The Knock at the Door

So last night, we had a knock at our door.  We don't usually have visitors in the evening, so it was a bit unexpected.  And it was a member of our new ward that brought Chad a little gift.  It was wrapped in a little green rag.  I'm not sure what it was at first and I just got Chad.  Well upon opening it....it was a very new born bird that had fallen out of the nest that was way out of reach for this brother to get back in the nest.  He has several kids that were distressed about the bird and I think that he appeased them by telling them he'd take it to the Vet.  So funny.
Chad had told me about people bring birds and squirrels and other items that were beyond being able to fix to the Vet school.  I don't think that Chad thought that it would continue after he graduated.  So really not much we could do, so Chad said that he'd take care of the bird, after he died.
So Chad was telling me after everything was over that Kreal (Chad's older brother) and him when they were younger would put firecrackers in the mouths of the little birds that had fallen out of their nest when they opened their mouths to be fed. So Chad had no idea what to do with the bird, especially cause bird are considered to be exotic animals in Vet school so it's a specially training at school that Chad didn't have time for because of his other training he chose to do in large and small animals (cat and dogs).  I was laughing so hard, cause I can just imagine Chad trying to figure out what to do with this bird that was brought to him.  It was a cute little bird, we feel bad that we weren't able to do anything for it, but we don't even have a ladder to put it back into the nest, if we could have even located it.
Just made me laugh really hard, I can't believe that Chad did that when he was younger, and now I have to ask his SIL Tonia all about it, cause she was dating Von when they were doing that.  Can't wait to get the scoop from her!!

The Plan

Okay so we really do have a plan, but I've ben so busy trying to get crafts done for the fair.  There have been no posts on either blog!!
 So for those of you out there that don't know.  Chad got a job in Chubbuck Idaho.  Now to start this post off.  Chad and I both made the mistake of saying we'd never live in Pocatello (and Chubbuck is a little suburb of Pocatello).  So therefore God put us in Chubbuck.  We thought we had several option between Rigby and Blackfoot, but all of them didn't quite turn out as we expected and we also came across this clinic in Chubbuck that has a great idea of what it takes to help a new graduate Veterinarian start practice.  He's amazing already and we haven't even moved there yet.
So Chad will be working at Bannock Animal Medical Center.  It was built in 2004 by Dr. Rowntree.  He's originally from California and then moved up to Montana and had a practice there for about 13 years) and then built in Chubbuck in 2004.  He already has one associate, Jamie Rantella, a graduate from WSU 3 years ago, that he just made partner in January. The crazy thing is that it's a small animal clinic.  Chad always though he'd do a mixed animal practice.  Dr. Rowntree told him that after a year if he'd like to get a Vet truck and do farm calls that he could and that if all went really well with the addition of large animal then they could expand!!
How can you not take that offer.  So it looks like if all goes well, we'll be setting roots in Chubbuck ID.

So we're really excited. If anyone is interested here's a link to the website for Bannock Animal MC.
we're really excited to be close to our families and only 45 minutes away from a temple instead of the hour and 15 plus that we have now.  Then to realize that we're just over 2 hours to SLC International airport.  Which should come in handy as we save up to go to Guatemala when the temple is dedicated in the next couple of years.

I would link to pictures of the house that we are in contract for, but they already took them off the web and now I don't have any. :(  So I guess you'll all have to come visit us instead!!

An amazing HusBanD!!

So that last few weeks I've really been trying to count some of my many blessings.  I've been reminded over and over how great of a guy I was lucky enough to marry.

Like I had said, I've been thinking for several weeks, but just last Thursday, we got news that was the icing on the cake.

Chad passed his NAVLE or nation board exam for Veterinarian, and also the WSU CPE test!!! Now Chad was really nervous about both of these.  More for the CPE test, since he was told that only 40% of the class passes the first time.
Chad took the NAVLE on December 6th and then got a call from Idaho State on last Thursday January 14th, telling him that he passed his board exam.  And only the evening before did he hear about passing the CPE!!  What a relief for him.  He told me he had been praying and praying about it.  Which I find so endearing.  I had said a few prayers before he took them, but I knew that our Heavenly Father would bless him.  Chad has been so diligent during Vet school.  I'm sure even longer than the last 4 years, but I didn't know him then.  But I've been impressed with his study habits.  He never slacks off in anything really.  That is one the things that I most admire in him.  But because he has always studied hard I knew that the Lord would bless him to do well.

Okay so I wrote that at the end of January before we even went home for Chad's rotations.  Well now I have even more to say.  This last weekend was Craft Fair, and I was pretty ambition this year and came up/stole from Stacie lots of ideas.  Thanks Stace couldn't do it without ya. But we did really well and that's all because Chad has been painting things for weeks.  And then even during the craft fair he was helping me weed more vinyl to put the finishing touches on things.  He basically had 14 days in a row of no rest, between 1 week of overnights and then rotations and coming home to paint all night.  What an Angel!!  I love you CHAD!!

