Survival Skills

We made it!
7 weeks in Chris’s basement living out of boxes, 50 condo walk-thru’s, 2 offers, 1 month waiting to move in, 100's of hours of studying between the two of us, and 1 trip to Pittsburgh to suffer the MCAT…we are finally here! Now we have 2 ecstatic people starting their new journey with a blank canvas. Signed the papers at 2 o'clock and started moving instantly after! Can you tell we are a little eager?

Verizon Fios can’t come for another week or two so we will see how we survive with zero internet. We’ll try to keep you all updated on our progress. Read more...

TC: Sports in DC

Living in Utah there are about three sports teams to cheer for, the Jazz, 1 of 3 Universities, and the minor league Bees. Is this a bad thing? No, but one month in NO VA has proved to be a true sports fan's paradise. DC has a team in every professional arena, EVERY ONE. With Baltimore and Philly just up the road I don’t know if you can ever get enough but I will definitely try.

In one month Kirsten and I have been able to attend 4 Redskins games and one Nationals game. That is 3 more professional games attended than all of last year. After realizing the opportunity we have, I came up with this little wish list; to go to at least one professional game in every sport sans women’s b-ball which I’ll trade for college football. Maybe sans MLS too, I hear George Mason and Georgetown basketball games are amazing.

So up until now we have been documenting these events with our photographic skills so that we can share the fun with you guys. Here are some of the things we have seen so far.



So until next time please share with us (comments) what your favorite sporting events to go to are. Read more...

A place to call home.

I am unbelievably excited, only one week to go! I have been constantly thinking about how we are going to decorate our new house...we just need to actually be in the house so we can get to work. It is so much fun to actually go out and buy furniture instead of just decorating with hand-me-downs. Here is our first purchase for our spare bedroom. The colors don't come through very well but we are decorating in yellows and greens for this room.

I got awesome deals on both of these...
Bed Frame - $99 (Pottery Barn Outlet)
All Bedding - $58 (Target) Read more...

Eckers!

We were so surprised to learn that Tyler & Becca were still living out here. We thought they had moved back to Caliornia. Lucky for us they live basically right down the street from our new house. Tanner and I hung out with them last week and had a blast going out to do nothing but relax and watch football and have dinner. They are so cute and fun! Hopefully there will be more stories to come. Read more...

i heart tanner

I had an urge to watch this video for some reason a few minutes ago. This was one of the very best days of my life and I wanted to share it with everyone again :)



Thanks to Eric Richards for documenting the beautiful day. Read more...

Spaghetti.

Last night we reverted back to our college years. It took me back to the good ol' days of Brentwood on the USU campus when my bedroom was right next to the living room. Lots of late nights of constant music and ruckus from my wonderful roommates and their friends. I loved my roommates but I am an early bird by nature. Always in bed by midnight and up by 6 or 7. Let's just say that the early bird in me was not very happy last night.

The "people from Vermont" came over after the game right when we found out and took care of a Chris debaccle. Then we got ready to watch Entourage (a Cooley fave) but unusually no one followed us in to the living room so Tanner and I watched it by ourselves. After that amazing half hour we snuck downstairs not really in the mood to hang out with strangers (we didn't even know their names, and I am not sure Chris did either) to unwind before bed.

It was pretty loud upstairs Chris and the 4 Vermont-ians started playing King's Cup or something of the sort and Vermont-ian girl #1 must have been doing extremely well because she was continually yelling "Wooooooooooooh." It was constant excitement up there but bearable. When the clock struck midnight the chaos really began. Suddenly the voices got louder then some loud music started playing...it turns out they had decided it would be fun to come down to play pool...which just so happens to be on the opposite side of the wall where our temporary room is. We are visitors in the house of course so its not like we were going to rant and rave for them to quiet down. But come on! Anyone of you that lived with roommates probably knows exactly how we felt.

We were trying to come up with ways to distract them so they would go upstairs: we thought we could go outside to the patio and bang on the window or go doorbell ditch them a few times. We were wide awake cleverly coming up with ideas. This lasted until about one a.m. when they finally decided to take their party upstairs. We were pretty fired up from all of this and we couldn't sleep so we tried to glaze over and watch tv until one thirty then finally calmed down and got in bed again. We counted the very last sheep when we were awaken by the break of the pool balls. The first hour of pool must have been really fun because they were back for more at 2 a.m. That was the last straw...Tanner opened the door and was like "Come on we are trying to sleep right here." I am pretty sure this was all a ploy to get us to come and play with them. Sorry guys definitely not the way to pump us up for pool. Read more...

Downpour

We woke up Friday morning to a wet Pittsburgh...the perfect weather for being cooped up taking a test. I hardly slept a wink the night before (I usually sleep like a log) because I was nervous Tanner wasn't going to sleep well in the hotel. The next morning he told me he slept like a baby. It is funny how different the two of us are. I would have slept terribly and been pacing the room all morning but Tanner was as calm as can be just watching some morning television and getting in some last minute cramming. Here is our self portrait right before Tanner began his slow and painful brain-drain.Tanner's position on the MCAT: So for those of you who haven't taken a standardized exam, they suck about as much as two flat tires in a rain storm. You know, you only have one spare and you are stuck on the road....whatever, on to the test. The MCAT is long, it drains the brain, makes you laugh, makes you cry, then rides you rough and puts you to bed with no kiss goodnight. Here is the overview of the test so you know what I mean.













