hello there

Wow, it has been a LONG time since I have written a post. So many other exciting things have been on my mind.

#1 We are having a baby! Chance and I are so excited. We are due June 27th. I threw up every night until about 12 weeks, but I am now able to really enjoy the idea of having a baby growing inside of me.

#2 We said goodbye to Provo on December 23rd and are currently in Lodi for Christmas with my family until January 1st. We are starting out the new year by moving to Austin, Texas and we are really looking forward to this change in our lives.

Christmas has been wonderful (pictures to come). We have played games, watched movies, went to a Kings game to watch the Jimmer, played putt putt golf, rode go-carts, and have just enjoyed being all together. I am so grateful for my family. They are everything to me. I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas season!

moving check list

The countdown has started for our move to Austin, 10 weeks! We are starting to check things off our moving to-do list.

• Book moving company
• Sell Provo apartment contract
• Find an apartment in Austin
• Find a job for me!
• Clean out/get rid of things we don't need (I am loving this process) 

I am excited to explore a new place, everyone says it is so pretty!

 Anyone have connections for a public health related job in Austin? I feel like I was just looking for a job and now I am at it again, fun times. On the upside we found a reasonably priced moving company that is going to move everything for us, so that we can enjoy our Christmas in Lodi. I am so happy that we won't be driving a moving truck on Christmas Eve!

Arches

My parents and Emma came up for our church's General Conference two weeks ago and then afterward Megan and I were able to go with them to Arches National Park in Moab. It was so great to be with my parents and Megan and spend more time with Emma, the best sixteen  year old I have ever met. Sadly Chance could not get time off from his clinical rotation and the Eliason family didn't want to attempt the 12 hour drive with Lily (I have no idea why).

She looks so innocent!

 Anyway it was a wonderful trip! Here are a few pictures.

The fam at Dead Horse Point. I don't like how it got its name, but it was beautiful.

yoga and high kicks on cliffs

balance rock

Delicate Arch, my personal favorite. I feel complete now that I have seen the inspiration for Utah license plates, I never quite appreciated them before.

Last day in Moab by the Colorado River, we saw dinosaur fossils!

Thanks Mom and Dad for a fun getaway to one of God's beautiful creations. I love you!

"Nothing will work unless you do." - Maya Angelou

We are busy working these days. Chance has started his first clinical rotation and is working at a skilled nursing facility all day. He helps the elderly with their physical therapy rehab and has interesting experiences with bodily fluids almost daily! Lucky him :)

I am loving my job at Community Health Connect. I help coordinate care for patients in 13 medical disciplines, including cardiology, general surgery, neurosurgery, and others. I have the best coworkers and am able to speak Spanish for a large portion of my day, as a majority of our clients only speak Spanish. I love it.

We are also both adjunct instructors at UVU teaching a physiology lab. Chance has been doing this for two years, but this is my first semester and I am teaching 3!! It is so fun to relearn and teach one of my favorite subjects.

Anyway this is our life right now... busy busy, but oh so good.

23

I have loved the number 23 since the day I was born in Chicago. I just like the sound of it, 23....... I think it is going to be an exciting  year! I had a great birthday thanks to Chance and my amazing family. I am looking forward to another year of learning, growing, and experiencing new things.

The Best 2 Years

“Happiness in marriage can exceed a thousand times any other happiness.” 

-President Faust

Ice Cream and Waterfalls

This past week we checked off two items on our Provo bucket list, eating at Sammy's and hiking Mount Timpanogos. One was delicious and the other was challenging, but they were both delightful experiences!

We had the oreo pie and banana cream pie shakes, so tasty. 

The beginning.

Birthday Week

Here are some exciting moments from Chance's birthday week. 

Chance's dad drove down and took him out to lunch, golf, and bought him a fancy new driver.

We met up with Tangi and Scott for a fun afternoon at Boondocks and a yummy dinner to follow. Chance and Niels got soaked on those boats!

 

Uncle Chance! These kids are the cutest.

I made Chance the Brink family favorite, Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cream Cake. It was heavenly. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all. 

This shirt was Chance's birthday present from me. He is a cougar through and through that is for sure. He is already anxious to wear it to the BYU vs U game coming up in September, which my family gave him a sizable donation for!

 

I love birthdays. I love Chance.

day of birth

Yesterday was Chance's birthday! His birthday is a joyous day because I am so glad he was born! My life would be incomplete without him. 

 Happy birthday cute boy, we will be celebrating all week!

change-your-life-delicious

This ice cream bar will change your life for the better. Go to Costco now and get one!

Costco hand dipped (in real milk chocolate) ice cream bar rolled in roasted almonds. The best $1.50 we have ever spent. Go with someone to share because it is huge!

50

My parents turned 50 this month! And I am so happy they did because we were able to party all weekend together as a family!

We played tennis, swam in the pool, played games, went to the farmer's market, celebrated our country's birthday, made yummy food, laughed, danced, threw the best birthday party ever, and just soaked up every minute with the whole family all together. 

