It's off to work I go...

So I started my first day of work on Monday. I really like the people I work with, and the company seems great. I swore I would never commute more than 20 minutes, and yet here I am working in South County St. Louis, Missouri – a mere 45 minutes from our apartment in Alton. I travel through downtown St. Louis and amazingly I don’t hit any traffic. Everyone seems to be going the opposite way so the drive is a breeze. The journey also feels very touristy. Everyday I pass within 20 feet of:

The arch.

Ram’s stadium.

Cardinal’s stadium.

Anheuser-Busch Brewery.

So if you come visit I know how to get to a couple of places, although I must admit the brewery might not be on the agenda. Contrary to the one major highway that Utah boasts, there are about twenty different major highways in St. Louis alone. I’m actually quite proud of myself for being able to navigate through downtown. Who knew a year ago I’d be working in St. Louis? Times, they are a changin.

a sad day

It's a wonder that Brad was never interested in going into veterinary science since he loves animals so much. Especially dogs. When he was 11 he picked out a little red fur ball that was half Siberian husky and half Lhapsa Apso. In a very Brad move he named her Tasha after a Star Trek character. Since Brad was the youngest of six kids and spent his middle school and high school years as a only child at home he was really close to Tasha. Whenever we went to Naperville the first thing he usually did was go to the back yard and check up on Tasha. When we went to Naperville last weekend Tasha, at 14 years old, actually chased down a skunk and gripped it in her mouth. Sadly she passed away yesterday. It's not too often that you lose a friend at our age, especially one that's so much a part of the family. So here's to the Tasha dog, you will be missed.

St. Louis Temple

Even though we aren't in Utah anymore Brad and I are still lucky enough to live within 45 minutes of a temple (even though thats 43 minutes longer then it took us to get to the temple in Provo...). We decided to do a session Saturday morning and made it just in time. The grounds and the temple itself are beautiful and like many cities you can see it right off the highway.

naperville

So we went to Naperville over the weekend to spend some time with Brad's family. His parents live in Naperville but his sister was down from Green Bay as well. We had a great time with Ginger's six kids (She's literally superwoman, I don't know how she does it). I'm bummed I didn't get any pictures of the new baby Ella, but trust me she's the cutest! We went swimming, picked apples and pears, ate lots of food, and had a great time overall.

Bryn and Spencer terrorizing their Uncle.

Brad getting the kids soaked at "The Beach" (A huge Naperville city pool constructed to look like a beach)

Brad and Grace smooshing cheeks.

By the end of the day Spencer was covered in sand from head to toe!

Grace lounging with Grandpa.

house has ruined me

After watching the first three seasons of House in less than a week I am now officially a hypochondriac. I think I either have sarcoidosis, lupus, or possibly some insect living in blood stream. Thanks House, I am now the most paranoid person on the planet.

the diving bell

For such a small town we actually have a pretty awesome library. It's located in the mall (!) along with the post office, which cracked me up. Anyway, since we are currently living without TV I now take a weekly trip there to check out a few DVDs. Hey, you can't beat free even if their selection is a few months behind Blockbuster.

So now I've seen the first season of Brothers & Sisters, which is very entertaining if you enjoy watching a crazy family drama mixed with politics and a little soap opera-ness. Then I watched the first two seasons of House, which I surprisingly really enjoyed. After you get used the abrasive nature of the main character he's actually quite endearing. House is like Law & Order but all inside a hospital with a team of doctors.

Then this past weekend I checked out The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I was really affected by the idea that your life can be happier as a complete vegetable. Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor of French Elle when he suffered a major stroke leaving him completely paralyzed except for his left eye. In this state, called Locked-In syndrome, he maintained his hearing, memories, and lucidity. He compared his state to being in a diving bell (think of the old school scuba diving outfits that looked more like astronaut gear). His speech therapist devises a way for him to communicate through blinking and eventually he "writes" a book one letter at a time about his experience. In this state he comes to understand who he really loves and who really loves him. He learns to live beyond the diving bell by spending time with his family and the time in between working on his book and using his imagination to escape.

Jean-Dominique found a way to speak when left with sight... but I don't suppose you could find a way to see when left with speech. It's an interesting question: if you were paralyzed would you rather live with the ability to see or speak?

our first visitors

Our good friends Scott and Nicole came to visit over the weekend. Even though we know little about Alton and even less about St. Louis we still had a great time. We made some thrilling trips to Lowe’s, Target, and Panera. We did go to Fast Eddie's, a local bar that is famous for its 99 cent ½ pound burgers. It was pretty funny to see Nicole at seven months pregnant order a water from a bar waitress. We also fried some food, played poker and watched a movie. It almost felt like we were still in Provo. Almost. It was great to have them here and probably the last time we'll see them until they become proud parents in October. Hanging out with them is one the many things we miss from Utah.

