Lets play catch up....

Here is what has been going on at the Palmer house in the last few months......

September 24-25: Sister's Wedding
Rehearsal Dinner

All of the girl cousins!


My sister got married to her husband in a beautiful wedding! It was so wonderful to be a part of her special day and watch as the two of them committed their lives to one another. Here is our new Dickison family:




I am so happy for them and their new marriage. Since the wedding, we have even had a double date with the newlyweds!



September 27 Two days later.......
Shaun had a job interview for physical therapy position at a clinic here in the valley.

Later that week
Shaun was hired!!!!
(a picture I took after he got his first check!)


Month of October
With Shaun getting this job, our life has changed dramatically. We went from both studying and waiting tables all of the time, to now having weekends free and no more books! We have been dreaming about this day for the last 3 1/2 years and we still can not believe that it is finally here! It has been wonderful to enjoy this moment in our lives! We have had more time for each other, our family and our friends.

Looking back on these last few months, I can't believe how much has changed. We are unbelievably blessed!

Happy Fall

Here are some photos of some of our fun fall activities that we have done this season.

A few weekends ago we carved a pumpkin together. Believe it or not, I have never carved a pumpkin before. It was just never a family tradition of mine.









It wouldn't be fall with out some pumpkin cookies! YUM!

Bible Study Fellowship

Looking for a good bible study?

Shaun and I just signed up for a young adults Bible Study. It is for ages 18-35, single or married. It is a brand new class starting in January and will be a 5 week pilot study of Philippians. Most likely it will be either Monday or Tuesday night located in central phoenix.

Both of our parents have been involved in Bible study fellowship for years and it is a great way to learn more about the bible and how to study on your own.

Want to find out more about the class? Interested in signing up? Here are a few of the sign up nights that are being hosted this week:

Wednesday Nov 3 at 7:30 in North East Valley
21320 N 56th Street #2039
Phoenix 85054
(56th St & 101)
Gate code 58622
Enter the gate make an immediate right and then an immediate left and we are on the right hand side about 6 buildings down.
Hosting: Jean and Heather

Thursday Nov. 4 at 7:30 in West Valley
6107 W. Yucca St.
Glendale 85304
(Off of 59th Ave between Cactus and Peoria)
Hosting: Beth Nowatzki

If none of these nights work for you and you still want to learn more about it, let me know and I will get you in contact with the leaders.
Also you can look up their facebook page: BSF for Phoenix Young Adults

Softball

For the past few months Shaun has been playing in a men's friday night softball league. He plays with some friends from his doctorate school and friends from Grand Canyon University.

This past friday they won their championship game!

Day trip

Spent the day up in Sedona for my job. I forgot how beautiful it is up there!

New Job!

I got my first check as an employed nurse! Wooo-Hooo! Can you tell by the huge smile on my face that I was excited?

Last month I was hired to work for a small company that does corporate wellness screenings and flu clinics. They are great! All of the employees that I have met have been really nice. I work some days in their office, but most days I am sent to locations all over the state of Arizona.

Two weeks ago I had my last shift as a server at Fox. I had worked for the company for over 5 years, so it was bitter-sweet. But for the most part is was wonderful getting to leave. I was burnt out. The company is going through a huge change and I am glad that that chapter in my life is over.

I am now and EMPLOYED NURSE! I have been waiting so long to say this. It is so exciting for me!

Nephew's Birthday

Last week was our nephew's 2nd birthday.

Were did the two years go??

Cabin weekend

We look forward to labor day weekend every year. It's the weekend that we get to escape the summer heat and head up with my family to a friends cabin. I have gone every year for 13 or 14 years.

This year was just as wonderful as every other. Nothing beats great weather, family and friends, quad ridding, relaxing on the porch, reading and playing a ton of card games!

This weekend marks the end of summer and the begging of what used to be my school year.... Now it just marks fall? Well, I may have to wait a few more weeks for it to feel like fall here in Arizona, but I can't wait!

This is going to be one busy month, with a lot of exciting things going on. I will fill you all in hopefully soon.

Dr. Palmer

After three long years, the day was finally here. We have been dreaming of the day that we were both done with school since the day we got married. Shaun started graduate school 2 months after our wedding, and we never thought this day would come!

On Saturday Shaun received his Doctorate in Physical Therapy and officially became Dr. Palmer. The day was everything I hoped it would be. I felt like such a proud wife! Shaun has worked so hard for this and it was great to celebrate with friends and family.


Shaun getting "hooded" as a Doctor....


Saturday after the graduation, we had both of the families over for an early dinner. Shaun and I don't have a huge place, so this was the first time we had hosted both of the families at the same time.

On Sunday night we had some of our friends over for diner. Most of the people that we had over were Shaun's old room mates from GCU and their wives. It was so much fun catching up with them! The night was spent grilling some kabobs and playing games.



