Apples!

Apples. The one and only true sign of fall.  And boy have we gotten our fill!

Apple pie, caramel apples, apple cider...and well just eating them plain!

I left Aaron home alone and went to Texas! But seriously, talk about a tender mercy. I wanted to go see Ellie SO bad, and baby Alice...and everyone.  And well, Aaron and I looked up flights and they were just way to expensive.  THEN! Literally the next morning after looking up flights and deciding it just wasn't going to work out to go, I got chosen as a student to go to the "Quiz Bowl" for my major (we go to a convention, learn some things, and then participate in a Jeopardy Game with other students from other schools/states...kinda like Mathletes, but for Recreationists).  Anywho...and you'll never guess where it was (DRUM ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!) HOUSTON, TEXAS. It just happened to by about 45 minutes from Ellie and Rob's house. So I went for the convention and then stayed the rest of the week at their house. I was so much fun.  Those sweet girls are just too sweet for me! I can never get enough of them!

The Convention: Parks and Recreation 

(I am in Therapeutic Recreation, so some of the stuff there was kind of weird, like regulations for a swing and stuff...not my side of the deal!)

My major is just too fun!
We met this girl there,
and it just so happen her
name was "Lauren" also! 

The gang! We studied a LOT! And we had a LOT
of fun together! :)

The beautiful Campbell Family

That I love SO much

Here we are at the Arboretum..it was seriously so beautiful! I want to go again!
But, we had bad luck going outside while I was there.
Once we had walked like 1/2 mile out onto the trail mosquitoes started to attack us..and I mean ATTACK!
Then, the next day we tried to go on a walk, and the SAME thing happened!
Let's just say I'll always remember Houston for it's mosquito.

My little burrito Sophie!  She kept wanting me to "eat" her.
So I made her into my favorite..burrito!  With Guacamole and tomato! Yum!

Cute girls! I missed them the moment I got out of the car at the airport!

But, it was time for me to go home. Aaron had hermited on the couch, and was eating renditions of corn dogs, chicken nuggets, and who knows what. He needed me (I tell myself anyways).

Instead of flowers or a swept floor...my husband does this for me when I get home:

Gotta love the guy!

 Halloween!

Halloween Halloween this is Halloween!

Thanks Steff (I think it was you) for the Aaron-sized onesie!

                              

Things have been going well here.

We signed up for our last semester of classes.  LAST semester.

These are hard to see...but these are our schedules for the last BYU semester we will have!

Aaron's

Loren's

Notice anything different? Haha I feel like I will have "nothing" to do next semester with only my internship, but I am also so excited for this new adventure!

Aaron's been working so hard.  I am so proud of him. I truly am a lucky girl to have him!  

He has one interview at Dartmouth so far, and that makes us so excited. We are praying for anything good to come of med school applications, and hope for at least two more interviews-one being at Minnesota.  Just keeping our fingers (and toes) crossed for more!

Life is so good...even if it's cold! 

Today was our first day of snow, and it was beautiful! It's gone already (thank goodness! we gotta ease into this) but it was pretty.  The months are just flying by, and I can hardly believe it's been almost one year with my sweet man!

Winter, what happened to fall?

Dear Winter,

If you could wait a little, teensy weensy bit longer that would be great.  Fall would like her debut, and you just aren't letting her have it!  While we love to sip hot chocolate and watch the snow fall, we also love our fall days and nights: warm, sunny days and cool nights.  And we'd actually like to enjoy the beautiful change of colors before the blanket of white comes.

Sincerely,
Little Loren Smith

It got cold here, yes real cold.  It was so cold we had to put our down comforter back on our bed!  And Aaron actually lets me cuddle with him for more than a minute since it doesn't "burn him" right now...maybe two minutes!

We are already entering our sixth week of school! WOWZERS.  Time really does fly.  It flies fast.  I can hardly believe it.  Aaron has 6 secondaries in, and still working hard.  He decided to quit his morning custodial, to his boss' dismay, and will end on Friday! WOO!  I am actually happy too because I have nightmare-thoughts in the morning when he leaves, like where I think I hear someone breaking in and stuff..ya, it's bad.  Anywho, happy day for us both!  He will be glad not to have to trudge through the snow at 4 in the morning too, I'm sure.

I got my internship!  The one I really wanted! I am beyond excited!  I don't know if it's paid yet (pray for me!) but I am just so relieved to know!  I was the last to be interviewed, and on the sign-in list I saw like all the amazing students, also my friends that had gone before me and I was sooooo nervous! But, I did it!  I had a great interview, and they called me last week!  I will start the first week of January, and am nervous but excited to not be in class and be doing what I really want!  I will be at a school for people 21 years and older with Asperger's and other learning disabilities, where the students learn to be independent through job skills and social skills.  I know it is going to be hard, but I am ready for the challenge!  Everyone knows I love a good challenge :)

In our mean time we've been getting our feel of football and sports! We play kickball together (intramurals), and we're not too shabby! In fact we won a game two weeks ago with just 5 of us  and the other team had all 8!  I've been working on "bridling my passion" because I get really into intramurals, but I've been doing good lately-the only yelling I've been doing has been to cheer! :) 

Dad came last weekend.  It was a quikie but we had so much fun! He came when it randomly decided to freeze, but we still had fun at the football game!

