Playing Catch Up

Where has the time gone?  I just realized I haven't updated for almost two months.  Sorry about that delay...last time I promised to post pictures of the new place (well you will have to wait till my next post to see those). Where to even start with my catch up?

  Well, one of the most fun things Andrew and I have done was go to Mall of America back in September.  It was a blast! I had been the year before but this was his first time.  I was already going to Minneapolis for a XC race so Andrew and I just made our own arrangements. Because Andrew is Air Force we got to stay at cheap lodging on an air station right next to the mall!   We left Thursday and stayed until Sunday.  I raced on Saturday but we were able to just bum around such a big city.  Minneapolis, Bloomington (where the mall is), and all the surrounding areas are just huge!  I never realized how diverse Minneapolis area is.  

We got to play for a couple hours at the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park in the mall (if you know my husband he was in his glory!).  Too bad he missed seeing the avatar there :)  We also got some good shopping in as well for my benefit.  Overall, it was a really fun 8 hr road trip, a great race, and a fun location to stay at. 

As far as updates as to why I haven't been posting? 

 Eat, Sleep, School, Run, Repeat

Pretty must that explains my life.  Never in my life have I been as busy as I am in nursing.  I love it!  But it is so time consuming, stressful, and just all around different.  I may have to dedicate a blog post sometime about being a nursing student.  For those of you going or have gone through the nursing program already-I salute you!  So much work, so many crazy days, but so worth it in the end:) But what is at end for me now is cross-country.  I have finally completed my four years of eligibility running in Division II competitively. I am so sad, and yet relieved to focus more on nursing.  Mostly just sad.  Although...I do still have track-that I might not be as sad when it is over:)

That's all I have time for, for now.  Hopefully you will see me posting within the next to mush haha.  Next stop- On to Iowa for Thanksgiving!
 

Love, 

The Andersons

P.S- Did I mention this counts as a bucket list for us? Even though I have been own my bucket list was to take Andrew!

Hubby's Boo Boo

I guess I am a little late in posting this but better late than never! Remember when I said Hubby hurt himself just two days before we were supposed to move?  Well here are some of the pictures from when it first happened. 

I call it the look of shame...

You can already see the difference in size

It has been two weeks since his little accident while playing basketball, and it is still healing.  Sprains are definitely no fun.  These were just the first pictures, but there was a lot more color change overtime. You can sense my frustration at having my main source of helping pack and move suddenly become crippled:) I still love my little invalid but my were those first couple days interesting as far as moving. 

If you have ever seen The Big Bang Theory, the Hubby is just like Sheldon when he gets sick or hurt.  So him laying on the couch doing nothing while I moved everything was not the highlight of this move.  But now I just look back and laugh at the irony and bad timing! 

Hubby is finally getting better and can move around, but I still ask why he didn't wait to sprain his ankle until 2 weeks after we moved?:O)

Love Always,

The Andersons

The Best Bad Thing

Our moving experience Part I...

When I was younger I used to watch a Feature Films For Families movie called "The Best Bad Thing".  It was the story about a little girl who has to go help on a cucumber farm for the summer.  It seemed like everything kept going from bad to worse.  

Throughout the movie she constantly said something she had heard growing up, "All bad things come in 3's".

So here is our interesting move experience, in 3's. 

[Set 1]: The Call

• we were told the day before school started (a Tuesday) there was a last minute opening to move down town on campus.
• we had till noon that day to decide (which of course we said yes)
• Andrew wasn't answering the phone till last minute to tell him about the news.

[Set 2]: Downsizing

• I had to organize a garage sale ( a total nighmare) for that weekend
•  I had to get rid of all my beanie babies
• we had to find a new home for our washer&dryer, kitchen table, huge display case, old TVs, coffee table, and our baby puppy Athena :(

[Set 3]: Had to say goodbye to Athena 3 times :( :( :(

•  First time they were allergic
• Second time ended up being allergic
• Third time was just two days before we had to move

[Set 4]: The Injury

• Andrew had sprained his ankle the day before, the day before (crutches, a boot, the works)
• Had to finish packing and cleaning by myself
• Andrew sprained his right foot so I had to drive by myself back and forth (20min each way)

[Set 5]: The First Day

• Our first day in new apartment their was a poweroutage for over 8hrs (we had to finally leave a sleep in sleeping bags at the old place).
• I had to still do homework... and there was no internet
•  Couldn't get a hold of anybody due to Labor Day weekend (of course!)

[Set 6]: As of Now

• As of now we are still living out of boxes
• Just got the internet working but need to set up a router to make anything else work
• Just got told we failed our inspection for the old, base house.  Luckily the guy is giving Andrew 2hrs to pass it again.  

Whew! I think I got about everything.  I know that someday we will look back and laugh at the experience.  The wonderful thing about "The Best Bad Thing", is she realized in the end these 3 bad things weren't really bad to begin with.  They all turned out to be blessings...  I will let you know when I get to that point:) 

So to be continued... to Part 2 where I introduce you to this teeny place and let you all know the fabulous things that have come from living here!

For now, a sneak peek:

Love Always,

The Andersons

Survival: Day One

I did it.  I survived my first official day in the nursing program!  I seriously have so much admiration for all those who are or have gone through the nursing program.  It definitely is going to be a lot of work.

But still...I did it!  One day down, only five semesters left to go.  Yay me. Ugh...

