Wandering Browns

Thinking back on 2011, I think it was a pretty ho-hum year. For the 2 years Austin and I have been married, we have pretty much kept to a hectic, student schedule. We registered for classes , paid tuition, looked at eachother's schedules and realized we would never see each other. This year, I left home at 5:30 am most mornings to make it to my 7:00 am classes, then stayed up in Salt Lake most of the day to go to work from 4-7. Austin added teaching Italian to his already crazy homework load, and spent at least 5-9 hours/night doing homework while I took care of everything else (I didn't have that much homework). Austin took summer off to regroup for his final year of school, and I completed an awesome internship. All in all, it was just another year in school, getting us closer to our goals, but not necessarily an exciting year of change. Contrast that to 2012! I just finished my last academic semester. On January 2nd, I will start my first of 2 8-week internships leading ...

Sorry if I confused anyone with taking down my prior post about changes happening in our family. I wrote the post, and posted it, and then Austin asked me to take it down because it was not a for sure thing yet. So... without further adieu.... AUSTIN GOT A JOB! I am SO excited for him. It is for UOP, a division of Honeywell and he starts in mid-June. They are based in Des Plaines, IL which is a suburb of Chicago just north of the airport. He will eventually be helping groups around the world start oil refineries by taking them through the planning process, building process, and finally handing the working refinery off to the crew who will be permanently working there. First, though, we are moving to Chicago, where Austin will undergo 2 years of training in order to do this job. After that, we will put all of our belongings (except a few suitcases) in storage, and the company pays for our family to travel to random places all over the world. Assignments are anywhere from a couple week...

I thought my weed stick (at right) looked like a decoration one might spray paint silver. Austin thought it was lame.  Austin has this really annoying, but slightly adorable habit of rhyming words all the time, thus the post title. I have enjoyed my fall hiking this year. Austin and I went to Deer Creek over Labor Day and had a great time walking around the lake, which compared to Timp, was not really a hike at all, but merely a stroll. We each adopted a weed stick that we used to hit each other with. Austin's was like 7 ft tall until I accidentally broke it. It was a beautiful day. On literally the last weekend before Timp was again covered in snow for the year, my little brother Gregory and I, along with a group of his friends, attempted to hike Mt. Timpanogos. We started from the Aspen Grove trailhead at around midnight. Unfortunately, we made a wrong turn and ended up 2.5 miles off the trail. We realized this when we stumbled into a parking lot at around 2:00. We were ...

Many things have happened since my last post... We hiked 2 mountains over 14,000 ft. in Colorado in less than 7 hours. Before... the trailhead was at approx. 11,000 ft.  The mountains we were about to climb. We climbed Gray's on the L, hiked down the saddle and back up to Torrey's on the R We had a fabulous time, although Austin was disappointed I wanted to just get to the top of the mountain and go back down. I was very cold at the top and didn't want to spend a ton of time up there. On the way back to Denver, we came across a hitchhiker who got stuck in a mudhole with his family while camping and needed help. He was from the Czech Republic and had gone on SOOO many outdoor adventures with his wife. It was determined we would not be able to help him with our little Jeep, but we gave him a ride to his house so that he could get a truck to get him unstuck. At the top of Grays My internship ended August 9th. I was so thankful to be able to have suc...

Yesterday we decided to get out of the house and go to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, CO. It is an invertebrate zoo, so along with butterflies there were other cool bugs and spiders! I think we were one of about 3 couples we saw the whole time that weren't there with their little children. First, we went into a room with lots of little cages with different bugs. They had like 20 different kinds of tarantulas! Most of them are from Brasil. I held Rosie the Tarantula and got a sticker afterwards to prove it. My favorite, however, were the camouflage bugs because it took a long time of staring at the cage to figure out where they were. There was a bug that looked like a half dying leaf. That one was the trickiest. Next we went into the actual butterfly pavilion, which looked like a mini tropical rainforest. It was very hot and humid in there because most of the butterflies live in humid climates. There were butterflies flying around ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was like a litt...

