Minneapolis

This last weekend was my long awaited trip to Minneapolis for my clinical board exam. This post will most likely be pretty long and is mostly for journal purposes, so skip to the pictures if you want! I spent all day Thursday packing and trying to relax. We tried really hard to go to bed early, but probably didn't get to sleep until about midnight. We left Laramie early early Friday morning, at about 4:15 AM and headed to Casper to pick up my patient, Megan, who is Steven's cousin James girlfriend. On the way there, we came within about 2 ft of hitting a huge deer. It was scary, but it our reactions were hilarious and we laughed about it the rest of the way to Casper! After picking up Megan, we headed down the interstate to Denver. What a long ride! We made it to Denver around 11 and got our boarding passes and checked my bag. Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 12:50 so Steven stayed and ate lunch at the airport with us before we went through security. I was sad he had to leave, but the poor guy had to head straight back to Laramie to be back at work that afternoon. Megan and I boarded our plane, I had the window seat but gave it to Megan since it was her first time flying. I got to sit in the middle seat and the guy next to me was super chatty, which I found annoying considering I was dead tired :) Our flight to Minneapolis was only about 1.5 hours, but we lost an hour on the way so we arrived around 3:30. I'd been worried about my bag with my instruments not making it on the plane, so I was relieved when it was there waiting for me! We caught a taxi to our hotel, about 12 miles from the airport. FYI...they have sketchy cab drivers in Minneapolis... I had another set of my instruments and supplies for my exam Fed-Exed to our hotel and was glad they were there waiting for me. We went to dinner at Buca de Beppo and spent the rest of the night relaxing at our hotel. Saturday morning we ate a good breakfast at our hotel and then caught a taxi to the University of Minnesota health science tower 3 miles away. A couple girls I graduated with were there to take the exam as well, and it was nice to see familiar faces! I expected to be extremely nervous, but I was surprisingly calm. The only time I got nervous was while waiting to see if my patient qualified. Before she went in to be examined, I had a bad feeling about the teeth I was submitting, so I looked over my sheet again. It's a good thing I did because I had submitted one too many anterior teeth. (The qualifications are so specific, it's confusing) I hurried to fix my mistake before she went in, but still had a bad feeling about it. When she came walking out and gave me a thumbs up, I instantly relaxed! The rest of the exam went well. I feel confident in my clinical skills, so I'm pretty sure I passed. It'll be about 2 weeks until I find out, but it's such a good feeling to have it done! After the exam, we hurried back to our hotel, changed, and hopped on the train to the Mall of America. It was so fun! I knew it was big, but I didn't expect it to be sooo huge! We were there for almost 3 hours, and only made it through 2 levels. And that was pretty much running from store to store! I got Steven a new White Sox hat and some new running shoes for myself. We rode the train back with about 100 sketchy people, but it we had a lot of fun! We went to bed around 12:30 and had to be up at 3:30 to catch the 4AM train to the airport. Our flight left at 6:00 and since we got the hour back, landed in Denver at 7:15. Steven had to leave Laramie at about 4AM also to be there to pick us up. Then we drove back to Casper to take Megan home. By the time Steven and I got back to Laramie around 2:30, we were sooo dead tired! We slept the rest of the afternoon, and went to bed really early! Overall, the trip went really well. We were able to find everything, our bags made it, my boards went well, etc. Thanks to all our family and friends who were rooting for and praying for me! I've really felt my Heavenly Father's influence throughout this whole process. On a side note, Steven left to go to work yesterday morning and realized his wallet was stolen, right out of his unlocked car....yep....He apparently left it in there when we got back, so we've been cancelling cards, checking credit reports, etc. Anyway, I didn't get a lot of pictures taken in Minneapolis, but here are the few I did take.

The amusement park in the middle of the Mall of America

Part of the water park in the Mall
Riding the train back to our hotel
The sketchy train station
Don't judge me, this was at 4 AM!
The flowers I came home to, turns out my husband missed me ;)

Surprise!

Those of you that know me well know that I have a slight tendency to stress and freak out about things way before necessary. Sometimes it gets so bad I make myself sick or get a panic attack...ridiculous, I know. So it really is no surprise that for the past week I've been secretly stressing about my upcoming clinical boards. Turns out, it wasn't as secretly as I thought. Steven came home from work last night with a surprise planned for me to help me relax. I guess that's what I get for marrying someone who knows me so well :) He wanted to take me to the Saratoga Hot Springs for the night! I've never been, but he has and has told me a lot about them. We quickly packed our swimsuits and a couple sandwiches and were on our way. We drove over the Snowys, which I also have never been to. They were really pretty and we scouted out several future camping/fishing spots along the way. There were quite a few people at the hot springs when we got there, so I wasn't sure how much fun that would be but I was pleasantly surprised. We sat and relaxed in the hot mineral water and people watched. There was quite the variety of people there, too. Hippy old people there to "cleanse" themselves in the mineral water, families spending time together, teenage girls flirting with teenage boys, and the one random kid. This kid rode up to the pool on a scooter, and took his shirt (exposing his skinny little body) and socks off. He then proceeded to NOT roll up his pant legs and stick his legs in the water, jeans and all. How strange, but pretty hilarious to watch! We had to alternate between the hot springs and stick our feet in the cold river water every once in awhile because it was so hot. We stayed for about an hour and a half, stopped at a gas station for a drink, and were on our way home. It was such a fun surprise and I'm thankful to have such a creative, thoughtful, and fun husband to help me relax when I really need it! I love you, babe! (Like he'll ever read that :)) Here are some pictures we took, most of which are pretty random and ridiculous!

