Eyes like an eagle!!

I would like to refer all of you to this blog post. Katie is a friend of mine here in Texas, and I seriously could not stop laughing after I read this a couple of weeks ago.

My experience today wasn't quite as bad because I didn't have my eyes dilated. (THANK THE STARS IN THE HEAVENS!!!) Yes, my prescription needs to be more powerful. Yes, I had to wait forever. Yes, they shined a light brighter than the sun in my eyes, but WHOA! I now have eagle vision folks!

It's funny, every time I go to the eye doctor I always think that my glasses are working perfect and how it's such a hassle to have an appointment just so I can refill my contact prescription. And then at the end, they give me the new contacts/glasses and it's like I'm looking at a whole new world. It's almost shocking how clear everything suddenly is!

Anyway, if you've never been to the eye doctor because you're like Steven and are SUPER BLESSED to have perfect vision, you probably won't understand what Katie or I are talking about. For the rest of us handicaps out there, I hope you enjoy her post as much as I did :)

-AN

Oh the possibilities...

I just want to say one thing: I AM SUPER PUMPED ABOUT LIFE!

Seriously, I have my whole life ahead of me and that is pretty exciting! Finishing school, starting a family, moving somewhere else for residency, and then moving again to finally settle down somewhere. I am just at the very beginning of my adventure! YES! I love adventures :)

What started this whole random spurt of enthusiasm five minutes ago was that I was being a normal person and mentally whining about dumb things I shouldn't be whining about. The focus of the whiny thoughts was "wow, I freeking miss the mountains. like, really, really miss them. Gosh dang you Texas and your nothing but flat, flat, flat EVERYWHERE! :(" Ya, kinda depressing huh? But it's also annoying to have those thoughts float around when you know you are pleanty happy where you are.

But what's exciting is that in three more years we will be picking up and moving to who knows where! It could be somewhere like this:

or this...

or this...

or this...

or this...

Who knows!? Life's exciting! Maybe I'll get my mountains, maybe I won't. I'm sure we'll end up wherever the Lord wants us to be. And right now, He wants us in Tejas, which is fantastic. Hooray for Texans and their GIGANTIC 4th of July celebration (which I am REALLY looking forward to!) and their boots, and horses and cows and giant bugs...ok, maybe not the bugs, but you get what I'm saying. Texas is great! Loving life, looking forward to the future, but making most of the present. Let's do this!

-Amber N.

Look what I found!!

So while I was on facebook yesterday I went to my chat bar and noticed that my sweet hubby was online, which was funny because he was in the other room. I thought I'd be a dork and message him, even though I could have easily talked to him. So I clicked on his name and sometimes parts of old conversations will show on the chat thingy (I don't know what to call that, but I'm sure all of you know what I'm talking about). This is the conversation that showed:

How have you been Amber? Long time no see. Are you still at BYU?

I'm awesome! Life is good And yep, I'm still here goin to BYU. How bout yourself? What have you been up to lately? Skiing im assuming?

I've been doin okay, been skiing a lot yeah, but not too much cause the snow has been kinda lame. How are you classes going? Are you getting along with your roommates? Are you still dating Mac?

My classes are SWEET! I love this semester and my gpa is going to love it to . My roommates are pretty cool too, a little loud sometimes, but they're nice and keep the apt clean which is more than I can ask for. As far as Mac goes, we broke up over break. It was a mutual thing so that's good. We're still good friends. I just hung out with him the other night. How was your break? Did you go back to AZ?

Yes, my friends. My husband and I started dating because of facebook. Seriously! I had met him my first summer up there, but I had honestly forgotten about him until we became facebook friends months later. That was the very first conversation we had that started everything. (we had spoken before, but it was always on big group date type things) Unfortunately, facebook cut off this conversation yesterday and this was all I could read :(. However, I believe the conversation ended up with him asking me out to go skiing with him the following Saturday. Nice!

Something that cracks me up is that this short snippet is just flowing of BYU dating culture. Oh man, I know I'm still super young but, I do not miss dating AT ALL. Bleck. No thank you. I am so grateful to be married.