Physical Sciences = 2 years of hell

Verbal Reasoning = Verbal Reasoning

Writing Sample = A unified essay on the following "Society is best run when freedom is the foundation."

Biological Sciences = 2 years of hell

The worst part is, the test you just took on a computer takes a month to give you your score. Neat-o huh?

When we got into Pittsburgh on Thursday night it was pretty dark and gloomy and gave me a weird feeling instantly. But it was an eerily and astonishingly beautiful city. I tried to capture the magnificence of the old town on camera...but my photos came out like crap. So, Tanner took a few on our way home and I hope they kind of give a sense of what it was like. (Pittsburgh Trivia: Downtown is built on a triangular tract of land where the Allegheny River and Monongahela River meet to form the Ohio River. Pittsburgh is known as "The City of Bridges.")

I drove us home and I have never been so scared the rain was coming down faster than our windshield wipers could handle...You would think that since we were driving on a TOLL ROAD the upkeep would be a little better but there was constant potholes filled with water and we were hydroplaning to no end. Our toll money must be embezzled by the state government.

But we made it safe and sound keeping ourself entertained on the road by trying to name all of the states and capitals in the US. Good crap, we thought we were smarter. We did a terrible job and ended up looking up half of them online. Seriously anyone reading this should try it...you might surprise yourself with how much harder it is now compared to when you were in 5th grade.

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B.Y.O.P.

Okay so Pittsburgh really isn't the pits. Tanner and I are actually kind of glad we had to make the trip. It's funny that after six years (and spending the past month 24/7 with each other) we can still learn new things about each other. For instance, Tanner has never heard of MadLibs until last night. I thought he was lying to me...but oh he wasn't I had to search one out on the internet to explain what it was.

My job on the road-trip was the official flashcard assistant. Come to find out that Tanner uses some pretty crude and racy mnemonics to remember chemistry/biology/physics terms. At moments I was laughing so hard I couldn't think or breathe, it was unbelievable.

All in all the trip over the border into PA has been great. We've had only one Goofy Movie moment...Tanner owes me $1 million bucks for guessing Alabama during radio trivia...and normality is a crazy word.

p.s. Tanner takes the MCAT at noon, so everyone be thinking of him!

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scream this: LACTOSE INTOLERANCE!

Tanner's cousin Brooke got me hooked on a book called "Skinny Bitch." It presents its topics in such a cut and dry, kick you in the shin, while calling you names way but unusually you actually feel good after being yelled at continuously. Because the book really makes you stop and think about all the crap that you put down the hatch everyday while encouraging you to make some simple changes to make yourself feel better.

One topic that really stuck out in my mind was the one that my dad constantly harrasses me about. And that is my addiction to milk...there I said it. Well it isn't so much the milk part so much as it is my inability to digest it that is the issue here. But they make these fancy pills these days that break down the lactose when your body just can't do the job. So, I have been pill popping since high school and the book recommends avoiding pills as well as things that your body doesn't want you to consume.

So I have been avoiding cheeses...replacing that as often as possible with hummus, yeah hummus. It really isn't as bad as it sounds I promise. And when I was at Wegman's a few days ago the "soy milk" was staring at me from the shelf. I nudged it into my cart...I thought "only $1.99 I can try that I guess." I resisted pouring it on my cereal yesterday but this morning I had to do it. I love milk I miss it already. This stuff tasted like warm Breyer's vanilla ice cream mixed with rice and of course my cereal. That's just not right early in the morning.

It's been hard but I am definitely cutting back my dairy intake...I am not going cold turkey no way...baby steps.

click to enlarge this comic. Read more...

Holy CrossFit

You know it's a good workout when you cannot even lift your arm to snooze your alarm clock in the morning. Let's just say that Tanner and I got our butts handed to us last night by the CrossFit trainer in Dulles. I was scared to death that I wouldn't find anything as great as Natalie's bootcamp out here and I would just grow exponentially because I am the worst at motivating myself to workout. So, now the goal is to convince Tanner that it is worth being locked into the three-month commitment and to pay the many bucks to prevent his wife from becoming unrecognizable. All joking aside, I really enjoyed being pushed to limit last night. It felt good...and terrible at the same time. Read more...

Pittsburgh is the Pits

Our nearly life altering experience summed up in twelve seconds...

Tanner procrastinated signing up for the MCAT, there were no seats left in America, we stopped breathing, one opened up in Pittsburgh, and now we are making the four hour drive for him to take his four hour test next Friday. Good luck Tanner! Read more...

The price paid for relief.

Driving up the long road to Chris and Christy's house gives me lots of time to strategize how I am going to successfully get five dogs outside without any leakage on the way there. Once I pull in I am out of my car and at a dead sprint with armloads of heavy bags. I enter at the main level and run down two flights of stairs and to the opposite side of the house to release Baxter and Jack from their dog prison slash the game room slash our temporary bedroom. Then the three of us scurry up to the main level then to the third level to two tiny yippers (Chip & Dale). I swoop them up and run (in my heels, mind you) with them like two footballs down to the main level, yell at George who is flailed out on his bed in the kitchen, then we all run around the corner and out the front door. I unlock and open the door and watch them all spill out to the front porch. It is a barking festival. I am sweating bullets and my heart is pounding as my eyes dart all over the yard hoping that one doesn't escape. Sigh. Success.

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