Bama Life

     I've been on a blog hiatus for a bit. I'm not going to try and write about all of the things that have happened since the last time I wrote on here (over a year ago). I will say that we LOVE Alabama!
    
     I am still working in the insurance business by day and have been teaching dance two nights a week at Strut, USA in Rainbow City, AL. I love the girls I teach and work with! Dance brings so much happiness to my life. I find joy in what I do in the studio. I am also the Seminary teacher for the Hoover Ward. I love those chillens! They make getting up at 4:30am every day worth it. It can be a hard gig, I'm not going to lie, but they are such good kids I [sometimes] forget how tired I am when I'm learning with them.

     Hunter is working at UAB Health System and just started his LAST semester of grad school!!!! He will be graduating in May, and then we will be heading off to our next adventure. We are excited to part with the student life and are ready to settle into a new job and new phase of life. 

We love our little dog, Mr. Peanut, like he is our first-born. He is spoiled in every way. In fact, the temperatures have been in the teens and twenties this week and I keep finding him wrapped in a blanket somewhere.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season and that your 2014 is fun and fulfilling!

   

It's Fall!

Fall is my favorite time of year! Here's why:

#1 As soon as it starts to get chilly outside I start counting down the days until my birthday. (15!)
#2 Leaves changing colors, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful things
#3 It makes for great camping weather and photo ops.
#4 I love the clothes that accompany the weather. (I'm a sucker for sweats, coats, scarves, gloves, etc)
#5 Fall food is delicious! Who doesn't love a good caramel apple?

This year was fun to have Hunter is the south with me to partake in fall festivities! We have a Gilland Family tradition just before Halloween to go up to North Georgia and get apples and visit Burt's Pumpkin patch. Hunter loved it! We bought some little baby pumpkins for Peanut since he wasn't allowed in the pumpkin patch.

 

 

We also visited Amicalola Falls! It was a fun little hike that ended with 175 stairs to the falls!

 

 

Happy Fall Y'all!





 

Weekend Getaways

We closed out the month of September with a trip to Georgia where we explored with our new little guy, Peanut. We love having him around!

The first weekend in October we went to Mississippi with our awesome friends Hope & David and Annie & Spencer! We (well, Hunter and I) went to go support our Broncos! Southern Miss was playing BSU so we roadtripped over to watch. We had a blast!

We met a little girl named Lori who kept coming to sit with us. She kept screaming at the USM mascot and calling him a chicken. He was an eagle. She told us she wanted to cook that chicken!

Not only did we get to watch the Broncos claim victory but we had some much needed girl time and the boys went fishing afterwards as well. We ate at the famous Leatha's barbeque in Hattiesburg. Apparently, Morgan Freeman visits there quite frequently for some delicious ribs!

I would say that was all we had planned for this crazy month but I'd be lying! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures to commemorate! Happy Fall!

Mr. Peanuts Arrival

On Monday we welcomed a one year old Yorkie into our family. We rescued him from another home and we love him already. He loves being outside. Hates baths. Loves playing all day. Hates water. Loves snuggling his sock monkey. And loves his new home. He is a tiny little guy! When we take him on walks he gets tired after maybe 100 yards. We usually end up carrying him home to his water bowl. Enjoy this cute face! We sure do! Happy Friday!

Just a little fun

This labor day weekend was quite a bit of fun. We headed over to Atlanta to watch as our friends Kevin and Kayla get married in the temple! They are so precious!

Of course in honor of the official start of college football season we got the BSU game in on Friday and the Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn games in on Saturday. By the way, I decided that while living in Alabama I must choose an allegiance second to Georgia (Go Dawgs!) so I have something to contribute to conversations here. So I chose Alabama. I have chosen Alabama for 2 reasons. #1 they won their game this weekend (sorry, Auburn) and #2 I am getting my State of Alabama insurance licensing through Alabama's continuing studies program. Seeing as how I'm a student there I have to cheer, right?

Mom and dad came over on Sunday for a slumber party with the intent of going to the fair with us on Monday. We stayed up late catching them up on all of the Marvel movies so they could go watch the Avengers and not be confused. Needless to say Monday brought nothing but rain... I was bummed because I was so excited for fair food! We decided that we wouldn't let our Marvel Movie Marathon got to waste so we went and saw the Avengers!! What a good day! Mom and dad left and Hunter and I decided to do something crazy!!!! We cut 10 INCHES off of my hair. Well, Hunter did the cutting. He was so pleased with his work that he said he had found his calling and he should drop out of grad school and open up a shop.

Our New Home, Roll Tide.

Hunter and I moved into our new apartment a week ago. Hoover, Alabama is where we now call home. This place is heavily football oriented, as Hoover High School is the school from the show 2 a Days and they are apparently unstoppable. I hear its nearly impossible to get tickets to their games! It is also laced with an SEC rivalry of "Roll Tide" and "War Eagle"! Now don't get me wrong we still claim our home teams (Go Dawgs! and for Hunt's sake Go Broncos) but it is fun to be living in that ESPN commercial where everyone walks arounds saying roll tide to each other. We like to join in for the sake of community.

Hunter will be starting his masters program this week for an MHA and an MBA. He is excited to get started.

I am working with an insurance agency and am loving it! I hope to be able to find a studio around here to teach dance.

Moving to a different place always puts us in this weird stage where it doesn't feel real for a while. On our first night here we went on a date and checked out the area. We LOVE Hoover! I take back all of those things I said about Alabama growing up...well most of those things anyway!

Last night, my parents came over for dinner and it was so cool to have them be close enough to do that! I am excited to be closer to my family and friends but we do miss being so close to our Idaho friends and family!

Summer livin'

We graduated from BYU-Idaho April 6th! We were so exciting to be done but also a little sad to leave our friends in Rexburg. We will always cherish the memories and the friends we made there.

On April 7th, we moved across the state to Boise where we will be for the summer. Hunter is doing an internship at St. Alphonsus Hospital and I am working at Sears and loving it!

We are so excited about what the future has for us. Hunter is starting grad school at University of Alabama at Birmingham in August!

For now we are just having fun and loving life together! Happy summer, everyone!