We forgot to take pictures all weekend so these were taken right before we left for church and Nicole and Scott left for Nauvoo. Brad thought he looked weird in the first one, so he made us take a second. I told him I'd post both pictures less we feed his vanity :)

more from alton

Well our apartment has really grown on us. Brad and I think we might be able to live here all four years because the location is great and the space is excellent. We'll just to work on cleaning and fixing a few things. Yesterday we purchased (only because it was a really great sale) another AC unit, so now we can sleep in our room :) We moved the bed out of the living room yesterday, which is just in time for Scott and Nicole to sleep on our air matress in there tomorrow. We went to Naperville over the weekend and went garage sale shopping with Brad's neighbor (who by the way should have a degree in professional garage sale shopping) and found some great things. We got a dining room table with four chairs and a table lamp. We would have bought more, but we were lucky to get those few items into the civic. We also aquired 2 end table from Brad's sister-in-law, and a nicer dining room table that we will have to figure out how to get to Alton some day. Everyone has been so generous!

This is our bed in our living room and not on it's frame.

Brad is doing well in dental school. His classes and class mates seem great and he is already learning the ins and outs of his schedule. Over the last week we have been trying to get all his equipment and gear together. He needs several pairs of scrubs because he has to wear them everyday to class. Did you know the show Grey's Anatomy makes scrubs? They are actually made of this really excellent material and they are wayyy comfy. Of course they are more expensive so maybe someday...



I wish I had good news about the job front. I have applied to a million jobs and it seems that either half of them are scams, or I am over-qualified, or they have filled the position, or I don't have enough years of experience. Blah. It's been rough, but we don't really have a choice. Unfortunely, being the wife of a dental student does not mean I get to stay home and eat bon-bons all day :) If anyone knows of any job opportunities in the St. Louis or surrounding areas let me know!

we have arrived!

We arrived very late Thursday night and have spent the last few days recovering. It's been hectic and busy to say the least, and we can't express how grateful we are to everyone that helped out! Between Brad's parents, my mom, Angie and Chris Carn, and Kristin we never would have made it here.

We moved in to our apartment (the landlord does not have the same standards of cleanliness as I do, so even though I spent 100+ hours scouring our Provo apartment it looks like I'll be doing the same here). It's a great apartment with plenty of room. We will never have enough furniture to fill it (or rather we'll never be able to afford enough furniture to fill it). We made our first big purchase- the ever important bed. With no central air we are currently sleeping in our living room, which is where the AC unit is. Since we don't know anyone and won't have any visitors for quite some time it's not really a problem :)

We don't have cable or internet. Which means that the bloggin will be very sporadic for the time being (sorry Chris you'll actually have to work, haha). We found a Panera Bread that has Wi-Fi so that will be blog central for the immediate future. I'm sure I will have loads of funny stories to tell about our new town.

PS - I would spend all day crying if it weren't for Lori (our GPS, gifted from Chris and Angie). Thanks a million!

abbalicious!

While 98% of the United States saw Batman over the weekend, I saw Mamma Mia twice (Brad didn't go either time, I don't think he wanted to see James Bond singing Abba songs). Due to scheduling conflicts I saw it the first time with Kristin at midnight on Thursday. At first we were really embarrassed, but it turned out to be really fun. The crowd was very vocal and laughed and clapped the entire way through the movie. Highly enjoyable. The second time was with my mom and some extended female family. The crowd was less impressed, but I still had a good time. All in all, I thought the movie was great. The right amount of kitsch and energy. The actors didn't take themselves too seriously, which made the movie surprisingly funny. Meryl Streep is my new hero.

If you plan on going here are a few tips:

- Look away when Pierce Brosnan sings (he doesn't have a terrible voice, he just isn't a great actor whilst singing)

- Stay until the credits really start to roll, the last five minutes are pure gold (it makes me love Colin Firth all that much more, if that was even possible)

- Go with people that love musicals and/or Abba (the man grumbling behind me during my second viewing sure didn't enhance the moving going experience)

PS- I have lots of catching up to do from the last few weeks. More blog posts coming soon, I promise!

wow... really trebeck? really?

This was seriously on Jeopardy last night:

$1,600. Category: TV Women

Are you kidding me?

We move in 20 days??? What?? We have A LOT to do! Does anyone want to:

• buy a '96 Avalon car from us?
• find Bridget a job in St. Louis or the surrounding area?
• finish Brad's final two online GE classes for him?
• figure out if all our crap is going to fit into a civic, a mini van and a 5x8 trailer?
• tell us how to survive in an unfurnished apartment with no furniture of our own? (Scott and Nicole, I hope you enjoy the floor! We won't even have a couch to offer the pregnant one, I already feel horrible!)

Anyone? Pretty please?

we won't be homeless!

