Mindy's 22nd Birthday

I don't really care for birthdays or any holiday celebration for that matter but this year I really enjoyed my Birthday. Dusty made me breakfast in bed and then let me open my presents and then I got to spend my night with my other half Lily at her bachelorette party. I loved being the only white person with all of the Armenians and I can't wait for Lily to get married!!!!!

My breakfast tray

Randy and Susie sent me Toms <3

Dusty gave me a kindle

Dusty also got me a camera for a graduation/birthday present

Since I went to Lily's party on my birthday, I celebrated with my family the next week. I made cheesecake from scratch and we all pigged out on it!!!

Blowing out the candles

My cute niece Alaina liked helping me open my presents

I got new cups because Dusty broke all of my old ones

Alaina pretended to drink out of my new cups while I opened the rest of my presents

My cute Grandma McClain gave me a cookbook

Alaina walked around wearing me new skirt for a little bit

Alaina showing off her muscles on top of my new air mattress

Alaina would run around in a circle and then hug Dusty, then run in a circle again and then hug Dusty, she repeated this cycle a few times and then started alternating hugging Dusty in-between hugging everyone else 

I got a new throw pillow

And new pillow shams

The 18th was my last day at Costco, so I needed to take a picture to show my utter joy!!!! Here are my before and after shots... 

First day of Costco back in September

My last day!!!!!! I'm so excited that I look crazy haha

Refugee Graduation

In order to graduate I needed to complete 252 internship hours. For my internship I worked with the Catholic Community Services Refugee Resettlement program around the corner from our apartment. During my internship I wrote health education materials for refugees and then proceeded to teach health education classes. I taught four different groups of refugees about Medicaid, primary, urgent and emergency care, public transportation and other basic health topics that are common knowledge for individuals that have been living in the United States their entire life. I was amazed at the little things that I take for granted each day that the refugees in my classes knew nothing about. My internship was a real eye opener for me and I loved it! At the end of my internship we held a class graduation ceremony. Unfortunately, because most of my refugees had already found jobs, they were unable to attend the graduation but two of the refugees from my classes were able to come. Here are a few pictures of our fun graduation ceremony. 

Me with Abdi Bale

Me with Ali

The group 

After my refugee graduation I was trying to make dinner and pulled the handle off of our little microwave. Dusty came to my rescue and took me to get a new one. Our new one is twice the size of our old one and can hold a whole plate in it (the other one only fit little plates and bowls). I am super excited to have a not ghetto microwave :) 

The ripped off handle

The entire face of the microwave fell off 

Romantic Weekend Getaway

Dusty and I bought a Groupon a few weeks ago for the Manti House Inn to use for our upcoming anniversary in April.  Last Friday, Dusty called them to book our getaway and found out that the temple would be closed for the majority of April so we decided to go this weekend.  I managed to get work off because Lily took my shift so we packed up on Saturday morning and left for Manti.

We started off the road trip by creating a play list of all of our favorite songs, Dusty added 56 songs and I added 20... he listens to a lot more music than I do. I picked up Coke Zero, Beef Jerky and Hot Tamales from Costco for our road trip snacks and we headed out around noon on Saturday.  We sang to our play list the whole drive there, and snacked until our stomachs hurt. I was so excited when we got to Manti that I started trying to take pictures of the temple from our moving car.  As we were driving away from visiting the temple during the October Conference weekend before our wedding Dusty promised me that the next time I saw the temple it would be when we were driving there to get married.  For those of you who know exactly how that week went and how I'm a little bitter about it, you'll know that didn't happen. It was so nice for his promise to actually happen as we drove into Manti this weekend, I just loved it!

We found our hotel, a cute little bed and breakfast that faced the temple and checked in.  Our room looked like a garden pulled straight out of a fairy tale.  It was super cute and I wish I could just live there! After we settled into our room, we decided to head over to the temple and do some work in there.  We did everything there is to do in the temple... it took 3 and a half hours, but we loved it.  They allowed us to sit in the room where we were married and Dusty and I were able to talk to each other for a little bit.  We've changed so much in the last two years and the last few months have been particularly hard on us but we're still a family and love each other more than ever.  It felt wonderful to be back in the temple where it all began for us and we hope to go back again.

