I have a paper to write, so I'll update my blog first.

Alright, it's true that I'm mostly updating the blog so I can procrastinate working on my paper, but it's about time for an update anyway! 

First, the good news! We're going to Arizona for Thanksgiving! Yay! I can't wait to spend some quality time with AnnaMarie, and it'll be fun to see the kids, too. :) It'll be nice to get out of Provo for a little bit, but we won't be getting away from the homework. I'll have to do some studying and I have a (different) 5 page paper due right after break. 

And now for the non-news. Medical schools. We know nothing. We are supposed to hear from Wayne State on Wednesday, though, so we'll keep you all up to date on that when we hear. However, University of Michigan said that they were going to close a bunch of accounts, meaning rejections, this week and I don't think Spencer's was closed... Maybe that's a good sign. Who knows?? 

So, what have we been up to? We have been studying and writing papers a lot. But we've done some nice things, too. 

Last Sunday we had Josh and Katy over for dinner. We made some yummy beef stew and they brought some really good rolls. Carrina was happy. We are going to miss them when they move to Minnesota in a couple of months. We video chatted with Mom and Brigham while they were there. Carrina was totally into it. 

This morning we had the Halls, a couple from our ward, over for breakfast! It was a really nice way to start the day. :) I made some monkey bread and we had a nice chat with them. 

James and Miranda are going to be moving into our ward once they are married, so that will be really fun! They are buying someone's contract who is moving out. 

That's about all the fun things we've been doing. The end of the semester is coming, and it's coming fast. Yesterday I typed up a daily to-do list for my remaining school work, and it's not looking too bad, but I think we'll stay busy. Oh! We bought our tickets for the Hobbit, too! That's good news. :) 

We're busy, but we're happy. I am so blessed to have Spencer around. I feel like he's my anchor. I get stressed out and have my ups and downs, and he's always there: positive, calm, and stable. 

Spencer just finished an exam at the testing center, and he's on his way back home. I guess I should get going on that paper before I decide it's time for a lunch break. :) 

Just Life

Not much exciting has really happened since Spencer's birthday, but I figured I should put a post up anyway. School has been going pretty well. This semester has had a lot of ups and downs. Like, Thursday through Sundays are up and Mondays to Wednesdays are down. Every week. My mammalogy lab quizzes are every Wednesday afternoon. I typically spend about 5 or 6 hours between Monday and Wednesday studying for them and I still go into them just hoping I won't fail. And by fail, I mean get less than a C. Sometimes I get Cs on them. But life goes on. The quiz comes and goes, and then I get to relax a little bit even if it didn't go super well. Good news though! Only 2 more quizzes and the lab final to go! Whooohooo!

Spencer had a couple of exams over the last week, and I've been working on papers and things. We've just been plugging along. School's almost wrapping up now. I have 3 papers to write over the next few weeks. I have a good start on one of them though. Then just a couple more midterms and finals! Is it strange that I actually like finals week? It's so much easier to study for tests when you don't have new material in every class and homework and quizzes to prepare for. Plus, I think I'll just have 2 finals during finals week this semester, and one of them is take-home! Plus, The Hobbit part 2 is coming out at the end of finals week!!

AnnaMarie invited us to go down to Arizona for Thanksgiving with them. That would be a lot of fun, and we're gonna check with our bosses to see if we can manage it. Spencer's grandpa is turning 80 in December, so they want to have a big party for him. His aunt works (worked?) for an airline, so she can fly standby almost for free. She's gonna fly down to Salt Lake and take us with her (so we can fly for almost free) back to Washington the first weekend in December. Hopefully we'll be able to get onto a flight and go. So, we have a couple of potential trips to look forward to. :) Then there's Christmas break, James and Miranda' wedding, and the Thornock family reunion in Texas! This will be a busy month and a half. In a really good way.

That's pretty much it for us. Oh, and I started a new blog! Our stake (regional level of organization in our church) has been focusing on member missionary work, so I decided to make a blog about my beliefs. You can check it out if you want to. http://thingsabbeyknows.blogspot.com/

Only 18 more days of class!

Spencer's 25th

Well, this past Saturday was Spencer's birthday! I love Spencer's birthday. :) Probably more than my own. While he was in Michigan I decided that I wanted to throw him a surprise party this year. His work compadres were supposed to be having a get together and they were gonna celebrate his and someone else's birthday at it. They never ended up planning the party, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun planning and setting up the party. I made a piniata last weekend with Kyrie. And it was awesome. I usually spend Fridays at a school observing, and then I go to work for a couple of hours at the end of the day. This week, I went to a school in the morning, then came home to finish the cake and decorate! Now, up to this point, Spencer was completely unaware of all my planning. We were gonna go out to eat and get home around 7:00 and everyone would be home to surprise him! Well, he decided to eat like a pound of cheesy pasta bake for lunch (that's how much was in the tupperware, after all!) and he got a stomach ache. When I told me he didn't feel good enough to go out to eat, I was a little flustered. I couldn't bring him home until 7! So, he was suspicious, but he pretended not to be. That might be because I told him to just go along with whatever I had planned. haha. So here's how it went down.

I got the party all ready, Katy dropped by to pick up my key, and I went to campus to pick up Spencer.
I had packed some snacks, bread, and a thermos of hot water. We went to a duck pond to feed the ducks and sip some hot apple cider. :) It was really nice. (I forgot to upload those pictures, so check back for them a little later.) There were so many ducks it was kind of gross. But they ate right out of our hands. We stayed there and watched some other people feed ducks, then we decided to run to Walmart to get some things. And to kill time.

The piniata.

 And the cake before frosting and decorating. It's like a giant ice cream sandwich.

 The house, cleaned and decorated for the party!

Spencer enjoying some hot cider at the duck pond. It was a beautiful day.

 Plus, we saw this afro duck. Could life get any better?

Finally we came home and... SURPRISE! Spencer's just like, "oh, hey guys." haha

We chatted and played a little bit of Balderdash.

Kelly and Eryn

 And we watched Carrina run around.

James and Miranda

Sydney and Ben. Obviously, they're our cool friends.  ;)

Spencer and I

Josh and Katy

 Then we decided to do the piniata.

Carrina kept trying to pick the whole thing up and carry it down the driveway. She managed to pick it up, but she kept tripping and falling on top of it.

 Everyone except James got a couple swings at it, I think. James was taking pictures. :) Spencer went first, but the camera wasn't quite set to take pictures yet.

 Then we had cake! It's an ice cream cake. :) Everyone liked it.

We sang Spencer happy birthday, which he hates, and he blew out all of his candles.

Carrina loved the cake and was sad when she couldn't have any more.

I would have given her more. Just look at that little face!

So, hooray for Spencer's birthday! Every time his birthday comes around I feel so lucky to be the one making his cake. :) I can hardly believe that I've made him 4 now! Oh, and for his birthday he got a new suit from Mom and Dad! He wore the suit to his interview in Detroit and I got him new shoes to go with his new suit. I hate not having a surprise present though, so I got him Jurassic Park! It's probably one of his all-time favorite movies. However, I didn't get to the post office in time to pick it up on Friday, so he didn't get that until Monday. I never even wrapped it. I just drew a bow on the package with a sharpie. Oh, well. Hopefully we'll find some time to watch it together one of these days.