Happy Tuesday!!

This was me when I left work Tuesday (for the last time EVER!):



Can you picture me in that moment? It honestly felt that good.

(I love this scene. I also loved (500) Days of Summer.
Thanks MB for reminding me of this clip.)

I DID IT!!!!!!

Remember my Tuesday job?

The one at the office where I had my very first interview in the city?

The one that seemed really nice, then as soon as I got hired, started going downhill?

The one I've wanted to quit since the first month I started, but I thought I should be positive and stick it out?

Well, I gave it a fair shot. I gave it over five months. I think that is plenty of time. But it wasn't really getting better. I still felt the anxiety start creeping in on Sunday afternoons knowing Tuesday was coming. I still woke up at 3:00 am every Tuesday morning and couldn't sleep. I still had to hold my tongue and respond sweetly when coworkers were downright rude.

In accordance with this year's theme of HAPPINESS, I decided that I don't have to put myself through this anymore.

Tonight, I finally got up the courage to quit.

And I feel SO GOOD!!! I was so pumped when I walked out of the office that I ran up 3rd Avenue in my dress clothes for a block and a half, just to get out some of my excitement. I even jumped around a little bit. I feel like I've turned a page. Now I'll have a free day every week to do whatever I want! (Explore the city? Play with friends? Be a better wife? Yes, yes, yes!) I'm so excited!! FREEDOM!

this is the face...

...of a girl who just got hired!

That's right, today I went back for my working interview, things went well, and they offered me the job! I'm so glad. This is my first job as a real hygienist and it's in such a great office. This is where I had my first interview, and I'm so happy they decided to give me this chance even though I'm fresh out of school. We're pretty excited!

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers you've been sending my way. It means so much and I know your prayers were heard. We feel very blessed!

oh happy day

We are unbelievably excited. Mike and Sara are coming to visit us. In 12 days. Sunday night they called to tell us they were throwing caution to the wind and buying plane tickets. I absolutely cannot wait. There will undoubtedly be soft-serve, frolicking in the park, shopping, late nights, museums (at least the MoMA, right Sar???), great food and a lot of exploring. We are going to take this city by a storm. I bought an air mattress and an extra set of sheets today, then walked down 34th street browsing through stores, admiring the Empire State Building, imagining doing the same thing very soon, but with Sara as my shopping buddy. I'm so excited!

Also exciting: before the aforementioned visit, we will be flying home to beautiful Utah for a weekend for Justin's mission farewell. Boating and barbeques are already on the agenda, two of my very favorite things. I can't wait.

In other news, I had a great interview this morning at a beautiful ortho office on Park Avenue, ending with a job offer. I'm going to have some deciding to do after my interviews tomorrow. If things continue to go well, I'm going to have to choose where I want to work, a decision I certainly didn't expect to be lucky enough to have. But I'm so grateful! Also, Klane went to Portfolio Night tonight, got some great, positive feedback on his work, and made some good contacts. Good times in the Harding house today. Life is being good to us and we are loving it.

two awesome interviews!!

Bryant Park and the New York Public library. Found on Flickr.

I am LOVING this!! I had such a great day. I had two AMAZING interviews and I am so, so happy with the way things went. This is going to be so great!

One interview was with an office on 40th street. I love the area. I walked by Bryant Park and the New York Public Library on my way there; it was so beautiful! The doctors were young and so chill, funny and nice. We talked about snowboarding and waterskiing, as well as job interview stuff. They’re starting a hygiene program in their office, and they don’t mind hiring a new graduate! What an amazing opportunity it would be to start your own hygiene program and build it up. And this would be such a fun environment to work in. I felt so great about the interview, it went extremely well and we had fun and got along great. They’re having me back for a working interview. I’m really excited!

Afterward I went to Bryant park and sat here while telling my mom about the interview. It was a lot prettier today than this picture! More green and the lighting was beautiful!

The second was with the temp agency. I wasn’t very excited for this one. When I called earlier, the woman said she probably couldn’t help me. But after meeting me, it was a completely different story! She said she hadn’t realized on the phone that I was from “out of town” and now that she’d met me she knew she’d have absolutely no problem getting me temp work or a job, whatever I want. Amazing! She raved about girls from Utah and how they’re the best and all the doctors want to hire them. She has three offices in mind that are looking to fill positions and she wants to place me above anyone else! I couldn’t believe it!

As soon as the elevator door closed, I did a victory dance and jumped around and squealed. I couldn’t believe it. I’m so happy! Life is good!

the report

I am so excited, I just wanted to share with all of you. I've finally received all of my scores from the various board exams I took the last few months. I passed all of them, and actually did really well! So here is a recap.

National Board (written exam) : 93% (but my scores were in the top 98.5% of the country!)

Western Regional Anesthesia Board (written/practical) : Pass (It's a pass/fail grade)

North East Regional Board (clinical) : 100%

North East Regional Board (written) : 97%

I can't believe I received no deductions at all on my clinical, that is such great news. Now I just have send in my scores to apply for a license to practice as a dental hygienist in the state of New York, and I can finally start working!

North East Regional Board - DONE!

I can't believe it really happened, but it did. I survived the clinical board exam! I feel great, because this sounded like something that I could never do. Fly a patient to an unfamiliar, huge city, to a college I've never been to and take a rigorous clinical exam??! I really did that? It is still kind of surreal. This is us right after walking out. We feel great!

