Monday, April 28, 2008

Star Quilt

This is my latest creation. My friend, Kelly, has a similar quilt and ever since I saw it 2 years ago I knew I wanted to make one. Tucker likes to call it my "starfish" blanket. I didn't have anyone in mind to give it to while making it, so I guess that means I get to keep it! Quilting has definitely become a fun hobby for me.
I appliqued the stars on and then machine stitched around the big blocks and the stars. (I'm in the process of creating a blog for all my projects and crafty things I do. Once I have it looking cute I'll share the link.)

Friday, April 25, 2008

Has it really been 5 years?

Happy 5th anniversary to Lisa and me! It's crazy how fast time flies when you're having fun, right? 5 years ago today we were married for all eternity in the Salt Lake temple. It was a great day that we will remember forever. The weather at the temple was beautiful, and as you can see from the photo, the tulips were beautiful in full bloom. There's not much about that day that I would do differently. Maybe I would have been a little more eloquent with my speech at the luncheon, but whatever. Everything else was so great on that day.
As Lisa said to me today, our first 5 years will be remembered as "the school years". It's fun to look ahead now that we are finally done with school and are headed to Colorado. We have had such a fantastic 5 years of marriage with so many adventures, changes, and additions. I feel like we are still improving our friendship and working together to get to know each other better and better every day. I couldn't have asked for a better companion. I love her even more today than I did then, and I am very excited for everything the future has in store for us.
p.s. where did all my hair go?

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Nighty Night

Aubrey received her first nightgown yesterday. Her Grandma and Grandpa Calderwood sent her a birthday package and I love it! I wasn't sure at what age to get her a nightgown...apparently this is a great time! She looks so adorable in it, not the best picture below - but you get the idea, and she likes to pull the overlay up and see her hands through it. So very cute! This is how Tucker takes naps. There is never any rhyme or reason with the way he sleeps. I love the fact that he lined his airplanes up before falling asleep. He has been so fun lately. He has always loved songs and knows all the actions, but never said the words. Well, a few days ago he came to me doing the actions for "Popcorn Popping" and he was singing! It's great! Now he sings to all the songs he knows.
One of my best friends from high school, Maquel, came to visit me for a day on Sunday/Monday. Her husband had business in Philadelphia for the day and then they were on their way to Boston for more business. Their layover happened to be in Baltimore and I was so excited! We talked for hours and I took her to the Inner Harbor so she could see a bit of our lovely city.

Maquel and Clark Evans

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Colorado or Bust!


Finally I can do a post about our future after graduation now that I know for a certainty what we are doing. The last several months have been so uncertain for us with the job search. It has been a big roller coaster ride for us since last November when I thought I had a job secured in Coeur d' Alene. I had some good job offers in the Spokane area since last summer and we really thought that we were going to end up there, but things fell through and didn't end up working out for us. We were so bummed because we had put so much research and effort into securing a job for me. Granted, I have been fairly picky about the job I am going to accept, but I figured that after all the schooling I have done I deserved to be picky.
Well, after things in Spokane didn't work out as I had hoped, we went back to the drawing board to start applying for some more jobs. Denver and Spokane were always our top two options. After receiving some promising offers in Spokane last summer, we focused our efforts on the Pacific Northwest and quit looking in the Denver area. With the new developments two weeks ago concerning my job offers in Spokane, I went back to square one using all my resources to find job offers in a hurry.
In my search there was only one offer in Spokane, which was a corporate dental position, none in Idaho, one in Utah, but more than a dozen in Colorado. I sent my CV to all of those practices two weeks ago today hoping to get a reply from some of them. I was really nervous too because this is really late to begin looking for a job considering that I graduate in May.
Much to my surprise I got a reply from Dr. Miller in Colorado Springs within a few short hours. We talked on the phone for quite a while and I really like his practice philosophy, his personality and the opportunity it would give me as an associate and potential partner down the road.
I booked a flight out to Colorado to meet him and his staff and check the area out. I landed on Wednesday and was scheduled to fly home today, Saturday. I have been very fortunate to take off time from school on such short notice because I have been done with all my requirements for a while now.
When I got there, I loved both the city and Dr. Miller's Practice. I followed him around his office on Thursday to see the system that he uses and to get to know him and his staff. It went great and he offered me the job. It is actually the best offer I have received too.
This is a view of Pikes Peak (14,115 ft) from Colorado Springs.

This is my boss, Dr. Miller

We went snow boarding up at Breckenridge on Friday and had a blast. The sun was out all day and we had blue bird conditions. It even snowed several inches on Thursday, so we had some powder still. I really enjoyed the resort, the terrain, and the views were unsurpassed. I couldn't get over how many peaks over 14,000 feet are located in such a concentrated area. I even rode up the highest chair lift in North America, Imperial chair lift. It takes you up to 12,840 feet. What a great day on the slopes. That's my kind of job interview.



