my concert weekend... if you guys wanna read it is posted a couple posts down... :)

**Midterm Week**

Yuck!!! I had 4 tests in 3 days... Not fun at all... And the last one, biochem, I was running on an hour and a half of sleep... That class is rough! But anyways, I'm pretty excited that now I'm DONE and it's time for Fall Break... 2 whole days off from school!! Yay!!

I'll definitely keep myself busy with lots of fun things (and I'll post pictures of those things)... I can't believe Davydoo is gonna be 20 on Sunday!! Anyways, hope everything is going well for everyone!! Don't be too jealous of my Fall break ;) (and enjoy your break if you get one!!) I probably won't post anything until after Fall break!!

**Newest News**

Ok, so the most recent news I have is pretty big... At least for me... So I will be graduating in May 2011 with my bachelor's degree in Biology (no this is not the big news)... But the schooling has been rough, but I think it's finally paying off......

I have studied like crazy.... And September 3rd I took one of the biggest tests (so far) of my life... The MCAT, my goodness that test is MISERABLE and I believe it truly is designed to make you feel stupid... At least that's what it does to me... No matter how many practice tests you take or how you 'feel' you did you really can never tell... It's a 6 hour test with a couple 10 minute breaks, but it's rough...

So on September 3rd I went to take the test... (Back up just a little bit)... I was feeling really sick and I mean REALLY sick for probably a week... On Wednesday Kenny said you either go to the doctor or I'm taking off work and making you go... Needless to say I went... I get there and bad news... I had a severe kidney infection and UTI (I've had kidney infections before and was hospitalized for it because of how bad it got) Well my white blood cell count was through the roof... The doctor was not sure how I was even standing in front of her... I told her I had alot of pain in my back, it hurt to breathe and such, but I was still going to all of my classes, etc... She then told me that I NEED to go to the hospital, and be admitted... My reply to her.... "Sorry I can't, I don't have time... I have my MCAT on Friday" So, being as stubborn headed as I am, she was not convincing me otherwise... She gave me 1500 mg of antibiotics twice a day for a week (the very maximum dose) and I left...

So now onto the test... I went to take the test at 1... My sister dropped me off and we sang some in the car, and laughed some and prayed some, etc... I signed in and decided to take a walk (as I was pretty early)... I get back, they fingerprinted me (crazy huh?!) and I took my temperature... My temp was 103.7 as I was walking in to take this test that could determine my life (in my mind)... great... Well I sat down and started away with the test... There was no way they would refund the money or let me reschedule that's how intense this test is... And let me tell you I'm not wasting $230.00...

Kenny picked me up and asked how it went... I said no idea, probably bad... Probably not a very good idea to take that test that sick... But I told him it was completely outta my hands and God would let me know where he wants me...

One whole month later (that's how long the results take to come in)... I logged on, after taking my anatomy practical, somewhat expecting to see a failing score... To my surprise I PASSED! I was in disbelief... So I logged off and logged back in to make sure I was for sure... And yup sure enough I passed... Of course I had to call my mom and dad, this was my dream... The door was finally open right in front of me...

You have to understand what a big deal this is to me... I have wanted to be a doctor since I was 7... Not a single day since then have I wanted to be anything else... And this test determined a lot of that dream coming true...

MCAT Results: 28

So... I guess what I'm saying is if all goes well I should be starting MedSchool here at UNM this coming July... Can you believe it... Really... I'm gonna be a doctor!!!! YES!!!!

