since we last spoke...

so it's been a few weeks slash months since i last posted an entry to our blog... but here we are! back in blog action! there are so many things that have gone on in the past few months, so i will list them in bullet format for brevity's sake (despite the fact that this blog is anything but brief... c'mon it's me we're talking about! :-))

in may:
- tjuta got even cuter... as if that was possible (see below how he likes to surf the net)

- we got to visit with paul's parents (david & peggy) on their way back from living in new zealand for a few months AND we had the added bonus of getting to visit with kathy (paul's cousin) & kelly (kathy's husband) while they were in the city for a business trip.
- one of my very best friends, katy field, came to visit us before taking her board exam to officially be deemed a child life specialist! oh my goodness, how fabulous it was to spend time with this little sweetie!- our dear friends ryan & candice garrett came to play over the memorial day weekend! it was such a treat to get to spend some time talking, laughing, touring, and visiting as much as we possibly could with them... they are fantastic and we cannot wait to hopefully visit them at their home in greensboro, nc over the holidays this year!
- also in may, we found out that paul's sister, diane (who is pregnant with our future nephew!) began having some health complications. she was diagnosed with a blood clot after her lower extremity began swelling over the memorial day weekend. after spending a few days in the hospital, she was allowed to go home with the report that she and the baby ("lil' nugget") are perfectly fine. however, her husband, jason, has to give her two shoots of blood thinning medication each day and she has to visit about a billion times more doctors than she normally would since she is now considered a "high-risk pregnancy." she and the baby, as i said before, are in excellent condition right now (she is 36 weeks this week!!! congrats, diane!), but please keep her, jason, and the baby in your prayers! her due date is september 27th (also my birthday!), but the doctors have said they won't let her deliver past that day... so, in about a month, we'll have a little nephew!!!

in june:
- paul graduated with a master's from stanford university!!! yay! we were lucky enough to have david, peggy, aunt louie, and sarah all come out for the celebrations (oprah was the commencement speaker... woot woot!). now, paul is working full-steam-ahead with his Ph.D. and will take his qualifying exams (a VERY big deal) at the end of september... send him some smart vibes!- we were able to travel back to the east coast in late-june for a little family time (we hung out with the clarke family at sunset beach for a few days) AND sarah lynn & quinn davis' wedding on june 28th. i grew up with sarah lynn (we share many crazy memories) and i was in youth group with quinn throughout middle and high school. it was such a blessing to see these two tie the knot! congrats guys!
in july:
- my amazing friend ramsey and her boyfriend, pat, came to visit with us during their vacation in california! we got to spend some quality time with them over a few days, which was perfect because i had a couple of days off from school for the 4th of july weekend. ramsey, pat, and i even ventured north to visit the jelly belly factory! i think ramsey and i wanted to stay there forever! it was so great to see one of my best friends and get to know her wonderful boyfriend! i love you two!!!- we also got to meet up and have dinner with the entire mchenry family - they were taking their family vacation out west! thank you for the scrumptious meal and company, mchenry fam!- then mark clapp, an amazing friend to both of us, traveled out here to be a teacher at a johns hopkins smart people camp for itty bitty geniuses (it has another name, but that's how i like to think of it). he also did the same thing last year here at stanford! a couple of days later, our dear friend vansana (a.k.a. wally) came out to be a camp counselor for the same program mark was working in. the same day that wally arrived, my lovely friend lindsay driver stopped by for a few hours on her layover back from australia! it was so great to see her! we have been the best of friends since we were literally infants, so it was a huge blessing to see her smiling face. i don't have any pictures from mark & wally's visit on my computer yet, but i will put pictures up when i have them (we got to have them here for 3 whole weeks, but we didn't get to see them too much since paul & i were both consumed in school and they were consumed in their program as well... but it was SO nice to be able to call them and meet up at random times... love you both!).

- also in july... we celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY (on july 28th, 2008 to be exact)!!! i cannot believe it has been one year since we got hitched, and oh what a year it has been! i can only speak for myself :-), but i know i am so blessed to have this amazing husband in my life who is there for me no matter what! not a day goes by that i don't thank God for putting paul in my life... i love you, husband!

in august:
- i finished my first year of PT school on august 11th! whoo hoo!!! what a year it has been. i will be out of school for the next couple of months (i will begin TAing for the current first year DPT students' anatomy class/lab) until i start my first full-time clinical on october 27th at rex hospital in RALEIGH, NC! yay! so i hope to be seeing all of you during my few months at home :-). i will be very sad to not be with paul during my clinical, but he gets so much time off for the holidays that we will really only have to spend about 3 weeks tops apart from each other - so it all works out!

- on my first night of break, my dear friend phil rubin came to stay with us for the evening on his way back from australia! it was so nice to catch up on life with him in the few hours that he was here... thanks for coming to see us, phil!

- paul and i finally got to celebrate our first anniversary by going out to dinner to one of our favorite restaurants, town (in san carlos, ca), thanks to my wonderful parents! we had an absolute BLAST! thanks mom & dad/mrs. diana & mr. bruce! :-)- later that week, we left little tjuta & tim-tam and flew to colorado for the mobley family vacation! we had a truly fabulous time and it was so nice to spend 10 days with people that we love so dearly and don't often get to see. i will post more about this trip on my next entry when i have pictures to go with it! (clearly, this current entry is getting too long... so stay tuned!)

i promise, faithful readers, to be better about updating our blog since i now have a lot more time on my hands! next time i post, it won't be a whole semester after the last one :-). much love to all!