So the trickiest part about moving to Illinois is that it's really hard to figure out housing. We got a housing list from the school but beyond those basic descriptions we were pretty much lost. We narrowed down our list but came to a stopping point when we realized that without actually seeing these places we could be signing up to live in a "2 bedroom, 1 bath, dishwasher, washer/dryer, hard wood floors, great location" that looks like this:

Enter Brad's amazing parents! They completely came to our rescue and volunteered to drive down to Alton (about 5 hours away) and look at our list of places and even email us pictures. After their pros and cons of each location and the pictures we decided on the "cute yellow house" with "2 bedroom, 1 bath, dishwasher, washer/dryer, hard wood floors, great location":

This picture is a side view of the house. It is split into two apartments (we live on the main floor) and we enter our apartment through the porch area on the right. What clinched it for us is the storage room, the garage, and the location (this picture was taken on the side walk ACROSS from campus), plus it's yellow and cute and not a dump!

Only 30 days until we move and it's finally starting to feel real!

anne of awesomeness

Have you ever had a book you loved? Like love loved? I must have read Anne of Green Gables 12 times in sixth grade alone. I felt so grown up for reading a book that contained words like "capricious" and "providential". Every time I read it I agonize over Anne's stubbornness towards the dashing Gilbert (!) and almost cry when Matthew secretively buys Anne a dress with puffed sleeves. Inevitably, each time I finish reading it I am wholly convinced that Prince Edward Island is the most beautiful place on earth and then curse the day I wasn't born a Canadian orphan at the turn of the century. I remember once when I was ten I told my mother that when I grew up I wanted to name my first daughter "Maud" after the author. Can you imagine? Needless to say, she laughed and assured me I would most likely change my mind (don't worry, I did).

Sadly, after twenty years of abuse I think my first copy has earned a retirement.


I am almost finished reading it for the millionth time and while doing so I literally have to hold the book together so it doesn't fall apart in my hands. I have a hair band wrapped around it to prevent the book from loosing its pages in between reading. My hard cover copy just isn't the same so I'm sad to see this get put forever in my cedar chest... it's like the end of era.

happy birthday

Congratulations to my favorite husband for joining the quarter century club today! Love you!

Hike #4

SILVER LAKE




Once again guest hiker Ellie accompanied us on a fantastic outdoor adventure. We decided we were ready for a lengthier hike so we packed up our fishing gear and hiked to Silver Lake in American Fork Canyon. The hike takes about 2 hours and is moderately difficult. The hardest part about getting to Silver Lake is the drive to the trail head, we were lucky enough to borrow an SUV from Bridget’s aunt so we could maneuver the winding dirt road full of boulders and dips (the Civic was not happy the last time we took her up that road). We caught five fish total, but unfortunately they were all tiny and we had to put them back. So instead of having another fish fry, we went to Burger Supreme. Good times! The rookie mistake we made was not wearing sunscreen; we won’t forget next time. On the trip down we had quite a suprise when we literally almost ran straight into a 6 1/2 foot moose. We stood about 5 feet away from it for about .3 seconds until we quickly turned around and ran back up the trail. Fortunately he was as startled to see us as we were to see him and he ran off into the woods. We feel really lucky because moose can be more dangerous than bears. They will charge and kill a person if it feels their calf is being threatened. It was a cool experience, and I am really glad we survived it!

There was still tons of snow up there, part of the lake was actually still frozen.

My too-little-too-late attempt at trying to stop from getting a sunburn, lesson learned.

Hike #3

BRIDAL VEIL FALLS

We only had a few hours to spare so we wanted to do a hike that was close and short. We chose to hike Bridal Veil Falls because neither of us had done it. Since we weren’t familiar with where the trail head started, we were a little confused by the seemingly random mini trails all over the place. We coincidentally choice unwisely, because for most of the “hike” we were forced to climb on all fours up steep sliding gravel. The real trail must have been damaged by the extreme amount of snow this winter because every other hiker took a different trail, and nothing looked distinguished. No matter which trail you choose it’s a short 20 minute hike (at most) and the water fall really is beautiful up close. At the base of the fall it was still iced over, but you could go under the water into an ice cave, which was really fun. We convinced a little boy scout to take our picture; I’m sure he was prepared that day because the picture didn’t turn out half bad.

one whole year

Well kids, we made it . On june 12th, 2008 Brad and I made it through 1 year of marriage almost completely unscathed. Go us.

Engagement Pictures taken by our wonderful

sister-in-law Angie Carn

at the Salt Flats around April 2007:

Brad's wisest decision, marrying me:

Bridget's recent observations

OBSERVATION #1: Do not dice up a jalepeno pepper while preparing a delicious meal for your husband and then proceed to touch the tip of your nose or corner of your eye. I did that a few days ago and the entire left side of my face puffed up, turned bright red, and felt like I had a third degree burn. Those suckers are powerful little guys! I haven't given birth or broken a bone but that was hands down the most painful 45 minutes of my life. After flushing it with water, then milk, then Visine it seemed to wash it out enough to stop me from thinking I was permentaly blind. HORRIBLE!