Thank you everyone for supporting me throughout this trying time... I know people (at least Kenny) have had to put up with my meltdown moments and freak-outs... And I'm sure those are only gonna get worse and medschool will be INSANE... But here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Concert Weekend**

Ok, SO we had a weekend of fun back in September... On September 18 Zac Brown Band came to Hardrock Pavillion here in Albuquerque... Ricky, Stef, Lacey, Shawn, Kenny and I all went... It was a BLAST! I loved how patriotic they were... Definitely a GREAT show and I highly recommend going if you get a chance... (I know Miranda, you're jealous ;0) The crew went home the next afternoon... Kenny and I however, had bought tickets to go to the Brad Paisley concert on September 19... we got there at about 3 and didn't leave til about 1130... It was crazy, there were so many performers... Steel Magnolia's, Justin Moore, and I can't remember the others... whoever sings 'you might meet them both if you show up here unwelcome son' but they were all great performers as well... However, I have to admit that the reason we had even bought the tickets was not even to see Brad Paisley (sorry) but actually to see Darius Rucker... We both LOVE his music and it was AMAZING!! He played some of his country songs... and some of his hootie songs... so pretty sure everyone there heard something they liked :) Brad Paisley, is an amazing entertainer and very crowd oriented, however... He would walk around, show music videos... Definitely another great concert... So, two concerts in one weekend, needless to say we were EXHAUSTED the whole next week... Not sure how many double whammy weekend concerts we will do, at least not this semester... But it was still a lot of fun :) Here are some pictures, my camera started to die near the end and didn't take very good ones of the stage, but that's ok :)

Lots of pictures to sort through... But we had so much fun and I'm so glad that we got to go... However, we probably won't do a double whammy like that for awhile... We were exhausted and got behind with our schoolwork... But no worries, glad it's almost over now! :) another week and we get a 1 month break! (I know this is WAY late, but hey I get busy =) )

**Photo Portfolio**

Ok, so I'm going through my camera and gonna try to update my blog... So some of this goes pretty far back... This was an assignment that I had to for my HMHV class last semester... I had the topic of 'death and dying'... It seems like I have encountered death around ever corner in my life... I know so many people that have not even lost a pet and I feel that I have lost so many close to me... The reason I even chose this for my topic (as some of you may already know) is because of Brittany and my Grandpa Marshall... Brittany was/is my best friend and one of the most influential people i have had in my life... There is not a minute I don't think about her... And my Grandpa... I became so close to him and he helped solidify my desire to be a doctor (another blog on that to come)... Anyways we had to find different pictures that represented death and dying to us and do a presentation on them in class (not easy I might add, but I feel the need to challenge myself...) Anyways so these are a few pictures from my presentation....


This is a picture of Brittany, a monkey (that reminds me of her... I was going to put it in her casket with her, but couldn't... Maybe someday it will find it's way to her grave...) And this is my Grandpa Marshall's ring... He ALWAYS had it on and was the one thing I wanted... This is probably pretty obvious, how it reminds me of death... These two deaths represent the beginning (may) and end (november) of a string of deaths that happened in my family that year...

I put these flowers representing death, because, although they are 'dead' many people hang them and see them as beautiful... This reminds me to not always think of death as a bad thing... No matter how bad it hurts us here, it is a beautiful thing for those that have gone before us (yes trust me I know easier said than lived...

This picture... Well I was unsure of even putting this picture in my presentation but felt I had to... After Brittany had died (the end of that year)... You could say I went off the deep end... I wrote in over 13 notebooks... Filled them up... With poems quotes letters, everything... And I have to say that helped... But I was extremely suicidal, and at a very bad place in my life... I felt there was nothing left and didn't care and convinced myself I couldn't feel anything anymore... (in a sense I was dead)...I think Kenny, Amanda, Kaitlin, Missy and Jess saw me at my very worst... Surprised Kenny stuck around? I am... I am truly lucky to have had people pull me out of this... Because as far as I was concerned, at the time, I was done...
This reminds me of Brittany (one of her favorite poems)... It's hanging on my wall in my room... No matter what you are going through in life... There is always one person there... God... This took me awhile to realize... When I had 'death' happen in my life, I am guilty of asking the question "Why would you do this to me... How could you do this... What did I do wrong" Very easy to do...
This is a picture of the VA hospital... This is where my Grandpa Marshall had to go alot (because he was a Vietnam Vet) He was diagnosed here with Agent Orange... And later (possibly because of the Agent Orange) was diagnosed with stomach lining cancer, which ultimately took his life... This picture represents death to me because of all the death I saw there.....
Hospital, for a lot of people reminds them of life, babies being born, or new beginnings... However, this past year the hospital room I was in was filled with hurt over a mother dying... one of my best friends here lost her mother... And in one of the hospital rooms is where I watched her mother flatline and slip away from her... where I literally caught her from almost flipping off the bed... Hospitals are so full of life... but also of death....
This is a song that comes on all the time on my IPOD (that has 3000+ songs on it) and everytime it comes on I think of Brittany... There are so many times I 'forget' I know that sounds dumb... But when I got my MCAT score I wanted to call her, and it took me a second... oh wait I can't...

