Highlights of 2011

2011 has been a really good year for the Jepson family so I wanted to just recap some of the highlights.

Winter-Karl did not have to go to back to school since he graduated in December. This started to job hunt and he ended up doing home health, taking care of two older people in their own home. The family absolutely adored him. They even tried to convince him not to leave for grad school but fortunately they weren’t persuasive enough.

I unfortunately still had to go back to school, but it was the beginning of my last year of nursing school so that was something to look forward to. I also got to experience the joy of night clinicals, which I actually loved.

Spring- we were able to go to Washington/Oregon for a goalball tournament and were able to go check out Forest Grove, where we were going to be living in the Fall.

I officially graduated from BYU! I finished classes last August but now I am official.

Karl's flag football team won the Championship game.

Summer- That was the time for work. Karl was still impressing the family with his kindness and overall awesomeness.

I started out with two jobs, teaching swim lessons and as an assistant manager at a new theater they built in Draper. After discovering that was a little much I cut it down to just the theater.

We hiked to the top of Mt. Timp. It was quite the hike, but it was gorgeous, we made it, and I loved sliding down the glacier.

Got to go white water rafting and milk a cow! Two lifelong dreams...accomplished.

We drove to California for a friend’s wedding and were able to go camping on the beach. I always seem to pick the cold beaches but it was still a lot of fun.

Fall-Karl started Optometry School! We had a blast exploring the area once we got him moved in and even tried our hand at crabbing. Success.

We found out we were going to be having a baby! That made the fact that I had to go back to Utah to finish school a little more bearable since I was leaving on a happy note.

I started my last semester of nursing school! And got to work with kiddos up at Primay's the whole time. I LOVE peds.

We survived the four month separation and found out we are having a little girl! Bring on the pink.

And I officially graduated from nursing school.

So it has really been a great and blessed year for our family. Can’t wait to see what this year has in store for us.

Storms in Oregon

The last few days in Oregon have actually turned into winter. We had a pretty decent snow storm and have had lots of rain the last few days. Oregon may be known for being green and having lots of trees but apparently those trees did not get the memo that they are supposed to be strong and be able to withstand storms. Or apparently they get so much rain that they turn soggy.

So after the snow storm we woke up to broken trees all over the place. This particular tree was huge and is now blocking half of the road.
The falling trees also resulted in a lot of downed power lines.
So the side walks have been covered with broken branches and power lines but we are doing good. I would have taken better pictures but my camera died.

Our Life in Oregon

Well, we made it to Oregon alive! This is kind of a long post with pictures but since I now live really far from family I just wanted to give you all an idea of where we now live.

This is the outside of our house. It is right on the end so we only have neighbors on one side, which I LOVE! It is super quiet and our apartment is set up like a townhouse. This means bedrooms are upstairs and the living area is on the main floor. This ALSO means that we don't have upstairs or downstairs neighbors! YAY!I think Karl's favorite feature is the doorbell. It gives it more of a real house feel. Anyways. When you open the door you have two choices. You can go up the stairs to the bedrooms and bathroom or continue straight to our big living/dining room. And this is an old picture from when Karl first moved in. I promise the boxes are not still sitting around.
This is looking from the kitchen into the living room. I absolutely love the little bar so I can be doing dishes or cooking and still feel like I am apart of whatever Karl is doing in the living room. Those blinds open up to a sliding glass door and onto our little green (from all the moss and rain) cement slab of a "backyard".
And this is from the living room looking into the kitchen. Notice my huge pile of dishes in the corner. There isn't a dishwasher but I am getting used to doing everything by hand again. I have been spoiled for a long time.
Ok. That is the downstairs. If you chose to go up the stairs you run into our room.
This is a picture looking from our room down the little hallway. The stairs are there on the left. The first door on the right is the bathroom. The second brown set of doors of the right is a little pantry/storage closet. And straight ahead is the second bedroom.
My favorite part of the second bedroom, or the baby's room, is the built in shelves. All in all I love the apartment. The only thing I don't really like is that there is not a ton of lighting. If you noticed there weren't really any lights in the living room and none of the bedrooms have lights. So far we have one lamp but I am thinking we really need to get some more. Especially with how gloomy it is outside around here.

So that is our place. A quick update on us. We are doing great. Karl started school again and I am settling into my role of guinea pig. Still working on figuring out what to do with myself now that I am no longer a student, for the first time since kindergarten. I have been pretty busy trying to clean the apartment and get everything organized.

Everyone has been so nice to me here. It is a good thing that Karl is so great. He made a lot of friends so I feel like I already have a build in network up here. The wives are all really nice and I went to school with two of them at BYU. I swear the church makes the world super small. There is also a girl who is related to some family friends back home in Nevada.

Up here the optometry students, at least all the ones that I have met are very concerned with finances and trying to save money. So what is the big thing to do up here? "Thrifting." I went with a friend last week and I really think I might get addicted. There is a place called thrift city that is basically like a DI but they have really really nice stuff and it is super cheap. I love DI for the games back in Utah, but this place here actually has nice clothes. I got a rocking chair that I absolutely love for 15 dollars. It just needs to be recovered, which is also awesome because it gives me a project. There were also a lot of adorable baby and maternity clothes and since I have pretty much nothing that fits me anymore it was great. And we ran into about 6 people from the ward there. It is a pretty popular place. But when you can get practically brand new American Eagle, Gap, and Roxy, and Motherhood clothes for about $2.50 each what's not to love?

Anyways. Here is one last picture. This is me at 24 weeks. I can't wait till we can finally meet our little sweetheart. My favorite thing is feeling her kick. I still have yet to have Karl feel it but he says he would rather just wait and see her kick once she is born so I guess as long as he doesn't feel left out we are good. :)