This One Time We Went to Florida

So a little while ago David and I went to Florida to look at homes, by ourselves, sans the babies! 

We waited too long to check into our flight so we didn't get to sit together; however the flight was non-stops so at least it was short. The whole trip was AMAZING and I am just that much more convinced that we need to try to do some kind of a getaway (even if it's super cheap) once a year ~always. Its so weird how little we really did, but how much fun we had just being ALONE together. We joked that it was our way of making up for not hardly spending any one on one time with each other over the last year. Like a 7 day mega date. 

This car is called a Spark, and I used to own a car just like it (not a hatchback) back when it was called an Aveo. When we went to pick up our rental car, we had no idea what kind of car we would be getting, this little car passed us. I laughed as I thought about how tiny the car was and how small it would be to have my six foot two husband in it. Then sure enough the lady took us right to it. 

Economy Rental=Tiny

The temperature upon our arrival was definitely agreeable. This is a good time to mention that my mother was experiencing a snowpocolypse in Columbus, a city she had never visited before, alone with both of our kids.... whoops. Could not have planned that any better (sarcasm). 

We took the first day to drive around and spy on the houses we were interested in, since we had an appointment with our relator and the builder the next day. When we went to Chili's we had to park between these cars. We thought it was funny because you have the smallest version of a Ford sedan that was red, then the smallest Chevy (also in red) then the same car in black. We stayed our first night in a stinky musty hotel because it was SUPER cheap because that is what we are all about. This is a good place to mention that this whole trip was only possible because I got a random call from a company who sells time shares and got a sweet deal on our rental car, a condo to stay in and park hopping tickets to Universal (which would NOT have happened otherwise). Our trip was longer than the condo time we were given though so that's where our musty but classy 3 star hotel stay comes in. 

On our trip to Publix I saw this in their entrance. I don't know why it made me so happy but it did. It was like seeing an old friend. O T-town you will always hold a place in my heart. 

I like Publix, it reminds me of Kroger, but it seems a bit more expensive so I'll have to price it out a little when we get there. I'll blog more about the housing dealeo later, but we finished the house hunt on our second day with our first relator visit. Whole trip=done in one day! (sigh of relief)

This was the real reason why I enjoyed our stay so much. There is nothing like a girl and her favorite ice cream. This is a good moment to shamelessly (or rather not so shamelessly) admit that we ate a gallon and a half of ice cream during our 7 day visit. Between my beloved bear claw, that Kroger no longer carries (for whatever reason), and the Blue Bell we could NOT resist. Did I mention we found our house our second day there? Yea that made more time for ice cream too. 

The hair cut you see with me holding the ice cream above, I actually gave to myself. I didn't like it. I got compliments on it but I hated it. I'm going through a phase. In Florida I managed to convince David to go with me so I could get it cut... again... for the 3rd time... that month. At first he was like "yea, no"; however, he's been less than thrilled with my constant talk of getting a pixie cut so I managed to convince him that it would be fun and that he could take the scissors away from the stylist if things got to short. He agreed and I think it actually was enjoyable to be together for that. In our normal lives this would have never happened. I'm still not in love with the cut, but that is a story for another blog post. 

I went to my first teppanyaki restaurant, also courtesy of the time share deal.

Did I mention that we got free Universal tickets? Yup we did. Last May when we went it was HOT already and Diagon Alley had not yet opened. This time when we went the weather was AH-MAZing! Seriously we enjoyed ourselves like no other. 

Enjoying some fun time after all of our one day of hard work. 

12 Grimauld place

Hogwarts Express

Diagon Alley!

Going to Universal off season and for free made the ENTIRE time we spent there so incredibly chill. We enjoyed the crap out of it. 

Joke shop

And of course there was Butterbeer. We only ended up going to Univeral two times because of parking costs and because of the fact Escape from Gringotts was closed both times. It was the only ride we REALLY wanted to go on since we had already been on all the others and recently. The ride had to be closed for off season maintenance, which was very lame. It was really weird to feel so happy about only going twice, I definitely felt like we got our money's worth though. 