And for those who are interested, the test actually went really well. The clinic floor examiners and assistants were nice and helpful (in a very Eastern, short and to the point, almost rude but actually nice kind of way) and I finished cleaning the assigned teeth in an hour and 40 minutes, even though two hours were allowed. The examiners were actually a little confused when I sent my patient in to be evaluated early, but they said I did well!

graduated!

We made it! Packed up, moved out, graduated, finals finished and hopping on a plane. A HUGE thank you to all those who helped us out this week. You made it happen!

the class of 2009

It's no secret that I'm totally and completely ready to be done with school. But there have definitely been some fun times, and the girls I've been able to know through this experience are what have made it great. We have a great class. Thanks for the good times, ladies. Here's to the UVU Dental Hygiene graduating class of 2009!

anesthesia boards

we were nervous before the test!

me with my notifications that i passed!!

I can now legally give oral anesthesia injections in the western states! Anesthesia boards went very well. I only shook a little and the examiners were so nice. I was surprised when I did the injections as planned with no mistakes! Somehow I expected something would go wrong. Thanks to my wonderful patient, Christine.

our new place!

Many of you already know, but we found the perfect apartment in New York. I am so excited. In all my searching I was only comparing other apartments to this one that I had seen on Naomi's well-known blog. When she announced she was moving I thought, if only they were leaving at the end of April, we could just take their apartment, and then when I found out they were subletting through April there was a spark of hope. We exchanged many emails, I got in touch with the rental company and voila! Perfect apartment!

photos courtesy of Naomi

Let me tell you why I love it.

Painted walls. Recently renovated. Exposed brick. Beautiful cabinetry. Stainless steel appliances. A dishwasher(!!!). Great location. Close to two parks (Morningside and Central Park). 2.7 miles from the temple. One block from subway station. Great ward.

I'm excited to move in and make it our own. Who knows, maybe we'll become rockstars...

klane's first surprise party ever

we went to lynsie's to hang out with everyone saturday night and were surprised to walk in and find a surprise congratulations party for klane, nyc themed and all. it was awesome. thanks everyone, it meant so much!

and even the president was there! we think he should make appearances at every family gathering from now on. (klane did do quite a good job of copying a famous election ad a couple months ago, so maybe that was the inspiration.)

a 'big apple' cake, and klane trying on his gift: ski gloves!

only the man of the hour gets to drink out of this huge glass... non alcoholic, folks, non alcoholic

we say yes to DDB

We are so excited. Klane got the internship with DDB. The one we really wanted! After looking over his portfolio, they called him for a phone interview today and they want him! We have somewhere to go!! Officially! I am so happy. It's been driving me crazy not knowing. This is a worldwide agency that has done a lot of great work. This will be such an amazing experience! We can't wait!!!

Yes, He Is

Klane is awesome. I just can't get over it. And he just keeps getting more and more awesome. This post is to tell everyone that he got in to the New York/Chicago internship program for this summer!! We won't find out for another little while which city they'll place him in. But we are excited! I started making a list of all the reasons I find Klane absolutely amazing, but i got carried away and it's 2 1/2 pages long and I won't make you read that. One of the many reasons is his dedication to delivering great work and his amazing creative ability. This is a poster he designed for his Media Literacy class; they were supposed to promote themselves as a presidential candidate. This one looks very similar to an Obama poster (click to view the original). I like the one with this handsome face on it a lot better!

we DID IT!

Yes it's true: after months of training, Klane and I - along with his mom Kaylene and sister Lynsie - ran 13.1 miles today in the Top of Utah Half Marathon. It was amazing! Last night was sort of like Christmas Eve, I woke up like 5 times because I was too excited to sleep and also worried that we would oversleep and miss the race. But we made it there and then the run went great. The last 1.5 mile I was chanting "We can do this! We can do this!" over and over but we made it, and in less than two hours, which was my goal. My wonderful parents were so supportive and drove all the way to Logan to watch us cross the finish line. Klane's dad Dave also came up with us Friday night, and our good friends Bryce and Michelle came this morning to see us finish! (We didn't get a picture with them, dang it!) It meant so much to me that they all came to support us. After the run we showered off and went to Maddox in Brigham City for a very delicious and well-earned meal. It was a great day! It was fun to make a road trip out of it, but we all agreed that if we do another race like this we'll try to do one a little closer to home.

Klane and I about to cross the finish line and we're HAPPY!

My sweet parents - THANKS GUYS!

The Fab Four, we're relieved we all made it! Everyone did so great.

"Remission": What a beautiful word!

This pic is kind of old, it's from February 19 when I was lucky enough to be the one to sit with my mom at the cancer center. She had a really great few weeks leading up to this, and was just glowing. (I keep saying it's not very fair that she looks healthier than me and she's in the middle of chemotherapy... :)

But here is some awesome news: She had a CT scan and the tumors are gone! Her doctors were amazed, but she is now cancer free! The miracles of modern medicine combined with the faith, prayers and fasting of SO many people around us... what a blessing! We are excited and now she just has to finish out her last two chemo sessions. Hopefully I get lucky enough to go sit with her again, it was fun to have nothing to do but sit and chat for a few hours with my mom. She is awesome and an amazing example to me!

He's Home!

Klane's brother Michael came home from his mission on Friday! We thought we were really hilarious with our airport signs: HUGE pictures of Mike's face.

Needless to say it was a really great weekend, with lots of time spent with family. Klane and Mike are great friends and they're hilarious together so it was fun to see them back together again.