October 25th- The big 29!

So also while were in SE Idaho, we got to celebrate Chad's 29th birthday, and yes we put all 29 candles. Thanks to Chris that offered her house for the party and all the family that came to make it the fun night that it was!!

So it was great to celebrate surrounded by family and it made us so excited about the possibilities that we could come back to SE Idaho to settle down!!

Christensen Reunion July 23-25

So we went to a cabin in Kilgore Idaho for the Christensen reunion, and we were lucky enough to get the room in the cabin since we had Kherrington.  It was so nice to have a little area close to everything.  I think we would have been on the outs a lot if we weren't right in the middle of it! Thanks JaNae! It was beautiful weather and the surroundings were wonderful too.  Carlos' family also got to use the loft.  So lucky for everyone, by this time Kherrington was only waking up once a night about 2:30-3:00 AM.  Chad went on a horse ride on Camero.  Camero wasn't cooperating as well as normal and Chad was pretty sore.
I was just able to enjoy the time in the cabin and the trees where everyone's trailers were parked.

Schwan's man

So I'm not sure how many of you know about the Schwan's man, but since I've married Chad I've come to know more and more about the Schwan's man. Within the first few months of our marriage when Chad would come grocery shopping with me we'd walk by the ice cream section and he'd always say, "We need to get some GOOD ice cream!" So I would go on to tell him to pick out whatever kind he wanted. "Oh they don't have good ice cream here, we can only get GOOD ice cream from the Schwan's man." Well with living in a such a small little apartment and not having lots of room in the freezer we only bought a 1/2 gallon once.

So recently Chad has been back on his Schwan's man kick again. (I'm sure the Barnes' are just laughing hysterically at this time, cause we told them about Chad's obsession with Schwan's man very early in our friendship, probably ever since Chad's birthday that Oct '06 when we met them a few months earlier. They had never heard of Schwan's ice cream and Chad had to tell them how wonderful it was and how they were missing out. I don't remember if they ever got a chance to taste any?) So anyway, I just about started laughing at loud when Wednesday evening Chad answered the door and the Schwan's man addressed Chad by name and asked him if there was anything we wanted. Now I'm not sure if it's just a sales man thing to know who your customer's names are, or that Chad and I have been ordering ice cream enough lately that he knows Chad on a first name basis!! He has been coming by every 2 weeks for the last few months!! And we have the cute little neon orange stickers on the calendar to mark the every other Wednesday, just so we don't forget. Chad was disappointed a few weeks ago that my Dr's appointment was so late in the day on a Schwan's man Wednesday that I might not be at the house when the Schwan's man would come so we could get our ice cream we ordered! Good thing though, Chad made it home early enough from rotations that we got our ice cream order anyway. I'm sure that Chad counts that as a blessing for sure.

I have to admit though, I've gotten quite fond of the the great ice cream and the chicken cordon bleu and chicken Parmesan entrees they sell too. It's just nice sometimes to not have to cook anything for dinner. So we have a few in the freezer to help appease those urges when the baby comes. So if you haven't had the opportunity to taste Schwan's ice cream, Chad and I urge you to try it!!! And if you need recommendations of what to try first. We can do that too!!! But try at your own disgression, cause your husband's might start getting very excited when they see the Schwan's man truck where ever they might see one!

Chad's birthday-October 25th

Yeah again I'm late. I can't seem to be timely about any post.
But thought I'd share some of the funny things that just happen to land on Chad birthday.

So Chad told me that there was to be no party or people over for his birthday, cause he was just ready for a relaxing weekend. My family has always had a little party with the family with ice cream and cake and open presents whenever it's someones birthday. I felt so sad, cause we had already bought all of his presents together, when we were at home in July. So no new presents to give him. And then Chad had wanted a cake the week before his birthday so he made one. So Guess what... He didn't want a cake either. What is a girl to do to make it special. I felt kind of lost.

We bummed around town together in the morning and ended up going to Dissmores and Chad had this great idea of something he wanted...Sugar cookies. So that was his birthday dessert. How depressing and what a horrible wife I am. But what we ended up doing was going to the temple that day in Spokane. Which is usually a treat in itself. We went to the distribution to pick up some more garments and low and behold we ran into Josh Heim there. He's one of the guys in the single's ward where Chad is currently serving in the Bishopric. Funny thing was that he was so relieved to see Chad, cause once he reached the Spokane area he realized that he had left his temple recommend at home. So after the distribution center, we went to the temple session where Chad was able to help Josh get into the session. And for the first time in my few years of temple attendance. The men outnumbered the women. I've never seen that happen. We had a very enjoyable time and then ended up going to dinner while we were in Spokane too. Chad even had a hard time picking a place to eat. But we ended up eating and TGIF's. It was pretty good. Then we just went home for an enjoyable restful day. Can't really say that it was much of a celebration, but I sure had fun cause Chad hardly even studied that day!! So really I got my birthday present early!!