I also had another picture... Because even though many people see death as a bad thing... There is another instance where it is seen as a good thing... Many people (more males than females, not to be stereotypical, but yah) see hunting, and killing an animal as praiseworthy... Kenny's Uncle Scott Ballard (you can google him) killed that national record elk... his name is brutus! (yes they named him and mounted him in their house)... He is HUGE! And this definitely was a good feat for him!

So needless to say, death can be seen in both ways... And death is something that is very close to my heart and I feel like I have a lot of personal ties... So I thought this was a good, hard, but good presentation... Definitely tested me in ways I was not sure I could overcome...

I thought, and so many people around me have thought, that having so many people close to me die would shun me away from the medical profession... why would I want to do that and be around that so much... I think it even shocked people that when we had to diagnose a 7mo old baby with cancer, there was no other place I would have rather been... I want to do that... I want to work with kids and help them when they're sick... I'm not sure and I'm keeping my options open but something amazing is going to have to come up in MedSchool to change my mind about wanting to be a Pediatrician....................

**Hobbs America**

Ok, so I know I'm terrible at this... But I can actually put the whole last month in one post :) Well I think so anyways...

I spent the last week of June (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) in Texas spending time with Kenny's family... We spent a lot of time in the pool because it was very hot and alot of time just visiting :) I love going to Texas and getting to spend time with everyone. I have no pictures from this trip because I tore my house apart looking for my camera and could not find it anywhere, so I didn't have it (or so I thought) I get back and continue looking for it, and well it was in my purse... I guess my purse must be a little too big...

We then had a BBQ with all of my family at my aunts house... We all ate and sat outside and watched fireworks, we didn't even have to get any. Fireworks that go about 12ft in the air are illegal in Albuquerque, but the WHOLE neighborhood was lighting huge fireworks, and the cops never showed up :) Some people also bought like a roll of blackcats, you think those little strips are long, or even those bricks... This "roll" seriously rolled down the whole street... It went continuously for 25 minutes... WAY too many blackcats for me (I don't really like them)...

Finally... to what I have been up to this whole month... I am (as the title states) currently in Hobbs America :) I got here July 6th and I am here until July 29th... I was EXTREMELY nervous about coming... Everyone said I would hate it, but I really don't it is a great town and has so much to offer! However, I am getting to the point where I miss my family and Kenny a whole whole lot... And I am ready to go home...

Anyways, why Hobbs?? Well my program sends us out in groups to shadow a ton of doctors and do a community project... Our community project is teen pregnancy (Hobbs is the highest in the NATION) It's unreal how normal having a baby is in 7th, 8th, and high school... Our group was originally supposed to have 6 people in it... And only 2 of us are actually here... So needless to say we are SLAMMED... We are required to do the same 10 page paper and 10 minute presentation as the groups of 5. I feel like we are up from sun-up to sun-down with no breaks in between... So I guess instead of writing a whole bunch I'll put some pictures in and say what I'm doing :)

Ok so I think this is a pretty terrible picture of me... But give me a break... This was after a LONNNG shift.. I worked 8AM to 5PM at Urgent Care with Dr. Hurt... then 6PM to 7AM at the ER with Dr. Velasquez and 8AM to 2PM... And then I had meetings with various people until 9PM... Homework after that and talked with Kenny and watched movies... So I didn't get to sleep til about 3 or 4AM and was up again at 645... So I was running on very little sleep :) But I had a great time... I always thought that I may end up in the ER, after this experience... NOPE! That type of environment is not for me, I just feel like everyone is rude and you don't get to have the type of relationship you want, at least I want, with the patients... But it was a good experience none-the-less...