What a geek, but I love him :)

The mineral water turned my toe ring black...good thing it was like $4

Pouting that we had to leave :(

Notice how red our legs are, it was SOO hot!

We both look pasty white in this picture

Our relaxing weekend

Since Steven and I have been married, I've found a new love for the weekends, especially Saturdays. This is most likely due to the fact that Steven works all week, while I am home wishing I had my license so I could work! Anyway, we had a really run and relaxing weekend. On Friday night we went camping with our friends Ben and Brianna, Josh and Melissa, and Derek and Jessica and their adorable baby Pheonix. We haven't invested in a lot of camping gear yet so we planned on sharing a tent with Ben and Brianna, but Josh and Melissa ended up bringing an extra tent that we used. Our camp site looked pretty cute with 4 little couples tents. I wish I had pictures but, of course, I forgot my camera. We roasted hot dogs, (I brought a sandwich, I refuse to eat hot dogs) told stories, laughed a LOT, played games, and then went to sleep. It was such a pretty night with the full moon and lots of stars out. We woke up and Derek made us breakfast and we packed up and came home. We are so lucky to have made such awesome friends here and we had a great time! Steven and I spent the rest of Saturday relaxing at home, although we did go to the park a couple blocks from our apartment to play catch and then went and got ice cream cones that evening. Sunday mornings at the Hultgren home are always a little crazy, and this week was no exception. Our meetings start at 9, and since Steven gets up early during the week, I usually let him sleep in a little on Sundays. As usual, this resulted in us running around the apartment trying to not be late. So there I was kneeling on the floor in front of our closet reaching for my shoes when all the sudden, WHACK! We have sliding doors on our closet, and my wonderful husband slid the door over to get something out of the other side and sure enough whacked me in the head! It hurt so bad! I have a little goose egg and a pretty big bruise on my forehead. Of course, Steven felt horrible and I tried really hard not to be ticked about it :) Good thing we are in the nursery so the kids were the only ones to see it. The kids showed me their owies, so I showed them mine! We took a nice long nap after church and ate a really good Sunday dinner. My husband spoiled me and cooked dinner Saturday AND Sunday. Looks like I picked a good one! I'm glad we had such a relaxing weekend, because next weekend won't be so relaxing for me, considering I'll be in Minneapolis taking my clinical board exam and will most likely be stressed all weekend! I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Woohoo!

I finally found a patient for my clinical boards! I've been stressing, praying, fasting, etc for over a month about this, so it is such a relief to know that I have a patient. The only thing to worry about now is travel arrangements to Minneapolis, which for me is a little stressful, but nothing compared to the last couple of days! I'm just so excited, one step closer to RDH!

Thanks, Megan for being my patient!

More Pictures

I wanted to post some more of our wedding photos so those of you that couldn't make it could see them. Plus, I just think they turned out so good! Donna Stuart from Studio 1127 in Billings took them. I think she did a great job! These are just a few, we haven't gotten all of them yet. Enjoy!

This is one of my favorites!

Some of our families at the temple, the rest of the family and friends there decided they didn't want to be in the picture!

I look like I'm raping my husband in this picture ;)

Finally!

Well, after becoming addicted to reading my friends blogs, I've finally decided to create my own! I don't know that our lives are so exciting that they're worth blogging about, but we'll see. I guess I should start with a little bit about us. Steven and I have known each other since we were on the same little league baseball team. I was the token "girl on the team", he hated it and proceeded to tease me for the next few years. Fastforward to high school, his junior year and my sophomore, we started dating. We had a lot of fun in high school and fell in love. In 2003, I graduated and Steven left on his mission to the Philippines. During that time, we both changed quite a bit and decided to break it off. When he returned home, I didn't think much of it until the first time I saw him. I was living in Sheridan for the summer and came home for my dad's birthday. I went to church on Sunday, sat down and looked up at the pulpit and there he was! I felt horrible because my boyfriend at the time was there with me! I realized then that I definitely still had feelings for Steven, but hid them for about 2 more years. On my 22nd birthday, after not talking to each other for an entire year, he called to wish me a happy birthday. We ended up talking for hours, and the rest is history! We spent the summer together and fell in love all over again. We got engaged January 19th and were married May 30th in the Billings, Montana temple. Our wedding day was perfect and something we will never forget! We are currently living in Laramie where Steven has 2 more years of Pharamacy school at UW. I graduated in May from Sheridan College with my degree in Dental Hygiene. I passed the national written board exam in March, and will take the clinical board exam at the end of July in Minneapolis. Then I can begin the process of getting licensed and finding a job! We are finally getting settled in to our new apartment and our new life together and are loving it! We hope that this blog will be a good way to keep in touch with friends and family and are excited to hear about what is going on in each of your lives!