OBSERVATION #2: When I leave my desk for even 30 seconds my boss somehow has this sixth sense to come and tell me something at that exact moment. When she gets to my desk and finds I'm not there she sits in my chair to wait for my return. Then when I do return she proceeds to sit in my chair and give me the "vital" information. The entire time I'm annoyed that she's sitting in my chair and I'm not listening to a word she says. To me it feels like the ultimate superiorty complex. I signed a million papers when I started this job that said they can snoop through all my emails and my online activity, but I did not sign any paperwork that allows my boss to sit at my desk for 20 minutes while she tells me something that could have been explained in a one sentence email. All you bosses out there, don't ever do this, I may be crazy but it feels insanely disrespectful.

OBSERVATION #3: Our bathrooms have an automatic light switch that turns on when you enter the bathroom. It then turns off after it senses a certain period of inactivity. So yesterday I entered the bathroom to have the light switch turn on, but as soon as it did I noticed that some poor woman was sitting in one of the stalls. I don't want to think about this too much. Because first of all I don't want to know how long she sat there before the light turned off. Second I don't want to know how long she sat there without realizing that she could have probably waved her arm or something and it would have turned back on. And third I really don't want to know what position she holds in our fortune 500 company, since this bathroom is located on the executive floor. Yikes.

1st Annual Carn Fish Fry 2008

Brad loves to fish. However, we hardly ever go because we honestly don’t know that much about fishing in Utah. Cue Brad’s brother Chris! He is our guru for all things outdoors in Utah (the only exception is that he’s not a fan of back-packing). So Brad nagged Chris enough to convince him to organize a finishing trip to Scofield Reservoir. All I can say is that we weren’t the only suckers who believed that Memorial Day means sun screen and flip flops. For almost four hours we stood in the rain/sleet/snow/wind/freezing conditions in hopes of catching a delicious dinner for our 1st Annual Carn Fish Fry 2008. Brad caught a wimpy little guy that we had to let go and I didn’t catch any. Angie and Chris caught enough to make dinner for the four us (Angie made the catch of the day!). Throw in some French fries and onion rings and you’ve got yourself a good time. It was a great, but very cold day! Thank you Chris, I still blame Brad for picking the day with the worst possible weather! The above picture shows me forcing a smile because I honestly couldn' t feel my face.

Brothers that fish together, stay together

(plus it's a really cool picture of how awful the weather was)

This is happy me, before the cold set in and I retreated to the 80 degree truck.


This is happy Brad, he really loves fishing

Missy, we love you!

So I had a girl’s night out with Kristin and Jenny a few weeks ago. We went up to Salt Lake to see Missy Higgins in concert. If you haven’t heard of her, she’s amazing. She’s a singer-songwriter from Australia and puts on an incredible live show. I discovered her about three years ago when she opened for Howie Day and it didn’t take K and Jenny too long to believe in her awesomeness. I’m still surprised about how much she hasn’t caught on in the US yet since she’s quite famous in Australia. Anyway, we arrived at the show about 30 minutes early and coincidentally ran in to K and Jenny’s cousin who not only allowed us to come to front of the line with him but also agreed to be our sponsor into the club (they served alcohol inside and per Utah law you have to have a “member of the club” sponsor you). Because of this we were almost the first inside and stood literally 10 inches from Missy Higgins face while she performed. We were so close that before she took the stage Kristin wrote a little note that said “Missy, We love you! Please play Nightminds and Wrong Girl!” and we put in on her key board. She ended up playing “Nightminds” and even gave us a shout out about our request. After her performance we were totally unashamed and took the set lists off of the stage. The only downer of the night is this random girl in front of us got a text from her friend and said to us “Hey guess what? David Cook just won American Idol”. Thanks random girl! We were planning on watching it on TIVO later that night. Luckily we were about to watch Missy Higgins so we couldn’t be too bummed out. Luckily.

Missy rockin out on both the keyboard AND the guitar, that's how she rolls

This is the set list we "stole" and the drummer who gave it to me

Summer hike #2

SQUAW PEAK
So for our second day hike of the summer we trekked up the back side of squaw peak with guest hiker Ellie Roberts. Although the climb was harder than we anticipated, we had a great time and the view at the top is well worth it. We couldn’t believe that the trailhead was about five minutes from our house. Have I mentioned we are really going to miss Utah? We went the day after a huge rain storm and since the trail was extremely muddy we lost our way a few times. Good thing two women were in the group to out-vote Brad’s often misinformed male intuition. :)

These are some shots of Brad and I enjoying the view overUtah Valley.

This is an awesome picture Brad took of guest hiker Ellie relaxing on the cliff.