Final Four!

March 2012

Travis and our friend, Ben, won student tickets to the Final Four Basketball Tournament in New Orleans!  I had been debating whether I should join them for a short weekend trip to New Orleans because it is a long 12 hour drive, I didn't have a ticket to the game, and I am also smack dab in the heat of tax season.  My boss was so kind to give me part of Friday and Saturday off so I could go with them.  Travis and I left around 2pm and got stuck in Nashville rush hour traffic along with the other crazy basketball fans that were also driving down to New Orleans.  The 6 hour drive to Birmingham, AL turned into a 8+ hour drive.  Travis drove the whole time and we were both pretty tired once we arrived in Alabama.  However, Travis and Ben were determined to get awesome seats at the game so they drove off that night around 10pm and got into New Orleans around 3AM!  They were the first persons in line!

First in line and exhausted!

Their day involved A LOT of waiting.  They had to stand in line until the box office opened at 10AM, then were ushered into the arena to their seats and weren't allowed to leave.  They spent the whole day, until about 6PM when the game started, waiting.  Poor guys only got a couple hours of sleep in 48 hours, but it was all so worth it because they got front row seats AND the Cats beat Louisville!

 

Over 70,000 people in the arena!

Travis and Ben even made it on TV!

Carly and I spent Friday night in Birmingham with the kids so we could get some sleep before heading out the next morning.  Carly's 2 year old girl woke up around 2AM  and said, "I'm done."  Oh boy, we knew it was going to be a long day.  The rest of her kids were wide awake at 6AM so we figured we might as well head out.  I realized one doesn't get any sleep once you have kids!  The kids were quite the ornery bunch as we drove to our hotel in Gulfport, MS.  They were tired, hungry, stuck in a car all day and wanted to be at the beach ASAP.  Kudos to Carly for taking her kids on a road trip.

Carly booked the hotel so I was pleasantly surprised when she told me our hotel was in Gulfport, MS since it is only 20 minutes form the city I grew up in called Ocean Springs!  It had been over 12 years since I had moved and I had not been back since.  I was excited to see how things have changed and to see how the coast looked after Katrina and the oil spill.  As we drove over the small drawbridge into Ocean Springs the bayou spans for miles on each side.  I got that nostalgic feeling.  I didn't realize I could ever miss the bayou, but I did.  I have a lot of fun memories associated with the Bayou:

•  Our old house sat on top of a hill overlooking the bayou.  We had a small boat we would take from our dock, through the bayou, and out to the islands in the Gulf.  We spent many of our weekends playing on these small islands in the Gulf such as Horn Island and Ship Island.  
• After a cold winter night, the brown bayou water froze and all the fish died, floated to the top, and were encased in ice.  That day we were playing in the bayou, and my sister, Nicole, got sucked into the stinky, bayou mud wearing our mom's riding boots.  We had to run up the hill and get our dad because she was sinking fast and we couldn't get her out.  Dad was able to quickly get her out, but she sure smelled like a dead fish all day!
• Crazy as it might sound we use to take our boat out in the bayou and go tubing!  Yes, alligators do live in the bayou so you were very motivated to hang on for your life so you didn't have to be waiting in the water as the boat turned around to come get you.  One afternoon, my sister and her friend were on the tube together and an alligator swam right past them!  

Carly, the kids, and I drove first to Ocean Springs so we could get some yummy donuts at the best donut shop!  Well at least I think it is, mostly because I grew up eating donuts from TatoNut.  The aroma of the donuts was mouthwatering as we approached the shop.  They were just as good as I remember them!

Carly and the kiddos

We then headed to the beach.  It was a perfect beach day - mid 80s and breezy - and the water was relatively warm for March.  The kids gave Carly and I a sand scrub spa treatment in the water.  After a couple hours of playing I laid on the beach and took a nap.  It was a good thing my legs were covered in sand because I got a little bit of a sunburn in the places were I had been sand scrubbed.

Me and Grace

Getting a sand scrub

After playing at the beach, we went to a restaurant called Aunt Jenny's in Ocean Springs, which is right on the bayou near my old home.  We had fried catfish, shrimp, hush puppies and french fries.  Boy does the south love fried food!

The guys drove to Gulfport after the game and were exhausted!  They did stop at Cafe Du Monde to get those famous beignets!  And I think they were glad they did.  Te next morning Travis and I had to start on our long drive home since I had to be at work Monday.  I wanted to at least show him a bit of Mississippi since he had been in New Orleans the day before.  We drove through Biloxi along the coastline.  Many of the casinos I had remembered lining the coastline had been destroyed in Katrina.  Some new casinos were being built.  It was amazing to see how much damage the hurricane had done and how even 7 years since the hurricane and me not seeing the city in 12 years, I could still tell that much had been destroyed.  On the way over to Ocean Springs from Biloxi there is a long bridge you cross; the bayou is on one side and the Gulf on the other.  It really is very beautiful.  I showed Travis my old home.  The streets to our house were narrower than I remember and the houses are much closer as well.  I guess everything looks bigger when you are small.  The new owners painted the brick of our old house a nasty off-white color.  I wish we could have stayed longer in Ocean Springs and maybe said hi to some neighbors.  It was a short trip, but hopefully someday Ill be able to visit again.  Sure glad I went and had a mini vacation from taxes!

