Carmen

Last Friday evening Mitchell got to go out for a date! We are trying to take advantage of the next few months while we are still baby free to go on dates and enjoy activities that will be harder once our little girl comes. Last year Mitchell took me to an opera, The Marriage of Figaro, in Salt Lake City. It was performed by the Utah Opera Company. We loved it and hoped to see another opera some day. Mitchell has continued to receive emails from the Utah Symphony and Opera and was able to arrange for a great deal on a partial season pass for the two of us! Last Friday we saw Carmen and it was the first of 3 operas and 2 symphonies that we will attend in the next few months! Carmen was wonderful! The songs are all familiar and fortunately there are subtitles projected above the stage for those of us not fluent in operatically sung French. To start out the evening we had a wonderful dinner at Outback Steakhouse, courtesy of Mitchell's parents. Thanks for the gift card! May I recommend adding the lobster and mushroom sauce to a steak the next time you go, it was so yummy! Good thing weight gain isn't a huge worry for me at this point, although I may pay for that steak later! Then we headed to the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City. It is a gorgeous theater and they put on wonderful shows! It was fun to see Carmen because the music was so familiar and the story line was pretty engaging. Next up: The Italian Girl in Algiers. It's another opera but I know nothing about it. Should be great!

In other news, I am definitely loving life right now! I work about three or four 8 hour shifts per week, a lot of them night shifts, and I have a lot of time to myself during the days. I have been loving reading again! Shortly before Christmas some friends of ours gave us a couch that they had replaced and it has become my "reading couch." I think it's where I spend the majority of most of my days. I am halfway through my third book since December! I am reading a book right now about child birth and (this may sound really weird) I am getting so excited to give birth! In fact, I keep dreaming about giving birth and some of the dreams have been more than a little strange! Mitchell and I have also been enjoying exercising again and are getting a lot more use out of our gym membership lately. Oh and I am preparing for my nursing licensing exam on February 1st! I finally broke down today and took a practice test. I plan to do some low-key studying this week and be ready for Monday!

Mitchell has finished and submitted the first draft of his Master's Thesis Proposal and he will be defending the proposal to his committee next Friday Feb 5th. So far his advising professors have had positive things to say about his research and his proposal. We are hoping he gets the green light next week because he is definitely on schedule to finish his Master's by (or before) August! We are still waiting to hear back from the 4 universities about his PhD acceptance. We are hoping to hear soon and maybe take a trip out to check out the east coast campus before its too late for me to fly. We shall see!