Joe got a little creative with the weapons in clue.

We threw a really fun party for our parents with all of their close friends! Here is part of the party planning crew.

I wish they were our neighbors.

Lily and I liked the ice cream!

It was so fun to be home and hang out with Meg and Emma, we miss Megan here in Provo and Emma too for that matter!

I love the fact that I will be able to grow old with this handsome man. He is my favorite :)

Father's day

My dad is the best! I was sad that I couldn't be with him and my family on his special day, and not just because they are all at the BEACH, but because I love him very much. He is so patient, loving, smart, and such a goof ball. 

We had a fun father's day weekend! We went to the Hogle Zoo with my sister-in-law Tangi and her cute kids. The tigers were my favorite!

To celebrate Chance's future fatherhood (don't worry Mom, this is a far away future). I made delicious chocolate chip banana bread, which we loved, and gave him one of his favorite snacks for his long study days ahead this summer. 

As you can see, he loved the bread.

A must make dinner

We had the most delicious meal last night! I made Southwest Pasta Salad and homemade tortillas to go with. Seriously, make this dinner sometime soon!

De-Fense

No, I am not talking about the Heat's terrible loss in the finals (of which we are very sad about), I am talking about the exquisite feeling of being done with my thesis defense! I passed my defense a month ago today, so it is about time I document this momentous event in my life.

Everything went really well, I gave my 20 minute presentation, then my committee questioned me for 40 minutes, then I left the room and they deliberated for 10 minutes and then I came back in and they said I passed with qualifications!  I fixed what I needed to the next week and turned in the final copy. What a relief!

My wonderful Mom came up for the occasion, and Megan and Chance were there at my defense as well. It was so comforting to see them all while I was presenting. We had a fun weekend together and I am just so grateful for all of the love and support I have been given from my family, Chance's family, and my Heavenly Father in receiving my MPH degree.

Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve

Chance and I have had an exciting weekend! I graduated (well, I officially walked) on Thursday and Friday and Chance rocked his finals and now has 3 weeks of vacation before his next semester. Graduation was wonderful, but I know it is always more exciting for the graduate than those in attendance! So I haven't officially graduated because I still need to defend my thesis. My defense is on May 13th and then I will be done! My mom is coming up and I can't wait to have this weight lifted from my shoulders. 

I am proud to say that I am now employed! I was hired at a non profit organization here in Provo last week and I am loving it so far. I am working with the uninsured population who need specialty medical care, which is very similar to what I wrote my thesis on! The people that I work with are great and another bonus is that my job is only a few blocks from our apartment.

We are very grateful for all that we have been given and we are excited for warm weather to visit us sometime soon.

The end of a wonderful chapter

(Last week we had our graduation banquet and about half of our MPH cohort was able to make it, so here is a picture!)

My master's program has been a wonderful and challenging chapter of my life and I have loved the experience. I can't believe it has been two years since I received the amazing news of being accepted into this competitive program. I have learned so much and grown in more ways then I could have imagined. 

The thing I am going to miss the most about my program is the wonderful friends I have made. Working through difficult projects together and traveling to different events as a group has created a bond between us that I love. They are all great and will do amazing things with their lives. I am so excited to graduate all together next week!

Sunshine all winter long

Sunshine during the winter? During the cold, the snow, and the wind? Yes! We have had sunshine all winter long by keeping our fridge stocked with Costco oranges. They are amazing and we eat them every day. My mom calls oranges sunshine in your mouth and we couldn't agree more. They fill your mouth with sunshine and then your throat and then your stomach and then the sunshine travels from your head to your toes leaving you smiling all over. A little extreme? You may think so, but they have kept us happy and healthy and so the theory holds true in our house.

Teach Me How to Jimmer

It is March Madness time in our house. Our brackets are filled out and now we are ready for the games to begin. We are excited for BYU's first game this Thursday! Go cougars!

Accreditation!

We had some great news last week when Chance's school became nationally accredited! He is attending physical therapy school at Rocky Mountain University and now that his school has become accredited his degree will mean something, which we are very happy about of course. Although we took a risk going to this school, we felt right about if from the beginning and now we know why. 

A party within a party

Last weekend my wonderful parents flew Chance and me to California to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday. Everyone in her posterity was there (except Megan in Jerusalem) and it was such a happy celebration! Instead of flying into Sacramento we flew into San Francisco to spend time with Jana, Joe, and Lily before the big birthday bash. We had the best time with them. It was so great to spend time outside (it was 70 degrees!) and to be with my amazing sister, brother in law, and niece. I love them all so much!

Feeding the ducks in Golden Gate Park.

The whole Brink family! It keeps getting bigger and better!

Sunday we went to church in San Francisco and then had a picnic on the beach before heading off to the airport. 

Thanks for everything Jana and Joe! It was really hard to leave and return to the snow, but hopefully someday we will live closer!