Graduation and the Past Months of Life

            A lot has happened since Mike’s inaugural MCAT essay-formatted love note (for which he received much Ashley lovin’).  Please excuse me, but the less I post on my blog, the harder it is to get back into the habit.  If you don't want to read, please let your fingers scroll through the countless pictures.  Since the last post, our circumstance has changed dramatically in a few key ways.

After hours spent in secret study rooms, library cubicles, and at home, hours of essay correction and fretting over responses to notorious interview questions, Michael Quentin Sanderson has been accepted to the WWAMI program at the University of Washington Medical School!!! I can’t tell you what a blessing this is for our family.  The promise of a future path, stability, and direction are a comfort to me and Mike, and as grateful as I am for his hours of preparation, we are both so grateful to the Lord for granting us this blessing.

So after such great news, we finished up this semester by walking together as Brigham Young University graduates.  Mike quit his job teaching for KAPLAN and we are still trying to regain a sense of normalcy in our lives.  Some things remain the same; we still enjoy J-Dawgs and Rancheritos, cousin dinners, shopping at DI, and going to free BYU tennis games for date night.  We hang out with the remainder of our friends in Provo, read scriptures together each night, and dream of our future "real life" together.

Mike is overly excited to get the dang diploma now that we are on to bigger endeavors

The Urquidi clan came all the way from Colorado to be with us!

And the Sanderson's came from Wyoming!

Our past few months at a glance seem overwhelming, but I’d like to touch on the highlights.  I hate to make this post another one of my lists (well, who am I kidding? I CRAVE list-making) so here goes...

In the month of FEBRUARY:

We listened to my cousin Kevin’s homecoming talk once he returned back from a mission to Madagascar

I waited impatiently at home for Mike as he interviewed for medical schools across the country

We vacationed with my family (Laser Tag, a laser show at CU, visiting Bri and Ruth) in Leramie while Mike interviewed for the WWAMI program. 

We attended Mike’s sister & brother-in-law’s sealing in the Billings Montana temple (YAY!)

We celebrated Valentines Day weekend by taking a Bachata dance lesson (super sexy latin-style) with the Killins, taking a ward dance class, and watching P.S. I Love You (P.S. Mike cried with me during the whole thing)

I bombed my first practice GRE ("bombed" is a bad thing)

In MARCH:

We made cakeballs, worked out, attended tennis games, watched tons of movies (Planet of the Apes, Mission Impossible, Sherlock Holmes)

We “Oohed” and “Ahhed” over cute baby clothes at Jessie Leavitte’s baby shower *(many of our good friends are either prego or moms & dads now)

We finally "hiked the Y”

We made tons of homemade popcorn, pizza, and chibatta bread sandwiches together

We partied with the McQuay’s on St. Patrick’s Day and tried corn beef and cabbage

I faced my fears and sang my first solo, Abide With Me, in Church

We dressed up for Buffalo Wild Wings and The Hunger Games movie premier with the Killins

We laughed with and listened to the Hilary Weeks devotional at BYU

We dressed up for Mike’s third Mission reunion (he’s getting so old!)

We made TP dresses at my cousin’s fiancé Deb’s bridal shower

We slept over at my aunt’s for general conference weekend, went mountain biking, and to an Asian market (I miss Japan so much!)

We threw colors at each-other at The Festival of Colors with the Blumels & Sloats

In APRIL:

We hiked through MOAB Utah for the first time with our fam-bam the LeStarge clan. We feasted on potatoes, chicken pot pie, s’mores, and roasted Starbursts.  We hiked to the top of the “fins”, played capture the flag in the warm moonlit sand, and had an amazing Easter Testimony meeting in the desert.  It was an amazing trip!

We are so cool for climbing this rock

A little planking

We said goodbye to the McQuays at their going-away party (bittersweet)

We came home exhausted after studying our little butts off for finals

 

I turned in my final art project: a compilation of my most recent figure drawings and a smash-book of my own making (sorry for the many photos, but this project took me some ridiculous amount of time I'm guessing is somewhere around 40,000,000 hours...maybe)

  

We took lots of pictures as we graduated from BYU, supported by all our family

We danced the night away at the Moonlight Serenade with 40s music, Prime Rib, and amazing people at Davis High School (thank you Jill!)

Mike got an awesome tablet (thanks Jane & Tim!)

We had breakfast with the Sandersons, toured campus, and laughed our heads off at “The Princess Bridesmaid” at Desert Star theater (Thank you Lisa!)

           We have been given the gift of an amazing life together, and it just gets better every day.  I’d like to thank our families for showing us so much love and spending so much time with us.  They have always supported us through everything, and it has been a blessing to live so close and to see them so often. I'm incredibly grateful for them and hope we can live up to their example as we extend our own family someday.  The adventure of life is only just beginning, and I couldn't have found a better man to share it with.