While I was there I saw the place we are going to rent for our first year until we find a house to buy. It is a cool 3 level townhouse by Palmer Park, a nature preserve. The best part about this- we will be paying $300 a month less to rent this than we are currently paying in Baltimore. It is a two bedroom, two and a half bath townhouse with an unfinished basement and includes a garage. Very cool indeed.



And our last bit of great news is that we bought a car! On Friday my dad's friend Kip Wade won an auction for us on a silver 2005 pathfinder. It is completely loaded-black leather interior, DVD player, heated seats, adjustable pedals, 7 passenger seating, 4WD, Bose sound system. Basically if Nissan offers it on a Pathfinder, we got it. It only has 40,000 miles and we got it for a little under $21,000.



We are so excited to have a great job, a new place to live, and a new car. We are moving out the the first of June. As the early gold miners in the 19th century said, "Colorado or bust!"

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Success!

Finally a photo shoot where Tucker decided to smile!

Sorry the pictures don't blow up, I copied them off my Kiddie Kandids online profile.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Ahoy There Matey!

Yesterday and today I had my Teelin Spring Performances. Everyone did fabulous and we had a great time performing. I was able to dance with a couple of my teams because of dancers that dropped out or couldn't make the show. The pirate girls below are my best dancers. I've been teaching some of them the whole time I've lived in Maryland and they are GREAT! These cute girls are my beginning cloggers. They did awesome as well!
This is my intermediate class. I had a cute mother/daughter combo and some first and second timers to clogging in the class. I loved being able to perform with them - it makes the show so much more fun to be at!

My family and I attended a fun get together after the show last night and had a great time socializing and saying goodbye. It is so bittersweet when you are moving away. It didn't take a lot of convincing from the parents to talk me in to arranging to come back every so often to teach a weekend workshop. Hopefully this fall we'll have our first one!

ZOO BALL

I went to the Maryland Zoo Friday morning with my friend Kelly and her 2 kids. She has a pass to the DC Zoo (that zoo is free but parking's not) and the pass gets you into the Maryland Zoo free - which is great! I'm trying to teach Tucker about other animals besides the mighty elephant.
The elephants are still his favorite by far though! When we say "cheese" he really cheeses it! I'd never been to this zoo before and was pleasantly surprised with it. We saw 95% of the animals and they were actually in action or close up so we could see them.
Later that day Cody took Tucker to Target and bought him a t-ball stand. He's always wanting to play (Tucker that is), but never quite hits the ball unless Cody and I have exact aim at where he is going to swing.

Aubrey loved it as well...and being outside did us all a lot of good! The weather was actually in the 70's for 2 days before it dropped back 20 degrees.
Tucker still loves to pick dandelions.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Spring Performance

I thought I'd put it out there one last time. My dance studio's spring performance/recital is this Saturday at 3:00pm in Columbia. I'm dancing with one of my teams and doing a solo. If you want to come let me know, you can buy tickets at the door. All info can be found at the Teelin website.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Aubrey's 1st Birthday!

Our little girl turned 1 yesterday!
We had a mini party with 2 of our close family friends. I made Aubrey this cute butterfly cake.
And Aubrey got her first doll stroller, the Little Mermaid doll, Cinderella figurines and the movie.
Oops I was going to put a picture with Aubrey and her cake with Tucker blowing the candles out, but it looks like I forgot. It'll be out of order if I stick it in now. She loved her cake! (By the way, I think Aubrey looks just like my baby pictures in the above photo. I usually have a hard time seeing the characteristics that Cody and I possess in our kids).
As you can see from her new white streaked "do" she had a great time getting it everywhere! It's what 1-year olds do best!
**By the way, I took her in for her 1 year checkup this morning and she weighs 22lbs. 4oz. She's average for her weight, but a couple pounds heavier than Tucker was at this age. All the clothes I thought she would wear this summer are too tight or short on her. She needs 18 month clothes already!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

What we did yesterday.



Since I failed to take pictures on Easter and Aubrey's birthday is on Sunday I dressed her up and took her to JC Penney's to get her a "cheap" photo session. I'm glad I took these pictures before because the photographer man scared her. Not intentionally, but his tactics to get her to smile just weren't working. I've complained before about my Penney's Portraits experiences and for some reason I find myself going back over and over again. I thought to myself, Aubrey is a happy smiley girl, she'll be fine with this photo shoot. Wrong. I did order one picture, the free one, so when I get it I'll scan it and show you all. The pictures didn't turn out horribly, but they could've been better. I think I'll head over to Kiddie Kandids and the Picture People next week to get my other free photos! This is definitely the last time at this Owings Mills ghetto store.