My BiRthDaY

So yesterday was my birthday.....27 years old now. It was a wonderful day! It started with Scott getting up early to make me breakfast in bed!!! It was so nice and thoughful, I think it'll be a new tradition :) We had received birthday cards from his parents and grandparents the day before and Scott made we wait till my birthday to open them, so I did after breakfast. Thank you so much Alison, VerNyle & family. And also Grandma & Grandpa Bratsman. I appreciate you for thinking of me and the cards you sent. I ended up having to go to my doctor's office yesterday and get my blood drawn again since they lost my bloodwork from two weeks ago. That was the only downer of the day. But it quickly turned around when Scott also surprised me by getting off work early and taking me shopping at the mall. I've been on a diet with my sister in law, it's one she does to lose her pregnancy weight, and I've lost about 10 lbs now so my jeans weren't really fitting anymore....too bad right? So I was able to get 2 new pair of jeans, 2 new shirts, 2 new pairs shoes (not for work!), two rings, and a pair of earrings. Then I found out that my main present was being shipped and hadn't come yet. He talked with Fed-Ex and found out it would be here today.

Before going shopping

After shopping we went home really quick to get ready before leaving for dinner. Heather picked us up and we headed for Salt Lake. We had dinner at PF Chang's, one of my favorite places! We got there a little early and had to wait awhile for our table. We were able to enjoy our dinner with our friends and family: Matt and Chrissy, Tyler and Ashley, Bobby and Emily, and Heather (Matt was in Idaho for work).

Waiting in the restaurant

Samara, Heather, and Chrissy

Matt and Chrissy

Tyler and Ashley

Bobby and Emily

Scott and I

Heather
After dinner we were planning on going to Matt and Chrissy's for some dessert and games, but dinner lasted longer than we thought. So we ended up just going over to the Gateway for the thing I'd been exicted about all night.... TWILIGHT!!! We bought our tickets a couple weeks before and have been waiting for this night!!! The movie was amazing! I love Edward and Bella. Some parts were a little cheesy, and it might have been hard to catch some things if you haven't read the book, but it was great! Now I can't wait for the next one!

The girls before going in
I got to take a picture with Edward, Bella, Rosalie, and ??. It was pretty cool that they had some models at the theather and a photographer, and we didn't have to pay for it! I don't know why we didn't get a group picture though, of course we thought of it after.

Scott, Heather, and I went over to Chrissy and Matt's after the movie, since they rode with us we kinda had to :) I was able to have a piece of my favorite cheesecake Chrissy made me (yes, I cheated on my diet, and it was worth it). We headed home after that and got home around 2am. It was such a fun, perfect day..... and I have my wonderful, amazing husband to thank for all he does to make it that way. I love you Scott!!!!

PS: My other present did come in the mail today and it's a gift that Scott and my parents went in on together. So, THANK YOU Scott, Mom, and Dad for my new CAMERA!!!! It's a really nice one and they also got me a new case for it, a 4GB memory card, a card reader for the computer, and a digital care kit for the lens. I couldn't believe it! Thanks again so much!!

ThAnKs PoPo!!!

I just wanted to say thanks to my dad for the BEAUTIFUL flowers he sent to my work yesterday for my birthday!!! I was so surprised and they have my favorite flowers in it: gerber daisies. THANK YOU!!! Love you!

Our Weekend

So this last weekend was a little busy for us but it was fun. Work on Friday was long for me (11 hours!). I found out while I was at work that Matt's co-manager bought a bunch of people to see the new Bond movie that came out that night. Well the movie started at 5:40 and I got off work around 5:30, so I had to hurry to the theater.



I really liked the movie, I thought it was pretty good. I really like Daniel Craig as Bond. It's one I would recommend. After the movie we got dinner and headed home to meet up with one of my best friends, Wendy. Wendy is one of my friends from when I first moved to Washington when I was 19. She now lives in St George and was just up for the weekend. So we hung out and she spent the night at our home.



And we had another person spend the night....



It was fun to have him there and to give Heather a break, but I didn't sleep very well that night. Briggs actually slept great through the night but I kept waking up to make sure he was okay. Scott and I laid a super comfy pillow between us in our bed and laid him there. I guess Scott kept waking up to check on him too. Briggs didn't wake up to eat until around 6:30am, which was nice so I didn't have to get up earlier than that. It was fun having him for the night and Heather said she slept so good that night. We'll have to do it again.

Later on Saturday Scott and I met up with Chrissy and Matt and his cousin and wife, Tom and Amy. We all went over to the Body Worlds Exhibit in Salt Lake. It was amazing! I really, really liked it. However, I think that Scott got bored towards the end. Hopefully I'll remember some of that stuff when I have to take anatomy! After the exhibit we went back to Matt and Chrissy's for dinner and games. We had a really fun night and didn't get home until around 1am. But it was nice to just spend time and talk with each other.