Tooth Prom

Every year the Dental School holds a Tooth Prom at Malones; a fantastic upscale restaurant located in Lexington.  During the past three years the price to attend the Tooth Prom was $50 for a couple.  Although it is an all-you-can-eat buffet we just couldn't rationalize the price.  This past February the school dropped the rate to $20 a couple so we figured we could definitely afford to attend, and besides it is Travis' last year of dental school!

We don't have too many opportunities to dress up.  Travis saves his suits for special occasions and important events like our wedding day and school interviews; so it was kind of nice to dress up together.  I have one fancy dress which I bought for my CPA banquet and I was happy I could wear it again. 

We always love eating at Malones and it will be one restaurant we will miss when we move.  At the Tooth Prom we had Malone's house salad, filet mignons, and sushi.  Travis was sure to fill his plate full of sushi rolls, so he definitely made the $20 worth the money.  After dinner the music started and the dining room was turned into a dance hall.  It was pretty amusing to watch some of the classmates, since most had one too many drinks.  We had a nice evening catching up with friends I hadn't seen in a while.  Glad we got to go to Prom together!

Taryn and Beth

Locker of Love

I've had this blog post sitting in limbo land the last month, so I figured it was about time I post it! Valentine's Day came and went, like I said, over a month ago.  I wanted to do something special for Travis, and let's face it, when you are a student you have to be a little more creative in your gift giving.  Maybe it's just me, but guys are hard to get V-day gifts for since they probably don't care much for flowers and anything they really want is too expensive.  Since Travis is a student I thought it would be fun to decorate his school locker this year for Valentines.  Locker decorating takes me back to those middle and high school days . . .

I remember getting my locker decorated in 9th grade by a boy who I knew had a crush on me, but the feelings weren't mutual.  Looking back he had some guts to decorate my locker and I probably could have been more gracious to him.  Part of me appreciated that he had put in the time to decorate my locker and part of me was kind of embarrassed, since at that age sometimes you don't want attention drawn to you and I didn't have feelings for him.  Middle school and high school can be awkward times.  Luckily, I didn't have the pressure or anxiety of wondering if Travis would be My Valentine and if I would get turned down! 

The Monday night before Valentines I had planned to sneak into the Dental School and decorate both the inside and outside of Travis' locker.  Unfortunately, life doesn't always pan out as you had imagined.  Monday after school Travis couldn't find his keys which included the keys to the car, house and school lockers!  Of all the days I thought!  We searched the entire house, but had no luck.  Travis decided he would go search the school and he wanted me to go to the church and look around.  My plans were foiled!  I probably wasn't a very nice because because I REALLY didn't want to go look for his keys at the church, but REALLY just wanted to decorate his locker (that sounds so lame of me).  So I didn't go to the church and thought I probably won't even be able to decorate his locker since he now had his badge with him, which is needed to get into the school, and I had no idea where his locker was without a key.  Surprisingly, when I got to the school the doors were unlocked!  It took me forever to try and find the dental lounge and ended up calling Grant to help me navigate through the school since I don't hang out there much.  Luck would have it that the lockers are labeled with everyone's name in the lounge so finding Travis' locker was easy peasy.

I used my mad middle school crafting skills to decorate his locker with purple paper, hearts, and paper chains.  I taped Kit Kats to the locker since that is one of his favorite candy bars and tried to form red vines into the shape of lips and keep them in place.  Travis was VERY surprised the next morning to find out that the crazy locker was his!  I think others liked it as well because he said all the Kit Kats had vanished by the end of the day.  Really, who said you could eat them. 

The next day I was folding a pair of Travis' pants and heard a jingle. . . the keys!! Glad everything ended up working out!

What an Epiphany!

For the past months my days have been blurring together.  When I wake up in the mornings I am not sure what day it is because I am working practically everyday.  That is the beast of tax season.  Well after work on Saturday I came home around 3:30 and had a few minutes to eat some lunch and then had planned to go visit a lady from church at 4pm.  Travis walked into the house from a day of  rock climbing at 3:45pm talking on the phone and telling someone that are house was clean and spotless, and that they could come over about 5pm that night!  I looked around the house and didn't see a spotless home, but rather dirty bathrooms, papers on our living room floor, dishes in the sink, etc.  I had a bit of a freak out moment.  It takes me half a day to clean our house.  How was it going to get clean in an hour, let alone Travis cleaning himself?  Regretfully, I had to cancel my plans and get to cleaning because you can't say no to someone who is a potential buyer.

I frantically started cleaning the kitchen while Travis vacuumed.  Then I was off to one of the bathrooms, finished that, and then straightened and cleaned the other rooms while Travis was delegated to clean our bathroom since that room is the worse to clean.  And I wasn't feeling gracious.  We finished cleaning the house in just under an hour.  Travis was sure to rub in the fact that it only took an hour to clean and why the heck does it take me half a day on Saturday? . . . . . .

