Happy Half Birthday!

To me! We had an adventurous day... but we didn't actually do any of these things for my half birthday... oh well its okay to imagine!

We road on the new light rail in Phoenix!

We then went to Marjerles Sports Bar for Lunch!

Dan and Mom waiting for the next train!

That night we went to a glass art exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden!

Dan, Mom and Brett were so excited!

Brett "picking" up a ball from the boat!

Sunday Pictures

6 Months of Marriage

In the last 6 months....

1. I have learned that I can be hard to live with
   
2. I have earned straight A's in school
   
3. I have learned that I prefer doing laundry but don't prefer putting it away and that Dan likes things cleaner than I do
4. I have started going to church every Sunday
5. I have learned that I can actually sleep without a TV or Movie on
   
6. I have learned that I don't cook or clean nearly as much as I thought I would once I got married
7. I have lost weight
8. I have paid all our bills and keep us on budget (even if that budget is sometimes bigger than it should be!)
9. I have been trying to keep an open mind about living in snow (its a battle)
   
10. I have never been so happy or grateful to have someone to experience everything with!

The past 6 months have gone by so fast, but so has the past year and a half. And I anticipate that next 6 days, months and years will fly by as well. We bought an ornament this Christmas that said "Our first Christmas together" and I told my mom... we will never have another first Christmas together so might as well celebrate it.

This is something I have realized, there are a lot of first, especially in the first year of marriage. Some first are amazing, others not so much. We learn from each first and can try and celebrate all the fun along the way.

I love this photo because its back before we ever knew we were going to be married. It was back when we were just starting to get to know each other. How little do we know that some small decisions will change our lives in such great and lasting ways.

Valley Farms, Arizona

I had so much fun showing Dan around Valley Farms, where a lot of my family lives, as well as where my mom grew up. I was shocked to realize its been 3 years since I have been down to Valley Farms! Way too long! We got to see my cousins and some of my aunts and uncles as well as take my Grandma to lunch! We also got to play with puppies! I am glad we were able to make it down there on our trip!

Merry Christmas from the Lanes & Calkins

We opened presents at my Dad's house Christmas eve. This morning we did presents at my moms! My Grandma came over for lunch and then after my mom and I went to see "Marley and me" at the Theatre, both of us bawled like babies (our dog Mario is getting really old and sick and so I kept thinking of all my memories of him!). Then Mom, Dan and I went to the Mesa Temple to see the lights. It was a great Christmas!

From Our Kitchen to Yours, Merry Christmas

I just googled "Wooshing"

I decided yesterday that between the internet and a public health background I am practically a doctor!

Not really but my doctor upset me a little bit yesterday. I won't get into great detail why but I don't think my age had anything to do with medical advice. And a doctors conversation shouldn't end like a fight, "You do whatever you want I guess." - My Doc

So anyway I just googled Wooshing. I have a wooshing noise in my ear and I know it has to do with my Pseudotumor. It happens to be one of the symptoms I don't remember having but am having now. My head does not hurt and my vision is good. It is my goal to be able to get off medication this year.

However I can't find anything other than the fact that wooshing noise in the ear is a symptom.

Run for your life, its Snowing in Provo!

Finals are OVER!

I just walked out of my last final about 30 minutes ago! I was so relieved to be done, and a little irritated that I remembered a part to one of the questions a minute after I turned my test in. Oh well. My scantron score showed up on the TV screen downstairs and it was my best grade out of the 3 exams I had to take in that class, so I am hoping to hold onto my A- status in that class!

I was also pleased to see that one of teachers already posted grades! It happens to be the class that my group presented for yesterday (30 minute presentation on Asthma Incidences amongst Hispanics in Utah County). Its not one of the grades I have been watching out for but was very happy to see that I received an A- in that class. It was such a long semester of weekly presentations along with the 30 page final report and 30 minute presentation! I am eagerly awaiting to see what my grade are in my other courses! I am dying to know, well all of them, but especially Health and Aging, I never once saw a grade in that class the entire semester, not even on the exams... for all I know I could have an F and not know it!

HLTH 438 001 Social Marketing 3.00
HLTH 439 001 Program Planning & Evaluation 3.00 A-
HLTH 450 001 Women's Health Issues 3.00
HLTH 466 002 Hlth & Aging Proc 2.00

Dear Santa

Here is my list for this year, I'm not asking for much!

Thanks Santa, Love Brittany!

10) A Washer and Dryer! (requirement: they must be beautiful!)9) A brand new Toyota Highlander Hybrid!! (If you can bring a matching Camry Hybrid for Dan!) 8) A real DIPLOMA! I want to Graduate! 7) Get me into Nursing School, ok!!6) Get Dan an AWESOME full time job after he graduates in June!5) I really want a Mini Dachshund Or a Pug..... Or BOTH!
4) I definitely need a Beautiful House! If you can't bring a House, I will take a Beautiful Condo with a large kitchen!
3) Bring me 1 wonderful pregnancy so I can have 1 beautiful baby!2) Make me healthy so I can run again!
1) Lastly can you make it June so Dan and I can get sealed already!

Medicity

Dan is taking an enterprise class this next quarter, which means he works on a project for a real company! Once he signed up for the class he had to let the people in charge know his preference for the teams. One team is off campus and the other three are on that Dan was interested in. Some of the other teams (I don't know if these are any of the ones that interested Dan) but they included Ebay, IBM, Fidelity, Mobitech, etc.

We had a long talk about what the options were and Dan really wanted to do the off campus enterprise team with a company called Medicity. I was a little (or a lotta) nervous about it because it meant he would have to leave campus, meaning MORE driving in the snow that usual. I already have to talk myself off a ledge with him driving 30 miles just to school.

Anyway Dan thought that I said "no" to the Medicity team so he emailed them back and told them he couldn't do that team. Later that night according to him (I think it was the same time we were having the first conversation) I told him that I wanted him to do it because I know how much it means to him and that it will be a good opportunity. I had no idea that he had already emailed them in and said no to it. He quickly emailed them again and told them that he wanted that as his first choice. I found this out a few days later.

Today Dan called me to let me know that he did indeed get on the Medicity team! I will have to figure out how to deal with the snow issue but we will be okay! I love him and am so excited for him! We both will have fun adventures next semester, him at Medicity and me at the Health Department!

Plus I am excited that Dan will be working on this project for a medical company! So fun!

Neumont Ornament

So my mom has round university Christmas ornaments for each of our universities we have attended hanging on her Christmas tree...

U of A for herself, Kirk and Kate
ASU for Chris and Brett
BYU for me

But she is missing a Neumont Ornament for her FAVORITE son-in-law, Dan. For those who don't know, Neumont has maybe a max of 500 students. They only have 2 t-shirts on their online bookstore let alone a Neumont Christmas Ornament.

We thought of all of these different ways that we could fashion a Neumont ornament. I figured we would just make a sticker and stick it on an ornament... Dan dreamed of designing one that wrapped around and having someone make it for us...

We came up with a simple compromise! We googled it and found this website called Speedy Signs, I am not even sure how we found this particular ornament because its not even on their ornament page. So we created a little logo using Neumonts Logo and made the following:
I am curious to see what it looks like in real life. It could possibly be the cheesiest ornament on the tree but it totally gets the point across and according to Dan it will be "the only Neumont ornament IN THE WORLD!"

I love him!