These are all the books for just my two nursing classes.  I am also taking online statistics but those two nursing classes (along with cross country practice) are going to take the majority of my time.  The first three days of the week consist of class from 8-4 and that doesn't include future clinicals or my practices I have after class everyday! Well, here goes nothing!  Wish me luck ;)

Just a little update: We are moving to downtown Minot!  Call me crazy... but more on that later:)

Love Always, 

The Andersons

A month in photos

A month.  You read correctly, one month since I have last posted!  Shame on me.  I always get on others about "updating their blog" ,but look at me.  I am always wanting more people to read my blog and see what is going on with our little family.  Looks like I really need to get back on the horse in this whole blogosphere.  

I do have an excuse though.  When we were in Moab (during our stay with my parents) our camera got wet during our river rafting trip-go figure.  That was awesome by the way.  Anyways, the touch screen got broken so we sent it back to get a new camera. Which we are still waiting for. I definitely want to show you all some of the pictures I took during my month stay with family in Utah.  So for now here are a couple highlights from this past month:

First off, the end of May I went alone to go visit my parents in Utah.  That sweet little girl you are seeing is my little sister( now as a big 6 year old)!  She grows every time I see her.  Sami is the only picture I have of my family but she is just a taste of how big my siblings have gotten.  I got to see my little sister Juli graduate high school.  Sent Paul off to the MTC to start his mission in Guatemala.  John towers over me in height.  Little Mark is not so little either as he has almost caught me in height at 12 years.  

As I also mentioned Andrew and I got to visit Moab.  We have never been but it was beautiful and we got to experience the best of it by river rafting.  We also stayed in a one room cabin (how sweet is that?) I will probably save this trip for its own separate post.  

Next up was a trip to Rexburg on our way home.  What a cutie, right?!?  Yes of course I was talking about my beautiful niece, but that guy is something else too hehe.  Seriously though we had the awesome chance to visit my brother and sister in law with their new baby, Chloe.  We got a couple days with them playing games, meeting Chloe, seeing the King Tut exhibit in Idaho Falls (I loved it of course), and even went on a tour of Destinations Inn.  

We do have some sad news in the bunch.  After much prayer and contemplation we have decided to put an application in to try to move down town.  Really there is no housing in downtown minot but the university does offer some teeny apartments for married students.  Its a deal that financially makes sense.  With Andrew's BAH he gets, it is worth some sacrifice to save money towards a future down payment on a house or adoption.  These are things we have considered in what is best for our family.  Sadly the only real downside is having to rehome our precious pups.  We did find a home for Maia already on base and I know she will be taken good care of!  No news yet when will get in housing, but even if it isn't till next year it would be worth it!

The next pic you see is of me at a petting zoo at the state fair!  The North Dakota State Fair happened these past two weeks and we loved it.  I had never been before and had been dying to go.  Who would of thought the prices would be comparable to Disneyland? Luckily we went last Tuesday during military appreciation day and rode all the rides we wanted for free from 1-3.  Since a ride is usually about 5-6 tickets per person and each ticket is $1 you can see that we enjoyed it even more.  We went to a petting zoo, saw pig racing, saw a HUGE pig, went on rides, got a giant pickle for me, and even went through model homes.  It was a blast.  

Looking back I guess the hubby and I are super lucky to have all these adventures together:) Until I update again, which I promise will be soon.

Love Always,

The Andersons

Love Always, Your Best Friend

June 19th marked our 3rd year anniversary!  Can you believe it? I can't. Life seems to have just flown past and it sure hasn't seemed that long.  We didn't get a "real" anniversary this year since we were on vacation. 

 But during that time we got to see family, Moab, my brother off to the Missionary Training Center, friends (friends and more friends), Blake, Lynn, and Chloe, and of course got a new car! Not a bad anniversary after all:)

More on all that later....In the meantime...

Happy 3yrs to my best friend, soulmate, goof-buddy, husband, my man, and any other gag-inducing lovey dovey names.  

 Here is to an eternity of struggles, love, and adventures!

Love Always,

Dani Anderson

Meet Xena!

Finally, I actually have something to blog about:)  Currently Andrew and I are on vacation visiting my family.  For the last little while we have wanting to get a new car and thought finding one in Utah would be our best bet since we have limited options close to us in ND.  A car is something we needed before I started school back up in August.  I have 20 minute commute to school each way, every day, so relying on just one car just wasn't cutting it.

So happy news is we finally got a new car!  Our first time with a BIG, new purchase.  We are super excited.  We have been looking at something that we can travel with (since we are big on road trips), something with lots of space in the back, something with decent gas mileage, and something that will maintain its value. 

It came down to a Subaru Outback or Chevy Equinox.  I was partial towards the Subaru.  So today we went out car shopping.  Due to my mom's suggestion we went to a Toyota dealership to check out a RAV4.  We LOVED it.  We still went to test drive a Subaru and it was a really nice car but not as great as the Toyota.  We went immediately back to the dealership and picked out the one we liked.

As most of you know I am super indecisive so it took me about an hour just to decide on a color I liked! haha.  We want to show you our newest addition, Xena:

Isn't Xena a beauty?

Yep.  Super excited for our compact SUV

So there you have it.  Finally something exciting has happened.  We couldn't beat a deal like this.  With 0.0% financing and a $500 rebate for military personal we love the car all the more.

Now we get to take it on our road trip back home!  Next stop, Rexburg, to visit Baby Chloe, Lynn, and Blake!  We can't wait to see what new adventures this car will take us in.

Love,

The Andersons