 The rest of the time we drove around and looked at things. Wednesday was our design center appointment (more about that later) and thats really about all we did besides our dating binge, which mostly consisted of eating out together. I'd love to say those meals were in silence because we didn't have the kiddies, but you can't forget who David married :D I gladly filled the quite, and had many a good conversation with David.

My last name alma mater on a mug. I just made that up please don't tell me it's wrong it made sense in my head and that's all that matters.

Last, but definitely NOT least, I have a great story about how our time share hard sale went. If you are still reading this lucky you because it's funny, or at least we certainly thought so. We got an older man, tough life, smoker, Easterner, married to an expensive New York lady, has 3 daughters. He was telling us "if you move to Orlando you don't want people to visit you so if you have a time share then you can have them visit there instead". It made me laugh because we DO want people to stay with us and that is a HUGE reason why we got the house that we did. Then while touring the time share condo he brings David and I into the master bedroom and after closing the door behind us he says "what do you see?" we mumbled our answers with whatever because we had already realized he was a little different from us. He then cut us off by exclaiming, rather loudly, "Privacy! I'm not going on vacation to not have sex with my wife!" Awwwkward and uh eewww! Oh man and that wasn't all he did. The hard sale was only supposed to last 120 min and he went over, we felt like we were there forever. Right as we were finally getting to leave and had told them we weren't going to buy anything (which we told him from the VERY beginning) he says "I guess I'll go home and kick my dog in the nuts!" Like I said he was so full of charm and this is where I'll leave you. 

Ode to Idaho Falls

Oh, Idaho I love you. There are so many things about Idaho that I love. Coming "home" to Idaho, however, has changed. In the back of my mind I always thought I would most likely come back to Idaho, specifically Idaho Falls. Even though many of my relatives and closer friends live here I'm starting to really wonder if I want to move back. There are literally times when my heart aches as I watch friends and family do things in Idaho while we are thousands of miles away. 

Birthdays and Beauty school. Also please note this was the most random sampling of photos I could come up with that had pictures of as many of my friends as I could find. Unfortunately a LOT of my pictures are old school and I'm not about to scan them.

And yet I have grown to feel a sense of safety living in a town where my past does not exist. I'd love to completely blame it on certain experiences that occurred in 2009, but the truth is there is more to that. I drove around a couple of nights while we were in Idaho Falls over Christmas to my old houses, friends houses, schools and places we used to hang out and for some reason I felt a great deal of sadness. I'm sure that some of that is easily related to the pain I constantly feel over the lightning speed of time, but I sometimes wonder if it's more than that. 

Stake dances, and dates

When I am in Idaho Falls I feel like I am constantly looking over my shoulder to see people I know. Not necessarily for people I don't want to see. When I am in Idaho Falls I feel as though my mind runs through "what if's" way more then I like. I can't explain it more than that. I say that I grew up in Idaho Falls because we moved there when I was 9. Basically the time I spent in Idaho Falls was when I started to remember things more clearly. The years before are much more random memories. 

While I lived in Idaho Falls I started young women's, started Junior High (aka the worst couple of years ever), attended seminary, had my first real crush, my first kiss, my first love, learned to drive, finished high school, bought my first car, went to the temple, got married, graduated beauty school, got divorced, had my first baby and then moved away. I think its safe to say, barring few exceptions, that I experienced most of my larger emotional experiences in my life up to this point right here in Idaho Falls. 

Commencement 2005 and the last day of school 2003.

What's interesting though is how my sense of safety and familiarity has changed. Am I more aware of how much I went through? Maybe. Am I less sentimental? Possibly. The best way to describe it is that I feel as though I'm not able to look forward as well when I am here. It's like I am caught up in nostalgia, which is NOT necessarily a horrible thing. When I am in Ohio (where we currently live) I don't question myself as much. I look to the future and I most definitely don't second guess myself the way I do in Idaho Falls. In theory though none of this matters because even if I wanted to move back we wouldn't be able for another five and a half years or in 2020.... that's weird. 

boyfriends ;)

Beauty school again 

Sweetheart dance Junior year
 
My mama and I.

