10 Days of Blogging

Karissa and I decided to do the blogging challenge together. We found quite a few but this one was our favorite. We're easing into the commitment with just a 10 day challenge..

If a Picture Says a Thousand Words..

I've been slacking on updating this since graduation so I thought the best way to fill ya in would be through some pictures from my phone.

At our dental hygiene pinning ceremony -- Juli and Deb were awarded for their outstanding research, Juli was also awarded Student of the Year! I snagged the Klooster Humanitarian Award :)

Graduation Day!

Bought some new running shoes graduation weekend.. that night I broke 'em in with 8 miles. Talk about blisters!

Went to a Dodgers game with Ash, Riki, Randi, Kevin and Dustin!

Had boards, PASSED, and said goodbye to Dental Hygiene school. Kinda miss it now..

Juli and I moved out of the dorm. (We like our new place much better!)

GOT MY BRACES OFF! (longest 7 months ever..)

Went to Chico for our girl Randi's wedding!! This was at her cowboy themed bachelorette party.

We stayed at the Unterseher's (Randi & Riki's parents) while we were there. It was so much fun us girls being all together :) I loved every second of it! 

WEDDING DAY! 

Our bridesmaid dresses were so pretty. Randi did good!

Randi & Kevin's photo booth: Lindsey, Juli, Ashley and me. The wedding was beautiful, elegant and fun! We had such a great time :) Randi and Kevin were so happy.. you could just feel the love in this wedding!

Once we got back from the wedding, we moved into Riki, Danae and Drew's house for the summer. We made homemade pizza our first night as roomies!

Received my DIPLOMA from Loma Linda University!

Went to a few free lawn concerts and plays at the Redlands Bowl! It's one of Redlands oldest summer traditions :)

We saw Oliver Twist that day.

It was a full house for the opening of Oliver Twist!

Pretty sure this one was a Mariachi band.

Jazz band.

Jeanne and Juli thoroughly enjoying themselves some Jazz :)

There was always the most beautiful sunsets! This picture does no justice to it.

This was The Secret Garden! It was a ballet. We had watched The Secret Garden the day before to prepare. It was so beautiful!! Definitely my favorite from the summer.

Another tree/sunset picture.. I just couldn't get enough.

Went to the US Surf Opens with Alex!! So cool..

Rented this great townhouse, with this great kitchen! (pictures of our place to come.. the walls are still a little too bare.)

Once I got home for a little vacation time, Karissa and I basically went straight into cooking/project mode! These blueberry muffins from Joy the Baker were literally to die for.

I made some map coasters. Karissa made a blanket out of hand-crafted flowers! I made a headboard out of a huge frame. And Karissa made curtains.. our dining room looked like we bought Hobby Lobby.

It was just the best thing in the world to be with my sister, again. :) I really missed her while she was in Ebeye.

Once I got back to California, it was only a week before Karissa and my Dad drove out here to bring her to school. They drove a 16' truck to bring some furniture for our new little townhouse.. They weren't big fans of the trucker life and were happy to have made it safely. My dad is such a trooper for driving that huge thing all the way here!! 

Once Mom finished work, she flew in to join us and help move into our new place. They helped so much with getting settled. I don't know what I'd do without them-- They give me so much support and love. I am so blessed :)

And just about a week and a half ago, us 4 girls went with a church group to an orphanage in Tijuana to clean their teeth. Most rewarding thing.. we had so much fun with the kids! (Juli and I debated adopting one..) But it was just so neat to see how God coordinated us to get together with this church group who had been praying for a hygienist to join them. And God gave them 4. :) We were so happy to be apart of this. I can't wait to go back!!

So now that we're sufficiently caught up... I'm planning on continuing to update more regularly. I'm even debating a blogging challenge :) 

-A

Getting Political

Juli got her wisdom teeth out yesterday morning. She was quite entertaining on her drugs.. apparently the news was on in her room while she was waiting so all of her loopy/high comments afterwards were more like tangents about the gas and oil industries and our horrible economy! We had a great time with it :) She even talked about Obamney..

Anyways, she's feeling much better today and is hardly swollen! Her surgery went really well. She's not quite ready to head out into the world so we're staying home and having church on our couch in our pajamas! Pastor Randy Roberts has been doing a series on prayer and our relationship/friendship with God. Its been so encouraging and wonderful! I'm really excited that I can hear his message from home today-- Technology is so cool!

Live Streaming from LLUC

Board #6

I have my very last Dental Hygiene board today-- California's Law & Ethics Exam. I'm a bit nervous about it, quite a few of my classmates have failed :/ It isn't the end of the world if you fail, you just pay $28 dollars and take it again but I'd rather not do that.. I'd like to pass! Just praying God brings to mind everything I need to know during the test.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own expectations. 

--Proverbs 3:5

 No matter what happens, though, I trust He has a plan and I am happy to follow. :)




EDIT:
I PASSED!!
God is so good :) :)

Happy 7-Eleven Dayy

Today is 7/11 so naturally, Ashley, Riki, Juli and I had to go to 7-Eleven and get a free slurpee.

Well then we got a great idea... go to more 7-Elevens and get MORE free slurpees! We went to 5 :)

4 friends, 5 7-Elevens, 20 slurpees... priceless! Literally :)

A day for the books!

UPDATE

Lots has happened since April!

• Been training for a marathon with Randi (we got up to 9 miles!!)
• My best friend in the whole wide world came back from a far away land called Ebeye :)
• I graduated from dental hygiene school!! 
• I found a boards patient the week before boards.. cutting it kinda close.
• Passed my clinical boards :D
• Went to Six Flags the next day to celebrate with Randi, Ashley, and Juli!
• Moved out of the dorm to a friends house, to a lady's house, spent a week in Nor Cal, and then moved to our current house-- 5 homes in 4 weeks (not recommended).
• Spent a week in Chico, CA for Randi & Kevin's weddding!! So perfect.. more to come later!
• Spent 4th of July in San Diego with Jeremy, Justin, Lindsey, Travis & Sam for the infamous firework show... it was supposed to be 15 minutes.. it was 9 seconds. I don't care what anyone says... it was awesome!

• More things to share later.. Ashley is in town for the day and we're doing a girls day! Plus, its 7/11... so we have get free slurpies from 7/11!!

Feeling super blessed to have such wonderful friends :)

-Ali

OKC THUNDER

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend one of my favorite team's games!

I found out our school was selling tickets and I immediately knew I had to go. Shari, fellow OKC fan, and I were all over it! We left after school, well after my school... Shari skipped. :)

We left early so we would have plenty of time. Once we got down to LA we were starving so we wanted something to represent our experience so we ate DELICIOUS burgers from the ESPN Zone in the Nokia plaza. We even had sweet potato fries :)

Unfortunately, the Thunder lost but we had the best time cheering them on! (They were winning most of it-- which makes it sadder.) But we enjoyed ourselves regardless! Its so wonderful to have someone here at school that I've grown up with-- every time we hang out we can't stop talking about home :) I love it!

It was a perfect way to end our Monday!! :)