Well, thats all for now folks!

Home Sweet Home

We're moved! And believe it or not we were COMPLETELY unpacked by Sunday night. One of the perks about being a little "crew of two" like us! Here are some pictures.

Church end table + Harry Potter in the back round ftw haha!

I love my new kitchen :)

Guest Bathroom

Guest Bedroom

Man Cave

Amber's desk/study/thing

Master Bedroom

-Crew of Two

P.S. There is also a master bathroom but it looks exactly like the guest only it is forest green and brown. I thought I'd spare you that picture because the only way to take it was to see me in the mirror and I'm currently wearing a mumu and my hair looks like a rat's nest. Consider yourselves lucky!

Steven's Med Research

What are we doing this summer!?

I'm doing the same old, working the two jobs and stuff so I'm pretty boring.

But Steven is doing some AWESOME cutting edge research this summer! Maybe he'll be super awesome and will publish some stuff in a medical journal (which wouldn't be new to him since he published some stuff while he was at BYU). He's so smart! :)

But I'm going to stop right now and say that his research uses animal testing and if you are against it, you might want to stop reading right now.

Pretty much what he's doing this summer, is testing rabbits with post traumatic arthritis with a pain reliever that is typically used for spinal work. BUT, the rabbits don't come to him already having this, so Steven and the Dr. that he's working with have to give them post traumatic arthritis by breaking their knee. Pretty gruesome, I know. I almost started crying when he told me :(. Of course they give the rabbits anesthesia, but it's still sad.

Anyway, after the rabbit has post traumatic arthritis they give them this pain reliever and see how well it works! Pretty cool, right!? The only not cool part is that after a while, they have to put the rabbits to sleep (yes, kill them) so that they can open up the knee and study the tissue.

I personally think this stuff is awesome! So many human lives have been saved, cured and comforted by the use of animal testing.

Also, another little tid bit that might bring you some comfort if you're feeling like the Neeley's are the devil, Steven is doing this research on a pretty atypical bunny. You see, at first I thought he was testing this on something as cute as this:

I love my mom's cute bunny! :)

Not the case. I guess he's doing this testing on these GIANT rabbits from New Zealand. Like, almost dog-sized rabbits. Kinda scary, actually haha!

I have no idea who this dude is. Just a picture from the web. Kinda freaky, huh!?

Anyway, I know it's kinda mean, but I almost felt a little better when I found out he wasn't killing the cute little bunnies. And from what I hear, there is an over population of these huge guys that need to be taken care of. So, why not use them for research?

Well, that's all for now. Steven is officially 25% MD, and he is also a bunny killer! Good thing I still love him anyway :)

-Amber

P.S. If you think this is bad, you really don't want to meet my dad. Pretty sure he's killed way more animals than my husband ever will! (But his buffalo burgers sure are tasty!)

Change is good

So the Neeley Team is moving, folks!

Not too far.

Just...to a nicer apartment, with no loitering, and no unsupervised children screaming throughout the streets that hop into your dumpster, and no angry couple screaming at each other during the middle of the night upstairs, and no crazy drunks that pull into the 7/11 that is right by your bedroom window at 3am.

Ya. Good times. Good Riddance. :)

But seriously, it wasn't all that bad.

And we probably wouldn't be moving at all if I hadn't decided to go to TCU.

It's just a lucky bonus that went along with my academic decision (yes!)

Anyway, this week has been fun mixed with a little crazy.

Both Steven and I both work from 9-5 (Steven is doing medical research this summer, which is a whole other blog post in and of itself!) and then we pack and move stuff in my little car from 5-10 and then we sleep.

Why are we not moving stuff in Steven's truck? Good question!

The tornados/hail destroyed both of our vehicles and his is in the shop until July first. So for the time being we're driving around my poor beat up baby (destroyed windshield and all) until we get his back and then mine can finally be fixed.

Ahhh the joys of being an adult, with annoying adult-like problems :) My mother warned me about this. And she was right. My mom is so smart.

So that's the update for now! I'll make sure and post pictures of the new nest when it's up and running this time next week (that's my goal!).

Later gator!

-AN