 Seniors fall 2005

 Met a random guy at Taco Bell after work one night and he asked me to homecoming. One of THE best dances I EVER went to.

 Edward's summer movie dates

 Senior commencement

 Graduating

 Going to the temple with my friends. Obviously that is the Rexburg temple, but I don't have pictures of my friends and I at the IF temple.

Maybe I will feel differently then. Maybe, even though it's been 5+ years since my most difficult experience I've ever had, I'm still not ready to go back now that I have moved away. The longer we are away the better it gets, but lets just say for now when people ask me if we plan to move back I can honestly say I'm about 50/50 on that subject for now. I am really excited to put roots down in Florida for a while and see how that goes before I can more fully decide on that question.

Matching and Graduation and Moving

Oh, my!

 David's letter

The match results map. After looking at this we immediately knew we hadn't matched in Spokane which was our 3rd choice.

Yes it's true, I can finally say where we are going after medical school. At least for the next five years. David had his match day WAY back in March and we found out that he was accepted to an internship year in Columbus and Orlando, Florida's radiology residency. I was so very excited for David, the ONLY thing that would have made this news better would have been if Florida had an internship year in their program. I'm a little disappointed that we have to move twice in the next year, but I believe David is going to be so happy at Florida hospital. I had a good feeling about Florida all along, only at the time I thought I was crazy because it's farther from family and lets face it super hot and humid. 

After David interviewed in Orlando he called me up to let me know how it had gone and he was so happy (almost giddy). One of the program leaders turned out to be a stake president with 8 (yes 8) kids who had moved there from Arizona but loved it so much their family had decided to stay. That was good to know because that meant that he knew the school systems were good too. He also told David that Florida is one of the top three areas in America where the church is growing right now (I had no idea) and that their ward had had 105% attendance the previous Sunday. Can I just say that ANY reservations about my "crazy" idea to apply to Florida were almost completely solved by this ONE interview.

I had this picture as my screen saver for a while and it's so funny because Davie looks
annoyed but he was just trying to get down and run around.

David had also enjoyed his interviews with the other directors and met a fellow UT medical graduate who finished back in 2011with some of our friends. This is very telling though because David typically hates interviews. David can very easily come across as shy or possibly aloof when he is nervous, but he is neither. The hospital itself is part of the Adventist health system so David enjoyed the beautiful pictures of Christ in the building and the spirit he felt. He also said the hospital itself was beautiful.

The program is private so it is not connected to a college which means the classes are small (4 per class) compared to an average of 8-12 per class in medial college based residencies. The benefits are great, full medical for David and us, free meals at work, free parking as well as fun stuff like free tickets to NBA basketball games once a year. These things may not sound like much but parking alone in Houston Texas was $2,000 a year, it was a higher cost of living AND the salary was already less than Florida's. It adds up FAST.

When it came time to start writing thank you emails to the program directors David was doing it around 10pm one night. He sent one to Florida hospitals program director at like 10:01pm and within 15 minutes she had written him back! David has (and still is) always been a very humble person, probably too humble and this kind of response from a program director had him excited but I knew it meant something a little more.

To put this into perspective when David was applying for medical school the second time around it took his younger brother telling him that he wasn't "bragging" enough on his resumes before David added more about his achievements on the medical school applications. For us and especially for David his experience with the Florida program was positive from beginning to end which made our choice so easy.

Davie's celebratory lunch after Daddy's graduation

This whole matching experience is something I could talk a LOT about, but I will leave it at that because I don't want this post to become super long. We are so excited and happy to be going to Florida it is going to be our GREATEST adventure yet. And lastly I just have to add how proud of David I am because he has worked SO hard the last 4 years and for him to get his first choice in residency programs shows his dedication. Life is good.