|{ Certified Massage Therapist }|

Yesterday, September 8th 2012, I graduated from the Ann Arbor Institute of Massage Therapy!!

I'm a massage therapist for real now!! I can't believe it!! I got a job about a week ago at a place called Vibrant Touch.  I'm helping out a lady who has a private practice and needs help with her clients! I can also use her room for my own clients (which I will soon be working on getting! :) )

Graduation was amazing! It was surprising emotional, there were lots of tears knowing that we won't get to see each other again and that we've all been such an integral part of each other's success.  I gave a short speech which I think went pretty well, if your lucky I might post the video sometime...if your very lucky! :)

There was a lot of laughter and inside jokes as well, it was an all around amazing experience and now I'm a massage therapist!!! WOW!!!

Here were some of my favorite photos! I'm so glad my hubby was able to take lots of photos! :)

We get to put our hand prints on a canvas when we graduate!

I put an orange heart in Michelle's print and she put a pink one in mine!

|{ The BIG Test }|

Since before the first day of massage school we have been hearing about the dreaded NMT (Neuromuscular Therapy) exam that is at the end of the year! It's no surprise that the whole class was scared out of their wits! Honestly, if the teachers wouldn't make such a big deal about it and keep any actual info about the test a secret until it's almost there then it would NOT be so scary!

Anyway, I took this big test which included writing the attachments for a routine of my choosing, doing said routine, writing down the attachments for 10 muscles that I pull out of a bag, and working on 6 extra muscles that are not in my routine but are giving randomly by the tester.  The only thing I really had a hard time with was the attachments of the 10 muscles.  They were ALL really hard for me!! There was only 1 that I even sort of knew.  I really should have studied harder! BUT, I PASSED!!!! You have to get 75% to pass, guess what I got???..... 76%! BOO-YA!!! Haha! I don't even care, I'm just glad I passed!! Especially considering that my tester was the school director! Yikes!

Now I just need to do a few more clinic hours and tie up a couple of loose ends and I'll be ready to graduate from massage school!! How crazy is that?! I can't even believe it's been a whole year!! WOW!!

|{ Time Flies }|

I cannot believe that it is almost August!! WOW!!  I take my last test on August 16th for school and then I just need to finish up my student clinic hours and then graduation day on September 8th!! I really need to study more than I am doing but I think I should be able to pass my final just fine! I just can't wait for it to be over, it's going to get here so fast!!  The first weekend of August I am learning hot stone massage with my best friend from school Michelle, so that will be tons of fun.  


I did find the one down side of not being on birth control anymore, breakouts. So irritating! I never even realized that the reason why my breakouts stopped was because I got on birth control, so that was a fun surprise when I got done. Oh well, the benefits WAY outweigh the down side! :)


I was at the craft store today and was simply delighted to find out that they just put out their Halloween stuff!!!!! I am way to excited than I should be! Haha!! The best time of the year is definitely from my birthday on August 29th until New Years!  Four months of pure BLISS!!! I love it!!! There is actually a bit of coolness in the air today, that's a nice change.  Summer is NOT my favorite season, probably my least favorite actually.  Right now I'm listening to the 'Halloween' station on Pandora! :)  P.s. Marilyn Manson singing 'This is Halloween' is pretty creepy....

The reason I was at the craft store was because I have about 3 pairs of pants that the zipper is broken and once it happened to my favorite pair, I refused to throw them away.  So I spent a LARGE portion of my day trying to fix them.  I don't have a sewing machine so I had to do it all by hand, BUT they are fixed!!! Yay!!
And I found the ribbon in the Halloween section! :)

Thank you Pinterest!!

|{ The Time Our Family Came To Michigan }|

At the end of June we got a visit from Jonathan's parents and his little sister, Angela! Their decision to come out was kind of sudden but we couldn't have been happier that they were finally going to come to Michigan to see us!! They drove all the way from Utah, which took them 2 days, and they stayed for about a week and half!!

We had such a great time with them while they were here! We went to a few big parks and took walks.  It is cool that there are places like that even right in the middle of town.  One of things I love about Michigan is that I can feel like I'm in the middle of the woods right in the middle of Ann Arbor.  We had a campfire one night and made tin foil dinners and s'mores, as well as had a good time with some masked visitors.  We went to the Henry Ford Museum.  We even took a trip up to Palmyra, New York to see some church historical sites like the Hill Cumorah and the Sacred Grove.  It was really special to see all those places that we have always only heard about.  I'm really glad to have finally been able to see it!

Little tiny turtles at Geddes Park

Making paper airplanes at the museum

All in the same position, haha!

Teasing his little sister

Now tell me that is not the cutest face ever!

On the 4th of July we went up to Jonathan's aunt's parents house and spent some time with his uncle and cousins.  They live on a lake and we were able to go out on the boat! Jon went water skiing and even stood up once! :)  It looked hard and I'm scared of being in the water in lakes...too dark... I did go tubing though! That was a lot of fun!!! That evening we bought some fountain fireworks and did them in the front yard.  I was really grateful to Jon for making sure we did fireworks.  I LOVE the Fourth of July!!

At the Hill Cumorah

Palmyra Temple

In front of the original painting

Tubing, I did NOT want to fall in the water, haha!

Other things we did:  Catching fireflies with Angela, ate lots of pizza, went swimming at the hotel in Palmyra, played Plants vs Zombies, and had a lot of fun with our family!!

Thanks for coming out guys! It was so great to see you!!

Also, my parents just bought a house in Arizona!!! They are so excited! I am so excited for them! I love Arizona!! They are planning to be heading down there by the end of the month!! CRAZY!!! I can't wait to go and visit them down there!!

Jonathan has officially decided to take this year to do research and to continue with school next May.  He is working in a really great lab that should be able to help him get some papers published, which will be great for when he applies for residency! I am so proud of him! He is super busy but he still takes the time to do things with his wife! :)

I am in the last stretch of school.  We are currently learning Neuromuscular Therapy and once we are done with that we are DONE! It's crazy!! I'm starting to realize how much I am going to miss my classmates! It's really incredible how close you get to people in only a year! I take my final on August 16th and then, assuming I pass, we have nothing to do until the day of graduation on September 8th! I am planning on getting certified in hot stone massage in the beginning of August and then in prenatal massage at the end of September and then I just need to take my National Certification exam and I'll be ready to rock and roll! Though I am planning on trying to find a job before I graduate!

So, life is sure busy, but it is GREAT!! Things are just wonderful here in the Peterson household!!

p.s. We are babysitting this little dude for the summer! His name is Kyle and he is so adorable!! :)

|{ Massage Therapy }|

I recently started school to become a massage therapist!!! I'm so excited to really learn and get good at this skill and so far I am really enjoying school, partially just excited to actually be in school again, it's so much fun! I can't even believe how much I just enjoy taking notes in class and doing homework at home!! (Silly, I know, but there you have it.) But I also just love what I'm learning! So far it has mostly anatomy but I enjoy that too because that's what hubby is studying and I like that I can understand better (though not to quite such a large extent) what he is talking about.

Last week we bought my massage table and I just had to do a selfie shot of me studying with my massage table set up!! :)