After going to the temple, we went to the little Mexican restaurant that Dusty's family ate at the night before our wedding. It was so cheap that we left the waitress a 50% tip because we were shocked that food could be that cheap! We then headed back to the hotel for a night of bubble baths, snuggling and other things ;P

Sunday morning we slept in and then had breakfast at the hotel.  The owner made us muffins, eggs and bacon.  He was really nice about my Celiac Disease and made sure that I had enough to eat. After eating we packed up and headed home.  On our way home we stopped by my Grandparents and ate lunch with them.  It was nice to spend a couple of hours with them because we'll be moving soon and I am going to miss them like crazy! We then headed home and ended our super fantastic weekend. Every time Dusty and I go on a weekend getaway I say it was the best vacation ever but this weekend was seriously the BEST BEST BEST weekend ever.  Dusty even turned to me and said it was the best weekend he's had and that it was super romantic.  This weekend was great for me, it is a new beginning for us and I hope that we can continue to move forward, forgetting about how hard the last few months have been.

We ate at hotdog on a stick on our way down

My car picture of the temple

Getting ready to go to the temple

Dusty forgot his church shows so he had to wear his Puma's

Dusty loves him some mexican food

Our typical vacation bathrobe picture

The next few are from our hotel room

We visited the temple before we left on Sunday morning

Our best attempt to fit us and the temple in one picture

The Manti temple

We're moving :)

The last week has been full of amazing things!  On Monday (February 20th) Dusty took me shopping and we bought a new ottoman, to replace our old coffee table.  The coffee table was a gift from my friend Cindy when we got married. She was about to have twins and didn't have room for it anymore so we inherited it.  When me moved to Salt Lake last June it got banged up and it hasn't been the same since.  I begged Dusty to get me a new rug to go with our ottoman so that night while I was at work Dusty found us one on Ikea.com. He told me that I needed to wait until we had more money before we bought it but on Tuesday morning he caved in and took me to Ikea to get it.  It was our first time going to Ikea and it was fabulous.  We loved looking at all of the different house ideas and love our new rug.  After we got home Dusty got an email from Washington University asking him to pick a degree.  We thought it was spam until Dusty opened it and it was an email asking him to choose between their Masters of Hospital Administration program and their PhD in Economics program. He applied to these programs about a month ago and we didn't expect to hear back from them this quickly and for sure not in an email that looked like spam but we're super excited. The next day we got his acceptance letters in the mail, so we know for sure that he got in :)  After thinking it over for a while, we decided to go with the PhD in Economics program.  Its in Pullman, Washington, which is in the middle of nowhere but we are super excited to go. As a celebration gift, I gave Dusty a hooded towel haha.  He is always complaining that he doesn't have one and how cool one would be so when we got some in at work I got him one.  We've been searching for an apartment like crazy ever since we make our decision and Dusty was able to find one a few days ago.  Its brand new, so we will be the first people to live there and its huge! Its 925 square feet (which is bigger than both of the apartments we've lived in so far) and costs the same as our apartment here in Salt Lake and cheaper than our Provo apartment.  We'll be moving up there in the beginning of May and we couldn't be more excited to start a new adventure together.

Dusty eating at the Ikea restaurant

Dusty's hooded towel

Dusty keeps coming home from work with food all over his scrubs.... poor husband :(

We got these fortunes when we were out to dinner on Saturday 

and thought they were fitting given the circumstances 

Dusty dyed my hair and the majority of my face on Saturday

One of my coworkers posted this picture on the fb and we loved it!

This is the floorplan for our new apartment, we've never seen it but we like the floor plan :)

Cindy's Birthday Bash

For some strange but fabulous reason, I got off work at 5 tonight.  So, for the first time since I started working at Costco, I was able to actually do something at a 'normal' hour.  A couple weeks ago, Jordan messaged me on the fb and asked me if Dusty and I could come for a surprise party for Cindy.  We couldn't miss Cindy finally turning legal so we went down for it.  Since I got off at 5 we thought that we'd have time to hit up our favorits gluten-free pizza place in Provo, but unfortunately it was packed so we decided to go to a weird looking mexican restaurant that is around the corner from our old apartment.  I was super nervous about eating there but in the end, it was pretty good <3.  After that we went to Cindy's surprise party and ate more fabulous food and played Black Jack.  It was a super fun party and I wish we could have stayed longer. Before we went back to Salt Lake, we stopped by Liz and Brad's house to see them an new baby Sarah.  She was so cute and I wish we could have stayed longer but we needed to bet back home.

Our delicious looking ghetto mexican food!

Dusty loving his chocolate mole

The light fixtures were painted pink so the lighting looks a little funny

Dusty, Me, Cindy & Jordan

Me and the birthday girl!