The giant screen...I swear it puts a hypnosis on men. 

BYU has this giant flag they open up over the student section before each game! We were so excited to make it underneath! (not sure why!)  It was HILARIOUS though because dad kept asking, is it going to be like this the whole game? Bahahaha, oh old men. They're just so cute.

He couldn't actually reach the flag..none of us could actually!

The fam!  It was a cold one!

He was cold, but still wanted to be able to hear...duh.

Aaron is the best.  He works hard. Really hard.  For his Pathophysiology class his teacher said that if you got over 82% on all the tests this year, you would get an A in his class. So the tests should be hard...well, let's just say Aaron did well! He got a 90% on his first test, and is feeling good :) That's my boy!

Finally, we went to a Murder Mystery last night.  We both were a bit apprehensive because we didn't really know what to expect.  It was western themed; Aaron was P'elvis Swagarin-the lone ranger and I was Butch Chastity the first lady of the outlaws, the best gunwoman, poker woman of 'em all....we thought the parts fit us well ;)

 

He's cute cowboy, huh?
Yes, that's a power drill toy in his holster...yep.

It was so fun. The girls in our ward that hosted the party did a great job! They had mini cups for whiskey (with cream soda) and "chew" (bubble gum) with a can to spit in, (root) beer, homemade pie...it was a cute and fun party!  Neither of us were the murderers, so I guess that's good news :)

          

Other than that we just move on each day with our ADL's (activities of daily living for those not in the healthcare world... ;) )  

Here's some of our randomness

Ask me why I took this picture, and I'm not sure. Not sure at all.  It's really gross actually. That was my caution tape for those who don't want to see this:

Yes, those are Aaron's toes nails. I was intrigued by how HUGE they were. What the... My husband has big feet.  He wears shoes one and a half times bigger than me! (Although that's no new news to anyone)


I also learned how to make cinnamon rolls the right size now! 

 
 I had trouble making these the right size in high school, didn't I mother? 

And finally, we celebrated Jakey's day of birth today with him! It was a little early since I will be gone for his real one, but boy did I make a wonderful cake!

It was general conference....that's our excuse for the grungies!


We have a wonderful life! Conference has given me a new hope that I really can make it through this whole medical school thing, and so can Aaron. It gets me really stressed out somedays that I just break down crying about what we have coming up in our lives.  But, people are always there for us.  And Aaron's dad sent us a wonderful letter telling us that we have so much to look forward to (if the Smith's can do it, we (other Smiths) can too!) and that the Gospel is the way to true happiness! If that's not the truth I don't know what is!

Our LAST Firsts

The time has come for our last firsts.  Our last first day of school (well for me, Aaron will have one more for winter semester), our last first football game, our last first apartment together....and so much more.  Graduation is itching me, and I'm ready to get rid of the itch! (Only about 7 more months!)

Last first day of school!

Jaketh ran his first XC race on Friday! He was tired, but looked strong.  We are excited to watch him this Saturday again :)  

STUD. 

Really sweaty!  Ewwwww!

The Gang!  We missed like 55% 

of the race since we couldn't find the start, but we saw the end!

Lots of running lately (which is good!)  This is me and my TR major buddies! We ran the AddictIIAthlete 10K and boy was I tired.  Aaron and I were sick all week...so it was a tired 10K.

Our LAST first football game of the season! (Home game) And boy was it worth it!  In the series of pictures here, you'll see us happily just getting into the stands (2 hours early! and still being up towards the top).  Not so slowly, you'll see the transition of events...getting ready to wait 2 hours, to being drenched in the middle of a flash flood... it was crazy! We ended up getting a better seat though :)  

The really funny thing was, that before we left home I kept asking Aaron if he wanted to bring his jacket...of course he kept saying no and I kept saying it's going to rain.  

I was probably 1 in 1,000 that thought to bring a jacket. Praises!

  

Natalie, Paul, and us! (friends from the ward)

Before the flood.

Yep, we could tell something was coming, we just didn't think it would last as long as it did!

And about 30 seconds after seeing the doomsday cloud coming....drenched!

Yep, I brought the blanket.  Can you tell, we're ALL wearing shorts and flip flops! 

Hiding!

Finally, the game started about 2 1/2 hours late...

turn of events...we were frozen!

It's been an interesting time for us..school started, we both are sick!  Yuck.  We got strep throat.  I decided to wait it out and Aaron got the meds...lets just say it wasn't fun for either of us.  So we've spent a lot of time sleeping when not at school.  

Aaron has received invitations for 12 secondaries! While that is encouraging, it really cuts into our social security (like we even had any money in there anyway!).  Med school is SO expensive. I feel like they even want you to pay them if you say yes (oh wait you do....it's called tuition!).  So, we're finally seeing the repercussions of med school, but it's also so exciting.  We got secondaries to the ones we wanted (Maryland, AZ, Minnesota, Kansas, and some others).  Aaron's always thoughtful and trying to find (and hopefully get into) a place that is more "family friendly" which we can only pray for.  

I am trying not to have any more breakdowns about med school.  Just trying to embrace it.  Aaron, on the other hand, embraces everything and so we trudge forward with his optimism and my fiery energy.  

What a way to live our last year at BYU.