Aquathlon= 1 mile swim, 5k run. This was the qualifier for the Aquathlon World Championships in Beijing, China. I am not going because we are poor and the visa alone costs several hundred dollars. Maybe another year when it's a country that is easier to get into. Before anyone thinks I'm bragging, this is what I really think about winning the Aquathlon National Championship in the age group 19-24. For one thing, I KNOW there are AT LEAST 200 collegiate swimmers that could have beaten me  in the race this weekend. The problem is, no one knew about it. If I hadn't been looking for an aquathlon to do in Colorado for summer 2011, I would not have been in this race. But, I found it and signed up, and so did 4 others girls in my age group. Luckily for me, none of them were swimmers, and only 1 was a runner. Go figure. Here is what went down this weekend: Friday, May 20th, 5:30 pm. We learn that the original aquathlon plan has been scrapped. The reservoir where the swim was g...

On May 7th, Austin and I moved most of our stuff into a storage unit, and took some of our clothes and our computers with us to Arvada, CO to live with Austin's parents for the summer. You could say that we just moved home for the free rent, but I thought it would be nice for Austin's parents to have him around since I have been stealing him away for several years now and they haven't really gotten to spend much time with him since his mission which began in May of 2007.  I have an internship with Alpha Rehab in Broomfield, CO for physical therapy, but Austin does not have anything yet, although there are some job opportunities that look promising for him.  The original caption for this picture was "Arvada is an ideal Colorado community" We have spent the past few weeks "working" for Austin's grandparents. It took Austin 2 weeks to paint their textured wood fence, due to power washing, health problems,  inclement weather, and finally grandpa mak...

Since finishing swimming, I have satisfied my desire to compete and stay fit with endurance events. In 2009, I completed the Deseret News marathon and almost died. In 2010, I did the Utah Valley Marathon and felt ok afterwards, and then earned 1st overall for women in the Camp Yuba Olympic distance triathlon in southern Utah late in the season. Since we are still poor college students, I try to limit my races each year to just enough to give me the motivation I need to stay fit and have fun doing it. This year, I convinced Austin to let me do 1 more race. I planned on doing a race series in Boulder, but with my internship schedule, I would not have been able to do it. So, I decided to signup for: Aquathlon National Championships! They are going to be held in Longmont, CO, which happens to be conveniently located near Austin's house. There were no time standards to sign up, and the distances seem more conducive to swimmers: 1 mile swim and 5k run. I have had quite a bit of fun tr...

This next weekend, we are moving to Colorado for the summer. I am looking forward to warmer weather (not this crazy Utah late April snow!) and a change of scenery. Free rent is nice too. Austin's family is so amazing  to let us come and stay with them! I will be doing an internship with Alpha Rehab, an outpatient orthopedic clinic in Broomfield, CO. I am very excited to use all my new skills in a clinical setting, and to experience PT outside of Utah. Denver skyline... this is the biggest city I will ever have lived in Before moving, however, there are a few trials to overcome... #1: I have a final on Wednesday that counts for half my grade. It also involves everything we've learned about the shoulder, knee, ankle/foot, and elbow/wrist/hand and how to treat said body parts with the best evidence. It is getting increasingly hard to keep everything straight in my head. #2: Austin is currently trying to engineer a way to get our piano out of our basement apartment into a tr...

This past week, I traveled alone back home to see my long lost brother Gregory give his homecoming talk (he just got back from Rio de Janiero, Brasil where he served a mission for the LDS church for 2 years), and then to spend some time with my family for Spring Break. This was the first time I have traveled for a break from school, because I usually stay home and clean and take care of Austin instead of doing anything fun. This is a great picture of what Atascadero looks like right now. Flowers and fruit trees are blooming, the grass is so green and there are lots of animals. It honestly looks like the Shire from Lord of the Rings. And I LOVE it. Unfortunately, the weather decided to gang up on me and it rained almost all week. I got to do some fun things though, like run with almost all of my siblings, watch lots of good movies, and play with my aunt's new baby chicks. I also gained some confidence in my physical therapy schooling. My grandmother has a myriad of health problems,...