This is Alyssa and I at a lake we found here in Hobbs... It's actually right across the street from our apartments at NMJC... Ok maybe it's pond but it's still really pretty :) And yes she is WAY taller then me haha.

This is a picture of one of the days of a 3 day camp we did at the boys and girls club... This day was talking about future goals and college and stuff like this... So I had the girls make a "Dreamboard" and this means they put things they want to do with their lives... And it blew my mind that EVERY one of these girls wanted kids, several, by the time they were 20 and they thought we were ridiculous wanting to wait to like 25 to have kids... They said we will be so old... And they ALL knew someone 16 and pregnant or someone 16 that already had a baby... this is "normal" to them... However, the end of today I had a girl come up to me and say "After you've been here, I really want to go to college" before she had not felt good enough to even think about college... So if we helped ONE person, I feel like it was a success... Day 2: Is a talk about self-esteem friends and bullying and Day 3: Is a talk about sex education.... So we will see how all that turns out... This is our main project, but we also plan to meet at the correctional facility with pregnant teens and we have done a presentation at the town meeting... So like I said we keep ourselves very busy... (and on top of all this we have tons of homework and writing assignments every week)

This is Kenny and I at Carlsbad Caverns (he came up one of the first weekends I was here to see me) I had such a great weekend with him and was SO glad I got to see him... When we were going into the caverns it was POURING rain and we were soaking wet, so it was a little cold walking through the caverns soaking wet... But so fun :)

These are HUGE spiders that are crawling all over the roads here... We thought it was so crazy you could see them from inside the car, they are HUGE! So we pulled over to get a picture of how big they were... Kenny thought it was fun to swerve all over the road to hit them... This is another picture of Kenny's visit... This is us at that lake :) We went and played catch for awhile and skipped rocks... This was a couple hours before he had to go back home :( Us in the caverns :) Awww... How cute right??? I'm crazy about this boy he is so amazing :) Another picture of us in the caverns... I made him stop like fifty thousand times to take a picture with me :) Cuz it was hard to get pictures of the actual caverns :) I have some, but they are not very good so I'm not gonna put them up here...

All in all my month in Hobbs has been SO great, I'm just ready to go home and be back with everyone... I got to Skype with all my roomies one night and I LOVED that it seriously put a huge smile on my face... I love all of them so much and I'm so lucky to have them in my life... Only a few more days left here and then I will be home and getting ready for school to start up again :)

I need to become a more regular blogger so the blogs I do post aren't so extremely long... Sorry...

**Weekend Getaway**

So Saturday, May 22 2010, Kenny's bank sponsors an event at the special olympics... The event they sponsor is called Bocce... Last year we volunteered and LOVED it, it was SO much fun! So he decided to sign us up to do it again this year.

Last year we had this guy named Jose, he was so funny, he asked us our names about a million times, and would get so excited when it was his turn to go... So this year we kept an eye out for him, we happened to get the same team he played for last year, and asked his teammate where he was, and his teammate Dominic said "He is no longer with us" Kenny and I both looked at eachother and were like crap he died... Then he got this like smirk/glare saying that he plays for the other team now... It was pretty funny! Kenny also almost got beat up twice by some of the competitors... One guy, we were judging, kept getting so angry saying we were cheating cuz we made him thrown both his balls before the other team (but it was because their ball never got closer to the palina) But at one point he literally got in Kenny's face and started yelling at him haha, but Kenny handled it very well, and explained the reason why to him like 6 or 7 times... And then we were going to turn in our clipboard, and an old competitor, like 70+, said I'm gonna freakin kick your butt (haha insert cusswords where possible) Kenny looked at me like what is going on haha...