Dusty and I playing Black Jack

Date Day

Since Dusty works every weeknight from 3-11 and I typically work every Saturday, Dusty and I have been having a hard time finding the time or even the energy to go on a date so we decided to start doing day dates.  Today for our date we went to the Temple and then out to lunch.  It was fabulous especially because last time we went to the temple I almost passed out and I've been nervous about going back ever since haha but luckily this time I didn't pass out and I enjoyed it.

After we went to the temple, Dusty took me out to my favorite restaurant, Biaggi's and we both enjoyed a super good gluten-free lunch.  It was a fabulous first official day date <3

Catch up...

It has been such a long time since we posted on here, It's totally my fault; life just got busy and I forgot all about blogging. Christmas came and went this year without us going on any cool adventures like last year but it was still just as fun. We got to spend it on our own and at home with each other. It was a new kind of special Christmas break. We were too excited for it to come so we opened our presents super early haha.  I gave Dusty The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, a Darth Vadar Alarm Clock and he gave me a full-size mirror, some clothes, a few of my favorite movies, and a darling gold locket that I haven't taken off since, even though Dusty likes to lean on it sometimes in his sleep and half-choke me. :)

I started my internship with the Catholic Community Services in the beginning of January.  I started by working on creating health education materials for incoming refugees and now I am teaching a few classes a week to different refugee groups.  They are learning about the health care system in the United States, transportation, carseats, WIC, nutrition, vitamin B12 deficiency, and dental care.  Its really hard for me to communicate with them because they are just learning English and I have to use a translator but I love it and hope that my program is successful in the end.  After I finish my internship in April, I'll graduate from BYU.  I am not sure what i'll be doing next but I am sure that it will be an adventure!

The last few weeks have really been a blur, though. It all started about two and a half weeks ago, when I hit a really bad pothole on a dark road. A few days later we took the car to get checked cause it was driving funny, and it ends up that that pothole BROKE the rim of the car! That cost a pretty penny to fix. Then we went to the dentist, and found out that I needed fillings and Dusty needs his gums grafted. Then last week, Dusty picked up a bug from work, and ended up spending most of Monday and Tuesday sick with a flu or something. Then I got sick! Luckily, we are both feeling better, and we had been careful enough with money these last few months to have enough saved up for most of our expensive accidents. Let's just hope that we don't have any more trouble! :P

Over the weekend, we bought four POUNDS of strawberries and dipped every last one in chocolate (ok, except for the three or four Dusty stole from the container when I "wasn't looking"). We have been gorging ourselves ever since on delicious Valentine's Day treats! We seem to have a bad habit of celebrating holidays early, don't we?  Oh and I gave him a subscription to ESPN and he gave me Victoria's Secret Bombshell perfume and lotion and flowers for Valentines Day... and then we finished our celebration by watching the new Winnie the Pooh movie that Susie sent us.

We are now just awaiting news regarding graduate school and our plans for the next year. Dusty is on the alternate list at GWU for medical school, as well as having applications in at PhD Programs in Economics at UW and WSU, and Masters Programs in Hospital Administration at the same schools. We are excited at all of our prospects, and are anxiously awaiting news regarding our future! :)

Here are some pictures of the fun things we've been doing:

Rebekah and I at the McClain family Christmas party

We went to La Casita #UNO with Tyson, Kelsey, Maggie and Keith

Then we all went bowling and I almost beat Tyson.  

He blames it on the green fuzzy we kept putting on him ;P

Maggie and Keith went onto the football field at USU when they came to visit

Dusty likes to take pictures when people are eating, its really annoying but,

Maggie is pretty even when she's eating!  I am so lucky to have her as my sister-in-law <3

Dinner at my favorite restaurant, Biaggis 

Biaggi's makes me special gluten-free food so we love going there :)

We went to the Leonardo Museum in SLC with Lymann and Amanda 

but didn't get a picture with them....

This is a typical sacrament meeting with the White's

Alaina (my niece) likes to take my IPhone and take pictures of herself when we visit my family

This is when she was about to start licking the image of her face on the screen....

Alaina loves to creep on herself on my phone, its just fabulous!!!

I have been eating A LOT of yams recently, and oddly for the amount of crap that I put on them I haven't gained any weight, I've actually lost 8 pounds since the middle of December :)

Dusty and I had a post-gym craving for coleslaw the other night so we broke the White family rule and went to WalMart! It's a good thing that Randy doesn't read my blog so he'll never know!!!