Forgot Something

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICIAL 3!



So I got tickets to see High School Musical 3 from a local orthodontic office. The doctor booked 4 auditoriums for the show and handed out the tickets to dental offices (including the one I work at), and friends. I was thinking about who I should take, and Scott wasn't an option (his choice). Well my niece's birthday is the 16th of this month and I thought it would be perfect to take her for a girl's night out and see the movie as an early b-day present. So a day or two before I mentioned to her that I was going to this doll store to get some stuff for Christmas (lie) and asked if she wanted to come. She was so excited about that and wanting to bring her money. So after she got home from school I took her up to Thanksgiving Point where the theater was and she still had no clue. After we parked and where walking around hshe was asking where this store was. I told her up a little ways and went into the theater first. She looked a little confused so I showed her the tickets and when she realized what they were she got the biggest smile. We had gotten there quite a bit early so I brought some card games and we played Uno until it was time to go back. It was actually a better movie than I expected. I never really got into the movies but I did enjoy it. Kylee knew a bunch of the songs already and was singing along with them throughout the movie. Good thing she has a good voice! Overall it was a great night!



Before heading out to the "doll store."

Updates!!!

It has been way too long since I last blogged and there have been some changes in our lives since August. I'm not sure where to even start, so I'll try to go in order I guess. Warning: this will be long. :)



On Sept 3rd my super cute nephew, Briggs Matthew Wright, was born. I won't go into all the details of her delivery. I'll just say it was not a fun and easy one for Heather, and it was a long day for everyone there. It started on the morning of Sept 2nd and ended just after midnight. My brother, her mom, and I were the ones there when he was born and it was amazing. He had some troubles and spent a few hours in the NICU, but has been great ever since. I'm lucky to live so close to them. I've been nicknamed his "saver" by Kylee because they seem to think I can always keep him from crying. He's able to focus his eyes on people now and is smiling a lot now too!! Last night he looked adorable in his Halloween outfit.



Heather with her new baby.





Caught him sucking his thumb. It was cute.





In his Halloween clothes with a pumpkin hat.



Scott and I watched a movie with Matt and Heather and Briggs slept on my chest through it all. So cute.

NEXT- I went to my doctor to follow up on my hypothyroidism and I still wasn't feeling that great yet. Turns out that my levels were now high from my medication dosage so I should have had lots of energy. Since I wasn't he decided to do some more bloodwork and it turns out I'm also anemic. So he's put me on a iron supplement and lowered my thyroid medication. It's been 6 weeks since then and I have been feeling great. I go in this week for another blood draw for my thyroid and again 6 weeks after that for my iron. Fortunatley my doctor is allowing me to have my lab work charged to his account and paying what he would for them. So that is saving us HUNDREDS of dollars since we don't have insurance. Lucky I used to work for him!!!

On Sept 29th I started a new job at Dry Creek Dental, in Lehi. It's nice to be at one office full time now and it's a great office! The doctor is a very good dentist and I really like the girls I work with. It was hard to leave the oral surgeon's office since I really like the job and the people that I worked with. But circumstances there made it harder for me to stay. However, it wasn't hard to leave the dental office I worked for. Overall, I feel like I made the right choice and it's been a good move for me.

I bought a used sewing machine a little while ago, which I've been wanting to get for about a year now. Since I didn't really didn't know how to use it I took a sewing fundamentals class and Heather took it with me. I learned how to do quite a bit of basic stuff with my machine and I loved it. So my first project was curtains! I started with curtains for my kitchen and then made some for my living room and I love how both of them turned out. I can't wait to start my next sewing project.









A couple weeks ago I was really bored with my hair. It's gotten really long and the only thing I was doing anymore was pulling it back. So I decided to cut it. I took off quite a bit and I really like it.



But recently there has been something that has happened that has been truly amazing! My mother has been married to my step dad, Tom, since I was in 5th grade. He joined the LDS church about 5 or 6 years ago. They've been working on being able to be sealed to each other. Well, just a little bit ago they received a letter from the presidency of the church granting them permission to be sealed!!!! That's just so amazing to me and I'm extremely happy about it. They are making plans to be sealed in the Columbia River Temple in Washington. Congratulations Momo and Popo!!!



I hope this wasn't too long for everybody. I'll be better at keeping up with it. Love you all!!

Our First Anniversary!!!