So the Special Olympics, at least our part, only lasted from about 730-1230... So after 1230 we decided we were going to meet Justin and Dav out at Fenton Lake (they had camped there the night before) So we packed up, and wanted to take Mia but before we got onto the interstate she threw up in the car... She gets car sick, so we turned around and took her home, we're going to have to try giving her some Dramamine... It was like 1.5-2 hours out to the lake... It was such a beautiful drive, and Kenny and I just talked the entire time. It was nice...

We got to the lake and spent a couple hours there, then decided we wanted to go to the hot springs... I was in flip-flops, but I said I would be down to hike to the hot springs... Come to find out it was a 2 mile hike one way... There were alot of really steep parts, and it was a hard hike in tennis shoes... So my calves were burning once we finished... But it was definitely worth it... We had so much fun in the hotsprings... There were little fish that freaked me out, and the dog jumped on my back and scratched the heck outta it thinking I would give him a piggyback ride, but it was way fun nonethe less... I took a few pictures, so I'll post them... But I love having weekends to spend with Kenny, he is so incredible andd we have so much fun :) I can't believe we will have been together 7 years on May 30... Man time flies when you're having fun :)

These are the new hiking shoes, hott off the market :), don't you love them :)

This is us all sitting in the hot springs :)

Group picture once we reached our destination, don't you just love my hair, it made a cute little V haha (Justin, Dav, Me, Kenny)

Picture of one of the hot springs (there were like 4 or 5)

Pretty waterfall, we hiked half a mile in the wrong direction at first, but we ran into this so it was worth it... Our total hike that day was about 5 miles :) Not too bad :)

It was so beautiful there :)

**Spring Break**

Ok. So this is a little bit late, maybe a lot a big late, but better late then never :)

For Spring Break Kenny and I went back home. Kenny took the week off from work so he got a whole week off school AND work. (Or so he thought) As soon as we got home, we stopped by to drop off 11,000 feet of wire to my dad (crazy!) and we ended up staying and helping him pull wire... He has several jobs going right now for his business on top of working 60+ hours a week at the hospital... So needless to say he stays pretty busy all the time, and I honestly don't know how he does it all... But we got to help him pull wire, Kenny was pretty excited because he has been wanting my dad to teach him how and he got PLENTY of experience during Spring Break...

When we weren't pulling wire, every other minute was spent with our families... My sister, Bratty's, birthday was Wednesday March 17th and she turned 12, Jaeden's was Friday and he turned 10 and so was my dad's, he is 40 :) So we had 3 birthday parties :)

This is a picture of all the kids at their birthday party... we went to the bowling alley... lots of kids and lots of fun :)

We also took Avyonne and Kayden snowboarding and taught them... They were definitely good sports about it and said they would like to do it again (so that's good :) ) They fell quite a bit but picked it up towards the end of the day...This is a picture of the boys, taking a break on one of their runs down the mountain :)

On a sadder note, our Hedgehog died the day we were leaving back home... He looked terrible, he was blue in the face and we started calling around to see how much it would be to put him down... $98... So we went to lunch and I came back and looked at him, I didn't think he was breathing so I touched him and he was hard as a rock... I guess he didn't want us spending anymore money on him... Poor guy... RIP Knuckles :) Kenny was pretty sad, but the pet store is giving us another one because he had an auto-immune disease so it wasn't our fault and nothing we could do about it...Good news... We got another hedgehog... He is so little right now, and his name is Sonic... Hopefully soon he will be old enough and we will start breeding them :) I will try to post pictures of him soon...

I know this isn't much, and I didn't post near as many pictures as I have... Or get to everything we did over spring break... But I really shouldn't be on here at all... This week and next week are INSANE for me!!! So many tests, papers, tests... ugh... It seems like my teachers waited to the very end to pile things on... So let's just hope I can make it through these next couple weeks... Then SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER TIME!!!!