I had the AWESOME opportunity to see Vocal Point in concert for Valentine's Day at the LDS Conference Center. I had not attended a Vocal Point performance for some time, and I was amazed with the song choices as well as the arrangements. One of my favorites was "We All Need Saving". The lead singer on this particular number was the vocal percussionist for Vocal Point. I really enjoy the tone and quality of his voice. Too bad he is also amazingly talented at vocal percussion, so we don't get to hear it that often. Here are the lyrics: ooh ooh, come on come on you have got to move on this is not the you i know this isn't real it's just all you can feel and that's the way that feelings go and whether or not it's right or wrong you'll do what you will do but when the cloud in the sky starts to pour in your life its just a storm you're braving well don't tell yourself you can't lean on someone cause we all need saving sometimes say what yo...

I live in a hole. It is a basement apartment and the windows are at ground level. Even in the day time, it seems to always be dark in the apartment. I don't like this at all.  Our main light has been acting funny lately, so Austin installed a new bulb. I wish I had before and after pictures. The light is so bright! I can actually see the details of the corners of our little apartment. It brings me joy. It's kind of like the light that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings into my life. I was so lucky to grow up with a knowledge of the gospel, but at different points throughout my life I have seen what I am to do with greater clarity and purpose because of this light. I know that the source of all light is Jesus Christ. In Sunday School today, we discussed Matthew 5: 14-16: "Ye are the light of the world...Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." This light was given to us through Jesus Christ and H...

I feel that I am an experienced driver. I have had a total of 5 tickets, and been in 3 minor accidents. I have been pulled over many more times than that. Ok, so maybe I have extremely bad luck. Yet, I believe that I am much more safe than most people on the road here in Utah. I don't blame the drivers themselves, but the quality of driver's ed in Utah. Here are some of the major things that I think people in UT should know: 1. Just because one person taps on the brakes does not mean the next person should slam on the brakes. This creates a chain reaction that goes on for miles. I cannot count the number of times I have almost rear-ended people on the freeway due to individuals not following this rule. 2. If you need to slow down, merely take the right foot off of the gas. There is no need to use the brake to slow down unless #1 is happening in front of you. Your foot does not have to be on a pedal at all times. 3. Unless you are planning on going at least 5 mph over the ...

So friends, this week has been really hard. I think I saw Austin (from Monday-Friday) for 6-7 hours that were not sleeping hours. However, these 6-7 hours were homework hours for both of us. I thought I had anticipated the bad week when I heard we had 7 am classes for 3 days in a row, but it did not stop there. Monday, I have class at 8:00, but it is at the medical school, so I take TRAX on that day and must be in Sandy, UT by 7:00 to take the train. That means waking up before 6 and leaving by 6:20 to get there on time. Monday afternoon, I had to do laundry and went on a short run in the bitter cold. Tuesday, I had class from 7am-4pm with nothing more than a 15 minute break at any one point. This meant waking up at 5:30 to leave by 6 to get there by 7. I hate commuting. There were 3 classes, but they were scheduled in close succession. Immediately after school, I had work at 4:30. 17 kids (there are normally no more than 10) showed up to swim practice and I was the only coach. 5 new...

Austin and I went on a relatively cheap, and AWESOME date last weekend. We went to Terra Mia , an authentic Italian pizzeria for dinner. This place makes fresh pizzas with very thin crusts in an oven imported from Napoli! Austin loves speak Italian with the Neopolitan* employees and eat pizza that reminds him of Italy. Also, they have coupons on restaurant.com that allow us to buy $25 worth of food for $15. That means a pizza each (leftovers!) and gelato all for $15! On top of that, we are trying to earn airline miles so that we can go to Italy when we graduate next April/May. Terra Mia is a restaurant that helps us earn miles for every dollar we spend. Basically it's great food and an awesome deal. We love Terra Mia. *Neopolitan= people from Napoli! I learn something new every day! Christ and the Young Child Christ in Gethsemane Next, we went to the BYU Museum of Art's current exhibit, "Carl Bloch: The Master's Hand" . This exhibit requires tickets but t...