Saturday, Aug 16, was our first anniversary. It's crazy to think that we've been married for a year already. It went by too fast. We started out the day by me making Scott a breakfast in bed. We had pancakes with fresh strawberries on top and it was pretty good. We relaxed for a little bit and headed off for Salt Lake. Scott did get me flowers - my favorite, gerber daisies. Our first stop was for lunch at Cafe Rio in Draper. It's one of my favorite places to eat! After lunch we went to a mini golf place in Salt Lake, call Golf in the Round. We played two rounds of mini golf. When we play, we don't keep a score card, we just keep track of who wins what hole. He won the first round, and I won the second.





After golfing we headed to check into our hotel room at the Little America. The hotel was really nice and the room was more than I expected. It had the room with the bed and a flat screen tv in it. Then there was a whole other open room connected to it with a desk, table and 2 chairs, couch, and an amazing view. We stayed in the tower and were on the 15th floor with a window facing out on downtown Salt Lake. Then there's also a vanity with a chair by the closet and connected off of that was the bathroom that had all marble counter tops and a large bathtub. It was a beautiful room.



We didn't get to stay there very long. Long enough to change out of our shorts and head off to make our 5:30 dinner reservations at Spencer's Steakhouse. I was expecting to go to some place like PF Changs, but I was wrong. Spencer's Steakhouse is one of the top ten steakhouses in the nation. I loved the atmosphere of the restaurant, it's a very classy place. We had a very intimate booth to ourselves, with not too many people in the restaurant yet. The food was very good, as was the service. At the end of our meal, our waitress brought us a delicious strawberry shortcake, in celebration of our anniversary. It was very nice of her to do. The whole meal was excellent.



After dinner we walked down to Temple Square and there Scott got us a horse drawn carriage ride. This is something I've always wanted to do and he wanted to do this the day he proposed, but there were no carriages there at that time. We took the carriage up to Memory Grove and it was so nice. It was so romantic and relaxing. Our driver even had an ipod with Frank Sinatra and other music playing for us. It totally made the moment for us. As we came back down from the grove, the sun was getting ready to set, so the light it cast on everything was so beautiful, especially on the temple.







After the carriage ride we walked around temple square and it wouldn't be complete without a picture in front of where it all began a year ago. After walking for a little bit longer we decided that since it was almost dark we would head back to our hotel. It was the PERFECT DAY!!






(the view at night from our room!)

Highland Days

Last Saturday Scott and I had plans to go to the temple. Our friends Ashley and Tyler were planning on going as well so we decided to go together. They had made plans to go to the Salt Lake temple and do sealings. Our mutual friends, Bryton and Jake came as well. I had never done sealings before and it was amazing. It was definitely one of my favorite experiences in the temple.



After the temple we headed to The Pie. They have the best pizza. Inside the basement restaurant the lights are really dim, probably in attempt to hide all the grease on the pizza! Lol. We ordered the largest pizza they have (23 inches) and there wasn't much left when we were done. It was the most we've ever eaten there before.

We headed back to Ashley and Tyler's and got ready to head to the Highland Days fireworks. It was at the school right by their house. We got there early and played games to pass the time. These were the first fireworks Scott and I had seen all year. It was actually a really good show. We had a lot of fun that night.

Friday night cookout

Last Friday (I'm playing catch up) we hung out with our friends Eric and Leasel. We had planned on going for a hike, but by the time we were able to meet up with each other it was a little late for a hike. We met up at American Fork canyon and rode up with them to the Silver Lakes. They were planning on staying up there to camp, so we helped them get set up when we got there. After that we started grilling up some hamburgers on our grill.







Leasel and I just relaxed and talked while the boys did everything. It was nice, lol. Their little dog, Rocky, kept running all over the place. He found a dead squirrel and was playing with that, until we realized what it was. He later was trying to eat a piece of cheese in the fire pit, before we started a fire. He's a funny little dog. We did start a fire after eating dinner and made some s'mores before we headed home.

I have Hypothyroidism!

While on our trip my mom noticed how tired I was all the time. Since that's a symptom of a thyroid problem and it runs in our family, my mom urged that I get it tested. So two weeks ago I got a blood test done and the results were that I have hypothyroidism.

I have actually been very happy to find this out. It explains a lot to me about the way I've been feeling. I didn't realize how many of the symptoms I had. I always feel tired and worn out, hair loss, brittle nails, weight gain....it goes on. So last Thursday I went to my doctor to be put on the medication required to treat it. It turns out that my thyroid levels are very low and they've started me out on a higher dose of medication than usual. I'm on a medication called Armour Thyroid, which is a T3/T4 compound. The medication had to come from a pharmacy in North Salt Lake that compounds it themselves, and I had to wait for it to be mailed to me. I got it on Saturday and was able to start taking it.