On Monday night we went out with some of Shaun's classmates to celebrate with them. We went to Westgate and had dinner at Gordon Biersch and then went to Saddle Ranch for dessert.

Can you tell we were all too excited about our cotton-candy dessert platter!! :)


The whole weekend was a blast!

Happy Birthday Philip!

My brother, Philip turned 18 yesterday! EIGHTEEN! WOW! I can not believe it! He has grown up so much!

This next year he will be a senior in high school and right now he is currently working on enlisting in the Marines!

Sight-seeing in Chicago!

While in Illinois, we spent a day sight seeing in downtown Chicago. We didn't have a lot of time, but we tried to make the best of our time by seeing the most that we could. Our first stop was Millennium park:

In the park there is a huge reflective "bean" called the Cloud Gate. It was fun to look at and take pictures of. After visiting the bean, we ate lunch in the park at a little cafe.

After lunch, we had bought tickets to have a river boat architecture tour. It was a 90 minute tour riding on top of a boat hearing all about the architecture and history of the city. We enjoyed hearing all of the interesting facts and seeing all of the beautiful buildings. It was the best way to see the city!!! We highly recommend it to anyone who is going to Chicago!

After the boat ride, we walked up and down the Magnificent Mile. We didn't have time to do much shopping, but it was fun to window shop.

We loved our day in the city and I hope that we can go back sometime. Next time I would love to visit the museums, eat at some famous restaurants, and see a Cubs game.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

We celebrated Shaun's 26th birthday at Grandma's in Illinois. The day was pretty uneventful. We fished in the morning, had cake in the afternoon, and went to Culver's for dinner. It was a nice change of pace for a birthday celebration.

This past weekend we went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday back in Arizona. Shaun's favorite place to go for his birthday is Benihana's. We have gone there for his birthday almost every year. This year we found out that if you sign up for their rewards club online, the month of your birthday you get $30 off. Sweet!

While at dinner, we were reminiscing about Shaun's past birthdays and what we did for each of them. While we were talking about them, we figured out that this was the 5th birthday that we have spent together. I can not believe it has been 5 years! I don't know why this was so shocking to us, we have been married for 3 years, but for some reason it just does not feel like we have been celebrating birthdays together for 5 years!

Happy Birthday Babe!

Fishing in Illinois

While we were visiting Grandma, we went to the neighborhood "Farm and Fleet" shop. We came across the fishing section and decided that it would be fun to buy a rod and bait, get a fishing license, and go fishing!

The first afternoon that we went we had no luck. The fish were just not hungry.

After a few hours of trying to get the fish to bite, we gave up. It was getting really warm and we were getting a sunburn. We decided that we would get up early the next morning and try again. Thankfully, we had a lot more luck in the morning! I think it was because it was Shaun's birthday!

Although they were small catfish, we still had a lot of fun! Shaun is already ready for us to go fishing again.

Visiting Grandma Palmer

Shaun and I just got back from Illinois where we went with all of the Palmers to visit Shaun's Grandma. We spent four days in a small town two hours outside of Chicago. Grandma came out to Phoenix for our wedding three years ago, but we haven't seen her since. It was great for me to get to know her, since the wedding was too busy for me to actually get to sit down and talk to her.

The scenery in Illinois was gorgeous. I loved seeing all of the green landscape and all of the corn fields everywhere!! It was such a great sight, compared to the desert that we are used to.

The nephew and I. He will say cheese when he takes a picture (hence the funny face that he is making :)

Shaun and I with Grandma Palmer.

We would go on walks at night and at sunset the fireflies would come out. Shaun would catch them for our nephew and show them to him. He loved it! He would say "shaun. catch."

I will post more pictures and stories about fishing, Shaun's birthday and sight-seeing in Chicago in the next few days.

Natalie Palmer, R.N.

I AM OFFICIALLY A REGISTERED NURSE!!!!!!!!!!!

There are so many words that describe my feelings right now....relieved, excited, happy, exhausted, thankful.....

I took the test on Wednesday afternoon. After leaving the test, I didn't know how to feel about it. It was long, hard and exhausting. I knew that if I failed I could take it again, but I wanted so badly not to have to take it again.

I wouldn't find out the results until the next morning, so Shaun tried to get my mind off of it by taking me out to dinner at La Grande Orange Pizzeria. yum! It definitely helped to get me distracted for a little bit.

That night was horrible, I hardly slept and when I did my mind was still racing. Finally morning came and I could hardly wait! I just wanted to know if I needed to keep studying or if I could be done........ 11:30 did not come fast enough.......between Shaun and I, we checked the website 500 times that morning.

My Mom and sister were over at the time that I found out. It was great to get to celebrate with them and Shaun!!!

I officially have a license number!!! I never knew that a few letters behind my name would mean so much to me. I have put so much time into school and it has finally payed off. I am so thankful.