been a long time

Recently, I got annoyed that a friend hadn't updated their blog, and then I realized I hadn't either!!

It's been probably three weeks and work has been very busy, so I didn't have time to update! Plus, once you've gone a few days, then weeks, without updating, its a daunting task!

Anyways, we went to New Hampshire camping with our extended family like we do every year. i was very excited for it because my sister and her family were going to be camping with us this year (usually they stay in a hotel, but they decided to rough it with us!)
We camped right next to my parents and on the other side was Becky's family. Maddie was so great the whole weekend and we had such a fun time.

We went to the beach two days and she LOVED the ocean (as we knew she would!)

Then, the best news of all happened on Friday. Let me tell you how it happened:

Thursday night Ryan received an email on his phone from the MTEL people. All he could see in the subject line was "Your MTEL results" so he looked at his phone and then immediately was nauseous and put his phone back in his pocket! That was at about 10pm.
We went to bed at 11 and as we were about to fall asleep, he said, "I have a dilemma"... knowing nothing of the email, I asked, "what??" So he explained that he received this email and was so nervous he couldn't read it! I made him give me his phone and I read it... All it said was, "Your MTEL results will be available tomorrow after 5pm"
UGHHH!

All that panic over that?!?!

So then the next day, we were going to go into Portsmouth to go to lunch with my parents and knowing from previous times, Ryan knew he'd get his results via email around 1pm (even though he freaked last night, he knew that they usually send them out around 1pm every time on the date they say they'll be available.)
So, before we went to lunch, he said, "I can't find my phone" it was somewhere lost in the tent. So I told him to just leave it there and we'd look for it when we got back. That way he wouldn't be checking it the whole time at lunch!

He did and we had a great lunch.

after lunch, we came home and I put Maddie down for a nap and laid down myself. Ryan found his phone right next to the air mattress and laid down next to me. We looked at each other, both of us feeling sick to our stomach's! I kept saying, checking it now isn't going to change the results, lets just check it. And Ryan laid there holding the phone... and holding the phone.... and putting the phone down... and holding the phone again.... So finally I grabbed the phone and said, "i'm going to look" and he grabbed it back and said, "no wait... I'll look."

And I laid there... and he checked....

"THANK YOU GOD I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!"

I can not tell you how excited we all were... My parents came running over, Maddie woke up so I was hugging her crying, laughing, shouting!! My dad cried, my mom cried, Ryan was screaming!!!

Oh what a great feeling!!!

That night, we got a little tipsy with my parents while celebrating... Ok, we were down right drunk with my parents and it was hysterical!!!


Then I came home and went right into my busiest time of the year! RA Training. About 12 hours a day of nonstop working with Resident Assistants. Luckily I have 7 great RAs that are pretty good at things, so I'm happy!!

Included are a few pics from camping...

Maddie's first smore! Yum yum!!