I've heard that sometimes you can start to notice a difference in a week, but it usually takes 4-6 weeks before it's completely corrected. It's been almost a week since I started and I haven't noticed much of a difference yet. I have to go back in 6 weeks to get another bloodtest done to make sure my levels are correct. If not, they will have to change the dosage of medication and check me again in another 6 weeks. So it goes until the levels are right, and then it's just a yearly check after that. Hopefully they'll be right the first time!!

Our Trip to The Oregon Coast

Okay, so I keep having my family and friends bug me about updating my blog and I'm sorry it took me a little bit to get it done. I couldn't get the pictures to upload at first. From July 23 - July 28, Scott and I were able to go visit my family out on the Oregon coast. They live in a super small town called Waldport, right on the central part of the coast. It's very beautiful, but like I said, very small. It was a fun trip, especially since it was the first time Scott has ever been out to where I used to live. I loved being able to show him around. I created links to a lot of the places we went so if you want to know more about those places, just click them.



We flew into Portland around 9:30am on that Wednesday and my older sister, Ericka, came to pick us up. Luckily she only lives about 15 minutes away from the airport so it was really convenient for her to get us. After picking us up we headed for Multnomah Falls, just outside of Portland. While driving my newphew Cayden, who is almost 4, kept saying "undle dott, undle dott." I looked at my sister and was like, "what is he saying???" Apparently that's how he says "Uncle Scott." It was soo funny, and he would just say it over and over again until Scott responded and then do it all over again. It's funny because Cayden has never met Scott before and could call him by name, but then didn't even know mine!!!



After leaving Multnomah Falls we went to Ericka's house and waited for my brother in law, Jared, to get home from work. Once he did, we loaded up the car and made the 3 & 1/2 to 4 hour drive to my parents home in Waldport. It was a fun drive there with all the kids. Faith wanted to take turns listening to my ipod and both of us playing our gameboys together. Scott was sitting near my niece, Brenna, who is barely over a year old. She totally loved him! She would grunt to get his attention and then just laugh when he would look at her. I got a cute video of them on my camera.



That evening Scott and I walked with Faith and Cayden to the beach by my parents house and let them play. It was pretty cold and windy so we didn't stay too long. I helped the kids find some shells and then we decided to head back. It was getting dark and then kids didn't have any sweaters on either. We played games that evening at the motel my sister was staying out and that was the beginning of their addiction to Ticket To Ride!



Thursday morning we had a nice breakfast together. Scott and I planned on going whale watching, but it got canceled due to the weather. It was overcast and foggy, as usual, so we spent the day on the Newport bayfront. We went to the Undersea Gardens and to Ripley's Believe It or Not. They are a something to do on a day that you can't do anything else. We then headed for dinner and on our way there a lady turned into my mom's car and hit her. It was very minor but an experience to see how my mom handled it. After hearing that the lady just lost her husband to cancer a month ago, my mom was in tears for her. She felt worse for the lady than for herself. We finally made it to dinner and ate a my mom's favorite Thai food place. It wasn't too bad. Again, we played games that night too.



Before going to bed that night, Scott and I prayed that we would have good weather to go whale watching and Friday was an absolutely beautiful day! We started out the day by going to the tidepools at Seal Rock. The tide wasn't super low but we were still about to walk out on the rocks. We then went to visit the Old Yaquina Bay Lighthouse with Ericka and her family. After that we said our good-byes to them since they had to head back home. Faith didn't want to go and when I hugged her she wouldn't let go. It was so sad. After leaving there my parents dropped us off to go whale watching. We almost didn't get to go still because there weren't enough people. Two other couples ended up deciding to go too and that saved us! It was so beautiful out on the ocean. The water was so flat and the sun was out, but we still needed our sweatshirts. Lol. We should have prayed to actually see some whales, since we didn't. But either way we still enjoyed it. We then headed to the new Yaquina Head Lighthouse and then the Devil's Punchbowl. Two very pretty spots on the coast. That evening we ordered from my favorite pizza place and played games again, with just my mom this time.



Saturday was our day to head south. We went first to Devil's Churn, Cape Perpetua, Heceta Head Lighthouse, and the Sea Lion Caves (click on the recent pictures on that website). There was one spot left that I wanted to show Scott while we were down there, and that was coming into Florence. It is so beautiful as you start decending down and see the entire coast line straight in front of you. It's one of my favorite spots. We headed home after that and had dinner at the restuarant, The Adobe, where I worked while I was in high school.



The next day we were able to go to church and see my old ward. After church we headed up to Ericka's house where we stayed the night. We stayed up again, playing games and then Scott headed to bed. I stayed up a little longer with Ericka and Jared before I went to bed. We had to leave at 5:30am to get to the airport. I was so tired I slept most of the flight home. I was so happy to have that time with my family and to share it with my husband. It was a good trip.