Well I had an epiphany just then!  Ya why does it take me half the day?  I am sure wasting a lot of time cleaning the house by myself when I could use a helper that would cut the time dramatically.  So. . . Thank you Travis.  You just saved thousands of hours of my life. :)

I would also like to recognize that Travis made a grand achievement on Saturday.  He cleaned our bathroom for the first time EVER since we have been married.  In fact I believe it was his FIRST BATHROOM EVER to clean in his life. And it was actually a pretty good job so I think that is worthy of a blog post.  Good thing he got it in before turning 28 this week! 

Merry Winter!

I started writing this blog right after Christmas but haven't finished it until now.  Let's just say things have been busy the last few weeks with school, work, putting our house on the market, job searching, etc.  Travis and I had an unconventional Christmas this year.  I went home during Christmas while he stayed back in Kentucky.  I think that makes me an awful wife.  Especially since he had to stay so he could take Dental Boards Part II!  But maybe I'm not too awful because Travis did get to go back home after Christmas while I stayed in Kentucky and worked.

The day after I arrived in Boise I became so incredibly sick.  I knew there was something wrong a couple days prior when I began feeling nauseous all day.  Luckily I had two great nurses - my mom and sister, Nicole, to nurse me back to health.  I must have caught the stomach bug that had been going around.  At that point I was glad I was in Boise while Travis was in Kentucky so that hopefully he wouldn't catch what I had and would be okay for his tests.  Thursday morning I woke up still feeling awful.  You know when you are so sick you just know if you stand up out of bed you will lose anything that is left in your stomach?  Well that is how I felt, so I called my nurses using my cell phone.  Everyone thought it was pretty funny that I was calling the house when my bedroom was 20 feet from the kitchen.  But really I was that sick.  Being sick at my parent's house is a good thing because my parents have a cupboard full of meds to cure anything.  My mom rubbed my back while I puked my guts out.  Only a mom will do that.  She bought me some herbal tea and baby electrolyte liquid so that I wouldn't dehydrate.  Really you have to admit that was pretty sweet.  I never felt completely back to normal during the break but i did start to feel better by Christmas Eve.

Santa's Elves were able to bring some cheer this Holiday Season.  We door bell ditched a box full of food and goodies to someone my parents knew who was in need of some help.  A few weeks prior to Christmas we all sent him Christmas cards anonymously to brighten up his day, since he doesn't have any family.  My dad told me later that this man was so excited about one card he received from his Secret Santa in Kentucky!  He said he didn't even know anyone from Kentucky!  It was nice to spread some holiday cheer even with such a simple thing as a Christmas card which really made his week.  After the Elves helped out Santa on Christmas Eve we drove around and saw Christmas lights and watched the houses that have their lights synced to music on the radio.  I had never seen one in person and it was well worth seeing. 

Kyle, Me, and Kirk

My sister and her husband received some exciting news right before Christmas - that they were chosen to adopt a baby boy!  I am so excited for them and hope everything follows through this week, as the baby is expected to be born anytime now! 

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A

 

 Oklahoma,

where the wind comes sweepin down the plains.

And the waivin' wheat,

Can sure smell sweet,

When the wind comes right behind the rain.

That's right!  Match day has come and Travis has been matched with the University of Oklahoma's Orthodontic Program in Oklahoma City.  We are very excited that he got into one of his top picks of schools.  He is such a hard worker and I am glad all the hours of studying and time dedicated to school has paid off.  We will be sad to leave Lexington because we both love the area.  It will be difficult to move this time, unlike when we moved from Provo to Lexington in which we could not have been more excited to leave.  I didn't shed one tear that day.  Buffalo, NY was even looking like a nice option then.  But now we really have been spoiled.  Don't get me wrong we are so so so excited to be going to Oklahoma, but we love Lexington so much that it will be tough to say goodbye to the rolling, green hills of the Bluegrass. And especially to the friends we have made.

Here are some random, interesting facts about Oklahoma:

• Oklahoma has more shore line than any other state. According to the narrated PBS documentary, Oklahoma, the shore line is greater than the East AND Gulf coast combined. 
• Lenapah, Oklahoma is the world's only site of a Drive-in Rodeo.
• The first yield sign in the U.S. was installed in Tulsa, Oklahoma at 5^th and Birmingham.
• The strongest surface wind ever recorded was 318 mph from a tornado that struck Oklahoma City in 1999.
• Per square mile, Oklahoma has the most tornadoes of all U.S. states.
• In Oklahoma , it is illegal for the owner of a bar to allow anyone inside to pretend to have sex with a buffalo.
• The name "Oklahoma" comes from the Choctaw words: "okla" meaning people and "humma" meaning red, so the state's name literally means "red people."
• Oklahoma has the largest American Indian population of any state.  

I remember singing the Oklahoma song in elementary school and never imagined that I would one day live there!  We are excited for the adventure that awaits us.  Everything is going to be OK! - L-A-H-O-M-A.